Letter bomb

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A mail bomb on display at the National Postal Museum Mailbomb.jpg
A mail bomb on display at the National Postal Museum

A letter bomb [lower-alpha 1] is an explosive device sent via the postal service, and designed with the intention to injure or kill the recipient when opened. They have been used in terrorist attacks such as those of the Unabomber. Some countries have agencies whose duties include the interdiction of letter bombs and the investigation of letter bombings. [1] 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 ).

Contents

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 attacks.

Use by suffragettes

One of, if not the first, groups to consistently use letter bombs on a wide scale were the British suffragettes of the Women's Social and Political Union in the years before the First World War. [2] The group were the original inventors of a form of letter bomb designed to maim or kill politicians or opponents. [2] In 1913, numerous letter bombs were sent to politicians such as the Chancellor David Lloyd George and Prime Minister H.H. Asquith, but they invariably all exploded in post offices, post boxes or in mailbags while in transit across the country. [3] Suffragettes also once attempted to assassinate a judge they considered to be anti-women's suffrage, Sir Henry Curtis-Bennett, with a "deadly" letter-bomb made partly out of bullets, but the bomb was intercepted by London postal workers before it could reach him. [4]

Patentability

Letter-bombs, along with anti-personnel mines, are typical examples of subject-matter excluded from patentability under the European Patent Convention, because the publication or exploitation of such inventions are contrary to the " ordre public " and/or morality (Article 53(a) EPC). [5]

Examples

Robert Harley was targeted in one of the earliest modern parcel bombing incidents Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt (2).jpg
Robert Harley was targeted in one of the earliest modern parcel bombing incidents
Parcel bomb sent to Madame Tussauds in 1889 Tussauds story The Times Sat July 20 1889.jpg
Parcel bomb sent to Madame Tussauds in 1889
FBI reproduction of one of Theodore Kaczynski's bombs Unabomber bomb.jpg
FBI reproduction of one of Theodore Kaczynski’s bombs
Michael Lapsley lost both hands and was blinded in one eye after a mail bombing attack Michael Lapsley, March 2017.jpg
Michael Lapsley lost both hands and was blinded in one eye after a mail bombing attack
Mail bomb sent by a pro-Trump extremist, 2018 Suspicious-package-exterior-oct-2018.jpg
Mail bomb sent by a pro-Trump extremist, 2018

See also

Notes

  1. Alternative names include parcel bomb, mail bomb, package bomb, note bomb, message bomb, gift bomb, present bomb, delivery bomb, surprise bomb, postal bomb, and post bomb.

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References

    • (USPIS) In the United States, the Postal Inspection Service is responsible for investigating the use, or threat of use, of letter bombs, harmful chemicals and dangerous devices sent through the postal system.
  1. 1 2 3 "Letter bombs and IEDs: Were the suffragettes terrorists?". Sky News. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  2. 1 2 Riddell, Fern (2018). Death in Ten Minutes: The forgotten life of radical suffragette Kitty Marion. Hodder & Stoughton. p. 122. ISBN   978-1-4736-6621-4.
  3. Riddell, Fern (2018). Death in Ten Minutes: The forgotten life of radical suffragette Kitty Marion. Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 155–156. ISBN   978-1-4736-6621-4.
  4. Guidelines for Examination in the EPO , section g-ii, 4.1 , "Matter contrary to "ordre public" or morality".
  5. Eiler Nystrøm(ed.) - Luxdorphs Dagbøger, volume I, p. 207 & 209, Copenhagen, 1915
  6. Luxdorphs Dagbøger, volume I, p. 293. The reference Luxdorph mentions is this: Theatrum Europæum, tome XI, p. 745 column 2, fin
  7. "The Times". July 20, 1889. p. 6.
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  10. 1919 United States anarchist bombings
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  38. Package addressed to Rep. Maxine Waters prompts evacuation of South L.A. mail facility Los Angeles Times, October 24, 2018
  39. Two new pipe bombs said to target Joe Biden Vice, October 25, 2018
  40. Similar Package Sent to Top Democrats Sent to Robert De Niro's NYC Home: Sources NBC New York, October 25, 2018
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