Featured Opinion

Congratulations to Law Enforcement & EOD Units that Solved Austin Texas Bomber Case!

The Right Side

By J Gary DiLaura

FBI Retired

As a retired lawman, I truly appreciate how difficult and phenomenal a job law enforcement did solving this case! The imagination, the new techniques, old techniques, cooperation and coordination between state, federal, local lawmen, Explosive Ordinance Devise teams (EOD) from ATF and possibly our military, as well as technicians from all the different forensic labs, deserve the highest praise!

The average citizen, through no fault of their own, does not realize how difficult it is to put together an investigation like this or understand the speed with which this case was solved! Simply put, it is incredible!

It had to be tough, for 8 years, working under a previous president and corrupt Attorneys General, who preferred to put lawmen in jail and let the bad guys out! People have no idea how tough it is to risk your life, your house, your savings, if any, without a leader watching your back and an AG stabbing you in the back. A president who said, “The police acted stupidly”, in Boston, before he had any facts and AG Holder, who put Border Patrol Agents in jail and let the Illegal’s out!

Be grateful you now have a president who will “never let you down”.

I worked several bombing cases associated with bank robberies and one by a bomber who targeted people in a love triangle. It makes one appreciate the new generation(s) of lawmen and the great job they are doing, even with a seemingly relentless, undeserved criticism.

Numerous innocent people were killed by the love triangle bombs, including UPS employees and bystanders. This was almost 40 years ago with bombs in Buffalo, Rochester and New York’s Southern Tier, without the benefit of cell phones, computers, surveillance cameras, today’s’ technology …nothing like today, which makes the speed factor so incredible…thank goodness!

The way we handled the few bomb related bank robberies we had in the New York Office was archaic, risky, but more accurately, “ insane”, but it worked…until one blew up…after I transferred out of the NYO. Thank god none of my friends were hurt and they changed the way we did things.

How did we do it? Don’t try this at home; we distracted the bad guy while we cleared an area and then, on a signal, an FBI agent would tackle the subject while another grabbed and threw the device!

On another incident, an NYPD uniform officer bravely confronted the subject in the bank and, as we sneaked in, he told him to set the bomb down and back away, or he would shoot him. He said, “I’m only going to say this one more time and then I’m going to shoot”. He said it one more time, then shot, killing the bomber instantly! We were in the bank, backing him up, and no one criticized him one bit. It was a good call. The bomb was real but not sophisticated!

We decided that we needed a better plan.

Other plans were devised by the “planners”, who never actually had to carry out the plans they wrote! This was late 60s, early 70s, no SWAT teams yet and not a lot of bombings!

Citizens, you must support your police/law enforcement. They do lay down their lives to keep you and your family safe. I have seen some very good men, with families, risk their lives, without hesitation!

Support them… They need it…They deserve it!

About the author

J. Gary DiLaura

J. Gary Dilaura, a 28 year veteran of the FBI, spent his career in Charleston, SC, New York City, and Buffalo, NY. He was active in the FBI’s Violent Crimes Program, finishing his career as Bank Robbery Supervisor. He also worked White Collar Crime and some well known cases including the Oklahoma City Bombing & the Dustin Hoffman, Dog Day Afternoon Bank Robbery. He holds a degree in Engineering, and established and ran the FBI’s Environmental Crimes Program for the Western District of NY. He received numerous Commendations from every FBI Director he worked for. After retiring from the FBI, he became a successful Construction Contractor/Businessman and a Conservative, OpEd Columnist, "The Right Side", for several publications including, the Niagara Falls Reporter and the Ft Myers, Sun bay Paper. Visit his website at therightsidejgarydilaura.com .

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