WEBVTT - S2 E1: Fraunces Tavern Bombing 0:00:02.360 --> 0:00:05.920 You're listening to Law and Order Criminal Justice System, a 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:09.400 production of Wolf Entertainment and iHeart podcasts. 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:17.120 In the criminal justice system, landmark trials transcend the courtroom 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:20.600 to reshape the law. The brave many women who investigate 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:23.480 and prosecute these cases are part of a select group 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:31.720 that is defined American history. These are their stories. January first, 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:37.760 twenty twenty five, three fifteen am, Bourbon Street, New Orleans. 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:42.880 The countdown had passed and New Orleans was still alive 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:43.720 with celebration. 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:47.760 New Year's Eve was definitely insane. You could barely move 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:52.560 through the streets. The atmosphere it's just happy. Everybody's happy. 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:57.240 Jeremy Senske, fifty years old, in visiting from out of town, 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:01.040 had spent the night surrounded by thousands of other revelers. 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:04.679 Around three am, he set up towards his hotel in 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:09.520 his motorized wheelchair. But in seconds the festivities gave way 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:10.760 to mayhem. 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:15.120 There was a very loud noise, very weird, windy noise. 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:17.840 There was like two or three people to my left 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:20.039 that were on the sidewalk. There was a bunch of 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:22.840 people to my right. We all heard the noise and 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:24.880 I looked over and they all had their mouths up 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:25.720 and like gasping. 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:28.760 By the time I turned to the left, I was 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:30.160 just that was it. 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:33.960 It was like an explosion, and I basically was just 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:36.080 like going through the air and smashed my face off 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:38.520 the sidewalk, and I was laying face first. 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.039 And the other thing I saw was the truck, the 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:41.679 white truck. 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:46.840 It had accelerated through the crowd near Bourbon Street, no honking, 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:47.720 no warning. 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:50.280 I couldn't figure out what had happened. 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:52.080 I didn't really think that I had been hit by 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:54.040 the truck because I was very confused. 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:58.160 The truck crashed, the driver came out holding a weapon. 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:03.880 Gun started happening around me. I pulled with bricocheting off 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:08.600 the ground. I started hearing people screaming, people crying. 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:11.480 He didn't know what to do. 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:14.880 Started screaming help. No one acknowledged me. 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:21.480 Then out of the haze shapes began to emerge, dark figures, heavy, vast, 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:22.640 long rifles. 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:26.400 I saw that the guys coming down the road with 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:27.240 machine guns. 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:31.200 These were the good guys. The people that walked towards 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:31.960 the gunfire. 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:34.200 Someone came up the truck. 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:36.760 Someone screamed at them not to open up the door 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:39.320 because there might be explosives in the door. So now 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:41.240 like screaming and help get me away from the truck. 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:44.120 It's gonna blow up. I'm thinking there's explosive in his truck. 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:48.520 My adrenaline kicked in because I was actually scared to death. 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:54.080 So I pushed myself somehow onto my back. I lifted 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:55.800 up my arm and my whole body had blot all 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:59.000 over it. I reached on to my right leg and 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:01.359 I picked it up. In my leg was a mush 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:04.240 like and a bunch of pieces, and I was holding 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:07.120 my leg on my chest, screaming because I couldn't feel 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:07.560 my legs. 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:08.720 I didn't know what was wrong. 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:13.200 What unfolded in the French Quarter that night wasn't random. 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:18.359 It was deliberate, an active terror, designed for maximum impact, 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:22.440 time to strike when the world was watching. And as 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:26.320 Jeremy lay there, it felt like time stood still. 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.720 The first cough that came over to me, I said, 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:31.360 my legs, my legs, my legs. 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:33.079 I screamed my legs, and I was like, what happened? 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:34.040 He said, we don't know. 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:37.600 You were trying to assess this situation, and he just 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:40.240 looked at me and said, you're lucky to be alive. 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:41.840 Everyone around you is dead. 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:53.600 I got a call get out to LaGuardia Airport. There's 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:54.240 been a bombing. 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:56.480 There was a thirty two foot crater in front of 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:57.560 what was left of the building. 0:03:57.760 --> 0:03:59.280 I was trying to figure out, Am I dead? Am 0:03:59.320 --> 0:03:59.760 I alive? 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:00.240 Where? 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:02.520 Alma? I'm Anethega Nicolazzi. 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:05.880 That's why terrorism works. It doesn't care who you are. 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:11.640 From Wolf Entertainment and iHeart Podcasts, this is Lawn Order 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:20.640 Criminal Justice System. In season one, we told the story 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:24.960 of law enforcement's battle against the mafia, fought in back rooms, 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:29.840 on wire taps, and in courtrooms. This season, we're turning 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:32.479 our focus to a threat that hides in plain sight, 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:37.599 that's harder to predict and even harder to stop. Terrorism 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:41.680 you'll hear from law enforcement on the front lines and 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:45.880 from survivors like Jeremy Sensky, ordinary people caught in the 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:51.839 path of extraordinary destruction. Because terrorism doesn't always look like war. 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:55.960 Sometimes it looks like Bourbon Street at three am, the 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:59.080 place where a forty two year old United States Army 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:03.560 veteran from Texas named shamsu Den Jabbar Rammed a rented 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:07.360 Ford F one fifty into the crowd, and then moments 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:10.400 later he opened fire on responding officers. 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:14.000 Police now telling us at least ten people were killed 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:18.720 and thirty others injured. Authorities also investigating shots fired in 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:21.680 the area. We're hearing that the person driving that truck 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:24.280 then got out of the vehicle and started shooting. There 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:25.760 is some pretty disturbing video. 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:31.920 The damage was devastating, at least fourteen lives lost, more 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:35.640 than fifty injured. We'll come back to Bourbon Street later 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:39.800 this season. That attack happened just months ago, and it 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:43.640 wasn't the only one since then. There have been others 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:50.479 Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Boulder. These aren't isolated events. They're 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:55.320 more reminders of our present reality. We're tracking how terrorism 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:59.320 transformed and had the United States was forced to change 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:04.080 with it. Terrorism doesn't sleep, neither do the people fighting it. 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:10.000 Before we get to the motives and manhunts, we need 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:13.000 to better understand what's led us to where we are today, 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:17.800 because this kind of violence didn't just appear. It wasn't 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:22.680 always gunfiring, crowds or trucks used as weapons. In decades past, 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:27.320 terrorism was aimed more at institutions rather than people, until 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:32.400 one day things changed. On a January afternoon in nineteen 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:37.000 seventy five, a bomb tore through a restaurant in Lower Manhattan, 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:42.680 killing innocent people. In this episode will take you inside 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:46.640 that attack, but first we have to understand how the 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:53.120 violence and the response to it evolved. The seventies a 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:58.479 decade defined by Vietnam, Watergate and by growing unrest at home. 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:03.280 America was divided and on edge. Cities like New York, 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:06.480 which we explored in season one, were gripped by crime. 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:10.760 Protesters clashed in the streets. It was a decade of 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:15.560 reckoning and reinvention and terrorism. It was beginning to take 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:19.560 root on American soil. Here is someone who can definitely 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:21.760 help break down its many complexities. 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:25.640 My name is Michael Jensen. I'm the research director at 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.680 the START Center at the University of Maryland. I lead 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:31.400 a team at the center that looks at extremism in 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:32.360 the United States. 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:36.600 Michael's team is part of an organization known as START, 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:40.720 which stands for a mouthful. The National Consortium for the 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:45.480 Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. START was launched 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:48.640 by the Department of Homeland Security in two thousand and five. 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:53.320 It tracks global terror trends and analyzes why people radicalize. 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:57.400 When the START Center was founded, there was virtually no 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:01.600 data available on terrorism happening in the United States and 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:03.000 outside of the United States. 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:07.920 Today, it's home to the Global Terrorism Database, the world's 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:11.760 most comprehensive record of terror attacks, and trains the next 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:16.760 generation of national security experts. Michael's a scientist, a collector 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:20.280 of facts, but part of that search for understanding led 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:23.680 him back to a strange, almost forgotten chapter in US history. 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:28.240 People often forget that in the late nineteen sixties through 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.440 about the mid nineteen seventies that terrorism in the United 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:34.920 States was really synonymous with left wing activism. 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:39.520 At the time, the Vietnam War was tearing the country apart. 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:43.559 Cities were burning, the air thick with tear gas and rage. 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:47.560 Civil rights marches gave weight to violent clashes, and out 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:49.680 of the chaos, new groups emerged. 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:53.439 There were a number of groups of movements dedicated to 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:58.880 social justice issues, civil rights issues, anti capitalist, Marxist issues, 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:03.480 even ethno national issues like Puerto Rican independents that were 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:06.079 the ones that were on the forefront of engaging in 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:08.560 crime and violence on behalf of their beliefs. 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:13.840 Groups like the Weather Underground and the Symbionese Liberation Army. 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:18.000 People calling themselves members of the Weather Underground last Night 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:21.880 planted bombs and federal office buildings in Washington and Open California. 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:26.240 What was key in these organizations, though, was that their 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:30.040 violence was largely symbolic. They weren't trying to hurt and 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:33.720 kill large numbers of individuals. They were trying to attack 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:37.240 iconic targets to draw attention to their cause. 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:44.079 They often targeted symbols of power, banks, police stations, government offices, 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:46.000 and they were prolific. 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:50.360 In nineteen seventy alone, there was well over one thousand 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:53.240 bombings that took place in the United States that were 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:56.480 committed by these groups. Most of them did not produce 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:59.560 fatalities or injuries. They were property crimes. 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:04.600 The goal wasn't mass casualties. It was spectacle. These groups 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:08.360 wanted to shake the system, not very bodies, at least 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:08.800 not yet. 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:13.439 You know, I always liked history as a child. 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:19.040 That's John Fox, the FBI's official historian. He's been digging 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:22.040 into the bureau's past since he joined in nineteen ninety nine. 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:28.360 In the nineteen seventies, we saw the FBI primarily focusing 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:32.160 on what would be considered terrorist attacks here at home, 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:33.520 domestic terrorist. 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:39.640 Attacks, bombings, hijackings, shootouts. The Bureau wasn't even sure what 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:43.160 to call it. One group made their answer loud and clear. 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:47.800 Police are intensifying their efforts since yesterday's incidents. They're distributing 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:51.480 this poster all over town. These four individuals are wanted 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:54.199 by the FBI and the police in connection with several 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:55.440 FALN bombings. 0:10:56.720 --> 0:11:02.520 The FALN was a group advocated revolution to separate Puerto 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:04.000 Rico from the United States. 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:09.800 The FALN or Armed Forces of National Liberation in English, 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:13.800 a nationalist group with the cause, a manifesto, and a 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:17.440 bomb making playbook, and unlike some of the others, they 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:20.640 weren't just out to make noise. They wanted the government 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:21.280 to feel it. 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:27.080 They engaged in a series of bombings and other illegal 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:31.360 activities to try and draw interest and concern about their 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:35.160 cause and ultimately to spark revolutionary activity. 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:40.240 The FALN wasn't acting in a vacuum. Their campaign fit 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:44.000 into a much larger, older story, one that stretched back 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:45.000 more than a century. 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:50.000 The rise of the Puerto Rican nationalist groups traces its 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:53.400 origins back to the mid eighteen hundreds and the rise 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:59.199 of anarchists and revolutionary communist ideologies. But over time it 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:04.440 broadens out as the more radical protest elements to use 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:06.240 violence to make their point. 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:11.360 That history of political violence wasn't confined to Puerto Rico. 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:16.160 It mirrored a broader global pattern where ideology, identity, and 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:21.280 armed resistance converged. Here's Michael Jensen again, this. 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:25.240 Is the era of anti colonial movements across the globe. 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:28.480 In places like Africa. We saw similar movements in the 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:32.480 nineteen sixties rising up to defeat colonial powers, and in 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:35.240 their view, they saw the United States as just that 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:38.640 it was a colonial power. Puerto Rico had been colonized, 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:42.599 and according to international law, they had the right to 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:46.800 defend themselves and to defeat colonizers by any means necessary, 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:47.720 including violence. 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:52.559 The fal and picked up that threat and detonated it 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:56.199 in the heart of American cities, namely New York with 0:12:56.360 --> 0:13:00.160 its large Puerto Rican community. The Big Apple became I'm 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:04.280 a focal point. Their bombs hit Wall Street offices, the Bronx, 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:10.400 even Middown Manhattan. Their cause Puerto Rican independence hadn't gone away, 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:15.240 and they had no interest in fading quietly. If anything, 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:28.319 their campaign was about to grow louder and deadlier. The 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:32.600 ideas were already in motion. The anger had been building. 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:41.120 Then came the moment it literally exploded. January twenty fourth, 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:44.560 nineteen seventy five, was a gray winter day in Manhattan. 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:48.480 That afternoon, an agent hurried into the squad room at 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:51.320 the Upper east Side headquarters of the FBI. 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:54.520 He came out and he said, Hey, I got a 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:57.679 big bombing down in Lower Manhattan. Can you help out? 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:00.200 So we grabbed our bags and away we what. 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:05.240 It soon became a day that FBI agent Richard Banteu 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:09.559 would never forget. Richard and his fellow agents drove through 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:13.400 traffic heading south at lightning speed. Nine one one calls 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:16.320 flooded the city's police stations to report that there'd been 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:17.040 an explosion. 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:20.720 We pulled up I had never heard of from since Tavern. 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:25.000 But the target of the blast wasn't a government building, 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:28.720 police station, or a bank. It was a quaint little 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:32.280 lunch spot. The place, even back then, was a throwback 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:36.240 red brick colonial charm, surrounded by the glass and steel 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:39.880 of the Financial district. But as the FBI agents arrived 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:42.080 that day, it wasn't business as usual. 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:46.560 I just remember seeing an awful lot of grass within view. 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:49.920 It was mayhem there. But let me tell you, the 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:54.880 New York City Police had the area cording off maintained 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:55.800 in a crime scene. 0:14:57.000 --> 0:14:59.960 Police pushed back the crowd and scanned for more bombs. 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:04.960 First responders locked down the scene. Medics moved fast, helping 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:08.720 the injured working triage on the sidewalk. The worst got 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:13.040 loaded into ambulances. First fire cruise check for structural damage. 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:18.000 What was chaos a moment ago became controlled. Nothing moved 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:21.800 unless it had to. Every fragment, every scorch mark was 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:25.480 potential evidence. That's where Richard came in. When he pulled 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:27.800 up to the corner of Pearl and Broad Street in 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:31.120 Lower Manhattan, he was hit with a signature sign of 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:31.680 a bombing. 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:35.120 If you go to these things, I don't care where 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:37.720 it is, it's got to smell to it. Got to 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:39.840 get on your hands and knees and crawl around in 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:42.000 the dirt and the dust and see what you can find. 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:45.240 That's where he uncovered a major clue. 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:47.960 We started finding nails. 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:51.400 Not from the building, but from inside the bomb. 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:55.800 I personally think if I was building a bomb, I 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:58.320 could have done a better job than nails, but that 0:15:58.480 --> 0:15:59.880 was just simply shrapnel. 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:04.560 The nails may have pointed to an amateur, but the bomb. 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:08.240 That was not just a small bomb. That turned out 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:10.320 to be twenty two sticks of dynamite. 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:14.760 Richard continued to crawl through the torn out tavern. 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:20.000 And we're collecting various items which would be appropriate for 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:22.360 starting a criminal investigation. 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:25.840 That's when he happened upon something that will stay with 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:26.440 him forever. 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:31.400 I was crawling around on the floor and I remember 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:36.800 distinctly finding something and I said to one of the investigators. 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:40.000 I picked it up. I said, what is this? And 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:43.160 they looked at it. They felt it. It was like sponge. 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:46.800 I would say, no more than an inch, but it 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:49.800 was all over. So we decided we were going to 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:52.200 put it in a container and we started collecting it, 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:54.840 and before it was over with, we had like a 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:58.760 shoe box filled with this material. We couldn't figure out 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:00.800 what it was, and it was dru happened a snutch. 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.000 So we sent it off to the FBI lab with 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:05.160 a big question mark. 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:08.920 When they got the answer, it was something no one 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:11.120 wanted to hear, he says. 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:13.240 We found out what it was, I said, what's that? 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:20.040 He says human remains. Whoever, the poor soul that was 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:23.879 standing there when this thing went off so much force 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:28.600 just totally took his torso and blew it to little 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:29.399 pieces like that. 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:35.360 The attack killed four people and injured over sixty. Countless 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:42.840 more were impacted in ways that would stay with them forever, wives, husbands, friends, families, children. 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:47.479 My name is Joe Connor, and my father was murdered 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:52.640 by the Faln Puerto Rican Marxist terrorists on January twenty fourth, 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:54.760 nineteen seventy five, at Francis Tavern. 0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:58.800 On the day of the bombing, Joe was just nine 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:02.520 years old. His father was Frank Connor. Frank was a 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:05.280 young banker who left his home in New Jersey every 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:07.480 day to go to his job in New York City's 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:11.080 financial district. In the evening, he'd return home to his 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:13.159 wife and to play with his two sons. 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:17.919 My father was a New York City kid, the son. 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:20.280 Of immigrants in pursuit of the American dream. 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:24.560 My grandmother got a job as a cleaning lady at 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:28.480 the old Morgan Bank Morgan Guarantee Trust Company, and she 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:31.520 worked nights so she could be home with my father 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:32.280 during the day. 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:35.760 In high school, Frank's mom helped him get a job 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:38.359 at the bank. He started off as a clerk and 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:42.280 eventually worked his way up to assistant vice president. Frank 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.040 was nineteen when he first met his wife, Joe's mom, 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:47.359 at a dance in New York's Old City Center. 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:50.359 She just saw the back of his head at first 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:52.520 and said, I want to dance with that guy. And 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:54.400 her friends are laughing at her, saying, you don't even 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:56.800 know what he looks like, and he turned around and 0:18:56.880 --> 0:18:59.800 asked her to dance out of nowhere so she knew. 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:00.320 Then. 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:05.280 The two married and had three boys. The youngest son 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:08.600 passed away at a very young age, leaving the Connors 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:12.119 a family of four. The family moved to New Jersey. 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:15.879 Frank juggled night school, a day job, and together with 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:19.480 his wife, raising two boys, but he also found time 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:20.080 for some fun. 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:24.440 He had tons of friends, more than I've ever had, really, Like, 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:27.520 they moved to New Jersey and the next thing you know, 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:30.000 they have a bar in the basement, and you know, 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:33.120 it was like the early seventies and people like seem 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:34.560 to have a lot of fun, and there was always 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:36.560 people around, and he was good to be. 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:40.800 Around, even with the long hours in full house. Frank 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:44.320 always made room for what mattered most time with his boys. 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.159 My brother's two years older, so whenever we would like 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:50.800 as a family do stuff like together, so we might 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:52.840 go down and play basketball whatever, it was always Tom 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:54.840 and my mom on the same team and me and 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:57.119 my dad because I was the youngest, so it was 0:19:57.200 --> 0:19:59.679 always us two on the same team. So I always 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:02.840 felt like, yeah, you know, he's my teammate to me, 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:04.639 you know, he could do anything. 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:07.640 To Frank's boys, he was their hero. 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:10.840 My brother had just made his communion and my dad 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:13.280 was going to take his communion money and spend it 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:16.200 on a tent because we want to go camping. So 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:18.360 we were at the sporting good store and I saw 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:21.320 Tom sever Mit autographed by Tom sever and you know, 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:24.920 anyone who lived around here in the early seventies, my god, 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:27.760 Tom sever So that's what I wanted, but he was 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:29.480 like looking at me, like, you know, we can't afford that. 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:32.119 So I went home and I didn't get my Mit. 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:34.440 And a couple of days later, I guess I was 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:36.880 hanging out down at the park and Tom came down 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:38.960 and said, Dad wants to see and I'm like, oh god, 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:41.200 what did I do now? So I rode my bike 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:42.640 home and when I got home, there. 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:43.000 Was the mit. 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.600 That was something I'll never forget and I'll always treasure 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:49.800 because he didn't have to get that for me. 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:50.359 He didn't. 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:51.919 It wasn't my birthday or. 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:55.680 Anything, but there would soon come a birthday that will 0:20:55.720 --> 0:21:01.040 stick with Joe forever. January twenty fourth, eighteen seventy five 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:02.760 was planned to be a special day. 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:06.280 We were going to be celebrating my ninth birthday, which 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:10.400 was January twentieth. On my brother's eleventh, They'd. 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:13.680 Already celebrated with friends, so this Friday was just going 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:16.920 to be family. The brothers went to school, their mom 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:20.560 stayed home preparing their favorite dinner. Frank went to work 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:23.800 in downtown New York City, as he always did. That day, 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:27.760 Frank had lunch plans with two clients. At the last minute, 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:30.960 the location of their lunch moved to a different restaurant. 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:34.720 There was a problem with the reservation, so they decided 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:36.840 they would walk down to Frances, which is right around 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:37.240 the block. 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:40.920 The men sat down at a table in the tavern, 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:43.000 ordered their food and talked while they ate. 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:46.639 They were getting to the end of their meal, and 0:21:47.000 --> 0:21:49.840 I think the check had just come. One of the guys, 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:53.359 Charlie Murray, talked about seeing a guy come in that 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:56.720 kind of looked out of place with a knapsack, set 0:21:56.760 --> 0:21:59.960 it on a stair behind their table where they were sitting, 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:03.000 and I think I was scruffy looking. 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:07.720 This was Wall Street in nineteen seventy five. People dressed 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:11.959 to impress, sharp suits, crisp white shirts, and polus shoes, 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:16.800 business formal with a hint of swagger, not scruff so 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:17.439 someone like. 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:20.320 This guy would look very out of place. He dropped 0:22:20.359 --> 0:22:23.399 his package and walked out, and within a couple of 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:25.359 minutes it detonated. 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:31.159 The blast tore through the restaurant, shattering windows and collapsing walls. 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:35.200 It was about twenty five pounds of explosives and shrapnel, 0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:39.120 absolutely intended to inflict as much death as it could. 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:43.760 Word of the attack hadn't yet traveled the seventeen miles 0:22:43.800 --> 0:22:45.639 northwest to te Neeck, New Jersey. 0:22:46.680 --> 0:22:48.520 Tom and I went to school and came home and 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:49.320 went out to play. 0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:54.359 Then Joe heard his mother scream, and the afternoon warped 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:57.760 from a day of soon to be birthday celebrations into 0:22:57.840 --> 0:22:58.680 something surreal. 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:03.320 She called us in from playing and she said there 0:23:03.359 --> 0:23:06.600 had been an explosion downtown and she told us my 0:23:06.680 --> 0:23:07.280 dad was there. 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:12.359 At first, Joe assumed the best a child's instinct to 0:23:12.480 --> 0:23:14.360