On August 6, 1974, a bomb exploded at Los Angeles International Airport, killing three people and injuring thirty-five others. It was the first time an airport had been bombed anywhere in the world. A few days later, police recovered a cassette tape containing a chilling message: "This first bomb was marked with the letter A, which stands for Airport," said a voice. "The second bomb will be associated with the letter L, the third with the letter I, etc., until our name has been written on the face of this nation in blood." In The Alphabet Bomber: A Lone Wolf Terrorist Ahead of His Time, internationally renowned terrorism expert Jeffrey D. Simon tells the gripping tale of Muharem Kurbegovic, a bright but emotionally disturbed Yugoslav immigrant who single-handedly brought Los Angeles to a standstill during the summer of 1974. He had conjured up the fictitious group "Aliens of America," but it was soon discovered that he acted alone in a one-man war against government and society. The story of the Alphabet Bomber is about an extraordinary manhunt to find an elusive killer, a dogged prosecutor determined to bring him to justice, a pioneering female judge, and a devious mastermind whose heinous crimes foreshadowed the ominous threats we face today from lone wolf terrorists.

America in the early twentieth century was rife with threats. Organized crime groups like The Mafia, German spies embedded behind enemy lines ahead of World War I, package bombs sent throughout the country, and the 1920 Wall Street bombing dominated headlines. Yet the story of the one man tasked with combatting these threats has yet to be told. The Life and Times of William J. Flynn is the first book to tell the story of William J. Flynn, the first government official to bring down the powerful Mafia, uncover a sophisticated German spy ring in the United States, and launch a formal war on terrorism. As the Director of the Bureau of Investigation (the forerunner to the FBI), Flynn would become one of the most respected and effective law enforcement officials in American history. Long before Eliot Ness and the Untouchables went after Al Capone and the Italian mob in Chicago, Flynn dismantled the first Mafia family to exist in America. The success against the Mafia made Flynn famous, with front-page stories about him in newspapers across the country. His rise through the ranks was swift. As Chief of the Secret Service (then an organization devoted to intelligence rather than protecting the president), Flynn, nicknamed “the Bulldog” for his tenacity in pursuing leads, again won national acclaim when he uncovered a sophisticated German sabotage campaign in the United States on the eve of American entry into World War I. As the Director of the Bureau of Investigation, Flynn would devise the first counterterrorist strategy in U.S. history in his investigation of the anarchist terrorists leaving bombs across the country. He would also appoint an ambitious library clerk named J. Edgar Hoover to the Bureau’s newly created Radical Division. Flynn’s distinguished career came to an inglorious end, however, when he was unable to find the perpetrators of the infamous Wall Street bombing in September 1920. He never again returned to government service, instead turning to editing a detective fiction magazine called Flynn’s that became one of the most popular magazine publications of its time. In this riveting and well-researched biography, the first devoted to the man who became one of this country’s greatest detectives, author and terrorism expert Jeffrey D. Simon reveals the fascinating, exciting, and at times tragic story of William J. Flynn.

The bombings of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and of the World Trade Center in New York City have joined a long history of terrorists acts against the United States. In this newly updated edition of his book, Jeffrey Simon reaches back to the founding days of the Republic to tell a story that is both instructive and alarming. Simon uncovers the dynamics of a deadly conflict that affects all Americans. His in-depth interviews with terrorists and their victims, with reporters, government officials, and others bring to life a tale of presidents and terrorists, media and society, all entangled in a drama of international violence.

The Terrorist Trap traces the government response to terrorism from the days of Thomas Jefferson and the Barbary Pirates to William Jefferson Clinton's confrontation with homegrown terrorism. It explores the terrorist trap: the psychological, political, and social elements that make terrorism unlike any other conflict. With the end of the Cold War and the defeat of Saddam Hussein's army in the Gulf War, many believed that the threat of terrorism had been significantly reduced. But Simon shows how terrorism grows out of political, economic, and social grievances that can never be
fully resolved, as events in Israel and elsewhere continue to demonstrate. Living with terrorism will be an inescapable part of life in the twenty-first century. Simon calls on officials to move away from the useless rhetoric of defeating terrorism and to focus instead on achievable goals in combating this global problem.