FIRST CRACKER
DR BRUSSEL ON HIS MENTAL IMAGE OF FP chiatrist theory and probabilities. Dr ssel wrote: “The evidence showed thing very plainly. At large ewhere in New York City was a man was quite definitely mad.” wo hours later, the shrink rose from desk, turned to Captain Finney and cribed his suspect down to the cut of acket. A detailed image of a living, athing man had taken shape. e said the bomber was a textbook anoid schizophrenic – reclusive, -social and consumed with hatred magined enemies. ost such patients don’t become fully ptomatic until after age 35. If he was und that age when he planted his bomb in 1940, Dr Brussel put him is mid-40s, at least.
P was “probably very neat, tidy, clean ven. He goes out of his way to seem fectly proper… He wears no ornament, no flashy ties or clothes. He is quiet, polite, methodical.”
The bomber was doubtlessly a lone wolf. Paranoids “have confidence only in themselves,” Dr Brussel explained. “They distrust everyone. An accomplice would be a potential double-crosser.”
FP’s reliance on old-fashioned phrases, such as “treachery”, suggested a foreign background. Dr Brussel recalled the many bombings by anarchists in Eastern Europe. He told police: “He’s a Slav.” If FP was a Slav, that could also be a clue to his location. Dr Brussel flicked noted most letters were mailed in Westchester, north of the city.
He guessed the bomber was disguising his whereabouts by posting them between New York and one of the industrial towns with Slavic immigrants.
FP had almost perfect writing, with the exception of a W, which he wrote as two Us. Might they resemble a scrotum? If so, had he unconsciously fashioned bombs shaped like penises? To Dr Brussel this was further evidence an Oedipus complex had caused FP to develop into a paranoid. He hesitated to explain this to police. It would sound too farfetched. Instead he gave them a shorthand version, saying the bomber was probably unmarried and single, the classic loner. He said: “He wants nothing to do with men and, since his mother is his love, he is probably little interested in women either.”
After four hours Finney and his men got up to leave. Dr Brussel closed his eyes and an image of the bomber came to him with cinematic clarity. FP’s attire was old-fashioned, but clean and meticulous.
The doctor said to Finney: “Captain, when you catch him he’ll be wearing a double-breasted suit. Buttoned.”
Just weeks later, shortly before midnight on January 21, 1957, detectives entered the home of George Metesky, a 53-year-old loner of Lithuanian descent living with two older sisters. He had a history of workplace disputes and run-ins with neighbours, which sparked his bombing campaign. Police traced him after cross-referencing employee records for a firm he had mentioned in one of his letters. Almost all of his characteristics matched Dr Brussel’s profile.
Metesky answered the door in his pyjamas. When a detective asked him to get dressed, the moment of truth came.
The bomber stepped from his bedroom wearing sensible brown rubber-soled shoes, red-dotted necktie, and a buttoned-up blue suit.
Metesky was charged with attempted murder and damaging property, among other crimes.
He was committed to a secure hospital but released in 1973. He died in 1994 at the age of 90.
■ Incendiary: The Psychiatrist, the Mad Bomber, and the Invention of Criminal Profiling by Michael Cannell is out now.
When you catch him, he’ll be wearing a suit. Buttoned