This is a collection of interviews done with various people associated with the MOVE bombing. Interviewees include Ramona Africa (a MOVE member and the only adult survivor of the May 1985 confrontation), Officer James Berghaier, Fire Commissioner William Richmond, and Lt. Frank Powell (who dropped the bomb from a state police helicopter). These interviews give a fairly detailed story of the events spanning from the 1978 killing of Officer James Ramp to the bombing in 1985.
Untitled (Residents Grieve The Loss Of Their Homes)
Subject
The destruction of most of Osage Avenue
Description
Residents were devastated to find that all their possessions had burned along with their homes. Here, unidentified residents weep at the sight of what is left of their neighborhood. While the city promised to rebuild, what residents received were shockingly ill-constructed houses. People either moved away or lived in unfinished and barely livable homes. Osage Avenue has never been the same since.
Creator
Jack Kanthal
Source
Alex Q. Arbuckle, "May 13, 1985: The Bombing of MOVE"
Investigators spent days searching the debris for bodies. In all, eleven people were found dead and sixty-one buildings were burned down. From this angle, viewers can get a better understanding of just how much was lost in a very brief period of time.
Creator
George Widman
Source
Alex Q. Arbuckle, "May 13, 1985: The Bombing of MOVE"
An aerial view of the burned out rowhouses, taken the day after the fire. Osage Avenue is visible in between the ruins. The aerial view captures the totality of the destruction. City officials scrambled to rebuild the destroyed property. Goode publicly promised that homes would be rebuilt by December of 1985.
Creator
Bettmann
Source
Alex Q. Arbuckle, "May 13, 1985: The Bombing of MOVE"
Untitled (First Responders Clear Debris and Bodies)
Subject
The cleanup of Osage Avenue
Description
This photo was taken the day after the bombing. After the fire was put out, first responders arrived on the scene to clean up the damage. Included in that cleanup was taking away the remains of eleven MOVE members who died; five of the dead were children. There was some initial controversy about how the bodies were being cared for and handled, as some alleged that the city used construction equipment to remove bodies from the rubble.
Creator
J. Scott Applewhite
Source
Alex Q. Arbuckle, "May 13, 1985: The Bombing of MOVE"
Public response to Mayor Goode's handling of the situation
Description
While initially dealing with the accusations of the mother of one of the MOVE members killed in the bombing, this article also touches on the tactics of MOVE leading up to the bombing. The author never explicitly says it, but this article reads as a condemnation of Mayor Goode and his predecessors, William Green and Frank Rizzo, for not adequately solving the MOVE problem sooner. This article also touches on the public backlash against Goode; MOVE members or not, eleven people were dead as a result of his decisions that day.
None Indicted in MOVE Bombing But Jury Calls Act "Reprehensible"
Subject
The investigation of city officials
Description
Ultimately, no city officials were ever charged with a crime for the bombing and the resulting fire. The grand jury that overheard the case used blistering language to condemn Mayor Goode, but voted not to file charges by an overwhelming majority. While this damaged Goode's image, he managed to survive politically; he even won re-election. The reputations of most other city officials, including Police Commissioner Gregore Sambor and Fire Commissioner William C. Richmond, were permanently tarnished.
The consequences of the city's attempt to rebuild Osage Avenue homes
Description
Even as recently as 2010, many of the rebuilt homes on Osage Avenue remain unoccupied. The buildings were so poorly constructed that residents sued the city, but the city later dismissed the lawsuit. This photo shows what the neighborhood looked like just ten years ago, as many of the row homes are abandoned or boarded up. Not much has changed in the years since.
Source
Katelyn Fossett, "How A Brutal History Of Race And Policing Shaped Philadelphia And Cleveland"
Information Lack Cited in Bombing: Top Philadelphia Officials Say They Lost Touch in Assault on Radical Group Move
Subject
The first steps of investigating city officials
Description
This New York Times article demonstrates how unprepared the city was to deal with the ramifications of the bombing, as well as major communication issues at the top level of city government. As the investigation was ongoing, Mayor W. Wilson Goode testified that he was uninformed of details of the assault on the MOVE compound, though he did admit that he agreed to the bombing. This contradicted the testimonies of other city officials. In addition, the city 's Managing Director, Leo Brooks, was out of communication for most of the day. As Commission member Bruce Kaufmann put it, "What we have here is a lot of seperate departments not communicating very well with each other and no one speaking out." This demonstrated communication failures within city government as well as a failure for anyone to take the blame for the bombing.
Creator
Lindsey Gruson
Publisher
New York Times
Date
October 19, 1985
Format
PDF
Language
English
Type
Newspaper Article
Text Item Type Metadata
Original Format
Newspaper
]]>https://movebombing.omeka.net/items/show/3New York Times article made public the findings of the Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission, a committee that had been created specifically to investigate the MOVE bombing. While concluding that the bombing was "excessive" and "life-threatening", the Commission did not explicitly recommend charges to be filed against any city officials. The publishing of these findings reflected very poorly on Wilson Goode, who would run for re-election in 1987. His opponent, former Mayor Frank Rizzo, ran an ad that said, "Wilson Goode dropped a bomb on a Philadelphia neighborhood. Do you want him running your city?" Articles like this one made sure that the bombing would never completely leave the memory of Philadelphians.]]>2020-04-27T19:23:57-04:00
Dublin Core
Title
Excerpts From Commission's Report on Bombing
Subject
The findings of an official investigation into the city government
Description
This New York Times article made public the findings of the Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission, a committee that had been created specifically to investigate the MOVE bombing. While concluding that the bombing was "excessive" and "life-threatening", the Commission did not explicitly recommend charges to be filed against any city officials. The publishing of these findings reflected very poorly on Wilson Goode, who would run for re-election in 1987. His opponent, former Mayor Frank Rizzo, ran an ad that said, "Wilson Goode dropped a bomb on a Philadelphia neighborhood. Do you want him running your city?" Articles like this one made sure that the bombing would never completely leave the memory of Philadelphians.