December 20, 2011 in News, City

MLK bomb maker gets 32 years in prison

Thomas Clouse The Spokesman-Review

MLK bomb suspect Kevin Harpham’s booking photo from the U.S. Marshals Service.
(Full-size photo)

Today’s suspicious package not a bomb

BREAKING NEWS: West Riverside Avenue in front of the federal courthouse was shut down this morning while Spokane police investigated a suspicious package that experts later determined posed no threat. The unattended package, described as a box with mailing labels on it, was discovered this morning atop a mail box at the northwest corner of the intersection of Riverside and Lincoln. Police closed down the street as a precaution. The Spokane bomb squad inspected the package and determined it was simply a package, perhaps misplaced, officials said.

Leaving a bomb laced with anti-coagulant along the planned route of the Martin Luther King Day Unity March was merely a “creative idea” to protest multiculturalism, domestic terrorist Kevin W. Harpham told a Spokane judge Tuesday.

The explanation was an 11th-hour bid by Harpham, an admitted white supremacist, to withdraw his guilty plea and face trial.

But an unsympathetic U.S. District Court Judge Justin Quackenbush told Harpham, “It’s beyond my comprehension that you would stand there and not accept responsibility for what you have done,” then sentenced the 37-year-old to 32 years in federal prison. It was the

maximum allowed under a September plea agreement between federal prosecutors and Harpham’s public defenders.

The bomb, which was designed to be detonated from a distance of up to 1,000 feet away, was discovered by three contract workers; Spokane Police re-routed the Jan. 17 march, which Harpham had already joined.

On Tuesday, Harpham said his intent was that the bomb’s blast should hit a building across the street from where it was left on a bench at the corner of Main Avenue and Washington Street. It was in a backpack that had been cut to allow the insertion of the wooden-framed, 6-inch steel pipe loaded with 128-quarter ounce weights; the weights were coated with rat poison to act as an anti-clotting agent.

“As crazy as it sounds … the backpack was actually upward,” Harpham said. “I aimed, by my best ability, to deliver a shotgun blast to the glass of the Eye Care Center” across the street. “The idea (was) get people marching on the street. As they are approaching, I would be down Main (Avenue) further looking back. As long as it was clear, I was going to fire this thing off into the side of the building.

“It’s a big billow of smoke, very loud. The whole point of the building was to add effect … just a statement of protest.”

The judge deadpanned: “Protest of what, Martin Luther King Day?”

“No,” Harpham replied, “just these kinds of social concepts, unity, multiculturalism. It was no different than a Christian person out there protesting gay marriage. Except that it was a lot more dangerous, a lot more extreme — just making a statement that people are out there who do not agree with these ideas.”

Frank Harrill, supervisory senior resident agent of the Spokane office of the FBI, didn’t buy that story, he said after the sentencing.

“That device was constructed with a clear, lethal purpose,” Harrill said. “I don’t know why you would coat it with an anti-coagulant to break windows.”

Harpham also told Judge Quackenbush that he didn’t build the bomb “for this event. It was for something else.” He didn’t elaborate on that purpose, but added that it sat around his house until “this event came up and I got a creative idea how I could use it.”

Federal investigators said Harpham’s comments Tuesday were the first time they’d heard he built the bomb for another purpose.

Harpham, who was arrested on March 9 while driving away from his rural home near Addy, initially wouldn’t say what his “creative idea” entailed. He told the judge that he pleaded guilty as a hedge but wanted to withdraw the plea after his attorneys found an expert who questioned the viability of the bomb.

“I am not guilty of the acts that I plead guilty to,” Harpham said. “There is a reason why I put it where I put it. And, my intent was not to hurt people, although I admit it wasn’t exactly legal, either. I am still going to pursue trying to get to a trial so I can tell a jury what I was doing.”

Said Quackenbush,

“You tell me that you want a jury trial to tell a jury what you did. If you wish, you should tell me.”

Quackenbush said he hopes that Harpham, who has no previous criminal history, uses his time in prison to come to grips with his racist views.

“As citizens of this country … it’s not us versus them. It’s us, regardless of our color, regardless of our political views, religious beliefs or heritage,” the judge said.

Harpham’s life as a “lone wolf” domestic terrorist ended following an intense local and federal investigation, said the FBI’s Harrill.

Harpham was identified as a suspect in mid-February, when an agent traced the purchase of several lead weights found in the unexploded bomb to a Wal-Mart in Colville, where Harpham’s debit card was used to buy them.

“Within a day, Harpham was the prime subject,” Harrill said.

Between Feb. 25 and March 4, agents identified 1,139 postings by Harpham on the racist website Vanguard News Network under the user name “Joe Snuffy.”

Then on Feb. 28, investigators obtained Harpham’s DNA profile from samples he provided while serving in the U.S. Army from 1996 to 1999. Within days, the FBI had DNA linking Harpham to the strap of the backpack that contained the bomb.

As soon as agents had his name from the fishing weight purchase, they put Harpham’s 10 acres near Addy under every surveillance technology that the federal government could be bring to bear, said Harrill.

“We took great pains to make sure that the population he would target was safe from … what he could have done,” he said.

Had Harpham tried to attend a multi-cultural church, for example, agents would have arrested him before he arrived, Harrill said. But the issue never arose because Harpham rarely traveled from his home.

Agents feared Harpham might have more explosive devices inside his house, so they learned what kind of car he was considering buying and set up a fake online advertisement as a ruse to lure him out.

“We knew or believed that he would be armed whenever he went,” Harrill said.

Indeed, Harpham was armed with an assault rifle and handgun on March 9 when he drove away from his home to the fake car deal. As soon as he left, Harpham encountered what appeared to be road crews, but who were actually the FBI’s crack Hostage Rescue Team and members of the Seattle SWAT team.

After directing Harpham to drive across a bridge, an agent slammed the bucket of a backhoe on the back of Harpham’s car, breaking the window on impact. The machinery began pushing Harpham’s car across the bridge where more agents with assault rifles spilled out of a van and approached, according to court records.

“A great deal of care was taken to distract him and make sure he could not mount a violent resistence,” Harrill said.

Harrill credited local law enforcement and federal agents for the success of the investigation, as well as Spokane Police Sgts. Eric Olsen and Jason Hartman for rerouting the march after the backpack was discovered.

“I believe he placed the device, joined the march taking pictures of intended victims, and would have been in a position to save himself but watch – and potentially walk through – the carnage that would have resulted from detonation,” Harrill said.

15 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

greenlibertarian on December 20 at 10:11 a.m.
What the heck? Pull the jail logs and mail logs, what nutjob has been talking to this nutjob?
liveinfearoftheSPD on December 20 at 11:29 a.m.
Muse I am with you on the fact that they should put the backpack on him and set it off to prove to everyone it isn’t a bomb.
Shadedmuse on December 20 at 12:22 p.m.
Well I guess the judge told Jevin to go pound sand, I say strap him to the bomb now.
johnclarke on December 20 at 12:37 p.m.
Shadedmuse, I don’t particularly care for the Tea Party, but this guy had no connection to them, except the one in your head. Thankfully no one was hurt and this fellow will probably die in prison.
Also, you should be banned.
Spokane Indoctrination on December 20 at 1:21 p.m.
Lol wow… Shadedmoose is foaming at the mouth. He’s really mad, or confused, that there is an actual political party that isn’t bought and paid for by lobbyist.
Anyways… this is what you get. Racism has absolutely no part in our society today. He should’ve been born about 120 years ago.
zelda on December 20 at 1:29 p.m.
The story on KREM is incredible. According to the story, Harpham said at his sentencing that he built the device with the original intent of using it at an eye care center but changed his mind and placed it at the MLK Parade. He said that doing this was no different in his mind than protesting gay marriage.
The judge was a bit taken aback, to say the least.
There are some mighty convoluted twists and turns going on in that guy’s head.
The_Seer on December 20 at 3:54 p.m.
I sure hope Harpham communicates his views on race to fellow prisoners. I’m sure he’ll be a big hit.
Groups like those Harpham became involved with prey upon veterans.
Shadedmuse on December 20 at 3:57 p.m.
The tea-baggers are tools of the lobbiest like the us chamber Koch brothers and dick armey
The_Seer on December 20 at 4:00 p.m.
zelda: The eye care center was on the parade route and Harpham’s quotes to the judge about his plans now included in the article. I believe this story has been updated since your post.
Penswoman on December 20 at 8:24 p.m.
The fact Harpham intended to maim and kill people is supported by the evidence the bomb was going to do much more than provide a loud bang. The lead weights were shrapnel that would cut right through soft tissue. The rat poison coating would keep people bleeding. And, the distance would add momentum.
Apparently, the only reason Harpham did not detonate the bomb is that he was too far away to trigger it after the parade was rerouted.
Last, but not least, Harpham took ‘trophy’ photographs of intended victims, including African-American children and an elderly Jew. If the attack had succeeded, Harpham would have shown those pictures to fellow white supremacists and bragged about his ‘achievement.’
His effort at an exculpatory story is worse than saying nothing because it proves he is a bad liar as well as heartless.
Kivaari on December 20 at 9:51 p.m.
His lawyer and the “new wirtness” (retired ATF) did have a point about the device not being a bomb. It was more of an inefficient cannon. A crude low powered shotgun device. It is certainly a destructive device but it could not have been very powerful. If he used Pyrodex as stated elsewhere it would not build enough pressure and therefore not enough velocity to do much damage. Had he set the powder off with a blasting cap, he may have had a more efficient device. As described earlier this was a crude and ineffective weapon. Pyrodex is specifically designed to not have explosive power. Pyrodex is a flammable solid. Black powder is a low explosive and is harder to find because it is explosive and requires a special license to sell. A dealer records eqach sale in a log. Had it been black powder and purchased recently the ATF would have checked dealers in a wide radius of Spokane.
Kivaari on December 20 at 9:55 p.m.
Shadedmuse, Just what has the TEA Party have to do with this story? You seem obsessed with constitutionalists. Odd, since they are the people looking out for your individual rights, to allow you to make a fool of yourself.
liberal_in_right_wing_land on December 21 at 12:06 a.m.
Shademuse is out of line, this story had nothing to do with politics, but people have continued it…..so will I…..
Kivaari - seriously? thats what the tea baggers do. RIGHT. Seems to me they are looking out for their own interests while making sure everyone else gets screwed.
Also, lets remember, not all tea baggers are racists….HOWEVER, all racists are tea baggers.
Shadedmuse on December 21 at 9:07 a.m.
Tea-baggers are racist and dont you EVER forget that!! and tea-baggers dont know the constitution they just get their marching orders from FAUX Noise and Hare radio and lobbiest shills like Dick Armey Koch brothers and US chamber of Comerace.
drywitt99 on December 21 at 11:19 a.m.
Scummy racist bastard……..hope he enjoys the multiculturalism of the prison system.