Retired agent Barry Black reviews two bombing cases he worked as a special agent bomb tech (SABT) assigned to the Oklahoma City Division. The first case covers the detonation of a bomb at a University of Oklahoma football game in 2005, where subject Joel Henry Hinrichs III used a type of homemade explosive that heretofore had only been used by international terrorists. The subject was killed by the blast.
The second, is an undercover investigation named Operation Mischief Mayhem, Barry worked just before he retired, where he thwarted subject Jerry Drake Varnell’s plan to build and deploy a 1000-pound device similar to the one Timothy McVeigh used to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Barry was subpoenaed out of retirement to provide expert testimony at sentencing. Varnell was sentenced to 25 years in prison and lifelong supervision.
These cases are included in Barry’s new book – Hazardous Devices: Memoir of an FBI Bomb Technician, Accountant and Sniper – where he writes about his over thirty-year career as a SWAT sniper, master bomb technician, and counterterrorism instructor, working matters from the Branch Davidian standoff in Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing, and 9/11’s Ground Zero, his memoir offers a vivid, firsthand account of fraud, money laundering, and the Bureau’s war on terror.
During this episode, Barry also shares more stories from his time as part of the task force that investigated the Oklahoma City Bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, where the lives of 168 people, including 19 children, were senselessly taken. Barry was a guest on FBI Case File Review on episode 308: Barry Black – Accountant to Master Bomb Tech
“In Oklahoma City, you can’t hear ‘large vehicle-borne IED, truck bomb,’ without thinking of the Murrah Building. So my concern was there might be some argument that, well, this was only a thousand-pound bomb, not a 5,000-pound one, like McVeigh had. So you can’t really, you know, compare the two. To blunt that argument. I worked with the army up at Fort Riley, Kansas, and we reconstructed his thousand-pound bomb and detonated that identical device on a range in Fort Riley. I was a mile and a half away when I pushed the button. So at sentencing, we were able to show six images of that fireball and the devastation a bomb of that size could create.”—Retired Agent Barry Black
Special Agent (Retired)
Barry Black
1988 – 2019
Barry Black served in the FBI for 31 years. He was assigned to the Oklahoma City Division where he primarily investigated complex financial crimes for the first half of his Bureau career and was a sniper on the SWAT team for several years before being certified as a Special Agent Bomb Technician (SABT) at the FBI’s Hazardous Devices School.
Barry was later assigned to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, where he worked with international partners in the global war on terror and trained highly specialized military and counterterrorism units in hostile regions around the world.
Domestically, Mr. Black responded to the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bombing, the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, the 2005 bombing at the University of Oklahoma, the bombing of a U.S. Air Force recruiting station, and in a complex undercover operation, helped thwart a 2017 truck bomb attack targeting a financial center in Oklahoma City. He has provided expert testimony in criminal and civil matters, technical support for numerous National Special Security Events, and received a U.S. patent as co-inventor of a specialized counter-IED tool.
Barry received the FBI’s Master Police Instructor Award and was recognized as a Master Bomb Technician. In 2014, state and local law enforcement inducted him into the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Hall of Fame and presented him with the Bill Tilghman Public Service Award. In 2019, he was awarded the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association Group Achievement Award.
He was named an Honorary U.S. Air Force Commander in 2022 for his work with Security Forces, military working dogs, and other specialized units. During his 31-year career, Mr. Black served as an Adjunct Faculty Member at the FBI Academy, a subject matter expert for the U.S. State Department, and an instructor for NATO “Centres of Excellence.” He has been a guest lecturer at FBI headquarters, Scotland Yard, the Department of Justice National Advocacy Center, numerous universities, as well as police and military academies around the world.
After retiring in 2019, Barry became an adjunct faculty member at the University of Central Oklahoma’s Forensic Science Institute. He has served as a consultant and provided commentary on national and international events for media outlets such as the BBC, The History Channel, FOX News, CNN, Oliver North’s Real American Heroes, and True FBI.
The following are links to articles and videos about his bomb tech work on the OKBOMB case:
NBC News – 10/1/2005: Man blows himself up at Univ. of Oklahoma
FBI Vault – Joel Hinrichs FBI Oklahoma City Division Memo
ESPN – 10/1/2005: Apparent suicide bomb kills one outside OU stadium
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Oklahoma – 3/23/2020: Man Who Attempted to Bomb Downtown Oklahoma City Bank Sentenced to 25 Years
News 9 – 8/14/2017: FBI Says Anti-Government Extremist Wanted To Replicate OKC Bombing
FBI Website – 4/15/2020: Retired FBI Agent Reflects on Tragic Day and How it Shaped the Bureau
FBI Website (VIDEO): Barry Black, Special Agent, Oklahoma City FBI
FBI Website – History Artifacts: Special Agent Barry Black’s Hard Hat
Oklahoma Law Enforcement Hall of Fame: BARRY BLACK – Year Inducted 2014
The Redstone Rocket – 5/24/2023: Retired FBI bomb technician has eventful career
To learn more about the Oklahoma Bombing investigation, listen to these FBI Retired Case File Review episode:
Episode 061: Jon Hersley and Larry Tongate – Oklahoma City Bombing (Part 1)
Episode 062: Jon Hersley and Larry Tongate – Oklahoma City Bombing (Part 2)
To learn more about being a bomb tech, listen to this FBI Retired Case File Review episode:
Episode 086: Kevin Miles – Master Bomb Technician, Khobar Towers Attack
Photos from Barry Black’s career as a bomb tech:
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