Letter bombing is an older and more common practice than we may realise. Roth and Cengiz recount some fascinating cases from the 17th to the 21st century in Murder by Mail, the first book that attempts to study the phenomenon in depth.
Jonathan Swift was one early target of a deadly parcel of sorts in 1712. The device consisted of pistols rigged to fire when the parcel was opened. Swift escaped injury in this elaborate if cartoonish attempt on his life. Later technological advancements made letter bomb components cheap, readily available, and attractive to radicals of all shades. However, while letter bombs provide anonymity and keep the perpetrator out of harm’s way, reliability has always been their weakness. Though they have killed and maimed, more often than not mail bombs are disarmed or fail to detonate.
The authors document campaigns of letter bombs by anarchists, fascists and national liberation movements including Irish republicans. States have relied on letter bombs, too, enjoying the plausible deniability they offer, with Israel, Russia and apartheid-era South Africa among the most habitual perpetrators. More surprisingly, letter bombs have just as frequently been deployed for nonpolitical reasons; by those seeking revenge against ex-lovers or employers, by extortionists and by misanthropes grotesquely curious to see what happens.
The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, the most famous letter bomber of all, receives his own chapter, which is not unwarranted. Kaczynski killed three people and injured fifteen in a mail-bombing campaign between 1978 and 1995. His actions and manifesto explaining this one-man crusade against the tech industry and ecological destruction inspired later generations of radicals across the political spectrum.
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Roth and Cengiz have gone to great lengths to collect so many examples across several hundred years. However, Murder by Mail terminates rather abruptly. Some readers will feel that a conclusion is missing that could address broader questions that the book generates. How have governments dealt with letter-bomb campaigns? Have letter bombs helped radicals achieve their political goals? Why has the tactic been more common in some corners of the world than others? We might not learn the answers to all these questions, but Murder by Mail provides absorbing and grizzly insight into this centuries-old deadly tactic that has so rarely been examined.
Kieran McConaghy is a Lecturer in the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews
