1973 Miami Beach firebombing

Did You Know?

• The Concord Cafeteria was founded in 1947 by Morris Himelstein, who also owned six Concord Cafeterias in New York City.
• It had 250 seats and served inexpensive, home style food to about 3000 diners a day, many of them retirees.
• The cafeteria functioned as an informal social center as well as a restaurant.

The attack

On the night of February 2, 1973, a man walked into the cafeteria while it was crowded with diners, poured gasoline from a jar, ignited it with a match, and ran out. Flames spread rapidly. Turnstiles used to control access obstructed escape. A witness from an adjoining restaurant reported seeing scores of elderly people lying on sidewalks and the road, moaning and screaming. Another witness saw the interior in flames with broken glass and the front destroyed. Victims were taken to four hospitals; fourteen remained in critical condition two days later. Three people died.

The aftermath

Charles Reardon, a 49-year-old from Bal Harbour, Florida, entered a police station twenty-two minutes after a fire started and admitted, “I’ve done something terrible. I’ve made a lot of people scream.” Following a twelve-hour interrogation, authorities charged him with arson and using a destructive device, but he was never tried due to a finding of incompetence from mental illness. The Concord Cafeteria underwent several months of repairs and reopened, eventually closing in June 1983 as Miami Beach’s last cafeteria. Victim lawsuits were combined into Concord Florida, Inc. v. Lewin. In 1975, a trial court held the restaurant liable, and a district appeals court affirmed in 1977, stating the business assumed a foreseeable risk by not installing adequate safety measures like emergency exits and signs.