Well if you're going to make the biggest improvised bomb the FBI has ever seen, you'd better make sure it's the most complex too, right?
"The Harvey's Resort Hotel bombing took place on August 26-27, 1980, when several men masquerading as photocopier deliverers planted an elaborately booby trapped bomb containing 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of dynamite at Harvey's Resort Hotel (now "Harveys") in Stateline, Nevada, United States. After an attempt to disarm the bomb, it exploded, causing extensive damage to the hotel but no injuries or deaths. The total cost of the damage was estimated to be around $18 million. John Birges Sr. was convicted of having made the bomb with a goal of extorting money from the casino after having lost $750,000 there. He died in prison in 1996, at the age of 74."
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Good old Random Variables
Chapter 6, AP Sats
Yay new qxir vid! Also I just heard you pronounce Qxir for the first time, or atleast paid attention to it... I've been saying 'Quick-zer' or 'quixer' *I motion to change the official pronunciation to Qxir, as I've been saying it*
Grambling is fun bro. Try roulette!
@@tko3833 even at minimum bets gambling in almost all forms is the most expensive form of fun you can get your hands on
If anybody is wondering how a couple of guys wheeled a whole-ass bomb into a casino and nobody questioned it, here's why. I knew a guy who used to shoplift, but not the usual small, easily concealed items, this guy shoplifted fridges, washing machines and other big ticket items. How? He drove up to appliance shops in a moving truck, entered the store wearing overalls with a clipboard and told retail staff that he was there to pick up x item for delivery. 9 times out of 10, they'd sign whatever nonsense was attached the clipboard and help him load the items into his truck. The 10th time he got arrested.
thats a pretty wild story as well lmao
Let me guess: 10 times shoplifting in the same store?
This; I actually knew a guy who built a sizable collection of arcade cabinets with this exact strategy Coveralls and a clip board get you very far I also had a friend who walked up to the Walmart auto center counter The employee said "hey are you here to pickup these 4 tires" and my buddy just said "yep" and got 4 free tires
Fbi if you are watching I am writing these down as a joke I swear
@@justinzhu8453 I also knew a guy who had a very successful career shoplifting dressed as a priest. Because nobody suspects a man of God to be out nicking stuff.
calling this an improvised bomb is an insult to the craftsmanship
facts
If my life was 'improvised' 🤔
If it's not an improvised bomb... Would that make it a "Planned Bomb"?
@@Timbobjr or a "copied" explosive/ bomb? Yeah, I see no negative in describing it as "improvised". The man dreamed it up and created an original 1 of 1 bomb. Another way to say it is improvised.
I mean, he took parts from a toilet to make the bomb
I saw a guy who is an FBI bomb technician. He said that a bomb suit is the difference between an open or closed casket funeral. He also said that the FBI leaves bad bomb recipies on the internet because, and i quote, "theyre self-solving problems."
FYI: He worked on the case of the Nashville bombing.
but it seems like in this case the bomb is so powerful that they just gave up wearing protective gear
That second thing actually happened with the Anarchist’s cookbook. the stuff that really works was edited out of the online versions and all that’s left is the “cook bleach lol” recipes
Lmao thats fuckin metal.
Just another reason to defund and dismantle the FBI. They are enablers of death, is that what you want from your government?
As a former casino dealer. Never think you can beat a place that sells nothing but still manages to keep the lights on 24/7
Gambling is something I just don't understand. Why???
@@TheTransitmtlmoney good, if i win i get more, as long as i play i may win, so i must play more
@@TheTransitmtl the thrill,i played black jack with friends (no money) and it's pretty fun,i can't immagine doing it with the adrenaline of winning/losing money
@@TheTransitmtlsunk cost fallacy and human nature that forces them to think they can beat the system and use emotions.
They sell "Hope".
You missed one of the most exciting parts of the story. The FBI bomb techs realized that the bomb was so powerful that there was no point in wearing their protective gear, so they just wore their regular shirts and pants with no protection while analyzing it.
Holy Rolex batman. Now that's bloody interesting
“This thing’ll kill us, bomb suit or no, so why bother with the suit?”
@@theempress8886 Having seen EOD suits before, if THAT isnt going to protect me, genuinely fuck wearing it
@@ShatterIsMyName the walk to an ied in the suit is known as the longest walk apparently. i genuinely cant fathom walking towards something knowing there's a good chance it could turn me to mush
@@gazeddy less mush, more mist
The amount of scenarios this man considered when designing the bomb was insane
So many failsafes on the bomb, and like zero in his extortion scheme lol
@@hat1324 He spent so much time on the bomb that he didn't spend any on the extortion
Ummm... he threw a bunch of wires in a box with a bomb. It wasn't complex. The fbi is just saying that cuz they messed up. Their normal procedure is to blow up bombs. Not disarm them. They have never done that. The only problem here was that it was more explosive than they thought, so instead of attaching it to a trailer and dragging it off as they normally do with big bombs, to be detonated in a safe place, they detonated it on site, like they do with smaller explosives. But it destroyed a lot so they made up this 'it was complex' excuse.
3 is a high number to you???
@@trumpisthemessiah7017 youtube is your only source of information for you???
A little back-story on that incident. I worked at the facility where the technician who came-up with the 'method' to defuse the bomb worked, so I heard how it went-down, After setting-up the shaped charge to disable the control box, The technician retired to the parking area to wire-up the detonator. A local sheriff standing nearby asked the technician how he would know if the technique worked. The technician replied " If it's a little boom, it worked, a big boom means it didn't" He then set-off the shaped charge which, unfortunately set-off the bomb.The sheriff then asked. "Was that the little boom or the big boom?"
Damn!! 😆😆
Is this a joke? LOL.. If not its a great story. If so, you're a genius.
@@tonyfourpaws4511 I'm not a genius, I just happened to work at the same facility as the tech. Here's another back story: I happened to visit Harvey's casino after it had been rebuilt, and while having a drink at the club, I picked-up some match books with the Harvey's casino logo on them. One day, I was talking with one of the other techs and told him about the match books. He became very exited and asked me if he could have one. I agreed and found-out later that he had scorched the edges of the matchbook cover and left it on the desk of the tech that set-off the bomb. We had a good laugh at his expense.
@@untermench3502 that’s evil lollll!
So is that a roundabout way of saying you're a fed?
It's nuts that Bill and Terry didn't say anything considering they were totally kept in the dark until it was too late, meanwhile Johnny and Jimmy knew exactly what was going on and assisted with it and managed to get out of jail time
I'm guessing only two of the four had lawyers
The sons were wealthy and had lawyers, the others didn't. Its a legal system, not a justice system. It will never make sense.
Worth mentioning that the pilot with the ransom money was instructed to land on a field marked with a strobe light. However when John Birges & co. were driving to the site they realized they forgot to bring a battery pack with them and had to find a shop to buy one. So they arrived much later and probably just missed the helicopter.
LOL !
📝 Perfect! This practically writes itself
Why they didn't use the car battery?
@@funguy398 Car batteries would probably have too high a voltage and just fry the strobe
@@johnroach9026 too low you mean. Two 9 volt batteries wired correctly gets you 18 volts. A car battery is 12. So if the strobe used 2 9 volt batteries like mine at home, then their car battery was too LOW in voltage.
Imagine losing your drivers license and just flying a plane instead lol. That’s so baller
What's so hilarious about that, is it's like at least an order of magnitude more dangerous. Gotta love bureaucracy lol
@@matthewwynn3025 that's why its funny lol. No one thought to revoke his ability to fly planes. That should be a given
@@matthewwynn3025 it isnt more dangerous, look at the stats.... it would be more dangerous if there were as many people in the air as on the road but you are much more likely to get killed on the road vs when flying a plane
@@matthewwynn3025 Flying a plane is far, far, FAR less dangerous than driving a car. It is intimidating, but just like learning to drive, small aircraft are very intuitive to fly and with a basic understanding of how a plane works, I'd imagine nearly anyone could fly. For reference, I need approximately 20-30 hours of experience to get my private pilot's license. I had to do 60 hours of logged driving to get my driver's license.
@@Graymenn you're absolutely correct on the stats, I think you misunderstood what I meant. I'm talking about the risk of damage to other people in the event of a crash. A plane has far more kinetic energy, ie would you rather have someone crash a car into your house or a plane lol
My dad was Army EOD Master Blaster retired colonel 28 years of service. He taught me a few things about disarming bombs. Most bombs are disarmed with smaller bombs, high pressure water jets, or even shotguns. Its not like the movies where you will blow up if you cut the wrong wire. Much safer to just clear the area and do a controlled detonation
Well ma'am, officers in EOD aren't allowed to touch anything, so the explanation from your father, albeit simplistic and in error, makes sense.
what about wireless bombs. what about a frequency disruption that explodes other bombs. the trigger is different. auto log in.
well it kind of depends on the explosive used. a C4 bomb like the kind you see in counter-strike can be defused with a shotgun blast because it needs an electrical charge to be detonated such as a blasting cap (and this is why you can set it on fire and it still won't blow up, its very stable and pretty safe as a result), but you probably wouldn't want to do that with a bomb that utilizes some other sort of explosive.
Deionized water jet would probably be the way to go.
To be fair, in this case it absolutely would blow up if you cut the wrong wire.
It should be noted that Birges never flew for the Luftwaffe, nor was imprisoned in any Gulag. These were claims made up much later and said to biographers before his death. There's been truly extensive searches that can't find a single scrap of his story to be true and yet it's said as though it's confirmed. I honestly thought it was too though until I read deeper wanting to know about his service history. But apparently he made it up to sound cooler for some reason and more interesting.
It worked
lol everybody just eat it up, including this video
This needs to be included.
WW2 pilot, prisoner of war, rags to riches story, family drama, possible family murder, gambling addiction and downfall, culminating in the creation of one of the most complex bombs the FBI has faced and failed against. You can make a movie out of this dudes life, easily.
i came to the comment section expecting someone to name a movie based off this... if they haven't done one yet they sure as hell need to
Agreed
@@HPsawus there was an Xfiles movie is that counts.
Interesting... 🤔
Not all heroes wear capes
At this point, I think calling it an "improvised" explosive device is a misnomer.
“Objection your honor, this bomb I made is the most sophisticated explosive the world has ever seen. To say that it is improvised- is a clear misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the device I have constructed.”
@@Saipan2297 "Objection Hearsay"
@@Saipan2297 "Your honor, I can assure you it was crafted meticulously using only high quality parts. Calling it an improvised explosive device is an insult to the craft."
He probably had lots of trial runs at it, testing various parts of it. This was not improvised; this was _designed_ and maybe it was _lovingly crafted_ . I am reminded of lots of road-side bombs placed in Afghanistan to make the lives of American soldiers more ... er ... interesting. The world's news services kept calling them "IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICES". No, they were assuredly NOT improvised. The VERY FIRST one may have been improvised, but the moment you start making improvements, refine the design, and set up a production line, it is no longer improvised. They are *DESIGNED* .
@@simonmultiverse6349 Interesting
For anyone interested, the TNT came from the powder magazine at the Helms pumped storage plant. FBI grilled the people who had access to it since it was custom built at the project, and although the two sons briefly worked there, it was suspected they had an inside man based on how they bypassed the security features. In regards to getting the bomb into the casino, the cover story given to the delivery guys was it was a new type of IBM fax machine. Source: I dated the granddaughter of one of the conspirators, and my dad had access to the magazine (he said the sons were sketchy as hell) Great documentary man.
The fact that this guy prepared his bomb for every possible scenario is impressive. This kind of intellect is extremely rare even among geniuses
Well, it's practical knowhow mixed with intelligence, which is seriously dangerous
No one talked about why the FBI's defuse attempt failed... there was a dynamite rod also in the smaller control box and that got detonated by the attempt, ignited the other 450kg.
it was blasting jelly, haha get it?
Two things strike me as seriously amazing about this. The extraordinary patience of assembling all of the various countermeasures, and the rudimentary binary programming of the switches. It wouldn't take that much creativity to come up with the various trigger ideas, but to make them all work together - including an analogue-controlled computer lock - is some really meticulous and tedious stuff.
If only he had used his powers for good
The main question I had following this was: How did the two delivery people, unaware of what it was, deliver a device that was rigged to explode if moved even slightly without it exploding?
@@ManWithNoPlan Im another programmer/ electrician type. I dont know if this is how he did it, but you could maybe have the pendulum hooked up to a strand of thin metal wire, and when literally any of the switches are hit, that are NOT for disarming, have it activate. Making it to where the next time the Pendulum hit, it would trigger. So for your question, the delivery people could have possibly drove like psychos as long as they didnt activate any of the other triggers.
I think the switches were like this: all bad switches wired to detonator, all good switches wired in series. If all the good switches are on, then the timer shuts off. No computer needed.
@@ManWithNoPlan You could have arming switches that hold ball-bearings on the inside. when you deliver it, you flip the switches, the ball-bearings drop down, completing the various circuits by some kind of mechanism. For example, a V shaped catcher with a gap in the middle so unarmed it's \ / no contact, and when the ball bearing drops into it, it's like this \o/ ensuring contact and completing the circuit. Flipping the switches back wouldn't disarm it as the ball-bearings aren't magically going to float back up into where the switch held them.
It’s worth noting that the bomb exploded anyway because they didn’t know that there was also dynamite at the top box with all the sensors, so the focused blast set them all off
Damn, that guy really did account for everything.
@@smeggiamagarwine As incredibly impressive as the bomb is, I still can’t decide if he’s a genius or an idiot lol. Didn’t get the ransom and he got caught in the end. Maybe he’s both and that’s alright
@@jarnold1789 To be fair to the guy, he didn't get caught because of what he did. He got caught because his dumb son's girlfriend overhearing the plans and telling her new bf. His downfall was making the drop off for the ransom too complicated.
@@shibapatrol801 True. If he could have pulled it all off on his own without help he probably would have gotten away with it
@@jarnold1789 At least he got the casino
12:30, love how you made the big reveal!
Me too, I gasped
I have two sides: “I use this video for information” “I use this video for information”
That same bomb is still used as a training aid. We were shown the cutaway of it at a training for our ODA in The Army. It’s every bit as complex as you would expect it to be & still to this day The FBI isn’t 100% as to who it was rigged but they have found their own ways of disarming used for training but the fact that this guy was a WW2 pilot and not an infantryman with training on bombs still blows my mind(no pun intended) that he was able to build this in his home. Let’s not forget their was no internet then and this guy built that bomb without the use of any instructions or books whatsoever.
i'm currently studying electrical engineering and have some experience with creating circuits. It's kinda scary that you could very easily recreate the circuit with many more countermeasures, including temperature, moisture, vibration, tilt, light, continuity, radio frequency... sensors and make it pretty much undefusable by any means. Hell you can make the bomb go of if someone touches the metal. Last year i've built a circut that can sense normal footsteps in the ground from 3 meters (10 feet) away and the components cost about $2. And all of that is before you even start using programmable microcontrollers. There are endless possibilities
How would they disarm this nowadays?
If you’re a pilot dropping bombs and rockets and shooting bullets the size of your forearms, you would probably know what was in those bombs & rockets & bullets
@@jimmithy695 either blow it or freeze it.
@@jimmithy695 i don't know how the fbi would do it but i think a good idea would be to use ferric chloride to etch a hole into the aluminum casing. Since there is to temperture sensor the box would have no way of knowing and ferric chloride could probably get the job done in a few hours
Birges planned for every contingency... Except for the extremely high likelihood that the first casino employee to encounter the odd device in the middle of the room might go, "this thing is in the way, let's roll it over against the wall" and thus set off the motion trigger switch before anyone had a chance to realize what it was.
This is just a guess, but he may have been banking on his knowledge of the casino's security norms. They may have had a very strict policy on tampering with things that weren't supposed to be there. Murphys law though, he got lucky nonetheless.
you could say it was a
He was a massive gambler anyway. Very fitting he added that to his plans. A bit of skill and a bit of luck can go a long way.
@@theabsolutelycursedsprout9308 NOWS YOUR CHANCE TO BE A
@@theabsolutelycursedsprout9308 XD why didnt u finish the joke
I just realized... even if instructions for defusal were given, the internal pendulum is so sensitive, it would be a significant hazard to input the instructions in the first place Not to mention you are required to wholeheartedly trust the craftsmanship and honesty of the bomb's creator, as there is simply no way to tell if the instructions for defusal were inputted correctly
To me the funniest part of the story is that people started placing bets on when the bomb would explode. People will bet on anything. I'm curious who the bookies were. Were they working for rival casinos? Were they private bets amongst spectators or did Harvey's bet on its own resort being exploded lol?
Feel bad for the delivery guys. Getting 7 years for being involved in something you had no idea about. They did nothing more morally wrong than the girlfriend in keeping quiet.
Maybe tell the cops after they got told they just delivered a massive bomb?
@@bronkolie I mean he did say that they were afraid of the threats he made considering his wife died unexpectedly and it seemed like he killed her
Well they did do something morally wrong.... they didn't alert authorities to a huge bomb they unwittingly put in a crowded building. While I appreciate that they were scared of Birges, you'd probably see their behaviour a little differently if someone had been hurt or killed in that explosion. That saga went on for more than a day.... they would have seen the TV coverage & known how dangerous it was. If they had come forward immediately they would probably have gotten immunity instead of the sons, or a _much_ smaller prison sentence. It's very different than the girlfriend who's just overhearing a conversation & probably has no idea if it's serious or not.
Guilt by association was "a thing" back then, but like now, it was only used on men they deemed worthy of punishment. There was zero "fairness" back then too.
They refused to talk even after everybody was in custody. They easily could've got plea deals and protection.
Yo, I live in Tahoe. They rebuild the parts that were damaged by the explosion. It looks hideous AF. They tried making the hotel more modern looking while keeping parts that weren't damaged. What we got was a mixture of two different styles of architecture that don't makes the building feel weird. The hallways start of looking like you just entered the 50s, then you walk around the corner all of a sudden you are in 2000s. Had some great times there and I do recommend it.
Op
The Lake Tower was built after the Mountain Tower was repaired (the bar and walkway out to the garage are in the general area where the bomb went off).
Your comment got me to look up some pictures and I don’t see what you’re talking about I don’t even see anything that looks like the old building I just looks modern
@@JBBrickman the old building that got bombed is still there; it just got modernized. They added a taller new tower in the early 1990s. I got there in the early 1990s and worked there until the mid-2000s.
Hotel?
apparently when the security guard entered the room he thought the letter was suspicious (he had recently had mail bomb training) so they were very cautious of the letter while leaning on / hiding behind the bomb
This guy is literally a cartoon villain: He's a genius, he has a whole villain backstory with the gulags, and a tumoltuous youth in the middle of war, and a life of trying very hard to make the most of things, and with morally bad decisions, and most importantly, despite all this, he still likely never killed anyone.
This man went from nothing to everything to nothing. In a surprisingly short amount of time
You could say he really... blew up. Please help me.
@@artstsym hahahahaha
Gambling.
WSB simulator
Well that's gambling for ya...
My army buddy for 30 years ( now sadly deceased ) was a senior Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician. ( bomb disposal ). His crew was called in on this bomb. They checked everything and advised the casino to pay the money.
That's awesome.
So he wasn't very bright huh? Cuz they were gonna detonate it on site regardless. The fbi had NEVER tried to disarm a bomb. ANY bomb. It's always been sop to detonate them. So this video is clickbait and I would guess you are lying.
Tbh, it was only 3 million. Compare that to the damage to the casino and it seems like a good deal. Plus, when they catch the guy you get the money back
@@Hungry_God the FBI wasn’t going to move the bomb regardless, so either way it would’ve exploded in his casino
@@fort809the "defused" bomb could be moved to a safer location for an controlled detonation
I deadass forgot this story was about a bomb until like a good 6 minutes in, that’s how weird this guys life was
I went to HS with (GWHS, Zephyr Cove) the former EOD (Viet Nam) engineer who worked for the FD. The FBI was gonna blow the bomb (ie, put a ceramic drill through the case (but it had TWO layers of foil) and he said no they weren't not, unless they sand bagged the concrete walls on either side, and both sides of each wall, to prevent them from collapsing. Had that not been done the whole building might've collapsed. The walls survived. So much for the FBI's bomb squad. They learned a great deal from this event... (And the "controlled explosion" myth above is bogus)
Definitely one of my favorite stories. Also one thing to note is that reason the FBI tried to disarm the bomb the way they did was because in the letter it said he had used TNT. Which is not the same as Dynamite. TNT is far more stable. Had they known it was actually Dynamite they probably would not have attempted it
Both are detonated using a shockwave. Using a shaped charge to try and disarm it wasn't the best idea as the shockwave created by the munroe effect is massive. They would have been better off using a blow torch! 🤣🤣
@@CHOPERUS23 the hard part about using a blow torch to diffuse a bomb is that it can’t be done remotely.
@@CHOPERUS23 TNT is noteworthy for being an extremely stable explosive, it requires a quite powerful shockwave to detonate it. Dynamite incorporates nitroglycerine, it can be highly unstable, and certainly far more sensitive than TNT. Ryan f's supposition is correct. A blow torch (i.e. oxy-acetylene gas cutter?) would probably have caused the aluminium foil inside to make a circuit with the housing and set the bomb off, also it would require some victim to be holding the torch. Their shaped charge could be detonated remotely.
@@cr10001 Dynamite is also very stable, as long as the nitroglycerine doesn't sweat out due to improper storage. TNT doesn't have that issue, you can literally melt it to reuse in other applications, so it's far superior in that regard.
@@SeedlingNL that doesnt sound stable lol
This is very unethical and illegal, but as an engineering student, I can't help but be impressed with the mechanisms and all the countermeasures thought of for this bomb. There's something about mechanisms that operate like clockwork and are efficient at what they're supposed to do that is just satisfying for me regardless of its objectives lmao.
Especialy in the end when you can see how simple it actually is, he just thought of very many szenarios.
Yes and the best thing is that nowadays there is even more thigs that could be done as countermeasures
Probably a really stupid question but What would happen if you tried to freeze it using liquid nitrogen?
One question. You couldn't drill through it. But could you not melt a hole in it to see the wires and then get more specific by melting wires?
@@Tomhonks Sorry for the late response, I think even if you manage to freeze it, it'll take an unnecessary amount of effort/energy. It'll be impractical. Also, cold/freezing temperatures don't really hinder electric impulses which will probably still be sent and trigger the bomb
First vid I’ve seen by you. Great work, incredibly entertaining and you’re obviously well spoken. Keep it up
I seen it long time ago on FBI files series , and now have great pleasure see it again with your drawings and comments . Great job! Keep on !
You should check out the Novitiate Siege from Gresham, Wisconsin. It was crazy. The national guard was called in and even actor Marlon Brando showed up at the siege in support of the hostage takers.
Was that related to his (Brando's) position towards native americans? I know nothing about the siege btw, I am just curious if the two are connected.
@@WeWillAlwaysHaveVALIS yea it was
Wisconsin is objectively the best state; even our hostage situations are world renowned 💪
@@hueghh3775 lol
@@hueghh3775 alaska is better
That bomb was right up there with the killdozer. Some amazing feats of technical ingenuity. If, perhaps, for all the wrong reasons.
Yeah, the killdozer was quite the project and unstoppable and took a lot of dedication too.
Imagine if all these guys got together into an anarchic, engineering dream team.
Nah killdozer was for all the right reasons.
@@pinkpanther2586 It was. The city screwed that guy's business and he took revenge in the most epic way possible, lol.
the killdozer was entirely justified. this however, was not.
Never mess with a Gulag survivor
This man could've made serious money if he was so talented as to build an undefeatable bomb
Well he did...
@@MogulMogul I mean like instead of building a bomb, used his talent to regain his wealth
@@laurenmartinez55 well i mean he was a millionaire before the bomb
Yea, but his vice made him a slave and not a master.
This one time, when nobody was looking, Lex Luthor stole forty cakes. Forty! That's as many as four tens. And that's terrible.
I had heard about this bomb before, but holy shit I had no idea the triggering mechanisms and tamper proofing was so complex.
Your profile picture combined with this story is hilarious
And apparently successful. I studied it for awhile back when it was a news story. Learned how to build a better mousetrap too. The mousetrap was more useful.
6:56 This is something that just petrified me. Imagine just getting back home, in a car in the night, you were told that you delivered a bomb. It made me feel like remembering where I was when I delivered it, then just thinking about the people...
A rare occasion where seeing that explosion was actually the best outcome they could hope for.
I worked with his 2 sons on Helms Project building a hydroelectric power station. Where the dynamite was stolen from and the bloody FBI interviewed me about the stolen dynamite just because I was Irish. I can laugh at it now over 40 years later but it was no joke for a tennager new to the country.
that’s amazing!
Wow that’s insane
they thought u were ira?
Irish ehh? Wanna hear a joke? Too bad. I'm putting it in here whether you like it or not. (Besides, i myself am apparently 50% irish and this joke is feckin funny) So an English man, a Scotsman, and an Irishman walk into a bar, sit down, and each order a pint of beer. A fly flies into the bar, lands in the English man's beer, so English man picks the fly out, tosses it aside, pushes his beer away, and refuses to drink it. The fly lands in the Scotsman's beer, the Scotsman picks the fly out, tosses it aside, then pounds back his beer. The fly lands in the Irishman's beer, the Irishman picks the fly out, starts violently shaking it over the glass yelling "SPIT IT OUT YE BASTARD!!!"
@@wesscoates5676 nice
I have a feeling when the fbi comes across an opponent they can’t quite nail ,if they capture them they’ll have a kangaroo trial and really go on to employ them 😂
I mean, it happened with Frank Abagnale lol. The guy committed millions of dollars of fraud for years, pretended to be a doctor, a lawyer AND a pilot along the way, and when they finally caught him he only did 5 years and immediately started a 6 figure position with the FBI afterward
@@fort809 wowzers. I never heard of this I’m ashamed to say. Then again being from across the pond the fbi stories are wild and very much unknown to me 😊. I suppose it makes sense to keep your enemies close but wow.
@@Forflipsake They also have, and probably still do, hire hackers.
@@Forflipsake Watch the movie "Catch me if you can" it based off the dudes life.
Really? So if I committed hundreds of murder, ill do 1 year in prison and get hired by the CIA?
The direct cut to the bomb exploding was a perfect touch😂
I like how their conclusion was that it was undefeatable after they failed to defeat it.
What a shame; that's some brilliant engineering on his part to anticipate how it could be defused and design all those countermeasures.
I died laughing when the bomb went off, your buildup getting cut off was perfect XD
12:24 Yeah xD
I literally read this as he was building up😂
Little did the FBI know, the speed of sound is MUCH slower than the electromotive force.
@@leerman22 well based on the aftermath that’s a nooooo
I literally jumped out of my chair lmao
The "never gamble" PSA is so good. So many people need to hear that.
This channel is amazing. The comedic narration is absolutely perfect 💯super interesting videos too
You must be one of the best storytellers I've ever seen because I can't get enough of your videos! It's easy to start binge watching your tales from the bottle series. I must have seen them all at least three times by now. I always enjoy seeing a new video of yours in my subscriiption box. Excellent work, as always! Cheers from canada.
The irony of people taking and placing bets as to when a bomb placed inside of a casino would explode made me laugh out loud. Always quality storytelling.
@@scottcantdance804 Yeah honestly I can totally understand the mentality of why that would be exciting when the most interesting thing you can do all day is gambling. I wonder what those FBI agents must have said to each other when they came to the realization that there was nothing they could do to improve the situation.... Fbi agent 1: " bro what the- what are we going to do about this bomb? It's filled with tons of TNT, and we can't do anything to disarm it! What do we do?" FBI agent 2: "NOTHING, LOL.. Lunch? "
checkout deadbug says ☝
My thoughts exactly!
It's probably the visual aspect, not the storytelling
"Apparently there were bets when the bomb would explode." Yep, sounds like a bomb threat in a casino to me. Gambling addicts gonna gamble.
fair play to you Qxir, a fellow Paddy here, gambling is so prevalent in Ireland, the mobile phone secret gambling is the most insidious bug that has ruined so many lives.. AI technology is being talked about getting intorduced to the gambling apps so there's no hope, the exploitation of the weak will be even more savage. .well done for speaking so strongly on it mate.
calling it improvised bomb is criminal
I'm amazed and scared that this thing didn't detonate prematurely on them.
Couple of FBI agents get popped? Good riddance.
@@Jesse_117 if you look at the switch panel at 9:20 the lower left one is flipped up, I’d bet that armed the bomb before the two guys walked out after delivering it.
@@johnpenwell6402 I assume that switch probably turned on the arming timer and was done by Janos in the van before it was delivered. After the arming timer counted down to zero then it would arm. Crazy amount of relay logic in that thing. Even with our fancy computer tech relay logic is probably more robust in that application. You know it isn't going to crash because no computer and won't get set off because some cosmic ray managed to hit one of the mosfets on a chip and flip a bit causing it to go off. You could possibly build a modernized and complex one out of multiple (5 or 6) networked microcontrollers then set it so if 2 or more lose comms it detonates and at least 3 need to agree that it should detonate. Then slap a bunch of different sensors on it to detect gas levels, water ingress and motion of the device and a whole pile of other stuff that allows it to monitor basically everything. You could probably buy all the stuff you need off adafruit too.
@@daviddavidson2357I guarantee you are on some watchlist after that comment
@@shrek4002 Ah shit, not another one.
Wow, very clever, IBM was a leader in technology at the time, so the weird shape made sense, as it could have been an experimental computer screen, as older computer screens from before the 1980's usually had small lamps and buttons.
Ah, I was wondering why they marked the bomb as what I thought was meant to be intercontinental ballistic missile
@@pineapplelollipop1074 That's ICBM.
Actually, it likely would have been modeled after a printer. Even now, these things are incredibly large, with an upper box for the controls, and the rest for paper storage and machinery.
IBM played a huge role in the Holocaust. They have blood on their greedy hands
@@mrwonderful2142 So did fucking coca-cola and pretty much every company which existed during WW2. As a man of a country which was affected by the holocaust: I can't give a shit.
Imagine an earthquake started swinging the pendulum while the bomb was armed
I can't really wrap my mind around how they thought that was a brilliant idea for disarming the bomb.
A gazillion monkeys on typewriters of course...
Since it did create a big boom. Didn't work
I love how the crowd just cheers lol. People back then were built different
well there really wasn't much to do virtually back then, so those who'd want to experience it had to see it live. Nowadays if a similar thing happened, I'm sure there'd be tens of millions of spectators through online livestreams. Twitch, KZhead, Facebook, you name it. And it'd be the biggest meme of the year.
That was entertainment back then, lol. We didn't have the internet, so..........
People would still cheer now lol
well it's hard to side with a casino which ruins hundreds of lives every year. I know it doesn't change theyr business in the slightest, but seeing the bad guy take a hit is still lovely
@@tobbleboii5988 Don't go into a casino with more money than you're ready to lose.
The interesting thing about Casino's is their construction is designed to keep you inside - there are no clocks, no windows - so your perception of time is altered, the machines on the edge of the slots pay out more often (but smaller amounts) something that becomes apparent as you play them, so wanting higher payouts you go further into the slots area.
..much like a shopping mall 😮😳🙃
@@foreyfriend145 sounds like an American problem
That kinda stuff is interesting, reminds me of a story my dad told me about the time he was in Vegas. He'd never gambled before but figured he should try it while he was there. He was analyzing the casino's strategy while he was there, he said they were giving out free drinks and that he lost all the money he went in with within 25ft of the door lol
@@td370 what an idiotic statement
@@td370 It's hard to fathom just how much of a disappointing burden to your family you've amounted to.
Imagine just how much money he could have made by either being hired by some sort of secret service or the military-industrial complex. And instead he chose to pick one of the worst possible options for what to do with his skills.
i really like qxir, unlike most of these animated storytellers i feel like he has personality, like hes an actual guy instead of just reading off a script. He will crack jokes every now and again and so on.
Then what do you think about people who need to write stuff down so their mind won't be as messy when they actually record themselves? Although it might depends on how they are talking, I guess. I would probably need some words written down atleast. Because sometimes when I have to say something, my mind goes blank. My mind is also a bit messy because I'm autistic, so we usually need to write things down to clear our heads. Anyways, I'm just wondering, because some people need some form of script in order to sound more calm and casual.
@@ankaplanka I think the comment is not about "using a script and reading carefully chosen words", but about "involving yourself in the story"
@@ankaplanka Im not saying that qxir doesnt write things down to read, its that he doesnt feel like hes kind of bound to the script as in he will make comments on it and stuff and make it sound more like he is telling you a story rather than reading you a wikipedia article if you get what i mean
that's pretty ge
and also for his sexy thick Irish accent god I want him to say my name while we- oh sorry, got too carried on
It's been a blast with your channel this last couple of years. You're a great storyteller and a solid human being.
I see what you did there
the way you fit that pun in really blew my mind
The engineering behind it was pretty amazing you have to admit
Wow the bomb blast caught me completely off guard. Great production on this video
Your length and comedic storytelling is so phenomenally captivating that I think Qxir is the only channel I see a new video upload and JUMP on it. 8 mins ago might be a new record for me ^_^"
@Safwaan You are? Bro thats great. Lets kiss.
What does his length have to do with the rest of the comment??
@@mattd8498 maybe they mean the length of the video? I'm not really sure either though
facts
Your length~
Qxir...I work with feds. The FBI are at their most basic operational level the least competent law enforcement agency ive seen above municipal level. Their average agents are rude, bumbling and awkward. They do have some fantastic specialized teams and departments which truly is when they shine. But truthfully depending on the administration in office they see usage mostly as a political cudgel. Countless cover ups countless botched ops and horror stories (look up conspiracy of silence and FBI honey pots) A guy in my district worked for a local PD tac unit years ago and he said the FBI's hidden talent is taking the arrest you just made so they can get a photo op.
yeah that sounds about right
@Adolf nii-chan They still are. Congress is currently utilizing the FBI to investigate parents who got upset at schoolboard decisions.
Now if we expand it to gov agencies in general the CIA beat the pants off them for incompetence
@@52thephotoshop both the CIA and the FBI failed miserably preventing SARS COV2 from spreading into USA and causing problems.
Hoover's specialty was taking credit. It's a political agency and should probably be dismantled.
"If the pendulum moves it will complete the circuit" then how did it not explode while being transported 💀💀💀
I am thinking the same. Maybe there was a switch that will render the pendulum useless. Or the pendulum was never the part of the whole circuit.
@@Vor567tez toggling a combination of the switches on the front disabled the pendulum
That explosion literally made me shake! Well done on the jumpscare 🤣
12:28 that was BRILLIANT sarcasm.... . omg that was funny.... perfectly timed and edited
This story is literally the best thing I’ve ever heard in regards to a casino.
Alongside ocean's 11
The drawings of Johnny and Jimmy were uncanny. I enjoy these carttons more than anything else on the whole KZhead.
Most folks, including myself, live none consequential lives of little importance. This fella got off his arse and made an impact throughout his life, in many ways, various. And went out with a bang. What a man, what a life. Flaxen Saxon.
Anytime Qxir mentions the FBI, it's gonna be an interesting video.
I always wondered whether the Harvey's Resort bomb maker(s) took inspiration from the movie "Juggernaut" which came out six years before the bombing. That business of not being able to isolate two parts because of a bit of foil between them - very similar to a nasty surprise in the movie. I've often wondered who the technical consultant was on that flick and what his background was.
I'm just here for future replies
@@ClassicRockJWM I'm here to get Munsoned
@@dbongoloid9541 You don't want that life...get McCracken on it lol
Probably another german WWII pilot entirely overtrained in precision boobytrap & bomb making for those behind enemy lines situations
These videos are exactly what I needed
Dude straight up made something I thought would be unrealistic in movies to create.
12:37 Americans, you crack me up.
😘
Yeah.... we're weird.
"Had the FBI figured out how to defeat the most complex bomb they'd ever seen? Were hours of the assembling of their finest minds enough to..." 12:32 Fucking legend 😂😂😂
[KILLA QUEEN] has already touched the reply button. *click*
there was a way to defused the bomb they clearly over look and that is freezing the damn thing
@@zsewqthewolf1194 how
@@zsewqthewolf1194 well, freezing might not work if the condensation bridges one of the anti-drill measures.
11:20 that drawing of the FBI nervously poking at the device 🤣
I was going to try to come up with a possible way to defuse the bomb but this man thought of it all
I'm with you on the Gambling thing. I'll do about anything else, but not that. No scratch offs, no anything. My mother on the other hand. She doesn't like to leave the casino unless she has at least $1000... which means when I briefly moved in she gambled our rent money and got us kicked out. I haven't really spoken to her since.
It’s likely my bad luck in any gambling minigame in video games (save for new Vegas where high luck just makes them free money) has turned me off gambling irl. I’m fairly careful with my money, and it’s safe to say that if the chances of winning lots in a casino were high, Vegas wouldn’t be able to function
“I only gamble with my life. Never my money.”
@@charper9890 As an ex- fentanyl addict, I agree lol... not proud of it, but it is what it is.
@@phnexOice New Vegas gambling doesn't mean your mom gambled your home away when youre 26 years old! Also, that same mother kicked you out at 17 for smoking pot... Then got divorced a few years later.. Then you moved in with her to help HER out, and it turns out your mom who kicked you out for pot started dating a guy who sold CRACK.... So you moved in with your mother to help her out after her divorce... she was smoking crack with her new boyfriend, and gambled the rent money away... I'm not joking. I wish I was joking.
ngl, scratch offs make pretty good impromptu rolling trays for joints though
Holy hell, this guy really thought of everything. Every possible way one could defuse that bomb, he had covered. The sheer creativity is amazing. Even the FBI's best minds couldn't figure it out. But at least now they have a good training example. And, yeah, the best way to hide is in plain sight. Make it look like you're supposed to be there and you become socially invisible
They missed the point that alkaline batteries only work down to -20c, they could have frozen it with liquid nitrogen, -196c, and then gone to town on it any way they liked with no worries.
@@OniMetsuki :O
@@OniMetsuki they can’t pry it open to pour the liquid nitrogen in, and heat doesn’t conduct well through layers of protection and the air between them so I don’t think it’ll work. Still a good plan tho
@@neol3066 The lid is not air (or liquid) tight, they only needed to build a polystyrene tub around the top section and pour a LN (Liquid Nitrogen) dewar's worth in and it would have done the job. LN is -196c and the box is not insulated, the secondary layer would have had no chance to prevent the internal temperature dropping lower than -40 or a Lot lower which should be enough. It could make it's way in through the bank of switches Also as the LN transitions into a Very Cold gas that would also make it's way in. Although lighter than air, when cold it is heavier than air due to increased density. It would freeze alright ~_^ It is also worth bearing in mind that large temperature differentials make it harder for an insulative layer to work effectively. About 220c is a huge step and even pretty think insulation would not protect against for long. The couple of thin layers of metal almost might as well not be there.
@@OniMetsuki oh nice, I thought it was tight welded, well in that case all they need to do is pour liquid nitrogen I guess, pouring it though the switches works too. Welp, I’ll remember this the next time I bomb someone I guess
1980 was a bad year for Las Vegas. Three months later, (Nov 21, 1980) the MGM Grand hotel fire took 85 lives.
When i was in active duty in the Army i got into a conversation with the EOD units. I was considering joining. Anway, they challenged me to make a bomd dificult to disarm. I managed to make one that no matter how they tried it always went off. I built over 30 of them exactly the same. They gave up after 20 something. They kept the rest to tinker with to try to find a solution. Mine only contained blasting caps stuck into clay. Every time they tried the blasting cap always went off. It was not a practical device as bombs go, but it was usable. Mine even could detect radiation detection so even X-rays would blow it. The FBI may have had better technology and may have been able to but Army, Airforce and Navy all failed.
FBI finds a bomb they can't defuse? It was the blurst of times.
Simpson's did it.....
I was wondering if there was another reason for the "mastermind" to have not delivered the bomb to its final place alongside the others (a bit of camouflage and the early hour, he could have got past anyone who might otherwise have known him). But it's now obvious. The pendulum could have set the bomb off and he didn't want it to go off while it was being transported inside. Because by then it had to be armed (I assume that it wasn't on the trip up to the casino!) I don't get why those two guys didn't give him up for immunity or a lesser sentence, though. If his own family did it - and they must have suspected he killed his own wife - they certainly had no reason to fear him! They could have asked to go into witness protection if they were really afraid that he'd get someone to kill them. Not fun but better than prison and a criminal record 🤷🏻♀️
The FBI probably didn’t need their testimonies, so they were on their own. The kids had all the real details
@@glenndavis4452 good point!
@@glenndavis4452 yes but that was much later, according to this story he asked them soon after the first to make a second bomb. They could have given him up then.
The ransom letter claimed that there were 3 timers. One that was supposed to trigger the bomb if the deadline wasn't met, and one that could be used to safely detonate the bomb once the tilt sensor was disabled (that one was really just a courtesy to the defusal team, which could just have attached their own timed charge). I bet the 3rd was to give the delivery team enough time to do their job before the pendulum (and possibly other tamper devices) became active.
@@MaartenvanHeek You’re right. But at that exact time, they are admitting their own guilt to a serious crime, which they have gotten away with as far as they know.
I actually wonder if FBI managed to recreate that bomb and find a way to actually disarm it (without the explosives maybe)
They have a copy of it at the fbi academy
You could use the inductive coupling of the switches as a current sensor and look for leakage current of active switches
This was a crazy story I'll admit but I'm just curious: HOW did they got that bomb in the casino without the pendulum rocking back and forth, potentially touching the pipe, setting it off?!
As said, the bomb was unarmed
The bomb was activated once it was in place by one of the movers flipping a serie of switches.
Bomb was unarmed until set
The switches were activated in the position that turns off the pendulum circuit. They flipped all the switches off after putting it in place. But it is very funny to imagine two guys with a big machine in a cart pushing it as slowly as possible over the course of a few hours and not being noticed.
@@pauldeddens5349 "would it kill you to move that thing any faster?" "yes, yes it would."
I worked for a landscaping company at one time, all we had were rakes, shovels, and a sod cutter. Must say, he had to be one hell of a landscaper with that TNT. Okay guys, the project calls for the installation of two flower boxes... somebody get me two sticks of TNT. Would have been pretty badass working for his landscaping company! One might say, it would have been a blast!
Times back then were very unsafe.... I mean safety regulations are written in blood
Hehehe, more than likely, he had worked around Blasters on some of his landscaping jobs and that's how he knew there would be explosives on site.
@@blank1778 that's a great way to put it. Absolutely true. I'm going to use that next time someone is complaining about safety protocols
So looked up and found some info. So he lived in Clovis, CA. The hydro project that was mentioned, but not named, was PG&E's Helms Project. Anyways, the ground west of Fresno/Clovis has some insane hard pan. As in water doesn't even get through it. Some of the early farmers used dynamite to break the ground. Now it can be mechanically ripped (think (2) CAT D9s in series dragging a 6' spike). So they were probably still using explosives to break the hardpan in some areas. I've heard of that even into the mid-90s, but you never know who is embellishing stories.
@@patrickmay8261 Drill a hole, light off a charge, it fractures the hardpan. Plant a tree, and the roots grow in the cracks :-) I grew up helping my grandpa blasting with ANFO on a farm in cali. A little nub of simtex makes sure the crappy ANFO lights off. Or a monkey knot of det cord. Fast forward 30 years and it was so expensive to use explosives that I'd use a jackhammer and wet saw for two weeks to dig swimming pools in pyroclastic flows. We did have a two part expanding epoxy that worked on harder stuff, but it was like $100 a gallon.
This man spent all his skill points on bomb making
What you're describing and the cadence you speak with during Janos' backstory makes it sound like a fallout4 fudgemuppet build guide
i've stayed at harvey's before + knew about the bombing, and it's really cool to see a video about it here!
Did you lose it all like Janos Birges?
thank you dragon guy
My husband was at Harrah’s across the street that day. Yeah, I just learned this while telling him about this video! He was 27 at the time, He, his 2 brothers and his parents, all of whom loved to gamble, went up there frequently- they went up there on highway 50 which is also Donner’s Pass btw (have you done a video on them? Pretty sad and creepy). They didn’t stick around for the explosion- they didn’t gamble things like that! He enjoyed seeing the mock up of bomb!
Ok... Donner Pass is on I-80. That's Truckee (and I've been to the Donner Party Monument that marks their terrible winter); Echo Summit is the pass on US-50.
Donner is on I 80 not Hwy 50. I know because its literally in my backyard.
@@nikkibest5010 I think they had this exact same mix up during the car ride to the Overlook Hotel in "The Shinning"
@@nikkibest5010 oops! Typo! Glad you caught it!
@@1slotmech thanks for catching my typo!
Taking a look at the star-wars-style switchboard panel this guy was way ahead of his time in digital age. Finding out the right combination for a 28-bit electronic key lock is quite a challenge as there are 7.20575940E+16 possibilities. It's a pity that genious turn evil.
That’s wrong, 2^28 is about 270 million.
@@___._ You're right! Apparently, i made some wrong input. Checking it again reveals 268'435'456 states. Thanks for info.
How I've never heard of this bomb, or your comedic timing I'll never know.
Two things that I'm not clear on - How was the bomb delivered without going off? The two guys who delivered it didn't do anything to set it up, so when & how was it activated? Secondly, the FBI identified Johnny's van, so presumably they identified Johnny - did they not figure out that his Dad was associated with the casino, being an ex high roller? An ex high roller who had a history of "tinkering" - how could they not work it out? Or, had they worked it out, but needed more evidence? Excellent video as always.
FBI is consistently terrible at their job
@@White_Recluse Yeah, you just keep believing that.
I'm pretty sure there was either a timer set up to arm it or one of the switches did that they had to switch before leaving. They might have identified his son but the lack of evidence I guess also only a relatively short time passed only...
There's also a chance that he could have lied about the bomb triggering if it's moved. They're not going to risk moving the bomb and causing it to detonate, so they would never know he lied.
If I recall correctly, it was a one-time arming switch; there was no disarm mechanism. (Borges designed it to go boom whether or not the ransom was paid; he wanted revenge regardless.) There were no PC's back then; they just covered the bomb with a sheet that said IBM on it, parked out front, wheeled it to the service elevator like just another parts delivery, took it up to the offices in the mezzanine, armed it and left the note on it, and bailed. Easy. As far as connecting Johnny's van and his dad, the FBI would need to have gotten the customer list from the casino - the casinos keep a close eye on that info. I was in high school and remember hearing about the bombing on the news; I later moved up to South Shore and ended up working @ Harveys.