cover in body bag from failed mail bomb attempt; from auction catalogue and curator's notes: On the 15th of November 1979 American Airlines flight 444, a Boeing 727 carrying 78 people, was en route from Chicago O'Hare to Washington National. Thirty minutes into the flight a mail bomb hidden in a wooden box in the cargo hold ignited. The device produced large amounts of smoke but failed to detonate, though investigators found only a faulty timer prevented the bomb from obliterating the plane. The pilot made a successful emergency landing at Washington-Dulles but several passengers had to be treated for smoke inhalation.
The bomb was built by Ted Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber, and this was his first attack to be investigated by the FBI. This was the third of sixteen bombings attributed to him. His previous two attacks had been on a university campus; the airplane bomb brought the FBI into the investigation and resulted in his FBI codename (UNiversity and Airline BOMber). Kaczynski's bombing attempts spread over 18 years before he was finally caught in 1996, and he has since been sentenced to life imprisonment.
This cover is a piece of commercial mail sent from Central State Telephone Company in Madison, Wisconsin and addressed to Mr. William L. Bird in the Engineering Branch of the Rural Electrification Administration of the U.S. Department of Agriculture South Building at 14th Street and Independence Avenue Southwest, Washington, DC. It was delivered approximately one week later. It remains in its original Post Office "body bag" with a note from postal inspector Tom Koerber that specifically mentions the incident.
