Edgar Pearce
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Edgar Eugene Pearce (b. 1937/1938 ) was a blackmailer and bomber, who was convicted of the Mardi Gra bombings after admitting a three-year blackmail and terror campaign in the London area between December 1994 and April 1998.
Pearce was labeled the Mardi Gra bomber because he often left a calling card containing the phrase "Welcome to the Mardi Gra experience."
Pearce grew up in Leyton, London, and was apparently a bright child. At the age of 11 he went to Nelson House preparatory school in Oxford and his parents hoped that this would be their son's key to a better life. But they were unable to pay the fees, and three years later he came back to the family home and attended Norlington Boys' School back in Leyton. Pearce went there for a couple of years before leaving aged 16 to go into the advertising industry.
The bombings targeted branches of Barclays Bank and later Sainsbury's supermarkets, in the hope of obtaining money from each company. Lawyers acting for Pearce claimed he suffers from Binswanger's disease, a rare form of dementia that can change the way people think.
On April 14, 1999, he was convicted of 20 charges including causing an explosion, possessing firearms and wounding, and was sentenced to 21 years imprisonment.
