HN Gopher Feed (2017-08-06) - page 1 of 10 ___________________________________________________________________
1950s New York City's 'Mad Bomber'
175 points by vinnyglennon
https://www.damninteresting.com/ghoulish-acts-dastardly-deeds/s/___________________________________________________________________
Kenji - 5 hours ago
Back when newspapers actually did good, valuable work.
ezconnect - 4 hours ago
The police and the community seems to be more respectful of each
other. The serving of warrant and how they arrested him would be
the total opposite in our current society.The only thing that has
not changed is the ruthless corporations treatment of their
employees.
bogomipz - 4 hours ago
There's also this which occurred in NYC in the 70s and remains
unsolved:http://observer.com/2016/01/why-hasnt-washington-
explained-t...
fattire - 2 hours ago
Damn interesting. Though I didn't quite get the whole dissolving-
lozenge-as-a-timer thing. How would that work?
have_faith - 2 hours ago
I'm imagining a broken circuit that is connected once the lozenge
melts and connects two parts?
necessity - 5 hours ago
>anti-communist red scareMcCarthism was as much anti-fascist as it
was anti-communist, but of course commies would rewrite history to
play the victims. Read the actual laws, it never mentions communism
without mentioning fascism in the same sentence.
carsongross - 4 hours ago
Apparently the "shrillest" moment of the "red scare" was
correctly convicting two communist spies of treason.
tptacek - 3 hours ago
Neither of them were convicted for "treason".
carsongross - 3 hours ago
Quoting the judge, when handing down the death sentences:I
consider your crime worse than murder... I believe your
conduct in putting into the hands of the Russians the A-Bomb
years before our best scientists predicted Russia would
perfect the bomb has already caused, in my opinion, the
Communist aggression in Korea, with the resultant casualties
exceeding 50,000 and who knows but that millions more of
innocent people may pay the price of your treason.
tptacek - 1 hours ago
Fascinating. Neither were convicted of "treason", the
requirements of which are, alone among crimes, spelled out
in the main text of the Constitution.
dang - 3 hours ago
Would you please stop using HN for ideological battle? We ban
accounts that do this because it violates HN's mandate. And we've
asked you many times before.
necessity - 2 hours ago
I don't want to post about politics either, but people post
ideological stuff, ideological replies should be expected, no?
When I started using the website it was more focused on what it
was meant to be, and I don't think I ever discussed politics
then. Then the American elections happened and people started
posting politics all the time. Well, political replies ensue. I
flag posts that are purely political, I don't just reply to
them.
sitkack - 3 hours ago
I miss the good old days when cops could be cops. Locking people in
mental institutions for 6 months, arresting people and killing them
with heart attacks.> Also, it was Friday.
pingou - 7 hours ago
Why put nuts and bolts in the bomb if he didn't really intent to
hurt somebody?
IAmGarrett - 6 hours ago
I thought the same thing. A) The dude clearly had some loose
screws. B) He was convinced his actions were just. After crossing
that line, you can justify plenty of stuff to yourself.
coldtea - 6 hours ago
Perhaps he had too many and wanted to dispose them?
[deleted]
[deleted]
GigabyteCoin - 7 hours ago
>Police dismissed the [bomb] as the work of ?boys or pranksters.?My
father tells me stories about how he witnessed people openly and
actively "recruiting terrorists" in public in San Francisco in the
1970s.He said they were just standing around with signs and
pamphlets, calling out and trying to get you to sign up to their
terrorist campaign.Just as the religious zealots you see on the
streets today that are mostly ignored.The world has really changed,
and fast.
Maskawanian - 2 hours ago
Wouldn't police arresting those before they have committed
violent acts be considered thought crime? Shouldn't we arrest
those that do things not those who talk about things?
hu06 - 6 hours ago
Well no big difference today. Its just moved online. If you want
to find gullible people you cant really do that in secret I would
think. Vids, tweets and gifs instead of pamphlets.
DanBC - 6 hours ago
I mention this book a lot, but it's good.https://www.amazon.co.uk
/BAMN-Any-Means-Necessary-
Manifestos...https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/987215.BAMN
schoen - 6 hours ago
There is also this kind of amazing bookhttps://www.amazon.com
/Days-Rage-Underground-Forgotten-Revol...about the time in the
early 1970s "when bombings by domestic underground groups were
a daily occurrence".
angersock - 3 hours ago
What's really interesting in that is looking at how those
folks were integrated into later the later political
diaspora.
nyolfen - 4 hours ago
this review is also very good if reading a 500 page book
isn't on the table for those interested:
https://status451.com/2017/01/20/days-of-rage/(though it has
its own political perspective that some may find
disagreeable)
honestoHeminway - 2 hours ago
Its partially what hollywood, games and news-media transport as
terrorists image. The give them sort of a dark glamour,
justifying the expensive military thrown at them. If they where
depicting the screw ups- the prematurly exploding bombs, the
wonky egos and stupid pride, the burning out flats destroying
plans- the love-storys ruining suicidal bombers for the job. Al
Quaida could make a comedy number, if it werent for the memorys
of the hits outshadowing the many misses.
biofox - 2 hours ago
There is a fantastic British film along those
lines:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1341167/
fapjacks - 1 hours ago
For many years I was in the infantry and spent a lot of time
overseas in places fighting terrorists. "Fighting terrorists".
We did occasionally fight, don't get me wrong, but I'd say 80%
of the stuff that happened was just funny and the furthest
thing from dangerous you could imagine. Just one example: One
day, we received an intsum that told the story of how
terrorists had finally been able to get a US visa for one of
their people, a camel farmer in the far south of Iraq. The
problem was that he was too much of a bedouin: He could not
figure out how to operate calling cards to receive his
instructions and they couldn't get his plane tickets to him. He
had become marooned at the airport in Baghdad, where he was
apprehended. And you want terrifying? The intelligence
capabilities of the Five Eyes is what's terrifying. They had
been involved with this story from the beginning. Snowden's
revelations merely hint at the power of the Five Eyes, but if
you knew half of the capabilities on display in a warzone,
you'd shit your pants. That's truly the terrifying stuff.
GigabyteCoin - 1 hours ago
>They had been involved with this story from the
beginning.Which story are you referring to, the camel farmer
getting a visa?>if you knew half of the capabilities on
display in a warzone, you'd shit your pantsPlease, do tell!
sverige - 6 hours ago
Google maps street view shows that the house in Waterbury is nearly
unchanged. The siding is different, the narrower boards of
yesteryear having been replaced by wider boards at some point, but
other than that it's the same.https://www.google.com/maps/place/17+
4th+St,+Waterbury,+CT+0...
jacquesm - 7 hours ago
Just imagine the pandemonium that would ensue if something like
this would happen today. "Breaking News" 24/7 for as long as the
campaign lasted.
Spooky23 - 7 hours ago
It was a different era for media. Locally we had a week of hysteria
when some nutjob crushed old mercury thermostat vials in a hospital
cafeteria. A crank bomb threat at a community center brought a
platoon of paramilitary police milling around smoking all day for
two weeks.
coldtea - 7 hours ago
>Another exception occurred in November 1954 when, 30 minutes into
a screening of Bing Crosby?s White Christmas at Radio City Music
Hall, in an auditorium with around 6,000 patrons, a seat exploded
and injured two women and two boys. Apologetic theater ushers asked
50 or so patrons near the bomb site to watch the remainder of the
film from alternate seats, allowing ushers to rope the area off so
the police could investigate after the movie.Contrast this 50s
crowd with the mass hysteria over the slightest disturbance
today...Can you imagine people today sitting to watch a movie in a
theatre where a seat had just exploded and hurt people -- not to
mention the total hysteria from the authorities jumping in like
it's the end of the world.
travmatt - 3 hours ago
I just started 'Days of Rage', and much of what he discusses is
the fact that from the end of the 60's, through the death of the
hardline leftists in the 80's, bombings were an extremely
commonplace means of violence. These bombings were less often
intended to cause casualties as opposed to destroy property and
make a public statement.
cylinder - 6 hours ago
Breaking news alerts would be sent to phones around the world.
"Bombing at New York theater ... Multiple casualties ...
DEVELOPING." The Survivalists out in the Dakotas start loading up
their weapons with ammo and standing watch on their properties
for looters. Twitter is going nuts. Total lockdown at all public
buildings in the Northeast US. Etc etc.
jerrylives - 5 hours ago
Uh like none of this happened when the dumpster bombs went off
in Chelsea last year. They closed the streets for the
investigation and to look for more bombs but it wasn't even
close to a "lockdown of all public buildings", I'm pretty sure
they just halted traffic. You could even - yes- walk around
the area where the bomb went off the next day. It was a block
from my office.
hu06 - 6 hours ago
I really don't know where this class of triggered ppl get their
energy though... to do it day in day out. They seem to be
waiting for the next trigger like addicts or something.
kleer001 - 4 hours ago
It's the addiction of the victim mentality. It's the
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycle_of_abuse
userbinator - 4 hours ago
I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that WWII had
ended only a few years earlier.But, reading other articles about
people back then, it does seem they were less inclined to panic
than those today. IMHO today's mass hysteria over terrorism is
playing directly into what the terrorists want, so perhaps
there's a valid point to be made for "keep calm and carry on" as
much as possible.
lostlogin - 4 hours ago
> playing directly into what the terrorists wantIt more
complicated than that. As much as it suits some terrorist, it
suits a larger group composed of the likes of the militarised
police forces, the administration hawks, defence forces
protecting our freedom, arms firms, security companies, the tsa
etc. It's a big industry that needs a scary bad guy.
jacquesm - 2 hours ago
It's a triangle. Terrorists, Media, Authorities. All three
get something out of blowing this out of proportion (ok, bad
pun).
tehwebguy - 4 hours ago
Exactly. The word "terrorist" is as poor a descriptor as "bad
guy" or "alternative music" apart from the people and groups
you mentioned that use it to stir up fear (or "terror" if you
will!)
13of40 - 3 hours ago
It's interesting that the media was so much more willing (than
ours) to keep the bombings secret, at least early on. I wonder
if that was a side effect of the war as well, in the sense that
they might have become accustomed to suppressing sensitive
information during wartime.
pmoriarty - 3 hours ago
People tend to get desensitized when they're surrounded by
death and destruction, leading to phenomena such as gallows
humor prevalent among soldiers, battlefield surgeons, and
emergency room doctors, and to the famously casual attitude
towards the Blitz in London, during which over 40,000 people
died.Whereas these days 7 people getting knifed in London
results in a week's worth of non-stop front page news on the
BBC and international media coverage, and calls to massively
increase surveillance in already the most surveilled city in
the world, ramp up the police state, and sacrifice civil
liberties.
techer - 2 hours ago
7 people got knifed? Actually 8 people died. 48 were
injured.Your point is still a point but try to be real.
soneca - 7 hours ago
Can you imagine a bomb in a crowded audience only injuring four
people today?
coldtea - 7 hours ago
My point rather is, can you image an audience continuing as if
nothing much have happened after even an ad-hoc indoor firework
was blasted, much less an actual pipe bomb injuring 4-5 people.
Larrikin - 7 hours ago
Are you trying to imply people shouldn't react to a bomb and
stay near the site of an explosion? You evacuate because you
don't know if there are more or if there is structural
damage.
[deleted]
stickfigure - 7 hours ago
This question reinforces the parent's point. It seems
totally obvious to us that everyone should GTFO of the
theatre.And yet in the 1950s they didn't.What was different
about the mindset of someone from the 50s? Were they inured
to explosions coming out of WW2? Were "pranks" with pipe
bombs a normal thing? Was it just that nobody had ever been
killed by one so they didn't recognize the threat? Was the
50s mind somehow more stoic?
roman_savchuk - 5 hours ago
Probably 2nd bomb tactic was something unheard of back
then
PaulHoule - 6 hours ago
Explosives, gunshots, etc. are outside the normal
sensory experience of most people and they are not
accurately perceived. Even stimuli such as fire alarms
which are intended to produce action frequently leave
people standing slack-jawed wondering what to do.For
instance, when under attack from long-range gunfire, it
frequently takes multiple shots, possibly even seeing
multiple people get hit, before people understand what
is going on. In eyewitness accounts people often
disagree about which direction the shots came from, how
many shots there were, etc. In fact, sometimes people
get shot and don't know that they were shot until later.A
person getting injured by a small bomb in a theatre might
understand they were injured, and not know how. Maybe
they got shot, maybe they got stabbed, ... Everybody
was looking at the screen so it is not clear. That
person might go out to get help and people will focus on
treating the injuries rather than understanding the
situation.It's actually pretty hard to make homemade
bombs that reliably kill. It took the Unabomber more
than a decade to figure it out, and that is why they
have terrorist training camps. It is not very dangerous
to make small pyrotechnics, simply because they don't
contain much energy. If you were screwing around with
those cough lozenge detonators and were making bombs big
enough to be really hazardous, you would probably blow
yourself up before you blew up anybody else.
coldtea - 7 hours ago
I'm implying that people in the 50s had larger metaphorical
balls and less hysteria than people now -- regardless of
what is prudent to do.It was also evident in how free-er
kids would walk around -- a 10 year old having adventures
around NYC by itself instead of being taken everywhere by
their chauffeur parents.
ad_hominem - 3 hours ago
They also had less historical precedent for bombs going
off preceding an armed terrorist attack, or a larger
"double tap" follow-up explosion.Additionally, the low
explosive gunpowder used in these bombs is considerably
less powerful than what you'd encounter in a modern day
terrorist attack using high explosives (e.g. TATP, PETN
or RDX). Even compared to other deflagrating low
explosives, regular gunpowder is pretty mild compared to
e.g. flash powder[1].[1]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tgFKibzY3s
rdiddly - 1 hours ago
We're safer and more connected than they were back then.
That means more sensitive to smaller risks, and better
able to talk & hear about risks of all sorts.
barking - 6 hours ago
Supposedly the rot started after the disappearance of
Etan Patz in 1979, the first missing kid to have his
picture on milk cartons. That's when parents started
becoming more restrictive of their children's freedom.
Houshalter - 5 hours ago
Easily. Terrorists are mostly incompotent. Im always surprised
at how low the injuries are when a bombing happens. Most
terrorists attacks fail to kill a single person. The internet
helps a bit, letting terrorists look up how to make bombs a bit
better. But they still suck.
mstade - 5 hours ago
This was a great read, I enjoyed it very much ? thanks for
sharing!It's also the first time I see this site. I've read a
couple more articles on it and it looks nice, I like it. The
writing is good and the material is interesting, and it's ad free
on purpose. I pitched in a few dollars while I consider whether to
subscribe. Again, thanks for sharing this nugget of gold!Edit:
fixed fat finger typos.
Hasknewbie - 5 hours ago
Damn Interesting is, as far as I know, the original "collection
of historical anecdotes" Web site in the vein of Atlas Obscura or
Mental Floss. They've always favoured long-form, well-sourced
articles, and they started doing it before it was cool and/or
profitable -- the site was at one point left unmaintained for
well over a year if I remember correctly. So yes, hats off to
them for playing the long game, sticking to their formula, and
not devolving into yet another ads-plagued list-icles Web site.
MBCook - 5 hours ago
Yep. At this point they also have a podcast which is the author
reading the article and is a great lesson if you'd prefer to
get it that way.
vinnyglennon - 4 hours ago
It's an excellent resource, one of my favourites. The facts, just
the facts, well told.
kerkeslager - 7 hours ago
The writing of this was incredibly twee--"booming side business" in
particular inspired a groan. I think that added to my enjoyment of
this article.
rdiddly - 1 hours ago
One nitpick: Con Ed's plant was located near an actual thing called
Hell Gate, not nicknamed that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_GateAlso see its namesake
bridge, under which seemingly every "dangerous meeting" scene of
every movie ever, was shot.