Man who plotted mass murder at Chicago synagogues, mosques as teen asks for 6 years in prison Xavier Pelkey, nicknamed 'The Bomb Guy,' became radicalized into extremist Islam while surfing internet in his bedroom

September 22, 2023 , , and   

(WLS) Authorities said they interrupted a terror plot against metro Chicago mosques and synagogues when they arrested a Maine teenager more than 1.5 years ago.

In a rural Maine town, 1,200 miles from Chicago, Xavier Pelkey sat in his bedroom and devised the plot, according to investigators. Court documents say his teen co-conspirators in Chicago and Canada had nicknamed Pelkey “The Bomb Guy.”

Waterville, Maine, is a picturesque waterfront town where 18-year-old Pelkey became radicalized into extremist Islam while surfing the internet in his bedroom, according to federal law enforcement agents.

“This is a textbook case of what federal prosecutors fear; you can be radicalized in the quiet and solitude of your own bedroom,” former federal prosecutor in Chicago and ABC7 chief legal analyst Gil Soffer told the I-Team.

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