All language subtitles for This Is a Bomb The Nevada Casino Heist S01E01 The Bomb 720p HEVC x265-MeGusta

Something I wrestle with still to this
day.

Why I went along with something that
crazy.

There's a big bomb scare on the south
shore of Lake Tahoe.

Two men posing as computer technicians
trundled a box covered with blankets

lettered IBM into a casino yesterday and
left the box there.

This thing was a massive device. It is a
building killer.

The whole idea was incredible.

We all knew exactly what we were
supposed to do.

I kept it secret. I didn't tell anybody.

You start doing crazy things to get
attention.

With the suspected bomb, a note
demanding $3 million.

$3 million to tell how to disarm the
bomb.

Now the search is on for the criminals
who planted it. Who are we dealing with?

And why is this casino across the street
the richest gambling casino in the

world?

I was betting against them ever getting
that money.

It's a far -fetched game.

You would never think anybody would pull
that off.

The nightmare was just beginning.

There was no way out.

Tahoe was a relatively small town.

Kind of a wide open atmosphere.

I'm not saying, you know, there were
gunfights, but you didn't have to worry

about restrictions, regulations.

It was an atmosphere that was related to
fun.

It takes a lot to drag people away from
the gambling tables of State Line Nevada

on the shores of Lake Tahoe.

even when they're told a bomb could go
off. A strange -looking device, thought

at first to be a computer, was found in
Harvey's Hotel Casino, along with a list

of demands.

Officials faced two questions. Is it
really a bomb?

And if it is, what do they do with it?

On August 26th of 1980, I got a call
from the sheriff's office.

I arrived at... Harvey's Casino, where I
was met by Captain Danny Daniels, who

was the bomb squad commander.

I was at home. My wife and daughter were
going to go on a camping trip.

The phone rang, and they said that
there's a device that they found at

I threw as much stuff out of the truck
as I could and drove over there.

When the alarm goes off, you're called.
That's what you do.

I thought, it'll be in a bag, it'll be
in a suitcase, it'll be relatively easy.

And then we walked into the second floor
and it was huge.

We didn't know if it was a real
explosive device or not when we

at it.

I'd never seen anything so sinister in
my life. It was absolutely frightening.

But the first thing that runs through
your mind is that if this... container

full of explosives, you know, we're in
trouble.

According to police officials here, they
tell us that the bomb apparently is

near that particular window right up
there, within 10 or 20 feet of it from

we've been told here.

Along with the suspected bomb, a note
which said the box held 1 ,000 sticks of

dynamite, wired and extremely sensitive.

Tahoe was a thriving area with a lot of
people, and there were.

thousands of vacations in that casino.

I was sound asleep at 8 .30 and they
came through pounding at the doors and

said that they had a security problem.
They had blocked all the streets and we

wondered what was going on. And we left
everything else there and we got out of

the hotel.

One of the things I'm asked often is how
much damage can an explosive do? How

many people can it kill? A thousand
pounds in an open field, not going to do

much. A thousand pounds in a building.

You can devastate a portion of a city.

So getting those casinos closed and
getting the people out of there was

important. Even though the hotel was
evacuated, people were trying to get in.

Serious police officers weren't kidding
when they kept pushing back crowds.

About a dozen buses were sent in to
clear the area, and hotels along the

were boarding up. In a town where people
know more than a little about odds, no

one is taking any chances.

Once the building was secured, we got
everyone out of there except for the

squad.

And we started setting up, photographing
the thing and trying to document as

much as we could.

So what you're trying to do is you've
got a metal box of mystery.

And you want to know what's inside that
metal box.

So the tools were limited. You have a
stethoscope, you've got some x -rays.

You're not going to start poking around
and flipping switches. That would not be

well advised.

So then we started setting up to x -ray
this thing.

And we were able to identify some of the
contents in the top box.

We can see wires coming from the top box
going down to the bottom box.

Looking at the x -rays, ultimately we
determined that this was the real thing.

Holy shit, this is real.

That's a bomb.

Demolitions experts have been working to
decide just how they can best disarm

the device, which they say is definitely
a bomb.

The best possible situation in working
with bombs is distance.

You want to move the device.

You know, we had dealt with smaller
devices and been successful.

But, you know, when I saw the size of it
and the switches and everything and the

fact that there were bullseye bubbling
levels on every corner.

We realized right then that we were not
going to move this device.

And going through my head is the fact
that I got to find out who put it there.

in wise lake tahoe this

was a felt cover

that was on one of the gaming tables
inside of harvey's i found this on ebay

which is where i get a lot of my rare
collectibles also collected assorted

photos and clippings this is Harvey
Gross, the owner of the casino.

A one -time butcher, Harvey Gross got
his start at Lake Tahoe in 1946 with a

roadside cafe where his wife did the
cooking.

Harvey expanded it over the next several
years into Harvey's Wagon Wheel Saloon,

and in 1963, he completed an 11 -story
hotel tower, which was the tallest hotel

tower at the time in Lake Tahoe.

Well, we feel that the future is
tremendous up here. Ample room for

the next 20 years is tremendous.

As opposed to the stereotype of mobsters
running casinos, Harvey brought

legitimacy to the casino business in
Lake Tahoe.

Picture of my grandparents, Harvey and
Llewellyn Gross.

Harvey Gross in his office.

Pretty chipper.

As long as you weren't making his day a
bad day, you were probably okay.

But, yeah, kind of brings back a lot of
memories. You know, just all the family

that was involved in this business over
the years.

And there was competition.

Always was competition.

Everyone knows who the big men are here.

It's an open secret that no love is lost
between the owner of Harrah's Club.

and the proprietor of Harvey's Wagon
Wheel.

Bill Harrow was direct competition with
my grandfather.

They were directly across the street.

They would compete toe -to -toe for
customers, but we had no idea who would

something like this.

There was a lot of unknowns at the time
and a lot of fear.

Harvey's Casino has been empty since an
object believed to be a bomb was

delivered in a photocopier box.

An extortion note said it is a powerful,
sensitive device.

This was the ransom note that was found
with the bomb.

Stern warning to the management and bomb
squad.

Do not move or tilt this bomb.

Don't try to flood or gas the bomb.

There is a float switch and an
atmospheric pressure switch.

Both are attached to detonators.

Do not 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.

The letter said it had eight different
ways for it to go off, so that put it in

a category that I certainly had never
seen and that nobody had ever seen.

All the usual techniques went out the
window, so that was scary.

Is there some reason to believe that
they had some training in electronics

because of the sophistication of the
device?

Absolutely. The bomb experts told us
that this device was the most

sophisticated, homemade bombing device
they have ever experienced and ever

witnessed. I also had the issue of the
extortion payment.

He wanted $3 million in a helicopter.

He said, we had 24 hours to deliver that
ransom.

The bomb had been delivered around 5 o
'clock in the morning of the 26th, and

that was one of the reasons we had to
move this along.

And still we didn't have a motive other
than a ransom.

Are we dealing with just some crank, or
are we dealing with somebody that's very

serious?

Somebody that wants to cause a large
loss of life?

You've got to establish the means,
motive, and the opportunity.

In order to come up with a suspect

You Soviet crisis and

from our desk in Washington Frank
Reynolds in straight -line, Nevada on

south shore of Lake Tahoe There is a
powerful bomb in one of the major

casinos there and police and demolition
experts are preparing to deal with it

Here is a report from Tom Shell I can I
distinctly recall

seeing on the news that the bomb got
into Harvey.

And I immediately called my brother and
I said, we're screwed.

What are we going to do with it?

The authorities have appealed to the
extortionists to make contact

so they can avoid a potentially
disastrous explosion.

There it was on TV. Top news story of
the day.

He had actually made it happen.

I know who was responsible for all of
this.

because my brother and I were forced to
help him.

I don't even know why I still have this
album or how I wound up with it, but

it's stuck around through all the movies
and all the years.

The John Burgess family.

The picture of... Is that Grandma?

That's Grandma.

of my hair.

We all kind of look like each other.
Like, you look like your dad. I look

you. I got your nose.

What do you mean my nose?

This is just all articles about the
court trial and the way it went. It

went on for years.

You know, I couldn't get on with my life
until all this was over.

Are you guys ever in these?

Yeah, well, that's a picture of my
brother, but it says my name underneath.

And then they tried a love -hate
relationship between father and son.

A love -hate relationship?

I guess, yeah. Didn't y 'all just not
like him?

Well, it's a weird deal. It's your
parent. No matter how bad your parent

it's still your parent.

What do you know about your dad's
involvement in all of that, in the

Not much.

I mean, he doesn't like to talk about
it. Sometimes he will.

I don't think he, like, helped build the
bomb.

Because he would have told me if he did,
but did you help build the bomb?

We haven't really had an in -depth
discussion on the mechanics of what I

involved in and what I wasn't involved
in.

A

dad

should be, you know, your guide.

and take care and giving you an
environment where you can thrive.

And he had that opportunity, a
successful millionaire.

It all came crashing down for him, and
he was going to get even.

If you wronged him, he extricated
revenge.

He did it with people that worked for
him, that worked with him, his ex -wife.

There was never any good outcome dealing
with Big John.

You know, I was 18 at the time.

Came home from work one day and my dad
said, I got to talk to you. And he was

broke and lost all his money.

He just said, I'm going to build a bomb
and bomb Harvey's and get my money back.

It was like a joke.

You would never think anybody, let alone
your father talking to you, would even

have a plan to make that succeed.

He says, I've got to keep it a secret,
so I need you and your brother to help

with this.

And you need to call your brother and
ask him.

My name is Kelly Cooper.

And I was John Jr.'s girlfriend.

I was only 14 when I met him at Little
Okie's, which is a motocross place.

You know, John and Jim and all the guys
would be racing motorcycles, and all of

us girls would be yelling and having a
good time.

I would say it was love at first sight
for both of us, I think.

John Jr.

was not a good influence on me.

He dropped out of school and had his own
place.

He drove a van, which is also a parent's
nightmare.

You can think about that.

And, well, you know, crazy things happen
in vans.

But then Jim was kind of known as the
goody -two -shoe kind of guy.

I've known Jimmy since 1973.

He's like my adopted little brother.

He was just a naturally gifted rider.

He had the potential to be really good.

I got sponsored in my motocross racing
and was doing well there. I was a little

bit better than my brother, and it was a
big issue.

You know, he talked about his brother
some, but they were completely different

worlds. Little John did drugs, that kind
of stuff, and Jimmy was not that way at

all.

I skimmed through that book.

I probably didn't read all of it because
with my brothers and my relationship,

it was always a lot of fighting.

I think that is one of the best places
to get his voice since he's no longer

here.

And so I was in a rendezvous place about
an hour away from my brother and my

dad. So when the sun came up, I decided
to just go back and see what happened.

So on the way back, I stopped.

I will

try

to recreate, to the best of my memory,

what would consume three and a half
years of my life.

I was in the kitchen fixing breakfast
for me and Kelly on a Saturday morning,

sitting on the porch with the brother
I'd avoided since the day I moved out of

Big John's house three years before.

When Jim came to his apartment that
first day, he walked in, I was there.

told John Jr.

what their dad's big plan was.

Jim said, He says he's going to blow up
Harvey's Casino.

I said, you'll go to prison for the rest
of your life. Are you kidding?

For your dad, who you don't even like.

Yes, it was definitely a shock.

The man who couldn't wait to throw me
out of his house.

Now wants my help?

My dad was born in Hungary.

And as Kitsy told us, he was a double
agent for the CIA.

He said that when the Nazis invaded
Hungary, he was forced to join the

Luftwaffe and was trained as a pilot.

He scored 13 kills before his plane was
shot down, and he found himself in a

Russian prison camp.

Which I find plausible because he did
have all the prison tattoos from the

Gulag. Kids, what we had heard is that
his wife or a group of people used a

and blew up the prison wall to get him
out of prison.

I mean, it was a great story to hear as
a kid, but it also made you like, oh, my

gosh, this guy's kind of spooky.

So you hear your dad telling you these
stories, you automatically believe it,

but I couldn't tell you one way or
another for sure.

He managed to find his way to America
with his wife, Elizabeth.

And Clovis, California, became their
home.

They found jobs. They learned the
language. They had two sons.

Within a few years, Big John had his own
landscaping business.

I think by 1966, he was one of the
biggest contractors in California.

It was a multi -million dollar company
then, in the 60s. And then they bought a

restaurant.

My parents were living the American
dream.

My mother was the bookkeeper, and he did
the work.

From the outside, they were a success
story in Fresno.

But nobody knew how bad it was for the
kids, the boys.

His problems, in my mind, started to...

manifest when we started having marital
problems with my mom. He started

drinking and at some point we started
gambling.

When Big John went to Harvey's, he was a
very high roller.

He was doing $10 ,000 a hand playing two
hands.

In blackjack.

In rolling that kind of money, he
attracted a lot of attention from casino

management, from Harvey.

He was really treated like royalty.

I mean, to him, it was intoxicating.

And he wound up just being there all the
time.

Big John became Harvey's friend as he
spent into the millions inside Harvey's

Casino. And he became addicted to his
status as much as he was addicted to the

gambling. And he just kept losing.

He lost more than he won at the tables
until he found himself deeply in debt.

He lost his landscaping business and his
restaurant due to his addiction at the

blackjack table.

He borrowed more and more money from
Harvey in order to feed his addiction.

It got to a point where he was losing
and not paying the market.

And he was no longer welcome there.

His obsession had cost him almost
everything he owned.

He was so deranged that he actually
thought The only way that he would lose

would be somebody had to cheat him.

So he was going to build that bomb and
get the $3 million that he felt was

stolen from him.

We're headed to my childhood home.

Where the infamous bomb was constructed.

I haven't even seen pictures of it, so I
have no idea what it looks like.

I mean, you didn't help build the bomb,
right? Or did you?

No, I didn't.

I wouldn't know what to build.

But the day it came to fill it full of
dynamite, we helped him do that.

You know, Jim's lived here for his whole
life.

and he's never taken the kids by. Maybe
they've done a drive -by, but they don't

know a lot about the story because it
just takes them back to places that are

uncomfortable for him.

Going over the past with my kids, they
have no idea. We never talked about it,

ever.

But my youngest daughter, Hope, is the
one who's most curious about it.

So I'm trying to...

to open up more, to have her wind up
different than me.

Well, I used to live here. Years ago, I
grew up here.

You are a virgin.

Yes. No shit.

Is there any chance that we can come in
and look around?

My husband's got all kinds of stuff in
there.

Yeah, there you go.

Wow.

That car is so cool.

I remember when he built this shop.

He built the poles and welded them all
together.

This was all self -taught.

This is where he...

He built a bomb.

In here. In here.

In that era and time, obedience to your
parents was a lot different than

what it is now.

I mean, if you talk back, you got beat.

So it's like, it's just a different
world now.

I don't want to sound like this is
something that I was enthusiastic about

wanted to do. It was something that we
were trained to say yes, so we said yes.

And so it just started evolving from
that point forward, mainly with trying

procure the dynamite.

And it's not easy to find 1 ,000 pounds
of dynamite.

In the High Sierra, a new season begins.

and construction continues on a massive
undertaking, the Helms Pump Storage

Project.

At that time, Granite Construction
Company was in the beginning stages of

constructing the Helms hydroelectric
plant.

Tony, who was a friend that stopped by
to visit Jim, had just started working

Granite Construction, and in the
conversation, Tony had unknowingly

Big John, all the information he needed
to know about the existence and the

location of the dynamite.

And that next day, my brother came over,
and Big John described the plan he

concocted.

I couldn't help thinking how nice Big
John could be when he wanted something.

It was one or two in the morning, late
night.

We drove my brother's van up there.

There was a little bit of activity a few
hundred yards away.

The job site was working 24 hours, so we
waited until it calmed down a little

bit.

My dad had decided that he's going to
use this backpack torch.

I thought it was kind of risky, being
you're torching a lock off a dynamite

locker, but... Got in the locker and
proceeded

to empty the contents of the locker into
the van.

I was in such fear, thinking at any
moment...

It's going to blow up.

So it was just terrifying the whole
time.

The Fresno Bee ran an article telling of
the dynamite theft.

I went, oh my gosh, they did it. They
did it.

I remember saying that to myself, they
did it. I didn't tell anybody.

Big John took about four months.

to fabricate and complete the bomb.

I heard from Big John again. He said,
ready for your help, can you come to the

house tomorrow?

Showed me some drawings he had made.

The whole idea was incredible.

A very unique aspect of this device,
that someone is cogitating and saying,

right, what can the police do to try to
take this thing out?

Big John said, what could we use to
prevent it from being flooded or foamed

short out the wiring?

We stood there, silently concentrating
on the problem.

Suddenly my dad's eyes widened.

So what we have here is our reproduction
of wheel bomb.

And in the FBI, we have a unit that does
nothing but create courtroom exhibits.

In case you were thinking of flooding
this, you know, this toilet float.

And you can see in the very center,
there's a piece of plastic, white

As it rises, it comes up into this tube.

And when those two screws make contact,
you complete a switch, and the bomb goes

off.

The motion detector was my idea.

Back in the 1980s, automotive alarms
were really simple. If you shook the

it would go off. And so we kind of made
a homemade version of that.

At the very center of this device, you
can see what we call a trembler. You can

see this ball -bearing move in there,
and when it makes contact, it could set

off the bomb.

I bet John's eyes lit up. I could see
that he was noticeably impressed.

As this went along, I mean, I thought
exactly I was doing it.

It had a seven -day irrigation timer.

Pressure switches on the top lid, and
the bomb was double -walled, so if you

attempted to drill through it, it would
complete the circuit and detonate.

At that moment, I felt a connection with
my father that, until this night, had

never existed.

And I found myself unexpectedly caught
up in the thrill of the adventure.

I mean, it was all very simple, but that
was the genius of it.

As the bomb got closer to completion, he
got his girlfriend Joan, a parole

officer, to make a gray cover for this
thing.

homemade cut -out letters that said IBM
on it.

And she helped him write the letters
because his broken English could give

that he was a foreigner.

I'm sure she knew things about the law
or things of police procedure or

investigative procedures.

I couldn't understand how a Fresno
County probation officer could

an extortion attempt.

She must have been under the same spell
as Jim and me.

So the farther along it went, we still
just kept on...

rationalizing it that this isn't going
to happen, this is going to happen.

The thoughts whirled through my head.
What the hell am I doing?

I'm helping a man who is definitely
insane.

It's like a whirlpool. You get stuck in
and you can't get out.

My dad's idea of discipline was just
physical abuse.

You know, physically beating you.

And it was just a common occurrence.

I lost teeth when he punched me in the
mouth for having my elbow on the table.

Beat with a belt, beat with a stick,
beat with a shovel.

And his idea, it made you tough. You
know, tough for the world.

Yeah, John Jr.

and Jim, they do the motocross racing
together, but other than that, they

hang out with one another or anything
like that.

My brother and me didn't have a close
relationship ever, and that was by

For my father, it was like raising two
pit bulls.

You know, they might have been from the
same litter, but they're trained to

fight each other.

But I think the bomb.

in a weird way, brought them together
because they knew what they were doing

absolutely wrong.

The more your reality is becoming, me
and my brother were trying to figure out

an exit strategy on this.

This bomb is going to either kill me,
kill everybody, kill somebody, or I'm

going to get caught rolling the thing in
the front door.

We ended up going through a trial
loading of the bomb into the van.

The steel was quarter -inch plate,
probably weighed, you know, 1 ,200, 1

pounds at least.

Jim held one wheel while I held the
other, making sure they stayed in place.

Before I knew what was happening, my
fingers were under the wheel of the

Big John said nothing.

He was too busy calculating what had
gone wrong.

It hit me.

I had found a legitimate exit out of
this debacle.

And at that point, my brother, he says,
F this?

Jim finally spoke up. I won't do it if
John won't.

He says, if I can get somebody else to
push it in, will you pick up the money?

Will you commit to doing the ransom?

Sure, I'll pick up the money with you.

My brother goes, sure.

It's never going to happen anyway.

We're in the clear.

Well, we found out later that after we
backed out, Big John hired two guys who

used to work at his landscape business.

And he promised them 100 grand apiece to
roll this thing in the front.

Whether he told them that was a bomb or
not, I got no clue.

I mean, they went along with it, no
problem.

They were dressed up in all the one
suits with the zip -up, and they had

little names on them just like they
would be.

I guess they just looked the part.

This thing was so heavy, the carpet
there was making it very difficult to

it. They called security to help them
physically push this thing into the

elevator. Wait, security helped push it?
Yeah, they had to call security to help

them push it.

I mean, it's the heave -ho thing, you
know.

Then they took it up to the second floor
where all the offices were.

Big John began to feel the exhilaration
of what would be one of the most

impressive hands ever dealt him.

This was his moment.

The loss of his businesses, all the
money being gone, was for a moment

completely forgotten.

He knew there would be panic and mass
evacuations.

Harvey would have no choice but to pay
the $3 million.

He felt alive again, his pride reborn.

At that time there were three news
channels, and it was on all of them.

a report from Tom Schell.

not just national news, but worldwide as
well.

As the evacuation progressed,
authorities said they had not heard from

extortionists since they found a three
-page note that demands a $3 million

payment in exchange for instructions on
how to disarm the bomb.

The authorities have appealed to the
extortionists to make contact

so they can avoid a potentially
disastrous explosion.

I was in shock.

Never at any time did I think my father
could pull this off.

He had actually made it happen.

At that point, you know, we still didn't
have enough information on what was

going on inside that device.

And he has alluded to a time frame. You
know, if I don't receive my money in 24

hours, then, you know, don't contact me.
We won't contact you. It's going to,

you know, blow up.

That's our time limit. It's 24 hours.
Because he's not going to blow it up

before he gets his money.

So he has to give us 24 hours. But after
that, it's anybody's guess.

We knew that he wanted $3 million and a
helicopter.

And our best shot was to catch these
people at the time they picked up the

money. That was the weak part. They had
to appear or send somebody.

We had done this over the years many
times.

Never once did the criminal get the
money and get away with it.

On hindsight, in looking at this, I
probably should have put the bomb in

the plan to get the money was such a
harebrained scheme that you're more

to get caught there or die.

A time of tension and danger is moving
toward a conclusion.

Has there been any communication between
yourself and the person who said that?

No, there hasn't.

It was time for me to keep my word.

There is a possibility of an explosion
in the state line area.

Detonating that thing is the absolute
last choice.

The nightmare was just beginning, and
there was no way out.