Illinois Church Bombings 1997-1998

A lesser known set of events i found a while back and thought i'd add to the archive here.

It all starts with a 39 year old man named Richard White, a former mechanic with a history of emotional problems. He was An Ex US Army recruit and was diagnosed with schizophrenia after visiting 4 mental hospitals and a mental episode where he believed demons were under his floor.

On December 30th 1997 Richard white left a Cooler with a pipe bomb and shrapnel outside a church in Oakwood Illinois. A local church volunteer Brian Plawer found the cooler and opened the lid, upon opening the cooler a motion sensor attached to the pipe bomb triggered and detonated the device in Brians Face killing him instantly.

On May 24th 1998 Richard White Left a large Pipe bomb/ANFO device on an Outside AC unit of The First Assembly Of God Church in Danville Illinois.
The Bomb powerfully detonated blowing down a church wall and spraying debris and shrapnel over a Youth Group. The bombing injured 34 people attending the church service.

On May 28th 1998 4 days later, FBI after identifying Richard White as the Bomber storm Whites House where he lives with his mother. Richard who sees the agents approaching the door grabs his beloved German Shepard dog and runs to the back garage where he holds his head next to his dog in his arms and detonates a pipe bomb under their heads killing them both instantly and blowing them apart. Authorities found newspaper Articles in a scrapbook on His bombings as well as an article on timothy mcveighs OKC bombing in Richards home, he also had a "Cookbook" on bomb making.

Richards Motive is said to have been revenge against care workers who looked after his Brother following a 1986 swimming accident, In 1986 Richard and his brother were quarry diving, as Richards brother went to jump off a height into the water, he noticed richards dog swimming where he was about to land so he jumped out the way to save the dog, as he did this he landed in a shallow zone nearly killing himself and leaving him paralyzed for life. After this Richard was extremely upset and in the following years believed that the health care workers looking after his brother were neglecting him and contributed to his paralysis following an accident where paramedics dropped his recovering brother injuring him. The health care workers were said to be members of the two churches Richard hit and it is suspected that he targeted the churches as revenge for mistreating his brother who sacrificed himself to save Richards Dog, the same dog Richard commited suicide with.

If any of you are interested there is a Forensic Files Episode on the Events that ill list here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]