It may be hard to imagine that there was ever a time in American history when terrorist and criminal bombings were as commonplace as today's random acts of gang violence. For more than a century, long before the words 'Al Qaeda' or 'ISIS' ever became part of our national media lexicon, bombing incidents have played a significant part in American crime annals, including right here in Los Angeles.

Car and truck bombs, suicide bombers, train and airplane bombings, gangster bombers, lunatic bombers and committed terrorists and extremist bombers. There were big...