Introducing | Law & Order: Criminal Justice System

Summary

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Podcast Summary:

Aftermath: Hunt for the Anthrax Killer
Special Feature: Law & Order: Criminal Justice System (Season 2, Episode 1)
Released: August 21, 2025
Host: Anna Siga Nicolazzi
Produced by: Wolf Entertainment, USG Audio, Dig Studios, CBC

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Episode Overview

This episode introduces the new season of Law & Order: Criminal Justice System, focusing on the evolution of domestic terrorism in the United States. It examines how acts of terror, from symbolic activism to indiscriminate mass violence, have shaped law enforcement responses and public consciousness. Through expert analysis, eyewitness testimony, and survivor accounts, the program investigates pivotal attacks from the 1970s—including the Fraunces Tavern bombing—highlighting the tragic human toll and the profound societal impact of terrorism on American life.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Opening: Modern Acts of Terror on American Soil ([00:48]–[04:29])

• Bourbon Street Attack (January 1, 2025, New Orleans):
  • A white truck plows into crowds, followed by gunfire.
  • Survivor Jeremy Sensky, a visitor injured in the attack, provides a visceral first-person account:
    • “There was a very loud noise, very weird windy noise... I was going through the air and smashed my face off the sidewalk.” ([01:47])
    • “Someone came up to the truck. Someone screamed at them not to open up the door because there might be explosives in the door.” ([03:08])
    • “I lifted up my arm and my whole body had blood all over it...” ([03:14])
  • The attack marked deliberate, calculated terror, coinciding with major public celebration for maximum psychological impact.
  • Statement from a responding officer to Sensky:
    • “He just looked at me and said, you’re lucky to be alive. Everyone around you is dead.” ([04:10])
  • Contextualizes the increased frequency and scale of recent terrorist attacks in U.S. cities; notes similar recent attacks in Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Boulder.
  • Sets the stage for the historical investigation: “Before we get to the motives and manhunts, we need to better understand what’s led us to where we are today.” ([05:08])

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2. Historical Context: Origins and Evolution of Domestic Terror ([07:58]–[13:24])

• Expert Insight — Michael Jensen, START Center, University of Maryland:

  • “People often forget that in the late 1960s through about the mid-1970s that terrorism in the United States was really synonymous with left wing activism.” ([09:00])
  • Early domestic terrorism was largely symbolic—targeting property and institutions to make political statements without mass casualties.
  • Notable groups: Weather Underground, Symbionese Liberation Army, and others focused on anti-war, civil rights, and Marxist agendas.
  • “In 1970 alone, there was well over a thousand bombings... Most of them did not produce fatalities or injuries. They were property crimes.” ([10:22])

• Expert Insight — John Fox, FBI Historian:

  • “In the 1970s, we saw the FBI primarily focusing on what would be considered terrorist attacks here at home.” ([10:50])
  • Describes confusion over definitions and the challenges law enforcement faced with the multiplicity of emerging groups and ideologies.

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3. The FALN & Fraunces Tavern Bombing ([11:32]–[35:53])

• Background on FALN (Armed Forces of National Liberation):

  • Puerto Rican nationalist group with radical separatist ideology; part of a broader anti-colonial movement.
  • “The FALN was a group advocating revolution to separate Puerto Rico from the United States.” — John Fox ([11:32])

• Escalation to Lethal Terrorism:

  • “The FALN actually went out of their way to commit [an] attack in which they knew people would be hurt and killed.” — Michael Jensen ([27:53])
  • Bombing at Fraunces Tavern in Manhattan on January 24, 1975: deliberate timing and location selected for maximum civilian casualties and symbolic resonance (site of George Washington’s historical farewell).
  • Details from survivors and experts:
    • “I just remember seeing an awful lot of glass within view. There was mayhem there.” — FBI Agent Richard Bantell ([15:18])
    • Discovery of shrapnel and human remains; “We found out what it was... human remains.” ([17:46])

• Personal Tragedy — The Connor Family:

  • Joe Connor, son of victim Frank Connor, shares the devastating impact:
    • “To go one minute from celebrating your 9th birthday with your dad to him being dead for no reason.” ([25:22])
    • “That was something I’ll never forget and I’ll always treasure because he didn’t have to get that for me.” (on his dad and a childhood baseball mitt, [21:29])
  • Recounts his father’s life, his family’s grief, and their search for justice.
  • FALN’s communique claimed responsibility, citing retaliation for violence in Puerto Rico.

• Law Enforcement Response:

  • “These guys were extremely disciplined. They left one fingerprint in their 130 bombings.” — Joe Connor ([31:06])
  • FALN trained by Cuban intelligence, complicating efforts; William Morales, chief bomb-maker, escapes after a failed bomb-making attempt and is given refuge in Cuba ([33:07]–[33:27]).
  • Joe Connor’s ongoing advocacy against Morales and the unresolved pain for families:
    • “No one was held accountable specifically for my dad’s murder.” ([34:51])

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4. Systemic Challenges & Lessons ([35:53]–[38:08])

• Fragmented Response:

  • “It was a patchwork response to a national problem... Federal agents, bomb squads, arson units, all working parallel cases rather than lock and step.” ([36:40])
  • Lack of integrated systems and real-time intelligence sharing, forcing agencies to adapt as attacks proliferated.

• Impact and Legacy:

  • The Fraunces Tavern bombing signaled a shift from symbolic violence to indiscriminate mass attacks, changing how law enforcement and society understood—and responded to—terrorism.
  • “That’s why terrorism works as a political tool. Because it’s random and it’s indiscriminate. It doesn’t care who you are. Anyone can die at any point.” — Joe Connor ([28:56])

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5. Closing & Next Episode Tease ([37:14]–[39:19])

• The episode ends by previewing the next case: the deadly LaGuardia Airport bombing.
• “This really was the era of mass bombing campaigns, and the FBI had a very, very long list of usual suspects to go through...” — Michael Jensen ([37:59])
• Ambiguity around perpetrators (FALN, Croatian nationalists, others) highlights the chaotic threat environment of the era.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Jeremy Sensky (Survivor, New Orleans attack):
  • "I was going through the air and smashed my face off the sidewalk. And the only thing I saw was the truck, the white truck." ([01:47])
• Michael Jensen (START):
  • "People often forget that in the late 1960s... terrorism in the United States was really synonymous with left wing activism." ([09:00])
• John Fox (FBI historian):
  • "The FALN was a group advocating revolution to separate Puerto Rico from the United States." ([11:32])
• Joe Connor (Victim's Son):
  • "To go one minute from celebrating your 9th birthday with your dad to him being dead for no reason." ([25:22])
  • "That’s why terrorism works as a political tool. Because it’s random and it’s indiscriminate." ([28:56])
• FBI Agent Richard Bantell:
  • "If you go to these things, I don’t care where it is, it’s got a smell to it. You Gotta get on your hands and knees and crawl around in the dirt and the dust and see what you can find." ([16:08])
  • “We found out what it was... human remains.” ([17:46])

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Important Timestamps

• 00:48: Introduction to the show and season theme.
• 01:47: Jeremy Sensky recounts the New Orleans terror attack.
• 07:58: Michael Jensen introduces the historical landscape of U.S. terrorism.
• 10:22: Explosion in 1970s terror activism: over a thousand bombings.
• 14:27: FBI Agent Richard Bantell describes the scene of the Fraunces Tavern bombing.
• 17:46: Discovery of human remains at bombing site.
• 18:20–25:46: The Connor family story: victim's biography and emotional aftermath.
• 27:53: The shift in FALN tactics to intentionally cause mass casualties.
• 31:06: Discipline and sophistication of FALN bombings.
• 33:07: William Morales, chief bombmaker, injured and escapes.
• 34:51: Ongoing lack of accountability for victims' families.
• 36:40: Systemic failures in law enforcement response.
• 37:14: Teaser for the next episode on the LaGuardia Airport bombing.

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Tone and Style

• The episode maintains a grave, reflective, and analytical tone, balancing factual narration, expert interviews, and poignant survivor stories.
• Narrative shifts deftly between intimate, emotional testimony and broader historical analysis, embodying both the personal and societal scales of terrorism’s impact.

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This episode serves as a powerful entry point to the season’s exploration of domestic terrorism, emphasizing the lasting trauma left in its wake, the evolution of motives and methods, and the enduring challenge for American law enforcement and society to adapt and respond.

Transcript

[CBC Podcast Host]

This is a CBC podcast. Hey, Aftermath listeners, we're excited to share with you a glimpse into the latest season of Law and Criminal Justice System. In the show's second season, host Anna Siga Nicolozzi explores the threat of domestic terrorism in the US from armed militias to lone wolves, Law and Criminal Justice System takes you into the action. Featuring the voices of law enforcement, survivors and more. We have the first episode for you now in its entirety. Have a listen.

[Narrator]

You're listening to Law and Criminal Justice System, a production of Wolf Entertainment and I Heart Podcasts.

[Law and Criminal Justice System Intro Voice]

In the criminal justice system, landmark trials transcend the courtroom to reshape the law. The brave men and women who investigate and prosecute these cases are part of a select group that has defined American history. These are their stories. January 1, 2025, 3:15am Bourbon Street, New Orleans.

[Narrator]

The countdown had passed, and New Orleans was still alive with celebration.

[Jeremy Sensky]

New Year's Eve was definitely insane. You could barely move through the streets. The atmosphere, it's just happy. Everybody's happy.

[Narrator]

Jeremy Sensky, 50 years old and visiting from out of town, had spent the night surrounded by thousands of other revelers. Around 3am he set off towards his hotel in his motorized wheelchair. But in seconds, the festivities gave way to mayhem.

[Jeremy Sensky]

There was a very loud noise, very weird windy noise. There's like two or three people to my left that were on the sidewalk. There was a bunch of people to my right. We all heard a noise. And I looked over. They all had their mouths open, like, gasping. By the time I turned to the left, I was just. That was it. It was like an explosion. And I basically was like going through the air and smashed my face off the sidewalk. And I was laying face first. And the only thing I saw was the truck, the white truck.

[Narrator]

It had accelerated through the crowd near Bourbon Street. No honking, no warning.

[Jeremy Sensky]

I couldn't figure out what had happened. I didn't really think that I'd been hit by the truck because I was very confused.

[Narrator]

The truck crashed. The driver came out holding a weapon.

[Jeremy Sensky]

Gunfire started happening around me, the bullets ricocheting off the ground. I started hearing people screaming, people crying.

[Narrator]

He didn't know what to do.

[Jeremy Sensky]

Started screaming, help. No one acknowledged me.

[Narrator]

Then out of the haze, shapes began to emerge. Dark figures, heavy vests, long rifles.

[Jeremy Sensky]

I saw the guys coming down the road with machine guns.

[Narrator]

These were the good guys, the people that walked towards the gunfire.

[Jeremy Sensky]

Someone came up to the truck. Someone screamed at them not to open up the door because there might be explosives in the door.

[Narrator]

Someone.

[Jeremy Sensky]

And I'm like screaming, help. Get me away from the truck. It's gonna blow up. I'm thinking, there's explosives in this truck. My adrenaline kicked in because I was actually scared to death. So I pushed myself somehow onto my back. I lifted up my arm and my whole body had blood all over it. I reached down in my right leg and I picked it up and my leg was a mush, like in a bunch of pieces. And I was holding my leg on my chest, screaming because I couldn't feel my legs. I didn't know what was wrong.

[Narrator]

What unfolded in the French Quarter that night wasn't random. It was deliberate. An act of terror designed for maximum impact time to strike when the world was watching. And as Jeremy lay there, it felt like time stood still.

[Jeremy Sensky]

The first cop that came over to me, I said, my legs, my legs, my legs. I screamed, my legs. And I was like, what happened? He said, we don't know yet. We're trying to assess his situation. And he just looked at me and said, you're lucky to be alive. Everyone around you is dead. I got a call, get out to LaGuardia Airport. There's been a bombing.

[Joe Connor]

There was a 32 foot crater in front of what was left of the building.

[Narrator]

I was trying to figure out, am I dead? Am I alive? Where am I? Hi, I'm Anna Sega Nicolasi.

[Joe Connor]

That's why terrorism works. It doesn't care who you are.

[Narrator]

From wolf Entertainment and iHeart podcasts, this is law and criminal justice system. In season one, we told the story of law enforcement's battle against the mafia, fought in backrooms, on wiretaps, in and in courtrooms. This season we're turning our focus to a threat that hides in plain sight that's harder to predict and even harder to stop. Terrorism. You'll hear from law enforcement on the front lines and from survivors like Jeremy Senske, ordinary people caught in the path of extraordinary destruction. Because terrorism doesn't always look like war. Sometimes it looks like bourbon Street. At 3am, the place where a 42 year old United States army veteran from Texas named Shamsuddin Jabbar rammed a rented Ford F150 into the crowd. And then moments later, he opened fire on responding officers. Police now telling US at least 10 people were killed and 30 others injured. Authorities also investigating shots fired in the area. We're hearing that the person driving that truck then got out of the vehicle and started shooting. There is some pretty disturbing video. The damage was devastating. At least 14 lives lost, more than 50 injured. We'll come back to Bourbon street later this season. That attack happened just months ago, and it wasn't the only one. Since then, there have been others. Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Boulder. These aren't isolated events. They're more reminders of our present reality. We're tracking how terrorism transformed and how the United States was forced to change with it. Terrorism doesn't sleep. Neither do the people fighting it. Before we get to the motives and manhunts, we need to better understand what's led us to where we are today. Because this kind of violence didn't just appear. It wasn't always gunfire in crowds or trucks used as weapons. In decades past, terrorism was aimed more at institutions rather than people. Until one day, things changed. On a January afternoon in 1975, a bomb tore through a restaurant in lower Manhattan, killing innocent people. In this episode, we'll take you inside that attack. But first we have to understand how the violence and the response to it evolved. The 70s, a decade defined by Vietnam, Watergate, and by growing unrest at home. America was divided and on edge. Cities like New York, which we explored in season one, were gripped by crime. Protesters clashed in the streets. It was a decade of reckoning and reinvention. And terrorism, it was beginning to take root on American soil. Here is someone who can definitely help break down its many complexities.

[Michael Jensen]

My name is Michael Jensen. I'm the research director at the START center at the University of Maryland. I lead a team at the center that looks at extremism in the United States.

[Narrator]

Michael's team is part of an organization known as start, which stands for a mouthful, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and responses to terrorism. START was launched by the Department of Homeland Security in 2005. It tracks global terror trends and analyzes why people radicalize.

[Michael Jensen]

When the START center was founded, there was virtually no data available on terrorism happening in the United States. And outside of the United States today.

[Narrator]

It'S home to the Global Terrorism Database, the world's most comprehensive record of terror attacks, and trains the next generation of national security experts. Michael's a scientist, a collector of facts. But part of that search for understanding led him back to a strange, almost forgotten chapter in U.S. history.

[Michael Jensen]

People often forget that in the late 1960s through about the mid-1970s that to terrorism in the United States was really synonymous with left wing activism.

[Narrator]

At the time, the Vietnam War was tearing the country apart. Cities were burning, the air thick with tear gas and rage. Civil rights marches gave way to violent clashes. And out of the chaos, new groups emerged.

[Michael Jensen]

There were a number of groups and movements dedicated to social justice issues, civil rights issues, anti capitalist Marxist issues, even ethno national issues like Puerto Rican independence that were the ones that were on the forefront of engaging in crime and violence on behalf of their beliefs.

[Narrator]

Groups like the Weather Underground and the Symbionese Liberation army, people calling themselves members.

[Michael Jensen]

Of the Weather Underground last night planted bombs in federal office buildings in Washington and Oakland, California. What was key in these organizations though, was that their violence was largely symbolic. They weren't trying to hurt and kill large numbers of individuals. They were trying to attack iconic targets to draw attention to their cause.

[Narrator]

They often targeted symbols of power, banks, police stations, government offices. And they were prolific.

[Michael Jensen]

In 1970 alone, there was well over a thousand bombings that took place in the United States that were committed by these groups. Most of them did not produce fatalities or injuries. They were property crimes.

[Narrator]

The goal wasn't mass casualties, it was spectacle. These groups wanted to shake the system, not bury bodies. At least not yet.

[John Fox]

You know, I always liked history as a child.

[Narrator]

That's John Fox, the FBI's official historian. He's been digging into the Bureau's past since. Since he joined in 1999.

[John Fox]

In the 1970s, we saw the FBI primarily focusing on what would be considered terrorist attacks here at home.

[Narrator]

Domestic terrorist attacks, bombings, hijackings, shootouts. The Bureau wasn't even sure what to call it. One group made their answer loud and clear. Police are intensifying their efforts since yesterday's incidents. They're distributing this poster all over town. These four individuals are wanted by the FBI and the police in connection with several FALN bombings.

[John Fox]

The FALN was a group advocating revolution to separate Puerto Rico from the United States.

[Narrator]

The faln, or Armed Forces of National Liberation in English, a nationalist group with a cause, a manifesto and a bomb making playbook. And unlike some of the others, they weren't just out to make noise. They wanted the government to feel it.

[John Fox]

They engaged in a series of bombings and other illegal activities to try and draw interest and concern about their cause and ultimately to spark revolutionary activity.

[Narrator]

The FALN wasn't acting in a vacuum. Their campaign fit into a much larger, older story, one that stretched back more than a century.

[John Fox]

The rise of the Puerto Rican nationalist groups traces its origins back to the mid-1800s and the rise of anarchist and revolutionary communist ideologies. But over time, it broadens out as the more radical protest elements to use violence to make their point.

[Narrator]

That history of political violence was wasn't confined to Puerto Rico. It mirrored a broader global pattern where ideology, identity and armed resistance converged. Here's Michael Jensen.

[Michael Jensen]

Again, this is the era of anti colonial movements across the globe. In places like Africa, we saw similar movements in the 1960s rising up to defeat colonial powers. And in their view, they saw the United States as just that. It was a colonial power. Puerto Rico had been colonized, and according to international law, they had the right to defend themselves and to defeat colonizers by any means necessary, including violence.

[Narrator]

The FALN picked up that threat and detonated it in the heart of American cities, namely New York, with its large Puerto Rican community. The Big Apple became a focal point. Their bombs hit Wall street offices, the Bronx, even midtown Manhattan. Their cause, Puerto Rican independence, hadn't gone away and they had no interest in fading quietly. If anything, their campaign was about to grow louder and deadlier. The ideas were already in motion. The anger had been building. Then came the moment it literally exploded. January 24, 1975, was a gray winter day in Manhattan. That afternoon, an agent hurried into the squad room at the Upper east side headquarters of the FBI.

[FBI Agent Richard Bantell]

He came out and he said, hey, I got a big bombing down in lower Manhattan. Can you help out? So we grabbed our bags and away we went.

[Narrator]

It soon became a day that FBI agent Richard Bantell would never forget. Richard and his fellow agents drove through traffic heading south at lightning speed. 911 calls flooded the city's police stations to report that there'd been an explosion.

[FBI Agent Richard Bantell]

We pulled up. I had never heard of Francis Tavern.

[Narrator]

But the target of the blast wasn't a government building, police station or a bank. It was a quaint little lunch spot. The place, even back then, was a throwback red brick colonial charm surrounded by the glass and steel of the financial district. But as the FBI agents arrived that day, it wasn't business as usual.

[FBI Agent Richard Bantell]

I just remember seeing an awful lot of glass within view. There was mayhem there. But let me tell you, the New York City police had the area cordoned off, maintaining a crime scene.

[Narrator]

Police pushed back the crowd and scanned for more bombs. First responders locked down the scene. Medics moved fast, helping the injured working triage on the sidewalk. The worst got loaded into ambulances first. Fire crews checked for structural damage. What was chaos a moment ago became control. Nothing moved unless it had to. Every fragment, every scorch mark was potential evidence. That's where Richard came in. When he pulled up to the corner of Pearl and Broad street in Lower Manhattan, he was hit with a signature sign of a bombing.

[FBI Agent Richard Bantell]

If you go to these things, I don't care where it is, it's got a smell to it. You Gotta get on your hands and knees and crawl around in the dirt and the dust and see what you can find.

[Narrator]

That's where he uncovered a major clue.

[FBI Agent Richard Bantell]

We started finding nails not from the.

[Narrator]

Building but from inside the bomb.

[FBI Agent Richard Bantell]

I personally think if I was building a bomb, I could have done a better job than nails, but it was just simply shrapnel.

[Narrator]

The nails may have pointed to an amateur, but the bomb, that was not.

[FBI Agent Richard Bantell]

Just a small bomb. It turned out to be 22 sticks of dynamite.

[Narrator]

Richard continued to crawl through the torn.

[FBI Agent Richard Bantell]

Out tavern and we're collecting various items which would be appropriate for starting a criminal investigation.

[Narrator]

That's when he happened upon something that will stay with him forever.

[FBI Agent Richard Bantell]

I was crawling around on the floor and I remember distinctly finding something. And I said to one of the investigators, I picked it up, I said, what is this? They looked at it, they felt it, it was like sponge. I would say no more than an inch. But it was all over. So we decided we were going to put it in a container and we started collecting it. And before it was over with, we had like a shoebox filled with this material. We couldn't figure out what it was and it was driving us nuts. So we sent it off to the FBI lab with a big question mark.

[Narrator]

When they got the answer, it was something no one wanted to hear.

[FBI Agent Richard Bantell]

He says, we found out what it was. I said, what's that? He says, human remains. Whoever the poor soul that was standing there when this thing went off so much force just totally took his torso and blew it to little pieces like that.

[Narrator]

The attack killed four people and injured over 60. Countless more were impacted in ways that would stay with them forever. Wives, husbands, friends, families, children.

[Joe Connor]

My name is Joe Connor and my father was murdered by the FALN Puerto Rican Marxist terrorists on January 24, 1975 at Fraunces Tavern.

[Narrator]

On the day of the bombing, Joe was just nine years old. His father was Frank Connor. Frank was a young banker who left his home in New Jersey every day to go to his job in New York City's financial district. In the evening, he'd return home to his wife and to play with his two sons.

[Joe Connor]

My father was a New York City.

[Narrator]

Kid, the son of immigrants in pursuit of the American dream.

[Joe Connor]

My grandmother got a job as a cleaning lady at the old Morgan Bank, Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. And she worked nights so she could be home with my father during the day.

[Narrator]

In high school, Frank's mom helped him get a job at the bank. He started off as a clerk and eventually worked his Way up to assistant vice president. Frank was 19 when he first met his wife, Joe's mom, at a dance in New York's Old City Center.

[Joe Connor]

She just saw the back of his head at first and said, I want to dance with that guy. And her friends were laughing at her, saying, you don't even know what he looks like. And he turned around and asked her to dance out of nowhere. So she knew right then.

[Narrator]

The two married and had three boys. The youngest son passed away at a very young age, leaving the Conners a family of four. The family moved to New Jersey. Frank juggled night school, a day job, and together with his wife, raising two boys. But he also found time for some fun.

[Joe Connor]

He had tons of friends, more than I've ever had, really. Like, they moved to New Jersey and the next thing you know, they have a bar in the basement. And, you know, it was like the early 70s, and people, like, seemed to have a lot of fun and there was always people around and he was good to be around.

[Narrator]

Even with the long hours and full house, Frank always made room for what mattered most, time with his boys.

[Joe Connor]

My brother's two years older, so whenever we would, like, as a family, do stuff, like, together, so we might go down and play basketball or whatever, it was always Tom and my mom on the same team and me and my dad, because I was the youngest. So it was always us two on the same team. So I always felt like, hey, he's my teammate. To me, he could do anything.

[Narrator]

To Frank's boys, he was their hero.

[Joe Connor]

My brother had just made his communion, and my dad was going to take his communion money and spend it on a tent because we wanted to go camping. So we were at the sporting goods store and I saw a Tom Seaver mitt autographed by Tom Seaver. And, you know, anyone who lived in, around here in the early 70s, my God, Tom Seaver. So that's what I wanted. But he was, like, looking at me like, you know, we can't afford that. So went home and I didn't get my mitt. And a couple days later, I guess I was hanging out down at the park, and Tom came down and said, dad wants to see. And I'm like, oh, God, what did I do now? So I rode my bike home, and when I got home, there was the mitt. That was something I'll never forget and I'll always treasure because he didn't have to get that for me. He didn't. It wasn't my birthday or anything, but.

[Narrator]

There would soon come A birthday that will stick with Joe forever. January 24, 1975, was planned to be a special day.

[Joe Connor]

We were going to be celebrating my 9th birthday, which was January 20th and my brother's 11th.

[Narrator]

They'd already celebrated with friends, so this Friday was just going to be family. The brothers went to school. Their mom stayed home preparing their favorite dinner. Frank went to work in downtown New York City, as he always did that day, Frank had lunch plans with two clients. At the last minute, the location of their lunch moved to a different restaurant.

[Joe Connor]

There was a problem with the reservation, so they decided they would walk down to Frances, which is right around the block.

[Narrator]

The men sat down at a table in the tavern, ordered their food and talked while they ate.

[Joe Connor]

They were getting to the end of their meal and I think the check had just come. One of the guys, Charlie Murray, talked about seeing a guy come in that kind of looked out of place with a knapsack, set it on a stair behind their table where they were sitting. And the guy was scruffy looking.

[Narrator]

This was Wall street in 1975. People dressed to impress. Sharp suits, crisp white shirts and polished shoes. Business formal, with a hint of swagger.

[Joe Connor]

Not scruff, so someone like this guy would look very out of place. He dropped his package and walked out, and within a couple of minutes, it detonated.

[Narrator]

The blast tore through the restaurant, shattering windows and collapsing walls.

[Joe Connor]

It was about 25 pounds of explosives and shrapnel, absolutely intended to inflict as much death as it could.

[Narrator]

Word of the attack hadn't yet traveled the 17 miles northwest to Teaneck, New Jersey.

[Joe Connor]

Tom and I went to school and, and came home and went out to play.

[Narrator]

Then Joe heard his mother scream and the afternoon warped from a day of soon to be birthday celebrations into something surreal.

[Joe Connor]

She called us in from playing and she said there had been an explosion downtown and she told us my dad was there.

[Narrator]

At first, Joe assumed the best. A child's instinct to believe that their parent is invincible.

[Joe Connor]

I remember thinking, well, he's probably injured. He was my dad, right? He's indestructible.

[Narrator]

His mother's intuition said otherwise.

[Joe Connor]

She had called him at work and someone else picked up and she said she knew immediately that he was killed.

[Narrator]

Nine year old Joe still held on to hope.

[Joe Connor]

I remember thinking, well, he's probably like buried under debris, you know, bricks or rock or something. The firemen will get them, you know, they'll find them and it'll be okay.

[Narrator]

But as people began arriving at the house, family, friends, co workers, the silence was telling.

[Joe Connor]

We got the news A few hours.

[Narrator]

Later that night, the young boys crawled into bed with their mom. The three of them huddled together in grief, still in shock and trying to make sense of what happened.

[Joe Connor]

I remember asking my mom, is grandma still our grandmother? And you know, my mom was great. She said, well, absolutely, in very strong terms. Which was very reassuring because then I kind of knew that the family would.

[Narrator]

Be kept together in that moment. Joe Connor wasn't thinking about terrorism or politics or his dad, decades of advocacy that would follow. He was just a child who lost his father. Confused about what happens to families when someone dies, not wanting his to fall apart.

[Joe Connor]

It was devastating. To go one minute from celebrating your 9th birthday with your dad to him being dead for no reason.

[Narrator]

Trying to move through such trauma and grief is unthinkable. Unthinkable to most people, let alone for a child. But human beings often prove to be remarkably resilient even in the wake of incredible tragedy.

[Joe Connor]

As my grandma Connor would say, we just did the best we could.

[Narrator]

In the days following the January 1975 bombing at New York City's Francis Tavern, the Conner family soon learned who was responsible.

[Joe Connor]

They left a communique around the corner from Francis in a phone booth. For those of you old enough to know what a phone booth is, it left words to the effect that this was an attack by the FALN armed forces for Puerto Rican independence. To hit reactionary corporate executives is the terms that they used. And that's a very Marxist type language.

[Narrator]

Michael Jensen says that message was rooted in retaliation.

[Michael Jensen]

The reason that they did this is because there had been a bombing that occurred in Puerto Rico in which a couple of young independence activists had been killed. The group blamed the CIA for orchestrating this bombing. And the Francis Tavern bombing was their response to it.

[Narrator]

And the location of the attack wasn't chosen at random. Here again is John Fox.

[John Fox]

The Fraunces Tavern traces back to our revolutionary days and was a key meeting place for some of the planning and peoples who were involved in our revolution back in the mid-1770s.

[Joe Connor]

You know, it's where George Washington bade farewell to his officers after the Revolutionary War. It's really historic and significant place. It's where Alexander Hamilton and the Sons of Liberty met. It was chosen for that very reason as a target.

[Narrator]

By bombing it, the FALN sent a calculated message. They weren't just fighting for Puerto Rican independence. They were striking at the very foundations of the American identity. But this wasn't just cryptic symbolism, as Michael Jensen puts it. It was a turning point.

[Michael Jensen]

It was really like A departure for the organization in its level of violence. The flan actually went out of their way to commit attack in which they knew people would be hurt and killed.

[Narrator]

Until then, most domestic bombings were late night blasts, empty offices, statements without bloodshed. Franz's Tavern was different. This wasn't an accident. John Fox says it was a shift in tactics.

[John Fox]

The bombings claimed by the Faln were aimed at at least some civilian casualties placed and detonated around the lunch hour. Obviously meant to be a more high.

[Narrator]

Profile and populated event, Franz's Tavern marked a pivot to deadly force. The bomb was timed and placed for maximum civilian impact. It wasn't aimed at anyone in particular. But that was exactly the point. The explosion was meant to kill whoever happened to be there at that very moment.

[Joe Connor]

My father moved his table. If he didn't, we wouldn't be having this conversation. You might be talking to somebody else. That's why terrorism works. That's why terrorism works as a political tool. Because it's random and it's indiscriminate. It doesn't care who you are. Anyone can die at any point. I think people really need to understand that, that no one's immune from this crap. And you don't have to go around your life worrying about it. But you do kind of have to understand that it, it can happen. It could happen to anybody.

[Narrator]

Unfortunately, this is how we understand terrorism to work today. Violence meant not only to destroy, but also to shock, spread fear and force attention. But in 1975, that idea hadn't fully taken hold. It was a lesson being learned in real time. As this new brutal reality became clear, law enforcement also needed to pivot to try and tackle it. And as the bombs kept exploding, they would need to make a plan, and fast. The bombing at Franz's Tavern sent shock waves through New York City. The FBI quickly ramped up its surveillance and crackdown of the Faln.

[Joe Connor]

They never left the news cycle and they couldn't catch them.

[Narrator]

Despite the pressure and urgency, the Faln seemingly stayed one step ahead. They vanished into safe houses in silence, leaving investigators with little left to track. But over time, law enforcement did make headway.

[Jeremy Sensky]

There was some unnumbered undated communiques that bore the FALN logo that used the rhetoric that has become quite common in their communiques.

[John Fox]

There were a number of FALN members arrested over the coming years. Several of them were associated with with the Fraunces Tavern bombing.

[Narrator]

Arrests trickled in slowly, some tied to bomb plots, others to weapons stockpiles and some suspected in the Fraunces Tavern attack.

[Joe Connor]

These guys were extremely disciplined. They left one fingerprint in their 130 bombings. But other than that they were absolutely clean in the way that they went about their business. They were Cuban, trained, financed to a large degree the art of spycraft through the Cuban intelligence services. So the FBI and the NYPD really didn't know what they were up against with these guys.

[Narrator]

And the man at the center of the Faln's destruction was still out there, as dedicated to the cause as he'd ever been. Here's Michael Jensen again.

[Michael Jensen]

William Morales was the Faln's chief bomb maker. And he was discovered in 1978 because he accidentally detonated an explosive device in which he severely injured himself and disfigured himself. That's how the authorities came to identify him and to nab him.

[Narrator]

When the bomb exploded yesterday, it blew up in the hands and face of William Morales. Today, police told us that they've known for some time of Morales link to Faln suspect Carlos Alberto Torres. He'd been building bombs in a secret apartment in Queens. And you may know the saying, if you play with fire, eventually you get burned.

[Joe Connor]

On what would have been my dad's 37th birthday, July 12, 1978, William Morales was torquing a pipe bomb when it exploded. There must have been some of the explosive got caught in the treads and when he torqued it, it blew up and blew off nine of his fingers, one of his eyes and ripped through the Queen's bomb factory.

[Narrator]

But even mangled and half blind, his self declared mission came first.

[Joe Connor]

He immediately turned on the gas in the place and went into the bathroom to try to shred evidence.

[Narrator]

While severely injured, Morales survived.

[Michael Jensen]

He was arrested. He was charged and convicted, sentenced to 89, 90 years in prison. He actually ended up escaping from a prison ward out of Bellevue Hospital. And he eventually made his way to Cuba. And Castro gave him safe haven there.

[Narrator]

Instead of serving out his sentence, Morales has remained in Cuba, avoiding accountability. And for Joe it felt like a second kind of trauma, a betrayal.

[Joe Connor]

This is a guy with one finger and one eye. Being that dedicated to his cause, that event woke us up. That was jarring. And to me, Morales became the face of the Faln in my head. And you know, Faln and even evil felt like they were the same word to me.

[Narrator]

For decades, Joe fought to bring Morales back to the United States.

[Joe Connor]

I started writing letters to the State Department, to the Justice Department, to Secretary of State Warren Christopher. I think was at the time, because I wanted Morales returned. That was before we even had emails so these are letters, and I still have some of them that, you know, were sent back and forth where the, you know, they acknowledged that, you know, Morales is there, he's a terrorist, but we have no extradition treaty with Cuba, which, as it turns out, isn't exactly true. So I really kind of pushed that.

[Michael Jensen]

And to this day, there are still demands for him to be extradited back to the United States to serve out his sentence.

[Narrator]

There's obviously much more to this story and many more layers to go, and we'll get to some of that. But for right now, this is the point to remember.

[Joe Connor]

No one was held accountable specifically for my dad's murder.

[Narrator]

It's another type of wound that remains open for the victims, the survivors, and those impacted by the blast. No justice for the four who were murdered by that bomb.

[Joe Connor]

It was my dad, Alejandro Berger, and Jim Gizork.

[Narrator]

And the fourth victim, Harold Sherburne, succumbed to his wounds at the hospital. For the ones who made it out.

[Joe Connor]

Alive, Bill Newhall was at the table, and he survived. And he's still passing shrapnel. He still has hearing issues. He says this will eventually kill him. Just didn't happen that day.

[Narrator]

Each tragedy affects not only the actual victims. It goes many more layers deep.

[Joe Connor]

My kids even are affected by it. And they never met their grandfather. I mean, my poor kids, they had nothing to do with any of this, but they've suffered because of what had happened and probably from my fighting it.

[Narrator]

As the survivors of the Fraunces Tavern bombing continued to reel, law enforcement scrambled to tackle this growing threat. And they were building the system while under fire. While threats multiplied in the shadows, from separatists and nationalists to far left radicals, the blueprint on how to carry out these attacks was spreading faster than the response. And as the enemy evolved, America's defenses looked for new ways to meet the threat.

[John Fox]

In the 1970s, the assignment of responsibility and even the definitions of crimes related to such things weren't always cleared. And oftentimes, the state or local police would take precedence.

[Narrator]

It was a patchwork response to a national problem. Departments, agencies, both local and national, continued to respond. But the one thing they lacked was an actual integrated system. While they shared, there was no real time intelligence sharing, they worked together, yet not as a unified front. Federal agents, bomb squads, arson units, all working parallel cases rather than lock and step. And as the dust was still settling from the Francis Tavern bombing, terror struck again.

[FBI Agent Richard Bantell]

We interrupt the Gene Shepard program to bring you this further update in connection with the tragic disaster at LaGuardia Airport tonight in which a powerful bomb explosion that devastated the baggage area in the main terminal at the airport killed at least 12 persons and injured at least 75 others.

[Law and Criminal Justice System Intro Voice]

Next time on Law and Order, Criminal Justice System.

[Jeremy Sensky]

I recall the switchboard saying there's been a bombing at the TWA terminal.

[FBI Agent Richard Bantell]

The explosion actually impelled building material, metal, glass, bodies.

[Joe Connor]

Inside.

[Jeremy Sensky]

There was an extensive fire.

[Michael Jensen]

This really was the era of mass bombing campaigns, and the FBI had a very, very long list of usual suspects to go through to try to figure out who did this.

[John Fox]

Some suspected faln, others suspected Croatian nationalists.

[Law and Criminal Justice System Intro Voice]

Law and Criminal Justice System is the production of wolf Entertainment and iHeart podcasts. Our host is Anna Sega Nicolazi. The show is written by Cooper Mull, executive produced by Dick Wolf, Elliot Wolf and Steven Michael at Wolf Entertainment on behalf of iHeart podcasts executive producers Trevor Young and Matt Frederick with supervising producer Chandler Mays and producer Jesse Funk. This season is executive produced by Anna Sega Nicolasi. Our researchers are Luke Stentz and Carolyn Tallmadge. Editing and sound design by Trevor Young and Jesse Funk. Original music by John o' Hara, original theme by Mike Post with additional music by Steve Moore and additional voiceover by me, Steve Zernkelton. Special thanks to Fox 5 in New York for providing archival material for the show. For more podcasts from iHeart and Wolf Entertainment, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your favorite shows. Thanks for listening.

[CBC Podcast Host]

That was the first episode from Law and Criminal Justice System. You can listen to more episodes wherever you get your podcasts. For more CBC Podcasts, go to CBC CA Podcasts.