00:00:03
[music playing]
00:00:06
Back in here.
00:00:09
NARRATOR: In December of 1989,
Federal Court Judge Robert
00:00:14
Vance and his wife
were preparing
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for the busy Christmas holiday.
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Who sent the box?
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I don't know.
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Doesn't say.
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NARRATOR: It was a
delivery he never expected.
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[explosion]
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[music playing]
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Robert and Helen Vance
lived with their family
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in an affluent suburb
of Birmingham, Alabama.
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For more than a
decade, Robert Vance
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had been a federal court
judge for the 11th District,
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presiding over cases from
Alabama, Georgia, and Florida.
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MARK WINNE: He was very bright.
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Not only the book
smart kind of bright,
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but he had just amazing
common sense, street smarts.
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NARRATOR: Judge
Vance undoubtedly
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had his share of enemies, but
had never received any threats,
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which explains why he wasn't
suspicious of the package
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mailed to him a few
days before Christmas.
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[explosion]
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The package
contained a pipe bomb
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with nails wrapped around the
pipe which acted like shrapnel.
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The blast killed
Judge Vance instantly.
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His body was thrown
clear across the kitchen.
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Miraculously, Helen Vance
survived the explosion
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and she was able to get to
a neighbor's home for help.
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ROBERT VANCE: Mom suffered
some severe injuries
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from the explosion.
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She had several cuts in the
flesh from the nails that had--
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the bomb had been bound with.
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And she had had several internal
injuries from nails actually
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penetrating the body,
including one that had
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done some damage to her liver.
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NARRATOR: US Marshals
warned all members
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of the judiciary to be on the
alert for any suspicious mail
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packages.
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Two days later, a security
guard at the 11th Circuit Court
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in Atlanta noticed something
unusual in a routine x-ray of
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packages entering the building.
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Inside the package
was an 8-inch tube
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attached to a pair of flashlight
batteries, the telltale sign
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of a pipe bomb.
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Investigators did not
want to detonate the bomb.
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They wanted it
dismantled in order
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to study its construction.
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When they did,
experts determined
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that this bomb was
identical to the one
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that killed Judge Robert Vance.
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The bombs told
us we were dealing
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with a very angry guy
because of the nature
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of their construction.
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And the nature of
that construction
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also told us that we were
dealing with a very purposeful
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individual, someone who had not
just idly gotten mad and done
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this, but someone who really
did a good deal of work
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in putting this together.
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NARRATOR: The bomb had
two unique characteristics
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which investigators
had never seen before.
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The bomb and the
inside of the box
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had been covered with
black enamel paint.
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It had square end caps,
which were bolted and welded
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onto the ends, which
delayed the explosion
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and increased its force.
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Unfortunately, scientists
could find no trace evidence
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inside the bomb package, no
hair, fibers, or fingerprints.
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The bomb was similar to a
tear gas bomb which exploded
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four months earlier in the
Atlanta office of the National
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Association for the Advancement
of Colored People, or NAACP.
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Along with that bomb was a
letter, a declaration of war
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against the 11th Circuit Court.
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ACTOR AS BOMBER: The
attacks will continue
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until widespread
terror forces the court
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to adopt the impartial
and equitable treatment
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of all as its highest priority.
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NARRATOR: No one knew why a
threat against the 11th Circuit
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Court had been sent to the
NAACP, which was involved
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in civil rights issues.
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Investigators suspected that
the tear gas bomb was mailed
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as a test to see if it could
be sent through the mail
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without exploding.
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When that test was
successful, the bomber
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started on his path of murder.
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Two days after the
bomb explosion,
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which killed Judge Robert Vance,
Robert Robinson, a civil rights
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attorney, went to work
as usual at his office
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in Savannah, Georgia.
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Waiting for him on his desk
was a package that had been
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sent to him through the mail.
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When he opened it, it exploded.
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His friend Dr. Brown,
was across the street
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and rushed to his aid.
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I'm just holding
him at this point,
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looking around the
room, surveying,
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of course, the damage
and seeing the wounds
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that he had suffered.
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Throughout that
process, you see,
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having my arm under his
armpit, could feel, actually,
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his pulse as it waned.
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NARRATOR: Three hours
later, Robert Robinson died.
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The bomb was set
to detonate when
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the string wrapped around
the outside of the package
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was pulled.
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The string was attached to
a battery-powered charge,
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triggering the explosion.
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All of the bombs were
identical, and the bomber
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was meticulous in every
detail of their construction.
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Once the bombs were completed,
the bomber sprayed black paint
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over the inside
of the box, which
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covered up possible evidence,
such as fingerprints or fibers.
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And the bomber was careful not
to leave any genetic material,
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such as hair or saliva,
on the mailing labels
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or on the backs of the stamps.
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MARK WINNE: These were very
meticulously built bombs.
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So meticulous that some of
the finest forensic machinery
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in the world failed to find one
speck of DNA, one fingerprint,
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so much as a trace of
powder under a fingernail.
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NARRATOR: On the same day that
Robert Robinson was murdered,
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Willye Dennis received an
identical package in the mail.
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At the time, Willye Dennis was
president of the NAACP office
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in Jacksonville, Florida.
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But Miss Dennis was
late for a meeting,
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so she left her office
before opening the package.
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That night, at
home, she received
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a phone call from a friend.
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WILLYE DENNIS: She
says, [inaudible],,
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I don't know whether
you heard the news,
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but Bobby Robinson in Savannah,
Georgia, has received a bomb,
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and and he was killed instantly.
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He said, and if you
receive any funny packages,
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funny looking packages,
make sure that you
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notify the sheriff's office.
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NARRATOR: Which is what she did.
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Inside was a pipe bomb.
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I saw a common hand, which
was the bomber's signature,
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on all four bombs that
led me to conclude that
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not only the same
person or persons,
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but the same person
constructed these four
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bombs to the exclusion
of anybody else.
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NARRATOR: There were four
letters inside the package.
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One took responsibility
for the murders of Judge
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Vance and Robert Robinson.
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Another made reference to the
tear gas bomb sent a few months
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earlier to the NAACP.
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ACTOR AS BOMBER: To the officer
who opened our smoke bomb,
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the officers of the
NAACP have become
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targets for assassination.
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NARRATOR: The letters and
mailing labels had all
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been typed with the
same typewriter,
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which had a signature flaw.
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The number one on the
keypad did not match
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the typeface of the other keys.
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It was a replacement.
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There was a broken
key which was replaced
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with a different type key.
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So that was fairly unique.
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I mean, the odds of
finding another one
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with that same letter replaced
with another typewriter was--
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was a fairly unique
characteristic.
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NARRATOR: The FBI searched the
files of the 11th Circuit Court
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looking for any documents
which might have been
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typed with the same typewriter.
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More than one million
documents were examined.
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The FBI found one letter typed
with the same typewriter.
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It had the same flaw, the number
one was a different typeface.
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The letter dealt with an obscure
life insurance case from 1987.
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And the sender was alive
and well in the small town
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of Enterprise, Alabama.
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The investigation
into these bombings
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became the largest and most
exhaustive in the history
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of federal law enforcement.
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Investigators used every
method at their disposal
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to find the typewriter used to
type the letters and mailing
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labels on the bomb packages.
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Their investigation revealed
that the same typewriter had
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been used by a man in
Enterprise, Alabama,
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Robert Wayne O'Ferrell,
to type a letter
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about an insurance dispute.
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My sense of the typewriter
match that led them
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to Enterprise was that this was
believed by agents to be almost
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tantamount to a fingerprint.
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I mean, a solid forensic link.
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NARRATOR: O'Ferrell
was a junk dealer,
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and investigators searched
every inch of his home, garage,
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and warehouse.
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They even excavated
his septic system.
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But they couldn't
find the typewriter.
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O'Ferrell recalled typing
the insurance letter,
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but couldn't remember what
happened to the typewriter.
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His daughter had a vague
recollection of selling it
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to a young woman
about a year earlier,
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but could provide no
description of the buyer,
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and she had no receipt of sale.
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With the typewriter
now a dead end,
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investigators were
left with the bombs
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as their main
source of evidence.
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Pictures of the bombs
were distributed to bomb
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experts throughout the country.
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No one had ever seen
a bomb constructed
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quite like this before.
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I got a call from a very good
friend of mine, Lloyd Erwin,
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was a chemist analyst
of ATF's up in Atlanta.
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And Lloyd called and
asked, what did I have?
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And I said something to the
effect, the damnedest pipe
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bomb I've ever seen.
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It's got a threaded rod that ran
right through the middle of it.
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And I went on to say
something to the effect
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that I'd never seen or
heard of such a design
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feature in a pipe bomb before.
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And his response
was, well, I have.
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I said, oh, tell me about it.
00:12:01
NARRATOR: Lloyd Erwin recalled
a similar bomb many years
00:12:04
earlier, one with a
rod through the center
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and the same distinctive
square end caps.
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There's only one that
we'd ever had like that.
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We have lots of pipe bombs and
different kinds, even remote
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controlled, but
when you have one
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that's the only one
you've ever seen like it,
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I mean, and it sticks.
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NARRATOR: Erwin searched
through the thousands of cases
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in his file all the
way back to 1972
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and learned that
the bomb he recalled
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had accidentally maimed
a woman who came across
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it unexpectedly in her home.
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Authorities suspected
that the bomb
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had been constructed by her
husband, Walter Leroy Moody.
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Although he denied it,
Moody was convicted
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of constructive
possession of that bomb
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and sentenced to six years
in the state penitentiary.
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Walter Leroy Moody was
furious about that conviction,
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and after he was
released from prison,
00:13:05
spent the next 10 years
trying to have his conviction
00:13:08
overturned.
00:13:10
Mark Winne described
Moody's legal battles
00:13:13
in his book, "Priority Mail."
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I think those who have come
to know Moody in various spheres
00:13:21
would say that Moody could
be charming, he could be,
00:13:24
in some respects,
enormously bright.
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I think one psychologist
called him a genius.
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But on the other hand, he could
become blinded by obsession.
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NARRATOR: That obsession may
have included the case of Julie
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Love, a young White woman
who was murdered and raped
00:13:47
by a group of Black
defendants in one
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of the most highly publicized
cases in Atlanta history,
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a case tried at the
11th Circuit Court.
00:13:57
This was the case mentioned in
one of the bomber's letters.
00:14:02
ACTOR AS BOMBER: Any
time a Black man rapes
00:14:04
a White woman in Alabama,
Florida, or Georgia
00:14:08
in a future, Americans for
a competent federal judicial
00:14:11
system shall assassinate one
federal judge, one attorney,
00:14:16
and one officer of the NAACP.
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It's not
happenchance that he's
00:14:22
mad with the 11th Court of
Appeals where he sent a bomb.
00:14:28
And the 11th Court
of Appeals is made up
00:14:30
of the states of Alabama,
Florida, and Georgia.
00:14:35
So all three of those
states got a bomb.
00:14:40
NARRATOR: But if Walter
Leroy Moody was the bomber,
00:14:43
authorities couldn't prove it.
00:14:46
They had no forensic
evidence linking
00:14:48
him to any of the bombings.
00:14:54
[music playing]
00:14:55
After interviewing
more than 6,000 people,
00:14:58
poring over a million documents,
and examining the case files
00:15:02
of every bombing in
the United States,
00:15:04
federal authorities were
convinced that Walter Leroy
00:15:07
Moody was the serial bomber.
00:15:10
Federal agents searched
the home Moody shared
00:15:12
with his second wife, Susan.
00:15:14
The search was so complete
that even the floorboards were
00:15:18
removed and the entire
residence vacuumed for gunpowder
00:15:21
and other trace evidence.
00:15:24
But authorities could not find
one single piece of evidence
00:15:27
in their search.
00:15:28
I'm not concerned
about anybody
00:15:31
finding any connections
regarding those
00:15:35
or any other bombings ever.
00:15:37
NARRATOR: Although
investigators found nothing
00:15:40
inside Moody's home,
it was what they
00:15:42
didn't find that was revealing.
00:15:44
The first search of the
house appeared in the house
00:15:48
have been sterilized, meaning
that normal things that would
00:15:51
be found in a house that could
be used to fabricate a bomb
00:15:55
device, wire, nails,
pliers, even pieces of pipe,
00:16:01
things that you probably
have around your house,
00:16:03
they were totally lacking,
absent in this house.
00:16:07
NARRATOR: But the pressure
of a federal investigation
00:16:09
was too great for Susan Moody.
00:16:11
She was 20 years
younger than her husband
00:16:13
and told authorities that
Moody was emotionally
00:16:16
and physically abusive.
00:16:18
When she was questioned
separately without her husband,
00:16:21
she provided some
interesting information.
00:16:26
Just do it the
same way as always.
00:16:28
NARRATOR: Susan Moody said
that her husband often
00:16:31
took her shopping at stores
throughout the southeastern
00:16:34
part of the United States.
00:16:36
He told her to buy steel
pipe, acrylic tubing,
00:16:41
raincoats, rubber gloves,
shower caps, and safety glasses.
00:16:48
She was also told to
buy black enamel paint.
00:16:52
[music playing]
00:17:00
CLERK: Hi, how you doing?
00:17:01
Fine.
00:17:02
NARRATOR: And she
said to her husband
00:17:03
once shoplifted some nails
from a store in Georgia,
00:17:07
nails similar to those which
were used in the pipe bombs.
00:17:14
Investigators believe that
Moody used the cap, gloves,
00:17:18
and safety glasses to dress
himself like a surgeon
00:17:22
while making the
bombs so that he
00:17:24
wouldn't leave genetic
material in the package.
00:17:29
Moody sprayed the inside of
the package with black enamel
00:17:34
paint to mask any fingerprints,
hairs, or fibers that may
00:17:38
have been left inadvertently.
00:17:41
Prosecutors believe
that moody removed
00:17:44
all of the materials he
used to make the bombs
00:17:47
before his home was searched.
00:17:50
Susan Moody also confirmed
that she had purchased
00:17:54
a used typewriter for
her husband, which
00:17:57
had later been thrown away.
00:18:06
There was one more
piece of evidence
00:18:08
that investigators had
almost given up on,
00:18:11
the fingerprint found on
one of the bomber's letters.
00:18:14
Susan Moody told the
FBI that she had copied
00:18:17
the letters for her
husband in a small shop
00:18:20
in Florence, Kentucky.
00:18:22
Excuse me?
00:18:23
I think the copier
is out of paper.
00:18:26
NARRATOR: When the copy
machine ran out of paper,
00:18:29
one of the employees
put more in.
00:18:33
When he did, his fingers
touched the top piece of paper.
00:18:42
CLERK: You're all set.
00:18:44
NARRATOR: The
employee's fingerprint
00:18:45
matched the one found on the
threatening letter, which
00:18:48
confirmed Susan Moody's story.
00:18:53
It was the link
investigators needed
00:18:56
to tie Moody to the bombs.
00:19:00
And that's where
they bought the boxes
00:19:02
that contained the
bombs, and it's
00:19:06
where they did some Xeroxing.
00:19:08
And to prove that
they did the Xeroxing,
00:19:10
the fingerprint was there.
00:19:12
The fingerprint did not change.
00:19:14
The pattern on the Xerox machine
changes over a period of time,
00:19:17
so forensically, that
fingerprint, to the exclusion
00:19:21
of everything else in the whole
world, put them at the place
00:19:25
that she said they were
where they bought the boxes.
00:19:27
If you look at Susan
Moody's testimony by itself,
00:19:36
there could have been the
potential for the defense
00:19:38
to say, this is the
ex-wife who has a motive
00:19:44
to want to stay out of jail.
00:19:47
But key is that much of what
Susan Moody testified to
00:19:55
could be corroborated
by forensic science.
00:19:59
NARRATOR: Susan Moody
was granted immunity
00:20:01
and testified for
the prosecution.
00:20:05
Walter Leroy Moody was found
guilty of the murders of Judge
00:20:10
Robert Vance and Robert
Robinson and was sentenced
00:20:13
to death by electrocution.
00:20:17
I think if we had
not identified Moody
00:20:22
as a potential
suspect very quickly,
00:20:25
I think there would
have been more bombs.
00:20:28
I don't think he was through.
00:20:31
I really don't think
he was through.
00:20:32
I don't think he would
have ever been through
00:20:34
as long as he was out there.
00:20:36
The evidence suggests that the
bomber's obsession with making
00:20:44
his devices just that much
deadlier, that much more
00:20:50
vicious and destructive
is ultimately what
00:20:54
became Roy Moody's undoing.
00:20:58
Some people would
call that irony.
00:21:00
I think some people
would call it justice.
00:21:03
[music playing]
