WEBVTT - S2 E2: A Wake Up Call 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:05.520 You're listening to Law and Order Criminal Justice System, a 0:00:05.600 --> 0:00:10.600 production of Wolf Entertainment and iHeart podcasts. 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:16.720 In the criminal justice System, landmark trials transcend the courtroom 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:19.520 to reshape the law. The brave man and women who 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:22.799 investigate and prosecute these cases are part of a select 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:26.599 group that is defined American history. These are their stories. 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:35.599 December twenty ninth, nineteen seventy five, six thirty three pm, 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:37.960 LaGuardia airport. 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:42.360 Ed Longo had come to pick up his brother in law, 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:45.520 a routine errand the kind of thing you do without thinking. 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:49.400 When I arrived, I came through the store and I 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:51.920 came and take a look at the monitor to see 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:53.280 what time his flight was coming. 0:00:53.320 --> 0:01:00.600 In the TWA terminal buzzed with post holiday chaos, Families clustered, baggage, 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:04.959 claim couples, reunited children tugged at weary parents ready to 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:05.480 go home. 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:09.479 I noticed I had a little time, so I came 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:12.120 over and I sat down an area over here which 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:13.440 no longer has the seats. 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:17.480 The seating area was less than one hundred yards away 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:18.920 from a row of metal lockers. 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:23.640 I was sitting there and I decided to have a cigarette, 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:26.240 so I got up and I walked down towards the 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:29.920 lock area, which is used to be down there, when 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:33.080 I noticed I had no matches, so I said that 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:35.440 would I'm not going to smoke. So I turned around 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:38.640 and I sat down, and that's when the bomb exploded. 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:46.199 The floor buckled and ceiling panel snapped, a blast of smoke, 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.120 and glass ripped through the terminal like a shockwave. 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:54.240 The glass killed eleven people and injured seventy five others. 0:01:55.520 --> 0:02:01.560 Fluorescent lights flickered and vanished. Screams echoed off concrete. 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:03.960 When I awoke, I was on the ground. My leg 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:09.160 was bleeding. There was no windows left, nothing ceiling falling down. 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:11.359 I crawled out. 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:15.120 In a split second, what had been an ordinary Monday 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:17.480 night turned into complete devastation. 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:23.520 The scene was very chaotic, everybody running around, a lot 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:26.160 of mass confusion and a lot of people in the 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:26.800 state of shock. 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:31.760 Where the baggage carousel once stood, there was only ruin, 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:39.000 twisted aluminum, blood slick tiles, luggage scattered like confetti. At 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:42.760 the time, it was the deadliest terrorist attack ever carried 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:44.000 out on US soil. 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:47.320 A retired police commander who worked on the case from 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:50.799 the beginning called the LaGuardia bombing the most frustrating case 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:53.720 of his career because, as he put it, there are 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:57.280 eleven open graves out there crying for an answer. 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:09.079 I got a call, get out to La Guardia Airport. 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:10.000 There's been a bombing. 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:12.240 There was a thirty two foot crater in front of 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:13.959 what was left of the building. I was trying to 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:15.520 figure out, am I dead? Am I alive? 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:16.839 Where am I? 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:18.320 I'm Anethega Nicolazzi. 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:20.080 That's why terrorism works. 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:21.680 It doesn't care who you are. 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:27.000 From Wolf Entertainment and iHeart Podcasts, this is law and 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:36.400 order criminal justice system. Fifty years ago, a bomb tour 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:41.760 through La Guardia Airport's baggage claim, impacting countless lives. The 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:46.720 deadly attack on December twenty ninth, nineteen seventy five also 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:51.720 exposed the need for change. In the aftermath, federal agents 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:56.680 and the NYPD chased answers through wreckage and silence, trying 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:59.720 to bring order to a crime scene designed for chaos. 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:02.120 My name is Neil Moran. 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:07.960 Back in nineteen seventy one, after graduating from college in May, 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:12.080 I joined the FBI that August in the Clerical Program 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:15.680 and assigned to various clerical duties throughout the office, and 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:19.239 at that point it was a fairly good pathway into 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:20.839 becoming an FBI agent. 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:26.200 For four years, Neil Moran worked behind the scenes. It 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:29.120 was a slow but steady route for him to become 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:29.680 an agent. 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:34.039 They started to have a lot of classes and my 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:37.480 name came up and I went to chronicle. I was 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:39.880 sworn in on May fifth, nineteen seventy five, and I 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:43.440 spent four months at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:44.600 going through training. 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:49.000 That August, he got his first assignment New York City. 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:52.599 Sending a newly minted agent straight to the Big Apple 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:54.920 was a bold experiment by the Bureau. 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:58.640 They had never before sent what were referred to as 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:02.599 first Office agents back to the New York Field Division. 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:05.560 Basically, he really didn't know what to do with us. 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:09.760 What they devised was a program whereby they gave you 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:13.680 six months on the very prestigious criminal squads. Everybody wanted 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:17.320 to be on a criminal squad. Bank robberies, kidnappings, extortion, 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:21.719 truck hijackings, organized crime. Everybody wanted to work that stuff. 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.599 Nobody wanted to work at least as people in their twenties, 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:29.080 like myself kind of the slow moving things, following Russians 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:33.080 and people from communist countries around spy stuff. 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:39.440 The timing was no accident. The threats were changing and fast. 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:42.560 I was fortunate enough to get a signed to a 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:46.600 squad that, among other things, handled airplane hijackings, which were 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.800 a regular thing in the nineteen seventies, as were bombings. 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:53.479 By the end of nineteen seventy five, Neil was a 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:56.680 twenty six year old agent and still learning the ropes. 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:00.560 But on December twenty ninth, there was no more easing in. 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:05.159 It was dinner time and I was in my apartment 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:07.240 in the Bronx having dinner, and I got a call 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:11.000 from the office. Get out to LaGuardia Airport. There's been 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:14.320 a bombing. Members of the squad will meet you out there. 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:17.320 There wasn't time for questions. 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:20.600 I recalled the switchboard saying there's been a bombing at 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:25.280 the TWA terminal. That's exactly where I responded to baggage 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:26.120 claim area. 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:31.800 Specifically, the blast had ripped through LaGuardia nearly ninety minutes earlier, 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:36.720 but when Neil arrived at Transworld Airlines Terminal known as TWA, 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:39.040 it still felt like it had just. 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:43.239 Happened when I got out there, New York City Fire Department, 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:46.880 New York City Police Department, cast of thousands, just a 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:51.800 chaotic scene, all kinds of layers of entry to try 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:55.159 and get into the inner sanctum there where the terminal 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:57.880 was a twa. 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:02.840 Marked entrances, were no more sirens, barricades and debris. 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:08.000 I just recalled dumping my car someplace and making my 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:11.040 way as close as I could to hook up with 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:12.840 the senior people on the squad. 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:16.720 What he found was a crime scene still in motion. 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:21.240 There's still a lot of moving parts here, There's bodies inside. 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:26.560 There was an extensive fire, smoke everywhere where, being very 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:29.080 restricted as to where we could actually go. 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:33.840 There was no clear vantage point or full picture, only 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:37.160 glimpses from the edge of the scene and guesses about 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:39.640 what was unfolding inside. 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:44.840 We would see ambulances pulling away, continuing, lights flashing. They 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:48.320 said that there were fatalities, that the injured were being 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:52.400 loaded into ambulances, the deceased were being loaded into the ambulances. 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:55.720 You know, it's important for the investigators to do their investigation, 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:59.360 but the first priorities to get the deceased and injured 0:07:59.400 --> 0:07:59.880 out of there. 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:07.120 Outside, NYPD officers and federal agents gathered near the perimeter. Inside, 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:12.840 firefighters were still leading the effort, cooling hotspots, searching for survivors, 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:15.280 and clearing a path through devastation. 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:19.360 I see a lot of debris being moved. It was 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:20.600 a mess. It was a mess. 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:25.720 What was left of the TWA baggage claim was unrecognizable. 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:30.200 And outside of the police barriers, another kind of chaos 0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:30.840 was building. 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:36.320 There's just hundreds and hundreds of people. Cars are parked everywhere. 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:40.160 Lights are illuminating the whole area. That trying to keep 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:42.760 the press out of there. They're trying to keep onlookers 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:45.240 out of there, and this is not an easy task 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:48.320 when you're trying to rope off such a big area. 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:53.679 With the barricades barely holding and responders packed shoulder to shoulder. 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:58.640 The question wasn't just what happened, but who was in charge. 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:02.200 It's really waiting to see bosses from our job. Bosses 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:05.760 from the police department, bosses from the port authority, police 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:11.360 bosses from alcohol, tobacco on firearms, bosses everywhere, And no 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:13.800 secret that a lot of bosses from law enforcement don't 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:14.400 get along. 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:17.120 So and every one of them wants to get inside first, 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:22.840 exactly exactly. While different commands jockeyed for control, the facts 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:26.800 on the ground were only just beginning to surface. No 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:29.960 one knew how many people were dead, No one knew 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:33.520 who did it. All they had was a war zone 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:38.520 at baggage Claim and a thousand unanswered questions. What little 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.400 information did make it out was catastrophic. 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.840 As a result of the metal which was later determined 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:50.840 to be a bomb inside a locker, the shrapnel flying 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:54.560 shrapnel had injured a lot of people. In addition to that, 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:56.640 there were multiple fatalities. 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:01.520 By dawn, LaGuardia airp Or it was still on lockdown, 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:06.080 the scent of smoke lingered, the baggage claim was in ruins, 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:10.080 the fire was out, but for agents like Neil, the 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:11.840 real work was just beginning. 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:15.040 Key thing with. 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:17.680 Any kind of a crime scene, obviously, is to try 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:19.280 and preserve the crime scene. 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:21.240 As cleanly as possible. 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:25.679 We already realized that with the fire and the number 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:29.480 of personnel trampling on one thing or another, that the 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:32.040 crime scene had been significantly compromised. 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:33.880 Everything is soaking wet. 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:36.760 Would have an uphill battle in trying to search for 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:42.080 things like wires, battery wires, timers, things of that nature. 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:47.960 In a bombing investigation, every inch of ground matters. The 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:51.640 goal is always the same, locate the point of origin, 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:57.839 recover blast components, and if possible, reconstruct the device. But 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:03.040 that process depends on one critical factor, preservation, and at 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:06.240 La Guardia that was already slipping away. 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.040 Any kind of a foreign substance. You want this crime 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:14.040 scene preserved in its most pristine condition as opposed to 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:17.280 having it doused with water. I mean, and plus it's 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:19.600 very cold, and I remember being there the next day 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:22.480 and a lot of the stuff was frozen from the 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:24.520 water and just a mess. 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:27.920 I mean, I have to say, the messiest set of. 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:31.120 Circumstances that I ever had to sift through debris for 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:32.240 an extensive period. 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:35.680 It made our job, obviously that much more difficult. 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.920 With the additional damage and conditions of worsening. The area 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:43.840 was fortified to protect whatever potential evidence still remained. 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:47.840 People were going to be standing there throughout the night 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:50.560 to try and preserve it is as much as possible 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:53.360 and wait for the next morning, which we all got 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:56.839 out there fairly early and began the task of trying 0:11:56.880 --> 0:12:00.840 to sift through degree organizing morning. 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:04.720 The focus had shifted from search and rescue to evidence collection. 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:10.440 Investigators from the NYPD, FBI, and port authority combed through 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.640 the debris looking for anything that could tell them how 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:14.360 this happened. 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:19.040 Ourselves in the police department set up like a staging area, 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:21.800 if you will, in the body of the baggage area. 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:23.160 We all had gloves on. 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:26.640 It was freezing cold, dressed in layers and hats and 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:30.319 bringing stuff up and then just meticulously sifting through things 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:36.800 to look for evidence. There's clothes, remnants of suitcases, debris, 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:42.800 shrapnel from the lockers, concrete from pillars inside. It was 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:45.800 fairly significant blast debris everywhere. 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:52.040 And then amid the wreckage something unmistakable the remnants of 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:55.320 twenty five sticks of dynamite along with. 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:59.880 Copper wire but encased in plastic, common component used in 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:01.920 constructing a bomb with a timer. 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:03.800 And it worked. 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:06.960 A bomb went off with such force that it ripped 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:09.679 apart the ground level locker room and baggage area of 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:13.200 the main terminal. Eleven people lost their lives and seventy 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:14.319 five others were injured. 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:20.800 People were burned, lost limbs, some thrown across the terminal 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:25.520 by the sheer force of the blast. Others were left unrecognizable. 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:31.840 One of the natures of their wounds, their injuries from shrapnel, wongs. 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:41.640 Apparently the explosion actually impelled building material, metal, glass. 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:41.520 That kind of thing. 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:57.720 This wasn't a message, It was a massacre. Fifty years 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:03.120 is a long time fact, and witnesses age, memory shift, 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:07.680 and paper records disappear. Finding first hand accounts became a 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:09.160 race against time. 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:12.760 And then you're trying to get eyewitness accounts. And I 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.520 also played a role, as did dozens and dozens of 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:19.440 other agents in interviewing witnesses. 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:21.520 People were calling the office. 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:24.840 It was a flood of tips, names, and rumors. 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:29.840 We had a roster of twa employees and anybody who 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:32.520 was on duty at that point, or people that had 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:36.440 called in and said they were there or saw something 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:37.280 when they were there. 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:39.360 All those leads are run down. 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:44.360 In the days after the attack, investigators were chasing leads 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:49.600 in every direction for any definitive answers for this unprecedented violence. 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:54.320 Bomb fragments were recovered from the blast center, mangled yards 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:58.440 of a suitcase, pieces of a triggering mechanism, and chemical 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:03.240 residue from the explosive experts at a nearby army base 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:07.000 helped analyze it. It was clear this wasn't crude, It 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:11.400 was powerful and designed to kill, but the forensic evidence 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:15.840 stopped short of pointing to a suspect. There were no fingerprints, 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:19.960 no traceable serial numbers, just the signature of someone who 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:23.040 knew what they were doing. The bomb had been placed 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:26.640 inside a coin operated locker in the TWA baggage clean 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:31.160 The person who planted it understood the timing. It was 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:35.400 two days after Christmas, the busiest travel week of the year. 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:39.840 The bomb had been positioned for maximum impact. Both physical 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:44.360 and psychological agents then turned to the locker system itself, 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:48.360 but in nineteen seventy five, those lockers didn't require a 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:51.920 name or ID, just a coin, no way to trace 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:55.320 who had used it. There were no surveillance cameras to 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.440 turn to, at least none that captured the locker area, 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:02.240 no high tech for rents tools to lift microscopic DNA. 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:07.360 The trail, if there ever was one, was going cold fast. 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:12.800 Whoever planned it didn't publicly claim responsibility, as was sometimes 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:14.680 the case with terrorist attacks. 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:18.640 There were some theories. There was no clear cut group 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:22.720 that emerged that may have been responsible. The Croatians were 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:26.680 also a very active group back then, committing a lot 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:29.720 of bombings. They were of interest. 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.480 Here again is FBI historian John Fox. 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:39.160 There have been a couple of major accusations, some suspected 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:45.040 fal and others suspected Croatian nationalists. There was a lot 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:48.400 of back and forth in Yugoslavia at the time, and 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:52.760 there was a group of Croatian separatists who were engaged 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:54.560 in terrorist type activities. 0:16:55.680 --> 0:17:00.560 Croatian separatists were one possibility, but terrorism expert Michael Jensen 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:04.240 recalls they were just one piece of a much larger puzzle. 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:08.679 This really was the era of mass bombing campaigns in 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:12.280 the United States, and the FBI had a very very 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:15.200 long list of usual suspects to go through to try 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:18.879 to figure out who did this, including the FALN, the 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:23.800 Jewish Defense League, the Palestine Liberation Organization, you name it. 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:26.200 There was any number of groups that could have been 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:27.960 responsible for this attack. 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:31.840 And for many of them, the logic behind targeting the 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:34.160 US followed a familiar pattern. 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:38.560 That's a fairly common story in the history of terrorism 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:43.520 is that ethno nationalists organizations that are seeking independence will 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:46.760 launch attacks not only in their own countries, where they're 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:49.119 trying to separate from, but also in the countries that 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:53.800 they feel are supporting the authoritarian rulers that are denying 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:56.639 them their independence and their freedom. 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:00.560 If this was political, like so many bombings of the time, 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:05.159 one would expect some group, some one to be taking credit. 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:09.400 But without a name, without a message, there was nothing 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:14.639 to hold onto. For weeks, investigators had little more than 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:18.840 debris and speculation. No group stepped forward, and no hard 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:23.360 evidence surfaced. Back in New York City's FBI Field office, 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:26.879 leads were still being chased and coming up cold. 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:31.520 It's chaotic in the office. Bosses tearing his hair out. 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:34.399 People are assigning leads. What do you have going on? 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:36.080 I need you to run out to Queen's. I need 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:37.960 you to run up to the Bronx. I need you 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:39.919 to run to Manhattan. I need you to run to 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:42.760 Jersey to interview this twa employee. 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:44.520 So we're just plugging holes. 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:49.760 Witnesses were interviewed. A few thought they saw someone leave 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:53.840 a suitcase unattended. Others said it was a man moving quickly, 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:59.400 but the descriptions were vague and inconsistent. No composite sketch, ever, 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:03.879 led to a break and then came the silence. Days 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:09.199 turned to weeks and then months. No manifestos, no phone calls. 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:13.240 The silence became its own kind of clue and its 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:17.640 own dead end. But then something unexpected happened. 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:23.960 There was a call into CBS News Radio eight eighty 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:27.119 and there was a claim of responsibility and my boss, 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:30.520 he wanted me to go up to fifty seventh Street. 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:31.639 They had a tape. 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:33.600 They said that they would be happy to provide the 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:36.840 FBI with the tape with no subpoena, So they were 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:38.960 going to make a copy and turn it over to me. 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:43.159 So my boss said, get up there and get that tape. 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:47.160 Would this be it? They pressed play on the recorder, 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:48.640 kind of. 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:52.880 Like a muffled voice, and you heard words. 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:56.119 To the effect that we weren't home or a bombing 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:59.840 at the KWA and terminal. They were claiming to be 0:19:59.880 --> 0:20:04.640 an offshoot of the Palestine Liberation Organization the PLO, which 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:07.119 was very active at the time and in the news 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:07.840 all the time. 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:12.280 For a moment, it seemed like a break, a name, 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:16.000 and a possible direction, but a strong disclaimer from the 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:18.000 PLO soon followed. 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:22.840 The allegation that the PLO was connected to this crime 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:27.800 did not reach until about four hours after the explosion, 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:31.440 which means that somebody was there watching and then planning 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:37.080 and came out with this allegation. So, whoever or whatever 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:41.720 group was responsible, you categorically denied that has any connection 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:45.159 with the PLO. We not only categorically deny, but we 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:46.080 condemned the act. 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:51.280 Like all leads before it, this one collapsed almost as 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:55.080 soon as it surfaced. But this was the seventies. There 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:59.280 were no digital trails, no advanced forensics, and no proven 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:00.720 algorithm to connect the. 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:04.720 Dots, no voice recognition back in nineteen seventy five. 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:09.159 And tracing the tape back to a verifiable source was 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:12.560 just one more task in an already frantic rotation. 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:16.440 The more time that goes by from December twenty ninth, 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:20.679 the more the investigation trail gets stale. Other than that 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:23.840 claim of responsibility, there was no clear cut group that 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:26.879 emerged that may have been responsible. 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:32.560 And without hard evidence, investigators were left chasing theories. One 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:35.480 that had come up earlier began to gain more traction. 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:40.080 Some believe that this attack was committed by a Croatian 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:45.520 nationalists because the US was supporting Yugoslavia and was denying 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:48.239 them that are access to their freedom. 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:53.200 It was still just a theory, but a name started surfacing, 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:59.160 whispered in FBI field offices, scribbled in margins of case files, 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:03.960 the name that made their Croatian angle suddenly feel more plausible. 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:13.320 Zvonko Busich. On September tenth, nineteen seventy six, twa flight 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:16.600 three point fifty five out of LaGuardia bound for Chicago 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:20.480 lifted off from the very same airport a bomb had 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:24.240 struck just nine months earlier. On board were more than 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:30.120 eighty passengers, business travelers, families, civilians headed into the weekend. 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:34.680 What none of them knew was that among them sat 0:22:34.760 --> 0:22:38.280 a man with a radical plan, a suitcase, and a 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:43.800 deadly message. Busich was a Croatian nationalist. At thirty years old, 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:46.600 he'd come to the United States in the nineteen seventies 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:50.359 with a mission to fight for an independent Croatia free 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:54.919 from Yugoslav rule. And that morning, Busich, along with his 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:59.639 American born wife Julienne, and three co conspirators, stood up 0:22:59.680 --> 0:23:04.160 midhas flight and hijacked the plane. He claimed they had 0:23:04.200 --> 0:23:07.520 a bomb on board, and more chillingly, he warned that 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:10.400 a second device had already been planted in the heart 0:23:10.480 --> 0:23:14.520 of New York City at Grand Central Terminal. Their demand 0:23:15.240 --> 0:23:20.560 published a political manifesto in major American newspapers outlining Croatia's 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:26.280 suffering under the Yugoslav regime. NYPD bomb Squad officers raced 0:23:26.280 --> 0:23:30.320 to Grand Central to investigate the claim. They found the device. 0:23:30.880 --> 0:23:34.879 It was real and it was lethal. When the bomb 0:23:34.960 --> 0:23:37.399 was moved to a firing range in the Bronx to 0:23:37.480 --> 0:23:39.840 be diffused, it detonated. 0:23:42.880 --> 0:23:45.199 And I just remember going to bed that night and 0:23:45.280 --> 0:23:47.840 waking up the next morning and heard that a police 0:23:47.880 --> 0:23:50.639 officer was killed, and it happened to be Brian Murray. 0:23:51.880 --> 0:23:55.120 Neil couldn't believe it. He just met Brian a few 0:23:55.160 --> 0:23:59.160 months earlier. Brian Murray was only twenty seven years old 0:23:59.240 --> 0:24:01.800 when he died. A member of the New York City 0:24:01.840 --> 0:24:05.560 Police Department's Elite Bomb Squad unit, he was killed as 0:24:05.560 --> 0:24:09.080 he worked to deactivate the bomb. He left behind a 0:24:09.160 --> 0:24:13.440 wife and two children, two and four years old. Another 0:24:13.600 --> 0:24:19.360 officer was also seriously wounded. Back on the plane, Busage 0:24:19.400 --> 0:24:23.640 and his team diverted the aircraft to Paris, ultimately releasing 0:24:23.720 --> 0:24:27.960 passengers and stages. When they finally surrendered, it was on 0:24:28.119 --> 0:24:28.800 French soil. 0:24:29.960 --> 0:24:32.800 There were strong efforts to try to connect him to 0:24:32.880 --> 0:24:38.120 the LaGuardia pot after his arrest. In these other two cases. 0:24:38.760 --> 0:24:42.159 The similarities were clear, the use of a locker in 0:24:42.240 --> 0:24:45.720 a busy transit hub. Here was someone with the motive, 0:24:46.200 --> 0:24:51.439 the ideology, and the operational know how. So investigators started 0:24:51.440 --> 0:24:54.359 to look closer, but the evidence they'd need for an 0:24:54.480 --> 0:24:56.439 arrest never materialized. 0:24:57.680 --> 0:25:01.480 He always denied having any knowledge or the involvement in 0:25:01.680 --> 0:25:05.439 the LaGuardia bomb plot, and federal authorities were never able 0:25:05.480 --> 0:25:07.200 to prove a connection. 0:25:08.040 --> 0:25:10.320 And then came an even stranger theory. 0:25:11.480 --> 0:25:14.160 There have been some arguments that in fact, it wasn't 0:25:14.240 --> 0:25:17.920