Rotten Mango - #67: 105 Hostages - The Hijacking of Flight 701 (Case of Roger Holder & Cathy Kerkow)

Episode Date: May 26, 2021

A man with a briefcase entered the cockpit of Western Flight 701. The man tells the pilots there are 2 bombs on the plane and a grenade in his suitcase.  For 20 hours - a couple terrorized the entire flight in hopes of having their demands met. They wanted $3 million dollars in cash, 5 parachutes, a woman on trial for murder to be handed over to them, and a flight to Vietnam.  And for decades they got away with it - because the sky is the limit. Source: "The Skies Belong To Us" - by Brendan I. Koerner (honestly, one of my favorite books ever and this episode does not even come close to how thorough, entertaining, and gripping this book was. 10/10 must read)  Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it. Download the free Peloton is for all of us. Wherever we are, whenever we need it. Download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier or pay to description starting at 12.99 per month. At this point I think I'm going to start a book club, but I'm telling you,

2021 book recommendation, The Skies Belong to Us by Brandon Kernard. This book, the minute that I opened it, the minute that I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. I was eating food while I was reading this. I was taking this book from room to room. You just get so immersed into it. You feel like you're on a plane. You feel like you're being held hostage. Not by the book, but you get what I'm saying. Okay, you feel like you're in Algeria in Paris. The amount of details. The amount of research that's in this book. This little podcast is not's in this book, this little podcast is not going to do this book justice, it's a nonfiction book, but it reads straight up like

a thriller. So make sure to check out the skies belong to us by Brendan Cardner. Now let's get into the episode. Welcome aboard Western Flight 701. We will be landing in Seattle in approximately 25 minutes. That was a good one. I'm sorry, are you guys getting the hint that I wanted to be a flight attendant once in my life?

Yes, absolutely. So this week's case is gonna be, I mean, we're just gonna jump right in. So Western Flight 701, Western was in airlines before they merged with Delta Airlines. And this specific flight was headed from Los Angeles to Seattle Airport, and they had 25 minutes left.

Now what's interesting is that Western had very strict rules for their flight attendants. One specifically is that none of the flight attendants were allowed to be seen eating by any of the passengers, because it ruins the whole female dantiness. Are you serious? Yeah, and I think it's just like that, because one's the last time you saw a flight attendant eating on any airline? Oh I see the munchet. You see

the munchet behind the bathroom space? Yeah. So Western Airlines they were really strict about this. All of the flight attendants after feeding the passengers they would gather in their little quarters, close the curtains, and start eating. So one of the main flight attendants, her name was Gina, and along with her two colleagues, they're just munching on some mashed potatoes, on some chicken, you know, meals were a lot fancier back in the day, and then suddenly they hear the t-t-t-t of the curtain slide open. But all the flight attendants are here, so they whip around, and they see, oh, it's that nice tall man from 18D in the army uniform. Why is he here? Why is he opening this curtain? And she thinks, oh shit.

So earlier Gina had spilt some bourbon on him and she promised to bring him a voucher for dry cleaning. And she forgot, so she's like, oh, he's here to like, you know, tell me where's my voucher. Come on, come on, what's with this service? So she's just about to apologize when he pulls out two sheets of paper. And he says, I need to show you something. Read these. And they're neatly handwritten and it says, success through death, everyone. Except the captain will leave the cabin. There are four of us.

Two bombs do as you're told and no shooting will take place. Oh, no. She flips to the next sheet. It contained a diagram of what looked like inside of a briefcase. There's rectangles inside of it, and they were numbered as different bombs, different parts of a bomb. A diagram of a bomb? Yeah, like a hand drawn picture, and he's holding a briefcase. And it's a picture of inside of a briefcase, and it's saying like bomb number one.

And it also states one second delay when the pin is pulled. You know, implying that once he pulls the pin It's gonna explode in about a second. So it says keep smiling at the end. Keep smiling turn over She turns the page and it says to the captain don't stop and he raises his hand The man from 18 D raises his hand to show Gina that he is indeed holding that briefcase There's a thin copper wire coming right out of it, right next to his finger, and he looks at her and says, you have two minutes.

To do what? To go tell the captain. So she runs immediately to the cockpit, and she's bouncing on the door, like, come on, let me in, let me in. She's allowed in, and she's telling the captain, the co-pilot, and there happened to be like a third party there. Not, I mean, he worked for the airlines, right? So there's three men in there. And she's like, you need

to read this. So the captain was an ex-marine. He's like, well, I know how to read bomb diagrams. Give me the papers. So he's reading through all of the instructions, looking at the bomb diagram, and he's hoping that something is wrong. Maybe this guy is just bluffing. But this is the work of someone who knew what they were doing. This bomb looks intricate and it looks real. So what did the people want? They say what they didn't ask for anything. They want the cockpit empty.

They want just the captain and they're the co-pilot to get out. Oh, okay. And so she the captain is like, oh shit, this is a real threat. This is absolutely real. And he shows it to his co-pilot Edward. Now his co-pilot starts freaking out. Not because this is a scary situation which it is but G is Louise This is the second time a plane that he was piloting was hijacked in less than a month

Welcome to the golden age of hijacking. I know that we know about you know I feel like we're most commonly familiar with DB Cooper That's one that comes to mind. But did you know there was a whole era of just hundreds of skyjackings? Hundreds! What? How does that work? Because back before there was TSA, back before there was K9 dogs, there was literally nothing. And when I say literally nothing, I mean literally you could go through the entire airport without passing one X-ray machine, a metal detector, or even security detail. You didn't even need a plane ticket to get onto a plane. They treated it like trains.

So some airlines, they would let people find a seat. The seats were not assigned, and you would sit down, and then after the plane is in the air, they would go around, can I see your ticket? Can I see your ticket like a train? And you would say, oh, I don't have one. How much is it? And you would pull out your little cash and hand it to the flight attendant So between the years of 1961 to 1972 there was close to over close to 200 commercial airlines that were hijacked in the US alone

But I don't know how they get away with it Don't you have the land and they land they land in Cuba? Oh, yeah, yeah, most of them were happening in the last Oh yeah. Yeah. Most of them were happening in the last five years. Sometimes it would happen every other week. There was this one month where they had over 11 hijacked planes in the United States. Is this not insane?

All the criminals was like, wow, that's it. Easy, easy, easy, easy job. Exactly. Sometimes there would be two hijackings a day in the news which would be like another hijacking. And it's not that it was just super easy to do compared to today's standards, which it was back in the day. Like I said, you could bring guns onto the plane. No one checks your baggage, you just walk on, you don't even need a ticket. But America was obsessed with planes.

It had the symbol of privilege and prestige, and pilots were considered heroes. Most of them were ex-marines ex-army these are like veterans and planes were considered these massive technological just dreams and only rich people can fly exactly and they take you to another country People will talk about you if you hijack a plane you'll be all over the news and the way that you're talked about as a sky-jacker is Less of oh god. This is a disgusting criminal, but more of, well, that takes balls. So the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 was passed, and fun fact, they didn't even bother to make hijacking a crime. So skyjacking and American aircraft was completely legal. Wait, what? Yep. Until that law passed. No, that law passed, and they did not include skyjacking

So what did they include like safety things for federal aviation, but not skyjacking So you're saying it's illegal to hijack a plan? I mean not anymore, but back then it was it was completely legal I mean you would get charged with possibly kidnapping hostages possibly assault on the captains You know, but that was about it. Or transferring planes across state lines illegally. That was like a good one, but not for skyjacking. I mean, it's insane. Yeah, it's too new, right?

Yeah. This is the longest skyjacking in history. Debe Cooper got away with it, right? But these people, they essentially got away with it too. And it was a couple. And it's the most hectic chaotic. I mean, what the fork is going on. They make multiple different stops. I mean, the fork is going on. They make multiple

different stops. I mean it's a shit show. So we're talking about Roger Holder and I think to understand this entire skyjacking process we need to understand Roger Holder. Who is this man? Well he was living in California with his family. His dad was a 15 year Navy veteran. So you're talking about like an army military family, a disciplined family. They find out that the Navy opened a station in Kuzbe, Oregon, which is like this small logging town, right? And they were tracking Soviet submarine activity over there and they needed a new chief cook. So they're like, hey, what about Mr. Holder from the Navy?

We could bring him in from Alameda, California and and he could work at the Oregon station at Koo's Bay. So the dad gets a job, and they make this trek, you know, Rogers only 10 years old, and they make this trek from California to Oregon. And Roger and his brothers, they're excited, they're ecstatic. Because California, I mean, prices were high. But in Oregon, they rented a four bedroom house. Rogers gonna finally have a bedroom to his own, right? A tenured with his own bedroom? That's crazy! So once they get to Oregon though, they go to the real estate office to pick up the keys. And the person says, oh, you guys are the holders? Well, the property isn't available anymore. I will mail you your deposit back, but yeah, you can't rent the house anymore. And

the family knew exactly what that meant. It's because they were black. They were probably the single black family in Kuzbe, Oregon. Oh my God. So they saw them in the house. Yeah. Because on the phone, they were like, oh, yeah, the holder family, they worked for the Navy. Cool. Great. Let's rent them a house. So they stay at a hotel. Several other landlords kept turning them down. And you know, because they were the single black family at the time These landlords didn't even try to conceal their blatant racism. They were just like, oh, you're black Absolutely not finally an older quote unquote eccentric woman was like here You can stay at my place and when they pass the keys off to the holders

She also passed them a shotgun and was like you're gonna need it. You're really gonna need it So they're like, what? Sure enough, two nights after moving in, a pickup truck pulls up to the holder house and they're screaming, N word, go home. Just disgusting, throwing rocks at the house. From that point forward, this was super common at the holder residence, just people showing up in the truckloads throwing rocks at their windows. Now, when Mary Holder, the mom, she would go grocery shopping,

women, other housewives would spit in her face and told her not to touch the vegetables with her quote unquote dirty hands. So the holder kids, they were bullied, jumped at the playground. I mean, Roger's little brother, Danny, had to be hospitalized. The doctors were concerned that this kid is gonna lose a testicle because he was jumped by the playground. I mean Rodgers' little brother, Danny, had to be hospitalized. The doctors were concerned that this kid is going to lose a testicle because he was jumped by fellow kids. I mean, this is insane. The police found out who did it. They're like,

oh, this is the name of the boy who almost made Danny lose a testicle, but they never arrested anyone. So of course, the holder family, they were rightfully enraged. They filed a suit against the state of Oregon saying, hey, you guys are failing to protect my family's civil rights and I demand compensation and his Navy superiors told him, drop it and take your ass back to Alameda, California. We don't want to piss off Kusbe. So they start packing up the house and Roger was super upset. He was like, this was supposed to be a new fresh start. I was so excited and I just got bullied this entire time. Why? Because we're black. This is crazy. So on his last couple of days, he starts exploring the Empire Lakes, a very popular area and he sees this little girl dipping jars into the water and she looks like eight years old, right? So he's like, what are you guys doing? We're catching salamanders.

And he looks inside the jar and he sees little creatures moving around and he says those aren't salamanders. They're tadpoles, like baby frogs. And that girl looks straight in the eye. The little, you know, eight-year-old white girl. And she reaches into the jar, pulls one up by its tail and says, I know a baby salamander when I see one. And he had no idea what to say, because this girl is bauzy. She's just reached in there there grabbed it with her hands. So he's like, huh?

And she's so happy with herself. And she says, well, next time I see you, I hope you've learned a lot more about Salamanders. Bye. And she runs off with her brother. Now, Roger thought that he would never see her again because he's leaving Kusbe, but they will reunite. And they will hijack a plane together.

What? What kind of situation, right? So four days later the whole of our family leaves, they had been there for less than three months. They go back to California and Roger, his soul was crushed. I mean, he's super religious just like his family and he's like, that doesn't make sense. We're not even trying to be rich. We're just trying to make a living in Oregon and we got pushed out because of blatant racist

Disgusting people so he starts isolating himself and he's building these models of trains and planes and helicopters and he's so into it He's kind of what you would call geeky, right? And he's still got bullied when he got back to California his black peers would say that he's too white his white peers Didn't want to hang out with him because he was black. So he's like in this middle of like, what does this even mean? Who am I? Now most girls though, they all really liked him, of all races. Okay, Roger Holder was a very charismatic dude. I mean, he was charming. He had this quirkiness about him. He seemed so mature, but also just someone that you could listen to talk, like they just talk and talk and you're like, wow, I feel like everything you're saying is so fancy. What's going

on? So by the time he's 16, he gets his girlfriend Betty Bullock pregnant with twins. He's like, well shit, I'm in the 11th grade. I got to make some money. I'm about to have two, two babies on the way. What do I do? Well, I guess I'm going to follow in my dad's footsteps and he starts enlisting in the army. though he didn't graduate high school his IQ was extremely high He passed extremely intelligent scoring on the armed forces qualification test So this guy is smart. So when he's in training his girlfriend gives birth to the twins their name to recent Rita and he finds out that oh shit I'm gonna be sent to Vietnam now. I'm going into the war

He's like 17 and he finds out that, oh shit, I'm gonna be sent to Vietnam now. Going into the war. He's like 17, 18 years old at this point. So he stops by in California before he leaves for Vietnam. Mary's Betty says hello to his daughters and then leaves. He's stationed in the thick jungles of Vietnam and he starts getting really paranoid. I mean, the Vietnamese troops, they were masters at paranoia. They filled the jungle with smart booby traps.

I mean, American troops were just questioning every single footstep that they ever made when they were in Vietnam. And at night, Vietnamese troops, they would try to deprive the American troops of sleeps if they would make these loud noises. They would literally schedule attacks in the middle of the night, and Roger, like many of his peers, he was suffering from overwhelming anxiety. So he starts smoking weed in Vietnam, and on one specific morning, he wakes up, and he's got malaria. But he doesn't even have time. He's like, yeah, I've got malaria, but I don't have time for medical attention. I gotta go! So he smokes a couple of joints. That's what he calls the breakfast of champions at war, and he gets into his tank with his fellow

crewmates, and the driver was super conscious. It wasn't Roger, it was a different crewmate. And he's like, yes, there's gonna be tons of booby traps. We gotta be careful. So instead of going down the trail, maybe I'll kind of reverse into this tall patch of grass. Maybe there's less booby traps here. And so as he's reversing, Roger turns around to make sure there's nothing behind.

And all of a sudden, his ear drums shatter. And the whole world goes white. And the next thing Roger remembers is that he's in the middle of the road, his shirt and helmet were gone, and he crawls back to the tank. The landmine had completely obliterated a military tank. One of his crewmates was torn completely in half, another one had clumps of brain just coming out of his ear. So Roger collapses, and his spine is nearly severed. He had to spend the next six weeks at a hospital

recovering. His back would eventually recover but like mentally, no way. There's no way you're recovering from something like that. Seeing all your crewmates like that. How do you even, how do you even get started in that process? So once he goes back to his station, his 18 year old best friend, his best crewmate, was killed by a booby trap. The trap took off both of his arms and he bled to death in the jungle. And Roger couldn't even cry because crying is a sign of weakness. And this was a full year in Vietnam. So after this, he signs up for another six month tour because what else can he do, right? And first, he's like, well, I'm going to go home before my next tour and see my kids.

So he goes back to California and he's excited to see Betty, his wife, right in his twins, but when he walks into his house, she isn't bad with a former high school classmate. He completely beat the guy up to a pulp, and he finds out that Betty had actually been sleeping with multiple different men. So before he leaves California, he drops off the two twin daughters to be raised by his parents and he returns to war and interestingly enough, he kept his ring on even though he knew that he didn't want to get back with Betty. He was never going to get back with Betty.

It's divorced for sure, but he didn't want his comrades to know that she had cheated on him while he's at war. Yeah, so he just starts getting promoted and promoted, so he's sent to this like top league called the Tigers helicopter unit. I mean, it's a glamorous unit apparently and you airlift troops into combat zones, so he would ride this helicopter around the top of the thick jungles and then they would shoot down at Vietnamese troops and he would literally see them die. And this caused even more anxiety and depression because it's almost like seeing ants scattered

and then you see them drop dead because you and your troops are shooting at them. So he would self-medicate with more marijuana and then he starts getting better at his job. He was the crew chief. After six months there, he got promoted again to the 120th Assault Helicopter Company's Gunship Platoon. The slogan of this unit is, death is our business. Business is good. So death is good. Is what they're trying to say pretty much. And that's when everything started falling apart because he like a lot of other

veterans had the same question, why are we killing all these Vietnamese people? How is that really doing anything? A lot of the people that we're killing are like these young Vietnamese teenagers. Why are we killing just random teenagers? What is going on? So he starts self-medicating more and then he gets in trouble because he got arrested by buying marijuana in Vietnam. And when he's returned to the army, so he went off to like a little town, bought it from a Vietnamese dealer and the Vietnamese police arrested him. So they're like, what are you doing here in this town American? Do they know he's part of?

Yeah, and so they were like, whatever, we're not going to deal with you. They didn't want to like kill him or hold him hostage. They were just like, I'm sending you back to the army. So they dragged them back to the army and the army was pissed. I mean, this looks bad. What are you doing? You're supposed to be fighting a war not smoking with a heck. So we get six months in the army prison, which

Cheesley's I think it's worse than regular prison from what I hear I don't know and he got demoted Demoted this was really bad timing so America was using marijuana as an excuse for all the shitty behavior in the war So if there's a war crime. Oh, no, it's not because America told them to commit war crimes no way. It's because these soldiers are becoming addicted to marijuana. And they're just, you know, going off and doing their own thing. They're hallucinating. So there was a massacre in which American soldiers slaughtered hundreds of Vietnamese villagers, just civilians, villagers. And they said, well, oh, it's not because America wanted that

to happen. It's because the veterans, they were, they were oh, it's not because America wanted that to happen. It's because the veterans, they were smoking weed. They had a psychotic episode and they murdered these people, thinking that they were, you know, troops, but they weren't. So his punishment was really intense. He gets sent to the military prison. He spent about 29 days there and then he signed up for his fourth tour in Vietnam. Now, once his fourth tour starts, he had been so demoted that he's getting paid like next

to nothing. And he's super pissed about this. What do you mean? I'm so good at my job. This is like such a small mistake. I have been fighting like literally putting my life on the line for this and you're demoting me. And he yells at the carnal.

He starts yelling. No, man. And so they're like, you can't do this anymore. Vietnam's getting to you. So we're gonna send you back to Fort Hood, Texas, and you're gonna finish your commitment, your next tour, on base in Fort Hood. So it gets to Texas, and after three weeks,

you realize this, well, first of all, Texas is too slow, especially compared to the war in Vietnam. Like it just felt like everything was so dull, and just like, what am I doing? Fixing up engines, what is this? I need to be out there fighting, doing something. What am I doing with my life? And then he realized the army doesn't care about him.

I don't wanna spend time here anymore. So he just goes, eh well, he wakes up one morning, walks off the base and never comes back. This is a really bad thing to do if you're in the army. They will hunt you down. Seriously? Yeah. Hi, I'm 25, and I don't have my life together, and I definitely need counseling.

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So it goes back to California and he lies to them and he tells them that I was honorably discharged and I need to look for a job. So his dad gets him a job at a local restaurant and he's a cook. And he's like, this is really hard. It's hard to be like stir frying food after flying helicopters and Vietnam. Like it just feels demeaning almost. What is this? What am I doing? So he saves up enough money. He buys a fake social security number to change his identity because, like I said, the army is looking for him. And he uses the name Linton Charles White, and he decides to move to San Diego.

And in San Diego, his new favorite thing to do is find wives of men who are serving in Vietnam and seduce these wives, probably because Betty, his wife cheated on him when he was in Vietnam, and he would sweet talk these women into giving him loans that he knew that he was never going to pay back. He would just be like, oh, I am a Vietnam War veteran, just like your husband, and they would give him a little bit of cash, and that is what he lived off of. And the dude's just going through it. I mean, he needed a lot of help mentally. I mean, he was in war. He needs a lot of therapy. He needs something, but he didn't have any guidance.

Nothing. He's literally running from the army. So his life starts falling apart, and he decides to look at astrology. He thought, astrology is going to tell me what I meant to do. It's going to tell me what I'm supposed to do with my life. And he believed that the stars told him the reason that he's having all these hardships and these obstacles in his life is because he's destined to do something, something extraordinary. But what is it? And he starts looking for all these signs around him. He's looking at every billboard, he's looking at little small things,

he's like, what is the universe telling me to do with my life? So Kathy meets Roger again, which by the way, oh my gosh, I forgot to mention, there's this book called The Skies Belong To Us, Love and Terror in the Golden Age of hijacking by Brendan, Corner. Corner? And it's so, oh my god, he goes so in depth on everything, even the war, even all of these

like political stuff. It's so entertaining and so interesting, I highly recommend it. But anyways, back to San Diego. So Roger has a couple of roommates and you know, they kind of like move out and he meets one of them again. Her name is Beth Newhouse. So they meet again and he's like, oh, where have you been living these days? Have you been doing it? And she's like, well, I live over here.

I'm doing okay. So he decides to give her a visit. He knocks on that apartment door looking for Beth Newhouse, but instead a 20 year old Kathy opens the door. A Kathy Kirkco. And she wasn't expecting any visitors. So she opens it and she's in a towel. She had just been showering so she's like, uh, hello What is this tall handsome black man doing here like what's going on? And he's like, oh, I'm looking for a Beth new house. Is she here? Oh, no, that's my roommate. She's she's running errands And he just turns around and leaves without saying goodbye

So Kathy's really confused not because he didn't say goodbye, but because she's like, I know him from somewhere. Why do I know him from somewhere? That's so strange. I feel like I do. So 20 minutes later, he comes back with Beth and he introduces himself as Roger Holder. Just like, man, but the name doesn't ring about at all. Now, Beth doesn't really like Roger Roger because she thought he was strange.

You know, they used to be former neighbors and roommates but he went by a completely different name. He said his name was Charles but now he's saying his name is Roger. Why would he change his name? Only shady people change their names. Why did he give his real name? I don't know.

He just decided I'm gonna give my real name. So she's like, that's weird. Beth the roommate is like, that's weird. I don't want him around. So she keeps trying to get him to leave the apartment but Kathy wanted to figure out How do we know each other how so Roger offers to take them out to breakfast that weekend and Beth the roommate She declines but Kathy was like yeah, absolutely because this is gonna bother their crap out of me if I don't figure out how we know each other Do you think she's interested in him? Yeah, I think so. And he's kind of interested too, I guess.

Oh, for sure. Yeah. And a couple days later, he picks her up and they get to the restaurant and Roger tells her, I'm kind of dying. I know you from somewhere. I just don't know where. And she's like, oh my god, me too.

I was literally bothering me for so long. But here's the thing. I've only been in San Diego for the past five months. If I met you in the past five months, that would be crazy that I forgot you, right? And he's like, huh, well, what about San Diego? What about before San Diego? Oh, oh God, you wouldn't even, it's like this, I'm from like a tiny town in Oregon, it's called Kusbe, no one's ever heard of it, it's like super isolated, it's like a logging town. And he's like, oh, I know Couspe. I've been in Couspe. What?

So Catherine, Marine, Kirkow, she was born in Couspe to Bruce and Patricia, these are her parents. And she was the first born child. But by the time that she's six years old, she's got three younger siblings. Now, Bruce, the dad, he was working for this company as a truck driver, but his real passion was in jazz. He just wanted to be in a jazz band, but this is impossible because you know, how are you gonna get that career?

How are you gonna make money? Now you have this entire family to support, and with every child that's now born into the family, he starts feeling more and more trapped. So when Kathy's in middle school, the dad just leaves. They get a divorce and the dad's like, I'm going to California and I'm gonna figure out my jazz dreams. So Patricia, she's this full-time secretary, just a single mom, just struggling. Her husband left her for jazz. And now Kathy's got to step it up. She's got to take care of all the younger brothers

and she never once complained. But by the time that she gets into high school, she starts having a bit of a rebellious streak. She's like, you know what, I'm too much of an adult now. I got to be a kid for once. And she took after her dad, she wanted to become a singer one day. But in high school, all she really wanted to do was date people. She was fired from all of her jobs. She couldn't really stay in community college. She didn't get enough credits. She would start shoplifting like things

like lipstick and just just wanted something different and then she gets a call From an old high school friend by the name of Beth and Beth had moved to San Diego and She has moved into this new apartment. She had this roommate briefly that just left without a word and now she has nobody to split the rent with Hey, do you want to move to San Diego? So she's thinking that's that's exciting You want to move to San Diego? So she's thinking, that's exciting. San Diego, California. So she packs a ball of her bags in her little Volkswagen

beetle and drives to San Diego. Now, once she's there, she realizes, oh, shit, I need a payment. I do like this. I still need to work. So she starts working at a local massage place. And she believed that this particular job would just be massaging people.

But her first client completely nude, flopped over and just was helicopter dangling it in front of her and was like, what are you going to do about it? And so she was like, okay, so she gave him, and I quote, a rubb and tug. Like a happy ending massage in exchange for tips and she started giving these to her clients and she told her mom back at home, no, no, mom, don't worry about me. I'm a receptionist at a doctor's office And this still wasn't enough money so Kathy and Beth the roommate they start selling some weed on the side But they weren't good weed dealers because they would smoke at themselves most of the time so they just they were it was a shit show So to Kathy this is a crazy coincidence

You know I can't believe you're the guy that I was... Wait, that time that I was looking for Salamanders? That was you and your brother that walked up to you and you said that's a tadpole and I told you. It was a Salamander, that's you? Star Alliance. Yeah, and she's like, what a small world. But to Roger, this was the ultimate sign.

This was the universe brought Kathy back into his life and the two of them were meant to do something special together. Not get married, not have a family, something extraordinary, something life changing. So in the background, you know, Roger's dating Kathy, they start dating and seeing each other romantically and he's still looking for more signs from the universe What is that something? I know that I'm supposed to do it with Kathy, but what are we doing? And behind all of this are just non-stop news filled with skyjackers crazy things were happening in the sky I mean these hijackings were super casual and it kind of kicked off with an electrician named Antulio Ramirez or Tes in Miami

He he boarded a flight to Key West from Miami to Key West, but he sneaks into the cockpit and puts a steak knife up to the pilot's throat, a steak knife, not even like a butcher's knife, a steak knife, not saying that's not scary, but like a hijacking with a steak knife. That's a little weird. And he says, take me to Cuba. If I don't see Havana, the capital of Cuba in 30 minutes, we're all gonna die. So the pilot rerouts to Cuba and he says, well, why do you want to go to Cuba? What's in Cuba? Right? And he claims, well, I'm gonna someone's trying to assassinate Castro and I'm Cuban. I got to warn him.

I got to warn Castro that he's about to die. So the plane heads for Cuba. They land safely. Cuba takes in Antulio and the passengers they eat a nice chicken lunch and they're free to go back to Key West. There was only three hour delay from this hostage crisis. The FBI shrugged it off. They said, well, Antulio is delusional. The sky tracker is nothing more than, and I quote,

a wild eccentric with no purpose in mind. And he probably won't repeat this. Probably no one will repeat this. So the dude really just went wanted to go to Cuba. Yeah, that's all his motive was. Yeah. And Cuba was having, um, and still is very relations with the United States.

So Cuba decides, yeah, we're going to send the plane back. I mean, we're going to charge the airline like couple grand to get their plane back, their million dollar plane back But we're gonna keep this guy. We're gonna give him a sign So he would be free he wouldn't have any jail time because he's not sent back to America Now the incidents just kept coming from there. There was a guy named Bruce Pitt who boarded applying plane from California And he says take me to Arkansas They're like frickin Arkansas. Why Why do you wanna go to Arkansas?

And he's like, well, my wife lives there and we haven't been talking for a while. And I'm just trying to fly back to Arkansas so that I can tell her that I still love her. Anyway, take me to Arkansas. What? So they land in Arkansas and he shoots the plane's captain blinding the captain for life.

So it's like, what is happening? Now you're thinking, well, the government has got to do something about this, right? So they said, OK, well, now the airlines are required to lock their doors. The cockpit has to lock their door, and you have to get firearms training. The pilots need to be trained in dealing with a gun

because they're all going to have guns on the plane. Imagine just a bunch of guns on the plane. That's not the last place you want to shoot out. And the government did not make any commitment to make it a crime. Everyone would still be charged for run of the milk kidnapping, assault. That's it. So then Congress starts talking, well, what if we screen the passengers, you know, just make sure that there's no guns and they're carrying on bags, no snake, snake knives, then we would be okay, right? But the airlines were pissed. Even congressmen were pissed. They said, can you imagine the line that would form at the ticket counter if the police inspected the passengers? Okay, well, what if we do something high-tech?

Metal detectors, X-ray machines, those are faster. The airlines hated this. They hated this more than hijackings. The periodic skyjackings to Cuba, they would pay Castro about $20,000 to get their million dollar plane back. The passengers were usually unharmed, nobody died, nobody sued the company, and the airlines were okay with this. We don't care about criminals, just let us make money. Security at airports, we would lose customers, we would lose money, so they get all of these lobbyists, some of the top lobbyists in DC, to strictly get members of Congress to oppose electronic screening at airports. So again, the skyjackings just keep continuing.

And their reasoning for this was that screenings, like a TSA check, would have a bad psychological effect on passengers, it would scare the pants off of people, plus people would complain about invasion of privacy. Yes. Like, I'm sorry, but I would rather you search my carry-on than get hijacked. So that's just me.

So the answer is, yeah. I mean, I guess it makes sense. I can totally see how this whole thing evolved from this to today. Like, it makes public sense. It's lovely and just more catastrophic each time and you're like maybe we'll have a can't I can't imagine I totally can see America like no we can do this and you know what's interesting the main lobbyist for

the bill to do screenings was the American automotive industry they said put the screenings on the airport so people keep driving. Hashtag road trip. Don't fly a plane. You'll get hijacked. Drive to your fellow states. So the airline's new policy was that they just tell their employees absolute compliance. Take them to Cuba. Just do it.

Don't let anyone get hurt. They started putting flight charts in all the flights to Cuba. There was a map to Cuba, even if you were headed to JFK, New York City. You're like, just in case, here's a map to Cuba. Even if no one went there, take them wherever they want. We don't want anyone dying because we'll get sued. Then we'll lose money. The last thing they're willing wants to do is lose money.

The pilots were even giving these like language phrase cards in Spanish. And they would say things like, I must open my flight bag for maps Can't make it to Cuba because low fuel They would just say These little go to cards for hostage takings. There were travel guides written by passengers Not by the airlines. I think of like a trip advisor that says hey in case of a hijacking as a fellow passenger Don't push that stewardess call button.

You know, the little button that you press for a flight attendant, the pinion, because that send-in being in the cockpit might scare the sky-jacker. But usually, don't worry, the sky-jackers, they're sweet, they're super sweet. One instance, there was a group of three men sky-jacking a plane to Cuba, and they hung out with the passengers. And at the end, as everyone de-borted the plane, they handed out a bullet to each survivor, as a souvenir. Here you go, passenger, here's the bullet.

When you get to Cuba, here's the coolest part. You'll be treated by the airline at a nightclub with free drinks. They have really good shopping, downtown Havana is better than anywhere else, the cigars and rams. Oh God, you gotta pick up some cigars and rams. And then you get back onto the plane and you go to the destination that you were trying

to get to. So they're glamourizing hijacking. They're like, if you get hijacked and you make a detour to Cuba, you're the best restaurants you need to try. Like, what are you saying? What are these people doing? They have no money motive? No, not in the beginning.

All of them were just usually mentally ill. Or some of the reasons where there was a guy who escaped from Cuba came to the United States and missed his mom's free hole A so much that he hijacked a plane back to Cuba. I'm not making this up, it's real. But why can't they just fly directly to Cuba? I don't think you could. So they were like, yeah, I'm just gonna hijack a plane

to Cuba. So in over a month there were 11 Skyjackings a community college student skyjacked by having bugs spray as a weapon He went into the cockpit and was like, I'll fucking spray you. Okay, take me take me to Cuba There was a hijacker that was wearing a beachwear like full-on swimsuit trunks and flip flops because you're ready to hit the beach when they landed Cuba I mean, what are you talking about? People, there was a former mental patient that's a dad who was literally hijacking in the cockpit holding his three-year-old son.

It was like, take me to freaking Cuba. What? Cuba's tourists and charts all the way up to the moon. And it started getting out of control again. The House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce said, we need a task force for hijackings. So they put out this word. They said, hey, Americans, we're

trying to deal with the skyjackings. We hear you. It's an inconvenience. What do you think we should do? So these amazing, amazing Americans, so proud of you, American, they start sending in all these great ideas. They said, OK, well, I have an idea. Why don't you arm all the flight attendants with tranquilizer darts? So they can just

Trinkelize and then another one said, okay, every single airplane passenger has to wear boxing gloves during the entire flight So that they can't even pick up a gun or a knife, you know, your hands are full And then another person was like in the beginning before, before takeoff, you play the Cuban national anthem. If anyone hums along or knows the lyrics, arrest them immediately. We're going to Cuba. Ovest them. And then this is one that they actually considered.

The government actually considered this. They considered building a fake airport that looks just like the Cuban airport with staff that was dressed just like the Cuban airport with staff that was dressed just like the Cuban airport and they would go there instead of Cuba and the hijack were think I'm in Cuba meanwhile the FBI is inside because you're in Florida. He he jokes on you but the only reason that they didn't do this is not because it's the most insane idea. I kind of like it.

I kind of like it. It's like everybody just role-playing. Yeah, welcome to Cuba. You've got like a Fidel Castro, a hip-hopster. Yeah, I'm into it. You can't do it. Turns out you're in Florida. Yeah, but the reason that they didn't do this is because it was gonna be really expensive. They were like, that's just too much money. We can't do that. So there was a man that would be a direct inspiration to Roger Holder, and his name was Melito Urpino. He was an Italian man. He came to Seattle as a teenager, and he enlisted in the Marines.

And he hated his commanders. He hated the Marines because they were literally blatantly racist. Just full-on racist, Tim. They would send him to walk into the woods first so that they can walk safely and not get blown up by these mines. So he's like, this is insane. So he finally decides to leave the Marines and he had set aside $800 from his military salary. But the unit informed him, no, you only told us to set aside 600. We only have 600 for you. He's like, no, it's 800. Well you must have done your math wrong, it's 600. So this $200 pissed him off so much.

He broke into the military base, took precisely $200 worth of radios and wristwatches, and he was super drunk. So by the time he sobered up he realized, I'm gonna get freaking arrested for this, okay? I'm gonna spend the rest of my life in jail. So instead of waiting to be arrested, he takes a bus to LAX, buys a ticket to San Francisco, and in his bag he had a rifle and 250 rounds of bullets. And he goes up to a flight attendant mid-flight with the gun pointed at her. He told her what he wants. And she was so shocked.

Not because he had a gun, not because this was a skyjacking. They're used to it. But because he wanted to go to the New York City, you don't want to go to Cuba, are you sure? What kind of idiot wants to stay in the US? That doesn't make sense. Fine, it's your prerogative so she goes to the cockpit and she's like, hey, this motherfucker wants to go to New York City. What an idiot, huh?

Not even Cuba. So they're like giggling. They land in New York City. He demands that they refuel the plane and he wants the plane to take him straight back to his native country, Italy. They're like, what? Why did you go to New York City then? To refuel from LAX because they were going to make it. Yeah. Okay. So it's gonna wrap it out. He's like, okay, I have to take a stop here and refuel. And we're going to go to Italy. Now, the FBI was pissed when they show up at JFK

because they're like, we got to bombard this plane while they're refueling because Cuba's one thing. Freakin' Italy, are you kidding me? But the FBI, as they're approaching, they hear a gun go off in the plane. Nobody was injured. He shot up at the top ceiling, which I'm sure is so dangerous for a plane.

And now there's a hole! Yeah, or something like that, but he shot it off. No one's injured, the plane is ready to go, and the FBI backs off, so the plane departs for Rome, Italy. And he escaped capture. In Rome, he steals a police car right after they land, the plane they're free to go back to the United States, and he hides in a rural church. Eventually, the next morning, Italian police arrest him, but the public. The public opinion in Italy, they were pissed.

They heard his story. He's a hero. He doesn't deserve a rest. He is the only brave one that stood up to the giant power of America. This guy, he didn't hurt anyone. He didn't deserve this. It really helped that he was incredibly attractive and girls were just standing the shit out of him.

So because of this public pressure, Italy couldn't extradite him to the United States. And they said, well, okay, America, don't be pissed off. We're just gonna try him in Rome instead for weapons possessions, because air piracy is not a crime in Italy. Skyjunking's not a crime in Italy yet, okay? So they're like for weapons possessions. So during the trial he was charged spent 18 months in prison immediately after he gets

released, he started it in an Italian movie. An America was pissed. They said excuse me Italy, first of all you're a close ally, you're a founding member of NATO, and now you're holding a fug all, you're a close ally, you're a founding member of NATO, and now you're holding a fugitive, you're telling him that he's courageous for standing up to us, and he's a sex symbol? Like, why is he on a movie poster? What's going on? Later, he opened up a pizzeria called hijacking. I mean, continues to live in Italy.

I mean, he's considered a hero. He gets visitors all the freaking time. So airlines, again, they're like, we don't care. That's diplomatic relations. As long as we don't lose passengers, we don't lose money, we don't give a fork. So they started having hijacking insurance. Like, you know when you buy a plane ticket right now,

you get like a weather insurance or whatever. They said, for $75, you can get $500 compensation for every day of captivity by a hijacker $2,500 in medical coverage and a whopping $5,000 in the event of death and dismemberment. I love it the Airlines goes how do we turn a unfortunate situation into a money-making activity? Precisely so Roger truly believes he's reading all this news He's reading about this Italian guy who's now this full-kyro He's this movie star and he's like this is my Destiny, yeah, so he starts driving her to work. Kathy to work. He's dating her. They move in together and he bargains with the army

He says I'm gonna turn myself in and if I avoid any military prison Can you just consider my aOL in undesired discharge? So during the Vietnam War, they had a spike in people going AWOL, which like, I mean I get it right, and so they were like fine, we don't want to waste money, we don't want to waste funds, so fine, you're dishonorably discharged, leave, you're not spending time in prison, but Roger's parents find out about this, and because their military family they decided we don't want anything to do with you, Roger. You can visit your daughters, but that's it.

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Kathy doesn't really know all this, okay? She's having a stellar time. She's 20 years old and and she's like, wow, I'm dead in a real bad boy. Like all these other guys in San Diego, they're fake bad boys, but this guy, he's actually seen some stuff, and that was really attractive to her. Now, they were not doing financially well at all. Roger made her quit her job because he found out that they were doing happy endings, and they were just making money, dealing drugs.

But like I said, they sucked at it, because both of them would just smoke the weed and never deal it, so they were just constantly losing money. But she would stress and Roger would tell her, it's okay, the universe will provide. We will never want for anything. And Roger refused to work. So he just read books about astrology, He wanted to understand the zodiac. He thought about, maybe I moved to Costa Rica and I do some groundbreaking research in the jungle.

Maybe I'll go to China. No, no, no, these are all too small. My mission has something to do with Vietnam. Something about Vietnam. So he starts browsing the news again and he comes across the murder trial of Angela Davis. I already know she's like such a big name an amazing person. She's an American political advocate, an activist, a philosopher, an

academic, a scholar, right? She was on the Netflix documentary 13th. I feel like that was really popular, right? And she's on the time, so 100 most influential people of 2020. She's done a lot of amazing work in America. We're not going to go down that rabbit hole, but she was involved in a murder trial at the same time that this was happening. So a 17 year old named Jonathan went into a courtroom, took defendants, a judge, a prosecutor, and three jurors hostage, which ensued in a police shootout that killed the judge and three other men involved. Now Angela Davis was the owner of one of the guns used by this 17 year old because she was a political activist and she was getting she was way ahead of her time. She was getting death

threats. So she had given this 17 year old Jonathan, here's a gun, you're my bodyguard. She hired him as a bodyguard and on his off time he committed this atrocious crime. So because it was her gun America decided she's gonna have to stand trial for murder, even though she had nothing to do with it because it was her gun. And now America's track record is not good. We're so like this. So she became the third woman on the FBI's most wanted top 10 fugitive list. And eventually she was caught and thousands around the United States protested.

They wanted to get her released, committees were formed. John Lennon wrote a song titled, Angela for her release. And finally, after 16 months in jail, she was released on bail. And her trial was taking place. And it's crazy. A lot of people came forward to really help her.

A well off dairy farmer paid for her bail. That was like $100,000. So now she's sitting in trial. We don't know. Is she going to be found guilty with an all white juror. She's a black woman, right? How is this gonna go? Everyone was outraged. Everyone was so nervous for Angela Davis. And he thinks, huh? Maybe my plan has something to do with Vietnam, skyjacking, and Angela Davis. So he's putting together these pieces, but he's not getting the full

picture yet. He's just picking these like news but he's not getting the full picture yet. He's just picking these like news titles that's like, oh, I think that's a sign. And just collecting them in his brain, but he has no idea what's happening yet. It's like this really scattered idea. Meanwhile, the sky-jacking world takes a turn. There's a new MMO taking place. Ransom. And Arthur Gates bark Lee.

He was fired from his job, and the IRS handed him a $500 tax bill. It was like, you got to pay us $500. But he believed that the IRS miscalculated it. He was like, whoa, I didn't make that much money. So he gets on a plane to Washington, DZ, with a gun, a razor, and a can of gasoline. And he tells the captain, I'm taking over.

So they're like, well, where do you want to go? And he says, I don't want to go anywhere I want a hundred million dollars in small bills and I want it taken from the Supreme Court They're like what okay He's asking for a hundred million dollars. I feel like that doesn't in in today's money that would be even more Yeah, like a billion dollars or something insane. Yeah, okay, so he's like what? What what are you talking about the captain like, that doesn't make any sense. The airline, we can maybe gather like $100,000.

And so when they land, the sack of money is delivered to the plane. And Arthur is super pissed. She said, I asked for a hundred million and I got a hundred thousand. That's not even negotiating. What even is this? That's not compromised. He pours all the money into the cockpit floor and he forces the captain to take off again And he radios a message for president Nixon and he says you don't know how to count money and you don't even know the rules of law

So there's circling around DC just like a plane in the sky hijacked circling around DC That's like a freaking nightmare, right? And he says last chance. I want a hundred million dollars or else everybody dies So the FBI they get on top of it and they say, okay, we'll give you $100 million. Please land at the DC airport. We're gonna have sacks of money. So they borrowed, you know, those massive mail sacks that you sometimes see at the airport? Carrying like letters and stuff?

Mm-hmm. Huge. They got a hundred of them. And they said each one is stuffed with $1 million cash. But they were actually stuffed with newspapers. and they lined them up on the plane runway the plane lands and he's looking around and he's like okay that looks like 100 hundred sex that's a hundred million dollars finally so what as they're landing this panicked passengers like it's my time it's my time to go so he opens up the emergency landing and just jumps out the plane.

I mean, he's safe. He doesn't die. But this causes FBI to just go full-on chaos mode. They board the plane. They start running towards the cockpit. You know, Arthur realizes what's about to happen. So he shoots the copilot in the stomach. The FBI just shoots the shit out of him. His hand was shot. He survived the incident, but this was going to be a press nightmare because money was covered on the cockpit floor because he was pissed. Remember, he dumped out all the money and now it's covered in blood because two people were shot. I mean, this was going to be a frenzy. So the FBI decides we're going to start ramping things up. If a plane is idle and it's refueling at the airport before

they head to Cuba or wherever, Italy, we're going to have snipers come in, we're going to take down the hostage taker, we're going to kill him. So this is around the time that DB Cooper hijacks a plane and becomes almost an urban legend of sorts. So that was probably the peak of all of that, right? Yeah. So he boards a flight in Portland, you know, shortly after taking off, he tells the flight attendant, I have a bomb in my briefcase, I want $200,000 in cash, which is about like $1.3 million in today's money.

I want four parachutes, and they land in Seattle. He gets everything on the plane. He says, Captain, take me to New Mexico. Before they even pass Oregon's border, he just jumps straight off the plane into a hell storm with the money. And he was never seen again. Now, the theories are interesting, did he survive? Is he somewhere living as a rich man living the dream? Skydivers say that it's unlikely because the plane was going at 195 miles an hour.

And they said that if you jump out of a plane like that as an unexperienced Skydiver, which DB Cooper was because he didn't even ask for a helmet, a crash helmet or anything, then you probably would have been knocked unconscious immediately. And if he survived the drop into the Hellstorm without protective gear, I mean, it's just all rivers and lakes and Oregon. They couldn't find his body, though. They couldn't find the money, either. So there is a chance that he did survive.

I think it's a better story if he survived, so we'll go with that. So there was a few more afterwards. There was a Richard the Point who was in the army. He wanted a $50,000 ransom in two parachutes, jumped off of Colorado over Colorado. And unlike DB Cooper, he asked for a crash helmet. Now, he's really well versed in skydiving. The only problem was, well, a couple of things.

The parachutes were bugged with location trackers. So the police were going to find him. The second thing was, he was wearing cowboy boots. He didn't wear sneakers or combat boots. So when he lands on the ground, he breaks his ankle and the FBI is tracking him. So he's just laying helpless in a field with a sack of money because he has a broken ankle

and the FBI is like, put your hands in the air and he gets caught because of his cowboy boots. So Roger, he's watching all of this and he's learning stuff from it. So he's thinking, okay, the best way to not fail or die is to avoid as much time as possible on the ground. That's when the snipers come in. That's when the FBI tried to bombard the plane.

That's not good. So his whole plan goes like this. He's gonna hijack a plane, negotiate to swap all of the passengers for Angela Davis because it's a sign from the universe he's got to save her now he's gonna what he's gonna get Angela Davis on the plane once he gets her on the plane he's gonna order the plane to be flown to North Vietnam where we're in war with Vietnam right we're still in war and he said the prime minister will of course grant

her political asylum because he hates America right now. So he just want to save her? Yeah and he says the media circus will wake up America. That Vietnam is not that bad. Vietnam is taking in Angela Davis to save her from the American government. It's gonna wake up America. The American people are gonna realize this war is dumb. On top of that, he's gonna ask for $3 million with his goal, but he gets close to $500K, which in today's dollars is $3 million, right? And he was gonna make this huge media circus and he was gonna donate it to Vietnam when he gets there.

And show the people I feel bad for killing Vietnamese soldiers. This is my repayment. So that was his plan and he was going to do it with a briefcase bomb. So he grabs this army book called Emmanuel titled a guide to selected Vietnamese troops equipment and explosive devices. And it had improvised bombs that the Vietnamese troops would make so that the army would be familiar with them and he saw this briefcase bomb. And so he's like, this is the one. He decided to name it Operation Cicifus, which is a sadistic king and Greek mythology that was forced to spend his entire life rolling a boulder up a hill because he was that evil.

So while he is planning this great skyjacking, he's just smoking weed the whole time. So he's got seven different strategies planned out and like none of them are making sense and he had no clear paths. They're all meshing together, but he did know one thing. He was gonna wear his army uniform and Kathy was gonna be there. They were gonna do this together. So they would hijack a plane from LAX to Hawaii. Why to Hawaii? Because that's a long range plane. So if they land in Hawaii, they can go somewhere else refuel and then they can actually make it to Vietnam. Not all planes can make it to Vietnam, right? So that was what's gonna happen. Angela Davis is in San Francisco. So from Hawaii, they would go to San Francisco. It was gonna all be good. The Vietnamese Prime Minister would meet them at the Vietnam Airport and greet them.

The Vietnamese Prime Minister would meet them at the Vietnam Airport and greet them. And it was just going to be this amazing thing. Then afterwards, he drops off Angela makes the donation. He was going to demand the pilot to fly them back to Australia. And they were going to find this him and Kathy. We're going to find this cute little place and live off the land. His parents would ship over the twins and Kathy would raise the kids as her own. And Kathy's hearing this and she's ecstatic. She's like, okay, well what's my job? And he says,

well your job is to do nothing. Once we get on the plane, we're gonna act like we don't know each other. You're gonna be a scared passenger and you're just gonna make sure nobody's planning a coup. Nobody's planning something weird. Is there an FBI agent sneaking on board? You're to be on the lookout. And I will refer to you as Stan. If I ever need you to do something, I'll go on the intercom and the plane and I'll say Stan, do this. Stan was his best friend's name in Vietnam, the one that died from a landmine. So they start packing up their things.

I mean, Kathy's excited. She's 20. She's like, hi, Jack, and cool. Australia, even cooler. So she's like packing up a bunch of bikinis. She's like, I'm going on vacation Yeah, so that's her carry on this new adventure. Roger on the other hand has only two small things that he's carrying a small Samsonite briefcase for his bomb and another one with all of his planning materials It would have his notebook of notes that for this entire operation, Cicifus

Explosives manual, ran some notes, and of course, his favorite astrological charts and books. So June 2nd of 1972, they get on their first flight from San Diego to LAX. Once they land in LAX, they have their first major issue. Their payment was declined. They can't buy it, take it to Hawaii. They don't have money in the bank.

So they're like, what? Now, they remembered that she had vouchers with the Western Airlines. So Kathy had these little vouchers that she could turn in, but they weren't enough to make it to Hawaii. They could make it to Seattle instead. So they're like, well, if that's the best we can do, let's board the flight for Seattle. So 12.35pm, just a little afternoon, they board the plane to Seattle. No assigned seats, they sat apart from each other, acted like they had no idea. And for the next few hours, the plane ride goes smoothly. And Roger's just sitting there freaking out. I gotta do it soon, I gotta do it soon.

God, what, what, what was happening? A flight attendant spilled a drink on him, his nerves were just out of this world. Finally, the intercom tells him they're about to land in 25 minutes. So he's saying, okay, okay, okay. It's now or never. So he grabs his Sam's night briefcase and he goes and he opens the curtains to the flight attendants, approaches Gina, who runs to the cockpit, shows the captain the notes, and the captain tells Gina, tell him, we'll do anything he wants, but we can't leave this cockpit, okay?

Like, it's, no, the plane's gonna go down. So Roger is like, well, then I want to go inside the cockpit. So the door opens and now he's just standing there in front of these three Western Airlines employees, the pilot, the co-pilot, and the other dude, right? And he gives a speech. And the whole cockpit with speechless. Because like, wait, he didn't even tell us what he wants yet. We just listened to him for like the past five minutes telling his life story that he's born and raised where. He served in the army, his positions. What do you want, dude?

And so finally, he holds up his briefcase, and he says, see, this controls the detonator. There is a grenade in here. The plane is being controlled by the weatherman. So the weatherman was a radical left militant group during the time, and they were super notorious. Um, less so now.

So they were against the Vietnam War. They orchestrated a series of bombings in America to let them know, hey, we don't like this war, right? So Roger claims the weatherman came to my house. They're holding my children and my wife hostage. They're forcing me to do this. Four of them are pretending to be passengers on the back of the plane right now. One of them is on LSD. There's a bunch of bombs back there and there's a girl too. She's like the leader of this all. And we want you to take us to San Francisco. The pilot's like, we can't. We don't even have enough fuel. We need to land in Seattle first to refuel. Listen, we don't care. We'll do whatever you want. We'll go to San Francisco, we'll go to frickin' Cuba, if that's what you want.

But if we don't land in Seattle for fuel, we're gonna die. So Roger's like, okay fine. Also I want $3 million, which is about $20 million in today's money. They're like, what? They'll turn around and they're like, that's impossible. There's no way the best this airline can do is max. 500K.

Again, $3 million in today's money. Okay fine What? They're like okay a little odd. So he's like oh, oh, yeah, I forgot and I want a five pair of shoots Okay, so they radio over to Western Airlines and they're telling M. Hay this plane's been hijacked This is his list of demands and the captain goes over the intercom and says ladies and gentlemen We have a party up here that doesn't wish to go to our intended destination. We are cooperating with him completely. We will stop in Seattle to refuel and I'll pass along more details as I have them. And people start going hysterical.

There was this one lady in first class who was hyperventilating so much just loudly sobbing that people were scared because she's so close to the cockpit that her husband shoved her head His wife's head into his suit jacket until she passed out because they were like you're gonna put us in danger There were people stuffing their socks with jewelry and cash because they're like this guy Jacker is gonna try to skyjack me Not today not my diamond ring They're just stuffing their socks and Roger didn't like this message. It's not scary enough, so he takes over the intercom and he says, Weathermen! Relax, relax! We're encountering absolutely no resistance. They're complying with all of our demands.

Passengers, there are weathermen among you. They have a bomb. One of them is on LSD. Remain calm, don't try anything. These men will blow a saw up if anyone steps out of line Who's the imposter and they all look around and they see one black man And they're like well the guy holding the plane hostage is black. It's got to be the other black dude Kathy herself I mean no one's expecting her, but she couldn't even stop herself from smiling. She didn't know any of these specifics, but she was like, this is freaking genius.

She's so excited. With the heck, Kathy, you're weird. So they landed in Seattle at 3.14 pm. The fuel truck comes, they refuel. The passenger tried to open the emergency exit just like the other one, and all the other passengers tackled him. And they were like, weren't you listening? They're weathermen back here with us.

Get it together. Don't try anything funny. So the minute that they refuel, he whispers into the captain's ear. All right, white man, let's get this thing moving. And the captain's like, okay, let me just, and he's like, now. So they just start zooming down the runway. The passengers thought that they were going to be stopped for a while. So they're all like standing up, stretching their legs legs and now they're just like bouncing around in the cabin

And the seatbelt sign wasn't on, so can you blame them? So they're like, okay, after San Francisco, we're headed to San Francisco right now You said you wanted Angela Davis and the money there. Where do you want to go? What's the plan? You want to go to Cuba? Is that what you want? North Vietnam. Silence. And the captain says, okay, I want to take you there. I do. I really do. But this plane doesn't have the capacity to get there. You cannot go to North Vietnam without the plane going down on a 727. It's just impossible. I'm telling you straight up.

And he realized that the whole mistake was when they didn't get on a plane to Hawaii They got on a short range plane. Yeah, so he's like what the fork so then he says okay, then I want another plane Okay, so you want Three million dollars Angela Davis who's on trial for murder and a long range plane to go to a country that were in war with precisely And a long range plane to go to a country that we're in war with? Precisely. So obviously Western Airlines, they contact Angela Davis. She's out on bail, awaiting for the verdict of her trial. They immediately send her to the judge, the courtroom, and the judge is like,

you have something to do with this. I know it, this is your escape. Who'd you put up to this? One of your many loyal followers, and she's like, I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm innocent of this murder trial and I'm innocent of this hijacking. She genuinely had no idea, right? And they're like, well, you're on your house arrest. You're gonna be placed in this courthouse until this hijacking is over. There's no way you're leaving the country. And Angela Davis is like, I don't have plans to leave the country judge like you're insane. The airlines freaking out because not only do they have Angela Davis,

the court will not give them Angela Davis, okay? They don't have the plane. They just don't have a long range plane in the western inventory. They don't have the money, like what the fork are we gonna do? Meanwhile, Roger's doing the most on the intercom system. He's like, whether men were starting paragraph 16, page two, we're on track for page 12 next. And everyone's looking around like, it's that black guy.

It's literally what they were thinking. And I'm laughing because of how just ignorant this is. But the whole plane was accusing that guy and they decided, okay, what are we gonna do? We're gonna jump him, right? Like actively talking about murdering a man together on a plane. What?

The flight attendants are trying to calm everything down so they're doing free drinks. So they just pop in champagne in the back, okay? This is a weird situation. And Roger's seatmate realizes, well it's obviously my seatmate, Roger. So let me go through his things. He had left his other bag, right? And they start opening it up. They find the horoscope booklets. They find the explosive books, no books, and Kathy

freaks out. Because, you know, what if they get caught? So she tells a flight attendant, hey, that guy's going through the hijacker stuff. What if the hijacker gets pissed and blows us all up? So the flight attendant goes over and says, we need to put this back. We're going to piss off the weatherman. And they put this stuff back in the bag and under the seat. But he whispered. The flight attendant whispers to the seat maidens and says, right all the stuff down. Anything you saw right it down because the FBI might want to know. So in the cockpit, Rogers non-stop smoking weed. Just joined after joined asking for updates and the crew start lying to him and they tell

them, well, you know, I don't know if you really even need Angela Davis because she was acquitted for murder. This is false. The verdict hadn't come in yet. And Roger was ecstatic. And he thought, wow, it's because of my thing. It's because of my hijacking. The jury found out.

And they thought, wow, she must be innocent if there's people willing to hijack something. Man, the universe was right. I wonder how Angela Davis is going to thank me later for this. And now there's a new problem. I don't need to take Angela to Vietnam now. She doesn't need political ice, asylum. Then we don't need to go to Vietnam. So where should I go?

Now, on land, the airline, Western Airlines, full on freak out. They have Bank of America gathering, all the cash for the ransom. The airlines just wanna get it done, but the FBI is like, I want every single serial number on every single bill recorded. That's gonna take another two hours. They also don't have a trans-oceanic plane, so the vice president of Western Airlines is like calling up people.

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So right now, download the 5 Star rated puzzle game Best Fiends for free today on the App Store or Google Play. That's friends without the R. Best Fiends for free today on the App Store or Google Play. That's friends without the R. Best Fiends. He calls up United Airlines and they're like, you want us to lend you a plane so that people are going to board it with bombs? No thank you. And everyone's just shutting them down. Finally, they secure one, right?

But they were currently in Las Vegas. So now they have to fly from Las Vegas to San Francisco, fuel up to meet the little hostage taker and the current crew that's on the flight being held hostage, they're not qualified to fly this 728, right? So they need a new crew. They need a swap planes. They need a swap crews. This is going to be insane with the fork. so captain who wants to be kidnapped exactly but here's the shocking thing captain bill new will who was the chief pilot of western airlines he was also like an ex-navy person like a really admirable person he decides I got to be the one to do it so he calls up his best crew a symbols of crew of lead pilots and

they all knew that they're about to be held hostage and going into a war zone. Vietnam, okay? And he calls up his best flight attendants. And he tells them the truth. You're gonna put your lives in danger. And all of them, they were called while they were eating dinner with their like families. And they were like, okay, I'll be at the airport. And they just rush because they're like, we gotta do this. It's crazy.

Some people are too dedicated to their jobs. I like love these people, but that is like too much dedication. Are they paying you enough? I need to know. They need to give you 50 million raises. So they're going to run this aircraft with him. Meanwhile, the FBI, they're trying to fork it up. They're like, OK, Captain Bill, we're

going to get on the plane too. He's like, what? Yeah, we're gonna get on the plane too. He's like, what? Yeah, we're gonna dress up as maintenance workers. He he he. No you're not. They're like, yeah we are. We're gonna bring some guns. Pupu, pupu, we're gonna kill him.

He's like, no way or die. You're literally, if you even have a shootout on the plane, we're gonna kill Pyley. We're gonna end up killing someone that's not the hijacker because they have weather man abard. The FBI is like, yeah, we don't really care. We don't care because here's the thing. People can die, that's fine, but for America to send a plane to North Vietnam, that's a political party fell.

That's gonna make us look dumb. As an American, you know, they're gonna be like, look at america they can't even control their own citizens yet we can't do that we'd rather kill americans and do that captain bill's like plan in his own thing he's like okay i'm gonna try to sneak onto the plane and make sure fb i'd and don't get on to the plane so he's like run in his own operation and there was this more important issue that he had in the back of his mind they're taking a plane full of americans into Vietnam

are all of them going to be held hostage in Vietnam? Like, what is happening? So the plan, the hostage plane, lands at around 6.15 PM in San Francisco. They refuel and he immediately wants them to take off again. The money will not be ready for another two hours. So for the next five hours, they're just like circling the airport. Because he says, less time on the ground, the less you die. So they're they're just circling they're ready for the money ready for the long-range aircraft Finally, it's all ready and the passengers start seeing something incredibly scary just like liquid

Coming out of the plane Like what the fuck something's going on? What does that mean? Just a liquid shooting out of the wings They're like we're all gonna. The plane's gonna go down. It's a malfunction. In reality, it was fuel. They had to get rid of all the fuel because they were too heavy to land.

So a plane will literally pee fuel out into the just open air because they're too heavy to land. They would crash. So they dump all of their fuel and they eventually land. A truck pulls up to the landed plan with the money and Roger grabs a flight attendant A female to grab the money and put it into the cockpit and it was stuffed heavy with cash and it Sutted on the ground and the passengers here this they're thrilled Oh, I got my god, you know what that sound is that's the sound of frickin beautiful cash the money's here

We're free bitches, we're done. This is what they wanted, money, they got it, and they're toasting water. Because all the champagne and the liquor was all drunken up. They're tipsy, all the passengers are tipsy, okay? They're like toasting, they're hugging, they're like, yeah, where do you live? We should have grabbed dinner.

Yeah, we could, this is gonna be a funny story one day, right? They're like planning all of this. Let's keep in touch, you know? This is hilarious, I can't wait to tell my family. They're gonna be like funny story one day, right? They're like planning all of this. Let's keep in touch. You know, this is hilarious. I can't wait to tell my family. They're gonna be like, oh my God, that's crazy. Imagine the news. We're gonna be on the news, guys. And one of the flight attendants,

she's excited, she's toasting water, and she sees a large plane taxing towards them. And she rushes to her colleague, and this colleague is like over the moon. She's like, yes, we're done finally. And she brushes to her colleague. And this colleague is like, over the moon. She's like, yes, we're done finally. And she shakes her by the shoulders. And she says, it's a lie. It's a lie.

It's not over. It's not over. And she was right. So the FBI, they want to get snipers on the runway. And shoot Roger dead now, right? So they're getting ready. They've got their best snipers. San Francisco airport, come on, come on, come on.

Set up station. Kill the hostage taker, kill Roger. But then they get a call. There's a second hijacking. From Reno, Nevada, a United Airlines Boeing 727, a man was armed with a gun and demanded $1 million. Now that's not the alarming thing. The alarming thing is he wanted to be taken to the San Francisco airport.

Not Cuba, San Francisco. What? I mean, that's too much of a coincidence, right? He didn't mention that whether men were involved, he didn't mention any political reason, he didn't mention anything, but we can't deny the coincidence. Nobody goes to San Francisco. They all go to Cuba. This is weird. So they're scared that if they kill Roger, the second hijacker, if they're involved, they get word that Roger's dead and they kill everyone on the plane. Maybe this is like an insurance for Roger Holder and for the weatherman, right? So the FBI, they have no idea. They can't even kill Roger now. They're like, oh, shit, if if we kill him we could kill a whole plane of passengers imagine how that would look what are we gonna do right so while the FBI is trying to figure their stuff

out captain Bill and his crew they get to the new plane Roger wanted everyone on the right side of the plane to go into the new aircraft the left was free to go because the right side was where Kathy was sitting so he said ladies and gentlemen we're gonna need everyone sitting on the right side was where Kathy was sitting. So he said, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to need everyone sitting on the right side of the plane to go towards the rear of the plane and up over onto the other aircraft. Walk fast. And all the laughter stopped. Everyone's like, what?

There was a few seats empty on the left side and people are like tackling each other to sit on the left side. And eventually everyone stood up. Kathy included and they all left the plane and boarded the second one. A flight attendant even told Kathy, good luck, I'll be praying for you. Everyone on the right side, de-borted and got on the new plane, except for a woman with her infant son. And she was the only one sitting in a sea of empty seats on the right side, and she was shaking in terror. So finally Roger walks out with the money and he's got his briefcase and he sees the woman and she's shaking in terror.

And he just nods at her and walks out of the plane. Let's her stay. So they take 27 hostages now into the new plane. Roger shakes hands with the three pilots and they say, where do you want to go? And he says, I'll let you know when we're in the air. So Roger felt like Angela's trial was assigned. The fact that she was acquitted meant that they shouldn't go to Vietnam.

Because without her, the plan wouldn't work. They wouldn't get political asylum. Vietnam wouldn't look good in the political world. So they got to do something else, right? What if they shoot down the plane before we even land in Vietnam now? So where do we want to go? Where do we want to go?

The plane is in the air and he says, I want to go to Algiers What? Algiers You mean the capital of Alguria? You want to go to Africa right now? Yeah, I said what I said and everyone was kind of relieved because at least the US wasn't at full-on war with Alguria, but they weren't on good terms. They didn't even have like diplomatic relations at the time

They didn't have an embassy in Algia, you know, what was going on. This is going to be weird. On top of that, because they don't have diplomatic relations, most of the crew had no idea I had fly, tell Jurya. So they tell him, we can take you there, but we need to refuel in New York City and get a navigator on board. So this is going to be another stop, right? And he says, okay, sounds good. So the passengers, they are eating chicken dinner in the back, Rogers drinking coffee. He's daydreaming about Algeria.

He's thinking to himself once I land there. All these reporters are gonna come out. They're gonna welcome me. Oh God, it's gonna be a shit show, right? It's gonna be amazing. Now FBI is confused, right? They've got this plane full of half of the passengers left in San Francisco.

Now the plane is headed to New York City. They just got where they're going to Algeria. This is the first time a hostage plane is taken to Algeria, what the fork's going on. So they start questioning the remaining passengers that are now free. And none of them really remember anything because most of them are wasted. Most of them are so drunk. So they're like, this is insane. This is useless. The only useful information was the seatmate who saw in Roger's bag discharge papers that said Willie Roger Holder. They finally had the real name of the hijacker and the press went nuts. The press started making up shit. They were like, for radical black people hijacked the plane! Cool! A five year old was interviewed

and he said, my grandma was a passenger on that plane. They're like, what happened to the plane five-year-old? And he said, it got hijacked. The men wanted hundreds of dollars. And they're like, why does a five-year-old know the word hijacked? This is bad guys. This is not a good look on us. So the plane lands at New York City at five in the morning. And the passengers are told you guys are going to be allowed. So the plane lands at New York City at five in the morning. And the passengers are told you guys are going to be allowed off after the plane is done refueling.

Meanwhile, the FBI is intent on sending another fake maintenance worker into the plane. So they keep trying to stall. We need to get into the maintenance costume. We need to have a plan, right? But Roger was onto this. So he demanded to talk to the FBI. And he said, and I quote, look here, motherfucker.

You better get this shit out here now. So he's referring to the FBI and he said, and I quote, look you hear, motherfucker, you better get this shit out here now. So he's referring to the latter to let the passengers off the plane, right? And he says, you better get this shit out here now. You ask, now. I wanna hear your shit, get it out here now. You ain't fucking around with no dumb and word. You understand?

Why is he letting them go? Because he really didn't, he just wanted to be free It's what about Kathy Kathy was gonna stay. Oh, yeah, and the N word is important because in the army his white Superior is called in the N word non-stop So I think there's some significance there. He's not just like trying to be vulgar and he was like you understand and 30 seconds of 30 seconds past and the stairs were there So I guess it just took a little bit of cussing out the FBI to get shit done, okay?

The passengers started lining up to leave and Kathy didn't know what to do She's thinking to herself like weighing the options. She could easily get off right now and pretend that she's just a shook Everyone else nobody saw them talking nobody knew that they were dating but the intercom comes on And it says, you stay here. So she sits back down in her seat and everyone's looking at her like, what? This, like honestly, she's very beautiful.

This beautiful, just 20 year old dressed up as a hippie, like, you're a part of this, what is happening? So she sits back down in her chair and everyone starts leaving. And then she sees a quote unquote maintenance worker trying to sneak up the stairs to the plane. And he claims it's a pre-flight inspection. And Captain Bill stands up and he says,

get back, get back, shut the doors. So Captain Bill thought that Roger was negotiable. He already let off all the passengers. He went this far without any bloodshed, now is not the time to piss him off. I mean, why would you do that? We're just gonna drop him off in Algeria and we'll be flying.

No one's gonna die today. So the FBI agents, they were forced to step back and their plan was ruined. And the plane leaves at 6.25 a.m. with no agents aboard. So the plane heads straight towards Algeria. They have a navigator on board now, a true navigator, not an FBI agent. And Roger starts joining Kathy in the first class cabin. They smoke weed together. They take a nap. They have sex.

Yeah, so that's cool. I guess join the mile high club if you're already doing this. Okay, imagine hijacking a plane but not being part of the mile high club. I couldn't imagine that. That sounds boring. So Kathy even goes to the cockpit to ask them to turn up the heat. It's too cold in the plane. And they all look at her and they're like, what? So doing all of this, I mean, they had no idea that there was

somebody else back there. They thought most people had left. And it's like this young beautiful 20-year-old woman How did she get roped in all of this? What's happening? What the fork so America is on full-on alert the Pentagon gets involved and they're freaking the fork out like I said first American hostage flight to Africa to Algeria specifically What's gonna happen when they get there? I mean Algeria could very well take the whole crew hostage because they're not on good relations with America The Pentagon calls up Switzerland and says hey, can you do us a huge favor Switzerland?

Can you call the hostage plane and tell them that you'll give them a silo and then like obviously when they land You can be like oopsie. I was just lying and then you can like bring them back to us You know, what do you think? How does that I was just lying and then you can like bring them back to us. You know what do you think? How does that sound? And Switzerland says, and I quote, we will not be the Cuba of the Alps. It says you will not land your hostage plane. And Switzerland thank you now go fork off. So finally they try to reach Algeria.

Okay the Pentagon gets in contact with Algeria and Algeria contacts the plane and they want to talk to Roger. They want to know, do you have any affiliation with any political group, or you like trying to do something shady in Algeria? And he says, no, can you guarantee my safety? Yes, it is not a problem. All right, I want a silo. Are you going to give that to me?

Yeah, okay, understood. So the plane is going to land in Algeria. Once they land, there's military trucks waiting for them. Roger leaves with the money and Kathy, and before he leaves the cockpit, he tells the crew, I left you guys something in the oven. They go to the literal oven inside of the, um, stewardess little area where they heat up meals,

and he had left close to $30,000 in there for the crew. As a tip! Wow! So like, what? So Roger, right before he leaves the crew as a tip. Wow. So what? So Roger, right before he leaves the plane, he takes off his shoes because he thinks it's going to be more dramatic. A barefoot sky jacker in his army uniform.

He debores the plane with Kathy and his cash. Once he gets on the ground, Algerian officials, they take his cash and they gingerly take the bomb briefcase away from him. And they're going to be rushed to be interviewed by the head of the military in Algeria. Because they need to know, are you a threat to Algeria?

Are we gonna grant you a political asylum? Why should we grant you a political asylum? Why should we do any of this? The press were all there, they were going crazy, and the first thing that they wanted to do was look at that bomb. So they see the military officials open up that briefcase, and inside Was an alarm clock a book and an empty disposable brazer's box. There was no bomb

This was the longest distance skyjacking in American history without a single weapon Wow, so he just fooled everyone with a graph. Yeah, so the crew, they were fed, and to their surprise, Algeria was like, yeah, okay, go back to the states, we don't really care. And they were like, wow, thank you. And Algeria fed them this delicious meal, and they're like, this is kind of great. We should come back more often.

They get on to a plane. They fly back to the United States. So the couple are sent to be guarded in a hotel, while the president of Algeria is deciding what to do with them, right? Obviously, America wants them back more than anything right so this time finally at this time the Angela Davis trial verdict came through and she was found not guilty on all charges and there was

no mention of the plane and this kind of pissed off Roger but we'll get back to that so finally they have a meeting with the president of Algeria he shakes Roger's hand said said nothing else, and escorted them out of the room. That was it, just one look is what it took. So for another one to two weeks, they're waiting. And finally, Algeria informs them that they are clear to be released.

They are granted asylum. What? Are you kidding me? So now they're like, oh shit, okay, but what about the money? Yeah, we're still working on that. Okay, so Algeria officials had the money still. So like, okay, well, what do we do?

Thankfully, there was a lot of connections in Algeria. There were more like, they're called the Black Panthers. They were a group in a movement, if you will. I'm not gonna go and deep into it, but the book does, right? And they had members in Algeria that were just gonna, how's these people? They were like, come, come stay with us. It was free housing, free food, and the couple stayed with them. They're just frallicking on these beautiful

beaches, getting friendly with neighbors. I mean, it was, they started hanging out with all these like really high class people in Algeria. Like they were almost seen as like this, whoa, like honorable guest set a party almost. Interesting, right? Yeah. Now Algeria did announce though, that they will return the money. So they scheduled a meetup to meet the officials

of Western Airlines in Paris to transfer the funds over. And Roger and Kathy were really sad about this. They had been planning ways to spend it. So then now they're like, well, we have no money. What are we gonna do? We can't find work in Algeria. What's gonna happen? Meanwhile, the hijacking start getting worse.

Because now people are like, what a minute? I can get to Algeria too. Are you kidding me? Another family made it to Algeria. There was a man who demanded over $10 million. He got it. There was a shootout. He got to Cuba.

They turned him away. So he fly back to the US and then flew back to Cuba. I mean, it was just non-stop There was a young college student who was killed by a pilot during a hijacking and finally president Nixon was like I think we should um Declare a state of an emergency so he declared the emergency FAA rule that airlines would be required to screen every single passenger with metal detectors They would have to inspect the contents of all the carry-on bags. This was gonna cost billions of dollars a year for the airline industry. It was gonna be an absolute shit show. They would impose attacks on all the tickets.

airline tickets would have to go up. Cuba agreed to sign an extradition deal when it came to hijackers. I was like, yeah, okay fine, we'll give you your little criminalist back. Meanwhile, I mean it was America's in a shit show and Roger in Algeria, they're just like hanging out. But Roger starts mentally deteriorating. He starts getting anxious. He feels like the CIA is listening to him. The people are trying to turn him in. Everyone was against him. He starts smoking more weed and through their connections, they decided to sneak away from Algeria to Paris. So they get these really good fake US passports. They get on a plane from Algeria to Paris and this

whole time the couple's kind of drifting apart and once they get to Paris it's only worse because Kathy is young. She wants to live her life and people in Paris, these Parisian men, are really attracted to her, especially when they know her history and I in Paris, these Parisian men, are really attracted to her. Especially when they know her history. And I'm talking wealthy men. This is another Jack Untiveger situation where all of these upper elites in Paris, authors, artists, movie makers, producers, designers, they wanted to wine and dine this couple.

Because this is crazy. You're against the war. What kind of beautiful political message is that? You're fighting for peace. And it helped that nobody was killed, you know, in this hostage situation. It's beautiful. So they spend the rest of the two years like that. Just in Paris, having a stellar time, especially Kathy. She's dating these wealthy men they're just showering her and for she drops her hippie clothes because she kind of dressed more like a hippie and now she's in like this chic Parisian dress and just watches for jewelry just the best of the best and a little over two years after they hijacking in January a cold January the Parisian police they see something

strange there's a tall skinny man just wandering around the local river. He's obviously drunk. He seemed to be in a day, so they approach him and they say, hey, give us your ID, you need to go home. You're like a nuisance to the public. And he says, well, I don't have any ID. So they rest him, they bring him to the station, and they're like, how do you not have any ID? And he does not hold back. He says, well, my name is Roger Holder. I'm here illegally. I've been here for like years, nobody knew. Yeah, I wanted in the US because I hijacked a plane. And they're like, oh my god, this guy's so drunk. Okay, get out of here. We're gonna take a picture of you, but freaking go

sleep it off. And tomorrow, bring us your passport, okay? So they take a picture of him and they let him go. And as protocol, they let the American Embassy know. And all hell broke loose. They're like, are you freaking kidding me? Go re-arras the motherfucker. We've been looking for him for years, are you still? Oh my god, hi there. So Paris police is like, oops, it is these.

And they go to his address. That literally Roger was like, here's my address. They go to the address, but they find out that the couple had rushed out. So he had gone home, told Kathy everything, Kathy freaked out, packed up their stuff, they had still left some things, you know, and they fled to a sympathizer's house. And now they're just at this sympathizer's house. We're excited to tell you guys about the new hit podcast Strange and unexplained with

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So let's go back to the apartment get the rest of our stuff But that is when they are surrounded by the police and arrested and the first day of court hearings was a shit show Everyone in Paris wanted to see this couple. They're like, I thought they were in Algeria They're in Paris. What and they were just so impressed by Kathy Because she was young, she was sophisticated, she was beautiful, it was almost like this mesmerizing, like, what? She looks like this privileged woman in Paris,

she doesn't look like a sky-jacker. I was confusing, and it's almost like this vibe of like, women were not known for sky-jacking. So it's like, damn, she a badass type vibe. And now the couple wants America extra-dited, but the French is having a hard time just like the Italian guy because the French people freaking love this couple. So they're like, OK, we're going to piss off our own people

for America. What do we do? It also hurt that a Cathy had learned French really well. So she was doing all these media interviews when she got arrested. And she said, and I quote, I always admired France for sheltering political refugees and I hope that we will become part of that rich tradition.

Pretty much asking and pressuring for political asylum. So the judge concluded, neither party acted out of vengeance, you know? There was no one physically hurt, they didn't even get the money, and Algeria had already granted them asylum, so America don't get pissed off, okay, but we're just gonna try them in France.

Okay, we're not gonna send you back because you're probably gonna give them so much time in jail. We're just gonna try them in France. So the first trial would be for possessing false passports and they were found guilty, find several hundred francs, like a couple hundred dollars and they were sentenced to

time served and released back into Paris. Now they are facing the hijacking charges. There's gonna be another trial for hijacking a plane, and they wanted the couple to stay in Paris without, before the trial. So they cannot leave. They have to check into court two times a month, and their relationship was pretty much over. They were openly dating other people, and Roger was dating here and there. I think he got another woman pregnant but it's kind of up in the air if that is his baby or not. And Roger starts bargaining with the American Embassy.

He says, I want to go back to the United States. I miss my kids but I want to reduce sentence. So a lot of hijackers were getting like 30 years in prison now. And he said, I want a very very minimal sentence And they wanted nothing to do with that. There's an absolute amount. We're not given hijackers slaps on the wrist now and this stressed out Cathy He's like, can you stop going to the American Embassy and trying to like go back to America like we're we're finally gonna maybe be free in France This amazing country where I'm rich now because my my boyfriend's, thank you, can you stop?

And she moves out of the apartment and gets her own place funded by her wealthy boyfriend. And months would pass and he wouldn't even see Kathy. And then he gets a knock on the door. Kathy had stopped by his place. And he said she was completely different. Just draped and jewelry and fur. And she told Roger, I can't do this anymore.

The trial coming up is stressing me out. I'm gonna take a vacation with some friends in Switzerland to clear my head. She's fleeting. And she gave him this beautiful, expensive Omega watch before she left and said, I'll be back. And she walked away, and that was the last time anyone saw Kathy. She went to her Switzerland and people suspect with her connections with all these wealthy peritians

with the money that was being funded by these wealthy peritians. She is suspected of having gotten a fake identity at the American Embassy in Switzerland because they had pretty loose standards back in the day in Switzerland. They'd be like, you look rich, you're totally not running from the law. Let's give you a passport. day in Switzerland, they'd be like, you look rich, you're totally not running from the law. Let's give you a passport. The finances would help. She could be anywhere right now.

She's still a fugitive in America. So people think that she could even be living in the US, a completely different life. A lot of people suspect that she married a rich Parisian man, changed her identity, had a family. Her kids don't even know that her mom is a famous hijacker. She probably got plastic surgery to help with that. And that's it. Her parents in the United States never heard from her again. She never tried reaching out to anybody in the US ever again. Just living a... I mean, obviously you could say maybe she died. Maybe she got into a car accident.

Maybe she drug overdosed. But the main theory is that she has this completely new life. She's still on the FBI's most wanted list though. Look on the page, if you go to FBI.gov or whatever. It's still there. Oh, like how? So Roger realizes, all right, I'm the only one left to stand trial freaking great. And he was hospitalized for paranoia, anxiety,

he was self-medicating, it was just not a good time. And the was hospitalized for paranoia, anxiety, who is self-medicating. It was just not a good time. And the verdict found him guilty. But with extenuating circumstances. So they gave him a five-year probation sentence, a suspended sentence, which means you're not going to jail, but you can't leave Paris until your probation is over. So you're stuck in Paris until at least 1985. So he moved around a lot, a wealthy friend put him in a chateau. So he was living in a rural chateau, writing his memoir. He spent over a year at a clinic treating his PTSD. He married a journalist by the name of Violetta Velcova and it just didn't seem like a loving relationship. And on the

hour mark that his exile was over, he walked into the American Embassy and applied for a passport. He was taken into custody for the diplomatic paperwork to be finished, and that took over a year. And the American Embassy kept him in a Parisian hospital, a hospital in Paris, pumped full of tranquilizers the whole time. Finally, in 1986, 14 years after the hijacking, he lands on American soil, JFK, and he was immediately arrested by the FBI.

So odd. So 14 years later, America was over it. They were over the sky-jacking phase. People weren't doing it anymore. There were metal detectors everywhere, and there was also this huge, I guess you could call it propaganda, where sky-jacking became an alien crime is what they called it because a lot of other foreign countries started doing it So there was a lot of news media is pushing oh my god Look at what these crazy criminals are doing in the specifically the Middle East and all these places

So everyone was like oh skyjacking Despicable even though America had its long history of skyjackings, they just completely glazed over it and they were like, look, these Middle Easterners doing this crazy stuff we could never! So they didn't really care for skyjackers anymore. So they gave him a two-year prison sentence. He got a plea bargain. He spent a little bit of time and then he was sent to a halfway house in San Diego. So his first wish was to reunite with his two twin daughters. They were now 22 years old. And he said that the moment that they saw him, he saw a disappointment in their eyes.

He thinks that they were expecting a James Bond. But they saw this old guy with sleepy eyes, drugged out, super skinny, just not the guy that they were imagining, not the legend that everyone made him out to be. You think that's why they're disappointed? Come on. I think, okay. I think there's a part of it of, if my dad can't be with me because he did this crazy thing that people prays in for, maybe I start kind of trying to convince myself that I shouldn't be hurt because my dad's a hero, my dad's a superhero. And you kind of just like convince yourself, no, no, no, the reason that he's not with me

today is because he had big things he had to do, right? And I think maybe seeing the dad was like, huh? But when you see the dad, would you be just more saddened? Yeah, they were really sad. Versus this appointment. So their whole thing that they, well, he claims that they told him is that

they felt like he chose notoriety and Angela Davis over his own flesh and blood, which is a much more understanding explanation for this. So in San Diego, he tries to get his life back together. And he tries to go to work, but he's constantly getting fired. He just gets depressed, smoke more weed, tell anyone who would listen about his crazy days, and everyone just kind of thought of him as that crazy uncle

that just like passed his prime. Nobody even believed his stories anymore because that's how far gone skyjacking was by the time he got back. Like people were like skyjacking. Americans don't do that, what are you talking about? And he was like, no, I did that. They're like, okay, you're so crazy.

You're like, obviously on drugs. You're like one of those crazy uncles. Nobody believed him. He was examined by three doctors, and they said that he had post-traumatic stress disorder, drug and alcohol dependence, panic disorder, bipolar disorder, paranoid schizophrenia with granddaughters and persecution delusions.

And he had another small prison sentence because he told his weed dealer that he wanted to hijack another plane. But this time with real bombs, so the FBI arrested him again. And he had a small prison sentence and they said, okay, but like, you know, three strikes you're out, talk about it one more time and you're gonna be in here for a life. And because of all of his complications,

he passed away in 2012. A lot of it was from his alcohol abuse, his drug abuse, and I'm sure his mental health really didn't help either. And Kathy is still out there somewhere. I mean, we don't know if she's dead or alive, but she's still wanted. The FBI is not actively looking for her. They're not putting in resources, but they consider her armed and dangerous according to the

FBI.gov website, so that's great. And that is the story of one of the longest skyjackings in history. It's fascinating that the DB Cooper story is so notorious, but this one is just so strange to me. I think this one, it's so comical in certain parts, but I think when you let it sit for a second, you're talking about PTSD, a war veteran who really didn't want to kill anyone, who really didn't want to hurt anyone, even in his hostage taking, there was no bomb, there was no real weapons, and I'm not saying that he didn't hurt people because he probably gave a lot of PTSD to the crew, to the staff, to all the passengers.

But just sad. His whole motive was really interesting. At first, right? He wants to fly to North Vietnam and donate money. It was really interesting. Yeah. At first, right? Yeah. He wants to fly to North Vietnam and... Donate money. It's really interesting. Yeah. And Kathy is interesting too.

She's like this 20-year-old who just wanted a fun time. Like, that's literally all she wanted. Yeah. She did not care about this guy jacking, not one Ayoda. She was like, I'm here for fun. Yeah. Can't wait to go to Australia and hit the beaches What and now she's probably is I mean technically she sounds way more like a legend. Yeah, that's what people said

She got away She's probably living a This like she's probably living the life like he to me sounds like this broken man broken by the war He to me sounds like this broken man, broken by the war, broken by the army who, you know, honestly betrayed him and all this PTSD and his story is so sad, right? But then Kathy, it's so fascinating that this girl just wants to have a good time, hijack a plane, and now she's like living with these rich Parisian people, probably living like a, they say that she is really good at language skills. She's so intelligent, that's how the FBI even describes her.

That she probably picked up French. That a local wouldn't even be able to tell that she's not a native French person. They would not even be able to tell. That's a freaking American. That's how good they say she is. Wow. So I think that that's more fascinating in the sense of like, what? What is going on in that mind of yours?

Just imagine this like 60-something- something year old grandma in France right now. She's sipping her tea. Yeah, we're in Switzerland, sipping her tea. She probably got kids running around. Nobody has any idea that that's fucking Kathy. A fugitive. You don't think she tells the story you think so like when I was young and the kids are like god get grandma her meds what's wrong with her again and then they hear this podcast grandma this you this you what are you guys the thoughts on this one this one's crazy? I Had no idea that there was a golden age of hijackings Let me know your thoughts and I hope you guys enjoyed this week's podcast and I'll see you guys on Sunday

Yeah, for the mini-show. Bye. Bye Bye! Bye!