Welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClean Smith, where for the weeks in between episodes, we look at stories and ideas that, for one reason or other, didn't make it into the previous show. In the last episode, A Darkness on the Edge of Town, we ventured out to the American pastoral town of the Liska in southwest Iowa, where, in June nineteen twelve, eight people, six of whom were
young children, were brutally murdered by an unknown assailant. Looking at all the available evidence, it seems reasonable to assume that whatever motivated the killer to commit these murders was nothing as simple as revenge or money, as private detective James Wilkerson suggested. Rather, the killer was far more likely to have been driven by a dark and complex desire that was both violent and sexual in nature, perhaps operating in the spur of the moment, having been unable to
hold back his urges any longer. And how do I know this Because, despite having no experience in the field at all, years of watching police procedurals, true crime documentaries and movies about cannibalistic psychopaths as equipped me with all the analytical skills I could possibly need to think, I
know what I'm talking about. And if I had to pick one suspect out as the most likely culprit, clearly it would be the socially awkward Reverend Lynn David Kelly, with his history of sexual deviancy and numerous statements in which he confessed to the crime. Simply put, he fits the profile as tempting as it is to play the Maverick forensic psychologist. All of this is, of course, wild
and uninformed speculation. It did get me thinking, however, the history of criminal profiling and how the practice first came about, but more importantly, just how effective is it? Anyway, the answers might surprise you. On the evening of December second, nineteen fifty six, fifteen hundred people crowded into the Brooklyn Paramount Cinema in New York City to watch an evening showing of the latest blockbuster, War and Peace. It was about half an hour into the screening when a loud
explosion ripped through the theater. A pipe bomb inserted into the cushioning of one of the seats had gone off, injuring six people. As it happened, This bomb was the thirty second such device that had been planted by the same perpetrator in a seemingly relentless campaign of terror aimed at the people of New York City, which had been
going on for the last sixteen years. With fifteen people injured to date, and the bonds often being planted in popular public destinations such as train stations, libraries, and phone booths, it seemed only a matter of time before someone would lose their life. However, despite concerted efforts from the New York Police Department, not one person had been identified as
a possible culprit. A series of letters written to the police by the perpetrator, who signed off only with the initials f P, suggested a grievance of some sort against the con Edison Energy Company. Aside from that, they had little else to go on, and so in late December nineteen fifty six, MYPD Captain Howard Finney decided to try something different and took two plainclothes colleagues to pay a visit to the office of fifty one year old psychologist
James Brussell. At the time, Brussel was working as assistant commissioner at the Department of Mental Hygiene, tasked with overseeing the state's programs on mental health. He'd also once carried out counter spy work for the FBI. With nothing to lose, Finney wondered if Brussel might be able to turn his undoubted intelligence to the case of the mad bomber. As he was being called to see if he could discern anything from all the evidence they'd collected on him, they
would not be disappointed. After being invited into Brussel's office, Finney and his colleagues laid out all their evidence on the revered psychologist's desk, which included photos of damaged crime scenes, as well as images of the unexploded bombs that ranged from four to ten inches long and had been finally constructed with timers made from pocket watches and torch batteries. And then there were the letters, all handwritten in the
bombers distinctive style. I'm going to need some time, said Brussel, trying to ignore the look on the officers behind Finney, who clearly held out little hope for his input. That was fine, said the captain. They'd be more than happy to wait. Brussel began briefly with the photographs before turning to the letters. I will bring the con edison to justice.
They will pay for their dastardly deeds, FP read one in bold capital letters, while another read, I have exhausted all other means, I intend with bombs to cause others to cry out for justice for me. One after another. He studied them intently, scanning and rescanning them over and over again. Then after a few hours, he stood up and wandered over to the window which looked out over City Hall and gazed down at the people on the street.
You saw a man stood next to a car, another leaning in a doorway, while one was walking along the street suspiciously looking up at the surrounding buildings. The bomber could have been any of them, he thought. Then, after another hour of work, he gave his assessment. I believe the man you're looking for is possibly Slavic, he said, judging by the stilted language and lack of American colloquialisms
in his writing. He suggested also that the police might want to focus their efforts on one of the industrial towns in Connecticut where large Slavic immigrant communities were known to concentrate. He pointed to the watermark on the letters by way of demonstration. The marks were made in Westchester, which was clearly part of an effort to disguise the
perpetrator's true whereabouts. He said. Westchester also happened to be exactly halfway between Connecticut and New York City, the perfect place therefore for the bomber to stop en route to the city to post off his letters. The man thought. Brussel was also clearly in a state of advanced paranoia, having extended his campaign to the wider public at large, having initially being focused on only the con Edison company.
It was as if he blamed everyone that used them to Such a state was rarely reached before the age of thirty five, he said, and since the first bomb was in nineteen forty, he suggested, the culprit would be late forties, possibly older, and would also be very neat and clean shaven on account of his handiwork constructing the bombs.
He's probably a virgin, who thought Brussel. In fact, I'll bet he's never even kissed a girl, he said, and probably lives with some older female relatives who remind him of his mother, to whom he has confused eatable feelings. And with that Brussell was done. A stunned Howard. Finney and his colleagues thanked him for his time, then gathered the evidence into their bags and headed for the door.
Oh and just one more thing, said Brussel. Finney stopped and turned back to see Brussel standing in deep concentration with his eyes closed. When you catch him, he'll be wearing a double breasted suit and it will be buttoned up, he said. A double breasted suit, repeated Finney. Brussel opened his eyes, yes and buttoned up, he replied. It was just before midnight on January twenty first, nineteen fifty seven,
when police arrived at the door of George Meteski in Waterbury, Connecticut. Meteski, who was of Lithuanian descent, was unmarried and lived with two older sisters. Having worked for con Edison for two years between nineteen twenty nine and nineteen thirty one, he'd been forced to quit his job after sustaining an injury at work. Mateski had attempted to claim compensation for the accident,
but had been continually denied it by the company. With the police being let into the property by Meteki, a quick search of his bedroom revealed a notebook full of writing identical to that found in the bomber's letters, Mateski was clearly their man. When the search was over, detectives turned their attention to the stocky, meek looking Meteski, who was still in his pajamas, and suggested he get dressed
before they took him down to the station. A short time later, George Meteski appeared with his hair neatly combed, his shoes freshly shined, and wearing a buttoned up, double breasted suit. James Brussel, labeled the Profit of Twelfth Street and the Psychiatric Seer by the press, was understandably lauded for his efforts in helping to catch the mad bomber, efforts that effectively marked the beginning of what would become
the practice of criminal profiling. Brussel's method, which he originally called reverse psychology, was a complete reversal of what psychologists would ordinarily do, looking at someone's actions and trying to determine what kind of person they were, as opposed to trying to determine what actions someone might take on account
of their personality. This process would later be adapted and expanded on by FBI profiler Howard Tetten who helped establish the Bureau's now famous Behavioral Science Unit at Quantico in nineteen seventy two. Tenet's work was then expanded on by his protege, John Douglas. As some may know, Douglas was the inspiration for the character Jack Crawford in the novels Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs, as well as for Will Graham from the TV show Hannibal and
the Michael Mann film Manhunter. Douglas and his most prominent partner at the BSU, Robert Wrestler, would also provide inspiration for the central characters of Holden Ford and Bill Tench, respectively, in the twenty seventeen Netflix drama mind Hunter. Though the methods of criminal profiling have developed considerably since James Brussell's day, Broadly speaking, profilers tend to base much of their analysis through the categorization of a crime as either organized or disorganized.
An organized crime is one that is premeditated, well planned, and often leaves little evidence at the scene, while a disorganized crime, by contrast, would happen on the spur of the moment, is messily executed and tends to occur in a high risk environment where the perpetrator is lucky to
get away. Certainly, as the movies would have it, the art of criminal profiling as a lot going for it, not least of all the compelling image of the Maverick mastermind cracking the case by getting into the head of the most complex and dangerous criminals to figure out how they tick. However, as Malcolm Gladwell pointed out in his twenty oh seven New Yorker article Dangerous Minds, Criminal Profiling
made Easy, the reality is a little different. As Gladwell notes, in the mid nineties, a study into the efficacy of criminal profiling by the British Home Office found that after analyzing one hundred and eighty four crimes, profiling had only led to the capture of a perpetrator in five of those cases, which equates to a success rate of two
point seven percent. A study conducted back in nineteen ninety showed also that a trained profiler, on average, did no better than someone with no training whatsoever in producing an accurate profile, a result that was later backed up by a similar study conducted ten years later. As it turns out, much of what we know about James Brussell's apparent success in identifying the so called mad Bomber back in nineteen fifty six came from Brussel's own nineteen sixty nine memoir
Casebook of a Crime Psychiatrist. In truth, he'd actually told police to look for a bomber in White Plains in Westchester County, New York, not Connecticut. He also told them he'd have a facial scar and be an expert in civil or military ordinance, none of which turned out to be true. He also never suggested that he would be Slavic, but rather that he was born and raised in Germany.
Though some of what Brussel told them was useful, the true hero, as Malcolm Gladwell also pointed out in his New York apiece, was in fact the much lesser known, humble kN Edison secretary Alice Kelly. In nineteen fifty six, the New York journal American published an open letter urging the bomber to give themselves up. The enigmatic bomber then wrote a number of letters in reply, which Alice Kelly
later read in the journal. Realizing he was a former con Edison employee, she took it on herself to laboriously read through the files of ex employees to see if she could find any who been injured on the job. In one she found numerous angry letters that had been written to the company, including one letter that employed the awkward phrase take justice in my own hands, a phrase that had also occurred in one of the bombers publicly
published letters. The file, of course, was George Meteski's, and with that the police had an address, and soon after Meteski was arrested. All of which just goes to show perhaps there is simply no substitute for simple, honest, hard detective work, running the numbers, running the names, and double triple quadruple checking everything. If you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help supporters, you can now do so via patroon. To receive access to add three episodes, just go to
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