# Austin, Texas explosions (a 4th one has been reported) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 19, 2018, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806 "2018-03-19T03:21:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/21 "2018-03-21T03:53:57Z")
My gut reaction is that this is basically a serial killer whose M.O. happens to be bombs and not necessarily a politically or racially motivated perpetrator, but I guess we will find out as more information comes to light. The early bombs may have been “test runs” so to speak in areas where maybe the bomber didn’t think there wouldn’t be many video cameras and such to catch him in the act and track him. The thing I find scary is that this guy seems to be on a warpath, the frequency of the bombings is increasing, while the amount of time between each incident is decreasing. I hope this isn’t all leading up to some larger bombing event the killer has planned. Each day that passes, especially with the FBI on the case the bomber has to know that the snare around him is getting smaller and smaller, which may make him more desperate and attempt to go out with an even bigger bang so to speak before he is caught or killed. One of the largest military bases is in Texas and only an hour away from Austin, I wonder if this could be some former Explosive Ordnance Disposal guy that went nuts or something. I know this is all speculation but its somewhat stimulating to try and figure these things out before its all over. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/22 "2018-03-21T03:56:09Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > “In a statement, the company says “the individual responsible” for sending the package that blew up also shipped a second package that has been secured and turned over to law enforcement.” > > The guy put his name and return address on the packages? They must have some kind of evidence that (most likely) he did both of them. Many years ago, including prior to 9/11, I did relief work at a clinic on a local military base, and part of the bomb threat protocol, which was posted next to every phone, included the questions “What is your name?” and “What is your address?” 😛 Research had indicated that the caller is often agitated enough, and not thinking straight, to reply correctly. So, it’s not impossible, although I personally doubt it. Some people, including an Austin resident on my Facebook list, are expressing relief that the Goodwill explosion probably wasn’t related. I disagree; this may mean that we have a second bomber out there. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/23 "2018-03-21T04:03:36Z")
Wouldn’t a “competent” bomber be putting the return address and name of some innocent person whom he hoped to frame as the real culprit? ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/24 "2018-03-21T05:20:39Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > “In a statement, the company says “the individual responsible” for sending the package that blew up also shipped a second package that has been secured and turned over to law enforcement.” > > The guy put his name and return address on the packages? Or he shipped both in the same transaction, or from the same account, so they could see that packages 12345 and 12346 were sent by the same person, even if there is no genuine name attached. In any case, it seems like there would be greater risk of being caught. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/25 "2018-03-21T05:26:03Z")
A friend in Austin works in just the type of government office that could possibly be a magnet for mad bombers. I told him to stay safe. I don’t get the surprise that a mad bomber could be smart enough to change the MO. Why the notion that the perp must be some sort of slobbering baboon? ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/26 "2018-03-21T09:02:09Z")
[http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/austin-bombing-suspect-reportedly-killed-article-1.3887325?cid=msn](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/austin-bombing-suspect-reportedly-killed-article-1.3887325?cid=msn) NY Daily News is saying that the bomber is dead, shot and killed on a highway near Austin. There’s not much info and I’m not sure how accurate any of it is. So … grain of salt - > [@NY Daily News](#): > > The serial bomber behind a deadly exploding package spree in Austin has reportedly been killed following nearly three weeks of terror in the Texas capitol. > > News of the suspect’s death, first reported by the Austin American-Statesman, coincided with a police shooting that stopped traffic along a highway near Austin just before 3 a.m. local time Wednesday. > > Dozens of FBI agents were seen swarming the site of the shooting in the Round Rock suburb, about 11 miles north of Austin. > > It was not immediately clear how the shooting was related or how the suspect died. A FBI spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/27 "2018-03-21T10:02:53Z")
Apparently he blew himself up as the police closed in… ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/28 "2018-03-21T11:12:28Z")
A 24 year old white male, ID and motives TBD. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/29 "2018-03-21T12:22:16Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Some people, including an Austin resident on my Facebook list, are expressing relief that the Goodwill explosion probably wasn’t related. I disagree; this may mean that we have a second bomber out there. It wasn’t a bomb. It was a military artillery simulator. It’s designed to be dropped near troops and make a loud bang. It’s purpose is to produce noise not concussion, overpressure and shrapnel. It’s not 100% safe, like with a firework holding it when it goes off would be a bad idea for you and your fingers. Hopefully this does not mean someone else is trying to copy. However, someone using a commercially produced firework and someone designing lethal IEDs are two very different things. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/30 "2018-03-21T12:24:33Z")
Note that the Goodwill “bomb” was an [unrelated](http://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/reported-package-explosion-at-goodwill-on-brodie-lane/1063391509) thing. Some doofus donated a couple practice rounds to them and one went off. It was a mildish thing. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/31 "2018-03-21T12:25:19Z")
I don’t think I want to be the guy who first enters his home, Lord knows what kind of booby traps he left behind. For all of his technical expertise in bomb making, it does seem kind of sloppy that he sent them Fed Ex where he would wind up on security cameras. Hope he left something somewhere that tells us what his motive was. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/32 "2018-03-21T12:34:20Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Note that the Goodwill “bomb” was an [unrelated](http://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/reported-package-explosion-at-goodwill-on-brodie-lane/1063391509) thing. Some doofus donated a couple practice rounds to them and one went off. It was a mildish thing. Who donates something like that to Goodwill? 😕😕 ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/33 "2018-03-21T12:54:22Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Who donates something like that to Goodwill? I’m sure I saw a story, relatively recently, about a grenade launcher (with grenade) showing up in a Goodwill bin. Edit: [http://www.bradenton.com/news/local/article197613449.html](http://www.bradenton.com/news/local/article197613449.html) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/34 "2018-03-21T13:28:35Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Who donates something like that to Goodwill? > > 😕😕 A former wife getting rid of his stuff, who didn’t know what they were. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/35 "2018-03-21T14:29:52Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > A 24 year old white male, ID and motives TBD. I don’t know who this TBD guy is, but [the bomber is MAC](https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/21/us/austin-explosions/index.html). ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/36 "2018-03-21T14:34:35Z")
Can’t wait for all the wrong people being recognized on Facebook, Russian Twitter bots spamming that he was a socialist Muslim Bernie Bro and Reddit crowdsourcing detectives locating the partisan primary ballot of a guy two states over with a different middle name. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/37 "2018-03-21T14:41:41Z")
According to [this article](https://www.inquisitr.com/4835321/mark-conditt-facebook-picture-shows-home-school-graduation-for-austin-bomber-suspect-but-few-other-clues/), Conditt was home-schooled through high school, and was considering going on a ‘mission trip’. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/38 "2018-03-21T15:44:38Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I don’t know who this TBD guy is, but [the bomber is MAC](https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/21/us/austin-explosions/index.html). Too bad Dennis and Charlie didn’t stop him. :o ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/39 "2018-03-21T17:11:36Z")
[More](https://www.yahoo.com/news/officer-involved-shooting-texas-unclear-bomb-related-091008902.html): > [@](#): > > The suspect was identified as Mark Anthony Conditt, an unemployed 24-year-old who had attended a local community college… > > Investigators released few details about the Conditt, except his age and that he was white. But online postings indicate he was home schooled. He later attended Austin Community College from 2010 to 2012, according to a college spokeswoman, but he did not graduate. > > In posts dated from 2012, a blogger who identified himself as Mark Conditt of Pflugerville wrote that gay marriage should be illegal, called for the elimination of sex offender registrations and argued in favor of the death penalty… > > Of gay marriage, Conditt wrote: “Homosexuality is not natural. Just look at the male and female bodies. They are obviously designed to couple.” ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806/40 "2018-03-21T17:21:16Z")
Good news, everyone! [The Austin bombings have no apparent connection to terrorism](http://www.kxan.com/news/national-news/white-house-austin-bombings-have-no-apparent-connection-to-terrorism/1063223582). Let me repeat that: the mailing of multiple bombs with the purpose of killing or maiming innocent people is not “terrorism”. Officially. Which is interesting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/austin-texas-explosions-a-4th-one-has-been-reported/810806.md?page=3)