Army of God
30:16 Share

Every sandwich has bread. Every burger has a bun. But these warm, golden, smooth steamed buns? These are special. Reserved for the very best. The Filet-O-Fish. And you. You can have them too. For a limited time, the classic Filet-O-Fish you love is joining your McDonald's favorites on the 2 for $3.99 menu. Limited time only. Price and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Single item at regular price. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba.

Plug in a Hyundai EV and the extraordinary happens.

From the charge time and range in the Ioniq 5 and 6 to the adventurous spirit of the Kona Electric to the 601 horsepower Ioniq 5N, Hyundai EVs make the extraordinary electrifying. There's joy in every journey. EPA estimated 303 mile driving range for 2024 Ioniq 5 SE SEL Limited Rear Wheel Drive and 361 mile driving range for 2024 Ioniq 6 SE Long Range Rear Wheel Drive with fully charged battery. Actual range may vary. Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details.

Flashpoint is released weekly and brought to you absolutely free. But for ad-free listening, early access, and exclusive bonuses, subscribe to Tenderfoot Plus at tenderfootplus.com or on Apple Podcasts. You're listening to Flashpoint, a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with iHeartMedia. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the individuals participating in the podcast.

This podcast also contains subject matter which may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. Oh, I loved Atlanta. I always knew I'd probably move here. And the community was strong. Men and women, black and white and transgender. And it was always the dream of Bev and me to have a community nightclub that was for everyone. They called it the Other Side Lounge.

It was known as a lesbian bar, but as Dana Ford just said, it was a bar for anyone, for everyone. Inside, outside, other side. People would wander in, some of them I didn't even know. Ellen DeGeneres, I guess at some time, Steve Martin. It was a big spot. A lot of things were happening. As you know now, back at the beginning of '97, I'm not even born yet. If the Sandy Springs Abortion Clinic hadn't been bombed, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't exist.

I've been picking at these threads for as long as I can remember. And this podcast is my reckoning, my coming to terms with the devil that made me. But back in 97, Dana Ford and her partner Beverly had planted a pretty original flag with the other side lounge. It was their personal love letter to the city of Atlanta, a safe haven for free expression. But there's two sides to that coin. And the truth is, a place like that, it's a refuge for lots of people. But for others, it's a target. Episode 3.

Army of God. You know, back then you still had to congregate together. You know, you still had to be careful when you walk the streets and the politics were changing. And when they were trying to get don't ask, don't tell and get people who were able to serve in the military and it was across the board looking for rights. And, you know, we'd have people vandalize our property. Had eggs thrown at me and bottles thrown at me and my car keyed and our locks super glued and

People would come through the parking lot and vandalize the cars. Or they, one time there was a homicide outline of like a dead body on our stoop. We'd get calls where, you know, they're threatening rape or harm or assault. And, you know, you had to be careful and you had to be aware and the community needed to stick together. ♪

It was a hard-fought period to get to where we got with gay marriage and these small little victories. But it starts at the community level, and that's why Bev and I were active and active in human rights and people who knew who we were downtown. And that was part of our job. We weren't just slinging drinks and making money. We wanted to make a change. Most people are creatures of habit. They don't like change.

And some folks, they hate it. "Reported by Brian Williams." "Good evening, the city of Atlanta might have a big problem on its hands again..." It's the night of February 21st, 1997. Barely a month has passed since the bombing at the Sandy Springs abortion clinic, and still no leads. But trouble waits for no one. And with the echoes of those blasts still lingering in the air, another bomb goes off in Atlanta. "Suddenly Atlanta's mayor thinks his city might be in the sights of what he calls a deranged killer."

Take me through when you first heard news of the bomb. You didn't think it was a bomb, did you? I knew something was detonated. I asked my manager, I said, what is it? You said something blew up. Is it like an M-80? Is it, you know, what do you mean blew up? He goes, I have no idea. I went 80 miles an hour down Peachtree Hills Avenue and was at the club in a matter of minutes. I pulled up in the front and

And then I went inside just to make an assessment of what had happened. I saw about four or five flashlights flicking around in the bushes on the back of the building, about two or three on the side, knowing it's police officers. I walk in. There was a person sitting on a bar stool being treated by a medic. And they had a wound on their back. So I thought, okay, that person obviously is well enough to be sitting on a stool.

And I kept on going. And I saw, as soon as I turned the corner, basically someone bleeding out on the floor and people frantically working on them. And then I saw a woman covered in blood on the phone. She was taking orders. Somebody was explaining to her what she needed to do. And I kept walking. And the DJ was still in the booth. The bartender was still behind the small bar. And so I went out the patio door and assessed what was going on.

And that's when the tin roof that we had was just shredded. And everything on the elevated deck that we had was totally blown around in speakers. So I could tell it was something huge, something significant. And then there was this fine particulate dust on the floor, which now I understand probably came from the rock wall. But it blew all the way in like a cloud. And there was a single young cop standing there, kind of dazed. And I said, so what do you think?

And he said, I think it's a bomb. After the twin bombs at the Sandy Springs Clinic, law enforcement changed their approach to these situations. Veteran GBI agent Charles Stone was early on the scene. We had had training sessions then to APD and beat officers and detectives. Saying, if you get a call of an explosion or anything like that, be on your P's and Q's and look for damn secondary devices. Well, they did the very right thing.

Once again, not one bomb, but two, which meant the threat was not over. A second device was just sitting there, waiting to explode. And it could happen any minute, any second, with dozens of innocent people in its path. And nobody knew how much time they had. And I asked for the officer on duty. I said, so what do we need to do?

And she said, "We think we found a second device." And that second device was about 25 feet or so from the door. And she said, "Well, we need to get the people out of there." I said, "How are we going to do that?" She said, "They can't run and they can't know that's there."

So I went inside and kind of gathered everybody together. I changed my disposition so they wouldn't be frightened. I said, well, you know, guys, we got to get the heck out of here, kind of like that. And people were trying to down their drinks. I said, no, no, no, don't drown them. Just take them with you. And they hid them under their coats. I go, that's a good idea. You know, anything to kind of keep them calm. I do know, though, my bartender, when I said, just shut the registers and walk away, they looked at me because they know I never leave money in a register. Yeah.

And I calmed him down. I said, "It's cops. They're not going to steal it. Just leave it there." None of them knew that there was a bomb. None of them. And I knew it was getting close in my gut because of the abortion clinic. I knew. In my mind, a clock had started. And that's why I said, "We've got to get these people out of here." They called in the bomb squad with a robot, and the robot went to defuse it. U.S. Attorney Ken Alexander, who was already investigating the two other Atlanta bombings, was also in the parking lot.

You can actually defuse bombs by shooting these high-powered water guns into them. And as they did it, the bomb dropped on the pavement and everybody thought it was going to explode. And it didn't. Then they started to shoot it. The bomb ended up exploding. I distinctly remember the valet sign that was riddled with what looked like bullets, but as with Sandy Springs, remarkably, nobody was killed. A police robot shot it with a stream of water about 2 this morning, and it exploded.

Authorities were investigating another bombing at the same club when they found the backpack. And it was really after that bomb, when we took a look forensically at the components of the bomb and started to compare, that there was really little doubt that we were dealing with the same bomber, we were dealing with a serial bomber. The bomb that went off in Atlanta's Centennial Park last July also was placed in a backpack.

Nails were used in that bomb, as well as in the second of two bombs that exploded last month at an Atlanta clinic where abortions are performed. - Oh my God. - Law enforcement was now clearly dealing with a serial bomber. The theories and suspicions from Sandy Springs were finding purchase with this new evidence. But back in '97, the term "serial bomber" wasn't a very well-known thing. Even the forensic science surrounding a serial bomber was very much just getting started.

The information gathering, the safety protocols, the communication protocols, the technology, the language and how it seeped into the culture. These things were just figuring themselves out. Add to the fact that there were five massive bureaucratic agencies involved. And this was a lot for anyone to manage. But new evidence would begin to fit this story into a bigger picture. One with a dark history and an even darker future.

There are times where high standards are vital. For example, your football team wouldn't let just anyone start a quarterback. And should you let just anyone give you guidance? We don't think so. In fact, at California Psychics, 98% of the psychics who apply to work with us don't make the grade.

You see, we come from the home of free spirits and open minds. We're not short of spiritual believers or big dreamers. It's why we know better than anyone what makes a good psychic. California Psychics connects you with the very best, so we can guarantee if your reading isn't life-changing, it's free. Download the app or connect with us at CaliforniaPsychics.com. Right now, new customers receive 20 minutes for just $20.

So, there's never been a better time to give our services a try. That sounds like a touchdown to me. Experience the joy of certainty.

California psychics. $5,000. That's the average amount of money people in the U.S. are now spending on gas in a year. Five grand. That's crazy. If you drive, you have to download Upside, the free app that gives you cash back every time you get gas. That's right. You can earn real cash back with Upside just by buying the gas you're already buying. You can literally start earning cash back today. I use Upside every day.

every time I fill up and I've already made around two three hundred dollars you're putting gas in your car anyway why not get real cash back if you like free money download upside I'm saving the cash I earn from using upside to help pay for a vacation later this year download the free upside app now to earn cash back every time you buy gas use promo code travel to get an

extra 25 cents per gallon on your first tank you can cash out anytime right to your bank paypal or a gift card for amazon and other brands just download the free upside app and use promo code travel for a 25 cents per gallon bonus on your first tank that's code travel for a 25 cents per gallon bonus

The bombings in Sandy Springs and Midtown were carried out by units of the Army of God. The abortion was the target of the first device. The murder of 3.5 million children every year will not be tolerated. Those who participate in any way in the murder of children may be targeted for attack. The attack therefore serves as a warning. Anyone in or around facilities that murder children may become victims of retribution.

A very specific point of view was claiming responsibility now and sending handwritten letters to news outlets and federal authorities. They called themselves the Army of God. The letters were riddled with spelling and grammar errors, but they were deadly serious. And for as unprofessional as the letter may have read to most in the media, it was designed to put the fear of God in you. And that's exactly what it did.

The second device was aimed at agents of the so-called federal government, i.e. ATF, FBI, Marshals, etc. We declare and will wage total war on the ungodly communist regime in New York and your legislative bureaucratic lackey.

in Washington. It is you who are responsible and preside over the murder of children and issue the policy of ungodly perversion that's destroying our people. We will target all facilities and personnel of the federal government. The attack in Midtown was aimed at the sodomite bar.

Generally, a 40-minute warning will be given.

To confirm the authenticity of the warning, a code will be given with the warning statement. The code for our unit is 41993. Death to the New World Order. The analysts said, first, who I was writing this was really angry just because of the way they were bearing down. That was like, it's written by a bomber. That's kind of a given. They're going to be an angry person. But second, they said they were trying to disguise the writing.

The thing that jumped out at everybody, though, which was chilling, was the letters were signed off with a code, which was the date of Waco. Waco, Texas, April 19th, 1993. This was the day when state and federal authorities laid siege to a religious compound led by cult leader David Koresh. He and his followers had been a standoff with law enforcement for nearly two months.

It was chilling to see that date, and it was also a major clue that whoever did this bombing wasn't necessarily driven by abortion, but there was something deeper with this anti-government bent relating to Waco and perhaps Ruby Ridge. Remember this date, April 19th. We'll dig into that later.

But it was here, in this moment, that the authorities first picked up on a deeply menacing and unexpected scent. One that connected to a very dark piece of American history. But they still didn't have any idea who was actually planting the bombs. So our focus started going in that direction a bit more as we decided this might be

Somebody really trying to almost throw us off track by bombing a largely gay and lesbian nightclub and bombing an abortion clinic because what's really afoot here is somebody who's very much against

the government, World War, that sort of thing, and the same sort of things that drove a lot of people who used Waco as their personal wake-up call to, and a call to arms against the U.S. Sources close to the investigation tell NBC News there are differences in those five bombs, too. Nails used for shrapnel were longer this time, and the backpack was described as ratty.

You know, we have kids, so we had the car seats in the back. And the shrapnel, they were like bullets. I mean, they just pierced everything. I know on the patio, it literally sliced like a butter knife through everything.

a full section of tin roof that was probably about 20 feet long. And so it was embedded in the trunk and there was glass shattered all through the car seats. And it's a little jarring to see that when they're handing your baby seats back and apologizing that they couldn't get all the glass out of it. So the children's car seats in Dana and Bev's car were riddled with shrapnel. The nursery at Sandy Springs, the actual crib where Rob Sadler's twin toddlers napped, was destroyed, the ceiling collapsing on top of it, crushing it.

This bomber is leaving quite a trail of collateral damage, not to mention the emotional trauma. The death threats that we subsequently received for years threatened the lives of our kids. Only certain people could touch the mail. We had to write down who handled it. We had to put it in special envelopes. We had to call the FBI. And this went on for years. For a while, all of Dana and Bev's mail was passed on to the FBI for filtering.

To this day, Dana doesn't know the exact contents of this hate mail. But she knew that they contained threats to both the club and her family. This is another example of one of those protocol things law enforcement hadn't quite figured out yet. So what was the solution? A family couldn't open their own mail for three years. The last one we received was 2001.

You know, the FBI, the reassurance they gave us was if they really want to hurt you, they're not going to warn you about it. So you don't have to worry about the ones that threaten you. It's like that's not reassuring when you're staring at your children at the dinner table thinking, well, today I received a threat that someone's going to kill you and there's not much I can do about it. It was a struggle. After the bombing, with all the stress we were under, I would get sick, literally get sick going in.

And you had to hide it. You can't let people know that you're having anxiety attacks and you're going into the restroom and vomiting. And I know it sounds horrible, but that's part of what the stress was. And I have to tell you, after I got that last death threat, I turned to Bev and I said, I'm done. We closed in 2001. And that wasn't the only fallout. Bev and I don't really have conversations. We broke up about a year ago.

And the bombing had its effects. It wiped out our savings. And, you know, we have children approaching high school, trying to get them into college. She had an opportunity to work in Florida. You know, even a few months before we broke up, she said something about the bombing and what she recalls as my response to it. So I don't think it ever left her. I don't think she ever resolved it. Some consequences are unintentional, unanticipated.

They aren't engineered to happen by design. Others are more purposeful, blatant, even deliberate. There are times where high standards are vital. For example, your football team wouldn't let just anyone start a quarterback. And should you let just anyone give you guidance? We don't think so. In fact, at California Psychics, 98% of the psychics who apply to work with us don't make the grade.

You see, we come from the home of free spirits and open minds. We're not short of spiritual believers or big dreamers. It's why we know better than anyone what makes a good psychic. California Psychics connects you with the very best, so we can guarantee if your reading isn't life-changing, it's free. Download the app or connect with us at CaliforniaPsychics.com. Right now, new customers receive 20 minutes for just $20.

So, there's never been a better time to give our services a try. That sounds like a touchdown to me. Experience the joy of certainty.

California psychics. $5,000. That's the average amount of money people in the U.S. are now spending on gas in a year. Five grand. That's crazy. If you drive, you have to download Upside, the free app that gives you cash back every time you get gas. That's right. You can earn real cash back with Upside just by buying the gas you're already buying. You can literally start earning cash back today. I use Upside every time I fill up and I've

already made around two three hundred dollars you're putting gas in your car anyway why not get real cash back if you like free money download upside I'm saving the cash I earn from using upside to help pay for a vacation later this year download the free upside app now to earn cash back every time you buy gas use promo code travel to get an

I never knew I could have been so outspoken about something.

When I first got the job, it was exactly that. I looked in the newspaper, doctor's office, blah, blah, blah. I said, I would never work in a doctor's office. Lo and behold, a couple of months after we got married, I went and had an interview, and she asked me what was my view on abortion. I said, I'm okay with it. Emily Lyons was 37 years old when she answered the job posting for the New Woman All-Women Health Care Center, an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama.

The first day I went, there was a protester out on the curb of the street. And, you know, he was the one that was there all the time, mostly blind. He couldn't tell if you were male or female, but everybody, he just said, don't kill your baby. But he was a fanatic about it. And that first day, I was like, what is that? I had no clue. But the mental, the verbal abuse...

they gave those women was horrible. Then there was David Lackey. Used to be the former head of Operation Rescue in town. One day to work, I was getting out of the car and he says, "What do you do with your blood money? Did you buy that car with your blood money?" He was vicious. Out of all the people that usually came to the clinic to protest, he was the one that could have been the biggest trouble.

Emily says even in the face of such threats...

She never once questioned her position at the hospital. The patients would come to you afterwards and shake your hand. Thank you so much for being there. Thank you for holding my hands. And that became important to me. Most people have a job and they just do it. Their bosses really don't say a whole lot and they keep on, just keep going. But that became important.

One of the reasons to do a good job, to make sure you took care of the women, because that's what your job was. And Thursday, January 29th, 1998, was just like any other day for Emily. She was just doing her job. What do you remember from that day? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I don't remember getting up, taking a shower. The only thing I know about it is what people have told me.

The lady that usually came in was pregnant. She was on maternity leave. She had the baby the next week. So I was taking her place, doing some of her jobs, working on lab work and stuff. They had put a new security system in, and I didn't have the code for it. And the administrator was late that day because she had been sick that morning. So I was there an hour and a half early. Of course, Sandy would have always been there.

Robert Sanderson, better known as Sandy, was an off-duty police officer the clinic hired to protect their nurses and patients from protesters. He had only recently begun working at the clinic, filling in for another off-duty officer who was away on leave. I didn't know Sandy much. I mean, he came to work, he did his job, he was courteous. He was not pro-choice. But he knew it was his responsibility every day he came to work to protect those women.

He was there before we got there. He would leave after they left. There was very few hours of the day that we weren't protected by a police officer. Just mild manner. I considered him one of the good guys. I'm sure it was a difficult thing for him to do. He did his job. Back to that morning. It's around 7.30 a.m. now. There were other people there.

man and his daughter, the daughter's boyfriend and the boyfriend's father were there. They came way too early. They got out one time and talked to Sandy. I wasn't there yet, I don't think. And they left because Sandy said, "No, the clinic's not open yet." So they left. They came back and the guy, the dad got out of the car and walked up and Sandy told him, "No, they're not open yet." And he goes, "Well, what is that over there?"

And when he told Sandy that, Sandy took out his nightstick and went to look at it. And that's when he pushed the button. It was six to twelve feet in front of the bomb. Sandy was off to the side. He got the force of the blast. I got the shrapnel. There was no hope for Sandy. His gun was out in the street. His badge was somewhere else. Leg was other places.

Emily Lyons was walking into the abortion clinic where she worked as a nurse. Birmingham Police Officer Robert Sandy Sanderson was standing guard outside. Sanderson spotted a suspicious object hidden in a flower pot near the door. The blast killed Officer Sanderson instantly. Lyons spent the next eight weeks in the hospital. The paramedics and all those got there quickly after 9-1-1 call.

The FBI didn't want them to come up to me. They thought there may have been a secondary bomb, so they wanted to leave me there. Firemen and the paramedics are the initial people who saved me. All I know is they told me the bomb went off at 7.33. I had a watch on. I didn't get it back. And I was in the operating room before 8 o'clock that day. Jeffrey was the first one to tell me.

In the burn unit, he would always, every day, come in, talk to me. He would tell me what had happened. Emily and Jeffrey had only been married for four years at this point, but he never left her side, not even for a minute. I didn't see what I had looked like for almost a year. I couldn't see the pictures on the computer. It wasn't until I'd had my eye fixed and lens and everything done that I could see how bad things were.

Those first few pictures that I saw, my face was charcoal. Every little spot just stood out of where something had gone in and burned me, broken my face. And then when I saw the x-rays and stuff, it was, how could somebody do that to somebody else? I mean, just deliberate. And it was premeditated. He thought about it. He planned on it. I just cried because it was like,

You hurt me so badly and you don't know me. Your opinion, your thoughts are no more important than mine are. But I'm sure I'm not going to kill you. The FBI came that first summer and told me it was different from his other bombs he had made. The others were time-related. This was detonated by him. So we know he watched. He stood out there and watched us. And when he thought he was going to be found out, he pushed the button.

Next time on Flashpoint. He heard the bomb explode. And when he looked out of his window, you could see some smoke and some people moving that way. But yet there was one individual that appeared to have some kind of disguise on and was not running, but walking very hurriedly away from the scene. And he just thought to himself, there's something wrong with this picture.

Jeff saw him get in a truck, a gray Nissan pickup truck, and wrote the tag number of the pickup truck down. The tag number we ran and was registered to. Flashpoint is a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with iHeartMedia. I'm your host, Cole Acasio. Donald Albright and Payne Lindsey are executive producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV.

Flashpoint was created, written, and executive produced by Doug Matica and myself on behalf of 7997. Lead producer is Alex Vespestad, along with producers Jamie Albright and Meredith Stedman. Our associate producer is Whit Lacascio. Editing by Alex Vespestad, with additional editing by Liam Luxon and Sydney Evans. Supervising producer is Tracy Kaplan. Artwork by Station 16. Original music by Jay Ragsdale. Mix by Dayton Cole.

Thank you to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, Beck Media and Marketing, and the Nord Group. Special thanks to Jason Morphew, Angela Q, Tali Ravid-Matica, and Tim Livingston. For more podcasts like Flashpoint, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app or visit us at tenderfoot.tv. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening to this episode of Flashpoint. This series is released weekly, absolutely free.

But for ad-free listening, early access, and exclusive bonuses, you can subscribe to Tenderfoot Plus on Apple Podcasts or at tenderfootplus.com.

The fall is creeping up on us, but we don't have to give in just yet because summer doesn't stop in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. You can still get out and enjoy 60 miles of beaches, eat in the South's newest foodie haven with over 2,000 restaurants, and have endless fun at hundreds of attractions. Hold on to that sweet summer feeling a little longer at the beach. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Plan your trip at visitmyrtlebeach.com. That's visitmyrtlebeach.com.

Vitamin Water was born in New York because New Yorkers wanted more flavor to pair with all the amazing food in the city. Vitamin Water is so New York, its three favorite cheeses are chopped cheese, bacon, egg, and cheese, and a slice of cheese pizza. Drink Vitamin Water. It's from New York.