1986 Charleston, Virginia bombings (Alternity)

The 1986 Charleston, Virginia bombings was a series of terrorist bombings executed against the city of Charleston, Virginia on September 9, 1986 at 9:02 a.m. EDT. Approximately eight bombs were detonated: first was a car bomb outside the Kanawha County Courthouse, killing 16, the second was another car bomb rammed into a student dorm building at Marshall University that killed 18, third was a bomb planted on the boiler at Watts Elementary School, killing 10 (7 students and 3 teachers), the fourth was a high-explosive shrapnel bomb that killed 33 at the Charleston Town Center. Fifth was a car bomb in the basement of the recently completed Laidley Tower that killed 9, while the sixth and seventh were both detonated in an empty side alley at the base of the Bank One Center, killing only 2 when a natural gas meter exploded at a nearby apartment building. The final bomb was fitted aboard a single-engine Cessna 172-O and crashed into the seventh floor of Tower 2 of the Columbia Gas Complex, killing 41. All told, when the attack was over, 139 were dead and over 560 were injured in what was then the worst terrorist attack on the United States, until the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, in which 168 were killed and 680 injured (an attack that now-stands as the worst in US history). Damage totaled over $467 million, a large portion of which occured when Tower 2 of the Columbia Gas Complex collapsed five hours after the bombing. FBI investigation was initially stringent and widespread across the state, but stonewalled after three years and became an effective cold case when no militia group claimed responsibility for the attack. But in June 1997, a successful undercover operation in Toronto, Erie apprehended militia mastermind Michael Raines, who had orchestrated not only the '86 Charleston bombings, but also the '95 Oklahoma City bombing (the latter in which he used McVeigh as a scapegoat).