History Main / YouGotMurder

* In the 2010 vigilante film ''Boy Wonder'', Sean Donovan writes a letter to the criminal who killed his mother, saying he forgives him but he must know if his father hired him to commit the crime. So the criminal won't incriminate himself, Sean tells him to send back the enclosed self-addressed envelope with a red stamp if his father is innocent, or a black stamp if guilty. The criminal licks the stamp and dies on the floor of his cell. It was the red stamp, but Sean had already killed his father thinking he was guilty.

* ''Film/NoGodNoMaster'': The anarchists mailed package bombs to different business and government targets, though most of them didn't reach anyone as they had insufficient postage. None actually managed to kill any target.
* Parodied in the short film ''The Box Assassin'', where the eponymous hitman has the ability to [[HammerspaceHideaway conceal himself in a box of any size]], so gets himself mailed to his target.

* An [=UnSub=] sends people bomb packages in the ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS1E3WontGetFooledAgain Won't Get Fooled Again]]". Also played with in "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS1E13Poison Poison]]", in which [[spoiler:the [=UnSub=] tries to kill his former bosses by poisoning the glue strips of envelopes they are using]].

* A serial killer in ''VideoGame/TraumaTeam'' sends mailbombs. [[spoiler:Actually, she impersonates a deliverywoman, so there's no record of the packages being sent]].

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers.'' The Monarch mailed Dr. Venture [[AnimalAssassin a live cobra]] but by the time Dr. Venture actually got around to opening his mail, it was dead.

When the [[SnailMail postal service]] is used to kill someone, usually by letter bomb, biological weapon, poisoned food, or some kind of magic that uses the written medium. Sometimes, an e-mail or other New Media messaging device is used in place of an actual letter or package.

Worth noting is that in RealLife you're not supposed to send dangerous goods (fireworks, ammunition, etc) by mail in the first place, not even for non-violent purposes.

* Subverted and spoofed in ''Film/AdeleHasntHadHerDinnerYet''. Detective Nick Carter receives a perfume-scented letter. He's savvy and immediately suspects it might contain a bomb, and uses "a gift from his friend Roentgen" to check it. It's just an invitation/free ticket to a night club.
* ''Film/TheBatman2022'': The Riddler mails Bruce Wayne a bomb. Bruce isn't home, so Alfred Pennyworth opens the package. He realizes it is a bomb and [[RelocatingTheExplosion hurls it away]], so the explosion only hospitalizes instead of kills him.

* In ''Film/TheFrontPage'', Earl Williams once sent a mail bomb to a famous industrialist as part of his anti-capitalist activities, but it was returned due to insufficient postage and blew the roof off his boarding house and led to his arrest for illegal possession of explosives.

* ''Film/JingleAllTheWay'' has fun with this. Myron, a disgruntled postman, threatens a radio DJ with a package that he claims is a bomb which he discovered in the mail and kept for use in an emergency. It accidentally falls out of his hand and is revealed to be...a music box. Later, when the police show up, he threatens them with a different package. When the police let him go a retired bomb squad officer claims it's just a "harmless Christmas package", which blows up in his face, [[NonFatalExplosions only turning his face black.]] When Myron hears the explosion he is surprised and disgusted that somebody really had sent a bomb through the postal system.

* The Creator/StephenKing short story "Everything's Eventual" centers around a young slacker hired by a mysterious firm because he has the ability to compose "[[BrownNote glyphs]]" that can drive the viewer to suicide. They sends him a list of names and addresses, and he puts the glyphs on letters.
* ''Literature/TheWinterQueen'': Erast Fandorin receives a bomb package on the day of his marriage. He survives, his wife doesn't.

* ''Series/DadsArmy'': The platoon is given a mission to test security at an army base, and decide to infiltrate disguised as firemen. As usual things go wrong and they end up fighting a real fire elsewhere. A high-ranking officer arrives and tells Mainwaring not to worry as his 'other plan' worked. Turns out Wilson sent a fake bomb in the mail.

* ''Series/JonathanCreek'' had a writer poisoned with a hallucinating drug contained in a enclosed letter glue from some fan mail. Once he licked the letter he went a bit nuts and managed to stab himself in the back with a sword.

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'' puts a spin on this one in the episode "[[Recap/MonkS2E7MrMonkAndTheSleepingSuspect Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect]]". Monk is working on a mail bomb murder case, and must figure out how his prime suspect was able to send the bomb while in a coma. And, of course, he does. [[spoiler:The suspect had glued the packages to the top of the inside of the mailboxes, which wouldn't be found and delivered until the glue wore off, [[TimeDelayedDeath which would take weeks]]. The suspect had been planning to establish an alibi during the time [[GetIntoJailFree by getting arrested for speeding and going to jail for the duration]], only to end up in an accident that put him in a coma instead]].

* ''TabletopGame/D20Modern'' has rules for sending ''any'' spell via email to effect the person who opens it (or even teleporting an [[RuleOfCool assassin to them via IM for a sneak attack]]).

* The anger mages of ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies'' have a spell that lets them enchant a letter, note or e-mail with another one of their spells (which can include damaging spells).

* ''VideoGame/InFamous'' begins with an average mailman named [[PlayerCharacter Cole MacGrath]] being tricked into opening a package containing a [[FantasticNuke bomb-like weapon]] called the Ray Sphere, which activates the device and causes an explosion that wipes out multiple city blocks around him. He survives (relatively) unharmed, because as a [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual superhuman Conduit]], the energy from the Ray Sphere just gave him [[ShockAndAwe electrical superpowers]] instead of killing him.

* In at least one of the ''VideoGame/{{Worms}}'' games, one weapon consists in a bomber dropping explosive envelopes (heavily affected by the wind).

* In the WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck cartoon "Donald's Lucky Day", Donald is a delivery boy who unwittingly is delivering a time bomb set to explode at midnight. He only finds out just moments before it goes off.

* In one ''WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther'' short, the Panther is forced at gun-point by a crook to deliver a package containing a bomb to an embassy within half an hour. Complicating the matter is an AngryGuardDog who won't let the Panther pass, even tossing the package back out when the Panther leaves it behind the gate. Fortunately, the Panther gets out of the mess when the package falls into the sewer and goes off under a manhole cover the crook was standing on, propelling him right into the dog.

* An attempted one happens in ''WesternAnimation/SmilingFriends'', although it's subverted at the last second. The hobbit-like critter Mip is on a journey to reach the princess of the Enchanted Forest and present her with a gift... [[spoiler:said gift being an IED. He was trying to kill her due to his StalkerWithACrush attitude, although a fight between Charlie and Pim results in Mip's death, to which he simply shifts the delivery onto Pim in his stead. Just before it blows up, the princess tosses it out a window.]] The entire thing is based on the real life case of Ricardo López, a reoccurring topic of discussion for series co-creator Zach Hadel.

** In another episode, a disguised Vembrian named Wally hires Higher For Hire to deliver a package to the High Marshal which is actually a bomb [[FalseFlagOperation as part of an elaborate plan]] for the High Marshal to [[ThisMeansWar declare war on Cape Suzette]] [[WarForFunAndProfit and put Wally's bomb factory back in business]]. His plan hits a snafu when the Sea Duck gets through the boarder search before the bomb is discovered, [[GoneHorriblyRight meaning it would]] [[SpringtimeForHitler blow the High Marshall up for real]].

* Icelandic pop singer Music/{{Bjork}} found herself just barely missing one of these in 1996 thanks to LoonyFan [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_López_(stalker) Ricardo López]]. López was obsessed with the singer and resented her interracial relationship with the Jamaican-Scottish DJ Goldie, leading him to prepare and mail a letter bomb rigged to fire sulfuric acid in Björk's face before committing suicide on-video. Thankfully, police were able to intercept his acid bomb before it could even reach Björk, though the very fact that López even sent the bomb in the first place traumatized her in the years following.

* The 1919 Anarchist Bombings involved a group of Galleanist Italian-born anarchist in the US sending numerous package bombs to prominent business and government targets. Most were stopped in post offices as they had insufficient postage, and none actually killed anyone, although one unfortunate maid of a US Senator lost her hands when she opened the package. Others completely failed to explode. A bomb package was hand-delivered to US Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer as a result, but it [[HoistByHisOwnPetard killed the bomber instead]] when it detonated prematurely. The First Red Scare resulted, with thousands of foreign-born "radicals" arrested without warrants and deported. The infamous Sacco and Vanzetti case was likely related as well, since they were Galleanists (possibly involved in this, although it's not proven), later put to death for two robbery-related murders that happened the next year probably due to the anti-anarchist hysteria.

->''"Special delivery--a bomb. Were you expecting one?"''

* One episode of ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'' had letters containing an ''enhanced cold''.
* The ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode "Won't Get Fooled Again". Also played with in "Poison", where [[spoiler: the unsub tries to kill his former bosses by poisoning the glue strips of envelopes they are using.]]
* ''Series/DadsArmy''. The platoon is given a mission to test security at an army base, and decide to infiltrate disguised as firemen. As usual things go wrong and they end up fighting a real fire elsewhere. A high-ranking officer arrives and tells Mainwaring not to worry as his 'other plan' worked. Turns out Wilson sent a fake bomb in the mail.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E7Kerblam "Kerblam!"]], it turns out that one of the titular company's employees plans to kill thousands of innocent customers by including explosives in their deliveries, in an attempt to get the company into trouble. [[spoiler: The customers' deaths are prevented, but some of the other employees had already been killed.]]

* ''Series/ForeverKnight''. In the Season 3 premiere, a MadBomber gives a gift-wrapped package to his girlfriend who is an airline pilot, thus bypassing security. He then uses his mobile phone to activate the bomb after she's taken off. Later DaChief receives another giftwrapped package which seems to be a RedHerring when it only contains chocolates from the police commissioner, but when the package starts making the same sound that Detective Knight heard on the black box flight recorder when the last bomb activated, [[OhCrap they realise the bomb is hidden beneath the plastic tray holding the chocolates]].

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'' put a spin on this one, in the episode "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect". Monk is working on a mail bomb murder case, and must figure out how his prime suspect was able to send the bomb while in a coma. And, of course, he does. [[spoiler:The suspect had glued the packages to the top of the inside of the mailboxes, which wouldn't be found and delivered until the glue wore off, [[TimeDelayedDeath which would take weeks]]. The suspect had been planning to establish an alibi during the time [[GetIntoJailFree by getting arrested for speeding and going to jail for the duration]], only to end up in an accident that put him in a coma instead]].

* ''Series/TheProfessionals''

* In ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'', a teenaged StalkerWithACrush uses this as his method of revenge once he gets his hands on [[ArtifactOfDoom Poe's quill pen.]]

[[folder: Open This Folder]]
* '''[[SchmuckBait BOOM!!!!!!!]]'''

* A serial killer in ''VideoGame/TraumaTeam'' sends mailbombs [[spoiler: Actually, she impersonates a deliverywoman, so there's no record of the packages being sent]]

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'' put a spin on this one, in the episode "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect". Monk is working on a mail bomb murder case, and must figure out how his prime suspect was able to send the bomb while in a coma. And, of course, he does. [[spoiler:The suspect had glued the packages to the top of the inside of the mailboxes, which wouldn't be found and delivered until the glue wore off, [[TimeDelayedDeath which would take months]]. The suspect had been planning to establish an alibi during the time [[GetIntoJailFree by getting arrested for speeding and going to jail for the duration]], only to end up in an accident that put him in a coma instead]].

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': Jane manages to get past her OverprotectiveDad and out of the house to get her copy of Sburb from the mailbox. It turns out to be another assassination attempt [[ProperlyParanoid that her Dad is trying to protect her from]], and just as she's about to look in the mailbox, it explodes. She gets saved by the God Cat.

** In "Hunter/Hunted", Doyle receives a package in a plain brown wrapper. Knowing he hasn't [[AluminumChristmasTrees mail-ordered anything from an adult bookstore]], Bodie and Doyle carefully cut open the package to find a stick of gelignite [[spoiler:harmlessly wired to ''Moriarty's Police Law'', a taunt against Doyle by a DirtyCop he put away.]]

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'' put a spin on this one, in the episode "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect". Monk is working on a mail bomb murder case, and must figure out how his prime suspect was able to send the bomb while in a coma. And, of course, he does. [[spoiler:The suspect had glued the packages to the top of the inside of the mailboxes, which wouldn't be found and delivered until the glue wore off, [[TimeDelayedDeath which would take months]]. The suspect had been planning to establish an alibi during the time [[GetIntoJailFreeCard by getting arrested for speeding and going to jail for the duration]], only to end up in an accident that put him in a coma instead]].

* In one ''WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther'' short, the Panther is forced at gun-point by a crook to deliver a package containing a bomb to an embassy within half an hour. Complicating the matter is an AngryGuardDog who won't the Panther pass, even tossing the package back out when the Panther leaves it behind the gate. Fortunately, the Panther gets out of the mess when the package falls into the sewer and goes off under a manhole cover the crook was standing on, propelling him right into the dog.

* In one ''WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther'' short, the Panther is forced at gun-point by a crook to deliver a package containing bomb to an embassy within half an hour. Complicating the matter is an AngryGuardDog who won't the Panther pass, even tossing the package back out when the Panther leaves it behind the gate. Fortunately, the Panther gets out of the mess when the package falls into the sewer and goes off under a manhole cover the crook was standing on, propelling him right into the dog.

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'' put a spin on this one, in the episode "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect". Monk is working on a mail bomb murder case, and must figure out how his prime suspect was able to send the bomb while in a coma. And, of course, he does. [[spoiler:The suspect had glued the packages to the top of the inside of the mailboxes, which wouldn't be found and delivered until the glue wore off, which would take weeks. The suspect had been planning to establish an alibi during the time by getting arrested for speeding and going to jail for the duration, only to end up in an accident that put him in a coma instead]].

-->'''Wally''': If the High Marshall goes through the roof, [[OffTheChart bomb sales will go through the floor!]]

* Rare document dealer Mark Hoffman sent bomb packages to two different people in order to distract investigations into him selling forgeries. A third bomb went off in his own car, injuring him, and this sent police off the trail. He was eventually caught when witnesses to the first bombing identified a letter jacket that Hoffman owned, identifying him as the one who delivered the package.