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Abu Agila Mohammad Masud is charged with terrorism-related crimes in the 1988 bombing over the village of Lockerbie that killed 190 Americans in all, Attorney General William Barr said Monday.
The victims in modern-day history’s worst attack on Americans before 9/11 included 33 New Jerseyans and 61 New York State residents, as well as 11 from Massachusetts, nine from Pennsylvania and five from Connecticut (see list below).
They included two entire families of four, from Willingboro and Cherry Hill, NJ, as well as four members of an upstate New York family – among them, a 1-year-old girl and her younger sister, born just 70 days before.
Their mother and father, Bonne and Eric Williams, were both in the United States military and were returning to their home in Crown Point.
From Willingboro, Air Force Sgt. Dedera Lynn Woods, 27, and her husband Joe Nathan Woods, 28, were also killed, along with their 2-year-old son, Joe Jr., and 10-month-old daughter, Chelsea Marie.
Many other Lockerbie victims were college students returning home for Christmas after a semester abroad, including 35 from Syracuse University.
Eleven people on the ground were also killed.
Barr said his office was seeking the extradition of Masud to the United States after discovering that he was being held in Libya. Authorities there have given American officials a copy of their interview with him, the attorney general said.
"At long last this man responsible for killing Americans and many others will be subject to justice for his crimes," Barr said, adding that he was confident the Libyan government would hand Masud over.
It was shortly after 7 a.m. on Dec. 21, 1988 that the bomb detonated aboard the Boeing 747 headed from London to New York 31,000 feet above Lockerbie.
The explosion destroyed what was known as the “Clipper Maid of the Seas,” which Barr said Monday fell in “countless pieces scattered across 840 square miles, nearly the entire width of Scotland.”
All 259 people on board — 243 passengers and 16 crew members – were killed.
“Falling debris claimed the lives of 11 Lockerbie residents on the ground, many of whom were in their homes and had just sat down for dinner,” Barr noted.
The FBi immediately teamed up with law enforcement agencies from Scotland to investigate.
Charges were filed in 1991 against two Libyan intelligence officers, Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah.
The investigation also pointed to another conspirator — a Libyan intelligence officer known at the time as “Abu Agela Masud” — but authorities couldn’t identify or locate him.
Masud built the bomb working with the other two, Barr said, adding that they placed explosives in a portable cassette and radio player packed inside a suitcase that went into the cargo bay.
Because of problems bringing them to the United States, Megahi and Fhimah were tried by a Scottish court sitting in neutral Netherlands.
Megrahi was convicted and sentenced to 27 years in prison in 2001. He was released after being diagnosed with cancer in 2009 and died three years later.
Fhimah was acquitted.
Journalist Ken Dornstein, whose brother, David, was among those killed aboard Flight 103, went to Libya to track down Masud as part of a 2015 PBS documentary entitled “My Brother's Bomber.”
Dornstein said Masud was “said to have been a technical expert" who also was linked to a bombing at a disco in West Berlin in 1986 that killed three people.
Masud – who was personally thanked by Muammar Gaddafi for “the successful attack on the United States” -- reportedly was imprisoned in Libya over his role in the 2011 uprising that ousted the late Libyan leader.
"We are justified, vindicated, our patience and persistence has proved fruitful with this decision today," Kara Weipz, whose brother was killed in the bombing, said during Monday’s news conference in Washington, DC.
"The motto of the family members over the last 32 years has been the truth must be known," she said.
Barr echoed her comments. "Finding the truth is the first step toward achieving justice,” he said.
“I hope that the families of the lost will find some comfort in the charges filed today,” the attorney general added. “The alleged facts underlying these charges fill important gaps in the historical record and help complete the account of how the bombing was executed and who was responsible.
“We intend to work closely with our Scottish counterparts to use every feasible and appropriate means to ensure that [Masud] answers for his part in the Lockerbie bombing,” he said. “We will never rest in our efforts…”
Among those killed in the Flight 103 bombing:
NEW JERSEY:
- Gretchen Joyce Dater, 20, Ramsey;
- Thomas Joseph Ammerman, 36, Old Tappan;
- Michael Warren Buser, 34, Ridgefield Park;
- Warren Max Buser, 62, Glen Rock;
- Frank Ciulla, 45, Park Ridge;
- Alexia Kathryn Tsairis, 20, Franklin Lakes;
- Elia G. Stratis, 43, Montvale;
- Roger Elwood Hurst, 38, Ringwood;
- Laura Abigail Owens, 8, Cherry Hill;
- Martha Owens, 44, Cherry Hill;
- Robert Plack Owens, 45, Cherry Hill;
- Sarah Rebecca Owens, 14, Cherry Hill;
- Eric Michael Coker, 20, Mendham;
- Jason Michael Coker, 20, Mendham;
- William Allan Daniels, 40, Belle Mead;
- Michael Joseph Doyle, 30, Voorhees;
- Kenneth Raymond Garczynski, 37, North Brunswick;
- Robert Van Houten Jeck, 57, Mountain Lakes;
- Timothy Baron Johnson, 21, Neptune;
- John Patrick Flynn, 21, Montville;
- Patricia Ann Klein, 35, Trenton;
- Robert Milton Leckburg, 30, Piscataway;
- Alexander Silas Lowenstein, 21, Morristown;
- Richard Paul Monetti, 20, Cherry Hill;
- William Pugh, 56, Margate;
- Diane Marie Rencevicz, 21, Burlington;
- Saul Mark Rosen, 35, Morris Plains;
- Irving Stanley Sigal, 35, Pennington;
- Raymond Ronald Wagner, 52, Pennington;
- Chelsea Marie Woods, 10 months, Willingboro;
- Dedera Lynn Woods, Air Force sergeant, 27, Willingboro;
- Joe Nathan Woods, 28, Willingboro;
- Joe Nathan Woods, Jr., 2, Willingboro.
NEW YORK STATE:
- Bonnie Leigh Williams, 21, Crown Point;
- Eric Jon Williams, Army sergeant, 24, Crown Point;
- Brittany Leigh Williams, 2 months, Crown Point;
- Stephanie Leigh Williams, 1, Crown Point;
- Arthur Fondiler, 33, West Armonk;
- Mark James Zwynenburg, 29, West Nyack.
- Theodora Eugenia Cohen, 20, Port Jervis;
- John Michael Gerard Ahern, 26, Rockville Centre;
- Ronald Ely Alexander, 46, New York;
- Rachel Marie Asrelsky, 21, New York;
- Harry Michael Bainbridge, 34, Montrose;
- Kenneth John Bissett, 21, Hartsdale;
- Glenn Bouckley, 27, Liverpool;
- Paula Bouckley, 29, Liverpool;
- Colleen Renee Brunner, 20, Hamburg;
- Gregory Capasso, 21, Brooklyn;
- Bernt Wilson Carlsson, 50, New York;
- Richard Anthony Cawley, 43, New York;
- Gabriel Della-Ripa, 46, Floral Park;
- Joyce Christine Dimauro, 32, New York;
- Edgar Howard Eggleston III, Air Force sergeant, 24, Glens Falls;
- Robert Gerard Fortune, 40, Jackson Heights;
- Andre Nikolai Guevorgian, 32, Seacliffe;
- Lorraine Frances Halsch, 31, Fairport;
- Lynne Carol Hartunian, 21, Schenectady;
- Anthony Lacey Hawkins, 57, Brooklyn;
- Asaad Eidi Vejdany, 46, South Great Neck;
- Katherine Augusta Hollister, 20, Rego Park;
- Melina Kristina Hudson, 16, Albany;
- Karen Lee Hunt, 20, Webster;
- Kathleen Mary Jermyn, 20, Staten Island;
- Christopher Andrew Jones, 20, Claverack;
- William Chase Leyrer, 46, Bayshore;
- William Edward Mack, 30, New York;
- Elizabeth Lillian Marek, 30, New York;
- Diane Marie Maslowski, 30, New York;
- Daniel Emmet McCarthy, 31, Brooklyn;
- Suzanne Marie Miazga, 22, Marcy;
- Joseph Kenneth Miller, 56, Woodmere;
- Jewel Courtney Mitchell, Army second lieutenant, 32, Brooklyn;
- Eva Ingeborg Morson, 48, New York;
- John Mulroy, 59, East Northport;
- Mary Denice O'Neill, 21, Bronx;
- Robert Italo Pagnucco, 51, South Salem;
- Christos M. Papadopoulos, 45, North Lawrence;
- David Platt, 33, Staten Island;
- Walter Leonard Porter, 35, Brooklyn;
- Pamela Lynn Posen, 20, Harrison;
- Mark Alan Rein, 44, New York;
- Andrea Victoria Rosenthal, 22, New York;
- Daniel Peter Rosenthal, 20, Staten Island;
- Sally Elizabeth Scott, 22, Huntington;
- Joan Sheanshang, 46, New York;
- Martin B.C. Simpson, 52, Brooklyn;
- James Alvin Smith, 55, New York;
- James Ralph Stow, 49, New York;
- Anthony Selwyn Swan, 29, Brooklyn;
- Mark Lawrence Tobin, 21, North Hempstead;
- David William Trimmer-Smith, 51, New York;
- Kesha Weedon, 20, Bronx;
- Jerome Lee Weston, 45, Baldwin.
CONNECTICUT:
- Patricia Mary Coyle, 20, Wallingford;
- Shannon Davis, 19, Shelton;
- Thomas Britton Schultz, 20, Ridgefield;
- Amy Elizabeth Shapiro, 21, Stamford;
- Andrew Alexander Teran, 20, New Haven.
MASSACHUSETTS:
- Thomas Edwin Walker, 47, Quincy;
- Julian MacBain Benello, 25, Brookline;
- Nicole Elise Boulanger, 21, Shrewsbury;
- Nicholas Bright, 32, Brookline;
- Joseph Patrick Curry, Army captain, 31, Fort Devens;
- Mary Alice Lincoln Johnson, 25, Wayland;
- Julianne Frances Kelly, 20, Dedham;
- Wendy Anne Lincoln, 23, North Adams;
- Daniel Emmett O'Connor, 31, Dorchester;
- James Andrew Campbell Pitt, 24, South Hadley;
- Cynthia Joan Smith, 21, Milton.
PENNSYLVANIA:
- Martin Lewis Apfelbaum, 59, Philadelphia;
- Timothy Michael Cardwell, 21, Cresco;
- David Scott Dornstein, 25, Philadelphia;
- Anne Madelene Gorgacz, 76, New Castle;
- Loretta Anne Gorgacz, 47, New Castle;
- David J. Gould, 45, Pittsburgh;
- Rodney Peter Hilbert, 40, Newton;
- PaBeth Ann Johnson, 21, Greensburg;
- Robert Eugene McCollum, 61, Wayne.
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