Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Dutton's Saren Burnette. I got a question for you,
Speaker 2: my friend.
Speaker 3: Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2: Oh man, this is such a wild one. Do you
Speaker 2: know what's ridiculous?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, yeah, I do know what's ridiculous.
Speaker 2: I thought you might.
Speaker 3: I have a question for you, though part of it
Speaker 3: right back around. Huh yeah, reverse, sir. How much of
Speaker 3: your beans?
Speaker 2: My beans?
Speaker 3: How much are your beans? That's a question you're going
Speaker 3: to be asking this spring. And you out of the store. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and you see something in the jelly bean You like
Speaker 3: jelly beans?
Speaker 2: Not so much? I mean, I'll eat some of them.
Speaker 2: I grew up near a jelly belly country, so like, yeah.
Speaker 3: No, they have lots of crazy flavors.
Speaker 2: So that's what I like, is the crazy jelly beans.
Speaker 3: I don't like the traditional like, oh, Lime, do you
Speaker 3: like crazy jelly beans? Oh no?
Speaker 2: Did I step in it.
Speaker 3: To quote you? Buckle up, buttercup. This is one hundred
Speaker 3: percent real. One of the press releases said in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty six, so there's time this time, I'm ahead of it. Wow,
Speaker 3: And we got this from a lot of different people there.
Speaker 3: KFC is releasing jelly beers, and it's coming in three flavors,
Speaker 3: fried chicken naturally, sweetcorn, sure, and gravy so fried chicken
Speaker 3: jelly beans.
Speaker 2: I guess if you eat them all together, you get
Speaker 2: like a meal.
Speaker 3: You throw up, throw up.
Speaker 2: The gravy ones though.
Speaker 3: Ew, You're like, I'm on a special diet, gravy jelly beans.
Speaker 3: I'm going to have people over for dinner and just
Speaker 3: have three bowls. Would you like more sweet corn gravy?
Speaker 3: A little bit of gravy on that? Thank you so much. Anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, it's really hot out today, Jesus. If it's
Speaker 3: hot outside, it's hotter inside. You're at headquarters and I'm
Speaker 3: feeling just woozy, and I'm looking at this and I'm like,
Speaker 3: did I invent this? Is it real? Anyway, it's going
Speaker 3: to happen before April. I'm guessing for Easter twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: Oh, there you go for the kids.
Speaker 3: He has risen, Yeah, to get some KFC jelly brae with.
Speaker 2: Some gravy jelly beans.
Speaker 3: So there you go. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Well you got a second. I got one for you.
Speaker 3: But they don't here's the thing they don't say how
Speaker 3: much they're going to be. That's why I was asking.
Speaker 2: They probably haven't decided because of tariffs, sir, It's true,
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they'll be like it's five dollars a bag, and
Speaker 3: then you show up and it's like it's twenty seven
Speaker 3: dollars a bag. So how much are your beans?
Speaker 2: Interesting? This story may or may not have beans in
Speaker 2: it that I was about to tell.
Speaker 3: You beans, but you have to say it like that.
Speaker 2: I don't know how to say it like beans beans. See,
Speaker 2: I can't do it only you, Elizabeth Special. Imagine, for
Speaker 2: whatever reason do you become a fugitive from the law.
Speaker 2: I can see that happening, right, And so you're living
Speaker 2: on the lamb, Yeah, for years, living on his prayer.
Speaker 2: You're good at it. But the whole time you're still
Speaker 2: using the name your mama gave you, just walking around
Speaker 2: chilling you in the same name you've always used, living
Speaker 2: on the line. Thus, as we would say, that would
Speaker 2: be ridiculous. And that's the story I want to tell
Speaker 2: you today.
Speaker 4: Nice.
Speaker 2: This is Ridiculous Crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,
Speaker 2: heist and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free.
Speaker 2: And one hundred percent ridiculous. Hooray, Elizabeth. I got to
Speaker 2: say I really like this guy what I'm about to
Speaker 2: tell you about, because, for one, he didn't hurt anyone,
Speaker 2: which I know is important to you. Also, he means
Speaker 2: well when it comes to his motivation for doing crimes,
Speaker 2: which is important to both of us. My man's name
Speaker 2: is Patrick.
Speaker 3: Critton or Crichton, Patrick Crichton.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll say crittin and get this. Patrick Critton was
Speaker 2: the first person ever in the history of Canada to
Speaker 2: successfully hijack that an aircraft.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, congratulations.
Speaker 2: Not only that, Elizabeth, my man Patrick did this while
Speaker 2: being black.
Speaker 3: Congratulations.
Speaker 2: Do you know what the odds are of you being
Speaker 2: a black man in Canada? The odds are low, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: for me especially, trust me, it's low. It's nil, very
Speaker 2: nil for you. And if you're not in Toronto with
Speaker 2: all them West Indian brothers, it's even much lower. And
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy, when this story takes place, the population
Speaker 2: of black folks in Canada was estimated to be between
Speaker 2: seventy five thousand and one hundred thousand.
Speaker 3: In all of Canada, all of Canada.
Speaker 2: While the whole population in Canada at that time was
Speaker 2: estimated to be twenty one million. Now, if you go
Speaker 2: at the larger number one hundred thousand, that works out
Speaker 2: to be about zero point zero zero four percent of
Speaker 2: the population, or four thousands of one percent.
Speaker 3: Wow, I know there's a a big Jamaican community.
Speaker 2: In Yeah, yes, a bunch of from a bunch of
Speaker 2: the islands, actually not just Jamaica. But basically, what I'm
Speaker 2: saying is the odds were stacked against my man Patrick
Speaker 2: Critton to be the first person to successfully hijack an
Speaker 2: airplane in Canada while also being black.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: However, that said, he did have one advantage. He was
Speaker 2: not Canadian. Oh yeah, okay, he imported himself to commit
Speaker 2: this crime.
Speaker 3: To really blend in exactly.
Speaker 2: Now, just because he was the first person to successfully
Speaker 2: hijack a plane in Canadian history doesn't mean he had
Speaker 2: to be Canadian in this case. So he wasn't. He
Speaker 2: was an American, Elizabeth. Do you know what else my
Speaker 2: man Patrick Critton was. Stop guessing. I'll tell you, crime exporter.
Speaker 2: He was a revolutionary. He was a radical. He was
Speaker 2: a courageous warrior for social justice. You see, my man
Speaker 2: Patrick Critton was a black panther and back in the
Speaker 2: early seventies. This is the era when criminals and revolutionaries
Speaker 2: hijacked plane.
Speaker 3: It's true.
Speaker 2: So who was this cat?
Speaker 3: Patrick cru who was this cat?
Speaker 2: Fantastic question A listen on it. Bring in your a
Speaker 2: game today. Patrick was born in Harlem, New York. He
Speaker 2: was raised in the city. He was in that New
Speaker 2: York that we only know of from mid century movies
Speaker 2: and books. Really we have no experience of it, you
Speaker 2: and I. But he saw our rougher side of that
Speaker 2: concrete jungle era of New York.
Speaker 3: He was that Stevie Wonder living for the city exactly.
Speaker 2: You can. You can relate it through song.
Speaker 3: One hundred percent. And I know everything now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because if he was a kid running in the
Speaker 2: streets of nineteen fifties Harlem, he was born in forty seven,
Speaker 2: then that makes him a teen in the early sixties
Speaker 2: when he was living in the Bronx. That's where he
Speaker 2: went to high school in the Bronx, at DeWitt Clinton
Speaker 2: High School, where he was an honor student.
Speaker 3: Go Tigers totally.
Speaker 2: Patrick saw firsthand the world changed. Is America desegregated, which
Speaker 2: we typically think of this happening in the South, where
Speaker 2: schools and drugstore counters and restaurants are being desegregated. But
Speaker 2: that was also happening in the Northeast, where black folks
Speaker 2: and Puerto Ricans were suddenly in places they weren't before,
Speaker 2: doing things they weren't before.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a great example of Boston, exactly.
Speaker 2: There you go. And this is all thanks to the
Speaker 2: strides made by the civil rights heroes and workers, those
Speaker 2: everyday folks who got out and protested for change demanded it.
Speaker 2: But even in New York, the pace of change wasn't
Speaker 2: happening fast enough. And that was due to one huge factor, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: of course, I'm talking about the NYPD.
Speaker 3: New York City cups.
Speaker 2: Yes, the same way they oppressed black jazz musicians in
Speaker 2: the forties and fifties, they did the same thing pretty
Speaker 2: much everyone else. It was brown and black in mid
Speaker 2: century America. So to Patrick Critten's young eyes and his
Speaker 2: experiences of life in mid Central America as a young
Speaker 2: black man, the NYPD were the pigs who worked for
Speaker 2: the man. As far as he could tell.
Speaker 3: They've done a lot to rehab their image, their image,
Speaker 3: and you know, yeah, but they were back then the
Speaker 3: pigs for young brothers right there to keep the black
Speaker 3: man down.
Speaker 2: That's why Patrick joined a militant group called the Republic
Speaker 2: of New Africa. He was in his early twenties at
Speaker 2: this point, and it just seemed like the place to
Speaker 2: put his energies and his hopes were better and more equid.
Speaker 2: But who or what rather is the Republic of New Africa?
Speaker 2: Great question? Like, I don't know about you, but I
Speaker 2: certainly don't remember ever seeing that country on the world map,
Speaker 2: the Republic of New Africa. I mean, they ain't part
Speaker 2: of the United Nations.
Speaker 3: He didn't have cool maps.
Speaker 2: Well, if like me, you're unfamiliar with the Republic of
Speaker 2: New Africa. As I learned, it was not a nation.
Speaker 2: It was a radical group that was a spur, an offshoot,
Speaker 2: a splinter group from the Black Panthers. Now I know
Speaker 2: that you know about the Black Panther Party being raised
Speaker 2: in Oakland, You grew up where they came up. You
Speaker 2: were raised right here in Black Panther Country. Were people
Speaker 2: still talking about the Black Panthers when you were a kid.
Speaker 2: When you're growing up, you have like people like, you
Speaker 2: know what, my sister was in the Panthers.
Speaker 3: My friends in high school, their parents, okay, and same
Speaker 3: with my brothers friends. Their parents were Black Panthers. My
Speaker 3: grandma donated the snick.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, a student Non Violent Coordinating Committee. Nice. So
Speaker 2: do me a solid and pretend like you don't know
Speaker 2: about the Panthers so I can tell you more them.
Speaker 3: I don't know anything. I've seen the film Black Panther
Speaker 3: and Black Panther Two, not that story.
Speaker 2: So as the Panthers might say, let me let this
Speaker 2: wrap on you, sista.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 2: The Black Panther Party for Self Defense was a black
Speaker 2: power group started by two Oakland locals, Huey P. Newton
Speaker 2: and Bobby Seal. They met at where Merrit Coule, There
Speaker 2: you go, and they started talking about what they could
Speaker 2: do to push forward the civil rights movement. By the
Speaker 2: time the Panthers got started, Malcolm X had already been
Speaker 2: assassinated in Harlem, which changes their perspective on how they
Speaker 2: can get their people free. And they definitely weren't down
Speaker 2: for mlka's spiritually informed, nonviolent approach. In fact, quite the opposite.
Speaker 2: Huey Newton and Bobby Seele believed liberation started at the
Speaker 2: end of a gun, and so in nineteen sixty six,
Speaker 2: these two young black men start. The Panthers as a
Speaker 2: militant group meant to provide protection and safety to black
Speaker 2: communities these days. Are known for a few things. One
Speaker 2: predominantly is their look, because the Panthers look cool. That's
Speaker 2: why Beyonce had her dancers dress up like them for
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl performing because it's iconic, right. They wore
Speaker 2: as you know, black leather jackets. They wore their hair natural,
Speaker 2: and they topped that off their afros with the black berets. Now,
Speaker 2: the Panthers were also known for another thing that everybody remembers. Guns, Yeah,
Speaker 2: namely shotguns. You see, the Panthers took advantage of America's
Speaker 2: Second Amendment and they openly carried guns and shotguns and
Speaker 2: they drove around Oakland at night, following the police as
Speaker 2: the cops patrolled black neighborhoods. They called this cop watching. Now,
Speaker 2: they were meant to stop violence by the police. They
Speaker 2: weren't trying to start none. They just want didn't want
Speaker 2: there to be none. So this was the opposite of
Speaker 2: what MLK was doing. Right. Yeah, of course that immediately
Speaker 2: got the attention of the police when they got a
Speaker 2: bunch of brothers following them around with shotguns sticking out
Speaker 2: the windows. And also the powers that be also took
Speaker 2: notice because black men with shotguns will catch attention in America.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 2: Now, what the Panthers are less well known for, but
Speaker 2: what was really the most radical thing they did was
Speaker 2: feed and care for people. Like they opened free health clinics.
Speaker 2: The Panthers were very much focused on health. Specifically, they
Speaker 2: opened up these spots where they gave out free food
Speaker 2: to folks in the hood, namely their free Breakfast for
Speaker 2: Children program. They made sure that school children didn't go
Speaker 2: to school with hungry bellies, because you know, hungry belly
Speaker 2: is a hard at belly to educate well.
Speaker 3: And you look at these neighborhoods, like in West Oakland
Speaker 3: in particular, where they were kind.
Speaker 2: Of most active.
Speaker 3: It's active. It's what we call today a food desert.
Speaker 3: So you don't have the supermarkets, you have like a
Speaker 3: corner store, and they don't have the nutritious food exactly
Speaker 3: that people need. And you know, there's so much research
Speaker 3: proofs that children need the breakfast. And you have to
Speaker 3: feed your brain in order to have even curb behavioral
Speaker 3: issues as well.
Speaker 2: You can focus yea, not act out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And so if the schools aren't going to provide
Speaker 3: the breakfast because you know, parents can't, then it's up
Speaker 3: to the community. And that's a lot of what Sneak did. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then also when you're talking about the guns, the
Speaker 3: Panthers in essence created the strict gun laws we have
Speaker 3: here in Californa.
Speaker 2: Yes. In fact, all of the federal gun laws come
Speaker 2: from California first did it, And then the federal laws
Speaker 2: were because of like, oh, we can't have these brothers
Speaker 2: out there open carrying guns.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So yeah, gun writer, I guess gun control begins as
Speaker 2: a response to the Panthers.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now, you know who absolutely hated their free breakfast for
Speaker 2: children program. Now, since I know you know the answer,
Speaker 2: and since you do phenomenal celebrity impressions, would you mind
Speaker 2: phrasing your answer as an impression of the man the
Speaker 2: head of the FBI who despised the free breakfast for
Speaker 2: children program.
Speaker 3: I can do this. I haven't. I'm rusty. I know,
Speaker 3: I know, but I mean I've said that before and
Speaker 3: then it comes out it's like perfect.
Speaker 2: You're a natural, I know.
Speaker 3: So have a bottle smith Jack Goova. I'll like to
Speaker 3: watch you go pant on the top.
Speaker 2: Spot all.
Speaker 3: I mean, did you feel like he was in the room.
Speaker 2: It was scary good. It was like Jaye Groover was
Speaker 2: right here in the studio.
Speaker 3: Wow, okay, well watch you go peep on the toilet.
Speaker 2: I don't know what's up with him. Well, he likes
Speaker 2: to watch.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So in nineteen sixty nine, the most powerful law man
Speaker 2: in the land, the head of the FBI, mister jig
Speaker 2: Or Hoover, once said that the Black Panthers free breakfast
Speaker 2: for children program made the Panthers the quote greatest threat
Speaker 2: to the internal security of the country. Yeah, he was
Speaker 2: terrified of brothers giving out free food to children.
Speaker 3: You know, we have a problem with that today. People
Speaker 3: don't want to give out free meals to kids, breakfast
Speaker 3: or lunch. And it absolutely drives me nuts because I've
Speaker 3: worked with kids and it's not just a color line thing.
Speaker 3: E definitely, but I've worked with kids who are, you know,
Speaker 3: struggling in poverty and in like programs, and they if
Speaker 3: you're eating a bag of chips and sodas for breakfast,
Speaker 3: and even if your parents have means, you know, these
Speaker 3: kids aren't doing it. And they get to school and
Speaker 3: it's like, as our responsibility as a society to deliver
Speaker 3: good citizens. And that's how you do it, you know,
Speaker 3: you feed them and you educate them, feed.
Speaker 2: The mind, feed the body. Yeah, well, as you work
Speaker 2: very well.
Speaker 5: Know.
Speaker 2: He saw this as a threat because it makes no
Speaker 2: sense until you realize you wanted to maintain the poverty,
Speaker 2: because hungry bellies also maintained the powers that be. Sure,
Speaker 2: So that's why the FBI went full on scorched earth
Speaker 2: against the panthers. Their free food was giving hope to
Speaker 2: the next generation, and that would upset the American capitalist system.
Speaker 3: Well, and if you hobble a populace, you have a
Speaker 3: malleable populace, you have an ignorant.
Speaker 2: Populace, scared populist.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So it's like you don't want strong strong men
Speaker 3: coming up stronger, yeah.
Speaker 2: And questioning the way that the world is working. So, now,
Speaker 2: if you're the most powerful law man and you decide
Speaker 2: you can't have all these this free food being handed
Speaker 2: out to children, the FBI decides to launch a program
Speaker 2: to stop it. They launched co Intel Pro. We've talked
Speaker 2: about that program before in previous episode about activists who
Speaker 2: broke into an FBI office and they discovered the files
Speaker 2: that then laid out the bureau's secret nefarious plans. Anyway,
Speaker 2: thanks to informants and undercover FBI agents who joined the Panthers,
Speaker 2: by nineteen seventy one, this organization was mostly in disarray, right, Like,
Speaker 2: there's all sorts of problems that people who had lost
Speaker 2: hope and then the Panthers just the had gotten waylaid
Speaker 2: by FBI informants. And however, there were still young revolutionaries
Speaker 2: who wanted to shake up the world, so they formed
Speaker 2: splinter groups like the Republic of New Africa. So this
Speaker 2: group gets formed in nineteen sixty eight, the same year
Speaker 2: MLK was assassinated and the civil rights movement found itself
Speaker 2: also in somewhat disarray. It gets formed in that long
Speaker 2: hot summer sixty eight when America cities were regularly burning
Speaker 2: with race riots. The dream of the Republic of New
Speaker 2: Africa was very simple. They were separatists. They wanted a
Speaker 2: state for black people. They wanted to take some land
Speaker 2: from America and establish this black state, the Eyed Land
Speaker 2: in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, basically the area we call
Speaker 2: the Black Belt. Yeah, and it's because historically there have
Speaker 2: been a large black population of enslaved people living well.
Speaker 3: And because of also the rich soil, so you can
Speaker 3: track it. It's like the Piedmont region and that's why
Speaker 3: they had so many of the agricultural efforts in that region. Yes,
Speaker 3: because of the black soil, yeah, black belt.
Speaker 2: Between those two factors it gets the So I don't
Speaker 2: think I need to tell you what Jagger Hoover thought
Speaker 2: about giving up land to create a black state in America.
Speaker 2: He said he hated it. You'd be right, you'd be
Speaker 2: today's big winner. Now. Interestingly, Betty Shabbaz, the widow of
Speaker 2: Malcolm X, was the second vice president of this new organization.
Speaker 2: Oh really, I didn't know that she got involved with
Speaker 2: this because the group had support from Malcolm X's operation
Speaker 2: after his passing. So this group was a legit organization,
Speaker 2: and just like the Panthers, the Republic of New Africa
Speaker 2: becomes an obvious target for Jaeggar Hoover's right.
Speaker 3: They weren't like black Star line, like back to Africa.
Speaker 2: No, they were like here, we.
Speaker 3: Had been here, established, we want our.
Speaker 2: Own state here. Interesting, Yeah, you know the Mormons have Utah.
Speaker 2: We want a state. So this obviously leads to violent
Speaker 2: confrontations with law enforcement, which obviously we're going to skate
Speaker 2: past the shootouts and the law enforcement officers who were
Speaker 2: killed in those shootouts, since that would violate our one
Speaker 2: percent rule for murder. Right. Instead, we'll focus on the
Speaker 2: crimes that were far more ridiculous and far more fun.
Speaker 2: I like that as a black man hijacking a Canadian
Speaker 2: airplane insisting they fly him to the destination of his choice,
Speaker 2: which is what I came to hear to tell you
Speaker 2: about today. But first, let's take a little break and
Speaker 2: when we get back, we'll get to the skyjacket. Yes,
Speaker 2: we're back, Elizabeth. You ready to get to some skyjacket?
Speaker 3: Yes? Please.
Speaker 2: So after Jaeger Hoover and the FBI put the full
Speaker 2: force of the secret co Intel program to work to
Speaker 2: kill off the Black Panthers for daring to give school
Speaker 2: children free food, and the movement splinters, and as I said,
Speaker 2: one of these splinter groups becomes this black separatist movement,
Speaker 2: the Republic of New Africa. This is what my man
Speaker 2: Patrick Critten joined. So he's involved in all of this
Speaker 2: radical craziness. In nineteen seventy, he was a twenty three
Speaker 2: years old revolutionary, which means he got involved in the
Speaker 2: kinds of things that twenty three year old revolutionaries do,
Speaker 2: thinking he's invincible and nothing's going to happen to him.
Speaker 2: For instance, he became an amateur bomb maker.
Speaker 3: It's always at the bomb right, and it doesn't ever
Speaker 3: pan out.
Speaker 2: Well, no, they're cheap to make, well, I know, but.
Speaker 3: We the anarchist movement to us that, like, it doesn't
Speaker 3: really get you that far.
Speaker 2: And it's hard to win fans to bomb makers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, teddy k Ted Kaczynski.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, exactly. I mean you can, you can get headlines,
Speaker 2: but you're not gonna get a lot of public support, right,
Speaker 2: and it doesn't Giving school children free food is a
Speaker 2: much better pass.
Speaker 3: Without using federal dollars. That's the thing too, Like you're
Speaker 3: giving out food and it's like nobody's business.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Anyway, So anyway, we have Patrick Criton, amateur bombmaker,
Speaker 2: twenty three years old, and he's working in New York
Speaker 2: with other young radicals working in secret bomb making labs,
Speaker 2: like on the Lower East Side of New York. Now,
Speaker 2: can you imagine being an amateur bomb maker in.
Speaker 3: The Lower East Side of New York at that point.
Speaker 2: You're working with recipes from the Anarchist Cookbook, which has
Speaker 2: been proven to be an incomplete recipe book to say
Speaker 2: the least. By the way, I think I should do
Speaker 2: an episode about the Anarchist Cookbook. That whole story is wild. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but long story short about his amateur bomb making career.
Speaker 2: One day, he and his compatriots accidentally blew up their
Speaker 2: bomb making lab.
Speaker 3: Oh surprise.
Speaker 2: One of the young radicals unfortunately died in this accident,
Speaker 2: but my man Patrick Critton emerged unharmed. However, NYPD cops
Speaker 2: they found black panther pamphlets and booklets in the debris
Speaker 2: which told them who was responsible for the explosion. They
Speaker 2: also found enough to pin him to the explosion. So now,
Speaker 2: when Patrick isn't making amateur bombs in the basements of
Speaker 2: the Lower East Side, he got busy doing the other
Speaker 2: thing that young revolutionaries were doing in the early seventies,
Speaker 2: which was robbing banks. Oh yeah, because a revolution needs
Speaker 2: money exactly, and what better way to get money than
Speaker 2: rob a bank's where they keep it. Now, personally, if
Speaker 2: I were a young radical i went and rob banks,
Speaker 2: I don't know who I would rob.
Speaker 3: Who would you rob?
Speaker 2: Pimpson drug dealers.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, well they're not going to go to the cops.
Speaker 3: They can't.
Speaker 2: I lost my money from my profits that I earned
Speaker 2: illegally from.
Speaker 3: They deserve to be wrong, yes for sure. But like
Speaker 3: the drug dealers will come for you, Well, they.
Speaker 2: Got to find you. You ambush them, I mean, trust me,
Speaker 2: these are like obviously.
Speaker 3: You're already in artel You're already.
Speaker 2: Exactly, you're in a violent world, you know, as a
Speaker 2: young revolutionary.
Speaker 3: Do this in the early seventies, yes, exactly today.
Speaker 2: Today with the next cartels. No, no, no, no no, because
Speaker 2: if you rob the pimps and the drug dealers, the
Speaker 2: community would have your back. You'd be like Robinhood figures.
Speaker 2: The community would they be grateful for you dealing a
Speaker 2: blow to the sorts of crimes that destroyed the community.
Speaker 3: If you wore like a cape in the costume while
Speaker 3: you did it, oh my god, Saren.
Speaker 2: You'd be a hero to the kids there. It is
Speaker 2: so obviously they chose not to do this because you know,
Speaker 2: they were at war with the society and they wanted
Speaker 2: to make a bigger stance, so they wanted to take
Speaker 2: money from the man.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, you're sticking it to the institutionem hmm.
Speaker 2: Now a man Patrick Critton is revolutionary homies. Obviously they
Speaker 2: go the other way. They rob banks, and as you
Speaker 2: might imagine, being amateurs at that as well, it did
Speaker 2: not go well. So I mean, sure they did get
Speaker 2: away with some bank robberies. They one hundred percent did
Speaker 2: that up on the Upper East Side in New York
Speaker 2: where the rich swells lived. But eventually things went sour
Speaker 2: one day and the police came into play. On July
Speaker 2: twenty ninth, nineteen seventy one, Patrick was the lookout for
Speaker 2: a bank robbery at Broadway in ninety fourth Street in Manhattan.
Speaker 2: It spiraled out of control. Hostages ended up getting taken.
Speaker 2: Police arrive in time to stop them. There's a shootout
Speaker 2: with the NYPD. Two people get hit by gunfire, another
Speaker 2: man gets killed. It was bad. And now I've definitely
Speaker 2: used up our one percent guarantee with this story.
Speaker 3: I'm looking at the at the dial on the wall,
Speaker 3: the needle. It's a hard one percent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't have anywhere glass to go.
Speaker 3: You keep it up. I'm gonna just cut your mic.
Speaker 2: Luckily, this is it. This is all I got for
Speaker 2: you anyway. Again, Patrick Critton manages to escape unharmed after
Speaker 2: he and his fellow young fearless revolutionaries used the hostages
Speaker 2: as human shields to cover their attempt to flee. Now
Speaker 2: he's officially a wanted man.
Speaker 3: See that's the thing is that you say, I'm doing
Speaker 3: this like for the people to stick it to the man.
Speaker 3: No you're not. You're you're traumatizing regular people.
Speaker 2: This is why you got to rob Himpson drug dealers.
Speaker 3: Him talking about you need to do a Ted talk.
Speaker 2: I really should.
Speaker 5: So.
Speaker 2: At this point, Patrick is twenty four years old, He's
Speaker 2: facing serious charges. So what does he do? Well, just
Speaker 2: like Rick James fleeing from the Vietnam Draft, he takes
Speaker 2: off and crosses the border to Canada.
Speaker 3: Nice.
Speaker 2: It's so nice there, Oh you better believe it, eh.
Speaker 2: Unlike Rick James, though, he doesn't move in with a
Speaker 2: young Neil Young and start a band I know. Instead,
Speaker 2: he starts planning for his next revolutionary action. He's an
Speaker 2: armed wanted man kicking around Canada and at some point, now,
Speaker 2: at some point though, he gets his hands on a grenade,
Speaker 2: like you know, like one of those like pineapple grenades.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that just happens upon one Well.
Speaker 2: I think he knew some revolutionaries. You're like, man, you
Speaker 2: need to get some protection. There.
Speaker 3: Here's a grenade they're retiring and they like, will it
Speaker 3: you know what, take box of stuff, like you already
Speaker 3: have a copy of The Anarchistic Cook. Okay, fine, Oh
Speaker 3: but this grenade.
Speaker 2: Oh, pineapple grenade, that will be handy.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: He also gets a thirty eight pistol, because you know,
Speaker 2: it's a small pistol, something you can secret on your person. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So with that, he decides, I am now armed enough
Speaker 2: to put my new plan into action.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's the day after Christmas nineteen seventy one, Boxing day
Speaker 2: exactly in Canada, the day it's a holiday boxing day,
Speaker 2: and that's the day he decides will be the date
Speaker 2: of his next revolutionary action. So he heads out to
Speaker 2: the airport at thunder Bay, Ontario, which, if you're unfamiliar
Speaker 2: Canadian geography, it's in northwestern Ontario. It's a it's a
Speaker 2: city located on the banks of Lake Superior. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: that's where this young radical boards in air Canada flight
Speaker 2: to Toronto. He has with him his little snub nose
Speaker 2: thirty eight and the aforementioned grenade. One grenade please one.
Speaker 2: And back then there weren't all the metal detectors, so
Speaker 2: he is easily able to sneak his gun and his
Speaker 2: grenade onto the flight. The flight takes off, it's airborne.
Speaker 2: Once the seat belt light goes off, the flight tendants
Speaker 2: begin drink service. Patrick Critton orders and as he's like,
Speaker 2: you know, up there enjoying the flight, he bides his
Speaker 2: time and then he decides like, Okay, I'm gonna go
Speaker 2: for it. But rather than me tell you about him
Speaker 2: going forward, Elizabeth, I'd like you to close your eyes
Speaker 2: as a close and I'd like you to picture it. Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: you are happily situated in a jump seat on an
Speaker 2: Air Canada flight from thunder Bay headed to Toronto. The
Speaker 2: takeoff was uneventful, the flight starts out quite smoothly. You
Speaker 2: pass up through the clouds and then you're there in
Speaker 2: the wild blue yonder, high above the Earth, looking down
Speaker 2: on the green expanses far below. That's your signal to
Speaker 2: get up, because you are a flight attendant working this flight,
Speaker 2: which means it's time for you to offer the passengers
Speaker 2: a refreshment, perhaps a snack of peanuts. At one row,
Speaker 2: you greet an older lady and her seat mate, a
Speaker 2: young black man with a resplendent and wellcroif daffro. He
Speaker 2: looks up at you, and the lady is busy reading
Speaker 2: from a copy of Life magazine. You ask if either
Speaker 2: of them would care for drinks or snacks. They both
Speaker 2: say yes to the drinks, no to the snacks. The
Speaker 2: lady asks for an orange juice on ice, the young
Speaker 2: man asked for ginger ale in the can. You pour
Speaker 2: the drinks and then hand them over to the passenger.
Speaker 2: Both begin to enjoy their tasty cold beverages while you
Speaker 2: attend to other rows. The young man pulls out a
Speaker 2: pen and he scribbles a note on the napkin he
Speaker 2: received with his can of ginger ale. Half hour or
Speaker 2: so later, when you come back around to collect the
Speaker 2: empty glasses, the young black man hands back his empty
Speaker 2: can of ginger ale. He also hands you his handwritten note. Curious,
Speaker 2: you take the note. It's not the first time someone
Speaker 2: has slipped you a note. You read it, and then
Speaker 2: you gasp. Turns out the handwritten note is not a
Speaker 2: love note. Instead, it reads think we have fragmentation grenades
Speaker 2: and a thirty eight caliber revolver take me to the captain,
Speaker 2: we are going to Havana. This is no joke. That's
Speaker 2: how the skyjacking begins. You think, man, he looked like
Speaker 2: such a nice young man. I would have never suspected
Speaker 2: he was a political terrorist. You've heard this happens, but
Speaker 2: you've never expected it to happen to you. As instructed,
Speaker 2: you take the terrorists to meet the captain. Meanwhile, the
Speaker 2: young man from seat seventeen A with the grenade and
Speaker 2: handgun is a most considerate terrorist because even though he
Speaker 2: hijacks the plane, he tells the pilot that the plane
Speaker 2: is allowed to continue on to Toronto, And so when
Speaker 2: the plane touches down in Toronto, the young man allows
Speaker 2: everyone else who's not part of the flight crew to
Speaker 2: leave the plane. Then, once the plane is evacuated, he
Speaker 2: calmly orders the pilot to take off again. For the
Speaker 2: next few hours, you nervously watch the ground far below
Speaker 2: as the plane diverts south across the United States. First
Speaker 2: you see the farmlands of the Midwest, the rivers and
Speaker 2: patchworks of fields that gives way to the mountains of Appalachia,
Speaker 2: which then once again turns back to the patchwork quilled
Speaker 2: of farmland of southern Georgia and northern Florida. That eventually
Speaker 2: becomes the swampy expanses of the Everglades, which finally gives
Speaker 2: way to the Miami area, soon followed by the string
Speaker 2: of aisles of the Florida Keys connected by a ribbon
Speaker 2: of low Bridge Roads. What's strange is that the whole
Speaker 2: time the terrorist who hijack your flight isn't being mean
Speaker 2: and scary, quite the opposite. He keeps making jokes. He's
Speaker 2: showing you pictures of his family and children. You even
Speaker 2: find yourself laughing often. You never expect a terrorist to
Speaker 2: have a lively sense of humor. Then you see the
Speaker 2: bright blue of the Caribbean waters and finally your new destination,
Speaker 2: the port city of Havana, Cuba. You wonder if you're
Speaker 2: going to have to become a pawn in his political intrigue.
Speaker 2: You didn't bring clothes for the climate in Cuba. However,
Speaker 2: once the plane lands, the young man with the grenade
Speaker 2: and handgun thanks you and the rest of the flight
Speaker 2: crew for being so cooperative. He then says he's goodbyes,
Speaker 2: wishes you luck on your flight home, and he happily
Speaker 2: deep planes. He seems he just needed a ride to Cuba.
Speaker 2: After he steps off the plane, you see he is
Speaker 2: met by Cuban military personnel. Meanwhile, the pilots do not
Speaker 2: wait around. They tax you down the runway and head
Speaker 2: for the safety of the sky. As the plane climbed
Speaker 2: back up into the clouds, you think to yourself, Wow,
Speaker 2: what a strange day. But now you have one hell
Speaker 2: of a story for your next blind data at a
Speaker 2: Toronto singles bar. So there you go. My man Patrick's
Speaker 2: done it. He got himself to Havana.
Speaker 3: If I'm a lady who orders the orange juice, I'd
Speaker 3: be like I would have wanted to go to Havana, Like, give.
Speaker 2: Me a chance. I've always wanted to go to Do
Speaker 2: they still have the casinos?
Speaker 3: NOA okay.
Speaker 2: So, unlike his amateur bomb making career, his work as
Speaker 2: a lookout for bank robberies, this time his career as
Speaker 2: a radical criminal goes off without a hitch.
Speaker 3: Well, and he's lucky that. I mean, he was on
Speaker 3: a short haul flight and they had enough fuel to
Speaker 3: get right to Havana and then hop up. I mean,
Speaker 3: they're obviously going to go right.
Speaker 2: To Miami Atlanta. But wow, I know I was struck
Speaker 2: by that as well. I'm guessing he probably got some
Speaker 2: fuel in Toronto, like topp her off.
Speaker 3: I don't know, Oh yeah, I could see that maybe.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it wasn't in the news stories. They didn't
Speaker 2: have all the particulars of like and then he had
Speaker 2: the gas.
Speaker 3: Sharts come out logistics.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So now, my man Patrick Critten, he's in Havana, Cuba, which,
Speaker 2: as you probably know, means he's safe from both American
Speaker 2: and Canadian law enforcement since Cuba didn't have any sort
Speaker 2: of extradition treaty with either country, which means even though
Speaker 2: he showed up with a stolen airplane, Cuba wasn't going
Speaker 2: to send him back to face justice. But being a
Speaker 2: young revolutionary who looked up to what Fidel Castro and
Speaker 2: che Guavara had done in Cuba with their successful revolution,
Speaker 2: he expected he'd be received and welcomed as a fellow revolutionary.
Speaker 2: What he didn't expect was that he'd have to face
Speaker 2: justice in Cuba.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, because Fidel don't play. He gets arrested in Cuba,
Speaker 2: he's not welcomed as a fellow revolutionary. Instead, he's handing
Speaker 2: an eight month long prison sentence.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean think about it. You did the episode
Speaker 3: about trying to kill.
Speaker 2: Him, right, Yeah, six hundred and thirty eight ways to
Speaker 2: try to kill you.
Speaker 3: So he's gonna think like, is this one of the ways,
Speaker 3: whether it's spot off you know this like Trojan Horse
Speaker 3: of this guy who's in the like the regalia, he
Speaker 3: looks like like the revolutionary costume totally and he's going
Speaker 3: to come in and somehow he got a ride on
Speaker 3: a Canadian jet and they just dumped him and left.
Speaker 2: And he brings no people with him, No, just him
Speaker 2: by himself.
Speaker 3: All he's got is his gun and his grenade. He
Speaker 3: one of his family. I'd be like, yes, son, like
Speaker 3: this is I don't trust this?
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. What better way for the CIA to sneak
Speaker 2: some guy in than just sent one guy hello.
Speaker 3: Assault jaired hoover in front of him and if he's
Speaker 3: like wait what oh no, never mind, Oh we caught
Speaker 3: him slipped up. You messed up there, dude.
Speaker 2: So he gets sent to a special prison that Fidel
Speaker 2: has arranged. Four skyjackers. Wait, there were so many hijackers
Speaker 2: coming into Cuba with diverted flights. They had a place
Speaker 2: called Casa de Transitos, which translates to mean house of hijackers.
Speaker 2: It was a prison just for hijackers.
Speaker 3: That's the other thing. He's probably like, how do I
Speaker 3: get it through their skulls? We don't want you guys here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there were sixty of them in the house. Date
Speaker 2: transitos sixty hijackers at the Yes. So because he couldn't
Speaker 2: have your legit or not, so you had to, like,
Speaker 2: you know, suss you out in prison. Yeah, And like
Speaker 2: most Cuban prisons, it was not somewhere you wanted to be.
Speaker 2: It was not a minimum security facility with pleasant amenities. No,
Speaker 2: it was a tropical prison. Each hijacker had to sell.
Speaker 2: That was four feet by four feet, your kids sixteen
Speaker 2: square feet. Oh yeah, not enough to lie down. You're
Speaker 2: sitting there in the fetal position if you want to sleep.
Speaker 2: It was a rough eight month prison stay. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: much for the revolutionary solidarity. So after serving his eight
Speaker 2: month sentence, the young revolutionary gets released. Now was he
Speaker 2: embraced by Cuba and treated as a fellow revolutionary.
Speaker 3: They put him on a raft.
Speaker 2: No, But if you guessed hell no, you would be
Speaker 2: right there. Because instead he was forced to work in
Speaker 2: the backbreaking sugarcane fields, and if you know anything about
Speaker 2: the history of Cuba, that's where the slaves used to work.
Speaker 2: He's now doing the slave labor of early colonialism and
Speaker 2: he's stuck working at these slave labor conditions for two years,
Speaker 2: basically another form of outdoor prison. Oh man, I guess
Speaker 2: he didn't see that coming when he was dreaming about
Speaker 2: going to Cuba.
Speaker 3: You know, it's we had. There's the dream of the
Speaker 3: revolution and then the reality we see that played out
Speaker 3: over and over.
Speaker 2: It completely because who would ever steal a plane in
Speaker 2: order to become a slave in Cuba? You know, like
Speaker 2: that chits is not in the cars.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Eventually he gets free of the sugarcane fields after two
Speaker 2: years and he leaves Cuba. At this point he's like,
Speaker 2: I have enough of Cuba, so long feed out right?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: You know? Is it viacn dios my Brosa. So since
Speaker 2: he's an international fugitive now he's limited to where he
Speaker 2: can relocate, so he picks Tanzania. He goes over to
Speaker 2: Africa and that's where he becomes a school teacher. Now
Speaker 2: finally his life begins to improve. At this point, he's
Speaker 2: like twenty seven years old. Wow, he's had a rough
Speaker 2: couple years now. Naturally, even though he's an international fugitive,
Speaker 2: he still desires a normal life. So that's what he does.
Speaker 2: He builds himself a normal life in Tanzania. He falls
Speaker 2: in love, he gets married, he has two boys. He
Speaker 2: works as a history teacher. Things must have been good
Speaker 2: for him or at least passable, because he stays in
Speaker 2: Tanzania for twenty years.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he becomes a prince productive, respective member of his community.
Speaker 2: He volunteers at church. I mean, he's doing the whole bit,
Speaker 2: school teacher. But I guess he missed America because in
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety one he applied for a new US passport.
Speaker 2: What and this is my favorite part of his story. Sorry,
Speaker 2: he applies for his US passport using his actual name.
Speaker 2: The man is a wanted international fugitive from justice. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and he's like, is Patrick Critton?
Speaker 3: I mean, I understand missing the US, but like, come on,
Speaker 3: you've got like you've built a.
Speaker 2: Life, Yeah, exactly, might as well stay in Tanzania or
Speaker 2: if you're going to try to come back to America
Speaker 2: pick another name.
Speaker 3: Brother went to Tanzania totally.
Speaker 2: And also, by the way, they never stopped trying to
Speaker 2: bust international fugitives. Oh yeah, it's like a big deal.
Speaker 2: So he's apparently far more optimistic than I would be,
Speaker 2: because he's like, yes, I would like one US passport please.
Speaker 2: My name is Patrick Crises. Yeah, like nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 2: I guess whoever was at the State Department received his application.
Speaker 2: They didn't cross check the list of international fugitives and
Speaker 2: the FBI's most wanted list because his passport application gets approved. Way,
Speaker 2: he gets a new US passport sent to him in Tanzania,
Speaker 2: and I assume one for his wife and a couple
Speaker 2: for his two boys. Yeah, now, my man, he doesn't
Speaker 2: return to the US right away. He like lets his
Speaker 2: cool off a little bit. He waits a few years,
Speaker 2: and then in nineteen ninety four, he moves back to
Speaker 2: the United States. He flies from Tanzandia into New York.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: There when he gets to customs, he presents his new
Speaker 2: US passport. Elizabeth, what do you think happens when this
Speaker 2: wanted fugitive lands in America? This brand new passage with
Speaker 2: only one stand.
Speaker 3: It's one thing to get the passport, it's another to
Speaker 3: walk through customs.
Speaker 2: Totally, So customs officials are all smiles, and they welcome
Speaker 2: him back to the US.
Speaker 3: Oh really.
Speaker 2: After his warm welcome, he sets up in New York
Speaker 2: and he goes to work as a school teacher and
Speaker 2: you know that that takes fingerprinting and background checks and
Speaker 2: it did back in nineteen ninety four. Wait what yes,
Speaker 2: So keep in mind he's using the exact same name
Speaker 2: for back when he's a revolutionary robbing banks, building bombs,
Speaker 2: skyjacking planes, and he gets to become a school teacher.
Speaker 2: He passes the background What background checks were they doing?
Speaker 3: Oh? Man? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Right, So he also passes multiple background checks because he
Speaker 2: also goes to work for the New York Board of
Speaker 2: Education as an SAT Prep class teacher his well, not
Speaker 2: just a substitute teacher, but like, oh okay, we really
Speaker 2: want to check you. And then as his new but
Speaker 2: still same old self, he moves upstate to Mount Vernon,
Speaker 2: New York, and he gets another school teacher job and
Speaker 2: where he also works as the director of a youth
Speaker 2: shelter in Westchester County.
Speaker 3: So instead another district that should be they tested.
Speaker 2: Him again, so he somehow stays under the radar for years. Wow,
Speaker 2: but you know how they say no good d goes unpunished.
Speaker 2: This is a perfect example of how that.
Speaker 3: Saying came to be deed goes unpunished either.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely know those, but no good d. Because back
Speaker 2: in Canada, there was this one detective who was part
Speaker 2: of a newly formed cold case unit. Yeah, and by
Speaker 2: now it's two thousand and one and there's this new
Speaker 2: investigative tool called the Internet. So one day, this one
Speaker 2: Canadian detective, Donald Jorgensen, who was part of the newly
Speaker 2: formed cold case unit, opts to use this wondrous new tool,
Speaker 2: the Internet, to help him solve the backlog of cold cases.
Speaker 2: As his boss, Superintendent Edward Toy tells it, he wanted
Speaker 2: to know what was the oldest case we had and
Speaker 2: this was it. Eh So, the first successful plane hijacking
Speaker 2: in Canada, dating back to nineteen seventy one. So Detective
Speaker 2: Jorgenson starts to investigate. He types the name Patrick Critton
Speaker 2: into the search bar and boom up pops the name
Speaker 2: of a humble schoolteacher working at Upstate New York. You see,
Speaker 2: Patrick was featured in a news story about working at
Speaker 2: a youth shelter.
Speaker 3: Patrick.
Speaker 2: The newspaper story was from March of two thousand and
Speaker 2: one from the Journal News of Westchester County. In the story,
Speaker 2: a local school teacher named Patrick Critton is cited for
Speaker 2: his work with disadvantage black youth at a local youth shelter.
Speaker 2: It's a feel good story. The story talks about how
Speaker 2: he's the director of the Community School Initiative in Mount
Speaker 2: Vernon and how he spends his days mentoring kids, doing
Speaker 2: all this good work in the community. The Canadian cop
Speaker 2: reads this and he's like, I think that's our Skyjackery.
Speaker 2: Oh no, and he thinks to him, stuff, we can
Speaker 2: get this, Holser, we know right where he is. However,
Speaker 2: first to have to prove that this beloved school teacher
Speaker 2: and youth mentor is the same guy as the wanted
Speaker 2: international fugitive terrorist. Yeah, just because they have the same
Speaker 2: name doesn't mean it's the same guy. Elizabeth. Okay, let's
Speaker 2: take another break and after some ads, we'll see how
Speaker 2: this tale of cops and robbers plays out. Elizabeth seven,
Speaker 2: we're back, ready to hear how this one wraps up
Speaker 2: very much So yes, okay, So we have our Canadian
Speaker 2: cold case detective detective Jorgenson who's found a lead by
Speaker 2: using Google, but he's not certain it's the same man
Speaker 2: as the wanted international fugitive terrorist. Yeah, Like, what are
Speaker 2: the odds? And a wanted man would still be using
Speaker 2: the same name and working in the same state where
Speaker 2: he pulled off his crimes. Yeah, Plus he would be
Speaker 2: highly embarrassing to be wrong and to harass an innocent
Speaker 2: school teacher. So the detective knows he needs more confirmation
Speaker 2: before they can spring into action. Yeah, So Detective Jorgenson
Speaker 2: reaches out to the NYPD and the FBI. He contacts
Speaker 2: the Joint Terrorist Task Force because hijacking a plane is
Speaker 2: considered terrorism, and he tells them what he's found just
Speaker 2: by using Google in. The FBI and the NYPD are like, wow,
Speaker 2: why didn't we think of that.
Speaker 3: Two thousand and one, oh, early.
Speaker 2: Two thousand and one, mar that's what you just typed
Speaker 2: his name into the search bar and you found him. Oh,
Speaker 2: we got to start trying that anyway. The FBI and
Speaker 2: the NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force puts Patrick Critton under surveillance,
Speaker 2: and they also compare Patrick Critton of two thousand and
Speaker 2: one with what they know about the young revolutionary who
Speaker 2: skyjacked a plane back in nineteen seventy one.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The two men turn out to be the same height,
Speaker 2: about five foot four. They check his old employment records
Speaker 2: and they find that Patrick Critton graduated from Hunter College
Speaker 2: back in nineteen sixty nine and he worked as a
Speaker 2: public school teacher briefly, which lines up with two thousand
Speaker 2: and one Patrick Critton, who works as a school teacher
Speaker 2: in the summer and he runs the youth shelter the
Speaker 2: rest of the year. The NYPD detectives also find an
Speaker 2: old fingerprint card from nineteen ninety four, patrick Critten first
Speaker 2: returned to the US and started to work as a
Speaker 2: substitute teacher in the Brooklyn School District. The detectives compared
Speaker 2: that to a fingerprint card dating back to nineteen sixty
Speaker 2: nine when he was a school teacher originally, and the
Speaker 2: two fingerprints seem to match.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: In order to avoid any lawsuits or bad publicity, NYPD
Speaker 2: and FBI they want to get stronger evidence that this
Speaker 2: is the same Patrick Critten, as these are not two
Speaker 2: different men with very similar fingerprints, So they came up
Speaker 2: with a plot to trick him into giving them a
Speaker 2: more recent fingerprint, one that they can match to some
Speaker 2: evidence that was taken from the plane hijack. Ye. Now
Speaker 2: the FBI, they start staking his home. They stake out
Speaker 2: his work, the school where he's teaching summer school, so
Speaker 2: they were familiar with the route he took to and
Speaker 2: from work. And they dream up the perfect trap to
Speaker 2: snag a kind heart like Patrick, something he would fall for.
Speaker 2: And they decide to use an imaginary missing kid. Oh MANPD. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So on August fifteenth, two thousand and one, the investigators,
Speaker 2: they post a bunch of flyers up the neighborhood around
Speaker 2: Patrick Critton's home, then asked for help to find this
Speaker 2: missing girl who's taken from the Bronx. And they also
Speaker 2: have some detectives working as undercover on the route and
Speaker 2: they're working as like volunteers, and the same route that
Speaker 2: they know he walks each morning to work. And they
Speaker 2: have had these detectives out there asking passerbys for help
Speaker 2: to find this missing child, just like they knew he would.
Speaker 2: Patrick walks past them and one of the NYPD detectives
Speaker 2: stops Him's like, hey, mister, have you seen this little girl?
Speaker 2: They hand him a photo of the missing girl. Happy
Speaker 2: to help, Patrick takes a look at it and he nope,
Speaker 2: hands it back to the cops and he said he
Speaker 2: had not you know, had not seen the girl, and boom,
Speaker 2: here's your photo back, as Inspector Wells of the NYPD recalls,
Speaker 2: he touched the photo and handed it back and that's it.
Speaker 2: We got prints on him. Five days later they get
Speaker 2: the results back from forensics. The prince on the photo
Speaker 2: match Prince taken from a can of ginger rail from
Speaker 2: the hijacked place.
Speaker 3: See that's up until this point. I was like, he
Speaker 3: could say that. When I was in New York, there
Speaker 3: was a guy that I hung around with who was
Speaker 3: like a cuckoo revolutionary and he must used to use
Speaker 3: my identity, use my identity to do this, and that
Speaker 3: wasn't me.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: He stole a bunch of my stuff and my passport
Speaker 3: was one thing. Mm hmm.
Speaker 2: Now he's tied directly to the hijacking thanks to a
Speaker 2: can of ginger ale. Oh Patrick, Yeah, So the n
Speaker 2: YVD they call the cold case detective Detective Jorgenson up
Speaker 2: in Canada and they tell him to pop on down
Speaker 2: to the Stays because we found your man. To detect him.
Speaker 2: Jorgensen gets on the first available flight that does not
Speaker 2: get hijacked. This is two thousand and one, and things
Speaker 2: are a little more kosher then for now.
Speaker 3: Well, and it's it's August two thousand and one.
Speaker 2: At this point, Elizabeth, it's September ninth. Stop it Saturday.
Speaker 2: International joint task forts of Canadian detectives, FBI agents and
Speaker 2: NYPD detectives knock on the door of Patrick Critten's first
Speaker 2: floor apartment in Mount Vernon. When he opens the door
Speaker 2: and he sees all the law enforcement gathered from the
Speaker 2: international task force created specifically to bust him, Patrick doesn't
Speaker 2: start shooting, doesn't go for one grenade, He doesn't slam
Speaker 2: the door in their face and try to flee out
Speaker 2: the back. Instead, he calmly says, what took you so long?
Speaker 2: I've been waiting for that knock on the door for
Speaker 2: seven years direct quote.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: News of his arrest breaks a few days later, But
Speaker 2: the news of his arrest after his thirty year life
Speaker 2: on the LAMB as an international fugia dive from justice
Speaker 2: is totally overshadowed because there's a much bigger terrorist news
Speaker 2: that breaks on September eleventh, two thousand and one.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's why his story gets swept under history's right Yeah.
Speaker 2: Turns out folks were far more focused on a different
Speaker 2: news story of that day, Elizabeth.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: However, the New York Times still covered his arrest in
Speaker 2: the morning edition on nine to eleven. No way, the
Speaker 2: New York Times news stary reported that quote, thirty years
Speaker 2: after a Black Power revolutionary hijacked a jetliner from Ontario
Speaker 2: to Cuba and disappeared, Canadian and federal authorities matched the
Speaker 2: fingerprints he left on a can of ginger ale in
Speaker 2: the airplane with those of a teacher in Westchester County
Speaker 2: and charged the teacher with the crime yesterday.
Speaker 3: That's incredible.
Speaker 2: Now, the cops admit that the had to admit rather
Speaker 2: that the statue of limitations for his bomb making and
Speaker 2: the bank robbing had expired, so he was not going
Speaker 2: to be charged for any of his crimes in the
Speaker 2: United States. Okay, but there was still the skyjacking. The
Speaker 2: terrorist charges did not have a statute of limitations. Interesting
Speaker 2: because yeah, they just don't expire. So he was taken
Speaker 2: into a Manhattan courtroom. He's charged with armed robbery, kidnapping,
Speaker 2: an extortion from the skyjacking. The arresting officers described the
Speaker 2: former revolutionaries being relieved that his life on the land
Speaker 2: was finally over, and they said his personal demeanor was
Speaker 2: quote polite, helpful, and accommodating.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So when the news of his arrest breaks, the
Speaker 2: New York Times interviewed his current colleagues and co workers, like,
Speaker 2: for instance, Ronald Ross, the superintendent of the Mount Vernon
Speaker 2: City School District. He told The New York Times the
Speaker 2: students were just devastated. He was one of the most
Speaker 2: respected people in the school district. You couldn't have asked
Speaker 2: for a more model citizen. If Mother Teresa had done
Speaker 2: this or the Pope, I wouldn't have been more shocked.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, he went all in.
Speaker 2: On the Pope and Mother Teresa.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he put it on their names. Right.
Speaker 2: So the principal where he taught summer school, doctor Judith Cronin, said, quote,
Speaker 2: we really loved this man because he was a real
Speaker 2: spark in the community and committed to our kids. He
Speaker 2: was tops in our book. A lot of kids cried
Speaker 2: when he left, but I told him that was his
Speaker 2: former life. We can still honor him for the work
Speaker 2: he did in our building and not abandon all the
Speaker 2: trust and honor he brought here.
Speaker 3: Oh that's really nice.
Speaker 2: I thought so, I thought you liked that. So he
Speaker 2: was so beloved that the principal had to hold a
Speaker 2: special assembly at the school to tell them to inform
Speaker 2: the students about the news of mister Critton being busted
Speaker 2: by the FBI. And then hours later, maybe two hours,
Speaker 2: they held a second assembly to tell the students about
Speaker 2: nine to eleven plane crashing into the World Trade Center buildings.
Speaker 2: Because these their parents are probably you know.
Speaker 3: Commuters, well, and it's it's close, it's mount Verb's not
Speaker 3: that and even if they're not commuters, I mean, like
Speaker 3: all the all of their law enforcement's going to have
Speaker 3: to go down to supplement.
Speaker 2: To devastating moment.
Speaker 3: The whole thing is just so the principle is like,
Speaker 3: you know, she walks out of the first one, just drained.
Speaker 2: That was a tough day for these kids. Are going
Speaker 2: to have to have to take some adjustice time, and
Speaker 2: what a shock for these young kids.
Speaker 3: Yay, I just I can't you know. And then yeah,
Speaker 3: now it's like okay plus some yes, a million.
Speaker 2: Then the scope changes entirely. So at this point, Patrick
Speaker 2: Critton gets extradited to Canada to stand trial for his skyjacking,
Speaker 2: and when his case comes to trial in Canada. It
Speaker 2: was a post nine to eleven world. So this complicates
Speaker 2: the narrative because as a skyjacker, he typically would have
Speaker 2: been labeled as a terrorist. But what Patrick did, having
Speaker 2: the pilots fly him to Cuba and allowing the plane
Speaker 2: to safely return to Canada after deplanning everybody in Toronto,
Speaker 2: and then also nobody gets harmed, and he's he's, you know,
Speaker 2: comparing him to the nine to eleven hijackers and what
Speaker 2: they did. You've got this Canadian prosecutor who's like, he's like, okay,
Speaker 2: let's just focus on the revolutionary bomb maker and the
Speaker 2: bank robbing and the kidnapping and talk about that instead
Speaker 2: of because otherwise you're like, he wasn't really dangerous. He
Speaker 2: was like joking with the people on the plane about that.
Speaker 3: If it's like, it's pretty hard the statute of limit
Speaker 3: Canadian country.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know Canadian law.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know if they're allowed to introduce that information.
Speaker 2: If it was law and order, I could tell you no.
Speaker 2: But this is real. I don't know. So the prosecution
Speaker 2: doesn't have to. They aren't so hamstrung by the comparisons
Speaker 2: to the much more heinous flight hijackers because Patrick Critton
Speaker 2: he pleads guilty to the charges of extortion and kidnapping,
Speaker 2: so that means the judge doesn't seek the standard ten
Speaker 2: to twelve year sentence and instead gives them a more
Speaker 2: lenient five year sentence. To explain their choice of leniency,
Speaker 2: the judge for his case pointed out that he hadn't
Speaker 2: harmed anyone in the commission of his skyjacking, and that
Speaker 2: quote the crew said that he was joking with them
Speaker 2: and showing them pictures of his children.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So Patrick Critton was locked up in Canadian prison and
Speaker 2: then he gets released early in June two thousand and
Speaker 2: three for good behavior. Upon his release, he's deported back
Speaker 2: to the US where he doesn't have to stand trial
Speaker 2: for the bank robbery and the bomb making revolutionary activity since,
Speaker 2: as I said, statute limitations have expired. So when the
Speaker 2: principal of the school where he taught summer school finds
Speaker 2: out that he's free, she's all excited. Doctor Croner reportedly
Speaker 2: told the press the sixties were some crazy times. People
Speaker 2: were passionate about things, and Patrick was committed to the
Speaker 2: panthers and to a cause. Now he's committed to helping
Speaker 2: people here, and we're happy he'll be back in the community.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 2: So there you go, Elizabeth is basically the happy ish ending.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 2: So the young revolutionary steels playing, flies to Cuba, becomes
Speaker 2: school teacher in Tanzania, and then, defying all logic for
Speaker 2: a man who's an international fuguitive, if he goes back
Speaker 2: to the US to return to being a school teacher.
Speaker 3: It's incredible. That is absolutely and I can't believe, like
Speaker 3: I'm thinking that the Canadian prison is a cake walk
Speaker 3: compared to the Cuban Jason.
Speaker 2: I think we can safely say that, yeah, yeahah. So
Speaker 2: perhaps it is like they used to tell me when
Speaker 2: I was a boy, honesty is the best policy, after all,
Speaker 2: It's true. But if I'm ever to become an international
Speaker 2: fugitive from the law, I am not going by Zarren
Speaker 2: Burnett the third because I'm gonna have to change up
Speaker 2: my name. Maybe I'll go by like Dizzy maguire.
Speaker 3: Why don't you just you can use my passport?
Speaker 2: There you go, Yeah, perfect, They'll buy it. So what's
Speaker 2: a ridiculous digaway?
Speaker 3: I think it's what's fascinating is the talking about revolutionaries
Speaker 3: and this notion of you know, this great grand vision
Speaker 3: you know that you have and I don't want to
Speaker 3: call it naive, but you know, you have this idea
Speaker 3: of how things can go and what you want to
Speaker 3: fight for. And then there's the reality of it. Like
Speaker 3: I said, we've seen this over and over and over again,
Speaker 3: and I think you have to temper your desires to
Speaker 3: meet reality in terms of change. And I you know,
Speaker 3: I feel for him because he was in this situation
Speaker 3: that was for him growing up is basically untenable, you know,
Speaker 3: and living under a what was a police state, you know,
Speaker 3: and just fearing for his life and also wanting that,
Speaker 3: you know, that recognition of his own humanity, and that
Speaker 3: was denied, you know, growing up in those in that era,
Speaker 3: and then you know, still gets denied to some today. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And so I feel for him, I really do. And
Speaker 3: especially the kindness of like dropping everyone off where they
Speaker 3: had to go. I know, you guys are like trying
Speaker 3: to get to a business meeting to see a family member.
Speaker 3: You're gonna be just fine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm going to take the plant.
Speaker 3: They should have made him an honorary Canadian.
Speaker 2: Ridiculous take Thank you for asking so thoughtful of you,
Speaker 2: I am so thoughtful. My ridiculous takeaway, Well, it comes
Speaker 2: to me from the show that I really love Black Sales.
Speaker 2: You often hear me watching it in the warm upset, Yeah,
Speaker 2: at headquarters. You know the theme song to that show. Well,
Speaker 2: there's a point late in this series where these are
Speaker 2: pirates trying to like basically fight the whole system of
Speaker 2: the world. They're trying to get free of everything that's
Speaker 2: going on in the early seventeen hundreds, right before basically
Speaker 2: the founding of America. And there are interesting parallels between
Speaker 2: them and the Founding Fathers. But the point that somebody
Speaker 2: makes is, you know, one of the troubles is when
Speaker 2: you try to fight the whole world, is you're going
Speaker 2: up against the whole world. Yeah, and there's so many
Speaker 2: more of them than there are of you. It's a paraphrase,
Speaker 2: but that's essentially the argument, and I think revolutionaries forget that.
Speaker 2: Is you've got to turn the world to your aims
Speaker 2: as opposed to trying to force change on the world.
Speaker 2: Otherwise the world's going to fight back. And because the
Speaker 2: world hates change, world hates change, major loves change, but
Speaker 2: the world of people.
Speaker 3: Do not hate change, and people are defensive.
Speaker 2: Fear it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and when when challenged, it's very rare that someone says, yeah,
Speaker 3: you know what, let me think about that or taken
Speaker 3: into consideration, I might be wrong.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and if you do it violently, they definitely fear it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So there you go. Now you can move for a
Speaker 2: talkback to watch this all down. Of course, I am
Speaker 2: produce a d Can you favor us with a delicious
Speaker 2: talk bag? Oh my god, I love.
Speaker 5: Cheat Hey's Sarin. I wanted to let you know that
Speaker 5: there is another option other than in ball cremation and
Speaker 5: solving your body in half. You can donate your body
Speaker 5: to the University of Tennessee Knoxville's Body Farm, which does exist,
Speaker 5: and it will allow forensic anthropologists students to steady your
Speaker 5: body and your family can can visit your bones after.
Speaker 5: So there's another option for you.
Speaker 2: Wow, in this place, I think a long time ago, I've.
Speaker 3: Seen like a documentary about it. Really it's incredible. Like, so,
Speaker 3: you donate your body and they put your body into
Speaker 3: like a different they have different scenarios. Sure to watch
Speaker 3: decomposition like outside or like shovey in a barrel. Really. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so I can really help forensics exactly so that they
Speaker 3: can track like you know, the like decomposition and and
Speaker 3: all these things. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's so much better than like the Chinese, like
Speaker 2: they take off all your your scanning and they fill
Speaker 2: you up with wax and they pose you in a
Speaker 2: weird way like that Tour of the Bar. I don't
Speaker 2: want to do that, and I definitely don't want to
Speaker 2: do the donor bodies because I don't trust an.
Speaker 3: Organ do You're just gonna have some like snot nosed
Speaker 3: med students poking at your privates. Yeah this, yeah, she's
Speaker 3: that's a good chip off there.
Speaker 2: I'm so down. That's so much better than might cut
Speaker 2: me in half and throw half in the woods.
Speaker 3: I really like I like that.
Speaker 2: Huh, thank you? Yes, well, uh obviously we love your talkbacks.
Speaker 2: These are great. You guys are the best. So please
Speaker 2: go download the iHeart app. You can leave a talk
Speaker 2: back there. We'll play it on there. Maybe'll hear your
Speaker 2: voice here. And also you can go to Ridiculous Crime
Speaker 2: on social media. That's Instagram, Blue sky reach Out. We
Speaker 2: always enjoy that as well. You can go to uh
Speaker 2: our account. We have our website Ridiculous Crime dot com, which,
Speaker 2: by the way, big news Elizabeth. The website was just
Speaker 2: nominated for the best new Mongolian Beef and kim Chia
Speaker 2: Taco in the Bay Area.
Speaker 3: You know, that's one of my favorite things.
Speaker 2: I'm really hoping we win this one. So since we're
Speaker 2: all about tacos here at HQ.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Also, you can go to Ridiculous Crime pod on YouTube.
Speaker 2: Check it out, leave a comment like subscribe, you know,
Speaker 2: tell your friends do all that stuff, and there you go. Oh,
Speaker 2: of course, Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. You can
Speaker 2: send us an email. We love to read those so
Speaker 2: and we love to get your crime recommendations. We've been
Speaker 2: working on a few that we recently came in, the
Speaker 2: really good one. So thank you for those. And so
Speaker 2: there you go. Thank you for listening, and we will
Speaker 2: catch you next crime. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth
Speaker 2: Dutton and Zaren Burnett, produced and edited by the Captain
Speaker 2: of This Cuba bound plane, Captain Dave Kustin, and starring
Speaker 2: Anilie rutger As, who did research. Is by the navigator
Speaker 2: for this seven forty seven of intrigue, Marissa Brown. Our
Speaker 2: theme song is by our in flight house band mister
Speaker 2: Thomas Lee and Senior Travis Dutton. The host wardrobe provided
Speaker 2: by Body five hundred, guest Harry macup by Sparkleshot and
Speaker 2: mister Andre. Executive producers are former head of the FAA
Speaker 2: Ben Bolin and the former President of Bowling Noel Brown.
Speaker 5: Ridicous Crime Say It One More Time Grediquious Crime.
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
Speaker 1: from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.