Aletter bomb[a] is anexplosive device sent via thepostal service, and designed with the intention to injure or kill the recipient when opened. They have been used interrorist attacks such as those of theUnabomber. Some countries have agencies whose duties include the interdiction of letter bombs and the investigation of letter bombings.[1] The letter bomb may have been in use for nearly as long as the common postal service has been in existence, as far back as 1764 (seeExamples).
Letter bombs are usually designed to explode immediately on opening, with the intention of seriously injuring or killing the recipient (who may or may not be the person to whom the bomb was addressed). A related threat is mail containing unidentified powders or chemicals, as in the2001 anthrax attacks.
One of, if not the first, groups to consistently use letter bombs on a wide scale were the Britishsuffragettes of theWomen's Social and Political Union in the years before theFirst World War.[2] The group were the original inventors of a form of letter bomb designed to maim or kill politicians or opponents.[2] In 1913, numerous letter bombs were sent to politicians such as theChancellorDavid Lloyd George andPrime MinisterH.H. Asquith, but they invariably all exploded in post offices, post boxes or in mailbags while in transit across the country.[3] Suffragettes also once attempted toassassinate a judge they considered to be anti-women's suffrage, SirHenry Curtis-Bennett, with a "deadly" letter-bomb made partly out of bullets, but the bomb was intercepted by London postal workers before it could reach him.[4]
What might be the first recorded case of a device broadly similar to a modern parcel bomb featured in the 18th century affair known as theBandbox Plot. On November 4, 1712, a bandbox (i.e. a lightweight hat-box) was sent toRobert Harley, Earl of Oxford, the BritishLord Treasurer. It contained a number of loaded and cockedpistols, to whose triggers was attached a thread which would have made the pistols fire the moment the box was opened. The plot was foiled by the perspicacity ofJonathan Swift, who happened to be visiting the Earl of Oxford. Swift, perceiving the thread, seized the package and cut the thread, thus disarming the device. The attack was laid at the door of the oppositionWhig party and threw enormous popular sympathy behind Harley. The precise perpetrators were never identified or apprehended.
One of the world's first mail bombs is mentioned in the 18th century diary of Danish official and historianBolle Willum Luxdorph. His diary mainly consists of concise references to news from Denmark and abroad. In the entry for January 19, 1764, he writes the following:Colonel Poulsen residing atBørglum Abbey was sent by mail a box. When he opens it, therein is to be found gunpowder and a firelock which sets fire unto it, so he became very injured. The entry for February 15 same year says:Colonel Poulsen receives a letter in German, [saying] that soon the dose will be increased. It is referring to the dose of gunpowder in the box. The perpetrator was never found.[6] In a later reference Luxdorph has found a mention of a similar bomb being used, also in 1764, but inSavona in Italy.[7]
June 1889: Edward White, formerly an artist atMadame Tussauds, was alleged to have sent a parcel bomb to John Theodore Tussaud after being dismissed.[8]
1915: Vice President of the United StatesThomas R. Marshall was the target of an assassination attempt by letter bomb.[10]
1919: A series of package bombs were sent to officials, journalists, and others in the United States by the Galleanist anarchist faction there; this precipitated the 1919-1920 Red Scare.[11][circular reference]
circa 1945: In the memoir of OSS operative Charles Fenn, he reported that theOSS sent letter bombs to Japanese officers in Japanese occupied territories in Asia during WWII. According toElizabeth "Betty" McIntosh, Chinese spies working for the OSS reported that "this ploy has had quite some success blowing off the hands of Jap officers."[12]
1947: Several letter bombs were sent to PresidentHarry Truman in the White House. They were intercepted by White House mail room workers, who were on alert because of the letter bombs to British officials. These also were claimed by the Stern Gang.[13]
1961: TheNaziwar criminalAlois Brunner received a letter bomb that caused the loss of an eye. In 1980 another letter bomb cost him the fingers of his left hand. Two Damascus postal workers were killed. The senders are unknown but some suspect the Israeli intelligence agencyMossad.[14][15]
November 27, 1962: A parcel sent to rocket scientistWolfgang Pilz [de] exploded in his office inEgypt when opened, injuring his secretary.[16][17] Another parcel sent to the Heliopolis rocket factory killed five Egyptian workers.[18]
1960s, 1970s and early 1980s: Several terrorist organizations inArgentina such asMontoneros andERP included letter bombs into their weaponry.[citation needed]
December 28, 1977: InMalta,Karin Grech, age 15, was killed when she opened a letterbomb addressed to her father Edwin Grech. On the same day, another bomb was sent to Labour MP Dr. Paul Chetcuti Caruana, but it did not detonate.
June 28, 1984:Jeanette Schoon, a South Africananti-apartheid activist and her 6-year-old daughter, Katryn Schoon, were killed by a letter bomb mailed byCraig Williamson, a spy for theSouth African Police who had been posing as a family friend. Jeanette Schoon collected and carried home a parcel bomb, which exploded upon opening the letter.[23]
August 1985: A woman inRotorua,New Zealand, Michele Sticovich, was instantly killed and a close friend of hers seriously injured after she opened a parcel addressed to her containing a number of sticks ofgelignite. Mrs Sticovich's estranged husband, David Sticovich, was arrested and ultimately pleaded guilty to her murder.[24]
October 19, 1986:Dele Giwa, aNigerian journalist and editor of theNewswatch magazine was killed with a mail bomb, claimed to be sent by Nigeria's former dictator, Gen.Ibrahim Babangida. The general has never admitted complicity, remaining mute on the issue.[citation needed]
December 16, 1989:Robert Smith Vance, aU.S. federal judge, was killed instantly upon opening a letter bomb in the kitchen of his home inBirmingham, Alabama, with his wife, Helen, seriously injured.Walter Leroy Moody Jr was later convicted of killing both Vance and Georgia attorney Robbie Robinson by use of letter bombs delivered through the mail.[25][26]
1990: PriestMichael Lapsley was sent a letter bomb by South African government's death squad, theCivil Cooperation Bureau, hidden inside two religious magazines. He lost both hands and the sight in one eye in the blast, and was seriously burned.
January 2007: A bomber calling himself "The Bishop" sent several unassembled bombs to financial firms in the United States, and was arrested in April 2007.[30]
August 2007: ALebanese immigrant,Adel Arnaout, was charged with sending three letter bombs out to residents in the Greater Ontario area.[31]
February 2014: A series of seven letter bombs were sent to Armed Forces recruitment offices in theUnited Kingdom, which bore all the hallmarks of Northern Ireland-related terrorism.[33]
May 25, 2017: A suspected letter bomb exploded within the car ofLucas Papademos, formerPrime Minister of Greece, causing injuries to Papademos, his driver and another official.[35]
July 28, 2017: AQueens, New York, landlord opened an explosive package resembling an oatmeal container which had been sitting on his building's doorstep for several days, and died from extensive burns four days later. TheUSPS refused immediate comment on whether the package was mailed, citing its ongoing investigation.[36]
March 2018:Multiple package bombs were detonated inAustin, Texas, over the course of a few weeks, killing 2 and seriously injuring 5. The perpetrator was subsequently identified as Mark Anthony Conditt ofPflugerville, Texas.
^*(USPIS) In the United States, the Postal Inspection Service is responsible for investigating the use, or threat of use, of letter bombs, harmful chemicals and dangerous devices sent through the postal system.
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