Harry Shapiro is a convicted criminal who pleaded guilty on March 20, 1997, to federal charges that he had planted a pipe bomb at a Jacksonville, Florida, synagogue.
[1][2] Shapiro told his rabbi and a co-worker at the gas station where he worked of his plan to prevent Peres from speaking,[1] but his claim was dismissed until a gunpowder laden pipe was found nine days later by children playing at the Center; it was then detonated by the police.
Another source states that "Harry Shapiro... planted a phony pipe bomb at a Jewish community center in order to disrupt a speech by Prime Minister and peace advocate Shimon Peres."
'It was important for Mr. Shapiro to make clear that, in his mind, he never intended to hurt anybody,' defense attorney Hank Coxe told the Florida Times-Union after the hourlong hearing (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, March 28, 1997).
There was a bitter public exchange between the State Department and the police in Jacksonville as to who was responsible for the failure to defuse the event from happening- the former accused the local police of utter incompetence, and the latter insisted they followed the State Department's orders as to how to conduct the search (New York Times, February 27, 1997, Late Edition - Final, Section A, Page 18), which eventually led to the Federal Bureau of Investigation taking the case out of the hands of local authorities.