1980 KRON Coverage of Harveys Casino Blast

Anchors Fred LaCosse and Rita Channon, and reporters David Fowler (deceased) and Ginger Rutland (now Sacramento Bee Editorial Writer) cover an explosion at the South Lake Tahoe casino Harveys.

The hotel suffered an explosion from a 1,200 pound bomb on August 27, 1980 that left a crater three stories deep when detonated by the FBI.

The bomb was placed by John Birges, a heavily in-debt Fresno landscaper who had lost at least $750,000 at Harveys and was hoping to extort $3 million from the bomb threat. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, where he died from liver cancer in 1996.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• KRON
• news
• Harveys
• casino
• explosion
• 1980

[Bogusweems]

I was working @ Harrah's the night before & I was sent home as all the casino's were evacuated. When it blew, I was a couple of blocks away on the California side with a couple of hundred people. It was a party atmosphere until detonation and that quickly turned to shock at the devastation.

[starwarsguysrule]

@mv805vta who's going to make the movie?

[TrevorPinkston]

my parents were in town getting married

[mv805vta]

Get the real story not just the media's version. John Birges Jr. one of the bombers just released a book titled Bombing Harvey and soon to be movie. For more information go to Bombing Harvey The Book dot com

[Deblano]

first this and then the MGM Grand fire, 1980 was a bad year for hotels!! by the way, at 2:38 was that the explosion of the bomb or was that something else

[earlydog1]

I was working in the coin room when this happened. We were told to move all the money down to the coin vault and then evacuate. Stupid decision to try and save a few bucks. When it was over and we went in to clean it up there was devistation everywhere. I will never forget. Hi Doug, Richard, Dave.

[gshowguy]

"City Confidential" on A&E actually did an episode about the Harvey's bombing.

[Zoomer30]

I saw a show on this. They were trying to use a small explosive to sever the top of the bomb that had all the power and blasting caps from the bottom that had the actual explosive. The hope was if it could done very quick it could stop the bomb from going off. Did not work.

[nickeysgreat]

What happened to Fowler???

[wonderglory]

I was nine years old when this happened.