WEBVTT - The Harvey's Casino Bombing of 1980 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.240 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.160 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:15.920 and there's Chuck and Jerry's here and this is stuff 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:20.639 you should know. The True Crime EDITIONE where nobody gets hurt. 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:23.600 Isn't that amazing? Yeah? I think this falls into our 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:28.320 sort of caper a dish, yes, well put, well put? 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.200 Do we have any other capers? Yeah, like the child 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:36.360 Chilla kidnapping. And I think any non murder crime podcast 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:41.400 I think would fall under this, like dB dB Cooper exactly. 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:44.240 And um, before I forget Chuck, that was definitely a caper. 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.720 Good call. Um. This was a request which, like you 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:50.640 said last time, we've been doing a lot of these lately, 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:53.479 but this one's requested by Nick Hales, and I say, 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:57.520 good request, Nick, Thanks for that. And I totally spaced 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:02.000 on shouting out Neil Stephen from the UK for Georgia 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:05.160 Guidestones episode. He requested it and gave me the idea 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:07.880 to do it all right, nice work. This one was 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:11.720 so familiar to me that I was sure that we 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.000 had either touched on it or that I saw. What 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:17.080 I really thought was that I saw a documentary about it, 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:20.440 but I hadn't because I don't think there's been one. 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:23.759 I don't know what it is. It was really familiar 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:26.520 with some other I think true life thing that I saw. 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:29.319 I don't know, I don't know. But the fact that 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:32.760 there's not a movie about this is insane. Yeah. I 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:35.600 don't know if it's a movie worthy. Oh really yeah? 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:39.679 Oh man, just like the pork Chop side Burns alone, 0:01:40.120 --> 0:01:43.480 I think would would warn a movie. But um that 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:46.280 because I said pork chop sideburns. Of course, we're talking 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:50.760 about nineteen eighty, right, Chuck, August eight, that's right. Uh. 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:54.800 And on August eighty, very early in the morning, a 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:59.040 couple of delivery dudes would be delivery dudes wield a 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:02.800 big piece of equipment had a cover on it, said 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:09.440 IBM into Harvey's Resort hotel in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Shout 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:14.079 out to our buddy, Aaron Hagar representing Lake Tahoe. He's 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:16.639 got it made out there in Tahoe. Nice except for 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:20.239 the bears and wildfires. I'll bet he's heard of this story, then, 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:22.320 I bet you he has. We'll hear from on this. 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:25.360 But anyway, they wheeled it in there up to the 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:29.960 second floor offices and dropped it off and basically skidaddled. 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:32.160 After that, they had a guy waiting in a van 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:35.280 outside and drove them the heck out of there. Yeah, 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:37.280 so it's kind of weird five am to drop off 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:39.560 a piece of office equipment, not waiting around for anybody 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:43.040 sign it. Kind of odd, And within an hour the 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:46.160 oddity behind it kind of became a really apparent. A 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:50.040 slot manager, I believe, or maybe the night manager in general. Um, 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:53.200 he noticed this piece of office equipment that was kind 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:56.480 of randomly placed on the second floor offices, and he 0:02:56.520 --> 0:02:59.720 saw that there was a note by it, and he 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:01.960 gathered some other employees and they were all kind of 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:04.240 hanging out reading the note. And one of the details 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.040 I love, um that I saw in a um Adam 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:11.960 higginbottom Uh article on on the atavist um was that 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:14.000 one of the people reading the note was leaning up 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:17.480 against the machine while they were reading the note. All right, 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:21.640 the notes that should we read the note? Yeah, because 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:23.720 then it makes the whole thing about somebody leaning up 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:27.200 against it really hilarious. Al Right, stern warning to the 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:30.679 management and bomb squad, in which case I would have 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:32.079 been out of there. That's all I need to hear 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:35.040 a right exactly. Uh, do not move until this bomb 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.160 because the mechanism controlling the detonators in it will set 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:40.640 it off at a movement of less than point o 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:45.600 one of the open end Richter scale. So let's confuse 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:47.560 people right out of the gate, is what this note 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:51.160 is what this guy's thinking. Uh, don't try to flood 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.440 or gas the bomb. There's a float switch and an 0:03:54.480 --> 0:04:00.160 atmosphere pressure switch set at two numbers twenty six point 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:03.160 zero was zero to thirty three. Both are attached to detonators. 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:05.520 Do not try to take it apart. The flathead screws 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:07.880 are attached to triggers, and as much of a quarter 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.000 to three quarters of a turn will cause the explosion. Uh. 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:13.240 In other words, this bomb is so sensitive that the 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:15.800 slightest movement, either inside or outside will cause it to 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:19.240 explode full stop. Yeah, and you can guess the person 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:22.560 leaning against the machine stood up and moved away from it, right, 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:26.520 that's right. Uh. And basically they said that part No 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:32.159 one can detonate or no one can can deactivate this bomb, 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:35.600 not even I, not even the creator can diffuse this thing. 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:38.480 So it is going to go off at some point. 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:41.760 Your best hope of not getting hurt is to pay 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:45.000 a three thousand dollar ransom and you're gonna receive instructions 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:46.640 on how to move it out of here so it 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:49.560 can explode somewhere else. Yeah, and it would have been 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:51.680 a bargain for three thousand dollars. There was actually a 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:56.320 three million dollar rans to save you did. I think 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:59.000 you're being optimistic three But it was a it was 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:04.440 a big fat ran and um the bomb itself. I mean, 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:07.440 if you just look at the at the ransom note 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:09.839 and when it's talking about the bomb, that's a pretty 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:14.520 amazing bomb. And it actually became pretty legendary with the FBI, 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:16.840 so much so that I saw that they still I 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:18.600 don't know if they still do today, but for many 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:21.760 years they used it as a teaching model for UM 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:26.560 bomb technicians, and the FBI considered it very sophisticated, and 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:30.400 they said it was unlike anything any bomb technician had 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:32.719 ever seen before. No one had ever made a bomb 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:35.560 like this. Yeah, very good bomb, if there is such 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:38.520 a thing. Uh. It was a couple of stacked boxes 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:44.080 lined with metal and rubber that through conventional methods you 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:48.479 couldn't separate, of course, without it going boom. And so 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:50.480 the FBI did what they do in this case. They 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:52.560 come in, they start taking pictures, the X ray it, 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:57.520 they sweep it for fingerprints. Obviously they don't move it. Uh. 0:05:57.560 --> 0:05:59.400 They find out that it has about a thousand pounds 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:04.039 of dynamite inside, and they can't find a way to 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:07.200 Like basically they're saying, this note seems to be right 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:08.760 on the money, Like we can't find a way at 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:11.360 least right off the bat about how to diffuse these 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:15.560 things safely. Yeah, and very famously, the bomb technicians in 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:19.080 the room started running around in aimless circles saying, oh 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:21.920 my god, oh my god, oh my god. And they 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:24.080 did that for a good three hours I think before 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:28.600 somebody stepped in and stopped them. But that ransom note, also, UM, 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:30.919 showed a lot of planning, not just the bomb, Like 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:34.159 this bomb was amazing, just full stop amazing. I wanted 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:36.919 to really be proud of if you're a bomb maker, UM. 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:40.839 But the actual heist itself had like a real shot 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:45.400 at extorting this three million dollars successfully UM. And it 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:48.080 started with UM. They they knew what they were doing. 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:49.840 Out of the gate, they said, we want three million 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:54.480 dollars in used bills, hundred dollar bills already used, not marked, 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:57.680 not bugg don't even try to chemically treat them. Um. 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:01.920 And we want you to fly helicopter to Lake Tahoe Airport, 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:05.400 have the pilot land by the pay phone, and wait 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:08.480 by the payphone for instructions. Are instruction is going to 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:11.080 come from the payphone? Who knows? They could also come 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:14.720 by taxi. Uh, they could also come by carrier pigeon. 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:16.960 I'm making that last one up. But they were just 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:19.080 trying out of the gate to to confuse them so 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:22.720 that they couldn't plan for everything. Um. And it was 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.200 I think it was a really well planned heist. Yeah. 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:30.200 I mean they basically said, no one involved from this 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:33.080 point that you meet up with, like anyone that might 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:37.480 deliver a note, any someone that might drive a vehicle 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:41.280 that's involved, Like, no one's gonna know anything, so don't bother. 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.640 And I think I believe that that's probably true. Um. 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:47.400 They said that the you know, I the creator of 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:49.200 the bomb, I'm not gonna be a part of this 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:53.040 money drop. I'm not gonna be around. Uh. Nobody that's 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:55.200 a part of any of this exchange of money is 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:58.240 going to know anything about how to diffuse this bomb, Like, 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.200 this thing is gonna go off and there's nothing you 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:03.640 can do to stop it. Again, the only thing that 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:07.040 you can do is follow what will ultimately be six 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:10.600 sets of instructions to safely get this bomb out of 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:13.680 there after I get my loot. Yeah, after he gets 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:17.800 the loot or they um, So the first set of 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:20.200 instructions was going to be given to the helicopter pilot. 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:22.840 The rest of the instructions would arrive through the local 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:26.200 post office, which is putting a lot of a lot 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:29.160 of faith in the USPS. But then there was another 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:32.480 demand too, that was probably the most ridiculous demand of all. 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:35.640 They said that all news media, local or national was 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:38.400 to be kept ignorant of the heist until the bomb 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:43.440 was successfully removed. Right, And that was impossible, totally impossible 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:45.520 because the first thing the cops did when they realized 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:48.480 like this is for real, which they figured out pretty quickly. 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:51.679 I think the thing was discovered before six am, and 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:54.679 by seven or eight at the very latest, they were 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:59.480 rousing um hotel guests at Harvey's Um, many of them 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:01.960 from sleep, telling them like, Nope, you don't have time 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:04.200 to grab your belongings. You gotta go. Uh. And not 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:07.680 only did they evacuate Harvey's. A thousand pounds of dynamite 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:11.040 can do some real damage, they actually evacuated hairs across 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:13.800 the street from Harvey's too. Yeah, so they said, you're 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:16.800 all going to go to this nearby high school. And 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:19.320 of course the media, it's a it's a big thing 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:22.440 when that happens, when people are being like massively bust 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:28.160 out in their bathrobes and stuff. So basically within a 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:31.120 few hours, like all the media knows this, they cordon 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:34.680 off the area. There's people hanging out, there's there's gawkers, 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:38.120 there's reporters, there's before you know it, of course, because 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.080 there's casinos around there. They're taking bets, of course, like 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:44.560 over under on whether this thing's gonna detonate. And not 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:47.080 only did they not keep the media out of it, 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:50.880 but it became like, uh, I mean, call this sensation 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:53.720 indicates that it drug on. It was like a day 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:55.839 and change, but it was a crazy day and change 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:58.880 for the media for sure. And it was over the 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:03.080 week before Labor Day weekend, so Tahoe was crawling with people. 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:09.839 Um and this was right, um, just thirty six years 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:13.920 before the first casino was opened on the south shore 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:16.080 of Lake Tahoe, and it was opened by the same 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:18.600 guy whose hotel now how to bomb in it, Harvey 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:22.720 gross Um. His first thing was Harvey's Wagon Wheel Saloon 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:25.640 and gambling hall, which I saw described as a cabin 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:29.720 um that had six slot machines in it. Um And 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:32.480 at the time in Tahoe chucked. There was no phone, 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:36.439 no water, no sewer, no power lines. The roads would 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:39.880 close at like the first sign of snow, um and 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:44.000 it was like a real podunk area. But gambling made 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:47.160 it actually put it on the map for a second there. 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:49.920 I thought you were gonna say, not a single luxury. 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:54.000 Oh man, I really should have. I wish I had. 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:57.160 I'm not on my game today like Robinson Crusoe. They 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:00.880 were what primitives can be, right, that's what they said. 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:05.400 But it was the sixties. You wouldn't say that anymore. Uh. 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:09.080 So things go great for Harvey and his little wagon 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.920 wheel uh cabin You know, it's on the state line 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:15.600 of California. So that's a pretty smart thing because you 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:18.560 get those out of staters, those richies from California throwing 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:20.640 down some money. Yeah, and it was so on the 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:23.320 state line it was in a town called state Line. 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:27.560 That's very Nevada. It's very on the nose. I'm so 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:30.520 nervous about us saying it the right way because those 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:34.840 people will email you like Gangbusters. Oh it's Nevada, but 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:39.240 always say Nevada. Okay, but they say it Nevada. Everyone 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:42.000 outside the state of Nevada says Nevada, and that drives 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:47.280 them nuts, drives them crazy. It's really something so Harvey 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:49.720 no less way, don't break. So Harvey was doing great, 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:53.040 uh with this little tiny casino in the forties through 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:56.560 the fifties makes a lot of dough, and by sixty 0:11:56.679 --> 0:12:02.360 three had expanded an upgrade to Harvey's Lake Tahoe, which 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:06.120 at the time was the tallest building UM at eleven stories, 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:08.160 which is you know, that's a pretty tall building for 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:11.160 that area of the country. Yeah, less than twenty years 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:16.120 he went from a cabin to an eleven story casino resort. 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:19.439 And I believe it was at that same eleven story 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:23.440 casino resort that this bomb um was placed in in 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:28.320 seventeen years later. Um and Harvey himself was like, I 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:31.040 mean he was a casino owner in Nevada, like he 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:34.320 had I don't want to say, a checkered past, but 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:37.640 he had a past like he'd been hauled in front 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:39.680 of the the I R S for tax evasion. There was 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.400 um he had been given an honorary name by the 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:47.520 Nevada Inner Tribal Did I say it right? Nevada? By 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:51.560 the Nevada Inner Tribal Council. He was called Chief hu 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:54.080 and I. And there was an article that was written 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:57.240 back in I think that said that it meant, uh, 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.719 the man who runs the game and takes a percentage 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:01.800 of the bats. I don't know if that's a joke 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:04.240 or not. I can't tell. I don't either, because it's 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:08.080 definitely like that era kind of joke. You know, you 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:12.280 can see that on like a tiky napkin. But the 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:14.720 long and short of it is he was he'd had 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:16.200 his little run ins with the I R S and 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:18.840 stuff and the gaming board, but it wasn't anything unusual. 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:22.600 He wasn't like some bad guy like mafios type. He 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:25.040 was like he said, he owned a casino and there's 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:27.280 you know, he's gonna be brought up by the I 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:29.720 R S at some point. Um. But all of this 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:34.480 to say, he wasn't like some uh, some big Mark 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:38.480 because of like all his dirty dealings in his past. 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:41.320 Basically I saw him actually referred to as a good 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:44.480 guy by some people. It sounds like it like he 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:48.000 he was well known to have put off expansion, like 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:50.840 he didn't want to expand to other towns. Uh. He's 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:54.199 basically said, I'm I'm making enough money. He had a 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:56.880 quote that he would refer to is, um, I have 0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:59.480 a nice little business. How many stakes can I eat? 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:02.880 Which is to say like he had everything he needed 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:05.040 and this was fine. He was happy with this business 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:09.240 where it was. That's right. But it was uh, the 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:13.320 seventies and into the early eighties, which was um, just 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:16.080 sort of the golden age of all this kind of 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:21.400 stuff of kidnappings and ransoms and hijackings, and it just 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:25.520 seems like all this kind of hi jinks. There's still 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:27.560 stuff like that happens occasionally, but not like it did 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:31.480 back then. I think it's because took the police state 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.360 hadn't evolved enough that they would catch you no matter 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:39.840 what right, and leaded gas had been around long enough 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:42.560 to really have the effects on a whole new generation 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:45.400 of brains. So you put those two things together, you 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.440 have everything converging on the seventies for people trying all 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:52.400 sorts of heists and kidnappings and stuff like that. Yeah, 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:54.840 and that happened back then around there, even I think 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:58.560 as far back as the early seventies there were kidnapping 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:04.360 conspiracies against gross ransom things that had been uncovered in 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:07.800 the late seventies. There were smoke bombs with ransom notes 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:10.720 found at other casinos around Tahoe. So I don't know 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.880 about that. It was what the smoke bombs? Yeah, what 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:16.640 is that? You might as well say, like there's a 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:20.560 box of sparklers in your your lobby, give me five 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:25.240 hundred thousand smoleans orrel give me thirty five cents, I know, 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:29.840 to pay me back for the smoke both. Um. So 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:32.920 it was a time where if you owned a casino 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:36.160 that brought in I think he made about four million 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:38.480 profit but brought in like seventy million dollars a year 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:41.800 like his did, then that simply just meant you were 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:45.360 a mark by virtue of that fact alone, right. Um. 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:48.160 The thing is, though, is the FBI found out um 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:51.160 as they started investigating the case about a year after that, 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:55.440 it actually was a personal vendetta against Harvey himself. Or 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:58.760 Harvey's casino that led to that bomb being placed there 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.000 in August of m It sounds like a great cliffhanger 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:04.360 for a break. Thank you, thanks man. All Right, we'll 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:27.080 get back to it right after this. All right, So 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:30.320 we're back in action here at the bomb site. The 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:33.360 FBI's bomb squad is working hard trying to figure this 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:36.040 thing out. They have another team working on a fake 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:42.120 ransom drop. UH Special Agent William john Kie basically told Harvey, hey, listen, 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:44.720 why don't we drag this thing out as much as 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:48.760 we can. We'll do a fake payoff arrangement maybe weekend, 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:51.240 just sort of put off this bomb going off long 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:53.720 enough for us to figure it out, either how to 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:56.840 stop it or how to catch these people. Like the 0:16:56.880 --> 0:16:58.680 bomb is going to go off no matter what. And 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:02.560 once uh Gross heard that, he was like, well, I'm 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:05.000 not paying anything if this thing's going off no matter what. 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:07.199 You can use my my god, you can use my 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:10.800 own helicopter for the drop even And that's what they did. 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:13.280 They used his own personal helicopter, but the pilot was 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:16.200 uh fed and there was another fed with a gun 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:20.320 hiding behind the pilot seat with a suitcase full of 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:23.639 mostly fake money. Yeah, I think a few grand is 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:26.520 what I saw. And just like the ransom note said, 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:30.000 the agent flew the helicopter Lake Tahoe Airport, landed next 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:33.000 to the pay phone UM and got there just in 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:35.439 time from what I saw too, for the phone to 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:38.520 start ringing, although I suspect they were being watched, and 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:41.960 the phone rang and rather than giving them instructions over 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:44.640 the phone, I think it's hilarious that they said, look 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:48.760 underneath the phone. There's instructions tape beneath the phone, and 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:50.920 then I guess hung up. We didn't want to tape 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:53.960 it to the front of the phone booth, right, So 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:56.840 he checks out the instructions and it says, Okay, this 0:17:56.880 --> 0:17:59.760 is what you're gonna do. You're gonna fly west along 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:02.720 the I wait for fifteen minutes from the airport, and 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:05.159 you're gonna turn. There's some compass sitting they told him 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:08.800 to turn toward. I've never found which one, UM. And 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:11.960 then after a certain amount of time he should start 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:14.359 looking for a beacon, which is gonna be a strobe 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:17.040 light in a field. He should land there and that's 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:19.800 where the money drop would happen. And so the pilot 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:22.920 took off, and he did exactly as the thing instructed, 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:26.560 as a ransom note instructed, and there was nothing. He 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:29.439 flew around for forty five minutes, just waiting, hoping, I 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:32.040 guess probably came close to running out of gas. And 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:34.800 then he flew back to the Lake Tahoe Airport and 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:36.959 went back to the pay phone in case they called 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:39.159 to say, like, what the heck is going on? And 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:42.240 they never did call, actually, so the money drop never happened. 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:46.000 I wonder. The FED takes off and he's got the 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:49.320 other FED behind him hiding with a gun, and he's like, hey, 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:51.159 how do you think this guy knows how far we're 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:53.720 going to be in fifteen minutes? And the other FED 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:59.040 went beats me, and that's exactly what happened. Uh. And 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:00.680 it's at this point in the store where we will 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:05.119 introduce you to the guy behind the whole thing, uh, 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:07.360 And we'll learn more about him later. But his name 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:12.680 was John Waldo Burgess, Sr. And that was one of 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:15.199 the key mistakes he made. He kind of botched this 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:20.159 money drop because he, uh, he should have said miles, 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:22.640 like fly so many miles or fly to this destination. 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:26.199 He just said fly for fifteen minutes uh, and I 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:28.159 don't know if he put at like at an average 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:32.240 rate of speed for your helicopter. Right. But the long 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:34.520 insure of it is they didn't know after he had 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:36.520 flown fifteen and that's exactly where he was going to 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:39.439 end up. And they were like, well that stinks. And 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:42.560 this is after they had forgotten the battery to the 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:46.920 Strobe light. Right, they left it in Fresno. They eventually 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:49.560 got one. Yeah, they left it at their at their place. 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:52.360 They eventually got one. Uh. They tried to break into 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:54.440 an autopod store to get one and got chased off, 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:57.240 and then got one at a shell station. So they 0:19:57.280 --> 0:19:59.840 had the Strobe. But by the time all this happens, 0:19:59.840 --> 0:20:02.560 they don't even know where the helicopter is now. And 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:05.639 that shell station also has its own hilarious story because 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:07.840 the gas station attendant they were trying to buy the 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:12.119 battery from basically was like, why no, you need this 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:14.359 kind of battery for the Volvo that you have parked 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:18.000 outside that you're driving there, Like it doesn't matter what 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:20.239 kind of battery is for. He's like, well, yeah it does, 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:23.159 because Volvo won't take any battery. And they finally I 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:26.399 guess convinced him to just sell them a battery. And 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:28.440 he's like, fine, I guess that you're gonna find out 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:31.120 yourself that it's not gonna work. And they finally drove off. 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:34.240 That's how they got the battery. But they made it 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:37.600 to that drop point, which was twenty five miles away 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:41.960 from the airport, and um, they sat there and waited 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:45.040 and waited and waited and waited and waited. No helicopter. 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:47.520 No helicopter came. And the reason why is because they 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:50.840 were separated, separated by so many miles. They couldn't even 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:53.120 hear the helicopter where it was. It was so far 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:56.199 away from where they were at the drop site. All right, 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:59.880 so this is botched. Back at the the bomb side 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:03.119 the casino, this a full on party is going on 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:05.280 because it's a casino and people are just out of 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:08.639 their minds at those places. So the barricades are set up, 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:12.280 people are selling T shirts. I got bombed at Lake Tahoe. 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:15.560 I had a dynamite time at Lake Tahoe. Like that's 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:20.080 how quickly this thing was moving. And the bomb squad 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:22.800 team said, all right, here's what I think we should do. 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:25.480 Like they called this and they said, if we flip 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:29.040 switched number five. Then it'll buy some more time because 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:31.800 this thing isn't playing out quite right. But I don't 0:21:31.800 --> 0:21:34.040 know if I trust that no one volunteered to flick 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:37.280 that switch like they felt basically, we should go on 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:40.119 our own, like with our own gut feeling on how 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:44.080 to do this, which is too basically blow this box apart, 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:49.399 but do it so quickly that it severs the relay switch, 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:53.400 like before the signal can reach the dynamite. Yeah, which 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:55.760 is pretty fast. And it was possible. They had They 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:57.879 had some of like the greatest minds in the United 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:01.760 States who knew about bombs working on this problem, and 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:04.240 they designed a charge especially for this, and it was 0:22:04.320 --> 0:22:08.080 built and brought to the site and put up and 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:13.239