Thomas J. (Thomas Joseph) Tunney

Born in 1873, Thomas J. Tunney is chiefly remembered for Throttled! The Detection of the German and Anarchist Bomb Plotters, published in 1919. The book was presented as the account of Inspector Tunney, then head of the Bomb Squad of the New York Police Department, and was told with the help of Paul M. Hollister.

His writing has the feel of a memoir mixed with true-crime history: it looks back on bomb investigations, anti-anarchist work, and German sabotage cases during the World War I era. Because so much surviving information about him appears in library records and reprints of this one book, many personal details beyond his police career are hard to confirm.

For listeners interested in early counterterrorism, urban policing, and real-life detective work from the 1910s, Tunney’s work offers a vivid period perspective straight from someone presented as being at the center of those investigations.