One of the most deadliest and horrific terrorist incidents occurred in Bath, Michigan in May of 1927. Forty-five people were killed during the incident, including the bomber. The bomber, 55 year old, Andrew Kehoe was angry about a new tax charged to the community to finance a new school. Andrew Kehoe was a school board member and was the school’s caretaker. He also worked as a machinist and electrician. Throughout his adult life, Kehoe routinely campaigned for lower taxes.
After a series of financial hardships (losing his house and farm) and personnel tragedy (his wife became chronically ill), Kehoe blamed the new tax and the new constructed school for his predicament. Over a several month period, Kehoe transported an explosive call Pyrotol and over 1000 pounds of dynamite into the Bath School and hid them in the floors, rafters, and crawlspaces. Kehoe also setup his home and farm in the same manner and included devices that consisted of gas filled containers. Lastly, Kehoe filled the back seat of his truck with dynamite and metal debris (tools, nails, pieces of rusted farm machinery, digging shovels), constructing an improvised explosive device (IED).
On May 17, Kehoe killed his wife and exploded his farm and home. Almost simultaneously, using a timed detonator; Kehoe detonated the explosive in the Bath Consolidated School, killing 36 students and two teachers. After the school exploded, Kehoe drove his truck to the school and called the school Superintendent to his car. Kehoe detonated the dynamite in his car, killing the Superintendent and injuring several people and first responders at the scene. This incident is one of the first cases of domestic terrorism in the United States that received national and internation...
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...of terrorism? As a society, we have grown accustomed to initially linking horrific acts of violence committed against our citizens to an unknown face or organization in the Middle East. After the Oklahoma City bombing, a majority of Americans assumed that the attack was carried out by Middle Eastern terrorists and not a U.S. Army veteran. Domestic terrorism is on the rises, the Boston Marathon bombers were legal permanent residences that were raised and prospered in the United States. But yet, they committed one of the most heinous acts of terrorism in retribution for alleged U.S. crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no face of terrorism, there are only people who believed that their ideology is right and ours is wrong and some are so committed to their beliefs that they are willing to kill innocent bystanders and themselves to justify what they believe in.
The Oklahoma City Bombing was a domestic terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April 19, 1995. It was lead by Timothy McVeigh, an Army veteran of the Persian Gulf War. The explosive was a homemade bomb which was built by McVeigh and the help of Terry Nichols; the bomb consisted of a deadly cocktail and was put inside a rented Ryder truck in front of the Murrah Federal Building . McVeigh then proceeded out of the truck and headed towards his getaway car a few blocks away. He then started the detonation of the timed bomb at exactly 9:02 A.M. then the bomb exploded. To the people of Oklahoma it was a traumatizing moment for all, many lost families, dozens of cars were incinerated and more than 300 buildings were destroyed and caused about $652 million worth of damages. The “OKBOMB” affected hundreds of people; it killed “168 people -- 19 of them children -- and injured more than 500.” (CNN.com) Within 90 minutes of the explosion, McVeigh was pulled over 80 miles north of Oklahoma City by a state trooper who noticed McVeigh's missing license plate. He was later arrested for having a concealed weapon. From there, a investigation was held and agents found traces of chemicals on McVeigh’s clothing similar to the ones from the bomb. They learned that McVeigh’s plan was due to the anger over the events at Waco Siege two years earlier. The bombing investigation was one of the most exhaustive in FBI history; “the Bureau had conducted more than 28,000 interviews, followed some 43,000 investigative leads, amassed three-and-a-half tons of evidence, and reviewed nearly a billion pieces of information.” (FBI.com) Oklahoma City bombing was “considered the worst and the largest terrorist act eve...
Terrorism – This is a word that many people are terrified of. When a terrorist attack occurs, people’s daily routines are shattered. Things change instantaneously the moment the bomb goes of. When we think about a terrorist attack that really impacted the world, we immediately think about 9/11. On that day many people were hurt directly and indirectly. People were disorientated and scared. The moment there is change, the world panics. Unfortunately, 9/11 was not the only day where people panicked. On 1988, the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 occurred. This terrorist attack was not as massive as 9/11; but, it did leave scares especially to the Syracuse University community.
On the day of the Columbine High School Massacre, previously to the attack both Erick D. Harris and Dylan B. Klebold placed a decoy bomb in a field; they had set the bombs to explode at 11:14 to distract police officials. The two boys then headed to the school and entered the commons shortly after 11:14 a.m. and went unnoticed carrying the big duffel bags with propane bombs inside of them. They placed the two twenty pound duffel bags in the cafeteria with the bombs set to explode at 11:17 a.m. They went back outside and armed themselves, they each strapped on an arsenal covered with a trench coat, a semiautomatic, a shotgun, and a backpack full of different types of bombs. The boys then set the timers on the bombs set inside each of their cars outside the school. The boys sat outside armed waiting outside for the bombs to explode and shoot any
Every time a terrorist attack happens the media jumps all over it, and puts their own twist on what had happened. “Thus, the media has a strong potential to influence how the public thinks about social problems like terrorism, especially because most people only experience terrorism through mass-media accounts...This research also finds that media portrayals of terrorism increase anxiety among the viewing public.” (Chermak, 2006) The media is one of the leading causes of stereotypes, and what influences our beliefs today. When you think of a terrorist, you may think of either a middle aged muslim male or a middle aged white male with some sort of mental or social disorder. This isn 't always the case. A terrorist can be of any race, age, and social class. Due to the media 's influence, we all believe in the same stereotypes and imagine the same description of what a terrorist may look like. This is one of the main reasons behind racial profiling.
April 19, 1995 at 9:02, in Oklahoma City a bomb exploded; destroying buildings, injuring and killing innocent citizens. Many questions of the city would go unanswered; including who made it, who didn’t, along with who did it and why. All of these citizens deserve answers to the simple questions. The world was in shock and worried about what was going to happen next. This terrorist attack would then be noted as the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
The backpacks they carried contained pressure cooker bombs, a favorite of Islamic extremist (Nova, 2013). These pressure cooker bombs are inexpensive and relatively easy to make using tightly packed gun powder, shrapnel and an ignition device. These devices are commonly detonated using a cell phone, and video footage shows Dzhokhar using his cell phone just 30 seconds before the first device detonates (Nova, 2013). Many of the injured had BBs and other miscellaneous shrapnel indicating to investigators what was used in making the bomb. They had prepare...
Terrorist Dzhokhar Tsamaev bombed the Boston Marathon April 15, 2013. Dzhokhar and his brother wanted to defend Islam from the U.S., which conducted the Iraq war and war in Afghanistan, in the view of the brothers, against muslims. The bombs were made from two pressure cookers. The bombs went off about 13 seconds apart near the finish line, killing 3 people and
The most infamous and deadly act of violence to occur in a U.S. school were the events of April 20, 1999. In Littleton Colorado two teens went on a shooting and bombing spree that left 15 dead and 24 wounded before they shot and killed themselves. During the rampage, the two fired about 900 rounds of ammunition from two sawed off shotguns, a 9-mm semiautomatic carbine, and a semiautomatic handgun. Police also later found more than 30 bombs placed throughout the school (Brock, 2001).
A normal day in the city of Oklahoma on April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh, an anti-government man, and his accomplice took the lives of 168 innocent lives and injured many more. McVeigh’s hatred of the federal government and the handling of the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents led him to commit one of the most deadliest acts of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.
One of the more famous stories of our times is the 1996 arrest of Theodore Kaczynski, also known as the unibomber. From 1978 until his arrest April 3, 1996, the unibomber killed three, injured 22, and terrorized millions more. The unibomber, which actually comes from the case name assigned to him by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), was known as UNiversities and Airlines BOMbings (UNABOM) as Kaczynski targeted universities and airlines specifically (FBI.gov). Kaczynski left his “signature” in every pipe bomb he sent out; every bomb contained wood fragments along with the initials FC standing for Freedom Club (Crimelibrary.com). The motives for t this reign of 17 years is still uncertain as a plea bargain was reached before the trial started. Kaczynski was not a supporter of technology and thus targeted those professors at universities in New York, California and Utah that not only used this new technology, such as computers, he targeted those who were advocates and supporters of it. Kaczynski admitted to having a troubled childhood filled with mental and ...
The issue of domestic terrorism has been a fairly recent phenomenon. With little attention given until such acts as the Oklahoma City Bombing and the Unabomber made national headlines. It is because of this that there has been little research done on the area and most of the research there is focuses on the hate groups associated with the acts of violence. A strong force in the domestic terrorist movement is the fervent anti-government stance that these groups internalize. As Mark Hamm wrote in 1997, “I used the term apocalyptic violence to depict not only the astounding carnage witnessed on that day, but also to describe the anti-government counter-culture to which Timothy McVeigh and his accomplices belonged. In this statement he is referring to the assault on the Branch Davidian complex in Waco, TX. It is believed by many that this is the act which pushed McVeigh to bomb the federal building in Oklahoma City. Hamm went on further to argue, “The federal government had created an apocalyptic subculture in the hinterlands of the USA. And that it had done so through its ruthless use-of-force at Waco.”
Being the oldest daughter of a Senior ATF Agent, I have been exposed to domestic terrorism all of my life. My father has investigated thousands of bombings, fires, and explosions for more than twenty years now. Many of these incidents were examples of the terrorism that I speak about. His experiences have taught me countless lessons and informed me of many current events. The information that I have obtained from him is far more valuable than anything that the media could ever possibly convey. Though he is always strictly guarded with the confidences of his profession, he has always provided me with a firsthand knowledge of the impact that domestic terrorism has on the citizens and law enforcement. Through him, I learn the facts of these incidents without the media’s exaggerations. Today I will share with you some of these facts. I will talk to you about the impact that domestic terrorism has on our citizens. These impacts include: the monetary damages that terrorism inflicts, along with the injuries to the victims, the shocking repercussions that are embedded into the minds and souls of the people who come to sort through the rubble to find the survivors and the remaining evidence.
In an article written on Columbine, Greg Toppo uncovers the many events of April 20, 1998. The two boys involved were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. On the day of now one of the most famous massacres to happen in America, Harris and Klebold entered their school with guns and killed 13 people, injuring another 24 just before turning the guns on themselves. In a video made just before the shooting the boys address the people who had made their life a struggle and made them want to do what they did. Dylan Klebold says in these videos, now known as the Basement Tapes, "You've been giving us shit for years. You're fucking gonna pay for all the shit! We don't give a shit. Because we're gonna die doing it." (Zero Hour Episode 3) Eric Harris wrote in his journal "I hate you people for leaving me out of so many fun things. And no don't … say, 'Well that's your fault,' because it isn't, you people had my phone #, and I asked and all, but no. No no no don't let the weird-looking Eric KID come along.” (Toppo) Friends of Dylan and Eric said that the boys were bullied in front of teachers. "People surrounded them in the commons and squirted ketchup packets all over them, laughing at them, calling them faggots," their friend Brooks Brown says. "That happened while teachers watched. They couldn't fight back. They wore ketchup all day and went home covered with it." (Prendergast) Students ...
As he slipped into the midnight premiere of the Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, he set off tear gas grenades and shot his gun rapidly into the crowd. Confusion and horror captivated the theatergoers as they struggled to
Perpetrator was a 15 year-old student at Thurston High School at the time of both events. In the hours leading up to the shootings, he believed that his parents were extremely embarrassed and disappointed in him after he was caught with a gun at school and thus felt as though he had to kill them ("Who is Kinkel: Chronology", 1998; Blanco, 2014). Though he did not display any thought psychosis or disorder, he did suffer from anxiety as a child and was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder in January of 1997, just a year prior to the shooting ("Who is Kinkel: Chronology", 1998). In the years leading up to the shooting, he developed an interest in homemade bombs and guns. In fact, he even gave a talk on “how to make a bomb” in his speech class, which included detailed drawings and descriptions of explosives ("Who is Kinkel: Chronology", 1998). Additionally, beginning in the eight grade, the perpetrator began compiling a secret gun collection ("Who is Kinkel: Chronology", 1998). On the day he killed his parents, he believed that he was going to be sent to military school and appears to have targeted his parents because he believed that they would never be able to live with themselves if he were to have been convicted of the two felonies brought against him (Blanco, 2014). On the following day, in which he targeted his school, he seems to have shot indiscriminately and at random with no specific targets in mind ("Who is Kinkel: Chronology", 1998). Altogether, he shot and killed two students and wounded 25 others ("Who is Kinkel: Chronology", 1998). Eventually he was subdued by seven of his classmates and arrested by police (Blanco, 2014). Definitive warning behaviors consistent with pathways, fixation, identification, novel aggress...