# Martin McNally: Last of the Skyjackers

An episode of [Ridiculous Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1608230191), 2 Apr 2024, 1 h 00 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/0b4bcc39-7ba2-453f-aaac-ae510011dd80/8c439f84-939e-4835-90ee-b145016c48dd/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=3a4c50f5-ff69-4807-aa26-ae510011dd8e

His hero was DB Cooper. So he imitated his skyjacking ransom down to the letter. Only Martin McNally had never used a parachute before he became a skyjacker. And he never expected someone to play the hero with a '71 Cadillac Eldorado. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime. It's a production of.
[0:02] Speaker 2: iHeartRadio Elizabeth Dutton Zaren Burnette.
[0:07] Speaker 3: Do you know what's ridiculous?
[0:08] Speaker 2: I do?
[0:09] Speaker 3: No, you don't, I do.
[0:10] Speaker 2: Watch this step back? Do you? Did you ever have
[0:14] Speaker 2: a snuggie? What a snuggie? Like those blankets that you
[0:17] Speaker 2: kind of wear, is like a modified robe?
[0:20] Speaker 3: Do I look like a person? You have a blanket
[0:23] Speaker 3: that I wear?
[0:24] Speaker 4: Yeah?
[0:24] Speaker 3: I do. Yeah, I would have a robe. I like blankets,
[0:27] Speaker 3: so I don't need.
[0:28] Speaker 2: To have you know what I'm talking about, though?
[0:30] Speaker 4: Yeah?
[0:30] Speaker 3: I think so. Yeah. I remember the people would sit
[0:32] Speaker 3: on couches and they would have like this robe draped
[0:35] Speaker 3: I remember the late night commercial.
[0:37] Speaker 2: Yeah, like a blanket with armholes. I never had one.
[0:39] Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember the ads.
[0:40] Speaker 2: But there's there's a there's there's a movement in coziness
[0:46] Speaker 2: in this world.
[0:47] Speaker 3: I figure you were into this.
[0:49] Speaker 2: Yeah, I like, I've seen these things that are like
[0:51] Speaker 2: oversized sweatshirts that come like down to your show, okay,
[0:55] Speaker 2: and it's like a big fuzzy blanket, but it's got
[0:57] Speaker 2: a hood It's like a giant giant hoodie. Do you
[1:01] Speaker 2: know who else likes those? It's this It's they're wild
[1:06] Speaker 2: up there Wendy's Canada, the Wendy's restaurant.
[1:12] Speaker 3: The restaurant Wendy's.
[1:13] Speaker 2: I didn't even Wendy's Canada though. They're wild, dude.
[1:18] Speaker 3: They got a whole different vi.
[1:19] Speaker 2: You have totally different promotions and ads. They had a
[1:22] Speaker 2: thing a couple of years ago and they're not even square,
[1:26] Speaker 2: they're like what triangular and f Tendy's. They had like
[1:30] Speaker 2: this whole campaign. They won like a Webby Award was
[1:32] Speaker 2: nominated anyhow, So they had this this thing not too
[1:37] Speaker 2: long ago, but I think it's expired that you could
[1:40] Speaker 2: get a nuggie. It's their version of a snuggie. So
[1:44] Speaker 2: it's printed like the skin of a chicken nugget. It's
[1:48] Speaker 2: wear yeah, and it's like a hoodie. It's fleece lined.
[1:51] Speaker 2: It's something you would totally wear, super cozy. It has
[1:55] Speaker 2: a pocket in the front of little kangaroo, but then
[1:57] Speaker 2: on in front of the pocket there's another pocket where
[2:01] Speaker 2: it fits a container of chicken nuggets, or, as Baby
[2:05] Speaker 2: Yoda would sing, chicky nuggies. So I I hereby declare
[2:11] Speaker 2: that ridiculous, but also I kind of want one.
[2:14] Speaker 3: Oh my god, that just sounds hot.
[2:15] Speaker 2: Chicken. You are You're always so bundled.
[2:18] Speaker 3: Up and you were like uddies, But I wouldn't. I
[2:20] Speaker 3: don't like like over ever present clothing like that. Like
[2:24] Speaker 3: to be just swaddled. Now that sounds hot.
[2:26] Speaker 2: I like to be swaddled.
[2:28] Speaker 3: Yeah, he got a second. How's your voice? You doing okay?
[2:32] Speaker 2: You know it's we're fighting the good fight. Apparently there
[2:35] Speaker 2: was an article in sf Gate that there's this cough
[2:37] Speaker 2: going around the Bay area. Yeah, and I have the cough,
[2:40] Speaker 2: but I know nope, other people who have it. But
[2:43] Speaker 2: I feel like I'm the only one who's losing her
[2:44] Speaker 2: voice on this one. Yeah.
[2:46] Speaker 3: Interesting, And that's.
[2:47] Speaker 2: The gods are smiting me and telling me to shut
[2:49] Speaker 2: my pie hole that I refuse j So yeah, it's
[2:54] Speaker 2: I mean, it comes and goes. So I apologize for
[2:56] Speaker 2: how greating this may sound, but you know I'm doing
[2:59] Speaker 2: the best it can.
[2:59] Speaker 3: Hang in there, Chief, Thank you, sir. Well, I got
[3:02] Speaker 3: something for you. This ridiculous. You got a second? Oh god,
[3:04] Speaker 3: I do skyjacking.
[3:06] Speaker 2: Oh that is ridiculous.
[3:07] Speaker 3: You know I love it, Elizabeth, I've got a hell
[3:09] Speaker 3: of a story for you too. Yeah, this one it's
[3:11] Speaker 3: like part two of a previous story. Oh you remember
[3:14] Speaker 3: Garrett brock trapnel I do you do? Okay, the skyjacker
[3:19] Speaker 3: had his girlfriend like a hijacky helicopter to break him
[3:22] Speaker 3: out of prison. Well, do you remember how he had
[3:24] Speaker 3: another guy with him when he's trying to break out?
[3:27] Speaker 2: Yeah, I do.
[3:27] Speaker 3: They were in the yard and they were waving in
[3:30] Speaker 3: the helicopter. This is the story of the other guy.
[3:34] Speaker 3: He was also a skyjacker.
[3:36] Speaker 2: Wait, yeah, two.
[3:37] Speaker 3: Skyjackers, totally unrelated, just men in prison got along head
[3:41] Speaker 3: common interest in his story. Even more ridiculous. This is
[4:07] Speaker 3: this is a ridiculous crime. A podcast about absurd and
[4:11] Speaker 3: outrageous capers, heists and cons. It's always ninety nine to
[4:15] Speaker 3: free and ridiculous. Yeah, put you back into it. Plane travel,
[4:23] Speaker 3: Yeah right, Yeah, we've talked about this. You talked about
[4:26] Speaker 3: the guy who had that crappy time on a plane,
[4:29] Speaker 3: made a big stink in there. Well, these days an
[4:31] Speaker 3: air of viral clips. There are plenty of outlandis stories.
[4:34] Speaker 3: He can't even go like a week without there being
[4:36] Speaker 3: a plane story, it seems. Oh yeah, then there's also
[4:40] Speaker 3: the news stories too. I just mean with people of
[4:42] Speaker 3: acting poorly on planes, not the planes acting pooral as
[4:45] Speaker 3: so as.
[4:45] Speaker 2: You can see someone kind of in a window seat
[4:47] Speaker 2: filming something in the aisle and they're trying to be subtle.
[4:50] Speaker 2: It's like from a low end.
[4:51] Speaker 3: Exactly as someone walks past, like shrieking backwards and other people. Yeah.
[4:55] Speaker 3: So there's also whole social media accounts now, like on
[4:58] Speaker 3: Instagram there's one but badly behave plane travelers.
[5:01] Speaker 2: That's got to be chock full content.
[5:03] Speaker 3: It is. They have enough that they can just constantly post.
[5:06] Speaker 3: Could you imagine if we had social media during the
[5:08] Speaker 3: jet age, like when it first started?
[5:10] Speaker 2: Oh No, there's a lot of stuff when I look
[5:12] Speaker 2: back in time and I'm like, could you imagine if
[5:14] Speaker 2: we had social media then? And for most of them,
[5:17] Speaker 2: I'm really grateful if I'm involved, I'm really grateful we
[5:20] Speaker 2: didn't have it back then.
[5:22] Speaker 3: In this case, like I think it would be kind
[5:24] Speaker 3: of the opposite of the normal trend. This it's like
[5:27] Speaker 3: the captured opulence of jet age. Oh travel, I.
[5:31] Speaker 2: Don't think you'd see people behaving. So people got dressed
[5:34] Speaker 2: up to get on a plane, and they behaved themselves
[5:36] Speaker 2: in public. People don't behave in public anymore. They did
[5:39] Speaker 2: not know we were failing as a society.
[5:42] Speaker 3: A jet used to be exciting. Like in nineteen fifty eight,
[5:44] Speaker 3: Boeing brought out the seven O seven that was America's
[5:47] Speaker 3: first jet airliner. We were not the first to have
[5:50] Speaker 3: a jet airliner.
[5:51] Speaker 2: But that was our first big old jet airliner.
[5:53] Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, Bingo jet he had his light on.
[5:55] Speaker 3: So nineteen fifty nine first year, a bunch of people
[5:59] Speaker 3: across the Atlanta by plane. In fact, more people crossed
[6:02] Speaker 3: the Atlantic by plane than by ship first year ever
[6:04] Speaker 3: in nineteen fifty nine, thus marking the beginning of the
[6:07] Speaker 3: jet age. Right. So this means basically, in the nineteen sixties,
[6:11] Speaker 3: it becomes popular, democratized, it becomes something accessible for more
[6:15] Speaker 3: more people. This is the era of pan AM and
[6:18] Speaker 3: t WA, all the big American transatlantic airlines.
[6:21] Speaker 2: This the flight attendants stewardess is in those he's had
[6:24] Speaker 2: like a carving station totally down the aisle exactly, people
[6:28] Speaker 2: who are all dressed up and had giant seats.
[6:31] Speaker 3: Totally legit prime rib lobster buffet. You getting like seven cocktails.
[6:37] Speaker 3: It's ridiculous. The spiral staircase, like this is the spiral staircase.
[6:41] Speaker 3: Go oh, the whole other floor of six we have
[6:44] Speaker 3: the buffets better on the second floor. What it was nuts? Right, Well,
[6:48] Speaker 3: I never got to fly like that. I never saw
[6:49] Speaker 3: it myself, but I've seen photos. I know it's real.
[6:52] Speaker 3: You know, I can imagine it if you will.
[6:55] Speaker 2: Yeah, it predates me, but totally it feels like something
[6:58] Speaker 2: that I could believe in.
[7:00] Speaker 3: Yeah, it's very kingly, but I want to believe in it.
[7:03] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[7:04] Speaker 3: But also like these days, the way we fly now
[7:06] Speaker 3: is it's basically like how taking a greyhound bus used
[7:09] Speaker 3: to be there. It'll get you there, yeah, most most
[7:12] Speaker 3: likely probably be delayed, but you'll get you there now.
[7:15] Speaker 3: As I was saying, if you get if we had
[7:16] Speaker 3: social media in the jet age, right, it also would
[7:20] Speaker 3: have documented the skyjacker era.
[7:22] Speaker 2: Oh that's true, right, that's the boom in seventies.
[7:26] Speaker 3: Yeah, some influencer live streaming dB Cooper on the plane.
[7:30] Speaker 3: There'd be no mysteries anymore, and then they'd be like.
[7:33] Speaker 2: Doxim and everyone figure out who he is exactly.
[7:36] Speaker 3: You take them like seventeen hours. Your people on Reddy
[7:38] Speaker 3: would have themally done. So, as I said, we've discussed
[7:42] Speaker 3: the golden age of skyjacking before with Garrett brock Trapnel, Right,
[7:45] Speaker 3: So I'm not going to go into all of it,
[7:47] Speaker 3: but for a brief recap, skyjacking basically becomes a thing
[7:50] Speaker 3: in the mid sixties. That's where you hijack a plane
[7:52] Speaker 3: and you hold it for ransom and say I either
[7:54] Speaker 3: wanted for political reasons, like give me some prisoners back
[7:57] Speaker 3: or give me some cash, and I'm gonna go to Cuba. Yeah,
[8:00] Speaker 3: but it's basically a hijacking with a ransom intent.
[8:03] Speaker 2: Right.
[8:04] Speaker 3: But it wasn't always as I said, It wasn't always political,
[8:06] Speaker 3: was always terrorists. Sometimes it's just purely money. But usually
[8:10] Speaker 3: people would then want to be diverted somewhere, right, they
[8:13] Speaker 3: would take the plane, they'd steal the plane and you
[8:15] Speaker 3: can come get it later, right, So they would want
[8:16] Speaker 3: to fly to Cuba. As I said, Right, this was
[8:19] Speaker 3: so common that during the Golden era of skyjacking, pilots
[8:24] Speaker 3: on domestic flights, regardless of where they were flying, they
[8:26] Speaker 3: were given extra charts that had maps that showed routes
[8:29] Speaker 3: to Havana. No way, you're flying from Saint Louis to Portland, Oregon,
[8:34] Speaker 3: still got a map to go to Havana just in case. Yeah,
[8:36] Speaker 3: because you never know. That's how it's crazy, right, But
[8:41] Speaker 3: the reason why is because there's pretty much zero security. Yeah,
[8:44] Speaker 3: there was no TSA, no metal detectors for the most part.
[8:48] Speaker 3: It was a new technology just starting to be introduced
[8:50] Speaker 3: in the seventies. But basically there was not a anyone
[8:53] Speaker 3: could walk right up to the gate.
[8:54] Speaker 2: It was a beautiful time.
[8:56] Speaker 3: I bet some airports a person could walk right onto
[8:58] Speaker 3: the tarmac ticket really because you could get onto the
[9:01] Speaker 3: plane and buy the ticket on the plane. So you
[9:05] Speaker 3: can get literally onto the plane without any proof that
[9:08] Speaker 3: you had an intent to be.
[9:09] Speaker 2: On the plane, exactly.
[9:10] Speaker 3: Just like a train. That's exactly the model.
[9:12] Speaker 2: I remember, being able to go to the gate to
[9:14] Speaker 2: meet people or to bid them a dow.
[9:17] Speaker 3: But yeah, that existed until nine to eleven. Yeah, that
[9:21] Speaker 3: goes all the way up to two thousand and one. Basically,
[9:22] Speaker 3: So sky marshals, which we think of, you know, being
[9:26] Speaker 3: a big nine to eleven invention, it wasn't. They started
[9:29] Speaker 3: in nineteen seventy, that's actually, but it was because of
[9:33] Speaker 3: how many skyjackings there were. At first they thought we'll
[9:36] Speaker 3: just put a cop on there. Eventually they got to
[9:37] Speaker 3: we needed to actually screen the passenger. So out to
[9:40] Speaker 3: have metal detectors. Then we have like the modern era,
[9:42] Speaker 3: but at the point it was so common and so
[9:46] Speaker 3: I don't want to say accepted, but it was a
[9:48] Speaker 3: much different approach. They treated it. A hijacking was like
[9:51] Speaker 3: kind of like a bank robbery, where the crews, the
[9:54] Speaker 3: airline crews were told by the airlines to act like
[9:56] Speaker 3: bank tellers, which is basically, avoid any possibility of violence.
[10:00] Speaker 2: Don't don't be a hero exactly.
[10:02] Speaker 3: The planes ensured or whatever, go along with their demands.
[10:05] Speaker 3: So this basically encouraged a whole culture of skyjackings. You're
[10:09] Speaker 3: will emerge because if you allow it, then.
[10:11] Speaker 2: You've allowed It's like shoplifting now where they say don't
[10:15] Speaker 2: apprehend the shoplifting, but people who work in the stores
[10:17] Speaker 2: aren't allowed to stop them.
[10:18] Speaker 3: And now you got a culture.
[10:19] Speaker 2: Now you got a culture.
[10:20] Speaker 3: So there's this book called The Skies Belong to Us
[10:24] Speaker 3: and the author's name is Brendan Carner. He documented that
[10:27] Speaker 3: between nineteen sixty eight and nineteen seventy two, so essentially
[10:30] Speaker 3: five years. Yeah, if you count sixty eight and seventy two,
[10:33] Speaker 3: there were one hundred and thirty skyjackings just in America. Wow,
[10:39] Speaker 3: just in America.
[10:40] Speaker 2: That's a lot.
[10:41] Speaker 3: Yeah, the skis with the Wild West Elizabeth. Yeah. So
[10:43] Speaker 3: inter my man Martin McNally, the last of the Skyjackers.
[10:47] Speaker 3: So he was from Detroit, raised in the Suburb's father
[10:50] Speaker 3: owned a shoe store. Very all American upbringing. And his
[10:53] Speaker 3: father because he was a shoe store, he's a respectable
[10:55] Speaker 3: man in mcnowly's hometown. He and his siblings, there was
[10:59] Speaker 3: a seven of them total. They all went to Catholic school, right,
[11:02] Speaker 3: just dad did everything he could to raise.
[11:04] Speaker 2: Good American literate kid.
[11:05] Speaker 3: Totally. So Martin McNally, he's resistant. He's like, Dad, you tried.
[11:09] Speaker 3: You know, it's like the Mama tribe. He's like, Papa,
[11:12] Speaker 3: you tried. So natural born criminal, This guy, Martin mcnowly's
[11:16] Speaker 3: just in him, right. So by eleventh grade, he drops
[11:18] Speaker 3: out of high school, drops out of Catholic school, runs
[11:20] Speaker 3: off to join the Navy, smart kid that he is,
[11:23] Speaker 3: he gets trained to be an airplane electrician. By nineteen
[11:26] Speaker 3: sixty four, he gets discharged just in time to miss
[11:29] Speaker 3: Vietnam War.
[11:31] Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, right under the wire on that.
[11:33] Speaker 3: One Gulf of Talking sixty four. So it's hat Anyway,
[11:36] Speaker 3: his father offers him a spot back at the old
[11:38] Speaker 3: family shoe store, and Martin mcnowly's like, nah, pop, I'm good,
[11:41] Speaker 3: I got the criminal in me. So he goes stays
[11:44] Speaker 3: away from home and he gets caught up in small
[11:46] Speaker 3: time petty crime. He's like, oh yeah, let me just
[11:48] Speaker 3: do my thing.
[11:49] Speaker 2: I mean, so he's learned a trade and he's got it.
[11:51] Speaker 3: Come on, dude, Nope, not him, he said. He gets
[11:54] Speaker 3: a job at a gas station there he in bezzled gas,
[11:57] Speaker 3: just selling it off the books obviously didn't take a
[12:01] Speaker 3: long exactly. It would be like, hey, yeah, coming through,
[12:04] Speaker 3: we had twenty eight dollars, and then he would just
[12:06] Speaker 3: keep the twenty eight bucks. Oh right, embezzlement. So he
[12:09] Speaker 3: got caught and because it's pretty easy book keeping on
[12:12] Speaker 3: that one, like I've sold one hundred gallons, I've got
[12:14] Speaker 3: forty eight gallons worth of money. It's going on there, Martin.
[12:18] Speaker 3: So he eventually gets fired. He moves on to his
[12:21] Speaker 3: next gig. His next gig that he comes up for
[12:22] Speaker 3: himself is counterfeiting. He's like, what if I just faked
[12:25] Speaker 3: the money? All this trying to get the money, what
[12:27] Speaker 3: about his making bake jump right? It is? He was.
[12:30] Speaker 3: He was a smart guy, quick thinker. He was like,
[12:32] Speaker 3: you know, the problem was is the money. I'm trying
[12:34] Speaker 3: to get money. I could just make that stuff.
[12:36] Speaker 2: He had eleven years of Catholic school, he exactly.
[12:40] Speaker 3: And you know in a couple of years of Navy
[12:42] Speaker 3: engineering school.
[12:43] Speaker 2: Now that teach a lot totally the.
[12:45] Speaker 3: Machinery and stuff.
[12:46] Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know that's true.
[12:47] Speaker 3: Anyway, he wasn't better at that. He got caught loaded
[12:51] Speaker 3: counterfeit quarters in his pocket.
[12:53] Speaker 2: Wait, counterfeit left that part out.
[12:58] Speaker 3: He was trying to exchange them. You know, he's went
[13:01] Speaker 3: to the laundromat change machine. It was pumping in quarters
[13:04] Speaker 3: and trying to get it.
[13:05] Speaker 2: Just dummies with nothing printed on them.
[13:07] Speaker 3: I wish I had a better answer. Slugs, yeah, I
[13:09] Speaker 3: would imagine would be yeah, just metal, metal slugs that
[13:11] Speaker 3: are about the same size.
[13:13] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[13:14] Speaker 3: So yeah, then he's trying to.
[13:17] Speaker 2: Get He's just at an arcade.
[13:18] Speaker 3: Five nickels for the quarter. He's like, cool, big score.
[13:21] Speaker 3: And he kept doing that. I don't know Elizabeth anyway,
[13:24] Speaker 3: Calendar kept flipping pages. He tries numerous scams, small cons
[13:29] Speaker 3: over the years nineteen seventy two rolls around. Everything changes
[13:32] Speaker 3: for the man. It was like a light from the
[13:34] Speaker 3: heavens shone down on a man Martin McNally, instead of
[13:37] Speaker 3: the parted clouds, though making way for a shaft of sunlight. Instead,
[13:41] Speaker 3: his inspiration came from a man in the sky.
[13:44] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, not.
[13:46] Speaker 3: Like the man in the sky got no, No, not
[13:48] Speaker 3: that a man wearing a parachute Elizabeth clutching a bag
[13:52] Speaker 3: of ransom cash as he fell back to earth. That's
[13:55] Speaker 3: what inspired. Just before Thanksgiving in nineteen seventy one, the
[13:58] Speaker 3: skyjacker dbo struck huge news, all the talk of the nation,
[14:03] Speaker 3: even though you hitting the Pacific Northwest. Yeah, he was
[14:06] Speaker 3: a huge deal. Right one night. Two months later Martin mcnow,
[14:09] Speaker 3: he's driving around listening to the news on the car radio. Right,
[14:12] Speaker 3: he's like looking for his next small time score. The
[14:14] Speaker 3: report is all about the investigation into this mystery man
[14:17] Speaker 3: who's commandeered a jet airliner from Portland, a Boeing seven
[14:21] Speaker 3: twenty seven. If you're a Carter skyjacker demanded that the
[14:24] Speaker 3: plane land and did he be given two hunderd grand
[14:27] Speaker 3: and a parachute? This part is wild to me. You
[14:30] Speaker 3: think he'd find a way to bring a parachute with him.
[14:32] Speaker 3: If your plan is predicated on the parachute. Don't you
[14:35] Speaker 3: want to have that?
[14:37] Speaker 2: Yeah, and you can have it in your car carry.
[14:39] Speaker 3: On luggage exactly like I wouldn't count on the cops
[14:42] Speaker 3: to bring me my parachute.
[14:44] Speaker 2: In fact, did he have luggage. It's probably shadier if
[14:47] Speaker 2: you don't have any luggage to.
[14:49] Speaker 3: Get I've done that.
[14:50] Speaker 2: I've gotten on a plane with nothing.
[14:52] Speaker 3: They definitely, especially if it's the one way flight. I've
[14:56] Speaker 3: done that one brother and I.
[14:58] Speaker 2: When I got I bought a car from my uncle
[15:00] Speaker 2: and we had to fly down and pick it up,
[15:02] Speaker 2: and then we were going to drive it back the
[15:03] Speaker 2: same day.
[15:04] Speaker 3: And he bought the ticket the same day. Forget about.
[15:07] Speaker 3: You might just arrest yourself.
[15:10] Speaker 2: One way ticket to Vegas.
[15:12] Speaker 3: Luggage you, ma'am, ma'am.
[15:14] Speaker 2: Yeah, we looked a sight too.
[15:17] Speaker 3: Things were a little different back then. The cops brought
[15:19] Speaker 3: him his parachute. They brought the money, both legit. They
[15:22] Speaker 3: didn't even play any games.
[15:23] Speaker 2: Around, right, slug money inside.
[15:27] Speaker 3: Jet money two hundred grand and a parachute that works.
[15:30] Speaker 3: It wasn't just like forces and spoons inside the days.
[15:33] Speaker 3: I'm telling you. So the skyjacker orders the pilots to
[15:36] Speaker 3: take off again, which they did. Forty five minutes later,
[15:39] Speaker 3: Skyjacker opens the door, lowers down the stairwell from the
[15:42] Speaker 3: back of the jet airliner, climbs down, and he jumped,
[15:45] Speaker 3: disappearing into the dark and cloud cover. As the news reported,
[15:49] Speaker 3: it seems that he successfully parachuted out of the plane,
[15:52] Speaker 3: drifted down through the night sky and into the forest
[15:54] Speaker 3: of the Pacific Northwest, disappearing forever with the two hundred
[15:57] Speaker 3: thousand dollars. Right, Martin mcnow took notes, He's like, Okay,
[16:01] Speaker 3: I need a gun. I need yeah, take paperwork. Basically,
[16:04] Speaker 3: I'll need a disguise, I'll need a parachute, I'll need
[16:07] Speaker 3: a plane. It seems simple enough to him, and now
[16:09] Speaker 3: he had a new plan for his life. Yeah, air piracy.
[16:12] Speaker 2: Exactly, do you have a mentor exactly?
[16:14] Speaker 3: You just you can see it, you can be it, Elizabeth.
[16:17] Speaker 2: It is so true.
[16:17] Speaker 3: So he would become a skyjacker.
[16:19] Speaker 2: He got like the horn room glasses, He's like dressed
[16:22] Speaker 2: for the job he want exactly.
[16:24] Speaker 3: So he gathered up all the necessary materials together, the
[16:26] Speaker 3: horn room glasses, the gun, and then he to do
[16:29] Speaker 3: this because it was a pretty good list. He'd be like,
[16:31] Speaker 3: if you were doing it, and he's like, okay, it
[16:33] Speaker 3: was like a seventeen point list. Yeah, he hits up
[16:35] Speaker 3: a guy he knew in the underground, right, this guy,
[16:38] Speaker 3: Walter Petlakowski. He's a local pool hustler. Also he dealt
[16:42] Speaker 3: guns on.
[16:42] Speaker 2: This site in the underground. He's a mole man.
[16:44] Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, he's in the underworld, right. So McNally he
[16:47] Speaker 3: bought a forty five rifle from the pool hustler. Then
[16:50] Speaker 3: he customized it. He saw it off the barrel ten
[16:53] Speaker 3: full inches. He cuts off right, he cuts it down
[16:55] Speaker 3: like Steve McQueen's Mayre's leg on the old TV show
[16:58] Speaker 3: Wanted Dead or Alive. So basically just imagine like a
[17:00] Speaker 3: quarter inch of barrel sticking.
[17:02] Speaker 2: Out of a peel pew exactly.
[17:04] Speaker 3: So satisfied with petrol Kowski's value was a small time criminal.
[17:07] Speaker 3: Mcnow He's like, hey man, you want to be my accomplice,
[17:09] Speaker 3: I'll cut you in for fifty grand.
[17:11] Speaker 2: What does it do to cut the barrel off like that?
[17:14] Speaker 4: Uh?
[17:15] Speaker 3: For him, it was the length. He wanted to be
[17:17] Speaker 3: able to secret it away.
[17:18] Speaker 2: Somewhere I see, like put it in his pant and so.
[17:21] Speaker 3: And with Steve McQueen, he wanted to be able to
[17:22] Speaker 3: carry it on his leg when he was riding a
[17:24] Speaker 3: horse and then quickly draw it and then it reduces
[17:26] Speaker 3: your accuracy by a lot, but essentially becomes like a shotgun.
[17:29] Speaker 2: But why wouldn't you just carry a pistol.
[17:31] Speaker 3: Because you want this stopping power that it offers.
[17:34] Speaker 2: Oh okay, see i'm learning. I'm learning today.
[17:38] Speaker 3: As also in the UK here then we call it
[17:41] Speaker 3: a sawed off shotgun. If it's a shotgun in the UK,
[17:44] Speaker 3: they call it a sawn off shotgun. Yes, yes, interesting.
[17:49] Speaker 2: Yeah, well the thing too, it's like you gotta have
[17:52] Speaker 2: the pistol for close up work, use.
[17:55] Speaker 3: The pistol to get to your long gun.
[17:57] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[17:58] Speaker 3: I know you do all your wet work with a blade,
[18:03] Speaker 3: so I know you're studying the blade for the rest
[18:05] Speaker 3: of us.
[18:05] Speaker 2: I was studying the plane.
[18:07] Speaker 3: So McNally he finds a briefcase that will house his
[18:10] Speaker 3: nude sawn off forty five rifle. That's for you, producer D.
[18:14] Speaker 3: And also he shoves into this briefcase a wig and
[18:17] Speaker 3: some smoke bombs to go next, he also had to
[18:21] Speaker 3: find the perfect airport to hit For the next few months.
[18:23] Speaker 3: He cases airports. He goes to Kansas City, He goes
[18:25] Speaker 3: to Chicago, goes to Indianapolis, finally decides Saint Louis that's
[18:28] Speaker 3: the spot because of his place, Lambert Airport in Saint Louis,
[18:32] Speaker 3: they had the worst security of all of the Midwest airports.
[18:35] Speaker 3: So he took us accomplished Petlekowski to the airport. They
[18:38] Speaker 3: did a couple of trial runs. Everything went smoothly. The
[18:40] Speaker 3: two men knew it was time to fly. Yeah, let's
[18:43] Speaker 3: take a breakage. Oh yeah, after this we'll be back
[18:45] Speaker 3: to take to the skies. Elizabeth, you know when you.
[19:07] Speaker 2: Were when I said big old jet airliner and you.
[19:10] Speaker 3: Said Bingo jet had a light on.
[19:12] Speaker 2: Yeah, that's how you always hear the Steve Miller lyrics,
[19:15] Speaker 2: And then now I can't ever hear them in another way.
[19:18] Speaker 3: I like to Bingo Jet is a full caro je.
[19:22] Speaker 2: Bingo Jet is like I just imagine, it's kind of
[19:25] Speaker 2: like a country Bears jamboree with like a stovepipe hat.
[19:30] Speaker 3: If he didn't have his light on, you know how
[19:32] Speaker 3: many people be lost in the dark.
[19:35] Speaker 2: Thank you, Bingo Jet.
[19:36] Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm telling you you ready to skyjack a jumbo
[19:39] Speaker 3: jet airliner.
[19:40] Speaker 2: If my name ate Bingo Jet it's.
[19:42] Speaker 3: A June twenty third. Yeah, it was a Friday, Okay.
[19:45] Speaker 3: It was also the day that McNally and his wheelman,
[19:47] Speaker 3: Pat Lekowski, decided it's go time. Yeah, so the two
[19:50] Speaker 3: men they drove over to the Saint Louis Airport. McNally
[19:53] Speaker 3: gets dropped off at the main terminal, has his briefcase
[19:56] Speaker 3: with him. Inside. Loaded up is a sod Off forty
[19:59] Speaker 3: five rifle the sa oak bombs. No wig not yet,
[20:01] Speaker 3: he tarnet, Yeah, I know. He waved goodbye to his wheelman.
[20:04] Speaker 3: Headed inside the airport, went to the ticket counter, bought
[20:08] Speaker 3: a one way ticket to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
[20:10] Speaker 2: Saint Louis to Tulsa.
[20:12] Speaker 3: Told the lady behind the ticket counter's name was Robert Wilson.
[20:15] Speaker 2: No.
[20:15] Speaker 3: I don't know if that's like a whole play on
[20:17] Speaker 3: Robert Anton Wilson or not, but anyway, Robert Wilson, Yeah,
[20:21] Speaker 3: pay for the ticket. He showed his Navy discharge papers,
[20:24] Speaker 3: but the documents were forged. They were good for one
[20:27] Speaker 3: airline ticket home, because when you're discharged from the military,
[20:30] Speaker 3: airlines discharge paper they'll fly you home. So he knew
[20:34] Speaker 3: that He's like, fly me home on the way to
[20:36] Speaker 3: the plane, no metal detectors to pass through. Yeah, it's
[20:40] Speaker 3: a new technology has not been installed in Saint Louis.
[20:43] Speaker 2: They're like, hey, thank you for your service on this exactly, sir.
[20:46] Speaker 2: They're not going to look twice.
[20:47] Speaker 3: He gives his ticket boards the plane, takes his seat
[20:50] Speaker 3: three rows from the rear of the plane. He calmly
[20:52] Speaker 3: enjoys the flight. Oh, look at this above the clouds.
[20:57] Speaker 3: I'll have the oysters trink about a half hour befo
[21:00] Speaker 3: or the flight was set to land until he gets up,
[21:02] Speaker 3: goes to the bathroom, wants to freshen up, takes his
[21:04] Speaker 3: briefcase with him. He pulls out on his brown shaggy
[21:08] Speaker 3: wig makes him look kind of like it be slid
[21:10] Speaker 3: on a pair of sunglasses aviators. His disguise now complete,
[21:15] Speaker 3: He pulled out his sawd off rifle, stepped out with
[21:18] Speaker 3: the laboratory, walks up to the flight attendant, hands her
[21:22] Speaker 3: a note. Flight attendant looks sound at the note. The
[21:24] Speaker 3: rifle goes, oh Lord, takes the note to the cockpit.
[21:27] Speaker 3: Few tense minutes now passed.
[21:29] Speaker 2: Why why wouldn't he wear the wig the whole time?
[21:32] Speaker 2: Because everyone's seen him sitting next to him is like
[21:36] Speaker 2: this clean cut. Then he comes back it's like Jimmy Shaggle.
[21:39] Speaker 3: I think he's something that he'd be not memorable up
[21:42] Speaker 3: to that point. And then once he has the gun,
[21:43] Speaker 3: people are paying attention and they're like, I don't remember
[21:46] Speaker 3: there was some guy maybe right, I don't know that
[21:49] Speaker 3: that's how I read it, but I don't know. So
[21:51] Speaker 3: McNally he's sitting there now, waiting in his seat with
[21:55] Speaker 3: the wig on the glasses, the gun, and he's in
[21:57] Speaker 3: there calling what she what she telling the pilot's right.
[22:01] Speaker 3: Minutes go by, and he's like, and all of a
[22:03] Speaker 3: sudden he hears the pilot on the plane's intercomments, oh,
[22:07] Speaker 3: lightiest and gentlemen, we have a passenger who needs to
[22:09] Speaker 3: return to Saint Louis, so we're gonna be returning. Based
[22:13] Speaker 3: on all the details he could pull from the newspaper accounts,
[22:15] Speaker 3: McNally had followed dB Cooper's skyjacking to the jot and
[22:20] Speaker 3: tittle He had upped at the ransom amount though that's
[22:22] Speaker 3: the big Everything else is exactly what D. B. Cooper
[22:25] Speaker 3: had done, right down to the note.
[22:26] Speaker 2: Right, it's a cola exactly McNally he had uped it
[22:31] Speaker 2: to a half million dollars.
[22:32] Speaker 3: Oh yeah, a little more nicola. But anyway, he had
[22:34] Speaker 3: one other request. He wanted two thousand dollars in small bills.
[22:38] Speaker 2: Oh, I want to make a rain well.
[22:40] Speaker 3: Exactly good call. He planned to tip the flight attendance.
[22:44] Speaker 2: Oh, how good of him. Right, you got it. You
[22:47] Speaker 2: gotta juice people out. When are you doing these things?
[22:49] Speaker 3: I am a big fan of tipping, except for what
[22:52] Speaker 3: they've done lately. Oh my god, Now I gotta like
[22:54] Speaker 3: tip the guy at the weed store.
[22:57] Speaker 2: That is true.
[22:57] Speaker 3: The dude, you hit buttons. You hit three more buttons
[23:00] Speaker 3: than I did.
[23:01] Speaker 2: Yeah, and I got to give you ten. Any like
[23:04] Speaker 2: you go to a bakery counter and they just cand
[23:06] Speaker 2: it to you and then all of a sudden they
[23:08] Speaker 2: flip that screen around and then the pressure's on. And
[23:11] Speaker 2: I want everyone to like me totally.
[23:13] Speaker 3: I know you.
[23:14] Speaker 2: That's all I care about. And so when they're staring
[23:16] Speaker 2: at me.
[23:17] Speaker 3: The bakery, they did something. They baked the baked good.
[23:20] Speaker 3: Start didn't do anything other than show up.
[23:22] Speaker 2: Maybe they grew it.
[23:23] Speaker 3: No, they don't do anything. Okay, they do some warehousing
[23:25] Speaker 3: and some manual internet putting it on the stonech like people.
[23:28] Speaker 2: Who do something like when you stay in a hotel,
[23:30] Speaker 2: you have got to leave a tip.
[23:33] Speaker 3: I'm a big believer, must do it. But now we're
[23:35] Speaker 3: changing tip culture. We're allowed. I don't think people are
[23:37] Speaker 3: going to be tipping the way they should because they
[23:39] Speaker 3: could become innured to it because they're being asked all
[23:41] Speaker 3: the time.
[23:41] Speaker 2: That's what I got it. You gotta duke the people
[23:43] Speaker 2: who need it exactly, you know, and everyone else like
[23:46] Speaker 2: you just ring me up a cashier somewhere. I'm sorry
[23:49] Speaker 2: for your troubles. I've had that job. It's terrible.
[23:51] Speaker 3: But like plenty of customer service where tips like you know,
[23:55] Speaker 3: Barissa jobs and stuff right done that. I appreciated the
[23:58] Speaker 3: tips I tip. Barisa's all yeah, but they're once again
[24:01] Speaker 3: doing something. There is a service. The week I they
[24:04] Speaker 3: didn't do anything.
[24:05] Speaker 2: He really hung up on the week, especially because when
[24:08] Speaker 2: they flip that thing around and it's like eighteen percent,
[24:10] Speaker 2: You're like, that's four hundred dollars.
[24:13] Speaker 3: I'm like, what are you talking about here? I'm not
[24:15] Speaker 3: buying you a.
[24:16] Speaker 2: Car tire here, you move weight at the week I
[24:19] Speaker 2: buy too much.
[24:20] Speaker 3: So anyway to the pilots they decide to do is
[24:23] Speaker 3: instructed because you know they got the note. It's very clear.
[24:26] Speaker 3: They turn around, they land the plane.
[24:28] Speaker 2: And say how current and up to date are like,
[24:31] Speaker 2: let's talk tipping culture. That's a little you know, just
[24:34] Speaker 2: a little juicy current events on the.
[24:35] Speaker 3: Side, trying to you know, sidetrack a little.
[24:38] Speaker 2: Hair for you. It feels cool, It feels like a
[24:39] Speaker 2: morning show morning.
[24:41] Speaker 3: Actually, so at this point in our story, right, we
[24:44] Speaker 3: have it's about four pm on Friday afternoon, all right,
[24:46] Speaker 3: the airport is getting busy at this point, and now
[24:49] Speaker 3: there's a hijacked plane far into the airfield clogging up everything.
[24:53] Speaker 3: Now he tells the airlines that he has a bomb
[24:55] Speaker 3: on board the plane and that any attempts to storm
[24:57] Speaker 3: the plane will result in a huge explosion and a
[24:59] Speaker 3: major loss of life. Right the negotiations with the airlines,
[25:03] Speaker 3: it lasts for an hour. FBI gets called in. Flight
[25:06] Speaker 3: attendants are taking McNally's demands to the cockpit. The pilots
[25:09] Speaker 3: convey his latest demands to the big tower. The tower
[25:12] Speaker 3: then calls back with any updates. Then they give them
[25:14] Speaker 3: note to the attendant. She walks back down the aisle
[25:17] Speaker 3: to the back of the plane. Can single exchanges.
[25:19] Speaker 2: You're next to him. Your seat is next to him,
[25:22] Speaker 2: Can you imagine that? No, I would, because you're overhearing
[25:25] Speaker 2: all the back and forth. Like the rest of the
[25:27] Speaker 2: plane probably doesn't know about the school. He says he
[25:29] Speaker 2: has a bomb.
[25:30] Speaker 3: I don't think he'd have a bomb unless he seemed political.
[25:33] Speaker 2: But if he tells them he has a bomb, and
[25:35] Speaker 2: I'm sitting next to him and I hear him say,
[25:37] Speaker 2: the rest of the plane probably doesn't.
[25:39] Speaker 3: Know that, I wouldn't believe him.
[25:40] Speaker 2: I don't know if you see him politically, if he's like.
[25:44] Speaker 3: A ransom guy, my go I don't believe You're not
[25:46] Speaker 3: going to blow yourself up.
[25:47] Speaker 2: And be like he looks. He looks shady, looks like
[25:48] Speaker 2: a hippie.
[25:49] Speaker 3: I'd have to call that bluff. But and then I
[25:51] Speaker 3: feel bad for everybody else if I was wrong, So
[25:53] Speaker 3: I wouldn't do anything. I would act normal for everybody
[25:55] Speaker 3: else's benefit. But if I was alone on that plane,
[25:57] Speaker 3: I'm calling the bluff anyway. So he have negotiators going
[26:02] Speaker 3: back and forth. The fbis have now involved right the
[26:04] Speaker 3: fight attendants that are running the messages, and after an
[26:07] Speaker 3: hour of this, McNally shows that he will be considerate,
[26:11] Speaker 3: He will be kind. He doesn't basically an active kindness, Elizabeth.
[26:14] Speaker 3: He shows that he is a good faith negotiator. He
[26:16] Speaker 3: lets eighty passengers off the plane. No good, Yeah, it's
[26:20] Speaker 3: totally nice of the vast majority of the people. Who
[26:22] Speaker 3: has to be the worst, Yes, everybody. He only keeps
[26:25] Speaker 3: a small handful, right.
[26:26] Speaker 2: All the children, just the kids.
[26:32] Speaker 3: Bad man. So the FBI is it to this point.
[26:34] Speaker 3: They tell the skyjacker, hey man, we're working on your money.
[26:36] Speaker 3: But at this point it's like past bankers hours. It's
[26:39] Speaker 3: passed five pm on a Friday. Half million dollars is
[26:41] Speaker 3: going to be hard to go and gather. So McNally's like,
[26:44] Speaker 3: I don't know, I call hijinks. They're like, oh, man,
[26:46] Speaker 3: come on. He's like nope, plane pilots take off and
[26:49] Speaker 3: this is we're leaving. So he makes them fly away.
[26:52] Speaker 3: So he's convinced now while he's still negotiating with the
[26:55] Speaker 3: tower that they can go and get the money in
[26:57] Speaker 3: Dallas Fort Worth. He's like, I got like a time,
[26:59] Speaker 3: do more money. I'm gonna fly and pick up a
[27:01] Speaker 3: little time and you guys work on it, and they're like, okay, yeah,
[27:03] Speaker 3: we think we can do that. Then McNally. They cannot
[27:06] Speaker 3: raise the money in Dallas fast enough, so he's like,
[27:08] Speaker 3: oh wait, go back to Saint Louis. And now the
[27:10] Speaker 3: plane flies back lands again in Saint Louis.
[27:13] Speaker 2: He wants that Budweiser money.
[27:15] Speaker 3: Exactly good ab money. So it's nine pm on a
[27:18] Speaker 3: Friday night. At this point, plane touches back down in
[27:21] Speaker 3: Saint Louis. McNally informs the FBI agents, I have new demands.
[27:24] Speaker 3: He wants not one, not two, but five parachutes. He
[27:27] Speaker 3: also wants a good shovel, not one of them bs shovels.
[27:30] Speaker 3: I want a good shovel. Yeah, and a pair of
[27:32] Speaker 3: flight goggles like I've seen in the movies.
[27:34] Speaker 4: Right.
[27:34] Speaker 3: The FBI is like, okay, okay, give us time. So
[27:36] Speaker 3: it turns out the FBI agents they weren't stalling. They
[27:39] Speaker 3: legitimately went out and located a good shovel, a pair
[27:42] Speaker 3: of fly goggles, the whole thing. Right, The money finally arrives,
[27:46] Speaker 3: so now they got the half million dollars. They put
[27:48] Speaker 3: in a heavy canvas air mail bag, and they put
[27:50] Speaker 3: in the two grand and cash like in an envelope,
[27:52] Speaker 3: a little separate parcel for him. And then he's like,
[27:54] Speaker 3: you know, everything's golden on this okay cool, But he's like, great,
[27:58] Speaker 3: I got one more, one more demand. They're like, oh
[28:00] Speaker 3: my god, are you for real? What do you want here?
[28:01] Speaker 3: Hungry and he's like, no, no, no, I need someone
[28:03] Speaker 3: to show me how to put on a parachute.
[28:04] Speaker 2: So send off a parachute guy. He's asked for five
[28:08] Speaker 2: of them? Is he like me? He's like, well, if
[28:11] Speaker 2: one's good, five is better pretty much.
[28:13] Speaker 3: So the f guy's like, here's our chance. So they
[28:15] Speaker 3: send an FBI field agent onto the plane as a
[28:18] Speaker 3: parachute instructor. Right McNally though. He's ready for him, so
[28:21] Speaker 3: he stays at the back of the plane with his
[28:23] Speaker 3: like mayor's leg forty five aimed down the aisle and
[28:25] Speaker 3: he's like, show me down there, and he goes, oh, okay,
[28:28] Speaker 3: the FBI guy and basically shows him how to put
[28:30] Speaker 3: on a parachute. I'm a comfortable distance. He gets all
[28:33] Speaker 3: strapped in. He's like, oh cool, go get off the
[28:35] Speaker 3: plane now, and there's o the FBI guy has to
[28:37] Speaker 3: get off the plane. No funny business, right, Why did he.
[28:39] Speaker 2: Say something like well this actually takes two people to do,
[28:41] Speaker 2: or you.
[28:41] Speaker 3: Something midnight on is we're now at midnight McNally. He
[28:45] Speaker 3: lets thirteen more hostages off the plane. They're like, hey,
[28:48] Speaker 3: I gotta go to go to the bathroom and back hurts, right,
[28:50] Speaker 3: He's like, oh, of course I'm not. I'm not a jerk. Right.
[28:52] Speaker 3: He keeps just one hostage. Oh that part right, the
[28:56] Speaker 3: two flight attendants, then the two pilots and the navigator. Right,
[28:59] Speaker 3: so the air crew, the tendans, flight attendants and one hostage.
[29:02] Speaker 3: What's up with that one hostage? Were they just a jerk?
[29:05] Speaker 3: Or were they had good conversations, they had good stories.
[29:07] Speaker 3: He's like, I like this guy, or is it I
[29:09] Speaker 3: hate this guy?
[29:09] Speaker 2: Yeah?
[29:11] Speaker 3: Yeah, but they kept the one right. So at this point,
[29:13] Speaker 3: the skyjacking is national news.
[29:15] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[29:15] Speaker 3: Inside the airport, people are watching what's happening on the
[29:18] Speaker 3: tarmac on the news. So eventually one guy, this dude
[29:22] Speaker 3: named David Hanley, he's like, I'm gonna go be the hero.
[29:24] Speaker 2: Oh.
[29:25] Speaker 3: Hanley strolls over to his nineteen seventy one Cadillac El
[29:28] Speaker 3: Dorado fires that bad boy to life. Meanwhile, at this
[29:33] Speaker 3: same point McNally's jet has now been refueled. He's received
[29:36] Speaker 3: his ransom money, he's been shown how a parachute works.
[29:40] Speaker 3: He's ordered the pilots to take back off. Now there's
[29:44] Speaker 3: nothing that can stop him, right, except for perhaps a Cadillac.
[29:48] Speaker 3: So Hanley aims his Cadillac at the gate to the tarmac,
[29:52] Speaker 3: punches it.
[29:53] Speaker 2: Boom.
[29:54] Speaker 3: This pride of the Detroit assembly line gets up to
[29:56] Speaker 3: about eighty miles an hour. He goes right through that
[29:59] Speaker 3: gate like a wrecking fence flies open. Plane is now
[30:03] Speaker 3: on the tarmac headed for the runway taxiing for its takeoff.
[30:07] Speaker 3: David Hanley sees this. He's careening his Caddy across the tarmac,
[30:11] Speaker 3: avoiding like baggage handlers. Punches it again, floors it to
[30:15] Speaker 3: try to catch up to the plane, which is now
[30:16] Speaker 3: on the runway taxi heading down for the sky. Right
[30:20] Speaker 3: captain of the hijack plane sees the Cadillac headed right
[30:24] Speaker 3: for him, directly at him. He's playing chicken now with
[30:27] Speaker 3: a Cadillac Eldorado. He shouts over the plane's intercom to
[30:30] Speaker 3: the skyjacker, Oh my god, there's a vehicle on the runway.
[30:33] Speaker 3: Hanley braces for impact inside the Cadillac because he's about
[30:36] Speaker 3: to hit a bow. In seven twenty seven, So the
[30:39] Speaker 3: pilot braces for the impact, about to get hit by
[30:41] Speaker 3: a Cadillac. So the Cadillac slams into the landing gear
[30:44] Speaker 3: of the plane. The nosewheel takes the full brunt of
[30:47] Speaker 3: the Cadillac inside the plane. McNally gets thrown forward underneath
[30:51] Speaker 3: the plane. The Cadillac caroms off that first landing gear
[30:55] Speaker 3: and then crashes into the port side wings. Landing gear
[30:58] Speaker 3: hits the other landing Boom boom. Plane now slows toill
[31:01] Speaker 3: a stop. The Cadillac is wadged up against the landing gear.
[31:04] Speaker 3: Luckily for everyone involved, the fully loaded jet with jet
[31:07] Speaker 3: fuel did not explode. That was the one good thing
[31:09] Speaker 3: that happened. McNally yells, get me another plane. So while
[31:14] Speaker 3: he and the hostages wait inside the plane, the ambulance
[31:17] Speaker 3: comes out onto the runway extricates David Hanley from his
[31:20] Speaker 3: now wrecked Cadillac Eldorado.
[31:22] Speaker 2: Just a random guy.
[31:24] Speaker 3: I'm gonna be the hero. He broke multiple ribs, had
[31:30] Speaker 3: a fractured skull, broke his jaw in two places. He
[31:33] Speaker 3: had a broken left arm and a broken left ankle.
[31:37] Speaker 3: A year later, the Associated Press they found David Hanley.
[31:40] Speaker 3: They're like man, Elizabeth Dutton in the future would like
[31:42] Speaker 3: to know what were you? And I have an answer
[31:44] Speaker 3: for you. And they're like, man, because you were you drunk?
[31:47] Speaker 3: What was going on? Hanley tells the AP reporter, My
[31:50] Speaker 3: mind is a blank from six o'clock that night. Two
[31:53] Speaker 3: weeks later, so the AP then, okay, well, you know
[31:56] Speaker 3: there's been reports about what went on, and they you
[31:59] Speaker 3: know the reports are you spent Friday afternoon at a
[32:02] Speaker 3: cocktail lounge near the airport watching the news. In fact,
[32:05] Speaker 3: you told your drinking friends in the bar that you
[32:07] Speaker 3: were about to quote go shock the world. Uh, Hanley said,
[32:11] Speaker 3: it never happened. And he said, and I quote, if
[32:14] Speaker 3: I was there, then any friends who were with me
[32:17] Speaker 3: were a bunch of slucks. No one has come to
[32:20] Speaker 3: me and said, David, I was with you that night
[32:22] Speaker 3: and this is what you said. I have never heard
[32:25] Speaker 3: the term sluck. I looked it up, could not find
[32:29] Speaker 3: a definition except for in Scott's. In Scott's it's a
[32:33] Speaker 3: word it means to gulp noisily, like slurping with gulps. Yeah,
[32:37] Speaker 3: so that kind of makes sense in this context. Is
[32:39] Speaker 3: basically slucks are a bunch of loud gulpers.
[32:42] Speaker 2: I think he's been miss hearing schmucks his whole life
[32:46] Speaker 2: and he just or they mistyped it in the transcription.
[32:50] Speaker 3: It sucks. I don't know. Yeah, slicks, wow, no, no, no,
[32:54] Speaker 3: I thought about the typo.
[32:55] Speaker 2: But you can just see this though of him at
[32:58] Speaker 2: an airport Bard Jason.
[33:01] Speaker 3: Jason cocktail loud. Yeah, Oh my god. So ninety minutes
[33:04] Speaker 3: after this, the Saint Louis Airport, and I had a
[33:07] Speaker 3: new plane ready for McNally to hijack.
[33:10] Speaker 2: Are there no possible moments where they could just pick
[33:13] Speaker 2: this dude off from a sniper tower.
[33:15] Speaker 3: You get off the plane and get on the new plane.
[33:18] Speaker 3: You have exactly your moment, Elizabeth, I mean, did you
[33:20] Speaker 3: just jumped the gun.
[33:21] Speaker 2: I feel like they've already been had like four moments
[33:23] Speaker 2: where I could have totally under the window, like stopped
[33:26] Speaker 2: this whole thing.
[33:27] Speaker 3: You you're reasonable. So the Boeing seven to twenty seven,
[33:30] Speaker 3: the new one gets loaded up, a gas pulled up
[33:32] Speaker 3: on the tarmac. Now McNally has to get from one
[33:34] Speaker 3: plane to the other without being picked off by snipers.
[33:36] Speaker 3: So he's like future Elizabeth Duddon, I'd like you to
[33:39] Speaker 3: know my plan. His plan was, I'm gonna sandwich myself
[33:42] Speaker 3: between these two flight attendants, putting the briefcass on my head,
[33:45] Speaker 3: and move real quick. And that's what he did. He
[33:47] Speaker 3: shuttled himself, boarded the second plane, got the flight crew
[33:50] Speaker 3: on board with his one civilian hostage, and then said
[33:54] Speaker 3: we ride so.
[33:55] Speaker 2: Boom according to them, though there he said there was
[33:58] Speaker 2: a bomb on the original plane. Yeah exactly, so he doesn't.
[34:02] Speaker 3: He's still got his briefcase, so he's got to be
[34:05] Speaker 3: bluffing that it's in the briefcase. Yeah. So anyway, so
[34:09] Speaker 3: now that they're on the second plane, McNally ordered the
[34:11] Speaker 3: pilot to take off and to head to Toronto. Coincidentally,
[34:14] Speaker 3: that flight path would take him over his old hometown
[34:16] Speaker 3: of Detroit, which is all part of his plan. So
[34:19] Speaker 3: he'd done all the necessary calculations on paper. He'd worked
[34:22] Speaker 3: out when he'd need to jump out of a plane
[34:24] Speaker 3: and what airspeed so his parachute wouldn't be torn to
[34:27] Speaker 3: tatters by the wind shear forces. So at four am,
[34:30] Speaker 3: McNally has now readied himself for his jump. He's pulled
[34:34] Speaker 3: off his hippie wig and his sunglasses. He's strapped on
[34:36] Speaker 3: his parachute harness. The plane is cruising at an altitude
[34:39] Speaker 3: of about ten thousand feet, just above the low, thick
[34:43] Speaker 3: white clouds that night. McNally. He can't see the ground right.
[34:46] Speaker 3: There's a problem with this because there's a big thing
[34:48] Speaker 3: called Lake Michigan. He does not want to land in
[34:51] Speaker 3: the middle of Lake Michigan with a parachute. That would
[34:53] Speaker 3: be dead right. So he's like, okay, I probably Well,
[34:57] Speaker 3: basically he's going to jump early. I'll just cut right
[34:59] Speaker 3: to it. I met. The dude's gonna jump early. So
[35:01] Speaker 3: the plane at this point is still over Indiana. When
[35:03] Speaker 3: he decided it was time to bail, he took up
[35:05] Speaker 3: his money bag and his shovel, and when he landed,
[35:08] Speaker 3: his plan was that he would bury the money and
[35:10] Speaker 3: then come back for it later. So he needs a shovel.
[35:12] Speaker 2: We forgot about the shovel. He was running across the
[35:15] Speaker 2: tarmac with a show.
[35:16] Speaker 3: With a shovel too. Yeah, in one hand, briefcase the
[35:19] Speaker 3: gun Carrio probably maybe. So he waddles to the back
[35:22] Speaker 3: of the plane. He opens the door, lowers the stairwell
[35:25] Speaker 3: just like debe Cooper did. He scoots down the stairway,
[35:28] Speaker 3: his butt hitting on each step. Right, He's been on
[35:30] Speaker 3: the plane at this point, or one plane or another,
[35:32] Speaker 3: for eleven hours. He's got to be starving. Yeah, And
[35:35] Speaker 3: despite the nut job in the Cadillac playing chicken with
[35:38] Speaker 3: the first plane, he's now managed to get his half
[35:40] Speaker 3: million dollars and to get away with it. All right.
[35:42] Speaker 3: He's twenty eight years old, small time criminal. All he
[35:45] Speaker 3: has left to do is to just chep off and
[35:48] Speaker 3: jump into the sky. He tossed his way through the
[35:50] Speaker 3: open door. It whipped away, gone right. He threw the
[35:53] Speaker 3: rest of his disguise clothes out of the open door.
[35:56] Speaker 3: He tossed out his rifle, smoke bombs. Now he's unarmed.
[35:59] Speaker 3: The single hostage watching McNally. You take his canvas bag
[36:02] Speaker 3: with the half million dollars. He's sitting there. He's gotta
[36:05] Speaker 3: be wondering, is this boy gonna jump her?
[36:07] Speaker 4: Yeah?
[36:07] Speaker 2: Right, yeah?
[36:08] Speaker 3: And the boy, you know McNally, he's got to be wondering,
[36:10] Speaker 3: am I gonna jump her down? And then suddenly the
[36:12] Speaker 3: dude gets his answer. Mark McNally stepped out into the
[36:15] Speaker 3: sky and disappeared. He was about ten thousand feet above
[36:18] Speaker 3: the earth, traveling at at a few hundred miles an
[36:20] Speaker 3: hour now about three hundred miles, the same speed the
[36:23] Speaker 3: plane that he just left was going. All he needed
[36:25] Speaker 3: to do was successfully land. Elizabeth. Will take a little
[36:28] Speaker 3: break and after this I'll tell you if he lands
[36:31] Speaker 3: or not. Oh boy, hey, Elizabeth, Hi, you want to
[36:54] Speaker 3: hear the rest of the.
[36:55] Speaker 2: Story after those ads? Yeah, I do so.
[36:58] Speaker 3: Something I forgot to tell you about all of this.
[37:01] Speaker 3: Martin McNally, who's about to jump off into the sky. Actually,
[37:04] Speaker 3: you know I just said he did. This is his
[37:07] Speaker 3: first jump ever with a parachute. He's never touched a parachute.
[37:10] Speaker 2: Prior to this.
[37:12] Speaker 3: All of what everything he does on paper calculation.
[37:16] Speaker 2: She had to ask that man to show him how
[37:17] Speaker 2: to put a parachutely.
[37:19] Speaker 3: But you know, it wasn't like he was in the
[37:20] Speaker 3: military and he's like, oh, these are newer than the
[37:22] Speaker 3: ones we had. He's never jumped out of a plane.
[37:25] Speaker 3: So what do you think happened? Do you think he
[37:26] Speaker 3: made it?
[37:27] Speaker 2: Well? Yeah, well because he was in prison with the
[37:30] Speaker 2: other guy.
[37:31] Speaker 3: All right, good good.
[37:32] Speaker 2: I'd be like, well, he's a hole in the ground.
[37:35] Speaker 3: He's a pancake. Well, I'll answer the question fully, Elizabeth.
[37:38] Speaker 3: But to do that I'd like you to close your eyes,
[37:41] Speaker 3: and I'd like you to picture it. Elizabeth. You are
[37:45] Speaker 3: aboard a Bowling seven twenty seven. The rear door is open,
[37:48] Speaker 3: the wind whips through the cabin. The sound of the
[37:50] Speaker 3: jets hum and throb in the turbulent air. At the moment,
[37:53] Speaker 3: some lunatic is on the rear stairway, holding onto the
[37:55] Speaker 3: plane by his hands as his body flaps in the
[37:58] Speaker 3: wind generated by the plane's air speed. He's going about
[38:01] Speaker 3: three hundred miles an hour. Unfortunately, you are the unlucky
[38:04] Speaker 3: spider that decided to take a nap in a canvas
[38:06] Speaker 3: airmail bag, which is what then later turned into a
[38:09] Speaker 3: money bag for the lunatic skyjacker. Now you are still
[38:12] Speaker 3: in that same canvas air mail bag, the one that's
[38:15] Speaker 3: currently strapped to the aforementioned a lunatic. What you don't
[38:18] Speaker 3: know is there's a military surveillance plane shadowing the Boeing
[38:21] Speaker 3: seven twenty seven from above. The FBI agents are also
[38:24] Speaker 3: watching this skyjacker to see his next move. That is,
[38:26] Speaker 3: if he'll jump. You know the answer to that. Before
[38:29] Speaker 3: they do he does, he lets go up the plane.
[38:31] Speaker 3: You and the canvas airmail bag go with him. Suddenly
[38:36] Speaker 3: it's silent, well not exactly silent. There's the rush of
[38:39] Speaker 3: wind as you and the lunatic skyjacker plummet to earth.
[38:42] Speaker 3: You hear Martin McNally whimper as the flight goggles are
[38:45] Speaker 3: crushed against his eye holes from the air pressure and
[38:48] Speaker 3: the shear of the wind speed. Then he kind of
[38:50] Speaker 3: yelps when the flight goggles are pulled clean off his head.
[38:53] Speaker 3: You can feel his heart beat through the thick canvas
[38:56] Speaker 3: airmail bag. He seems to be panicking. He lets one
[38:59] Speaker 3: arm up his body, perhaps to gain some sense of direction.
[39:02] Speaker 3: It has the opposite effect. He starts to spin violently.
[39:05] Speaker 3: You and he get whipped around you in the canvas
[39:08] Speaker 3: airmail bag. Him in the wind. You have to climb
[39:10] Speaker 3: up towards the opening to keep from getting crushed by
[39:12] Speaker 3: the half million dollars in cash. Meanwhile, McNally is mentally
[39:16] Speaker 3: calculating how long he's been in the air and if
[39:18] Speaker 3: he's reached terminal velocity. That was based on calculations he
[39:22] Speaker 3: did earlier at home, But now he's in the sky
[39:24] Speaker 3: and his math ain't mathing. He knows he can't pull
[39:27] Speaker 3: the rip card too early, or the wind shear will
[39:29] Speaker 3: tear those silk to ribbons, and he'll plummet and land
[39:32] Speaker 3: in a painful sweat. But he'd have to pull the
[39:35] Speaker 3: rip card eventually. You can hear him counting out loud
[39:38] Speaker 3: the seconds as they tick pass, and then he rips
[39:41] Speaker 3: the cord, but he never pulled his arm back into
[39:45] Speaker 3: center mass. When the parachute unfurls from the chest harness,
[39:48] Speaker 3: it slams into McNally's face as he starts to spin.
[39:51] Speaker 3: The parachute also comes out of a somewhat force. He's
[39:54] Speaker 3: momentarily dazed. He quickly recovers. You hear him desperately grabbing
[39:59] Speaker 3: a tether ropes twisting above him. Somehow he manages to
[40:02] Speaker 3: yank on the correct ones in a way that the
[40:05] Speaker 3: parachute fills with air and the canopy opens. He and
[40:08] Speaker 3: the chute slow down their descent, but the sudden yank
[40:11] Speaker 3: of the parachute and the abrupt change in falling speed
[40:13] Speaker 3: separates the canvas airmail bag from McNally. You've climbed to
[40:19] Speaker 3: the top of the bag. You look up and you
[40:21] Speaker 3: see the man in the parachute above you. McNally looks
[40:24] Speaker 3: down at you, and the canvas airmail bag grows smaller
[40:27] Speaker 3: and smaller as you plummet to the earth. You can
[40:31] Speaker 3: barely see the white canopy of the parachute anymore. Wind
[40:34] Speaker 3: is rushing past you. It's getting smaller and smaller in
[40:38] Speaker 3: the sky. You and a half million dollars are on
[40:40] Speaker 3: your own now. And then you and the canvas airmail
[40:44] Speaker 3: bag slam into soft soil. You've landed in a beanfield,
[40:47] Speaker 3: and you're unharmed, Elizabeth, Way to go, spider, all right,
[40:50] Speaker 3: and you're five hundred thousand dollars richer if you could
[40:53] Speaker 3: find someone to help you move this canvas bag of cash.
[40:57] Speaker 3: All right, Elizabeth, So money hits MCNEI. Where did he land?
[41:01] Speaker 3: Totally different beanfield, the exactly. There's a little war going
[41:05] Speaker 3: on over there. With a much softer landing. Though he
[41:07] Speaker 3: hits and boom, he landed safely back on solid ground.
[41:10] Speaker 3: The idiot did it? The I can't right. He jumped
[41:14] Speaker 3: out of a plane first time ever, manages to get
[41:16] Speaker 3: back without dying. But he dropped the money. The reason
[41:19] Speaker 3: why he did all of this. After the two planes,
[41:22] Speaker 3: the crash caddy, the FBI snipers, he beats it all
[41:25] Speaker 3: and then he dropped drops the.
[41:26] Speaker 2: Money, and there's really no way for it. I mean,
[41:28] Speaker 2: it's gonna be so difficult, if impossible, to figure out
[41:32] Speaker 2: where it landed for his perspective.
[41:34] Speaker 3: Oh, because not only did he drop the money, he
[41:36] Speaker 3: also knocked himself out when his head slammed into the
[41:39] Speaker 3: hard earth when he landed. So he's just unconsciously in
[41:43] Speaker 3: the field. Actually he comes to right, no money, no hope,
[41:46] Speaker 3: no jobs.
[41:47] Speaker 2: And this is like four in the morning, right, Yes, I.
[41:50] Speaker 3: Mean he's got basically concussion stars dancing in his eyes.
[41:53] Speaker 3: That's the only wealth he sees. And all he has
[41:55] Speaker 3: on him in his pocket is three hundred dollars. That's
[41:57] Speaker 3: what he walked onto the plane with. So he can
[42:00] Speaker 3: dogs barking in the distance, and he realizes he's in
[42:03] Speaker 3: a farmer's field. The sun's gonna be coming up soon.
[42:05] Speaker 3: He's gonna need to get himself gone right, So he
[42:08] Speaker 3: pulls himself to his feet, gathers up his parachute like
[42:10] Speaker 3: he's a World War Two bomber pilot who's just been
[42:12] Speaker 3: shot down in enemy territory. He's grabbing it all together.
[42:15] Speaker 3: He trudges across the muddy field, climbs over a barbed
[42:18] Speaker 3: wire fence, his body at this point is now giving
[42:21] Speaker 3: out on him. Right.
[42:22] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[42:22] Speaker 3: He lays the parachute out and then lays down atop
[42:24] Speaker 3: it and takes a long nap.
[42:26] Speaker 2: He probably has a concussion totally.
[42:27] Speaker 3: He knocked himself, silly ye. A couple hours later he
[42:30] Speaker 3: comes to the birds now a little bit after dawn
[42:33] Speaker 3: have begun to sound. He awakes the sun on his face.
[42:36] Speaker 3: He knows that his white silk parachute will be spotted
[42:39] Speaker 3: in the daylight, so he gathers it up again, buries
[42:41] Speaker 3: it in the nearby woods under a pile of leaves
[42:44] Speaker 3: and a bunch of branches, and then he climbs back
[42:46] Speaker 3: inside his new now makeshift sleeping bag, and he sleeps
[42:49] Speaker 3: for another six hours or so. Oh wow, definitely concussion.
[42:52] Speaker 2: Yeah yeah.
[42:53] Speaker 3: Next time he wakes up, it's due to the sound
[42:56] Speaker 3: of a helicopter overhead. He hears hound dogs in the distance.
[43:00] Speaker 3: Obviously there is a search party and they are close.
[43:02] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[43:03] Speaker 3: McNally decided his best option. I'm gonna lay low. I'm
[43:06] Speaker 3: gonna hope that the dogs don't detect me. He lays
[43:08] Speaker 3: there in the leaf covered parachute sleeping bag and just
[43:11] Speaker 3: praise I guess I don't know if you put it,
[43:13] Speaker 3: but he's just sitting there by himself. Darkness returns to
[43:15] Speaker 3: the land. Elizabeth McNally wow comes out of his hiding spot,
[43:18] Speaker 3: pulls up his parachute, buries it into the earth for
[43:21] Speaker 3: good this time, cleans himself up, walks back into civilization.
[43:24] Speaker 2: That hounds didn't get them, No, they didn't.
[43:26] Speaker 3: Finally, in the long distance, he spies a glow of lights. Right,
[43:30] Speaker 3: maybe it's a small midwestern the city. He still doesn't
[43:32] Speaker 3: know where he is, so he comes to a two
[43:34] Speaker 3: lane road and he follows that, headed toward the glow
[43:37] Speaker 3: of lights. In the distance, cars are passing them by trucks.
[43:40] Speaker 3: They all seem to have Indiana license plates. He's like, okay,
[43:42] Speaker 3: it must be Indian Indiana. Finally a car pulls over stops.
[43:46] Speaker 3: The driver asks, oh, you need a ride. Mcnowly's like
[43:49] Speaker 3: worn out, he's beaten up. He's like, yeah, he was right,
[43:52] Speaker 3: thank you. He climbs in. The driver is the chief
[43:55] Speaker 3: of police of Peru, Indiana. Stop it with his wife.
[43:58] Speaker 2: Oh that's too good.
[43:59] Speaker 3: The police chief's name is Richard Blair.
[44:01] Speaker 2: Right, he has to know that something's gone.
[44:03] Speaker 3: He knows all about the man hunt. He's just that's
[44:05] Speaker 3: what he's been doing all day. So he and his
[44:07] Speaker 3: wife are on their way home, but they see this
[44:09] Speaker 3: young man out and alone, and the wife's like, oh, honey,
[44:12] Speaker 3: we should pick him up, and the CoP's like, yeah,
[44:13] Speaker 3: we should. McNally he's got forged documents on him, right,
[44:17] Speaker 3: So he shows him to the chief of the police right,
[44:18] Speaker 3: and interestingly, I don't know why he forged his Michigan
[44:22] Speaker 3: driver's license with his brother's name, Patrick McNally. Oh, he
[44:26] Speaker 3: didn't change, just Patrick McNally, right, So please chief it.
[44:29] Speaker 3: He asked, what's this guy, young man doing on a
[44:31] Speaker 3: farm road alone late at night?
[44:33] Speaker 2: Yeah?
[44:33] Speaker 3: Had he been in an accident? Was there something going on?
[44:36] Speaker 3: Mcnowly's like, oh, no, it's my brother earlier and uh,
[44:38] Speaker 3: you know, we got dumb drunk, and then you know
[44:40] Speaker 3: how it is, we got into a fight. My brother
[44:43] Speaker 3: drove off all angry, and I walked in the other direction.
[44:45] Speaker 3: I don't know where I am. The CoP's like, okay,
[44:48] Speaker 3: well I can give you a ride to Peru and
[44:49] Speaker 3: he's like, oh yeah, I got all my way home.
[44:51] Speaker 3: Oh thanks man, it's great, right cop. I don't know
[44:54] Speaker 3: how much he believes it right. But McNally he manages
[44:58] Speaker 3: to get all the way into town.
[45:00] Speaker 2: Right.
[45:01] Speaker 3: The police chiefs must have been pretty suspicious because I
[45:03] Speaker 3: told you there is the manhunt. He was part of it.
[45:06] Speaker 3: He'd asked McNally had he heard about it. He's like, hey,
[45:08] Speaker 3: have you heard about this? We got a big man
[45:10] Speaker 3: hunt right now? The skyjacker jumped out of a plane.
[45:13] Speaker 3: And mcnowly's like, oh man, that'd be great. Couldn't you
[45:15] Speaker 3: believe it? I would have loved to find the skyjacker's
[45:17] Speaker 3: bag of money.
[45:19] Speaker 2: Oh, so the chief player, he's like, okay.
[45:23] Speaker 3: He drops to McNally off at a motel in Preue, Indiana.
[45:27] Speaker 3: The motel is right across the street from police headquarters.
[45:30] Speaker 3: He's like, I'll keep it eye on you exactly. So
[45:32] Speaker 3: McNally checks in, gets a room. Motel clerk gives him
[45:34] Speaker 3: the once over and says, you aren't the skyjacker, are you?
[45:38] Speaker 3: Mc now He jokes the question away again. He's like no,
[45:40] Speaker 3: but I sure wish I was right. And he's like,
[45:42] Speaker 3: I bet that guy's far away by now. Motel clerk.
[45:45] Speaker 3: She seems satisfied.
[45:46] Speaker 2: I wish I had that bag of money.
[45:50] Speaker 3: Now he asks like, hey, there's a local diner around here.
[45:53] Speaker 3: I am starving. So he walks over and gets himself
[45:55] Speaker 3: a burger. Right, Preu, Indiana not a big town. Yeah, So,
[45:59] Speaker 3: as we've covered for small town folks, a little suspicious,
[46:02] Speaker 3: a little bit curious, the locals in Peru, Indiana no different.
[46:06] Speaker 3: They gave McNally the hard eye stare of the entire meal.
[46:10] Speaker 3: After he eats, he gets up, he's like, okay. Everyone's like, well.
[46:13] Speaker 2: And does he have like two black guys?
[46:15] Speaker 3: Oh? He's all kinds of beating up right, he's the goggles,
[46:19] Speaker 3: he's got all cuts, scrapes.
[46:21] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[46:21] Speaker 3: So he's trying to lay low back at the hotel room,
[46:24] Speaker 3: but his mind is racing, right, so he calls. He's like, oh,
[46:27] Speaker 3: I wonder what's up in my accomplice, pet Lakowski. I
[46:29] Speaker 3: wonder what he's doing. He's gotta be freaking out. Oh,
[46:31] Speaker 3: I wonder if he's double cross me, right, because he's
[46:32] Speaker 3: wondering if pet Lakowski thinks he's screwed him out of
[46:35] Speaker 3: his cut and he's gonna go and get his revenge
[46:37] Speaker 3: by flipping on him. So he goes to a payphone.
[46:40] Speaker 3: He calls pet Lakowski. No answer. Then he has to
[46:42] Speaker 3: go back to his hotel room. He turns on the
[46:43] Speaker 3: motel TV. The police at this point have released a
[46:46] Speaker 3: sketch of the skyjacker. It's a man with sunglasses, aviator
[46:51] Speaker 3: sunglasses and a mop of shaggy hair like a hippie.
[46:54] Speaker 2: So yeah, it work.
[46:56] Speaker 3: It didn't look much like McNally, so he's feeling a
[46:57] Speaker 3: little relaxed at this point. The next day, he goes
[47:00] Speaker 3: back to the payphone. He calls his accomplice again. Nothing right.
[47:03] Speaker 3: The motel at this point is crawling with FBI agents
[47:06] Speaker 3: because they've also booked rooms in the exact same hotel
[47:08] Speaker 3: across the street from the police station. Yeah, so they're
[47:11] Speaker 3: all there at the Peru Motor Lodge together. So he
[47:14] Speaker 3: walks back into his payphone again. See if can call Petlakowski.
[47:17] Speaker 3: He's got to pass FBI agents and they're all giving
[47:19] Speaker 3: him the stink eye. He's trying to play it cool.
[47:22] Speaker 3: He makes it to the phone again. He calls again,
[47:24] Speaker 3: no answer. He's like a next day, he has to
[47:26] Speaker 3: do it all over again. He's got to go pass
[47:28] Speaker 3: all the FBI field agents. He's trying to play it cool.
[47:30] Speaker 3: He gets it. He calls his accomplice. This time Petlakowski
[47:33] Speaker 3: picks up and the guy says, oh, hey, man, I
[47:36] Speaker 3: thought you were dead, Elizabeth. All my life I've wanted
[47:40] Speaker 3: a small time criminal to tell me I thought you
[47:43] Speaker 3: were dead. If he's just like a dream, you know, anyway,
[47:47] Speaker 3: he lived my dream, the compless tells the man, I
[47:49] Speaker 3: got bad news for you. McNally. The cops they found
[47:51] Speaker 3: the money bag. He's like, damn right. It landed in
[47:55] Speaker 3: a beanfield not too far from where he hit, and
[47:57] Speaker 3: the old bean farmer went out that morning finds it.
[47:59] Speaker 3: He sees the bag, and he goes. He does the
[48:01] Speaker 3: right thing. He calls into the police. And by the
[48:03] Speaker 3: right thing, I of course mean the wrong thing. He
[48:05] Speaker 3: calls into the police or reports the money half million dollars.
[48:08] Speaker 3: You know that that is the at the time the
[48:10] Speaker 3: Guinness Book World record for the most money ever turned
[48:13] Speaker 3: in by a good samaritan. I'm not in the book. Yes,
[48:18] Speaker 3: So the accomplished Pelakowski he high tails it to Peru
[48:20] Speaker 3: because he's like, we need to get you out of there.
[48:22] Speaker 3: The cops, the FBI agents, they're still all over Peru
[48:25] Speaker 3: because mcnowly's sawed off rifle was found where he had
[48:28] Speaker 3: stashed it. When the cops drew game and picked him up,
[48:30] Speaker 3: he ditched his rifle at that point, so the cops
[48:33] Speaker 3: find it. They're like, he's got to be pretty close.
[48:35] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[48:35] Speaker 3: Petlakowski manages to get into town safely, grab McNally, retrieve
[48:39] Speaker 3: him without any FBI agents stopping them. They make it
[48:42] Speaker 3: out of town.
[48:43] Speaker 2: Unbelievable.
[48:44] Speaker 3: Yes, And then they get back to Detroit. The FBI
[48:46] Speaker 3: is waiting at mcnowe's house. He was a person of interest.
[48:52] Speaker 3: His Robert Wilson discharge papers were easily connected to him
[48:55] Speaker 3: because all he forged was the name. Everything else had
[48:57] Speaker 3: all the identifying detail. They were They just went to
[49:00] Speaker 3: the naval records like this guy. And also not only that,
[49:04] Speaker 3: two small time crooks in Detroit who he had told
[49:07] Speaker 3: about his plan flipped on for the reward money instantly
[49:10] Speaker 3: because he's a dummy. So McNally gets arrested right outside
[49:13] Speaker 3: of his house. He doesn't even get a step inside
[49:15] Speaker 3: from a shower. Yeah. So he gets charged with air piracy,
[49:18] Speaker 3: which at that time was punishable by death. Really like
[49:22] Speaker 3: it was the Navy, Like the British Navy came up
[49:24] Speaker 3: with the law. It was like, yeah, yeah, we're gonna kill.
[49:27] Speaker 2: You piracy when you use the word piratecy.
[49:29] Speaker 3: The air piracy was punishable by death. So McNally he
[49:34] Speaker 3: gets lucky on that score because just before he goes
[49:36] Speaker 3: to trial, the Supreme Court issued a moratorium on the
[49:39] Speaker 3: death penalty. Saved by that, so his trial speedy, just
[49:43] Speaker 3: like the Constitution would have wanted. He's found guilty, sentenced
[49:47] Speaker 3: to thirty years in federal prison. As soon as he's inside,
[49:49] Speaker 3: he starts looking for a way to escape. And this
[49:51] Speaker 3: is where things get wild because in Levenworth Prison he
[49:54] Speaker 3: meets fellow skyjacker Garrett brock Trapnel. He was the one
[49:57] Speaker 3: that I told just knock with a fake arm cap,
[50:00] Speaker 3: I tried to hijack a plane. The FBI storm on
[50:01] Speaker 3: the plane. He gets caught right now. If you remember
[50:03] Speaker 3: from his story, as he told Jim, he planned to
[50:05] Speaker 3: escape with his girlfriend who's on the outside. Well, he
[50:07] Speaker 3: and McNally got along like two bugs in a rug.
[50:10] Speaker 3: So he's like, you should be part of my skyjacker packed.
[50:12] Speaker 3: Let's do McNally said, and I quote at one point
[50:15] Speaker 3: we made a commitment to each other. If I ever
[50:17] Speaker 3: got out, I would skyjack a plane to get him out,
[50:20] Speaker 3: or he would skyjack a plane to get me out.
[50:23] Speaker 2: Their skyjacker brotherskyjacker.
[50:26] Speaker 3: So the two men they get separated for a couple
[50:29] Speaker 3: of years. Right as they shuffled through the federal prison system.
[50:31] Speaker 3: They both wind up though in mary and Illinois when
[50:34] Speaker 3: the federal prison system they introduced the new supermax prisoners.
[50:37] Speaker 3: So they start putting all the guys there. These two skyjackers,
[50:40] Speaker 3: they end up on the same sub block. Hey, he's
[50:42] Speaker 3: like McNally, Hey, Trapnel the brother exactly, so it doesn't
[50:47] Speaker 3: take him long to cook up their escape plan. Trapnel
[50:49] Speaker 3: comes up with the method. He asked McNally and I quote,
[50:52] Speaker 3: how would you like to leave this place in a helicopter?
[50:55] Speaker 3: And obviously he's down for antics in the sky and
[50:57] Speaker 3: there's like bet so carrat Rock Trapnel convinced his Armer
[51:00] Speaker 3: Army staff sergeant girlfriend, Barbara Osweald, to hijack helicopter, force
[51:04] Speaker 3: the pilot to fly them to prison, then pick up
[51:06] Speaker 3: the guys and fly them all to safety. She had
[51:08] Speaker 3: fallen in love with Garrett Rock Trapnel after she read
[51:11] Speaker 3: his jailhouse memoir The Fox Is Crazy Too. The true
[51:15] Speaker 3: story of Garrett Trapnel adventurer, Skyjacker Bank, Robert Conman lover.
[51:19] Speaker 2: There's no need to even try and shop your books.
[51:22] Speaker 3: I'm telling you do.
[51:23] Speaker 2: You can't compete with time.
[51:25] Speaker 3: And you immediately got a book exactly and you might
[51:27] Speaker 3: even get a partner out of it. So after reading it,
[51:30] Speaker 3: she wrote to Trapnel and the two struck up a relationship.
[51:33] Speaker 3: She promised that she would help him escape and together
[51:35] Speaker 3: they would leave America and move to his two thousand
[51:37] Speaker 3: acre plantation that he told her he owned in Australia. Elizabeth,
[51:41] Speaker 3: there was no plantation in Australia. That's what we in
[51:44] Speaker 3: the imaginary real estate industry call a love. So the
[51:47] Speaker 3: real plan was Oswald would hijack a helicopter break them out,
[51:50] Speaker 3: then Trapnel McNally would ditch her and start robbing banks
[51:53] Speaker 3: until they had enough money to go on the run
[51:55] Speaker 3: and flee America together like Butch and Sunday Jack Jacker
[51:59] Speaker 3: bros So. On May twenty fourth, nineteen seventy eight, McNally,
[52:02] Speaker 3: Trapnel and another inmate. They're stalling for time in the
[52:05] Speaker 3: prison yard because they know that the chopper should be
[52:07] Speaker 3: coming in soon and waiting for Barbara Oswald. Right, McNally
[52:11] Speaker 3: is the one to spot the chopper on its approach
[52:13] Speaker 3: to the prison. It's like a Vietnam movie, and the
[52:15] Speaker 3: chopper's on the distance, light up.
[52:17] Speaker 2: LZ right and then like the either the Rolling Stones
[52:20] Speaker 2: or the Supreme starts playing.
[52:22] Speaker 3: So he signals to Trapnel it's time to go right.
[52:25] Speaker 3: The chopper's getting closer and closer. The rotors begin to
[52:28] Speaker 3: beat the air. Everyone can hear it now, then starts
[52:31] Speaker 3: to kick up the loose dust and the dirt on
[52:32] Speaker 3: the prison yard. The guards they are rushing around. They
[52:35] Speaker 3: know this is a prison break. They start grabbing weapons.
[52:38] Speaker 3: They're aiming them at the sky. It is obvious to
[52:40] Speaker 3: everybody what's happening. McNally, Trapnel, the third inmate. They make
[52:44] Speaker 3: their move. They rush over to where the helicopter's gonna be,
[52:46] Speaker 3: and then they see it. A man jumps out of
[52:48] Speaker 3: the chopper in a blue flight suit. He's an FBI agent.
[52:53] Speaker 3: McNally's like, oh, he runs for it. He's gonna try
[52:55] Speaker 3: to maybe just hop a fence. Trapnel just lays down
[52:58] Speaker 3: in the grass and waits for guards to come over
[53:00] Speaker 3: to him.
[53:01] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[53:01] Speaker 3: The men now face new charges attempt to escape, new
[53:04] Speaker 3: air piracy charges and kidnapping. Trapnel had a new plan.
[53:08] Speaker 3: Barbara Oswald's teen daughter right would help them bust out. Yeah,
[53:12] Speaker 3: she would hijack a plane and demand that the two
[53:14] Speaker 3: skyjackers be released. So move on to the next part
[53:17] Speaker 3: of their plan.
[53:18] Speaker 2: Family the checks together.
[53:20] Speaker 3: December twenty first, nineteen seventy eight, the men arrive in
[53:24] Speaker 3: court as co defendants for their trial. Good to her word,
[53:27] Speaker 3: Oswald's team daughter Robin did indeed hijack a twa plane
[53:32] Speaker 3: flying out of Louisville, Kentucky. She had on her a
[53:35] Speaker 3: fake bomb made out of road flares. Travnel didn't trust
[53:40] Speaker 3: her to use a real bomb or even a pistol,
[53:42] Speaker 3: so he's like, yeah, to get some road flares, tell
[53:43] Speaker 3: him it's a bomb. He was worried about people getting
[53:46] Speaker 3: hurt by her. He's like, she's so, she's a teen,
[53:47] Speaker 3: I don't don't know what she's doing. She heard somebody,
[53:50] Speaker 3: so she skyjacks the plane on its way to Kansas City.
[53:53] Speaker 3: Right on a lunch break in their trial, McNally and Trapnel,
[53:56] Speaker 3: they're smoking cigarettes and they're holding cell waiting to be
[53:59] Speaker 3: released and transported to the local airport to join the
[54:02] Speaker 3: teen skyjacker. They're just like, should be any minute now.
[54:05] Speaker 3: So they never get released. Elizabeth because Robin Oswald gave
[54:08] Speaker 3: up after nine hours. She's like, I don't want to
[54:11] Speaker 3: do this anymore. Remember once again, teenager. So that same night,
[54:15] Speaker 3: the jury returned a verdict in McNally in Trapmill's trial,
[54:18] Speaker 3: guilty on all accounts. McNally received a second life sentence
[54:22] Speaker 3: for air piracy, also seventy five years for kidnapping, another
[54:27] Speaker 3: five years for attempted escape. He was scheduled to be
[54:29] Speaker 3: released from prison in twenty eighty two. I've been like,
[54:37] Speaker 3: are you kidding me? So McNally eventually, because the American
[54:40] Speaker 3: legal system, he earns parole. Hey, I don't know how
[54:43] Speaker 3: he's facing all those They're like, let's just knock him down, right.
[54:46] Speaker 3: That's why people say years. I'm like, none of this matters.
[54:48] Speaker 3: This is like, this is like my economics math when
[54:51] Speaker 3: I was in my twenties. I'm like, none of this matters.
[54:53] Speaker 3: The bank says this is fraud. I don't know. You
[54:55] Speaker 3: can't write a check to yourself. So anyway, as a
[54:59] Speaker 3: mc nally said at the time, quote, I've come further
[55:02] Speaker 3: than most people would reach. I never thought I would
[55:04] Speaker 3: get out of prison. Very few people have had my opportunity,
[55:08] Speaker 3: which is a very powerful understatement. Yeah, but Trapnell he's
[55:11] Speaker 3: gone now, he's passed away. He died in prison. So
[55:13] Speaker 3: McNally is the only one left from the golden era.
[55:16] Speaker 3: He is the last of the skyjackers, because McNally puts it, quote,
[55:20] Speaker 3: there's nobody else. I'm the last of the people who
[55:22] Speaker 3: know the facts.
[55:24] Speaker 2: Huh.
[55:24] Speaker 3: So, Elizabeth, I ask you, what's sorry ridiculous takeaway here?
[55:28] Speaker 2: Oh? Man, I think that I can understand why there
[55:33] Speaker 2: were so many skyjackings because it just seems so easy.
[55:37] Speaker 3: Yeah, totally. And then they don't plan to hurt people,
[55:40] Speaker 3: so it's a big bluff.
[55:42] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's one bit exactly.
[55:43] Speaker 3: Except for the political people. They will blow the stuff,
[55:46] Speaker 3: you know, like that's not they'll take you to Algeria
[55:48] Speaker 3: or right.
[55:48] Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, but like for this the guys who want cash.
[55:50] Speaker 3: It's just a bank job and the bank's and there.
[55:53] Speaker 2: Completely Zaren, what's your ridiculous takeaway?
[55:55] Speaker 3: I feel all right, it's the voice. Okay, Well, I'm
[55:57] Speaker 3: just going to pretend like you're normal you and be like,
[55:59] Speaker 3: thanks for asking, Elizabeth, because mine is the bean farmer.
[56:03] Speaker 3: He found the money and decided to do the wrong thing,
[56:06] Speaker 3: right thing, whatever. But if I had a half billion
[56:09] Speaker 3: dollars right and it landed in my bean field from
[56:11] Speaker 3: the heavens, I'm gonna say, the Lord works some mysterious ways,
[56:15] Speaker 3: and I'm going to keep it moving. And that's it.
[56:17] Speaker 2: I mean, you figure you're living in a tiny town
[56:20] Speaker 2: if you sit on it long enough, because if they
[56:23] Speaker 2: have like the serial numbers recorded, like that's your concern, right,
[56:26] Speaker 2: But if you start passing it in like two towns
[56:29] Speaker 2: over because the local town though.
[56:31] Speaker 3: South America, I would take a trip like, honey, we're
[56:34] Speaker 3: going on our second honeymoon. We're going down the Brazil wash.
[56:39] Speaker 3: Brazil's got it at this point. A dictatorship, We're good, baby.
[56:43] Speaker 3: I can get this money through a bank. They will
[56:45] Speaker 3: take any American money I bring into a bank and
[56:47] Speaker 3: they won't say where it came from.
[56:48] Speaker 2: I yeah, I would just figure out a way to
[56:50] Speaker 2: wash it slowly but surely. But that you know, I'm
[56:53] Speaker 2: not an ethical person.
[56:54] Speaker 3: I say dictatorship, I really should say military government.
[56:57] Speaker 2: Yeah I wouldn't. I wouldn't even go that far.
[57:00] Speaker 3: County is over and see that's how you get busted.
[57:02] Speaker 2: Though, Well, keep an eye on that area.
[57:04] Speaker 3: But thanks are going to report to the federal banking system,
[57:07] Speaker 3: so you want to get out of that.
[57:08] Speaker 2: That is true, and I guess you go to casinos. Maybe, yes,
[57:13] Speaker 2: casino casinos.
[57:14] Speaker 3: That slows it down, but they still repose days.
[57:16] Speaker 2: They're not reporting it as tightly.
[57:18] Speaker 3: No, they're not reporting the time. That would be a
[57:19] Speaker 3: good one. I think people still use casinos for watching.
[57:22] Speaker 2: Wait four years and then drive to Vegas.
[57:24] Speaker 3: There you go. Yeah, you didn't have to wait time.
[57:26] Speaker 3: You have to separate at the time there. So I
[57:28] Speaker 3: got another question for you. In the mood for a talkback.
[57:30] Speaker 2: I'm always in the mood for a talkback.
[57:32] Speaker 3: Producer Dave hit It please, Oh my god.
[57:43] Speaker 4: I love Hi Elizabeth Isaia, and my name is Danny.
[57:50] Speaker 4: I love your show. I've listened to every episode. I'm
[57:53] Speaker 4: a middle school theater teacher. And Elizabeth, this next part
[57:57] Speaker 4: is just for you. Don't let Saron hear this, okay, Elizabeth,
[58:00] Speaker 4: following up on my previous message, So this is some
[58:05] Speaker 4: makeup that was donated to my class for our theater
[58:08] Speaker 4: makeup unit. This is a Jurassic Park makeup line. Specifically,
[58:15] Speaker 4: I needed to read you the packaging on the quote
[58:18] Speaker 4: color changing lip balm. It says quote life finds a
[58:23] Speaker 4: way with this hybrid lip and cheek balm. Okay, So,
[58:28] Speaker 4: following up on previous message, this long wearing formula is
[58:32] Speaker 4: infused with hyaluronic acid to keep the skin nourished and
[58:36] Speaker 4: like a baby wraptor taking its first bite, just a
[58:40] Speaker 4: little bit packs a punch a buildable color payoff. Anyway,
[58:45] Speaker 4: I found that ridiculous. I thought you might too, and
[58:47] Speaker 4: you might want to try to spring it on Zarin sometime. Anyway,
[58:50] Speaker 4: love the podcast, Thank you for all the work you
[58:52] Speaker 4: all do.
[58:52] Speaker 2: Wait, what that's amazing. I can't do that justice, we
[58:57] Speaker 2: have to have it.
[58:58] Speaker 3: Oh my god, punch, I didn't say that though, No,
[59:02] Speaker 3: no one heard me say that. No, that's good.
[59:07] Speaker 4: Oh.
[59:08] Speaker 3: As always, you can find us online Ridiculous Crime on
[59:10] Speaker 3: the socials. We have that website that we are very
[59:12] Speaker 3: happy with and we hope you dig it too, ridiculous
[59:14] Speaker 3: Crime dot com. And of course, as you can tell,
[59:18] Speaker 3: we do love to talk back, so please go the
[59:19] Speaker 3: iHeart app and hit us up. And also you can
[59:22] Speaker 3: email us if you like Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com.
[59:25] Speaker 3: Type in dear Elizabeth and type whatever you like as always,
[59:30] Speaker 3: we will be back next Crime. Thank you for listening.
[59:37] Speaker 3: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaron Burnette,
[59:40] Speaker 3: produced and edited by our resident headpilot Dave Kusti. Research
[59:45] Speaker 3: is by our copilots Marissa Brown and Andrea Songsharpentier. Our
[59:48] Speaker 3: theme song is by navigator Thomas Lee and radio operator
[59:51] Speaker 3: Travis Dutt. The host wardrobe provided by Botany five hundred.
[59:55] Speaker 3: Executive producers are your helpful flight attendants Ben Bowleen and
[59:59] Speaker 3: Old Brown.
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