06x17 - Line of Fire

[bunniefuu]

-No one was joking in Spokane, Washington,

on April Fool's Day .

[expl*si*n]

First, a b*mb went off outside the office

of a local newspaper.

Then, another inside a bank.

Two armed men entered and robbed the bank of $,.

It was apparently the work of well-trained criminals.

But one of the bombers made a crucial mistake.

A simple pair of jeans he was wearing that day

would later reveal his identity.

[theme music]

-Nestled at the falls of the Spokane River,

the city of Spokane, Washington, is the cultural and economic

center of an area known as the Inland Northwest, which

includes parts of Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon.

The region is known for its beautiful countryside.

And for being home to many right-wing groups

openly hostile to the government of the United States.

At : on the afternoon of April , ,

one of these groups made its presence known in Spokane.

An employee at a branch office of the local newspaper,

"The Spokesman Review," noticed a b*mb with a lighted fuse just

outside the building's rear door.

As he ran inside to call police, the b*mb exploded--

[expl*si*n]

-shredding doors, shattering windows,

and filling the building with smoke.

As employees fled the building, police rushed to the scene.

They found extensive damage, but no one was injured.

At :, just minutes after "The Spokesman Review" bombing,

police got another call.

There had been another expl*si*n.

This time, inside a US Bank branch only blocks away.

Bank surveillance cameras showed two man entering the bank.

Witnesses said a third man waited

outside in a getaway van.

The men inside the bank wore parkas and ski

masks to hide their identities.

They were heavily armed.

At gunpoint, they ordered tellers to put money in bags.

-After that occurred and they got, apparently,

the money that they believed was available, one of the robbers

left a pipe b*mb on the counter of the bank and lit it.

And then told everybody to evacuate the bank that it--

I think the comment was made on the witnesses that they said,

get out.

It's going to blow.

Or something similar to that.

-The b*mb, seen in this surveillance shot, exploded.

[expl*si*n]

It tore through the building shattering

windows, counters, and doors.

Again, amazingly, no one was hurt.

-If the teller had been standing there,

she could've been k*lled or severely injured.

And people inside the bank could have been severely injured

from the shrapnel at it flew.

-Investigators were now connecting the two bombings.

Since the blasts came so close together,

police were convinced the first b*mb was a diversion designed

to draw attention away from the bank robbery.

It was clearly a well-planned and well-ex*cuted crime.

-These people really knew what they were doing.

And also, there was no question, when they went

inside that bank, these were not amateurs.

They had planned this.

-Letters left behind at both bombings

left no doubt that they were related.

The letters, which promised more v*olence,

had a symbol at the bottom.

A combination of the letter P and a cross.

It was the symbol of the Phineas Priesthood,

a highly-armed, extremely violent,

right-wing t*rror1st group that had declared

a Holy w*r against the United States government.

Two bombings on the same day in Spokane, Washington,

left massive damage, and a community

that feared there would be more v*olence to come.

As b*mb experts dug through the rubble,

they found letters the bombers had purposely left behind.

To experts on domestic terrorism,

the letters spoke volumes.

They contained symbols that identified the bombers

as members of the Phineas Priesthood.

The priesthood's creed is an unusual combination

of biblical prophecy and v*olence.

A radical right-wing view of America

combined with a strictly conservative

interpretation of scripture.

The result, a fanatical hatred of government

and a rationale for v*olence.

-They want to destroy America to say that they don't believe

in reforming America, they believe that the whole system

is rotten and needs to be basically

torn down so that we can start over again.

-David Neiwert studied the Phineas Priesthood for his book

"In God's Country."

He says the group takes its name from an Old Testament

story about a man named Phineas, who

kills an interracial couple.

-The essence of the Phineas Priesthood

is that people who violate God's laws deserve to be k*lled.

-News that the priesthood had targeted Spokane

terrified the city.

And had every one, including law enforcement,

preparing for the worst.

-This was the most serious crime probably that's ever happened

in Spokane, from a danger to the entire community.

Obviously, you have serial murders and a lot of m*rder

cases and so on, but this case had people in fear.

They were terrorized.

-Police now knew that name of the group,

but not the names of the bombers.

FBI analysts went over images from the bank's

surveillance cameras.

The images were shot once every second,

making for a disconnected sequence.

But when frozen and enlarged, the individual images

were extraordinarily clear.

-These pictures were some of the best

that I've ever seen in the laboratory

because they were high-quality millimeter

black and white photographs, and the individual in question

was standing so close to the camera

that he filled a large part of the frame.

-Vorder Bruegge, an FBI photograph analyst,

attempted to measure the bomber's height.

He used a process known as perspective analysis, in which

the tiles on the bank's floor, the position

of the surveillance camera, and the height of the teller

counters were all used to measure

the dimensions of everything in the image.

Analysts concluded the robber was

approximately feet -/ inches tall.

This information was relayed to officers in Spokane.

But then on July , just three months after the first attack,

there was another bombing.

This time, the target was this Planned Parenthood clinic.

Witnesses said they saw two men in ponchos

throw a lighted pipe b*mb in the clinic's front door

before driving away.

[fuse burning]

[expl*si*n]

-This particular one was covered with buckshot

to produce more shrapnel, apparently in an effort

to make it even more deadly or devastating than it--

it would normally have been.

-The b*mb tore through the clinic

and was clearly designed to k*ll.

Only luck kept it from claiming lives.

-Nobody was hurt.

It was unbelievable.

There was nobody there.

Had they been, they would have been hurt.

People inside the Planned Parenthood,

there's no question somebody would have been k*lled

because this b*mb blew a hole in a -inch concrete floor.

-Then, just minutes later, the same US Bank branch office

robbed on April Fool's Day was hit again.

Almost a carbon-copy of the first robbery and bombing.

-After the b*mb went off at the Planned Parenthood,

van pulls up again at the same US Bank on Sprague Avenue.

Two robbers go in.

One's carrying a -pound propane t*nk, the kind that we

use for our barbecues, with something on top.

They're both armed.

-As in the first robbery, the men took over the bank

and made off with $, in cash.

They left the propane t*nk b*mb on the floor

and fled in a white van.

But this b*mb, which was rigged with an electric taser

detonating device, failed to go off.

A match book, left behind at the Planned Parenthood bombing,

contained the priesthood logo.

It cited two biblical passages.

One, Psalm contains the verse, k*ll the wicked.

A few days later, the bombers sent

this letter to Planned Parenthood.

It said, sorry we missed you on July .

Will do better next time.

After their branch office in Spokane, Washington,

was targeted in two separate b*mb att*cks,

US Bank officials put up a $, reward

for any information on members of the Phineas Priesthood,

the group that claimed responsibility for the att*cks.

Meanwhile, analysts examined the pipe bombs

that nearly destroyed Spokane's Planned Parenthood clinic.

-That b*mb caused unbelievable damage

to the Planned Parenthood.

The director of Planned Parenthood from New York

came out and said this was the worst bombing that had ever

happened of a Planned Parenthood clinic.

-The b*mb was wrapped with buckshot.

This made it more deadly.

But also more identifiable.

Most buckshot is made from recycled car batteries, which

makes for a lot of impurities, all of which can be identified.

FBI analyst Kathleen Lundy took shavings

from the buckshot found at the b*mb site.

These shavings are dissolved in a neutral chemical solution.

This solution is then vaporized at extremely high temperatures.

The rate of vaporization is then fed to a computer, which

identifies the buckshot's basic chemical components.

-Compared to my years of experience,

the buckshot in this case had extremely

high levels of these impurities.

And the chemical or elemental makeup of this buckshot

was, I'd say, distinctive compared

to others that I've analyzed.

-If this buckshot could be traced,

investigators might get a lead on the bomber's identities.

But then, a solid lead came from informants

anxious to receive the reward.

-One of the people that the Phineas Priests, or this g*ng

of people, had tried to recruit into their g*ng

decided that he wanted that money and contacted authorities

and pointed out the men to them.

-The informant identified three men.

Vern Jay Merrell, Robert Berry, and Charles Barbee,

all living in Sand Point, Idaho.

The informant had one more piece of information.

The trio was planning their next bank hit for October .

The target, a US Bank branch in Portland, Oregon.

The FBI immediately began background checks

and surveillance on the three men.

They found that Merrell, , trained as a nuclear engineer,

left his career and moved to Idaho to devote all

his time to the Phineas Priesthood.

Berry, , owned a struggling truck repair shop

and spent most of his time and money

on anti-government activities.

Barbee, , had quit his job at AT&T years earlier.

Investigators suspected he might be

the bomber in this surveillance image.

Records indicated Barbee was feet -/ inches tall,

fractions away from analysts estimate

of the bombers actual height.

On October , the men, who were being watched by investigators

using long-distance surveillance equipment,

loaded their vehicle with a*t*matic r*fles

and grenade launchers and left for Portland.

[doors close]

Before the trio arrived in Portland,

FBI officials called the US Bank branch

and told them to lock their doors.

-What's going on?

-Agents watched as the trio waited outside the bank

in their van.

-They saw people going up to the doors, shaking the doors,

but nobody was getting in.

So the-- the bank got a phone call that said are you open?

And they said, no.

We assume it was from a cell phone inside the vehicle.

-Stymied in their plans, the men drove away.

Agents followed them in the air and on the ground.

And when the men stopped for gas in Yakima, Washington,

police swooped in for the arrest.

-They would have been prepared for anything.

Had we tried to stop them on the highway and they were going

to have a sh**t, somebody would have died.

There's no doubt in my mind.

-Agents searched the suspect's homes.

In Vern Merrell's home, they found a Hewlett Packard inkjet

color printer consistent with the one that printed

the letter sent to the Planned Parenthood clinic.

In Robert Berry's truck repair business,

they found what appeared to be the same buckshot used

in the Planned Parenthood bombing.

And in the home of the third suspect, Charles Barbee,

investigators found something that the FBI analyst

told them to be on the lookout for.

An unusual piece of evidence, a deeply worn pair of blue jeans.

After the arrest of three men in the Spokane bombings

and robberies, investigators looked for conclusive evidence

to tie them to the crimes.

The buckshot found in Robert Berry's truck repair business

was subjected to the same analysis

as buckshot attached to the b*mb that destroyed

Spokane's Planned Parenthood clinic.

-Chemically, I couldn't tell the buckshot recovered

from the bombing apart from the buckshot

recovered from the business.

They were chemically the same.

-But prosecutors wanted something even more conclusive.

Was there a way to use the bank surveillance

images to clearly identify at least one of the robbers?

Was it possible that these two images, which were particularly

clear, were the suspect Charles Barbee?

The robber was covered head to toe,

but his blue jeans were clearly identifiable.

Almost all blue jeans are made of white cotton

that is then dyed blue.

How that blue dye wears off, particularly on the seams,

can be distinctive.

A sort of hill and valley effect is created.

High parts of the seam turn white,

while the lower parts retain their color.

The fit of the jeans and the posture of the person wearing

them can create unique patterns, almost

like a bar code, that appears along these seams.

FBI photograph analyst, Richard Vorder Bruegge

had an agent of Barbee's height wear the jeans

taken from Charles Barbee's home.

This man was photographed from the same distance

and in the same position as the bank surveillance photo

of the man thought to be Charles Barbee.

-It enables me to get them positioned in a way that most

closely approximates what the bank robber's posture was.

It also enables me to try and replicate

the draping of the clothing as closely as possible.

-In a process called Point-by-Point Analysis,

the photos are broken down into sections.

And each section is analyzed for distinctive features.

Then, the two sets of photos, though showing the jeans

worn by the bank robber and those

taken from the suspect's home, are compared.

The analysis showed more than areas

where the jeans were identical.

Near the number , it is clear the actual seam of the jeans

breaks and is folded over.

This is clear in both sets of photos.

At number , ridges can be seen extending above the hemline.

But at the point where the seam meets the hemline,

the jeans lose all their color and go completely white.

This is also consistent in both photos.

Finally, at the number , you can see wear lines

sh**ting off to the left above the hemline.

And at the hem, a sort of H pattern is created.

It's an H with a broad right side, and a thin left side.

The same H pattern can be seen in jeans

taken from Charles Barbee's home.

-In this case because I was able to positively identify

those pants, I could get on the stand and say,

those pants were the ones worn by the bank robber.

I can't tell you who the bank robber was.

And so it's very strong circumstantial evidence.

-Barbee couldn't have known it, but the jeans

he wore during the first bank robbery

helped identify him and his fellow bombers.

In March of , the trio went on trial.

Over items were entered into evidence,

but the proceedings resulted in a mistrial.

It was later found that one of the jurors

was sympathetic to the Phineas Priesthood's

anti-government beliefs.

But at the second trial three months later,

the jury returned guilty verdicts.

And Vern Merrell, Charles Barbee, and Robert Berry

were given mandatory life terms.

They claimed to the end that the trial was political,

but investigators disagreed.

And to prove it, they were able to present

a well-worn pair of blue jeans.

The same pair of blue jeans that were

worn during the bank robbery.

-I thought the FBI lab did an excellent job

by being able to come up and compare those to the photograph

and identify them positively as the jeans the bank robber wore.

And that's the only time I ever know it to have been done.

It may have done on another case someplace,

but I'm not aware of it.

That was pretty amazing.

-They were basically robbers.

They wanted the money.

They're criminals.

They didn't believe in our government, that's true.

They didn't believe in abortion, and that's true.

They didn't believe in banks, that's true.

But they're common criminals.

They did these to get money.

[theme music]