Ridiculous Crime is a production of.
iHeartRadio Elizabeth Dutton Zaren Burnett.
I have a question for you, my old friend.
Yeah, go ahead.
Did okay? Do you know what's ridiculous? Yes?
I do.
I had a feeling you did.
Oh Lordie Boye, howdy dude.
You came kind of sighted.
Oh Man vodka.
Uh huh, I'm listening.
Vine ripened tomato slices, still got my ear mouth watering. Gourmet burger juice.
This is a masha or beef bone frost. I thought you're doing recipes gourmet burger juice. Hello, I checked out at Gourmet burger juice.
One ounce of pickle brine.
It's more, there's more.
And then Red Robin's signature seasoning blend. Ladies and gentlemen, Red roy I give you the burger teeny oh Man, you take first, you take the vodka.
Yeah, So all those things that I.
Listened to, picturing meat juice in a cold a vodka glass like.
You're picture correctly. And then here are your garnish choice. You can garnish it with a bacon like it's twenty fourteen. You can garnish it with a brioche bun chunk just a chunk of bread floating in a burgertiny, a crisp pickle chip or a cherry tomato. So you rim half a martini glass with Red Robin seasoning blend, and they don't tell you that, like you have to put probably like a citrus on there. And then you know they're
assuming that you know these things. In a shaker, you lightly muddle the vine ripened tomatoes, okay, and then you add vodka, pickle brine and burger juice and it says or bone, broth and ice, and.
Then you're just like ringing out a burge.
And then you shake it. Well, I keep it in my pocket. Then you shake it vigorously for ten seconds and strain into a martini glass and garnish.
The last time someone told me to shake vigorously my burger juice, I slapped them.
I'm just saying, last time someone told me that I made five books.
Okay.
So anyway, you can go to redrobin dot com and you can enter to win a burger tiny kit. Doesn't You can sign up for a chance to win one of fifty specially made Burger teini kits, and that kit includes a Red Robin branded stainless steel, cocktail shaker, and cocktail pick Okay, then when you're like I've hit rock bottom, a seamless red robin, just stemless Martini glass.
Make that makes sense?
Beef bone broth pickle, which I know you love bone broth.
I didn't know Martini glasses had stems, So this is you have to have a stem Martine. You're right, yes, with the triangle.
So what does it mean so that your hand warms it? You have the stems, so it doesn't So why anyway? Pickle Brian, a cocktail napkin and a twenty five dollars red Robin gift.
Card for your trouble.
Oh wow, pology.
When you enter to win, you have to also follow them on Instagram.
Oh they still are putting the word win in this somewhere.
So you follow them on Instagram. You give your first name, name, your last name, your Instagram handle, email address, and your mailing address. And I refuse to do that, so I will not be winning, although maybe I am.
Winning, yeah exactly. Can you imagine you can get your hands on that list.
The picture of the burger teeny.
Those people would buy anything.
It would never end, It would never end, and like the Class C companies that would be harassing you when they sell their listening.
We got a new golden crusted bacon.
The picture is like mustard colored the drink.
I'm over it. I stopped picturing it. I'm no longer allowing any imagery to occur in my head. Every time you say anything about the drink, I'm like, nope, Oh god, that's like people got paid to come up with that.
Well, you know, it's getting straight up.
Predict Yeah, so how many are you getting?
How many burgertinies? Well, I already entered you because I gave.
Your Instagram handle, So just get on there and follow.
Them, and then I can win.
And then could you imagine getting that in the mail and then your post office representatives stop respecting me, stops delivering mail to your house.
Yeah, it's also ridiculous, Elizabeth. Yes, fathers and sons, Yeah, I guess no, they're not ridiculous. I wasn't done, like, okay, as a fair about.
The Turgenev novel.
No, but as a son, not a father. I can only speak to part of this relationship. But I can say that, you know, I've known a lot of fathers and sons and man do we sometimes have fraught relationships. Sometimes, though fathers and sons they can get together and they can work on their troubled relationship and via hard work, Elizabeth, I'm talking chop wood, carry water, they can put the troubled pass behind them. Yeah, I know, right. I thought. It's a touching story. Fathers and sons. I want to
tell you about today, Elizabeth. They work tirelessly, diligently together to put their troubled past behind them, and together they managed to make a troubled future for themselves. Okay, you see the father and son that I'm talking about. They constructed one thousand pound bomb and they plan to deliver it to a casino so that way the father could demand a king's ransom. It it will all make sense in a second. But you know how they say the house always wins, Well, not this time, said the father
to his son's Elizabeth. Get ready, this story is a black.
I'm so ready.
This is ridiculous Crime, A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one ridiculous burger. Tini, you stop, Elizabeth, Yeah, what's up? I think?
Hold on a burger tini also makes it sounds like if you used hamburger buns as.
A bikini top.
Can you imagine a burger dackery a fruit look of fruit juice and ice and blended together.
And then you put the burg in a bread bowl.
I'm going to stop right now. Okay, the year was nineteen eighty. This crime took place in your peak California, the waning days of it. But Elizabeth, just for edification, how would you describe or define or just you know, associate free associate on the idea of peak California.
Peak California is the embodiment of California from like say, the mid sixties until the early eighties. And it's it's a best version of that. It's sun dappled, it's not as crowded. It's uh forward thinking in uh the art and the music. And yet there's a sinister overtone to it.
So would Harold and Maud fit Well in yeah this, Yeah, you know it takes place in San Francisco or the Bay.
Area Sunset magazine of the age. It is perfect iteration of that.
All right, I'm starting to I think I feel this, But.
It's like the rolling kind of dry hills and like I said, sundappled kid's delinquents on surfboards.
Oh I like this, like that. Okay, so this story takes place deep in your peak, California. Nice, I'd like to take you back to Lake Tahoe in nineteen eighty Oh yes, right now. It's the end of summer, the last days of August. Specifically, we are at South Lake Tahoe. We are at a place called the Balahoe Motel. If you were there that night, or rather the early morning hours of August twenty sixth, nineteen eighty, you, Elizabeth Dutton, would have spotted three men leaving their motel room. These
three men were dressed in blue coveralls. You probably wouldn't have looked twice at them because they look like workers headed out to get an early start off the day, and there's a lot of that in South Shore. Now. The men they open the doors of their white van, just an industrial van. Once again, you probably not could pay attention, but you're nosy, so you do, and they climb in. They head off to the purple light of just before dawn. They drive into a town called state Line, Nevada.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
The California Nevada border in the mountains is home to a clutch of casinos. Not great casinos, but casinos. Now there's Frank Sinatra's place, the cal Neva, right, We've talked about that, but Frank Sinatra Junior. There's Harrah's Lake Tahoe, which used to always be on the ads when and the billboards when I was a boy. Oh yeah, the Johnasquagga's Golden Nuggetqua Nugget Man. Then there's a spot that I'm gonna be talking about today, Harvey's Casino.
Oh okay, yeah, yeah, that's where the.
White van pulls up. The three men they climb out the wheel, out a box. It's about the size of a copy machine, and you go. If you were able to still see this, but you know you can't because it's just these events are playing out, Elizabeth. They pushed the s box through a side entrance into the casino. The men in their coveralls, they look like delivery men, as I've told you, workers whatever. You know, their presence once again unquestioned, even in the casino. They're at roughly
four am. In fact, the security guard working that morning, he held open the door for them He's like, oh yeah, come on in, guys. He knew that, you know, you gotta do the casino's business. And that's when it's done, is early in the morning, when there's no real you know, roobs around to get in the way. So the printer sized box that they wheel into the casino has a slip cover on it. This is to hide its true purpose on the slip cover with three letters ibm oh.
New fangled technology must be something for car I don't know. Yeah, nineteen eighty that meant you know, I don't know, computer counting device. It didn't mean what we think, but back then it meant big business. Now exactly the sort of thing that workmen would deliver to a casino at four am. So three workmen, they're guiding their machine to a service elevator. They take it up, the doors closed, the men hits number two, the elevator rises, the doors slide back open,
and boom. Now on the second floor. The three men they wheel their machine through the empty second floor of executive office. Elizabeth, you are in Harvey's at five the morning, basically at four thirty whatever, and so there's nobody, no executives there, But they find an office with an open door, and they wheel the machine inside. The mastermind of this group of three he glues toothpicks into the doorway. Why toothpicks?
Wow, my toothpick.
This was to prevent some you know, Schlamiel walking heavy footed into the office. Right, They didn't want anybody, So the toothpicks he touches. Oh, even through like normal shoes and like hard leather soles, you'd still notice the toothpicks. I guess whatever, you know, it's his plan anyway. The mastermind he primes his machine. He arms the eight different triggering devices inside the machine, as I said, was a one thousand pounds of dynamite. The bomb is now set.
The three delivery men walk out of the casino office. They ride the elevator back down to the casino floor and they call me walk back to their van. They pile into the white van and disappear into the purple of morning. A perfect crime, right, Elizabeth.
Thousand pounds? Yes, So they're rolling around half ton of explosives.
Wow, and it was all like hair. We're moving very carefully because the balances. Yeah, it'll come into play later on, it matters. Right, we're twenty minutes after these men leave. A slot manager. He's just working the floor. He's got to take up, you know, whatever they've been able to vacuum out of the suckers in the midnight hours. Right, he's working the graveyard shift. This is not primo, but he's like, we made some chains, let me take it upstairs.
Goes up to the second floor. He notices these toothpicks that I told you about, and he's like, oh, what's up with that. Then he notices that somebody has tampered with the door locks. He's like that suspicious as all hell. Then he sees the machine sitting there in the middle of this office and he's like that shouldn't be there. It's all alone and silent and eerie looking. So he contacts casino management because he's basically a pit boss. So he's like, I gotta tell somebody else. I'm not dealing
with this. Then they come in, they see what he saw, and they're like, contact the police. So they immediately contact the police. The police, right, they're followed shortly by agents from where Elizabeth the FBI's Carson City field office now left for the authorities. Was an envelope inside of it was a note from said mastermind. The note was three pages long. It was it was more to the point. It wasn't like one of these rambling like I'm gonna
talk about Jane Fonda what she's been doing to the boys. No, nothing like. He sticks to the point, right. He warned police to use serious caution. Now I'll read a couple of lines from they, just to give you a flavor of his note. He said, do not move or tilt this bomb because the mechanism controlling the detonators in it will set it off at a movement of less than point zero one of the open end Richter scale. We're talking real engineer here, Yeah, right now, don't. He also
said don't try to flood or gas the bomb. So apparently he knows what they able to try to do, and he's like, no, I prepared for it. Because there is a float switch and an atmospheric pressure switch set at twenty six to thirty three. Both are attached to detonators.
I think he's full of it, but go on.
Yeah, now he tells for people like you, don't try to take it apart. The flathead screws are also attached to triggers and as much as one quarter to three quarters of a turn will cause an explosion. In other words, this bomb is so sensitive that the slightest movement, either inside or outside, will cause it to explode. This bomb can never be dismantled or disarmed without causing an explosion,
not even by the creator, which was him. Only by proper instruction, can be moved to a safe place where it can be deliberately exploded, or where the third automatic timer can be allowed to detonate it. He's got eight triggers now, and he continues, there are three automatic timers, each set for three different explosion times. Things is a wild card. The bomb has three different timers set to three different random times he selected. Okay, and he doesn't mention what they are.
Yeah, but I mean like if one goes off, then like bo so long the other two?
Oh yeah, yeah, So he just has them.
So why the three?
Well we'll get into that. Only if you comply with the instructions in this letter will you be given instructions on how to disconnect the first two automatic timers and how to move the bomb to a place where it can be exploded safely with the third timers. The third timer still with the two. Yeah, so this dude's made one hell of a bomb, right, Yeah, what do you do? But I forgot. There was another stern warning that he had added, I repeat, do not try to move disarmor
enter this bomb. It will explode if exploded. This bomb contains enough TNT to severely damage Harrah's across the street. This should give you some idea of the amount of TNT contained within this box. It is full of TNT. It is our advice to cordon off a minimum of twelve hundred feet radius and remove all the people from that area. The note also had a demand, because you were like, what is he doingore? Yeah, three million dollars cash on the barrelhead. They must be unmarked, unbugged, and
chemically untreated. If we find anything wrong with the money, we will stop all instructions for removing the bomb. The note ended with two pithy words which hinted at the bomber sense of humor, happy landing. This is actually it's not about the bomb exploding you into the air. This is more about the helicopter that he has. Is also part of his note. We'll get into later. Anyway. After they finished reading the note, the gathered FBI field agents, the
local police, sheriffs, whatnot. They had a vague sense of what they were dealing with. A comic book style villain. H wow, this guy's on full tilt. He had built on his own one of the most ingenious bombs they'd ever faced. FBI was like, who, we're gonna need to get in the good bomb squad, No offense, Carson Field office. So retired FBI special agent Chris Rone. He recalled, we had never seen anything quite like it. So he's like one of the explosive experts. He's called up the second
floor of Harvey's Casino. The first steps of these guys take their standard right, So the bomb is photographed from the outside. It's X ray so they can see on the inside. It was dusted for fingerprints. After all of that, the FBI experts had learned almost nothing. They knew that there was two boxes inside of the box. That's what they got out of it. Like, okay, we see there's two boxes. So now Rene would later he would tell Sacramento's KCRA Channel three, Elizabeth, Yes, they did a documentary
on this, like a local documentary. Vocals you would I should have saved it for you anyway, they said in Wonder Person. But Rone said in the documentary the FBI Special Agent, he said, quote, this device was a pretty sophisticated, quite complicated piece of machinery, unlike anything we've seen before, anybody in the bomb disposal business had ever seen before. Wow. So this guy knocked it out of the box first time. He's like, boom, I made Look at you, so shout
out ca Cira anyway, FBI special field Agent. He later concluded that what we know about it afterwards is that it was virtually undefeatable. There was a very simple reason for that. As I told you, there was the eight fusing systems. So yeah, So then the FBI was like, we need to bring our a game. What's reconvene and if we could we take a commercial break since we can, let's do that and we'll be right back after this with some boom boom, and we're back. Elizabeth, You're ready,
you buckled up, buttercut. Okay, So let's get into the team. The FBI, as I told you, they had a bunch of field agents. They were led by a very special agent. That's his name, Special Agent William, Special Agent, Special Agent William junkie. Now I think it's junky. It's spelled j O n k e y, like donkey with a J. He's junky. Maybe it's like a Junk's no, he's a junky. But I like Bill Junky.
It's such a it's a mashup. It's like Chunky Junkie, you.
Know, Chunky Donkey Monkey. Basically Jones and Monkey had a baby. Anyway, face with a bomb. His experts said to Will Bill Junky is it seems damn near impossible. Bill, We don't know what to do, and so he's, okay, let me contact the owner of Harvey's and give him the bad news. So he tells him the FBI special agent. He recommends that the owner and the guy's name is Harvey Gross. He damned the place after himself, but he decided not to call it Gross's, so he called it Harvey's. Good choice.
So he's like, there, hey, Harvey, you probably want to arrange to pay the ransom. We have no idea what to do with this bomb. He's like bomb. He's like, oh, yeah, by the way, there's a bomb in your casino and then there's a ransom request. I should reverse the order on that anyway. I'm way down the road to Harvey anyway. So the ransom, they're like, don don't worry, it won't be your money. We're gonna fake the ransom. And he's like, I like him. Where you're headed to that? So tell
me more. So Harvey and the FBI they got together. They decided, okay, we'll do the exchange. According to the he's got a three page letter here that Harvey. Do you want to read it? We've gone over it. You know. In here there's a whole thing about the helicopter. Harvey's like, okay, helicopter. My Helicopter's like, yeah, you're a helicopter. Has to be your helicopter, my private helicopter. Yeah, he knows you got a helicopter. Okay, fine, my helicopter it is. But I
don't want to know. Don't worry about I'm not going to send you out there to meet this guy so quick. Thank god, what are we going to do. We're sending FBI guys in your chopper. And he's like really, He's like, we do this all the time. We love this move. As we can cover, we can attest they love this move.
But again, I know, I feel like I've said this on here. Maybe it was just.
Talking to myself while pretending not to watch TV in my living room, But has it ever worked out like where someone takes a hostage or does something. In this case, he is holding the entire operation hostage, but then to say I want a helicopter and I want them to take in modern time, yeah, he used.
To work out when they used to negotiate with terrorists and who had hostages. So in the seventies and up, and we're in the period that this is still weather viable negotiation tactic. They now we have kind of flipped a needle to we don't negotiate with terrorists and we're just going to like turn the guns on you or whatever, and like, you know, pray for the people you're holding.
Do they really think they get into a helicopter and get away.
They did not. They didn't. They they did, they didn't. It's kind of hard to explain. Uh, Harold, I'll just get into it. Sorry, no, no, no, no, no no. Basically, the FBI guys were like, look, we're gonna fake the exchange. We'll use some real flash money. We'll put that on top in the briefcase. Most of it will just be this fake money. Harvey Grosser is like, you guys got fake money. He's like, can I see? It's like, oh yeah, it's great, you'll love it. It's green, it passes a cursory, you know,
visual inspection. He's like, oh, that's amazing. So yeah, the whole plan is we'll fly over there, we'll do the exchange, and I we'll just grab him. He's like, okay, it seems like it could work. So they thought, well, you know, if he doesn't work, it'll still buy us time to try to beat this unbeatable bomb. He's like, okay, I got it. So you need to work both sides of this one. So Harvey gross he tells the FBI, I'm down.
Let's go play catch him and maybe buy some time. Anyway, he contacts the bomber and he arranges the payoff in exchange, you know, for the money, he'll get instructions or how to turn the bomb off or how to diffuse it rather using technical term. Meanwhile, FBI agents they spring at action. They set up a sting operation. Right, so this is where things start to get ridiculous. Now, the mastermind, remember I told you, he construct an absolute banger of a bomb.
But that's where his team really excelled. The rest of it they were pathetic. They were really subpar criminals other than the bomb making. So on paper their planned bang up look great, right. But in his note the Mastermind, he has told you he left explicit instructions for the rants of exchange. He basically said, and I quote, the money is to be delivered by helicopter. The helicopter pilot is to park at twenty three hundred hours as close as possible to the LTA building by the light at
the Lake Tahoe Airports LTA, Lake Tahoe Airport. It is to face the east. The pilot has to be alone and unarmed. The pilot is to get out and stand by the chain link fence gate. He is to wait for further instructions, which will be delivered by a taxi that will be hired. Don't worry about the driver will pay them anyway. They noticed that will be hired. The driver will know nothing. So that's the point is like,
it's not one of us. So they may also be delivered by a private individual or through the nearby public phone at exactly ten minutes after midnight, So one of these three things will occur. We go.
You can tell you what question one of three.
Exactly big on three. You may have a thing about that. Anyway, at ten past midnight, the pilot will receive instructions about where to do and what to do. I think they mean where to go. So there's a typo in any way, whatever I'm reading it as is, before the pilot enters the helicopter, he has to take a strong flashlight and shine it around inside of the helicopter so that it will light up the entire inside. We must be able
to see it from a distance with binoculars. We want to be able to see that everything that is inside the helicopter so that we can be sure there is no one hiding inside and there is no contraband inside. Wow, it's like eleven year olds came up with a strong flashlight.
It's like that.
Well, they want that giant flashlight that I have that's like ten thousand lumens.
Yeah, the thing you can use to like battle the luxar.
And yeah, you can light the whole street.
Let me see what you got, luxar. How about this? Anyway, FBI they do it's destructive. The bureau they arrange his hand off the Mastermind and his henchmen. They agreed to do the exchange. They had some other warnington stipulations should probably get into. For instance, he said, remember that even a very small earthquake will detonate the bomb, So do not try to delay to the delivery of the money.
Do not have an earthquake.
Ye, they're now using earthquakes as part of their threat. You gotta love that. I mean, that's that's Hutspa. So any hopes of capturing him at the exchange, he once again he said, quote the designer of this bomb will not participate in the exchange, so will be completely useless to apprehend any person making the exchange because they will not know how it works. They perform their duty for reward.
So and he had one final warning, just in case you did not believe him on all the above, and a final word of warning, do not try to be a hero. Arlington is full of them, and they can't even smell the flowers. Oh my god, ice right and being like oh, like, oh, I'm a Bond villain to.
Like shine the light in the helicopter. Ps, yeah, here's something dark.
I'm dropping bars like Tupac I'm like, damn bar oh okay. Anyway, the Mastermind's plan was set in motion. It seemed like the FBI had responded, everything's going according to plant, and as I told you, everything get ridiculous. It went sideways. How Why well, Elizabeth, here's why. It was a family job. The brilliant Mastermind had made a fatal mistake in planning his brilliant operation. He worked with his sons. The FBI ignored his instructions, and they'd always planned on capturing about
the exchange. That didn't matter because the payoff, you know, as I said, it was supposed to be delivered by Harvey Gross's personal chopper. The FBI pilot was gonna be at the stick. Whatever the suitcase. They had the money, they had real cover bills for the flash. Everything would be good. But the FBI agents had forgotten that the person they're dealing with was an idiot. So they landed at the Lake Tahoe Airport. They landed as instructed, near
a telephone booth. The phone rings. That part goes off without a hitch. Mastermind tells the chopper pilot fly to Plasterville, and he's like, uh, okay, I know where that is he'd like that in the hills to the west of Change. Yeah, exactly down by west of Tahoe for those who don't know, is in these nice rolling hills. So at a specific compass point, the chopper is supposed to land at a flashing red beacon. The chopper pilot did as told, flew
to Plastererville. He lined up this specific compass punk and then he looked, but there was no beacon. Why because the mastermind and his son had left the twelve old battery for the beacon back in Fresno.
Stop.
But don't worry, Elizabeth. They discovered big, big square battery with the coils on top. So they discovered their mistake on the way to the ransom exchange in Placerville from Fresno. So they were like, can you imagine the fight between father and son the battery. You forgot the battery. So they decided, you know, after a lot of shouting, that they still had time to go buy a new twelve old battery. So they you know, the Colmheads will win the day, Elizabeth. They don't lose the sight of the
gold baby. We got three million dollars on the line, boys. So the Colmheads were not the actual case of the day, Elizabeth, because these guys with the father and son team, because it's just a father and son, not both sons for this drive. So one of his sons and the father they went to go buy the new battery. They stopped in Plaiserville. They thought, you know, there's got to be an auto parts story. They find an auto part store.
There is one in Plasterville. They're stoked. They go to Oh O'Reilly and they get into a loud, shouting argument with the salesman at the autoparts store. What yes, he keeps trying to sell them a battery for the Volvo that they clearly drove up and parked, and they were like, no, no, we need this other twelve old battery, and he's like, don't you need a car battery? And they're arguing back and forth and he keeps trying to give him the
battery for the Volvo. So they fought about it. They get loud, and.
Eventually that will make you memorable.
Eventually things calm down. The father and son they actually get to buy the battery from the salesman.
Like you can kid, You're like, no, I don't need it for my car. But you need it for your car.
No, exactly, two memorable guys. So now they get back to the meadow, but the FBI's chopper is coming gone, So they missed the chopper. So Mastermind and Son miss their payoff of three million dollars. But really what they missed was getting busted in a meadow. That's what they missed. So meanwhile, the FBI, the Sheriff's department, the local im squad, Harvey Gross, they all get together like, what do you mean they missed the payoff? They weren't there, and you
think this is part of their plan? What's going on? They don't know what to do. I's like, don't worry, don't worry, let's move on to Plan B. Harvey Gross is like, what's the Plan B? They're like, Plan B is let's blow the bomb up ourselves. He's like, I don't know about this plan being in my casino. Guys, what are you talking about? Are you going to agree we're gonna move it? No, we can't move it.
And the harrows across the street. He's like, yeah, can we have a word yet?
No, who' said? I heard ourselves? So okay. So the owner of the chopper and Harvey Gross he's in a bind. He's got the FBI guys going, we also want to blow this up. So he's like, my my beloved money printing machine, my casino is at risk. So his casino has a bomb big enough in it to blow up neighboring casinos, right exactly. So he's like, okay, guys, well tell me about this. Let's blow it up plan Like, how are you going to blow up a bomb? I
don't even understand that. They're like, okay, well, don't worry about it. We I told you. We did the X ray. We saw there's a box on a box. He's like, okay, was there a Plan C? But before we get into this box on a box, he's like, yeah, yeah, we don't have a plant C. Is anyone working on a plant sy? No, there is no plantcy, just Plan B blow up the bomb. Okay. So now, Harvey, you have to understand he's had this casino since nineteen forty four. We're in nineteen eighty. This is not like a new
un out of Lark. He started this thing in the war years, just a simple cabin and a blackjack table and a dream and a couple of one arm bandits slot machines.
No, not slot machines.
It's just a couple of one arm bandits. Those are for the rubes and the board and the snowbound in the winter centries. Yeah, exactly, No, Harvey. He builds us up into Harvey's casino. It's one of the great gambling houses on beautiful Lake Tahoe. I mean, yeah, he's living the dream. The f guy's like, we want to blow it all up, and he's like, I really have hesitations, guys, so they're no, they promise him bomb Squad's great. These guys bang up job. I'm sorry, they do a great job.
I'll stop saying that. Harvey's like, can we just what is this plan? Like, what are you like? Okay, Harvey, you ever heard of C four? And he's like, yeah, I've heard a C four. It's a good military uses it. Yeah exactly, we got some of that stuff too. We're gonna put that on the bomb and it's a shape charge and we're just gonna try to blow the fuse, like you know, right off. The triggering mechanism is gonna blow that right off the bomb. He's like, you're gonna
blow the bomb apart? Yeah? Yeah, that's the idea. So at this point, it's August twenty seventh, nineteen eighty, on the second floor of Harvey Casino. We have the bomb with the eight triggers that are impossible to diffuse, and the FBI is ready to go to it, right, So they call this a render safe plan and actually have the gall to call it that anyway. So the Mastermind, he was in a generous mood. He wanted to give the FBI a little more time to negotiate after he
missed his payoffs. He's like, hey, guys, is me the Mastermind? So I missed you. I wanted to see who get set up a little meat and greet. So he's like, after that whole helicopter debacle, let's do a little simpler plan. Let's just talk about how you guys can get to me the money, you know, Let's do a do over. You guys cool. They're like yeah, yeah, they're just at this point they're just stalling, right. So the Mastermind he instructed the FBI field agents and the bomb squad. Guys.
He's like, here, if you guys, you're about to have an imminent explosion. One of the first triggers is going to go off. So here's how to diffuse trigger one. So he tells them that buys them some more time. They're like, this guy's are right, it's kind of reasonable, right. So one of the agents FI field agents they recalled and I quote, they told us to hit switch number five and that would give us additional time. They're like, yeah, that guy's decent, right. There was one problem with that.
Elizabeth the agent also said, and I quote, I couldn't find any volunteers willing to flip switch number five. Meanwhile, the FBI guys are all busy going, I'll work on a crowd control. They're all outside the building, right, So Harvey's casino guests have been safely huddled into nearby White Hole High School. So they're like, they got all the
guests from the casino in the high school. There's like two hundred and fifty rooms in the in the casino, so the crowd is also big because it's a Labor Day holiday, so the employees are also there from the evacuated hotel, so they're all gathered from about three different hotels. They got all the local cops to bomb squad, and then just a local you know, lookie loose, and there's a plenty of discussion about how this is all gonna work. If it would work, most of the folks they expect
a good show. So let's take you there now, Elizabeth. I'd like to close your eyes.
And picture it as it's.
A surprisingly warm day in late August. Here at the shores of South Lake Tidle. You're just over the California border, currently in state Line, Nevada. The Mercury is hovering near eighty degrees. You are thankful for the tiny umbrella that's part of your hot dog stand. That's right, I said it, your hot dog stand, Elizabeth. You are slanging Sonoran hot dogs from a one woman hot dog push cart. Yes,
the rainbow striped umbrella serves two purposes. It makes you easy to spot in the crowd, and it offers you some shade. It's about three thirty in the afternoon and it's hot as well. It doesn't matter. You've positioned your hot dog push cart here outside the doors to Johnasquagga's nugget. Right, you can see Harris and Harvey's casino, because that's where most of the crowd is focused, and thus you're gonna sell these folks. Some hot dogs. These are norm beauties.
They practically sell themselves. Soon people get a whiff of that delicious bacon wrap dog you've got glistening on the grill, they reach for their cash. You're doing good business. In fact, at the moment, you've got a pair of FBI guys somewhat stressed out and clearly preoccupied. They're waiting for the dogs you're preparing. Well. The one scenarian hot dog, the one FBI guy, he already has his, and he's politely waiting for his buddy to get his. He keeps eyeing
it as they wait. They discussed the next steps in their delicate operation. I'm just not sure about their shape charge plan. The hot dog holding FBI guys says to his partner, the one watching you prepare his dog. He says, oh, extra onions please now. The hot dog holding guy, the first one. He continues his worried train of thought. He's like, I know the sheriff said, everything's a go. We have
local deputies clear the casinos. Yeah, I get that. And they say they packed up all their stuff, didn't miss a toothbrush. Great, thanks sheriff. But now with the luggage and the evacuated guests. Are we really gonna do this? Well, the other FBI guy says, well, a couple extra napkins. This looks like it's gonna be greasy. He's still eyeballing that scenarian dog. He turns the other one. He's like the year chips. The FBI guys school confused. Oh no, oh yeah, he catches up. We picked up the entire
casino chip collection. It's all secured in a location. You think the news cameras are far enough back. I don't know about that. And then you say, and here you go, and you hand over that beautiful sonorian hot dog. The FBI guy, he's only paying attention to that. You look past him though, At the news cameras pushed right up to the police line. The crowd is large and it surrounds the news cameras. At the edges. There are some other people selling cold drinks, cold beer, much like you
the cops. They're busy, they don't care about any of this. Some casino employees who have arrived to work, they're still in uniform. They're dotting the crowd. They come over for some hot dogs. Everybody is waiting for something to happen or a hot dog. Now, one FBI guy, the first one, he says, bomb squad, last report. It sounds like something got stuck inside the box. They didn't know what it was. Didn't sound good. First. The second FBI guy goes, well,
this should be good. He takes a bite of that Sonarian hot dog. You watch them waiting for the reaction. They tear into the bun, into the meat. They close their eyes around that bite a dog and they begin to and chew that encased meat. The flavors are rupped in their mouth and then boom whoa. A tremendous explosion rocks the casino. An invisible concussion wave of air pressure from the blast hits the crowd tumbled from their feet, the noise deafening the red orange flame. Crowds rise with
mad fury. Smoke chases flames. Both leave behind a five story hole in the casino. The gaping maw in the building stretches fifty feet wide and thirty feet deep into the building. Of the eleven story building, every single window in the casino was blown out. Neighboring Harris Casino most of their windows are blown out. Chunks of casino explode high into the sky, now rained down onto the crowd. Flash yards rain in the light, the streets, the parking
lots dotted with debris. Luckily, no one gets injured. All the flying debris passes without hitting a person. You wipe explosion, tossed hair back from your face. The two FBI guys swallow their bites of Sonoran hot dog, and you call me, ask them how are the dogs boys? This one am good dog, Elizabeth? Anyway, how was that?
I had no idea this ever happened up there?
Yes, right now, if we'd stable our boys from the bureau, you would have soon heard over the radio the cause for the explosion. It turns out there were two power supplies for the bomb. The X rays had missed the second power supply, so when their shape charge went off, they just triggered the bomb. Oh, by the way, watching all this on the news, was a deeply dejected man, depressed that his plan had failed, his ransom payoff missed.
The mastermind was a broken man right up until he heard that boom cracked tear the air, and then he jumped up elated because he'd gotten his revenge. Let's take a little break and I'll come back, and I'll tell you why he got his revenge. What happened after this whole casino turned by the FBI? All right, Elizabeth, we're back.
Hey, Yes, we are good ads.
By the way, I all right, welcome back to Pete, California. You ready to wipe the debris.
From your hair already? It's all I was like gritty, But no, it's a good gritty.
Good good gritty. So the only other better gritties in Philadelphia. Now, Harvey Gross, owner of the casino, what's he feeling right now?
Oh, he's got his insurance company on the.
Line on speed dial. The FBI had done more damage, both financially and personally, than even the mad bomber had intended, because when all was said and done, the estimated damage to the casino was eighteen million dollars. Oh that was six times more than what the bomber was asking for. Oh, oh God, just pay the ransom anyway. The mastermind, he'd always meant to get paid. He never meant for the bomb to go off. That's why he had all the triggers and the timing and all the whole instructions. Yeah,
but he'd made such a real and credible machine. He'd you know, he's like he wanted the for similitude. So he made the bomb and it was impeccably well designed machine and it went off beautifully. It tore apart that casino. Well, time to meet this mastermind and his failed sons. Yeah, ready, Yes, his name was John Burgess Senior. He was born in Hungary in nineteen twenty two. He came of age under
Fascist occupation. Soon there after he learned what life was like under the Soviet block so he went from Nazis to Soviets, sah. He was part of the Hungarian resistance to the Soviet takeover. He told his sons he'd flown in World War Two, but then he really mastered his skills as a pilot against the Soviet Air Force defending his native Hungary. So this guy was a brave young man.
Gets shot down, captured in April forty eight. He's tried, convicted, sentenced to twenty five years hard labor in a Siberian work camp. He got it. Yeah, for eight and a half years he was out there wielding a prisoner's hammer. He took large rocks, he turned him into smaller rock.
No, he was originally a Nazi.
Right he flew. Yeah, he basically for the Lufwaffa. So the Hungary was on the side of the Nazis, and then he fought against the Soviets in a continuing occupation and resistance, and so they were like, no, we resist. I don't care if the Nazis are gone. We're still fighting. So yeah, he was on the he was flying a loofwafter plane. He was a Hungarian Nazi. Feels him no, no, so, yeah, he's in his brutal, backbreaking work. He gets released by
the Soviets, sent home to Hungary. Nineteen fifty six, he's caught again, captured by the Soviet forces because apparently he's not good at staying free. He'd been defending his hometown. So now this twice caught enemy, he's facing death on the spot. He gets sentenced to death. Right there, You're like, oh, man, suddenly good luck steps in. All right. So, due to his youth and in he's you know, reinforced by his
time into Siberian work camp. John Burgess. He knew how to speak an effortless and rather eloquent Russian apparently, so he convinced the Soviets not to kill him. He charmed his captors. He persuaded them, please don't kill me, right, they stall his execution, like we'll kill you tomorrow, and then so he manages to charm his way out of a mass grave. That works, and then so the next day comes. He lives through that and they're like, oh, we'll kill you the next day. And he's like, oh, okay,
just one more day, guys, how about another sunset guy? Seriously? Right, So he's not telling his good of a story, so only makes it three days, right, So he makes it three days in the Hungarian resistance strikes and they free him. So he gets freed from Soviet captivity. Now he knows he won't be three times lucky, so he's like, I need to get the heck out of here. So he starts tracking high distances and long as far as he can, Chris crosses the continent. He works his way, disguising himself
as a Red Cross interpreter. He hides among the aid workers. So by May fifty seven, he's made it all the way to the US. He and his wife they arrive in New Jersey. He's like, Oh, what's that smell. I'm kidding New Jersey, My family's from there anyway, far enough from communism for his liking. He's happy in New Jersey. But he's like, you know what, I think, I want
to keep going west. West was working me. Flet's he keep going west, keeps going west until he gets to calif exactly how so John Burgess he finds work as a landscaper. He worked in the steel factories, and eventually he became a rest a tour in Fresno, California, opened a little spot called Villa Basque. I don't know how Hungarian opened a basque restaurant, but hey, it's Fresno in nineteen eighty. What are you gonna do?
Maybe he traversed through Basque country on his way out.
Sure he did.
Maybe he really It stuck to him, like just with the cuisine.
Here's just a fly paper for recipes. Anyway, Burgess, he and his wife, they liked the life that they found there in the San Joaquin Valley, that beautiful valley that runs down the center of the state Elizabeth. He and his wife they started a family, two boys, John Junior and James, very biblical names. They made a new home in California. John Senior, he had left the past in his prison time and the horrors of the war behind his Nazi pass the whole bed. Now he's an American, right,
but those horrors were still inside him. They weren't resolved, so they often came out angry, drunken bouts and bursts. His wifs and sons. They feared us his violence. By nineteen seventy three, his wife had enough. She divorces him. Right well, they remained living together, but on the same piece of property. So now he's she's living in a trailer on her husband's property. Two years past, she goes through a hard two years and she eventually passes away.
John Senior goes into a rapid descent into darkness. Following his wife's early demise. He starts twisting in him his ideas of right and wrong, and he decides, you know, I'm gonna, you know, turn my back on my business. I'm just gonna start traveling. He mostly travels east into the Sierra. Those beautiful granite mountains Elizabeth do Vista's. He ignores them because he's on his way to the South Shore Lake Tahoe in State Line, Nevada. Hey, yep, he
wants them. Blackjack table, So he would play for hours, apparently just chasing grief. Another tragedy of Befelm, his restaurant, Villa Basque, burns down. I don't know if he's an insurance fire, but anyway, he gets a hefty three hundred and fifty thousand dollars payout. Unluckily, he now has a serious gambling addiction. So he just shovels that three hundred and fifty thousand dollars into the casinos coffers as fast as he can offer it up. Blackjack tables are hoovering
up his cash. By October seventy nine, John Senior has now moved closer to the source. He wants to get just tap that casino. So he's tired of traveling back and forth between South Shore and in the Clovis where he's living, so he moves into a state line devad into little apartment, gets himself a cute little studio apartment number seventy six at the Aspen Grove Apartments. I looked it up, yes, and he's just now one mile north of Harvey's Casino. He can just walk down there, jog
roll if he's really drunk. He gets known as a high roller. Oh yeah, being that close to the tables, it's like kind of giving I don't know, a diabetic their own pastry chef.
He's just like he's got that three fifty that he's running.
Yeah, not for long, sod take long, and all of a sudden his retirement is gone. He starts, you know, getting mad, getting bitter. He starts getting that some of that war anger bubbling up. He vows revenge. He contacts his sons, tells him his plan. He needs their help. He's already borrowing money from one of his boys, the younger one, to pay his rent. Right so it things are bad. By the way, the sons are eighteen and nineteen years old. They borrowing to his eighteen year old son. Yeah,
both of his son's loyal, dutiful. They asked us their dad, what's the new pop? And he tells the boys, I got a plan to fix my life. They're like, what is it? O're all yours? Dad boy. I'm gonna build an impossible to diffuse bomb, Like what, I'm gonna charge a casino three million dollars to diffuse it? When do we start pop? So apparently they thought he was kidding, right, but he was serious, and they eventually came around oil as they were, so they they help him. They do
a break in because he doesn't have the dynamite. He needs a thousand pounds of dynamite. You can't just go down to a dynamite store and go, I'll take a half ton of dynamite, please, Bob. So they have to go and find something. He's like, oh, guys, I'm gonna need your help getting me some of them boom boom sticks. So they go to the Helm's power plant near Fresno. It's like a Shaver lake near the Wishwn Reserve for the Wishing Reservoir rather and if you know the area,
it's helpful. So he's said, they go down to this power station and they break in and they steal a bunch of Hercules Unigel dynamite sticks that professional grade dynamite and uh they go back to the station. Yeah, because they were using it to basically explode rock. You know, you like miners would blow out granite. So if you're doing anything with California's mountains, you need dynamite for the granite. So the power station had it because they would, you know,
for whatever reasons, need to blow out granite whatever. I'm not a power plant manager. Anyway, father's girlfriend's place in Clovis becomes where they hide the dynamite. Got a girlfriend I.
Don't know show and she's in Clovis and he's up in south Lake.
Yeah, well he was staying within Clovith and he got his other apartment in south Lake. So he goes like, I'm gonna take him down there. Meanwhile, he also had a walk in freezer that he'd built in her garage. So he takes the dynamite, he puts it in the in the walk in freezer because he wants to keep it cold and dry. So they have their dynamite. Now halftime, So now it's time to work on the impossible to diffuse bomb. So, working in his girlfriend's garage, he starts
working on this bomb. Oh right, takes him two months to construct his very first bomb. Now we all know what happened next, and so well, the FBI they had to deal with the boom boom tour that he created. And uh, yeah, as I can tell you this much as recently two thousand and nine, the FBI, they continued to have this bomb. They made a mock up of the bomb that they used later on for like FBI bomb trainings. It's presently in the laboratory division. The old
Bill Jonki. He said, it's a very wonderful case. It was very unique. He was just so impressive. Yeah, looking back, Yeah, his son had Jim Burgess, the son. He has a humor about this whole time. He said, it's such a far fetch story to be able to have corolla two thousand pound bomb into the front door of a casino. It's the keystone Cops of errors. It's almost a comedy.
So now it's two thousand Yeah, exactly, he didn't, you know, they just keep exactly flates it right.
But we'll get back to why he's a problem for the father anyway. So how did the mastermind get caught? Well, it took the FBI wild to actually catch him because the bomb was so good. They interviewed five hundred witnesses, suspects, chase down leads, nothing, bub kiss ain't got a like nothing right, nothing to chase hotel manager, sorry, rather a motel manager. They saw the authority's plea friend from a They were like, we need help. If you guys know
anything about these suspected Harvey's casino bomber. Right, So Nancy Domenico, she remembered how she'd had some difficult customers that night and they had acted weird and mean and kind of suspicious. They drove a white van, she recalled. She phoned that into the cops. She told them three men had stayed at the hotel the night before the bombing, and she'd written down their license plates because the one man was
such a dick to her. So basically he'd made some sleazy come on and when she told him off, he told her where to stick it. So she wrote down his license plate. Good for her, I know, right, came back to bite him. So the cops ran the van's plates. Registration leads to him to John Junior. So the cops they show up to find this crash pad that John Junior's living in, five men sleeping on the floor, couches, beer, cat empties everywhere, big trash bag of pot in the
middle of the room. The police were like, you've got to be kidding me.
Wow, how are these guys single?
Exactly, but they roused the five guys take it down to the station house. These five deadbeats don't know anything. John Junior, he clams up. They're like, none of these guys is a mastermind for a possible to defuse bomb plot. There, idiots. So they let him go. So John Junior goes and he's like, oh, tells his dad I got away with the pop right now. This time again, bad trouble comes around because they were a dick. So John Junior had
a girlfriend. He told her all about his dad's plan to build an impossible to diffuse bomb and to make a casino pay for it, right, and then he broke up with her.
Oh you're kidding.
So she finds this new guy and but don't worry about her, Lisabeth. The new guy, he's a class act because after they split up this ex girlfriend, John Junior goes out on a date with new guy. They go to the Fresno drive in movie. And remember it's nineteen eighty. This is like a peak date in nineteen eighty. I mean, drive in movies are the this is they're in their heyday at this point. Do you remember driving movie? Yeah?
I told I remember as a kid going.
Like, yeah, you'd see, like we drive Sacramento. If it was like a Saturday night or Friday night, we're coming home, I'd be looking for the drive in because you get to see little bits of movies. And there was one drive in theater on the way coming back into Davis.
It was like a on Highway eighty. You could see they had on weekend week nights they would play porn theater, like porn movie and it was supposed to be angled or you couldn't see it from the three freeway, but you know you could for like two and a half seconds or a halfn't said one and a half second. You could see like just a giant boob thirty feet. It was insane as a kid. Yeah, they got they got real mad, and is at the end when they're trying to keep the drive ins open, they're like, what
about porn guys when you show up? So they have like the late night Can you imagine sitting at a drive in theater a bunch of guys in cars grow Can you.
Imagine if you live like in like visual distance and Nikki can't.
They aimed at at the fields. That's why you can only really see it from the freeway.
If you're in town, imagine, let me imagine there's a house there and you're trying to like entertain and have a dinner party and you have to keep the drapes closed because.
Outside craziness.
Yes, I totally remember that. That's my recollection of driving. Anyway, that's where they were at the Fresno drive in.
I remember when I was little.
I was very very little, and this is like a hazy memory because of that, and I feel like I was there and they were setting off fireworks.
At the screen on fire just in Sacramento.
I think this is on the Peninsula curling game or something south of Sanwanconis.
I could totally see that. I mean, that's pretty much like they were just one big fire threat. So anyway, there they are at this drive in movie theater in Fresno on a date and they're listening to the radio before the movie, and all of a sudden news comes
on about the Harvey's bobbing. Because everybody's talking about it's huge news, right, And they put out a quarter million dollar reward for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the bomber in nineteen eighty that's huge money, right. So John Junior's ex girlfriend she mentions to her new man, that sounds like my Ax and his dad. They had a plan to actually do exactly that well, And this
is the sheriff's report said quote. The girl looked over to her new boyfriend and said, I know who did it. I used to date the Burgess kid. His father did it. He told me about it. The dollar signs then rolled in her new boyfriend's head. Her new man had ideas mostly that two hundred and fifty thousand reward, but he didn't plan to split it, so, according to the sheriff, the next morning he called the FBI.
Yeah, jump for first.
I don't know, but he was all alone when he phoned the FBI, and move paid off well for him because he got the lion's share of the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars reward because the FBI and the cops started surveiling John Junior with the now second piece of information. One day, eventually they get bored of like watching him and the buddies just drinking smoke pot out of a trash bag, and they show up a John
Junior's house ready to arrest him. Elizabeth, you know what I always say about do not lie to the FBI.
Yes, you say that.
John Junior did not listen. He straight up lied right in the FBI's face, and they called him out on it, like, bro, here are the receipts where you lied here, here, and here. He's like, hmm is that true. They're like, yes, you lied about August twenty sixth and twenty seventh. You're whereabouts. He's like, hmm, you mean the day is just before the bombing. They are a okay, my man, you're coming with us. He's like, yeah, okay, I can see that. So the FBI threatened John Junior with time from behind
bars for lying right on in their faces. And they tell this eldest of the Burgess boys, look, if you roll on over on your pops, maybe let him do the time instead. You do the time. He's like, because did you do the crime? He's like, that's a good point, FBI guys, I did not do the crime. So John Junior taught about his future, and then he thought about his dad's future, and he's like, I've got more of it than he does. And so he decided, what do
y'all want to know? And he told him everything. So he the FBI agent starts surveiling the dad, the mastermind, John Burgess Senior. He's he's hiding out by the way at the girlfriend's place in Clovis and William Jonky, he would visit him. The FBI, the head of the investigation. He would just go up to the apartment, knock on the door and talk to him. He's like him with the FBI. I'm investigating the Harvey's Casino bombing. And he's like and he said and a quote. Sometimes he would
yell at us. Other times he opened the door and he'd let us in. He gave us a tour of his place. He described how he would have done it if he had built the bomb. Ultimately, he admitted everything he did the OJ if I did it to the FBI. He didn't even publish the book. He did write a bill Joki's face. So August fifteen, Lane Dandy won the FBI the arrest John Burgess Senior, the sheriff in charge the investigation. He was certainly glad it was all over.
He was convinced that the planned money exchange would have likely turned bloody and MESSI hadn't actually gone down Because his dude's name was Sheriff Maple like the tree. He speculated the John Senior planned to shoot the pilot then fly the chopper himself because he was a pilot down to Plastererville where either his girlfriend or one of his boys would be waiting at the local airport. Boom, maybe they're in a meadow, whatever, and then all of a
sudden they would have disappeared from I can see that. Now. I don't know Sheriff. I think that that's a little bit with the shriff. I doubt that one. Anyway. The two delivery men who had helped him wheel in the bombs, they were not his sons. He knew his boys could not handle that task. So John Senior he chosen these two random people and he's like, this is too dangerous work for my boys, and so instaid he got these two narrative wills, Willis Bill Brown and Terry Lee Hall.
They were a father in law and son in law, partners in crime. Duo, oh dear that poor woman, her father and her husband. The two men, they claimed they'd been paid either one hundred dollars or two thousand dollars, depending on who asked them to do. They ended up doing federal time in prison for that. Anyway. The funnier thing to me is Agent Junky's assessment of the bomb that John Senior built, Right, so there's supposed to be this great bomb. Bill Junkie ain't hearing it. He's like, no,
I don't know about that. The thing is the most complex bomb the FBI has ever come across up till that point. Right, the Harvey's bomb Casino had twenty seven different triggering switches, had eight independent firing mechanisms orfuses Agent Junkie. He said, anyone could have constructed the bomb excuse that's how simple it was, which was essentially true because John Senior he figured out how to build his homemade bomb from his time designing lawn sprinkler systems. Remember I said
John Burgess Senior was he worked as a landscaper. Well, he based his bomb on nineteen eighties era sprinkler technology rain verdex. Yes, he had installed a ton of sprinklers and they now required circuitry to design and operate the system. So he's like, well, you know, I just replace water and electronics and boom, bomb it worked. His bomb worked.
It's the hootspa of the amateur who doesn't know any better that he doesn't know what he doesn't know in the Champions of the Day yet again, anyway, October nineteen eighty two, John Senior tried, convicted, found guilty, sentenced on bombing charges extortion, sentenced to life in prison without parole. He would pass away behind bar Southern avad a correctional facility, aged seventy four. He died exactly sixteen years and one day after his failed Casino's bombing.
Wow.
Now his sons, though never locked up, never saw a time they got suspended sentence. Both of them both had happily or rather at least willingly cooperated against their father, like lock them up boys. So in the end, our man on the scene, agent William Johnky, head of the FBI investigation, he offered up a two word explanation for this whole crazy affair and why it's been largely forgotten. So the Harvey Casino's bombing, it was memory hold for
one simple reason. Nobody died. That's a good point, right, That's yeah, there's the biggest bombing up to that time. So what's the ridiculous take away?
Elizabeth dude, Jonkie man if I were like working under him and the bomb rolled in, Like from this start, I was thinking this is there's it's not really a bomb. It's Scully switches, and so John, He's like, Okay, be careful. I'd be like, never mind, the switch a look and I'd flip it and then capowie, somebody would have died.
So it's a good thing I'm not an FBI agent. Also, I'm a little bit disappointed that Harvey Gross went with his first name for the casino, because how amazing would a casino be that just said gross on it?
Just gross.
I think it was the problem of the double like they possessed it.
No possessive on it, just gross.
Just gross, gross casino.
When casino is just win.
But don't you hear it? It's right there.
I hear it. That's why it has to be.
When casino it sounds like the word but it's just misspelled. You're like, oh, it's like a Vegas trick. I hear when, but it's actually not that.
And then I hear gross, and that's what I.
See, terribles that is true. Yep, So there you go.
That's my ridicuous Hey, Saren, what's your ridiculous takeaway?
I got to do everything over there. I just told you the story.
Well thank you for asking.
Yeah, Well they there you go. Uh I don't have one.
Good, Yes, you don't need one.
But I want to ask anyway, keep asking exactly Well, thank you for listening. You can always find us online Ridiculous Crime, Twitter, Instagram. We have the website Ridiculous Crime dot com. That's also where you can find some merch and if you'd like, you can leave us talkbacks on the iHeart app and you can email us at Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. As always started, Dear Elizabeth, and there you go. We'll catch you in next crime.
Ridicous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaron Burnette, produced and edited by Captain of de Baum Squad Dave Houstin. Research is by Marissa I Said D Batteries Brown and Andrea No, you said C Batteries song Sharpen Tear. Our theme song is by Thomas fifty on the Chargers to Win Lee and Travis When does the mel Tormee Show start? Dutton. The host wardrobe provided by Botany five hundred. Executive producers are Ben I prefer Circus Circus and Reno Bowland and
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