Mailbomb
Encyclopedia
A letter bomb, also called parcel bomb, mail bomb or post bomb, is an explosive device
Explosive device
An explosive device is device that relies on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Explosive devices have applications as demolition devices and as weapons in the military....
sent via the postal service
Mail
Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...
, and designed with the intention to injure or kill the recipient when opened. They have been used in terrorist
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
attacks such as those of the Unabomber
Theodore Kaczynski
Theodore John "Ted" Kaczynski , also known as the "Unabomber" , is an American mathematician, social critic, anarcho-primitivist, and Neo-Luddite who engaged in a mail bombing campaign that spanned nearly 20 years, killing three people and injuring 23 others.Kaczynski was born in Chicago, Illinois,...
. Some countries have agencies whose duties include the interdiction of letter bombs and the investigation of letter bombings. The letter bomb may have been in use for nearly as long as the common postal service has been in existence, as far back as 1764 (see Examples).
Description
Letter bombs are usually designed to explode immediately on opening, with the intention of seriously injuring or killing the recipient (who may or may not be the person to whom the bomb was addressed). A related threat is mail containing unidentified powders or chemicals, as in the 2001 anthrax attacks2001 anthrax attacks
The 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, also known as Amerithrax from its Federal Bureau of Investigation case name, occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on Tuesday, September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 attacks. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to...
.
Patentability
Letter-bombs, along with anti-personnel mineAnti-personnel mine
Anti-personnel mines are a form of land mine designed for use against humans, as opposed to anti-tank mines, which are designed for use against vehicles...
s, are typical examples of subject-matter excluded from patentability
Patentable subject matter
Patentable, statutory or patent-eligible subject matter is subject matter which is susceptible of patent protection. The laws or patent practices of many countries suggest that certain subject matter is or is not something for which a patent should be granted.Together with novelty, inventive step...
under the European Patent Convention
European Patent Convention
The Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973, commonly known as the European Patent Convention , is a multilateral treaty instituting the European Patent Organisation and providing an autonomous legal system according to which European patents are granted...
, because the publication or exploitation of such invention
Invention
An invention is a novel composition, device, or process. An invention may be derived from a pre-existing model or idea, or it could be independently conceived, in which case it may be a radical breakthrough. In addition, there is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social...
s are contrary to the "ordre public" and/or morality
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
.
Examples
- One of the world's first mailbombs is mentioned in the 18th century diary of Danish official and historian Bolle Willum Luxdorph. His diary mainly consists of concise references to news from DenmarkDenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and abroad. In the entry for January 19, 1764 he writes the following: Colonel Poulsen residing at Børglum abbey was sent by mail a box. When he opens it, therein is to be found gunpowder and a firelock which sets fire unto it, so he became very injured. The entry for February 15 same year says: Colonel Poulsen receives a letter in German, [saying] that soon the dose will be increased. It is referring to the dose of gunpowder in the box. The perpetrator was never found. In a later reference Luxdorph has found a mention of a similar bomb being used, also in 1764, but in SavonaSavonaSavona is a seaport and comune in the northern Italian region of Liguria, capital of the Province of Savona, in the Riviera di Ponente on the Mediterranean Sea....
in ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. - Edward White, formerly an artist at Madame TussaudsMadame TussaudsMadame Tussauds is a wax museum in London with branches in a number of major cities. It was founded by wax sculptor Marie Tussaud and was formerly known as "Madame Tussaud's", but the apostrophe is no longer used...
, was alleged to have sent a parcel bomb to John Theodore Tussaud in June 1889 after being dismissed. - A Swedish man named Martin Ekenberg used a mailbomb August 20, 1904, targeting CEO Karl Fredrik Lundin in StockholmStockholmStockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
. It was made of a box loaded with bullets and explosives. - In 1915, Vice President of the United StatesVice President of the United StatesThe Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Thomas R. MarshallThomas R. MarshallThomas Riley Marshall was an American Democratic politician who served as the 28th Vice President of the United States under Woodrow Wilson...
was the target of an assassination attempt by letter bomb. - August 30, 1958: A parcel bomb sent by Ngo Dinh NhuNgo Dinh NhuNgô Ðình Nhu was the younger brother and chief political advisor of South Vietnam's first president, Ngô Ðình Diệm. Nhu was widely regarded as the architect of the Ngô family's nepotistic and autocratic rule over South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963...
, younger brother and chief adviser of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh DiemNgo Dinh DiemNgô Đình Diệm was the first president of South Vietnam . In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diệm led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam. Accruing considerable U.S. support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a...
, failed to kill King Sihanouk of Cambodia. - Austrian Nazi war criminal Alois BrunnerAlois BrunnerAlois Brunner is an Austrian Nazi war criminal. Brunner was Adolf Eichmann's assistant, and Eichmann referred to Brunner as his "best man." As commander of the Drancy internment camp outside Paris from June 1943 to August 1944, Brunner is held responsible for sending some 140,000 European Jews to...
was sent a letter bomb by the Israeli intelligence services MossadMossadThe Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....
, to which he lost an eye and several fingers. - In the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, several terrorist organizations in ArgentinaArgentinaArgentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
such as MontonerosMontonerosMontoneros was an Argentine Peronist urban guerrilla group, active during the 1960s and 1970s. The name is an allusion to 19th century Argentinian history. After Juan Perón's return from 18 years of exile and the 1973 Ezeiza massacre, which marked the definitive split between left and right-wing...
and ERPPeople's Revolutionary Army (Argentina)The Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo was the military branch of the communist Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores in Argentina...
included letter bombs into their weaponry. - Theodore KaczynskiTheodore KaczynskiTheodore John "Ted" Kaczynski , also known as the "Unabomber" , is an American mathematician, social critic, anarcho-primitivist, and Neo-Luddite who engaged in a mail bombing campaign that spanned nearly 20 years, killing three people and injuring 23 others.Kaczynski was born in Chicago, Illinois,...
, the "Unabomber", killed three and injured 23 in a series of mailbombings in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. - Ruth FirstRuth FirstRuth First was a white South African anti-apartheid activist and scholar born in Johannesburg, South Africa...
, a South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n communistCommunismCommunism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
anti-apartheid activist was killed by a parcel bomb mailed by the South African government to her home in MozambiqueMozambiqueMozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
, on August 17, 1982. - In August 1985, a woman in RotoruaRotoruaRotorua is a city on the southern shores of the lake of the same name, in the Bay of Plenty region of the North Island of New Zealand. The city is the seat of the Rotorua District, a territorial authority encompassing the city and several other nearby towns...
, New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Michele Sticovich, was instantly killed and a close friend of hers seriously injured after she opened a parcel addressed to her containing a number of sticks of geligniteGeligniteGelignite, also known as blasting gelatin or simply jelly, is an explosive material consisting of collodion-cotton dissolved in either nitroglycerine or nitroglycol and mixed with wood pulp and saltpetre .It was invented in 1875 by Alfred Nobel, who had earlier invented dynamite...
. Mrs Sticovich's estranged husband, David Sticovich, was arrested and ultimately pleaded guilty to her murder. - On October 19, 1986, Dele GiwaDele GiwaDele Giwa was a Nigerian journalist, editor and founder of Newswatch magazine, who was killed by a mail bomb in his home on 19 October 1986...
, a NigeriaNigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
n journalist and editor of the Newswatch magazine was killed with a mail bomb, claimed to be sent by Nigeria's former dictator, Gen. Ibrahim BabangidaIbrahim BabangidaGeneral Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida CFR DSS mni , popularly known as IBB, was a Nigerian Army officer and military ruler of Nigeria...
. The general has never admitted complicity, remaining mute on the issue. - On December 16, 1989, Robert Smith VanceRobert Smith VanceRobert Smith Vance was a United States federal judge. He is one of the few judges in American history to have been assassinated as the result of his judicial service.-Early life and career:...
, a U. S. federal judge, was killed instantly upon opening a letter bomb in the kitchen of his home in Birmingham, AlabamaBirmingham, AlabamaBirmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
, with his wife, Helen, seriously injured. Walter Leroy Moody was later convicted of killing both Vance and Georgia attorney Robbie Robertson by use of letter bombs delivered through the mail. - Franz FuchsFranz FuchsFranz Fuchs was a xenophobic Austrian terrorist. Between 1993 and 1997 he killed four people and injured 15, some of them seriously, using three improvised explosive devices and five waves of 25 mailbombs in total.Fuchs' mailbomb campaigns and his personality features are according to criminal...
, AustriaAustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n mailbomber, killed four and injured 15 with mailbombs and improvised explosive devices in the mid-1990s. - Singer BjörkBjörkBjörk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...
was sent a letter bomb charged with explosives and hydrochloric acidHydrochloric acidHydrochloric acid is a solution of hydrogen chloride in water, that is a highly corrosive, strong mineral acid with many industrial uses. It is found naturally in gastric acid....
by fan Ricardo López in 1996. The bomb did not reach Björk, having been randomly intercepted by London Police. - In February 2007, a series of mailbombings in the United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
injured nine people, though none of them were critically hurt. - In January and February 2007, a bomber calling himself "The BishopThe BishopThe Bishop is the pseudonym of an anonymous person who sent several threatening letters and bomb-like devices to financial firms in the Midwestern United States in 2005 and 2007.-Beginning:...
" sent several unassembled bombs to financial firms in the United States, and was arrested in April 2007 - In August 2007, a Lebanese immigrant, Adel ArnaoutAdel ArnaoutAdel Mohamed Arnaout is an alleged criminal landed Lebanese immigrant living in Toronto, Ontario, who is accused of sending three letter bombs out to residents of the Greater Toronto area in August 2007....
, was charged in connection with a letter bomb ring in the TorontoTorontoToronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
-GuelphGuelphGuelph is a city in Ontario, Canada.Guelph may also refer to:* Guelph , consisting of the City of Guelph, Ontario* Guelph , as the above* University of Guelph, in the same city...
area of OntarioOntarioOntario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
; he was allegedly responsible for injuring 1 person. He was also allegedly responsible for the precautionary closing of a portion of the Don Valley ParkwayDon Valley ParkwayThe Don Valley Parkway is a controlled-access six-lane municipal expressway in Toronto connecting the Gardiner Expressway in downtown Toronto with Ontario Highway 401, the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway. North of Highway 401, it continues as Ontario Highway 404. The parkway runs through...
in Toronto on August 31, 2007 - In April 2011 Neil LennonNeil LennonNeil Francis Lennon is a former footballer from Northern Ireland. He is the current manager and former captain of Celtic....
and 2 high profile fans of Celtic F.C.Celtic F.C.Celtic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, which currently plays in the Scottish Premier League. The club was established in 1887, and played its first game in 1888. Celtic have won the Scottish League Championship on 42 occasions, most recently in the...
were sent parcel bombs.