Dark History - 15: Who gave the Philly Police a friggin’ BOMB?!: The 1985 MOVE Bombing

Episode Date: October 13, 2021

In 1985, after a chaotic shootout and an hours-long standoff, the Philadelphia Police dropped a bomb on the home of the MOVE organization, a black liberation and environmentalist group. What? Why? How? Today, Bailey is going to get into that, but just know it killed 11 people and destroyed 61 surrounding homes. It took 35 years for the city to even apologize.   Episode sponosrs include: Liquid IV, Public Goods, Wicked Clothes and ShipStation!  Learn more during the podcast about special offers!  For 10% off go to Wickedclothes.com and use promo code DARKHISTORY.

Hi, friends. How are you? I hope you're having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian, and I'd like to welcome you to the Dark History Library. That's right, baby. This is a safe space for all the curious cats out there who think like, hey, this history really is boring as it's saved in school? Oh, no, no. it is not. This is where we can learn all types of mysterious, dark, and dramatic stories that our teachers never taught us. No, they did not. So as I do with every dark history intro, I like to over explain how I got to the story we were talking about today. I do this because sometimes these stories are just really dark and honestly I just so want you to judge me like you know Bailey how did you get, how did you even find the story. So let me tell you how I found today's story. So I used to burn a bunch of CDs and you know I think a lot of us did and I would play all the greatest hits in my car. Fantastic. Well I found a bunch of them and had the best drive the other day,

so I'll just put in CD after CD after CD in, right? Well, one of them ends up getting stuck in the CD player. Fine, it happens, whatever. But on it, it had one of the greatest songs by Ludacris on it, and you may remember this bump and went something like this. Move, bitch. Get out of the way. Get out of way, bitch. Get out of the way. Move, bitch.

You know, great song. Super great. So I'm laying in bed and I have this song stuck in my noggin. And I'm like, you know what? First of all, we're the rest of the lyrics, you know? So I got to Google it and I Google move all caps, no breaks, lyrics. And because the Google algorithm knows me so well,

it's like, hey, did you mean move bombings? And I'm like, you know what, Google? No, but I'm very interested, you know, like what is this move bombing? I've never heard of this. So I click and I realize that there was a bombing that took place in the middle of the suburbs of Philadelphia and the weird part is Nobody has that no we haven't really talked about it like it's really bizarre Literally a whole block was bombed and I'm not even kidding when I say, for no reason other than, I don't even know.

I don't even know. So, thanks, Google. You're always ruining my day. Anyways, so let me share with you what was uncovered about the move bombing. Do do do do do do. No, she can't even cry. Let me open up the book to page. This page looks good. Great. I'm coming. Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do us super early. So anyways, okay, the story is pretty messed up. So let's start with what

move itself is. So move is actually a group that combined the ideas of black liberation with environmentalism. It was the 70s. So environmentalism was kind of like this new concept where they're like, hey, the earth is cool. Let's be nice to it, you know, but also the civil rights movement was happening So there were a lot of groups popping up at the time that were focused on black empowerment and move combined the ideas of both of these movements So it went much deeper than that Move considered itself a religion They believed fully that their leader was a divine figure and that his teachings were basically their Bible

So who is this mysterious leader you ask? Well, move was founded in 1972 by a man named John Africa. Okay, so actually everybody that was a part of move had the last name Africa. That was intentional. They all considered themselves family and they chose that name as a tribute to the idea that Africa is where all life began John Africa was actually born with a different name Which I'm not gonna use that because it's rude and he specifically asked us to call him John Africa So we're gonna keep it like that and not be disrespectful. Thank you so much But he had a pretty normal childhood

He was never really that good at school and he would end up dropping out at the age of 16. When he was 18 years old, he joined the military and went to fight in the Korean War where he says he saw all kinds of messed up stuff. This is probably where he got the idea to try and live a life of peace no matter what, because this violent business was just not for him. When he came back to the States, he settled down, he got married, and eventually moved to a little co-op community

where they kind of share everything and, like, pooled the resources to buy stuff. I guess this is like a pretty common thing around the 60s and 70s for people to create these little mini societies that share their money and food and stuff and just support each other in that way. And John Africa and his family were super into it, they loved it. Great. Well, John Africa would start to get into activism when his neighborhood was being bulldozed

to make room for university housing because they lived kind of close to the University of Pennsylvania. And he was like super against it, and he would protest it and start forming a bit of a following around his protest and his speeches. Over the next couple of years, he would really start to build up his following and get a reputation as an eccentric character of the neighborhood. Then around 1972, a friend would help him write down his ideas into a book called The Guide Lines that had all of his teachings and ideas about corruption, veganism, racism, and just how to

be an individual in a society that's becoming more technology-based. Honestly, sounds very unabomber of him. Do you remember the unabomber story? same shit, different story, but not really. Anyways, this led to him getting even more followers, and eventually they would all move into a house and use the guidelines that John Africa wrote as their rulebook for life and call themselves move. So you're probably thinking, okay, what is move? It's all caps, by the way, so that's from coming like yelling, move, even stand for. You're probably thinking, well, what is move? It's all caps, by the way, so that's from kind of like yelling, move, even stand for. You're probably thinking, well, it's like an acronym, right? Yeah, move.

Move over vehicles. Eeeeeee, you know? Yeah, anyways, it doesn't stand for that. It actually just means move, like move, get out the way. So kind of ties back to that ludicrous song, right? Not really, but like, kind of. Maybe that's why Google linked it together. Oh, sorry. Anyway, so it stands for nothing. It's just move. We're coming through because you're fucking up the earth and like, we're all charged up on granola and we're gonna change the world.

That's what it stands for. So move. Great. We love that. They're trying to save the world. That's what it stands for. So move. Great. We love them. They're trying to save the world. We like that. So what move would do is have non-violent demonstrations. Great. And since they were super into the environment, they were also really, really into animal rights. They were so into animal rights that each of their houses would have as many as 60 pets. that each of their houses would have as many as 60 pets. Oh yeah, like that's a lot of pets. I'm sure the house smells very good. I hope they had wood flooring, but it was like the 70s, so they probably didn't.

But at this point, it's pretty much not even pets, it's just like a glorified cat lady. Sorry, cat lady's out there, I love you. But anyway, a lot of their protests were at zoos or pet stores, as well as political rallies. It was all non-violent and they were anti-technology, anti-government, and anti-corporation. But most importantly, they believed big time in peace, like piece, not a piece, piece, you get it. Everything America gets off on, they were against. So, John Africa believed that people shouldn't just live

within the system, but also, they must fight the system. Yeah, great. And to him, the system was pollution, homelessness, drug addiction, racism, crime, war, basically everything bad that is part of the system created by the white people in power. And John Africa wanted move to live outside of that system. They didn't want to partake in like the normal world. They wanted to sustain their own way of life where they didn't have to follow the laws of the country. And we know how America feels about a revolution.

Well, do we? They don't like it if you don't know. Unless it's the white's dumping tea into a harbor. I guess it's not very cool. I actually want to mention a couple things about these guidelines that they use so often because it helps understand why shit would so South later on. I can cuss now because like we're far enough into that episode that YouTube daddy YouTube is like okay with it. He like went to bed already. Anyway the first is a belief that they had towards

self-defense. John Africa felt that it's everyone's right to defend themselves and if anyone comes onto their territory you have the right to kill them. Which honestly a lot of American laws already support this. John Africa put it like this. If you walk into a bear's cave and the bear rips your face off and eats your arms like little twinkies or something, whose fault is that? Now don't say the bear.

Don't say the bear. You walked in there. He's the bear. You're the bear. They're the twinkier arms. You get it. Okay, the other thing that John Africa believed was that just because something is legal doesn't make it right. His point is that slavery was legal, killing Native Americans to steal their land was done legally. Kind of. And a lot of sketchy shit was just done legally right so you have to use your own side of morals to decide what's right or wrong even if you

know something is right and it's technically illegal like did you know it's illegal to fill someone else's parking meter if it's empty did you know that yeah you probably you're probably a criminal about you are I'm pretty sure John Afrika was talking about something larger, more life and death, but I don't think the kindness should be against the law, right? Great, we solved everything. Now pack those up into a small box and put them in the back of your mind. Because later on, we're going to remember these two points when things start to get messy. Okay, packed away. Because one thing about move is that they're nonviolent,

but that they will stick to their beliefs no matter what. So how does a nonviolent organization go from kale and king war to armed shootouts with police? Well, that, my kitty cat friends is a complicated road. So put your crocs into sport mode because we're gonna go for a walk. I don't want to tell you a wild story. Do they have sport crocs? Anyways hold on really quick we need to pause for an ad break. The only in the 1970s the move members changed locations from their little co-op community to a house in West Philly.

People who lived there say that this was a really nice neighborhood. It was a family neighborhood where everybody knew each other. I've always wanted to live in a town like that. Where like everyone knows each other. Is that real? I want to live there. So this included move, who people at the time seemed to like a lot. At first.

They were allowed and lively bunch, but they mostly kept themselves in the early days. But move were also well known in the city for holding protests at this time. And by 1975, Philadelphia began directly targeting move by making a law that stated protesters couldn't organize in front of a government building. The wording of this law was so vague

that members of Move could really just be arrested anytime in public. So years later, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, they would later say like, hey, wait a minute, that technically isn't legal, but unfortunately, like this one didn't happen until something really bad happened the following year at the move house. Then they finally stepped up and were like, oh, whoops, we should fix that law. So move is out there protesting one day, and then a huge fight starts between them and the police. Now, it got so bad that a woman was hit over the head with a baton and she fell onto her newborn baby instantly killing them. Oh yeah.

And to make matters worse, the police would later deny that the baby even existed at all. And it wouldn't even be until years later that historians would discover that this even happened. Police messing with move was nothing new at this point. And one historian tells us that they were constantly being harassed for the crime of simply having guns while being black, but this was the moment that changed everything for move. And this is when things really began to change for John Africa. Before this,

the whole baronology about entering the cave and like tweaking arms and stuff, all that, those were just words. Now he believed it was time for a move to get serious. So in 1977, they did just that. They started getting on the roof of their house and pulling out like a little bullhorn and just speaking about all of their political beliefs, chanting political slogans at all hours of the night. Now on top of that, they would bring guns out and then like, you know, just kind of show everybody,

like yeah, and then they would be dressed in military clothes. So as you can imagine, the neighbors are like, looking out the windows and they're getting a little nervous. It was loud, it was constant, and it just changed the vibe from being like a family neighborhood to being a block. People just wanted to avoid at this point. Police were called multiple times for noise complaints and disturbing the peace. When there were crimes nearby, people would assume it was members

of move since they always had guns and they were always talking about fighting. And all this meant that the police had eyes on move at all times. Cop cars drive them by seeing who's coming and going. They're steakouts at all hours. And they just saw them up there with their guns, always yelling in their military uniforms. So now it was just kind of like, these are the worst neighbors ever. It was just causing all sorts of problems. I guess that's why we have HOA.

I hate HOA actually. The mayor of Philly at this time believed this group represented, quote, the worst of Philadelphia end quote. And that mayor's name was Frank Rizzo. Frankie, he used to be the city's police commissioner, and he really, he really loved the police force. And at this time, Philadelphia was famous for not exactly having like the greatest relationship

with its black and brown residents. I mean, America was just coming out of its civil rights phase and police relations were, you know, like tents, I'm going to say the least. Like there's one time when Frank was a cop, he arrested a group of black activists and had them strip search in public and then invited the press to take pictures of the menaked. Like that doesn't even serve a purpose other than flat out humiliation. And he obviously felt his power threatened by them and so he would be like extra overboard with them to prove a point. It's just disgusting really and he fucking sucks.

And on top of that, Frankie saw it to it that move members would be arrested all the time. Even for something as small as like a freaking parking ticket. So yeah, Frank Rizzo was a real douche canoe. I keep thinking about how his name sounds like a used car dealer. Like a Frank Rizzo. No, I actually think of Greece. Wasn't her name Rizzo? The bad girl? Yeah. Hmm. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Either way great name because you can kind of brand it as a douche bad name. It's very douchey. Frank Rizzo? Anyways, moving on. Sorry. Anyway, as you might guess, Frankie, Frankie Boy, he did not like the move house, okay? He fricking hated that house for no damn reason. And the police were constantly getting calls about them and Frank wanted to show them like, oh, I'm the boss, I'm going to show them who's boss.

So Franky would make the police do searches of the move house a lot of times without any warning. I mean, he called them searches, but there were a lot of people living there, including children, and it was honestly probably just terrifying for them, having police and right gear randomly showing up and busting down your door. For what? Rizzo? For what? Plus usually, usually, they want to find a damn thing. The thing is, move was actually open to leaving under a few conditions, okay? So they were like, hey, I'll leave. But here's a couple of rules we have. First, don't hurt our animals. Okay, that's fair.

Second, stop harassing our people. Super fair, great. And third, even if we leave this house, it needs to be kept as a sacred space, like a church of some kind for us. And the city was like, okay, you know, we're on board with this plan. But one of the things ever go according to plan, hmm? They didn't exactly hold up their end of the bargain. Of course they did it. Right off the bat, when the city started

removing the animals, guess what they did? They started killing them instead. I know, it's fucked up. I'm sorry. And move specifically asked them not to do that. So move announced that, you know what? Fuck you guys, we're not gonna leave. At this point, Frankie declares on live TV that his new strategy is basically to just starve them until they leave. So they cut off the house's water and set up barricades. Police were parked outside of the house, prepared to kick all of them out and move refuse to stand down.

Now this would last for hours. And then hours became days. And then freaking 15 months go by. Yeah, they held out for 15 months. I think they deserve to stay at this point, you guys. Mm-hmm. The standoff with the cops lasted for over a year, and it was just a concert rotation of guards

and police outside of the house. Honestly, it just seems like a goddamn waste of time for you police people. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, and the last two months of the standoff the police shut the entire block down and Blocked it off to prevent like supplies from going into the house like toilet paper and stuff. They need that, right? They cut it off things were escalating now

So the police cut off their water, okay, so they couldn't receive water They cut off the building's gas and electricity, and then at this point, they brought in a water cannon and aimed it at their house. For what? You know, they're just threatening them. They're playing chicken, and they're trying to see if move is gonna leave, and they still weren't ready

to leave. They're like, no. Mm-mm, we're not gonna move. Oh, move. I get it. Well, guess what? Frankie did not like that very much. Oh no, he did not.

So Frankie's sent the police all mounted up with their little gadgets and gizmos to evict the move members by force. And what happens next? Honestly, it's a little fuzzy because the story changes depending on who you ask. Yeah, of course. So I'll just tell you what everyone says and let you decide. But let's pause for a nap break first. Today's episode is brought to you by public. So dozens of police break into the house, but at this point, move had already sent everyone to the basement to hide. So police got those big ass water cannons attached

to trucks, and they smashed the windows to the house and tried to flood the basement so everyone would have to get out. When that didn't work, which reminds you, like, I don't know how that didn't work, but it didn't work, police officers decided to approach the house on foot, right? And they could see move members

like through the windows and the basement. So police say that the move members started shooting from the basement. So police start shooting back. Now police say move shot first, but move says they never shot at all. All we know is that there was some shooting and one police officer was shot in the back

of the neck and died. Now the police claimed that the officer was murdered in cold blood by move. But move says to this day that it would have been impossible for them to have killed the officer because he was shot in the back of the neck and the officer was actually walking towards the building. So how could they have shot him in the back of the neck? You know? I don't know.

What move says happened is that a fellow police officer accidentally shot him. But no matter what the true story is, this directly led to move surrendering, with nine of the members being arrested and sent to prison for life. For life. And their house was bulldozed immediately after they left. Like the same day, they waited like seconds after they were arrested and they got the bulldozer out and they're like, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa it. Thanks. Problem solved, I guess. Now, all of this nonsense and we haven't gotten to the bombing, which is like the main part of the story. Now you might be wondering, like, okay, why am I telling you about all this, like, long standoff and stuff? Well,

because, shush him out, this is my show, first of all. And this is the part in the story where, well, from this point on, the police just had it out for move. Okay? And they believed move had killed one of their own and they wanted revenge. In my personal opinion, I don't know, but it kind of seems that way. So they would get that revenge in just a few short years in the form of a bomb. So after the house was bulldozed, the members of move that did not go to jail, they relocated to a middle-class black neighborhood known as Cobb's Creek Park in Philadelphia. And if you thought the last neighborhood sounded nice at first, well, this place must have seemed like heaven to move.

People from the neighborhood said it was a very peaceful block. Everybody knew each other. There were like trees along the streets where kids could just play and then they would have big cookouts. With the whole freaking block, okay? It just seemed like one big, safe, close-knit family. But that didn't change that this is the 80s, and race relations were tense between black Americans and police. The police were incredibly aggressive towards black residents and because the mayor remember the uh Frankie Rizzo guy him. He was up for re-election. He would literally

this is no joke. He would literally tell voters to quote, vote white. Yeah, he was an asshole. And when move found a home in Cobb's Creek, they immediately started drawing attention. So neighbors started complaining that the move house was infested with rats and roaches. And some of them even said that move members were beating up people in broad daylight.

They also boarded up their windows and doors, which honestly, it just wasn't a good look, and it made their house stick out even worse. On top of this, move had apparently reinforced their roof with steel, like it was some sort of bunker. Yeah, so it was just kinda looking like they were preparing for battle. And after the standoff back in 1978, the police commissioner stated that their new policy

with move was more of a hands-off approach. Like sure, they would investigate crimes and stuff, but they were not going to have another 15-month standoff on a nay. They did not have the time for that. And by the mid-80s, there was a new mayor in town. The first black mayor of Philly, and his name was Woodrow Wilson Good. But he preferred to go by Wilson.

I wonder if his wife's name was Edeth. Eh? Eh, the quince hits. Now, move was quite a fan of Mr. Wilson Good. They considered him an ally. This is because, back before he was mayor, he was a city employee who spoke with Move often about getting their members released from prison after the 1978 standoff. Move had been saying that their nine family

members didn't deserve to a life sentence in prison for killing of that police officer, you know, because they couldn't even prove that it was them the first place. Also, there is no way nine people shot that guy with one bullet. I think if we do math, that doesn't make sense. And Wilson good, he agreed with them. So great, they're like, he's on our side, we love him, yay. You know, move with later, say that Wilson helped them meet with lawyers who thought there was a case for getting

them out of jail. So when Wilson talked about running for mayor, move was like, book, yeah, we support it. And they wanted to have a friend in the city government. Wilson promised them that he could help them in any way he could, and honestly, move just felt they could trust him to be sympathetic to the Black Liberation Movement since he himself was African-American. But, of course, when Wilson got elected mayor, he basically ghosted them. Oh yes. And not only did he not help move release its members, he classified the group as a terrorist organization. Ah!

Betrayed! They sure were. But this isn't his final act of betrayal. Oh, nae, nae. Because after seven years of living in this neighborhood, the complaints were piling up and Wilson Good now gave police the permission they needed to evict move again. Now we saw how this last eviction attempt went. Remember we just talked about it not that long ago. Great. And the members of move had said that they were never willing to give

into the police. Okay. And they were so ingrained in their beliefs, they were willing to die for the cause. You were not moving them. Let's go to an ad break really quick, okay? BRB, sorry about that. Hi, welcome back. It's Mother's Day now. Did you know? No, it's May 12, 1985 in Philadelphia. People are giving their mom a shoulder massage, visiting grandma, coming back from church, whatever they do, you know. Until suddenly, people started hearing knocks at their doors.

Knock, knock, knock, who's there? It's the police, hi. And they're saying that everyone needs to leave the neighborhood right now. Well, why, you know, why, why, hello, it's Mother's Day. Why? You know, why? Why, why, hello, it's Mother's Day. The police were like, oh, we're just going to do some light investigating around the movehouse. We want to make sure that everyone's safe and it's clear out here.

You know, no big deal. Because it's not like they were going to say like, well, we're going to bomb the shootout this place, get the fuck out of your house. And people probably remember the violent shootout and standoff from just a few years ago. So people just grabbed their stuff and they bounced. BRB. So police set up barricades around six whole blocks surrounding the move house so people could not enter the street that move lived on. So 500 cops set up outside of the house again for what we don't really even freaking know.

And they had the SWAT team, snipers, and even some big ass guns mainly used for combat. Okay, they even brought a machine gun meant for taking down tanks. Tanks. What are they doing with that in a freaking suburb like housing area? We don't know.

Now, what's absolutely most crazy about all of this is that what they were doing was legal. There's nothing illegal about what they were doing. Now, there was a state police helicopter hovering up above, and the cops even shut off the water and electricity for the whole block. I mean, this is scary. At some point, something bad is going to happen. And if we were in that house, I mean, come on, we some point something bad is going to happen. And if we were in that house, I mean, come on, we'd be shitting our pants. I'm sure everyone in the house was terrified. They're surrounded.

They cannot go anywhere. And they have a helicopter just like up above tanks. What are they supposed to do? Now you should know that there were about 13 people in the house at this time. There were six kids and seven adults, including John Africa. They were all probably so freaking terrified. I mean, there's a small army outside with straight up military equipment just pointed their way. So they ended up staying out there well into the night and at 5 a.m. the next morning, the commissioner got a bullhorn

to talk to them, basically demanding that they have to get out of their house. You live in America, you have to follow our rules, you know? Oh no, he literally said that. This is America, you have to follow the rules. So, uh, move got on their bullhorn, and they demanded that their family members be released from prison. Because remember, they still had their nine family members in prison, even though Mayor Good promised to release them. But they were just holding them accountable, you know? Well, Mayor Good wasn't there that day, and the police were like, yeah,

we don't know anything about that situation, so you needed a leave or we're gonna shoot you. And reporters say that move responded by yelling all kinds of threats back at the police, as one probably would in that situation. And this is when something really insane started to happen. Police started firing all those big ass guns at the move house. Now remember, this is all happening in a major US city in Frickid Broad daylight. Police would later say that move started shooting at them first

and they were just responding and protecting themselves from move. But move says they never even fired at the police. So apparently the cops fired so many bullets that they had to call the police headquarters to get more. Over 10,000 rounds were let off in less than 90 minutes. It's like 7am, okay? They haven't even had their breakfast burritos yet, okay? And the police are basically out war with move. Over what? We don't know. They start firing a water cannon into the basement of the house, like they did in the standoff seven years earlier. Just to try to flood move out.

Bitches. And then suddenly, the gunfire stopped. Move still hadn't left, and the mayor called off most of the police, aside from a few posted up outside of the move house. So it's like, thanks, mayor. You kind of stepped in a little too late though. Cops left the barricades up and still didn't let people back into their homes. The street was basically empty and it became eerily quiet for like 10 hours. Witnesses at this time described the calm as completely unnerving, just pure, uncomfortable silence, crickets.

And then, just after 5 p.m., that calm was disrupted when the helicopter from earlier returned, and a man inside the helicopter leaned out and dropped something from the side. And what he dropped was a bomb, a full-blown real bomb. Oh yes. Now it was called a satchel bomb. And for those of you who aren't weapon experts like me, I'm not high. A satchel

bomb is something used during war that is stronger than dynamite. It's intended to blow up mountains. Oh yeah, mountains, not family homes. I know, because when I heard like, Satchel Obama was thinking, oh my god, like a Satchel purse, is that what do we get the name from? It has nothing to do with that though, but let me tell you this,

this is a little side note, a little fun fact, because you're never gonna believe this, okay? One of the ingredients of a Satchel bomb is called Tovix. And guess who makes it? guess plot fucking twist our friends over at dupont they want to kill us or something don't they? where are they up to over there? why are they always involved in these stories? hello dupont!, as soon as the bomb was dropped, fire trucks came in and started spraying the house down,

but newspapers would later say that fire trucks were just a distraction to allow for a second attack. The helicopter came back, and the officer inside dropped another bomb. Another bomb, god damn it. And this time he aimed for the metal bunker on top of the house. Now the bomb it landed and debris flew everywhere. This bomb it started a fire that quickly spread through the Cobb's Creek neighborhood. And the crazy part is that the police just told fire fighters to just let it burn. They would later claim that it was because they heard loud pops coming from the bombed house,

and they couldn't tell if those pops were just glass exploding in the fire or gunshots. So they're like, just let it burn. Whatevs. This fire would end up destroying two entire city blocks, burning 61 houses, and leaving over 250 people homeless. For what? I know, I don't know. Move said that they had tried to escape, but police would shoot at them as they ran away. Police even admitted that they could see shadowy figures moving in the fire, but they were shooting at them because like, they the fire, but they were shooting at them because they weren't sure if they were going to attack them or not.

The shadows? They might attack us, so let's just shoot them first. At least one child was for sure killed by the gunfire, and move still claims to the stay that several of the other people who died were killed by it too. 11 of the 13 move members in the house died during the bombing, including founder John Africa. The only survivors were a woman named Ramona Africa and a child named Bertie Africa.

They escaped through a basement window, and as soon as the police found them, Ramona Africa was arrested for riot and conspiracy, and would later be sentenced to seven years in prison. No testimony was given at her trial that said she ever even held or fired a weapon. And not really sure how that would lead to a prison sentence, but I guess since they had already killed everyone else, they just could do whatever the hell they wanted.

Yeah, lots of people just died and now we're going to take an ad break. The city would later set up the investigation into the bombing and how it all happened. They wanted to get to the bottom of whether the police were justified and even attacking the house in the first place, and I think we can agree that the answer would be no. After all, the city thought move was a terrorist organization, so the assumption was that move had a lot of weapons at the house. But after a long investigation, they were able to confirm that there were no automatic weapons, machine guns, or explosives in the house. The committee in charge of the investigation were mad and fast-tracked the case big time. I mean, this went all the way to the top babe.

And the case went before a grand jury who concluded that actually nobody should be charged for this. God damn it. I know. How? What? Why? You guys, I don't know. How? What? Why? You guys, I don't know. Apparently the grand jury claimed that this is because

uh, the deaths were accidental. Yeah, they accidentally dropped a bomb and they accidentally blew up a house. It was all accident. Their reasoning for not charging anybody involved was that they died in the fire after the bombing. So it wasn't actually the bombs that killed them. It was whatever happened afterwards. Anyways, you don't just like bomb citizens. I think we can all agree on that, right? Great. There were so many other ways to get into that house besides dropping a frickin' bomb on them, especially when they weren't even sure if there were weapons in the house in the first place. I wonder if they even just tried knocking. Hello, did they knock?

Ding dong. Doorbell? Did they call? Anything? There have been so many experts since the ruling that have come for to say that the deaths were in no way accidental, and that those officers should have been charged. But to this day, not one person has been charged or even held accountable. So in the middle of all of this, I'm sure you've got a lot of questions.

Koso do I. How the fuck did the Philadelphia police legally get their hands on a bomb meant to be used in a war zone? I think that's a fair question, ask, right? Well, the answer my friends, I guess, is pretty simple, because the military said it was okay. The end. Now, I'm just kidding. The Philly Police uses special program that none other than our pal, President Ronald Reagan came up with that allowed local police forces to get legit military stuff. So remember in the episode we did about our girl cocaine? Good times, you know. And how Ronald Reagan thought of himself as like a man who is tuth-uncrime. Well, Bathkin in 1981, his administration

passed something known as the Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Act. That's a very long name. It's very complicated, but it's honestly easy to explain. This act tore down the walls between cops and the military, making it so cops anywhere in America could get tanks, grenade launchers, or machine guns just because they wanted them.

Great. So they could basically just walk into military bases and be like, hello, sir, I'll take one tank please. Missiles? Yes, I'll take one of those too. And what's your bomb of the day? Hmm, that sounds good, I'll take the lot. Technically, it was supposed to be excess from the military,

like the things they didn't need, but some of the things that the police forces get their hands on is like brand new and very dangerous. Police aren't trained to use bombs. They're trained to use, like, arrest thieves. Right? I don't know. It's a very different skill set. What do we do in you guys?

What is this? But like this wasn't new for a police in America. The militarization of police had been on the rise for decades at this point because of everything from anti-war protests to the civil rights movement. Police felt that they needed stronger weapons and equipment to be more effective. And Reagan, well, he was like, yeah, yeah. And it is quest to be as tough on crime as possible. Reagan just beefed it up in a way that we still see today. Thousands of law enforcement agencies have used this program today to get everything from night vision goggles to grenade launchers. But honestly, I mean, like the night vision goggles, I kind of get it. Like those are pretty cool. I kind of want some. Wouldn't it be fun if we all got

them and like we just like had a little night, like night vision, goggle night, and we just played. It'll be fun. Right? Anyways, so what happened with move on the two survivors is what you're probably wondering. Well, Ramona Africa, she went to prison for seven years. For what? Again, we don't know. And the kid, Birdie Africa, went to live with his father who was not part of move. Another thing to remember is that there were still 9 members of move imprisoned during the bombing. Well, as of 2019, they've all been released.

In 1996, some of the survivors of the move bombing, they got 1.5 million dollars from the city of Philadelphia. This was a way that they finally got something from the city acknowledging that they, hmm, fucked up. I mean, what kind of money doesn't fix anything, you guys? Mine does not bring lives back. The city didn't really apologize up until 2020, which is something I don't know, great. Like, what do they want on an applause? No, no, bad.

One thing about Wilson good to this day he has always claimed that he was unaware the police were going to bomb move. He was like yeah kick him out, sure. But Wilson has always said that he regrets what happened on May 13, 1985. Out of everybody involved, he is probably the only person to be held accountable in any way for the bombing, even if it's just him himself holding himself accountable. So let's talk about the rebuilding now.

So the city basically leveled like two whole blocks and displaced hundreds of people. The immediately started to rebuild, and the city's, I'm laughing because the city screwed that up too, okay? People were able to start moving in just a few years after the bombing, but after 10 years, the houses started falling apart again.

Yeah, like they were made of sand or something. So they investigated further, and it turns out the guy that they hired to fix everything was using cheap, flimsy materials to rebuild the houses so that he could steal all of the extra money he was saving from the city. I'm laughing because it doesn't ever end. Does it ever end?

He would go to prison for that. Great somebody was held accountable for something for once. Well, what now? You know, because these houses are unlivable now and it's the city's fault. Well, the city ended up offering $150,000 to every household on that block to relocate in the year 2000. Now this was almost 15 years after the bombing. As of 2018, they built some new houses that are super nice and supposed to be way better. But I'm sure after we wait for 10 years, you know, I'm sure they're going to issue another apology. We'll see. Fingers crossed. you know, I'm sure they're gonna issue another apology. We'll see. Fingers crossed. So to recap, they went in with the intention of evicting one house in 1985, but

instead they destroyed 61 houses and killed 11 people. Only in 2018, 33 years later, did they finally get their shit together to correctly build them again? And get this. Now nobody from the neighborhood can even afford to live in them. Yeah, really seems like there was probably a better option somewhere in there. Way to go today, Philadelphia, you did it! You did it! You really are the high of America.

But I mean, when you think about it, yes, move may have been a bad neighbor. But we are supposed to have a process for how these things are done. And at no point in the process, is there a bomb involved? And you're probably thinking about like this process that I'm mentioning right now that we're all supposed to stick to, and makes you wonder, why the hell do those people have to go into all that jail time? Crickets. Exactly. We got no answers here, huh? Great. After the bombing and the shootout and the aftermath of it all, why didn't their cases get reviewed sooner? Huh? I'm sure it's making you mad,

just thinking about this. That's where the story really ends. I don't know just because someone lives a different way than you or has a separate hard to understand set of beliefs, you would think it doesn't mean that their life is any less valuable, right? But on that day in 1985 the Philadelphia police and government decided that 13 lives were expendable because they were getting too impatient. They decided to do something they fully knew would put human lives in immediate danger. They had a lot of time to think about what they were doing and maybe even stop.

Because step one, they had to get a bomb. Right? Step two, they had to load the bomb into a helicopter so they could have stopped doing this, right? Someone had to put gas in that helicopter. Someone in city hall had to give the green light, like, yeah, fucking do it. Someone had to throw that bomb out of the friggin helicopter. They had many chances to stop drop and roll and just not do it. It's a little bit ironic how, while trying to protect society, they became what they claim to be protecting us from. Period.

Mm. What a gross story, huh? Now, the biggest difference between what happened in Cobb's Creek Park in 1985 and what we see in our screens today in places like Ferguson is how people are able to spread information quickly. Now back then this was treated like a local thing and it was quickly just kind of like swept under the rug. But if police dropped a bomb on its citizens today, I mean there'd probably be thousands of videos, hashtags and protests all around the country with a minute. At least I'd hope.

I'd hope. The only reason we don't know about the move bombing today is because nobody wanted us to find out about it. Now ain't that some shit. Well everyone, thank you for learning with me today. Remember, don't be afraid to ask questions. Even random questions, it may lead you down a rabbit hole and you get to learn something new. I'd love to hear your guys' reactions or thoughts on this story, so make sure to use the hashtag dark history over on social media so I can see what you guys are saying.

Join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs, and also catch my murder mystery and makeup which drops every Monday. I love and appreciate you guys so much. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. You make good choices and I'll be talking to you next week. Goodbye! Dark History is an audio boom of original. That's right, bitch. This podcast is executive produced by Meet, Bailey Sarian, Chelsea Durgan from Sash Management, Kimberly Jacobs, and Justin Cummins from Wheelhouse DNA. Produced by Lexi Kiven, Derriol Kriston,

Spencer Strasmoor, and Claire Turner. Research provided by Tisha Dunston. Our writers are Jed Bookout, Michael Obersd, Joey Scavuzzo, and me, Bailey Sarian. Today's historical consultant, we want to thank Professor Richard Kent Evans. And me again, I am your host, Bailey Sarian. Goodbye.