United States v. John Tomkins

TINDER, Circuit Judge.

John Tomkins sent a series of threatening letters to investment firms and their employees and then mailed packages to two investment managers containing what appeared to be pipe bombs. The homemade devices consisted of a plastic pipe holding gunpowder, lead pellets, and an igniter connected to live batteries. Letters in each package warned that the recipients were only alive because Tomkins left one wire on each device unattached. After a two-week trial, a jury found Tom-kins guilty of mailing threatening communications, 18 U.S.C. § 876(b), illegally possessing firearms,…