The Harvey’s Casino Bomber; The Most Bizarre True Crime Story in American History

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[@Biographics]

Go to

[@willowmoon7]

The fact that he was able to construct such a device in the first place raises so many questions about who the man actually was.

[@joshuaescopete]

I’d like to propose Gen. John Pershing. Head of the Expeditionary Forces during WWI. His military career tells the story of America’s imperialism, from commanding Buffalo Soldiers during the Span-Am War to hunting Pancho Villa amidst the Mexican Revolution. Surely a life worthy of Biographics.

[@AdmRose]

You can trace a perfect timeline of these videos all the way back to the beginning just by the length of Simon’s beard.

[@richardhodge6817]

I was at a presentation where the Sheriff at the time of the bombing said the issue with the drop was that the bomber wrote terrible directions on where to do the drop. Genius with a bomb, terrible with a map.

[@Lizablue0608]

I live in South Lake Tahoe on the California side. I was a little little kid when this happened. I remember my mom was terrified and glued to the television as we watched it explode. I’ll never forget it.

[@MrShanester117]

As soon as the scammy nord VPN advertisement comes on, I completely check out. Nord VPN needs the “become a Lord” treatment

[@templarw20]

The key point you made was that it had so many triggers that it could have gone off accidentally. The problem with traps and "self destruct" devices in fiction is that to build something like that which can reliably blow up when you need it, but not blow up beforehand, is... tricky.

[@samihiggins]

Wow. I grew up in South Lake Tahoe in the 90s, with my parents working at Harvey's, and never knew about this

[@garychildress5242]

From what I heard, John Burgess' motive for the bombing was to recoup gambling loses when Harvey Gross stopped treating him like a high roller. When John Burgess first stared gambling heavily, throwing large amounts of money across the table's at Harvey Casino. Casino owner Harvey Gross naturally treated Burgess like a V.I.P. Even allowing him to stay at his personal residence whenever he was in town. As Burgess wallet became thinner and thinner over time, Harvey Gross slowly yanked the proverbial red carpet out from under Burgess feet, eventually withdrawing it all together. Apparently (as the story goes) John Burgess saw this as a slight that could not be over looked or forgiven. So, he came up with this elaborate plan to both recoup his loses and get revenge on Harry Gross. At least that was the way I heard it.

[@s--cn8ee]

It is strange that I did not find a video of Bobby Fischer despite all this coverage. I think that his life and its contradictions would constitute an ideal biography to cover.

[@Chrisf206]

I witnessed this bomb going off in 1980, it was wild, put my father out of work, he was a card dealer at Harvey’s at the time, the bomb did massive damage to the steel from of the building, still shots showed it literally lifted it off the foundation. Off topic but Harvey had the worlds largest automobile collection, full of mint condition classic cars, expansive warehouses, full machine shop which could make any car part if not available, our high school did a field trip tour of the facility, impressive to say the least and will never forget it, sadly after Harvey passed the collection was sold off. Harvey also had one of the first bison ranches and helped save the American bison….an interesting man.

[@ThatThrashGuy99]

As a Reno native, it is CRIMINAL that I never heard of this. Thank you Simon!! 💙

[@jacobjones5269]

Growing up in a pool hall, such as I did, my favorite part of the story is the gamblers taking bets at other casinos on whether or not the bomb blows.. lol..

[@GrandPrixDecals]

Had heard that story before but never as well told, thx again Simon & team 👍

[@velouris76]

Just watched this, and I am amazed that I had never heard this story before, and am even more amazed that there hasn’t been either a film or even a Netflix documentary about this…this has all the makings of a brilliant documentary series…

[@sundaywasabi]

As someone who worked at a small gambling place somewhere in Europe, I'd say my employer would have made sure that insurance covers damage to the building and inventory and then shrugged their shoulders as the video feed from the cameras faded to white noise. (Allegedly.)

[@nosonoliento]

1980 was quite the year in Nevada. Besides the Harvey's bombing it was also the year of the MGM Hotel fire in Vegas that killed 85 and then the pedestrian deaths in Reno when a crazy woman drove her car down the sidewalk killing six and sending 26 to the hospital. The t-shirt read: "I GOT BURNED IN VEGAS, BOMBED AT TAHOE AND RUN OVER IN RENO.

[@lordomacron3719]

Oh I suggested this one for a Casual Criminalist. Qxir did a great video on this that was more on the ‘Un-defusable Bomb’ part of the story I wanted a deeper dive on the man behind it.

[@normastanley5853]

Excellent work.. Enjoyed it..