Retired ATF agent describes seeing dynamite before bomb nearly detonated in downtown Nashville 45 years ago

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — On Labor Day weekend 45 years ago, a bomb that had the potential to take out the Ryman was just minutes away from detonating in downtown Nashville. To this day, it’s the largest car bomb made of high explosives ever found in the U.S., according to retired Special Agent Jim Cavanaugh from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Cavanaugh still hasn’t forgotten that day from 1979. It was Friday afternoon heading into Labor Day weekend at the Classic Cat strip club at 6th and Broadway.

“We were actually in the club, me and another agent,” said Cavanaugh, who retired following a 36-year career in law enforcement.

Cavanaugh was at the Classic Cat on that day in 1979 investigating a bombing and fire from a week before inside the club that caused a lot of damage when a construction worker alerted him to a new bomb.

“I said, ‘You mean there was a bomb last week?’ And he said, ‘Oh no, there’s a bomb right now,'” recalled Cavanaugh.

This second bomb was outside the club, composed of dynamite sticks stuffed in a stolen car.

“I could see the six sticks of dynamite and dual-electric blasting caps going into the charge, and I could see the clock ticking from the back, the alarm clock,” said Cavanaugh. “This bomb was so large. A lot of people would have been killed by that bomb.”

Blocks of downtown had to evacuate. Every second mattered for the agents who were face to face with a 200-pound high explosive bomb.

“We knew, ‘This thing’s ticking, we got to get the bomb squad here, and we got to get everybody away, far away,'” Cavanaugh remembered.

And they did. The bomb squad defused it and nobody was killed. It turned out the bombers messed up their own bombing, according to Cavanaugh. They intended for the detonation to go off overnight, but they made a mistake setting the clock.

“If you remember those old alarm clocks, some people will, it had a little metal hand where you set the time when it would ring in the morning. It was a little metal hand, and it wasn’t really accurate,” said Cavanaugh.

A more than year-long investigation led to five convictions. The ringleader — a man named Arthur Wayne Baldwin — owned clubs in Memphis and Nashville. The Classic Cat strip club on 6th and Broadway was his competition, which he wanted to see eliminated.

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“It was competition and greed. This guy didn’t want any other strip clubs. He wanted all those patrons only at his strip clubs,” Cavanaugh explained.

Different explosives were used in the Labor Day weekend bombing four decades ago and the more recent 2020 Christmas Day bombing . Cavanaugh said the 1979 incident involved high explosives, which can be more deadly, while the 2020 bomber utilized a blasting agent.

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