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Mass Murder!

Mass Murder (massacre) is the act of Murdering a large number of people, typically at the same time, or over a relatively short period of time. Mass murder may be committed by individuals or organizations.

The term may refer to spree killers, who stage a single, horrific assault on their victims, or to serial killers, who may kill many people, but not necessarily all at the same time.

The largest mass killings in history have been attempts to exterminate entire groups or communities of people, often on the basis of ethnicity or religion. In modern times such events are sometimes described as genocide. Although some consider that "genocide" may exist where there is merely an intention or plan to exterminate a particular group, and that killing is not a necessary condition, by contrast "Mass Murder" involves the actual killing of a large number of people.

Mass Murder by individuals

Outside a political context, the term "mass Murder" refers to the killing of several people at the same time. Examples would include shooting several people in the course of a robbery, or setting a crowded nightclub on fire. This is an ambiguous term, similar to serial killing and spree killing.

The USA Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a mass Murder as "involving the Murder of four or more victims at one location, within one event."

Mass murderers may fall into any of a number of categories, including killers of family, of coworkers, of students, and of random strangers. Their motives may range from revenge to financial gain to religious fanaticism to mental illness. Many other motivations are possible.

Workers who assault fellow employees are sometimes called "disgruntled workers," but this is often a misnomer, as many perpetrators are ex-workers. They are dismissed from their jobs and subsequently turn up heavily armed and slaughter their former colleagues. In the 1980s, when two fired postal workers carried out such massacres in separate incidents in the US, the term "going postal" became synonymous with employees snapping and setting out on Murderous rampages. One of the 1980's most famous "disgruntled worker" cases involved computer programmer Richard Farley who, after being fired for stalking one of his co-workers, a woman by the name of Laura Black, returned to his former workplace and shot to death seven of his colleagues, although he failed in his attempt to kill Black herself.

In massacres by students, such as the Columbine High School Massacre and the Virginia Tech massacre, alienated youths rampage through their schools killing fellow students and teachers alike before turning the Guns on themselves.

There have also been mass killings that may have been unintended, at least in terms of formal premeditation to kill many people. In 1990, Julio González set fire to a New York City nightclub after having a fight there with his girlfriend. Eighty-seven people died in the blaze (Gonzalez's girlfriend survived).

Some financially-motivated mass-killings are either unintended, a result of a robbery going wrong, or are incidental to the primary crime of theft. One of the most bizarre cases was that of Sadamichi Hirasawa, who Poisoned twelve bank workers by cyanide during a robbery.

Unlike serial killers, there is rarely a sexual motive to individual mass-murderers, with the possible exception of Sylvestre Matuschka, an Austrian man who apparently derived sexual pleasure from blowing up trains with dynamite, ideally with people in them. His lethal sexual fetish claimed 22 lives before he was caught in 1932.

According to Loren Coleman's book Copycat Effect, publicity about multiple deaths tends to provoke more, whether workplace or school shootings or mass suicides.

Mass Murder by terrorists

In recent years, terrorists have performed acts of mass Murder to intimidate a society and draw attention to their causes. Examples of major terrorist incidents involving mass Murder include:

The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings on May 17, 1974 were a series of terrorist attacks on Dublin and Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland which left 33 people dead, and almost 300 injured, the largest number of casualties in any single day in The Troubles. The Loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), claimed responsibility in 1993. However, allegations that British forces colluded in the bombings persist.

Mass Murder Chronology

At five-thirty in the afternoon three car bombs exploded almost simultaneously in Dublin at Parnell Street, Talbot Street, and South Leinster Street. Twenty-three died in these explosions and three others died as a result of injuries over the following few days. The first of the three Dublin bombs went off at approximately 5.28pm in Parnell Street. Eleven people died as a result of this explosion. The second of the Dublin bombs went off at approximately 5.30pm in Talbot Street. Fourteen people died in this explosion. The third bomb went off at approximately 5.32pm in South Leinster Street. Two people were killed in this explosion.

Ninety minutes later one more car bomb exploded in North Road, Monaghan, County Monaghan just south of the border with Northern Ireland.. This bomb killed five people initially, with another two dying in the following weeks. Some accounts give 34 or 35 dead; 34 by including the child of Collette Doherty who was nine months pregnant, and 35 by including the later still-born child of Edward and Martha O'Neill. Edward was killed, Martha survived.

In Northern Ireland, Sammy Smyth, then press officer of both the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Ulster Workers Council (UWC) Strike Committee, said,

"I am very happy about the bombings in Dublin. There is a war with the Free State and now we are laughing at them."

According to a Dublin newspaper, the then British Ambassador to Ireland, Sir Arthur Galsworthy, noted immediately after the bombings:

"the predictable attempt by the IRA to pin the blame on the British (British agents, the SAS, etc) has made no headway at all.... It is only now that the South has experienced violence that they are reacting in the way that the North has sought for so long."

The newspaper noted that "despite these feelings of schadenfreude", Galsworthy continued,

it would be... a psychological mistake for us to rub this point in... I think the Irish have taken the point".

Mass Murder Responsibility for the bombings

The Ulster Volunteer Force claimed responsibility for the bombings in 1993, following a TV documentary on the bombings that named the UVF as the perpetrators, and which alleged that elements of British Security Forces were involved in the attack.

Mass Murder Yorkshire Television documentary

On July 7 1993 Yorkshire Television's First Tuesday programme broadcast Hidden Hand: The Forgotten Massacre, a programme on the bombings in co-operation with a number of retired officers in the Gardaí, the police force of the Republic of Ireland. The programme claimed that the bombings were the work of the Ulster Volunteer Force. It named a number of UVF members it said had taken part in the bombings, who had since been killed during the Troubles. However, 'Hidden hand' also claimed that loyalist paramilitaries were aided by British security force members. Forensic examination seemed to suggest that the Dublin bombs had been built with some sophistication. Garda officers claimed that the UVF had been assisted by elements in British intelligence. Subsequently, a number of questions were asked in the Dáil, the parliament of the Republic of Ireland, about responsibility for the massacre. The government ordered the Gardai to assess the information in the television programme.

Mass Murder UVF claim responsibility

One week later, on July 15 1993, the Ulster Volunteer Force confirmed responsibility for the bombings, but also denied that they were aided by British security forces.

The UVF claimed that:

The entire operation was from its conception to its successful conclusion, planned and carried out by our volunteers aided by no outside bodies. In contrast to the scenario painted by the programme, it would have been unnecessary and indeed undesirable to compromise our volunteers anonimity by using clandestine Security Force personnel, British or otherwise, to achieve an objective well within our capabilities... Given the backdrop of what was taking place in Northern Ireland when the UVF were bombing republican targets at will, either the researchers decided to take poetic licence to the limit or the truth was being twisted by knaves to make a trap for the fools...The minimum of scrutiny should have revealed that the structure of the bombs placed in Dublin and Monaghan were similar if not identical to those being placed in Northern Ireland on an almost daily basis.The type of explosives, timing and detonating methods all bore the hallmark of the UVF. It is incredulous that these points were lost on the Walter Mittys who conjured up this programme.To suggest that the UVF were not, or are not, capable of operating in the manner outlined in the programme is tempting fate to a dangerous degree."

Mass Murder Relatives seek public inquiry

In 1996 relatives of the victims of the bombings, Justice for the Forgotten, launched a campaign for a public inquiry. As their name implies, the group stated that they had been 'forgotten' by the Irish state.

On July 23 1997 the group lobbied the European Parliament. MEPs from many countries supported a call for the release of files related to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. However, on August 27 of that year, an Irish Court declined to order the release of the files.

In August 1999, Irish Victims Commissioner, John Wilson, reported on the demand for a public inquiry. He proposed a judicial inquiry, held in private.

In December 1999, the Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Bertie Ahern, appointed Mr. Justice Liam Hamilton to undertake a thorough examination of the bombings, in a private Inquiry. Justice for the Forgotten agreed to co-operate. The inquiry began work early in 2000. In October 2000 Justice Henry Barron was appointed to succeed Justice Hamilton. Relatives then campaigned for publication of Justice Barron's initial report. It was presented to the Taoiseach on October 29 2003, and published with five names redacted on December 10 2003.

The Irish government demanded that the British government hand over official documents relating to the bombings, that were denied to the Barron Inquiry. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, John Reid, delivered a 16 page letter, but refused to hand over original documentation, claiming security concerns, despite the passage of time. Barron observed, "Correspondence with the Northern Ireland Office undoubtedly produced some useful information; but its value was reduced by the reluctance to make original documents available and the refusal to supply other information on security grounds. While the Inquiry fully understands the position taken by the British Government on these matters, it must be said that the scope of this report is limited as a result." On February 16 2005 The Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Rights recommended that the Irish Government bring a case before the European Court of Human Rights to force the UK Government to hold a public inquiry into the bombings. In June 2005 the Irish government threatened to bring the British government to the European Court of Justice, to force the release the files on the bombings.

It is acknowledged that, after 30 years, many witnesses, initial investigators and suspects are dead.

Mass Murder The Barron Report main findings

On December 10 2003, Justice Henry Barron's Report on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings was published. It stated:

'The conclusions of the Inquiry regarding the facts, circumstances, causes and perpetrators of the bombings can be summarised as follows:'

1. The Dublin and Monaghan bombings were carried out by two groups of loyalist paramilitaries, one based in Belfast and the other in the area around Portadown/Lurgan. Most, though not all of those involved were members of the UVF.

2. It is likely that the bombings were conceived and planned in Belfast, with the mid-Ulster element providing operational assistance.

3. The bombings were a reaction to the Sunningdale Agreement in particular to the prospect of a greater role for the

Irish government in the administration of Northern Ireland. The timing of the attacks may have been inspired by a number of important events around that time including:

(i) a statement of the Taoiseach in April 1974 in which he expressed the hope that formal ratification of the Agreement would take place in May;

(ii) statements by Northern Ireland Secretary Merlyn Rees (also in April) proposing the phasing out of internment and a gradual reduction of the British Army presence in Northern Ireland;

(iii) the advent of the Ulster Workers Council strike.

4. A finding that members of the security forces in Northern Ireland could have been involved in the bombings is neither fanciful nor absurd, given the number of instances in which similar illegal activity has been proven.

However, the material assessed by the Inquiry is insufficient to suggest that senior members of the security forces in Northern Ireland were in any way involved in the bombings.

5. The loyalist groups who carried out the bombings in Dublin were capable of doing so without help from any section of the security forces in Northern Ireland, though this does not rule out the involvement of individual RUC, UDR or British Army members.

The Monaghan bombing bears all the hallmarks of a standard loyalist operation and required no assistance.

6. It is likely that the farm of James Mitchell at Glenanne played a significant part in the preparation for the attacks. It is also likely that members of the UDR and RUC either participated in, or were aware of those preparations.

7. The possibility that the involvement of such army or police officers was covered-up at a higher level cannot be ruled out; but it is unlikely that any such decision would ever have been committed to writing.

8. There is no evidence that any branch of the security forces knew in advance that the bombings were about to take place. This has been reiterated by the current Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and is accepted by the Inquiry. If they did know, it is unlikely that there would be any official records. Such knowledge would not have been written down; or if it was, would not have been in any files made available to the Secretary of State. There is evidence that the Secretary of State of the day was not fully informed on matters of which he should have been made aware. On that basis, it is equally probable that similarly sensitive information might be withheld from the present holder of that office.

9. The Inquiry believes that within a short time of the bombings taking place, the security forces in Northern Ireland had good intelligence to suggest who was responsible. An example of this could be the unknown information that led British Intelligence sources to tell their Irish Army counterparts that at least two of the bombers had been arrested on 26 May and detained. Unfortunately, the Inquiry has been unable to discover the nature of this and other intelligence available to the security forces in Northern Ireland at that time.

10. A number of those suspected for the bombings were reliably said to have had relationships with British Intelligence and / or RUC Special Branch officers. It is reasonable to assume that exchanges of information took place. It is therefore possible that the assistance provided to the Garda investigation team by the security forces in Northern Ireland was affected by a reluctance to compromise those relationships, in the interests of securing further information in the future. There remains a deep suspicion that the investigation into the bombings was hampered by such factors, but it cannot be put further than that.

11. As stated, there are grounds for suspecting that the bombers may have had assistance from members of the security forces. Unless further information comes to hand, such involvement must remain a suspicion. It is not proven.

The publication of the report caused a sensation in Ireland, as demonstrated by political and media reaction. It is generally agreed that the Report raised more questions than it answered and that it opened up new avenues of inquiry.

Mass Murder Oireachtas Sub-Committee on collusion

The Oireachtas Sub-Committee considering Justice Barron's report concluded:

2.20 In relation to the identity of the perpetrators, Mr. Justice Barron compiled a wealth of material, which supports his conclusion that the bombings were carried by the two groups of loyalist paramilitaries (one in Belfast and the other in Portadown/Lurgan). There is still a degree of speculation as to the definitive line- up of individuals actually involved in each stage of the preparation, planning and placing of the bombs. The Barron Report will serve as a useful starting point in assisting any further enquiry.

2.21 With regard to the issue of collusion, the Sub-Committee has a limited function namely, to review the Barron Report and cannot therefore come to a different conclusion. The Sub-Committee would like to acknowledge the difficulties faced by Mr. Justice Barron in his attempts to explore this issue fully. There is no way of knowing what might be contained in documentation which exists in Northern Ireland and the UK without gaining access to that documentation. However, even based on the material he did manage to gather, the suggestion that members of the security forces in Northern Ireland could have been involved in the bombings is in Mr Justice Barron’s own words, ‘neither fanciful nor absurd’. In addition, the Sub-Committee is concerned that a number of responsible persons and groups who made submissions have come to the conclusion that collusion played a part.

2.22 Until such time as the relevant original documentation is released by the UK Authorities and the issue addressed in the jurisdiction where the bombs were prepared and planned, namely, Northern Ireland, it may not be possible to come to definitive conclusions in this regard. The question of what any further inquiry can achieve in this regard will be considered later in this Report. The Sub-Committee acknowledges that the failure to bring closure on this particular aspect has exacerbated the pain and suffering of the victims and their relatives.

A subsequent report by Henry Barron into the Miami Showband massacre, the killing of Seamus Ludlow, and the bombing of Keys Tavern found evidence of extensive collusion with the same mainly UVF personnel, amounting to "international terrorism" on the part of British forces.

Mass Murder McEntee Inquiry

Following a recommendation from the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Rights, in its final report on the bombings (March 2004), the Irish Government established a further Commission of Investigation: Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 1974 in May 2005 under Patrick McEntee. The McEntee Enquiry is tasked to investigate the following:

1. Why was the Garda investigation into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings wound down in 1974?

2. Why did the Gardaí not follow-up on the following leads?

(i) Information that a white van with an English registration plate, was parked outside the Department of Posts and Telegraphs on Portland Row and was later seen parked in the deep sea area of the B&I ferry port in Dublin, and the subsequent contact made with a British Army officer on a ferry boat leaving that port.

(ii) Information relating to a man who stayed in the Four Courts Hotel between 15 and 17 May 1974, and his contacts with the UVF.

(iii) Information concerning a British Army corporal allegedly sighted.

The remit of the McEntee Commission was extended on a number of occasions. The report was handed to the Irish government on March 12, 2007. Publication was expected by the end of March 2007. On April 3 2007, the Irish government announced that the Report would be published on April 4 2007 at 5pm, after distribution to victims and to the families of those who had been killed by the bombs.

Mass Murder Barron on ballistic history

The Barron Inquiry found a chain of ballistic history linking weapons and killings under the control of a group of UVF and security force members, including RUC Special Patrol Group members John Weir and Billy McCaughey, connected to those alleged to have carried out the bombings.

These "included, in 1975, three Murders at Donnelly's bar in Silverbridge, the Murders of two men at a fake UDR checkpoint, the Murder of IRA man John Francis Green in the Republic, the Murders of members of the Miami showband and the Murder of Dorothy Trainor in Portadown. In 1976, they included the Murders of three members of the Reavey family, and the attack on the Rock Bar in Tassagh."

According to Fred Holroyd, Captain Robert Nairac, acting under SAS orders, was involved in the killing of John Francis Green in the Republic of Ireland and in the Miami Showband killings. John Weir supported the suggestion of Nairac's involvement in the Green assassination: "I was told that Nairac was with them. I was told by a UVF man, he was very close to Jackson and operated with him. Jackson told him that Nairac was with them." Surviving Miami showband members Steve Travers and Des McAlee testified in court that an Army officer with a crisp English accent oversaw the Miami Showband killings, the implication being that this was Nairac.

Susan McKay summarised Barron on the ballistic history point:

It was probable the Guns were kept at a farm at Glenanne belonging to James Mitchell, an RUC reservist... from which a group of paramilitaries and members of the security forces... carried out the massacres at Dublin and Monaghan.... The chain was unbroken because the perpetrators of these attacks weren't caught, or investigations were haphazard, or charges were dropped, or light or suspended sentences were given. The same individuals turn up again and again, but the links weren't noted. Some of the perpetrators weren't prosecuted despite evidence against them.

Robin Jackson, consistently linked with Nairac, was alleged to be involved in this illegal violence (the link was noted contemporaneously in 1975 see Colin Wallace section below).

On 28 October 1973, Robin Jackson Murdered Patrick Campbell, a 34-year-old Catholic from Banbridge. He shot him on the doorstep of his home. Campbell's wife picked Jackson out during a police identity parade. However, a Murder charge brought against him was dropped after it was claimed Mrs Campbell knew Jackson - a claim she denies. Six months later, the loyalist was one of those who bombed Dublin and Monaghan. Barron notes that in 1976, the security forces came up with evidence, including Jackson's finger print on one of the Guns in the chain above. He was released. In 1977, he was named in court as the gunman who shot William Strathearn in Ahoghill, Co Antrim. Two RUC men, Billy McCaughey and John Weir were convicted. Jackson wasn't even questioned, for "operational reasons" which have never been detailed.

Barron Inquiry treatment of evidence of collusion in bombings

Mass Murder Colin Wallace on security force collusion in bombings

Barron noted jurnalist Robert Fisk's suggestion that the bombings were carried out by militant UVF members opposed to meetings between UVF delegations and the Official and Provisional IRA, which had taken place earlier in 1974: "The Dublin bombings were apparently carried out to show other members of the UVF that, left-wing though it might have become, this did not imply any deals with republicans."

This view finds independent support in a letter from then British Army intelligence officer Colin Wallace to Tony Stoughton, Chief Information Officer of the British Army Information Service at Lisburn, on August 14 1975.

There is good evidence the Dublin bombings in May last year were a reprisal for the Irish government's role in bringing about the power sharing Executive. According to one of Craig's people Craig Smellie, the top MI6 officer in the North of Ireland at the time, some of those involved, the Youngs, the Jacksons, Mulholland, Hanna, Kerr and McConnell were working closely with Special Branch and Intelligence at that time. Craig's people believe the sectarian assassinations were designed to destroy then Northern Secretary Merlyn Rees's attempts to negotiate a ceasefire, and the targets were identified for both sides by Intelligence/Special Branch. They also believe some very senior RUC officers were involved with this group. In short, it would appear that loyalist paramilitaries and Intelligence/Special Branch members have formed some sort of pseudo gangs in an attempt to fight a war of attrition by getting paramilitaries on both sides to kill each other and, at the same time prevent any future political initiative such as Sunningdale.

In a further letter dated September 30 1975, Wallace revealed that MI5 was trying to create a split in the UVF,

Because they wanted the more politically minded ones ousted. I believe much of the violence generated during the latter part of last year was caused by some of the new Int people deliberately stirring up the conflict. As you know, we have never been allowed to target the breakaway UVF, nor the UFF, during the past year. Yet they have killed more people than the IRA!

Barron noted that Wallace's August 14 1975 letter was "strong evidence that the security forces in Northern Ireland had intelligence information which was not shared with the Garda investigation team."

Wallace also noted that:

Several of the key players in the mid-Ulster UVF were working for the Special Branch and for ourselves... giving information and liaising and so forth. If you just draw the line there and don't even go any further than liaison, and if the informers were doing their job - and if they weren't doing their job we wouldn't have been using them - an operation of that size, in terms of the logistics and planning was so big that there was something seriously wrong if the Security Forces as a whole did not know that (a) an operation was going on; and (b) had some idea about it, because of the scale of it. That would have been a prime target for the intelligence agencies to get to grips with.

Wallace then noted that investigation into the bombings was closed down with immediate effect a very short time after the bombings.

As with Fred Holroyd and John Weir, there were unsuccessful attempts to undermine Colin Wallace's credibility and evidence to the Inquiry. Between 1968 and 1975 Wallace had run the main psychological warfare, or 'psyops', department at British Army Headquarters in Lisburn, a task involving "dissemination of information and disinformation". In September 1974 Wallace refused to become involved in attempts by the security services to subvert British government policy. Wallace also discovered that at the Kincora Boys Home a member of an "extreme loyalist organisation", William McGrath, was involved with others in pedophile abuse. The home ws not closed down. Wallace suspected that " the intelligence services were using the information to blackmail the extreme loyalist into helping them". Wallace made known his opposition. Wallace later attempted to expose security force involvement in events such as the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings, and attempts by MI5 to undermine "left wing organisations and individuals", including the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson.

Barron notes that Wallace was then targeted by the same security services he had served. He was forced out of government service on a charge of attempting to pass a restricted document to a journalist, Robert Fisk. In 1980 he was charged with and then then convicted of manslaughter. After his release from prison on parole in 1985, Wallace proclaimed his innocence. He later successfully overturned the conviction, which was quashed on 21 July 1996. Wallace was also paid £30,000 pounds sterling compensation (the maximum allowed) for unjust dismissal from government Service. His role within the British Army intelligence service had already been officially, though belatedly, acknowledged in 1990. Wallace was fully vindicated.

Mass Murder Fred Holroyd on security force collusion in bombings

Evidence for British security force involvement in the bombings is also supported by British Army Captain Fred Holroyd, who worked for MI6 duing the 1970s in Northern Ireland. Holroyd argued that "the bombings were part of a pattern of collusion between elements of the security forces in Northern Ireland and loyalist paramilitaries."

Barron found that members of the Gardai and of the RUC attempted to unfairly and unjustly undermine Holroyd's evidence.

Barron noted that "Some of the RUC officers interviewed by the Inquiry, in their apparent eagerness to deny Holroyd any credibility whatsoever, themselves made inaccurate and misleading statements which have unfortunately tarnished their own credibility."

Then Assistant Commissioner of the Gardai, Edmund ('Ned') Garvey was said by Fred Holroyd to have met him and an RUC Officer at Garda headquarters in 1975. Holroyd named Garvey, and another Garda (codenamed, 'the badger'), as being on the "British side". Garvey later denied that the meeting took place. However, Justice Barron found: "The visit by Holroyd to Garda Headquarters unquestionably did take place, notwithstanding former Commissioner Garvey’s inability to recall it". Barron further noted: "On the Northern side, there is conflicting evidence as to how, why and by whom the visit was arranged. Regrettably, Garda investigations have failed to uncover any documentary evidence of the visit, or to identify any of the officers involved in arranging it from the Southern side."

Edmund Garvey was dismissed by the incoming Fianna Fail Government on January 19 1978 without explanation, other than by stating that it no longer had confidence in him as Garda Commissioner.

Mass Murder John Weir on security force collusion in bombings

The UVF claim of sole responsibility is also undermined by extensive evidence of involvement by British security forces in their paramilitary violence, in particular within UVF structures. RUC and UDR involvement with loyalist paramilitaries is established by admission of some of those involved - see Billy McCaughey. McCaughey, claimed that many local RUC and Ulster Defence Regiment personnel were working with UVF paramilitaries in the Armagh and Mid Ulster area in a way that made membership almost interchangeable - he claimed that his RUC Special Patrol Group unit was both exclusively Protestant and "orange" or unionist.

John Weir, a member of a different, though equally loyalist, RUC Special Patrol Group,

Claimed to have been part of a renegade group of loyalist paramilitaries, UDR and RUC officers who were carrying out attacks on both sides of the border between 1974 and 1978. He named people who he said were involved in a number of these attacks - including the Dublin, Monaghan and Dundalk bombings. He also named a farm which he claimed was used as a base by the group. He alleged that senior officers in the RUC knew of, and gave tacit approval to, these activities.

On Page 147 of the Barron Report, Weir detailed how "senior officers in the RUC knew of and encouraged connections between RUC officers and loyalist extremists."

Mass Murder Furthermore

Weir said he was told that UDR staff instructor William Hanna was assisted in carrying out the Dublin bombings by Robin Jackson (UVF, Lurgan) and David Payne (UDA, Belfast). He says that Stewart Young (UVF, Portadown) had been involved in carrying out the Monaghan bombing adding that he heard this from Young himself as well as from others in the group. He said that explosives for all four bombs were supplied by a named UDR officer.

In his report, Mr Justice Barron commented on John Weir's evidence "The Inquiry agrees with the view of An Garda Siochana that Weir's allegations regarding the Dublin and Monaghan bombings must be treated with the utmost seriousness."

Despite Weir's conviction for the Murder of William Strathearn in April 1977 - for which he was originally sentenced to life in prison - the inquiry found that Mr Weir's claims are 'largely credible'... Bearing in mind that Weir was an active member of the security services and that his allegations relating to the period from May to August 1976 have received considerable confirmation, the Inquiry believes that his evidence overall is credible.

The RUC furnished the Gardai with a report that attempted to undermine Weir's evidence. Barron found this RUC attempt to be highly inaccurate and to lack credibility.

Coastal Road massacre

Front end remains of the hijacked busThe Coastal Road Massacre is the name by which a Palestinian terrorist attack on an Israeli coastal-road bus is known. The attack was masterminded by Abu Jihad and undertaken by PLO faction Fatah.

On the morning of March 11, 1978, Dalal Mughrabi and her Fedayeen unit of eleven members (including one other woman) landed by Zodiac boats on a beach near Maagan Michael north of Tel Aviv from Lebanon. They killed Gail Ruban (some sources spell Rubin), an American photographer who was taking nature pictures nearby, and then hijacked a loaded bus on the Coastal Highway.

Mughrabi and her unit opened fire at the military vehicles in the vicinity. An Israeli army unit, headed by Ehud Barak (who, in the 1990s, became Chief of the General Staff and later Israeli Prime Minister) pursued the bus until it was finally stopped near Herzliya. A long shooting battle between the Palestinians and the soldiers ensued. The Palestinians started shooting the passengers that attempted to escape. Eventually, the Fatah members blew up the bus which became a large deathtrap of fire. Thirty five civilians and six Palestinian guerillas were killed. Seventy-one civilians were wounded. Other sources claim 38 civilians were killed There is lack of certainty over the fates of all the Palestinian attackers. Vast searches were undertaken in the Gush Dan area after additional attackers, but they weren't found and were probably killed. Some claim that 2 Palestinians, designated terrorists, were arrested by Israel.

Mughrabi's leadership role in the attack marked the emergence of women as full-fledged members of militant movements.

The Palestinian Authority named a Hebron girls' school in honor of Mughrabi. Her name has also been given to summer camps and both police and military courses.

The attack was the immediate trigger for the Israeli Operation Litani against PLO bases in Lebanon three days later.

Air India Flight 182

Air India Flight 182 Summary

Date June 23, 1985

Type Mid-air bomb explosion

Site Atlantic Ocean below Ireland

Fatalities 329

Injuries 0

Aircraft

Aircraft type Boeing 747-237B

Operator Air India

Passengers 307

Crew 22

Survivors 0

Air India Flight 182 was a Boeing 747 that exploded on June 23, 1985 while at an altitude of 31,000 feet (9500 m) above the Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland; all 329 on board were killed, of whom 82 were children and 280 were Canadian citizens.

Up until September 11, 2001, the Air India bombing was the single deadliest terrorist attack involving aircraft. It is also the largest mass Murder in Canadian history. It occurred within an hour of the Narita Airport Bombing.

The Air India B747-237B Emperor Kanishka (registered VT-EFO) flew on a Montréal-Mirabel International Airport, London Heathrow Airport Palam International Airport, Delhi Sahar International Airport, Bombay route.

The BC government's trial of those accused of the bombing, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, is known as the Air India Trial. The investigation and prosecution took almost twenty years and was the costliest in Canadian history at nearly CAD $130 million. On March 16, 2005, the accused were found not guilty by Justice Ian Josephson in British Columbia and were released. The only person convicted of involvement in the bombing was Inderjit Singh Reyat. On February 10, 2003 Reyat pled guilty to manslaughter in constructing the bomb used on Flight 182 and received a five-year sentence.

The length and cost of the trial, and subsequent verdict have been a source of great controversy in Canada.

Mass Murder Incident timeline

On June 20, 1985, at 0100 GMT, a man calling himself Mr. Singh made reservations for two flights on June 22: one for "Jaswand Singh" to fly from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Montreal on Canadian Pacific Air Lines (CP) 086, and one for "Mohinderbel Singh" to fly from Vancouver to Tokyo on CP 003, and to there connect with Air India flight 301 to Bangkok.

At 0220 GMT on the same day, another call was made, changing the reservation in the name of "Jaswand Singh" from CP 086 to CP 060 (flying from Vancouver to Toronto, Ontario). The caller also requested to be wait-listed on Air India 181 from Toronto to Montreal and AI 182 from Montreal to Delhi.

At 1910 GMT, a man paid for the two tickets with $3,005 in cash at a CP ticket office in Vancouver. The names on the reservations were changed; "Jaswand Singh" became "M. Singh" and "Mohinderbel Singh" became "L. Singh.".

On June 22, 1985, at 1330 GMT, a man calling himself Manjit Singh called to confirm his reservations on Air India flight 181/182. He was told he was still wait-listed, and was offered alternate arrangements, which he declined.

Mass Murder The Air India 182 bomb

At 15:50 GMT on June 22, "Mr. Singh" checked in at Vancouver Airport for CP Air Flight 60 to Toronto. He was assigned seat 10B. Singh requested that his suitcase, a dark brown, hard-sided Samsonite suitcase, be transferred to Flight 181 and then 182. CP Agent Jeanne Bakermans initially refused his request to inter-line the baggage, since his seat from Toronto to Montreal and Montreal to Delhi was unconfirmed, but later relented.

At 16:18 GMT, the CP Air flight to Lester B. Pearson International Airport in Toronto departed without Mr. Singh.

At 20:22 GMT, CP Air Flight 60 arrived in Toronto twelve minutes late. Some of the passengers and baggage, including the bag Mr. Singh checked in, were transferred to the Air India flight. Other passengers and baggage from Air Canada Flight 136, which also came from Vancouver, were handled as well.

At 00:15 GMT (now June 23), Flight 181 departed Toronto for Montreal-Mirabel 1 hour and 40 minutes late. The aircraft was late as a "5th pod, a spare engine, was installed below the left wing. The defective engine was being flown to India for repairs. It arrived at Mirabel at 01:00 GMT. In Montreal, the Air India flight became Flight 182.

At 07:15 GMT, Air India Flight 182, which had departed Mirabel bound for London, disappeared. Air traffic controllers at the Shanwick Oceanic Control Center near Shannon International Airport, in Shannon, Ireland heard a crackling sound on the radio before the plane vanished. The plane was due to arrive at 08:15 GMT.

A Commemorative plaque, presented to the citizens of Bantry, Ireland by the Canadian Government for their kindness and compassion to the victims of Air India Flight 182.A bomb located in the forward cargo hold had exploded while the plane was in mid-flight at 31,000 ft. The bomb caused rapid decompression, and consequent in-flight breakup. The wreckage settled in 2,000 m deep water off the south-west Irish coast 180 miles (290 km) offshore of County Cork.

The bomb killed all 22 flight crew and 307 passengers on board the aircraft, including 82 minors and numerous Sikhs. Post-accident medical reports graphically illustrated the horror inflicted by this act on the passengers and crew. Of the 329 persons on board, only 131 bodies were recovered. 198 bodies were lost forever to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. The bodies recovered included 30 children. Eight bodies exhibited "flail pattern" injuries, indicating that those 8 victims exited the aircraft in the air prior to it hitting the water. This, in turn, was a sign that the airplane had broken up in mid-air rather than crashing into the water intact. 26 bodies showed signs of hypoxia (lack of oxygen), including 12 children. 25 bodies, mostly of victims who were seated near windows, showed signs of explosive decompression, including 7 children. 23 bodies had signs of "injuries from a vertical force". 21 passengers were found with little or no clothing.

One official quoted in the report stated, "All victims have been stated in the PM reports to have died of multiple injuries. However two of the dead, one infant and one child, are reported to have died of Asphyxia. There is no doubt about the asphyxial death of the infant. In the case of the other child (Body No. 93) there could be doubt because the findings could also be caused due to the child undergoing tumbling or spinning with the anchor point at the ankles. Three other victims undoubtedly died of drowning."

But for the one hour and forty minute delay in leaving Toronto, Air India 182 would have been at London's Heathrow airport at the time of the explosion; with an outcome similar to that of the Narita bomb which had exploded fifty five minutes earlier.

Mass Murder suspects

The main suspects in the bombing were the members of a Sikh separatist group called the Babbar Khalsa. The Babbar Khalsa was devoted to creating a Sikh state called Khalistan in the Punjab.

On November 6, 1985 the RCMP raided the homes of the suspected Sikh terrorists, Talwinder Singh Parmar, Inderjit Singh Reyat. Surjan Singh Gill, Hardial Singh Johal, and Manmohan Singh.

Talwinder Singh Parmar was a naturalized Canadian citizen living in British Columbia and was wanted for extradition to India for his role in activities in the Punjab including the Murder of two Police officers. At this time, the Indian police and Khalistan supporters were engaged in a bloody war in which many innocent people were caught by excesses on both sides. On March 5, 1985, three months before the bombing, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) had obtained permission to tape Parmar’s phone on the basis that he was the leader of the Babbar Khalsa.

Inderjit Singh Reyat was living in Duncan, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and working as an auto mechanic and electrician.

Surjan Singh Gill was living in Vancouver as the self-proclaimed consul-general of Khalistan. He later fled Canada and is believed to be in hiding in London, England.

Ripudaman Singh Malik is a Vancouver businessman who helped fund a credit union and several Khalsa Schools.

Ajaib Singh Bagri was a mill worker living in Kamloops, British Columbia. Part of the evidence in the trial was a tape of Bagri giving a speech to Sikhs at Madison Square Garden on July 1984. Excerpts from the speech mentioned in the verdict include the need to Murder Hindus and makes the request to Murder the families of those in the Sikh community who would "betray us".

"They say Hindus are our brothers. Oh, I say denounce such Sikhism that calls Hindus our brothers. . . If any speaker from this stage ever mentions Hindus as our brothers he will be denounced as a traitor of the Sikh nation. . . They say Hindus are our brothers, many have said that, but I give you my most solemn assurance until we kill 50,000 Hindus, we will not rest!. . . Now I make a request: if anybody tries to betray us now, if anybody tries to get our nation annihilated, all of his family and children will be crushed in crushers and reduced to pulp."

Hardial Singh Johal and Manmohan Singh were both followers of Parmar and active in the Sikh temples where he preached. On November 15, 2002 Hardial Singh Johal, died of natural causes at 55. He had allegedly stored the suitcases with bombs in the basement of a Vancouver school but was never charged in the case.

Daljit Sandhu is later named by a Crown witness as the man who picked up the tickets for the bombing. During the trial the Crown played a video from January, 1989, in which Daljit Sandhu congratulated the families of Indira Gandhi’s assassins and stated that she deserved that and she invited that and that’s why she got it. Mr. Sandhu was cleared by Judge Josephson in his March 16 judgement.

Mass Murder Key Timelines

The bombing of Air India Flight 182 and the Narita airport launched several investigations, inquiries and trials. The trial of Malik and Bagri is known as the Air India Trial; Event relating to the incident are listed below in chronological order.

June 1, 1984 Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi orders storming of the Golden Temple complex, in Amritsar, Punjab, India in order to remove armed militants that had occupied the temple for months. The attack is called Operation Blue Star and is reported to have killed around 800 militants and 200 Indian government troops. The attack on the temple included damage to the complex as well as the destruction of sacred artifacts contained inside.

October 31, 1984 Two of Indira Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh assassinate the Prime Minister in the garden of her home.

November 3, 1984 Following Gandhi's Murder, Anti Sikh riots escalate through northern India over next two weeks. Indian National Congress mobs attack Sikh businesses, temples, and government buildings. The ensuing violence claims the lives of around 3,000, mostly Sikh, victims. Over 35,000 Sikhs flee to refugee camps that are set up north of Delhi. Many others are left homeless. Commissions set up after the incicident have found evidence that members of the Indian government were involved in inciting the riots.

1985 The 1984 anti-Sikh Murders cause the Sikh militant movement to gain strength in Punjab for the next ten years, resulting in the killing and displacement of thousands of Hindus.

June 23, 1985 Flight 182 explodes in mid-flight killing all 329 aboard. Explosion in Narita kills 2.

July, 1985 Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney calls Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to offer his condolences but does not call the victim's families to offer condolences. This causes an uproar among Indo-Canadians who feel that although this is the deadliest terrorist act to date, it is not taken seriously because the victims although mostly Canadian were not Caucasian.

November 8, 1985 The RCMP charge Talwinder Singh Parmar and Inderjit Singh Reyat with weapons, explosives and conspiracy offences after a raid on their homes. Reyat is convicted of the weapons offence and receives a fine of two thousand dollars. Due to lack of evidence the charges against Parmar are dropped and no link to Air India is established.

January 22, 1986 The Canadian Aviation Safety Board determines that a bomb was responsible for bringing down Air India 182.

February 4, 1986 The Indian Government's Kirpal Commission of Inquiry reaches the same conclusion as the Canadian Aviation Safety Board.

February 1988 Inderjit Singh Reyat is arrested by British police in Coventry, England.

December 8, 1989 Following a lengthy court battle the British government agrees to extradite Reyat to Canada.

May 10, 1991 Inderjit Singh Reyat receives a ten year sentence after being convicted of two counts of manslaughter and four explosives charges relating to the Narita Airport bombing.

October 15, 1992 Talwinder Singh Parmar is killed by Indian Police during a gun battle in Bombay.

October 27, 2000 Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri are arrested by the RCMP. They are charged with 329 counts of first-degree Murder in the deaths of the people on board Air India Flight 182, conspiracy to commit Murder, the attempted Murder of passengers and crew on the Canadian Pacific flight at Japan's New Tokyo International Airport (now Narita International Airport), and two counts of Murder of the baggage handlers at New Tokyo International Airport.

June 4, 2001 The British government gives Canada permission to charge Inderjit Singh Reyat in connection with the bombings.

June 6, 2001 Inderjit Singh Reyat is arrested by the RCMP facing charges of Murder, attempted Murder, and conspiracy in the Air India bombing.

February 10, 2003 Reyat pleads guilty to one count of manslaughter and a charge of aiding in the construction of a bomb. He was sentenced to five years in jail. At the time he was expected to provide testimony in the trial of Malik and Bagri but later claimed he couldn't remember.

April 2003 The trial of Malik and Bagri begins after being delayed by pre-trial motions and problems with defense counsel.

May 18, 2004 The crown rests its case in the trial of Malik and Bagri after calling 80 witnesses.

May 31, 2004 Malik and Bagri's defense begins.

October 19, 2004 Closing arguments begin.

December 4, 2004 The judge presiding over the Air India Trial, Justice Ian Josephson says the verdict will be delivered on March 16, 2005.

March 16, 2005 Justice Ian Josephson delivers the verdict for Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri: Not guilty on all counts.

I began by describing the horrific nature of these cruel acts of terrorism, acts which cry out for justice. Justice is not achieved, however, if persons are convicted on anything less than the requisite standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Despite what appear to have been the best and most earnest of efforts by the police and the Crown, the evidence has fallen markedly short of that standard.

January 6, 2006 Inderjit Singh Reyat, the only man convicted in the 1985 Air India bombing, was due to receive a parole hearing in March. Instead Mr. Reyat was charged with perjury on his testimony on the Air India Trial. He was denied parole and brought back to British Columbia to face the new charges. He has indicated he will plead not guilty.

Mass Murder Recent events

Twenty years after the downing of Air India Flight 182, families gathered in Ahakista, Ireland to grieve. Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin declared the anniversary a national day of mourning. During the anniversary observances, he said that the bombing was a Canadian problem, not a foreign problem, saying: "Make no mistake: The flight may have been Air India's, it may have taken place off the coast of Ireland, but this is a Canadian tragedy." He also ordered that every June 23, flags across Canada be flown at half-staff to mark the anniversary of the Air India bombing. Many families say they are still searching for answers and justice, and demand a public inquiry.

Former Ontario premier Bob Rae was selected to determine if a public inquiry is needed and was asked to determine whether or not the response by Canadian agencies was sufficiently co-ordinated, and if not, to find out if those problems had been fixed.

In a letter he submitted to the Attorney General of British Columbia, Ripudaman Singh Malik has demanded compensation from the Canadian government for wrongful prosecution in his arrest and trial. Malik owes the government $6.4 million and Bagri owes $9.7 million in legal fees.

In February Inderjit Singh Reyat was charged with perjury with regard to his testimony in the trial. The indictment was filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia and lists 27 instances where he allegedly misled the court during his testimony. Reyat had pleaded guilty to constructing the bomb but denied under oath that he knew anything about the conspiracy.

In the verdict Justice Ian Josephson said: "I find him to be an unmitigated liar under oath. Even the most sympathetic of listeners could only conclude, as do I, that his evidence was patently and pathetically fabricated in an attempt to minimize his involvement in his crime to an extreme degree, while refusing to reveal relevant information he clearly possesses."

Reyat has a hearing with the National Parole Board on March 3rd. If found guilty of perjury he could sentenced with up to 14 years in prison.

September 25, 2006, saw the opening of the Royal Commission into the Air India bombing and subsequent investigation, beginning with testimony from a man who lost his wife in the bombing. The opposition Liberal Party of Canada, which has been opposed to any form of enquiry into the bombing, has been putting pressure on the ruling Conservative Party to limit the extent of the enquiry. The Liberal Party is under strong pressure from Canada's fundamentalist and powerful Sikh community to pressure the ruling Conservatives to limit the Royal Commission. The Sikh community is concerned that the enquiry will put the Sikh community in a negative light and will curtail their political aspirations and will help to politically destabilize the community which generally still supports the creation of a separate Sikh state called Khalistan in India.

Mass Murder What did the Canadian government know?

The Canadian government had been warned by the Indian government about the possibility of terrorist bombs aboard Air India flights in Canada. And over two weeks before the crash CSIS reported to the RCMP that the potential threat to Air India as well as Indian missions in Canada, was high.

Mass Murder Destroyed evidence

In his verdict Justice Ian Josephson cited "unacceptable negligence" by CSIS when hundreds of wiretaps of the suspects were destroyed. Of the 210 wiretaps that were recorded during the months before and after the bombing, 156 were erased. These tapes continued to be erased even after the terrorists had become the primary suspects in the bombing.

CSIS claims the wiretaps contained no relevant information but a memo from the RCMP states that "There is a strong likelihood that had CSIS retained the tapes between March and August 1985, that a successful prosecution of at least some of principals in both bombings could have been undertaken." On June 4, 1985, CSIS agents Larry Lowe and Lynn McAdams trailed Talwinder Singh Parmar and Inderjit Singh Reyat to Vancouver Island. The agents reported to the RCMP that they had heard a noise like a "loud gunshot" in the woods. Later that month Flight 182 was bombed. After the bombing the RCMP went to the site and found remains of an electrical blasting cap.

The suspects in the bombing were apparently aware that they were under surveillance, because they used pay phones and talked in code. Translator's notes of the wiretaps records this exchange between Talwinder Parmar and a follower named Hardial Singh Johal on the same day the tickets were purchased on June 20, 1985. Parmar: Did he write the story? Johal: No he didn't. Parmar: Do that work first.

After this call a man called the CP Air and booked the tickets and left Johal's number. Shortly afterwards, Johal called Parmar and asked him if he "can come over and read the story he asked for". Parmar said he would be there shortly.

This conversation appears to be an order from Parmar to book the tickets used to bomb the planes. Because the original wiretaps were erased by CSIS they were inadmissible as evidence in court.

Mass Murder CSIS connection

During an interview with Bagri on October 28, 2000, RCMP agents describe Surjan Singh Gill as an agent for CSIS saying the reason that he resigned from the Babbar Khalsa was because his CSIS handlers told him to pull out.

After the subsequent failure of CSIS to stop the bombing of Flight 182, the head of CSIS was replaced by Reid Morden. In an interview to the CBC's news program The National, Morden claims that CSIS "dropped the ball" in its handling of the case. A Security Intelligence Review Committee cleared CSIS of any wrongdoing. However, that report remains secret to this day. The Canadian government continues to insist that there was no mole involved.

Pan Am Flight 103

Summary

Date December 21, 1988

Type Terrorist bombing

Site Lockerbie, Scotland

Fatalities 270 (including 11 on ground)

Injuries 0

Aircraft

Aircraft type Boeing 747-121

Operator Pan American World Airways

Tail number N739PA

Passengers 243

Crew 16

Survivors 0

Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London's Heathrow International Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. On December 21, 1988, the aircraft flying this route, a Boeing 747-121 registered N739PA and named Clipper Maid of the Seas, was destroyed and the remains landed in and around the town of Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland ( 55°5.7'N, 3°20.3'W).

In the subsequent investigation of the crash, forensic experts determined that 340 to 450 g (12 to 16 oz) of plastic explosive had been detonated in the airplane's forward cargo hold, triggering a sequence of events that led to the rapid destruction of the aircraft. Winds of 100 knots (190 km/h) scattered victims and debris along a 130 km (81 mile) corridor over an area of 845 square miles (2189 sq km). The death toll was 270 people from 21 countries, including 11 people in the town of Lockerbie.

Known as the Lockerbie bombing and the Lockerbie air disaster in the UK, it became the subject of Britain's largest criminal inquiry, led by its smallest police force, Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary. The bombing was widely regarded as an assault on a symbol of the United States, and with 189 of the victims being Americans, it stood as the deadliest attack on American civilians until the September 11, 2001 attacks.

After a three-year joint investigation by the Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, during which 15,000 witness statements were taken, indictments for Murder were issued on November 13, 1991, against Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer and the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines (LAA), and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, the LAA station manager in Luqa Airport, Malta. United Nations sanctions against Libya and protracted negotiations with the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi secured the handover of the accused on April 5, 1999 to Scottish police at Camp Zeist, Netherlands, chosen as a neutral venue.

On January 31, 2001, Megrahi was convicted of Murder by a panel of three Scottish judges, and sentenced to 27 years in prison. Fhimah was acquitted. Megrahi's appeal against his conviction was refused on March 14, 2002, and his application to the European Court of Human Rights was declared inadmissible in July 2003. On September 23, 2003 Megrahi applied to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) for his conviction to be reviewed, and for his case to be referred back to the High Court for a fresh appeal. He is serving his sentence in Greenock prison near Glasgow, where he continues to profess his innocence.

Mass Murder Passengers

PA103 had started as PA103A at Frankfurt International Airport in Frankfurt, West Germany, operated by a Boeing 727 for the leg to Heathrow Airport in London, England. Forty-seven of the 89 passengers on PA103A changed aircraft there to a Boeing 747, which continued the flight as PA103 to JFK in New York. Had the flight continued, it would have gone back to a Boeing 727 for the final leg of the flight to Detroit.

The 747 had arrived at noon from San Francisco and had been parked at stand K-14, Terminal 3, and guarded for two hours by Pan Am's security company, Alert Security, but was otherwise not watched.

There were 243 passengers and 16 crew members on board, led by the pilot Captain James MacQuarrie, First Officer Raymond Wagner, and Flight Engineer Jerry Avritt. Thirty-five students from Syracuse University and two from the State University of New York at Oswego were on board, flying home from an overseas study program in London. Ten of the victims were residents of Long Island including father and son, John and Sean Mulroy and were returning home for seasonal celebrations with families and friends, as reported by Newsday of December 27, 1988.

Five members of the Dixit-Rattan family, including 3-year-old Suruchi Rattan, were flying to Detroit from New Delhi. They were supposed to be on PA67, which had left Frankfurt earlier in the day, but one of the children had fallen ill with breathing difficulties, and the pilot had taken the unusual step of bringing the plane back to the gate to allow the family to disembark. The boy soon recovered, and the family was transferred to PA103 instead. Suruchi was wearing a bright red kurta and salwar a knee-length tunic and matching pants for her journey. She became associated with a note left with flowers outside Lockerbie town hall:

To the little girl in the red dress who lies here who made my flight from Frankfurt such fun. You didn't deserve this. God Bless, Chas.

There were at least four U.S. intelligence officers on the passenger list, with rumors, never confirmed, of a fifth. The presence of these men on the flight later gave rise to a number of conspiracy theories, in which one or more of them were said to have been the bombers' targets. Matthew Gannon, the CIA's deputy station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, was sitting in Clipper Class seat 14J. Major Chuck "Tiny" McKee, a senior army officer on secondment to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in Beirut, sat behind Gannon in the center aisle in seat 15F. Two CIA officers, believed to be acting as bodyguards to Gannon and McKee, were sitting in economy: Ronald Lariviere, a security officer from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, was in 20H, and Daniel O'Connor, a security officer from the U.S. Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus, sat five rows behind Lariviere in 25H, both men seated over the right wing.

The four men had flown together out of Cyprus that morning. Major McKee is believed to have been in Beirut trying to locate the American hostages held at that time by Hezbollah. After the bombing, sources close to the investigation told journalists that a map had been found in Lockerbie showing the suspected locations of the hostages, as marked by McKee, though this discovery was not confirmed in court.

Also on board, in seat 53K at the back of the plane, was 20-year-old Khalid Nazir Jaafar, who had moved from Lebanon to Detroit with his family, where his father ran a successful auto-repair business. Because of his Lebanese background, and because he was returning from having visited relatives there, Jaafar's name later figured prominently in the investigation into the bombing, as well as in a number of conspiracy theories that developed.

Paul Avron Jeffreys, former bass player with the UK group Cockney Rebel, was on the flight with his new wife Rachel, enroute to their honeymoon celebration.

Mass Murder Helsinki warning

A declassified CIA document referring to the Helsinki warningOn December 5, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a security bulletin saying that on that day a man with an Arabic accent had telephoned the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki, Finland, and had told them that a Pan Am flight from Frankfurt to the United States would be blown up within the next two weeks by someone associated with the Abu Nidal Organization. He said a Finnish woman would carry the bomb on board as an unwitting courier. The caller's claim was off by only two days.

The anonymous warning was taken seriously by the U.S. government. The State Department cabled the bulletin to dozens of embassies. The FAA sent it to all U.S. carriers, including Pan Am, which had charged each of the passengers a five-dollar security surcharge, promising a "program that will screen passengers, employees, airport facilities, baggage and aircraft with unrelenting thoroughness" (The Independent, March 29, 1990); the security team in Frankfurt found the warning hidden under a pile of papers on a desk the day after the bombing (Cox and Foster 1992). One of the Frankfurt security screeners, whose job it was to spot explosive devices under X-ray, told ABC News that she had first learned what Semtex was during ABC's interview with her 11 months after the bombing (Prime Time Live, November 1989).

On December 13, the warning was posted on bulletin boards in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, and eventually distributed to the entire American community there, including journalists and businessmen. As a result, a number of people allegedly booked on carriers other than Pan Am, leaving empty seats on PA103 that were later sold cheaply in "bucket shops". PA103 investigators subsequently said the telephone warning had been a hoax and a chilling coincidence.

Mass Murder Last contact

The flight was scheduled to depart at 18:00, and pushed back from the gate at 18:04, but because of a rush-hour delay, not unusual at Heathrow Airport, it took off from runway 27L at 18:25, flying northwest out of Heathrow, a so-called Daventry departure. Once clear of Heathrow, the pilot steered due north toward Scotland. At 18:56, as the aircraft approached the border, it reached its cruising altitude of 31,000 ft (9400 m), and MacQuarrie throttled the engines back to cruising power.

At 19:00, PA103 was picked up by the Scottish Area Control Centre at Prestwick, Scotland, where it needed clearance to begin its flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Alan Topp, an air traffic controller, made contact with the clipper as it entered Scottish airspace.

Captain James MacQuarrie replied: "Good evening Scottish, Clipper one zero three. We are at level three one zero." Then First Officer Wagner spoke: "Clipper 103 requesting oceanic clearance." Those were the last words heard from the aircraft.

Mass Murder Explosion

At 19:01, Topp watched Flight 103 approach the corner of the Solway Firth, and at 19:02, it crossed its northern coast. The aircraft appeared as a small green square with a cross at its centre showing its transponder code or "squawk" 0357 and flight level 310. The code gave Topp information about the time and height of the plane: the last code he saw for the Clipper told him it was flying at 31,000 ft (9400 m) on a heading of 316 degrees magnetic, and at a speed of 313 knots (580 km/h) calibrated air speed, at 19:02:46.9. Subsequent analysis of the radar returns by RSRE concluded that the aircraft was tracking 321° (grid) and travelling at a ground speed of 434 knots (804 km/h).

At that moment, the plane's code and the cross in the middle of the square disappeared. Topp tried to make contact with Captain McQuarrie, and asked a nearby KLM flight to do the same, but there was no reply. At first, Topp believed he was watching the flight enter a so-called zone of silence, dead space where objects are invisible to radar. Where there should have been one green square on his screen, there were four, and as the seconds passed, the squares began to fan out (Cox and Foster 1992). Comparison of the cockpit voice recorder with the radar returns showed that 8 seconds after the explosion, wreckage had a 1-nautical-mile (2 km) spread.

A minute later, the wing section containing 200,000 lb (91,000 kg) of fuel hit the ground at Sherwood Crescent, Lockerbie. The British Geological Survey at Eskdalemuir, just outside Lockerbie, registered a seismic event measuring 1.6 on the Richter scale as all trace of two families, several houses, and the 196 ft (60 m) wing of the aircraft disappeared. A British Airways pilot, Captain Robin Chamberlain, flying the Glasgow London shuttle near Carlisle called Scottish to report that he could see a massive fire on the ground. The destruction of PA103 continued on Topp's screen, by now full of bright squares moving eastwards with the wind.

Mass Murder Aircraft break up

The explosion punched a 20-inch-wide (0.5 m) hole, almost directly under the P in Pan Am, on the left side of the fuselage. The disintegration of the aircraft was rapid. Investigators from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) of the British Department of Transport concluded that the nose of the aircraft separated from the main section within three seconds of the explosion.

The flight data recorder, a bright orange-coloured recording device in the tail section of the aircraft, was found in a field by police searchers within 24 hours of the bombing. There was no evidence of a distress call: a 180-millisecond hissing noise could be heard as the explosion destroyed the aircraft's communications centre.

After being lowered into the cockpit in Lockerbie before it was moved, and while the bodies of the flight crew were still inside it, investigators from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) concluded that no emergency procedures had been started. The pressure control and fuel switches were both set for cruise, and the crew had not used their oxygen masks, which would have descended within five seconds of a rapid depressurisation of the aircraft (Cox and Foster 1992).

The nerve centre of a 747, from which all the navigation and communication systems are controlled, sits two floors below the cockpit, separated from the forward cargo hold only by a bulkhead wall. Investigators concluded that the force of the explosion broke through this wall and shook the flight-control cables, causing the front section of the fuselage to begin to roll, pitch, and yaw.

These violent movements snapped the reinforcing belt that secured the front section to the row of windows on the left side and it began to break away. At the same time, shock waves from the blast ricocheted back from the fuselage skin in the direction of the bomb, meeting pulses still coming from the initial explosion. This produced Mach stem shock waves, calculated to be 25 percent faster than, and double the power of, the waves from the explosion itself (Cox and Foster, 1992). These shock waves rebounded from one side of the aircraft to the other, running down the length of the fuselage through the air-conditioning ducts and splitting the fuselage open. A section of the 747's roof several feet above the point of detonation peeled away. The Mach stem waves pulsing through the ductwork bounced off overhead luggage racks and other hard surfaces, jolting the passengers.

The power of the explosion was enhanced by the difference in air pressure between the inside of the aircraft, where it was kept at breathable levels, and outside, where it was about a quarter of what it is at sea level. The nose of the aircraft, containing the crew and the first class section, broke away, striking the No. 3 Pratt & Whitney engine as it snapped off.

Investigators believe that within three seconds of the explosion, the cockpit, fuselage, and No. 3 engine were falling separately. The fuselage continued moving forward and down until it reached 19,000 ft (6000 m), at which point its dive became almost vertical.

As it descended, the fuselage broke into smaller pieces, with the section attached to the wings landing first in Sherwood Crescent, where the aviation fuel inside the wings ignited, causing a fireball that destroyed several houses, and which was so intense that nothing remained of the left wing of the aircraft. Investigators were able to determine that both wings had landed in the crater only after counting the number of large steel flapjack screws that were found there (Cox and Foster 1992).

Mass Murder Victims

Mass Murder Passengers and crew

The flight crew and a number of first-class passengers were seated inside the aircraft nose section when it crashed in a field near Tundergarth village church.All 243 passengers and 16 crew members were killed. A Scottish Fatal Accident Inquiry, which opened on October 1, 1990, heard that, when the cockpit broke off, tornado-force winds would have torn through the fuselage, tearing clothes off passengers and turning objects like drink carts into lethal pieces of shrapnel. Because of the sudden change in air pressure, the gases inside the passengers' bodies would have expanded to four times their normal volume, causing their lungs to swell and then collapse. People and objects not fixed down would have been blown out of the aircraft at an air temperature of minus 50°F (-46°C), their 6-mile (9 km) fall lasting about two minutes (Cox and Foster 1992). Some passengers remained attached to the fuselage by their seat belts, landing in Lockerbie strapped to their seats.

Although the passengers would have lost consciousness through lack of oxygen, forensic examiners believe some of them might have regained consciousness as they fell toward oxygen-rich lower altitudes. Forensic pathologist Dr. William G. Eckert, director of the Milton Helpern International Center of Forensic Sciences at Wichita State University, who examined the autopsy evidence, told Scottish police he believed the flight crew, some of the flight attendants, and 147 other passengers survived the bomb blast and depressurization of the aircraft, and may have been alive on impact. None of these passengers showed signs of injury from the explosion itself, or from the decompression and disintegration of the aircraft. The inquest heard that a mother was found holding her baby, two friends were holding hands, and a number of passengers were found clutching crucifixes.

Dr Eckert told Scottish police that distinctive marks on Captain MacQuarrie's thumb suggested he had been hanging onto the yoke of the plane as it descended, and may have been alive when the plane crashed. The pilot, first officer, flight engineer, a flight attendant, and a number of first-class passengers were found still strapped to their seats inside the nose section when it crashed in a field by a tiny church in the village of Tundergarth. The inquest heard that the flight attendant was alive when found by a farmer's wife, but died before her rescuer could summon help. A male passenger was also found alive, and medical authorities believe he might have survived had he been found earlier (Cox and Foster 1992).

Mass Murder Lockerbie residents

Sherwood Crescent, LockerbieOn the ground, 11 Lockerbie residents were killed when the wings, still attached by a piece of fuselage, hit 13 Sherwood Crescent at more than 500 mph and exploded, creating a crater 47 metres (155 ft) long and with a volume of 560 m³ (730 yd³), vaporising several houses and their foundations, and damaging 21 others so badly they had to be demolished. Four members of one family, Jack and Rosalind Somerville and their children Paul and Lynsey, died when their house at 15 Sherwood Crescent exploded. A fireball rose above the houses and moved toward the nearby Glasgow-Carlisle A74 main road, scorching cars in the southbound lanes, leading motorists and local residents to believe that there had been a meltdown at the nearby Chapelcross nuclear power plant. The only house left standing intact in the area belonged to Father Patrick Keegans, Lockerbie's Roman Catholic priest.

For many days, Lockerbie residents lived with the sight of bodies in their gardens and in the streets, as forensic workers photographed and tagged the location of each body to help determine the exact position and force of the onboard explosion, by coordinating information about each passenger's assigned seat, type of injury, and where they had landed.

Local resident Bunty Galloway told authors Geraldine Sheridan and Thomas Kenning (1993):

A boy was lying at the bottom of the steps on to the road. A young laddie with brown socks and blue trousers on. Later that evening my son-in-law asked for a blanket to cover him. I didn't know he was dead. I gave him a lamb's wool travelling rug thinking I'd keep him warm. Two more girls were lying dead across the road, one of them bent over garden railings. It was just as though they were sleeping. The boy lay at the bottom of my stairs for days. Every time I came back to my house for clothes he was still there. "My boy is still there," I used to tell the waiting policeman. Eventually on Saturday I couldn't take it no more. "You got to get my boy lifted," I told the policeman. That night he was moved.

Despite being advised by their governments not to travel to Lockerbie, many of the passengers' relatives, most of them from the U.S., arrived there within days to identify their loved ones. Volunteers from Lockerbie set up and manned canteens, which stayed open 24 hours a day, where relatives, soldiers, police officers and social workers could find free sandwiches, hot meals, coffee, and someone to talk to. The people of the town washed, dried, and ironed every piece of clothing that was found, once the police had determined they were of no forensic value, so that as many items as possible could be returned to the relatives. The BBC's Scottish correspondent, Andrew Cassel, reported on the tenth anniversary of the bombing that the townspeople had "opened their homes and hearts" to the relatives, bearing their own losses "stoically and with enormous dignity", and that the bonds forged then continue to this day.

Mass Murder People who missed the flight

A number of stories emerged after the bombing of people with reservations on PA103 who missed the flight. American musical quartet The Four Tops were returning to the States for Christmas, but were late getting out of a recording session. Angry at being too late to catch the flight, they were arguing about it when they heard it had exploded (ABC News Prime Time Live, November 30, 1989).

Former Sex Pistols band member John Lydon and his wife, Nora, also had a narrow escape. "Nora and I should have been dead," he told the Scottish Sunday Mirror. "We only missed the flight because Nora hadn't packed in time. The minute we realised what happened, we just looked at each other and almost collapsed."

Jaswant Basuta got drunk in the passenger lounge after checking in, and sprinted to the gate to find the aircraft's doors had just been closed. He pleaded for the doors to be re-opened, but Pan Am duty manager Christopher Price refused. Just over an hour later, two police officers arrived in the passenger lounge to tell Basuta the flight was down and that he was a suspect, because his suitcase had been on the plane but he had not a breach by the airline of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules, which insist that the checked baggage of any passenger who failed to board be removed from the aircraft's hold. While he was being questioned, his wife, Surinder, who believed he was on the flight, made a promise to the image of a Sikh prophet on the clock in the kitchen at home that she would hire priests to perform a special 48-hour prayer session if her husband survived. On a Friday morning two months later, she and her husband Jaswant went to a Sikh temple in New York, and with the priests she had invited prayed from 10:00 a.m. on Friday until 10:00 a.m. on Sunday. "On one side of the door was death," Surinder told authors Matthew Cox and Tom Foster, "on the other, life. It's like someone pulled him back" (Cox and Foster 1992).

Others known or rumoured to have cancelled reservations on PA103 include former South African foreign minister Pik Botha, who was travelling to a United Nations ceremony in New York to sign an accord granting independence to Namibia (Bernt Carlsson, the UN Commissioner for Namibia, who was travelling to the same ceremony, died on board the flight); John McCarthy, then U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon; Chris Revell, the son of Oliver "Buck" Revell, then executive assistant director of the FBI; and Steven Greene, assistant administrator in the Office of Intelligence of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The alleged cancellation of tickets by high-profile passengers later fuelled rumours that intelligence agencies had advance warning of the bombing.

Mass Murder Claims of responsibility

According to a CIA analysis dated December 22, 1988, several groups were quick to claim responsibility in telephone calls in the United States and Europe:

A male caller claimed that a group called the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution had destroyed the plane in retaliation for the U.S. shootdown of an Iranian airliner last July. A caller claiming to represent the Islamic Jihad organization told ABC News in New York that the group had planted the bomb to commemorate Christmas.

The Ulster Defense League allegedly issued a telephonic claim. Another anonymous caller claimed the plane had been downed by Mossad, the Israeli Intelligence service. After finishing this list, the author stated, "We consider the claims from the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution as the most credible one received so far". The analysis concluded, "We cannot assign responsibility for this tragedy to any terrorist group at this time. We anticipate that, as often happens, many groups will seek to claim credit".

Mass Murder Motive

On 15-16 April 1986, U.S. warplanes launched a series of military strikes called Operation El Dorado Canyon from British bases the first U.S. military strikes from Britain since World War II against Tripoli and Benghazi, Libya, in retaliation for the bombing ten days earlier of a West Berlin nightclub used by U.S. soldiers, which had killed three and injured 230. (Gaddafi had, in turn, ordered the West Berlin bombing in revenge for the sinking of two Libyan boats by the United States in the Gulf of Sirte at the end of March.) Among dozens of others, the airstrikes killed Hanna Gaddafi, a baby girl Gaddafi claimed to have adopted.

Mass Murder Investigation

Further information: Investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 The initial investigation into the crash site by Dumfries and Galloway police involved military and civilian helicopter surveys, satellite imaging, and a fingertip search of the area by police and soldiers. More than 10,000 pieces of debris were retrieved, tagged and entered into a computer tracking system.

The fuselage of the aircraft was reconstructed by air accident investigators, revealing a 20-inch hole consistent with an explosion in the forward cargo hold. Examination of the baggage containers revealed that the container nearest the hole had blackening, pitting, and severe damage indicating a "high-energy event" had taken place inside it. A series of test explosions were carried out to confirm the precise location and quantity of explosive used.

It was this photograph of Megrahi, taken in the 1980s, that Tony Gauci identified as the man who had bought the clothes.Fragments of a Samsonite suitcase believed to have contained the bomb were recovered, together with parts and pieces of circuit board identified as part of a Toshiba Bombeat radio cassette player, similar to that used to conceal a Semtex bomb seized by West German police from a Palestinian militant group two months earlier. Items of baby clothing, which were subsequently proven to have been made in Malta, were also traced to the same suitcase.

The clothes were traced to a Maltese merchant, Tony Gauci, who became a key prosecution witness, testifying that he sold the clothes to a man of Libyan appearance, whom he later identified as Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi.

A circuit board fragment, found embedded in a piece of charred material, was identified as part of an electronic timer similar to that found on a Libyan intelligence agent who had been arrested 10 months previously, carrying materials for a Semtex bomb. The timer was traced through its Swiss manufacturer, Mebo, to the Libyan military.

Investigators also discovered that an unaccompanied bag had been routed onto PA103, via the interline baggage system, from Luqa airport on Air Malta flight KM180 to Frankfurt, and then by feeder flight PA103A to Heathrow. This unaccompanied bag was shown at the trial to have been the bomb suitcase.

Mass Murder Trial and appeal

Further information: Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial On May 3, 2000 the trial of the two Libyans, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, accused of the 1988 PA103 bombing, began. Megrahi was convicted of Murder on January 31, 2001, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. His co-accused, Fhimah, was acquitted.

Megrahi's appeal against conviction was rejected on March 14, 2002. He appealed against his 27-year minimum prison sentence. His case has been under review for the past three years by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC), which is expected to conclude that Megrahi's case should be referred back to the High Court for a fresh appeal against conviction.

In two reports issued in February 2001 and March 2002, Professor Hans Köchler, an international observer of the trial appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, criticized the decisions of the trial and appeal courts as a "spectacular miscarriage of justice." In a statement issued in August 2003, Köchler called for an independent international inquiry into the case.

In November 2005 legal academic, Professor Robert Black, who devised the special arrangements for the non-jury Scots law trial at Camp Zeist, Netherlands, gave his opinion:

The SCCRC will proceed with its investigation and with its likely reference of the case back for a fresh appeal against conviction, even if Megrahi is repatriated and (as part of any deal between the UK and Libyan governments) asks that any further proceedings be terminated. UK Lockerbie relatives have already made representations to this effect to the SCCRC, which is statutorily obliged to take such representations into account in reaching its decision.

On May 4, 2006, the Scottish Executive announced that a panel of five judges sitting in Edinburgh would hear Megrahi's appeal against his sentence on July 11, 2006. However, defence lawyers and others, including PA103 relatives, expressed concern about the timing of this appeal against sentence and about a possible appeal against conviction that the SCCRC might decide upon, which, they maintain, should be heard at the same time. Addressing these concerns, a court spokesman said:

There might be a referral from the commission, but there might not be.

Lawyers for Megrahi later insisted that both appeals (against sentence and conviction) ought to take place at the special Scottish court at Camp Zeist, Netherlands, where his trial and first appeal against conviction were held, rather than in Edinburgh. The Crown disputed the move on security and cost grounds, but on June 8, 2006, the Scottish Court of Criminal Appeal decided to postpone the July appeal against sentence until October 2006. On November 1, 2006 Megrahi was reported to have dropped his demand for the new appeal to be held at Camp Zeist.

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission has announced on 12 February 2007 that it is its intention to issue a decision in the case of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi by the end of June 2007

Mass Murder Compensation from Libya

On May 29, 2002, Libya offered up to US$2.7 billion to settle claims by the families of the 270 killed in the Lockerbie bombing, representing US$10 million per family. The Libyan offer was that:

40 percent of the money would be released when United Nations sanctions, suspended in 1999, were cancelled; another 40 percent when U.S. trade sanctions were lifted; and the final 20 percent when the U.S. State Department removed Libya from its list of states sponsoring terrorism. Jim Kreindler of New York law firm, Kreindler & Kreindler, which orchestrated the settlement, said:

These are uncharted waters. It is the first time that any of the states designated as sponsors of terrorism have offered compensation to families of terror victims.

The U.S. State Department maintained that it was not directly involved. "Some families want cash, others say it is blood money," said a State Department official.

Compensation for the families of the PA103 victims was among the steps set by the UN for lifting its sanctions against Libya. Other requirements included a formal denunciation of terrorism which Libya said it had already made-and accepting responsibility for the actions of its intelligence agents.

Over 18 months later, on December 5, 2003, Jim Kreindler revealed that his Park Avenue law firm would receive an initial contingency fee of around US$1 million from each of the 128 American families Kreindler represents. The firm's fees could exceed US$300 million eventually. But Kreindler argued:

Over the past seven years we have had a dedicated team working tirelessly on this and we deserve the contingency fee we have worked so hard for, and I think we have provided the relatives with value for money.

Another top legal firm in the U.S., Speiser Krause, which represented 60 relatives, of whom half were UK families, was understood to have concluded contingency deals securing them fees of between 28 and 35 percent of individual settlements. Frank Greneda of Speiser Krause commented:

Sure the rewards in the U.S. are more substantial than anywhere else in the world but nobody has questioned the fee whilst the work has been going on, it is only now as we approach a resolution when the criticism comes your way.

On August 15, 2003 Libya's UN ambassador, Ahmed Own, submitted a letter to the UN Security Council formally accepting "responsibility for the actions of its officials" in relation to the Lockerbie bombing. The Libyan government then proceeded to pay compensation to each family of US$8 million (from which legal fees of about US$2.5 million were deducted) and, as a result, the UN cancelled the sanctions that had been suspended four years earlier, and U.S. trade sanctions were lifted. A further US$2 million would have gone to each family had the U.S. State Department removed Libya from its list of states regarded as supporting international terrorism, but as this did not happen by the deadline set by Libya, the Libyan Central Bank withdrew the remaining US$540 million in April 2005 from the escrow account in Switzerland through which the earlier US$2.16 billion compensation for the victims' families had been paid. The United States announced resumption of full diplomatic relations with Libya after deciding to remove it from its list of countries that support terrorism on May 15, 2006.

Some observers believe that Libya's acceptance of responsibility amounted to a business deal aimed at having the sanctions overturned, rather than an admission of guilt. On February 24, 2004, Libyan Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem stated in a BBC Radio 4 interview that his country had paid the compensation as the "price for peace" and to secure the lifting of sanctions. Asked if Libya did not accept guilt, he said, "I agree with that." He also said there was no evidence to link Libya with the April 1984 shooting of police officer Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan Embassy in London. Gaddafi later retracted Ghanem's comments, under pressure from Washington and London.

A civil action against Libya continues on behalf of Pan Am, which went bankrupt partly as a result of the attack. The airline is seeking $4.5 billion for the loss of the aircraft and the effect on the airline's business.

In October 2005, it was reported that the British, American and Libyan governments were negotiating the transfer of Megrahi to a prison in his home country on condition that he drops any further appeal against his conviction. It was a proviso of his conviction that he should serve his full jail term in Scotland. That such a deal could even be contemplated strongly suggests the British and American governments would prefer the case not to be reopened, since a successful appeal could easily sour their new détente with Libya.

Mass Murder Casualties of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict

Ayse Konakçi Primary School in Tavas, Denizli: A notable form of remembrance for the memory of the teachers killed by the PKK has been to give the names of each to an educational establishment Kurds on March 30, 2006 carry the coffin one of the people who died during clashes (Turkey)More than 37.000 people have been killed in the Turkish-PKK conflict since 1984. Below is a list of attacks with casualties. More than 210 attacks listed are either attacks by PKK that involved civilian casualties or clashes between PKK and Turkish military and paramilitary forces. Also 124 teachers were killed by PKK. 7 attacks of TAK are listed; it is believed that they split off from PKK when they became dissatisfied with the group's tactics. 8 attacks are listed which involve Turkish security forces and civilian casualties.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization internationally by a number of states and organizations, including the USA, NATO and the EU. Eric Rouleau in the November/December 2000 edition of 'Foreign Affairs' states: "According to the Turkish Ministry of Justice, in addition to the 35,000 people killed in military campaigns, 17,500 were assassinated between 1984, when the conflict began, and 1998. An additional 1,000 people were reportedly assassinated in the first nine months of 1999. According to the Turkish press, the authors of these crimes, none of whom have been arrested, belong to groups of mercenaries working either directly or indirectly for the security agencies".

Mass Murder Human Rights Watch has stated that

"Consequently, all economic, political, military, social and cultural organizations, institutions, formations -- and those who serve in them -- have become targets. The entire country has become a battlefield." "The PKK also promised to "liquidate" or "eliminate" political parties, "imperialist" cultural and educational institutions, legislative and representative bodies, and "all local collaborators and agents working for the Republic of Turkey in Kurdistan."

It also notes that "As Human Rights Watch has often reported and condemned, Turkish government forces have, in the course of the conflict with the PKK, also committed serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including torture, extrajudicial killings, and indiscriminate fire. We continue to demand that the Turkish government investigate and hold accountable those members of its security forces responsible for these violations. Nonetheless, under international law, the government abuses cannot under any circumstances be seen to justify or excuse those committed by Ocalan's PKK.", and remarks that, "Many who died were unarmed civilians, caught in the middle between the PKK and security forces, targeted for attacks by both sides".

According to Amnesty International, the PKK killed and allegedly tortured Kurdish peasants and its own members in the 1980s. A number of Kurds have been abducted and killed because they were suspected of being "collaborators" or "informers" and and it was a common practice for the PKK to kill their whole families. According to an article printed in the November 2002 issue of the International Socialist, monthly paper of the International Socialists, during the conflict (and still as of 2002), the Turkish army tortured, killed and disappeared civilians. In 1997, Amnesty International (AI) reported that, "'Disappearances' and extrajudicial executions have emerged as new and disturbing patterns of human rights violations ..." by the Turkish state. According to an earlier (1996) report of AI, "in January 1996 the Turkish government announced that the PKK had massacred 11 men near the remote village of Guclukonak. Seven of the victims were members of the local village guard force. Independent investigations suggested that the massacre was the work of the security forces". (see false flag).

Mass Murder Summary

a) 18 clashes between PKK and Turkish security forces' (military/police/paramilitary(village guards)

b) 35 attacks by PKK resulting in Turkish (many of Kurdish descent) civilian casualties; 17 of them resulted in section:children casualties. We also have 124 section:teachers killed by PKK.

c) 8 Turkish security forces' attacks against civilians; two of them involving section:children.

d) 9 more attacks, 7 of them by TAK. Two attacks by PKK against section:non-Turks. One attack by TAK (which resulted in section:children casualties) is also claimed by TIT. TIT has no known official connection to any Turkish party or security forces.

Mass Murder Teachers

PKK has targeted primary school teachers working in the village schools. PKK's efforts against these teachers started in the early nineties and continued on a recurrent basis. After armed PKK members abducted and killed 19 teachers in the autumn of 1994, Amnesty International's 1995 report on Turkey mentioned that "It appears that the Kurdish Workers' Party, PKK, is resuming its repugnant policy of Murdering teachers in southeast Turkey". The number of teachers killed by PKK is at variance but according to Turkish government sources 124 teachers were killed by members of the PKK.

Mass Murder HPG reports

We also have the following HPG reports. The HPG, which stands for Hêrzên Parastina Gel or People’s Defense Forces is the armed wing of PKK. The attacks are listed below these reports.

November 2006: The HPG, armed wing of the PKK reports the following "war balance". Clashes with Turkish military: 25, Turkish soldiers killed: 23 (officers: 5, soldiers: 18). HPG militants killed: 9 October 2006: The HPG, armed wing of the PKK reports the following "war balance". Turkish military operations: 42, clashes during these operations: 23. Turkish soldiers killed: 12. HPG militants killed: 8. September 2006: The HPG, armed wing of the PKK reports the following "war balance". Turkish military operations: 66, clashes during these operations: 41. Turkish soldiers killed: 64, of them 8 officers and 2 village guards. HPG militants killed: 13. One soldier (Kurdish origin) was killed by the Turkish army.

Mass Murder 2006

August 30, 2006: In Mersin a bomb was planted in a rubbish container on Inonu street, one person was injured. The bombing is believed to be linked to the recent attacks by the TAK, however they have not claimed responsibility. August 28, 2006: Less than 24 hours after separate bombs in Marmaris wounded 21 people, including 10 Britons and 11 Turks,(non-English) a bomb blast killed three people (one of them born in Sirnak), wounding 87 (among them 14 tourists; 4 Jordanians, 3 Russians, 3 Germans, 2 Dutch, 1 Israeli and 1 Iranian) in the coastal city Antalya. A bomb explosion in the evening in front of the Governor's offices outside in Istanbul's Bagcilar quarter caused 6 people to be injured in. The attack was claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (abbreviated TAK) a group which split off from the PKK. The PKK condemned the bombings..

August 06, 2006: In Gümüshane, a noncomissioned officer and two soldiers were killed, five wounded in a PKK ambush to a military vehicle.

July 27, 2006: In Bingöl, one Turkish military officer was killed by PKK anti-personal mine. One Turkish military officer and one soldier was wounded.

July 21, 2006: In Hakkari Semdinli, one Turkish soldier was killed by PKK members using long-range rifle, in a helicopter during his last day of military service.

July 17, 2006: In Batman, two Turkish police officers were killed in a PKK ambush.

July 15, 2006: In Siirt, seven Turkish soldiers and one village guard were killed by PKK members.

July 13, 2006: In Bitlis, five Turkish soldiers were killed and four others wounded by PKK members using a remote detonated road mine.

July 06, 2006: In Diyarbakir, one civilian driver was killed and three soldiers were wounded when PKK members detonated a bomb implanted in a car carrying bread to a military precinct.

June 30, 2006: In Tunceli, one Turkish soldier was killed by PKK members using a long-range Dragunov Sniper Rifle (Kanas).

June 30, 2006: In Bingöl, one officer and one soldier from Turkish Gendarmerie died when a PKK-planted road mine was detonated by remote control. Six other Turkish soldiers were injured.

June 28, 2006: One Turkish soldier died in clashes with PKK in Hakkari. The PKK members then escaped to Iraq after the clash.

June 23, 2006: Four Turkish soldiers were killed and three others were wounded during operations against PKK-affiliated People's Defense Forces (HPG) guerrillas in Özalp district of Van Province.

June 11, 2006: In Tunceli, PKK attacked a Turkish military convoy using long-range rifles and RPGs. Two Turkish soldiers died in the attack. Five soldiers and two civilians were also injured.

June 6, 2006: Two Turkish soldiers were killed by PKK in Hakkari. Two others were injured.

April 5, 2006: An attack on a district office of the Justice and Development Party in Istanbul results in two people injured. It is believed the TAK carried out the attack.

June 4, 2006: 2 Kurd Rebels Killed in Turkish Clashes

April 2, 2006: Three civilian women died because of a bus that went out of control, which was burned and rampaged by PKK sympathisers during an illegal street meeting, in Esenler, Istanbul.

March 31, 2006: One person was killed and thirteen injured when the TAK detonated a bomb near a bus station in the Kocamustafapasa district of Istanbul.

March 25, 2006: According to by Fatih Tas writing in ZMag, Turkish forces killed 14 HPG guerillas using chemical weapons.

Mass Murder 2005

November 26, 2005 - Four Turkish soliders were killed and three injured in an ambush by HPG guerillas on a Turkish military vehicle in the Sirnak province.

November 21, 2005 - One Turkish soldier was killed and another wounded in an ambush by HPG guerillas on an active Turkish military unit in the Mardin province.

November 19, 2005 - A female HPG guerilla was killed by Turkish soldiers in a clash in the Besta district of the Sirnak province.

November 16, 2005 - One Turkish soldier was killed and another wounded in a clash between Turkish troops and HPG guerrillas.

November 15, 2005: Turkish security forces killed three Kurdish civilians in a clash in the city of Yüksekova.

September 6, 2005: Further violence between police and demonstrators left at least one Kurd dead in the south-eastern province of Siirt. The Economist reported that a nationalist mob killed a Kurdish worker the same day in a in Düzce.

September 4, 2005: Clashes erupted after demonstrators waving PKK banners and posters of the jailed PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan, shouted slogans as they drove through the town of Bozüyük. Turkish nationalists stopped their convoy, smashed bus windows with stones, set their tyres ablaze and attacked the Kurds.

Kusadasi minibus bomb attack on 16 July 2005 made five victims, including Tara WhelanJuly 16, 2005: Five people were killed, including the 23-year old British woman Helen Bennett and the 17-year old Irish schoolgirl Tara Whelan by a bomb left by a man in a minibus in Kusadasi. Dolores McNamara, the record-breaking winner of EuroMillions, was only a few yards away from the minibus and escaped with minor wounds. The bomber has been arrested in Istanbul on 8 April 2006 and is currently being tried in Izmir. He reported that he had he had mixed with militant circles after having started to live in Germany as an asylum-seeker and had been trained in camps based in Germany and the Netherlands. July 10, 2005: Explosion of a bomb in Çesme wounded more than 20 people, at least two of them foreign tourists. It was claimed by TAK.

April 30, 2005: A bomb left in a Kusadasi public square killed one policeman while he was trying to defuse it. It was claimed by TAK.

April 16, 2005: Four members of the Turkish security forces and 21 Kurdish rebels were killed in a clash during a security operation in the southeast of the country.

Mass Murder 2004

November 21, 2004: Turkish security forces shot dead Ahmet Kaymaz, a villager displaced from Köprülü village in Mardin Province, and his twelve-year-old son Ugur Kaymaz in the nearby town of Kiziltepe. Neighbors told the Human Rights Association of Turkey (HRA) that Kaymaz and his son had been preparing their commercial vehicle for a forthcoming journey and were unarmed at the time. Afterwards, the provincial governor stated that two terrorists have been captured dead following a clash.

Mass Murder 2002

March 21, 2002: "Three people have died in the southern Turkish city of Mersin, in clashes between thousands of Kurdish youths and Turkish riot police over a government ban preventing Kurds from celebrating their new year."

Mass Murder 2001

June 23, 2001: One guerilla and four Turkish soldiers were killed, three Turkish soldiers injured in a clash between the HPG and Turkish security forces in the Ozalp District of Van.

Mass Murder 1995

September 23, 1995: PKK militants killed five people when they stopped two cars on Sivas-Erzincan intercity road and killed the occupants. September 05, 1995: In an attack against a mine in Hatay Province, PKK forces killed eight workers. April 05, 1995: In a raid in a cattle pasture in Hatay Province, PKK militants killed seven individuals.

Mass Murder 1994

July 20, 1994: PKK militants Murdered eleven individuals after stopping vehicles on Erzurum-Bingöl intercity road. June 19, 1994: In an attack against the family of a former PKK member, PKK militants killed the former member's mother as well as his five brothers and sisters, ranging in age from four to thirteen. January 01, 1994: PKK militants stopped a minibus on Diyarbakir-Elazig intercity road and Murdered eight individuals.

Mass Murder 1993

September 17, 1993: In a raid against the teachers' club in the Egin district of Diyarbakir Province, PKK militants executed six civil servants.

August 04, 1993: In the Mutki district of Bitlis Province, PKK militants stopped six minibuses and executed nineteen individuals and wounded an additional thirteen.

July 05, 1993: In a raid against the Basbaglar village of Erzincan Province, PKK militants executed thirty persons and burned fifty-seven houses.

May 24, 1993: PKK militants stopped a bus carrying unarmed army recruits and machine gunned them all, Murdering thirty-six individuals.

Mass Murder 1992

October 20, 1992: Near the Hazarsah village of Bingöl Province, PKK militants stopped a minibus and machine gunned its occupants, killing nineteen and wounding six.

June 29, 1992: Near the Yolbasti village of Bitlis Province, PKK militants stopped a minibus and executed 10 individuals.

Mass Murder Bombings

16 April 2006: A bomb planted in Bakirköy district of Istanbul by PKK militants injured 31 civilians. 9 March 2006: A suicide bomber, reportedly a Syrian national, mistook a municipality van for a police car and blew himself after having jumped into the vehicle, killing one municipality staff member and a passer-by in Van. 25 January 1992: Bombs planted in Galeria and The Grand Bazaar by PKK militants killed one civilian and injured 18.

Mass Murder Children

September 12, 2006: In Diyarbakir, ten civilians were killed (7 of them children) and 17 wounded by a bomb placed next to an elementary school. TAK claimed responsibility.

3 May 2006: 11 children, 12 adult civilians and 5 soldiers were injured as a result of a PKK attack on a schoolbus carrying siblings of the military personel by using a remote controlled bomb in Hakkari. The HPG, armed wing of the PKK denies responsibility for the blast.

March 29, 2006: Abdullah Duran, a 9 year old boy, was shot dead by security forces during the clashes in Diyarbakir.

March 30, 2006: According to the EU-Turkey Civic Commission Submission on Recent Violence, Enez Atak, a 6 year old boy, was injured by a plastic bullet and later died in hospital, Diyarbakir. Fatih Tekin, a 3 year old boy, was shot and killed by Turkish Security forces during a police raid on a civilian house in Batman during a series of violent clashes in the Kurdish regions of Turkey.

August 04, 1995: In a raid against the Gazelusagi village of Hatay Province, PKK militants killed eight individuals, including four children. Another four individuals, including two children, were wounded.

July 23, 1995: In a raid against the Akdogu village of Van Province, PKK militants killed twelve individuals, including two children and six women.

January 12, 1995: In a raid against the Narlica village of Diyarbakir Province, PKK militants killed eight individuals, including two children and one woman.

January 01, 1995: In a raid against the Hamzali village of Diyarbakir Province, PKK militants killed nineteen individuals, including seven children and eight women.

August 10, 1994: PKK members opened fire on a passing bus on the Van-Bahçesaray road, killing eleven, including three children, and wounding eight.

May 15, 1994: PKK forces raided the Edebük village of Erzincan Province and Murdered nine individuals, including a three-year-old child.

January 25, 1994: A six-year-old girl, Gülistan Çelik, was killed by a bomb planted in the Diyarbakir governor's office.

January 22, 1994: In a raid against Akyürek and Ormancik villages of Mardin Province, PKK militants killed twenty individuals, including six children and nine women.

December 12, 1993: In a raid against the Agaçkonak village of Adiyaman Province, PKK militants killed 13 people, including four women and four children.

October 25, 1993: PKK militants Murdered thirty-eight individuals, including three children, in the Yavi township of Çat district in Erzurum Province.

October 12, 1993: PKK militants Murdered twenty-two individuals, fourteen of whom were children and eight women, in a raid on the Derince village of Siirt Province.

August 04, 1993: In a raid against the Konakbasi settlement of Bingol Province, PKK militants killed eleven individuals, including eight children between the ages of two and twelve and a seventy-year old man.

June 24, 1993: PKK bombed the house of Mehmet Yalçin, a member of the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP), in Suruç, near Sanliurfa. Mehmet Yalçin's mother and his 10-year-old daughter Devran Yalçin were killed in the attack.

June 16, 1993: In the Yaylacik village of Mardin Province, PKK militants killed six individuals, including four children. October 11, 1992: In the Uludere district of Sirnak Province, PKK militants killed eleven individuals in a rocket attack against the homes of village guards. Among those killed were six children and a ninety year old woman.

June 22, 1992: In the Seki village of Batman Province, PKK militants killed ten civilians, including seven children and a seventy-year old woman.

Mass Murder Oklahoma City bombing

Damage to the Murrah building before cleanup began.

Location Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

Target(s) Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building

Date 19 April 1995

9:02am (UTC-5)

Attack type Truck bomb

Fatalities 168

Injuries 800+

Perpetrator(s) Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and Michael Fortier

Motive To avenge the Waco Siege and Ruby Ridge

The Oklahoma City bombing was a terrorist attack on April 19, 1995 aimed at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, a U.S. government office complex in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The attack claimed 168 lives and left over 800 injured. Until September 11, 2001, it was the deadliest act of terrorism within U.S. borders.

Within days after the bombing, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were arrested for their role in the bombing. Investigators determined that McVeigh and Nichols were sympathizers of an anti-government militia movement and that that their motive was to avenge the government's handling of the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents. McVeigh was executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001; Nichols was sentenced to life in prison. A third conspirator, Michael Fortier, who testified against the two conspirators, was imprisoned for failing to warn the U.S. government. As with other large-scale terrorist attacks, conspiracy theories dispute the official claims and point to additional perpetrators involved.

The attacks led to the U.S. government passing legislation designed to increase protection around federal buildings and to thwart future terrorist attacks. Under these measures, law enforcement has since foiled over fifty domestic terrorism plots. On April 19, 2000 the Oklahoma City National Memorial was dedicated on the site of the Murrah Federal Building to commemorate the victims of the bombing.

Mass Murder Terror

Mass Murder Prelude

Except where noted, all statements in this section are sourced from the book American Terrorist.

On April 15, 1995 Timothy McVeigh rented a Ryder truck in Junction City, Kansas under the alias Robert D. Kling. On April 16, he drove to Oklahoma City with fellow conspirator Terry Nichols where he parked a getaway vehicle several blocks away from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. After removing the license plate from the car, the two men returned to Kansas. On April 17 and 18, the men moved 108 fifty-pound bags of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, three fifty-five gallon drums of liquid nitromethane, several crates of explosive Tovex sausage, seventeen bags of ANFO, and spools of shock tube and cannon fuse. The two then drove to Geary Lake where they mixed the chemicals together using plastic buckets and a bathroom scale. Once it was completed, McVeigh added a dual-fuse ignition system which he could access through the truck's front cab. McVeigh also included more explosives on the driver's side of the cargo bay, which he could ignite with his Glock pistol if the primary fuses failed. After finishing the configuration of the truck-bomb, the two men separated, Nichols returning to Herington and McVeigh driving the truck to Oklahoma City.

At dawn on April 19, as he drove toward the Murrah Federal building, McVeigh carried with him an envelope whose contents included pages from The Turner Diaries, a fictional account of modern-day "patriots" who rise up against the government. He also wore a printed T-shirt which included phrases such as "SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS" ("Thus ever to tyrants", the phrase shouted by John Wilkes Booth as he assassinated Abraham Lincoln) and "The tree of liberty must be refreshed time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants" (from revolutionary Thomas Jefferson). As the truck approached the building, at 8:57 a.m. CST, McVeigh lit the five-minute fuse. Three minutes later, still a block away, he lit the two-minute fuse. He parked the Ryder truck in a drop-off zone (incidentally situated under the building's day-care center), locked the vehicle, and headed to his getaway vehicle.

Mass Murder Bombing

At 9:02 a.m. CST, the Ryder truck, which contained about 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) of fertilizer and fuel oil mixture packed into the back, detonated in front of the north side of the nine-story Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The blast destroyed a third of the building and created a thirty-foot-wide, eight-foot-deep crater on NW 5th Street next to the building. The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings in a sixteen-block radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars around the site, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings (the broken glass alone accounted for 5% of the death total and 69% of the injuries outside the Murrah Federal building). The destruction of the building left several hundred people homeless and shut down multiple offices in downtown Oklahoma City.

An aerial view of the destructionThe effects of the blast were equivalent to 4,000 pounds of TNT and could be heard and felt up to fifty-five miles away. Seismometers at the Omniplex Museum in Oklahoma City (7 kilometers away) and in Norman, Oklahoma (26 kilometers away) recorded the blast as measuring approximately 3.0 on the Richter scale.

Mass Murder Arrests

Within 90 minutes of the explosion, McVeigh was arrested. He was traveling north out of Oklahoma City on Interstate 35 near Perry in Noble County, when an Oklahoma State Trooper stopped him for driving his yellow 1977 Mercury Marquis without a license plate. The arrest was for having a concealed weapon. Later that day, McVeigh was linked to the bombing via the VIN number of an axle from the destroyed Ryder truck. Before McVeigh was to be released after a court hearing on the gun charges, federal agents picked him up in their investigation of the bombing.

A security photo from a nearby building showing the Ryder truck approaching the Murrah Federal building.Federal agents then searched for Nichols, a friend of McVeigh. Two days after the bombing, Nichols learned that FBI investigators were looking for him, and he turned himself in. After a nine-hour interrogation, he was formally held in federal custody until his trial for involvement in the bombing.

Mass Murder Casualties

At the end of the day of the bombing, twenty were confirmed dead, including six children, and over a hundred injured. The toll eventually reached 168 confirmed dead, not including an unmatched leg that might be from a possible, unidentified 169th victim, which is why it is sometimes claimed that the bombing claimed 169 lives (The missing leg appears to have been a sort of "clerical" error, but nothing after 1996 could be found about it). Of these, 163 were killed in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, one woman across the street, another in a parking lot, a man and woman in the Oklahoma Water Resources building, and a rescue worker struck in the head by debris. The victims ranged in age from three months to seventy-three, not including unborn children of three pregnant women (Michel & Herbeck 234). Nineteen of the victims were children, including fifteen who were in the America's Kids Day Care Center. The bodies of all 168 victims were identified at a temporary morgue set up at the scene. Twenty-four people, including sixteen specialists, used full-body X-rays, dental examinations, fingerprinting, blood tests and DNA testing to identify the bodies (Michel & Herbeck 234). The bomb injured 853 people. The majority of the injuries ranged from abrasions to severe burns and fractures.

Mass Murder Response and Relief

Mass Murder Rescue efforts

At 9:03:25 a.m. CST, the first of over 1,800 9-1-1 calls was received by Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA). Already by that time, however, EMSA ambulances and members of the police and firefighters, having heard the large blast, were heading to the scene. Nearby citizens, who had also witnessed or heard the blast, arrived to assist the victims and emergency workers. Within twenty-three minutes of the bombing, the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) was set up and included representatives of the state departments of public safety, human services, military, health, and education. Assisting the SEOC were agencies such as the National Weather Service, the Civil Air Patrol, and the American Red Cross. Immediate assistance also came from from 465 members of the Oklahoma National Guard, who arrived within the hour to provide security, and from members of the Department of Civil Emergency Management. Within the first hour, fifty people were rescued from the Murrah Federal building. Victims were sent to every hospital in the area. By the end of the day, 153 victims had been treated at St. Anthony Hospital, eight blocks from the blast, over 70 at Presbyterian, 41 at University, and 18 at Children's.

At 10:28 a.m. CST, rescuers found what they believed to be a second bomb. Some rescue workers initially refused to leave until police ordered a mandatory evacuation of a four-block area around the site. However about 45 minutes later the device was determined to be a simulator used in training federal agents and bomb-sniffing dogs, and relief efforts were continued. The last survivor, a fifteen year old girl found under the base of the collapsed building, was discovered at about 7:00 p.m. CST.

In the days following the blast, over 12,000 people participated in relief and rescue operations. FEMA activated 11 of its Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces, comprising a team of 665 rescue workers who assisted in rescue and recovery operations. In an effort to recover additional bodies, 100 to 350 tons of rubble were removed from the site each day until April 29. Twenty-four K-9 units and out-of-state dogs were brought in to search for survivors and locate bodies amongst the building refuse (Giordano 34).

Rescue and recovery efforts were concluded at 11:50 p.m. on May 4, with the bodies of all but three victims recovered. For safety reasons, the building was to be demolished shortly afterward. However, McVeigh's attorney, Stephen Jones, called for a motion to delay the demolition until the defense team could examine the site in preparation for the trial (Linenthal 140). Finally, at 7:01 a.m. on May 23, the Murrah Federal building was demolished. The final three bodies, those of two credit union employees and a customer, were recovered. For several days after the building's demolition, trucks hauled 800 tons of debris a day away from the site. Some of the debris was used as evidence in the conspirators' trials, incorporated into parts of memorials, donated to local schools, and sold to raise funds for relief efforts (Linenthal 142-44).

Mass Murder Humanitarian aid

The national humanitarian response was immediate and, in some cases, even overwhelming. Rescue workers received large amounts of donated goods such as wheelbarrows, bottled water, rain gear, and football helmets. In fact, the sheer number of donated goods caused logistical and inventory control problems until drop-off centers were set up to accept and sort the goods. The Oklahoma Restaurant Association, which was holding a trade show in the city, assisted rescue workers by providing 15,000 to 20,000 meals over a ten-day period. Requests for blood donations were met by local residents and also from those around the nation. Of the 9,000 units of blood donated to the victims, only 131 units were used, the rest saved in blood banks.

Mass Murder Federal and state government aid

President Bill Clinton being told about the Oklahoma City bombing an hour after it occurredAt 9:45 a.m. CST, Governor Frank Keating declared a state of emergency and ordered all non-essential workers located in the Oklahoma City area to be released from their duties for their safety. President Bill Clinton learned about the bombing around 10:00 a.m. while he was meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Çiller at the White House. At 4:00 p.m. CST, President Clinton declared a federal emergency in Oklahoma City and spoke to the nation: "The bombing in Oklahoma City was an attack on innocent children and defenseless citizens. It was an act of cowardice and it was evil. The United States will not tolerate it, and I will not allow the people of this country to be intimidated by evil cowards". Four days later, on April 23, Clinton spoke from Oklahoma City.

There was no major federal financial assistance provided to the survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing, However, the Murrah Fund was established and collected over $300,000 from federal grants. Additionally, individuals around the country donated $15 million to aid the disaster relief and to compensate the victims. Later, a committee chaired by Daniel J Kurtenbach of Goodwill Industries provided financial assistance to the survivors. However, this financial assistance to the survivors was very small when compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars of federal assistance received by each of the 9/11 survivors.

Mass Murder Children terrorized

The image of firefighter Chris Fields holding the dying infant Baylee Almon won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography in 1996In the wake of the bombing, the national media seized upon the fact that 19 of the victims had been children. Schools across the country were dismissed early and ordered closed. A photograph of firefighter Chris Fields emerging from the rubble with infant Baylee Almon, who later died in a nearby hospital, was reprinted worldwide and became a symbol of the tragedy.

The images and thoughts of innocent children dying terrorized many children who, as demonstrated by later research, showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

President Clinton and his wife, Hillary, showed concern about how children were reacting to the bombing. They requested that aides talk to child care specialists about how to talk to the children regarding the bombing. President Clinton spoke to the nation three days after the bombing, telling children: "I don't want our children to believe something terrible about life and the future and grownups in general because of this awful thing...most adults are good people who want to protect our children in their childhood and we are going to get through this". On the Saturday after the bombing, April 22, the Clintons gathered children of employees of federal agencies that had offices in the Murrah Building, and in a live nationwide television and radio broadcast, addressed their concerns.

Mass Murder Media coverage

Hundreds of news trucks and members of the press arrived at the site to cover the story. The press immediately noticed that the bombing took place on the second anniversary of the Waco incident. Many initial news stories, however, hypothesized the attack had been undertaken by Islamic terrorists, such as those who had masterminded the World Trade Center bombing two years before (Michel & Herbeck 249). Some responded to these reports by attacking Muslims and people of Arab descent.

As the rescue effort wound down, the media interest shifted to the investigation, arrests, and trials of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, and on the search for an additional suspect, "John Doe 2", who did not resemble Nichols but had been seen with McVeigh.

Mass Murder Trials and sentencing of the conspirators

The FBI led the official investigation, known as OKBOMB. It was the nation's largest criminal case in history, with FBI agents conducting 28,000 interviews, amassing 3.5 tons of evidence, and collecting nearly one billion pieces of information. The investigation led to the separate trials and convictions of McVeigh, Nichols, and Fortier.

Timothy McVeigh's mug shot after being arrested less than two hours after the bombing for driving without a license plate and having a concealed weapon

Mass Murder Timothy McVeigh

The United States was represented by a team of prosecutors, led by Joesph Hartzler. In his opening statement, Hartzler outlined McVeigh's motivations and the evidence against him. McVeigh's motivation, he said, was hatred of the government, which began during his tenure in the Army as he read The Turner Diaries, and grew through the increase in taxes and the passage of the Brady Bill, and grew further with the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents. The prosecution called 137 witnesses, including Michael Fortier, Michael's wife Lori Fortier, and McVeigh's sister, Jennifer McVeigh, all of whom testified on McVeigh's hatred of the government and demonstrated desire to take militant action against it. Both Fortiers testified that McVeigh had told them of his plans to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building; Michael revealed how McVeigh had chosen the date.

In his trial, whose venue had been moved from Oklahoma City to Denver, Colorado, McVeigh was represented by a defense counsel team of six principal attorneys led by Stephen Jones. According to Linder, McVeigh wanted Jones to present a "necessity defense" which would argue that he was in "imminent danger" from the government (that his bombing was intended to prevent future "crimes" by the government, such as the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents). Contrary to his client's wishes, however:

Jones opted for a strategy of trying to poke what holes he could in the prosecution's case, thus raising a question of reasonable doubt. In addition, Jones believed that McVeigh was taking far more responsibility for the bombing than was justified and that McVeigh, although clearly guilty, was only a player in a large conspiracy.... In his book about the McVeigh case, Others Unknown: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing Conspiracy, Jones wrote: "It strains belief to suppose that this appalling crime was the work of two men--any two men...Could this conspiracy have been designed to protect and shelter everyone involved? Everyone, that is, except my client." Jones considered presenting McVeigh as "the designated patsy" in a cleverly designed plot, but his own client opposed the strategy and Judge Matsch, after a hearing, ruled the evidence concerning a larger conspiracy to be too insubstantial to be admissible.

In addition to arguing that the bombing could not have been accomplished by two men alone but must have been perpetrated by a conspiracy of more people whom McVeigh was protecting, Jones also attempted to raise reasonable doubt by arguing that no one had seen McVeigh near the scene of the crime and that the investigation into the bombing had lasted merely two weeks. During the trial, Linder observes further:

The defense presented 25 witnesses over just a one-week period. The most effective witness for the defense might have been Dr. Frederic Whitehurst, who provided a damning critique of the FBI's sloppy investigation of the bombing site and its handling of other key evidence Unfortunately for McVeigh, while Whitehurst could show that FBI techniques made contamination of evidence possible, he could not point to any evidence (such as trace evidence of explosives on the shirt McVeigh wore on April 19) that he knew to be contaminated.

The jury deliberated for twenty-three hours. On June 2, 1997, McVeigh was found guilty on eleven counts of Murder and conspiracy. Although the defense argued for a reduced sentence of life imprisonment, McVeigh was sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection at a U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, on June 11, 2001. The execution was televised on closed-circuit television so that the relatives of the victims could witness his death.

Mass Murder Terry Nichols

Terry Nichols stood trial twice. He was first tried by the Federal Government in 1997 and found guilty of conspiring to build a weapon of mass destruction and of eight counts of involuntary manslaughter of federal officers. After he received the sentence on June 4, 1998 of life-without-parole, the State of Oklahoma in 2000 sought a death-penalty conviction on 161 counts of first-degree Murder. On May 26, 2004 The jury found him guilty on all charges, but deadlocked on the issue of sentencing him to death. Presiding Judge Steven W. Taylor then determined the sentence of 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. He is currently held in the ADX Florence Federal Prison.

Mass Murder Michael Fortier

Though Michael Fortier was considered an accomplice and co-conspirator, he agreed to testify against McVeigh in exchange for a modest sentence and immunity for his wife. He was sentenced on May 27, 1998 to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the attack. As discussed by Jeralyn Merritt, who served on Timothy McVeigh's criminal defense team, on January 20, 2006, after serving eighty-five percent of his sentence, Fortier was released for good behavior into the Witness Protection Program and given a new identity.

Mass Murder Others

No "John Doe #2" was ever identified, nothing conclusive was ever reported regarding the owner of the missing leg, and the government never openly investigated anyone else in conjunction with the bombing. Though the defense teams in both McVeigh's and Nichols trials tried to suggest that others were involved, Judge Steven W. Taylor, who presided over the Nichols trial, found no credible, relevant, or legally admissible evidence of anyone other than McVeigh and Nichols as having directly participated in the bombing.

Mass Murder Aftermath

Until the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Oklahoma City bombing was the deadliest act of terror against the U.S. on American soil. In response, the U.S. Government enacted several pieces of legislation, notably the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. In response to the trials of the conspirators being moved out-of-state, the Victim Allocution Clarification Act of 1997 was signed on March 20, 1997 by President Clinton to allow the victims of the bombing (and the victims of any other future acts of violence) the right to observe trials and to offer impact testimony in trials. In response to passing the legislation, Clinton stated that "when someone is a victim, he or she should be at the center of the criminal justice process, not on the outside looking in."

In the weeks following the bombing, federal government surrounded all federal buildings in all major cities with prefabricated Jersey barriers to ward off similar attacks. Most of these temporary barriers have since been replaced with permanent security barriers which look more attractive and are driven deep into the ground for sturdiness. Furthermore, all new federal buildings must now be constructed with truck-resistant barriers and with deep setbacks from surrounding streets to minimize their vulnerability to truck bombs. The total cost of improving security in federal buildings across the country in response to the bombing reached over $600 million (Linenthal 29).

According to Mark Potok, director of Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, law enforcement officials authorities have foiled 60 domestic terror plots since the Oklahoma City bombing. The attacks were prevented due to measures established by the local and federal government to increase security of high-priority targets and following-up on hate groups within the United States.

Oklahoma City, being the first major American city to suffer a mass-casualty terrorist attack, and its response to the bombing have been carefully scrutinized for valuable lessons to security experts and law enforcement.

The Field of Empty Chairs, east Gate of Time, and Reflecting Pool at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.The attack led to improvements in engineering for the purpose of constructing buildings that would be better able to withstand tremendous forces. Oklahoma City's new federal building was constructed using those improvements. The National Geographic Channel documentary series Seconds From Disaster suggested that the Murrah Building would probably have survived the blast had it been built according to California earthquake design codes.

Mass Murder Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum

For two years after the bombing, the only memorial for the victims were stuffed animals, crucifixes, letters, and other personal items left by thousands of people at a security fence surrounding the site of the building.

Although multiple ideas for memorials were sent to Oklahoma City within the first day after the bombing, an official memorial planning committee did not form until early 1996 (Linenthal 119). The Murrah Federal Building Memorial Task Force, comprised of 350 members, was established to formulate plans in choosing a memorial to commemorate the victims of the bombing. On July 1, 1997, the winning design was chosen unanimously by a 15-member panel from 624 submissions. The memorial, which has become part of the National Park Service, was designed by Oklahoma City architects Hans and Torrey Butzer and Steven Berg. It was dedicated by President Clinton on April 19, 2000, exactly five years after the bombing.

After surviving the bombing, The Survivor Tree elm became an emblem of the Memorial.The museum includes a reflecting pool flanked by two large "gates", one inscribed with the time 9:01, the opposite with 9:03, the pool between representing the moment of the blast. On the south end of the memorial is a field full of symbolic bronze and stone chairs one for each person lost, arranged based on what floor they were on. The chairs represent the empty chairs at the dinner tables of the victim's family. The seats of the children killed are smaller than those of the adults lost. On the opposite side is the "survivor tree", part of the building's original landscaping that somehow survived the blast and fires that followed it. The memorial left part of the foundation of the building intact, so that visitors can see the scale of the destruction. Around the western edge of the memorial is a portion of the chain link fence which had amassed over 800,000 personal items which were later collected by the Oklahoma City Memorial Foundation.

In front of the memorial is a statue of Jesus weeping for the victims who died in the bombingOn a corner adjacent to the memorial is a sculpture titled "And Jesus Wept", erected by St. Joseph's Catholic Church. St. Joseph's, one of the first brick and mortar churches in the city, was almost completely destroyed by the blast. The statue is not part of the memorial itself but is popular with visitors nonetheless. North of the memorial is the Journal Record Building which now houses the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum, an affiliate of the National Park Service. Also in the building is the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, a non-partisan think tank.

Flowers and personal items left on several of the 168 memorial chairs on the 10th anniversary of the bombing. Remembrance

From April 17 to 24, 2005, to mark the tenth anniversary of the bombing in Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma City National Memorial held a week-long series of events known as the "National Week of Hope."

On the 19th, as in previous years, the tenth anniversary of the bombing observances began with a service at 09:02 CST, marking the moment the bomb went off, with the traditional 168 seconds of silence - one second for each person who was killed as a result of the blast. The service also included the traditional reading of the names, read by children to symbolize the future of Oklahoma City.

Vice President Dick Cheney, former president Clinton, Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry, former Oklahoma governor Frank Keating, and other political dignitaries attended the service and gave speeches in which they emphasized that "goodness overcame evil". The relatives of the victims and the survivors of the blast also made note of it during the service at First United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City.

President George W. Bush made note of the anniversary in a written statement, part of which echoes his remarks on the execution of Timothy McVeigh in 2001: "For the survivors of the crime and for the families of the dead the pain goes on." Bush was invited but did not attend the service because he was en route to Springfield, Illinois to dedicate the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Vice President Cheney presided over the service in his place.

Mass Murder Criticisms of the official version of events

There is a small number of conspiracy theorists, who, drawing from inaccurate early news reports and numerous recorded eyewitness reports as well as Governor Frank Keating's preliminary, inaccurate statements, believe there is a large conspiracy covering up the existence of additional planted explosives. Multiple websites have arisen showing articles pointing to alleged cover-ups and other possible perpetrators who helped in planning the bombing. Conspiracy theorists say there are several discrepancies, such as a retired U.S. explosives expert stating that the size of the blast was not consistent with the bomb used by McVeigh. The expert called the bombing "a massive cover-up of immense proportions."

Several witnesses reported a second person seen around the time of the bombing; investigators would later call him "John Doe 2". There are several theories that the second person was also affiliated with the bombing and was even a possible foreign connection to McVeigh and Nichols. Although the U.S. government did arrest an Army private who resembled an artist's rendering of John Doe 2 based on eyewitness accounts, they later released him after their investigation reported he was not involved with the bombing.

Another alleged cover-up by the federal government is based on an image showing the Ryder truck and McVeigh's getaway vehicle both located in a military compound before the bombing. Critics have also widely claimed that seismic recordings of the event were indicative of multiple bombs. This contention was refuted by U.S. Geological Survey and Oklahoma Geological Survey scientists, who recorded and analyzed seismic signals from the demolition of the Murrah building. These demolition seismograms showed that the two pulses of energy recorded in Norman, OK from the bombing were due to the seismic response of the Earth rather than to multiple blast sources.

In 2006, congressman Dana Rohrabacher said that the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the U.S. House Committee on International Relations, which he chairs, would investigate whether the Oklahoma City bombers had assistance from foreign sources. On December 28, 2006, when asked about fueling conspiracy theories with his questions and criticism, Rohrabacher told CNN: "There's nothing wrong with adding to a conspiracy theory when there might be a conspiracy, in fact."

Mass Murder Omagh bombing

The red Vauxhall Cavalier carrying the bomb. This photo was taken by a tourist shortly before the explosion, the camera being found in the rubble afterwards.

Location Omagh, Northern Ireland

Target(s) Marketplace

Date August 15, 1998

Attack type Car bomb

Fatalities 29

Injuries approximately 220

Perpetrator(s) Real IRA

The Omagh bombing was a car bomb attack carried out by the Real IRA on August 15, 1998, in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

The Real IRA comprises a splinter group of former Provisional Irish Republican Army members opposed to the peace process marked by the Belfast Agreement.

Twenty-nine people were killed as a result of the attack, including one woman who was pregnant with twins, and approximately 220 people were injured. The attack was described by the BBC as "Northern Ireland's worst single terrorist atrocity".

The victims included people of both Catholic and Protestant denominations, and also included Spanish tourists and others on a day trip from County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland.

Mass Murder Chronology

The Vauxhall Cavalier carrying the bomb, was parked outside a clothes shop on Omagh's Market Street at 2.00pm. It had previously been stolen in Carrickmacross, County Monaghan a week before, it then had its Republic of Ireland number plates replaced with Northern Ireland plates. The driver and another occupant left the car and walked down Campsie Road.

At 2.30pm the first warning was received by an employee of UTV in Belfast. After passing the information to the RUC, the employee received another warning three minutes later. At the same time another warning was given to the Coleraine office of the Samaritans.

At 3:10pm the bomb detonated.

Mass Murder Warnings

On the day of the bombing, three warnings were recorded and reported:

Received by Ulster Television at 14:30

"There's a bomb, courthouse, Omagh, main street, 500 pounds, explosion 30 minutes." Received by the Coleraine office of the 'Samaritans' charity at 14:32

"Am I through to Omagh? This is a bomb warning. It's going to go off in 30 minutes." (followed possibly by further pieces of information not recorded, including that the location of the bomb was allegedly 200 yards from the courthouse). Received by Ulster Television at 14:35

"Bomb, Omagh town, 15 minutes."

There has been considerable debate about the subject of these warnings, the tapes of some warnings have not been released to the public, and some information about the location of the bomb may have been recorded incorrectly or ignored. Several warnings mentioned that the bomb was 200 yards away from the courthouse, the actual bombing was between 300-400 yards from the Courthouse.

Mass Murder Police Ombudsman Report

The Police Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, strongly criticised the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) over their handling of the investigation. Her report stated that RUC officers had ignored previous warnings about a bomb and had failed to act on crucial intelligence. She went on to say that officers had been uncooperative and defensive during her inquiry into the investigation. RUC officers had been seen moving people towards the bomb, which they claimed was because the warnings had been for the Courthouse. On 24 February 2006, it was alleged that an agent paid by MI5 and the FBI, knew of the plan to bomb Omagh, but that MI5 never passed this information to police.

The Mirror report that initially, the Police Association, which represents senior officers and rank and file members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), went to court to try to block the release of the O'Loan report, but dropped their efforts after being given more time to review the report before its release to the public.

However Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan stated that the multiple warnings were given to cause confusion and ultimately a greater loss of life. Flanagan resigned following the O'Loan report.

Mass Murder Responsibility

After the attack the Real IRA claimed "minimal responsibility" for bombing the courthouse at Omagh, and later released a statement claiming two MI5 agents were largely responsible for the bombing.

The BBC's Panorama programme, Who Bombed Omagh?, shown in 2000, gave the names of the prime suspects as Séamus McKenna, Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy, and Seamus Daly. It is believed that the bombing of BBC Television Centre in London was a revenge attack for the broadcast.

Builder and publican Murphy, from County Louth, was charged and convicted in 2001 by the Republic's Special Criminal Court for "conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life or cause injury". He was sentenced to fourteen years. In January 2005, Murphy's conviction was quashed and a retrial ordered by the Court of Criminal Appeal, on the grounds that two Gardaí had falsified interview notes, and that Murphy's previous convictions were improperly taken into account by the trial judges.

Many of the others were later sued in a civil action by the relatives of people killed in the bombing, including the families of James Barker, 12, Samantha McFarland, 17, Lorraine Wilson, 15, and 20-month-old Breda Devine.

Armagh man charged with 1998 bombing Murders On September 6, 2006 Sean Hoey, an electrician from Jonesborough, County Armagh went on trial accused of 29 counts of Murder, as well as terrorism and explosives charges.

Mass Murder Memorials

The bombing inspired the song "Paper Sun", by rock group Def Leppard, as noted in the commentary of their album Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection.

Another song inspired by the bombings was "Peace on Earth", by rock group U2, and includes the line "They're reading names out over the radio. All the folks the rest of us won't get to know. Sean and Julia, Gareth, Ann, and Breda." The 5 names mentioned are five of the victims from this attack. Another Line, "She never got to say goodbye, To see the colour in his eyes, now he's in the dirt", was about how James Barker, a victim, was remembered by his mother Donna Maria Barker in an article in the Irish Times after the bombing in Omagh.

Omagh maintains a memorial garden in the town centre.

The September 11, 2001 attacks (often referred to as 9/11 pronounced "nine eleven") consisted of a series of coordinated terrorist suicide attacks by Islamic extremists on the United States of America on September 11, 2001.

It is believed that the attacks were originaly planned for between March - September 2000 but eventually occured on the morning of September 11, 2001, when nineteen terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. Each team of hijackers included a trained pilot. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners (United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 11) into the World Trade Center in New York City, one plane into each tower (1 WTC and 2 WTC), resulting in the collapse of both buildings soon afterward and irreparable damage to nearby buildings. The hijackers crashed a third airliner (American Airlines Flight 77) into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. Passengers and members of the flight crew on the fourth aircraft (United Airlines Flight 93) attempted to retake control of their plane from the hijackers; that plane crashed into a field near the town of Shanksville in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania. In addition to the 19 hijackers, 2,973 people died; another 24 are missing and presumed dead. The victims were predominantly civilians.

Mass Murder The attacks

September 11, 2001 timeline for the day of the attacks Four commercial airliners were hijacked en route to California from Logan International, Dulles International, and Newark airports. Each of the airliners had a jet fuel capacity of nearly 24,000 U.S. gallons (91,000 liters) or 144,000 pounds (65,455 kilograms). Two of the airliners were flown into the World Trade Center, one each into the North and South towers, one was flown into the Pentagon, and the fourth crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767-200 wide-body aircraft, crashed into the northern side of the North Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) at 8:46:30 a.m. local time (Eastern Daylight Time, 12:46:30 UTC).

United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767-200, crashed into the South Tower at 9:02:59 a.m. local time (13:02:59 UTC), an event covered live by television broadcasters and amateur filmers from around the world who had their cameras trained on the buildings after the earlier crash.

American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757-200, crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37:46 a.m. local time (13:37:46 UTC).

United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757-200, crashed in a field in southwest Pennsylvania just outside of Shanksville, about 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Washington, D.C., at 10:03:11 a.m. local time (14:03:11 UTC). The crash in

Pennsylvania resulted from the passengers of the airliner attempting to regain control from the hijackers.

A sequential look at United Flight 175 crashing into the south tower of the World Trade CenterThree buildings in the World Trade Center Complex collapsed due to structural failure on the day of the attack. The south tower (2 WTC) fell at approximately 9:59 a.m., after burning for 56 minutes in a fire caused by the impact of United Airlines Flight 175 at 9:03 a.m. The north tower (1 WTC) fell at 10:28 a.m., after burning for approximately 102 minutes in a fire caused by the impact of American Airlines Flight 11 at 8:46 a.m. A third building, 7 World Trade Center (7 WTC) collapsed at 5:20 p.m., after being heavily damaged by debris from the Twin Towers when they fell and subsequent fires. Numerous adjacent buildings to the complex also had substantial damage and fires and had to be demolished. The Deutsche Bank Building is the only remaining large structure that suffered damage and fires at ground zero that has yet to be fully demolished, though this is expected to be completed by mid 2007.

During the hijacking some passengers and crew members were able to make phone calls using the cabin GTE airphone service. They reported that several hijackers were aboard each plane.

The terrorists reportedly took control of the aircraft by using knives and box-cutter knives to kill flight attendants and at least one pilot or passenger, including the captain of Flight 11, John Ogonowski.

Some form of noxious chemical spray, such as tear gas or pepper spray, was reported to have been used on American 11 and United 175 to keep passengers out of the first-class cabin. Bomb threats were made on three of the aircraft, but not on American 77. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, the bombs were probably fake. The 9/11 Commission established that two of the hijackers had recently purchased Leatherman multi-function hand tools.

Above, a taxicab was hit by a lightpole as American Airlines Flight 77 passed over Washington Boulevard and crashed into the Pentagon.On United Airlines Flight 93, black box recordings revealed that crew and passengers attempted to seize control of the plane from the hijackers after learning through phone calls that similarly hijacked planes had been crashed into buildings that morning. According to the transcript of Flight 93's recorder, one of the hijackers gave the order to roll the plane once it became evident that they would lose control of the plane to the passengers. Soon afterward, the aircraft crashed into a field near Shanksville in Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, at 10:03:11 a.m. local time (14:03:11 UTC). Al-Qaeda leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed mentioned in a 2002 interview with an Al Jazeera journalist that Flight 93's target was the United States Capitol, which was given the code name "the Faculty of Law."

The attacks created widespread confusion across the United States. All international civilian air traffic was banned from landing on US soil for three days; aircraft already in flight were either turned back or redirected to airports in eastern Canada. Unconfirmed and often contradictory reports were aired and published throughout the day. One of the most prevalent of these reported that a car bomb had been detonated at the U.S. State Department's headquarters, the Truman Building in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C. This erroneous report, picked up by the wire services, was reported on CNN and in a number of newspapers published that day. Soon after reporting for the first time on the Pentagon crash, CNN and other media also briefly reported that a fire had broken out on the Washington Mall. Another report went out on the AP wire, claiming that a Delta 767 Flight 1989 had been hijacked. This report, too, turned out to be in error; the plane was briefly thought to represent a hijack risk, but it responded to controllers and landed safely in Cleveland, Ohio.

Mass Murder Fatalities

There were 2,973 fatalities, not including the 19 hijackers: 246 on the four planes (no one on board any of the hijacked aircrafts survived), 2,602 in New York City in the towers and on the ground, and 125 at the Pentagon. Among the fatalities were 343 New York City Fire Department firefighters, 23 New York City Police Department officers, and 37 Port Authority Police Department officers. Lieutenant General Timothy Maude was the highest ranking person killed at the Pentagon and John P. O'Neill was a former assistant director of the FBI who assisted in the capture of Ramzi Yousef and was the head of security at the World Trade Center when he was killed trying to rescue people from WTC 2. An additional 24 people remain listed as missing.

Mass Murder World Trade Center

1366 people died who were at or above the floors of impact in the North Tower (1 WTC); according to the Commission Report, hundreds were killed instantly by the impact while the rest were trapped and died after the tower collapsed.

As many as 600 people were killed instantly or trapped at or above the floors of impact in the South Tower (2 WTC). Only about 18 managed to escape in time from above the impact zone and out of the South Tower before it collapsed.

An estimated 200 people jumped to their deaths from the burning towers (as depicted in the photograph "The Falling Man"), landing on the streets and rooftops of adjacent buildings hundreds of feet below. To witnesses watching, a few of the people falling from the towers seemed to have stumbled out of broken windows. Some of the occupants of each tower above its point of impact made their way upward toward the roof in hope of helicopter rescue, however; no rescue plan existed for such an eventuality, the roof access doors were locked and thick smoke and intense heat would have prevented rescue helicopters from landing.

Collection of photographs of those killed (excluding 92 victims) during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

Prosecution exhibit from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui.Fatalities (Not including the 19 hijackers)

New York City World Trade Center 2,602 died and another 24 remain listed as missing

American 11 88

United 175 59

Arlington Pentagon 125

American 77 59

Shanksville United 93 40

Total 2,973 died and another 24 remain listed as missing.

Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., an investment bank on the 101st 105th floors of One World Trade Center, lost 658 employees, considerably more than any other employer. Marsh Inc., located immediately below Cantor Fitzgerald on floors 93-101 (the location of Flight 11's impact), lost 295 employees, including one on Flight 175. Additionally, Marsh lost 38 consultants. Approximately 400 rescue workers, most of them of the FDNY, died when the towers collapsed.

According to the Associated Press, the city identified over 1,600 bodies but was unable to identify the rest (about 1,100 people). They report that the city has "about 10,000 unidentified bone and tissue fragments that cannot be matched to the list of the dead." Bone fragments were still being found in 2006 as workers prepared the damaged Deutsche Bank Building for demolition. The average age of all the dead in New York City was 40.

The dead included 8 children: 5 on American 77 ranging in age from 3 to 11, 3 on United 175 ages 2, 3, and 4. The youngest victim was a 2 year-old child on Flight 175, the oldest an 82 year-old passenger on Flight 11. In the buildings, the youngest victim was 17 and the oldest was 79.

In the suburbs around New York City many schools closed for the day, evacuated, or were locked down. Other school districts shielded students from watching television because many of their parents held jobs in the World Trade Center towers. In New Jersey and Connecticut, private schools were evacuated. Children in schools of Maryland, those nearest to DC, were sent home. Scarsdale, New York, schools closed for the day. Greenwich, Connecticut, about 20 miles north of the city, had hundreds of school children with direct ties to victims of the attacks. Greenwich and nearby New Canaan, two of the wealthiest towns in the area along with neighboring Darien, had more residents killed, as a percentage of total population, than any other Connecticut town. After New York, New Jersey was the hardest hit state, with the town of Hoboken sustaining the most fatalities. All of the fatalities were civilians except some of the 125 victims in the Pentagon.

Mass Murder Damage

In addition to the 110-floor Twin Towers of the World Trade Center itself, five other buildings at the World Trade Center site, including 7 World Trade Center and the Marriott Hotel, two New York City Subway stations, and St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church were destroyed or badly damaged. In total, in Manhattan, 25 buildings were damaged and all seven buildings of the World Trade Center Complex had to be razed. Two additional buildings were later condemned: the Deutsche Bank Building across Liberty Street from the World Trade Center complex, due to the uninhabitable, toxic conditions inside the office tower and Borough of Manhattan Community College's Fiterman Hall at 30 West Broadway due to extensive damage in the attacks. These buildings are both (as of September 2006) slated for deconstruction.

Communications equipment, such as broadcast radio, television and two-way radio antenna towers, were damaged beyond repair. In Arlington County, a portion of the Pentagon was severely damaged by fire and one section of the building collapsed.

Mass Murder Survivors

Survivors of the September 11, 2001 attacks According to the 9/11 Commission, approximately 16,000 people were below the impact zones in the World Trade Center complex at the time of the attacks. The vast majority of those below the impact areas survived, evacuating before the towers collapsed.

Mass Murder Responsibility

Ground Zero on September 11, 2001, mid-day. Emergency vehicles of the first responders have been destroyed, and fires can be seen in the immediate area. Damage and fires at Ground Zero on September 11.Al Qaeda's origins date back to 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Soon after the invasion, Osama bin Laden travelled to Afghanistan and helped organize Arab mujahadeen, creating Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK), to resist the Soviets. In 1989, as the Soviets withdrew, MAK was transformed into Al Qaeda, as a "rapid reaction force" in jihad against governments across the Muslim world. Under guidance of Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama became more radical. In 1996, bin Laden issued his first fatwa which called for "American soldiers to get out of Saudi Arabia". A second fatwa, issued by bin Laden in 1998, "directed his followers to kill Americans anywhere". In the fatwa, bin Laden outlined his objections to American foreign policy towards Israel, as well as the continued presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War.

As media covered the 9/11 attacks unfolding, many quickly speculated that Bin Laden was behind the attacks. Within hours of the attacks, the FBI was able to determine the names and in many cases details such as dates of birth, known and/or possible residences, visa status, and specific identity of the suspected pilots and hijackers. Few had made any attempt to disguise their names on flight and credit card records, and they were some of the few people of Arabic descent on the flights. Mohamed Atta's luggage, which did not make the connection from his Portland flight onto American Airlines Flight 11, contained papers that revealed the identity of all 19 hijackers, and other important clues about their plans, motives, and backgrounds. On the day of the attacks, the National Security Agency intercepted communications that pointed to Osama bin Laden, as did German intelligence agencies.

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States was formed by the United States government and was commonly called the 9/11 Commission. It released its report on July 22, 2004, concluding that the attacks were conceived and implemented by members of al-Qaeda. The Commission stated that "9/11 plotters eventually spent somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000 to plan and conduct their attack, but that the specific origin of the funds used to execute the attacks remained unknown." To date, only peripheral figures have been tried or convicted in connection with the attacks.

Mass Murder The hijackers

Nineteen men boarded the four planes, five each on American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 77, four on United Airlines Flight 93. Fifteen of the attackers were from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt, and one from Lebanon.

The group consisted of six core organizers, which included the four pilots, and thirteen others. Unlike many stereotypes of hijackers or terrorists, most of the attackers were educated and came from well-to-do backgrounds.

Other potential hijackers

27 members of al-Qaeda attempted to enter the United States to take part in the September 11 attacks, but only 19 participated. Other would-be hijackers are often referred to as the 20th hijacker:

Mass Murder Zacarias Moussaoui

Zacarias Moussaoui was reportedly considered as a replacement for Ziad Jarrah, who at one point threatened to withdraw from the scheme because of tensions amongst the plotters. Plans to include Moussaoui were never completed because the al-Qaeda hierarchy allegedly had doubts about his reliability. He was arrested on August 16, 2001, about four weeks before the attacks, ostensibly for an immigration violation, but FBI agents suspected he had violent intentions after receiving flight training earlier that year. In April 2005, Moussaoui pleaded guilty to conspiring to hijack planes, and to involvement with al-Qaeda, but he denies foreknowledge of the 9-11 attacks. Moussaoui, at his sentencing hearing in March 2006, claimed that, upon the personal directive of Osama bin Laden, he and Richard Reid were due to hijack a fifth plane and fly it into the White House.

His defense lawyers dismissed this as fantasy on the part of Moussaoui, saying that he was not an operative in al Qaeda, but only a "hanger-on." In a video tape released in May 2006, Osama bin Laden claimed that Moussaoui had "no connection whatsoever with the events of September 11" and that he knows this because "he was responsible for entrusting the 19 brothers" who carried out the attacks. On May 3, 2006, a federal jury rejected the death penalty and sentenced Moussaoui to 6 life terms in prison without parole.

Buildings surrounding the World Trade Center were heavily damaged by the debris and massive force of the falling twin towersAt Moussaoui's sentencing trial, FBI agent Greg Jones testified that prior to the attacks, he urged his supervisor, Michael Maltbie, "to prevent Zacarias Moussaoui from flying a plane into the World Trade Center." Jones said it had been a "lucky guess." Maltbie had refused to act on 70 requests from another agent, Harry Samit, to obtain a warrant to search Moussaoui's computer.

Mass Murder Potential hijackers denied entry into U.S

Ramzi Binalshibh allegedly meant to take part in the attacks, but he was repeatedly denied a visa for entry into the U.S. Mohamed al-Kahtani, a Saudi Arabian citizen, may also have been planning to join the hijackers, but U.S. Immigration authorities at Orlando International Airport refused his entry into the U.S. in August 2001. He was later captured in Afghanistan and imprisoned at the U.S. military prison known as Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Mass Murder Other names of potential hijackers

Other al-Qaeda members who may have attempted, but were unable, to take part in the attacks include Saeed al-Ghamdi (not to be confused with the successful hijacker of the same name), Mushabib al-Hamlan, Zakariyah Essabar, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Tawfiq bin Attash. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the attack's mastermind, wanted to remove at least one member Khalid al-Mihdhar from the operation, but he was overruled by Osama bin Laden.

Mass Murder Osama bin Laden

On September 27, 2001, the FBI released photos of the 19 hijackers, along with information about the possible nationalities and aliases of many. The FBI investigation into the September 11, 2001 attacks, code named operation PENTTBOM, was the largest and most complex investigation in the history of the FBI, involving over 7,000 special agents. The United States government determined that al-Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden, bore responsibility for the attacks, with the FBI stating that evidence linking Al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the attacks of September 11 is clear and irrefutable. The Government of the United Kingdom reached the same conclusion, regarding Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's culpability for the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Osama bin Laden's declaration of a holy war against the United States, and a Fatwa signed by bin Laden and others calling for the killing of American civilians in 1998, are seen by many as evidence of his motivation to commit such acts.

Bin Laden initially denied, but later admitted involvement in the incidents. On September 16, 2001, bin Laden denied any involvement with the attacks by reading a statement which was broadcast by Qatar's Al Jazeera satellite channel: "I stress that I have not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation. This denial was broadcast on U.S. news networks and worldwide.

In November 2001, U.S. forces recovered a videotape from a destroyed house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, in which Osama bin Laden is talking to Khaled al-Harbi. In the tape, bin Laden admits foreknowledge of the attacks. The tape was broadcast on various news networks from December 13, 2001.

Taken from the bin Laden video of December 27, 2001On December 27, 2001, a second bin Laden video was released. In the video, he stated "Terrorism against America deserves to be praised because it was a response to injustice, aimed at forcing America to stop its support for Israel, which kills our people," but he stopped short of admitting responsibility for the attacks.

Shortly before the U.S. presidential election in 2004, in a taped statement, bin Laden publicly acknowledged al-Qaeda's involvement in the attacks on the U.S, and admitted his direct link to the attacks. He said that the attacks were carried out because, "We are a free people who do not accept injustice, and we want to regain the freedom of our nation."

In a videotape aired on Al Jazeera, on October 30, 2004, bin Laden said he had personally directed the 19 hijackers. Another video obtained by Al Jazeera in September 2006 shows Osama bin Laden with Ramzi Binalshibh, as well as two hijackers, Hamza al-Ghamdi and Wail al-Shehri, as they make preparations for the attacks.

Mass Murder Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

The idea for the September 11 plot came from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who first presented the idea to Bin Laden in 1996. At that point, Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were in a period of transition, having just relocated back to Afghanistan from Sudan. The 1998 African Embassy bombings marked a turning point, with Bin Laden intent on attacking the United States. In late 1998 or early 1999, Bin Laden gave approval for Mohammed to go forward with organizing the plot. A series of meetings occurred in spring of 1999, involving Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Osama bin Laden, and his deputy Mohammed Atef. Bin Laden provided leadership for the plot, along with financial support. Bin Laden was also involved in selecting people to participate in the plot, including choosing Mohamed Atta as the lead hijacker. Mohammed provided operational support, such as selecting targets and helping arrange travel for the hijackers. Bin Laden overruled Mohammed, rejecting some potential targets such as the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles.

In a 2002 interview with Al Jazeera journalist Yosri Fouda, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admitted his involvement, along with Ramzi Binalshibh, in the "Holy Tuesday operation". Mohammed was arrested on March 1, 2003 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Mohammed ultimately ended up at Guantanamo Bay. During a hearing in March 2007, Mohammed confessed his responsibility for the attacks, "I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z."

Mass Murder Other Al-Qaeda members

In "Substitution for Testimony of Khalid Sheik Mohammed" from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, five people are identified as having been completely aware of the operations details. They are: Osama bin Laden, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh, Abu Turab Al-Urduni and Mohammed Atef.

On September 26, 2005, the Spain's high court directed by judge Baltazar Garzon sentenced Abu Dahdah to 27 years of imprisonment for conspiracy on the 9/11 attacks and as part of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. At the same time, another 17 Al Qaeda members were sentenced to penalties of between 6 and 12 years. On February 16, 2006, the Spanish Supreme Court reduced the Abu Dahdah penalty to 12 years because it considered that his participation in the conspiracy was not proven.

Mass Murder Motive

Mass Murder Statements by Al-Qaeda members

According to official U.S. government sources, the September 11 attacks were consistent with the mission statement of al-Qaeda. The overarching motivation for the present al-Qaeda campaign was set out in a 1998 fatwa issued by Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Abu-Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, Shaykh Mir Hamzah, and the (Amir of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh, Fazlur Rahman).

The fatwa lists three "crimes and sins" committed by the Americans:

U.S. military occupation of the Arabian Peninsula.

U.S. aggression against the Iraqi people.

U.S. support of Israel.

The fatwa states that the United States:

Plunders the resources of the Arabian Peninsula.

Dictates policy to the rulers of those countries.

Supports abusive regimes and monarchies in the Middle East, thereby oppressing their people.

Has military bases and installations upon the Arabian Peninsula, which violates the Muslim holy land, in order to threaten neighboring Muslim countries.

Intends thereby to create disunion between Muslim states, thus weakening them as a political force.

Supports Israel, and wishes to divert international attention from (and tacitly maintain) the occupation of Palestine.

The Persian Gulf War, the ensuing sanctions against Iraq and the bombing of Iraq by the United States were cited in 1998 as further proof of these allegations. The fatwa uses Islamic texts to exhort violent action against American military and citizenry until the alleged grievances are reversed, stating "ulema have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries."

Aerial photo taken 27 April 2004 of the area of the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, PA (USGS)Statements of al-Qaeda recorded after 9/11 add weight to the U.S account of who was responsible for the attacks. In a 2004 video, apparently acknowledging responsibility for the attacks, bin Laden states that he was motivated by the 1982 Lebanon War, for which he held the U.S. partially responsible. In the video, bin Laden also claims that he wants to "restore freedom to our nation," to "punish the aggressor in kind," and to inflict economic damage on America. He declared that a continuing objective of his holy war was to "bleed America to the point of bankruptcy." Bin Laden said, "We swore that America would not live in security until we live it truly in Palestine. This showed the reality of America, which puts Israel's interest above its own people's interest. America will not get out of this crisis until it gets out of the Arabian Peninsula, and until it stops its support of Israel."

The 9/11 Commission Report determined that the animosity towards the United States felt by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the "principal architect" of the 9/11 attacks, stemmed "not from his experiences there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel." The same motivation has been imputed to the two pilots who flew into the WTC: Mohamed Atta was described by Ralph Bodenstein who traveled, worked and talked with him as "most imbued actually about... U.S. protection of these Israeli politics in the region." Marwan al-Shehhi is said to have explained his humorless demeanor with the words: "How can you laugh when people are dying in Palestine?"

The transcription from Arabic into English of the voice cockpit recorder on United Flight 93 includes the following words spoken by the 9/11 terrorists before the plane crashed: "In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate...In the name of Allah. In the name of Allah. I bear witness that there is no other God but Allah...Allah is the Greatest. Allah is the Greatest. Allah is the Greatest..."

Mass Murder Statements by others

The Bush administration says that Al-Qaeda was motivated by hatred of the freedom, democracy and civil liberties exemplified by the United States. In a speech in 2001, President Bush said "They hate what we see right here in this chamber -- a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other." (President George W. Bush) Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People In response to this speech ("Bush's claim that we hate freedom"), Bin Laden remarked in 2004, "Let him tell us why we did not strike Sweden."

In their book The American Nation (2005), Mark C. Carnes and John A. Garraty say that Al-Qaeda's motivation was resentment towards the lifestyle, liberalism, attitude, and ideals exemplified in America and the West; its influence in Muslim countries and on traditional culture; and its offense to traditional Islam They also suggest that another factor was lasting hostility to the West and the United States due to the former Soviet-Arab alliance or past imperialism.

According to counter-terrorism expert Richard A. Clarke, internal political conflicts within the Muslim world are the primary causal factors for the attacks of 9/11. Specifically, bin Laden and other residents of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, among other countries of the Middle East, believe that the vast majority of governments in the Middle East are apostate governments. That is, these governments' collective religiosity does not meet bin Laden's standard of Muslim Piety. The primary reason that bin Laden gives for this assertion is that none of these governments is a caliphate. Inspired by the Egyptian theologian and writer Sayyid Qutb, bin Laden believes that it is his duty as a Muslim to establish a caliphate in the Middle East. Arising directly from these beliefs, bin Laden designed a strategy of attacking the United States in order to establish this caliphate. Terming the United States as the "Far Enemy," bin Laden designed the attacks of 9/11 to cause the U.S. to increase its military and cultural presence in the Middle East. Bin Laden believes that once Muslim citizens of the Middle East confront the evils of a non-Muslim government, one that is not a caliphate, a popular social and political movement will catalyze around the desire for very conservative and zealous Muslim governments in the Middle East.

According to Michale Doran, this goal is further demonstrated by bin Laden's use of the term "spectacular" as a noun when talking about the attacks of 9/11. For example, "This spectacular will greatly anger America." He hoped these attacks would provoke a visceral emotional response from the government and citizens of the United States. In so doing, he was attempting to ensure that Muslim citizens in the Middle East would react as violently as possible to an increase in U.S. involvement in their region.

Mass Murder Reactions

Mass Murder International reaction

A solitary firefighter stands amid the rubble and smoke in New York City. Days after the Sept. 11 attack, fires still burned at the site of the World Trade Center.

Front Page of The New York Times on September 12, 2001, the first issue of that paper to be released following the attacksThe attacks had major global political ramifications. They were denounced by mainstream media and governments worldwide, with the headline of France's Le Monde newspaper summing up the international mood of sympathy: "We Are All

Americans" (Nous sommes tous Américains). The most publicized exception was that some Palestinians celebrated jubilantly upon hearing about 9/11. There were also public demonstrations of enthusiasm for the attacks conducted by Chinese students in mainland China during the night after the attacks. Leaders in most Middle Eastern countries, including Afghanistan, condemned the attacks. Iraq was a notable exception, with an immediate official statement that "the American cowboys are reaping the fruit of their crimes against humanity."

Approximately one month after the attacks, the United States led a broad coalition of international forces in the removal of the Taliban regime for harboring the al-Qaeda organization. The Pakistani authorities moved decisively to align themselves with the United States in a war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Pakistan provided the U.S. a number of military airports and bases for its attack on the Taliban regime and arrested over 600 supposed al-Qaeda members, whom it handed over to the U.S.

Numerous countries, including the UK, India, Australia, France, Germany, Indonesia, China, Canada, Russia, Pakistan, Jordan, Mauritius, Uganda and Zimbabwe introduced "anti-terrorism" legislation and froze the bank accounts of businesses and individuals they suspected of having al-Qaeda ties.

Law enforcement and intelligence agencies in a number of countries, including Italy, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines arrested people they labeled terrorist suspects for the stated purpose of breaking up militant cells around the world. In the U.S., this aroused some controversy, as critics such as the Bill of Rights Defense Committee argued that traditional restrictions on federal surveillance (e.g. COINTELPRO's monitoring of public meetings) were "dismantled" by the USA PATRIOT Act; civil liberty organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Liberty argued that certain civil rights protections were also being circumvented.

The United States set up a detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to hold what they termed "illegal enemy combatants". The legitimacy of these detentions has been questioned by, among others, member states of the European Union, the Organization of American States, and Amnesty International.

Further information: Guantanamo Bay detainment camp In the United Kingdom, outrage swelled in the media when Jo Moore, a special adviser to Transport Secretary Stephen Byers, sent an email to staff an hour after the attacks, but before the towers had collapsed, suggesting that "It is now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury. Councillors' expenses?" Moore faced calls for her resignation, but after apologising and receiving backing from Byers and Downing Street, she remained in her job until February 2002, when a further 'burying bad news' scandal finally led to her resignation.

Mass Murder Public response

The 9/11 attacks had immediate and overwhelming effects upon the United States population. Gratitude toward uniformed public-safety workers (dubbed "first responders"), and especially toward firefighters, was widely expressed in light of both the drama of the risks taken on the scene and the high death toll among the workers. Many police officers and rescue workers elsewhere in the country took leaves of absence to travel to New York City to assist in the grim process of recovering bodies from the twisted remnants of the Twin Towers. Blood donations also saw a surge in the weeks after 9/11.

Numerous incidents of harassment and hate crimes were reported against Middle Easterners and other "Middle Eastern-looking" people, particularly Sikhs, due to the fact that Sikh males usually wear turbans, which are stereotypically associated with Muslims in the United States. There were reports of verbal abuse, attacks on mosques and other religious buildings (including the firebombing of a Hindu temple) and assaults on people, including one Murder; Balbir Singh Sodhi was fatally shot on September 15. He, like others, was a Sikh who was mistaken for a Muslim.

Following the attacks, George W. Bush's job approval rating soared to 86%. On September 20, 2001, the president spoke before the nation and a joint session of the United States Congress, regarding the events of that day, the intervening nine days of rescue and recovery efforts, and his intent in response to those events. In addition, the highly visible role played by New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani won him high praise nationally and in New York.

Mass Murder Muslim American reaction

Top Muslim organizations in the United States were swift to condemn the attacks on 9/11 and called "upon Muslim Americans to come forward with their skills and resources to help alleviate the sufferings of the affected people and their families". Top organizations include: Islamic Society of North America, American Muslim Alliance, American Muslim Council, Council on American-Islamic Relations, The Islamic Circle of North America, and the Shari'a Scholars Association of North America. In addition to massive monetary donations, many Islamic organizations launched blood drives and provided medical assistance, food, and residence for victims.

Mass Murder Conspiracy theories

Various conspiracy theories have emerged, as a reaction to the attacks, that question the mainstream account.

Mass Murder U.S. Government response

Within hours of the attack, a massive search and rescue (SAR) operation was launched, which included over 350 search and rescue dogs. Initially, only a handful of wounded people were found at the site, and in the weeks that followed it became evident that there were no survivors to be found.

Rescue and recovery efforts took months to complete. It took several weeks to simply put out the fires burning in the rubble of the buildings, and the clean-up was not completed until May, 2002. Temporary wooden "viewing platforms" were set up for tourists to view construction crews clearing out the gaping holes where the towers once stood. All of these platforms were closed on May 30, 2002.

Many relief funds were immediately set up to assist victims of the attacks, with the task of providing financial assistance to the survivors and the families of victims. By the deadline for victim's compensation, September 11, 2003, 2,833 applications had been received from the families of those killed.

Mass Murder The War on Terrorism

In the aftermath of the attacks, many U.S. citizens held the view that the attacks had "changed the world forever." The Bush administration declared a war on terrorism, with the stated goals of bringing Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda to justice and preventing the emergence of other terrorist networks. These goals would be accomplished by means including economic and military sanctions against states perceived as harboring terrorists and increasing global surveillance and intelligence sharing. Immediately after the September 11 attacks U.S. officials speculated on possible involvement by Saddam Hussein; although unfounded, the association contributed to public acceptance for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The second-biggest operation of the U.S. Global War on Terrorism outside of the United States, and the largest directly connected to terrorism, was the overthrow of the oppressive Taliban rule from Afghanistan, by a U.S.-led coalition. The U.S. was not the only nation to increase its military readiness, with other notable examples being the Philippines and Indonesia, countries that have their own internal conflicts with Islamist terrorism.

Because the attacks on the United States were judged to be within the parameters of its charter, NATO declared that Article 5 of the NATO agreement was satisfied on September 12, 2001, making the US war on terrorism the first time since its inception that NATO would actually participate in a "hot" war.

Mass Murder Domestic response

Within the United States, Congress passed and President Bush signed the Homeland Security Act of 2002, creating the Department of Homeland Security, representing the largest restructuring of the U.S. government in contemporary history. Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act, stating that it would help detect and prosecute terrorism and other crimes. Civil liberties groups have criticized the PATRIOT Act, saying that it allows law enforcement to invade the privacy of citizens and eliminates judicial oversight of law-enforcement and domestic intelligence gathering. The Bush Administration also invoked 9/11 as the reason to initiate a secret National Security Agency operation, "to eavesdrop on telephone and e-mail communications between the United States and people overseas without a warrant."

Following the attacks, 80,000 Arab and Muslim immigrants were fingerprinted and registered under the Alien Registration Act of 1940. 8,000 Arab and Muslim men were interviewed, and 5,000 foreign nationals were detained under Joint Congressional Resolution 107-40 authorizing the use of military force "to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism against the United States."

Mass Murder Investigations

Collapse of the World Trade Center

An illustration of the World Trade Center 9-11 attacks with a vertical view of the impact locations. Many architects and structural engineers have analyzed the collapse of the Twin Towers.

September 13, 2001: A New York City firefighter looks up at what remains of the South Tower.

A federal technical building and fire safety investigation of the collapses of the Twin Towers and 7 WTC has been conducted by the United States Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The goals of this investigation, completed on April 6, 2005, were to investigate the building construction, the materials used, and the technical conditions that contributed to the outcome of the WTC disaster. The investigation was to serve as the basis for:

Improvements in the way in which buildings are designed, constructed, maintained, and used

Improved tools and guidance for industry and safety officials

Revisions to building and fire codes, standards, and practices

Improved public safety

The report concludes that the fireproofing on the Twin Towers' steel infrastructures was blown off by the initial impact of the planes and that, if this had not occurred, the towers would likely have remained standing. The fires weakened the trusses supporting the floors, making the floors sag. The sagging floors pulled on the exterior steel columns to the point where exterior columns bowed inward. With the damage to the core columns, the buckling exterior columns could no longer support the buildings, causing them to collapse. In addition, the report asserts that the towers' stairwells were not adequately reinforced to provide emergency escape for people above the impact zones. NIST stated that the final report on the collapse of 7 WTC will appear in a separate report.

Mass Murder Internal Review of the CIA

The Inspector General of the CIA conducted an internal review of the CIA's performance prior to 9/11, and was harshly critical of senior CIA officials for not doing everything possible to confront terrorism, including failing to stop two of the 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, as they entered the United States and failing to share information on the two men with the FBI.

Mass Murder 9/11 Commission Report

For more details on this topic, see 9/11 Commission Report. The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission), chaired by former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean, was formed in late 2002 to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the attacks, including preparedness for, and the immediate response to, the attacks. On July 22, 2004, the report was released. The commission has been subject to criticism.

Mass Murder Civilian aircraft grounding

For the first time in history, all nonemergency civilian aircraft in the United States and several other countries including Canada were immediately grounded, stranding tens of thousands of passengers across the world.

Mass Murder Invocation of the continuity of government

Contingency plans for the continuity of government and the evacuation of leaders were implemented almost immediately after the attacks. Congress, however, was not told that the US was under a continuity of government status until February 2002.

Mass Murder Long-term effects

Mass Murder Economic aftermath

World economic effects arising from the September 11, 2001 attacks The attacks had a significant economic impact on the United States and world markets. The Federal Reserve temporarily had reduced contact with banks because of outages of switching equipment in the lower NY financial district. Contact and control over the money supply, including immediate liquidity for banks, was restored within hours. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the American Stock Exchange and NASDAQ did not open on September 11 and remained closed until September 17. NYSE facilities and remote data processing sites were not damaged by the attack, but member firms, customers and markets were unable to communicate due to major damage to the telephone exchange facility near the World Trade Center. When the stock markets reopened on September 17, 2001, after the longest closure since the Great Depression in 1929, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) stock market index fell 684 points, or 7.1%, to 8920, its biggest-ever one-day point decline. By the end of the week, the DJIA had fallen 1369.7 points (14.3%), its largest one-week point drop in history. U.S. stocks lost $1.2 trillion in value for the week. As of 2007, Wall and Broad Streets near the New York Stock Exchange remained barricaded and guarded to prevent a physical attack upon the building.

September 11 from space: Manhattan spreads a large smoke plumeThe economy of Lower Manhattan, which by itself is the third-largest business district in the United States (after Midtown Manhattan and the Chicago Loop) was devastated in the immediate aftermath. Thirty percent (28.7 million sq ft, 2.7 million m³) of Lower Manhattan office space was either damaged or destroyed. The 41-story Deutsche Bank Building, neighboring the World Trade Center, was subsequently closed because extensive damage made it unfit for habitation or restoration and it was scheduled for demolition. Power, telephone, and gas were cut off in much of Lower Manhattan. People were not permitted to enter the SoHo and Lower Manhattan area without extensive inspection. Much of what was destroyed was valuable Class-A space. The pre-2001 trend of moving jobs out of Lower Manhattan to Midtown and New Jersey was accelerated. Many questioned whether these lost jobs would ever be restored, and whether the damaged tax base could ever recover. The rebuilding has been inhibited by a lack of agreement on priorities. For example, Mayor Bloomberg had made New York's bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics the core of his capital development plan from 2002 until mid-2005, and Governor Pataki largely delegated his role to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation which has been widely criticized for doing little with the enormous funding directed to the rebuilding efforts. On the sites of the totally destroyed buildings, one, 7 World Trade Center, has a new office tower which was completed in 2006. The Freedom Tower is currently under construction at the site and at 1,776 ft (541 m) upon completion in 2010, will become the tallest building in North America and one of the tallest in the world. Three more towers are expected to be built between 2007 and 2012 on the site, and will be located one block east of where the original towers stood. North American air space was closed for several days after the attacks and air travel decreased significantly upon its reopening. The attacks led to nearly a 20% cutback in air travel capacity, and severely exacerbated financial problems in the struggling U.S. airline industry.

Mass Murder Potential health effects

The thousands of tons of toxic debris resulting from the collapse of the Twin Towers consisted of more than 2,500 contaminants, more specifically: 50% nonfibrous material and construction debris; 40% glass and other fibers; 9.2% cellulose; and 0.8% asbestos, lead, and mercury. There were also unprecedented levels of dioxin and PAHs from the fires which burned for three months. Some of the dispersed substances (crystalline silica, lead, cadmium, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) are carcinogenic; other substances can trigger kidney, heart, liver and nervous system deterioration.

This has led to debilitating illnesses among rescue and recovery workers, and the death of NYPD officer James Zadroga. Health effects also extended to some residents, students, and office workers of Lower Manhattan and nearby Chinatown.

There is scientific speculation that exposure to various toxic products and the pollutants in the air surrounding the Towers after the WTC collapse may have negative effects on fetal development. Due to this potential hazard, a notable children's environmental health center is currently analyzing the children whose mothers were pregnant during the WTC collapse, and were living or working near the World Trade Center towers. The staff of this study assesses the children using psychological testing every year and interviews the mothers every six months. The purpose of the study is to determine whether there is significant difference in development and health progression of children whose mothers were exposed, versus those who were not exposed after the WTC collapse.

Government officials have been faulted for urging the public to return to lower Manhattan in the weeks shortly following the attacks. President Bush has been faulted for interfering with the EPA interpretations and pronouncements regarding air quality. Mayor Giuliani has been faulted for urging financial industry personnel to return to the greater Wall Street area.

See article on EPA head Christine Todd Whitman for her position on the air quality issue.

On October 17, 2006, federal judge Alvin K. Hellerstein rejected New York City's refusal to pay for health costs for rescue workers.

Effects in media and popular culture September 11, 2001 attacks in popular culture

Mass Murder Memorials

Manhattan from Jersey City on the memorial of the attacks in 2004 World Trade Center cross September 11, 2001 attack memorials and services Memorials to the victims and heroes of the attacks of September 11 have been planned. An eternal flame was lit by the Mayor on the first anniversary of the disaster. An outdoor public memorial at the Pentagon is scheduled for completion in Fall 2008. Within the Pentagon itself, the America's Heroes Memorial was added in September, 2002 when the building repairs were completed. However, public access to this memorial is restricted to group tours.

The proposed design for Flight 93 National Memorial is called, "Crescent of Embrace," which has created some controversy due to its large red crescent that also points toward Mecca. Recently, due to the amount of public pressure, it has been announced that the memorial will be redesigned so as to avoid any confusion with the sign of Islam.

Construction of the World Trade Center Memorial began in March 2006. The winning design of the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition was Reflecting Absence created by Michael Arad. It is expected to open in 2009.

Many permanent memorials are being constructed around the world and a list is being updated as new ones are completed. In addition to physical monuments, some family members and friends of victims have set up memorial funds, scholarships, and charities in honor of lost loved

Passover massacre

Passover massacre

Location Netanya

Target(s) Park Hotel's Jewish guests

Date March 27, 2002

Attack type suicide bomber

Fatalities 30

Perpetrator(s) Hamas

The Passover massacre (also known as the Netanya bombing) was a Palestinian suicide bombing in the Park Hotel at Netanya on March 27, 2002. The attack killed 30 Israeli civilians and triggered Operation Defensive Shield.

The attack occurred on the night of March 27, when the traditional Jewish holiday of Passover was celebrated. The Park Hotel in Netanya held a big Passover dinner for its 250 guests, especially elderly Jews who didn't have family and relatives, in the ground-floor dining room. A Palestinian suicide bomber passed a security guard at the hotel's entrance, walked through the lobby passing the reception desk and entered the hotel's dining room where he detonated an explosive device he carried in a suitcase. Twenty-eight people were immediately killed, and about 140 were injured, of whom 20 were seriously injured. Two of the injured later died from their wounds. Many of the victims were Holocaust survivors.

The Arab-Israeli conflict in 2002

Mass Murder Events

Passover massacre

Defensive Shield

Battle of Jenin

Siege of the Church of the Nativity

Patt junction massacre

Mass Murder Hamas claims responsibility

Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. The bomber was identified as Abdel-Basset Odeh, a 25-year-old from the nearby West Bank city of Tulkarem. Odeh claimed that the attack was in response to a series of Israeli incursions into Palestinian refugee camps earlier in the month that resulted in several Palestinian civilian deaths. Hamas would later claim that the attacks were specifically designed to derail momentum from a recently announced peace offer from the Saudi government at the Beirut Summit.

Mass Murder Palestinian Authority's reaction

While in English language media, the Palestinian Authority condemned the attack saying "The leadership strongly denounces Netanya operation against Israeli civilians and decides to prosecute those involved or responsible," in Arabic it glorified the "shahid": (source?) on January 21, 2003, the official PA daily newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida published a report saying "the Tulkarm Shahids Memorial Soccer Championship tournament of the Shahid Abd Al-Baset Odeh began with the participation of seven top teams, named after Shahids who gave their lives to redeem the homeland. Isam, the brother of the Shahid, will distribute the trophies."

Mass Murder Israel's reaction

In his response to the Saudi initiative adopted at the Beirut Summit, Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel Shimon Peres noted that "... the details of every peace plan must be discussed directly between Israel and the Palestinians, and to make this possible, the Palestinian Authority must put an end to terror, the horrifying expression of which we witnessed just last night in Netanya."

In the wake of the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his cabinet ordered the immediate recruitment of 20,000 reservists in an emergency call-up and the following day launched Operation Defensive Shield.

Keis Adwan, the head of the suicide bombing network in northern Samaria responsible for the massacre was killed on April 17, 2002 during Operation Defensive Shield after the IDF and the Yamam caught up with him in Tubas. In May 2002, Israeli forces arrested the mastermind behind the attack, Abbas al-Sayed. On September 22, 2005, al-Sayed was convicted of the Passover attack and also of ordering the May 2001 bombing of a Netanya mall. He received 35 life sentences for each Murder victim and additional time for those who were wounded.

In July 2005 Netanya was hit by a bomber again, this time one dispatched by Islamic Jihad. Five were killed and dozens wounded.

Mass Murder Victims

Most of the victims were senior citizens (70+). Many of them were Holocaust survivors. The oldest victim was 90 and the youngest was 20 years old. A number of married couples were Murdered as well as a father together with his daughter. One of the victims was a Jewish tourist from Sweden that visited Israel for the passover.

Mass Murder 2002 Bali bombings

Location Bali, Indonesia

Target(s) Two nightclubs, US Consular office

Date 12 October 2002

23:05 (UTC+8)

Attack Type Suicide bombing, car bomb, and other bombing

Fatalities 202

Injuries 209

Perpetrator(s) Jemaah Islamiyah members

Terrorism in Indonesia

Jakarta Stock Exchange bombing Christmas Eve 2000 bombings 2002 Bali bombings 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing 2004 Jakarta

Mass Murder Embassy bombing 2005 Bali bombings

The 2002 Bali bombing occurred on October 12, 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. The attack was the deadliest act of terrorism in the history of Indonesia, killing 202 people, 164 of whom were foreign nationals (including 88 Australians), and 38 Indonesian citizens. A further 209 were injured.

The attack involved the detonation of three bombs: a backpack-mounted device carried by a suicide bomber; a large car bomb, both of which were detonated in or near popular nightclubs in Kuta; and a third much smaller device detonated outside the United States consulate in Denpasar, causing only minor damage.

Various members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a violent Islamist group, were convicted in relation to the bombings, including three individuals who were sentenced to death. Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, was found guilty of conspiracy, and sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment. Riduan Isamuddin, generally known as Hambali and the suspected former operational leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, is in U.S. custody in an undisclosed location, and has not been charged in relation to the bombing or any other crime.

Mass Murder The attack

Bali bombings on October 12, 2002 Nationality deaths

Australian 88

Indonesian 38

British 24

American 7

German 6

Swedish 5

Dutch 4

French 4

Danish 3

New Zealander 3

Swiss 3

Brazilian 2

Canadian 2

Japanese 2

South African 2

South Korea 2

Ecuadorian 1

Greek 1

Italian 1

Polish 1

Portuguese 1

Taiwanese 1

Unknown 3

Total 202

At 23:05 (15:05 UTC) on 12 October 2002, a suicide bomber inside the nightclub Paddy's Bar detonated a bomb in his backpack, causing many patrons, with or without injuries, to immediately flee into the street. Fifteen seconds later, a second and much more powerful car bomb hidden inside a white Mitsubishi van, was detonated by another suicide bomber outside the Sari Club, located opposite Paddy's Bar. The van was also rigged for detonation by remote control incase the second bomber had a sudden change of heart. Damage to the densely populated residential and commercial district was immense, destroying neighbouring buildings and shattering windows several blocks away. The car bomb explosion left a one meter deep crater.

The local Sanglah hospital was ill-equipped to deal with the scale of the disaster and was overwhelmed with the number of injured, particularly burn victims. Many of the injured were flown to the relatively close proximity of Darwin and Perth for specialist burns treatment.

A comparatively small bomb detonated outside the U.S. consulate in Denpasar, which is thought to have exploded shortly before the two Kuta bombs, caused minor injuries to one person and property damage was minimal. It was reportedly packed with human excrement.

A report released on August 2005 by the US Indonesia Society desribed the events as such;

The investigators were thus able to recreate the bombers activities. Amrozi, Idris and Ali Imron had simply walked into a dealership and purchased a new Yamaha motorbike, after asking how much they could re-sell it for if they returned it in a few days. Imron used the motorbike to plant the small bomb outside the U.S. Consulate. Idris then rode the motorbike as Imron drove two suicide bombers in the Mitsubishi to the nightclub district in Kuta. He stopped near the Sari Club, instructed one suicide bomber to put on his explosives vest and the other to arm the vehicle bomb. The first bomber headed to Paddy's Pub. Idris then left the second bomber, who had only learned to drive in a straight line, to drive the minivan the short distance to the Sari Club. Idris picked up Imron on the Yamaha and the duo headed back into Denpasar. Idris dialed the number of the Nokia to detonate the bomb at the Consulate. The two suicide bombers exploded their devices. Imron and Idris dropped the motorbike at the mosque where it eventually attracted the attention of the caretaker

The final death toll was 202, mainly comprising Western tourists and holiday-makers in their 20s and 30s who were in or near Paddy's Bar or the Sari Club, but also including many Balinese Indonesians working or living nearby, or simply passing by. Hundreds more people suffered horrific burns and other injuries. The largest group among those killed were holidayers from Australia with 88 fatalities.

There were many acts of individual heroism. Kossy Halemai, a hotel manager, was singled out for praise with the award of Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2005.

Three bodies were never identified and were cremated at Bali in September 2003.

The car bomb was initially thought to have consisted of C4, a military grade plastic explosive which is difficult to obtain. However, on 21 October investigators at the scene disclosed that the main portion of the bomb consisted of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer agent readily available in Indonesia.

Mass Murder Suspects

National flags at Kuta explosion site (October 17, 2002)The organisation immediately suspected of responsibility for the bombing was Jemaah Islamiyah, an Islamist group allegedly led by radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir that has been linked in many news reports to the al-Qaeda network.. A week after the blasts Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera put to air an audio-cassette purportedly carrying a recorded voice message from Osama Bin Laden saying that the Bali bombings were in direct retaliation for support of the United States' war on terror and Australia's role in the liberation of East Timor.

"You will be killed just as you kill, and will be bombed just as you bomb," "Expect more that will further distress you."

The Indonesian chief of police, General Da'i Bachtiar said that the bombing was the "worst act of terror in Indonesia's history". Other Indonesian ministers stated their belief that the blasts were related to al-Qaeda. It is now known that al-Qaeda number 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri contacted Jemaah Islamiyah in 2002 asking them to attack a 'soft target' in Indonesia. Abu Bakar Bashir, though officially wanted in Singapore and Malaysia, held a news conference on 12 October to deny any involvement. In a number of statements he denied that the bombing had been perpetrated by Indonesians, and blamed the United States for exploding the bomb, claiming that it wasn't possible for Indonesians to construct such a sophisticated device.

Aris Munandar (aka Sheik Aris) is a Jemaah Islamiyah associate linked to Bashir. He is believed to have assisted the Bali bomber Amrozi in acquiring some of the explosives used in the Bali bombings. Philippine intelligence considers Munandar to be associated with Mohammad Abdullah Sughayer, a Saudi national suspected of financing the al-Qaeda affiliated Abu Sayyaf Group in southern Philippines. Munandar is still at large. The USIS report described Amrozis arrest as such;

General Pastika ordered his men to make the arrest early the next morning, November . Amrozi was asleep in the rear of the house. According to Greg Barton's account, Amrozi did not attempt to escape, but laughed instead, later exclaiming, ''Gosh, you guys are very clever,how did you find me?" Amrozi's mobile phone a particularly important piece of evidence was seized during his arrest. Bags of chemical ingredients for bombs were found in his workshop and soil samples taken from outside his home showed traces of the primary chemical used in the Sari Club bomb. Police found receipts for the purchase of chemicals used to make the bombs, as well as a list of expenses incurred in making the bombs. Further search of Amrozi's home revealed copes of speeches by Usama bin Laden, the head of al-Qaeda, and Abu Bakar Bashir, the radical Indonesian Muslim cleric reputed to be the leader of . The speeches exhorted listeners to wage jihad. Police also uncovered training manuals on ambush techniques and numerous articles on jihad. Under questioning Amrozi revealed the names of six others involved in the bombing: Ali Imron, Imam Samudra, Dul Matin, Idris, Abdul Ghani and Umar Patek. But Amrozi's mobile phone proved to be the real catch. Indonesian investigators were able to print out a list of calls he had made immediately before, during and after the bombing, as well as the names and telephone numbers in the phone's memory. Pastika kept Amrozi's arrest secret for two days. After it was announced, Polri and monitored the sudden flurry of communications among numbers listed in Amrozi's telephone before the calls abruptly ceased. The investigators were able to identify the location of a num- ber of the telephones, leading to a series of arrests

Indonesian authorities also believe more suspects remain at large. In 2005, Indonesian police arrested 24 additional people suspected of involvement in the Bali attacks and a 2003 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta. Some were believed to have been making preparations to leave for the Philippines.

An October 12, 2005 story in Australian broadcaster SBS's documentary series Dateline, called "Inside Indonesia's War on Terrorism", argued that the Indonesian military or police may have been involved in executing the attack.

Mass Murder Legal proceedings

Mass Murder Initial charges and trials

In April 2003 Indonesian authorities charged Abu Bakar Bashir (also rendered "Ba'asyir") with treason. It was alleged that he tried to overthrow the government and set up an Islamic state. The specific charges against Bashir related to a series of church bombings on Christmas Eve in 2000, and to a plot to bomb United States and other Western interests in Singapore. He was initially not charged over the Bali attack, although he was frequently accused of being the instigator or inspirer of the attack. On 2 September Bashir was acquitted of treason but convicted of lesser charges and sentenced to a prison term of four years. He said he would appeal. On October 15, 2004, he was arrested by the Indonesian authorities and charged with involvement in another bomb attack, which killed 14 people at the J. W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta on August 5, 2003. Secondary charges in this indictment accused him of involvement in the Bali bombing, the first time he faced charges in relation to this attack. On March 3, 2005, Bashir was found not guilty of the charges surrounding the 2003 bombing, but guilty of conspiracy over the 2002 attacks in Bali. He was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment. The Australian, US, and many governments expressed its disappointment that the sentence was too short; in the outcome, Bashir was freed 14 June 2006 having served less than 26 months for his conspiracy

On 30 April 2003, the first charges related to the Bali bombings were made against Amrozi bin Haji Nurhasyim, known as Amrozi, for allegedly buying the explosives and the van used in the bombings. On 8 August he was found guilty and sentenced to death. Another participant in the bombing, Imam Samudra, was sentenced to death on 10 September. Amrozi's brother, Ali Imron, who had expressed remorse for his part in the bombing, was sentenced to life imprisonment on 18 September. A fourth accused, Ali Gufron, the brother-in-law of Noordin Mohammed Top was sentenced to death on 1 October.

Ali Gufron, alias Mukhlas, told police that he was the head of one of Jemaah Islamiyah's four cells and had ordered the Bali bombings. He also confessed that a fellow leader Riduan Isamuddin, known as Hambali, had provided the funds for the attacks. He told police, I do not know for sure the source of the aforementioned money from Hambali; most probably it was from Afghanistan, that is, from Sheikh Usama bin Laden. As far as I know, Hambali did not have a source of funds except from Afghanistan. Another operative, Wan Min bin Wan Mat, revealed to police that he had given Mukhlas money, at Hambali's request and that he understood part of the money had come directly from al-Qaeda.

All those convicted have said they will appeal, and none of the death sentences have yet been carried out. The Australian, US, and many other foreign governments expressed satisfaction with the speed and efficiency with which the Indonesian police and courts dealt with the bombing's primary suspects, despite what they characterized as light sentences. All Australian jurisdictions abolished the death penalty more than 30 years ago, but a poll showed that 55% of Australians approved of the death sentences in the Bali cases. The Australian government said it would not ask Indonesia to refrain from using the death penalty.

Hambali, head of Jemaah Islamiyah and leading suspect of Mariott Hotel bombing in Jakarta, is also considered a suspect in the Bali bombing.On 15 August Riduan Isamuddin, generally known as Hambali, described as the operational chief of Jemaah Islamiyah and as al-Qaeda's point man in Southeast Asia, was arrested in Ayutthaya, Thailand, the old capital one hour's drive north of Bangkok. He is in American custody in an undisclosed location, and has not been charged in relation to the Bali bombing or any other crime. It was reported that the United States is reluctant to hand Hambali over to Indonesian authorities in light of the lenient sentence given to Abu Bakar Bashir.

Mass Murder Constitutional appeals

On July 23, 2004, one of the convicted bombers, Maskur Abdul Kadir, successfully appealed his conviction. He had been tried under retrospective laws which were introduced after the bombing and which were employed to aid the prosecution of those involved in the attack. These laws were used by the prosecution instead of existing criminal laws as they allowed the death penalty to be imposed and lowered certain evidentiary restrictions.

The highest court in Indonesia, the Constitutional Court, found by a margin of five to four that trying the terrorist suspects under these retrospective laws violated Article 28I(1) of the constitution. The minority judges argued that international human rights documents such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights allowed an exception to not applying retrospective legislation in the prosecution of crimes against humanity. The majority found that this argument was inconsistent with the text of Article 28I(1) which states that the rights listed there "cannot be limited under any circumstances."

Following this decision, charges related to the bombings against Idris, who had confessed to participating in the attacks to the police and court, were dismissed. Both the chief of the Constitutional Court, in extra-judicial comments, and the Justice Minister, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, stated that the decision has no effect on the status of the thirty-two other convictions reached before the Constitutional Court's ruling. The legal status of Kadir, Idris and others who might have their convictions quashed following the ruling on the retrospective law is unclear.

The decision by the Constitutional Court has been seen as an important demonstration of its independence from the government. It is a relatively new body, created after the fall of Soeharto, and this decision was one of the first to overrule the constitutionality of the government's application of a law.

Mass Murder Long Road to Heaven

Peace Park at the former site of the Sari ClubIn 2006, Long Road to Heaven, an Indonesian feature film about the bombings was released by Kalyana Shira Films. The film was directed by Enison Sinaro and written by Wong Wai Leng and Andy Logam-Tan. It stars Raelee Hill, Mirrah Foulkes, Alex Komang, Surya Seputra, John O'Hare, Sarah Treleaven, and Joshua Pandelaki.

It tells the story during three different times: the planning a few months before the bombing, its execution in 2002, and the trials in 2003 through the viewpoints of both the victims and the bombers. The story is not chronologically linear, starting with the explosion and then moving from time to time so as all three plots are culminated one after the other. At the beginning of each scene, subtitles tell the date and location of the scene.

Mass Murder 2004 Iraq Ashura bombings

Mass Murder Ashura massacre

Location Karbala and Baghdad, Iraq

Target(s) Shi'a Muslims commemorating the Ashura festival, including the Kazimiya shrine

Date March 2, 2004

Attack type bombing (including car bombs and suicide bombers); mortar, grenade and rocket attacks Fatalities 178

Injuries at least 500

Perpetrator(s) al-Qaeda; attacks directed by Abu Abdallah al Hassan Ben Mahmoud

Motive Anti-Shi'a sectarian hatred

Bombings and terrorist attacks of the Iraq War

Attacks with 80+ casualties in bold:

Jordanian embassy UN headquarters Imam Ali Mosque 1st Baghdad Nasiriyah Karbala Irbil Ashoura Basra Baqubah Kufa FOB Marez 1st Al Hillah Musayyib 2nd Baghdad 3rd Baghdad Khanaqin Al-Askari Mosque Buratha Mosque 1st Sadr City 2nd Sadr City 4th Baghdad 5th Baghdad 6th Baghdad 7th Baghdad 8th Baghdad 2nd Al Hillah Tal Afar Iraqi Parliament

The Ashura massacre of March 2, 2004 in Iraq was a series of planned terrorist explosions that killed 170 and injured 500 Iraqi Shi'as Muslims commemorating the Ashura festival. The bombings brought one of the deadliest days in the Iraq occupation after the Iraq War to topple Saddam Hussein.

Mass Murder The attacks

Nine explosions were detonated in Karbala, accompanied by mortar, grenade, and rocket fire, killing over 100 people, while three explosions near the Kazimiya shrine in Baghdad killed 58 more. Though the attack involved armed squads, car bombs, and up to a dozen suicide bombers, there was also an explosive-laden vehicle which was intercepted while trying to enter Basra, as were two suicide bombers in Karbala and others in Baghdad who had entered via Syria. The squads armed with rockets and small arms were meant to kill those wounded by the blasts as well as to trap those trying to flee the carnage.

Al Qaeda was immediately held responsible for the attack, and it was believed their intent was to cause much more destruction than actually occurred.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the American commander in Baghdad, initially blamed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for the attacks, but it was subsequently revealed that his field commander in Iraq, Abu Abdallah al Hassan Ben Mahmoud, directed the attacks. Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a highly influential Shiite in Iraq, blamed the U.S. for allowing the attacks to occur.

March 2004 Madrid Train Bombings

Location Madrid, Spain

Date 11 March 2004

07:30 08:00 (UTC+1)

Attack type Backpack bombs

Fatalities 191

Injuries 2050

The 2004 Madrid train bombings (also known as 3/11, 11/3, M-11 and -in Spanish- as 11-M) consisted of a series of coordinated bombings against the Cercanías (commuter train) system of Madrid, Spain on the morning of 11 March 2004, killing 191 people and wounding 2,050.

The alleged perpetrators were Islamist extremists, mostly of North African origin. Spanish nationals who provided the explosives were also arrested

It is the only terrorist act in history, according to the European Strategic Intelligence And Security Center, where non-Muslims collaborated with Muslims.

The official investigation by the Spanish Judiciary determined the attacks were directed by an al-Qaeda inspired terrorist cell. Direct al-Qaeda participation has not been established

The authorship of the bombings remains controversial to some groups in Spain, although the trial appears to have resolved most of the questions surrounding responsibility. However, there remains controversy regarding the handling and representation of the bombings by the government of José María Aznar who was swept from power in the general elections that took place three days later. Additionally, questions remain regarding police negligence prior to the bombings, not unlike the questions regarding the FBI's conduct prior to September 11. (see "controversies")

Mass Murder Description of the bombings

Plaque in memory of the casualties in the 11-M terror attack in MadridDuring the peak of Madrid rush hour on the morning of Thursday, 11 March 2004, ten explosions occurred aboard four commuter trains (cercanías). All the affected trains were traveling on the same line and in the same direction between Alcalá de Henares and Atocha station in Madrid. It was later reported that thirteen improvised explosive devices (IEDs) had been placed on the trains. Bomb-disposal teams had dealt with two of the remaining three IEDs. The following time-line of events comes from the judicial investigation.

All four explosives-laden trains had departed the station Alcalá de Henares between 07:01 and 07:14. The explosions took place between 07:37 and 07:40 in the morning, as described below (all timings given are in local time UTC/GMT+1):

Atocha Station (train number 21431) Three bombs exploded. Based on the video recording from the station security system, the first bomb exploded at 7:37, and two others exploded within 4 seconds of each other at 7:38. Calle Tellez, (train number 17305), approximately 800 meters from Atocha Station Four bombs exploded in different carriages of the train at approximately 7:39.

El Pozo del Tío Raimundo Station (train number 21435) At approximately 07:38, just as the train was starting to leave the station, two bombs exploded in different carriages.

Santa Eugenia Station (train number 21713) One bomb exploded at approximately 07:38. At 08:00, emergency relief workers began arriving at the scenes of the bombings. The police reported numerous victims and spoke of 50 wounded and several dead. By 08:30 the emergency ambulance service, SAMUR (Servicio de Asistencia Municipal de Urgencia y Rescate), had set up a field hospital at a sports facility at Daoiz y Velarde. Hospitals were told to expect the arrival of many casualties. Bystanders and local residents helped relief workers. At 08:43, fire fighters reported 15 dead at El Pozo. By 09:00, the police had confirmed the death of at least 30 people 20 at El Pozo and about 10 in Santa Eugenia and Atocha.

Forty-one of the dead came from thirteen countries outside of Spain, including fifteen from Romania, five each from Ecuador and Peru, four from Poland, three from Colombia, two from Honduras, and one each from Bulgaria, Chile, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, France, and Morocco. The number of victims was higher than in any similar event in Spain, far surpassing the 21 killed and 40 wounded from a 1987 bombing at a Hipercor chain supermarket in Barcelona. On that occasion, responsibility was claimed by the Basque armed militant group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna ("Basque Fatherland and Liberty"), or ETA. It was also the worst incident of this kind in Europe since the Lockerbie bombing in 1988.

The Prosecutor, Olga Sánchez, asserted that the bombings happened 911 days after 9/11 due to (her own words) the "highly symbolic and qabbalistic charge for local al-Qaida groups" of choosing that day.

Further bombings spur investigation

Another bombing, this time on the track of a high-speed train (AVE), was attempted on 2 April but was unsuccessful. Shortly after, police identified an apartment in Leganés, south of Madrid, as the base of operations for the individuals suspected of being the material authors of the Madrid and AVE attacks. The suspected militants, headed by Jamal Zougam, Serhane Abdelmaji "the Tunisian" and Jamal Ahmidan "the Chinese", were trapped inside the apartment by a police raid on the evening of Saturday 3 April. At 9:03 pm, when the police started to assault the premises, the militants committed suicide by setting off explosives, killing themselves and one of the police officers. Investigators subsequently found that the explosives used in the Leganés explosion were of the same type as those used in the 11 March attacks (though it had not been possible to identify a brand of dynamite from samples taken from the trains) and in the thwarted bombing of the AVE line.

Based on the assumption that the militants killed at Leganés were, indeed, the individuals responsible for the train bombings, the ensuing investigation focused on how they obtained their estimated 200 kg of explosives. The investigation revealed that they had been bought from a retired miner who still had access to blasting equipment.

Five to eight suspects believed to be involved in the 11 March attacks managed to escape. ABC reported in December, 2006 that the ETA reminded Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero about the March 11 2004 as an example of what could happen unless the Government considered their petitions.

Mass Murder Aftermath

Makeshift shrine for the victims of the attacksIn France, the Vigipirate plan was upgraded to orange level. In Italy, the Government declared a state of high alert.

On December 2004 José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero claimed that the PP government wiped off all of the computer files related with the Madrid bombings, leaving only the documents on paper.

It has been reported (El País, 4 January, 2007) that new attacks were being prepared in Spain by alleged perpetrators of the 2004 Madrid train bombings.

Mass Murder Responsibility

According to the Spanish judiciary, a loose group of Moroccan, Syrian, and Algerian Muslims inspired by al-Qaeda and two Guardia Civil and Spanish police informants are suspected of having carried out the attacks. As of 11 April 2006, Judge Del Olmo charged 29 suspects for their involvement in the train bombings.

Direct al-Qaeda involvement has been discarded, although an al-Qaeda claim was made the day of the attacks by the Abu Hafs al Masri Brigades. U.S. officials note that this group is "notoriously unreliable"

According to The Independent, "Those who invented the new kind of rucksack bomb used in the attacks are said to have been taught in training camps in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, under instruction from members of Morocco's radical Islamist Combat Group."

According to the MIPT, the attack was carried out by individuals associated with the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group.

According to Mohamed Darif, a professor of political science at Hassan II University in Mohammedia, the history of the Moroccan Combat Group is directly tied to the rise of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. According to Darif, "Since its inception at the end of the 1990s and until 2001, the role of the organisation was restricted to giving logistic support to al-Qaeda in Morocco, finding its members places to live, providing them with false papers, with the opportunity of marrying Moroccans and with false identities to allow them to travel to Europe. Since 11 September, however, which brought the Kingdom of Morocco in on the side of the fight against terrorism, the organisation switched strategies and opted for terrorist attacks within Morocco itself."

Immediate reactions to the attacks in Spanish media assumed ETA involvement, and government officials were ready to confirm such suspicions. Because the bombs were 3 days before the general elections in Spain, the situation had many political interpretations. The massacre took place exactly two and a half years (912 days) after the September 11 terrorist attack on America in 2001. (Others suggest, however, that terrorists wishing to emphasize a connection with 9/11 would not rely on such an oblique connection as its "2 1/2 year anniversary.")

Official statements issued shortly after the Madrid attacks identified ETA as the prime suspect, but the group, which usually claims responsibility for its actions, denied any wrongdoing. Later evidence strongly pointed to the involvement of extremist Islamist groups, with the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group named as a focus of investigations.

Although ETA has a history of mounting bomb attacks in Madrid, planting delayed-action bombs to kill rescue workers and using booby traps (such as explosives in wallets), as well as also having attempted to attack trains, the 11 March attacks were on a scale far exceeding anything previously attempted by any European terrorist organisation. This led some experts to point out that the tactics used were more typical of Islamic militant extremist groups, perhaps with a certain link to al-Qaeda, or maybe to a new generation of ETA activists using al-Qaeda as a role model. Observers also noted that ETA customarily issues warnings before its mass bombings and that there had been no warning for this attack. Europol director Jürgen Storbeck commented that the bombings ""could have been Eta ... But we're dealing with an attack that doesn't correspond to the modus operandi they have adopted up to now," "Yusuf Galan, a former ETA member, was charged for involvement in al-Qaida

All of the devices are thought to have been hidden inside backpacks. The police investigated reports of three people in ski masks getting on and off the trains several times at Alcalá de Henares between 7:00 and 7:10. A Renault Kangoo van was found parked outside the station at Alcalá de Henares containing detonators, audio tapes with Qur'anic verses, and Cell Phones.

The provincial chief of TEDAX (the bomb disposal experts of the Spanish police) declared on 12 July 2004 that damage in the trains could not be caused by dynamite, but by some type of military explosive, like C3 or C4. Use of Titadine (used by ETA, and intercepted on its way to Madrid 11 days before) has also been reported.

A radio report mentioned a plastic explosive called "Special C". However, the government said that the explosive found in an unexploded device, discovered among bags thought to be victims' lost luggage, was the Spanish made Goma-2 ECO. The unexploded device contained 22lb of explosive with 2lb of nails and screws packed around it as shrapnel. Goma-2 ECO was never before used by al-Qaida, but the explosive and the modus operandi was an ETA trademark.

Two bombs one in Atocha and another one in El Pozo stations, numbers 11 and 12 were detonated accidentally by the TEDAX. According to the provincial chief of the TEDAX, deactivated rucksacks contained some other type of explosive. The 13th bomb, which was transferred to a police station, contained dynamite, but did not explode because there were not two wires connecting the explosives to the detonator. That bomb used a mobile phone (Mitsubishi Trium) as a timer, requiring a SIM card to activate the alarm and thereby detonate. The analysis of the SIM card allowed the police to arrest an allegued perpetrator. On Saturday, 13 March, when three Moroccans and two Hindu Indians were arrested for the attacks, it was confirmed that the attacks came from an Islamic group. Only one of the five persons (the Moroccan Jamal Zougam) detained that day was finally prosecuted.

On 3 April 2004, in Leganés, south Madrid, four Arab terrorists died in an apparent suicide explosion, killing one G.E.O. (Spanish special police assault unit) police officer and wounding eleven policemen. According to witnesses and media, between five and eight suspects escaped on that day.

Security forces carried out a controlled explosion of a suspicious package found near the Atocha station and subsequently deactivated the two undetonated devices on the Téllez train. A third unexploded device was later brought from the station at El Pozo to a police station in Vallecas, and became a central piece of evidence for the investigation. It appears that the El Pozo bomb failed to detonate because a cell-phone alarm used to trigger the bomb was set 12 hours late.

The People's Party (PP), now in opposition, as well as certain media outlets such as El Mundo newspaper, continue to support alternative theories relating the attack to a vast conspiracy to remove them from power. These theories consider that the Socialist Party (PSOE), together with ETA and members of the security forces and national and foreign (Morocco) secret services, were implicated in the bombings.

Judge Del Olmo assigns the responsibility to "local cells of Islamic extremists inspired through the Internet", not GIA or Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group. These local cells would consist of hash traffickers of Moroccan origin, remotely linked to an al-Qaeda cell already captured. These groups would have bought the explosives (dynamite Goma-2 ECO) from low-level thiefs and police and Guardia Civil confidents in Asturias using money from the small-scale drug trafficking.

According to El Mundo, "the notes on the Moroccan confident 'Cartagena' prove that the Police had the 3/11 leadership under surveillance."

There is also claimed to be circumstancial evidence linking the Islamists with two ETA members detained while driving in the outskirts of Madrid a van containing 500kg of explosives 11 days before the Train bombings

Mass Murder Police surveillance and informants

Some of the alleged perpetrators of the bombing were reportedly under surveillance by the Spanish police since 2001.

Two alleged perpetrators were Guardia Civil and Spanish police informants.

Two of those accused of supplying explosives for the bombings have a conviction for a previous 2001 offense of trafficking with Goma-2 ECO, an offence that did not prevent Trashorras, described as "necessary cooperator" from again getting a job in a mine, thus gaining access to explosives and blast equipment again.

According to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, 24 of the 29 alleged perpetrators were informers and/or controlled by the Spanish Police, Civil Guard and C.N.I. ("National Center of Intelligence") before the attacks.

Mass Murder Maussili Kalaji

Cell Phones used in the bombings were unlocked in a shop owned by a Spanish policeman (retired after the attacks) of Syrian descent and former al Fatah militant, Maussili Kalaji.

Mr. Kalaji is not one of those accused in connection with the bombings, though his detention was suggested by the Police.

Mass Murder Controversies

The authorship of the bombings remains deeply controversial in Spain. Part of the Partido Popular (PP), now in opposition, as well as some media outlets point to alleged inconsistencies and contradictions in the Spanish judicial investigation. Additionally, there is controversy over the events immediately following the bombings and preceding the general elections that took place three days later.

Mass Murder Reactions

In the aftermath of the bombings there were massive street demonstrations across Spain as a shocked country tried to come to terms with what had happened. The international reaction was also notable, as the scale of the attack became clearer.

Mass Murder February 2007 Trial

The trial began in February 2007. According to El Pais, "the Court dismantled one by one all conspiracy theories." On the other hand, the defendants withdrew their previous declarations and denied any involvement.

Mass Murder Russian airliner bombings Summary

Date August 24, 2004

Type Co-ordinated terrorist attack

Site Domodedovo Airport, Moscow

Fatalities 89

Injuries 0

Aircraft

Aircraft type Tu-134

Operator Volga-AviaExpress

Tail number RA-65080

Passengers 34

Crew 9

Survivors 0

Aircraft type Tu-154

Operator Siberia Airlines

Tail number RA-85556

Passengers 38

Crew 8

Survivors 0

The Russian aircraft bombings of August 2004 was a terrorist attack on two domestic Russian passenger aircraft at around 23:00 on August 24, 2004. Both planes had flown out of Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow.

Note: All times quoted below are local times, UTC +4. All events occurred in the same time zone.

Terrorist attacks of the Second Chechen War Moscow hostage crisis Red Square - Aircraft bombings Beslan hostage crisis

Mass Murder Flights

Mass Murder Volga-AviaExpress Flight 1303

The first to crash was Volga-AviaExpress Flight 1303, a Tu-134 aircraft, registered RA-65080, which had been in service since 1977. The plane was flying from Moscow to Volgograd. It left Domodedovo International Airport at 22:30. Communication with the plane was lost at 22:56 while it was flying over Tula Oblast, 180 km south-east of Moscow. The remains of the aircraft were found on the ground several hours later. Witnesses on the ground claim to have seen a strong explosion on the plane before it crashed.

34 passengers and 9 crew members were onboard the plane. All of them died in the crash.

Siberia Airlines Flight 1047

Just minutes after the first crash, Siberia Airlines Flight 1047, which had left Domodedovo International Airport at 21:35, disappeared from the radar screens and crashed. The Tu-154 aircraft, registered RA-85556, which had been in service since 1982, was flying from Moscow to Sochi. According to an unnamed government source of the Russian news agency Interfax, the plane had broadcast a hijack warning, while flying over Rostov Oblast at 22:59.

The plane disappeared from radar screens shortly after that and crashed. 38 passengers and 8 crew members were onboard the plane, and there were no survivors after the crash.

The debris of the aircraft was found on the morning of August 25, 2004 9 km from village Glubokoye, Rostov Oblast in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky Raion.

Mass Murder Responsibility

The two almost simultaneous crashes caused speculations about terrorism. President Vladimir Putin immediately ordered the Federal Security Service (FSB) to investigate the crashes. By August 28, the FSB had found traces of the explosive hexogen in the remains of both planes. Itar-Tass news agency reported on August 30, 2004, "without a shadow of a doubt", the FSB security service said that "both airplanes were blown up as a result of a terrorist attack".

A previously unknown group called the Islambouli Brigades claimed responsibility; the truth of those claims remains uncertain. The Islambouli Brigades have also claimed that five of their members were on each plane; experts are skeptical about the possibility of (and the need for) so many terrorists on board.

The subsequent investigation has found out that the bombs were triggered by two female Chechen suicide bombers, Grozny residents Satsita Dzhebirkhanova (Siberia Airlines Flight 1047) and Amanta Nagayeva (Volga-AviaExpress Flight 1303). Nagayeva's brother disappeared three years earlier and the family believed he was abducted by Russian forces.

Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev took responsibility for the bombings in an open letter published on the Chechen separatists' websites on September 17, 2004. He claimed that the aircraft bombings cost him 3,300 (US$4,000) in total. He has also denied the Islambouli Brigade's claims.

The bombings preceded other bloody attacks in Russia soon afterwards: on August 31, 2004 a bomb killed 10 at a Moscow subway station, and then the Beslan hostage crisis began on September 1, 2004 which would leave over 335 people dead, many of them children.

Mass Murder Trials

On the day of the bombings the bombers were stopped in the airport by the police captain Mikhail Artamonov to be searched for weapons and for identification. They were accompanied by two male Chechens, the four of them arrived to Moscow on a flight from Makhachkala. According to the prosecution, Artamonov let them go without doing the search, and has been charged with criminal negligence. The prosecution asked the judge to give him 6 years of imprisonment, and on June 30, 2005 he has been convicted of negligence and sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment. That sentence has been appealed, and the court has reduced the term of his imprisonment from 7 to 6 years.

After that, according to investigators, a ticket seller, Armen Aratyunyan, sold women the tickets without getting proper IDs for a bribe of approximately 140 (US$170), and helped Dzhebirkhanova to bribe the ticket checking clerk, Nikolai Korenkov, with 25 (US$30), so she was allowed on board without a proper ID. On April 15, 2005, Aratyunyan and Korenkov were convicted of giving and taking the bribe respectively. Because of serious consequences of the bribe, they have been sentenced to 1.5 years in settlement colony each (settlement colony convicts have more rights and privileges than people in regular colony).

Twenty-one relatives of the deceased passengers have filed a civil suit against the security company responsible for checking the passengers, ZAO East-Line Aviation Security. They demand 3,000,000 rubles (approximately 86,600 or US$115,000) in damages per victim. The trial in that case has started in Volgograd on February 22, 2007.

Mass Murder Beslan school hostage crisis

Location Beslan, Russia

Target(s) School Number One (SNO)

Date 1 September 2004

~9:30am 3 September 2004 ~5:00pm (UTC+3)

Attack type Hostage taking

Fatalities 396 (including 31 terrorists)

Perpetrator(s) Caucasian Islamist, North Caucasian rebels, organized by Shamil Basayev and Magomet Yevloyev.

Motive End to the Second Chechen War, Nationalism, Islamism

Mass Murder Second Chechen War

(1999-2000 Russian offensive) Grozny - Hill 776 - Komsomolskoye - Zhani-Vedeno The Beslan school hostage crisis (also referred to as the Beslan school siege or Beslan Massacre) began when the group of Muslim pro-Chechen armed rebels took more than 1,200 school children and adults hostage on September 1, 2004, at School Number One (SNO) in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia (an autonomous republic in the Caucasus region of the Russian Federation).

On the third day of the standoff, gunfire broke out between the hostage-takers and Russian security forces. 344 civilians were killed, including 186 children, and hundreds more were wounded. Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev took responsibility for the hostage taking, which was led by his Ingush deputy Magomet Yevloyev.

Many questions remain a matter of dispute, including how many militants were involved, whether weapons and ammunition had been hidden in the school prior to the siege, and whether some of the militants had escaped. Questions about the government’s management of the crisis have also persisted, including the nature and content of negotiations with the militants, the responsibility for the bloody outcome, and the use of heavy weapons.

Mass Murder Course of the crisis

Mass Murder Day one

The Republic of North Ossetia in RussiaThe initial attack took place on September 1, the traditional start of the Russian school year, referred to as "First September" or "Day of Knowledge." Children, accompanied by parents and other relatives, attend ceremonies hosted by their school. Commonly, the first-year students give a flower to those entering their final year, and are then taken to class by the older children.

Comintern St. SNO, located next to the district police station, was one of seven schools in Beslan, with 59 teachers and several support staff, and 900 pupils between the ages of six and eighteen. The gymnasium, where most of the estimated 1,200 hostages were to spend 56 hours, was a recent addition, and measured 10 meters wide and 25 meters long.

Because of the older pupils and family members attending the Day of Knowledge festivities, the number of people in the school at the time of the attack was considerably higher than usual for a normal school day. Many families also brought their infants to the ceremony, since the town's daycare center had been closed that day because of a problem with the gas supply.

Mass Murder Hostage-taking

At 09:30 local time, a group of approximately 32 heavily-armed attackers wearing black ski masks, and in some cases wearing explosive belts, arrived at SNO in a stolen police GAZ van and a GAZ-66 military truck and stormed the school. At first, some mistook the attackers for Russian forces practicing a security drill. However, the attackers proved their identities after they started shooting in the air and forcing everybody into the school. During the initial chaos, about 50 people managed to flee to safety and alert authorities.

After an exchange of gunfire with local police, in which it was reported one attacker and possibly some police officers were killed, the attackers seized the school building, taking approximately 1,300 hostages. The attackers herded the hostages into the school's gym, and removed everybody's mobile phones; one of the female rebels threatened that if she found anyone hiding a phone, she would kill that person and three others.

Execution room on the 2nd floorAfter gathering the hostages in the gym, the attackers separated and killed about twenty of the adult male hostages, reportedly the strongest in the group. One of the men, Aslan Kudzayev, survived by jumping out the window. The attackers forced other hostages to throw the bodies out of the building and set some children to wash the blood off the floor.

ITAR-TASS reported that a local police source had told them that men disguised as repairmen had concealed weapons and explosives in the school in July 2004, but this version was later officially refuted. Some witnesses have since come forward claiming they were made to help their captors remove the hidden weapon caches from the school.

Mass Murder Beginning of the siege

Overhead map of school showing initial positions of Russian forcesA disorganized security cordon was soon established around the school, consisting of Militsiya and Russian Army forces; OSNAZ, including the Alpha Group and Vympel units of the FSB; and members of the OMON forces of the MVD. No fire-fighting equipment was in position and, despite the previous experiences of the 2002 Moscow crisis, there were few ambulances ready. The Russian government initially misreported or downplayed the numbers, repeatedly stating there were only 354 hostages; this reportedly angered the attackers who further mistreated their captives.

Packed into the school gym with wired explosives attached to the basketball hoopThe attackers mined the gym and the rest of the building with improvised explosive devices, and surrounded it with tripwires. In a further bid to deter rescue attempts, they threatened to kill 50 hostages for every one of their own members killed by the police, and to kill 20 hostages for every gunman injured. They also threatened to blow up the school if government forces attacked.

Karen Mdinaradze, the Alania soccer team's cameraman, survived a mysterious explosion in which he lost his eye. Apparently, one of the female bombers accidentally detonated her explosive belt, killing another bomber, one male terrorist, and several adult hostages. According to another version, the blast was actually triggered by Pulkovnik, the group leader, when he set off the bomb by remote control to kill those who openly disagreed about the child hostages.

The Russian government initially said that it would not use force to rescue the hostages, and negotiations towards a peaceful resolution took place on the first and second days, led by Leonid Roshal, a pediatrician whom the hostage takers had reportedly asked for by name; Roshal had helped negotiate the release of children in the 2002 Moscow Theatre Siege. According to another report, Russian negotiators confused him with Vladimir Rushailo, a Russian security official.

At Russia's request, a special meeting of the United Nations Security Council was convened on the evening of September 1, at which the council members demanded "the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages of the terrorist attack". U.S. President George W. Bush made a statement offering "support in any form" to Russia.

That night, the hostage takers began exploring the area surrounding the school, preparing for an exit strategy once their demands had been met.

Mass Murder Day two

Flowers and symbolic water bottles left on the gym floor (2006)On September 2, 2004, negotiations between Roshal and the hostage-takers proved unsuccessful, and they refused to allow food, water, and medicines to be taken in for the hostages or for the bodies of the dead to be removed from in front of the school.

On day two, the lack of food and water took its toll on the young children, many of whom were forced to stand for long periods in the hot, tightly-packed gym. Many of them fainted, and parents feared they would die. Occasionally, the militants took out some of the unconscious children, and poured water on their heads before returning them to the gym. Reportedly, some resorted to drinking their own urine and extracting water from plants. Later in the day, women and men also started to faint from fatigue and thirst. When the bombs started to explode, many of the surviving children were so fatigued that they were barely able to flee from the carnage.

Many children took off their clothing because of the sweltering heat within the gymnasium, which led to rumors of sexual impropriety, though the hostages later explained it was merely due to the stifling heat and being denied any water. (According to some, the alleged sexual impropriety did take place. Surviving hostage Kazbek Dzarasov claimed that the militants would pick from amongst the prettiest adolescent girls and take them to another room with an excuse of having them fetch water, rape them, and return them a few hours later.)

In the afternoon, the gunmen agreed to release 26 nursing women and their infants following their negotiations with former Ingushetia President Ruslan Aushev, to whom they also handed a nursing infant whose mother refused to leave the school because of her other children. The terrorists forced about a dozen of the released mothers to take only one child and leave behind other children, a number of whom were killed.

At around 15:30, two rocket propelled grenade (RPGs) were fired approximately ten minutes apart by the hostage-takers at security forces outside the school, setting a police car ablaze. The Russian forces did not return fire.

As the day and night wore on, the combination of stress and sleep deprivation and possibly drug withdrawal made the terrorists increasingly hysterical and unpredictable. The crying of the children irritated them, and on several occasions children and their mothers were threatened that if they did not stop crying they would be shot. Russian authorities claimed that the hostage-takers had "listened to German hard rock group Rammstein on personal stereos during the siege to keep themselves edgy and fired up."

Mass Murder Day three

Around 13:04 on September 3, 2004, the hostage-takers agreed to allow Emergency Ministry servicemen to remove bodies from the school grounds. However, when the servicemen approached the school, the hostage-takers opened fire, and explosions were heard from the gymnasium. Two of the servicemen were killed, while the rest took cover.

Part of the gymnasium wall was demolished by the explosions, allowing a group of about 30 hostages to escape, though a number were killed as a result of crossfire between the hostage-takers and the army.

Versions of the initial events

Rough plan of school showing removal vehicle and damaged gymPresidential advisor Aslambek Aslakhanov said that the cause of the firing and the subsequent storming of the school had been a spontaneous explosion; according to an escaped hostage, one of the bombs had been insecurely attached with adhesive tape, had fallen, and then exploded.

In a conflicting account, an anonymous employee of the Ministry of Emergency Situations said that the shooting began after the medical workers' truck arrived at the pick-up point; he did not know whether the armed fathers of hostages or the hostage-takers fired first (see the Izvestia article specify). Other witnesses reported hearing increasing automatic weapons fire before the blasts.

These two accounts may be reconcilable. Ruslan Aushev, a key negotiator during the siege, told the Novaya Gazeta that an initial explosion was set off by a hostage-taker accidentally tripping over a wire; as a result, armed civilians, some of them apparently fathers of the hostages, started shooting. Reportedly, no security forces or hostage-takers were shooting at this point, but the gunfire led the hostage-takers to believe that the school was being stormed. In response, they set off their bombs.

A third version is that a Special Forces sniper shot the hostage-taker whose foot was on a dead-man detonator, followed by an RPG round fired at the gym's wall from the outside.

A fourth version stated by Duma member and weapons and explosives expert Yuri Savelyev claims that the exchange of gunfire did not begin with explosions within the school building but by two grenades fired by the Russian forces into the building, and that the home-made explosive devices installed by the rebels did not explode at all. Savelyev, a dissenting Torshin commission member, claims these explosions killed many of the hostages and dozens more died in the resulting fire. Yuri Ivanov, another parliamentary investigator, further contended that the grenades were fired on the direct orders of President Putin.

In a fifth version, Alexander Torshin of a Russian parliamentary commission said the terrorists had started the battle by intentionally detonating bombs among the hostages, to the surprise of Russian negotiators and commanders. That statement went beyond previous government accounts, which have typically said the bombs exploded in an unexplained accident.

Mass Murder Storming

A man carrying an injured child out of the chaosIt was at this point that unknown persons, possibly members of the Russian special forces, fired Shmel RPO flamethrowers at the school's roof (a total of nine empty disposable tubes were later found on the rooftops of the nearby apartment blocks), setting parts of the school ablaze. A chaotic battle broke out as the special forces sought to enter the school and cover the escape of the hostages after task force members blew further holes in walls to allow hostages to escape. The offensive included special forces, the Russian army, Interior Ministry troops, armed helicopters, at least one tank (probably two T-72s and one T-80 from Russia's 58th Army but under FSB tactical command), and several BTR armoured personnel carriers.

Witnesses and journalists saw two T-72 tanks advance on the school that afternoon, at least one of which fired several times. Afterwards, the Russian government defended the use of tanks and other heavy weaponry, arguing that it was used after surviving hostages escaped from the school. However, this contradicts the eyewitness accounts, as many hostages were seriously wounded and could not possibly escape by themselves and many were kept by the militants as human shields, particulary in the area of the school cafeteria.

Many local civilians also joined in the chaotic battle, having brought along their own weapons, as the Russia's regular conscript soldiers reportedly fled as the fighting began. The civilians claimed that the local police also panicked, firing in the other direction. At least one of the armed volunteers is known to have been killed.

By 15:00, two hours after the assault began, Russian troops claimed control of most of the school. However, fighting was still continuing in the grounds as evening fell, including a lone machine-gunner firing from an upper floor, and three hostage-takers in the basement with a number of hostages. They were eventually killed, along with the hostages they were holding.

During the battle, a group of 13 hostage-takers broke through the military cordon and took refuge nearby; reportedly, the group included two women who tried to pass themselves off as medical personnel. Several hostage-takers were believed to have entered a two-story additional building nearby; the building was destroyed by tanks and flamethrowers around 21:00, according to the Ossetian committee's report.

Reportedly, helicopter gunships conducted rocket strikes on unknown targets in the forest near Beslan later that day.

Mass Murder Aftermath

Vladimir Putin on national TV after the crisisRussia's deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Fridinsky said that 31 of the 32 hostage-takers had been confirmed dead and one had been captured alive. One injured suspected hostage-taker was beaten to death by the fathers of hostages when he was driven to the hospital, while another was refused help by the rescue workers. Another suspected terrorist was lynched on the scene, an event filmed by the Sky News crew.

Firefighters were not prepared to battle the blaze that consumed the gymnasium; one old fire truck arrived two hours after the start of the fire, reportedly without water. Few ambulances were available to transport the hundreds of injured victims. Many survivors remained in severe shock and some injured died in hospitals. At least one surviving female hostage committed suicide after returning home.

The Russian government has been heavily criticized by many of the local people who, days after the end of the siege, did not know whether their children were alive or dead. Some human remains were even found by a local man in the nearby garbage dump several months later, which prompted further outrage.

During the operation, eleven soldiers of the special groups Alpha and Vympel were killed, among them the commander of Alpha the highest number of casualties in a single engagement in these units' history. More than thirty soldiers of the OSNAZ Special Forces suffered wounds of varying severity.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a two-day period of national mourning for September 6 and September 7, 2004. On the second day of mourning, 135,000 people joined a government-organised anti-terror rally on the Red Square in Moscow. Putin cancelled planned meetings with German chancellor Gerhard Schröder in Hamburg and in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein.

Mass Murder Casualties

Official fatalities

Hostages 344

Police and civilians 8

Emergency workers 2

Special forces 11

Hostage-takers 31

Total 396

Estimated wounded

Special forces 30

Other 700

Total 730

At least 396 people, mostly hostages and including 209 Muslims, were killed during the crisis. The first of the many funerals were conducted on September 4, the day after the final assault, with more the following Sunday, and mass burials of 120 people on Monday. The local cemetery was too small and had to be expanded to an adjacent plot of land.

The exact number of people that received ambulatory assistance immediately after the crisis is not known, but is estimated at around 700. Moscow-based military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer in a September 7, 2004 Moscow Times column concluded that 90% of the hostages had sustained injuries. After their release, 437 people, including 221 children, were hospitalized. 197 children were taken to the Children’s Republican Clinical Hospital in the North Ossetian capital of Vladikavkaz, and thirty, in critical condition, were in resuscitation units. Another 150 people were transferred to the Vladikavkaz Emergency Hospital. Sixty-two people, including twelve children, were treated in two local hospitals in Beslan. Six children with heavy wounds were flown to Moscow for specialist treatment. The majority of the children were treated for burns, gunshot and shrapnel wounds, and mutilation caused by mines and bombs. Some had to have amputations and eyes removed. Many children were permanently disabled by injuries sustained during their captivity. The sudden influx of large numbers of injured placed a severe strain on the local health service. There was an inadequate availability of hospital beds, medication, and neurosurgery equipment. One month after the attack, 240 people (160 of them children) were still being treated in hospitals in Vladikavkaz and in Beslan. Surviving children and parents have received psychological treatment at Vladikavkaz Rehabilitation Centre.

Later, it was reported that an unknown number of survivors may have died as a result of a government-ordered countermeasure, called Naloxone, meant to counter the effects of Fentanyl-based drugs. The latest fatality is 33-year-old librarian Yelena Avdonina, who on December 8, 2006 succumbed to wounds sustained during the siege.

Mass Murder Chechen separatists

Initially, the identity and origin of the attackers were not immediately clear. It was widely assumed from day two, that they were separatists from nearby Chechnya, but Aslambek Aslakhanov denied it: "They were not Chechens. When I started talking with them in Chechen, they had answered: We do not understand, speak Russian" Freed hostages however confirmed that many of the hostage-takers did speak Chechen amongst themselves and only spoke Russian with heavy accents.

The Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov immediately denied that his forces were involved in the siege. He condemned the action and all attacks against civilians via a statement issued by his envoy Akhmed Zakayev in London. On November 1, Maskhadov called Shamil Basayev a terrorist for his involvement in the Beslan crisis.

On September 17, 2004, Basayev issued a statement claiming responsibility for the Beslan school siege, saying his Riyadus-Salikhin "martyr battalion" had carried out this and other attacks, and further, that the attackers were in heaven. Newspaper reports have also linked his Ingush deputy, Magomet Yevloyev, to the school attack.

The Beslan crisis was strikingly similar to the 1995 Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis and the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis in which hundreds of civilians were held hostage by Chechen terrorists, also led by or answering to Shamil Basayev.

Mass Murder Arab and alleged al-Qaeda involvement

Shortly after September 3, 2004, official Russian sources stated that the attackers were part of an international group led by Chechen terrorist Shamil Basayev that included a number of Arabs with connections to al-Qaeda. Shamil Basayev, in an interview with a Canadian newspaper, confirmed that two of the attackers were Arabs. At least two English/Algerians are among the identified terrorists partaking actively in the attack: Osman Larussi and Yacine Benalia. A third, UK citizen Kamel Rabat Bouralha, arrested while trying to leave Russia immediately following the attack, is suspected to be a key organizer. All three have links tospecify the Finsbury Park Mosque of north London. Russian authorities also picked up phone calls in Arabic from the schoolspecify to Saudi Arabia and another undisclosed Middle Eastern country.

Russia also claimed that suspected al-Qaeda agent Abu Omar al-Saif was responsible for financing the attack and that foreign nationals such as Khattab, Abu Zaid and Abu al-Walid from different Middle Eastern countries had been active in the region since the beginning of the First Chechen War.

Mass Murder Identities

Masked hostage-taker during the crisisThe number of attackers remains a somewhat controversial topic. According to official sources, thirty-two attackers participated directly, two of whom were women and one of whom was taken alive. However, several surviving hostages and eyewitnesses claim there were many more attackers; unofficial numbers go as high as fifty-two attackers, with four women amongst them, and three captured alive.

On September 6, 2004, the name and identity of seven of the assailants became known, after forensic work over the weekend and interviews with surviving hostages and a captured assailant. In November 2004, Russian officials announced that twenty-seven of the thirty-two attackers had been identified; however on September 12, 2005 the lead prosecutor against captured terrorist Nur-Pashi Kulayev stated that only twenty-two of the thirty-two bodies had been identified, leading to some confusion over which identities have been confirmed.

Also in November 2004, 28-year-old Akhmed Merzhoyev and 16-year-old Marina Korigova of Sagopshi were arrested by Russian authorities. Merzhoyev was charged with providing food and equipment to the hostage-takers, and Korigova with having possession of a phone that Tsechoyev had phoned multiple times Korigova was released when her defence attorney Sharip Tepsoyev showed that she was given the phone by an acquaintance after the crisis. In April 2005, the identity of the two female suicide bombers was revealed.

Forensic tests established that twenty-one of the terrorists took heroin as well as morphine, apparently in a normally deadly doses. The official investigation cited the use of these "new drugs" as a reason for the militants’ ability to continue fighting despite being badly wounded and presumably in great pain.

Planners and financiers not participating in the actual attack Shamil Basayev, has taken ultimate responsibility for the attack Magomed Magas Yevloyev, Ingush national also involved in the Basayev's attack on Nazran Abu Omar al-Saif, Saudi national, killed in Dagestan in 2005 Abu Zaid, Saudi national, killed by Russian special forces February 16, 2005

Mass Murder Hostage takers

Mass Murder Leaders

Polkovnik Ruslan Tagirovich Khuchbarov (reputed group leader, disputed identity) Abdullah Vladimir Khodov, ethnic Ukrainian from nearby Elkhotovo where he was wanted for detonating a bomb in the marketplace (though Basayev has since said he was an FSB double agent), former pupil of the school Ali Taziyev - Ingush ex-policeman, debate rages whether an alias/stolen identity of Khuchbarov or Yevloyev

Mass Murder Identified

Khizir-Ali Akhmedov

Magomed Aushev

Fantomas, bald Slav thought to have been a bodyguard to Shamil Basayev

Sultan Kamurzaev

Magomet Khochubarov, had a prior conviction for possessing illegal firearms

Iznaur Kodzoyev

Nur-Pashi Kulayev, 24-year-old Chechen, the sole surviving hostage-taker who was sentenced to life in prison

Hanpashi Kulayev, one-armed brother of the above, a former bodyguard of Basayev, also called Khan

Adam Kushtov, 17-year-old Ingush who fled the 1992 ethnic cleansing in North Ossetia to Ingushetia

Abdul-Azim Labazanov, 31-year-old Chechen, born in Kazakhstan, initially fought on the federal side in the First Chechen

Mass Murder War

Osman Larussi, British-Algerian, who had already been reported killed earlier

Arsen Merzhoyev, 25-year-old Chechen native of Engenoi

Mairbek Shainekkhanov (also spelled Mayrbek Shaybekhanov) - arrested shortly before the school attack

Buran Tetradze, 31-year-old Georgian, native of Rustavi in Georgia, disputed by security minister

Issa Torshkhoev, 26-year-old Ingush native of Malgobek where he was unable to find work - five of his friends were killed in March 2004 after his house was raided by Russian police, had a prior conviction for robbery

Musa Tsechoyev, 35-year-old Ingush native of Sagopshi, owned the GAZ-66 that drove the hostage-takers to the school, suspected

Bei-Alla Tsechoyev, 31-year-old brother of above, also spelled Bay or Ala, had a prior conviction for possessing illegal firearms. Body identified in November 2004.

Yacine Benalia, British-Algerian who had already been reported killed earlier

Mass Murder Unidentified

Black male Asian male, said by Basayev to be Russian-Korean

Mass Murder Women

Roza Nagaeva, Chechen woman from the village Kirov-Yurt in Chechnya's Vedensky District, sister of Amnat Nagaeva, who is suspected of being the suicide bomber having blown up one of the two Russian airliners brought down on August 24, 2004. Roza Nagaeva has previously mistakenly been named as having carried out the bombing of Moscow's Rizhskaya metro station on August 31, 2004 Mairam Taburova, Chechen woman from the village Mair-Tub in Chechnya's Shalinsky District

Mass Murder Motives

Mass Murder Nationalism

Russian negotiators say the attackers never explicitly stated their demands, although they did release ad-hoc notes handwritten by one of the hostages on a school notebook, in which they spelled out demands of full troop withdrawal from Chechnya, recognition of Chechen independence, and that Chechnya should remain in the ruble zone and be part of the CIS.

Mass Murder Islamism

Shamil Basayev stated that the attackers' goals were not limited to merely Chechen nationalism and independence. He had objectives of establishing an Islamic Emirate across the whole of the North Caucasus (including predominantly Christian North Ossetia) stretching from the Black Sea to Caspian Sea.

The only surviving attacker Nur-Pashi Kulayev, claims that attacking a school and targeting mothers and young children was not merely coincidental; it was deliberately designed for maximum outrage with the purpose of igniting a war in the Caucasus. The attackers hoped that Christian Ossetians seeking revenge for their Murdered families would attack their Muslim Ingushetian and Chechen neighbours, fomenting ethnic and religious hatred and strife throughout the North Caucasus. North Ossetia and Ingushetiya had previously been involved in a brief, but bloody conflict in 1992 over disputed land in the North Ossetian Prigorodny District leaving an estimated 600 dead and 50,000 refugees.

Chechen nationalist leader Aslan Maskhadov denounced the school siege; he denied any Chechen involvement and later characterised the attack as terrorism. It has been suggested specify that the Russian government's insistence that the perpetrators were a transnational al-Qaeda-related group, rather than Ingushetian and Chechen separatists, was motivated in part by an attempt to avoid regional ethnic strife. North Ossetia is the only Christian-majority republic in the area and the republic most loyal to Moscow. So far, the expected backlash against the neighbouring nations has failed to materialise; Russian Orthodox patriarch Alexius II later said the Ossetians had saved the Caucasus by showing restraint.

Mass Murder Demands

The hostage-takers in Beslan were reported to have made the following demands:

Withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.

Presence of the following people in the school:

Aleksander Dzasokhov, president of North Ossetia,

Murat Ziazikov, president of Ingushetia,

Ruslan Aushev, former president of Ingushetia,

Leonid Roshal, a renowned pediatrician.

The 1 September 11:00-11:30 letter sent along with a hostage ER doctor

Source: the case papers of the Nur-Pashi Kulayev's criminal trial. File pages 196-198, the vetting protocol. Cited at the trial session January 19, 2006. The hostage who was made to write the note misspelled doctor Roshal's name. 8-928-738-33-374

We request the republic's president Dzasokhov, the president of Ingushetia Ziazikov, the children's doctor Rashailo for negotiations. If anyone of us is killed, we'll shoot 50 people. If anyone of us is wounded, we'll kill 20 people. If 5 of us are killed, we'll blow up everything. If the light, communication are cut off for a minute, we'll shoot 10 people.

The 1 September 16:00-16:30 letter brought by the same female hostage According to the federal committee report this note contained a corrected phone number (ending with 47) and addition of Aushev to the list of requested persons.The 2 September 16:45 letter sent along with Aushev A note hand-written on a quad ruling notebook sheet sized 32 by 20 cm. Source: ibidem. Pages 189-192, the vetting protocol. Pages 193-194, a photocopy of this note. From Allah's servant Shamil Basayev to President Putin.

Vladimir Putin, it wasn't you who started this war. But you can finish it if you have enough courage and determination of de Gaulle. We offer you a sensible peace based on mutual benefit by the principle-independence in exchange for security. In case of troops withdrawal and acknowledgement of independence of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, we are obliged not to make any political, military, or economic treaties with anyone against Russia, not to accommodate foreign military bases on our territory even temporarily, not to support and not to finance groups or organizations carrying out a military struggle against RF, to be present in the united rouble zone, to enter CIS. Besides, we can sign a treaty even though a neutral state status is more acceptable to us. We can also guarantee a renunciation of armed struggle against RF by all muslims of Russia for at least 10 to 15 years under condition of freedom of faith. We are not related to the apartment bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk, but we can take responsibility for this in an acceptable way.

The Chechen people is leading a nation-liberating struggle for its freedom and independence, for its self-protection rather than for destruction or humiliation of Russia. We offer you peace, but the choice is yours.

Allahu Akbar

Signature

30 August

Mass Murder Official investigations

Kulayev during trialThe captured militant, 24-year-old Nur-Pashi Kulayev, born in Chechnya, was identified by former hostages. The state-controlled Channel One showed fragments of his interrogation. Kulayev said the group was led by a Chechnya-born militant nicknamed "Polkovnik" (Colonel) and by Khodov, 28, who was a suspect in the May 15, 2004, Moscow-Vladikavkaz train bombing. According to Kulayev, Polkovnik shot another militant and detonated two female suicide bombers because they objected to capturing children.

Kulayev recognized the body of a short man as Polkovnik. The official investigators identified Polkovnik as Ruslan Tagirovich Khochubarov. The authorities linked a third body to Magomet Yevloyev nicknamed Magas, an Ingush from the Chechen capital Grozny who, together with Basayev, prepared an attack on Ingushetia on June 22, 2004, in which 98 people were killed. Kulayev recognized the body of a bald-headed man dressed in a vest and black uniform trousers as belonging to a militant nicknamed Fantomas.

In May 2005 Kulayev was a defendant in a Russian court in the republic of North Ossetia. He was charged with Murder, terrorism, kidnapping, and other crimes and pleaded guilty on seven of the counts. Ten days later, on May 26, 2006, Nur-Pashi Kulayev was sentenced to life in prison; no appeal was filed by either the defendant or prosecutor.

Mass Murder Torshin commission

Ruins of the school in 2006At a press conference with foreign journalists on September 6, 2004, Vladimir Putin rejected the prospect of an open public inquiry, but cautiously agreed with an idea of a parliamentary investigation led by the Duma. He warned, though, that the latter might turn into a "political show". On November 27, 2004, the Interfax news agency reported Alexander Torshin, head of the parliamentary commission, as saying that there was evidence of involvement by a foreign intelligence agency. He declined to say which, but said "when we gather enough convincing evidence, we won't hide it".

On December 26, 2005, Russian prosecutors investigating the siege on the school claimed that authorities had made no mistakes. Family members of the victims of the attacks have claimed the security forces of incompetence, and have demanded that authorities be held accountable.

On August 28, 2006, Yuri Savelyev, an MP and member of the official parliamentary inquiry panel, publicized his report proving that Russian forces deliberately stormed the school on 4 September 2004 using maximum force. According to Savelyev, a weapons and explosives expert, special forces fired rocket-propelled grenades without warning as a prelude to an armed assault, ignoring apparently ongoing negotiations.

On December 22, 2006, a Russian parliamentary commission ended their investigation into the incident. They concluded that the number of gunmen who stormed the school was 32 and laid much blame on the North Ossetian police; the commission stated that there was a severe shortcoming in security measures. Also, the commission said the attack on the school was premeditated by Chechen rebels including Aslan Maskhadov. In a controversial move, the commission claimed that the shoot-out that ended the siege was instigated by the hostage takers, not security forces. Ella Kesayeva, who leads the Voice of Beslan support group, suggested that the report was meant as a signal that Putin and his circle were no longer interested in having a discussion about the details. "We personally didn’t expect anything different from Torshin," said Kesayeva.

In February 2007, two members of the commission broke their silence to denounce the investigation as a cover-up, and the Kremlin's official version of events as fabricated. The pair said they refused to sign off on the report because of their misgivings.

Mass Murder Domestic repercussions

Mass Murder Allegations of incompetence and official inquiries

Beslan mother at the cemeteryThe handling of the siege by Vladimir Putin's administration was criticized by a number of observers and grassroots organisations, amongst them the Mothers of Beslan and Voice of Beslan. Initially, the European Union also criticized the response, but later backtracked, saying it had been misunderstood. Critics alleged that the storm of the school was needlessly brutal, citing the use of heavy weapons, flame-throwers, and tank guns. There were accusations that officials had not earnestly tried to negotiate with the attackers and provided incorrect and inconsistent reports of the situation to the media. The local provincial leaders were criticized as corrupt for having allowed the attack to take place. Also questioned was the professionalism of Russian special forces; in particular critics charged that they failed to keep the battleground secure from entry by civilians or exit by the militants.

In general, the criticism was denied by the Russian government, although Vladimir Putin admitted to a certain lack of professionalism and understanding in handling the crisis. Alexander Dzasokhov, the head of North Ossetia, resigned his post in May 31, 2005 after pressure from Mothers of Beslan on Putin to have him dismissed. North Ossetian Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiev also resigned shortly after the crisis. At the same time, Vladimir Putin fired the head of the republic's FSB branch, Valery Andreyev.

To address lingering doubts, the Russian government launched a parliamentary investigation led by Alexander Torshin, which in December 2005, resulted in a report which put blame on local authorities, for "a whole number of blunders and shortcomings". Another separate public inquiry headed by Stanislav Kesayev concluded on November 29, 2005 that government officials and military leaders handled the situation poorly. A third investigation headed by General Nikolai Shepel, acting as deputy prosecutor at the trial of the surviving terrorist Nurpashi Kulayev, found no fault with the security forces in handling the hostage crisis.

Mass Murder Allegations of censorship

Two reporters openly critical of the government could not get to Beslan during the crisis. Andrey Babitsky, a journalist with the Russian service of Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, was indicted on mischief after an alleged conflict with security guards in the Moscow Vnukovo Airport and sentenced to a five-day arrest. The late Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya fell into a coma in an airplane bound to Rostov-on-Don. There are concerns that the incident with Babitsky was provoked by the "request of a militsiya member" and that the Rostov-on-Don airport's medical test results were "destroyed", though there are no conclusive evidence and the cases remains speculative.

Regional medical workers were stripped of their mobile phones and forbidden to leave local hospitals at the end of their shifts, in what was suspected to be a move to suppress leaks of casualty figures and related information.

Raf Shakirov, chief editor of the Izvestia newspaper, was forced to resign after criticism by the major shareholders of both style and content of the September 4, 2004 issue. In contrast to the less emotional coverage by other Russian newspapers, Izvestia had featured large pictures of dead or injured hostages; it also expressed doubts about the government's version of events.

According to a poll by Levada-Center conducted a week after Beslan crisis, 83% of polled Russians believed that the government was hiding at least a part of the truth about the Beslan events from them.

Mass Murder Long-term effects

Increased security measures were introduced to Russian cities. More than 10,000 people without proper documents were detained by Moscow police. At least one incident of police violence was recorded; Magomet Tolboev, an aide to Duma deputy from Dagestan, was beaten on a street in Moscow by two policemen because of his Chechen-sounding name.

The Russian public appeared to be generally supportive of increased security measures. A September 16, 2004 Levada-Center poll found 58% of Russians supporting stricter anti-terrorism laws and the death penalty for terrorism. 33% would support banning all Chechens from entering Russian cities.

Putin assumed control of appointing the governors of Russia's oblasts, which before were directly elected. The election system for Russian Duma was also changed. The reform drew criticism from the United States and European countries, as well as from Russian liberals. Some critics alleged that Putin was using the Beslan crisis as an excuse to increase his personal power.

At the same time, Putin proposed the creation of the Public Chamber that would control state bureaucracy, law enforcement, and task force bodies. The Public Chamber lacks any executive, legislative, or judicial powers. Formation of the Chamber solely depends on the president.

Mass Murder International response

Beslan school hostage crisisThe attack at Beslan was met with international abhorrence and universal condemnation. The UN Security Council, in a Presidential Statement on September 1, 2004, condemned the attack in the strongest terms and urged states to cooperate actively with Russian authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice. The UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, on September 7, 2004, condemned it as a "brutal and senseless slaughter of children" and "terrorism, pure and simple".

The President of the European Commission Romano Prodi on behalf of the European Commission, on September 3, 2004, responded by calling the "killing of these innocent people an evil, despicable act of barbarism."

President Bush of the United States, in a September 2004 speech to the UN General Assembly, said of the terrorists at Beslan that they "measure their success in the death of the innocent, and in the pain of grieving families" In 2005, he called the attack "the terrorist massacre of schoolchildren in Beslan."

At the Vatican, Pope John Paul II condemned the attack as a "vile and ruthless aggression on defenceless children and families"

Nelson Mandela of South Africa called the attack an "inhumane and barbaric act of terrorism", saying that "in no way can the victimisation and killing of innocent children be justified in any circumstances, and especially not for political reasons".

The British Prime Minister Tony Blair described the terrorist attack as "a barbaric act".

A group of international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, condemned it as an "abhorrent action" and that it "displayed callous disregard for civilian life". They stated that it was "an attack on the most fundamental right - the right to life; our organizations denounce this act unreservedly."

Mass Murder 7 July 2005 London bombings

Ambulances at Russell Square following the bombings.

Location London, United Kingdom

Target(s) London Underground and a double-decker bus

Date 7 July 2005

8:50 am - 9:47 am (UTC+1)

Attack type Suicide bombings

Fatalities 52

Injuries ~ 700

Perpetrator(s) Hasib Hussain, Mohammad Sidique Khan, Germaine Lindsay, and Shehzad Tanweer

The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of coordinated terrorist bomb blasts that hit London's public transport system during the morning rush hour. At 8:50 a.m., three bombs exploded within fifty seconds of each other on three London Underground trains. A fourth bomb exploded on a bus nearly an hour later at 9:47 a.m. in Tavistock Square. The bombings killed 52 commuters and the four suicide bombers, injured 700, and caused a severe day-long disruption of the city's transport and mobile telecommunications infrastructure.

Mass Murder The incidents

Mass Murder Attacks on the Underground

Locations of the bombings, overlaid onto a "real-path" map of the London Underground08:50 Three bombs on the London Underground exploded within fifty seconds of each other:

The first bomb exploded on an eastbound Circle Line sub-surface Underground train, number 204, travelling between Liverpool Street and Aldgate. The train had left King's Cross St. Pancras about eight minutes earlier. At the time of the explosion, the third carriage of the train was approximately 100 yards (90 m) down the tunnel from Liverpool Street. The parallel track of the Hammersmith and City Line from Liverpool Street to Aldgate East was also damaged.

The second bomb exploded on the second carriage of a westbound Circle Line sub-surface Underground train, number 216. The train had just left platform 4 at Edgware Road and was heading for Paddington. The train had left King's Cross St. Pancras about eight minutes earlier. There were several other trains nearby at the time of the explosion. An eastbound Circle Line train (arriving at platform 3 at Edgware Road from Paddington) was passing next to the train and was damaged, along with a wall that later collapsed. There were two other trains at Edgware Road: an unidentified train on platform 2, and an eastbound Hammersmith & City Line train that had just arrived at platform 1.

The third bomb exploded on a southbound Piccadilly Line deep-level Underground train, number 311, travelling between King's Cross St. Pancras and Russell Square. The bomb exploded about one minute after the train left King's Cross, by which time it had travelled about 500 yards (450 m). The explosion took place at the rear of the first carriage of the train, causing severe damage to the rear of that carriage, as well as the front of the second one. The surrounding tunnel also sustained damage.

It was originally thought that there had been six, rather than three, explosions on the Underground. The bus bombing brought the reported total to seven, however this error was corrected later that day. This was because the blasts occurred on trains that were between stations, causing the wounded to emerge from both stations, giving the impression that there was an incident at each station. Police also revised the timings of the tube blasts: initial reports had indicated that they occurred over a period of almost half an hour. This was due to initial confusion at London Underground, where the explosions were initially thought to be due to a power surge. One initial report, in the minutes after the explosions, involved a person under a train, while another concerned a derailment (both of which did actually occur, but only as a result of the explosions). A Code Amber Alert was declared at 09:19, and London Underground began to shut down the network, bringing trains into stations and suspending all services. The effects of the bombs are thought to have varied due to the differing characteristics of the tunnels.

The Circle Line is a "cut and cover" sub-surface tunnel, about 7 m (21 ft) deep. Because the tunnel contains two parallel tracks, it is relatively wide. The two explosions on this line were probably able to vent their force into the tunnel, reducing their destructive force. The Piccadilly Line is a deep tunnel, up to 30 m (100 ft) underground, with narrow (3.5 m, or 11 ft) single-track tubes and just 15 cm (6 in) clearances. This narrow space reflected the blast force, concentrating its effect.

Mass Murder Attack on a double-decker bus

09:47 An explosion occurred in Tavistock Square on a No. 30 Dennis Trident 2 double-decker bus operated by Stagecoach London travelling its route from Marble Arch to Hackney Wick. Earlier, the bus had passed through the Kings Cross area as it travelled from Hackney Wick to Marble Arch. At Marble Arch, the bus turned around and started the return route from Marble Arch to Hackney Wick. It left Marble Arch at 09:00 a.m. and arrived at Euston bus station at 09:35 a.m., where crowds of people had been evacuated from the tube and were boarding buses. The bus then followed a diversion from its normal route because of road closures in the Kings Cross area (due to the earlier tube bombings). People who had been evacuated from the Underground were continuing to board the bus. At the time of the explosion the bus was travelling through Tavistock Square at the point where it joins Upper Woburn Place.

The explosion ripped the roof off the top deck of the vehicle and destroyed the back of the bus. Witnesses reported seeing "half a bus flying through the air".

The detonation took place close to the British Medical Association building on Upper Woburn Place, and a number of doctors in or near the building were able to provide immediate emergency medical assistance. BBC Radio 5 and The Sun newspaper later reported that two injured bus passengers said that they saw a man exploding in the bus. News reports have identified Hasib Hussain as the person with the bomb on the bus.

The bus bomb exploded towards the rear of the vehicle's top deck, totally destroying that portion of it but leaving the front of the bus intact. Most of the passengers at the front of the top deck are believed to have survived, as did those on the front of the lower deck including the driver, but those at the top and lower rear of the bus took the brunt of the explosion. The extreme physical damage caused to the victims' bodies resulted in a lengthy delay in announcing the death toll from the bombing while the police determined how many bodies were present and whether the bomber was one of them. A number of passers-by were also injured by the explosion and surrounding buildings were damaged by fragments.

Two more suspicious packages were found on underground trains and were destroyed using controlled explosions. Police later said they were not bombs.

Mass Murder Context

The bombings came while the UK was hosting the first full day of the 31st G8 summit, a day after London was chosen to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, two days after the beginning of the trial of fundamentalist cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, five days after the Live 8 concert was held there, and shortly after the UK had assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. The bombings were on the exact fourth anniversary of the racially-motivated Bradford Riot.

Mass Murder Initial reports

The first reports suggested that a power surge in the Underground power grid had caused explosions in power circuits. This was later ruled out by the National Grid, the power suppliers. Commentators suggested that the explanation had arisen because of bomb damage to power lines along the tracks; the rapid series of power failures caused by the explosions (or power being cut off by means of switches at the locations to permit evacuation) looked similar, from the point of view of a control room operator, to a cascading series of circuit breaker operations that would result from a major power surge.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair stated within a couple of hours of the explosions that he believed that they were "probably a major terrorist attack". He also indicated that police had found indications of explosives at one of the blast sites, though he would not speculate on who might have carried out the attack. The investigation thus concentrated on possible terrorist suspects.

A couple of hours after the bombings, the then Home Secretary Charles Clarke told the House of Commons of the incidents as terrorist attacks

Mass Murder Incidents of 21st July

On 21 July 2005, a second series of four explosions took place on the London Underground and a London bus. The detonators of all four bombs exploded, but none of the main explosive charges detonated, and there were no casualties: the single injury reported at the time was later revealed to be an asthma sufferer. All suspected bombers from this failed attack escaped from the scenes but were later arrested.

Mass Murder Casualties

Memorial event

On 7 July 2006, the country held a two-minute silence at midday to remember those who died in the bombings a year before. Plaques were unveiled at the tube stations where the bombs exploded and memorial services were held at each scene to pay tribute to the lives lost.

Mass Murder 2005 London bombings

There was initially a great deal of confused information from police sources as to the origin, method, and even timings of the explosions. Forensic examiners had initially thought that military grade plastic explosives were used, and, as the blasts were thought to have been simultaneous, that synchronised timed detonators were employed. This all changed as further information became available.

Fifty-six people, including the four perpetrators, were killed in the attacks and about 700 were injured, of whom about 100 required overnight hospital treatment or more. The incident was the deadliest single act of terrorism in the United Kingdom since Lockerbie (the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which killed 270), and the deadliest bombing in London since the Second World War. More people were killed in the bombings than in any single Provisional IRA attack (in Great Britain or Ireland) during the Troubles.

Police examined about 2,500 items of CCTV footage and forensic evidence from the scenes of the attacks. It is believed that each of the four bombs consisted of four and a half kilograms (10 lb) of high explosives, reportedly home-made acetone peroxide. The bombs were probably placed on the floors of the trains and bus.

Police investigators identified four men whom they alleged had in fact been suicide bombers. This would make the 7 July incident the first suicide bombings in Western Europe. French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy caused consternation at the British Home Office when he briefed the press that one of the names had been described the previous year at an Anglo-French security meeting as an asset of British Intelligence. This was denied by then Home Secretary Charles Clarke, or at any rate he described this as "not his recollection, to say the least".

Vincent Cannistraro, former head of the CIA's anti-terrorism centre, told The Guardian that "two unexploded bombs" were recovered as well as "mechanical timing devices", although this claim was explicitly rejected by the Metropolitan Police.

It has been reported that the intention was to have four explosions on the Underground forming a cross of fire with arms in the four cardinal directions, possibly centered symbolically at King's Cross. It was said that one bomber was turned away from the Underground as the explosions had already started, and took a bus instead. It is also possible that the fourth bomber meant to take the Northern Line, which was suspended that day due to technical difficulties.

The Underground bombs exploded when trains were crossing, thus affecting two trains with each explosion. This is one of the features which led rapidly to the suspicion of a terrorist attack by suicide bombers as the cause of the explosions.

Mass Murder Suicide bombings

The four explosions were widely reported as suicide bombings, but at the time the police would only confirm that they believed the bombers died in the bombings. However in the aftermath of the subsequent 21 July 2005 London bombings and the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, Sir Ian Blair publicly confirmed that they did believe they were dealing with suicide bombers.

It is not clear why the bombers carried identifying items, which led to the discovery of the bomb factory in Leeds. The bomb factory appears to have been intended for future use and a number of other explosive devices are said to have been found in the bombers' car at Luton station. In addition, the bombers bought return tickets to London from Luton, implying that they meant to return the way they had come. about the time that they had to escape or the nature of the devices that they were carrying.

The first three bombs exploded within 50 seconds of each other, suggesting that a timing device or remote activation was used. It is believed that mobile phones were used to remotely detonate the Madrid train bombs, either by using the phones' alarm function or by calling the phone. The former method would work in the London Underground, but the bombs could not have been detonated by calling the phones as mobile phone signals are not available. As of 19 July 2005, no forensic evidence of either of these mechanisms had been made public, making a manual detonation likely.

The suicide bombing theory came under some dispute with the eyewitness account of Bruce Lait, of Cambridge, as reported in the Cambridge News: 'He and Crystal were helped out of the carriage. As they made their way out, a policeman pointed out where the bomb had been. It was like a huge electricity surge which knocked us out and burst our eardrums. "The policeman said 'mind that hole, that's where the bomb was'. The metal was pushed upwards as if the bomb was underneath the train. They seem to think the bomb was left in a bag, but I don't remember anybody being where the bomb was, or any bag," he said. This suggests at least one of the bombs may have been planted either on the track, or on the undercarriage.

Mass Murder The bombers

A police press conference on 12 July provided further details on the progress of the investigation. Investigators focused on a group of four men, three of whom were from Leeds, West Yorkshire, and were reported as being primarily cleanskins, meaning previously unknown to authorities. On 7 July 2005, all four travelled to Luton in Bedfordshire by car, then to London by train. They were recorded on CCTV arriving at King's Cross station at about 08:30 a.m. Property associated with the men was found at the site of the explosions. On 12 July the BBC reported that Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism chief, had said that the property of one of the bombers had been found at both the Aldgate and Edgware Road blasts.

Police raided six properties in the Leeds area on 12 July: two houses in Beeston, two houses in Thornhill, one house in Holbeck and one house in 18 Alexandra Grove, Hyde Park. One man was arrested.

According to West Yorkshire police, a significant amount of explosive material was found in the raids in Leeds and a controlled explosion was carried out at one of the properties. Explosives were also found in the vehicle associated with one of the suspects at Luton railway station and subjected to controlled explosions.

The police also raided a residential property on Northern Road in the Buckinghamshire town of Aylesbury on 13 July.

The following men carried out the attacks:

The bombers caught on CCTV at Luton railway station at 07:21 a.m. on 7 July. From left to right, Hasib Hussain, Germaine Lindsay, Mohammad Sidique Khan, and Shehzad Tanweer. (Image: Crown copyright)Mohammed Sidique Khan (30) - Edgware Road Tube 8.50 a.m. Lived in Dewsbury with his heavily pregnant wife and young child. Shehzad Tanweer (22) - Aldgate Tube 8.50 a.m. Lived in Leeds with his mother and father working in a fish and chips shop. Germaine Lindsay (19) - Russell Square 8.50 a.m. Lived in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire with his pregnant wife. Hasib Hussain (18) - Tavistock Square 9.47 a.m. Lived in Leeds with his brother Imran and sister-in-law Shazia.

Mass Murder Luton cell

There has been speculation regarding links between the bombers and another alleged al-Qaeda cell in Luton, which was broken up in August 2004. That group was uncovered after al-Qaeda operative Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan was arrested in Lahore, Pakistan. His laptop computer was said to contain plans for tube attacks in London, as well as attacks on financial buildings in New York and Washington. The group was placed under surveillance, but on 2 August 2004 the New York Times published his name, citing Pakistani sources. The leak caused police in Britain and Canada to make arrests before their investigations were complete. The U.S. government later said they had given the name to some journalists as background, for which Tom Ridge, the U.S. homeland security secretary, apologised.

When the Luton cell was broken up, one of the London bombers, Mohammad Sidique Khan (no known relation), was briefly scrutinised by MI5 who determined that he was not a likely threat and he was not put under surveillance.

Mass Murder March 2007 Arrests

On 22 March 2007, 3 men were arrested in connection with the 7/7 Bombings. Two men were arrested at 1 p.m at Manchester Airport, attempting to board a plane due to depart for Pakistan at around 4.30 p.m later that afternoon. They had already passed through check-in but were apprehended as undercover officers had been following the men as part of a surveillance operation. They had not intended to arrest the men that day, but felt they could not risk letting the suspects leave British shores. The other man was arrested in the Leeds area of Beeston, Yorkshire, on the same road that one of the suicide bombers had resided at before the attacks.

Mass Murder Claims of responsibility

At around 12:10 p.m. on 7 July, BBC News reported that a website known to be operated by associates of al-Qaeda had been located with a 200-word statement claiming responsibility for the attacks. The news magazine Der Spiegel in Germany and BBC Monitoring both reported that a group named "Secret Organisation al-Qaeda in Europe" had posted an announcement claiming responsibility on the al-Qal3ah ("The Castle") Internet forum. The announcement claims the attacks are a response due to the British involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. The letter also warned other governments involved in Iraq (mentioning specifically Denmark and Italy) to withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. A Saudi commentator in London noted that the statement was grammatically poor, and that a Qur'anic quotation was incorrect. This has been disputed.

The attacks bear similarities to the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings and suggest an attack in the style of al-Qaeda. Budapest-based security analyst Sebestyén Gorka told the Reuters wire service that "the first thing that's very obvious is the synchronised nature of the attacks, and that's pretty classic for Al-Qaeda or organisations related to al-Qaeda".

In the opinion of former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, before the identity of the bombers became known, the bombers were almost certainly born or based in Britain. The attacks would have required extensive preparation and prior reconnaissance efforts, and a familiarity with bomb-making and the London transport network as well as access to significant amounts of bomb-making equipment and chemicals. The most likely suspects were said to be individuals who had been to the al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan prior to 2001. As many as 3,000 British born or based people are thought to have been trained in the camps and may since have trained others.

Some newspaper editorials in Iran, however, have blamed the bombing on British or American authorities seeking to further justify their War on Terrorism, and have claimed that the plan that included the bombings also involved increasing harassment of Muslims in Europe.

On 13 August 2005 The Independent newspaper reported, quoting police and MI5 sources, that the 7 July bombers acted independently of an al-Qaeda terror mastermind someplace abroad.

On 1 September 2005, al-Qaeda officially claimed responsibility for the attacks in a videotape aired on the Arab television network al Jazeera.

Mass Murder Translated statement

Ayman al-Zawahiri claims of responsibilityWithin hours after the attack, someone using the name "Nur al-Iman" and identified as a "new guest", posted a statement on the Al-Qal3ah website which claimed responsibility on behalf of "The Secret Organisation Group of Al-Qaeda of Jihad Organisation in Europe". The following is a translation of the statement:

In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate, may peace be upon the cheerful one and undaunted fighter, Prophet Muhammad, Allah's peace be upon him.

Nations of Islam and Arab nations: Rejoice, for it is time to take revenge against the British Zionist crusader government in retaliation for the massacres Britain is committing in Iraq and Afghanistan. The heroic Mujahideen have carried out a blessed raid in London. Britain is now burning with fear, terror and panic in its northern, southern, eastern, and western quarters.

We have repeatedly warned the British government and people. We have fulfilled our promise and carried out our blessed military raid in Britain after our Mujahideen exerted strenuous efforts over a long period of time to ensure the success of the raid.

We continue to warn the governments of Denmark and Italy and all the crusader governments that they will be punished in the same way if they do not withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. He who warns is excused. Allah says: "If ye will aid (the cause of) Allah, He will aid you, and plant your feet firmly" The quotation at the end of the statement is from the Qur'an, in Sura 47:7. The translation of the quotation given here is by Abdullah Yusuf Ali.

The term ghazw, here translated as "raid", has historically often been used in Islamic contexts with the connotations of an attack on the enemies of an Islamic state seen as a meritorious act; those who carry out such attacks (ghazawat) are called ghazis.

This anonymous post has come under dispute as MSNBC TV translator Jacob Keryakes noted that the claim of responsibility contained an error in one of the Quranic verses it cited. That suggests that the claim may be phony, he said. "This is not something al-Qaida would do," he said.

Mass Murder Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade

A second claim of responsibility was posted on the Internet on 9 July, claiming the attacks for another Al Qaeda-linked group, Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade. The group has previously falsely claimed responsibility for events that were the result of technical problems, such as the 2003 London blackout and 2003 North America blackout. They have also claimed authorship of the 2004 Madrid train bombings.

Mass Murder Tape of Mohammad Sidique Khan

On 1 September 2005, Al Jazeera aired a tape featuring Mohammad Sidique Khan, one of the bombers, in which he said:

I and thousands like me are forsaking everything for what we believe. Our drive and motivation doesn't come from tangible commodities that this world has to offer. Our religion is Islam, obedience to the one true God and following the footsteps of the final prophet messenger. Your democratically elected governments continuously perpetuate atrocities against my people all over the world. And your support of them makes you directly responsible, just as I am directly responsible for protecting and avenging my Muslim brothers and sisters. Until we feel security you will be our targets and until you stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people we will not stop this fight. We are at war and I am a soldier. Now you too will taste the reality of this situation. The tape had been edited and also featured Al Qaeda number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a way intended to suggest a direct link between Khan and Al Qaeda. There has been no report that Khan said anything linking the bombing to Al Qaeda.

Mass Murder Tape of Shehzad Tanweer

On the eve of the first anniversary of the attacks (6 July 2006), Al Jazeera aired another taped message from one of the bombers - Shehzad Tanweer. He said:

For the non-Muslims in Britain, you may wonder what you have done to deserve this. You are those who have voted in your government who in turn have and still continue to this day continue to oppress our mothers and children, brothers and sisters from the east to the west in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya. Your government has openly supported the genocide of more than 150,000 innocent Muslims in Fallujah.

We are 100 per cent committed to the cause of Islam. We love death the way you love life. I tell all you British citizens to stop your support to your lying British government and to the so-called war on terror. And ask yourselves: why would thousands of men be ready to give their lives for the cause of Muslims?

What you have witnessed now is only the beginning of a series of attacks which will intensify and continue to until you pull all your troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq. Until you stop all financial and military support to the US and Israel and until you release all Muslim prisoners from Belmarsh and your other concentration camps. And know that if you fail to comply with this then know that this war will never stop and that we are willing to give our lives 100 times over for the cause of Islam. You will never experience peace until our children in Palestine, our mothers and sisters in Kashmir, and our brothers in Afghanistan and Iraq feel peace.

The film again featured commentary from the al-Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri. He says Tanweer's beliefs explain why he was drawn into al-Qaeda, and why he and Mohammad Sidique Khan "wished that they could carry out a martyrdom operation". Al-Zawahiri adds that Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammad Sidique Khan attended an al-Qaeda camp. It was known that the two had visited Pakistan, and visited madrassas, but the claim that they been trained at an al-Qaeda camp is new.

Mass Murder Effects

Mass Murder Security alerts

Although there were security alerts at many locations, no other terrorist incidents occurred outside central London. Suspicious packages were destroyed in controlled explosions in Edinburgh, Brighton, Coventry, and Darlington. Security across the UK was raised to the highest alert level.

Many other countries raised their own terror alert status (for example: Canada, United States, France, and Germany), especially for public transport. For a time US commanders ordered troops based in the UK to avoid London.

Police sniper units were reported to be following as many as a dozen Al Qaeda suspects in Britain. The covert armed teams were under orders to shoot to kill if surveillance suggested that a terror suspect was carrying a bomb and he refused to surrender if challenged.

It was initially rumoured, incorrectly, that a man was found in Canary Wharf (London), armed with a bomb but he was shot down by a sniper before he could carry out any attack.

TURN ON RADIO Vodafone reported that its mobile phone network reached capacity at about 10:00 a.m. on the day of the incident, and it was forced to initiate emergency procedures to prioritise emergency calls (ACCOLC, the "access overload control scheme"). Other mobile phone networks also reported failures. The BBC speculated that the phone system was closed by the security services to prevent the possibility of mobile phones being used to trigger bombs. Although this option was considered, it later became clear that the intermittent unavailability of both mobile and landline phone systems were due to excessive usage.

For most of the day, central London's public transport system was effectively crippled because of the complete closure of the underground system, the closure of the Zone 1 bus networks, and the evacuation of Russell Square. Bus services restarted at 4 p.m. the same day, and most mainline train stations reopened shortly after. Tourist river vessels were pressed into service to provide a free alternative to the overcrowded trains and buses. Thousands of people chose to walk home or make their way to the nearest Zone 2 bus or train station. Most of the Underground apart from the affected stations restarted the next morning, though some commuters chose to stay at home.

Much of King's Cross station was also closed, with the ticket hall and waiting area being used as a makeshift hospital to treat casualties on the spot. Although the station reopened later in the day, only suburban rail services were able to use it, with Intercity trains terminating at Peterborough (the service was fully restored on 9 July). King's Cross St. Pancras tube station remained open only to Metropolitan Line services in order to facilitate the ongoing recovery and investigation effort for a week, though Victoria Line services were restored on 15 July and Northern Line services on 18 July. St. Pancras Station, located next to King's Cross, was shut on Thursday afternoon with all Midland Mainline trains terminating in Leicester disrupting services to Sheffield, Nottingham and Derby.

By 25 July there were still disruptions to the Piccadilly Line (which was not running between Arnos Grove and Hyde Park Corner in either direction), the Hammersmith & City Line (which was only running a shuttle service between Hammersmith and Paddington) and the Circle Line (which was suspended in its entirety). The Metropolitan line resumed services to between Moorgate and Aldgate on 25 July. The Hammersmith and City was also operating a peak hours service between Whitechapel and Baker Street. Most of the tube network was however running normally.

On 2 August the Hammersmith & City Line resumed normal service; the Circle Line service was still suspended, though all Circle Line stations are also served by other lines. The Piccadilly Line service resumed on 4 August.

Mass Murder Economic impact

There were limited immediate reactions to the attack in the world economy as measured by financial market and exchange rate activity. The pound fell 0.89 cents to a 19-month low against the U.S. dollar. The FTSE 100 Index fell by about 200 points in the two hours after the first attack. This was its biggest fall since the start of the war in Iraq, and it triggered the London Stock Exchange's special measures, restricting panic selling and aimed at ensuring market stability. However, by the time the market closed it had recovered to only 71.3 points (1.36%) down on the previous day's three-year closing high. Markets in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain also closed about 1% down on the day.

US market indexes rose slightly, in part because the dollar index rose sharply against the pound and the euro. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 31.61 to 10,302.29. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 7.01 to 2075.66. The S&P 500 rose 2.93 points to 1197.87 after declining up to 1%. Every benchmark gained 0.3%.

The markets picked up again on 8 July as it became clear that the damage caused by the bombings was not as great as initially thought. By close of trading the market had fully recovered to above its level at start of trading on 7 July. Insurers in the UK tend to re-insure their terrorist liabilities in excess of the first £75,000,000 with Pool Re, a mutual insurer set up by the government with leading insurers. Pool Re has substantial reserves and newspaper reports indicated that claims would easily be covered.

On 9 July, the Bank of England, HM Treasury and the Financial Services Authority revealed that they had instigated contingency plans immediately after the attacks to ensure that the UK financial markets could keep trading. This involved the activation of a "secret chatroom" on the British Government's Financial Sector Continuity website, which allowed the institutions to communicate with the country's banks and market dealers.

Mass Murder Response

Mass Murder Media response

TV news gazebo at King's Cross railway station.Rolling news coverage of the attacks was broadcast throughout 7 July, by both BBC One and ITV1 uninterrupted until 7pm. Sky News did not carry any advertisements for 24 hours. ITN later confirmed that its coverage on ITV1 was its longest uninterrupted on-air broadcast in its 50 year history. Television coverage was notable for the use of mobile phone video sent in from members of the public and live shots from traffic CCTV cameras. Local and national radio also generally either suspended regular programming for news reports, or provided regular updates as part of scheduled shows.

Many films and drama broadcasts were cancelled or postponed on grounds of taste. For example, BBC Radio 4 pulled its scheduled Classic Serial without explanation; it was to have been John Buchan's Greenmantle, about the revolt of Muslims against British interests abroad. ITV replaced the movies The X Files, in which a building is partly destroyed by a bomb, with Stakeout, and The Siege, where a bomb destroys a bus full of passengers, with Gone in 60 Seconds. Even the BBC flagship soap EastEnders was forced to re-edit that night's episode, which contained a sequence involving a house explosion, ambulances and survivors choking from smoke inhalation. Sky One broadcast an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in place of Terror Attacks: Could You Survive ...?. Also Viacom-owned music channels MTV, VH1, TMF and all their sub-channels broadcasted a 'sombre' music playlist for the rest of the day, and into some of the next (the MTV studios were situated in Camden Town, close to some of the bomb sites).

The bbc.co.uk website recorded an all time bandwidth peak of 11 Gb/s at 12:00 on 7 July. BBC News received some 1 billion total hits on the day of the event (including all images, text and HTML), serving some 5.5 terabytes of data. At peak times during the day there were 40,000 page requests per second for the BBC News website. The previous day's announcement of the 2012 Olympics being awarded to London caused a peak of around 5 Gb/s. The previous all time high at bbc.co.uk was caused by the announcement of the Michael Jackson verdict, which used 7.2 Gb/s.

On Tuesday 12 July it was reported that the far-right political party, the British National Party, released leaflets showing images of the "Number 30 Bus" after it was blown up. The slogan "Maybe now it's time to start listening to the BNP" was printed beside the photo. Then Home Secretary Charles Clarke described it as an attempt by the BNP to, "cynically exploit the current tragic events in London to further their spread of hatred". The leaflet can be found on the BNP website.

In several countries outside the United Kingdom, governments and media outlets perceived that the UK government was lenient towards radical Islamist militants (as long as they were involved in activities outside of the UK), as well as the UK's refusal to extradite or prosecute suspects of terror acts committed outside of the UK, led to London being sometimes called Londonistan, and have called these purported policies into question (New York Times, Le Figaro). Such policies were believed to be a cynical attempt of quid pro quo: the UK allegedly exchanged an absence of attacks on its soil against toleration.

Even the World Wrestling Entertainment was affected. On an episode of SmackDown! taped on July 4, General Manager Theodore Long put The Undertaker in a match with Khosrow Daivari, manager of the controversial character Muhammad Hassan. Daivari was defeated easily, but Hassan began to "pray" on the ramp, summoning five masked men, dressed almost completely in black. Armed with clubs and a piano wire, they beat and choked the Undertaker out. Afterward, the masked men lifted Daivari above their heads and carried him away. Three days later, hours before the episode was scheduled to air, the London bombings took place. Without sufficient time to properly edit the segment out of the show, UPN showed the footage unedited in America and on The Score in Canada with an advisory warning shown several times during the broadcast. It was removed from the Australian and European (including in the UK) broadcasts.

Mass Murder Leaked report in The Observer

On 9 April 2006 The Observer newspaper published leaked details of the first draft of a forthcoming Home Office report on the bombings, compiled for the then Home secretary Charles Clarke by a senior civil servant. This section includes only information about a forthcoming report gleaned from a newspaper article, and should be read as such rather than as verified fact.

The article reports that the attack was planned probably with a budget of only a few hundred pounds by four men using information from the internet. While they had visited Pakistan, there was no direct support or planning by al-Qaeda; meetings in Pakistan were ideological, rather than practical. All four bombers died in the suicide bombings. While there was a search for a fifth suspect after police found an unused rucksack of explosives in the bombers' abandoned car at Luton station, there was no fifth bomber.

While the videotape of Mohammed Sidique Khan released after the attacks had footage of Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Home Office believes the tape was edited after the suicide attacks and dismisses it as evidence of al-Qaeda's involvement in the attacks.

Khan was the ringleader. Links to other suspected terrorists are not discussed for legal reasons. The bombers-to-be followed an extreme interpretation of Islam, and they, in particular Jermaine Lindsay, were happy to enjoy a Western lifestyle. The attacks were largely motivated by concerns over British foreign policy, seen as deliberately anti-Muslim, and the promise of immortality.

The report does not say why no action was taken against the suspect bombers beforehand, although Mohammed Sidique Khan was identified by intelligence officers months before the attack. A separate report into the attacks by the Commons intelligence and security committee will ask why MI5 did not maintain surveillance of Khan.

Criticism of the leaked Observer report

Conservative spokesman Patrick Mercer said 'A series of reports such as this narrative simply does not answer questions such as the reduced terror alert before the attack, the apparent involvement of al-Qaeda and links to earlier or later terrorist plots.'

Mass Murder Historical comparisons

The bombings were the deadliest attack in London since a V2 rocket killed 131 people in Stepney on 27 March 1945, near the end of World War II. They were the deadliest post-World War II incident in the capital since the Harrow & Wealdstone station rail crash of 1952 left 112 dead.

They were the second-deadliest terrorist attack in the UK, after the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland (270 dead). Other terrorist bombings in recent history include the 1998 Omagh bombing (29 dead) and the 1974 Birmingham pub bombing (21 dead). The 2005 attacks are the first coordinated suicide bombings perpetrated by Islamic Extremists in the history of London. The three train bombings, with a total of 39 dead, constitute one of the deadliest incidents in the peacetime history of the London Underground, with more casualties than the King's Cross fire of November 1987 (31 dead), but less than the Moorgate tube crash of February 1975 (43 dead) and the wartime bombings of Balham station (14 October 1940) - 65 dead, and Bank station (11 January 1941) - 56 dead, or the panic crush during an air raid at Bethnal Green station on 3 March 1943 when 173 people lost their lives.

The London Underground had been targeted by bombers before. In January 1885 a bomb exploded on a Metropolitan Line train at Gower Street (now Euston Square) station, and in February 1913 a crude bomb - probably the work of Suffragettes - was discovered at Westbourne Park station. Bombs planted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) exploded at Tottenham Court Road and Leicester Square station on 3 February 1939. In August and December 1973 the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) left several explosive devices in the tube network, and again in February and March 1976. On 4 March 1976, eight people were injured by a bomb in Cannon Street; 11 days later, nine people were injured by a premature explosion at West Ham tube station. Seconds after that incident, Julius Stephen, the driver of the train, was shot dead when he attempted to pursue the fleeing bomber. On the same day, a further device found at Oxford Circus station was defused, while another bomb exploded on an empty train at Wood Green station as it was preparing to enter the reversing siding there. Had it exploded later, the train would have been packed with football supporters leaving after the Arsenal match that evening.

The 2005 attack featured the most explosions in a single terrorist incident in a UK city since Bloody Friday in Belfast in July 1972 (22 bombs planted). They were the world's deadliest attack on a public transport system since the Madrid train bombings of 11 March 2004 (191 dead), although the March 1995 Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway injured far more people.

There has only been one other bomb explosion on a London bus in recent times: on 18 February 1996 at Wellington Street near Aldwych, in which the only fatality was the IRA member transporting the device. This was thought to have been the result of the accidental detonation of a bomb that he intended to plant elsewhere, rather than a suicide attack.

The 2005 attacks were the first terrorist (i.e. politically motivated) killings in London since 30 April 1999, when the neo-Nazi David Copeland nailbombed the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho in a homophobic attack, killing three people. They were also the first suicide bombings ever carried out anywhere in Western Europe.

In 1995, the GIA Islamist militant group staged a series of attacks against the French public, targeting public transportation. These attacks killed 8 and injured more than 100. The attacks were apparently designed to be a broadening of the civil war in Algeria, a former French colony.

Mass Murder Contacts

'One week anniversary' bombings appeal.People with information regarding the bombings were asked to report it to the Home

Office anti-terrorist hotline 0800 789 321 (UK).

Scotland Yard requested that members of the public with video or images on mobile phones or otherwise send them to images@met.police.uk.

British Red Cross website for donations to the victims relief fund.

The police force with responsibility for London Underground is the British Transport Police.

11 July 2006 Mumbai Train Bombings

July 2006 Mumbai train bombings

One of the bomb-damaged coaches

Location Mumbai, India

Target(s) Mumbai Suburban Railway

Date 11 July 2006

18:24

18:35 (UTC+5.5)

Attack type Bombings

Fatalities 209

Injuries 714

Perpetrator(s) Terrorist outfits Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT; These are alleged perpetrators as legal proceedings have not yet taken place.)

The 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings were a series of seven bomb blasts that took place over a period of 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and India's financial capital. 209 people lost their lives and over 700 were injured in the attacks.

Mass Murder Details

The bombs were placed on trains plying on the western line of the suburban ("local") train network, which forms the backbone of the city's transport network. The first blast reportedly took place at 18:24 IST (12:54 UTC), and the explosions continued for approximately eleven minutes, until 18:35, during the after-work rush hour. All the bombs had been placed in the first-class "general" compartments (some compartments are reserved for women, called "ladies" compartments) of several trains running from Churchgate, the city-centre end of the western railway line, to the western suburbs of the city. They exploded at or in the near vicinity of the suburban railway stations of Matunga Road, Mahim, Bandra, Khar Road, Jogeshwari, Bhayandar and Borivali. An additional bomb was defused at Borivali.

Map showing the 'Western line' and blast locations.Home Minister Shivraj Patil told reporters that authorities had "some" information an attack was coming, "but place and time was not known".

The bomb attacks in Mumbai came hours after a series of grenade attacks in Srinagar, the largest city in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. However, Home Secretary V K Duggal said there was no link between the Srinagar and Mumbai bomb blasts.

Mass Murder Injuries and fatalities

11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings

Confirmed casualties Train Blast location Carriage type Time (IST) Deaths Injured Sources Travelling north from Churchgate Khar Road - Santacruz First Class 18:24 17:50 Fast Local

Churchgate-Borivali Bandra - Khar Road First Class 18:24 17:37 Slow Local

Churchgate-Borivali Jogeshwari (PF #1) First Class 18:25 17:54 Fast Local

Churchgate-Borivali Mahim Junction (PF #3) First Class 18:26

Travelling north from Churchgate Mira Road - Bhayandar First Class 18:29 17:57 Fast Local

Churchgate-Virar Matunga Road - Mahim Junction First Class 18:30 17:37 Fast Local

Churchgate-Virar Borivali (PF #4)1 First Class 18:35

Total 11 minutes 209 714

1 One bomb exploded at this location, but another one was found by police and defused.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R. R. Patil confirmed that a total of 200 people were killed and another 714 others have been injured. Additionally, various news organisations have reported that at least 200 people have died and that more than 700 others have been injured.

A week after the blasts in Mumbai the confirmed death toll rose to 207.

In September of 2006 it was confirmed that the death toll had risen to 209.

Mass Murder Response

A state of high alert was declared in India's major cities. Both the airports in Mumbai were placed on high alert. The western line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway network was at first shut down, although some trains resumed service later, and stringent security arrangements, including frisking and searching of commuters, were instituted on the other lines of the network. The city's bus service, the BEST, pressed extra buses into service to transport stranded commuters home.

The Prime Minister also held a security meeting at his residence attended by Home Minister Shivraj Patil, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, and Home Secretary V K Duggal.

Resumption of services and return to normality Western Railway services were restored on 11 July by 10.45 pm. As a show of investor confidence, the Mumbai Stock Exchange rebounded, starting the day with the BSE Sensex Index up by nearly 1% in morning trade. Foreign investors also retained confidence, with the Sensex up almost 3% at 10,930.09 at the end of the day's trade.

Mass Murder Rescue and relief operations

Initial rescue efforts were hampered by the heavy rains and the prevalent monsoon flooding, but quickly took momentum after fellow passengers and bystanders helped victims reach to waiting ambulances and/or provided first aid. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh announced ex-gratia payments of Rs 1,00,000 (approx. US$2,200) to the next of kin of those who died in the explosion. The injured would be given Rs 50,000 (approx. US$1,100) each. Indian Railways announced Rs 5,00,000 (approx. US$10,000) compensation and a job to the next of kin of those killed in the serial blasts in Mumbai. The announcements were made by Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav after visiting those injured in the blasts at a hospital in Mumbai.

Mass Murder Sources of information

Due to the mobile phone networks being jammed, news channels such as NDTV ran tickertapes with information of injured individuals as well as SMS messages from those who wish to contact their families. Reports indicated that at around 18:00 UTC on 11 July (midnight in Mumbai), the phone networks were restoring service; telephone service was completely restored during the night.

Mumbai Help, a blog run by around thirty bloggers, was a useful source of information, especially for those outside India.

Mass Murder Impact

Mass Murder Heightened security measures

In wake of the blasts, the Indian government tightened security in railway stations. Under new restrictions passed by the Ministry of Railways, non-passengers would no longer be allowed on the railway platforms after July 2006. Other major security steps include installation of close circuit televisions inside the stations for round-the-clock vigil and installation of metal detectors.

Mass Murder Setback for the India-Pakistan peace process

Following the bomb attacks, Minister of State of External Affairs E. Ahamed announced on 14 July that India would suspend the talks with Pakistan until President Pervez Musharraf abides by his 2004 promise of ending all support to cross-border terrorism. However, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has conveyed India's willingness to be flexible with Pakistan following Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's statements that ending the three-year long peace process would signal a victory for the separatist terrorists.

On 16 September at the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Havana Cuba, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf made a joint statement announcing that the two countries would resume formal peace negotiations and set up a joint agency to tackle terrorism.

Mass Murder Statements in response

Various senior political figures from India and around the world condemned the attacks. In India, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh was quick to call for calm in Mumbai, while President Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, and president of the Indian National Congress Sonia Gandhi also issued statements regarding the bombings in Mumbai. Officials from other nations offered their condolences to those affected by the bombings. Officials from Pakistan, which has long feuded with India, and the United Kingdom, which was the target of similar attacks the previous July, were among those who denounced the attacks in Mumbai as well as terrorism as a whole. Several terrorist groups, including Lashkar-e-Toiba and al-Qaeda, made comments both in condemnation and condonation about the attacks as well.

Mass Murder Memorial service

A memorial service was held in Mumbai on 18 July at 6:25 pm local time exactly one week after the blasts. President APJ Abdul Kalam, his hand raised to his forehead in salute, led the two-minute silence as people lit candles and placed wreaths at Mahim station, one of the seven places on the suburban rail network hit by bombs. Sirens sounded across Mumbai marking the memorial service. People gathered at the site of the blasts, in railway stations on the city's Western Line and millions of people stopped talking, traffic came to a halt and cinemas interrupted films as a city that never stops observed a silence for bombing victims.

Mass Murder Investigation

Some 350 people were detained 36 hours after the incident in Maharashtra - police claim that these are people rounded up for investigations On 14 July, Lashkar-e-Qahhar, a terrorist organisation possibly linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed responsibility for the bombings. In an e-mail to an Indian TV channel, the outfit says it organised the bombings using 16 people who are all "safe". According to the e-mail, the main motive seems to have been a retaliation to the situation in the Gujrat and Kashmir regions, possibly referring to the alleged oppression of Muslim minorities in certain parts of the region. It also says that the blasts were part of a series of attacks aimed at other sites such as the Mumbai international airport, Gateway of India, the Taj Mahal in Agra and the Red Fort in New Delhi. The authorities are investigating this claim and are trying to track the location of the e-mail sender. However, on 17 July, the forensic science laboratory Mumbai has confirmed the use of a mixture of the highly explosive RDX and Ammonium Nitrate for the bombings. The presence of these explosives in the post explosive debris was confirmed by modern techniques such as Liquid Chromatography with mass detector (LCMS), Gas Chromatography with mass detector (GCMS) and Ion Scan Chromatography. They have indicated a strong possibility of all explosives being planted at the Churchgate railway station, which was the starting point for all affected trains.

Initially, religious extremists from the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the banned Students Islamic Movement of India terrorist groups, and Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI were the prime suspects. Both Lashkar and SIMI denied responsibility for the bombings. There was also evidence about the involvement of the international Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda following a phone call from a man claiming to be a spokesperson for the group on 13 July. The alleged al-Qaeda spokesman had said the blasts were a "consequence of Indian oppression and suppression of minorities, particularly Muslims."

On September 30, 2006 CNN reported that "The Indian government accused Pakistan's military spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, of planning the July 11 Mumbai train bombings that killed 209 people".

Mass Murder Arrests

On 21 July 2006 police arrested three people suspected to be involved in the bombings. Police have detained more than 300 suspects since 18 July but these are the first arrests in the case. Two of the men were detained on Thursday in the northern state of Bihar and the third later in Mumbai. All three are said to belong to the banned SIMI organisation. On the same day, Abdul Karim Tunda was arrested in Kenya on suspicions of involvement in the train bombings. He is one of India's most wanted men and also a suspected organizer for the banned Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba.

Mass Murder Investigation updates

The Indian National Security Advisor M K Narayanan has said that India doesn't have "clinching" evidence of the involvement of Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI in the Mumbai train blasts of July 11.

"I would hesitate to say we have clinching evidence but we have pretty good evidence," he was quoted as saying on CNN-IBN.

Following Narayanan's remarks, the Union Home Secretary V.K. Duggal on Monday characterised the evidence as "very good it is fairly solid evidence,".

Mass Murder by a state

The concept of state-sponsored mass Murder covers a range of potential killings. Clear examples of state-sponsored mass Murder include:

Genocide of a particular ethnic or religious group, whether internal or external to the state, such as the Armenian Genocide, The Holocaust against the Jews, the Burundi Genocide, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Darfur conflict. Political mass Murder or the killing of a particular political group within a country, such as Béla Kun's ethnic cleansing against Turkish and Crimean Tatars and other minorities in 1921-22, Stalin's Great Purge, the Killing Fields of Cambodia, or the Hama and Tlatelolco massacres.

Deliberate massacres of civilians during wartime by a state's military forces, such as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Katyn Forest Massacre of Polish citizens, the Nanjing Massacre during World War II, The Wounded Knee Massacre by the U.S. 7th Cavalry, the Blitz, the bombing of Dresden, or the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Actions in which the state caused the death of large numbers of people, which political scientist R. J. Rummel calls "democide," which, in addition to the cases above, may include man-made disasters caused by the state, such as the Holodomor in the Soviet Union, and the disastrous effects of the Great Leap Forward in China.

Some people consider any deaths in combat to be mass Murder by the state, though this is not a generally held position.

Mass Murder in warfare

The wrongful killing of large numbers of civilians or prisoners during war is called a war crime, although it may also be genocide if the proper ethnic motivation is present, as in the killings which occurred in the breakaway republics of the former Yugoslavia (e.g. Srebrenica massacre), in the killing of the Pequot in colonial America or in killing of hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of Hindu and Muslim Bengalis by armed forces of Pakistan in 1971.

Mass Murderers

The Mountain Meadows massacre was a mass killing of Arkansas emigrants by Mormon militia and Paiutes on Friday, September 11, 1857. The Murders took place at Mountain Meadows, a stopover along the Old Spanish Trail in southwestern Utah. Sources estimate that between 100 and 140 men, women and children were killed. The causes and circumstances remain highly controversial.

Mass Murder Fancher party

In the spring of 1857 approximately forty families of European ancestry, mostly from Marion, Benton, Carroll and Johnson counties in Arkansas, set off on an emigration to southern California. After being joined by other Arkansas trains and making its way west, it was soon called the Fancher train (or party) after Alexander Fancher who, having already made the journey to California twice before, had becomthe Fancher party e its main leader. Fancher, an experienced leader and cattle driver, had traveled from Arkansas to California in 1850 at the height of the Gold Rush and again in 1853. By contemporary standards the Fancher party was prosperous, carefully organized and well-equipped for the journey.

The Mountain Meadows monument in Harrison, Boone County Arkansas (1955) indicates that the Fancher party was made up of several emigrant groups. The Fancher train departed from Benton County under the leadership of Alexander Fancher, as did the Huff train. The Poteet-Tackett-Jones train along with the Cameron and Miller trains left from Johnson County while the Mitchell, Dunlap and Prewitt trains began their treks from Marion County. The Baker train departed from Beller's Stand near Harrison in Carroll County (today Boone County). Each party left on different dates and was led by individual wagon masters. The families had many reasons for heading west. Some had sold their homes and property in Arkansas and were planning to settle in California. Others (like Fancher) were driving cattle west for profit. The lure of gold may have motivated some of the the young single men. Along their way westward other wagon trains merged with them, broke off, or rejoined the group. These included the Poteet-Tackett train, the Crooked Creek train, the Campbell train, the Parker train and the John S. Baker train. Families and individuals from other states may have joined up with the them.

Mass Murder travel through Utah

The Fancher party arrived in Utah Territory in July with over 900 head of cattle but were running low on some supplies when they reached the Salt Lake City area on August 3, 1857. Only days before, Mormon leader and Utah Territorial Governor Brigham Young had declared martial law in response to potential hostilities with the United States government. President James Buchanan had ordered United States Army troops to advance towards Utah, beginning what would later be called the Utah War.

The main Fancher train waited outside Salt Lake City for more than a week as other trains caught up with them. The Baker Train (named for Captain John Twitty Baker) was the last to arrive Meanwhile the settlers had to decide which route to take across the Great Basin. The northern route meant traveling the Humboldt River Road west across the desert and Sierra Nevada mountains, then southward through California. The southern route, which involved less risk of the emigrants becoming snowbound in the mountains this late in the season, would carry them through the settlements in southern Utah, to the Mohave Desert and on to Los Angeles.

At least one couple chose to take the northern route while others from the woman's family went south with the Fancher party towards southwestern Utah and Mountain Meadows. The Mormons they encountered along the way were suspicious of non-Mormons and most declined to trade with them for several reasons, including Young's declaration of martial law, his orders discouraging the trading of food with immigrants and his orders forbidding people from traveling through the territory without a pass, which the Fancher party did not have. However, the train's leadership may not have been aware of Young's martial law order since it was not made public until September 15.

On September 1 in Salt Lake City, Brigham Young (who held the title of Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Territory of Utah) met with Indian chiefs from the Southern Territory which included the area around Mountain Meadows. During a one hour meeting Young complained that the Americans had come to kill both Mormons and Indians. He told the Chiefs that if they fought the Americans he would give them all the cattle on the Southern California Trail.

The Fancher party may have been joined by a group of eleven miners and plainsmen who called themselves "Missouri Wildcats," some of whom reportedly taunted, vandalized and "caused trouble" for Mormons and Native Americans along the route (by some accounts claiming they had the gun that "shot the guts out of Old Joe Smith") and stories of this spread through Mormon communities. However, it is uncertain whether the Missouri Wildcat group stayed with the slow-moving Fancher party after leaving Salt Lake City, or even existed. Either way, popular Mormon leader Parley P. Pratt had been Murdered in Arkansas a few months earlier (by the ex-husband of one of Pratt's plural wives) and news of his death had only recently begun to arrive in the area. These rumors, martial law, threats of war and limited supplies all likely influenced individual Mormons who didn't sell food to the Fancher party.

Mass Murder Cedar City meetings

As the Fancher party approached Mountain Meadows, several meetings were held in Cedar City and nearby Parowan by local LDS ("Latter-Day Saints") leaders pondering how to implement Young's declaration of martial law. They decided to "eliminate" the Fancher wagon train, but hesitated and sent a rider to Salt Lake City (a six day round trip on horseback) for Brigham Young's advice. Meanwhile, organization among the local Mormon leadership reportedly broke down.

Mass Murder Mountain Meadows

The hungry, somewhat dispirited Fancher party found water and fresh grazing for its livestock after reaching grassy, mountain-ringed Mountain Meadows, a widely known stopover on the old Spanish Trail, in early September. They anticipated several days of rest and recuperation there. On September 7 the party was attacked by a group of Native American Paiutes and Mormon militiamen dressed as Native Americans. The Fancher party defended itself by encircling and lowering their wagons, wheels chained together, along with digging shallow trenches and throwing dirt both below and into the wagons, which made a strong barrier. Seven emigrants were killed during the opening attack and were buried somewhere within the wagon encirclement. Sixteen more were wounded. The attack continued for five days, during which the besieged families had little or no access to fresh water or game food and their ammunition was depleted.

On Friday, September 11 two Mormon militiamen approached the Fancher party wagons with a white flag and were soon followed by Indian agent and militia officer John D. Lee. Lee told the battle-weary emigrants he had negotiated a truce with the Paiutes, whereby they could be escorted safely to Cedar City under Mormon protection in exchange for leaving all their livestock and supplies to the Native Americans. Accepting this, they were split into three groups. Seventeen of the youngest children along with a few mothers and the wounded were put into wagons, which were followed by all the women and older children walking in a second group. Bringing up the rear were the adult males of the Fancher party, each walking with an armed Mormon militiaman at his right. Making their way back northeast towards Cedar City, the three groups gradually became strung out and visually separated by shrubs and a shallow hill. After about 2 kilometers the prearranged order, "Do Your Duty!" was given. Each Mormon then turned and killed the man he was guarding. All of the men, women, older children and wounded were massacred by Mormon militia and Paiutes who had hidden nearby. A few who escaped the initial slaughter were quickly chased down and killed. Two teenaged girls, Rachel and Ruth Dunlap, managed to clamber down the side of a steep gully and hide among a clump of oak trees for several minutes. They were spotted by a Paiute chief from Parowan, who took them to Lee. Eighteen-year-old Ruth Dunlap reportedly fell to her knees and pleaded, "Spare me, and I will love you all my life!" (Lee denied this). 50 years later, a Mormon woman who was a child at the time of the massacre recalled hearing LDS women in St. George say both girls were raped before they were killed.

All of the Mormon participants in the massacre were then sworn to secrecy. The many dozens of bodies were hastily dragged into gullies and other low lying spots, then lightly covered with surrounding material which was soon blown away by the weather, leaving the remains to be scavenged and scattered by wildlife.

Mass Murder Surviving children

Approximately seventeen children were deliberately spared because of their young ages. In the hours following the massacre Lee directed Philip Kingensmith and possibly two others to take the children (a few of whom were wounded) to the nearby farm of Jacob Hamblin, a local Indian agent. Later Jacob Forney, the non-Mormon Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Utah, ordered that the children be placed in the care of local Mormon families pending an investigation of the matter and notification of kin. However, some accounts relate that Lee sold or bartered the children to whatever Mormon families would take them. Sarah Francis Baker, who was three years old at the time of the massacre, later said, "They sold us from one family to another."

Mass Murder Aftermath

The Paiutes reportedly received a portion of the Fancher party's significant livestock holdings as compensation for their part in the massacre. Many of the Murdered emigrants' other belongings (including blood stained and bullet-riddled clothing stripped from the victims' corpses) were brought to Cedar City and stored in the cellar of an LDS warehouse as "property taken at the siege of Sebastopol." There are conflicting accounts as to whether these items were auctioned off or simply taken by members of the local population. Some of the surviving children subsequently claimed to have seen Mormons wearing their dead parents' clothing and jewelry.

In 1859, two years after the massacre, Brevet Major James Henry Carleton arrived in the area to investigate. He and Hamblin went to Mountain Meadows where they found women's hair tangled in sage brush and the bones of children still in their mothers' arms. Carleton later said it was "a sight which can never be forgotten." After gathering up the skulls and bones of those who had died, Carleton's troops buried them and erected a rock cairn inscribed with the words, Here 120 men, women, and children were massacred in cold blood early in September, 1857. They were from Arkansas, along with a cross bearing the words, Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.

Replica of the original Mountain Meadows Massacre Monument in Carrollton, Arkansas.Meanwhile Forney and Governor Cummings directed Hamblin and Carleton to gather up the surviving children from local families and transport them to Salt Lake City, after which they were united with extended family members in Arkansas and other states. Several Mormon families claimed and received financial compensation from the federal government for the children's care and even protested that the amounts paid were insufficient although the conditions some of the children lived under were severely criticised.

Carleton issued a scathing report to the United States Congress, blaming local and senior church leaders for the massacre, however years later only Lee was charged with Murder for his involvement. Lee's first trial ended in a mistrial but he was convicted on re-trial and executed by firing squad at Mountain Meadows.

The causes and circumstances of the Mountain Meadows Massacre remain contested and highly controversial. Although there is no evidence that Brigham Young ordered or condoned the massacre, what roles Cedar City church officials took in ordering the Murders and Young took in concealing evidence in their aftermath are still questioned. Moreover, while by all accounts native American Paiutes were present, historical reports of their numbers and the details of their participation are contradictory. Paiute leaders stated in 2001 that the tribe's oral history denies any involvement in the massacre itsself but does admit to many watching from a distance and pillaging the Fanchers' property after the massacre. Young's use of often inflammatory and violent language in response to perceived Federal colonialism has also been cited as having contributed to the tense atmosphere that helped precipitate the attack.

Mass Murder Memorials

Starting in 1988 descendants of both the Fancher party victims and the Mormon participants collaborated to design and dedicate a monument to replace the neglected and crumbling marker on the site. There are now three monuments to the massacre. Two of these are at Mountain Meadows. Mountain Meadows Association built a monument in 1990 which is mantained by the Utah State Division of Parks and Recreation. In 1999 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built and agreed to maintain a second monument. A monument in Arkansas is a replica of Carleton's original marker maintained by the Mountain Meadows Massacre Monument Foundation Inc.

A descendants organization announced the assemblage of a commemorative wagon train at Beller Spring, Arkansas, for April 21-22, 2007, with participants in period dress, to honor the sesquicentennial of their ancestors' having embarked on its ill-fated journey.

Mass Murder Depictions in media

The semi-autobiographical travel book Roughing It (1872) by Mark Twain within its Appendix B comments on the massacre based upon public perceptions of Americans during the late nineteenth century.

The play Fire In The Bones (1978) by Thomas F. Rogers is a depiction of the massacre from the perspective of John D. Lee, and is based heavily on Juanita Brooks' research.

The play Two-Headed (2000) by Julie Jensen depicts two middle-aged Latter Day Saint (Mormon) women reflecting on the massacre that occurred when they were children.

The novel Red Water (2002) by Judith Freeman is a fictionalized account of John D. Lee's role in the massacre from the perspective of three of his nineteen wives.

The film Burying the Past: Legacy of the Mountain Meadows Massacre (2004), directed by Brian F. Patrick, is a documentary of the event.

The film September Dawn (2006), directed by Christopher Cain, while (according to a March 26, 2007 press release) "deemed controversial", fictionalizes the "point of view held strongly by hundreds of direct descendants of the massacre: that the iconic Brigham Young had complicity in the massacre, a view denied by the Mormon Church, even today"; the film depicts a love story set at the time of the massacre.

John Filip Nordlund

Nordlund after the arrestJohn Filip Nordlund (also known as Mälarmördaren, Mordlund, Svarte Filip) (03.23.1875-12.10.1900) was a Swedish criminal (mass murderer) and the next to last person to be executed in Sweden.

Mass Murder Early years

Nordlund was born in Säter near Falun the 23d of March 1875. He hade two siblings, Joel, an older brother who was a mute, and a younger brother named Rickard. Histories are told of the young Nordlund as a weird kid who never laughed. In 1882 the family moved to Falun where Nordlund went to school, but being of an impatient nature he never finished school. Instead he took to the road, at first with a classmate who was an orphan, in 1886. Later that year, he was spotted by a friend of his fathers in Hedemora, and returned to home. In 1887 he was on the run again, and as a person of both size and strength he had the ability to work, passing as an adult. For a brief period, one and a half years he worked at a lumber mill in Korsnäs, which, according to himself, was the only time he tried to live a honest life. Still he gave in to temptation and forged a bill, which got him fired from the lumber mill. His parents had now moved to Gävle; Nordlund also lived in there for a short period of time.

Nordlund had gotten used to thievery during his time on road and in 1891 he was arrested and sentenced to four months in prison for cattle rustling by a court in Ljusdal. Later the same year he received his first long term prison sentence, this time for stealing, when he was sentenced to three years in prison. The prison term was served at the county jail in Malmö. 1895 he received another three year sentence which was to be served in the prison Långholmen in Stockholm, where he was enrolled as prisoner number two. Due to unruly behaviour in prison amongst other things he was to serve four years and according to letters written by himself in 1900, it was here his plan for the future took its final and drastic shape.

The 20th of April 1900, Nordlund was released from Långholmen and with the help of his younger brother, who was now living in Stockholm and working as a clerk, he went home to Gävle. As a ex-convict he had difficulties getting a job, so soon he returned to his old life, but this time with a disastrous plan of one final big hit that would solved his problems.

Mass Murder The mass Murder on the steam boat ferry Prins Carl

On the night of 16th and 17th of May 1900 Nordlund committed the act that would make him the bogeyman of several years to come, and reserve a place for him in the criminal history of Sweden.

He boarded the ferry in Arboga and bought a ticket for Stockholm on the evening with an evil plan. The contents of his luggage where two guns, a knife and several padlocks, with which he had planned too lock the door to the engine room. His plan was to rob and kill as many people as possible on the ship and steal the ships register. Too avoid early detection he also planned to torch the ship. This plan failed however, partly because scared passengers on the boat managed to attract the attention of a ferry, "Köping". Still he managed to commit one of the worst Murder sprees in known Swedish history by killing four and wound nine (of which 8 survived) and a partly trashed ship. Among the victims of Nordlunds rampage, were the ships captain (Olof Rönngren), a butcher, an old lady, a farmer and a cattle merchant. His plan also failed in the aspect that he did not managed to steal the ships register, leaving his booty at 800 kronor. He managed to escape from the ship because no one thought that one single man could be strong enough to put one of the life boats in the sea and row away.

The next day he was arrested by three police officers at the train station in Skogstorp near Eskilstuna, were he hade bought some new clothes earlier and avoided detection. He had planned to take the train to Oxelösund and travel to Copenhagen via Gothenburg. When he was arrested he is supposed to have shouted things like; This was my revenge on humanity and Be glad that you arrested me here if I had gotten on the train several more would have been killed.

Mass Murder After the arrest

He was put in a holding cell in Eskilstuna, in which the guards were barely able to keep an angry mob from killing him. The 18th of May he wrote a letter to his family, explaining what he had done and that he was the one responsible for the newspaper headlines. The letter was published by the newspapers (both Gefle Dagblad and Aftonbladet). In the letter he wrote that he had to explain himself to someone and that he realised that he would receive only one more sentence, capital punishment. He also told them not to grieve and that he welcomed the end since he never felt that he was a part of the society at all.

In the courts his never tried to act so that he would receive a lighter sentence; he never even pleaded insanity, he showed no remorse saying that the only thing he regretted was that he had not killed everyone on the ferry. He was sentenced to death and to forever lose all privileges as a citizen for five Murders, eight attempted Murdes and thievery. Twice he tried to flee from his cell at Västerås county jail hurting the jailors with sharp object that he somehow had managed to make in the cell. Once he motivated the escape attempt with; as one who was awaiting death penalty he had nothing to loose.

The act that he committed resulted in a media hysteria comparable to the ones we see today, partly because the ruthlessness of the crimes. Several papers competed with each other on several numbers of victims. In some papers the number of victims was exaggerated, claiming a much larger death toll. Several skillingtryck were made about the events on Prins Carl, with songs detailing the horrors of the night of May 17th.

Mass Murder The execution

Nordlund had the possibility of writing a letter to the king, Oscar II, to plead for mercy, but he chose not to. Strangely enough he took the time to write a letter to the Supreme Court complaining about the fact that he had been wrongfully sentenced for robbery of people the he did not rob. The Supreme Court wrote in their answer (of November 13th) that this was irrelevant and that the sentence passed by the court was correct. Awaiting his execution he met his mother several times (the last time five days before his execution) and also the priest from Långholmen, August Hylander came to visit him several times. In his final letter to his parents he actually asked the lord for redemption and told them good bye.

On the morning of December 10th on the prison yard of Västerås County Jail he was executed by the high executioner Dalman with an axe. His final word where Gud vare mig syndare nådig och trygg i min Jesu armar. Nordlund was buried in sacred ground since his body were claimed by the family after his death. Up until 1870’s this would not have legal but as society were progressing the death penalty also changed.

Mass Murder The aftermath

The year 1900 was one of the darkest for the people who wanted to abolish capital punishment in Sweden with three executions in the same year (in the period 1866-1921 there were 15 executions in total). The people who argued that one inherited the role as a criminal and the people who wanted to keep the death penalty used Nordlund as an example of why this penalty was necessary. People who wanted to abolish death penalty like Hjalmar Branting only argued that it was unfortunate that Nordlund had been released from prison.

Some has claimed that the way Nordlund acted after being caught is a proof of insanity, and that his lack of empathy for his victims also proves this. It has been said that had he not committed the act in a time when several gruesome Murders were committed he would probably had received a lighter sentence (or been sent to an insanity asylum). The claims of insanity and the fact that two of the three persons executed in 1900 is claimed to have been insane probably had an effect on the justice system with a 10 year stretch of reprieves until Alfred Ander was executed.

Mass Murder Simone Pianetti

Mass Murder Early life

Simone Pianetti was born in Camerata Cornello in 1858.

At a young age, he attempted to kill his father due to a legacy question, but he missed his target. For unknown reasons he was not charged and in an agreement with the local chief of the Carabinieri , he left Italy and went to the United States of America. After some years on the other side of the Atlantic, Pianetti, who failed in his American dream, understood that the States was not the right place for him. He returned to Italy with a ticket paid by his father. In his village, Simone married a woman named Carlotta who gave birth to 9 children.

Mass Murder After returning from the States

In his native village, Pianetti decided to open a small restaurant where the people were also allowed to dance. Because the local pastor and other church people did not agree to the fact that there was dancing in Pianetti's restaurant, the municipality forced him to close down the restaurant. After that, Pianetti decided than to open a mill that used electric power, but also was unsuccessful in this. Pianetti was also the only one in the village who did not attend church on Sundays.

Because of these facts, he had grown to think that everyone in Camerata Cornello hated him, which led him to his spree.

Mass Murder The Spree and Aftermath

In the morning of 13 July 1914, Pianetti took his rifle and shot and killed 7 people, including:

Domenico Morali, a MD

Abramo Giudici, the manager of the municipality, and his daughter Valeria.

Giovanni Ghilardi, a shoemaker.

Stefano Filippi, the shepard of the parish

Giovanni Giupponi, a lay man.

Caterina Milesi, a farmer of Camerata Cornello.

Soon after the killing, Pianetti left his village and reached Monte Cancervo , where he lived for some days, despite a search composed of 200 people from Carabinieri, the Polizia di Stato and a company of the 78th infantry regiment. Pianetti shot some bullets against some Carabinieri in order to flee into a mountain zone near the villages of Olmo al Brembo and Cassiglio. He was never arrested and his body was never found.

Mass Murder Andrew Kehoe

Born February 01, 1872

Tecumseh, Michigan

Died May 18, 1927 (aged 55)

Bath Township, Michigan

Occupation farmer

Spouse Nellie Kehoe

Andrew Kehoe (1 February 1872 18 May 1927) was an American mass murderer who perpertrated the Bath School disaster in 1927.

Kehoe was born in Tecumseh, Michigan into a family of thirteen children. His mother died when he was young, and his father remarried; reportedly, Kehoe often fought with his stepmother. When Kehoe was fourteen, the family's stove exploded as she was attempting to light it. The oil fueling the stove soaked her, and the flames set her on fire. Andrew watched his stepmother burn for a few minutes before dumping a bucket of water on her. She later died from the injuries. The stove malfunction was left unresolved, and Kehoe was not charged.

Kehoe attended Tecumseh High School and Michigan State College (later Michigan State University), where he met his wife, Ellen "Nellie" Price, daughter of a wealthy Lansing family. Married in 1912, they moved around until 1919, when the couple bought a 185-acre (75-hectare) farm outside the village of Bath from Nellie's aunt for $12,000, paying $6,000 in cash and taking out a $6,000 mortgage. Kehoe was regarded by his neighbors as an intelligent man who grew impatient with those who disagreed with him. Neighbors recalled that Kehoe was always neat, dressed meticulously, and was known to change his shirt at midday or whenever it became even slightly dirty. Neighbors also recounted how Kehoe was cruel to his farm animals, having once beaten a horse to death.

Kehoe's neighbors were not impressed by the level of his farming ability. As neighbor M.J. "Monty" Ellsworth wrote, "He never farmed it as other farmers do and he tried to do everything with his tractor. He was in the height of his glory when fixing machinery or tinkering. He was always trying new methods in his work, for instance, hitching two mowers behind his tractor. This method at different times did not work and he would just leave the hay standing. He also put four sections of drag and two rollers at once behind his tractor. He spent so much time tinkering that he didn't prosper."

With a reputation for thriftiness, Kehoe was elected treasurer of the Bath Consolidated School board in 1924. While on the board, Kehoe fought endlessly for lower taxes. He blamed the previous property tax levy for his family's poor financial condition, and repeatedly accused superintendent Emory Huyck of financial mismanagement. While on the school board, Kehoe was appointed the Bath Township Clerk in 1925, but was unsuccessful at retaining this position in the election later that year. During this time, Nellie Kehoe was chronically ill with tuberculosis, and her frequent hospital stays may have played a role in putting the family into debt. At the time of the Bath School disaster, Kehoe had ceased making mortgage and homeowner's insurance payments, and the mortgage lender had begun foreclosure proceedings against the farm.

Kehoe's last message wrapped inside one of the farm's fences.After the bombings investigators found a wooden sign wired to the farm's fence with Kehoe's last message, "CRIMINALS ARE MADE, NOT BORN," written on it.

When they were done taking an inventory of the Kehoe's estate investigators estimated that prior to destruction the amount of unused equipment and materials on the farm could have easily paid off the Kehoes' mortgage.

Mass Murder Tsuyama massacre

The Tsuyama massacre was a Murder spree that occurred on 21 May 1938 in a rural village close to Tsuyama city in Okayama, Japan. The massacre resulted in the deaths of 30 people and the serious injury of three. This number of victims had been considered the world's worst massacre by a single criminal for a long time, up until Woo Bum-Kon killed 57 people (the number varies by sources) in 1982 in South Korea.

Mass Murder The massacre

Mutsuo Toi, a 21-year-old man, began preparing the previous evening (20 May). He cut the electricity line and blacked out the village. At around 1:30am on 21 May, he started his spree by killing his own grandmother, who had brought him up after his parents died when he was a baby. After that, he took up a rifle and Japanese swords, and killed 29 neighbors in about an hour and half. He committed suicide after finishing the massacre.

Toi left several long notes. According to them, he killed the neighbours because they insulted him after he was found to have tuberculosis, which was considered incurable at the time. He regretted that he could not shoot several people he had intended to, while shooting other people he had not intended to. He also wrote that he killed his grandmother at first because he could not bear leaving her as the "murderer's grandmother".

Mass Murder Howard Unruh

Howard Unruh Cuffed, In JailHoward Unruh (also spelled Unrah) (born January 21, 1921, Camden, New Jersey) is regarded as one of the first of the 'lone gunmen' to go on an indiscriminate shooting spree. On September 6, 1949, twenty-eight year old Unruh left his house for a twelve minute walk around his Camden, New Jersey neighborhood, shooting people at random and killing 13.

Always a reserved man, he had turned into a recluse in the three months before his spree. The World War II veteran was unemployed and lived with his mother. During the war, he was reportedly a brave tank soldier who kept meticulous notes of every German killed, down to details of the corpse.

He was honorably discharged in 1945, and returned home with a collection of medals and firearms. He decorated his bedroom with military items, and set up a target range in his basement. His mother supported him by working at a factory while Howard hung around the house and attended daily church services.

He had trouble getting along with his neighbors, and his interactions with them deteriorated in the three months before his spree. He was considered a "mama's boy" and the subject of teasing.

Eventually Unruh became paranoid about his neighbors and started to keep a diary detailing every single thing that he thought was said about him. Next to each of those complained about was the word "retal.", short for retaliate. He arrived home from a movie theater at 3am on September 6 to discover that the gate he had just built in front of his house had been stolen. This appears to have been the final trigger. After sleeping until 8:00 a.m. he got up, dressed in his best suit and ate breakfast with his mother.

At 9:20am he left the house armed with a German Luger pistol looking for his first victims. In only twelve minutes he would shoot and kill 13 people with 14 shots and wounding several others. When he heard the sirens of the approaching police, he returned to his apartment and engaged in a standoff with police. He was eventually convinced to surrender, and was taken in for interrogation. Only at the end of the interrogation did they discover he had been wounded as well.

Charges were filed for 13 counts of "willful and malicious slayings with malice aforethought" and three counts of "atrocious assault and battery". He was eventually pronounced insane, making him immune to criminal prosecution, and he was incarcerated in a unit for the criminally insane. He evidently suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.

As of 2007, he is 86 years old and still resides in Trenton Psychiatric Hospital. Shortly after his arrest he was reported to have said to a psychiatrist, "I'm no psycho. I have a good mind. I'd have killed a thousand if I had bullets enough."

Unruh's rampage was the most visible of a number of Murders and suicides by WWII veterans, and may have spurred the federal government to put additional resources into mental health treatment for this group.

Mass Murder Tore Hedin

Tore Hedin (1927 - 1952-08-22) was a Swedish mass murderer and police officer, born in Stora Harrie, near Kävlinge.

Hedin committed his first crime in September, 1943 when he broke into a local brewery near his parental home to steal some oats. To avoid detection, he then burned down the brewery to hide his crime; this was a method he used later to cover his tracks when he committed far more serious crimes.

In 1951, more precisely on 28th of novembre at 2.30 AM, he committed his first Murder. He robbed and Murdered his friend John Allan Nilsson after a Poker game at Nilssons home in Tjörnarp. To cover his tracks he burned down the crime scene. Being the police representative that was stationed in the area he took part in the investigation and even answered questions from the national media concerning the crime.

Almost a year (the night 21/22 august of 1952) after the first Murder he went on a killing spree after he had been dumped by his girlfriend, Ulla Östberg. The first stop was his parents house (in Saxtorp), where he killed them both and set the house on fire sometime before midnight. 30 minutes later (according to his suicide note) he arrived at the retirement home in Hurva, where his ex-girlfriend worked and lived. He climbes a fire escape ladder and enter the room where Östberg usually slept. This night, however she was not sleeping there but in the matrons (Agnes Lundin) room. He discovers this, enters the room and kills them with an axe. After killing Östberg and Lundin he blocades the entrance to the retirement home and set it on fire. Four elderly people dies in the flames and a fifth dies some days later suffering from severe burning. The committed act at the retirement home in Hurva makes Hedin the worst mass murderer in known Swedish history (the only comparable acts being the ones of John Filip Nordlund and Mattias Flink).

It is unclear wheter he had decided to take his own life before the events of august 22:d. The police that has realised who were behind the killing starts a manhunt after Hedin. They find his car parked near a cabin by the lake. In the frontseat they find a suicide note, his jacket and wallet. The suicide note contains a full confession of all crimes that he committed, some remarks about him being good a only one thing (tracking other criminals) and ends with his name, occupation (Murderer), whereabouts (unknown) and an explanation to why he hade killed his parents (so that they would not have to suffer for his crimes). Somewhat later he is found dead in the lake where he had drowned himself with the help of a couple of weights.

When Hedins body finally were found it was transported to the Institution of Anatomy at Lund University. His body was stored at the institution until 1974 when it was cremated.

Mass Murder Jack Gilbert Graham

John "Jack" Gilbert Graham (January 23, 1932 - January 11, 1957) was a mass murderer who killed 44 people by planting a dynamite bomb in his mother's suitcase that was subsequently loaded aboard United Airlines Flight 629.

Flight 629 was utilizing a Douglas DC-6B airliner that took off from Denver, Colorado's Stapleton Airport, bound for Portland, Oregon, on the evening of November 1, 1955. Its pilot was Lee Hall, a World War II veteran. Minutes after the plane's departure from Denver, the DC-6B exploded in flight and the flaming wreckage fell to earth over tracts of farmland near Longmont, Colorado. There were no survivors.

Graham's mother, Mrs. Daisie King, was a passenger on board the plane and was traveling to Alaska to visit a daughter. Initially, it was believed that Graham's motive for the bombing was to claim $37,500 worth of life insurance money, from policies Graham had bought in the airport terminal just before the aircraft's departure (flight insurance could be routinely purchased in convenient vending machines at airports back in the 1950s). However, Graham's true motive was revenge for the way his mother had treated him as a small child.

The sensational trial that followed resulted in Colorado becoming the first state to officially sanction the use of television cameras to broadcast criminal trials.

Jack Gilbert Graham was executed by lethal gas in the Colorado State Penitentiary gas chamber on January 11, 1957.

A book about the Graham case was published on the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing: "Mainliner Denver: The Bombing of Flight 629," by Andrew J. Field (Johnson Books, 2005).

American heavy metal band Macabre wrote a song about Graham titled "There was a Young Man Who Blew up a Plane" and which was included on their Sinister Slaughter album.

Mass Murder Edgar Ray Killen

Edgar Ray (Preacher) Killen (born 17 January 1925) is an American former Ku Klux Klan organizer who conspired to kill several civil rights activists in 1964. He was found guilty of three counts of manslaughter on June 21, 2005, the forty-first anniversary of the crime. He appealed the verdict, but his punishment of 3 times 60 years in prison was upheld on the 12 January 2007 in a hearing by the Mississippi Supreme Court(according to danish news site www.dr.dk)

Mass Murder Biography

Killen was a sawmill operator and part-time Baptist minister and also a kleagle, or klavern recruiter and organizer, for the Neshoba and Lauderdale County chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.

Mass Murder Murders

During the "Freedom Summer" of 1964, two Jewish New Yorkers, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24, and one black Mississippian, James Chaney, 21, were Murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Killen, along with Cecil Price (deputy sheriff of Neshoba County at the time) gathered the group of men who hunted down and killed the three civil rights workers. The Mississippi Civil Rights Workers Murders galvanized the nation and helped bring about the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The killings are the basis of the 1988 movie Mississippi Burning.

At the time of the killings, the state of Mississippi made little effort to prosecute the perpetrators, but the FBI, under the pro-civil-rights President Lyndon Johnson and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, directed a vigorous investigation. Federal prosecutor John Doar, circumventing dismissals by federal judges, opened a grand jury in December 1964. Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall appeared before the Supreme Court to defend the federal government's authority in bringing charges in November 1965. Eighteen men, including Killen, were arrested and charged with conspiracy to violate the victims' civil rights in U.S. v. Cecil Price et. al.. The 1967 trial in federal court before an all-white jury convicted seven conspirators and acquitted eight others. For three men, including Killen, the trial ended in a hung jury, after the jurors deadlocked 11-1 in favor of conviction, with the lone holdout saying she could never convict a preacher. The prosecution decided not to retry him and he was set free. None of the men found guilty served more than six years.

Journalist Jerry Mitchell, an award winning investigative reporter for the Jackson Clarion-Ledger had written extensively about the case for many years. Mitchell, who had already earned fame for helping secure convictions in several other high profile Civil Rights Era Murder cases, including the assassination of Medgar Evers, the Birmingham Church Bombing, and the Murder of Vernon Dahmer, developed new evidence, found new witnesses, and pressured the State to take action.

Mass Murder Re-emergence of the case

In 2004, Killen declared that he would attend a petition-drive in his behalf, scheduled by the Nationalist Movement at the 2004 Mississippi Annual State Fair in Jackson, Mississippi, opposing Communism, integration and non-speedy trials. The Hinds County sheriff, Malcolm MacMillan, conducted a counter-petition, calling for re-opening of the case against Killen. Killen was arrested for three counts of Murder on January 6, 2005. However, he was freed on bond shortly thereafter. His case drew comparisons to that of Byron De La Beckwith, who was charged with the killing of Medgar Evers in 1963 and arrested in 1994.

Killen's trial had been scheduled for April 18. It was deferred, however, after the 80-year-old Killen broke both of his legs chopping down lumber in his rural home in Neshoba County. The trial began on June 13, 2005, with Killen attending in a wheelchair. He was found guilty on June 21, 2005 of manslaughter, 41 years to the day after his crime, after a jury of nine whites and three blacks rejected the charges of Murder but found him guilty of recruiting the mob that carried out the killings. He was sentenced on June 23, 2005, by Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon to the maximum sentence of 60 years in prison, 20 years for each manslaughter, to be served consecutively. He will be eligible for parole after serving 20 years. At sentencing, Judge Gordon stated that each life lost was valuable and strongly asserted that the law made no distinction of age for the crime and that the maximum sentence should be imposed regardless of Killen's age.

While it is possible that even a ten-year sentence would have been tantamount to a life sentence, it is a foregone conclusion that the entire sentence will not be served.

On August 12, Killen was released from prison on a $600,000 appeal bond. He claimed that he could no longer use his right hand (he had to use his left hand to place his right one on the Bible during his swearing-in) and was permanently confined to his wheelchair. Gordon said he was convinced by testimony that Killen was neither a flight risk nor danger to the community. However, on September 3, the Clarion-Ledger reported that a deputy sheriff saw Killen walking around "with no problem." At a hearing on September 9, several other deputies testified to seeing Killen driving in various locations. One deputy said that Killen shook hands with him using his right hand. Gordon revoked the bond and ordered Killen back to prison, saying that he felt Killen committed a fraud upon the court. On March 29, 2006, Killen was moved from his prison cell to a Jackson, Mississippi, hospital to treat complications from the severe leg injury he sustained in the logging accident in 2005.

Mass Murder Charles Whitman

1963 yearbook photo of Charles Whitman.Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 August 1, 1966) was a student at the University of Texas at Austin and a Marine, who is known for having ascended The University's 27-story tower on August 1, 1966, and shooting passersby in the city and on the campus below, after having killed his mother and his wife the night before. In all Whitman killed 15 people and wounded 31 others before he was shot dead by Austin police. (Some accounts allege 16 or 17 victims, citing a later suicide stemming from the attacks, and a pregnant woman who subsequently miscarried.) An autopsy showed Whitman had a brain tumor, which has led some to speculate that it caused his actions; however, this can't be known for sure. A state report found that Whitman's lifelong abuse by his father created the conditions that led to a homicidal breakdown. This incident was known as the deadliest school shooting in US history until the Virginia Tech massacre in Blacksburg, Virginia, on April 16, 2007.

Mass Murder Background

A widely released image, of Charles Whitman on a family vacation holding two rifles.The oldest of three brothers raised on South L Street in Lake Worth, Florida, Whitman attended St. Ann's High School in Palm Beach, where he was a pitcher on the school's baseball team Charles and his brothers all served as altar boys at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, and he chose the Confirmation name "Joseph" for himself.

At the age of 6, he had scored 138 on an IQ test. Six years later, he was among the youngest to ever achieve Eagle Scout, to his father's delight. He took five years of piano lessons.

When Whitman was 14, and still serving as an altar boy, his Scout leader Joseph Leduc completed seminary and served as the priest of Sacred Heart for a month. Leduc was a family friend, who had accompanied Whitman and his father on several hunting trips. At the age of 16, Whitman underwent a routine appendectomy. The same year, he was hospitalized following a motorcycle accident.

The wedding of Kathy Leissner and Charles WhitmanWhitman joined the Marines, against his father's wishes, on July 6, 1959. He explained to Fr. Leduc that he had come home drunk several weeks before and his father had hit him repeatedly and pushed him into the family's swimming pool. While Whitman was aboard a train headed towards Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, his father telephoned "some branch of Federal Government" to have his son's enlistment cancelled, but was rebuffed.

After enlisting, Whitman was accepted into the University of Texas' mechanical engineering program on September 15, 1961 through a USMC scholarship. At the University, Whitman was involved in a "teenage prank" in which he shot a deer, dragged it to his dormitory and skinned it in his shower.

In August 1962, Whitman married Kathleen Frances Leissner, another UT student. Their wedding was held in Kathy's hometown of Needville, Texas but was presided over by Fr. Leduc.

His scholarship was withdrawn in 1963 due to the deer prank, and sub-standard grades.

In 1963, Whitman returned to active duty at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where he was promoted to Lance Corporal. There, he was involved in an accident where his jeep rolled over an embankment. After rescuing his pinned comrade, Whitman was hospitalised for four days.

In November Whitman was court-martialed for gambling, possessing a personal firearm on-base and threatening another Marine over a $30 loan for which Whitman demanded $15 interest. He was sentenced to 30 days confinement and 90 days hard labor, and was demoted to the rank of Private.

In December 1964, Whitman was honorably discharged from the Marines, and returned to the University of Texas, this time enrolling in its architectural engineering program. Now without his scholarship, Whitman worked first as a bill collector for Standard Finance Company and later as a bank teller at Austin National Bank. By 1965, he had taken a temporary job with Central

Freight Lines and worked as a traffic surveyor for the Texas Highway Department.

He also volunteered as a Scoutmaster for Austin Scout Troop 5, while Kathy worked as a biology teacher at Lanier High School.

After purchasing a new 1966 Chevrolet Impala, Whitman received two speeding tickets, on February 24, 1966 and March 20, 1966.

Mass Murder Family issues

By 1966, Whitman's family was beginning to fall apart. His mother Margaret had announced she was divorcing Whitman's father. Whitman drove to Florida to help his mother move to Austin, Texas, where she found work in a cafeteria. The move prompted his youngest brother John to move out as well. Meanwhile, his brother Patrick decided to continue living with their father, whose plumbing business employed him.

Whitman's father began to telephone Whitman several times a week, pleading with him to convince his mother to give the marriage another try, but Whitman refused.

Shortly afterwards, John was arrested for throwing a rock through a window, and released after paying a $25 fine.

Mass Murder Declining health

Whitman's daily journal.In 1966, Whitman admitted depression to the University's doctor, Jan Cochrun, who prescribed Valium and recommended he visit campus psychiatrist Maurice Dean Heatly. On March 29, 1966, Whitman met with Heatly and spent an hour explaining his frustration with his parents' separation and his increasing strains at work and school. During the interview, he made a remark about feeling the urge to "start shooting people with a deer rifle" from the University tower. Heatly noted that Whitman was "oozing with hostility", but never returned. Whitman mentioned the visit with Heatly in his final suicide notes, saying that the visit was to "no avail". By the summer, Whitman was prescribed Dexedrine.

Although Whitman had abused the drugs that he had been prescribed in the past, the autopsy could not establish if he had consumed any prior to the attacks.

Fr. Leduc met with Whitman for the last time two months prior to the shootings and said that he had confided that he had lost his faith, and no longer considered himself a practicing Catholic.

It was revealed during the autopsy that Whitman had a cancerous glioblastoma tumor in the hypothalamus region of his brain. Some theorised that it may have been pressed against the nearby amygdala, which can affect emotive passion. This has led some neurologists to speculate that his medical condition was in some way responsible for the attacks.

After the attacks, a study of Whitman's journal showed him lamenting that he had acted violently towards Kathy, and that he was resolved not to follow his father's abusive example, but to be a good husband. John and Fran Morgan, close friends of Whitman, later told the DPS that he had confided in them that he had struck Kathleen on three occasions.

Mass Murder Leadup to the shootings

Six images from the two rolls of film Whitman asked to be developed. They highlight a trip to Barton Springs and a trip with Kathy and his brother John to the Alamo.The day before the shootings Whitman purchased binoculars and a knife from Davis' Hardware, and Spam from a 7-Eleven store. He then picked up Kathy from her summer job as a Bell operator, and they went to a matinée before meeting his mother for lunch at her job.

Around 4:00 pm, they went to visit friends John and Fran Morgan, who lived in the same apartment block. They left at approximately 5:30 so that Kathy could leave for her 6:00-10:00 pm shift that night. At 6:45, Whitman began typing his suicide note, a portion of which read:

I don't quite understand what it is that compels me to type this letter. Perhaps it is to leave some vague reason for the actions I have recently performed. I don't really understand myself these days. I am supposed to be an average reasonable and intelligent young man. However, lately (I can't recall when it started) I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts.

The note explained that he had decided to Murder both his mother and wife, but made no mention of the coming attacks at the University. He also requested that an autopsy be done after his death, to determine if there were anything to explain his actions and increasing headaches. He willed any money from his estate to be donated to mental health research, saying he hoped it would prevent others from following his route.

Margaret Whitman, as found by policeJust after midnight, he killed his mother Margaret Whitman. The exact method is disputed, but it seemed he had rendered her unconscious before stabbing her in the heart. He returned to his suicide note, now writing by hand:

To Whom It May Concern: I have just taken my mother's life. I am very upset over having done it. However, I feel that if there is a heaven she is definitely there now...I am truly sorry...Let there be no doubt in your mind that I loved this woman with all my heart. Whitman returned to his home at 906 Jewell Street and stabbed Kathy five times as she slept, leaving another note that read:

I imagine it appears that I brutally killed both of my loved ones. I was only trying to do a quick thorough job...If my life insurance policy is valid please pay off my debts...donate the rest anonymously to a mental health foundation. Maybe research can prevent further tragedies of this type.

He wrote notes to each of his brothers and his father, and left instructions in the apartment that the two canisters of film he left on the table should be developed, and the puppy Schocie should be given to Kathy's parents.

At 5:45am on August 1, 1966, Whitman phoned Kathy's supervisor at Bell to explain that she was sick and could not make her shift that day. He made a similar phone call to his mother's workplace about five hours later.

He rented a dolly from Austin Rental Company, and cashed $250 worth of checks at the bank before returning to Davis' Hardware and purchasing an M1 Carbine, explaining that he wanted to go hunting for wild hogs. He also went to Sears and purchased a shotgun, and a green rifle case.

After sawing off the shotgun barrel while chatting with postman Chester Arrington, Whitman packed it together with a Remington 700 bolt-action hunting rifle with a 4x Leupold Scope, the M1 Carbine, a .35 caliber Remington rifle, three pistols, and various other equipment stowed between a wooden crate and his Marine footlocker.

He dressed in khaki coveralls over his white shirt and denim jeans, and beneath a green jacket. Once he was on the tower, he also donned a white sweatband.

Pushing the rented dolly carrying his equipment, Whitman met security guard Jack Rodman, and obtained a parking pass claiming he had a delivery to make, showing Rodman his card identifying himself as a research assistant for the school. He entered the Main Building of The University of Texas shortly after 11:30am, and struggled with the second elevator, until employee Vera Palmer informed him that it had not been powered, and turned it on for him. He thanked her, and took the elevator to the top floor of the Tower, just beneath the clock face.

Whitman then lugged his trunk up three flights of stairs to the observation deck area, where he encountered a receptionist named Edna Townsley. Using the butt of his rifle, he knocked her unconscious and concealed her body behind a couch. She later died from her injuries.

Cheryl Botts and Don Walden, a young couple who had been sightseeing on the deck, returned to the attendant's area moments later and encountered Whitman, who was holding a rifle in each hand. Botts later claimed she believed the large red stain on the floor was varnish. Whitman and the young couple spoke briefly, and the couple left the room. After they left, Whitman barricaded the stairway.

Shortly afterwards, two families of tourists were on their way up the stairs when they encountered the barricade. Michael Gabour was attempting to look beyond the barricade when Whitman fired the shotgun at him. Whitman continued to shoot as the families ran back down the stairs. Mark Gabour and his aunt Marguerite Lamport died instantly; Michael and his mother, Mary, were permanently disabled.

Mass Murder Sniper fire commences

Main Building of The University of Texas at Austin. Guadalupe Street is out of frame to the right. (Dobie Center, in the background, was not constructed until 1972.)The first shots from the tower's outer deck came at approximately 11:48 a.m. A history professor was the first to phone the Austin Police Department, after seeing several students shot in the South Mall gathering center. Many others had dismissed the rifle reports, not realizing there was actually gunfire.

The shootings eventually caused panic as news spread, and after the situation was understood, all active police officers in Austin were ordered to the campus. Other off-duty officers, sheriff's deputies, and Department of Public Safety officers also converged on the area to assist as various reporters from local newspapers covered the proceedings and assisted officers.

Once Whitman began facing return gunfire from the authorities, he used the waterspouts on each side of the tower as turrets, which allowed him to continue shooting while largely protected from the gunfire below, which had grown to include civilians who had brought out their personal firearms to assist police.

Whitman's choice of victims was apparently indiscriminate, and most of the victims were shot on Guadalupe Street, a major commercial and business district across from the west side of the campus. Efforts to reach the wounded included an armored car, and ambulances run by local Funeral homes. Ambulance driver Morris Hohmann was responding to victims on West 23rd Street when he was shot in a leg artery. Another ambulance driver quickly attended to Hohmann, who was then taken to Brackenridge Hospital about ten blocks south of UT and the only local emergency room.

The Brackenridge hospital administrator declared an emergency, and medical staff raced there to reinforce the on-duty shifts. After the shootings, the lines at the Travis County Blood Bank and at Brackenridge stretched for blocks as citizens hurried to donate blood.

From a small airplane, a policeman reported that there was only one sniper firing from the parapet. The plane circled the tower until Whitman shot it twice, and it retreated from its position.

Mass Murder Whitman's death

Whitman's bodyPolice officers Conner and Shoquist remained inside the University to cover the windows on the southeast and northeast sides of the reception area. Meanwhile three other officers, Ramiro Martinez, Houston McCoy, and Jerry Day took hastily deputized citizen Allen Crum up towards the observation deck.

Martinez and McCoy went out on the observation deck, with a .38 revolver and a shotgun respectively, and proceeded to the north-east corner of the deck and spotted Whitman seated on the floor of the north-west corner watching the south-west corner for any signs of police.

Which of the officers actually killed Whitman has been disputed; both claimed responsibility. McCoy fired his shotgun twice, and Martinez fired six rounds from his revolver before taking the shotgun and approaching the limp Whitman and firing again point-blank. They then took the green towel that Whitman had brought with him, and waved it to those below, indicating that the sniper had been killed.

While Whitman's final request in his suicide note had been to be cremated, he was not. Whitman and his mother shared a Funeral service officiated by Fr. Tom Anglim at his home parish of Sacred Heart in Lake Worth. As a former Marine, Whitman's casket was draped with an American flag for the burial in Section 16 of the Hillcrest Memorial Park in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Mass Murder Harry Roberts (Murderer)

Harry Maurice Roberts (born 1936) is one of the UK's most notorious murderers and longest-serving prison inmates. He was the instigator of the Massacre of Braybrook Street, a triple-Murder of policemen in 1966.

Roberts was with two other petty criminals in Braybrook Street, East Acton, London, when his car was pulled over by PC Geoffrey Fox, 41, Sgt Christopher Head, 30, and Det Con David Wombwell, 25 in an unmarked "Q" car. When he feared that some handguns were about to be uncovered, Roberts drew one of the Guns and shot one of the policemen dead. He then shot a second policeman while one of his accomplices shot dead the third.

Roberts hid out in Epping Forest to avoid the huge manhunt. He used his military training (he had served as a soldier during the Malayan Emergency) to avoid police capture for three months. He was finally captured whilst sleeping in a barn at Blount's Farm near Bishop's Stortford after hiding in the adjacent Matham's Wood. Roberts was familiar with the area as he had been sent there as a child evacuee earlier in his life. At this time, there were lots of false sightings of Roberts, but the local people who saw him decided that he couldn't possibly be Roberts, and consequently he evaded capture for several months.

Convicted of three Murders, Roberts was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum of 30 years. He made many escape attempts but remains imprisoned a decade after the expiry of his minimum term. In September 2006, 70-year-old Roberts applied for a judicial review over apparent delays by the parole board in reaching a decision to free him by the end of the year. In December 2006, he was turned down for parole.

His Murder of the two policemen made him a hero in some anarchist circles, and football crowds since the 1970s often chanted his name to antagonise the police. Chants like "Harry Roberts is our friend, is our friend, is our friend. Harry Roberts is our friend, he kills coppers" (to the tune of London Bridge is falling down).

His folk-hero status amongst these sub-cultures has led to various artistic representations of Roberts. The character of Billy Porter in He Kills Coppers by Jake Arnott is based on Harry Roberts, and he features in the lyrics of several songs by the band Chumbawamba.

Richard Franklin Speck (December 6, 1941 December 5, 1991) was a mass murderer who systematically killed eight student nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital, Chicago, Illinois on July 14, 1966.

Mass Murder Early life

Speck was born in Kirkwood, Illinois. He was the seventh of eight children by Benjamin and Mary Margaret Speck, and raised in a religious family. His father died when he was six, and sometime afterward Mary took Richard and daughter Carolyn to Fair Park, Texas, a small town to the east of Dallas. It was there that Mary re-married to a man named Lindbergh, who was loathed by Richard for his drunkenness, abuse, and frequent absences from the house. (Time-Life, pg. 8)

Richard Speck was a poor student in school, and by the age of 12 he had started drinking alcohol, which would last for the rest of his life. The alcohol was used, in part, to stem the headaches received from a series of head injuries which began at the age of five while playing in a sandbox with a claw hammer; he would fall out of a tree twice, and at 15 he ran head-first into a steel girder. School would last only until he dropped out in the 9th grade. (Time-Life, pg 8)

At the age of 19, Speck did something that wouldn't pass notice at the time, but would figure later in life as the essence of the man. "We all had something different," he recalled in an interview during the time he was inside a tattoo parlor. "I couldn't think of nothing to have on my arm, so I asked the tattooer if he had any ideas. He suggested all kinds of things, slogans and stuff, and one of them was BORN TO RAISE HELL. That sounded kinda good, so I let him put that. Didn't mean anything special to me." (Time-Life, pg.9)

Mass Murder Early crime

About the same time he began drinking, he posted his first arrest, for trespassing. Speck is also known to have been arrested for burglary and Stabbing. Although he was a suspect in the raping of Virgil Harris (65), and the beating death of Mary Kay pierce, he avoided in-depth interrogation and was never charged. Speck was also a suspect in the July 2, 1966 disappearance of three girls in Indiana and the Murders of four other females in Michigan.

Mass Murder The mass

Speck's killings stunned the country during an era in which Murder was rare and mass Murder was unheard of; this example is from a full page spread in the New York Times, July 18, 1966. (NYT)On July 14, 1966, Speck broke into a South Chicago townhouse and took as hostages nurses Gloria Davy, Patricia Matusek, Nina Schmale, Pamela Wilkening, Suzanne Farris, Mary Ann Jordan, Merlita Gargullo, and Valentina Pasion. Speck, who later claimed he was high on both alcohol and drugs, originally planned to commit a routine burglary. Speck held the girls hostage for hours, methodically beating, raping, and stabbing them to death. A leading psychiatrist who interviewed Speck remarked that Speck experienced the Madonna-whore complex, and that Gloria Davy reminded Speck of his ex-wife.

After the Murder, Richard Speck was observed to enter a diner near the scene and sit at the counter. Richard Speck was in such an agitated and disordered state that he arose the suspicions of Mr. Robert Everhart, a patron at the diner, who although unaware of the crime that was committed, called and left an anonymous tip to the police about Speck before leaving the diner. After Speck had become a wanted fugitive, he was initially identified by a drifter named Claude Lunsford. Speck, Lunsford and another man had been drinking on July 16 on the fire escape of the Starr Hotel at 617 W. Madison. Lundsford recognized Speck's picture in the paper on July 17 and phoned the police after visiting Speck in his room at the Starr Hotel. The police, however, did not respond to the call although their records showed the call had been made. Speck had attempted suicide and the Starr Hotel desk clerk phoned in the emergency after Lundsford had called the police. Speck, who was not recognized by the police, was taken to Cook County Hospital at 12:30 AM on July 17. At Cook County Hospital, Speck was recognized by Dr. LeRoy Smith, a 25-year-old surgical resident physician and the police were alerted to his real identity (Smith recognized Speck's "Born To Raise Hell" tattoo from a newspaper story).

Speck was later identified in a dramatic scene in court by Cora (Corazon) Amurao. Amurao was the sole surviving student nurse. She had escaped by hiding silently under a bed during the massacre. Speck knew there were eight nurses living in the dorm, but he was unaware that a friend had spent the night. Amurao stayed hidden until 5 AM. When she came out, she ran to the balcony and began screaming, "They're all dead! All my friends are dead!"

Speck later said he had no recollection of the Murders, but he had in fact confessed his crime to Dr. LeRoy Smith at the Cook County Hospital. Dr. Smith did not testify under directions from the prosecutors however, since the confession was made while under the influence of drugs. The Illinois Supreme Court Justice John J. Stamos, Cook County's state attorney when Speck was tried, knew of the confession, "We couldn't use it because Speck was under the influence of sedatives," "And we didn't need it. We had an eyewitness." In a film convicts made at the Stateville Correctional Center years later, Speck recounted the deed.

Speck was examined by six psychiatrists and declared competent to stand trial. According to William J. Martin, there was also no evidence -- other than Speck's claims -- that he was influenced by drugs and booze the night of the Murders. Martin was head of the prosecution team and later co-authored "The Crime of the Century".

Mass Murder The Fingerprints

Lieutenant Emil G. Giese headed the Identification Section of the Chicago Police Department and compared a fingerprint that was dusted from a door at the Murder scene to another provided by the FBI. Lt. Giese was also chosen by the chief prosecutor William Martin to testify at the trial, along with the only eyewitness - Corazon Amurao. The fingerprints provided the scientific evidence the prosecution needed for a conviction, and along with Amurao's testimony, put the evidence toward Speck beyond any reasonable doubt.

Mass Murder The trial

Speck's jury trial began April 3, 1967, in Peoria, Illinois, three hours south of Chicago, with a gag order on the press. Amurao also testified at the trial. Even though she had been kept hidden out of fear of Speck, a dramatic moment occurred during the trial when she was asked if she could identify the killer of her fellow students. She rose from her seat in the witness box, walked directly in front of Speck and pointed her finger at him, nearly touching him, and said, "This is the man".

On April 15, after 49 minutes of deliberation, the jury found Speck guilty and recommended the death penalty. On June 5, Judge Herbert Paschen sentenced Speck to die in the electric chair but granted an immediate stay pending automatic appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court, which upheld his conviction and death sentence on November 22, 1968.

Mass Murder Death penalty reversal

On June 28, 1971, the United States Supreme Court (citing their April 24, 1968 decision in Witherspoon v. Illinois) upheld Speck's conviction, but it reversed his death sentence because objectors to capital punishment had been systematically excluded from his jury. The case was remanded back to the Illinois Supreme Court for re-sentencing.

On June 29, 1972, in Furman v. Georgia, the United States Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional because its arbitrary and inconsistent imposition constituted cruel and unusual punishment, so the Illinois Supreme Court's only available option was to order Speck re-sentenced to prison by the original Cook County court.

Mass Murder Resentencing

On November 21, 1972, in Peoria, Judge Richard Fitzgerald re-sentenced Speck to 400 to 1,200 years in prison (8 consecutive sentences of 50 to 150 years).

The sentence was reduced in 1973 to a new statutory maximum of 300 years, making him eligible for parole in 1977. He was denied parole in seven minutes at his first parole hearing on September 15, 1976, and at six subsequent parole hearings in 1977, 1978, 1981, 1984, 1987, and 1990.

While incarcerated at Stateville Prison in Joliet, Illinois, Speck was given the nickname "birdman", after the film Birdman of Alcatraz, when he kept a pair of sparrows that flew into his cell. He was described as being a loner, keeping a stamp collection, listening to music, and he would carry out his work details painting the bars and walls throughout the prison. His usual contact with the warden would include requests for new shirts or a radio or other mundane items. The warden merely described him as "a big nothing doing time." Speck was not a model prisoner; he was often caught with drugs or distilled moonshine. Punishment for such infractions never stopped him. "How am I going to get in trouble? I'm here for 1,200 years!"

Mass Murder XYY Rejected Theory

It was thought that the XYY syndrome made a person more likely to commit crimes and that Richard Speck had the XYY syndrome. Later on it was proven that Speck did not have the XYY syndrome and the theory that there is a relation between XYY syndrome and criminal behavior was rejected soon afterward.

Mass Murder Speck's Death: Autopsy and Funeral

Speck died of a heart attack at 6:05 a.m. December 5, 1991, one day before his 50th birthday, at Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet. He had been taken to Silver Cross after complaining of chest pains and nausea at Stateville Correctional Center.

After Speck's death, Dr. Jan E. Leestma, a neuropathologist at the Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery, performed an autopsy of Speck's brain. Leestma found apparent gross abnormalities. Two areas of the brain encroached on each other and their boundaries were blurred -- the hippocampus, which involves memory, and the amygdala, which deals with rage and other strong emotions.

Leestma made tissue section slides and presented them to others who agreed his findings were unusual. There was no further analysis however; the tissue samples were lost or stolen when sent to a Boston neurologist for further study and Leestma's findings were inconclusive.

Dr. John R. Hughes, a neurologist and longtime director of the Epilepsy Clinic at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and a colleague of Leestma, examined photos of the tissue in the 1990s and brain wave tests of Speck in the 1960s. Hughes stated, "I have never heard of that type of abnormality in the history of neurology," "So any abnormality that exceptional has got to have an exceptional consequence." Hughes attributes Speck's homicidal nature to a combination of the brain abnormalities, the violence Speck suffered at the hands of his alcoholic stepfather and his drinking and violence in Texas.

After Speck died, nobody wanted to claim his body. Duane Krieger, Will County coroner when Speck died, stated that he had talked to Richard Speck's sister but, "She said they were afraid people would desecrate the grave if they had him buried out there. Duane also stated that the sister " told her kids, 'You can never tell people Richard Speck was your uncle.'"

Speck was cremated. The ashes were scattered in a location known only to Krieger, his chief deputy, a pastoral worker and Joliet Herald News columnist John Whiteside (Whiteside has since died). All witnesses swore to keep the location secret, a "pastoral" and "an appropriate location" in the Joliet area. "We said a couple of prayers and spread them to the wind," Krieger said. "It was a very small Funeral."

Mass Murder The video

In May 1996, Chicago television news anchor Bill Kurtis received video tapes from an anonymous attorney which were made at Stateville Prison in 1988. Showing them publicly for the first time in front of a shocked and deeply angry Illinois state legislature, Kurtis pointed out the explicit scenes of sex, drug use, and money being passed around by prisoners who seemingly had no fear of being caught, and in the center of it all was Speck, ingesting cocaine, parading around in silk panties, sporting female-like breasts grown from smuggled hormone treatments, and boasting, "If they only knew how much fun I was having, they'd turn me loose."

From behind the camera, a prisoner asked him why he killed the nurses. Speck shrugged and jokingly said "It just wasn't their night." Asked how he felt about himself in the years since, he said "Like I always feel. Had no feelings." He also described in detail what must be done when strangling someone: "it's not like TV...it takes over three minutes and you have to have a lot of strength." John Schmale, the brother of one of the Murdered nurses, said, "It was a very painful experience watching him tell about how he killed my sister."

The tapes were later broadcast on the A&E Network's Investigative Reports, and were used to argue for the death penalty. The same airing of Investigative Reports included interviews with people who believed that Speck was not taking hormones, wearing panties, etc. voluntarily, and that he'd instead been forced into it by other inmates as a way of himself surviving his time in prison.

Mass Murder Shell Lake Murders

The Shell Lake Murders is the name of a single mass Murder incident committed by Victor Ernest Hoffman (b. 1946, d. May 21, 2004) in Shell Lake, Saskatchewan, during the early morning of August 15, 1967. Nine people, all members of James Peterson's family, were shot in the head by a man who was later called "Canada's worst random mass murderer.

Victor Hoffman was 21 years old at the time and had been released from a mental hospital just three weeks before the Murders. In the morning of August 15 he entered the Peterson's farm armed with a .22-calibre Browning pump-action repeater rifle. He then proceeded to shoot all members of the Peterson family, seven of them children, at close range around the four-room house. According to police 28 shots were fired in total, of which 27 found their target.

Mr. Peterson was shot in the kitchen, while his wife Evelyn and her one-year old baby were found in the backyard. The other six children were shot while sleeping in their bedrooms. Their ages ranged from 2 to 17 years old. Phyllis Peterson, then 4 years old, was the lone survivor of the massacre. She was sleeping under the bedclothes between her two sisters and thus was not noticed by Hoffman. However, Hoffman later declared that he spared her because "she had the face of an angel."

The bodies were found by a neighbor who was to help Mr. Peterson with farm duties later that morning. He had to travel 6 km (3.7 mi) to the next telephone post before he could report the incident to the police. The police immediately started an extensive manhunt on the surroundings of the house.

Mass Murder Aftermath

On August 19, 1967, Hoffman was arrested by the RCMP without putting up resistance. He was found at his parents' home in Leask, about 65 km (40 mi) southwest of Shell Lake. After his arrest he told the police that he had fought the devil before the Murders and described him as being "tall, black and having no genitals." He was remanded to a mental hospital in North Battleford where he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

Hoffman was found not guilty by reason of insanity on non-capital Murder charges in February 1968. During the trial Crown prosecutor Serge Kujawa called Hoffman "the craziest man in Saskatchewan." He was put under the custody of the provincial Health Ministry and sent to a mental institution. He remained most of the time in an Ontario-based institution until December 2001, when he was granted supervised access to the towns of Penetanguishene, Port McNicol and Midland in Ontario. This decision was not without controversy since the hospital was only required to inform the local police of Hoffman's release.

Canadian journalist Peter Tadman wrote a book about the Murders in 1992 and had the chance to interview Hoffman several times. According to Tadman, Hoffman felt no guilt about the Murders and reported that he still saw the devil that compelled him to commit them.

Hoffman died of cancer under custody on May 21, 2004.

Mass Murder Jim Jones

This article is about the cult leader. For other persons named Jim Jones, see Jim Jones (disambiguation). James Warren "Jim" Jones (May 13, 1931 November 18, 1978) was the American founder of the Peoples Temple group, which became synonymous with group suicide after the November 18, 1978 mass suicide by Poison in their isolated agricultural intentional community called Jonestown, located in the country of Guyana. Jones was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head among the 909 corpses there.

Mass Murder Early life and founding of Temple

Jones was born in Crete, Indiana to Lynetta Putnam and James Thurman Jones. He graduated from high school at Richmond High School in Richmond, Indiana. He became a preacher in the 1950s. He obtained a bachelors degree at Butler University in 1961, and after graduate school from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN, Jim sold pet monkeys door-to-door to raise the money to fund his own church that would be named Wings of Deliverance. He later renamed his church the Peoples Temple, located in Indianapolis. He gained respectability when he became an ordained minister in 1964 in the mainstream Christian denomination, Disciples of Christ. The church was exceptional for its equal treatment of African Americans and many of them became members of the church. He started a struggle for racial equality and social justice, which he dubbed apostolic socialism. Jones authored a booklet, called "The Letter Killeth" pointing out what he felt were the contradictions, absurdities, and atrocities in the Bible, but the booklet also stated that the Bible contained great truths. He claimed to be an incarnation of Jesus, Akhenaten, Buddha, Lenin, and Father Divine and performed supposed miracle healings to attract new members. Members of Jones' church called Jones "Father" and believed that their movement was the solution to the problems of society and many did not distinguish Jones from the movement. The group gradually moved away from the mainstream.

Mass Murder Jonestown and mass Murder-suicide

Mass Murder Jonestown

In the summer of 1977, Jones and most of the 1000 members of the Peoples Temple moved to Guyana from San Francisco after an investigation into the church for tax evasion was begun. Jones named the closed settlement Jonestown after himself. His intention was to create an agricultural utopia in the jungle, free from racism and based on quasi-communist principles. Jones told his followers to think of him as the incarnation of Christ and God., they were fed LSD and psychoactive mushrooms, creating a feverish psychedelic environment.

People who had left the organization prior to its move to Guyana told the authorities of brutal beatings, Murders and of a mass suicide plan, but were not believed. In spite of the tax evasion allegations, Jones was still widely respected for setting up a racially mixed church which helped the disadvantaged. Around 70% of the inhabitants of Jonestown were black and impoverished. The religious scholar Mary McCormick Maaga argued that Jones' authority waned after he moved to the isolated commune, because there he was not needed anymore for recruitment and he could not hide his drug addiction from rank and file members. Consequently, he lost some of his power to inner-circle members, according to McCormick Maaga.

In November 1978, U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan led a fact-finding mission to the Jonestown settlement in Guyana after allegations by relatives in the U.S. of human rights abuses. Ryan's delegation arrived in Jonestown on November 15 and spent three days interviewing residents. They left hurriedly on the morning of Saturday November 18 after an attempt was made on Ryan's life. They took with them roughly 15 Peoples Temple members who wished to leave. Delegation members later told police that, as they were boarding planes at the airstrip, a truckload of Jones' armed guards arrived and began to shoot at them. At the same time, one of the supposed defectors, Larry Layton, drew a weapon and began to fire on members of the party. When the gunmen left, six people were dead: Representative Ryan, Don Humphrey, a reporter from NBC, a cameraman from NBC, a newspaper photographer, and one defector from the Peoples Temple. The former California State Senator Jackie Speier, a staff member for Rep. Ryan in 1978, Richard Dwyer, the Deputy Chief of Mission from the U.S. Embassy at Georgetown and allegedly an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, and a producer for NBC News, Bob Flick, survived the attack.

Later that same day, 900 of the remaining inhabitants of Jonestown, 276 of them children, died in what has commonly been labeled a mass suicide, although many who died were Murdered. While some followers obeyed Jones' instructions to commit "revolutionary suicide" by drinking cyanide-laced grape flavored Flavor Aid (often misconstrued as Kool-aid), others died by forced cyanide injection or by shooting. Jones was found dead sitting in a deck chair with a gunshot wound to the head, although it is unknown if he had been Murdered or committed suicide. The autopsy on his body showed levels of the barbiturate pentobarbital that could have been lethal to humans who have not developed physiological tolerance. His drug usage (including various LSD and marijuana experimentations) was confirmed by his son, Stephan, and Jones's doctor in San Francisco.

Mass Murder Other issues

Jones was married to Marceline Jones. They had two sons together, one biological and one adopted. Their biological son, Stephan Gandhi Jones, did not take part in the mass suicide because he was away, playing with the Peoples Temple basketball team. Jones' adopted son, Jim Jones Jr., was African American. Jim and Marceline were the first white couple in Indiana to adopt an African American child Jones claimed to be the biological father of John Victor Stoen, who was the legal son of Grace Stoen and her husband Timothy Stoen. The custody dispute over Stoen had great symbolic value for the Peoples Temple and intensified the conflict with its opponents who consisted of, among others, a group called the "Concerned Relatives".

In MacArthur Park, Los Angeles on December 13, 1973, Jones was arrested and charged with soliciting a man for sex in a movie theater bathroom known for homosexual activity. The man, as it turns out, was an undercover Los Angeles Police Department vice officer. Jones is on record as later telling his followers that he was "the only true heterosexual", but at least one account exists of his sexually abusing a male member of his congregation in front of the followers, ostensibly to prove the man's own homosexual tendencies.

One of his sources of inspiration was the controversial cult leader Father Divine. Jones had borrowed the term "revolutionary suicide" from Black Panther leader Huey Newton who had argued "the slow suicide of life in the ghetto" ought to be replaced by revolutionary struggle that would end only in victory (socialism and self determination) or revolutionary suicide (death).

Mass Murder Woo Bum-Kon

Woo Bum-Kon (Korean:) (February 24, 1955 April 27, 1982) was a Korean police officer who carried out the worst incident of spree killing in known history, killing 58 (including himself), and wounding 35 in Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea.

Mass Murder Background

Woo was originally a police officer in Seoul, but was sent off to a rural village in Uiryeong county. Dispirited from being left out of the career path, he was also under enormous emotional strain from being unable to gather enough money to hold a proper wedding.

Mass Murder April 26, 1982

Woo had an argument with his live-in girlfriend in the afternoon of April 26, 1982. Enraged, he left the house and went to the police armory, where he began consuming large amounts of whiskey. He became moderately drunk, raided the police armory of its weapons and built a personal arsenal. Woo then stole a single high-powered rifle and some grenades and left the armory. It was by this point around dinner time. He walked from house to house, and abused his position as a police officer to make people feel safe and gain entry to the home. Then he shot the victims, or killed the entire family with a grenade. He continued this pattern for the next eight hours, and into the early morning hours of April 27.

Mass Murder Village to village

When Woo had shot a certain number of people in a village, he ran to another village and started killing. Eventually he had been through five villages in Uiryeong county.

Mass Murder Suicide

In the early hours of April 27, Woo took his final two grenades and strapped them to his body. He grabbed three people as he set the fuse of the grenades. They became his final victims, as he blew himself up, killing the three he had taken hostage and finally ending the world's worst spree killing.

Mass Murder Resignation of the Interior Minister

The Interior Minister of South Korea, Suh Chung Hwa, believed that he had failed at his job of protecting the peace because of the incident, and in shame resigned his post. As a result, Roh Tae-woo was appointed as the new Interior Minister.

Mass Murder Denis Lortie

Denis Lortie is a former Canadian army corporal. In 1984, he stormed into the National Assembly of Quebec building and killed three Quebec government employees.

A corporal with the Royal 22e Régiment of the Canadian Forces, Lortie was disgruntled with a number of policies of the Quebec and federal governments. He planned a killing spree as a means of broadcasting his discontent.

On May 7 of that year, Lortie left the CFS Carp military base pretending that he needed time off to arrange a divorce with his wife. Instead, he rented a car, drove to Québec City and took a guided tour of the Quebec Parliament Building. He then rented a room in a motel of the boulevard Laurier for the night.

The next day, at 9:30 a.m., Lortie walked into the CJRP radio station in Quebec City and dropped off a sealed envelope containing an audiotape for one of the station's hosts, André Arthur. He instructed the radio staff not to open the envelope until 10:30 a.m., they opened it anyway, discovering that it was a statement of Lortie's plans, in which he declared that "The government now in power is going to be destroyed." However, by the time radio staff contacted police, Lortie's plan had already been put into action.

At 9:45 a.m., Lortie entered the Quebec Parliament Building through a side door located on Grande-Allée. He was dressed in combat fatigues and armed with two submachine guns. Just as he entered the building, he shot at a receptionist, then killed a messenger that he crossed in a corridor. He ended up in a smoking room and shot at the people there. He then went to the cafeteria, but finally found his way into the Assembly Chamber.

Based on later testimony, it is clear he intended to assassinate René Lévesque and other members of the governing Parti Québécois. His plan was to enter the Assembly Chamber during the parliamentary committee starting at 10:00 that morning. However, he arrived early when only a few people were present in the Chamber. Lortie killed three government employees (Georges Boyer, Camille Lepage and Roger Lefrançois) and wounded 13 others. No politicians were killed or wounded.

The National Assembly's Sergeant-at-Arms, René Jalbert, was told there was a man with a gun in the Assembly Chamber. Upon stepping out the elevator, Lortie fired on him. Seeing that Lortie was in a military uniform, Jalbert told him that he too had been a soldier with the Van Doos (slang for the 22e Régiment), and that if Lortie allowed he would show him his discharge card. Lortie agreed, after which Jalbert persuaded him to show his own identification.

After this exchange, Jalbert persuaded Lortie to come to his office to discuss the matter, and release the other civilians in the Assembly Chamber. Jalbert talked to Lortie for over four hours, ultimately persuading him to surrender to military police (he was unwilling to surrender to civilian police) at 14:22. For his heroic act which likely prevented further death, the Canadian government several months later awarded Jalbert the Cross of Valour.

In 1985, Lortie was convicted of first-degree Murder, but a new trial was ordered due to legal errors. Lortie pleaded guilty to reduced charges of second-degree Murder in 1987.

Lortie was paroled in December 1995.

Marc Lépine, who Murdered 14 women in 1989 in the École Polytechnique Massacre, left a suicide note expressing his admiration of Lortie.

Mass Murder San Ysidro McDonald's massacre

For the Sydney River McDonald's Murders, see Sydney River McDonald's Murders The McDonald's massacre was an incident of mass Murder which resulted in 21 deaths at a McDonald's restaurant in the San Ysidro section of San Diego, California, on July 18, 1984.

The massacre was carried out by James Oliver Huberty, a 41-year-old former welder from Canton, Ohio. In January 1984, Huberty had moved to San Ysidro with his wife and children, where he worked as a security guard until his dismissal one week prior to the Murders. His apartment was located near the site of the shooting spree.

Before leaving for McDonald's, his wife Etna asked him where he was going. Huberty responded that he was "hunting humans". Earlier that same day he made the comment to his wife, "Society had its chance".

Huberty used a 9mm Uzi semi-automatic (the primary weapon fired in the massacre), a Winchester pump-action twelve-gauge shotgun, and a 9mm Browning HP in the restaurant, killing 21 people and wounding 19 others. Huberty's victims were predominantly Mexican and Mexican-American and ranged in age from 8 months to 74 years. The massacre began at 4 p.m. and lasted for 77 minutes. Huberty had spent 257 rounds of ammunition before he was fatally shot by Chuck Foster, a SWAT team sniper perched on the roof next door. The Murders are reconstructed in The Sett (1996), a book by Ranulph Fiennes which deals with the subject of revenge killing.

Although Huberty stated during the massacre that he had killed thousands in Vietnam, he had never actually served in any military branch; this led to speculation that schizophrenia led him to believe he had served in the war.

On the day before the massacre, Huberty had called a mental health center. The receptionist misspelled his name on intake. Since he had not claimed there was an immediate emergency, his call was not returned.

Mass Murder Site

On September 26, 1984, McDonald's tore down the restaurant where the massacre occurred and gave the property to the city, which opened Southwestern Community College there. In front of the school is a memorial to the massacre victims, consisting of 21 hexagonal granite pillars ranging in height from one to six feet.

Mass Murder Lawsuit

In 1986, Etna Huberty, his widow, unsuccessfully sued McDonald's and Babcock and Wilcox, James Huberty's longtime former employer, in an Ohio state court for $7.88 million, claiming that the massacre was triggered by the combined mixture of McDonald's food and work around Poisonous metals. She alleged that monosodium glutamate in the food, combined with the high levels of lead and cadmium in Huberty's body, induced delusions and uncontrollable rage. An autopsy did reveal high levels of the metals, most likely built up from fumes inhaled during 14 years of welding. Autopsy results also revealed there were no drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of the killings.

Mass Murder Jeremy Bamber

Jeremy Bamber (born in England in 1961) is one of the UK's most notorious mass murderers, almost as much for remaining in the news since his conviction, as for the shocking crimes he was convicted of carrying out. However, his conviction remains a matter of some controversy.

Bamber was 25 when he was given five life sentences in 1986 for shooting dead his adoptive parents, sister and twin six-year-old nephews at the family farmhouse in Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex the previous year.

The court was told that Bamber shot his family and then placed the rifle in his sister's hands in order to make her appear the person who carried out the killings and then turned the gun on herself. The police initially believed that his sister, Sheila Caffell, was the killer because she had paranoid schizophrenia and had not been taking her medication, and because Bamber reportedly called the police to state that his father, Nevill, had called him and told him that Sheila had gone mad and was trying to kill the family.

Initially, the police recorded the matter as a suicide and four Murders, but persistence by members of the Bambers' extended family, who did not believe Sheila capable of the killings, eventually led to a more thorough investigation. Jeremy Bamber was placed under suspicion after his fingerprints were found on the gun and his girlfriend Julie Mugford, who was seen comforting Bamber at the Funeral of all five relatives, told the court that he had talked in the past about killing his parents.

It was argued by the prosecution and accepted by most of the jury, that Bamber killed his family in order to claim an inheritance of almost £500,000.

Bamber was told by his trial judge, Mr. Justice Drake, that he was "warped and evil" and recommended that he should serve at least 25 years before being considered for release, which would keep him behind bars until at least 2010 and the age of 49. Successive Home Secretaries have since ruled that Bamber's life sentence should mean exactly that, although Bamber has always pleaded his innocence and has seen two appeals against his convictions rejected. Politicians in England and Wales no longer have the right to decide minimum terms for convicted murderers, and the European Court of Justice is currently reviewing lifelong imprisonment to determine whether it is a violation of human rights.

Bamber continues to pursue and offer rewards for fresh evidence which will ensure that his convictions are overturned, which remains a source of anger to his remaining family.

In light of new evidence and inconsistencies in the original trial evidence, Bamber's cause has been taken up by among others; Andrew Hunter, who was the MP for Basingstoke until the 2005 general election and the crime writer Scott Lomax - see link below for article published on the website of the Libertarian Alliance.

In 2004, Bamber was rushed to a hospital after he was attacked by another inmate while making a telephone call from Full Sutton Prison, near York, where he was serving his sentence. He suffered deep cuts to his neck but made a full recovery. Bamber has launched a third appeal against his convictions. This new appeal centres on previously unseen photographs, which allegedly reveal him to have been in police custody when his sister was killed. Bamber is also making use of controversial lawyer Giovanni di Stefano.

Mass Murder Andrew Walker (Murderer)

Royal Scots corporal Andrew Walker killed three Army colleagues in a payroll robbery in the Pentland Hills, south of Edinburgh, in January 1985. He was jailed for life.

Mass Murder Murders

On January 17, 1985, retired Major David Cunningham, 56, Sergeant Terence Hosker, 39, and Private John Thomson, 25, of the Royal Scots picked up a £19,000 payroll from a Penicuik bank to take it to the Glencorse Barracks in Penicuik, Midlothian where all were stationed.

According to the prosecution at his trial, Corporal Andrew Walker, 30, armed with sub-machine gun that he had signed out from an army armoury, forced the trio to drive away from the bank. He shot Serg. Hosker in the chest when he was tackled. Telling Private Thomson to drive along a quiet track to a reservoir, he shot Major Cunningham through the head. Thomson was then forced to unload the bodies of his colleagues before being shot himself in the head and abdomen. The money was never recovered and is thought to be buried in the hills. Walker left several clues in the deep snow and was arrested after a three-day manhunt.

Mass Murder Trial

While on remand for the Murders, Walker shared a cell with 18-year-old Andrew Lowden, also on remand. Lowden claimed that Walker was physically violent towards him and threatened to kill Lowden's father and girlfriend, and that Walker had confessed to the Murders in lurid detail on the eve of the trial. When Lowden was released, Walker blackmailed Lowden into taking a letter out of the prison, placing the blame for the Murders on the Provisional Irish Republican Army. The letter was confiscated by guards and Mr Lowden was therefore later called as a prosecution witness at Andrew Walker's trial. As a defense, Walker claimed he was driving elsewhere during the Murders and that they were the actions of a terrorist organization. He claimed that the shells linking him to the Murder weapon were planted.

Walker was found guilty of Murder and jailed for life. He was also convicted of theft and for attempting to pervert the course of justice by trying to smuggle the letter out of prison. The judge, Lord Grieve, recommended that Walker should serve at least 30 years for the Murders. Lord Grieve noted "This was a calculated crime. The accused, if he was to achieve his purpose, had to kill. I am quite satisfied that the crime was carefully planned, and I am also quite sure that the substance of the evidence given by Walker was a tissue of lies." He called the crimes "callous, brutal and calculated".

Walker's conviction was upheld on appeal, but the sentence was shortened to 27 years as Walker successfully argued in 2002 that he should not have been treated more harshly than other murderers.

Mass Murder Background and motive

Walker was in debt at the time of the Murders. He owed £2,000 on a car bill and was about to take delivery of a car worth £8,500. His army colleagues reported that he was a liar and braggart and generally unpopular. After a initially successful career in the army, with three tours to Northern Ireland and a mention in dispatches, he had been having disciplinary issues in the months before the robbery and Murders. A commanding officer, Lt Col Fairweather had disciplined him and said: "Unless you get a grip of yourself, I can see you wearing a blue suit and eating porridge".

Mass Murder A Prophet is Born

Claiming to be a prophet or messenger from God carries with it a certain responsibility; by doing so, one is proclaiming a sacred covenant between ones self and God. As a society we are all too familiar with how these proclamations can become twisted to the point where these self-professed men of God use their manipulation and status to commit the most shocking blasphemy -- breaking the ultimate commandment Thou Shall not Kill On April 17, 1989, Jeffrey Lundgren, a self-professed prophet, did just that by executing five innocent people in cold blood.

Jeffrey Don Lundgren was born on May 3, 1950, in Independence, Missouri, the son of Don and Lois Gadberry Lundgren. Jeff’s father had a prosperous job in construction and his mother did her best to meet the needs of Jeff and his younger brother, while taking care to see that the household was kept in immaculate order. The Lundgren family were very active participants in the local Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints Church (RLDS), a splinter of the Mormon Church.

Friends of the family have said that while the Lundgrens did their best to raise the children, they were anything but role-model parents. Don was very strict with the children, often seriously punishing them for trivial childish infractions, while Lois was often times distant and inflexible. Jeff states today that he was physically abused as a child; however, these claims have yet to be confirmed by any close member of the family.

During his teen years, Jeff had very few friends and was considered an arrogant loner by classmates. A neighbor recalls one day having witnessed Jeff nail a small rabbit to a piece of wood before beating it to death. Besides the obvious animal cruelty, it is noted that psychologists have long claimed that youths who abuse animals are most likely to commit acts of violence later in life.

As Jeff grew older, his father decided to share his passion of hunting and Guns with his elder son. Don would often spend hours with Jeff teaching him how to care for and maintain firearms and eventually how to use them for survival and hunting.

Upon graduating from high school, Jeff enrolled at Central Missouri State University, majoring in electronics. During his sophomore year, he spent most of his free time at an RLDS student house. It was there that Jeff met Keith Johnson and Alice Keehler. While he did not realize it at the time, these new friends would have a significant effect on his life and beliefs.

Alice Elizabeth Keehler was born on January 21, 1951 in Mack’s Creek, Missouri (160 miles outside of Independence). Proud parents Ralph and Donna Keehler were delighted with their first-born child. Ralph was a veteran of World War II and employed as an ironworker. Donna stayed at home, raised the children, and took care of the home. Ralph was not around much during Alice’s childhood as his job was some 150 miles from home. Weekends were usually the only time the family was able to spend time together.

Two sisters and a brother eventually joined Alice. She seemed to be a happy child up until the age of twelve when her father was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Ralph was no longer able to provide for the family and money soon ran short. Donna took a secretarial position at the local welfare office in order to support the family. The brunt of Ralph’s illness and child rearing rested on Alice’s shoulders. Ralph was soon on a wide variety of cocktail medications, including prednisone and cortisone. These drugs, combined with his growing depression, often times led to violence directed towards Alice and her siblings.

During her high school years, Alice was a bit of a loner preferring the local church youth group rather than participating in school activities. Upon graduating from high school, she enrolled at Central Missouri State University. She became very active in the youth church group and soon took the fancy of Jeffrey Don Lundgren. The two immediately started to spend time together and were soon inseparable.

By 1969, Alice was pregnant and both she and Jeff dropped out of college. Don and Lois were extremely disappointed by their son’s irresponsibility and refused to attend the couple’s wedding in the spring of 1970.

In order to support his new family, Jeff enlisted in the United States Navy. Shortly after leaving for basic training on December 2, 1970, the couple’s first child, Damon Paul, was born. Jeff served four years in the Navy as an electronics technician before receiving an honorable discharge in July of 1974. Two weeks before the discharge, Alice gave birth to their second son, Jason Don.

Jeff and Alice lived in San Diego, California, with their two children following his discharge from the service. The couple once again became active in the RLDS Church and would often times look for friends to convert to their faith. Supporting the ever-growing family soon became a problem, so Jeff decided to move them back to the Independence area in hopes of securing a well paying job. Try as he may, he could not hold down any job for more than a few weeks at a time, due to his irresponsible nature and attitude. On June 21, 1979, the couple’s third child, Kristen Michelle, was born. Some say Alice planned this pregnancy in order to save the couple’s marriage and to curb Jeff’s wandering eye.

Shortly after the birth of Kristen, Jeff would regularly abuse Alice and the children. At one point Jeff pushed her down a flight of stairs. The fall was so severe that it caused Alice to rupture her spleen. Emergency surgery was required to repair the damage.

On September 13, 1980, their fourth child, Caleb Matthew, was born. As with the birth of Kristen, family members speculated that this pregnancy was yet another attempt by Alice to hold their rocky marriage together.

In 1981, Jeff was asked to join the RLDS lay priesthood; however, he later stated that it was at this time that he lost all faith in the church and its teachings. Their liberal tendencies (e.g. allowing women to be ordained as priests) particularly upset him.

Jeff felt that Scripture contained the truth and it was now his duty to find the answers. He started a Mormon splinter group and began holding study groups in his home. Members included friends from college like Dennis and Tonya Patrick, Dennis and Cheryl Avery, and Jeff’s cousin Debbie Olivarez.

Jeff seemed to have a way with people and attracted a number of followers that truly believed he had uncovered the truth in Scripture. According to a friend of Jeff’s cousin Debbie, people appeared to worship the ground he walked on, and would often donate money to support the Lundgren family.

Jeff soon grew greedy and became unhappy with the small sums of money that his followers were giving to him. He eventually announced to his flock that it was time for him to move on and that the Scriptures were commanding him to move to Kirtland, Ohio, in order to receive his true power from God.