John Patrick Tomkins is an American who was convicted of sending several threatening letters and bomb-like devices to financial firms in the Midwestern United States under the pseudonym The Bishop.
[2] Beginning in 2005, threatening letters were sent to various financial institutions, demanding that certain stock prices be raised to $6.66 (the Biblical "Number of the Beast").
In January 2007, The Bishop mailed two pipe bombs, one to American Century Investments in Kansas City, and the other to Janus Capital Group in Denver, which was in turn accidentally forwarded to a subsidiary investment firm located in the downtown Chicago[3] area known as The Loop.
Security analysts who had examined "The Bishop"'s modus operandi speculate that he may be emulating the 1972 Charles Bronson movie The Mechanic.
After the authorities surveilled the suspect for a lengthy period and built their case, search and arrest warrants were executed.
Because of the nature of The Bishop's alleged crimes—sending IEDs (improvised explosive devices) through the mail—the possibility that he could detonate an IED while being arrested was a major safety concern.
After the arrest warrant was served, authorities in Dubuque evacuated part of an apartment complex when a bomb-sniffing dog stopped at a storage locker connected to the suspect.
The same story indicated he was very active in the local Eagles lodge [6] The mailings were said to have occurred in Des Moines, Iowa, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Chicago, Illinois, regions.
[8] On March 6, 2009, a federal judge dismissed the ten counts of securities fraud, ruling the charges did not apply to the suspect because no attempt was made to manipulate the stock market.
That count, possession of a destructive device while committing a violent crime, carries a minimum sentence of 30 years in prison.