The Dr. Robert J. Goldstein Story

Domestic Violence

It was August 22, 2002, and the rocky relationship between Goldstein and his wife appeared to be nearing a new low. According to court records, relatives were concerned about the increasing volatility between the couple. In fact, according to a BBC report, Goldstein's mother had called the authorities to warn them that her son and his wife were going through what the British Broadcasting Company euphemistically called "marital problems."

It turns out, that was a typical British understatement.

When police arrived, they found Kristi Goldstein outside the couple's townhouse, visibly agitated, declaring that her husband had threatened again to kill her and that he was holed-up inside with a large cache of weapons.

The authorities responded with restraint. For 30 minutes, police calmly tried to coax the podiatrist out of his fortress-like townhouse, a place he had booby trapped, secured with what the BBC described as "trip wires and scanned by security cameras."

Finally, Goldstein surrendered, and his wife, still upset, gave police permission to search the townhouse.

Weapons confiscated from Goldsteins home

What they found was mind-boggling, even by the standards of weapon-friendly central Florida. The way prosecutors later described the scene, they found a staggering arsenal of weapons, nearly 40 properly licensed guns including revolvers, a 50-caliber sniper rifle, and semi-automatic assault weapons, enough to outfit a platoon of commandos. There were armor-piercing rockets, 25,000 rounds of ammunition and homemade napalm.

Deputy confiscates two rifles

There was a stash of explosives as well; hand grenades, a five-gallon "gasoline bomb" with a timer attached, and a significant amount of homemade C4, a powerful plastic explosive. In all, there were more than two-dozen bombs crammed into the cozy townhouse, four of them stuffed into the Goldstein's bedroom closet. It was a large enough cache of explosives that it could easily have leveled the townhouse and beyond, if Goldstein had decided to push the plunger, an agent for the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said. What's more, Goldstein had also collected the components for making many more, not to mention the sizable library of how-to manuals and bomb making recipes he had amassed.

Detective Cal Dennie

The whole collection showed a methodical approach and a penchant for detail, not to mention a certain terrifying talent for bomb making, law enforcement officials said at the time. As Detective Cal Dennie of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department told the BBC, Goldstein "was a smart guy... he knew his stuff. It was just like a James Bond thing."

The truth was the guns were the tip of iceberg. In addition to the weapons and the explosives, authorities discovered a list of 50 local mosques and Islamic centers, along with what would come to be known as Goldstein's "mission template," an 11-point, three-page plan detailing the plans for his attack. By the time of his arrest, Goldstein had chosen his target from the list of 50. It was to be the Islamic Society of Pinellas County Mosque and Cultural Center.

Islamic Society of Pinellas County Mosque and Cultural Center map locator

According to the plan, Goldstein had planned to conceal some of the explosives in innocent looking items like videocassettes and walkie-talkies. He planned, according to the template, to "set timers for approximately 15-20 minutes to allow the time to get out of the area but to confirm explosions has [sic] been successful."

In another chilling passage, quoted by the Associated Press, Goldstein wrote, "will storm [the main building] and open fire on all the rags and then bolt out and let [the pre-planted explosives] do the rest."

Goldstein taken into custody

Federal authorities, and even Goldstein's own attorney, have said there is little doubt that Goldstein would have carried out the plan had he not been apprehended.

What's less clear is why.