On 26 October 1980.....a bomb went off at the Munich Octoberfest. Total dead.....thirteen. Injured....roughly two-hundred. Somewhere in the mess....even one US Air Force member who lost both her legs from the episode.
The original belief was that the bombing was the work of the Red Army Faction (RAF). Oddly enough, that went out the door quickly, as they realized the guy who planted the bomb was among those dead. He had placed the bomb into a garbage container there at the fest and had barely stepped away when it went off. The general belief is that it went off prematurely.
As the days progressed, it came to be believed that the guy was a extreme right-wing neo-Nazi character.
During this fall period, there are three significant bombings in Europe, which all lead back to right-wing neo-Nazis. The second bombing was in Italy where eighty-four people died from an explosion. The third bombing occurred in Paris where four people walking by a Jewish site were killed by a bomb set there.
Why bring up this episode from 34 years ago? Well.....the final report was settled upon the idea that this one guy.....built the bomb....and carried out the act. There was no conspiracy.....no group....no master plan. End of the story. Case closed.
Over the past year or two.....they've stumbled across various things which were obviously left there for people to wonder about over the years. People at the site and were victims.....didn't really believe the one single guy theory. To be honest.....political figures in Germany also had doubts. Enough evidence has been uncovered now....to reopen the case.
What journalists are suggesting in various pieces....is that several people likely were part of this plan as a group (all neo-Nazis of course).
Cops will admit.....after the wall went down, this bombing was one of the things that they pursued Stassi (East German spy agency) files and hoped for some type of lead or tie-in.....but found nothing.
What are they looking at closer? The only general comment made is that there is a woman who had additional information of value....who they did not interview in this 1980/81 period. Mystery woman? Yeah.....more or less. Either she knew Gundolf Kohler, or she knew other members in some conspiracy.
Tracking down some bombing like this....thirty-four years later? I'd generally shake my head and say that it's just wishful thinking. But Germans tend to take apart things and it's possible that they might get some characters into a room, and deal out something where they admit more to the story. Maybe there was a conspiracy, with three or four additional people involved. Maybe they wised up after that bombing and just quit. Maybe they went onto bigger and bolder things. You just don't know.
Anyway.....another slice of West German history, which had been almost forgotten, and now dragged back up for more discussion.
No comments:
Post a Comment