Metesky, George (1904–1994)

During the 1940s and 1950s, George Metesky, known at the time only as the “Mad Bomber,” set more than 30 bombs in the New York area. The 16-year hunt for the Mad Bomber was solved using one of the first applications of criminal profiling.

Metesky's first bomb was found on November 16, 1940, on a window ledge of the Consolidated Edison building on West 64th Street. The small, crudely made pipe bomb never exploded. A note on the outside of the bomb read, “Con Edison crooks, this is for you!” Police believed that the note's placement suggested it was never intended to detonate.

After a cursory investigation of disgruntled employees and other possible suspects, the police dropped the case. Nearly a year later, in September 1941, another unexploded bomb was found on 19th Street, a few blocks from the Con Edison office at Irving Plaza. The bomb, which was similar in construction to the November 1940 bomb, was found in an old sock, with no note. The following December, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a letter bearing the same block-style handwriting of the initial note arrived at police headquarters. The bomber claimed he would stop his activities for the duration of the war. He also wrote, “I will bring the Con Edison to justice. They will pay for their dastardly deeds,” and signed the letter, “F.P.”

Though threatening letters continued to plague Con Ed, police, and others, “F.P.” did not set another bomb until March 29, 1950, when a third hoax bomb was discovered in Grand Central Station. The following month, a bomb exploded in a phone booth inside the New York Public Library, followed by another bomb at Grand Central Station. Over the next five years, nearly 30 more bombs were planted throughout New York—at locations including Penn Station, the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the Brooklyn Paramount Theater, Radio City Music Hall, as well as in phone booths throughout the city—nearly half of which exploded, ultimately causing more than a dozen injuries but no deaths.

Frustrated after 16 years of investigation, Inspector Howard Finney of the New York City Crime Lab turned to Dr. James A. Brussel, a private [Page 387]psychiatrist who had performed counterintelligence profiling work during World War II and the Korean War. Using police evidence, including handwriting analysis, Brussel developed an elaborate profile: he predicted that the Mad Bomber was (1) a foreign-born male of eastern European descent; (2) between 40 and 50 years of age; (3) an unmarried loner living with female relatives; (4) a clean-shaven, neatly dressed man with an athletic build; and (5) a textbook paranoid. Most famously, Brussel also predicted that the bomber would be wearing a double-breasted suit, and that it would be buttoned.

After local newspapers published summaries of the Mad Bomber's profile, police were inundated with false leads. The bomber continued his activities, even calling Dr. Brussel to threaten him. Meanwhile, Con Ed expanded its search of personnel files of disgruntled employees to the years before its major mergers in the 1930s, and found the file of George Metesky, of Waterbury, Connecticut, who blamed his bout with tuberculosis on his former employer, which later became part of Con Ed.

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