A Bombing At LaGuardia Airport (1975) [Archive Favorite]

This Day

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2024

⏱️ 18 minutes

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Summary

[[It's the heart of the summer, which means that our crew is taking some breaks here and there. In the meantime, we'll bring you some favorite episodes from the vaults -- and we'll be back with new episodes very soon!]]

It’s December 29th. This day in 1975, a bomb, planted in a luggage locker, exploded at NYC’s LaGuardia Airport, killing 11 and injuring 74. If it had gone off just minutes earlier, it would have killed hundreds more.

Jody and Niki discuss who was responsible for the bombing, the prevalence of scattered violence in the 1970s, and why New York City was often the place in which conflicts from around the world would play out.

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Transcript

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0:16.1	Hey everyone Jody here just letting you know that it is the heart of the summer which means that the members of the this day crew are taking some little trips getting some family time in some downtime hopefully you are as well anyway that means that here is a favorite episode from the vaults, but rest assured, we will be back with brand new episodes real soon. See you then.
0:22.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from
0:25.0	Radiotopia. My name is Jody Avergan.
0:30.0	This day, December 28th, 1975, this incident actually happened on the 29th of December 1975, but we're doing it today on the 28th,
0:38.8	a bomb detonates near the TWA baggage claim terminal at LaGuardia Airport in New York City.
0:45.6	The blast killed 11 people and seriously injured 74 others.
0:50.4	Investigators later concluded that an equivalent of 25 sticks of dynamite had been placed in a coin-operated locker located next to the baggage carasels.
0:59.0	The bomb blew the lockers apart sending fragments flying across the room. It was that
1:04.0	fragmentation that caused all 11 deaths. So let's talk about the LaGuardia
1:08.9	bombing of 1975, a story that I got to say I had no idea about and I feel like I'm pretty tuned into the history of New York City
1:17.0	Not to mention the fact that this story is really interesting because we kind of still don't for sure know who was behind this bombing.
1:23.8	So here to discuss is Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt.
1:27.0	Hello there.
1:27.9	Hello Jody.
1:28.8	And Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley on holiday break, the day that we're
1:31.7	taping this, so it's just the two of us
1:33.6	this is a very heavy heavy story it is our second to last one of the year and
1:37.6	listeners I promise we will end the year on a much sillier note for next
1:41.4	episode but let's talk about this bombing in 1975.
1:46.0	And Nicky, usually on our show, I like to start in very specific.
1:50.0	We like to dive right into the specifics of the story and then pull back but in this case I do wonder if we can start with a broader context on two fronts which is one
1:59.5	1975 is a really interesting year in American history and then also the level of violence and in particular
	...

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