On this day in 1980: Workers discovered a 1,500-pound bomb disguised as a copy machine inside a Nevada casino. The mastermind, John Birges Sr., left a ransom note, demanding that a helicopter fly $3 million in cash to the Lake Tahoe airport where a strobe light would give further coded instructions. Bomb squad units with robots tried to disarm the cleverly designed explosive but failed, blowing up much of the Harvey’s Resort Hotel. Birges and three henchmen were arrested by FBI agents in 1981. FBI officials said Birges used dynamite stolen from a Fresno construction site to build one of the largest bombs the agency had ever seen. Birges was sentenced to 40 years in prison. He died of liver cancer in 1996.
