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This is a Bomb The Nevada Casino Heist S01E01 The Bomb
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00:02It's something I wrestle with still to this day why I went along with something
00:09that crazy. There's a big bomb scare on the south shore of Lake Tahoe. Two men
00:15posing as computer technicians trundled a box covered with blankets lettered IBM
00:19into a casino yesterday and left the box there. This thing was a massive device
00:26that is a building killer. The whole idea was incredible. We all knew exactly what we were
00:33supposed to do. I kept it secret. I didn't tell anybody.
00:40You start doing crazy things to get attention. With the suspected bomb, a note demanding three
00:47million dollars. Three million dollars to tell how to disarm the bomb. Now the search is on for
00:53the criminals who planted it. Who are we dealing with? And why is this casino across the street
00:59the richest gambling casino in the world? I was betting against them ever getting that money.
01:08Such a far-fetched scheme. You would never think anybody would pull that off.
01:19The nightmare was just beginning. There was no way out.
01:36Tahoe was a relatively small town. Kind of a wide open atmosphere.
01:45I'm not saying, you know, there were gunfights, but you didn't have to worry about
01:51restrictions, regulations. It was an atmosphere that was related to fun.
01:57It takes a lot to drag people away from the gambling tables of state-line Nevada on the shores
02:02of Lake Tahoe, even when they're told a bomb could go off. A strange-looking device, thought at first to
02:08be a computer, was found in Harvey's Hotel Casino, along with a list of demands. Officials face two
02:14questions. Is it really a bomb? And if it is, what do they do with it?
02:24On August 26th of 1980, I got a call from the sheriff's office.
02:31I arrived at Harvey's Casino, where I was met by Captain Danny Daniels, who was the bomb squad commander.
02:42I was at home. My wife and daughter were going to go on a camping trip. The phone rang and
02:47they said
02:48that there's a device that they found at Harvey's. I threw as much stuff out of the truck as I
02:53could
02:53and drove over there. When the alarm goes off, you're called, that's what you do.
02:58I thought it'll be in a bag. It'll be in a suitcase. It'll be relatively easy. And then we walked
03:04into
03:04the second floor and it was huge.
03:11We didn't know if it was a real explosive device or not when we initially looked at it.
03:17I'd never seen anything so sinister in my life. It was absolutely frightening.
03:23But the first thing that runs through your mind is that if this container is full of explosives,
03:29you know, we're in trouble. According to police officials here,
03:33they tell us that the bomb apparently is near that particular window right up there,
03:38within 10 or 20 feet of it from what we've been told here. Along with the suspected bomb,
03:44a note which said the box held 1,000 sticks of dynamite wired and extremely sensitive.
03:51Tahoe was a thriving area with a lot of people and there were thousands of vacations in that casino.
04:00I was sound asleep at 8.30 and they came through pounding at the doors and they said that they
04:04had
04:05a security problem. They had blocked all the streets wondering what was going on.
04:09So we left everything else there and we got out of the hotel.
04:13One of the things I'm asked often is how much damage can an explosive do? How many people can it
04:19kill?
04:19It's 1,000 pounds in an open field, not going to do much. 1,000 pounds in a building,
04:24you can devastate a portion of a city.
04:28So getting those casinos closed and getting the people out of there was terribly important.
04:34Even though the hotel was evacuated, people were trying to get in.
04:38Sirius police officers weren't kidding when they kept pushing back crowds.
04:42About a dozen buses were sent in to clear the area and hotels along the strip were boarding up.
04:48In a town where people know more than a little about odds, no one is taking any chances.
04:56Once the building was secured, we got everyone out of there except for the squad.
05:00And we started setting up photographing the thing and trying to document as much as we could.
05:06So what you're trying to do is you've got a metal box of mystery.
05:09And you want to know what's inside that metal box.
05:12So the tools were limited. You have a stethoscope, you've got some x-rays.
05:16You're not going to start poking around and flipping switches. That would not be well advised.
05:21So then we started setting up to x-ray this thing.
05:26And we were able to identify some of the contents in the top box.
05:30We could see wires coming from the top box going down to the bottom box.
05:36Looking at the x-rays, ultimately we determined that this was the real thing.
05:42Holy shit, this is real.
05:44That's a bomb.
05:47Demolitions experts have been working to decide just how they can best disarm the device,
05:51which they say is definitely a bomb.
05:55The best possible situation in working with bombs is distance.
06:00You want to move the device.
06:03You know, we had dealt with smaller devices and been successful.
06:07But, you know, when I saw the size of it and the switches and everything,
06:11and the fact that there were bullseye bubbling levels on every corner.
06:15We realized right then that we were not going to move this device.
06:20And going through my head is the fact that I got to find out who put it there.
06:24And why Lake Tahoe?
06:36This was a felt cover that was on one of the gaming tables inside of Harvey's.
06:41I found this on eBay, which is where I get a lot of my rare collectibles.
06:47I've also collected assorted news photos and clippings.
06:52This is Harvey Gross, the owner of the casino.
06:57A one-time butcher, Harvey Gross got his start at Lake Tahoe in 1946 with a roadside
07:02cafe where his wife did the cooking.
07:05Harvey expanded it over the next several years into Harvey's Wagon Wheel Saloon.
07:10And in 1963, he completed an 11-story hotel tower,
07:14which was the tallest hotel tower at the time in Lake Tahoe.
07:19Well, we feel that the future is tremendous up here.
07:22Ample room for Gross for the next 20 years is tremendous.
07:26As opposed to the stereotype of mobsters running casinos,
07:30Harvey brought legitimacy to the casino business in Lake Tahoe.
07:38It's a picture of my grandparents, Harvey and Llewellyn Gross.
07:45Harvey Gross in his office, pretty chipper.
07:49As long as you weren't making his day a bad day, you were probably okay.
07:53But yeah, kind of brings back a lot of memories.
07:57You know, just all the family that was involved in this business over the years.
08:04And there was competition, always was competition.
08:08Everyone knows who the big men are here.
08:11It's an open secret that no love is lost between the owner of Harrah's Club
08:16and the proprietor of Harvey's Wagon Wheel.
08:19Bill Harrah was direct competition with my grandfather.
08:24They were directly across the street.
08:27They would compete toe-to-toe for customers, but we had no idea who would do something like this.
08:35There was a lot of unknowns at the time and a lot of fear.
08:44Harvey's casino has been empty since an object believed to be a bomb was delivered in a photocopier box.
08:50An extortion note said it is a powerful, sensitive device.
08:55This was the ransom note that was found with the bomb.
09:01The letter said it had eight different ways for it to go off, so that put it in a category
09:01of the bomb.
09:05Don't try to flood or gas the bomb.
09:07There is a float switch and an atmospheric pressure switch.
09:10Both are attached to detonators.
09:13Do not try to take it apart.
09:14The flathead screws are also attached to triggers,
09:17and as much as one quarter to three quarters of a turn will cause an explosion.
09:22The letter said it had eight different ways for it to go off.
09:26So that put it in a category that I certainly had never seen and that nobody had ever seen.
09:33All the usual techniques went out the window, so that was scary.
09:48Is there some reason to believe that they had some training in electronics because of the sophistication of the device?
09:54Absolutely.
09:55The bomb experts told us that this device was the most sophisticated,
10:01homemade bombing device they have ever experienced and ever witnessed.
10:05I also had the issue of the extortion payment.
10:09He wanted three million dollars in a helicopter.
10:13He said we had 24 hours to deliver that ransom.
10:18The bomb had been delivered around five o'clock in the morning of the 26th.
10:23And so that was one of the reasons we had to move this along.
10:27And still we didn't have a motive other than a ransom.
10:35You know, are we dealing with just some crank or are we dealing with somebody that's very serious?
10:40Somebody that wants to cause a large loss of life?
10:43You've got to establish the means motive and the opportunity in order to come up with a suspect.
11:12I can distinctly recall seeing on the news that the bomb got into Harvey's.
11:19And I immediately called my brother and I said, we're screwed.
11:22What are we going to do with it?
11:24The authorities have appealed to the extortionists to make contact immediately
11:27so they can avoid a potentially disastrous explosion.
11:32There it was on TV.
11:34Top news story of the day.
11:36He had actually made it happen.
11:38I know who was responsible for all of this.
11:41Because my brother and I were forced to help him.
11:54I don't even know why I still have this album or how I wound up with it.
11:58But it's just stuck around through all the moves and all the years.
12:03The John Burgess family.
12:07The picture of...
12:08Is that grandma?
12:09That's grandma.
12:11She has kind of my hair.
12:13We all kind of look like each other.
12:15Like you look like your dad.
12:16I look like you.
12:17I got your nose.
12:19I hope you didn't get my nose.
12:22This is just all articles about the court trial and the way it went.
12:29And this went on for years.
12:31You know, I couldn't get on with my life until all this was over.
12:36Are you guys ever in these?
12:37Yeah, well, that's a picture of my brother, but it says my name underneath.
12:40And then they tried to put a love-hate relationship between father and son,
12:44so they started doing that.
12:44A love-hate relationship?
12:46I guess, yeah.
12:46Didn't y'all just not like him?
12:48Well, it's a weird deal.
12:49It's your parent.
12:50No matter how bad your parent is, it's still your parent.
12:55What do you know about your dad's involvement in all of that and the bombing?
12:59Not much.
13:00I mean, he doesn't like to talk about it.
13:03Sometimes he will.
13:04I don't think he, like, helped build the bomb.
13:09Because he would have told me if he did, but did you help build the bomb?
13:14We haven't really had an in-depth discussion on the mechanics of what I was involved in,
13:20what I wasn't involved in.
13:33A dad should be, you know, your guidance and take care and giving you an environment where you
13:43can thrive, and he had that opportunity.
13:45He was a successful millionaire.
13:49It all came crashing down for him, and he was going to get even.
13:55If you wronged him, he extricated revenge.
13:59He did it with people that worked for him, that worked with him, his ex-wife.
14:05There was never any good outcome dealing with Big John.
14:15You know, I was 18 at the time.
14:18Came home from work one day, and my dad would say, I got to talk to you.
14:22And because he was broke and lost all his money, he just said, I'm going to build a bomb
14:31and bomb Harvey's and get my money back.
14:36It was like a joke.
14:38You would never think anybody, let alone your father talking to you,
14:42would even have a plan to make that succeed.
14:45He says, I've got to keep it a secret, so I need you and your brother to help me with
14:51this.
14:51And you need to call your brother and ask him.
15:03My name is Kelly Cooper, and I was John Jr.'s girlfriend.
15:07I was only 14 when I met him at Little Okie's, which is a motocross place.
15:18You know, John and Jim and all the guys would be racing motorcycles,
15:22and all of us girls would be yelling and having a good time.
15:28I would say it was love at first sight for both of us, I think.
15:32But John Jr. was not a good excellence on me.
15:36He dropped out of school and had his own place.
15:40He drove a van, which is also a parent's nightmare, if you can think about that.
15:47Well, you know, crazy things happen in vans.
15:53But then, Jim was kind of known as the goody-two-shoe kind of guy.
15:58I've known Jimmy since 1973.
16:02He's like my adopted little brother.
16:04He was just a naturally gifted rider.
16:08He had the potential to be really good.
16:12I got sponsored in my motocross racing and was doing well there.
16:17So I was a little bit better than my brother, and it was a big issue.
16:20You know, he talked about his brother some, but they were completely different worlds.
16:25Little John did drugs, that kind of stuff, and Jimmy was not that way at all.
16:39You're brother wrote a book. Can you tell us about that book?
16:43I skimmed through that book.
16:48I probably didn't read all of it because with my brothers and my relationship,
16:53it was always a lot of fighting.
16:59I think that is one of the best places to get his voice,
17:03since he's no longer here.
17:06And so I was in a rendezvous place about an hour away from my brother and my dad.
17:11So when the sun came up, I decided to just go back and see what happened.
17:15So on the way back, I stopped in the air.
17:29I will try to recreate, to the best of my memory, what would consume three and a half years of
17:35my life.
17:37I was in the kitchen fixing breakfast for me and Kelly on a Saturday morning.
17:42Standing on the porch was the brother I'd avoided since the day I moved out of Big John's house three
17:48years before.
17:51When Jim came to his apartment that first day, he walked in, I was there.
17:56Jim told John Jr. what their dad's big plan was.
18:00Jim said, he says he's going to blow up Harvey's casino.
18:04I said, you'll go to prison for the rest of your life. Are you kidding? For your dad, who you
18:08don't even like.
18:10Yes, it was definitely a shock.
18:14The man who couldn't wait to throw me out of his house. Now what's my help?
18:26My dad was born in Hungary, and as kids he told us, he was a double agent for the CIA.
18:32He said that when the Nazis invaded Hungary, he was forced to join the German Luftwaffe and was trained as
18:38a pilot.
18:39He scored 13 kills before his plane was shot down, and he found himself in a Russian prison camp.
18:45Which I find plausible because he did have all the prison tattoos from the gulag.
18:49As kids, what we had heard is that his wife or a group of people used a bomb and blew
18:55up the prison
18:56wall to get him out of prison. I mean, it's a great story to hear as a kid, but it
19:01also made you like,
19:02oh my gosh, this guy's kind of spooky.
19:06So you hear your dad tell you these stories, you automatically believe it, but I couldn't tell you
19:11one way or another for sure. He managed to find his way to America with his wife, Elizabeth.
19:18And Clovis, California became their home. They found jobs, they learned the language, they had two sons.
19:25Within a few years, Big John had his own landscaping business. And I think by 1966, he was one of
19:30the
19:31biggest contractors in California, which was a multi-million dollar company then in the 60s.
19:35And then they bought a restaurant. My parents were living the American dream.
19:41My mother was the bookkeeper, and he did the work.
19:45From the outside, they were a success story in Fresno.
19:49But nobody knew how bad it was for the kids, the boys.
19:53His problems, in my mind, started to manifest when he started having marital problems with my mom.
20:02He started drinking, and at some point, he started gambling.
20:19When Big John went to Harvey's, he was a very high roller.
20:23He was doing $10,000 a hand playing two hands in blackjack.
20:28In rolling that kind of money, he attracted a lot of attention from casino management, from Harvey.
20:38He was really treated like royalty. I mean, to him, it was intoxicating.
20:44And he wound up just being there all the time.
21:04Big John became Harvey's friend as he spent into the millions inside Harvey's casino.
21:11And he became addicted to his status as much as he was addicted to the gambling.
21:16And he just kept losing.
21:21He lost more than he wanted at the tables until he found himself deeply in debt.
21:26He lost his landscaping business and his restaurant due to his addiction at the blackjack table.
21:33He borrowed more and more money from Harvey in order to feed his addiction.
21:39It got to a point where he was losing and not paying the markers.
21:48And he was no longer welcome there.
21:53His obsession had cost him almost everything he owned.
21:56He was so deranged that he actually thought the only way that he would lose would be if somebody had
22:04to cheat him.
22:05So he was going to build that bomb and get this $3 million that he felt was stolen from him.
22:13I'm sorry.
22:28Where are we headed?
22:31We're headed to my childhood home.
22:34Where the infamous bomb was constructed.
22:39I haven't even seen pictures of it,
22:41so I have no idea what it looks like.
22:42I mean, you didn't help build the bomb, right?
22:45Or did you?
22:46No, I didn't. I wouldn't know what to build.
22:49But the day it came to fill it full of dynamite,
22:51we helped him do that.
22:54You know, Jim's lived here for his whole life,
22:57and he's never taken the kids by.
23:00Maybe they've done a drive-by,
23:01but they don't know a lot about the story
23:04because it just takes him back to places
23:07that are uncomfortable for him.
23:09Going over the past with my kids,
23:13they have no idea.
23:14We never talked about it, ever.
23:16But my youngest daughter, Hope,
23:19is the one who's most curious about it.
23:24So I'm trying to open up more,
23:28to have her wind up different than me.
23:37Well, I used to live here years ago.
23:39I grew up here.
23:41You are a burgess.
23:42Yes.
23:43No kid.
23:44No.
23:45Sorry.
23:46You're okay.
23:48Is there any chance that we can just come in
23:50and look around?
23:50Oh, yeah.
23:51My husband's got all kinds of stuff in there.
23:54But it's still original.
24:02Yeah, there you go.
24:03Wow.
24:07That car is so cool.
24:16Well, this is...
24:18I remember when he built this shop.
24:19You know, he built the poles
24:21and welded them all together.
24:22And this is all self-taught.
24:26So...
24:30This is where he, uh,
24:32he built a bomb.
24:33In here.
24:34In here.
24:37In here.
24:38In that era in time,
24:40obedience to your parents was
24:42a lot different than...
24:44How it is now.
24:45What it is now, you know?
24:46Mm-hmm.
24:48I mean, if you talk back,
24:50you got beat.
24:50So it's like, um...
24:53It's just a different world now, so...
25:02I don't want to sound like this is something
25:04that I was enthusiastic about
25:05and wanted to do.
25:07It was something that we were trained to say yes,
25:10so we said yes.
25:13And so it just started evolving
25:16from that point forward,
25:18mainly with trying to procure the dynamite.
25:21And it's not easy
25:23to find 1,000 pounds of dynamite.
25:27In the High Sierra,
25:29a new season begins,
25:30and construction continues
25:32on a massive undertaking,
25:34the Helms Pumped Storage Project.
25:38At that time,
25:39Granite Construction Company
25:40was in the beginning stages
25:41of constructing
25:42the Helms hydroelectric plant.
25:49Tony, who was a friend
25:51had stopped by to visit Jim,
25:53had just started working
25:54at Granite Construction,
25:55and in the conversation,
25:57Tony had unknowingly given
25:59Big John all the information
26:01he needed to know
26:02about the existence
26:03and the location of the dynamite.
26:05And that next day,
26:06my brother came over,
26:08and Big John described
26:09the plan he concocted.
26:12I couldn't help thinking
26:13how nice Big John could be
26:15when he wanted something.
26:17There was 1 or 2 in the morning,
26:20late night.
26:22We drove my brother's van up there.
26:25There was a little bit of activity
26:27a few hundred yards away.
26:29This job set was working 24 hours,
26:31so we waited
26:32until it calmed down a little bit.
26:36It was just a little bit
26:37My dad had decided
26:37that he's gonna use
26:38this backpack torch.
26:40I thought it was kind of risky
26:42being, you're torching a lock
26:43off the dynamite locker,
26:44but...
26:49He got in the locker
26:50and proceeded to empty
26:52the contents of the locker
26:53and the van.
26:55I was in such fear,
26:57thinking at any moment,
26:58this is gonna blow up.
27:01So it was just terrifying
27:03the whole time.
27:10The Fresno Bee ran an article
27:11telling of the dynamite theft.
27:13I went, oh my gosh,
27:16they did it.
27:17They did it.
27:18I remember saying that to myself,
27:19they did it.
27:20I didn't tell anybody.
27:24Big John took about
27:26four months
27:26to fabricate
27:27and complete the bomb.
27:29I heard from Big John again.
27:31He said,
27:31ready for your help.
27:32Can you come to the house tomorrow?
27:35Showed me some drawings
27:36that he had made.
27:37The whole idea was incredible.
27:40A very unique aspect of this device
27:42that someone is cogitating
27:44and saying,
27:44all right,
27:44what can the police do
27:46to try to take this thing out?
27:49Big John said,
27:50what could we use
27:50to prevent it from being flooded
27:52or foamed
27:52to short out the wiring?
27:53We stood there,
27:55silently concentrating
27:55on the problem.
27:57Suddenly,
27:57my dad's eyes widened.
27:59So what we have here
28:01is our reproduction
28:02of wheel bomb.
28:03And in the FBI,
28:04we have a unit
28:06that does nothing
28:06but create courtroom exhibits.
28:08In case you were thinking
28:10of flooding this,
28:11you have this toilet float.
28:13And you can see
28:14in the very center,
28:15there's a piece of plastic,
28:16white plastic.
28:17As it rises,
28:17it comes up into this tube.
28:19And when those two screws
28:21make contact,
28:22you complete a switch
28:23and the bomb goes off.
28:26The motion detector
28:27was my idea.
28:28Back in the 1980s,
28:30automotive alarms
28:31were really simple.
28:32If you shook the car,
28:33it would go off.
28:34And so we kind of made
28:35a homemade version of that.
28:38At the very center
28:39of this device,
28:40you can see what
28:40we call a trembler.
28:41You can see this
28:42ball bearing move in there.
28:45And what makes contact,
28:46it could set off the bomb.
28:48I bid John's eyes lit up.
28:49I could see that
28:50he was noticeably impressed.
28:54As this went along,
28:55I mean,
28:55I saw exactly how
28:56I was doing it.
28:57It had a seven-day
28:58irrigation timer.
29:00Pressure switches
29:01on the top lid.
29:02And the bomb was double-walled.
29:04So if you attempted
29:06to drill through it,
29:07it would complete
29:08the circuit and detonate.
29:11At that moment,
29:12I felt a connection
29:13with my father that,
29:14until this night,
29:15had never existed.
29:18And I found myself
29:19unexpectedly caught up
29:20in the thrill of the adventure.
29:22I mean,
29:23it was all very simple,
29:26but that was the genius
29:27of it.
29:40As the bomb got closer
29:42to completion,
29:43he got his girlfriend Joan,
29:45a parole officer,
29:46to make a gray cover
29:49for this thing,
29:50with homemade cut-out letters
29:52that said IBM on it.
29:54And she helped him
29:55write the letter
29:55because his broken English
29:57could give away
29:58that he was a foreigner.
29:59I'm sure she knew
30:00things about the law
30:01or things of police procedure
30:04or investigative procedures.
30:06I couldn't understand
30:07how a Fresno County
30:08probation officer
30:09could participate
30:09in an extortion attempt.
30:11She must have been
30:12under the same spell
30:13as Jim and me.
30:15The farther along it went,
30:17we still just kept on
30:21rationalizing it
30:21that this isn't
30:22going to happen.
30:23This is going to happen.
30:24The thoughts
30:25rolled through my head.
30:26What the hell am I doing?
30:29I'm helping a man
30:30who is definitely insane.
30:37It's just like a whirlpool
30:39you get stuck in
30:40and you can't get out.
30:52my dad's idea of discipline
30:54was just physical abuse.
30:57You know, physically beating you.
31:00And it was just a common occurrence.
31:06You know, I lost teeth
31:07when he punched me in the mouth
31:08for having my elbow on the table.
31:11Beat with a belt, beat with a stick,
31:13beat with a shovel.
31:15And his idea, it made you tough.
31:18You know, tough for the world.
31:31Yeah, John Jr. and Jim,
31:33they do the motocross racing together.
31:35But other than that,
31:36they didn't hang out with one another
31:37or anything like that.
31:40My brother and me
31:41didn't have a close relationship ever.
31:44And that was by design.
31:46For my father,
31:47it was like raising two pit bulls.
31:50You know, they might have been
31:52from the same litter,
31:53but they're trained to fight each other.
31:57But I think the bomb
31:59in a weird way brought them together
32:02because they knew what they were doing
32:04was absolutely wrong.
32:09The more a reality it was becoming,
32:12me and my brother
32:13were trying to figure out
32:14an exit strategy onto this.
32:16This bomb is gonna either kill me,
32:18kill everybody, kill somebody,
32:20or I'm gonna get caught
32:23rolling this thing in the front door.
32:33We ended up going through a trial loading
32:36of the bomb into the van.
32:40The steel was a quarter-inch plate,
32:43probably weighed, you know,
32:44twelve, thirteen hundred pounds,
32:46at least.
32:48Jim held one wheel while he held the other,
32:50making sure they stayed in place.
32:54Before I knew what was happening,
32:56my fingers were under the wheel of the bomb.
33:00Big John said nothing.
33:02He was too busy calculating
33:04what had gone wrong.
33:05It hit me, uh,
33:07I had found a legitimate exit
33:08out of this debacle.
33:09And at that point, my brother,
33:11he says, F this.
33:12Jim finally spoke up.
33:14I won't do it if John won't.
33:19He says, if I can get somebody else to push it in,
33:22will you pick up the money?
33:23Will you commit to doing the ransom?
33:26Sure, I'll pick up the money with you.
33:28My brother goes, sure, you know,
33:30it's never gonna happen anyway,
33:31so we're in the clear.
33:37Well, we found out later
33:39that after we backed out,
33:40Big John hired two guys
33:41who used to work
33:42at his landscape business.
33:43And he promised them
33:44a hundred grand apiece
33:46to roll this thing in the front.
33:48Whether he told them
33:49that was a bomb or not,
33:51I-I got no clue.
33:53I mean, they went along with it,
33:54no problem.
33:57They were dressed up in those,
33:58you know, all the one suits
34:00with the zip up,
34:01and they had their little names on them,
34:02just like they would be.
34:04I guess they just looked the part.
34:11This thing was so heavy,
34:12and the carpet there
34:13was making it very difficult to push it.
34:15So they called security
34:16to help them push,
34:18physically push this thing
34:19into the elevator.
34:20Wait, security helped push it?
34:21Yeah, security,
34:23they had to call security
34:24to help them push it.
34:24I mean, it's a heave-ho thing,
34:26you know?
34:28Then they took it up
34:29to the second floor,
34:30where all the offices were.
34:36Big John began to feel
34:38the exhilaration
34:39of what would be
34:39one of the most impressive hands
34:40ever dealt him.
34:46This was his moment.
34:52The loss of his businesses,
34:53all the money being gone,
34:55was, for a moment,
34:57completely forgotten.
35:01He knew there would be panic
35:02and mass evacuations.
35:05Harvey would have no choice
35:07but to pay the $3 million.
35:10He felt alive again,
35:11his pride reborn.
35:16At that time there was three news channels,
35:18and it was on all of them.
35:19There was a report from Tom Schell.
35:21Not just national news,
35:23but worldwide as well.
35:25As the evacuation progressed,
35:26authorities said they had not heard
35:28from the extortionists
35:29since they found a three-page note
35:30that demands a $3 million payment
35:32in exchange for instructions
35:33on how to disarm the bomb.
35:35The authorities have appealed
35:36to the extortionists
35:37to make contact immediately
35:39so they can avoid
35:40a potentially disastrous explosion.
35:43I was in shock.
35:46Never at any time
35:47did I think my father
35:48could pull this off.
35:51He had actually made it happen.
35:57At that point,
35:59you know,
35:59we still didn't have
35:59enough information
36:01on what was going on
36:02inside that device.
36:03And he has alluded to a time frame.
36:06You know,
36:06if I don't receive my money
36:07in 24 hours,
36:10then, you know,
36:10don't contact me.
36:11We won't contact you.
36:12It's going to, you know,
36:14blow up.
36:15That's our time limit
36:17is 24 hours
36:18because he's not going
36:18to blow it up
36:19before he gets his money.
36:20So he has to give us 24 hours.
36:23But after that,
36:25it's anybody's guess.
36:28We knew that
36:29he wanted $3 million
36:31in a helicopter.
36:32And our best shot
36:34was to catch these people
36:36at the time
36:36they picked up the money.
36:38That was the weak part.
36:40They had to appear
36:41or send somebody.
36:42We had done this
36:44over the years
36:45many times.
36:47Never once
36:48did the criminal
36:49get the money
36:49and get away with it.
36:57On hindsight,
36:58in looking at this,
36:59I probably should have
37:00put the bomb in
37:01because the plan
37:03to get the money
37:03was such a harebrained scheme
37:05that you're more likely
37:08to get caught there
37:08or die.
37:10A time of tension
37:11and danger
37:12is moving toward a conclusion.
37:13Has there been any communication
37:14between yourself
37:15and the person who said that?
37:15No, there hasn't.
37:16It was time for me
37:17to keep my word.
37:18There is a possibility
37:20of an explosion
37:21in the state line area.
37:23Detonating that thing
37:24is the absolute
37:27last choice.
37:30The nightmare was just beginning
37:33and there was no way out.
37:50behind the blue lights, the tough reality of policing Northern Ireland.
37:54Stephen Nolan on the streets with appealers, PSNI for real.
37:58Watch on BBC iPlayer.
38:00.
38:01.
38:01.
38:03.
38:03.
38:04.
38:05.
38:06.
38:06.
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