Searching for a Suspect in the Rubble

The FALN was first on Dreher's list of unofficial suspects. The group, which sought independence from Puerto Rico during the 1970s and early '80s, claimed responsibility for dozens of bombings in New York and Chicago.

Almost a year before the LaGuardia bombing, the FALN claimed responsibility for the Jan. 24, 1975, bombing that killed four and wounded 50 at New York's historic Fraunces Tavern.

Absent a claim of responsibility, police sifted through the rubble at LaGuardia as the starting point for their investigation. The crime scene investigation was slowed by two anonymous calls about additional bombs, which prompted Dreher to shutdown the airport. Police thought they might have found another device when a dog trained to sniff explosives sat down near a locker in another part of the terminal and then returned to it after being pulled away.

No one was amused when the locker was opened. A package of frankfurters, innocently left by a passenger, had attracted the police dog's attention.

Heavily-damaged ceiling hangs precariously.

In telephone calls police received days after the bombing, no one claimed responsibility for the deadly explosion. To this day, no individual or group has ever made a "credible claim" of responsibility, according to Dreher, who retired in 1983.

Leading a task force of 120 NYPD detectives, 600 FBI agents, ATF agents and Port Authority investigators, Dreher was determined to learn who planted the bomb and why. But first they had figure out what actually exploded.

Using an empty hangar to store evidence, investigators meticulously sifted through debris removed from the terminal. Based on what was found, they concluded the bomb had the equivalent of 25 sticks of dynamite and was composed of either TNT or plastic explosives. According to Dreher, the device was controlled by items most of us might have lying around the house — a Westclock alarm clock and an Eveready 6-volt lantern battery.

Meanwhile, teams of detectives and investigators began chasing leads.

A few days after the explosion, for example, a Midwest police chief called Dreher to report that his department had lost track of a paroled political activist who was imprisoned for a previous bombing.

Police determined that the parolee's brother had been arrested at LaGuardia on a fraud charge the day before the bombing. When they found the parolee a few days later, according to Dreher, he was visiting the White House with his politically active mother and was taking photographs of senior administration officials. That lead fizzled after investigators determined the parolee had an alibi.

Almost from the beginning, detectives were assigned to look into the background of each of the dead and injured to see if there was even a remote chance that the bomb was intended for one person alone. An FBI agent was among the injured and a dead Connecticut man was reputed to have CIA ties, Dreher said, but investigators eventually discounted simple murder as a theory.

Whoever planted the bomb was making a statement, investigators agreed.

No One Claimed Responsibility

As the months passed and the LaGuardia bombing task force's numbers dwindled, investigators were still wondering why no one claimed responsibility for what was obviously a terrorist act. It still remains just a theory, but investigators arrived at a hunch that the bomb may have been intended to go off 12 hours earlier or 12 hours later, exploding at dawn when the baggage claim area presumably would have been empty.

For months, the short list of suspects included the FALN, the Jewish Defense League and the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

"A lot of things were happening at the time with FALN, JDL, PLO," said Kevin McMurray, a freelance journalist and author who has been researching the case since 1996. "The thinking was that the timing device was miss-set or malfunctioned. That would explain the lack of credible claims. A lot of innocent people were killed."

The investigation remained active through the spring and summer of 1976 but every promising lead went nowhere. Then a prime suspect emerged.