Did "Speedway Bomber" Brett Kimberlin Write a Song About One of His Victims?

Stephen Gutowski | May 25, 2012
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As many of you know by now Brett Kimberlin, aka the "Speedway Bomber", was convicted of setting off bombs in Speedway Indiana. One of the victims of the bombings was named Carl Delong. Here is the story of his life after being severely injured by one of Brett Kimberlin's bombs as chronicled by the IndyStar:

While Kimberlin was in prison, Carl DeLong committed suicide. Had his only injury been the loss of his right leg he might have adapted and moved on. But his left leg had been severely damaged too and he still carried shrapnel in his body, which kept him in constant pain as it slowly worked its way out. After 11 operations he hit a plateau physically and knew he'd never get any better than that. On Feb. 23, 1983, he closed his garage door and sat in his van with the engine running.

It appears that sometime around 2006, several years after Kimberlin was released from prison, he joined a band named Op-Critical. The band's music can best be described as liberal alternative rock and they claim some of it has been featured at ACLU and Amnesty International events. Their music mirrors that of other little known liberal bands who trashed bush in the later part of his presidency and would be unremarkable if it weren't for the fact that one of the guys playing guitar and singing is a violent criminal.

Take, for instance, the Op-Critical song titled Fear. The song describes Americans being fearful and "thinking that the plastic bag maybe isn't innocent" and how that undue fear is being used by Bush to control them. The lyrics mocking the fear of terrorist attacks would, again, be unremarkable for a late 2000s liberal band if they weren't sung by a man convicted of setting off bombs in a small American town and the music video didn't feature that bomber lurking around the Cleveland Park DC Metro station complete with shots of an unattended bag.

Then there's the song Innocents which rails against the war on terrorism with lines like "We're all innocents" and tells George W Bush "You're not a human". That would all be unremarkable leftist claptrap if it weren't for the fact that the song features a man convicted off setting off explosions, which maimed other human beings, singing these lyrics. It would be completely forgettable if the video didn’t feature him dancing awkwardly in the music video as he screams about how "Moneymen got blood on hands while smoking all their big cigars" either.

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But easily the most disturbing song Brett Kimberlin’s band has ever recorded is entitled Wounded. It’s a song the band describes this way:

Wounded lays out the chaos one feels from being caught in the crossfire of war and hatred.

But, as you can see from the lyrics, the story told in the song and the story of Carl DeLong are disturbingly similar.

Friendly fire, unexpected consequence

Couldn't escape, never even saw it coming

Hidden face, no one ever had a chance

On the ground, crawling to get out of range

 

Caught inside a crossfire, why me,

 

Where is yesterday, where is yesterday

Where is yesterday, now

 

Battle scars, nothing seems to dissipate

Purple hearts, who will ever recognize

Stolen dreams, some things are forever lost

What a choice, dead today or walking dead.

Did Brett Kimberlin write that song? The band’s sight uses a royal “we” when describing who wrote the songs and gives no apparent guidance as to who wrote each individual song. There are no apparent copies of the song available for free or to buy left on the internet so it remains to be seen if Kimberlin provides the lead vocals for this song like he does for most of the other Op-Critical songs.

It may not be possible to ever know if the Speedway Bomber wrote this song with his victim in mind. One thing is for sure though. Strip away the thin veneer of military references and Op-Critical’s song Wounded tells a frighteningly similar story to that of Carl DeLong.

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