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media. The bench. I

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like the

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little picture.

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The fact that the first three victims were black

0:55

and brown definitely made it a race issue. Black

0:59

lives matter! Black lives matter! Black lives matter!

1:02

Black lives matter! Black lives matter! Black lives

1:04

matter! Black lives matter! We felt like

1:06

the east side was not safe. At

1:08

that time we didn't know who this person was, we didn't

1:11

know the motive, but it felt

1:13

that way from the people I talked to, it felt that

1:15

way from the community. That's Chas

1:17

Moore. He's the executive director of the

1:19

Austin Justice Coalition, a community

1:21

organization focused on, as the coalition puts

1:23

it, improving the quality of life for

1:26

people who are black, brown, and poor.

1:29

By the middle of March 2018, three

1:31

bombs that exploded in Austin. The

1:33

victims, all of them, were black or brown.

1:36

Given that pattern, it appeared that the

1:39

bomber was targeting a specific racial demographic.

1:41

So Chas did what he does best. He

1:44

organized and advocated. We

1:46

had a meeting at Greater Mount Zion Baptist

1:48

Church. I called up Pastor Clark and

1:50

was like, we need to do this so people can come out

1:53

and ask questions. On

1:55

March 15, three days after the

1:57

second and third bombings, more than 400 people

2:00

gathered for a town hall meeting at the

2:02

greater Mount Zion Baptist Church. The

2:04

church is about a mile from where Draylin Mason was

2:07

killed by the second bomb. The

2:09

mayor was there, as was police chief

2:11

Brian Manley and other law enforcement officials.

2:14

And they answered questions and addressed concerns as

2:16

best they could. We hear

2:18

they like to talk about the need for us

2:20

to protect ourselves and just know whether the solving

2:22

is possible. Taz Moore speaks for a crowd of

2:24

more than 400 people on

2:26

the historically black and Hispanic East Side of

2:28

Austin. Josh Oyhus from the

2:31

Austin Bomb Squad was there too, near the

2:33

back. I was super nervous the

2:35

whole time because there was just everybody

2:37

who was anybody was coming to this

2:39

meeting. There's so many

2:42

key leaders at this one building. I

2:44

guess this person attacks here, you know,

2:47

be devastating. People

2:51

are scared. You know, people are terrified. You know,

2:53

I remember we had got packages

2:56

at the house and my friends was like, absolutely

2:58

not. You get everybody

3:00

like scared to open the door. Questions

3:03

are being asked and not really answered.

3:05

I think everybody's like, you know, what

3:07

the fuck is going on? Somewhere

3:10

in the city of Austin, whoever was

3:12

building these bombs was plotting

3:14

their next move. And

3:16

this one would change everything. From

3:24

Sony Music Entertainment, Campside Media

3:26

and Pegalo Pictures, this

3:28

is Witnessed, 19 Days. I'm

3:33

your host, Sean Flynn. Serial

3:48

bombers are a rare breed. They're

3:52

not that many people with both the technical

3:54

ability and sociopathic bloodlust to pull it off.

3:57

Yet when one does appear, he or she

3:59

can be. Difficult to catch. After

4:01

all day only become serial bombers because they

4:04

get away with it. was once. Police

4:06

In Austin, we're facing a law enforcement

4:09

nightmare. Trying. To stop random acts

4:11

of terror with few leads in only

4:13

fragments of evidence. They. Weren't the

4:15

first cops to go through that? In

4:17

fact, the very first serial bombings in

4:19

American history followed a very similar pattern.

4:24

In. The nineteen forties, somebody started

4:27

to set off bombs and

4:29

public places around New York

4:31

City. Department. Stores.

4:34

Subways, theaters,

4:38

That's. Michael Canal, author of Incendiary, a

4:40

book on this exact topic. And.

4:42

At first day with these were home

4:44

crude homemade pipe bombs but they did

4:46

not appear to be placed with. Intent.

4:49

To Kill although that would

4:51

change over time. The

4:54

bombs became more sophisticated, they became

4:56

more power faults and they became

4:58

more dangerous. And ball

5:00

this was going on. A

5:02

now defunct newspaper. The. Old

5:05

Journal American have received a

5:07

series of letters from the

5:09

bomber himself. And

5:11

the publisher a man and see

5:14

more burke sense had the brilliant

5:16

idea of right back to the

5:18

bombers. And so this weird public

5:20

correspondence and sued get in the

5:23

mid twentieth century, the investigative techniques

5:25

and resources available to law enforcement

5:27

and the bomb squads in particular.

5:30

Were. Rudimentary. The. Bomb

5:32

squads as you can imagine in

5:34

the nineteen forties were very very

5:36

crude and mean the pictures are

5:38

almost comical. mean these people are

5:41

wearing almost went home made protective

5:43

gear and they're carrying the bombs

5:45

to the back of my truck

5:47

that looks like you would offer

5:50

no protection at all. but star

5:52

means we're not com and place

5:54

at that time and so it

5:56

was not really a very developed

5:58

science. So. Instead

6:01

of the scalpel of forensic. Investigators.

6:03

Often reach for the sledgehammer. In.

6:06

Those days, the way you call criminals

6:08

was the you roughed up informants and

6:10

you did the sort of dirty street

6:12

work to solve crimes. But. Aside

6:14

from being just. You. Know bad

6:16

policing? It. Didn't work. New.

6:19

York's Mad Bomber was still out there. For.

6:21

Sixteen years. They. Had

6:23

to try something different. Something. Revolutionary.

6:27

In. Desperation, The Head of

6:29

the New York Forensic Crime

6:31

Squad. Went. To a

6:33

psychiatrist whose name is James

6:35

Russell. They showed him all

6:37

of the evidence, including the

6:40

letters that the bomber had

6:42

sent to the newspaper and

6:44

James Brussels. He looked at

6:46

all the evidence. The phrasing

6:48

in the letters suggested a

6:50

Slavic back and it's suggested

6:52

in English may not have

6:55

been his first language. The

6:57

works clues to his frustrated

6:59

sexuality. And. He said

7:01

the man you're looking for

7:03

is from a Slavic background.

7:05

He lives with an older

7:08

female relatives. He has a

7:10

history of workplace speeds. He's

7:12

probably never kissed a girl.

7:15

And when you catch him, he'll be

7:17

wearing a double breasted jacket. and it

7:19

will definitely be buttons. And

7:23

with those clues, the police

7:25

eventually zeroed in on a

7:27

man named George Mccluskey in

7:29

Waterbury, Connecticut. George

7:31

Peter protest the tablets call them

7:34

the Mad Bomber. Matei

7:36

ski was a paranoid Schizophrenia

7:38

and he had been injured

7:40

in a furnace blast and

7:42

never really receive proper workmen's

7:44

compensation. This. Issue Inflated

7:47

into a kind of paranoid

7:49

scenario in which he felt

7:51

said she was being abused

7:54

by the political and corporate

7:56

powers. To. Became a kind of

7:58

grand crusade and it. Going sort of

8:00

in his mind, a kind of god

8:03

like quality or divine quality. He.

8:05

Wanted to wage a campaign he

8:07

would get an enormous amount of

8:09

tension and that the good grip

8:11

New York City and bombing like

8:13

any terrorism was very effective way

8:15

to do and in fact all

8:17

of the things. That. James

8:20

Russell had. Predicted.

8:22

Were more or less true

8:24

when this change law enforcement

8:26

forever. This.

8:29

Peculiar Genius really invented criminal profiling.

8:31

And then the F B I

8:33

really turned it into a science.

8:36

Over. The next fifty years other serial

8:38

bomber would have their moments. There

8:40

was Eric Rudolph who planted the bomb at

8:42

the Nineteen Ninety Six Summer Olympics, and then

8:44

three more during five years on the run.

8:47

Who? Of course there's the year to bomber

8:49

Ted Kaczynski. Who. Like Matei ski cap

8:51

that it's for sixteen years before he was

8:53

caught. But the Awesome Bomber

8:56

have been active for only two weeks. The.

8:58

Case for so fresh the evidence

9:00

so scans. The. Studying history would only

9:02

get you so far. The

9:09

awesome bomb squad was running ragged

9:11

chasing down suspicious packages. People were

9:14

scared and to three forgotten order

9:16

dropped on the porch. Every stray

9:18

box, every unfamiliar carton became a

9:20

threat. But. In a strange

9:23

way, perhaps a psychologically self protective

9:25

way, the bombers could be silent,

9:27

the danger compartmentalize. Packages.

9:30

That's the madness that's from. we avoid.

9:33

Because. Meanwhile life goes on. People

9:35

go to work and school. I go

9:37

out to restaurants, bars, the Gm. The

9:39

city of a million people doesn't shut

9:42

down. In all of this

9:44

was happening, the bombings, the man hunt, the

9:46

funerals, During the largest cultural and

9:48

economic events of the year, South.

9:51

By southwest. i

9:53

mean i didn't really pay attention to this

9:55

hang of scene because i live here and

9:57

aggress diverse and i like to be a

10:00

of my surroundings. This is

10:02

Laurel White. She's the general manager

10:04

of Fair Market, an event space near downtown.

10:07

On the last day of South By, Fair Market

10:09

was hosting a show with The Roots and Ludacris.

10:12

Live Nation was responsible for essentially subcontracting

10:14

the company that brought in the stage

10:17

and all the AV and lighting. And

10:19

then there were food and beverage vendors,

10:21

and there were already people assembling outside.

10:24

So there were many, many people involved, and

10:26

a lot of people on property when all

10:28

of this started happening. This

10:31

would be the email that came into the ticket

10:33

office. It read, fuck

10:36

you, I'm going to plant a bomb and

10:38

watch everyone die. Then

10:40

a second email, just one word. Bomb.

10:45

The threat came in through email, and then

10:47

we kind of had this little huddle up

10:49

with Live Nation, and we said,

10:52

you know, let's call 911 and report it and

10:54

get instructions from there. Very

10:56

quickly, an officer responded,

10:59

and they immediately started taking a

11:01

report. And then shortly after

11:03

that, a bomb squad was deployed. While

11:07

The Roots and Ludacris were during their sound

11:09

checks, and the chattering crowd was growing outside,

11:12

Laurel guided the bomb texts through the building. They

11:15

came and they swept the venue. They

11:18

didn't find any evidence of a bomb.

11:24

Threat management is based primarily on data, facts.

11:28

What evidence is there of a specific threat

11:30

and what safeguards are in place to mitigate

11:32

those threats? But it's also an art.

11:35

So you swept the venue. It's clean. You've

11:37

invested thousands of man hours into this event, and

11:40

there are many dollars at stake.

11:42

But how sure are you? What's your comfort

11:44

level with other people's lives? While

11:47

all of that was happening, other city officials

11:49

started to respond. So it wasn't just APD.

11:51

I mean, first of

11:54

all, not their city organization, but South

11:56

by Southwest sent their top representatives over

11:58

to the venue. to the

12:00

client to be present and

12:02

then the decision was made. Bud

12:05

Light, the show's sponsor, made the call to

12:07

cancel. The next day, Questlove

12:09

from The Roots sent out a tweet. No

12:12

one is more Mr. Show must go on than me, but

12:15

we can't risk our lives if we are told there was

12:17

a bomb threat. Thanks for understanding.

12:21

Police quickly arrested a 26-year-old Austin

12:23

man named Trevor Weldon Ingram. He'd

12:26

sent both threats from his personal

12:28

email address, but he was

12:30

almost as quickly ruled out as a suspect in the

12:32

other bombings. Turns out he'd been

12:34

emailing threats to the employees at Austin's eBay

12:37

branch for months. He would

12:39

eventually be sentenced to two years probation and

12:41

100 hours of community service. Yet

12:45

as the crowd dispersed from the canceled show and

12:47

the final events were winding down that night, the

12:51

next stage in the serial bomber's dark odyssey

12:56

would be triggered. Austin 911. Listen

13:11

now to The Proof Podcast season two,

13:13

the murder at the warehouse. How'd

13:15

you find out this thing happened? My

13:17

mom called me and said, Lori, at

13:19

least found a body and they're pretty

13:21

sure it's Renee. Right up right

13:24

away. You thought Jake. Right away. In my head already.

13:26

I thought it was Jake. Season

13:28

two of proof is available now wherever you

13:30

get your podcasts. I don't think

13:32

that they rushed at the right people. It's about time

13:34

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fright. Go to

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your happy price line. Saturday,

14:22

March 18th. 16 days

14:24

after the first bomb. Rob

14:27

Nunez, the chief of the Austin Mom Squad,

14:29

has a break between shifts. He's

14:32

been chasing false alarms about suspicious packages

14:34

for two weeks, and there's no end

14:36

in sight. It

14:39

was just like a blur of calls

14:41

that entire week. And I finally got

14:43

a day to where I got

14:46

to go for a run through the neighborhood, and as I was

14:48

running, the lead ATF agent,

14:50

Dan, was driving out. He was going

14:52

to work, and so I fly down, and I'm

14:54

like, man, hey, how's it going? And

14:56

it was to the point where I was

14:58

a little frustrated. I'm like, hey, what in the hell? Y'all

15:01

got going on. Y'all got anything? And

15:03

Dan, he just had this

15:05

look, he's like, man, nothing yet.

15:07

You know, it's just this frustrated, down

15:09

look on his face, you know, to

15:11

where I can see that they're trying.

15:15

So as I'm getting ready to

15:17

go in for the night shift, we can get another call.

15:21

Hey, there's been another explosion. It's

15:23

in this neighborhood called Travis Country.

15:28

Travis Country is just a couple miles down

15:30

the road from the neighborhood where me and

15:32

Dan live. While

15:35

Rob rallied his team, Josh Oyhus, one of the

15:37

bomb techs, was catching up on some much needed

15:39

sleep. I'm already, you

15:41

know, sleeping with one eye open as it is. The

15:44

pager goes off. So

15:47

I jump up. I already have everything ready. None

15:49

of the suburban jump in. And I

15:51

put the hammer down. That

15:53

suburban V8, that thing will go. As

15:57

I'm going, I'm like exhausted because we've been

15:59

away. I've been awake for days. I

16:02

remember going through the intersection,

16:05

I think it was like 71 and 290 or something, and

16:07

I'm like slapping myself on the face. Like,

16:10

wake up, someone is trying to kill you. So

16:14

I get my stuff on, start rolling to the call, have

16:17

my radio on, and I start hearing information

16:19

about what's going on on the scene, and

16:22

they start saying that there's a tripwire. A

16:25

tripwire. Okay, my

16:28

brain, it's like, this doesn't make any

16:31

sense. Like, literally, this is global war

16:33

on terrorist stuff. A

16:35

tripwire bomb, as the name suggests, is

16:37

a bomb that is tripped or detonated

16:39

by a wire that extends some distance

16:41

from the bomb itself. They're

16:43

more sophisticated than a few stuck into a

16:46

pipe full of black powder, and they require

16:48

some planning to properly set. These

16:50

are war zone bombs, the stuff of

16:52

guerrillas and surgeons, terrorists, Allied

16:55

explosives in an abandoned car and a roadside

16:57

ditch or a dead dog in the median,

16:59

that attach the detonator to a long, thin

17:01

filament that's almost impossible to see until

17:04

it's too late. They

17:06

can be horrifically effective. This

17:09

tripwire bomb had been set at the entrance

17:11

to a small public park in a neighborhood

17:13

of palatial homes on cul-de-sacs in Southwest Austin.

17:17

The wire had been strung across a sidewalk, and

17:19

the bomb itself had been covered by one of

17:21

those signs that says, drive like your kids live

17:23

here. But

17:26

here's the thing, none of those

17:28

details, the neighborhood, the placement, the method,

17:30

fit the pattern. Here's Jeff Joseph.

17:34

In the bomb tech world, tripwires

17:36

are trained and

17:38

talked about ad nauseam, right? You

17:41

beat over the head with tripwires, and get numb to

17:43

it, but nobody ever seen a

17:45

tripwire. And then, man,

17:47

it's deployed. There

17:50

had been a kid's birthday party at

17:52

a residence right there. That sidewalk goes

17:54

to a park where kids

17:57

go and play all day. Kids

17:59

are all over the house. neighborhood. This

18:03

bomb, the fourth to go off in 16 days,

18:05

had been tripped by two college kids, guys

18:07

in their early 20s riding their bikes along

18:10

the sidewalk by the park just after sunset.

18:13

I remember vividly like the fence next

18:16

to where the device went off was just like

18:18

peppered. And in my mind

18:20

I was thinking like maybe upgraded the

18:23

bomb size or he added something like

18:25

he's adding nails or screws

18:27

or something to this. I would

18:29

not have been wanting to stand there

18:31

when I went off. Miraculously

18:34

considering the size and force of the explosion,

18:37

both victims survived. The

18:40

device was low on the ground so it

18:42

caused some pretty significant injuries to the two

18:44

guys, to their ankles and

18:46

lower extremities. When this

18:48

device went off like looking at the scene

18:50

right it was in an open area and

18:52

pieces and parts of this device just went

18:55

everywhere. This was

18:57

about 8 30 in the evening when

18:59

this device went off. When

19:01

we got there to the scene we made another immediate

19:04

approach to the blast area. We

19:07

could see a lot of the same components. We

19:09

knew that the placement and the targeting was a

19:12

little bit different but we could determine

19:14

that a lot of the components were the same. We

19:18

knew that the firing mechanism was the

19:20

same as the other devices and a

19:22

lot of the fragmentation that was placed

19:24

on the device was the same. So

19:27

again the same way we knew that

19:29

the first three were related we could see that

19:31

even though this placement was different it

19:33

was all the same components. So

19:36

we knew that this was the same person. The

19:42

bomber's tactics were continuing to evolve becoming more

19:44

sophisticated. The first three bombs

19:47

were delivered to their targets. The first

19:50

detonated when it was picked up. The next two when they

19:53

were opened. But the fourth was left out

19:55

in the open waiting to be set off by anyone who stumbled

19:57

across a nearly invisible wire. Which

20:01

meant just about anything could be another

20:03

bomb. Sure, that package on

20:05

your front stoop, but also that backpack

20:07

on a nearby patch of grass. That

20:10

big rock beside the jogging path, the

20:12

neighbor's mailbox. Another

20:14

component to our job is clearing

20:17

the scene of any secondary or

20:20

any other explosive devices before that

20:22

scene can be released to be

20:24

processed. We can run explosive

20:26

canines. They're really good at finding things

20:28

by odor, but they don't care about

20:30

tripwars. Now

20:33

we can take a robot and run a robot down

20:35

the sidewalk. We're gonna see

20:37

it, or we're gonna run over it, and

20:39

it'll blow up the robot. No harm, no foul,

20:41

expensive robot, but at least no people got hurt.

20:45

But a robot can only clear the specific path that

20:47

it rolls through. So the only

20:49

way to clear the wider area of any

20:51

secondary devices was by sight. And

20:54

at this point, who's pitch black outside?

20:57

By the time we make the

20:59

determination of the scene where the

21:02

tripwire is clear to start

21:04

processing, we're taking in the

21:06

big picture of what's

21:08

clear and not clear of

21:11

tripwars. We don't know if the entire

21:13

neighborhood is clear. We know that there

21:15

have been first responders in

21:17

and out of the scene. So we have an idea

21:19

that there's no tripwars right here, but we

21:22

don't know the entire neighborhood, and then we don't

21:24

know what's going on in this green belt area.

21:27

In Travis country, the location of

21:29

this fourth bombing is a sprawl

21:31

of suburban homes, green spaces, shaded

21:33

trails, parks, and woods. A

21:36

lot of woods. So from the

21:38

administrative side or the chain of command side,

21:40

who's gonna be the person in charge to

21:43

say, the green belt, no, we're not gonna

21:45

worry about that. It's just

21:47

too big. Let's just look over here. There's

21:49

a certain level of risk

21:51

that people aren't willing to take.

21:54

So are we gonna go down all these trails

21:56

and clear for tripwars or are we gonna walk

21:58

all these sidewalks and clear for tripwires, we're

22:00

just not quite sure yet. So

22:03

they put out a reverse 911 call

22:05

to the entire neighborhood that we're just

22:07

going to hold this entire scene till

22:09

morning. An entire neighborhood

22:12

locked down until sunrise. Austin

22:15

truly is a city on edge this

22:17

morning, as investigators have been

22:19

waiting for daylight to begin the process

22:21

of trying to find evidence after a

22:23

fourth explosion overnight. You're

22:30

walking a trail with a dog, looking for

22:32

IDDs, basically. We

22:35

were walking, and we were probably, I don't

22:38

know, 100 yards. We were far from the

22:41

blast seat where the device had gone off. And

22:44

in the middle of the path

22:46

was this like hunk of burns,

22:48

twisted metal from

22:50

the device going off. And

22:53

there's like trees and all kinds of stuff. How

22:55

did this thing even make it

22:57

this far? Like if you shot a

22:59

gun, a tree would have caught this, caught

23:01

the bullet way before this trail.

23:05

So we got that bagged up for

23:07

evidence. I knew from the

23:10

construction of the devices, I was thinking

23:12

maybe in my mind, it's somebody who's

23:14

been trained. So I'm

23:16

thinking this is like a veteran or

23:19

an ISIS operative that's had

23:22

training in simple

23:24

ID construction. Who

23:27

knows? So

23:30

the fourth bomb really changed a number of things. Chris

23:33

Combs, the FBI special agent in

23:35

charge. You've changed again the

23:38

complexity of the device. This

23:41

is completely random because it's

23:43

a tripwire. A

23:45

three-year-old kid walks down the sidewalk,

23:47

or a 56-year-old man, whoever

23:50

walks down there is tripping this bomb. So

23:52

it's completely random. And this raises

23:54

the prospect of terrorism Because

23:56

frankly, this is what we saw in Iraq and

23:59

Afghanistan. Don't see trip wire bombs

24:01

in this country by. Couldn't tell you any

24:03

other bomb that was a tripwire in this

24:05

country. so. That. Changed a

24:07

lot as well. You. Know

24:09

it showed us that this was not gonna

24:11

stop. It showed us the complexity is getting

24:13

worse. Yeah. I can member conversation

24:16

die have with the Austin Police Chief where I was

24:18

like are they going to try to put bombs on

24:20

airplanes like. The. We have really increased

24:22

the dangerous to what is going

24:24

on here. So. That that's

24:26

the change. We. Still really have no

24:29

leads to be quite honest with you. This.

24:32

Of course was getting redundant. We.

24:34

Have no leads. Investigators had been saying

24:37

that from within two weeks it was

24:39

true they had pretty much nothing. Let's

24:41

be clear this was not for lack

24:43

of resources there were at that time

24:45

or law enforcement officers were can be

24:48

awesome bombing than any other case in

24:50

the country possibly the world. Nor.

24:53

Was it for a lack of

24:55

competence of expertise? These people are

24:57

all very good at their jobs,

24:59

and it's certainly was not for

25:01

lack of effort Is just as

25:03

some crimes are really hard to

25:05

solve. This wasn't a Tv Jaber.

25:07

There was no screenwriter plotting at

25:10

the ending. This was an unknown

25:12

perpetrator or perpetrators. The building bombs

25:14

in an unknown location which were

25:16

then detonated it for specific distance

25:18

and seemingly unrelated locations. The bomber

25:20

or bombers less. No fingerprints, No.

25:22

Footprints. Of tire tracks, no Dna

25:25

and the most important thing that

25:27

in least the most important piece

25:29

missing for the investigators was immodest.

25:31

Most criminals do things for a

25:33

reason. It when you look at

25:35

terrorism, the idea of terrorism as

25:37

you do something to get your

25:39

cause out there. By. Think

25:41

about airplane hijacking. They want to

25:43

make a statement. Al Qaeda.

25:45

They make a statement. They take credit for

25:47

the bombings. Why do a bombing and

25:49

not take credit for and I was want to Things we

25:52

didn't understand. Why? are

25:54

you doing these bombings you're not

25:56

taking credit for it you haven't

25:58

released a manifesto you You haven't said

26:00

you want to save the world. Usually,

26:03

the vast, vast majority of the time,

26:06

people do things and then they tell you why they

26:08

did it because they want to get the attention. Environmental

26:11

terrorists attack the headquarters of an

26:14

oil company because we want to

26:16

stop big oil, right? So

26:18

we did not understand. You have these four bombings,

26:21

nobody's claimed responsibility, there's

26:23

no manifesto, nobody knows why you're

26:26

doing this, right? Explain to us

26:28

because then that gets you to

26:30

some leads. Is it an Al-Qaeda

26:32

ISIS cell? Is it an

26:34

environmental terrorist that at least gives you

26:36

a pot to go to to investigate?

26:39

And right now, we

26:43

have no idea. Some

26:54

people just know the best rate for you is a

26:56

rate based on you with all stuff. Not

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27:01

racetrack and the shoulder like a passing

27:03

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Park, Illinois. Over

27:26

17 days in March of 2018, four

27:36

bombs exploded in the city of Austin. Two

27:39

people were dead, four wounded, and law

27:41

enforcement had very little to work with.

27:45

They didn't know who the bomber was, of course, but

27:47

they also didn't know who he was bombing

27:50

or why. The

27:52

first three bombs had suggested only the most

27:55

basic of patterns. All three

27:57

had detonated in east side neighborhoods of black

27:59

and brown people. In

28:01

other words, the bomber, or bombers, appeared

28:03

to be targeting, for whatever reason,

28:06

racial minorities. But

28:08

then the fourth bomb, the tripwire

28:10

explosive, was planted in a wealthy,

28:12

mostly white neighborhood on the southwest

28:15

side. Jason

28:17

Puckett covered the bombings for K-View TV.

28:22

The tripwire bomb changed a

28:24

lot. I feel weird saying

28:26

a bit of this as a white man, but

28:29

there was sort of an acknowledgement in Texas

28:31

towns, period, but in Austin specifically, that there

28:33

was a little bit more crime on the

28:35

east side. It was perceived that way, at

28:37

least. We did some stories sort of actually

28:39

tackling whether that was accurate or not. But

28:42

a lot of that goes way back. Most Texas

28:44

towns were segregated, where most of the minority population lived

28:46

on the east side, and they came from redlining. All

28:49

of that leads me to saying, I think

28:51

for a majority of Austin, unfortunately, the bombs

28:53

may not have felt as real as they

28:55

did until they happened in that southwest part

28:57

of town. It was no

28:59

longer the east side, where a lot of people, I

29:02

think, sort of were even subconscious to go and like,

29:04

yeah, well, that's where crime happens. I

29:06

think what also really got people on that one was

29:08

the fact that it was so random. Suddenly

29:11

these were just two people who were walking down the street,

29:14

and that I think made it go from,

29:16

these may have been targeted in people's mind

29:18

beforehand, why would I be targeted? Now

29:20

suddenly it's random indiscriminate attacks on people.

29:23

And I think it not only made people more afraid,

29:25

I think it made them step back and question everything

29:28

they'd been told up till that point. Remember

29:32

when the first bomb exploded, when it

29:34

killed Anthony Steffen House, the reflexive preliminary

29:37

theories from law enforcement were that it

29:39

was either a targeted attack or that

29:41

maybe House blew himself up when he

29:43

was making a bomb. We

29:47

know neither of those is true. But

29:49

the bomber, consciously or not, deliberately

29:51

or not, used stereotypes and prejudices

29:53

as a kind of criminal camouflage.

29:57

Here's University of Texas associate professor

29:59

of psychology. Jeremy and a lot. I

30:02

think it's brilliant to have it in a neighborhood

30:04

where he would be questioned about what the motives

30:06

were. The assumption as all well,

30:08

if you have black and brown sauce in the

30:10

neighborhood, there has to be some criminal activity that's.

30:12

Responsible. I mean. You don't

30:14

know it's a pattern until a pattern.

30:17

A curse right? That trip wire gave

30:19

them and out to not treat us

30:21

like a kind. That's

30:25

why I think this. Terrible. Still,

30:28

bomber was a genius and so

30:30

way. He. Was to hearing

30:32

this meritorious Paying attention to the media.

30:35

And the right, oh yeah, you don't think I did like

30:37

switch this up. Vs. The

30:39

I didn't call the bombings hate crimes

30:41

because they didn't know they couldn't sell

30:43

the bombers modus. Assuming it

30:46

was racial with his skew the

30:48

entire investigation. Is. Everyone is intent

30:50

on finding a races bomber. they might

30:52

very well overlooked. Pleased with the Equal

30:54

Opportunity Bomber. That. Said the size

30:56

of the force bomb was not in a

30:59

black or brown neighborhood. Didn't necessarily make the

31:01

first three not hate crimes. And. Simply

31:03

made the profiling by law enforcement more difficult

31:05

which could very well as been part of

31:07

the bombers ports. So. I do

31:09

wanna give law enforcement the benefit of the

31:11

doubt and that way. By the

31:13

assumption of victims being criminals is

31:16

not know in society on Austin

31:18

isn't any different. I mean I

31:20

love it when people tell me

31:22

oh awesome. The liberal city, you

31:24

know Texas is really conservative. The

31:27

Austin is different. no. Racism.

31:29

Is Racism is either said and

31:31

racism or overt racism? And

31:34

the rest of taxes? Maybe more

31:36

overt. By Austin is

31:38

still has that covert

31:41

liberal races. Up. i

31:45

think of a newsroom we try to not

31:47

locked into narratives when we don't have evidence

31:49

we had a lot of talks in the

31:51

newsroom about whether or not the actual bomber

31:53

he was aware of the covers and that's

31:55

a weird thing to keep in mind because

31:57

you're trying to inform a community but you

31:59

also are trying to be aware that the

32:01

people who do this sometimes get off to

32:03

this. So how can we cover this in

32:05

ways that's not giving them what they want

32:07

out of this? It's just

32:09

a weird mental space. It's

32:11

chilling to know that the person responsible

32:13

is watching it, being influenced by it.

32:21

The idea that the bomber was watching

32:23

the media coverage, which by this point

32:25

was unavoidable for everyone, it was

32:27

actually something law enforcement and FBI special agent

32:29

Chris Combs thought maybe they could work with.

32:32

How can we address the bomber through one

32:34

of the news conferences? Cause we were pretty

32:37

sure he was watching. Most people do. You

32:39

know, you always hear about the arsonist that stays

32:41

at the scene and watches the fire. You

32:43

know, we were now 24 seven news kind

32:45

of captivated the nation. We were positive that

32:48

he was watching the news. So it was

32:50

the next morning that we developed a plan

32:52

with the behavioral analysis of the FBI

32:55

about talking to the bomber and trying to

32:57

get him to communicate to us.

33:00

Cause we have, we have no other option. We

33:02

have nothing else to really go on. Unfortunately. So

33:05

the next morning there's a press

33:07

conference actually at the site of

33:09

the fourth bombing where comments are

33:11

very directed at the bomber saying,

33:14

we don't know why you're doing this. We would love

33:16

to talk to you so we can try to understand

33:18

why are you doing this? What are you doing? If

33:21

there are cause, I will reach

33:23

out to the suspect or suspects and ask that you

33:25

contact us, ask that you reach out to us, communicate

33:28

with us so that we can put this to an

33:30

end. Thank you. The overarching

33:32

goal here is we need to stop the

33:34

bombings, right? So we need to

33:36

save lives. And if I got to get on TV

33:38

and talk to a bomber, which

33:40

is a disgusting thought and to speak

33:42

to them professionally and emotionally,

33:45

that's a small price to pay. If

33:47

I can save, you know, five children

33:49

from hitting a tripwire bomb at a

33:52

playground. And I was more than willing to do

33:54

it. Frankly, I thought it would

33:56

work. I thought it would generate a phone

33:58

call into the tip line. to say, hey,

34:00

I'm the one that's doing it. This is why I'm doing it.

34:04

Relying on the self-destructive narcissism of a

34:06

serial bomber was a long shot, and

34:08

Combs and the rest of the cops

34:10

knew it. This neighborhood is

34:13

still being locked down right now

34:15

for safety, and we expect it

34:17

to be so until approximately 2

34:19

p.m. today. But at that point, they

34:21

had little else to work with. And

34:24

then, finally, someone

34:26

who'd crossed paths with the bomber provided just

34:28

the lead they needed. We

34:34

went and interviewed the guy that took

34:36

the packages from the bomber. The

34:38

guy was obviously wearing a wig. He had,

34:40

you know, hat really pulled down over his

34:43

eyes. He was wearing gloves. So

34:45

the guys ask him, hey, is there anything else you

34:47

want to tell us? And he goes, well,

34:50

you want me to tell you about his car? And he was kind of

34:52

like, what? Like, what did he just say? Yeah,

34:54

that's important. We would really like to talk

34:56

about that. So now we got something.

35:00

That's next time on Witnessed 19 Days. This

35:30

episode of Witnessed 19 Days was reported and produced by

35:32

Eli Korus and Joshua Shafer of Pegalo

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Pictures and Alvin Cowan, executive

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