I feel like you'd have some interesting thoughts about the bomb that blew up Harvey's casino in the 80s
Oh fuck do I ever-
This whole entire affair has fascinated me for ages because, to be frank, this device was an absolute masterpiece. For those ignorant:
This thing approached levels of complexity usually reserved for atomic devices. The FBI themselves say as much and they're the ones who managed to induce a high-order detonation in the thing by trying to separate the detonator and payload with a shaped charge. Which, to be fair, was the only viable approach for a device like this.
They had detailed and advance warning of what would cause a detonation, which covered basically every non-destructive approach at disarming the thing. And with a note and a device like that, you tend to take it at face value. I can't rightly say I would have done anything differently.
The authorities, in this case, took what they perceived to be the approach that would put the fewest people in harm's way. And they were right! No one died, leaving only (albeit sizeable) property damage. Lowering property values along with the mean elevation above sea level of a town by means of a crater is preferable to picking up body parts in my estimation.
They still use a replica of the thing for training. It's a lesson of what a determined attacker with a lot of time and resources can achieve.
