Court Case

USA v. Rathbun, John Michael

April 2020 (Updated June 16, 2021)
Longmeadow, MA
Anti-Semitism

John Michael Rathbun was charged with two counts of attempted arson after the authorities said he tried to ignite a five-gallon plastic gas canister outside Ruth's House, a Jewish assisted-living home in Longmeadow, Mass., on April 2. Federal prosecutors said that Rathbun's DNA matched bloodstains that were found on the handle of the canister and on a partly charred Christian religious pamphlet that had been stuffed in the nozzle as a fuse. Rathbun's mother told federal agents that she prints and distributes Christian pamphlets, but did not recognize the one in the gas canister. In Nov. 2020, a federal jury convicted Rathbun of making false statements to a federal agent, but deadlocked on the arson counts, requiring a re-trial. In July 20201, he was convicted by a federal jury in connection with placing a lit firebomb at the entrance of a Longmeadow senior health care facility in April 2020.

Case Updates

2021-06-16 | Massachusetts Man Convicted of Placing Firebomb at Entrance of Jewish Nursing Home

John Rathbun was convicted by a federal jury yesterday in connection with placing a lit firebomb at the entrance of a Longmeadow senior health care facility in April 2020. He was convicted following a week-long trial of 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 to damage or destroy any building, vehicle and 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. On Nov. 23, 2020, a federal jury convicted Rathbun of making false statements to a federal agent, but deadlocked on the arson counts, requiring a re-trial.

Case Documents