S19 Ep154: Murder By Mail: A Global History of the Letter Bomb w/Prof. Mitchel P. Roth
Darkness Radio
Darkness Radio
4.8 • 3.2K Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2024
⏱️ 126 minutes
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Summary
A late package from Amazon or USPS would be the least of your troubles on Christmas Eve! Imagine a deadly Yuletide greeting from a not so Christian fellow!
The book, "Muder By Mail", unfolds the gripping history of weaponized mail, offering the first ever comprehensive exploration of this sinister phenomenon. Spanning two centuries, the book unveils the history of postal bombs, describing the evolution of both explosives and the postal services that facilitated their deadly use. From an eighteenth-century incident involving Jonathan Swift to modern acts of terror by groups like the IRA and the suffragettes and lone wolves such as the Unabomber, it uncovers the surprising ubiquity of mail bombs. This chronological account meticulously covers each decade, from early anarchists and world wars through the Cold War to the rise of the serial bomber. Astounding in scope, this book sheds light on the psychopathy, motivations and political implications behind murder by mail.
On Today's TCT, Prof. Roth highlights some of the grizzly moments in human history where people have made that fateful decision to not only open these deadly "infernal machines", but also construct and send them! He also talks about some of the most famous bomb builders in history and the psychology behind what makes one person want to blow another apart from far away and through the mail system, where innocents have a greater chance of getting hurt, than the actual target!
Get your copy of "Murder By Mail..." here: https://bit.ly/3DvijJW
Check out Mitchel on X: https://x.com/roth_mitchel
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Order the three new books from Jessica here: https://jessicafreeburg.com/books/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome in to the best in True Crime Podcasting. This is True Crime Tuesday. I'm your host, Tim Dennis. |
| 0:28.6 | It's Christmas Eve. You may be sitting there right now expecting a package. You may be cursing and swearing at Amazon. You may be cursing and swearing at the U.S. Postal Service, and you may be saying, where is my package? That is not the worst thing that's going to happen to you |
| 0:42.1 | today. It could be something worse with a package. I'm just saying, I'm here today to probably |
| 0:49.3 | maybe be the instrument of your worst nightmare. And I'm going to do that today with my guest. |
| 0:55.4 | My guest today is Professor Mitchell P. Roth. |
| 0:58.0 | He's got a wonderful book out there today, which I had the privilege of reading this weekend, |
| 1:01.7 | called Murder by Mail, A Global History of the Letterbaum. |
| 1:06.1 | Hopefully you don't get one of those for Christmas. |
| 1:08.0 | I'm just saying. |
| 1:09.4 | Actually, this book is incredibly gripping. |
| 1:12.0 | It's a wonderful book which unfolds the gripping history of weaponized mail, which may be |
| 1:18.8 | an odd thing to talk about on Christmas Eve, but hey, we're going to do it anyways. And it is |
| 1:24.1 | fascinating. You know, we think about how safe our mail system is, |
| 1:28.8 | or at least the perceived safety of the mail. |
| 1:33.6 | But when you stop and think about it, |
| 1:35.6 | and you stop and think about the history of the mail system worldwide, |
| 1:39.7 | from the beginning of the male system to now, |
| 1:42.1 | we have had some pretty hairy incidents. |
| 1:44.6 | And I want to talk to Professor Roth today about some of those incidents. |
| 1:49.7 | And I want to point you towards that book and get you towards that book, which, by the way, |
| 1:53.2 | we have a link in the description to this program so that you can go out and get this book |
| 1:57.1 | because it is a fascinating book. |
... |
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