It may be the grim influence of Halloween, or the fact that I was reading Wikipedia again, but I happened to discover an article describing the second proven act of deliberate aerial sabotage in the United States in which...
It may be the grim influence of Halloween, or the fact that I was reading Wikipedia again, but I happened to discover an article describing the second proven act of deliberate aerial sabotage in the United States in which a bomb was on a commercial airliner. This event took place on November 1, 1955.
DC-6 of United Air Lines – similar to its ill-fated sister N37559 (San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive – Public Domain)
I blogged about the first such act in 1933. No suspect was ever identified and the case remains unsolved. However 22 years later, when a United Air Lines DC-6B exploded and crashed on a farm in Colorado, federal law enforcement officials quickly identified a suspect and a motive.
On November 1, 1955 United Flight 629, a Douglas DC-6B civil registration N37559 named Mainliner Denver departed New York – LaGuardia, heading for Seattle / Tacoma International Airport with interim stops at Chicago Midway, Denver Stapleton, and Portland International airports. Denver was to be a refuelling and crew change stop.
Happier times. A United Air Lines publicity photograph showing passengers disembarking from N37559 at an unknown location. The postcard caption reads: “Only United Air Lines’ spacious DC-6 and DC-6B Mainliners link the East and Midwest with the West and the entire Pacific Coast.” (Image – Aviation postcards at Famgus.se)
The aircraft had departed Denver in the early evening of November 1st and had been airborne for only seven minutes when traffic controllers at Stapleton reported seeing two bright lights in the sky, which fell to the ground at roughly the same speed. A further bright light was seen at ground level which was sufficiently intense to light up the cloud base. No mayday calls were received, but one aircraft was unaccounted for as the traffic control staff checked flights in the vicinity. That aircraft was United 629.
Telephone calls from the inhabitants of the area around Longmont, Colorado reported explosions and burning debris falling from the sky. Searchers discovered the wreckage of the DC-6B scattered over an area of about 6 square miles. The tail of the aircraft was found lying more than a mile from two large craters containing the rest of the fuselage, the engines, wings, and their considerable fuel load. The fires in the craters continued to burn for three days after the crash despite the best efforts of emergency crews. A debris field stretched between the two sites.
Tail of United Airlines Flight 629, N37559 in a field near Longmont Colorado. I wondered where all the airline logos were and then seeing other news photos it occurred to me that this image has been retouched. (FBI – Public Domain)
Compare this image of N35579’s tail from a news photograph. I’m not exactly sure why the FBI felt it necessary to alter their photograph but I’m sure someone will tell me. (Longmont Times-Call / Longmont Museum – Fair Use for comparison / review)
It was clear that some catastrophe had overtaken the DC-6. Investigators from the Civil Aeronautics Board soon theorized that a powerful explosion had severed the tail of the aircraft. The explosion was of such intensity that any kind of structural failure was ruled out of consideration.
N27559’s tail rests in a Colorado field in the bottom-right corner of the picture. The rest of the wreckage fell over a mile away. I assume from the size and arrangement of the picture that the craters are somewhere in the top / top left of the picture but I’m not clear where. (FBI – Public Domain)
Among the debris, investigators found unusual pieces of metal. The fragments bore the chemical signatures of a dynamite explosion, and one of the fragments bore letters and markings consistent with the casing of a 6 volt battery, giving more credibility to the theory that a bomb had been placed in a piece of luggage. The CAB’s chief investigator called the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI started to examine the histories of passengers who boarded the flight in Denver. Did any have specific enemies? Had any of them bought large life insurance policies immediately prior to the flight?
The FBI’s investigation started to center on Mrs. Daisie King, a businesswoman en route to visit her daughter in Alaska. She carried newspaper clippings in her hand luggage related to her son, John Gilbert Graham, but hardly any of her checked luggage could be found in the wreckage of N37559, a fact which was significant in the investigation.
John “Jack” Gilbert Graham was born in 1932 at the height (or depth) of the Great Depression. His father William Graham was Daisie’s second husband, and died in 1937 of pneumonia. Jack was sent to an orphanage since Daisie was unable to raise two children (the other being a daughter from her first marriage) due to the extreme poverty of the family. Daisie married her third husband, Earl King, in 1941. Despite some success in business (funded in part from her inheritance from Earl King), Daisie never picked Jack up from the orphanage. Mother and son remained estranged until Earl King’s death in 1954.
It is quite clear that Jack’s relationship with his mother was, to say the least, fraught. Witnesses told FBI investigators that the Jack and Daisie fought over the operation of a drive-in restaurant in Denver which was later badly damaged in a gas explosion. Graham had insured the restaurant and collected the insurance following the explosion. The Denver County probation department kept what the FBI calls an “extensive record” of Graham’s criminal past, including multiple incidents of check fraud, and an attempt to collect insurance on a new truck by leaving it “stalled” on a railroad track in the path of a train. All of these records were reviewed by the FBI in the days following the crash of N37559.
The FBI interviewed Graham and his wife, on more than one occasion, and noticed some discrepancies in their stories. Graham agreed to a search of his home. Agents found a roll of copper wire “of the type used in detonating primer caps” (FBI) and an copy of an insurance policy on Daisie King’s life.
When confronted with the findings of the FBI’s search at another interview, Graham confessed. He had caused the explosion at the drive-in restaurant, he had deliberately left his truck on a railroad crossing, and he had placed a bomb in his mother’s luggage. He had used 25 sticks of dynamite, two electric primer caps, a timer, and a six volt battery.
I then wrapped about three or four feet of binding cord around the sack of dynamite to hold the dynamite sticks in place around the caps. The purpose of the two caps was in case one of the caps failed to function and ignite the dynamite … I placed the suitcase in the trunk of my car with another smaller suitcase…which my mother had packed to take with her on the trip.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Air_Lines_Flight_629According to the Wikipedia article, after Graham’s confession, law enforcement officials discovered to their surprise that there was no federal statute which made it a crime to blow up a commercial aircraft. The District Attorney took the simple route of prosecuting Graham for the premeditated murder of his mother.
Graham was convicted of his mother’s murder (following the first trial in Colorado to be televised) in 1956. He was executed on January 11, 1957.
A fragment of N37559 preserved by the Denver Police Museum. The large hole on the right hand side is said to be a shrapnel hole from the cargo hold explosion beneath the passenger cabin. The investigation of the bombing demonstrated successful cooperation of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. This fragment was included in a list of Colorado’s most significant [museum] artifacts in 2015. (Denver Police Museum)
Because there was no law against bombing an aircraft, a bill was introduced and signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on July 14, 1956, which made the intentional bombing of a commercial airline illegal. (Note to self – get a decent citation for this). It seems to be Public Law 709 Chapter 595 (July 14, 1956) – An act to punish the willful damaging or destroying of aircraft or motor vehicles, and their facilities, and for other purposes.
The bombing of United Flight 629 is also depicted in the opening segment of the 1959 film The FBI Story, starring James Stewart as John Michael (“Chip”) Hardesty, and Vera Miles as his librarian sweetheart Lucy Ann Ballard. Hardesty relates the highlights of his career (including the Union Station Massacre in Kansas City in 1933) in the form of a lecture and a series of flashbacks. Nick Adams plays Jack Graham in the Denver aircraft bombing segment.