SYSK’s Fall True Crime Playlist: The Harvey’s Casino Bombing of 1980

Stuff You Should Know

iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture

4.6 • 79.3K Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In August of 1980 a bomb containing 1,000 pounds of dynamite was quietly delivered to Harvey’s, a casino and resort at Lake Tahoe. This kicked off a whirlwind caper that lasted 30 hours and ended up nearly demolishing the 11-story resort.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:05.2	The bombing of Harvey's Casino in Lake Tahoe, Nevada is one of the great overlooked capers.
0:11.2	It's kind of nuts how anything like the Harvey's bombing could ever be forgotten, considering the outcome.
0:16.9	This episode has it all. A great plot, incompetent criminals, an amazingly well-designed bomb, and a huge explosion.
0:25.0	And it's made even cooler somehow because it takes place in 1980.
0:29.2	Plus, no one dies, which makes it okay for me to call this episode kind of charming.
0:34.2	Enjoy.
0:38.8	Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of IHeart Radio.
0:48.4	Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck and Jerry's here and this is stuff you should know
0:54.5	The True Crime Edition where nobody gets hurt isn't that amazing? Yeah, I think this falls into our sort of caper a ditch
1:03.6	Yes, well put well put
1:06.0	Editions do we have any other capers? Yeah, like the Chow Chilah Kidnapping.
1:15.1	And I think any non-murter crime podcast, I think, would fall under this.
1:16.5	Like D.B. Cooper.
1:18.8	Exactly.
1:21.9	And before I forget, Chuck, that was definitely a caper.
1:22.3	Good call.
1:28.2	This was a request, which, like you said, last time, we've been doing a lot of these lately.
1:30.3	But this one was requested by Nick Hales.
1:32.0	And I say, good request, Nick.
1:32.6	Thanks for that.
1:40.8	And I totally spaced on shouting out Neil Stevens from the UK for Georgia Guidestone's episode.
	...

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