The Mad Bomber- A Psychological Profile

The birth of Criminal Profiling

Bianca S. Joni
7 min readSep 30, 2020

In 1956, New York Police has reached a desperate point in their long pursue of the Mad Bomber. Between 1940 and 1956, New York has been terrorised by a number of 30 bombings in various public locations. In their investigation, Police managed to reach dead-ends and the hopes of catching the person responsible were crushed in front of their eyes. Desperation led the police department to pursue a path they had never considered in their 111 years of existence.

Psychiatrist James A. Brussel

James A. Brussel was an American Psychiatrist working for the New York Department of Mental Hygiene. Detectives contacted Brussel in an attempt to achieve the emotional insights of the criminal. The evidence at the scene failed to provide much information regarding the individual behind the bombings and a physical description was unobtainable.

All they had were notes left at the scenes where the bomber expressed his hatred towards Con Edison ending with the F.P signature.

The detective’s decision to approach a psychiatrist proved to be the beginning of a new relationship between the mental health representatives and the police.

During a four hours meeting with detective Finney and other two detectives, Brussel managed to create the psychological profile of the Mad Bomber…

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