Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Friend John, who's a show listener and a friend and
actually was on the trip.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Was he on with us DC? I think it has
been telling me.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
For some time about a historical event here in Colorado
that I didn't know about, and it was United Airlines.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Flight six twenty nine.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
And I'll let my guest here kind of give you
the background on what happened there.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
But I didn't know about it. I've been reading about a.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Little bit thanks to John telling me I should, and.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Boy, it's quite a story and a bunch of people
died and.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Now finally, at long last, seventy years later, maybe the
victims will have a memorial of their own at much
too long a.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Delay joining us to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Michael Hess is president of the Denver Police Museum and
he's heading up the effort to get the memorial for
these folks. Michael, thanks for joining us on KOA.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Well. Thanks for having us and having the opportunity to
share with you what we're doing and also to make
people more aware of what happened.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yes, it's a pretty crazy story.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
So before we get to what you're doing, and we will,
but yeah, tell us about flight six twenty nine that
the reader's digest condensed version.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Absolutely. So briefly, as you said, United flight six to nine,
which was a DC six B, took off from Stapleton
Airfield and route to Portland, and it was scheduled to
go on to Alaska, and it had left a few
minutes late, and about eleven minutes into the flight, the
(01:42):
flight tower at Stapleton reported there was a flash in
the sky, and so they started calling all of the
different airlines you know that we're in the Stapleton area,
and all of them responded except for United six nine.
And what happened and was one of the uh uh, Well,
(02:07):
we had a guy who actually placed a bomb on
board the plane, uh to kill his mother. And back
in the old days, you know, you could buy insurance
at the gate, and so he he had and you
know before they had T s A and all of
that stuff, so uh so you could just bring your
(02:28):
luggage and put it right on the plane. And so
he you know, she had packed her suitcase and he
told her, you know, and he was unfortunately, you know,
he was a call run and he told his mom,
you know, I've got something special for you, but I
don't want you to open the suitcase until until you
get you know, uh, you know, to your destination. And
(02:49):
so he carried it and of course it was very heavy.
He had placed several sticks of dynamite and a timer
in her bag, and so the people on the ground,
you know, it up about eight miles east of Longmont,
and of course at the time, in nineteen fifty five,
there was nobody up there, a lot of farmers and stuff,
(03:10):
and so the farmers, some of which are still alive,
you know, they were children at the time, but they
said that, you know, there was this big flash and
they ran out to the field and there was all
these bodies around. There was forty four people actually on
the plane, thirty nine passengers and five crew. So they
(03:30):
smelled nitroglycerin, and of course a lot of the farmers
had been World War Two veterans, so they knew something
was up immediately, and so the FBI came in initially
just to identify again they weren't sure if it was
just an accident, to help identify the victims. The plane
(03:50):
blew up in you know, mid air, so there was
a large debris field, and mister Hoover actually called in
and said, what you guys need to do is get
all the luggage out and then pair it to the
each of the victims. So they did that, and even
though the plane blew up, you know, high in the sky,
(04:13):
most of the baggage was pretty well intact except for
one bag, the one that blew up, that Daisy Graham's bag,
and you know her, so we did it to kill
her to collect the insurance. They'd had a really rough relationship,
you know.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
And by the way, just let me let listeners know,
forty four people died on the on the plane, thirty
nine passengers, one of them was an infant, uh and
and five and five members of the crew.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
All right, So I don't want to I don't want
to run out of time with you.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
We got about three minutes left, so okay, And folks,
if you go to my blog at Roskiminsky dot com,
you can read more about all this stuff that Mike
was just telling us about. But now, as you are
president of the Denver Police Museum, you've been working hard
on trying to get some historical recognition and recognition for
the victims.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
So tell us what you're doing and how it's going.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
So at the time this occurred, it was not a
violation of federal law to blow up a civilian aircraft
because no one had.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Ever done it. Oh my gosh, but.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
What, yes, what we had to try it.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Locally, Yeah, because that murder's not a federal crime if
you unless you unless you commit murder while you are
breaking another federal law. So if there was no federal
law broken there, then you'd have to try them locally.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah, So that's what we did, and the museum, you know,
they reassembled the plane. The Denver Police Museum has parts
of the aircraft that were submitted as evidence and actually
a part of it is on display at History Colorado
right now. So anyway, you know, we are. We've gone
(05:56):
through ancestry with our volunteers and we found you know,
surviving family members from the forty four folks. Again, most
of their children because it's been seven years, have passed away,
so it's a lot of grand sheldren and things like that,
and so on the seventieth anniversary November first, we've gotten
the Stapleton Tower to agree to allow us to place
(06:20):
a memorial out in front of that. It's right down
the street from the FBI and also the United Training
Center as well. So the families you know we've been
contacting them, have been over the top appreciative of the
fact that we're doing this, and I would mention to you, you know,
we're trying to raise a little money. If you go
(06:42):
on Denver Police Museum dot org, we have some challenge
coins that we've developed to honor the victims and the
first responders, and if someone is willing to donate thirty bucks,
we'll send you a challenge coin. We've had over two
hundred Denver Police officers actually already donate from their own checks.
(07:03):
So at the Flight Attendance Union and all of those
folks are also on board. ADS is the Airline Pilots Association.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
All right, well, let me just let me just say
to listeners right now, let's let's help out with this.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I'll do it after the show. But give me the
website again.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
It's the Denver Police Museum. It's a Denver Police Museum,
all one word dot org.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Rg Okay, and it'll be pretty obvious when you get
to site right there.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yea, right, So hey, folks, let's when do we help here?
Speaker 1 (07:34):
When don't we see if we can move the needle
and make a difference for this for this effort go
to Denver Police Museum dot org and and donate at
least thirty by donate enough to get the challenge coin. Okay,
it doesn't have to be you can do more than thirty.
But let's let's try to get a few people to
help out on this, on this worthy project, in this
(07:56):
terrible but not very widely known piece of Colorad history.
By the way, Mike, a listener sent me a text
here with let me let me find this ross. Believe
it or not, a friend of mine was the boarding
agent for that flight. Wow.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Wow, We'll have him give me a call because you know,
I'm trying to incorporate as many folks as possible, you know,
that have a connection. We found the two FBI agents
who they're families who actually got Graham to contests. They're coming.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
One of them actually ended up going to Mississippi and
handling the civil rights after that, and the other one
handled the Cours kidnapping. So there's a lot of people
to recognize for this, and a lot of victims that
need to get their recognition as well.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah, I have to say, you know, you hear about
about not so much lately or at least since nine
to eleven and all the increased security, But you hear
about bad things that happen on airplanes from from criminals,
especially back in the day. Right, of course there was
nine eleven, but there used to be hijackings and this
and that. But I don't think I've ever heard a
story of someone blowing up a plane to collect insurance
(09:05):
on one per I mean, this this insane, this insane guy.
His name was Jack Graham. He he was willing to murder. However,
many people just collect the money.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
And express no remorse. And I was gonna mention he
was executed. You know, they don't screw around old. Yeah,
he was executed January eleventh, nineteen fifty seven, so a
year later. I mean, they did not mess around with that.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
And well, wow, all right, folks, Denver Police Museum dot org.
One listener said, Ross, I just donated Denver Police Museum
dot Org. Give at least thirty bucks, get that challenge coin,
and let's help out.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
With this worthy with this worthy effort.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
And Mike, when you're about ready or either just before
or just after you actually do the memorial, you know,
open the memorial, let let us know and we'll get
you back on the show.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
I would love it. Thank you so much.
Friend John, who's a show listener and a friend and
actually was on the trip.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Was he on with us DC? I think it has
been telling me.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
For some time about a historical event here in Colorado
that I didn't know about, and it was United Airlines.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Flight six twenty nine.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
And I'll let my guest here kind of give you
the background on what happened there.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
But I didn't know about it. I've been reading about a.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Little bit thanks to John telling me I should, and.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Boy, it's quite a story and a bunch of people
died and.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Now finally, at long last, seventy years later, maybe the
victims will have a memorial of their own at much
too long a.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Delay joining us to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Michael Hess is president of the Denver Police Museum and
he's heading up the effort to get the memorial for
these folks. Michael, thanks for joining us on KOA.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Well. Thanks for having us and having the opportunity to
share with you what we're doing and also to make
people more aware of what happened.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yes, it's a pretty crazy story.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
So before we get to what you're doing, and we will,
but yeah, tell us about flight six twenty nine that
the reader's digest condensed version.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Absolutely. So briefly, as you said, United flight six to nine,
which was a DC six B, took off from Stapleton
Airfield and route to Portland, and it was scheduled to
go on to Alaska, and it had left a few
minutes late, and about eleven minutes into the flight, the
(01:42):
flight tower at Stapleton reported there was a flash in
the sky, and so they started calling all of the
different airlines you know that we're in the Stapleton area,
and all of them responded except for United six nine.
And what happened and was one of the uh uh, Well,
(02:07):
we had a guy who actually placed a bomb on
board the plane, uh to kill his mother. And back
in the old days, you know, you could buy insurance
at the gate, and so he he had and you
know before they had T s A and all of
that stuff, so uh so you could just bring your
(02:28):
luggage and put it right on the plane. And so
he you know, she had packed her suitcase and he
told her, you know, and he was unfortunately, you know,
he was a call run and he told his mom,
you know, I've got something special for you, but I
don't want you to open the suitcase until until you
get you know, uh, you know, to your destination. And
(02:49):
so he carried it and of course it was very heavy.
He had placed several sticks of dynamite and a timer
in her bag, and so the people on the ground,
you know, it up about eight miles east of Longmont,
and of course at the time, in nineteen fifty five,
there was nobody up there, a lot of farmers and stuff,
(03:10):
and so the farmers, some of which are still alive,
you know, they were children at the time, but they
said that, you know, there was this big flash and
they ran out to the field and there was all
these bodies around. There was forty four people actually on
the plane, thirty nine passengers and five crew. So they
(03:30):
smelled nitroglycerin, and of course a lot of the farmers
had been World War Two veterans, so they knew something
was up immediately, and so the FBI came in initially
just to identify again they weren't sure if it was
just an accident, to help identify the victims. The plane
(03:50):
blew up in you know, mid air, so there was
a large debris field, and mister Hoover actually called in
and said, what you guys need to do is get
all the luggage out and then pair it to the
each of the victims. So they did that, and even
though the plane blew up, you know, high in the sky,
(04:13):
most of the baggage was pretty well intact except for
one bag, the one that blew up, that Daisy Graham's bag,
and you know her, so we did it to kill
her to collect the insurance. They'd had a really rough relationship,
you know.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
And by the way, just let me let listeners know,
forty four people died on the on the plane, thirty
nine passengers, one of them was an infant, uh and
and five and five members of the crew.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
All right, So I don't want to I don't want
to run out of time with you.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
We got about three minutes left, so okay, And folks,
if you go to my blog at Roskiminsky dot com,
you can read more about all this stuff that Mike
was just telling us about. But now, as you are
president of the Denver Police Museum, you've been working hard
on trying to get some historical recognition and recognition for
the victims.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
So tell us what you're doing and how it's going.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
So at the time this occurred, it was not a
violation of federal law to blow up a civilian aircraft
because no one had.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Ever done it. Oh my gosh, but.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
What, yes, what we had to try it.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Locally, Yeah, because that murder's not a federal crime if
you unless you unless you commit murder while you are
breaking another federal law. So if there was no federal
law broken there, then you'd have to try them locally.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah, So that's what we did, and the museum, you know,
they reassembled the plane. The Denver Police Museum has parts
of the aircraft that were submitted as evidence and actually
a part of it is on display at History Colorado
right now. So anyway, you know, we are. We've gone
(05:56):
through ancestry with our volunteers and we found you know,
surviving family members from the forty four folks. Again, most
of their children because it's been seven years, have passed away,
so it's a lot of grand sheldren and things like that,
and so on the seventieth anniversary November first, we've gotten
the Stapleton Tower to agree to allow us to place
(06:20):
a memorial out in front of that. It's right down
the street from the FBI and also the United Training
Center as well. So the families you know we've been
contacting them, have been over the top appreciative of the
fact that we're doing this, and I would mention to you, you know,
we're trying to raise a little money. If you go
(06:42):
on Denver Police Museum dot org, we have some challenge
coins that we've developed to honor the victims and the
first responders, and if someone is willing to donate thirty bucks,
we'll send you a challenge coin. We've had over two
hundred Denver Police officers actually already donate from their own checks.
(07:03):
So at the Flight Attendance Union and all of those
folks are also on board. ADS is the Airline Pilots Association.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
All right, well, let me just let me just say
to listeners right now, let's let's help out with this.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I'll do it after the show. But give me the
website again.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
It's the Denver Police Museum. It's a Denver Police Museum,
all one word dot org.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Rg Okay, and it'll be pretty obvious when you get
to site right there.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yea, right, So hey, folks, let's when do we help here?
Speaker 1 (07:34):
When don't we see if we can move the needle
and make a difference for this for this effort go
to Denver Police Museum dot org and and donate at
least thirty by donate enough to get the challenge coin. Okay,
it doesn't have to be you can do more than thirty.
But let's let's try to get a few people to
help out on this, on this worthy project, in this
(07:56):
terrible but not very widely known piece of Colorad history.
By the way, Mike, a listener sent me a text
here with let me let me find this ross. Believe
it or not, a friend of mine was the boarding
agent for that flight. Wow.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Wow, We'll have him give me a call because you know,
I'm trying to incorporate as many folks as possible, you know,
that have a connection. We found the two FBI agents
who they're families who actually got Graham to contests. They're coming.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
One of them actually ended up going to Mississippi and
handling the civil rights after that, and the other one
handled the Cours kidnapping. So there's a lot of people
to recognize for this, and a lot of victims that
need to get their recognition as well.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah, I have to say, you know, you hear about
about not so much lately or at least since nine
to eleven and all the increased security, But you hear
about bad things that happen on airplanes from from criminals,
especially back in the day. Right, of course there was
nine eleven, but there used to be hijackings and this
and that. But I don't think I've ever heard a
story of someone blowing up a plane to collect insurance
(09:05):
on one per I mean, this this insane, this insane guy.
His name was Jack Graham. He he was willing to murder. However,
many people just collect the money.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
And express no remorse. And I was gonna mention he
was executed. You know, they don't screw around old. Yeah,
he was executed January eleventh, nineteen fifty seven, so a
year later. I mean, they did not mess around with that.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
And well, wow, all right, folks, Denver Police Museum dot org.
One listener said, Ross, I just donated Denver Police Museum
dot Org. Give at least thirty bucks, get that challenge coin,
and let's help out.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
With this worthy with this worthy effort.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
And Mike, when you're about ready or either just before
or just after you actually do the memorial, you know,
open the memorial, let let us know and we'll get
you back on the show.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
I would love it. Thank you so much.
The Ross Kaminsky Show News
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.