BOSTON – An Oklahoma man pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to throwing a pipe bomb at The Satanic Temple (TST) in Salem, Mass. on April 8, 2024.
Sean Patrick Palmer, 49, of Perkins, Okla., pleaded guilty to one count of using an explosive device to damage and attempt to damage a building used in interstate or foreign commerce. U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani scheduled sentencing for June 12, 2025. Palmer was indicted by a federal grand jury in May 2024. He was charged by criminal complaint and arrested on April 17, 2024, in Perkins, Okla.
TST is a non-theistic religious organization headquartered in Salem, Mass. According to the charging documents, at approximately 4:14 a.m. on April 8, 2024, surveillance cameras captured a man, subsequently identified as Palmer, walking towards TST wearing a black face covering, a tan-colored tactical vest and gloves. As Palmer approached TST, he ignited a pipe bomb – a type of improvised explosive device or “IED” – threw it at TST’s main entrance, and then ran away. The IED did not fully detonate and therefore caused only minor damage to TST’s exterior.
According to the charging documents, the pipe bomb was constructed from a roughly two-foot section of plastic pipe covered with metal nails attached to the pipe with duct tape. The inside of the pipe was filled with smokeless gunpowder. During the investigation, Palmer’s DNA was found on the outside of the IED.
A six-page handwritten note was found in a flower bed adjacent to TST, near the area where Palmer threw the IED. Among other things, the letter stated:
DEAR SATANIST
ELOHIM SEND ME 7 MONTHS AGO TO GIVE YOU
PEACEFUL MESSAGE TO HOPE YOU REPENT. YOU SAY
NO, ELOHIM NOW SEND ME TO SMITE SATAN AND I
HAPPY TO OBEY. AND ELOHIM WANT ME TO CONTACT
YOU TO TELL YOU REPENT. TURN FROM SIN. ELOHIM
NO LIKE THIS PLACE AND PLAN TO DESTROY IT. MAYBE
SALEM TOO? ELOHIM SEND ME TO FIGHT CRYBABY
SATAN, BUT WANT ME TO MAKE HARD EFFORT SO NO
ONE DIES. I OBEY.
The charge of using fire or an explosive to cause damage to a building used in interstate or foreign commerce provides for a sentence of at least five years and up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division; and Lucas J. Miller, Chief of the Salem Police Department made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was provided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Boston Field Division; Massachusetts State Police; Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Oklahoma City Field Office; Payne County Sherriff’s Office; Oklahoma Highway Patrol; the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Oklahoma; and Stillwater (Okla.) Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason A. Casey of the National Security Unit is prosecuting the case.
