Qualla: Austin Serial Bombings

Austin Serial Bombings: Introduction

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

For nineteen days in March 2018, Austin residents stopped opening their mail. Five package bombs detonated across the Texas capital, killing two people and injuring five others. The city that prides itself on being weird found itself gripped by something far worse -- the realization that someone was building increasingly sophisticated explosive devices and leaving them where ordinary people would find them. It was, as one congressman put it, the biggest investigation since the Boston bombings.

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Austin Serial Bombings: Packages on the Porch

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The first bomb killed 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House on March 2, 2018, when he picked up a package left at his front door in northeast Austin. Police initially floated the theory that House might have accidentally detonated a device he was building himself. Ten days later, on ...

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Austin Serial Bombings: Escalation

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On March 18, the bomber changed tactics. A tripwire-activated device injured two men, aged 22 and 23, in a southwest Austin neighborhood -- a different part of the city, a different delivery method. Police publicly acknowledged they were dealing with a serial bomber possessing 'a...

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Austin Serial Bombings: Pink Gloves and Bulk Nails

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The break came from retail records. Investigators discovered the bombs used common household ingredients and began reviewing purchase records from area stores. A bulk purchase of nails -- intended as shrapnel -- by a man at a Home Depot in Round Rock flagged attention, as did unc...

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Austin Serial Bombings: The End on I-35

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

At approximately 2:00 a.m. on March 21, police pulled Conditt over on Interstate 35. As SWAT officers approached the vehicle, he detonated a bomb inside, killing himself and injuring one officer. In a 25-minute recording police described as a confession, Conditt outlined his meth...

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