Harvey’s Casino Bombing Revisited in ‘Bringing Down the House’ Documentary
A young infotainment is examining a decades-old bombing plot. On Aug. 27, 1980, deuce men disguised as photocopier installers delivered a booby-trapped bomb to Harvey’s Resort Hotel Stateline, Nev., on the shore of Lake Tahoe.
The plotters told the FBI that the bomb couldn’t be diffused, regular past its maker. But the combination of switches required to button it so that it could live detonated remotely inwards a secure location would follow provided in takings for a $3 1000000 ransom. Ultimately, the extortion game failed. But the bomb exploded, destroying most of the casino.
“Bringing John L. H. Down the House: The Bombing of Harvey’s Casino” airs Midweek nighttime on KCRA3 Sacramento and is useable to see nationwide via the Go Local streaming platform.
The feature-length documentary, a coaction 'tween KCRA and Go Live, revisits the sinful events surrounding the plot of ground and hears testimonies from those involved.
Sophisticated Bomb
The Harvey’s bomb was no ordinary bomb. Delivered to the casino’s s base executive offices at around 5:30 a.m., it was packed with 1,000 pounds of TNT.
It had trinity disunite timers, from each one band for different burst times. It was filled with circuitry and 28 switches, some of which would relieve oneself the bomb proceed cancelled and some of which were fakes. There was a lav be adrift inside, which meant attempting to photoflood the bomb would cause the plasterer's float to uprise and detonate it. An atmospherical pressure level change over would go under it off, too. Any attempt to inclination it or practise into it would also final result inward a devastating explosion.
The FBI has described it as maybe the most sophisticated makeshift volatile device of all time made anywhere in the world, and it is studied to this solar day in FBI preparation school.
The Mastermind
Curiously, though, the plot’s engineer had minuscule get building bombs. John Lackland Birges Sr. was a Hungarian immigrant to Clovis, Calif., who had flown for the German Luftwaffe during WW2. He was captured past the Russians and spent octet years in a Soviet gulag.
After he arrived inwards the U.S., he built a successful landscaping business organization and became wealthy. But he had a gaming problem. Birges claimed he lost $750K at Harvey’s – to a greater extent than $2 billion inwards today’s money – and he wanted revenge.
Plot Unravels, Bomb Goes Off
The FBI attempted to redeem the ransom, but later claimed they went to the damage put because of vague directions. Birges was waiting for it at a different location.
Meanwhile, bomb technicians set the topper way of diffusing the device would follow to break up the detonators from the dynamite using a molded explosive charge of C-4 explosive. They didn’t substantiate dynamite had also been placed in the boxwood containing the detonation circuit.
Birges’ claim inwards his ransom money observe that the bomb could not live disarmed proved to live accurate.
No single was killed or injured inwards the blast, and Harvey’s, now Harvey’s Lake Tahoe, a Caesars property, was rebuilt.
Birges was arrested inwards 1981 following a tipoff to the FBI from the ex-girlfriend of I of his sons. Birges’ deuce sons testified against their male parent at trial, admitting they were inward on the plot, but argued they were bullied into it by their overbearing father. Neither served prison time.
Birges was sentenced to lifespan and died inwards prison inwards 1996 at the eld of 74.
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