Every Town - New York, NY - Killer By Mail - The Zip Gun Bomber

Episode Date: October 1, 2021

Imagine it - you’ve got a special package that arrived in the mail! It’s attractively wrapped, and seems to contain something valuable. Perhaps, an expensive bottle of perfume? Tickets to a Caribbean cruise? Or the latest gadget you’ve been saving up for? Instinctively, you become excited to unwrap the package, leaving no room for any suspicion or fear, as the surprise just fills you with joy. In almost all instances, such would be the scenario, right? However, five New York City residents had the opposite experience. Between 1982 and 1996, each of them received an unexpected, nicely wrapped package in the mail; but the surprise brought them shock, trauma and injuries, and one even met her untimely death, because what they opened turned out to be an explosive device. The attacks became known as the malevolent work of the “Zip Gun Bomber.” Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you love true crime, grab your favorite mug and pour yourself a dose of creepy true crime every single morning with a morning cup of murder. This short daily show is the perfect podcast to incorporate into your morning routine because in less than 15 minutes, you'll hear about a true crime that took place on a day's date in history. Each day's dark history lesson will kickstart your morning with intriguing tales of murder, abduction, serial killers, cults, and everything in between.

With over 20 million downloads, Morning Cup of Murder has something for every true crime lover. One listener describes the show as a small package with a powerful punch of crime. Another writes that the show is an absolute delight in the morning. Support yourself a piping hot cup of murder every single morning with Morning Cup of Murder. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every town has a dark side. Today we head to New York City where we learn about the killer by mail

and the many victims of the zip gun bomber. Imagine it. You've got a special package that arrived in the mail. It's attractively wrapped and seems to contain something valuable. Perhaps an expensive bottle of perfume, tickets to a Caribbean cruise, or the latest gadget you've been saving up for. Instinctively, you become excited to unwrap that package,

leaving no room for any suspicion or fear, as the surprise just fills you with joy. In almost all instances, such would be the scenario, right? However, five New York City residents had the exact opposite experience. Between 1982 and 1996, each of them received an unexpected, nicely wrapped package in the mail, but the surprise brought them shock, trauma, and injuries, and one even met her untimely death, because what they opened turned out to be an explosive device. These attacks became known as the malevolent work of the zip gun bomber.

Hi, I'm Andrew Fitzgerald and welcome to an explosive episode of Everytown. Yes, this week's podcast will detail the harrowing experiences of the victims of the zip-gun bomber, who anonymously sent packages that exploded after they'd been opened. These victims ranged from middle-aged to elderly individuals with one outlier, an 18-year-old pregnant woman. 24 years have passed since the last reported case, but the identity of the zip-gun bomber and his motives for causing such havoc

have yet to be uncovered. The harrowing stories of the victims remind us that danger and deceit can come in beautiful packages. Over a span of 14 years, five people from different boroughs of New York City got similarly dangerous parcels in their mail

and suffer the results to varying degrees. Aside from living in the city that never sleeps, the victim's connection with each other as targets was never concretely established. Neither was the killer's ties with his victims. What's noticeable, though, is a 10-year gap between the first incident in 1982 and the succeeding ones,

which all happened in the 90s. As with other instances of repeating identical crimes, the first offense is of particular interest because it sets the pattern and characteristics of later offenses. The Zipgum Bombers' initial crime proved not only fatal, but controversial as well, with the victim's family members suspected to be linked to the murder. So let's focus our spotlight then on victim number one.

Joan Kip from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York City. May 7th, 1982 was a Friday. And 54-year-old, Joan was eagerly looking forward to the upcoming Mother's Day weekend to be spent with her family at their summer home on Lake Hayward in Connecticut. She was a dedicated wife to her husband, Howard, and a doting mother to their children, Doreen and Craig. Joan was already nearing 40 when she first started working for the Board of Education, particularly in Brooklyn School District 20. She was a guidance counselor who later supervised the counseling

programs of the local school districts in Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, and Borough Park. When her children were teenagers, Joan became even more involved in her community, serving as a volunteer for the local outpost of the South Beach, psychiatric center, and as treasurer of the Bay Ridge Community Council, an umbrella organization of local nonprofit associations that promote the neighborhood. She was expected to become the council's vice president, but for the unexpected events that fateful day on May 7, 1982. Joan left work an hour or two earlier than usual. Excited for the Mother's Day weekend trip, she and Howard would be making to Connecticut. She looked forward to seeing her daughter, Doran, who lived there with her husband.

Her son Craig, meanwhile, lived in an apartment with his wife, Susan, on Marine Avenue, just a short walk from his parents' Bay Ridge home. When Joan arrived at their quaint two-story house a little past 4 p.m., she checked her mail and was elated to see a package, thinking it might be a Mother's Day present. She took it inside the house and opened it. It contained a cookbook from Sears entitled The Quick and Delicious Gourmet Cookbook. It was a fitting gift since Joan loved cooking, but the book hid something sinister within. When she lifted its cover, the cleverly devised booby trap revealed an object that fired 32-caliber bullets.

The bullet struck Joan's chest just above her. abdomen, and the shrapnel from the blast severely wounded her face and hands. The third bullet went astray and hit the kitchen wall. At the same time, Joan's husband Howard arrived home, heard the explosion and ran to help his wife. I was under the kitchen window in the driveway when I heard the explosion. When I ran into the house, she was conscious. She said, look what they did to me, Howard said.

Investigators and county assistant district attorney Charles Abercrombie were able to determine how the explosive device was constructed. The cookbook had been hollowed out to accommodate a small battery, a metal plate with wires, connected into the contents of three stainless steel tubes. Each tube had a bullet with the base removed, exposing the gumpowder inside. Fused into the gum powder was the filament of a light. bulb, which in turn was connected to the battery's wires. So when the gunpowder sparked, the tube served as gun barrels. It seemed like whoever constructed the weapon had an in-depth knowledge of electrical wiring and hadn't used hard-to-find materials.

Investigators checked the packaging and discovered that the parcel was sent out of Staten Island through the U.S. Postal Service. After the explosion, Joan, who was severely wounded, was rushed to the Lutheran hospital where she died on the operating table at around 7.45 p.m. Her attacker had made true the note sent with the package. Dear Joan, you're dead. The sickening incident was the first strike of the so-called zip-gun bomber, a name coined by the tabloids, which wasn't quite accurate because zip-gun. are basically crudely made guns, not bombs or dynamite. Jones family, friends, and coworkers were gripped with grief and terror.

They couldn't think of any plausible reason why a kind-hearted woman like her would be targeted. Was it a random criminal act? Perhaps a domestic terrorist attack. Police conducted an investigation, considering the possibility that the murder was connected to organize crime, but they eventually ruled that out. They also investigated students suspended by guidance counselors that Joan oversaw, and eventually turned their focus onto the KIP family members, Howard, Doreen, and especially Craig. The family cooperated with the authorities, and Howard even gave them Joan's personal diary,

and the key to his shop so they could look at it even without a search warrant. investigators freely went in and out of the Kip home to look at everything and asked the family members about anything. But the Kip family lost their tolerance when 31-year-old daughter Doreen was interrogated by the police for hours just before her mother's funeral at Union Church. She felt harassed and the family was advised by their lawyer to get protection from the police. And then 28-year-old Craig became the center of the investigative. attention. Craig worked in his father's marine engineering business, which installed electrical lines into ship's boiler rooms. Thus, police inferred that Craig had the technical know-how to construct the explosive device. Investigators said Craig had been dismissed from his job,

so they believed he harbored a grudge against his parents, particularly anger and bitterness towards Joan. The authority's suspicion about Craig's involvement in his mother's death intensified when a German shepherd trained at sniffing human sense matched Craig's sock to the internal mechanism of the explosive device hidden inside that cookbook. Also, his handwriting was similar to the writing on the package and the threatening note. In several instances, Craig refused to undergo polygraph test only increasing police suspicion. Then, the inevitable happened on August 9, 1982. Craig and his wife, Susan, had just returned home from the Kipps family's Connecticut house

when police arrested him at his apartment. He was officially booked on a federal charge of mailing injurious articles, which carried with it the possibility of a life sentence when the result of the mailing was a death, just like in his mother's life. case. Investigators clarified that the mailing of the explosive device to Joan wasn't a random act, but an intentional attack on a mother by disgruntled son. Craig was released on a $300,000 bail, paid for by Howard, who, together with Doreen, forcefully defended Craig from the accusations. They tried to build this hatred he had of his parents. It was such crap, pardon my language,

Howard said. The father also criticized the police investigation as flimsy saying, I was 110% certain that he was innocent. He was the most peaceful person. There was no hatred, no animosity for his mother. He was a real family guy. Howard disputed Craig's presumed bomb-making skills and stated that his son didn't even have the training and never even took physics. In June of 1983, the charges against Craig were dropped because neither the handwriting analysis nor the German Shepard's handler's statements were credible enough to prove murder in the court of law. The tragic death of Joan as the zip-gun bomber's first-ever victim

was deemed an isolated case because no attacks of the same kind happened for a long time. But as Joan was fighting for her life after the blast, A few of her last words to Howard were, There may be others. More than a decade later, those last few words became prophetic. The Zipgum Bomber emerged from hiatus and unleashed a reign of terror from 1993 through 1996. October 15, 1993.

Eleven years after the Joan Kipp tragedy, the spotlight shifted to Robert Lenza, a 68-year-old retired sanitation worker who lived with his 67-year-old wife Connie and Westerly, a residential neighborhood in the northwestern part of Staten Island, New York. The Lenzas decided to take an autumn vacation to the town of Chahola in Pike County, Pennsylvania. But after they had left, a package was delivered to their residence in Westerly. so it was left untouched. When Robert and Connie's children and grandchildren went to visit them one weekend, they carried the package with them,

arriving in Pennsylvania on October 15th. As the happy family gathered around, at the center of attention was the bulky package that caught Robert's curiosity since it was specifically addressed to him. He unwrapped it, and inside was a blue velvet coin box, which Robert opened, holding it upside down. Unknown to him and the rest of the family, the coin box contained an explosive device that suddenly went off,

shooting in three separate directions. Robert, Connie, and their 11-year-old granddaughter, Liza Peterson were hit by the projectiles, but thankfully their injuries weren't serious and were treated immediately. Police investigations later determined, that the device used, including the manner and how it was assembled and how the mechanism worked, was very similar to the one that killed Joan Kipp in 1982.

Even the handwriting on both package labels was the same, leading to a conclusion that Robert was victimized by the zip gun bomber. Just like Joan, Robert had a warm personality, didn't have enemies, legal troubles, nor criminal record. So why was he taken? targeted. The answer remained a mystery as three more people were then victimized. April 5th, 1994. Almost six months after the Robert Lenz incident, the zip gun bomber struck again. The intended target, a 61-year-old Richard McGarrel, but it was his 75-year-old sister, Alice Caswell, who sustained great injury. For 25 years, Alice and her husband, Norman lived in their small brick home in the neighborhood of Sheep's Head Bay in southern Brooklyn.

In the late 1970s, Richard had briefly lived with Alice and Norman. By 1994, Richard was living in a New Jersey retirement home after retiring as a customs agent at the Newark Airport. And Alice had been maintaining the Brooklyn home on her own since her husband's death in 1988. However, some of Richard. Richard's mail would still be addressed occasionally to his sister's home in Brooklyn. When that happened, Alice would usually open the mail for her brother, and, depending on its value and relevance, Alice would either throw the mail into the garbage or deliver it to Richard. The oversized padded envelope she received at around 120 p.m. on April 5, 1994,

peaked her attention, so Alice decided to open it. It contained a medallion box, quite similar to the one sent to Robert. Then history repeated itself for the third time when the box exploded, hitting and wounding Alice in her abdomen. Despite feeling dazed, she managed to go to her neighbors next door and ask for help. She was brought to the King's County Hospital Center, where she recovered. Upon close inspection, the mysterious zip gun bomber sent exactly the same deadly explosive device to Richard that almost put his sister in critical condition.

At this point, investigators were wondering how the victims were connected and what the killer's motive was. They wondered and waited for 14 months before the bomber struck again. June 27, 1995. The fourth victim was subjected to a very similar attack to that of Joan Kipps, the first victim of the Zip Gun Bomber. However, though Joan succumbed to her injuries, 18-year-old pregnant teenager Stephanie Gaffney survived. That summer of 1995, she was staying for the time being at her grandparents' apartment in St. Albans,

a residential community in Queens, New York. Stephanie's grandfather and uncle were both law enforcement officers, while her grandpa was a former New York police officer, her uncle, James Gilmore, was an NYPD detective, who played a vital role in busting a Dominican drug syndicate in 1992. On June 27th, while Stephanie was preoccupied talking on the phone, a brand new mail delivery caught her attention. She picked up the parcel addressed to Gilmore, or occupant,

Since her grandfather and uncle both had the surname Gilmore, Stephanie naturally thought that the parcel was for them. Excited to see what it was, she opened it, and what she found truly caught her by unpleasant surprise. I just received something in the mail, and I opened it, and it was a book. And I opened the book, and it exploded, Stephanie remembered. The book was hollowed out in order for the signature zip-gun bombers of, explosive device to be hidden within. Stephanie was hit by the shrapnel from the trio of bullets, but thankfully, she and her unborn child weren't seriously harmed.

She was treated for the burns on her chest, abdomen, and legs at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. However, it caused undue distress to the baby, so Stephanie was forced to an induced labor at 1130 p.m. on June 28th, and she eventually gave birth to her healthy daughter. In retrospect, the young mom believed she had escaped death because she held the book at an angle facing away from her. Undoubtedly, the attack fit the signature style of the zip gun bomber who made his last strike a year later. June 20, 1996. Married couple, Richard, and Marietta Bacil had chosen to enjoy their retirement in their two-story,

white stucco home and Bensonhurst along Bath Beach in Brooklyn. Already in their late 70s, Richard and Marietta considered the home they'd cherish for so long as a peaceful haven in their twilight years. But on the 20th of June of 1996, that piece was shattered. Mail carrier Ken Barris delivered a small package about the size of a video cassette tape for Marietta. It was Richard, who was Richard,

received it and decided to open it up for his wife. The package indeed contained a video cassette tape, but it exploded even before the Basile's could view its contents. Well, that was its contents. Three-22 caliber bullets that crashed through the kitchen window and damaged a wall. The mailman hurried back to the Bacil home to help the elderly couple. He smelled smoke, saw debris in the kitchen, and holes in the glass window and was surprised to see Richard and Marietta unharmed. Richard was in the kitchen and had miraculously evaded the firing bullets.

But according to Barris, if he had opened it another direction, he would have had two bullets in his belly. The mailman further said the video cassette tape looked like it was taken apart with a barrel on each side. After this incident, the zip gun bomber faded away, perhaps choosing to retire from terrorizing random people. Investigators had determined that the explosive devices, the so-called zip guns, were identical,

and linked all the cases from 1982 until the last one in 96. Despite this, however, investigators were unable to piece together what connected the five intended victims. Different agencies worked together to investigate the case. cases, including the Postal Inspector's Office. It determined that all recipients of the harmful packages had links to civil or military service, but these connections were pretty loose. The lack of a solid motive and clear common denominator didn't help lead investigators to a suspect. Aside from Craig Kipp, whose charges against him for allegedly killing his mother were later

dropped, one known suspect was Steve Wavra. He was a Navy veteran diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and had a long criminal history, including possession of poisonous liquids, making bomb threats against postal facilities, and assaulting a military police officer. He'd been caught creating book devices similar to the bombs. He was linked to Joan Kipp's killing because she had been as guidance counselor at one point, and he may have had resentments against her. However, Wavra denied this and had a convincing alibi. I had nothing against her. I was in prison

at the time. They know that I could not possibly directly be involved in it, Wavra stated. His incarceration was confirmed by investigators, and there wasn't enough evidence to charge him. After many years of trying to try and he, he was confirmed. to identify the zip gun bomber. Many people involved in the investigation have retired or passed away. The case has had so many turns but remains unsolved to this day. This leads me to ask the question, has the zip gun bomber case reached a cold dead end?

Or will another zip gun show up sometime in the near future? So that's it for this week's episode of Everytown. Tune in next week for another episode filled with scary, strange and mysterious stories. Because who knows, maybe your town will be next.