The Mad Bomber Of New York

“Gripping and bizarre . . . A compelling account of a dangerously angry man and the investigation that helped to revolutionize modern police work.” —Kirkus Reviews Between 1940 and 1957, thirty-three bombs—strategically placed in Grand Central Terminal, Penn Station, Radio City Music Hall, Macy’s, and other crowded areas of New York—paralyzed the city, sending shockwaves of fear through the public. George Metesky, the “Mad Bomber,” unleashed a reign of terror that reverberated through America’s social, legal, and political landscape, ultimately spurring the birth of modern criminal profiling when a psychiatrist was called in to assist in the manhunt. A compelling work of historical true crime, The Mad Bomber of New York is the gripping tale of two individuals engaged in a deadly game of hide-and-seek, with the city of New York caught in the crosshairs. “A full-fledged biography that evokes the chaos and media circus that the terrorist, George P. Metesky, engendered.” —The New York Times “Masterfully told . . . a first-rate true-crime story.” —Scott Christianson, author of Bodies of Evidence

Long before the specter of terrorism haunted the public imagination, a serial bomber stalked the streets of 1950s New York. The race to catch him would give birth to a new science called criminal profiling. Grand Central, Penn Station, Radio City Music Hall—for almost two decades, no place was safe from the man who signed his anonymous letters “FP” and left his lethal devices in phone booths, storage lockers, even tucked into the plush seats of movie theaters. His victims were left cruelly maimed. Tabloids called him “the greatest individual menace New York City ever faced.” In desperation, Police Captain Howard Finney sought the help of a little known psychiatrist, Dr. James Brussel, whose expertise was the criminal mind. Examining crime scene evidence and the strange wording in the bomber’s letters, he compiled a portrait of the suspect down to the cut of his jacket. But how to put a name to the description? Seymour Berkson—a handsome New York socialite, protégé of William Randolph Hearst, and publisher of the tabloid The Journal-American—joined in pursuit of the Mad Bomber. The three men hatched a brilliant scheme to catch him at his own game. Together, they would capture a monster and change the face of American law enforcement.

Mad Bomber Melville is the long overdue biography of Samuel Melville, a white, working class revolutionary, whose guerrilla bombings of Manhattan skyscrapers, housing government and corporate offices driving the Vietnam War, set in motion a flood of armed revolutionary actions in the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Once imprisoned, Melville became a key organizer and a crucial element of the notorious Attica Prison rebellion, uniting prisoners across racial barriers and making the ultimate sacrifice for revolutionary change. Mad Bomber Melville traces Sam Melville s short life and rapid political development, highlighting a much-needed example of an undying and uncompromising struggle for justice and liberation.

"American Time Bomb is a vital read for this moment. " —Heather Ann Thompson, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy Few stories are more central to understanding our history of racially biased incarceration and violent social activism than the life of Sam Melville. Melville was both reviled and admired as one of the most feared radicals in post–World War II history. His importance in the 1960s is widely recognized by historians and scholars as epitomizing the controversies, the promise, and the problems of the New Left. This memoir by Melville's son opens a window into the personal life of a legend, revealing the universal and all-too-human foibles motivating those driven to make change through violence. In the current political climate, at the fiftieth anniversary of the Attica Uprising, this nation grows increasingly interested in the racially biased incarceration and violent social activism that has shaped our nation. There are few stories more central to both subjects than the life of Sam Melville, who was often called "the Mad Bomber." American Time Bomb is a son's personal portrait based on years of investigation of Melville's story and the history he helped to create. Joshua Melville's personal connection to the story gives a gut-wrenching multigenerational tale of childhood abandonment but also adds a compelling historical study of politics, history, and issues of social justice.

A “truly compelling” (Good Morning America) New York Times bestseller that explores how technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war—from the creator and host of the podcast Revisionist History. In The Bomber Mafia, Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history. Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists, the “Bomber Mafia,” asked: What if precision bombing could cripple the enemy and make war far less lethal? In contrast, the bombing of Tokyo on the deadliest night of the war was the brainchild of General Curtis LeMay, whose brutal pragmatism and scorched-earth tactics in Japan cost thousands of civilian lives, but may have spared even more by averting a planned US invasion. In The Bomber Mafia, Gladwell asks, “Was it worth it?” Things might have gone differently had LeMay’s predecessor, General Haywood Hansell, remained in charge. Hansell believed in precision bombing, but when he and Curtis LeMay squared off for a leadership handover in the jungles of Guam, LeMay emerged victorious, leading to the darkest night of World War II. The Bomber Mafia is a riveting tale of persistence, innovation, and the incalculable wages of war.

Hiroshima is the story of six people—a clerk, a widowed seamstress, a physician, a Methodist minister, a young surgeon, and a German Catholic priest—who lived through the greatest single manmade disaster in history. In vivid and indelible prose, Pulitzer Prize–winner John Hersey traces the stories of these half-dozen individuals from 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, when Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atomic bomb ever dropped on a city, through the hours and days that followed. Almost four decades after the original publication of this celebrated book, Hersey went back to Hiroshima in search of the people whose stories he had told, and his account of what he discovered is now the eloquent and moving final chapter of Hiroshima.

Shocking stories of the most infamous cold crimes! The perfect gift for any true crime fan! Every criminal dreams of committing the perfect crime. A crime that is so well executed, with clues and evidence so scarce, that even the experts are left baffled. The Killer Book of Cold Cases takes you behind the crime scene tape and deep into the investigations of some of the most puzzling and notorious cold cases of all time, from murders to kidnappings to massive bombings that were open for years before the criminal was finally brought to justice. Read about: The New York City judge whose disappearance was so famous, his name became synonymous with cold cases The first use of DNA to help solve a murder case that had been cold for years The bomber who took down an entire plane of people, just to collect on his mother's insurance The legendary bank robber D.B. Cooper The murder of two cops in a small California town-a case that took more than SO years to solve The Mad Bomber, who drove New Yorkers half crazy in the fifties by planting bombs all over the city Bury yourself in these edge-of-your-seat tales, read chilling quotes, and test your crime IQ with cold-case trivia. You'll stay up wondering which criminals might still be on the loose!