Introduction
George Peter Metesky, born on November 2, 1903, better recognized as the Mad Bomber, was from the United States of America & an American mechanic and electrician who scared New York City for over 15 years between the 1940s–1950s. He mostly terrorized New York City with explosives planted in terminals, theaters, offices, and libraries. Also, bombs were planted in storage lockers, phone booths, and washrooms in public structures, including Pennsylvania Station, Grand Central Terminal, New York Public Library, Radio City Music Hall, RCA Building, the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and the New York City Subway. George Peter Metesky also wrecked movie theaters where he censored into seat fabric and slid his explosive instruments inside. Resentful and angry about occurrences surrounding an office wound suffered previous years, George Peter Metesky planted at least 33 bombs, whereby 22 exploded, wounding/ harming 15 individuals. The search for the bomber registered an early utilization of criminal profiling. George Peter Metesky was detained in 1957 based on clues given in numerous letters that he wrote to a tabloid. He was found officially insane and hospitalized at a government mental hospital.
George Peter Metesky was the child of Lithuanian migrants and was wounded in an industrial misfortune in 1931 in which a tank (boiler) failed at the United Industrial Light and Power company that was a subordinate of United Edison. Due to the burning boiler gasses, he huffed; Lambert (2022) describes that George Peter Metesky was disabled for 26 calendar weeks, and Consolidated Edison then discontinued him. Though George Peter Metesky filed for a worker’s compensation right, affirming that the boiler accident caused pneumonia that later developed into tuberculosis. George Peter Metesky’s claim was deprived because he had delayed filing. These three pleas were also denied. Jobless and staying with his siblings, George Peter Metesky started developing paranoid and intense hate for Consolidated Edison. Therefore, his first explosive device was discovered on November 16, 1940, on a window shelf of the Consolidated Edison structure in New York City. Lambert (2022) added that the minor crudely assembled pipe explosive did not explode and had a letter on the exterior that recites, “Consolidate Edison crooks, this is for you!” The police department believed that the letter’s assignment suggested that it was not planned to explode. After a superficial investigation of displeased workers and other potential suspects, the forces dropped the event.
Almost a year far ahead, in September 1941, one more unexploded bomb was discovered on 19th boulevard, just a few houses from the office of Consolidated Edison at Irving Plaza. The explosive that was alike in the building, just like the November 1940 explosive, was discovered in an old thump with no letter. The next December, just after the Pearl Harbor occurrence, George Peter Metesky sent a note bearing a similar block-style script to the earlier note to law enforcement headquarters. In the note, George Peter Metesky demanded that he would halt his doings for the period of World War 2 and transcribed, “I must bring Consolidated Edison to impartiality. They must pay for their dishonorable manners.” The note was signed as “F.P.” Even though his intimidating notes continued to invade law enforcement and Consolidated Edison, George Peter Metesky did not plant another explosive device till March 29, 1950. This was when a 3rd joke explosive was found in Grand Central Station. The next month an explosive device blasted in a telephone booth in the New York City public reference library, trailed by another explosive device at Grand central station. Over the following five years, George Peter Metesky implanted approximately 30 explosive devices throughout New York City in numerous telephone booths. Almost half of them exploded, eventually causing more than 12 damages but no deaths.
The police departments/ agencies involved in the event were forensic psychologists. According to Winerman, (2004), they were working closely with the police officers to mix psychological discipline into criminal or offender profiling. According to Upson (2023), criminal profiling is evolving a criminal’s mental profile based on the condition of the crime area. Profiling is most frequently carried out by a forensic psychologist who has researched criminal cognizance. Law enforcement departments can then utilize this type of criminal profiling to help catch the offender. Among the law and psychiatrists in the profiling field, the pressure between psychology and law enforcement still exists to a certain level. Winerman, (2004) states that the variation is a subject of the FBI being more concerned with investigative experiences than academic psychologists. To a bigger extent, forensic psychology and criminology are often used to avoid crime, whereby the extent of the concentrations governs the field of emphasis for the police department. That is to say, James A. Brussel (forensic psychologist) used his experience and knowledge to govern the state of the mind of George Peter Metesky during the crimes he carried out and during his trial period. James A. Brussels’s expertise involved reviewing criminal / offender profiles and previous cases and questioning law enforcement agencies and criminals to establish patterns or trends.
In 1956 George Peter Metesky frustrated 16 years of examination, then Overseer Howard Finney of the New York City’s law enforcement laboratory turned to a colleague James A. Brussel, a special psychiatrist. James A. Brussel carried out counterintelligence sketching work throughout the Korean War and World War 2. It was after World War 2 when police received a note from the mad bomber that he would no longer assemble bombs for that period showing his patriotic spirit that caused him to pause temporarily. However, after the period of world war, the bomber resumed sending notes to the police. Brussel established a detailed profile in December 1956 and established that George Peter Metesky, “the mad Bomber,” was a foreign male born of Eastern European ancestry. Secondly, he is between 40 – 50 years of age. Thirdly, George Peter Metesky is an unmarried man living with his sisters (female families). Fourth, he is a well-shaved, neatly outfitted male with a sporty build. And lastly, he is textbook paranoid. James A. Brussel also forecasted that the identified bomber could be wearing a fastened, double-breasted outfit. James A. Brussel advised the police departments to publish this profile to pick out the likely culprit extensively and voiced to Consolidated Edison to pursue their records/ archives for previous workers matching the description.
After resident tabloids published sum-ups of the Mad Bomber’s outline, law enforcement was swamped with untruthful leads. While on the other hand, Consolidated Edison extended their search of employee files for displeased workers corresponding to the profile. Sooner, they realized or found George Metesky’s fire, and law enforcement proceeded to his household in Connecticut for monotonous questioning on January 21, 1957. To the police’s amazement, George Peter Metesky fit James A. Brussel’s profile in most details and instantly admitted to planting the numerous explosive devices, showing that “F.P” represented fair play. Though the suspect was not wearing his doubled-breasted outfit when the forces arrived, George Peter Metesky requested to change before his capture and put on an outfit matching the criminal profile. George Peter Metesky was under arrest four months later, and the magistrate professed him to be mentally unstable with paranoid schizophrenic. Ineffectual to stand a lawsuit, George Peter Metesky was remanded to Matteawan Asylum for the unlawfully insane individuals. On his release in 1973, he resettled in his home in Connecticut, where he stayed till his death in 1994.
The main motive or intent of George Peter Metesky terrorizing New York City was because he had been a displeased ex-worker ever since the boiler accident/ misfortune in 1931. According to History.com (2020), George Peter Metesky was furious that Consolidated Edison refused to pay his disability reimbursements and resorted to violence as his plan to revenge. In criminology, motivating factors such as malice (evil intent), power disparity, and mental illness can cause a person to commit a crime (bombings). Their enticement to bomb is hardly limited to any of the factors mentioned; each factor is recognized to play a key role in the others. The types of devices used by George Peter Metesky were pipe bombs in numerous public places located in and around New York City.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the foundation behind any act of violence is complicated – that is to say, explosives permit obscurity to an enemy and place great destructive power in the pointers of those who might feel empty on the ability to accomplish what they have faith in as fair. These qualities fascinate people with mental illness, hatred, and those seeking to correct some observational threat. While additional factors could come into play, the three factors of malice (evil intent), power disparity, and mental illness remain foundational to a bomber’s inspiration. Also, criminal profiling is used to find possible offenders and narrow down a list that law enforcement has previously compiled. It is known that criminal profiling helps investigators to arrest lots of criminals by evaluating the motives and patterns of previous offenders. It allows police detectives to justly and accurately forecast the characteristics of future and current criminals, letting killers and other committers (culprits) be arrested before they can commit other crimes.
References
History Channel. (2020). The “Mad Bomber” strikes in New York. History.com.: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-mad-bomber-strikes-in-new-york#:~:text=Looking%20through%20their%20employment%20records,to%20terrorism%20as%20his%20revenge.
Lambert, L. (2022, October 29). George Metesky. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Metesky
Upson, M. (2023). What is Criminal Profiling? MyLawQuestions. https://www.mylawquestions.com/what-is-criminal-profiling.htm
Winerman, L. (2004). Criminal profiling: The reality behind the myth. Monitor on Psychology, 35(7), 66-69.: https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/criminal
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