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The Blount Family Bombing Part One: Joe, Angela, and Michael · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

0:01
Speaker 1: Gone coll Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
0:05
Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. In the years leading up to
0:10
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, the Dallas Fort Worth area had been
0:13
Speaker 1: expanding outward, fueled by population growth, construction, real estate, and
0:20
Speaker 1: an oil economy that had brought enormous amounts of money
0:23
Speaker 1: into the state. New neighborhoods and businesses were pushing farther
0:28
Speaker 1: beyond the cities than ever, gradually consuming land that only
0:33
Speaker 1: a few years earlier had been pasture, farmland or open country.
0:38
Speaker 1: North Texas was a place on the move. Dallas was
0:42
Speaker 1: a major American city and somewhat legendary after the popular
0:47
Speaker 1: primetime soap opera of the same name killed off the
0:50
Speaker 1: heart and soul of the show Bobby Ewing in May
0:54
Speaker 1: of that year. Though still defined by its stockyards and
0:58
Speaker 1: a sleepy downtown, Fort Worth was expanding well beyond its
1:03
Speaker 1: outer boundaries, but it didn't take much driving to leave
1:06
Speaker 1: the increasingly dense suburbs behind. Northwest of Fort Worth, Jacksborough
1:13
Speaker 1: Highway or State Highway one ninety nine carried traffic through
1:17
Speaker 1: Lake Worth and toward Azol, passing auto repair shops, convenience stores,
1:23
Speaker 1: mobile home communities and large stretches of land that had
1:27
Speaker 1: yet to be developed. North Texas experienced a particularly difficult
1:33
Speaker 1: year in nineteen eighty five. On the evening of August second,
1:37
Speaker 1: Delta Airlines Flight one ninety one approached DFW International Airport
1:43
Speaker 1: as a thunderstorm developed near the runway. With the tarmac
1:48
Speaker 1: in sight, the Lockheed L ten eleven encountered a powerful
1:52
Speaker 1: microburst and was suddenly forced downward. The aircraft struck the ground,
1:58
Speaker 1: crossed Highway one fourteen, hit a passing car, and eventually
2:03
Speaker 1: slammed into water tanks on airport property. One hundred and
2:07
Speaker 1: thirty seven people died. The disaster became one of the
2:11
Speaker 1: defining events of the year in the United States, as
2:15
Speaker 1: images of the wreckage were broadcast across the country. Locally,
2:20
Speaker 1: the crash dominated the news. People throughout the region watched
2:25
Speaker 1: as the identities and stories of the dead emerged. Texas
2:29
Speaker 1: mourned the tragedy alongside the families. By fall, the immediate
2:35
Speaker 1: shock of the disaster had began to recede, but nineteen
2:39
Speaker 1: eighty five hadn't quieted. Crime was an increasing concern across
2:45
Speaker 1: the metroplex. Drug trafficking was becoming more visible with the
2:49
Speaker 1: arrival of crack cocaine, and in rural areas especially, the
2:54
Speaker 1: manufacturing of metanphetamines was as prevalent as ever. A seemingly
3:00
Speaker 1: connected string of murders of young women from Fort Worth
3:04
Speaker 1: to Arlington to Dallas that began in the nineteen seventies continued,
3:09
Speaker 1: remaining mostly unsolved, as many of them do to this day.
3:14
Speaker 1: Violent crime was on the rise in a big way,
3:17
Speaker 1: and almost nowhere even the far outskirts of the cities
3:21
Speaker 1: was immune. Not far beyond Fort Worth's northwest city limits
3:27
Speaker 1: in tarant County, the Hilltop Mobile Home Park and the
3:31
Speaker 1: area surrounding it was resisting much of the area's development.
3:36
Speaker 1: Nestled just beneath Lake Worth's northern appendage, the small trailer
3:41
Speaker 1: court occupied only a few acres off Jacksborough Highway. Some
3:46
Speaker 1: of the dozens of mostly single wide trailers had been
3:49
Speaker 1: there for years. Residents of the small neighborhood weren't insulated
3:54
Speaker 1: from city crime by any means. The park itself had
3:58
Speaker 1: seen its fair share of criminal activity, mostly in the
4:02
Speaker 1: form of drugs and property crime, but none had seen
4:06
Speaker 1: anything like what happened there on Thanksgiving Day in nineteen
4:10
Speaker 1: eighty five when a bomb took the lives of three
4:13
Speaker 1: people living there, and to this day, more than forty
4:16
Speaker 1: years later, no one has been able to say why.
4:47
Speaker 1: In late July of nineteen eighty five, the Blount family
4:51
Speaker 1: left the Seattle, Washington area and headed south. There were
4:56
Speaker 1: four of them packed into the family station wagon, Joseph
5:00
Speaker 1: Lee Blount, known to all as Joe, his wife Susan,
5:04
Speaker 1: and their two children, Angela and Robert. Behind them, a
5:09
Speaker 1: U haul trailer was loaded with whatever they could bring
5:12
Speaker 1: along clothes, dishes, blankets, and the other personal belongings they
5:18
Speaker 1: would need to start over. The trip, more than two
5:22
Speaker 1: thousand miles, was uncomfortable in the middle of summer. The
5:26
Speaker 1: station wagon had no air conditioning. Forty four year old
5:30
Speaker 1: Joe did most of the driving as they made their
5:33
Speaker 1: way from the Evergreen State to the Lone Star State.
5:37
Speaker 1: At six foot two and around two hundred twenty pounds,
5:41
Speaker 1: Joe was a big man, much like his father. He
5:44
Speaker 1: enjoyed beer and John Wayne Westerns, but the skill that
5:48
Speaker 1: had defined much of his working life and even before,
5:52
Speaker 1: was repairing automobiles. Joe had been working on anything with
5:57
Speaker 1: two or four wheels since he was young with his
6:00
Speaker 1: two brothers, David and Carl. His father, William Alvin Blount
6:05
Speaker 1: or Bill, taught him how to fix cars at his
6:08
Speaker 1: San Leandro, California auto shop, which, despite Bill's large stature,
6:14
Speaker 1: was called Tiny's. The Blounts were coming to Texas hoping
6:18
Speaker 1: for a new beginning after a difficult period in their lives,
6:22
Speaker 1: and during a fragile point in Joe and Susan's marriage.
6:27
Speaker 1: They had originally married in nineteen sixty eight. Both had
6:31
Speaker 1: children from previous relationships who lived with their other parents,
6:36
Speaker 1: and over the years, Joe and Susan's own marriage had
6:39
Speaker 1: been troubled enough that they divorced and later remarried. By
6:44
Speaker 1: the summer of nineteen eighty five, they were trying again.
6:48
Speaker 1: Joe and Susan had spent roughly a year separated, and
6:52
Speaker 1: she wasn't at all certain that moving to Texas was
6:55
Speaker 1: the right decision. Still hoping to make their marriage work,
7:00
Speaker 1: she came with him. Susan and Joe hoped Texas could
7:04
Speaker 1: give their family some much needed stability, but that wasn't
7:08
Speaker 1: necessarily the thing that sparked the need to move. Originally
7:13
Speaker 1: from Gainesville, Texas, Joe's father was now living in Saginaw,
7:17
Speaker 1: north of Fort Worth, and his health had been declining
7:21
Speaker 1: since the death of his wife several years earlier. Not
7:25
Speaker 1: long after Joe and his family arrived in Texas, Bill
7:29
Speaker 1: suffered a stroke. They'd made it just in time. Also
7:33
Speaker 1: shortly after they arrived, the Blounts became members of the
7:37
Speaker 1: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints in asl
7:41
Speaker 1: Susan Maureen Blount was forty years old and deeply devoted
7:45
Speaker 1: to her Mormon faith. As a mother, she was precise
7:50
Speaker 1: and strict. Susan and Joe's daughter, Angela Joe Blount was
7:55
Speaker 1: fifteen years old and was described by her mother as
7:59
Speaker 1: happy and talkedive. After the move, Angela enrolled at Azel
8:04
Speaker 1: High School. She enjoyed working with ceramics, and she had
8:08
Speaker 1: no problem making friends. Her younger brother, Robert, who was fourteen,
8:14
Speaker 1: was just the opposite. He was quiet and withdrawn, and
8:18
Speaker 1: it took time for him to become comfortable around a person.
8:23
Speaker 1: Even considering their contradicting dispositions, Angela and Robert were extremely close.
8:30
Speaker 1: The family eventually found a place to live at Hilltop
8:34
Speaker 1: Mobile Home Park in Tarrant County. The park contained approximately
8:38
Speaker 1: forty trailers along Hailey Road off the seventy eight hundred
8:43
Speaker 1: block of Jacksborough Highway, not far from Lake Worth. The
8:47
Speaker 1: Blounts rented the trailer at Lot eight. They arrived without
8:52
Speaker 1: furniture and for a while slept on the floor on
8:55
Speaker 1: sleeping bags and blankets. The fresh start they had driven
8:59
Speaker 1: more than halfway across the country to find wasn't coming easily,
9:04
Speaker 1: mostly because Joe struggled to find steady employment as a
9:08
Speaker 1: transmission mechanic. He picked up temporary work, but nothing that
9:13
Speaker 1: offered the family much stability or security. Susan got a
9:17
Speaker 1: job at an insurance agency and lost calenus. While her
9:22
Speaker 1: paycheck kept food on the table and a roof over
9:25
Speaker 1: the family's heads, money remained incredibly tight. Susan later described
9:30
Speaker 1: them during that period as the brokest people on earth.
9:35
Speaker 1: Even their telephone was eventually disconnected because they could no
9:39
Speaker 1: longer afford the bill. For months, the family struggled to
9:43
Speaker 1: put down roots, but his fall settled in their situation
9:47
Speaker 1: finally seemed to be improving. Joe found a job at
9:51
Speaker 1: a place called Atlas Transmissions, a new business preparing to
9:55
Speaker 1: open the monday after Thanksgiving. Being hired by a company
10:00
Speaker 1: that were also starting fresh felt especially comforting. For the
10:05
Speaker 1: first time since arriving in North Texas, Joe seemed to
10:09
Speaker 1: believe he had found the place he belonged. Susan later
10:13
Speaker 1: recalled how excited he was as he talked about staying
10:17
Speaker 1: with the company permanently. Hearing him talk that way and
10:21
Speaker 1: witnessing his confidence return meant far more than just a paycheck.
10:26
Speaker 1: It also did wonders for their relationship. Then came Thanksgiving. Thursday,
10:44
Speaker 1: November twenty eighth, nineteen eighty five, was a cold day
10:47
Speaker 1: in North Texas, with the temperature reaching a high of
10:51
Speaker 1: only about forty two degrees. The Blounts planned to spend
10:56
Speaker 1: the holiday together at their trailer and were feeling part
11:00
Speaker 1: particularly thankful for the good fortune that had recently come
11:03
Speaker 1: their way, and they had company. Among their guests was
11:08
Speaker 1: Joe's baby brother, forty one year old Carl Raymond Blount
11:12
Speaker 1: or Ray. Susan didn't like Ray. He'd been a recurring
11:18
Speaker 1: source of tension in her marriage to Joe for years,
11:22
Speaker 1: but he was still her brother in law. For Thanksgiving,
11:26
Speaker 1: Susan decided she would put those feelings aside and make
11:29
Speaker 1: the best of the day. Ray wasn't the only guest.
11:34
Speaker 1: His eighteen year old son, Michael Hans Columbus, had also
11:38
Speaker 1: come to spend Thanksgiving with the Blouns. He and his
11:42
Speaker 1: father had been estranged for years. Michael was living in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
11:48
Speaker 1: where he was studying airplane mechanics, and his mother, all
11:52
Speaker 1: the way up in Seattle, was worried about him making
11:55
Speaker 1: the trip to Terrant County. Susan had reassured her that
11:59
Speaker 1: he he'd be fine. She was elated to spend time
12:03
Speaker 1: with her nephew. The Blounts had managed to rent some
12:07
Speaker 1: furniture by then, but still didn't have enough places to
12:11
Speaker 1: sit for everyone coming to Thanksgiving dinner. Joe solved the
12:15
Speaker 1: problem by borrowing chairs from the waiting room at the
12:18
Speaker 1: transmission shop, which was set to open the following week.
12:23
Speaker 1: That afternoon, the family and their guests ate turkey and
12:26
Speaker 1: dressing in the small mobile home, balancing plates on their
12:30
Speaker 1: knees since they hadn't yet gotten a table. The day
12:34
Speaker 1: went remarkably well. The Thanksgiving Day football game played out
12:38
Speaker 1: on television as the Dallas Cowboys stomped the Saint Louis
12:43
Speaker 1: Cardinals thirty five to seventeen, even Ray and Michael put
12:47
Speaker 1: their differences behind them and reconciled. Michael was so happy
12:52
Speaker 1: about making up with his father, in fact, that after dinner,
12:56
Speaker 1: he went to a payphone and called his mother to
12:58
Speaker 1: tell her. At about five that evening, Ray left the
13:03
Speaker 1: Blount trailer and went home. Michael stayed. Several hours passed
13:08
Speaker 1: as he and Susan talked about Seattle and how good
13:11
Speaker 1: it was to see someone from home. Michael was also
13:15
Speaker 1: looking forward to Christmas, he told his aunt when he
13:19
Speaker 1: planned to return to Seattle to see his mother and sister.
13:23
Speaker 1: At a little before nine pm, Susan decided to lie down.
13:28
Speaker 1: She'd eaten too much at dinner and needed a nap
13:31
Speaker 1: to help it all settle. She retired to the bedroom
13:34
Speaker 1: at the back of the trailer. Joe, Angela, Robert, and
13:39
Speaker 1: Michael were still awake and not too full for dessert.
13:43
Speaker 1: The teenagers were craving ice cream, Joe wanted beer, so
13:49
Speaker 1: the four of them climbed into the station wagon and
13:52
Speaker 1: drove to a convenience store about a half a mile away.
13:55
Speaker 1: While they were gone, someone came to the trailer and
13:58
Speaker 1: knocked on the front door. Susan heard it, got out
14:02
Speaker 1: of bed, and peeked through the window, but saw no one.
14:06
Speaker 1: She returned to the bedroom. Twenty minutes or so after leaving,
14:11
Speaker 1: Joe and the kids returned from the store. They pulled up,
14:15
Speaker 1: got out of the car, and headed inside. Sitting on
14:19
Speaker 1: the top step outside the front door was a brown
14:22
Speaker 1: leather briefcase. None of them had ever seen it before,
14:26
Speaker 1: let alone had any idea where it had come from.
14:30
Speaker 1: Angela wondered whether there might be jewels inside, while Robert
14:34
Speaker 1: thought perhaps someone had left them money for Angela. Robert
14:39
Speaker 1: and Michael, whose imaginations weren't yet sullied by harsh life
14:44
Speaker 1: experiences and bad luck, a mysterious briefcase appearing outside their
14:49
Speaker 1: home on Thanksgiving night was exciting. Joe was more skeptical.
14:55
Speaker 1: He was old enough to understand that people didn't arrive
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Speaker 1: home to find something valuable on their doorstep. Things didn't
15:02
Speaker 1: happen in real life the way they happened in the movies. Still,
15:07
Speaker 1: he went along with the teenagers. After getting inside, they
15:11
Speaker 1: gathered around the briefcase in the living room. Angela sat
15:16
Speaker 1: on the couch near the front door. Michael sat beside
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Speaker 1: her to her left, while Robert stood to her right.
15:23
Speaker 1: His back toward the front door. Joe sat on the
15:26
Speaker 1: arm of a chair facing them. The briefcase rested across
15:31
Speaker 1: Angela's lap. She put one hand on each latch and
15:35
Speaker 1: released them. Then she lifted the lid. Robert heard a click.
15:41
Speaker 1: At approximately nine to fifteen PM, an explosion tore through
15:45
Speaker 1: the front of the mobile home. In the bedroom at
15:49
Speaker 1: the back of the trailer, Susan awoke. She opened the door.
15:53
Speaker 1: Smoke filled the hallway. Susan moved toward the living room,
15:58
Speaker 1: but the floor beneath her feet had become so hot
16:01
Speaker 1: it burned. Somewhere ahead of her. She heard screaming. Through
16:06
Speaker 1: the smoke and fire. She could see who she thought
16:09
Speaker 1: was Joe, lying on the floor in front of the television.
16:12
Speaker 1: It was hard to tell for sure the figure was burning.
16:17
Speaker 1: The only clue was the figure's size. Susan couldn't go
16:22
Speaker 1: any farther. The heat forced her back. She made her
16:26
Speaker 1: way toward another door in the hallway and somehow escaped
16:30
Speaker 1: the trailer. Later, she couldn't remember exactly how, just that
16:35
Speaker 1: suddenly she found herself outside in the bushes. The door
16:39
Speaker 1: she had apparently escaped through had been secured with a chain.
16:43
Speaker 1: Yet after the blast. It was standing wide open inside
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Speaker 1: the trailer. There was no one left to save. The
16:51
Speaker 1: explosion had killed Angela instantly, as it had Joe and Michael.
16:57
Speaker 1: The screaming Susan heard couldn't have come from from any
17:00
Speaker 1: of the three. Instead, it had most likely been Robert.
17:05
Speaker 1: The force of the explosion had blown the fourteen year
17:08
Speaker 1: old through the front door. His nylon jacket disintegrated and
17:12
Speaker 1: his rubber sandals melted bonding to his soules. Around Hilltop
17:19
Speaker 1: Mobile Home Park, the explosion brought people running from their trailers.
17:25
Speaker 1: Twenty nine year old Tim Tortella lived behind the Blouns
17:29
Speaker 1: and was watching television when the blast shook his home.
17:33
Speaker 1: To him, it sounded like dynamite. Tortella immediately climbed over
17:38
Speaker 1: a chain link fence and headed toward Lot eight. His
17:41
Speaker 1: brother Sean followed. Together they helped Robert away from the
17:46
Speaker 1: burning trailer. Flames were violently shooting through the windows. Tortella
17:52
Speaker 1: tried to go inside, but managed to get only halfway
17:56
Speaker 1: down the hallway before the smoke and fire became too
17:59
Speaker 1: much and forced him back out. About fifty yards away.
18:04
Speaker 1: Aileen Bruce had also been watching television when the explosion
18:08
Speaker 1: rang out. She went outside and watched smoke rise from
18:12
Speaker 1: the Blount home. Elton Walls was in bed when it
18:16
Speaker 1: woke him. He called the fire department, grabbed a fire extinguisher,
18:21
Speaker 1: and rushed to help. Other neighbors dragged out garden hoses
18:25
Speaker 1: and tried to fight the flames themselves, but the water
18:29
Speaker 1: pressure at Hilltop was weak and there was little they
18:32
Speaker 1: could do. By then, the temperature had fallen to around
18:37
Speaker 1: thirty four degrees. Susan, wearing only her underwear, made her
18:42
Speaker 1: way around to the front of the trailer. She stood
18:46
Speaker 1: among the onlookers and watched her home burn for a
18:49
Speaker 1: few moments before going to a neighbor's house, where she
18:52
Speaker 1: called her older daughter, Sherry Goodwin in Washington State. At
18:57
Speaker 1: that moment, Susan believed she had lost every everyone, her husband, daughter, son,
19:03
Speaker 1: and nephew. She told Sherry they were all dead. After
19:08
Speaker 1: hanging up with her daughter, she contacted members of their church.
19:13
Speaker 1: Then emergency crews arrived, and an officer directed Susan toward
19:17
Speaker 1: an ambulance. There on a stretcher, she saw Robert. His
19:22
Speaker 1: hair had been burned away and his skin was scorched.
19:26
Speaker 1: Pieces of glass were embedded in his body and hands,
19:30
Speaker 1: but he was alive. Luckily, the blast hadn't rendered Robert unconscious.
19:36
Speaker 1: When he hit the ground, fire consuming him, he had
19:40
Speaker 1: immediately remembered something he was taught in school, stop, drop
19:45
Speaker 1: and roll. He extinguished the flames quickly, likely saving his
19:50
Speaker 1: own life. Susan and Robert were rushed to John Peter
19:54
Speaker 1: Smith Hospital. Elton Walls, injured after entering the trailer in
19:59
Speaker 1: an attempt to help, was also taken to the hospital.
20:15
Speaker 1: At Hilltop Mobile Home Park, firefighters battled the blaze caused
20:19
Speaker 1: by the explosion at Lot number eight, home of the
20:22
Speaker 1: Blount family. Approximately forty of them from departments in Lake Worth,
20:28
Speaker 1: Fort Worth, and Spillway responded. It took them about an
20:32
Speaker 1: hour to put the fire out. What remained of the
20:36
Speaker 1: twelve by fifty two foot trailer was little more than
20:39
Speaker 1: a burned frame surrounded by blackened two by fours. The
20:43
Speaker 1: trailers around it stood only about twelve feet away. Yet
20:47
Speaker 1: somehow the fire had done minimal damage, mostly cosmetic. At
20:53
Speaker 1: John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Robert Blount was
20:56
Speaker 1: able to tell investigators what had happened. The mysterious briefcase
21:02
Speaker 1: the click the explosion. At first, however, they only had
21:07
Speaker 1: Robert's account. There was nothing in the ruins of the
21:11
Speaker 1: Blount home that immediately confirmed what the badly burned fourteen
21:15
Speaker 1: year old was telling them, but their uncertainty was short lived.
21:20
Speaker 1: Deputy Terrant County Fire Marshal Jim Simms determined that the
21:25
Speaker 1: explosion had originated near the front of the trailer, far
21:29
Speaker 1: from the heating unit, making a gas explosion unlikely. After
21:34
Speaker 1: inspecting the premises, Lone Star Gas Company also reported that
21:38
Speaker 1: there was no evidence of a gas leak. By midnight,
21:42
Speaker 1: fire marshals had seen enough to determine that it had
21:45
Speaker 1: to have been a bomb. Agents from the Fort Worth
21:48
Speaker 1: office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were
21:53
Speaker 1: called the Hilltop Mobile Home Park. Among them was Agent
21:57
Speaker 1: Mike Russell. Thanksgiving had already been chilly, but overnight the
22:02
Speaker 1: temperature continued to fall. By the time federal agents were
22:06
Speaker 1: working through the ruins, it was below freezing. Another ATF
22:11
Speaker 1: agent who responded that night observed the violence of the explosion.
22:16
Speaker 1: The bomb was characterized as one designed to kill the
22:19
Speaker 1: person who opened the briefcase and to leave no doubt
22:23
Speaker 1: that objective was achieved. Before dawn five Federal agents had
22:29
Speaker 1: studied the scene for hours, and the ATF took control
22:32
Speaker 1: of the investigation, but the darkness still hid crucial evidence
22:37
Speaker 1: of an incendiary device. At that point, agents still had
22:42
Speaker 1: little more than Robert's story about the briefcase. Early Friday morning,
22:48
Speaker 1: November twenty ninth, investigators began a search that stretched approximately
22:53
Speaker 1: two hundred yards surrounding the destroyed mobile home. Somewhere in
22:58
Speaker 1: the wreckage they hoped were pieces of the briefcase and
23:01
Speaker 1: the bomb inside. As agents searched, Susan remained at John
23:08
Speaker 1: Peter Smith Hospital with Robert. His injuries were extensive. First
23:13
Speaker 1: and second degree burns covered his body. Luckily, his condition
23:18
Speaker 1: wasn't critical. Susan's injuries were far less serious, at least physically.
23:25
Speaker 1: Everything but Robert had been taken from her, and she
23:28
Speaker 1: didn't know why. In fact, until she heard news reports
23:33
Speaker 1: about the explosion on television Friday morning, Susan believed natural
23:38
Speaker 1: gas had caused it. Earlier, ATF agents questioned her, asking
23:43
Speaker 1: about the blast, but told her little about what they'd
23:46
Speaker 1: found or what they believed had happened. Susan stayed with
23:51
Speaker 1: friends from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day
23:54
Speaker 1: Saints in Azel, the members of which had created a
23:57
Speaker 1: special account to assist family during disasters. They rallied around
24:03
Speaker 1: her and Robert. Steve Ritchie of the church knew the
24:07
Speaker 1: Blounts had come to Terrant County to be closer to family.
24:11
Speaker 1: Now only months after arriving, that family had been devastated.
24:17
Speaker 1: For Susan, there was only one immediate concern left, her son.
24:23
Speaker 1: She planned to focus entirely on getting Robert well after
24:27
Speaker 1: he finished school in the spring, she thought they would
24:30
Speaker 1: return to Seattle. Investigators and agents searching the ruins at
24:36
Speaker 1: Hilltop found what they had been looking for, what appeared
24:40
Speaker 1: to be pieces of a bomb. By end of the day,
24:43
Speaker 1: Friday the twenty ninth, the ATF confirmed that components of
24:48
Speaker 1: an explosive device had been recovered. Those pieces were soon
24:52
Speaker 1: sent to the agency's lab in San Francisco for analysis.
24:57
Speaker 1: The autopsies of Joe, Angela and Michael were also completed
25:02
Speaker 1: that day. The Arrant County Medical Examiner's office refused to
25:06
Speaker 1: publicly discuss the condition of their bodies or release details
25:11
Speaker 1: that might interfere with the investigation. The Fort Worth Star
25:15
Speaker 1: Telegram reported that Angela's body contained what appeared to be
25:19
Speaker 1: fragments of tax, although federal agents wouldn't confirm it. Meanwhile,
25:25
Speaker 1: Susan Blount struggled with the idea that someone had deliberately
25:29
Speaker 1: left a bomb outside her home. She could think of
25:32
Speaker 1: no reason anyone would want to kill her family. It
25:36
Speaker 1: was incomprehensible, and investigators were having the same problem. They
25:41
Speaker 1: now knew for a fact that they were dealing with
25:44
Speaker 1: a bombing, and they needed to know why before they
25:48
Speaker 1: could determine who had built the bomb and placed it
25:50
Speaker 1: on the Blount's front steps. They needed an answer to
25:53
Speaker 1: that question, and another who was supposed to die. The
25:58
Speaker 1: first place they looked for that answer was inside the
26:01
Speaker 1: Blount family itself. They began with Joe. Federal agents went
26:07
Speaker 1: through his background, looking for enemies, disputes, grudges, or anything
26:12
Speaker 1: else that could explain why someone might want him dead.
26:17
Speaker 1: Other than a few minor scrapes with the law, they
26:20
Speaker 1: found nothing. Joe was essentially harmless and had no enemies.
26:25
Speaker 1: Everyone liked him. He was as unlikely a target as
26:29
Speaker 1: they come. His brother, on the other hand, was different.
26:34
Speaker 1: Carl Raymond Blount or Ray had been inside the home
26:38
Speaker 1: for Thanksgiving dinner only a few hours before the bombing,
26:42
Speaker 1: and when investigators began examining his life, they found plenty
26:47
Speaker 1: that concerned them. An ATF investigative report described Ray in
26:52
Speaker 1: harsh terms, characterizing him as dishonest and involved with narcotics.
26:58
Speaker 1: People who knew him told in investigators they believed the
27:01
Speaker 1: bomb might have been intended for him. Agents dug in
27:05
Speaker 1: to Ray's past, but regardless of whatever they found that
27:09
Speaker 1: gave them such a bad impression, there was nothing that
27:12
Speaker 1: connected him to the bombing. If Ray had been the
27:16
Speaker 1: intended target, investigators couldn't prove it, nor could they prove
27:21
Speaker 1: that he had anything to do with placing the bomb
27:23
Speaker 1: outside his brother's trailer. Why would he. Agents then turned
27:29
Speaker 1: their attention toward Susan, a woman who had just lost
27:33
Speaker 1: her husband, daughter, nephew, home, and nearly her son. The
27:39
Speaker 1: scrutiny was relentless and painful. Susan later remembered investigators repeatedly
27:46
Speaker 1: questioning whether she herself had been involved. They asked if
27:50
Speaker 1: she had made the bomb or employed someone else to.
27:54
Speaker 1: The interviews were recorded, and investigators compared her statements, looking
27:59
Speaker 1: for discr repencies in her stories. A tarrant County Sheriff's
28:04
Speaker 1: office investigator asked about life insurance. The direction of the
28:08
Speaker 1: questioning was obvious, and Susan readily acknowledged that there were
28:13
Speaker 1: policies on Joe and Angela as they prepared for a
28:17
Speaker 1: gotcha moment. However, she elaborated Joe's policy, she told them
28:23
Speaker 1: was worth two thousand dollars and Angela's one thousand dollars.
28:28
Speaker 1: It wasn't even enough, Susan pointed out, to cover the
28:31
Speaker 1: cost of their burials. Still, the investigation continued. The Fort
28:38
Speaker 1: Worth atf office contacted agents in Seattle and asked whether
28:42
Speaker 1: there was evidence Susan had been involved in an extramarital affair.
28:47
Speaker 1: They reported back that they found none. Whether investigators pursued
28:52
Speaker 1: the same line of questioning in California, where she and
28:56
Speaker 1: Joe had originally met and married, is unclear. Susan became
29:02
Speaker 1: convinced that investigators considered her the prime suspect. Eventually, she
29:08
Speaker 1: was given a polygraph examination, which she passed. Only then
29:13
Speaker 1: did she feel the pressure begin to ease. But removing
29:17
Speaker 1: suspicion did nothing to remove the grief or the fear.
29:33
Speaker 1: Robert Blount remained hospitalized for weeks He was finally released
29:39
Speaker 1: from John Peter Smith Hospital in late December nineteen eighty five,
29:43
Speaker 1: almost a month after the explosion had killed his father, sister,
29:47
Speaker 1: and cousin, but leaving the hospital didn't mean his treatment
29:52
Speaker 1: was over. His burns required skin graft surgeries, and he
29:57
Speaker 1: continued dealing with the physical consequences of the bombing. Emotionally,
30:02
Speaker 1: both he and his mother were living with the belief
30:04
Speaker 1: that whoever had killed Joe, Angela and Michael might still
30:09
Speaker 1: be out there. They didn't know what they'd done, they
30:12
Speaker 1: couldn't even imagine, but they worried what if the bomber
30:16
Speaker 1: came to finish the job. Susan and Robert moved into
30:20
Speaker 1: an apartment in Azel. They placed their beds beside each other.
30:25
Speaker 1: Neither wanted to sleep alone. Every unfamiliar noise frightened them.
30:31
Speaker 1: Robert suffered continual nightmares. Susan became acutely aware of cars
30:37
Speaker 1: behind her when she drove. If one followed her for
30:40
Speaker 1: more than a couple of blocks, she pulled over, allowed
30:43
Speaker 1: it to pass, and then turned around. Less than a
30:47
Speaker 1: month after the bombing, Susan and Robert came home around
30:51
Speaker 1: Christmas to something outside their new front door, a small,
30:55
Speaker 1: unexpected box. It was impossible for their minds to go
30:59
Speaker 1: anywhere except Thursday, November twenty eighth, nineteen eighty five, a
31:04
Speaker 1: month earlier. They didn't touch the box and instead called
31:08
Speaker 1: the police immediately. It turned out to be nothing, a
31:13
Speaker 1: box of fudge left by someone from the church, But
31:17
Speaker 1: Susan and Robert no longer lived in a world where
31:19
Speaker 1: a package outside the front door could be considered harmless.
31:25
Speaker 1: Four weeks after the bombing, the deaths of Joe Blount,
31:29
Speaker 1: Angela Blount, and Michael Columbus were still being investigated by
31:34
Speaker 1: a task force that included agents of the ATF and
31:38
Speaker 1: Tarrant County Sheriff's Office investigators. A reward for information was offered,
31:43
Speaker 1: though for some unknown reason, federal officials wouldn't disclose the amount.
31:49
Speaker 1: The ATF lab in San Francisco had determined what kind
31:53
Speaker 1: of explosive had been used and identified other components of
31:57
Speaker 1: the bomb, but refused to release those details publicly. Meanwhile,
32:02
Speaker 1: the task force was following leeds both inside and outside Texas,
32:08
Speaker 1: but by December twenty seventh, they still had no motive.
32:11
Speaker 1: They'd found absolutely nothing to suggest why anyone would want
32:15
Speaker 1: Joe Blount dead let alone fifteen year old Angela or
32:19
Speaker 1: eighteen year old Michael. So they began pushing the investigation
32:24
Speaker 1: toward another possibility. Maybe none of them had been the target.
32:29
Speaker 1: Maybe the briefcase had been placed outside the wrong trailer.
32:34
Speaker 1: If that was true, investigators needed to know who around
32:38
Speaker 1: Hilltop Mobile Home Park might have enemies capable of sending
32:42
Speaker 1: a bomb. They didn't have to look very far before
32:45
Speaker 1: finding people whose lives were considerably more complicated than the Blounts.
32:51
Speaker 1: One of them, in fact, lived six spaces away. Twenty
32:56
Speaker 1: two year old Darren Irvin rented the trailer at Lot two,
33:00
Speaker 1: and he was known to sell methanphetamines from his home.
33:04
Speaker 1: When investigators later looked around Irvin's trailer, they found something
33:09
Speaker 1: odd scattered in the yard bullets. The trailer's front door
33:14
Speaker 1: was left wide open, and inside the place appeared ransacked.
33:19
Speaker 1: Irvin himself had disappeared before the bombing. Less than a
33:23
Speaker 1: month after the explosion, atf agents found him at a
33:27
Speaker 1: bar in Lake Worth. He agreed to accompany them to
33:30
Speaker 1: their office in downtown Fort Worth, where they showed him
33:33
Speaker 1: photographs from inside the burnt Blount trailer. This included photographs
33:39
Speaker 1: of the victim's charred remains. To Irvin, it felt like
33:44
Speaker 1: he was being accused of the abhorrent crime, and though
33:48
Speaker 1: agents were keeping that on the table, they were more
33:51
Speaker 1: interested in learning if he had any enemies. The man
33:55
Speaker 1: gave his story on Thanksgiving afternoon before the exploded, Irvin
34:01
Speaker 1: said he'd gotten into a fight with his wife. During
34:05
Speaker 1: the heated argument, she smashed the window of his truck.
34:09
Speaker 1: Irvin decided to leave, but before he did, he grabbed
34:13
Speaker 1: a couple pistols and a box of ammunition from the trailer.
34:18
Speaker 1: In his haste and anger, he dropped the ammunition, scattering
34:22
Speaker 1: bullets throughout the front yard, leaving most of them behind
34:26
Speaker 1: he drove off. He denied having anything to do with
34:30
Speaker 1: a bombing. Eventually, Irvin took a polygraph and passed. Agents
34:36
Speaker 1: and investigators were convinced he was telling the truth. Then
34:40
Speaker 1: got to the point, perhaps they asked the bomb was
34:44
Speaker 1: meant for him. His meth amphetamine business had certainly given
34:48
Speaker 1: them a motive to work with, but Irvin couldn't see
34:52
Speaker 1: why anyone would try to kill him. He acknowledged having
34:56
Speaker 1: a drug connection in Arkansas, However, he didn't owe the
35:00
Speaker 1: guy anything. The last time they had met, the Arkansas
35:04
Speaker 1: man had sold irvensome dope, but there was no outstanding debt.
35:09
Speaker 1: The investigation in to Darren Irvin went nowhere. Then there
35:15
Speaker 1: was twenty nine year old Tim Tortella, who lived two
35:18
Speaker 1: doors down from the Blounts. On Thanksgiving night, he and
35:22
Speaker 1: his brother Sean were among the first people to run
35:25
Speaker 1: toward the fire, and it helped the badly burned Robert
35:29
Speaker 1: away from the trailer. Tortella had even gone inside the
35:33
Speaker 1: burning mobile home himself, making it down the hallway before
35:37
Speaker 1: smoke and flames forced him back. During the investigation, authorities
35:42
Speaker 1: learned more about him. During the day, Tortella worked as
35:47
Speaker 1: a jeweler, but outside of that legitimate job, his life
35:51
Speaker 1: was considerably more dangerous. He was involved in an affair
35:56
Speaker 1: with a married woman, and, like Darren Irvin, operated a
36:01
Speaker 1: successful methanphetamine business from his trailer. Tortella also sold automatic
36:07
Speaker 1: weapons to dealers he supplied there were certainly people who
36:11
Speaker 1: might have had reasons to come after him, that possibility
36:16
Speaker 1: that he might have been indirectly responsible for the deaths
36:19
Speaker 1: of three innocent people, two of them teenagers. Weighed heavily
36:23
Speaker 1: on Tortella's mind, he'd later say. Ultimately, agents and investigators
36:29
Speaker 1: couldn't make a connection. As the months passed, they got
36:34
Speaker 1: no closer to finding anyone who may have made the
36:37
Speaker 1: bomb or placed it on the Blount's front steps. The
36:41
Speaker 1: investigation had moved through the family and then outward, providing
36:45
Speaker 1: authorities with absolutely no solid leads to follow. Everything thus
36:50
Speaker 1: far had been speculation. Theories, though not based on nothing,
36:55
Speaker 1: were all they had, and then investigators in counter what
37:00
Speaker 1: appeared to be their best lead. Yet that's next time
37:05
Speaker 1: on Gone Cold, Texas True Crime. If you have any
37:11
Speaker 1: information about the murders of Robert and Angela Blount and
37:15
Speaker 1: Michael Columbus, please call the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
37:20
Speaker 1: and Explosives tip Line at eight eight eight two eight
37:24
Speaker 1: three eight four seven seven. If you'd like to join
37:30
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37:34
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