Michael Fugmann

On Good Friday, April 10, 1936, Thomas Maloney, once president of the defunct United Anthracite Mine Workers of Pennsylvania, went outside his house in Wilkes-Barre's Georgetown section to collect his mail. When he opened the mailbox, Maloney found a neatly wrapped package bearing the word "Sample" on top. Returning to his house, he placed the package on the kitchen table where his 4-year-old son Thomas Jr. and his 16-year-old daughter, Margaret, were seated. Maloney took a pen knife and removed the wrapping paper to discover a box of expensive cigars. Believing the cigars to be an Easter gift, the former union leader pried open the lid unknowingly detonating a bomb. The explosion ripped through the back of the Georgetown house leaving Maloney and his two children unconscious. They were rushed to the Wyoming Valley Homeopathic Hospital where they fought for their lives. Thomas Jr. passed away the following day and Maloney died five days later on April 16. Only Margaret survived, but she was so badly injured by the explosion she spent the next two months in the hospital recuperating. The incident was part of a mail bomb spree initiated by a disgruntled coal miner, Michael Fugmann of Hanover Township. Known as the "Good Friday Bombings," the crime claimed the lives of three people and severely injured two others. wrote: