A deadly terrorist strike downtown

Saturday’s failed car bomb in Times Square brings to mind other bombings in crowded city spaces over the years.

Like in the 1970s, when the terrorist group FALN, seeking independence for Puerto Rico, planted several bombs in midtown and downtown.

Their deadliest attack: setting off explosives in Fraunces Tavern, the 18th century tavern in the financial district.

It happened on January 24, when the place was packed with a lunch crowd. Four men were instantly killed, and dozens were injured. The New York Times reported the next day:

“Victims in the tavern restaurant and the second-floor dining room of the adjacent Anglers Club were hurled from their tables in a confusion of screams and flying debris as the blast erupted just inside the front doorway of 101 Broad Street.”

The FALN quickly took responsibility for the bombing, but no one was ever charged.

Eventually, 16 FALN members were locked away for playing behind the scenes roles in other acts of terror. In 1999, President Clinton commuted their sentences.

Tags: bombings in New York City, FALN, Fraunces Tavern, Fraunces Tavern bombing, New York in the 1970s, President Clinton pardons