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Harvey’s Casino Bomb

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Re: Harvey’s Casino Bomb

#31

Post by dogorman »

the-dude wrote: post #28
dogorman wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Selection bias is a cheap canned answer, but it doesn't make any sense here. Sensational unsolved crimes make the news. The public hearing about crimes isn't conditional on those crimes being solves. Arguably some of the most enduringly notorious crimes are the ones that go unsolved. The Zodiac Killer; never been caught. "D.B. Cooper", never caught. The presumed murder of Jimmy Hoffa, unsolved.

The best crimes do not look like crimes. The police does not put out press releases repeatedly with 'we got no leads'. Such cases fade fast.

> The best crimes do not look like crimes.

Sure, but there is really no shortage of known unsolved crimes.

> The police does not put out press releases repeatedly with 'we got no leads'.

They do, in all the cases I listed they've asked the public for help for years. Certainly they don't do that for crimes they don't know occurred, but there is no shortage of known crimes that are very publicly unsolved.

For that matter, there are also a whole lot of missing person bulletins soliciting information from the public. Many of them might be murder victims, but it isn't known whether they are really alive or dead, let alone murdered. The public is nonetheless asked for information.

Re: Harvey’s Casino Bomb

#32

Post by raldi »

the-dude wrote: post #24
Ndymium wrote: post #14

In the end he was caught because his van was identified and because "One of his sons had revealed to his then-girlfriend that his father had placed a bomb in Harvey's." I always wonder at how criminals that otherwise might seem movie-like masterminds are caught as a result of mundane mistakes and outright stupid moves like this. You would think if you are going to bomb a place, the first thing would be to not talk ab…

It is because you don't hear about the cases which don't slip up.

Huh? Big unsolved crimes receive unending fame.

Re: Harvey’s Casino Bomb

#33

Post by eplanit »

This is so close to the plot of the movie Juggernaut[1], and occurred only 4 years after the movie's release -- I can't help but wonder if the bomber was inspired by the plot. That movie had bombs (on a ship, not a casino) with multiple triggering mechanisms: some behind flathead screws, movement switches, photoelectric detectors/triggers. So similar. A really good movie, by the way.

1. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071706/

Re: Harvey’s Casino Bomb

#34

Post by tyingq »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #30
anonu wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The schadenfreude is killing me. Im sure many working class people lost their jobs. A hotel was demolished causing substantial monetary loss for its owners and investors. The FBI had egg on their face.

It wasn't demolished. The structural integrity was not damaged, $18M was spent on repairs, and it reopened about 10 months later. Given the owner's attitude towards his staff, it seems likely they would all have been re-hired if they were still looking for work.

Interesting. You wouldn't expect that given these pictures[1] and phrases like "creating a five-story chasm in the casino".

[1] https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2009/august/a...

Re: Harvey’s Casino Bomb

#35

Post by adventured »

dogorman wrote: post #31
the-dude wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best crimes do not look like crimes. The police does not put out press releases repeatedly with 'we got no leads'. Such cases fade fast.

> The best crimes do not look like crimes. Sure, but there is really no shortage of known unsolved crimes. > The police does not put out press releases repeatedly with 'we got no leads'. They do, in all the cases I listed they've asked the public for help for years. Certainly they don't do that for crimes they don't know occurred, but there is no shortage of known crimes that are very publicly unsolved. For that matt…

> Sure, but there is really no shortage of known unsolved crimes.

That's certainly the nice way to put it -

"If you're murdered in America, there's a 1 in 3 chance that the police won't identify your killer. To use the FBI's terminology, the national "clearance rate" for homicide today is 64.1 percent. Fifty years ago, it was more than 90 percent." ... "Criminologists estimate that at least 200,000 murders have gone unsolved since the 1960s"

https://www.npr.org/2015/03/30/395069137/open-cases-why-one-...

Re: Harvey’s Casino Bomb

#36

Post by the-dude »

dogorman wrote: post #31
the-dude wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best crimes do not look like crimes. The police does not put out press releases repeatedly with 'we got no leads'. Such cases fade fast.

> The best crimes do not look like crimes. Sure, but there is really no shortage of known unsolved crimes. > The police does not put out press releases repeatedly with 'we got no leads'. They do, in all the cases I listed they've asked the public for help for years. Certainly they don't do that for crimes they don't know occurred, but there is no shortage of known crimes that are very publicly unsolved. For that matt…

The Dutch police has a cold case team, yes. For cold cases ( there is even a word for it ) which have not seen progress or public attention for year, some even decades.

Re: Harvey’s Casino Bomb

#38

Post by duxup »

the-dude wrote: post #24
Ndymium wrote: post #14

In the end he was caught because his van was identified and because "One of his sons had revealed to his then-girlfriend that his father had placed a bomb in Harvey's." I always wonder at how criminals that otherwise might seem movie-like masterminds are caught as a result of mundane mistakes and outright stupid moves like this. You would think if you are going to bomb a place, the first thing would be to not talk ab…

It is because you don't hear about the cases which don't slip up.

If Harvey got $3 million in cash and gotten away, or just not gotten caught. We would have heard about it.

Unsolved Mysteries type shows and news stories would be all over that sort of thing.

Re: Harvey’s Casino Bomb

#40

Post by JKCalhoun »

anonu wrote: post #11
beervirus wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meh, no one was hurt. Vegas is all about spectacle, and this was certainly a spectacle.

The schadenfreude is killing me. Im sure many working class people lost their jobs. A hotel was demolished causing substantial monetary loss for its owners and investors. The FBI had egg on their face.

I'm having a hard time beating up on the FBI.

The only other viable outcome I can see is if they gave the extortionists the money and caught them later — and they certainly would have caught them. But there is no guarantee the same scenario would not have unfolded with the bomb going off. And having given in to the demands of the extortionist probably would have inspired a wave of similar crimes.

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