Men’s News Daily exclusive

Early local news reports about a vehicle bombing in Nashville, TN, contained inaccuracies. But, details are still unclear — both for investigators and the family.

In a Thursday press conference, spokesmen for the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) told reporters that “all options are still open”. This meant that the incident has not yet been categorized as a homicide, suicide, or accident. Several leads are being pursued.

At approximately 2349 hours (11:49pm) on Tuesday, 20 July, an explosion destroyed a 2001 Land Rover. The owner of the vehicle, William Glenn Young, age 43, was killed in the blast, and his body was apparently thrown through the windshield. Young was alone at the time. The vehicle was parked in an outlying area of the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center. The Opryland is an enormous hotel complex, with over two thousand rooms. The vehicle was parked adjacent to a group of construction trailers, which were in the corner of the parking lot. Olympian Construction Company of Nashville was using the lot corner as a staging area for a remodeling project in one of the hotel’s many restaurants. An initial police news release described the blast as “massive”.

An official spokeswoman for the Opryland Hotel declined to say if Young had been a guest at the hotel, citing standard policy for all guests’ privacy. Hotel guest Bonnie McIntosh — vacationing from Charlotte, NC — had arrived in her room minutes before the explosion. She was relaxing before going to bed, and was looking out onto the parking lot. Even though she was looking in the direction of the blast, she did not see anything. But, the window of her fifth-floor room vibrated, and she said the noise was much louder than any explosion that she had ever heard before. The hotel building is about a half-mile from the blast site.

The incident is being investigated by MNPD as a homicide, with assistance from ATF and FBI agents. Special Agent Doug Riggin said that the FBI has ruled out terrorism as a cause for the blast, but declined to specify any facts to support that decision. An ATF spokesman, Special Agent Eric Kehn (pronounced “keen”), confirmed this writer’s personal observations of the scene by stating that it was a “high-detonation explosive”. In an exclusive conversation with another Federal agent, details of this writer’s observations were confirmed as being exclusive to high explosives. That fact conflicts with early local news reports about a “homemade pipe bomb”. Homemade bombs normally contain low-order explosives, such as gunpowder or ammonium nitrate.

Although investigators are tight-lipped about this point, the presence of high-order explosives raises the question of a “professional hit”. In an exclusive interview at the crime scene, a Federal agent did rule out speculation of Young being the target of a jealous husband or boyfriend. And, there is no apparent connection between Young and the blast location. This combination of facts raises more questions than answers. The same is true of local news interviews with Young’s neighbors, who gave conflicting opinions about his personality and employment situation.

In an exclusive interview, a spokesman for the family (identity withheld at this time) described the bomb victim as, “… a genius … just a flat-out genius,” and said that Young was an electrical engineer. When asked about local news quotes that Young was “weird”, the spokesman said, “I’ve known a number of highly intelligent people, and I’ve never known one that wasn’t just a little bit weird. Others just don’t understand them.”

The spokesman also said that the family had been given little information about the incident, and expressed irritation that they learned most of what they knew had come from news accounts that a relative sent to them via Internet. “I thought they were supposed to withhold the name until the victim’s family has been contacted.”

The spokesman also said that investigators asked Mrs. Young some questions, but mostly just asked for permission to search the house and various cabinets in the home. The victim’s wife and son were on vacation at the time of the explosion, thus raising other questions. Agents phoned Mrs. Young several times while she was at the vacation spot. Some of the calls were made by an agent inside her house during the search.

One fact became clear during a Thursday afternoon MND exclusive view of the crime scene. Sometime after the morning press conference, the vehicle had been turned onto its side. Thus, the interior of the vehicle became visible from outside the perimeter of the crime scene. When viewed from one particular angle, it became obvious that the explosion had cleanly cut through a portion of the Land Rover’s frame. That type of vehicle enjoys a decades-long reputation as one of the toughest off-road vehicles in the world; thus, it has a very solid frame. The cut was about an inch wide, and resembled a cut made with a torch. This type of blast damage suggests a military-grade device, rather than explosives commonly available to or manufactured by everyday civilians. And, the cut in the frame was only visible because of a neatly-shaped hole in the Land Rover’s floor. The agent on scene in this exclusive interview refused to confirm or deny the presence of det-cord or any type of “shaped charge”, but did agree with this writer’s speculation about the placement of the device at the bottom rear of the driver’s seat. Other on-scene observations include the fact that the vehicle’s roof — which was set aside in the parking lot — was relatively intact. But, the tops of the vehicle’s windshield pillars were obviously blown forward. (As opposed to the entire pillar being bent forward.) That exclusive on-scene observation, coupled with on-scene reports to TV-2 about the location and condition of the windshield, indicate the possibility of a secondary cutting charge along the vehicle’s forward interior roofline. The presence of such a secondary charge would confirm a carefully planned bombing.

The effect of a cutting charge on the roofline would be to provide a directed ventilation of blast energy. Such a cut could be achieved with det-cord. Upward blast ventilation would be consistent with on-scene reports about the trajectory of the victim’s body from the vehicle. (Those details are being withheld by MND at this time, pending the family’s viewing of the body, and the release of preliminary findings from the Medical Examiner.) Such an upward ventilation of blast energy would also explain why the center of the vehicle was destroyed, and the back wheels blown completely off, but everything forward of the windshield was nearly untouched. Upward ventilation would also explain why the Land Rover’s fuel tank appeared to be mostly intact, despite being inches from the neatly-shaped hole in the vehicle’s floor. The interior of the vehicle was burned so badly that some of the metal’s coatings were ashen-white. Blast ventilation can provide extra oxygen to the initial fireball.

Upward ventilation of the blast would also explain why — despite the obvious power of the explosion, which was heard and felt miles away — the vehicle remained in place and the shell remained intact. Without such ventilation, certain parts of the vehicle would likely have been spread out in the parking lot. Some of the ventilating effect can be explained by the windows and windshield. But, in this writer’s opinion, those factors do not explain all of the ventilation of this particular blast.

Both at the press conference and around the crime scene, agents specified that the Land Rover company had been very cooperative. The company provided a similar vehicle, and two technicians, to give comparative analysis of the damaged Rover and its debris. A report by the local newspaper, The Tennessean, inaccurately reported that the ATF had purchased the vehicle. In fact, the Land Rover company made the vehicle available to investigators free of charge.

The blast location was in an area that is distant enough from any business or residence to ensure that no bystanders were injured. But, the area is also visible to passersby, especially from the tourist area of adjacent Music Valley Drive. There, several bars close on weekdays around midnight — virtually guaranteeing that the incident would be reported to the fire department immediately. (And, thus, minimizing collateral damage to property of Opryland or the construction company.) The side of the parking lot facing the Opryland Hotel is lined with a thick grove of trees. That treeline extends past the on-site child care center for hotel employees. Because of the late hour, neither children nor staff were in any danger at the time of the blast; and, the facility provided shielding from the blast for any strolling hotel guests. Likewise, the vehicle was positioned among the construction trailers in such a way that the trailers could’ve provided a cushioning effect, and much of the blast energy deflected upward. It appears that someone went to great lengths to ensure that only the bombing victim would be harmed. Some might say that the preparations approach the level of “genius”.

Local news reports indicate that the family declared bankruptcy one year ago. But, a neighbor interviewed by several news outlets indicated that Young had just landed a business contract involving high pay and international travel, possibly in Nicaragua. Nashville police would like to speak with anyone that may have spoken with William Young in recent weeks, especially in the week preceding the bombing, to determine his state of mind. Anyone having information about the incident is asked to contact the Nashville police at (615) 74-CRIME, or send a message via the ATF Web site.

The conflicting facts of this story create more questions than answers. Was the death of William G. Young an elaborate suicide, capitalizing on fears of terrorism to cover up his true motive? Or, did another person lure Young to a visible, but safe, spot to prevent him from conducting unspecified business in another country? Was the story about the contract true, or a smokescreen? If true, then, was Young’s international business in any way related to intelligence activity and/or the War Against Terrorism? Is there any chance that the bombing was a case of “mistaken identity”? (Independent research by Men’s News Daily revealed that the victim has the same name as the Federal judge that is hearing the case of alleged “shoe bomber” Richard Reid.) Was there a hidden connection between Young and the blast location? Details remain sketchy, but the mystery is expected to unravel further, beginning sometime after the family’s Friday meeting with the Medical Examiner.