The Mad Bomber

On the loose. New York's "Mad Bomber" was the terror of the city and the darling of crime reporters as he planted his homemade pipe-and-powder bombs in theaters and public buildings. Once captured, he turned out to be quiet, round-faced George Metesky, a 54-year-old bachelor who was more confused than cunning (TIME, Feb. 4). Last week, after studying Metesky's medical reports, Kings County Judge Samuel Leibowitz noted that Metesky, too unsound of mind to stand trial, is also dying of tuberculosis, committed him to a state hospital for the criminally insane. Said Leibowitz: "One would be less than human not to be sympathetically moved by this pitiful condition of this hopeless, incurable man—incurable both mentally and physically."