

Harvey's Casino Bomb - Element_
https://www.fbi.gov/news/videos/harveys-casino-bomb/view

======
Element_
Here is a picture of the see-through FBI model:
[https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2009/november/fbi-
technolog...](https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2009/november/fbi-technology-
expo/tech-expo-gallery/model-of-harveys-bomb)

and an explanation of the triggers
[https://dh1rvgpokacch.cloudfront.net/atavist/1/video/iphone/...](https://dh1rvgpokacch.cloudfront.net/atavist/1/video/iphone/animationw-1406828466-38.mov.mp4)

~~~
Phlarp
That is terrifyingly well thought out.

~~~
acveilleux
Seriously, this guy should manufacture tamper-resistant cryptographic module
enclosures!

~~~
ihsw
Just put it in those hard plastic blister packs, those are _impossible_ to
open.

------
csense
A much more lengthy write-up was on HN front page a couple months ago. Here's
a quote from it [1]:

"""

Decades after “the machine” radically remodeled a portion of Harvey’s Wagon
Wheel Casino, Big John’s masterpiece bomb maintains legendary status at the
FBI. Bureau agents acknowledge that it is unlikely that even modern bomb
squads and technology could make much headway disarming Big John’s improvised
explosive without setting it off...the Harvey’s bomb was the largest domestic
bomb ever to explode in the United States until the bombing of the World Trade
Center in 1993...why so few people these days seem to remember...Jonkey’s
speculation is succinct: “Nobody died.”

"""

[1] [http://www.damninteresting.com/the-zero-armed-
bandit/](http://www.damninteresting.com/the-zero-armed-bandit/)

~~~
webXL
No wonder why it just fell off the front page. Thanks for sharing that link.

I've been in that casino so many times and never knew about this event. Crazy.

------
archivator
Damn Interesting did a full episode on the entire event -
[http://www.damninteresting.com/the-zero-armed-
bandit/](http://www.damninteresting.com/the-zero-armed-bandit/)

It's really fascinating stuff.

------
gvb
More story:
[http://web.archive.org/web/20121028034758/http://www.reviewj...](http://web.archive.org/web/20121028034758/http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Aug-27-Sat-2005/news/27105542.html)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey%27s_Resort_Hotel_bombin...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey%27s_Resort_Hotel_bombing)

~~~
kryptiskt
Another article: [https://read.atavist.com/a-thousand-pounds-of-dynamite?no-
ov...](https://read.atavist.com/a-thousand-pounds-of-dynamite?no-
overlay&preview)

~~~
bronson
That was a hell of an article! Excellent read.

------
6stringmerc
Quite an intriguing set of circumstances and malicious creativity.

My takeaway is to re-work of an old proverb, one that seems describe the
attitude for Las Vegas in this situation:

 _When life gives you a casino bomb, turn it into a gambling and tourism
opportunity._

------
sbarre

        The casino operation wanted to open part of their gambling area that was not damaged. And they did build this big wall and put a big picture window in it so that the gamblers could watch the FBI process the crime scene for the next few weeks.
    

Hah! This would never be allowed today!

------
eplanit
I can't help but think that the bomb maker was inspired by the movie
Juggernaut[1], which came out just a few years before this event. In that
movie, the bomb maker designed and built-in several layers of booby-traps,
including vibration switches, layers of detonation circuits, etc. as was used
here. Not a bad movie, FWIW.

[1]
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071706/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071706/)

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OSButler
I'm curious how such a device would be approached with today's knowledge,
seeing that one of the links mentioned in the comments noted that it's still
being used in FBI training.

~~~
sandycheeks
I always wondered if the problem with the shaped charge was that the battery
served to keep it from somehow being mechanically detonated rather than the
battery being used to provide power for detonation. Seemed like the kind of
red herring this bomb maker would use but I can't imagine how that would be
hidden from x-rays.

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than
How did he arm the darn thing without setting it off?

~~~
batbomb
Either the switches activate the battery or they activate the trigger circuits
(probably both).

I should also note that, unless you had extremely detailed pictures of the
switches themselves (or part numbers), you could easily use a combination of
switches which appears to do one thing but instead does another, so X-Rays and
a wiring diagram wouldn't necessarily be helpful in discovering the actual
path of electricity. You could maybe do something clever with a very sensitive
electrometer, but that would take way too long.

Arming it doesn't seem like the hard part to me. I think the hard part, with
all the foil based triggers and spring loaded screws, would be construction
and QA and making sure you don't kill yourself activating the thing because
there's some filings completing a circuit you didn't know about.

~~~
FreeFull
Before you arm the thing you also have to make sure it's tilted just right,
because of the tilt switch, which I imagine is rather tricky.

~~~
raisedbyninjas
It was made with threaded leveling feet and bubble levels. According to
Wikipedia, bubble levels can be made with quite a bit of precision.

------
dang
Discussed recently:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9816123](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9816123).

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JoeAltmaier
Terrorism tourism? The future is going to be interesting.

