Blount Family Bombing Pt. Two

Welcome back to the Path went Chile for part two of our series about the Blount family bombing this episode, we've had some technical difficulties and we were unable to have Ashley joined us. But don't worry, she's just fine and she'll be joining us for our next series. Robin, do you want to catch

everyone up on what we talked about in our previous episode. Well, this case took place in Thanksgiving Day on in nineteen eighty five in Tarrant County, Texas, and involved a man named Joe Blount who was living in a trailer park with his wife Susan and their two children, Angela and Robert. They had just moved to the area about a month ago and they had Thanksgiving dinner together and were joined by Joe's brother along with his nephew, Michael Columbus.

And then after Joe's brother left, Joe, the kids, and Michael all decided to leave the trailer in order to go to a convenience store to buy some stuff, and when they got back, they discovered a briefcase on the front porch and when they opened up the briefcase, it went off wound up injuring Susan and Robert, but Joe, Angela, and Michael wound up being killed by the blast, and of course the whole crime left everyone baffled because

the Blounts did not have any criminal history, did not have any known enemies, and they were fairly new to the area. So they even looked at the possibility that it could have been a case of mistaken identity and that someone may have left the briefcase on the doorstep of the wrong trailer at the park because there were some other people there who were involved in criminal activity like drugs.

One possible suspect was a fifteen year old named Mikey Huff who had gone to school with Angela, and there were a lot of rumors circulating that he may have set off the bomb because he had made advances towards Angela and she turned him down, But they never found any evidence to implicate him, and the case would remained cold until the late nineteen nineties, when a suspect named Michael roy Tony was charged with the crime because he had apparently made a confession

to it while he was incarcerated in prison, There was no real physical evidence against Tony. All they really had on him was some testimony from his ex wife and his former best friend, saying that they had gone to the trailer park and dropped off the briefcase containing the bomb. But it turned out that they had withheld evidence at the trial and a lot of the witnesses who testified against Tony were unreliable, So in two thousand and nine, his conviction was

finally overturned and he was released from prison. But an ironic turn of events, it turned out that he would be killed in a car accident only one month after he was released, so the case the investigation has been at a dead halt since then, and there's still some question about who was actually responsible

for the bombing. Anyway, cold cases involving wrongful convictions are always extra heartbreaking because not only does an innocent person serve time in prison for a crime they did not commit, but the experience also puts the victims family members through the emotional ringer. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to think you have found closure injustice for your loved one, but then find out that the wrong person was convicted for the crime. So now you're going to have to go

right back to square one. I'm sure it must have been especially difficult for Susan and Robert Blount because they were actually present when the bomb that killed their family went off, and Robert is lucky to have survived. However, while no one deserves to be convicted of a crime they did not commit, particularly it involves them being sent to death row, what makes this story unique is that, well, Michael roy Tony really has no one to blame but himself

for winding up in that position. There are many wrongful conviction cases which came about because of a false story from a jail house informant, but this is the only one I can think of where the accused flat out told the informant to implicate hate them in the crime. I mean, yes, it is ultimately the responsibility of the investigators to perform due diligence and weed out false confessions like this, But if Tony had not done this, he probably never even

would have popped up on the radar as a suspect. Like we mentioned in our previous episode, he seemed to be under the mistaken impression that he was in jail on the night of the bombing and would have had an airtight alibi to eliminate him as a suspect, but I think he underestimated the feelings of

desperation from the investigators to finally solve this thing. They had spent the past decade chasing down a number of different leads and potential suspects, which never panned out, so once they got word that a suspect had allegedly confessed to the

crime, they totally ran with it. I'm definitely not saying that Michael roy Tony was a good guy, as he had an extensive criminal history and was accused of being abusive to multiple spouses, but it's totally inexcusable that the state fabricated and withheld evidence, especially since it could have led to an innocent man being executed. I think it speaks volumes that the prosecut wouldn't even put Charles Ferris, the informant who originally implicated Tony, on the stand during his trial.

And I find it particularly egregious that they found this other jailhouse snitch, Finness Blanketship, and got him to testify about a bogus confession during Tony's sensing phase after he was already found guilty. They probably figured that if Blankenship shared this story during the trial, the defense would have torn him apart, but they hoped his additional last minute testimony might sway the jury into sensing Tony to

death, because if he's executed, he ceases to be anyone's problem. What really strikes me here is just how little evidence they have, Like it's such a tenuous connection, like he may or may not have confessed, and there's these jailhouse informants. We have no hard evidence to connect him, but yet they seem to be so overzealous that they need to put that square peg in that round hole and get it. Can fiction because it looks bad not to

I mean, there were so many others more promising. Who is the neighbor that was like the jeweler, the gun seller, the meth cooker. There were a whole bunch of them. There was a Tim Tortala who was a jeweler, and that was also the gun runner and the drug dealer, and the other guy named Darren Irvin who was also manufacturing meth in his trailer at that time. Yeah, and wasn't there somebody else who was also selling guns? And it's like how many guns are being sold in this very small area.

It just seems like there was a lot of sketchy individuals, but yet you don't have any concrete evidence here. And when we're talking about death row, you'd really think that there would be some kind of fail safe here where it's like you have to have a greater burden of proof because you're literally playing with somebody's life. So it's shocking how tenuous this evidence is. And we ranted about this in our last episode about this last jail house snitch, Finn

his Blanketship. He was in jail for indecency towards a child, and he got released, he got an early he got a plea deal in exchange for giving this false testimony against Tony. So it's kind of like you're letting like a child abuser out onto the streets just so that you can put an innocent man on a death row and hopefully execute him before anyone finds out you got

the wrong guy. And nobody's going to look at that situation and be like, oh, yeah, that was totally worth it, Like this guy did these horrible things to children, and we're just going to forgive that because he's going to testify at this trial something that's clearly seems to be fabricated or bogus and then we're just going to go ahead with that. Like, the lack of ethics and accountability on the part of the prosecutor on the investigators here is

really shocking. The big issue with the prosecution's case is that there was literally no other evidence against Tony besides the testimony of Kim Tony Nium and Chris Meeks,

who both proved to be very unreliable eyewitnesses. I'm not sure if either of them was intentionally lying, as they may have legitimately believed the stories they shared at one point, but one of them had a history of memory loss due to exposure from toxic chemicals during the Gulf War, and the others seemed to be a functional alcoholic, so they both had to be fed information and have their statements altered and manipulated and ordered a craptic coherent narrative which implicated Tony.

But even so, there was still a ton of holes in their stories, such as the fact that they described Tony as having a truck, rifle, and toolbox, which he would not have even owned at the time the bombing took place. There's also never been anything to suggest that Tony even knew the Blount family, and the potential motive which has been presented is the implication that Tony was hired to kill someone else but mistakenly the bomb at the wrong

location. Well, I don't believe Tony was a model citizen. I do have to feel some sympathy for the fact that he was killed in a truck crash only one month after he was released from jail. We've seen a few sources speculate online that perhaps Tony was murdered as retribution by people who still believed he was guilty of the bombing. But I've seen nothing to indicate that this

was anything more than an accident. Since this wasn't a case that hinged on anything conclusive like DNA evidence, I guess you can't say that Tony was one hundred percent exonerated, as his conviction was overturned because of prosecutorial misconduct, and the state still technically had the option to bring him to trial again if new

evidence surfaced. I know that when Tony's conviction was overturned, Susan Blount still publicly expressed her belief that he was guilty, so perhaps she feels a justice was ultimately served when Tony was killed the truck crash. Indeed, Tony's untimely death does give the authorities a convenient excuse not to perform any further investigation into

this case. But the problem is that this only ensures that the real perpetrator continues to get away with it. Anyway, given the complete lack of evidence against him, I think we can safely rule out Michael Ray Tony as being the guilty party. But if it wasn't him, who was responsible for this crime and what could their motive have been? Yeah, it really doesn't surprise me that Susan Blatt would still believe that Tony was guilty even after his conviction

was overturned. I do see in this a lot in wrongful conviction cases where even if the evidence is overwhelming that they didn't do it, I mean, even if they're exonerated by DNA, the victims family still refuses to change their

original feeling and still believe that murderer got out of prison. And I guess this would be Susan's comfort zone because she can still can herself, well, he got out of prison, he was killed in a truck crash only one month later, so I don't have anything to worry about I don't have to worry about the real killer still being out there, and that is pretty sad because we talked about how victims, families, and wrongful conviction cases really get

re victimized when these convictions are overturned, and it can often take a lot for them to finally convince themselves that I've been lied to all these years by the authorities. They got the wrong person, and I didn't get justice from

my loved one. And it also occupies such a huge space in the minds and the hearts of those individuals because I guess it depends upon the family, but a lot of people may feel hate in their heart for that person, and then all of a sudden, you have that hate and you don't have anywhere to place it. Whereas you had a boogeyman before you had somebody who

you could blame, but now it's a big question mark. And I think that is really difficult to accept for family members, especially when it's this really attracted timeline. Years and years and years have gone by, and maybe you come to a place of acceptance and it just drudges up all of those emotions

again. Oh yeah, Like this was twenty four years after the bombing took place when Tony was released and killed, so Susan and Robert had to live for over a decade of the case being unsolved, and then they finally catch someone who they're convinced as the guy, and then another ten years after that, lo and behold, they're like, well, they violated to civil rights.

Now they've got to overturn his conviction and set them free. And it's just a terrible way to live your life, having to go through that trauma. And it's even more complex, or made more complex by the fact that they aren't just victims families. They were present during the bombing, and I think that adds a whole other layer because there's often survivor's guilt. Right when people are left behind or they survive, you can often ask the questions of

why was it them and why not me? That can be particularly difficult to deal with for certain individuals. Yeah, I mean to talk about that right now, some of the trauma that Susan and Robert had to feel, because it definitely wasn't easy for them to move on after surviving such a horrible experience. So the thing that really sticks out about this crime is the unusual manner

in which it was carried out. A briefcase rigged with a bomb as the type of weapon you would expect to find in a terrorist attack against a high profile target, But why would someone decide to use it to murder a working class family living in a trailer park in Texas. In addition, the Blounts had only moved to Texas from Washington State four months earlier and had been living in the Hilltop Mobile home Park for just over two months. What kind of

enemies could this family have made during their short time there. Yes, it sounds like there was a lot of drug activity taking place in that area of Texas during this time period, but no one ever found any evidence to suggest that the Blounts were involved in that. But since it sounds like some of their neighbors were flat out selling methamphetamine from their trailers, the idea of the bomb being left on the wrong doorstep and the Blounts being the victims of mistaken

identity is not that implausible. It's interesting how most of the family just happened to be out at a convenience store when the briefcase was dropped off. Susan has always claimed that she heard a knock on the front door while everyone else was away, but didn't see anyone when she looked at the window, which is why she decided to go back to bed. However, if Susan had opened the door, found the briefcase, and opened it before her family returned,

she would have been the only casualty. This means that if Joe or any of the other victims were the intended target, the perpetrator got very lucky that the briefcase remained on the doorstep until they got back. Given the circumstances, you can see why investigators would have looked at Susan as a possible suspect,

but she didn't seem to have any discernible motive for this crime. And I also have a hard time believing that she would elect to stay inside the bedroom when the bomb went off, because there would still be a risk of getting killed in the blast or being unable to escape the trailer when it caught on fire. The incident clearly had a traumatic effect on Susan and Robert, who not only had permanent scars on his body from surviving the blast, but

was plagued by nightmares following his release from the hospital. In fact, Shortly before Christmas that year, there was an incident where Susan and Robert discovered a box resting outside the front door of their new apartment. This frightened them so much that they decided to call the police, but it turned out the box contained nothing more than fudge, which had been sent to them from their church.

Ah, that's so sad. Something is so innocuous as fudge, something that's supposed to be this benevolent and kind gift can really just set you off and can really trigger you. Just the idea of like a box being there and the unknown and the fear of what could be inside that box. And I can see why initially they would think maybe Susan could be a suspect,

but what would be her motive? And I remember when I was really young and seeing the case of like Tupac Tupac murder and thinking or like believing, you know, when I was a teenager, that oh, yeah, Sugar Knight must have been involved. And then you know, as I'd become an adult and think about it, it's like, why would he put himself in the line of fire? This is a very large individual who got very lucky that he didn't get hit with bullets and it would be the same thing for

Susan. Why would she then go into a bedroom. Would she actually be so familiarized with how this bomb would behave Is she like a bomb expert that she knows that somehow she'd be able to survive if she was in this room. I think you would be taking a great risk your own personal safety that

it just doesn't even make any sense, oh exactly. And you talk about her being a bomb expert, How would someone like Susan, who was just kind of a working class housewide even know how to build a briefcase bomb to begin with. And of course she really didn't have any motive because they had just moved there a few months ago, Joe had a new job that he was planning to start the following week, and while there was a small ensure policy on them, it was barely enough to cover the cost of their burials,

so she didn't gain anything from this. And you have to feel bad for the church though, like they probably thought they were doing something good leaving this box in front of their apartment with the fudge, but it's like, well, with doing this only a month after they've survived a bombing where someone

left a box on the front porch. You can understand why that would be terrible timing and how such an innocuous thing would be traumatic for them, since, as far as they know, the real killers still out there and was possibly looking to target them because they survived well. There's no indication that he was ever considered to be a suspect. I've always wanted to hear more about

Joe Blount's brother Ray. By all accounts, Susan did not like Ray at all, who was willing to allow him to attend Thanksgiving dinner because he was attempting to reconnect with his estranged son, Michael Columbus. I don't know all that much about Ray and Michael's relationship, but what adds an extra element of tragedy to this story Michael actually called his mother after dinner to share how happy he was that things were going well with his father, only for Michael to

wind up being killed within hours. It's not entirely clear to me why Ray had to leave the trailer at five PM, and I'm sure it might have looked convenient that he happened to be away before the bomb went off, But I'm guessing that investigators verified his whereabouts and determined that he could not have been responsible for what happened. But I can only imagine how Ray must have felt losing his son and knowing that he likely would have been killed too if he'd

stayed there for a couple more hours. Oh yeah, a lot. Much like Susan and Robert. Ray is just another victim in this whole scenario because he was trying to reconcile with his son because they had not barely spoken to each other in years, because Ray did not get along with Michael's mother, And here they're finally getting together for Thanksgiving and bonding well together. And Ray's probably feeling good about himself because he leaves to go do whatever he's doing and

thinking, yes, this went very well. I'm finally forming a relationship with my son. And then he just gets killed in a bombing like a couple hours later, in a very unexpected way. It's not like a random car accident. He was deliberately killed because someone left a briefcase bomb on his brother's trailer's doorstep. And of course, the only reason Michael was there in the first place was because he wanted to have Thanksgiving dinner with his father, so

I'm sure Raif must have felt a bunch of survivor's guilt as well. Oh, there's just something that really pulls on my heartstrings about Michael Columbus. Like, here's this poor kid that's dad is out of the picture, Michael Columbus, who's obviously really excited that things are going well with his dad, and

here he is. He shows up. He's really trying to be that dad that he hasn't been, and he brings Michael over to his brother and his wife's house to hang out with the kids, get to know the cousins,

and then just happens to leave for that little bit. Well, Michael wants to stay and hang out with his cousin and the fact that he even calls his mother and says that he's having a good time, just to know, like for his poor mother to hear that and to like have it warm her heart, and then to know that her son died shortly thereafter in a bombing. Like I just have such a hard time wrapping my head around that element

to the story. Oh yeah, Like Michael is definitely the ultimate example of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it's possible that's all the other members of the Blount family were in the wrong place at the wrong time if it was a mistaken identity bombing, but you feel particularly tragic for Michael anyway. It sounds like we have at least two other individuals living in the Hilltop Mobile home park at that time who were involved in criminal activity,

Darren Urban and Tim Tortella. Well, it doesn't sound like there was much to suggest that either of them might have been the perpetrator. It's certainly possible they were the intended targets, given that they were both involved in dealing met out of their trailers. I'm sure some of you might be having breaking a flashbacks, especially since there's a major scene in that show where Walter White disposes

of one of his rivals with a homemade bomb. There isn't that much information out there about Urban, but he was absent from the trailer park that day after getting into a fight with his wife. Apparently, when Urban stormed out of there, he grabbed a couple of pistols and a box of bullets,

which caused him to spill a bunch of them onto the ground. So by the time police arrived there were bullets lying all over the front yard, and since the trailer had been ransacked during the fight between the Urbans, the scene instantly aroused suspicion, but Urvin claimed that his drug dealing operation was pretty small and that he only had one contact in Arkansas whom he did business with. Since Urvan didn't owe any money to this person at that time, he never

believed anyone would have had a motive to kill him. This does paint quite the picture, doesn't it. This guy was just all these bullets around. I really liked Tortella. I mean, Irvin sounds pretty decent too, because it just seems like there's a lot of criminality within this trailer park, and so you don't always have everybody who's on the up and up. But it

just it's quite the picture you've painted. And also the breaking bad one is that when he does that, he throws I can't remember what chemical it is at Tucco. I know this is the one with Gus Spring where he attaches the bomb to hextra spector clamonk his wheels the bellet will go off the chicken

guy. Yeah. While Irvin's trailer was six spaces down from the Blount residents, Tim Tortella lived directly behind them, so the idea of someone mistaking the Blount's trailer for Tortella's is a bit more plausible, and since Tortella also apparently sold automatic weapons to drug dealers, you can see why he might be a

more compelling target. It's interesting to read the original newspaper articles about this case, since Tortella is actually interviewed mentioning that he was inside his mobile home watching television with his brother when the explosion caused the whole thing to shake. When Tortella and his brother ran to the scene, they also helped tend to Robert before the paramedics arrived, and even tried to enter the trailer to rescue the rest of the family, but the smoke and flames were just too high.

Well, Irvin had expressed his skepticism over the bomb being intended for him, Tortella actually thinks that possibility might be true, and is even expressed remorse about it. Around the time of Tony's trial, Tortella wrote in a letter quote for fourteen years, I felt that it was my fault that those three people died. There is a possibility that if I wasn't doing what I was doing

back then, they would still be alive. End quote. In addition, it's also been reported that Tortella was carrying on an affair with a married woman at that time, opening up the possibility that the motive for the bombing was personal and had nothing to do with his criminal activities. Well, Georgella genuinely believed he was the real target. I'd like to think he provided the authorities with the names of any promising suspects who might have had a motive to harm

him. Otherwise, it sounds like the investigation into the angle hit a dead end. Well, it's good to know that Tortella does have some sort of redemption story and that he felt legitimately bad that the Blounts were killed, and that it may have been because of his criminal activities, because we talked on the last episode that he was pretty much a jack of all trades because he worked as a jeweler by day and then by night he was dealing meth out

of his trailer and also selling arms to drug dealers. So this is a guy who got around and seems like a plausible person who have been the real target for this bombing, But they just didn't find any evidence. And I'm hoping that Tortella did turn his life around after this, and that by the time he wrote that letter at Tony's trial, that maybe he was out of

being involved in criminal activity. But now that we know that Tony was likely not the real perpetrator, I do have to wonder if the angle what's Hortella was explored again and people are thinking, oh, maybe the bomb was intended for him after all. He's really got to wonder if he's having this redemption arc because he's looking back and he's feeling that remorse and he's saying the things that I was into back then, which would lead one to believe that he's

made some kind of changes in his life. And you've got a wonder if the Blount family bombing was a catalyst for change in his life, because I can't think of anything else it would be more impactful then thinking that your actions could have led to I guess the indirect killing because it was meant for you of these three individuals, and the traumatizing of so many other people like Susan, Robert, and Ray who were all there that day and survived at Ray

had left. But you've got a lot of survivors with a lot of trauma, and then three people who were deceased. So the fact that he is able to take stock and look at his life and say, hey, maybe it was because of me, and he's carrying that guilt at least, that shows us that he has the ability to feel that empathy and sympathy for the family members. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, because he was personally there and he had to help Robert when he was injured, so I think it

maybe caused him to face the reality of what he was doing. So I think he probably did suspect that maybe the bomb was intended for him, but he just didn't know who it was. Like maybe he felt that my criminal activities have pissed off someone, but he just didn't have the names of any

specific suspects to give to the authorities. But I do think that angle is worth revisiting all these years later, that maybe he did piss off someone and that's why the briefcase wound up there, but they just left it at the wrong trailer. And he doesn't really sound like a bad guy aside from selling, you know, automatic weapons to drug dealers and you know, dealing meth anthetamine and all that part. But the fact that he wanted to run into

a burning building to try to rescue people. I think that tells you that there's more than just you know, one side. There's a bit of a dichotomy to him to Tortella, because yeah, on one hand, he's this criminal, but on the other hand, he's willing to risk life and limb to help these family members. And at least he doesn't spilled bullets all over

his front yard. Yeah, he's not like Irvin. So now we're going to talk about a couple of other potential suspects, including Douglas Raymond Brown, who was arrested for attempting to sell a briefcase bomb to an undercover ATF agent only four months after this crime. Brown lived in Azel, which is only

a couple of miles away from the trailer park. And given how unique these types of explosive devices are, why are the odds that two of them would show up within months of each other in the same area of Texas and not

be connected in some way. During my original research, it was tough to get a read on how the authorities viewed Brown, as none of the sources I could find confirmed that he was officially ruled out as a suspect, but he apparently did pass a polygraph, and it seems like the authorities leaned towards

the whole thing being an astonishing coincidence. As far as I can tell, no real connection was ever found between Brown and the Blount family, so I'm not sure what motive you would have had to murder them, But I do find it interesting that the undercover ATF agent Brown dealt with only asked for an explosive device, but never specifically requested that it be delivered in the form of

a briefcase bomb. This suggests that Brown had already manufactured devices like that before, so you have to wonder if he might have unknowingly provided one to the person who did commit the murders. Of course, I'd like to think that investigators already looked into this angle and came up empty. But really, how

many briefcase bombs were floating around in Tarrett County during that time period. I mean, we have multiple people in this trailer park selling automatic weapons, so I would like to suspend disbelief here and think potentially there's more than one. It sounds completely implausible like there has to be only one person that would be specializing in briefcase bombs in this area. Don't you think? That's what I'm

thinking. So it does make me surprise that, even if Brown was not responsible for the bombing, that he didn't provide the briefcase bomb to the person who really did this. So I'm just surprised he wouldn't tell the authorities. Oh yeah, four months earlier someone came in here and asked for a briefcase bomb. That person is probably who killed the Blounts, So it is just kind of astonishing. Maybe they did press him on this and he just couldn't

recall anything, or he just refused to talk. But even if he is not the perpetrator, I have to think that Brown is linked to this somehow. It sounds like it. And when they are putting so much time and energy into railroading Tony, it seems like maybe they didn't explore all avenues or angles with the veracity that they should have, and they may have just let the fall by the wayside because they wanted so badly to make that square peg fit in that round hole. They wanted him to be guilty, and they

wanted him to go on death row for this. So I think sometimes when you want something so badly you get tunnel vision, and I think clearly that's what happened with investigators here, which is kind of weird because Tony did not even pop up on the radar as a suspect until the late nineteen nineties, so they had over a decade to explore all these different angles with like Brown

and Tortala and urban. So it makes me think that they just hit a dead end and just decided to railroad Tony because they were just so desperate to solve this thing, because none of the other leads went anywhere. That is a bizarre thing that they had a whole decade. You would think that like that fervor behind needing to railroad, somebody usually presents itself early on, right,

because there's like political pressure or outside pressure from like constituents. People are going to get voted in you to be district attorney or mayor or whomever, and when people are expecting a result, you need to give them a result. But this is ten years later, so I wouldn't think that the public pressure would be nearly as great as it would have been years prior, don't

you think I think so. I think they just got over zealous because they heard Tony had confessed to the crime in prison, and of course it turned out to be a false confession, but I think they had this mindset, Well, he said he did it, and we're going to make sure that the sticks, even if this confession wasn't exactly true. Well, because back then everybody believed that you don't confess to a crime that you didn't commit.

We've now learned that lots of people confess to crimes that they didn't commit exactly. So it seems like the most promising suspect in the investigation was Mikey Huff, and his alleged motive for the crime was getting revenge on Angela for spurning his advances. It does sound like Mike he was a pretty troubled kid, and there is some circumstantial evidence to suggest he could have been responsible for this, such is the fact that two mouse traps matching the traps that were used

to rig the bomb supposedly went missing from his home. But we're talking about a fifteen year old, and while people that young are capable of inflicting horrible acts of violence, assembling together a bomb which goes off when you open a briefcase, does sound pretty sophisticated. I mean, these days, a fifteen year old could probably figure out how to construct a device like that after doing enough research on the Internet. But this was back in nineteen eighty five.

Your eyes are probably going to roll when you hear this. But when one of Michael roy Tony's defense attorneys attempted to point the finger at Mikey as an alternate suspect at his trial, he flat outstated that Mikey worshiped Satan. Indeed, Mikey did apparently brag about being a Satan worshipper during his teen years, which is one of the reasons many people were afraid of him. But I'm not going to take that as evidence that he was responsible for the bombing.

I'm sure all of you know that the nineteen eighties was the height of Satanic panic, so I have to wonder if this made people think Mikey was more capable of evil than he really was. Satanic panic, and ironically, this time it was being used by the good guys Tony's defense team, But I think it was just an act of desperation to point the finger at him.

But I've covered a lot of cases from Texas from the nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties, and it seems in virtually all of them, satanic panic comes up at some point, I mean, on the trail went cold. I recently covered the Austin yoger shop murders, which took place in nineteen ninety one, and at one point they went after a woman who they thought was a saintan worshiper, even though that lead turned out to be a dead end. So yeah, I mean, I can understand why they would point at Mikey as

an alternate suspect, but the Satan stuff is just for red herring. It always is. It's so crazy just to think that, like all of these people got pated of crimes based on this idea of these satanic cult murdering people.

And it was just like this shared panic and delusion all you sweetly across North America, particularly the US. But it is so crazy, all these experts popping up that there's all these cult murders, and then it just eventually it ramps down and people realize like, oh WHOA, Like we got a

little crazy here, Like this was a bit much. People were accused of murder and convicted of murder based on these ridiculous experts and these ridiculous ideas that there's all these Satanic cults committing like child murderers and molestations and things along those

lines. I remember in one of the West Memphis three documentaries, they actually played footage of a literal instruction video that they sent out to law enforcement during the nineteen eighties and nineties about how to deal with Satanic cults, where they had the so called expert on screen giving like instructions on how to handle them if it ever comes up. And I remember Damie Nichols brings up the valid point, has there ever been a documented case of a Satanic cult being responsible

for a murder while performing a Satanic ritual? And no, there isn't. It's just like all that stuff is all rumors and hearsay, and it actually did lead to innocent people being convicted. I actually remember that because I watched

the documentaries. I can't remember how many years ago, maybe like five years ago or something, and that stuck with me because it was just like, really, we're basing this on so little evidence, and this is something that is meant to instruct law enforcements, so they're all being indoctrinated by this idea that there's all of these cults out here murdering people for Satan and it just

was never happening. It is so mind blowing. There were witnesses who testified at Tony's trial that they had heard Mikey openly brag about the bombing, but his explanation was that he did so much as brag, but rather made no attempt to quell the gossip, as he got off on the idea that it

was helping him develop a reputation. During his testimony, Mikey admitted that he was once arrested for burglary and sentenced to a juvenile corrections facility by the Texas Youth Commission, and this only caused the rumors to escalate because people mistakenly assumed

he had been arrested for the bombing. While I don't know many specific details about Mikey Huff's criminal history, I am willing to believe that a lot of the stuff which made people believe he was the guilty party may have simply been the result of him acting like an edgy teenager. When the ATF Task Force reopened the case in the mid nineteen nineties, they also offered a twenty five thousand dollars reward for information, which brought in a lot of tips from people

who advised them to take a second look at Mikey huff. But how many of these tips were based on nothing more than hearsay and rumors. It doesn't sound like the investigations slacked off when it came to exploring Mikey as a possible suspect, and the even attempt to present a case to a grand jury.

But in the end there was just not enough evidence to implicate him. I'm not saying I completely one rule out Mikey as a suspect, but could a fifteen year old have been capable of getting away with something like this for so long? I don't like Mikey half as a suspect. I mean, I can't rule him out one hundred percent either. We don't know who did this.

I just think the probability is low. I don't think he would have been able to get away with it for so long, Nor do I think that he demonstrated any type of genius, which I also think you would need. Like he's not Ted Kazinski here, you know what I mean? In its nineteen eighty five, So he doesn't have access to the internet unless somebody has taught him how to make this bomb. And I'm sorry Angelus burned his advances so he decided to bomb her home. It just sounds a little odd.

I'm sure, like I said in part one, that he's been rejected by multiple other women, so or young women. So the idea that like, she rejects him, so he's going to commit multiple murders in a way that takes a lot of forethought, right, It's not just like, oh, he grabs a gun and he shoots her, because it's impulsive and driven by emotions. But this is really methodical and it doesn't speak to a fifteen

year old for me personally, yeah, exactly. Like if this had been like a mass shooting or something like that, or they were attacked in a home invasion, then yes, I could think that a fifteen year old could have been capable of that. But to build a briefcase bomb with the limited information out there, I don't think someone that young would have been able to do it, And if they did, I'm not sure it would have been

carried out so successfully. And all this stuff about about Angela rejecting his advances, I'm not even sure if that's one hundred percent true or if it might just be like rumors and hearsay that's circulated throughout the area after the bombing took place. I mean, I don't even know if Mikey and Angela even met each other or knew each other, So he really did have a motive for

a crime of this extent. The thing with Mikey is that while the theory about him planting the bomb as revenge against Angela does seem a bit over the top, as we mentioned, it is the only real motive which has ever been presented for why someone would deliberately target the Blount family. Most of the other theories seemed to be based on them being the unfortunate victims of mistaken identity,

which would make the crime a lot more difficult to solve. We've done a couple other podcast episodes on unsolved murders where it's been theorized that a botch contract hit took place and the perpetrator killed the wrong person, but those victims were targeted individually, Whereas this particular crime may have involved leaving a bomb on the doorstep of the wrong residence in a trailer park, which is a much

easier mistake to make. Hell, since the Blounts had only lived there for two months, perhaps the intended target was a previous occupant of the trailer located on not number eight. Though I'm sure the authorities probably looked into this angle. I know that investigators delved into the backgrounds of the other residents of the trailer park and came up with a couple of promising candidates who may have been

the real target. But here's one more alternate theory. What if the bomb was not only left at the wrong trailer, but the wrong trailer park. I don't know how many other trailer parks were located in that particular section of Texas at that time, But if the real target was not actually a resident of the Hilltop Mobile Home Park, perhaps that's why the authorities have been unable

to put two and two together. This is actually the theory I think I leaned the most towards that not only did they go to the wrong trailer, but they went to the wrong trailer park. Do you remember the Minnesota we did a while back about the murder of Matt Flores. Yes, yes, As you recall, like he was the guy who started a new job at a software company in engineering company in Silicon Valley and was shot in the back of the head as he was getting out of his car in the parking lot

in broad daylight. And they were never able to find any other people who worked at that building who seemed like they could have been mistaken for Matt. But because Silicon Alley has so many similar looking buildings in the same area, I've always speculated that perhaps the killer went to the wrong building and the wrong parking lot, and that's why they shot Matt and why the authorities have never

been able to put the pieces of the puzzle together. And I think that is a possibility in this case that they spent all this time investigating all the other residents in the Hilltop Mobile home Park and never found anyone who could have been the real target. But if the perpetrator went to the wrong trailer park to begin with, that might be why they've never been able to figure it

out. That totally makes sense to me. I mean, I could be like, fifty fifty it was meant for Tortella and fifty percent it was a wrong entire trailer park where there is a motive for what happened. But they just got the wrong person and they've never been able to tie who it was meant for. Therefore, they can't uncover the motive and figure out who was the one that planted the bomb. That would make sense too, because then

you're looking at all these directions and you're just not finding anything. Yeah, it's not like they would have the resources to check like every single trailer park in that area of Texas during that time period. So for all we know, it just slipped through their fingers and they just went to the wrong park. However, it's also possible that some people have a pretty good idea who

did this bombing, but there's just not enough evidence to implicate them. While he was still incarcerated on death row, Michael roy Tony wrote a statement which was published in a magazine called Justice Denied, and it contained this very interesting passage quote. Since the trial, my family and I have received numerous phone calls and letters from people saying that they know I'm innocent because they know who

did the bombing and why it was done. I believe the fact that no one could ever determine the motive is the reason they couldn't solve the crime. I've been in contact with these people who wrote and called my family. They have told me what the motive was, who did it, and why the motive was never determined. Yes, I have learned who the real murderers are, but they will remain free to more murders unless the investigation is reopened. No one will listen to me because the case has been closed. End.

Tony then went on to mention that the people who committed the crime live in the Fort Worth area, and I find it interesting how he specifically used the word people to imply there was more than one person involved. Now, as far as I can tell, Tony never publicly revealed the identities of these people who were supposedly implicated in the bombing. If he had not been killed in the truck crash only one month after his release, perhaps Tony might have been

able to spread more awareness about the real perpetrators. But I think his death gave the authorities a convenient out because they could just keep saying that Tony was the right man all along and have no obligation to reopen the investigation. And that's a real shame because there are three deceased victims out there who have still never received justice. However, if a number of people really did contact Tony

in his family about the identities of the real killers. Then this implies there are still quite a few individuals who know the truth and could break the case why open. So if you happen to have any information about the Blount family bombing, please contact the appropriate authorities. Jewels any final thoughts on this case. My heart goes out to Susan Ray and Robert, who are the survivors here, and they clearly lost so much, and also Michael Columbus's mother because

they lost everything, and it truly breaks my heart. I don't like Mikey Huff for a suspect. I think it's far too methodical and sophisticated for a fifteen year old in nineteen eighty five. I think there's a possibility that it could have been intended for Irvin, but I think it's less likely than it would have been intended for Tortella. I like that Tortella was somebody was right

there trying to get in and help everybody, risking life and limb. He later expressed remorse, saying that the things that I was doing may have contributed to the and you know, I think about it all the time. He sounds like he did have a redemption arc, and it sounds like he spent a great deal of time thinking about it. There's just and I mean, maybe it had nothing to do with him, And if it didn't, then he spent a lot of time feeling this guilt over something that had absolutely easier

to do with him. And that would be a scenario like Robin brought up that I think is completely plausible that it could have been intended for another trailer park. If it's intended for another trailer park and they didn't investigate that, then they're never going to be able to make the connection, uncover who did this, or find out what the motive was. But I truly believe that this was a mistaken identity on some part, right like whether it was the

wrong unit, the wrong people, the wrong trailer park. I don't believe that the bomb was intended for the Blounts. Yeah, I totally agree, And I have never seen another case like that. Offhand, I cannot think of any many other cold cases involving a briefcase bomb used as a method for

a murder. And that's what makes it so unusual, is that you'd expect to see something like this and a spy thriller or a terrorist attack, and you would not expect like a working class family like the Blounts, who have never committed any crimes, have no known enemies to have like a briefcase found

on their trailer park doorstep on Thanksgiving. And yeah, there are a lot of victims in this story because we three people lost their lives, and we had Ray and his ex wife lost, Michael and Susan and Robert wound up surviving the blast with injuries and having to deal with the loss of Joe and Angela, and they had to go through the ordeal of thinking that they had finally achieved justice and seen the perpetrator go to prison, only for him to

be released about a decade later, and the case wind up going right back to square one. So, as far as you know, I do believe that Michael roy Tony was completely innocent here. He definitely was not an angel. He got himself into this situation and he had a troubled history. But you do not deserve to go to prison for a time you did not commit,

particularly if it means you could be executed for it. And it is a tragedy that he died in a truck accident only a month after he was released from prison, and I think if he had been still around and working to clear his name and spreading awareness about the case and also trying to find out who the real perpetrators are, I think the investigation might still be ongoing, and for all we know, maybe they would have found out the truth

about what happened. And I really would like to find out more information from Tony about who these people are that he was supposedly told were the real killers, and what their motive could have been. But whoever it was, I do believe it was a mistaken identity and that they either left the briefcase at the wrong trailer or the wrong trailer park altogether. And unfortunately, three innocent people had to lose their lives and two families had to suffer a lot of

trauma and have their lives ruined forever. And because Michael roy Tony is dead, the authorities don't have a lot of motivation to reopen the investigation because they could just keep paying the crime on a dead guy, which is a real shame because this is an horrific crime where justice has been delayed, and I do hope one of these days we actually get to find out the full truth about what actually happened. Robin, do you want to tell us a little

bit about the Trail Went Cold Patreon? Yes, The Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three years now, and we offer these standard bonus features like early ad free episodes, and I also send out stickers and sign thank you

cards to anyone who signs up with us on Patreon. If you join our five dollar tier Tier two, we also offer monthly bonus episodes in which I talk about cases which are not featured on the Trail Went Cold's original feeds, so they're exclusive to Patreon, and if you join our highest tier tier three,

the ten dollars tier. One of the features we offer is a audio commentary track over classic episodes of Unsaw Mysteries, where you can download an audio file and then boot up the original Unsaw Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime or YouTube and play it with my audio commentary playing in the background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very first episode that I did a commentary track over was the episode featuring

this case. So if you want to download a commentary track in which I make more smartass remarks about Jewel Kaylor than be sure to join Tier three. So I want to let you know a little bit about the Jewels and Ashley Patreons. So there's early ad free episodes of The Path Went Chili. We've got our Path Went Chili minis, which are always over an hour, so they're not very many, but they're just too short to turn into a series and we're really enjoying doing those, so we hope you'll check out those.

Patreons will link them in the show notes. So I want to thank you all for listening, and any chance you have to share us on social media with a friend or to rate and review is greatly appreciate it. You can email us at The Path Went Chili at gmail dot com. You can reach us on Twitter at the Pathwin. So until next time, be sure to bundle up because cold Trails and Chili pass call for warm clothing. Music by Hall Riched from the podcasts Cold Collars Comedy