Samuel Joseph Byck (January 30, 1930 – February 22, 1974) was an American hijacker and attempted assassin. On February 22, 1974, he attempted to hijack a plane flying out of Baltimore/Washington International Airport, intending to crash into the White House in the hopes of killing President Richard Nixon. During the incident, Byck killed a policeman and a pilot but was shot and wounded by another policeman before committing suicide.
Early life
Born to poor Jewish parents in South Philadelphia, Byck
dropped out of high school in the ninth grade to support his
impoverished family. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1954 and was honorably
discharged in 1956. He married shortly thereafter, and fathered four children.
Background
In 1972, Byck began to suffer from severe bouts of
depression after his wife divorced him and several job-related financial
failures. He admitted himself to a psychiatric ward, for a two-month stay. Byck
began to harbor the belief that the Nixon administration was conspiring to
oppress the poor.
Byck came to the notice of the Secret Service in 1972 when he threatened Nixon, whom he had
resented since the Small Business
Administration had turned down his loan application. Byck had also sent
tape recordings to various other public figures including scientist Jonas Salk, Senator Abraham Ribicoff of
Connecticut, and composer Leonard
Bernstein; and had tried to join the Black
Panthers. The Secret Service considered Byck to be harmless, and no action
was taken at that time.
Assassination attempt
Delta Airlines Flight
523
In early 1974, Byck made his decision to assassinate Nixon
and started to stalk him and follow his movements via news outlets. He planned
to do so by hijacking an airliner and crashing it into the White House on a day
when Nixon would be there. It has been suggested (for instance, by the 2004
film dramatization of his life) that Byck was inspired by news reports of the
buzzing of the White House by U.S. Army
soldier Robert K. Preston in a stolen UH-1B Huey helicopter on February 17.
Since Byck was already known to the Secret Service and
because legal attempts to purchase a firearm might have resulted in increased
scrutiny, Byck stole a .22 caliber revolver from his friend to use in the
hijacking. Byck also made a bomb out of two-gallon jugs of gasoline and an
igniter. All through this process, Byck made audio recordings explaining his
motives and his plans; he expected to be considered a hero for his actions and
wanted to fully document his reasons for the assassination.
On Friday morning, February 22, 1974, Byck drove to the
Baltimore/Washington International Airport. Shortly after 7:00 a.m. EST, he
shot and killed Maryland Aviation
Administration policeman George Neal Ramsburg before storming a DC-9, Delta Air Lines Flight 523 to Atlanta,
which he chose because it was the closest flight that was ready to take off. Pilots Reese (Doug) Loftin and Fred Jones immediately complied with
Byck's orders and calmly tried to reassure him that they would cooperate, then
Loftin told Byck they could not take off with the doors to the aircraft open
and then alerted the control tower and summoned police assistance while Byck
left to close them. After the pilots told him they could not take off until
wheel blocks were removed, he shot them both and grabbed a nearby passenger,
ordering her to "fly the plane".
Jones died as he was being removed from the aircraft after the event was
concluded; Loftin survived the attack. Byck told a flight attendant to close the
door, or he would blow up the plane. An Anne
Arundel County Police Department officer attempted to shoot out the tires
of the aircraft to prevent its take-off, but the .38 caliber bullets fired from
their police-issued Smith & Wesson revolvers failed to penetrate the
aircraft's tires and ricocheted off, some hitting the wing of the plane.
After a standoff between Byck and police on the jetway, Anne Arundel County police officer Charles
Troyer fired four shots through the aircraft door at Byck with a .357
Magnum revolver taken from the deceased Ramsburg. Two of the shots penetrated
the thick window of the aircraft door and wounded Byck; before the police could
gain entry to the plane, Byck committed suicide by shooting himself in the
head.
According to a special on the History Channel, he lived for a few minutes, dying after saying "help me" to one of the
policemen who entered the plane after he had been shot. A briefcase containing
the gasoline bomb was found under his body. The plane never left the gate, and
Nixon's schedule was not affected by the assassination attempt, although he was
in the White House at the time.
It was subsequently discovered that Byck had sent a tape
recording detailing his plan, which he called "Operation Pandora's Box", to news columnist Jack Anderson. A review of records disclosed that
Byck had been arrested twice for protesting in front of the White House without
a permit and that he later dressed in a Santa Claus suit for another protest.
Loftin, the flight's captain, recovered and resumed flying airliners several
years later.
In 1987, a Federal
Aviation Administration document entitled "Troubled Passage: The Federal Aviation Administration during the
Nixon–Ford Term 1973–1977" was produced, which mentioned Byck's failed
hijacking: "...though Byck lacked
the skill and self-control to reach his target, he had provided a chilling
reminder of the potential of violence against civil aviation. Under a more
relaxed security system, his suicidal rampage might have begun when the
airliner was aloft."
Legacy
Byck was buried at the Mount
Jacob Cemetery in Glenolden, Pennsylvania.
After Byck's failed assassination attempt and subsequent
death, he faded into relative obscurity except among members of security
organizations; however, one of the long-term consequences of Byck's failed
kidnapping was that it helped spur, along with several other failed and successful
hijackings, the implementation of new security measures for airlines and
airports.
The 9/11 Commission
Report mentioned Byck's attempted assassination of Nixon on page 561 in
note 21:[28].
As part of his 34-page analysis, the attorney explained why
he thought that a fueled Boeing 747,
used as a weapon, "must be
considered capable of destroying virtually any building located anywhere in the
world." DOJ memo, Robert D. to Cathleen C., "Aerial Intercepts and Shoot-downs: Ambiguities of Law and
Practical Considerations", Mar. 30, 2000, p. 10. "Also, in February
1974, a man named Samuel Byck attempted to commandeer a plane at Baltimore
Washington International Airportto force the pilots to
fly into Washington and crash into the White House to kill the President. The
man was shot by police and then killed himself on the aircraft while it was
still on the ground at the airport."
In popular culture
Byck is one of the (failed) assassins portrayed in Stephen Sondheim's and John Weidman's
1991 musical Assassins. His role in
the musical is built largely around his tapes sent to Leonard Bernstein and other famous public figures, which he is
depicted recording during two scene-length monologues, the first addressed to
Bernstein and the second to Nixon himself. Byck also wears a Santa Claus suit
throughout the play about an incident where he did so while
protesting Nixon on Christmas Day in 1973.
A film based on his story, The Assassination of Richard Nixon, was released in 2004. The film
starred Sean Penn as Bicke (the surname
spelling having been changed).
The History Channel
also ran a special on Byck entitled The
Plot to Kill Nixon.
No comments:
Post a Comment