Posted on 01/11/2021 2:54:58 PM PST by CheshireTheCat
Jack Gilbert Graham was gassed* on this date in 1957 in Colorado for a cold-blooded mass murder in the skies.
Just a petty crook until his turn towards cinematic infamy, Graham fell badly in debt and looked to the friendly skies to recover his financial footing.**
When his mother, Daisie King, flew to Alaska to visit family on November 1, 1955, Graham purchased a $37,500 life insurance policy on her at the airport,† knowing that 25 sticks of dynamite had been packed into her luggage. When Graham’s bomb exploded minutes after departure, mom went down in the wreckage … and 43 other people besides. Nobody survived. Chillingly, it appeared to be a crime copied from a notorious 1949 Canadian airline bombing that sent two people to the gallows over an affair of the heart.
These cardinal sins turned literally deadly were bad enough when folks in the way got quietly poisoned off, but one could hardly fail to be alarmed at the prospect of an actual trend developing out of random private grievances turning into terror in the skies with bystanders killed by the (at least) dozens.
Once Colorado authorities zeroed in on Graham, they sought a quick trial and maximum sentence for deterrent effect. Graham halfheartedly retracted his confession but otherwise did little to fight the result; if anything, his callous indifference to the fates of a whole planeload of people stood him in a very poor light....
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
Wasn’t his best idea, was it?
Interesting. I’m reading on Wiki that he and his mother were estranged. And that she owned a restaurant that was suspiciously blown up in a gas explosion in 1955.
And Graham had collected on the insurance.
Further....
He also staged his new pickup truck to get hit by a train. Why?
To collect the insurance, of course.
I saw something on TV about this many years ago. What an evil man!
Guy had to be a Democrat.
I remember seeing an exhibit on this crime during a tour at the FBI, many years ago
It’s the opening scene of The FBI Story with Jimmy Stewart.
All that got him a hot seat in hell for his get rich schemes. Murderous Loser...
Lack of remorse and social constraint, belief the end justifies the means, readily willing to ignore existing laws.
Now which political party would he gravitate to were he alive today?
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