PRIORITY MAIL The Investigation and Trial of a Mail Bomber Obsessed with Destroying Our Justice Systrem

Hardback. On December 16, 1989, in a suburb near Birmingham, Alabama, Helen Vance was wrapping Christmas gifts when the mailman brought in a package for her husband, US Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Robert Vance. As his hands tore open the package, a bomb inside exploded. Judge Vance was killed instantly, and Mrs Vance, standing four feet away, was severely injured. In an Atlanta federal appeals court, an X-ray check intercepted a second bomb. A third device, in Savannah, killed Robbie Robinson, a lawyer who had done legal work for the NAACP. A fourth bomb turned up in a Jacksonville NAACP office. After seventeen federal judges across the Southeast had received threats and a communique warned that more NAACP officials would be murdered, fear spread. Where would the bomber strike next? From the beginning, inexperienced ATF agent Brian Hoback and a handful of others suspected the brilliant, charming, and chilling Walter Leroy Moody; but if Moody was the bomber, he had expertly covered his tracks. Hoback, however, never gave up on his quarry, even when senior officials and dozens of other agents mistakenly focused on another suspect. The key was whether Moody's much younger wife, Susan, could be transformed from devoted helpmate - and battered wife - to stunning star witness for the prosecution, throwing off the influence of her domineering husband and testifying against him. Illus. Illus., Epilogue and Index. 317pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in nr. f. dw.