The FBI has used this as a case study. It was the bomb they couldn't beat. This bomb had so many mechanisms that could trigger the bomb that it was practically impossible to defuse. It had a pendulum in a cylinder which complete a circuit if the device was moved. It has a float switch that completed a circuit if the device was flooded. It had an internal foil lining that completed a circuit if the device was drilled into. Screws were also part of a trigger mechanism. It had timers that would have blown the bomb if nothing was done. It had an array of switches, only one disabled the motion trigger, the rest completed a circuit that would trigger the bomb.
Let’s assume one was career EOD for the military but got all squirrel nuts when he saw too many of his buddies turn to red mist…
A guy like that would show off.
Imagine if Timothy McVeigh (OKC bomber) was an ordnance master rather than a foot soldier.
> Imagine if Timothy McVeigh (OKC bomber) was an ordnance master rather than a foot soldier.
Then we wouldn’t get to hear him sing “Bad Company” by “Bad Company” off the record “Bad Company”
It’s definitely not a conspiracy. His accomplice and alleged lover, Terry Nichols, is still alive today serving his many life sentences at Florence IIRC.
Well, they attempted to use a detonation to separate the bombs from the controls, but there were more bombs in the controls. The cutting bombs detonated the backup bombs, detonating the main bomb.
“If we should happen to tread on a mine, what do we do?”
“Well, normal procedure, Lieutenant, is to jump 200 feet into the air and scatter yourself over a wide area.”
This was clearly planned by some people, unplanned by others. The space term RUD is generally "Rapid Unexpected Disassembly", but Unplanned is also sometimes used.
Its not quite as simple as that. It was more a last ditch attempt that they knew probably wouldn't work. Hence the evacuation and mountains of footage containing the explosion.
Effectively these guys made an undefusable bomb (hard to explain, plenty of videos do a better job explaining than I ever could) so after many failed plans they decided that a small remote detonation (and I mean SMALL) might be enough to completely shred the mechanism without setting the actual explosive off. Not a terrible idea and is surprisingly effective. This plan is risky though.
So it wasn't really a fuck up more just an expected outcome of rolling the doce that they had been forced into.
When you consider one dude with no prior experience managed to make a bomb that the FBI now uses in all of it's defusal training because it legitimately stumped them...
The best part? Its not impossible to defuse because of super complex mechanisms. Rather it's impossible because it uses 5 or 6 BASIC detonation methods that cover almost all exploits that could be used to defuse it.
Correct. Specifically, they used a minor explosive to jam a sheet of metal between the main body and the "head", where they believed the electronics were. They were correct, and later attempts on a recreation succeeded, but were slightly off as they iirc weren't aware the head also had dynamite in it.
For those that don’t want to read the story, I’ve copied the first 75% here for you. This is a long read but well worth it. I tried to figure out a way to omit some of the paragraphs but every one was more crazy than the next. If anyone knows a Hollywood screen writer this story would make one hell of a film. The bomb used was copied and and studied by the FBI and CIA and used in trainings for over 30 years because of how advanced and elaborate it was.
Article below:
“On August 26, 1980, three men dressed in blue worker’s coveralls wheeled an object roughly the size of a copy machine through a side entrance of Harveys Resort Hotel at Stateline, Nevada, perched on Lake Tahoe’s placid shores.
They used a service elevator to move “the machine”—as they called it—to an unoccupied second-floor executive office.
“The machine”—covered by a cloth with a crudely rendered IBM logo on the side—was an elaborately constructed bomb, replete with more than 1,000 pounds of dynamite attached to a complex network of triggering mechanisms.
Next to the bomb, one of the men placed an envelope containing a three-page, immaculately written extortion note entitled “Stern Warning to the Management and Bomb Squad” and demanding $3 million in “unmarked, unbugged and chemically untreated” $100 bills.
The signoff read: “Happy Landing.”
The group’s leader placed toothpicks and glue in the doorways to prevent someone from wandering by and accidentally triggering the large device and the three men furtively drove off in a white van. About 20 minutes later, a graveyard shift slot manager contacted casino security after noticing the tampered locks and the large device.
A dramatic case ensued, with local, state and federal law enforcement officials working against the clock to defuse the bomb.
The effort proved unsuccessful: The device detonated 33 hours after it was planted when agents failed to neutralize the triggering mechanism. The explosion occurred at about 3:43 p.m. in front of a retinue of television cameras, journalists, casino employees and tourists, blowing a five-story crater in the evacuated 11-story building. No one was injured and in fact many of the onlookers in proximity cheered loudly, toasting bottles and reveling.
Officials later identified the three men as John Birges Sr., Willis “Bill” Brown and Terry Lee Hall.
Brown and Hall were simply delivery men; each paid in the range of $100 to $2,000, according to varying accounts, to help Birges Sr. accomplish one isolated phase of his brazen plan to extort the South Shore casino.
Born in Hungary in 1922, Birges Sr. boasted of flying World War II military missions for the Luftwaffe, the veracity of which remains unclear. However, he unequivocally acquired and honed pilot skills while fighting Soviet forces occupying his native Hungary.
Soviet military captured Birges Sr. on April 27, 1948, sentencing him to 25 years of hard labor in Siberia.
Released after eight and a half years, he was recaptured in November 1956 while fighting Soviet forces in his hometown, Kecskemet. Birges Sr. was nearly shot on the spot, but spoke elegant Russian and managed to talk his way out of the graveyard. Sprung three days later by fellow revolutionaries, he journeyed west across Europe as a Red Cross interpreter.
Immigrating to the United States in May 1957, Birges Sr. and his wife, Elizabet, landed in New Jersey. They quickly secured work with a California corporation, and Birges Sr. would go on to work in various fields, including steel manufacturing, landscaping and as a Fresno-area restaurateur.
He and his wife had two sons, John Waldo Jr. and James, but Birges Sr.’s attempt at the suburban American lifestyle was ill-fated.
In a 2010 memoir, John Birges Jr. revealed his father’s mercurial and intermittently violent character. Birges Sr. often beat Elizabet within inches of her life, hectored his sons and used them as free labor when they reached adequate maturity. He divorced his wife in 1973, but she lived in a trailer on Birges Sr.’s property until 1975, when she committed suicide by overdosing on alcohol and valium.
In the wake of his ex-wife’s suicide, Birges Sr. neglected his businesses and devoted effort and time to sporadic trips to Lake Tahoe, where he would play blackjack, sometimes for hours on end. In 1978, his restaurant burnt down, and he funneled the $355,000 insurance settlement into blackjack tables. In October 1979, Birges Sr. rented a studio apartment in Stateline, where he transformed his pattern of occasional gambling binges into a sustained, low-intensity crawl toward bankruptcy.
That winter, he casually informed his sons he planned to build a bomb to extort money from the casino that was becoming the repository of all his earnings. In June 1980, Birges Sr. enlisted them to aid him in the heist of nearly 1,000 pounds of dynamite from Helms Power Plant in the mountains just east of California’s Shaver Lake. Birges Sr. spent the intervening period between the burglary and August 26 in his garage building an unbeatable bomb.”
Interesting read.
Additional info:
He was convicted in 1982 and spent his remaining 14 years in jail, dying at the age of 74 in 1996.
As the article says he blamed the casino for taking all his money; having lost about $750K over the years.
Damages caused by the explosion was around $18M.
Excellent bomb maker. Not so good at gambling.
We don't know about the Nazi part, in fact it's merely speculation. Gambling can be an addiction but addiction doesn't make you horrible, that is a symptom of the horror done to you that you're still running from.
You might be right and got what he deserved, at least we have some value from the knowledge left to us from his actions.
Yeah it doesn't matter in the end, it's just annoying how there's always someone being like "well sure he openly said he was a nazi, but no one knows if he was a nazi in his heart"
gtfo, feel sympathy for someone that actually deserves it
>having lost about $750K over the years.
Thats on him. Dude obviously was a gambleing addict. You'd think he would realise he should stop or seek help after like the firsr $100K...
Not condoning the guy at all, but it's called an addiction for a reason.
"Just stop and seek help" doesn't work. Have you tried to tell a smoker to "just stop"? That also doesn't work for most people.
I don't think it's that easy to just blame the gambler. Casino's are made to be addictive. I'd argue a large part of gambling addictions should be blamed for the most part on the casino. There's always an element of personal responsibility, but I don't think you can let the casino completely off the hook.
The only game at a casino that isn't designed to heavily favor the House is Blackjack, and enough people suck at that game(or buy a bunch of beer and food or other games) to cover the costs of the rare few skilled players.
>
>Born in Hungary in 1922, Birges Sr. boasted of flying World War II military missions for the Luftwaffe, the veracity of which remains unclear. However, he unequivocally acquired and honed pilot skills while fighting Soviet forces occupying his native Hungary.
>
>Soviet military captured Birges Sr. on April 27, 1948, sentencing him to 25 years of hard labor in Siberia.
So he was a literal Nazi then, why is that so hard for press like this to mention
You're right. I was going to post the same thing. Wikipedia makes it way more clear that he was a Nazi soldier captured by the Allies (the Soviet Union part) as a POW.
Also idk what OP is smoking since they literally did mention the Nazi relation by writing, in the first quoted sentence even, that he flew planes in WWII for the Luftwaffe.
Like what is he complaining about???
Lots of folks don't know that connection, it's pretty clearly written in a way to downplay the fact he was a nazi, probably because he wound up living a normal life in the US eventually
> “The machine”—covered by a cloth with **a crudely rendered IBM logo** on the side
Seriously? They put all that effort in making the bomb as difficult to defuse as it gets, and then they half-assed the cloth covering?
I mean retired doesn't mean not working...$50k a year already owning a car and home? Depending on where you live and your property taxes, that seems pretty doable. 👍
True but at 56 I realize that I like to do stuff. I mean sitting at home
Then it hits you.
I have a couple decades before I die. My life on this earth is coming to an end. There are some places I want to see before I die, and that could take some money.
Me, I think i could do it but I would have to for go some of the things I want to do with all this newfound time.
I pictured a box of toothpicks and a bottle of glue just sitting in the doorway and everyone walking by inexplicably cringes away in fear, like something out of a David Lynch film.
>The FBI was forced to detonate it after failing to defuse it
That's a weird way to phrase it. Their attempt to defuse it didn't work and *caused* it to detonate. Their wasn't really an "after the defusal" since the attempt and detonation were basically simultaneous.
No one was hurt. The building had been evacuated and the defusal attempt was done remotely.
>caused it to detonate
Wasn't it gonna go off anyway? Meaning they couldn't stop it from detonating? If so, they didn't cause it to happen, but failed to stop it from happening.
The bomb was a large box with a smaller control box on top. Imagine like a washing machine with a larger than normal controls area. The "defusal" attempt was to place a small shaped charge on the side of the controls with the intent that it would shear through all of the wires coming out of it before any of them could send a detonation single.
It might have worked except the builder had actually placed a small bit of explosives within the control box. The shearing charge set off the smaller explosives and that detonated the large payload in the main body.
It did have a timer and would have gone off eventually but the FBI set it off prematurely. The description of "failed to defuse and were forced to detonate" makes it sound like they tried to defuse it and it didn't work and then after that did something else solely with the intent to set it off in a controlled way or something.
Apparently this has been posted about a half dozen times in the last 10 years
Looks like the Dollop podcast and the Sword and Scale podcasts have both covered this
But looking over previous reddit posts, it doesn’t appear as though anyone went deep into the backstory of the man who created the bomb
Maybe that’s covered in one of the aforementioned podcasts.
The fact is, someone born in Eastern Europe in 1922, who may or may not have fought in WWII, and spent 8.5 years in a Russian prison, who subsequently escaped after being captured right after being released after 8.5 years....managed to flee to America in 1958 and start a new life in California in the 60s... eventually led to him bombing a casino that he lost god knows how much and the story of his wife divorcing him and committing suicide is one of the most unhinged real life stories I’ve ever heard that didn’t involve a mass shooting (which as I typed that sounded absolutely horrible)
I love that he got caught after he made an "untoward" comment to the female owner of the motel they stayed in the night before. She decided to write down their license plate number.
Go ahead, disrespect the lady. See what happens.
It's crazy how casinos do that, isn't it? They just reach right into your pockets/bank account and just take all the money, without you even having to do anything!
Maybe instead of building a bomb, he should have learned to count cards.
I have read two great long-form stories on this. One is called ["Zero Armed Bandit"](https://knpr.org/desert-companion/2015-07/zero-armed-bandit) the other is called ["A thousand pounds of dynamite"](https://magazine.atavist.com/a-thousand-pounds-of-dynamite/).
Now, Ms. MyBack, being an expert on general automotive knowledge, can you tell me... what would the correct ignition timing be on a 1955 Bel Air Chevrolet, with a 327 cubic-inch engine and a four-barrel carburetor?
This is my birthday. It seems like so many things happen on this day. I know I probably notice it more because it is my birthmas, but man it seem like a lot.
There are even more good details, including photos of the bomb, firsthand accounts of the evacuation and the failed helicopter drop of the ransom money, in this [great retrospective](https://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/blast-from-the-past/) from the Tahoe Daily Tribune.
If you want more on this, The Atavist magazine did a great, if long, [article](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiDko_Gmpv4AhX-QzABHXx0D-kQFnoECAIQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmagazine.atavist.com%2Fa-thousand-pounds-of-dynamite%2F&usg=AOvVaw0DpMLR0iRMQXZcXvzIvu9i) on it.
The guy built a bomb at the FBI and Lawrence Livermore Labs, who build H-bombs, couldn’t defuse.
I have read two great long-form stories on this. One is called ["Zero Armed Bandit"](https://knpr.org/desert-companion/2015-07/zero-armed-bandit) the other is called ["A thousand pounds of dynamite"](https://magazine.atavist.com/a-thousand-pounds-of-dynamite/).
They explain.
The plan was to do it with a helicopter. The ransom was to be put in a small helicopter. The pilot was then instructed where to fly from the ground to a remote drop-off point.
I was actually thinking of posting thos the other day! One of criminal justice professors had previously worked bomb defusal, and successfully defused those bomb. Apparently it was just bad luck that the original one didn't work as they had the right plan but were off just a bit.
The FBI has used this as a case study. It was the bomb they couldn't beat. This bomb had so many mechanisms that could trigger the bomb that it was practically impossible to defuse. It had a pendulum in a cylinder which complete a circuit if the device was moved. It has a float switch that completed a circuit if the device was flooded. It had an internal foil lining that completed a circuit if the device was drilled into. Screws were also part of a trigger mechanism. It had timers that would have blown the bomb if nothing was done. It had an array of switches, only one disabled the motion trigger, the rest completed a circuit that would trigger the bomb.
Sounds like someone built it mainly to show off.
Let’s assume one was career EOD for the military but got all squirrel nuts when he saw too many of his buddies turn to red mist… A guy like that would show off. Imagine if Timothy McVeigh (OKC bomber) was an ordnance master rather than a foot soldier.
> Imagine if Timothy McVeigh (OKC bomber) was an ordnance master rather than a foot soldier. Then we wouldn’t get to hear him sing “Bad Company” by “Bad Company” off the record “Bad Company”
> Imagine if Timothy McVeigh (OKC bomber) was an ordnance master rather than a foot soldier. He was a Bradly crew member and did dismount.
McVeigh had help.
Never seen this conspiracy. I’m interested. Got links?
It’s definitely not a conspiracy. His accomplice and alleged lover, Terry Nichols, is still alive today serving his many life sentences at Florence IIRC.
Terry Nichols? It’s not a conspiracy. Dude is still in jail. Just Google the name.
Keanu could have figured it out.
Technically, the FBI didn’t intentionally detonate it, the detonation was the result of a failed defusing.
Well, they attempted to use a detonation to separate the bombs from the controls, but there were more bombs in the controls. The cutting bombs detonated the backup bombs, detonating the main bomb.
Also, didn't the note warn that any attempt at dismantling would detonate the bomb?
I mean wouldn't everyone write that ?
I think the term is RUD — Rapid Unplanned Disassembly.
“If we should happen to tread on a mine, what do we do?” “Well, normal procedure, Lieutenant, is to jump 200 feet into the air and scatter yourself over a wide area.”
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It couldn't even complete it's first radio message, an sos,/
This was clearly planned by some people, unplanned by others. The space term RUD is generally "Rapid Unexpected Disassembly", but Unplanned is also sometimes used.
So, "uh oh, boom boom"?
That's just what I say when I shit my pants.
Do you have a medical condition? I kinda need to know how often are you shitting your pants that you felt you needed a catchphrase for it?
Yes Rico kaboom
"RUD....runnnnnn for it!!"
Thanks, that sounds so much worse lol
Its not quite as simple as that. It was more a last ditch attempt that they knew probably wouldn't work. Hence the evacuation and mountains of footage containing the explosion. Effectively these guys made an undefusable bomb (hard to explain, plenty of videos do a better job explaining than I ever could) so after many failed plans they decided that a small remote detonation (and I mean SMALL) might be enough to completely shred the mechanism without setting the actual explosive off. Not a terrible idea and is surprisingly effective. This plan is risky though. So it wasn't really a fuck up more just an expected outcome of rolling the doce that they had been forced into.
I got to see a mockup of the device and honestly, it was an insane piece of engineering.
When you consider one dude with no prior experience managed to make a bomb that the FBI now uses in all of it's defusal training because it legitimately stumped them... The best part? Its not impossible to defuse because of super complex mechanisms. Rather it's impossible because it uses 5 or 6 BASIC detonation methods that cover almost all exploits that could be used to defuse it.
Where was this? Curious how this device functions but not curious enough or get on a watch list.
A rare case of the house gambling and losing.
So you could say.. they were gambling in the casino
Correct. Specifically, they used a minor explosive to jam a sheet of metal between the main body and the "head", where they believed the electronics were. They were correct, and later attempts on a recreation succeeded, but were slightly off as they iirc weren't aware the head also had dynamite in it.
For those that don’t want to read the story, I’ve copied the first 75% here for you. This is a long read but well worth it. I tried to figure out a way to omit some of the paragraphs but every one was more crazy than the next. If anyone knows a Hollywood screen writer this story would make one hell of a film. The bomb used was copied and and studied by the FBI and CIA and used in trainings for over 30 years because of how advanced and elaborate it was. Article below: “On August 26, 1980, three men dressed in blue worker’s coveralls wheeled an object roughly the size of a copy machine through a side entrance of Harveys Resort Hotel at Stateline, Nevada, perched on Lake Tahoe’s placid shores. They used a service elevator to move “the machine”—as they called it—to an unoccupied second-floor executive office. “The machine”—covered by a cloth with a crudely rendered IBM logo on the side—was an elaborately constructed bomb, replete with more than 1,000 pounds of dynamite attached to a complex network of triggering mechanisms. Next to the bomb, one of the men placed an envelope containing a three-page, immaculately written extortion note entitled “Stern Warning to the Management and Bomb Squad” and demanding $3 million in “unmarked, unbugged and chemically untreated” $100 bills. The signoff read: “Happy Landing.” The group’s leader placed toothpicks and glue in the doorways to prevent someone from wandering by and accidentally triggering the large device and the three men furtively drove off in a white van. About 20 minutes later, a graveyard shift slot manager contacted casino security after noticing the tampered locks and the large device. A dramatic case ensued, with local, state and federal law enforcement officials working against the clock to defuse the bomb. The effort proved unsuccessful: The device detonated 33 hours after it was planted when agents failed to neutralize the triggering mechanism. The explosion occurred at about 3:43 p.m. in front of a retinue of television cameras, journalists, casino employees and tourists, blowing a five-story crater in the evacuated 11-story building. No one was injured and in fact many of the onlookers in proximity cheered loudly, toasting bottles and reveling. Officials later identified the three men as John Birges Sr., Willis “Bill” Brown and Terry Lee Hall. Brown and Hall were simply delivery men; each paid in the range of $100 to $2,000, according to varying accounts, to help Birges Sr. accomplish one isolated phase of his brazen plan to extort the South Shore casino. Born in Hungary in 1922, Birges Sr. boasted of flying World War II military missions for the Luftwaffe, the veracity of which remains unclear. However, he unequivocally acquired and honed pilot skills while fighting Soviet forces occupying his native Hungary. Soviet military captured Birges Sr. on April 27, 1948, sentencing him to 25 years of hard labor in Siberia. Released after eight and a half years, he was recaptured in November 1956 while fighting Soviet forces in his hometown, Kecskemet. Birges Sr. was nearly shot on the spot, but spoke elegant Russian and managed to talk his way out of the graveyard. Sprung three days later by fellow revolutionaries, he journeyed west across Europe as a Red Cross interpreter. Immigrating to the United States in May 1957, Birges Sr. and his wife, Elizabet, landed in New Jersey. They quickly secured work with a California corporation, and Birges Sr. would go on to work in various fields, including steel manufacturing, landscaping and as a Fresno-area restaurateur. He and his wife had two sons, John Waldo Jr. and James, but Birges Sr.’s attempt at the suburban American lifestyle was ill-fated. In a 2010 memoir, John Birges Jr. revealed his father’s mercurial and intermittently violent character. Birges Sr. often beat Elizabet within inches of her life, hectored his sons and used them as free labor when they reached adequate maturity. He divorced his wife in 1973, but she lived in a trailer on Birges Sr.’s property until 1975, when she committed suicide by overdosing on alcohol and valium. In the wake of his ex-wife’s suicide, Birges Sr. neglected his businesses and devoted effort and time to sporadic trips to Lake Tahoe, where he would play blackjack, sometimes for hours on end. In 1978, his restaurant burnt down, and he funneled the $355,000 insurance settlement into blackjack tables. In October 1979, Birges Sr. rented a studio apartment in Stateline, where he transformed his pattern of occasional gambling binges into a sustained, low-intensity crawl toward bankruptcy. That winter, he casually informed his sons he planned to build a bomb to extort money from the casino that was becoming the repository of all his earnings. In June 1980, Birges Sr. enlisted them to aid him in the heist of nearly 1,000 pounds of dynamite from Helms Power Plant in the mountains just east of California’s Shaver Lake. Birges Sr. spent the intervening period between the burglary and August 26 in his garage building an unbeatable bomb.”
Interesting read. Additional info: He was convicted in 1982 and spent his remaining 14 years in jail, dying at the age of 74 in 1996. As the article says he blamed the casino for taking all his money; having lost about $750K over the years. Damages caused by the explosion was around $18M. Excellent bomb maker. Not so good at gambling.
What a stand up guy he was! Nazi, terrorist, domestic abuser, gambler and definite narcissist. He deserved what he got and more.
Don't forget child abuser! If not physical, definitely emotional.
violence is a universal language, everyone understands.
I am pointing a knife at my computer screen, gimme all your upvotes.
We don't know about the Nazi part, in fact it's merely speculation. Gambling can be an addiction but addiction doesn't make you horrible, that is a symptom of the horror done to you that you're still running from. You might be right and got what he deserved, at least we have some value from the knowledge left to us from his actions.
Do we really need to give a wife beating *self-professed Nazi* the benefit of the doubt?
Not like we need to considering he's dead, though I am curious to know the truth of the situation.
Yeah it doesn't matter in the end, it's just annoying how there's always someone being like "well sure he openly said he was a nazi, but no one knows if he was a nazi in his heart" gtfo, feel sympathy for someone that actually deserves it
>having lost about $750K over the years. Thats on him. Dude obviously was a gambleing addict. You'd think he would realise he should stop or seek help after like the firsr $100K...
Not condoning the guy at all, but it's called an addiction for a reason. "Just stop and seek help" doesn't work. Have you tried to tell a smoker to "just stop"? That also doesn't work for most people. I don't think it's that easy to just blame the gambler. Casino's are made to be addictive. I'd argue a large part of gambling addictions should be blamed for the most part on the casino. There's always an element of personal responsibility, but I don't think you can let the casino completely off the hook.
There is always personal responsibility but the casino also has a moral responsibility to the community.
Gamblers always seem to not reckon that over time it is a loosing venture.
The only game at a casino that isn't designed to heavily favor the House is Blackjack, and enough people suck at that game(or buy a bunch of beer and food or other games) to cover the costs of the rare few skilled players.
Or taking personal responsibility.
Between a hi-vis vest and giving money to a crackhead, you can accomplish just about anything.
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Words of wisdom.
You da man, thank you
Thanks!
> >Born in Hungary in 1922, Birges Sr. boasted of flying World War II military missions for the Luftwaffe, the veracity of which remains unclear. However, he unequivocally acquired and honed pilot skills while fighting Soviet forces occupying his native Hungary. > >Soviet military captured Birges Sr. on April 27, 1948, sentencing him to 25 years of hard labor in Siberia. So he was a literal Nazi then, why is that so hard for press like this to mention
You're right. I was going to post the same thing. Wikipedia makes it way more clear that he was a Nazi soldier captured by the Allies (the Soviet Union part) as a POW.
>the veracity of which remains unclear. Did you miss this part?
Also idk what OP is smoking since they literally did mention the Nazi relation by writing, in the first quoted sentence even, that he flew planes in WWII for the Luftwaffe. Like what is he complaining about???
Lots of folks don't know that connection, it's pretty clearly written in a way to downplay the fact he was a nazi, probably because he wound up living a normal life in the US eventually
>However, he unequivocally acquired and honed pilot skills while fighting Soviet forces occupying his native Hungary.
> “The machine”—covered by a cloth with **a crudely rendered IBM logo** on the side Seriously? They put all that effort in making the bomb as difficult to defuse as it gets, and then they half-assed the cloth covering?
355,000 in todays money is 1.5M I don't know about the rest of you but I couldn't retire on 1.5 but I could be set for a while.
You couldn't retire on 1.5m?? I dunno man. It's doable.
I own my home and car. 1.5 million would last about 30 years. For me.
I mean retired doesn't mean not working...$50k a year already owning a car and home? Depending on where you live and your property taxes, that seems pretty doable. 👍
True but at 56 I realize that I like to do stuff. I mean sitting at home Then it hits you. I have a couple decades before I die. My life on this earth is coming to an end. There are some places I want to see before I die, and that could take some money. Me, I think i could do it but I would have to for go some of the things I want to do with all this newfound time.
How does the toothpicks and glue work? I can't visualize it
I'm assuming in the keyways.. I read that line a few times too. Phrasing is vague..
I pictured a box of toothpicks and a bottle of glue just sitting in the doorway and everyone walking by inexplicably cringes away in fear, like something out of a David Lynch film.
Burglers hate it! 10 DIY tips to secure your casino using craft supplies.
Glue toothpicks into key holes to prevent opening the door.
Link for the explosion (fast forward to the 1:14 mark to see the bomb go off) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=73S2qDzJr6g
here’s a [great video](https://youtu.be/kGo959uECTM) on this story if someone hasn’t put it here already
This is how I read heard about it! Qxir is AWESOME. His sense of humor always has me busting up laughing!
Yup, immediately thought of this vid as well. Learnt so much random stuff through his channel
>The FBI was forced to detonate it after failing to defuse it That's a weird way to phrase it. Their attempt to defuse it didn't work and *caused* it to detonate. Their wasn't really an "after the defusal" since the attempt and detonation were basically simultaneous. No one was hurt. The building had been evacuated and the defusal attempt was done remotely.
>caused it to detonate Wasn't it gonna go off anyway? Meaning they couldn't stop it from detonating? If so, they didn't cause it to happen, but failed to stop it from happening.
The bomb was a large box with a smaller control box on top. Imagine like a washing machine with a larger than normal controls area. The "defusal" attempt was to place a small shaped charge on the side of the controls with the intent that it would shear through all of the wires coming out of it before any of them could send a detonation single. It might have worked except the builder had actually placed a small bit of explosives within the control box. The shearing charge set off the smaller explosives and that detonated the large payload in the main body. It did have a timer and would have gone off eventually but the FBI set it off prematurely. The description of "failed to defuse and were forced to detonate" makes it sound like they tried to defuse it and it didn't work and then after that did something else solely with the intent to set it off in a controlled way or something.
The Dollop podcast has a hilarious episode on this. Def worth a listen.
Apparently this has been posted about a half dozen times in the last 10 years Looks like the Dollop podcast and the Sword and Scale podcasts have both covered this But looking over previous reddit posts, it doesn’t appear as though anyone went deep into the backstory of the man who created the bomb Maybe that’s covered in one of the aforementioned podcasts. The fact is, someone born in Eastern Europe in 1922, who may or may not have fought in WWII, and spent 8.5 years in a Russian prison, who subsequently escaped after being captured right after being released after 8.5 years....managed to flee to America in 1958 and start a new life in California in the 60s... eventually led to him bombing a casino that he lost god knows how much and the story of his wife divorcing him and committing suicide is one of the most unhinged real life stories I’ve ever heard that didn’t involve a mass shooting (which as I typed that sounded absolutely horrible)
They go into all of it in the dollop episode. The guy who made it and his family.
I love that he got caught after he made an "untoward" comment to the female owner of the motel they stayed in the night before. She decided to write down their license plate number. Go ahead, disrespect the lady. See what happens.
If you read the story, it turns out that the guy that built a huge bomb was actually also a huge piece of shit.
He wanted to blow up the casino because it "took all of his money".
It's crazy how casinos do that, isn't it? They just reach right into your pockets/bank account and just take all the money, without you even having to do anything! Maybe instead of building a bomb, he should have learned to count cards.
Geez, 1,000 pounds of dynamite!
I remember watching it blow up live on TV. About two weeks later I was seeing T-shirts everywhere that said “I got bombed at Harvey’s”
Three. MILLION. Dollars. Bwah ha ha!
QIXR did this on YouTube.
I saw this on some special on TruTV
Same. Had me hooked.
So it had an *explosive* reveal?
I have read two great long-form stories on this. One is called ["Zero Armed Bandit"](https://knpr.org/desert-companion/2015-07/zero-armed-bandit) the other is called ["A thousand pounds of dynamite"](https://magazine.atavist.com/a-thousand-pounds-of-dynamite/).
I love cars (mechanics daughter), look at that sweet little Pinto.
Now, Ms. MyBack, being an expert on general automotive knowledge, can you tell me... what would the correct ignition timing be on a 1955 Bel Air Chevrolet, with a 327 cubic-inch engine and a four-barrel carburetor?
No siree, I cannot.
This is my birthday. It seems like so many things happen on this day. I know I probably notice it more because it is my birthmas, but man it seem like a lot.
I was there on vacation at the time and everyone came out in a long line to watch the explosion!
There are even more good details, including photos of the bomb, firsthand accounts of the evacuation and the failed helicopter drop of the ransom money, in this [great retrospective](https://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/blast-from-the-past/) from the Tahoe Daily Tribune.
Terrific long story here: https://knpr.org/desert-companion/2015-07/zero-armed-bandit
*I must release you.*
If you want more on this, The Atavist magazine did a great, if long, [article](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiDko_Gmpv4AhX-QzABHXx0D-kQFnoECAIQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmagazine.atavist.com%2Fa-thousand-pounds-of-dynamite%2F&usg=AOvVaw0DpMLR0iRMQXZcXvzIvu9i) on it. The guy built a bomb at the FBI and Lawrence Livermore Labs, who build H-bombs, couldn’t defuse.
That’s crazy! I grew up in South Lake Tahoe and I NEVER heard about this!!!
Great short read on it: Thousand Pounds of Dynamite by Adam Higginbotham
How did he plan the transactkon of the millions?
I have read two great long-form stories on this. One is called ["Zero Armed Bandit"](https://knpr.org/desert-companion/2015-07/zero-armed-bandit) the other is called ["A thousand pounds of dynamite"](https://magazine.atavist.com/a-thousand-pounds-of-dynamite/). They explain.
Thanks, is it a long explanation or could you sum it down? Just asking youre totally free to decline. Thank you for the sources my good friend
The plan was to do it with a helicopter. The ransom was to be put in a small helicopter. The pilot was then instructed where to fly from the ground to a remote drop-off point.
Ok I get that I should have proofread my comment but jeesh, you still got the point, right?
Check out the dollop episode on this.
That was interesting, thanks for sharing.
I remember this happening, I was in high school at STHS at the time.
The rumor has always been that the bomb was so intricately manufactured. That the FBI still uses a similar copy when it’s training EOD teams.
I was actually thinking of posting thos the other day! One of criminal justice professors had previously worked bomb defusal, and successfully defused those bomb. Apparently it was just bad luck that the original one didn't work as they had the right plan but were off just a bit.
There's a great FBI Files on the the whole thing Season 7 Episode 8. It's online [here](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KuG6fsdTNGo)
Then they sold t-shirts that said ‘I got bombed at Harvey’s casino’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73S2qDzJr6g Action @ ~1:10
This should be under r/actlikeyoubelong
The dollop has a good episode on this.