Man Convicted After Placing Homemade Firebomb Outside Of Jewish Nursing Home

A 37-year-old man from Hampden County, Massachusetts was convicted Tuesday for lighting and placing a self-made five-gallon firebomb at the entrance of a Jewish senior health care facility in April of last year.

John Rathbun, following a week-long trial, was convicted on one count of attempting to transport or receive explosive devices in interstate or foreign commerce with the knowledge or intent that the device will be used to kill, injure or intimidate any individual or unlawfully damage or destroy any building or vehicle as well as one count of attempting to maliciously damage or destroy, by means of fire or an explosive, any building, vehicle or other real or personal property used in interstate or foreign commerce, the Department of Justice said in a statement released Wednesday.

According to the DOJ statement, the East Longmeadow resident in the morning of April 2, 2020 placed and lit a homemade incendiary device outside the entrance of Jewish Geriatric Services Lifecare, Inc., which was an assisted living facility in his neighboring town of Longmeadow.

The device consisted of a five-gallon fuel canister filled with gasoline and a Christian religious pamphlet acting as the wick, the DOJ said. Rathbun was linked to the device after a forensic analysis identified his DNA on the canister and pamphlet.

Rathbun lied to a federal agent that he was home on April 2, he was not familiar with the location of where the device was placed and he had not possessed or even seen the fuel canister. A federal jury would later convict him of making false statements to a federal agent on Nov. 23, 2020.

"Mr. (Rathbun’s) dangerous and cruel acts harmed not only the elderly residents of this Jewish assisted living facility, but also the entire community," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said following Rathbun's convictions.

U.S. Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell for the District of Massachusetts, for his part, described Rathbun's plot as a "cruel and senseless crime."

"The danger posed by John Rathbun in this case was very real. By trying to ignite a firebomb outside a Jewish assisted-living facility, he put the lives of innocent people at risk," Special Agent in Charge of the Boston FBI Field Office Joseph R. Bonavolonta was quoted as saying in the DOJ statement.

Authorities did not disclose any motive for Rathbun's act.

U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni scheduled Rathbun's sentencing for Nov. 12. He is facing a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a fine of $750,000 for all of his convictions.