In December 1989, Robert Vance was with his wife in the kitchen of their Alabama home. As he opened a nondescript package addressed to him, the pipe bomb inside exploded, expelling nails with such force that it killed him almost instantly. His wife was grievously injured. At the time of his murder, Vance was a federal appellate judge on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals based in Atlanta. His assassin, Walter Leroy Moody, Jr., hated the legal system and the judges who visibly represented its power. Moody’s prior court experiences had ended badly, so he killed someone he considered a symbol of the American legal system. He also killed NAACP attorney Robert Robinson by mailing him a pipe bomb as well.
It is all too familiar.
In July 2020, U.S. District Judge Esther Salas’ son, Daniel Anderl, heard someone knocking at the front door at their home in New Jersey. As he opened the door, Roy Den Hollander shot and killed him. The assailant also shot and seriously wounded the judge’s husband as he rushed to help their only son. The murderer was a lawyer who targeted Salas and her family because he didn’t like the way she ruled.
