They gathered for a moment of silence at 1:19 p.m., the moment the bomb exploded.
The attack 50 years ago today was aimed at the heart of American freedom.
It focused on a place where our nation was forged during the Revolution and where George Washington took a leave of absence knowing that the future of his new nation was secured.
On December 4, 1783, nine days after the British evacuated New York CityWashington held a banquet at Fraunces Tavern in Lower Manhattan to bid farewell to his troops.
On January 24, 1975, the Puerto Rican separatist group, the Faln, planted a bomb that tore through the historic site at lunchtime, killing four and injuring more than 50 others in Lower Manhattan. Sixty-six-year-old banker Harold Sherburne, 28-year-old businessmen Alex Berger and 32-year-old James Gezork were killed.
“They really attacked the American people,” said Joe Connor, whose father, Frank, was a 33-year-old banker killed in the terrorist attack.
“They attacked Fraunces Tavern because that’s where George Washington said goodbye to his officers after the Revolutionary War, where the sons of Liberty met and was a symbol of American liberty and justice and freedom, and they couldn’t abide by that.”
A bomb explodes at Fraunces Tavern. Four people were killed and more than 50 were injured. The Faln, a Puerto Rican nationalist group, claimed responsibility. (New York Daily News via Getty Images)
Joe was 9 years old the day his father was killed, and in the decades since, he has dedicated his life to bringing justice for his father and the other victims. He is the author of “Shattered Lives: Overcoming the Fraunces Tavern Terror,” which is also now a documentary. Connor has led elected officials and law enforcement on a mission with other families to hold the terrorists accountable.
No one was ever charged in the attack, but the man believed to be the terrorist group’s chief bombmaker, Willie Morales, escaped to Cuba, where he lived with an estimated 50 other American fugitives. A Bill in Congress Named after Joe’s father and New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster, who was killed by Black Liberation Army Militant Joanne Chesimard, aka Assata Shakur, who is also on the lam in Cuba, demands that Havana return the fugitives.
“It’s a very concise, clear bill that demands returns,” Connor says. “There has been a mystique about the Castro regime and Che Guevara, of a fanciful romantic view of these people. But they were nothing but Marxist thugs and had been waging their own war in the United States for many, many years.”
In his last days in office, former President Joe Biden Cuba removed from state department list of state sponsors of terrorism.
President Donald Trump immediately put Havana back on the list, and in his first term also pledged to pressure Cuba to return Morales and the other fugitives.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., attends a campaign field for former President Donald Trump at Trump National Doral Golf Club on July 9, 2024, in Doral, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty images)
During his U.S. Senate confirmation hearing, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for Cuba To cough up the criminals who remain on the lam.
“There are fugitives from American justice, including Cop Killers and others who are actively hosted in Cuba and protected from the long arm of American justice by the Cuban regime. So there is no doubt in my mind that they meet all the qualifications to for being a state sponsor of terrorism,” Rubio said.
Over the past two decades, FALN members have been granted clemency, as if the passing years diminished their crimes. President Barack Obama commuted the 70-year prison sentence of Oscar Lopez Rivera, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy and charged with other crimes. President Bill Clinton offered clemency to the captured members of the terrorist group, which Elf accepted in 1999.
NYPD says ‘not a terrorist attack’ after 10 shots fired outside NYC Event Space on New Year’s Day
At a ceremony marking the bombing, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the bombing was “terrorism in its purest form, designed to frighten, intimidate, injure, maim and kill for their political purpose.” to reach.
“For 50 years, no one has been held accountable for this attack, which remains an open investigation by the NYPD and the Joint Terrorism Taskforce,” Tisch said. “Our department never forgets.”
Jessica Tisch speaks after being sworn in as the next Commissioner of the New York Police Department during a ceremony at One Police Plaza November 25, 2024 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty images)
Before the bombing ceremony, there was an emotional luncheon attended by family members, dozens of former FBI agents, bombing survivors and others.
Joe Connor’s son Frank, named after his grandfather and who is studying to become a priest, gave the benediction.
“We remember the four men killed on this site 50 years ago today, and all whose lives were cut short by terrorism.”
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Joe noted how the meeting was held by the door where the bomb, which consisted of ten pounds of dynamite, was placed in a modest suitcase.
“Cuba ultimately has to turn these people around, and the only way that will happen is by keeping them on the state sponsor of the terrorist list and by maintaining the pressure on Cuba,” he says. “Now is the time to do it.”
