Then and now: Bombing transformed Harveys
The bomb blast at Harveys in 1980. Photo/FBI
Thirty-five years ago this week — Aug. 27, 1980 — an extortionist’s bomb exploded inside Harveys Resort Hotel at Stateline.
This view from the California side of the state line is a frame from the FBI documentary just seconds before the 1980 explosion.
The FBI ultimately arrested John Birges of Clovis as the mastermind. Birges tried to extort $3 million but plans went awry and a robot detonated the bomb during an attempt to disable it. The entire area had been evacuated. No one was injured. The explosion hollowed-out a five story cavern inside the hotel, from the basement up to the fifth floor.
Two years later, the rebuilt hotel had a grand opening. One of the invited attendees is said to have been John Birges. Later, by the time of his arrest, Birges had completed building another bomb, supposedly intended for the Transamerica building in San Francisco. Birges died in a Nevada prison on Aug. 28, 1996, exactly 16 years and one day after the Harveys bomb exploded.
Click on this link to view a fascinating six-minute documentary by an FBI special agent.
The rebuilt hotel-casino looks completely different. It is the largest hotel at Lake Tahoe. Photo/Bill Kingman
— Bill Kingman
Bill, Bombing transformed Harvey’s. Some old friends of mine made up a quick set of t-shirts that printed on the front ,”lets get bombed at Harvey’s” with a drawing of the old signature cattle’s head and wagon wheel going up in smoke after the bomb went off. They sold these shirts to people waiting for the explosion over in Raleys parking lot with the shirts just haning’ off their arms.
Me? I was up at Shehadis on my 10 speed lookin’ at a Kharman Ghia I really wanted, but the radio was blastin’ away in the showroom of all that was goin’ on at stateline that day.
Thanks Bill, Old Long Skiis
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Bill, Kae thanks for the video. They sure don’t make copiers like they used too.
Thanks Kae,
I was working at Sahara and my wife at Harrahs that day.
Oh what a day.
She was a the Raley’s parking lot and I went home and fell asleep waiting for everything to clear.
I will never forget the strong smell of sulfur right after the bomb blast. While I was observing from the roof of Caesars tower. Thanks Bill for the memories!
Check it out! http://www.everythingbackmovie.com/
The employees of Sahara were on strike at the time and I just happened to work there as a room service waiter. They rented a VW van I had for a “strike HQ” at the back entrance to man the picket lines 24-7 so they could harass Helen Reddy who had a house behind Harvey’s. The FBI came in and evacuated the entire area but a few of us stayed in the van until they were gone. There was about 20 of us at the back entrance to Sahara standing next to the guy that took the still photo. He was the only one smart enough to bring a camera and get that still photo. The explosion felt like a huge Whamo air blast (remember those?) that almost knocked us over. We started to run across the parking lot to collect anything we could find but about 14 vans full of agents swarmed in and secured the area. They brought in the Nevada Guard to help secure the site and one of the soldiers later turned out to be one of my trainers for Officer school and he has got some good stories. You should call Tom Davis for better stories though as he worked at Sahara at the time as well. You could almost hear the cheers over the blast lol. Thanks Bill
That was a strange weekend, I worked at eh Greenhouse restaurant about 1500 feet away from Harvey’s. That Friday night was surreal, the businesses were open, but I watched Harvey’s blow from the Crescent V as well, my parents had a business there and we had to tape up the windows. Watching the smoke and the lumber fly almost like a carnival atmosphere.
On August 27, 1968 (12 years to the day before the Harvey’s bombing), Dick Chartrand, manager of Barney’s Club and the South Tahoe Nugget, was killed by a car bomb while backing out of his driveway in Skyland.
On August 27, 1980, the bomb placed by John Birges exploded while authorities tried to disarm it.
On August 27, 1981 (one year to the day after the bombing), John Birges and his co-conspirators were under arrest and had their mug shots taken at the Sparks jail.
On August 27, 1996 (exactly 16 years to the day after the Harvey’s bombing), John Birges died from cancer in the infirmary of the Southern Nevada Correctional Center in Jean, Nevada.
See more photos and related links about the bombing at my Web site: http://HarveysBombing.com
That’s bizarre!
I worked in the hotel dept. at that time. We lost the entire computer system for both Harvey’s and Harvey’s Inn, so we had to recreate all the reservations for the Inn on butcher paper hanging on the walls behind the front desk at the Inn.
I was the contact for all the people who had been evacuated and wanted to retrieve their belongings but couldn’t because it was an active crime scene. Some of their stories were VERY interesting…
It was a very sad time, as so many great employees lost their jobs.