The hotel suffered an explosion from a 1,000-pound bomb on August 27 , 1980 , that left a crater three stories deep when it was detonated by the FBI . ( The area around the hotel had been cleared and no one was injured . ) The bomb was placed by John Birges , a heavily in-debt Fresno landscaper who had lost at least $ 1 million at casinos in Stateline and was hoping to extort $ 3 million from the bomb threat . He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole , where he died from liver cancer in 1996
an explosion from a 1,000-pound bomb
Harvey's Resort Hotel bombing
Harveys Lake Tahoe