Latest / FBI Files / He Lost His Hands, Escaped, and Fled.The Bomb-Maker Who Vanished to Cuba.

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He Lost His Hands, Escaped, and Fled.The Bomb-Maker Who Vanished to Cuba. · FBI Files

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: A series of explosions rip through New York City.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Sifting through the wreckage in search of one shred of evidence,
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: the FBI and police are desperate for something to lead
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: them to these ruthless terrorists. But the killers are careful
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: to cover their tracks. As the bombings escalate, the FBI
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: is in a.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Deadly race to stop this murderous group. with a dangerous cause.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: In the late 70s and early 80s, a legitimate Puerto
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Rican independence movement took hold in the United States. But
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: a splintered terrorist group known as the FALN was suspected
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: of executing hundreds of bombings in major U.S.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Cities.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: I'm Jim Kallstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: The terrorists were smart, well-organized, and deadly, and went to
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: great lengths to conceal their identities. Agents were determined to
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: shut them down before they hit again.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: New York City, October 26th, 1974.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Just after midnight.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Five explosions rock Manhattan. New York City police officers race
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: to the scenes. The biggest explosion occurs in the financial district.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: NYPD detective Elmer Toro leads the investigation. One look at
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: the devastation and Toro knows he will be lucky to
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: find any useful evidence. It appears the bombers used dynamite.
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: The problem with bombings is that most of the evidence
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: disappears at the scene. It disappears because how do you
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: trace dynamite? We have no way of tracing dynamite. You
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: can hope for a fingerprint here and there. You can
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: hope for a witness.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Police question everyone in the area, but no one had
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: seen the bomber. The pattern of debris indicates the bomb
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: was placed under a car.
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: It was put under the engine block and it picked
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: up the car and the engine just flew up in
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: the air. Pieces landed up all the way up on
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: the sixth floor. It was a pretty impressive bombing. We
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: did realize quickly that we had a serious problem.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: In our hands.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: The only solid clue found at the scene is the
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: tattered remains of what appears to be a leather luggage handle.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: While police continue to process the scene, they get a
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: call from the Associated Press. One of the alleged bombers
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: called the news agency and told them to look at
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: a phone booth near the bomb site. The patrolman is
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: dispatched to the location.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: There, under the phone, he finds a letter. He takes
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: it to headquarters to study it for leads. The letter
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: is from a group calling themselves the FALN.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: In Spanish, the initials stand for the Armed Forces for
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: the National Liberation.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Of Puerto Rico. They are a fringe group with a
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: limited following.
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: The FALN is not even known in Puerto Rico. It's
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: known to the radical, it's known to those fighting for independence,
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: but in general, you speak to the average Puerto Rican.
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: and the FLN is totally unknown to them.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: The former Spanish colony of Puerto Rico is voluntarily.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Part of the United States.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: In elections, more than 90% of Puerto Ricans vote to
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: continue to be part of the U.S., while less than
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: 5% vote for independence. Now that 5% has turned dangerous.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: In the letter.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: The FALN demands that the U.S. abandon Puerto Rico or
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: more bombs will explode.
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: These are not people that believe in the electoral system.
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: Their objective is to be violent and, through fear, cause
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: the people to support them.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: What began as a bombing investigation is now a terrorist attack.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: And fighting terrorism is the job of the FBI. The
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: NYPD goes to the bureau. Detective Toro briefs FBI Special
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Agent Don Wolford on the evidence found at the bombing locations.
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: The evidence showed that the device was a dynamite-like high explosive,
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: definitely set off by some kind of detonator because that's
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: the only thing that sets off the sticks of dynamite.
• 5:24
  Speaker 5: There were plenty of pieces to.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Show a watch had been used.
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: As the timing device and plenty of pieces of a
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: battery showing that the battery had been used to complete
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: the circuit. Pieces of debris showing that this device was
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: in some kind of bag, several pieces of a handle
• 5:39
  Speaker 5: were found.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: It's not much to go on, but it's all the
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: investigators have. They try to find out who made the handle.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Perhaps they can use the information to learn who bought it.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: They then turn their attention to the communique, It demands
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: the U.S. abandon Puerto Rico and release five Puerto Rican
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: terrorists from federal prison. The terrorists have been in prison
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: since the 1950s. Decades earlier, on November 1, 1950, two
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Puerto Rican gunmen try to assassinate President Harry Truman and fail.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Two Washington, D.C.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Policemen are badly injured in the gun battle. One policeman,
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: as well as one of the terrorists, dies. The surviving
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: gunman is sentenced to life in prison. Three years later,
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: four more pro-independence Puerto Ricans are sent to prison after
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: opening fire in the House of Representatives. Now Detective Toro
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: and Agent Wolford theorize friends or family of the five
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: may be behind this new terror group.
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: I was hopeful that Working on the background and the
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: current status, maybe, of those five political prisoners would be
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: some kind of lead. So we went behind each of
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: those people, we checked their mailing list, we checked the
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: people who visited them.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: At the same time, the NYPD and FBI monitor any
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: Puerto Rican activists who have a history of promoting violence.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: One month after the bombing, the NYPD gets a call
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: about a dead body in an abandoned building in Spanish Harlem.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: Rookie NYPD officer Angel Poggi, on his first day on.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: The job, goes to investigate.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Officer Poggi is of Puerto Rican descent and proud to
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: have become one of New York City's finest.
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: The door was booby-trapped. And he blasted him right across
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: the street and ended his career on the spot.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Although Officer Poggi survived the blast, he lost sight in
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: his right eye.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: When police searched the building, they find no dead body.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: The phone call was a lie to lure police into
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: a deadly trap. The bomb squad recovers explosive residue and
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: another luggage handle. Like the earlier bombing, they determined this
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: bomb was made of dynamite. From the pattern of the
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: blast damage, they suspect it was probably hung on the
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: back of the door.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Possibly in a garment bag.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Through another phone tip, police recover an FALN communique that
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: proudly claims credit for bombing Officer Poggi. For the NYPD,
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: this investigation has become personal.
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: They're fighting for Puerto Rican independence and the first cop
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: they mutilate He's a Puerto Rican kid, a Puerto Rican kid,
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: because that's all he was. When they get to your house,
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: you sort of react a little bit different. We knew
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: we had a war in our hands.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: The communique says the bombing is revenge for the death
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: of an obscure Puerto Rican poet, Martin Tito Perez.
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: If you had put Martin Tito Perez's name out in
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: Spanish Harlem, Probably a lot of people might have known
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: who he was, but in the rest of Manhattan and
• 9:16
  Speaker 5: in the rest of the United States, of course, nobody
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: would have known who Martin Tito Perez was, except the
• 9:20
  Speaker 5: bomber knew. At this point, we knew we had a
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: Spanish Harlem connection.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: A few days earlier, police photographed a Puerto Rican man
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: in Spanish Harlem handing out leaflets accusing the police of
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: murdering Martin Perez in jail.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Although Perez's death was officially ruled a suicide... the activist.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: Urges violent revenge against the police. His name is William Morales.
• 9:50
  Speaker 5: William Morales was a very activist person in Spanish Harlem.
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: He was one of the Puerto Rican independence type people.
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: who were at any demonstration, any rally or whatever. He
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: was a player in the Puerto Rican independence movement.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: While Morales seems suspicious, police don't have enough to bring
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: him in. They continue their search for anyone who knows
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: anything about the crippling attack on Officer Poggi.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: But come up empty.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: While the investigation stalls, the FALN set their sights on
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: a historic tavern in the heart of New York's financial district.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: The terrorists are raising the stakes for their deadly cause.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: A terrorist group called the FALN detonates a series of
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: bombs all over.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: New York City.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: The FBI struggles to piece together the evidence in time
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: to stop the bombers before they strike again.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: They are fighting a losing battle.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Historic Francis Tavern in the Financial District is a popular
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: lunch spot for Wall Street brokers. January 24th, a bomb
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: explodes during the lunch rush. The blast kills four people
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: and injures more than 60. The victims are rushed to
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: area hospitals. FBI Special Agent Don Wolford.
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: It's one of the worst explosive crime scenes I've seen
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: in my era career. The entire first floor was nothing
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: but splinters. All of the tables and chairs and walls
• 11:45
  Speaker 5: and everything was just splinters.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: The first bombs did not kill anything.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: The second targeted a single individual. This time, the bombers
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: clearly intended to kill as many.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: People as possible.
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: This was a midday bomb, not 3 o'clock in the morning,
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: not a bomb hung in an abandoned tenement, but a
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: bomb put in an active restaurant full of people.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: It is a scene that FBI Special Agent Rick Hahn
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: will never forget.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: The streets were wet.
• 12:19
  Speaker 6: Having been hosed down to hose off the blood and
• 12:23
  Speaker 6: damage to the individuals that had been injured or died
• 12:26
  Speaker 6: at that scene. Seeing that scene impacted me in such
• 12:30
  Speaker 6: a way that I really wanted to make sure that
• 12:33
  Speaker 6: we solved those cases.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: At the site of the blast, investigators again find a
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: luggage handle similar to the one found at the earlier bombings. Independently,
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Witnesses tell them that a few minutes before the bomb exploded,
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: a suspicious man left a garment bag.
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: He's not dressed to be in Francis Tavern Restaurant with
• 12:58
  Speaker 5: Wall Street brokers at noon. He must have taken a
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: wrong turn, and why is he leaving that bag? Didn't
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: reach down and turn on any switches, according to all
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: the witnesses. He just dropped it. So that bomb was ticking.
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: That thing was going. And based on the damage it did,
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: it probably had 20 to 30 sticks of dynamite in it.
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: So here's a man walking around Manhattan with a bomb
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: with 20 or 30 sticks of dynamite in it. That
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: takes some dedication.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: Witnesses work with a police artist to develop sketches of
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: the suspect.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: This group was clearly becoming more dangerous, and the FBI
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: intensifies their efforts. The FBI distributes the sketch all over
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: New York.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: But investigators can't find anyone who matches the description. In
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: the lab, technicians review what little physical evidence they have.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: They turn to the letters left at each of the
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: sites outlining the terrorist group demands.
• 14:07
  Speaker 6: Their objective was to kill executives from U.S. corporations, and
• 14:11
  Speaker 6: they say that right in the communique. Corporate America is
• 14:15
  Speaker 6: seen in those days as part of the military-industrial complex.
• 14:19
  Speaker 6: And as such, attacking U.S. corporations is as good as
• 14:23
  Speaker 6: attacking the U.S. government.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Lab technicians confirm that all three FALN communiques use the
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: same paper, typeface, and letterhead.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: It's not much to go on.
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: We found out, to our chagrin... that the complete communicate,
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: the paper, the ink, the font, the type, the stencil,
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: the logo and everything could be bought at a million
• 14:49
  Speaker 5: different places in Manhattan.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: The luggage handles do provide lab technicians with a promising lead.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: The garment bags used to hide the bombs are all
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: one particular model made by one manufacturer.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: It could be the break the investigators need.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: The FBI contacts the manufacturer for a list of every
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: store in the New York area that carries the bags.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: Over the next few weeks, investigators visit each store and
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: show the sketch. But no one seems to recognize the suspect.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: The bombings continue. Three months after the Francis Tavern bombing,
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: An FALN communique takes credit for four bombs that explode
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: after midnight in midtown Manhattan. Then, 800 miles away in Chicago,
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: the unimaginable happens. Bombs explode at two banks. An FALN
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: communique takes credit. The terrorists are now a nationwide threat.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: In the New York FBI office, investigators compare the Chicago
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: communique with earlier FALN communiques.
• 16:13
  Speaker 6: We know immediately when we get the communique, from the
• 16:16
  Speaker 6: masthead being the same, from the logo being the same,
• 16:19
  Speaker 6: that this is in fact our FALN.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: This gives investigators new angles to pursue.
• 16:26
  Speaker 6: There's a whole new theory that arises from that, and
• 16:29
  Speaker 6: that is that we can't find them in New York
• 16:31
  Speaker 6: because they're really a Chicago-based group.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: The FBI contacts Special Agent William Dyson in the Chicago
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: field office.
• 16:42
  Speaker 7: This is the first time Chicago is being involved in
• 16:44
  Speaker 7: this group called the FALN. New York has a very
• 16:47
  Speaker 7: large Puerto Rican population and appeared as though these attacks
• 16:51
  Speaker 7: were going to be strictly in New York. Now Chicago
• 16:53
  Speaker 7: comes new on the scene. So we're really not sure
• 16:56
  Speaker 7: what to do. We're turning to New York saying, do
• 16:58
  Speaker 7: you have any leads?
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: Give us a hint. Where do we go?
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: Somehow, the FALN must communicate or travel between New York
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: and Chicago. The FBI and police begin rechecking their list
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: of potential suspects.
• 17:14
  Speaker 5: We can look at our New York people and see
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: what kind of Chicago connections they have. Do they travel
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: to Chicago at all? Do they, in turn, have visitors
• 17:24
  Speaker 5: from Chicago? Is the travel the reverse? Do we see
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: Chicago people in New York, and then do we have
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: a bombing?
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: Investigators determined that several of the Puerto Rican activists they
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: had been watching in New York have links to Chicago.
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: We had all of our people that we thought were
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: interested under 24-hour surveillance. And by that, I mean we
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: were sticking with them wherever they went. I would spend
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: weeks and weeks on the street. We just couldn't get
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: to the next level.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Their surveillance is not working, and the terror continues.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: Nine months after the Francis Tavern bombing, bombs again explode
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: in New York. This time, the bombs also tear through
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: the financial centers of Chicago and Washington, D.C.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Once again, the FALN takes credit.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: After the attack, law enforcement in Chicago and corporate security
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: guards respond by searching around their buildings. Outside the corporate
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: headquarters of an oil company, guards discover a suspicious bouquet
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: of flowers.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Linked to FALN.
• 18:41
  Speaker 7: And they find 14 roses, high-quality roses, like you would
• 18:46
  Speaker 7: give for Mother's Day or something of that nature. Within
• 18:51
  Speaker 7: these roses is this bomb.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: The Chicago police bomb tech diffuses the bomb.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: Now, for the first time, investigators will have the opportunity
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: to examine an unexploded FALN bomb, which could provide critical leads.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: A crime lab technician reads the unique identification numbers on
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: the sticks of dynamite. It is traced to a dam
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: project in New Mexico. But the trail stops there.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: No dynamite was reported stolen.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: When that lead proves to be a dead end, investigators
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: try to trace the bouquet of roses.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: We've got to go to the florist.
• 19:41
  Speaker 7: Well, it turns out there's something like 800 florists in
• 19:43
  Speaker 7: the Chicago area. We went to every one of them.
• 19:45
  Speaker 7: When I say we, I mean law enforcement. It wasn't
• 19:47
  Speaker 7: just the FBI. We all got together and we all
• 19:49
  Speaker 7: divided it up organically. the florist shops, and we went
• 19:51
  Speaker 7: to every one of them. Could not find where those
• 19:52
  Speaker 7: roses came from.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: Back in New York, the FBI realizes the components of
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: this bomb match the other bombs. Investigators compile lists of
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: all the stores in the New York City area that
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: sell each of the items.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: They find one store that sells everything.
• 20:13
  Speaker 6: We identify a store up in the Bronx that sells
• 20:16
  Speaker 6: the particular types of watches that have been used, that
• 20:19
  Speaker 6: sells the propane tanks. More importantly, it sells the types
• 20:22
  Speaker 6: of bags that have been used to contain the bombs.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: The FBI theorizes that maybe the bombers got sloppy and
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: bought everything at the same store. At the store, investigators
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: show the owner the composite sketch.
• 20:39
  Speaker 5: Couldn't say by name who the person was, but that
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: a person similar in appearance to that person had been
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: at the store, definitely buying a whole series of the
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: bags and a whole series of the batteries.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: Investigators believe this could be a major break. They show
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: the store owner photos of possible suspects. She can't positively
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: ID any of them. But she does agree to help.
• 21:07
  Speaker 6: We did solicit the cooperation of the owner of the store.
• 21:11
  Speaker 6: She allowed us to go in and mark discreetly the bags,
• 21:14
  Speaker 6: the watches, those sorts of things, to see whether or
• 21:16
  Speaker 6: not they would be used in a device.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: These marks might survive the blast and could confirm the
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: items were.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Purchased from her store.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: Investigators also established round-the-clock surveillance.
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: And when a person bought a bag, we would put
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: a surveillance on that individual and try to identify who
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: this individual was and try to match the composite to
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: the purchaser of the bag.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Now the agents will have to wait and see if
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: the terrorists walk into their trap.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: In New York, a terrorist group called the FALN plants
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: a series of bombs, killing four people and injuring more
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: than 60. Now they've expanded their terror spree to other
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: American cities, including Washington D.C.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: And Chicago. The FBI has been struggling to get a
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: lead on the group.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: They learn that items similar to those used to make
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: the bombs are all sold in a store in the Bronx.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Agents set up surveillance.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: But after months of watching the store.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: They find nothing.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: Perhaps the terrorists have already stockpiled supplies. Or perhaps they
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: have spotted their surveillance and are once again one step
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: ahead of investigators. Months after the most recent bombing, the.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Case takes a bizarre twist in Chicago. The police there
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: get an odd tip.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: An informant reports that a man at a garage has
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: been trying to sell sticks of dynamite to street gangs.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: The responding officer hears hammering and sees a man trying
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: to break open a trunk.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Hey, stand up. Put the hammer down now. The officer
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: also spots dynamite. Put your hands up where I can
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: see them.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: The man says his friend stole it from an apartment
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: that contains even more explosives.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: The FBI rushes to the apartment.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: Inside, they find more than 100 sticks of dynamite and
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: other bomb-making materials. FBI Special Agent William Dyson.
• 23:42
  Speaker 7: So we not only have explosives, but we also have
• 23:44
  Speaker 7: propane tanks. We have a lot of drilled-out wristwatches. We
• 23:48
  Speaker 7: even have communicators.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: Investigators feel confident they have discovered an FALN bomb factory.
• 23:57
  Speaker 7: We definitely have the FALN. There's no question about it.
• 24:00
  Speaker 7: The problem is, who are the people connected with this apartment?
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: While the bomb squad renders the building safe, investigators question
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: tenants who say no one lives in the apartment. They
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: say they have seen two people going in and out,
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: the building's owner, Carlos Torres, and his wife.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: One of the.
• 24:19
  Speaker 7: Things that struck us right away was this lack of
• 24:22
  Speaker 7: sophistication here. The idea of having a bomb factory in
• 24:26
  Speaker 7: your own building, the idea of you being the landlord
• 24:29
  Speaker 7: of the building, the person who would have... The access
• 24:33
  Speaker 7: to all the vacant apartments that would have the keys
• 24:35
  Speaker 7: just is plain stupid. So now we've got two suspects, obviously,
• 24:40
  Speaker 7: because not only do they own the building, but residents
• 24:43
  Speaker 7: say they have access. They've seen them up in this apartment.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: Investigators search for Carlos Torres, the building's owner, and his wife, Hades.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: But they have vanished, which reinforces investigators' belief that they
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: have finally identified members.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Of the FALN.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: The FBI systematically hunts for the bomb factory fugitives. They
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: begin with a thorough background investigation.
• 25:14
  Speaker 7: We pretty much follow the normal fugitive procedures, and that
• 25:18
  Speaker 7: basically is to try to make a biography on each
• 25:20
  Speaker 7: one of these individuals.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Who are they?
• 25:23
  Speaker 7: Where did they come from? Who are all their relatives?
• 25:26
  Speaker 7: Make a family tree. We make a family tree on
• 25:28
  Speaker 7: these people better than they would make one. We try
• 25:31
  Speaker 7: to find out every person that's related to them in
• 25:33
  Speaker 7: one way, shape, or form.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Agents interview and watch all of their known relatives and friends.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: But the fugitives have disappeared without a trace. At the
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: same time, the FBI focuses on an odd document found
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: in the bomb factory. It seems all the Chicago FALN
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: suspects belong to the same Latino church committee. The Chicago
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: FBI notifies New York. FBI Special Agent Rick Hahn.
• 26:08
  Speaker 6: There was a suspicion that the FALN had co-opted this organization,
• 26:14
  Speaker 6: this charitable organization, for its own purposes, to use it
• 26:17
  Speaker 6: for travel, to use it for funding.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: Purposes, FBI Special Agent Don Wolford reviews records that show
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: the Chicago suspects used church-paid tickets to fly to New
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: York before several past bombings.
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: There's lots of travel back and forth financed by the
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: organization because ostensibly it is supposed to be lending and
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: giving grants for people to start neighborhood community-type Hispanic.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Activities, like.
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: Spanish Bibles and hymnals maybe for a church in a
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: Hispanic neighborhood, that kind of thing.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: Investigators also discovered that the church committee includes a familiar face,
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: New York pro-violence radical William Morales. They keep a close
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: watch on Morales and all the members of the church committee,
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: but investigators don't see anything suspicious. They don't have enough
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: probable cause to request wiretaps or search warrants.
• 27:18
  Speaker 5: We've taken a lot of heat. A lot of people
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: were asking, what are you guys doing? These people keep
• 27:24
  Speaker 5: blowing up all these, what are you guys doing?
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: Six months later, at the Mobile Oil Building near Grand
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Central Station, a bomb in an employment office kills one
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: person and injures eight.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: She came in, she put the umbrella on. The FBI
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: and NYPD arrive and question witnesses. A woman who takes
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: job applications claims she saw the bomber.
• 27:52
  Speaker 5: She was, you know, I know who left that bomb
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: because I saw her and I talked to her and
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: I cannot believe she, a little girl, she kept saying,
• 27:59
  Speaker 5: a little girl like that would leave a bomb in
• 28:02
  Speaker 5: here and blow somebody up. But I saw her and
• 28:05
  Speaker 5: that's who left it.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: The witness says a woman came in carrying a closed
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: umbrella that seemed unusually heavy.
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: She knew when she hung that device there, when it
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: went off, somebody was going to get hurt.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: The suspect took a job application.
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: She scratched quick a name and an address. The bomb
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: is clicking right next to her. She wants to get
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: out of there fast.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: The suspect tried to leave, but the woman wouldn't let
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: her take the application with her.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Minutes later, the bomb went off. decapitating the man next
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: to it.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: Because he absorbed most of the blast, no one else
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: was killed. Investigators asked for the application, hoping the suspect
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: left a fingerprint. If they could find a print, it
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: would be their first piece of solid evidence to the
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: identity of the bombers. The lab uncovers nothing on the
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: front of the application. But on the back, they find
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: what they had been looking for, a single fingerprint. The
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: fingerprint belongs to Heidi Torres, the wife of Carlos Torres,
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: who owned the recently discovered FALN barbershop.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Factory in Chicago.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: New York City police issue a warrant for her arrest
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: for second degree murder.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: After a grand jury indictment, her.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: Husband Carlos is added to the FBI's top.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: 10 fugitive list. Now that agents have identified their suspects,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: They must.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: Hope for a break that will uncover where the fugitives
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: are hiding before they strike again. A terror group called
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: the FALN plants bombs in major cities around the country,
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: including New York and Chicago, killing five people and injuring
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: more than 80.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: In New York.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: The FBI suspects that William Morales, a pro-violence radical, is
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: somehow connected to the group. But after months of surveillance,
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: investigators haven't seen anything suspicious. The FBI finally asks Morales
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: if he will talk with them. Surprisingly, he agrees. FBI
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: Special Agent Don Wolford watches through a one-way mirror as
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: Detective Elmer Toro questions Morales about the FALN terrorist group.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: But he gives them nothing.
• 31:01
  Speaker 5: Cool, collected, not the least bit upset, not intimidated whatsoever.
• 31:06
  Speaker 5: I don't know nothing about nothing about nothing.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: Investigators watch for clues to try and determine if it
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: is just an act.
• 31:16
  Speaker 5: My position was, he's a player. Definitely a player. Maybe
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: he is a minor league player and he doesn't know anything.
• 31:22
  Speaker 5: I don't believe it, but maybe.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: But he's a player.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: Investigators continue to suspect Morales. But without more evidence, there
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: are legal limits to how far they can go. Two
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: months later, Queens, New York. Firefighters respond to an explosion
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: in an apartment and find FALN letterhead. FBI agent Wolford
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: arrives just as paramedics take a badly injured man from
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: the apartment. Agent Wolford believes the man may be an
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: FALN suspect and tries to identify him. But the man's
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: face is badly injured and his hands are nearly blown off.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: Inside the bare apartment, Investigators.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: Find three small pipe bombs.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: Evidence suggests a fourth pipe bomb exploded while being built,
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: which explains how the man injured his hands. Investigators discover
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: a copying machine and papers printed with the FALN logo.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: They also find a large stockpile of explosives. Detective Elmer
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: Toro goes to the hospital to try to identify the
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: suspected bomb maker. The man's hands are so badly injured
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: that police are unable to get fingerprints. Detective Toro tells
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: the man that investigators will learn his identity from evidence
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: at the bomb factory. He might as well admit his
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: name now. But the man can't speak.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: Manuel Rodrigo.
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: I wrote a bunch of names, people that I suspected.
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: Once we got to the name of William Morales, he
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: moved and he agreed without saying who he was, but
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: he basically identified himself.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Detective Toro believes they may have captured the FALN's bomb maker.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: Toro grills him for information about the organization, but Morales
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: refuses to cooperate. Nine months later, Morales goes on trial
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: for reckless endangerment and possession of dangerous weapons.
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: Well, Morales didn't fight. Morales claimed prisoner of war status,
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: no defense, which is a dream for the prosecution.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: The judge sentences him to 89 years. Police take Morales
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: to the jail ward of Bellevue Hospital to be fitted
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: with artificial hands before going to prison. Incredibly, despite police
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: guards in the hallway, he manages to escape.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Investigators rush to Morales' hospital room.
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: My initial reaction was, this is just a bad joke.
• 34:23
  Speaker 5: This is just a bad, yeah, right, sure, sure he's escaped.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: How could he escape?
• 34:28
  Speaker 5: First off, he's physically unable to escape. And secondly, he's
• 34:32
  Speaker 5: up on the third floor.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: They find the window bars and mesh cut open.
• 34:39
  Speaker 5: The mesh had been spread apart, not more than six
• 34:43
  Speaker 5: to eight inches, just about like this. So he had
• 34:47
  Speaker 5: to squeeze through that hole and get out of the mesh.
• 34:53
  Speaker 5: And then how did he get down three floors? And
• 34:55
  Speaker 5: of course, coming to mind immediately was he had help.
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: Investigators begin to piece together what happened. Someone must have
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: smuggled in a pair of bolt cutters.
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: William Morales cut himself out from the third floor with
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: his elbows, because he had no hands.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: Investigators believe Morales jumped three floors to the ground, where
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: waiting accomplices drove him away. The FBI and NYPD launch
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: an all-out manhunt for Morales and alert the public and
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: police across the country to be on the lookout.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: But months go by. and the manhunt turns up nothing.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Then the terrorists strike again.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: Six months after Morales' escape, the FALN begins bombing again
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: in New York, Chicago, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. One
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: year after William Morales' escape, just north of Chicago, Evanston
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: police respond to reports of an illegally parked van. They
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: radio in the license, which comes back stolen. Police decide
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: to watch the stolen van to see if anyone comes back.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: So they surveil it.
• 36:23
  Speaker 7: I mean, they could have towed it away, but they
• 36:25
  Speaker 7: surveil it.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: A short while later, a man and woman drive up
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: to the van and begin loading it. Police! Put your
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: hands up! Let me see your hands! Let me see
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: your hands! Turn around!
• 36:41
  Speaker 6: Face away from me!
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: Stay right where you are! Police confront the two and
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: find rifles.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: The suspects have no ID and refuse to speak, leaving
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: police at a loss.
• 37:05
  Speaker 7: They came to figure out what nationality they are.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: So they bring him in.
• 37:08
  Speaker 7: So they got those two people.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: A few hours later, in the same Chicago suburb, a
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: citizen calls Evanston police to complain about a truck parked
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: in a wealthy neighborhood.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: The woman says people have been coming up to the
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: truck and climbing in the back all morning.
• 37:25
  Speaker 7: Police officer comes out and tries to talk to the driver.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: How y'all doing here in the neighborhood? Why are you here? Well,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: I'm visiting. Who are you visiting? I'm visiting that person
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: over there. Who is that person? Well, I don't know
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: his name and all that.
• 37:36
  Speaker 7: And various types of descriptions.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: It all seems very suspicious.
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: The officer glances into the truck and spots the butt
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: of a handgun. Now he knows he's dealing with armed suspects.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: And there may be more of them hiding in the
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: back of the truck. Step out of the vehicle, sir.
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: Amid a rash of terror bombings, officers in Evanston, Illinois,
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: arrest a suspicious couple.
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: In the back of their truck, police find people with shotguns, handguns,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: and disguises.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: Officers arrest them as well. Evanston police photograph and fingerprint
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: their prisoners. They also check their identification, but they run
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: into a problem. The names on their IDs prove to
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: be false. Detectives try to interview the suspects, but they
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: refuse to talk. Sensing they are onto something big, the
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: police call the FBI. FBI Special Agent William Dyson looks
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: at the prisoners and immediately recognizes one as a major
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: FALN terrorist.
• 39:08
  Speaker 7: I've got his wanted poster, top ten fugitive, and I
• 39:10
  Speaker 7: recognize him, and this is Carlos Torres.
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: Agent Dyson also recognizes other prisoners as members of the FALN.
• 39:20
  Speaker 7: It was like looking at this collage that I had
• 39:23
  Speaker 7: above my desk in the office of all these wanted people.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: So we have the FALN. We know we have the FALN.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: We're able to identify enough of them. This is the FALN.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: The FBI takes a closer look at the false IDs.
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: From past experience, the FBI knows that criminals who use
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: fake ID often include a real address so that it
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: can be used to function in society. Agents notice that
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: several of the ID's have the same Chicago address. The
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: FBI and Chicago police raid that address and find bomb
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: making materials and more FALN evidence. With information from the
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: captured terrorists, agents raid addresses in Milwaukee, New York, and
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: New Jersey. They take down more FALN safe houses. Six
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: years after the bombings began, a federal jury finds the
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: captured FALN terrorists guilty of seditious conspiracy, weapons violations, interstate
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: transportation of.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: Stolen vehicles, and other charges.
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: But notorious FALN suspected leader William Morales still remains a fugitive.
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: Just before sentencing, one FALN member decides to cooperate in
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: exchange for a reduced sentence. He says the 11 terrorists
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: were in Evanston to rob an armored car to finance
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: more bombings. He also describes a meeting at a Milwaukee
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: safe house.
• 41:04
  Speaker 7: They had this meeting in which they plot this thing out.
• 41:06
  Speaker 7: And the man leading the meeting, he's got his mask on,
• 41:09
  Speaker 7: so you can't recognize him. But he's got no hands.
• 41:13
  Speaker 7: So immediately, everybody knew it was William Morales.
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: Fanatical FALN leader William Morales' hands were maimed years earlier
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: while making a bomb. Investigators press for more information, but
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: the cooperating FALN member doesn't know how to find Morales.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: Agents try a different approach.
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: And question their informant about how the FALN recruits members.
• 41:42
  Speaker 7: We have to know how they bring new people into
• 41:44
  Speaker 7: the group. Once we know that, then we can go
• 41:46
  Speaker 7: after them.
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: Investigators learned that the FALN recruits from the ranks of
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: Puerto Rican radicals. Anyone who joins must drop all political
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: activities in order to maintain a low profile. With that
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: pattern in mind, FBI Special Agent Rick Hahn searches through
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: hundreds of files on Puerto Rican radicals. It's a long
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: shot attempt to identify the remaining FALN terrorists.
• 42:17
  Speaker 6: We looked for individuals that had stopped attending rallies and
• 42:21
  Speaker 6: things like that, that had made themselves quite well known
• 42:25
  Speaker 6: prior to that time. And we focused on them for surveillances.
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: More than a year passes before the FBI finally finds
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: one suspect who seems to lead a double life.
• 42:40
  Speaker 7: Very, very quickly, we realized this guy's clandestine.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: He's doing things that's not normal.
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: Agents track the suspect to an FALN safe house. Based
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: on the suspect's behavior, the FBI gets a court order
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: allowing listening devices and wiretaps. In March 1983, two years
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: after first gaining cooperation from the FALN informant, the FBI
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: gets a break. Through a wiretap, they overhear a suspected
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: FALN member on the phone asking a mysterious man in
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: Mexico to come to Chicago.
• 43:18
  Speaker 6: He refused to come up and said, basically, why don't
• 43:20
  Speaker 6: you come visit me? I'm having plastic surgery done. I'm
• 43:26
  Speaker 6: in need of good identification. I can't come into the country.
• 43:29
  Speaker 6: I'll be too easily recognized, that sort of thing.
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: The mysterious man says to call the same number in
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: a week. In a huge break, investigators identify the mystery
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: voice as that of the FALN's fugitive leader.
• 43:46
  Speaker 6: By his voice, we were pretty sure that it was
• 43:48
  Speaker 6: probably William Morales.
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: It's the first time the FBI has heard Morales' voice
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: since his bold escape from New York police custody four
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: years earlier. The FBI traces terrorist leader William Morales' phone
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: call to a cafe in Puebla, Mexico. Back in Chicago,
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: the FBI is stuck. They have no jurisdiction in Mexico.
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: Agents plan to continue listening to their wiretap and arrest
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: Morales when he makes his plan to come back to America.
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: But since Morales may have had plastic surgery and significantly
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: changed his appearances, Agents asked Mexican federales to secretly photograph him.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: FBI Special Agent Rick Hahn.
• 44:45
  Speaker 6: The federales went down to that coffee shop and found
• 44:48
  Speaker 6: Morales seated at a table there.
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: Morales had severely maimed his hands years earlier while making
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: a bomb.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: He cannot protect himself or fire a gun.
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: The FBI warns the federales he is probably accompanied by
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: an armed bodyguard. FBI Special Agent Don Wolford.
• 45:10
  Speaker 5: We told him, hey, this guy's got backup, you know,
• 45:13
  Speaker 5: watch it. You just can't walk up with this guy
• 45:15
  Speaker 5: and say, you're in the car.
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: The Federales don't see a bodyguard and decide to make
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: the arrest themselves.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: NYPD Detective Elmer Torra.
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: They were not supposed to take him down. They were
• 45:27
  Speaker 4: supposed to take photographs. And they decide to make the arrest.
• 45:31
  Speaker 4: And Willie Morales, like a nice trained terrorist, he simply
• 45:34
  Speaker 4: gave up. and I provided the opportunity for his bodyguard
• 45:38
  Speaker 4: to step out of the restaurant.
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: The bodyguard opens fire, shooting both federales, one of them critically.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: The other federale returns fire, killing the bodyguard.
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: He takes Morales into custody, but his arrest comes at
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: a great price.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: The wounded Federale dies on the way to the hospital.
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: New York police detective Elmer Toro immediately flies down to
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: Mexico to interview Morales and try to arrange his return.
• 46:27
  Speaker 6: Morales being in police custody and having killed a police officer,
• 46:31
  Speaker 6: I'm sure was subject to some degree of torture by
• 46:34
  Speaker 6: the federales down there.
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: Morales greets Detective Toro like a long-lost friend.
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: He was happy to see me, and he said to me,
• 46:45
  Speaker 4: and I always remember, he says, Elmer, I want to
• 46:48
  Speaker 4: go back with you.
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: Detective Toro says he'll draw up the papers, and Morales.
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: Promises to sign them. Just take me with you.
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: Once Mexican police learn that Morales is going back to
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: the U.S., they treat him better to avoid a possible scandal.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: Back at his.
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: Hotel, Detective Toro calls the FBI with the incredible news
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: about Morales.
• 47:18
  Speaker 5: Getting anything done in Mexico is like, forget it. But
• 47:21
  Speaker 5: now he's talking about, I want to come back. And
• 47:24
  Speaker 5: we're all saying, thank you, Lord.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: Let him come back. But it's not that simple.
• 47:35
  Speaker 4: Morales appears on TV, flanked by radical lawyers from Cuba,
• 47:38
  Speaker 4: the U.S., and Mexico.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: He now angrily condemns America.
• 47:52
  Speaker 4: By this time, he's got a battery of attorneys from
• 47:54
  Speaker 4: all over the place. He had people from Cuba, the
• 47:57
  Speaker 4: attorneys from Cuba, very powerful attorneys, and once he was
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: protected by these attorneys, he didn't need Homer Toro anymore.
• 48:05
  Speaker 4: He didn't want to come back anymore.
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: Detective Toro now realizes that Morales used him to gain
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: better treatment in jail while waiting for his lawyers to arrive.
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: In the months to come, Cuba uses its influence and
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: money to win the release of Morales.
• 48:28
  Speaker 6: He's on the beach in Cuba, in Cienfuegos, Cuba, I believe.
• 48:33
  Speaker 6: Sooner or later, Fidel Castro's government is going to go,
• 48:36
  Speaker 6: and maybe we'll see Morales at that point.
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: With Morales in permanent exile and other key members in prison,
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: the FALN's eight-year reign of.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: Terror comes to an end. The FBI and police.
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: Through dedicated investigative work and patient long-term surveillance, have defeated
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: one of the most deadly domestic terror groups in U.S.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: History.