The Mad Bomber of New York

February 21, 2011
Greenburg (Peaches and Daddy) hits all the requisite marks in this intriguing but slow-moving chronicle of a serial bomber whose "career" spanned 16 years between 1940 and 1956. Dubbed the "Mad Bomber" by the New York City press, George Metesky's troubles began while he was working at Con Edison's Hell Gate power plant, when an industrial accident left him, he said, with chronic tuberculosis. His worker's compensation claim was denied on a technicality. Metesky—later diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic—devised a scheme to "punish" Con Ed by planting homemade pipe bombs throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn, first at a Con Ed plant, and then in public places, including Radio City Music Hall, Penn Station, Grand Central Station, and movie theaters. Miraculously, only eight people were injured and no one was killed during the spree. Greenburg's account picks up speed with Metesky's apprehension in 1957, after he published letters in a New York newspaper giving some identifying details. A debate raged over his competency to stand trial and which borough would try him. Greenburg, a practicing attorney, weights his account too heavily on the repetitious hunt for Metesky when his legal expertise might have been better used exploring the complex questions of legal competency.

March 15, 2011
Between 1940 and 1957, a lone man detonated at least 33 bombs across New York City, with increasingly sophisticated mechanisms. As usual, the spree of this mad bomber brought out a parade of false claimants, false leads, and frustrating dead ends for investigators. Eventually, the police turned to Dr. James Brussel, a psychiatrist and criminologist who practiced an early form of profiling. Aided by Brussels work, the investigation led to George Metesky, a middle-aged resident of Waterbury, Connecticut. Metesky fit the profile to a T: a loner nursing an increasingly bitter hatred of powerful institutions that he blamed for a disabling injury sustained in 1931. Greenburg, a practicing attorney, has written an exciting and tense true-crime story that operates on two tracks. He examines, with surprising sympathy, Meteskys slow evolution from a social misfit to a hate-filled violent man with paranoid delusions. Greenburg seamlessly shifts to the criminal investigators as they strive to stop the reign of terror. This is a superbly written account and a useful reminder that, historically, many terrorists have been apolitical men following their own inner demons.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)