Speaker 1: The biggest airport in Alaska is named after a man
Speaker 1: who died in a plane crash, a man whose wife
Speaker 1: also died in a different plane crash at the airport.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about Senator Ted Stevens, who survived the nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy eight crash that killed his first wife, only to
Speaker 1: die thirty two years later in another crash. Stephen served
Speaker 1: in the U. S. Senate for forty years until two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight, when, in the wake of a controversial
Speaker 1: corruption trial, he narrowly lost his seat to then Anchorage
Speaker 1: Mayor Mark Begat. Begat his father, of course, Congressman Nick Beget,
Speaker 1: disappeared on a small plane in Alaska in nineteen seventy two.
Speaker 1: So many politicians have died in plane crashes, and there
Speaker 1: are so many random coincidences tied to those crashes too.
Speaker 1: Take the tiny town of Eveleth, Minnesota, for example. It's
Speaker 1: both where Nick Beggitt is from and the spot where
Speaker 1: in two thousand two U S. Senator Paul Wellstone died
Speaker 1: in a plane crash right before the midterms. Or take
Speaker 1: Check Morrison, the former mayor of New Orleans. Morrison, a
Speaker 1: close friend of Congressman Hail Boggs died in a plane
Speaker 1: crash in Mexico in nineteen sixty four. At the same time,
Speaker 1: Boggs was serving on the Warrant Commission investigating the assassination
Speaker 1: of President John F. Kennedy. Morrison actually died six months
Speaker 1: to the day after Kennedy. Heck, even Kennedy's son died
Speaker 1: in a plane crash in You see what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: I'm dropping a load of conspiratorial bricks into your brain.
Speaker 1: If you want, you can use them to build up
Speaker 1: some crazy narrative of intrigue and murder, or you can
Speaker 1: rely on common sense, because people who fly often on
Speaker 1: small planes are more likely to die on small planes.
Speaker 1: There's no grand conspiracy here, no Illuminati plot cooked up
Speaker 1: in the basement of a little Caesar's. Now that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean conspiracies never exist. They do. Plots are hatched and
Speaker 1: people are killed all the time. And let me ask
Speaker 1: you the claims we are investigating, the claims made by
Speaker 1: Jerry Paisley, a mobster, a murderer, a bomber, that he
Speaker 1: and Peggy Beggitt played a role in the disappearance of
Speaker 1: Congressman Nick Begget. Are they really so crazy that they
Speaker 1: didn't warrant a legitimate investigation. I don't think so, because
Speaker 1: when you boil it down, when you remove the words
Speaker 1: mobster and congressman and bomb, what do you get? You
Speaker 1: get a claim made by a man that he played
Speaker 1: a role in the death of his second wife's first
Speaker 1: husband and that she did too. Typically, that's the type
Speaker 1: of claim investigators and reporters take very seriously. Typically, but
Speaker 1: in this case they didn't. The FBI never even interviewed Peggy,
Speaker 1: not once, and the Alaska news media never reported the story.
Speaker 1: It's not hyperbolic then, in my opinion, in to say
Speaker 1: that if I didn't ask hard questions, nobody would. That's
Speaker 1: why I had to go back to Alaska. There's only
Speaker 1: so much you can do from Afar. I needed to
Speaker 1: be on the ground, So I was grateful to touch
Speaker 1: down on October at Ted Stephens Anchorage International Airport, the
Speaker 1: airport named for a man who died in a plane crash.
Speaker 1: From my heart, media, this is missing in Alaska, the
Speaker 1: story of two congressmen who vanished in nineteen two, and
Speaker 1: my quest to figure out what happened to them. I'm
Speaker 1: your host, John Wallzac. I want to talk for a
Speaker 1: minute about bodies, specifically the importance of recovering physical remains
Speaker 1: in the wake of tragedies. No matter how someone dies,
Speaker 1: when you lose a loved one, if you lack of body,
Speaker 1: you're deny some sense of finality. This is something Hail
Speaker 1: Boggs's daughter Cokey Roberts discussed multiple times before she died,
Speaker 1: how she knew her dad was dead, but without a body,
Speaker 1: she still imagined him just walking in the door. One
Speaker 1: day on October nineteen, only twenty four hours before I
Speaker 1: landed in Anchorage, a man named Brian Stephen Smith was
Speaker 1: arrested at the airport for murder. But it wasn't a
Speaker 1: body that led to his arrest. It was a memory card.
Speaker 1: On the card, an SD card, which someone found on
Speaker 1: a downtown street, were photos and videos of a man
Speaker 1: strangling a woman to death and laughing while he did it.
Speaker 1: Four days later, while in Anchorage, I awoke to another
Speaker 1: violent video, this one streamed to the world from my city,
Speaker 1: New Orleans, where a hotel under construction partially collapsed into
Speaker 1: the street, spewing up a dust cloud reminiscent of nine
Speaker 1: eleven and killing three men. Amazingly, as of this record,
Speaker 1: eight months later, the bodies of two of those men
Speaker 1: are still stuck in the wreckage. Both of these events,
Speaker 1: the SD card murder and the hotel collapse, are tragic.
Speaker 1: Both killed people, but in one case a body was recovered.
Speaker 1: The remains of Kathleen Joe Henry, the SD card victim,
Speaker 1: were found on the side of a highway. In the
Speaker 1: other two, families are still waiting to bury their loved ones. Now,
Speaker 1: obviously we all grieve differently, but most of us, when
Speaker 1: we lose a loved one, want to bury them or
Speaker 1: scatter their ashes. We want finality, that moment when dirt
Speaker 1: covers a coffin, or we throw ashes into the wind.
Speaker 1: At least then we can try to move on. It's
Speaker 1: some sense of finality. This sense of finality, any finality,
Speaker 1: was cruelly denied to the families of the four men
Speaker 1: whose disappearance we're investigating, the can rassman, the pilot, the
Speaker 1: political aid. Their bodies are still out there somewhere. Hail Bogs,
Speaker 1: Nick Beggett, Don John's Russ Brown, all had wives, all
Speaker 1: had children. Beggage had six kids. I am, of course,
Speaker 1: well aware that this story is making them relive their
Speaker 1: father's death. And confront allegations that their mother was involved.
Speaker 1: That makes me feel kind of sick. So the idea
Speaker 1: of meeting them in person and interviewing them was not
Speaker 1: something I cherished, but I had to try. Before our trip.
Speaker 1: I told three of them, Mark, Tom, and Nick Jr.
Speaker 1: That I would be an anchorage and asked if we
Speaker 1: could meet the other three their siblings. I left alone.
Speaker 1: They were young when their dad died, and I didn't
Speaker 1: want to bother them. Nick Jr. Declined an interview request.
Speaker 1: Mark and Tom, however, agreed to sit down with me,
Speaker 1: but then Tom started pressing for information, who was funding
Speaker 1: the show, etcetera. Stuff like that, which I get. They're
Speaker 1: a political family. Good questions. Eventually, Tom and Mark backed
Speaker 1: out of the interview and they said their mother, Peggy,
Speaker 1: would never do an interview. Tom did, however, agree to
Speaker 1: answer questions via email. On the record. I asked about
Speaker 1: his mom and Jerry Paisley from Tom quote, my mother
Speaker 1: is eighty one. You have deeply upset her and it
Speaker 1: is not our intent to add to her pain. Comparing
Speaker 1: her word to that of a convicted killer is like
Speaker 1: comparing climate change deniers to the scientific evidence of climate change.
Speaker 1: These aren't journalistic equivalences. Those are the values of entertainment
Speaker 1: journalism end quote. Again, I understand that my investigation is painful,
Speaker 1: but I disagree with Tom. He said, she said, is
Speaker 1: not the equivalent of comparing scientific fact to denial of
Speaker 1: that fact. And I don't think Paisley's claims should be
Speaker 1: written off without an investigation just because he was a criminal,
Speaker 1: especially when evidence backed up parts of his story, his
Speaker 1: marriage to Peggy, his business dealings, his mob ties, the
Speaker 1: murders and bombings he committed, etcetera. I went on to
Speaker 1: ask Tom about the state of his parents marriage around
Speaker 1: the time his dad disappeared. Now this might seem cruel,
Speaker 1: but it's relevant. Multiple sources told me that Nick and
Speaker 1: Peggy Begetts were separated in nineteen seventy two, that they
Speaker 1: were on the verge of divorce. If true, that's obviously
Speaker 1: Jermaine as we try to evaluate Paisley's claims. Tom denied it, saying, quote,
Speaker 1: my parents had difficulty in early nineteen sixty nine, which
Speaker 1: they resolved that year. They were not separated. My dad
Speaker 1: was in juno for sessions, as was the case every spring,
Speaker 1: and even then they worked through it together. I know
Speaker 1: that they sat all of us down and walked us
Speaker 1: through it at the time, years before the disappearance, if
Speaker 1: that helps. By the end of that year, they were
Speaker 1: strong with each other as kids. We saw and knew
Speaker 1: that that remained the case for the rest of his life.
Speaker 1: End quote. I asked Tom about Paisley's claim that Peggy
Speaker 1: met mob boss Joe Bonano in Tucson in nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: two before Nick disappeared. Tom said, quote, I never considered
Speaker 1: the comment about my mom by Jerry in that transcript
Speaker 1: to be credible, not only because he was a consistent
Speaker 1: liar in my direct experience with him, not only because
Speaker 1: I know how she loved and still loves my father,
Speaker 1: but because she could not have been there as Jerry claimed.
Speaker 1: She was with us kids as our primary caretaker. Dad
Speaker 1: was often traveling or in Juno. My mom was never
Speaker 1: in Tucson, Arizona prior to nineteen seventy four. The suppose
Speaker 1: dating at the hard of his conjecture never could have happened,
Speaker 1: but that is the primary source of your conjecture. Jerry
Speaker 1: was a bartender when they met an anchorage in December
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three, after we returned to Anchorage. When she
Speaker 1: realized how violent he was, she threw him out to
Speaker 1: protect us kids. End quote. Paisley, Tom said, quote continues
Speaker 1: to victimize us in death as he did in the
Speaker 1: brief time we knew him. End quote and quote. Jerry
Speaker 1: was a violent and vicious man who had a skill
Speaker 1: at charming a person who was widowed with six kids.
Speaker 1: My father never had a will, so she gained little
Speaker 1: but heartbreak from his death. When she married Jerry, she
Speaker 1: even lost her survivor's benefit. She ended up having to
Speaker 1: cook meals and clean houses in the late eighties to
Speaker 1: make ends meet. My family is wearied by the things
Speaker 1: people like Jerry have said for their moment of fame
Speaker 1: or notoriety. We want nothing more to do with it.
Speaker 1: I wish you weren't doing this story, which will only
Speaker 1: cause hurt and accomplished little but I understand from your
Speaker 1: words to me your reasons end quote. Finally, Tom confirmed
Speaker 1: that Peggy was never interviewed by law enforcement in regards
Speaker 1: to Paisley's claims. After the Beggage has backed out, I
Speaker 1: shifted my attention to other sources, including Tom Anderson, the
Speaker 1: former head of the Alaska State troopers who I interviewed
Speaker 1: in downtown Anchorage at the Alaska Law Enforcement Museum. Anderson
Speaker 1: was directly involved in the search for the missing congressman
Speaker 1: in nine two when they disappeared. He was a Captain
Speaker 1: in charge of the troopers Criminal Investigation Bureau or c
Speaker 1: i B. This is serious business. This was the most
Speaker 1: serious search and rescue of this state ever had. And
Speaker 1: there was no room for air. And the boss came
Speaker 1: down and says, hey, we will follow up on everything
Speaker 1: that comes along. Don't discount anything, And it was kind
Speaker 1: of a cover your butt thing, but it was also
Speaker 1: you never know, so we covered everything. I also met
Speaker 1: up with Perry Green, who's famous for two things. His
Speaker 1: poker skills, which have won him more than a million dollars,
Speaker 1: and his first shop. Green's furs are beautiful, meticulously crafted,
Speaker 1: often colorful works of art, purchased over the years by
Speaker 1: celebrities like Muhammad Ali. During my research, Green's name came
Speaker 1: up often, probably because he knew literally everyone in Anchorage
Speaker 1: in the seventies or so it seemed, including Gene Fowler,
Speaker 1: one of two men Paisley claimed picked him up when
Speaker 1: he allegedly transported a bomb to Alaska and Jean's brother Larry,
Speaker 1: who Paisley said they met up with that night. Can
Speaker 1: you tell me how you knew Gene and Larry. Well,
Speaker 1: Jean was a partner of mine until we had a
Speaker 1: parting of the ways. Um. Larry Fowler was his brother
Speaker 1: who was just I think he had a pawn shop
Speaker 1: at the end. Maybe he had a bar, I can't remember,
Speaker 1: but he I know he was thrown to drink a
Speaker 1: little bit. But Jeane might have known Jerry Paisley in Arizona,
Speaker 1: I think, But just you know, it would be hard
Speaker 1: for me to fathom that Gene would be involved anyway
Speaker 1: in such a destardly deed. And did you know Jerry Paisley.
Speaker 1: I knew Verry Jerry Paisley pretty well, pretty well. He
Speaker 1: across the street was a holiday and today they call
Speaker 1: it something else. And I knew him. He started there
Speaker 1: as a bartender, and he was a friendly enough certainty.
Speaker 1: Get off shift and and he would come over here
Speaker 1: and sit in a chair and we'd talk a little bit.
Speaker 1: And that's how I knew Jerry Green. Also knew Nick
Speaker 1: and Peggy Baggage. And what was Peggy like? Moderately intelligent? Uh,
Speaker 1: is that a bad way to describe somebody. She's not
Speaker 1: an intellect. She was by no means intellectual, but she
Speaker 1: wasn't from the hills. I don't want to despair anybody
Speaker 1: who might be from uh, apple Chia or some place.
Speaker 1: She was an average person. You know some people who
Speaker 1: uh in spite of themselves, uh come from poor upbringing,
Speaker 1: but they're pretty smart people. They got a lot of moxie.
Speaker 1: She did not have what I call maxie, which is
Speaker 1: a ability to size people up or two. Um, really
Speaker 1: understand that sometimes people have old terrior motives or um,
Speaker 1: maybe I'm wrong. Did you know a man named Alex Miller?
Speaker 1: Very well? I loved Alex Miller. Everybody everybody loved Alex Miller.
Speaker 1: Alex Miller is the man who arranged the missing flight.
Speaker 1: Pay attention. He's important. He was bar owner who probably
Speaker 1: never went into his own barn, never drank that I
Speaker 1: know of, but always had a cigar in his mouth,
Speaker 1: who claimed friendships with big Democrats back in the East Coast.
Speaker 1: He was never a boaster. He would he would always
Speaker 1: get two three. You know at that time, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of money to three bucks out of you for
Speaker 1: a candidate I don't know whether it went to him
Speaker 1: or what. In fact, when the first governor of Alaska
Speaker 1: was elected, he had him as the chief of staff.
Speaker 1: He knew as much about how to pass legislation as
Speaker 1: as I know about plumbing. On October, Miller, a well
Speaker 1: connected political operative, called pilot Don John's at the last
Speaker 1: minute to arrange the ill fated flight, something that always
Speaker 1: struck me as odd. See. John's was in Fairbanks, sixty
Speaker 1: miles north of Anchorage. Why ask a pilot to fly
Speaker 1: from Fairbanks to Anchorage to Juno when you could just
Speaker 1: call a pilot already in Anchorage. The answer lies with
Speaker 1: who paid for the flight? Nobody. It was free, likely
Speaker 1: an illegal contribution to beget his campaign, though it's doubtful
Speaker 1: Beggett knew that at the time. But why did John's
Speaker 1: do it? Two witnesses told me he was having money
Speaker 1: issues and Miller twisted his arm. Here's Cheryl James, who
Speaker 1: dated John's and was the last person to see him alive.
Speaker 1: He was having financial trouble. He had geared up for
Speaker 1: the pipeline and then that what had just been delayed delayed, delayed,
Speaker 1: and he was paying insurance on costs on all of
Speaker 1: these um I think they were called herks, these large
Speaker 1: aircrafts that could shuttle supplies back and forth to the
Speaker 1: North Lope. And he was behind in landing fees and
Speaker 1: he was told by somebody out of Juno that if
Speaker 1: he did this flight that his landing fees is past
Speaker 1: two landing fees would just go away. Which person it
Speaker 1: wasn't the governor, but it was somebody right in the
Speaker 1: Governor's office, and I cannot remember his name, said Alex
Speaker 1: Miller it was. And here's John's friend, Tom cor Mettis,
Speaker 1: who was actually with John's when Miller called on October
Speaker 1: when he got the call, and you were there? Who
Speaker 1: made that call to him? Alex Miller? Don said it
Speaker 1: was Alex Miller, And did don disclose what Alex said?
Speaker 1: I only to pick up bogs and baggage and take
Speaker 1: him to the airport to Juno. And that's when I said, well,
Speaker 1: And Don did say something about he thought it was
Speaker 1: bad either, but he was going to check it out.
Speaker 1: And that's that's when he told me that he owed
Speaker 1: it back rent on lending fees and the rent on
Speaker 1: the hangar space. So why am I focusing on Alex Miller,
Speaker 1: who cares who arranged the flight. Well, if Jerry Paisley
Speaker 1: told the truth, if someone put a bomb on the
Speaker 1: missing plane, that person would have had to know the
Speaker 1: details of the flight, and the flight wasn't arranged until
Speaker 1: the last minute on October ninety two. Miller is one
Speaker 1: of very few people who knew those details. And remember
Speaker 1: witnesses allegedly told members of law enforcement that they saw
Speaker 1: someone lurking around the plane the night before it disappeared.
Speaker 1: I'm also discussing Miller because when I started researching him,
Speaker 1: I found red flags. Most importantly, in nineteen seventy six,
Speaker 1: at the height of the oil boom, he was indicted
Speaker 1: alongside a former U. S attorney for allegedly trying to
Speaker 1: set up a large scale prostitution and gambling operation in Alaska.
Speaker 1: He was acquitted, but again red flags. This guy, who
Speaker 1: the mayor of Fairbanks in nineteen seventy two jokingly called
Speaker 1: the Godfather, arranged the missing flight. There's another twist though,
Speaker 1: see Miller worked for a man named Neil Burke, a
Speaker 1: wealthy businessman and pilot who owned an airline. Burke at
Speaker 1: points was the richest man in Alaska. A CIA contractor
Speaker 1: and briefly George W. Bush's boss. But I digress. When
Speaker 1: we first spoke, Burke told me something surprising. He claimed
Speaker 1: that he was supposed to fly the missing congressman to
Speaker 1: Juno the day they disappeared, but he got stuck in England,
Speaker 1: he said, so he asked Miller to arrange an alternative.
Speaker 1: If you were a Republican in the head of the
Speaker 1: Young Republicans Club, why were you arranging a flight for
Speaker 1: two Democratic congressman And that's my own business. I don't
Speaker 1: care who I flew forward as long as we paid
Speaker 1: the bill. It was like, that's what I did. But
Speaker 1: the flight was unpaid. It was a free flight. Thank
Speaker 1: I'm sorry you think, Yeah, no, I it was I
Speaker 1: It was reported in the news afterward, and I've I've
Speaker 1: talked a few people. M. Well, then maybe I was billions,
Speaker 1: you know, from political reasons, and M yeah, I gave by.
Speaker 1: Interestingly enough, later, while discussing his company's work for the CIA,
Speaker 1: Burke mentioned a business partner in Arizona, something that immediately
Speaker 1: piqued my interest. These guys were out of Tucson or
Speaker 1: this company was out of Tucson. Yeah, not too soon.
Speaker 1: There's an air base right between two Sons and Phoenix.
Speaker 1: So was you know we're called and uh, anyway, that's
Speaker 1: where they've been based. They were based, I don't know.
Speaker 1: And this was a company that you worked with or
Speaker 1: the CIA, folks, It was company intermount Intermountain Aviation, But yeah,
Speaker 1: they were all CIA. They advanced several airlines. Seven Are
Speaker 1: Transport was the CIA operations. But we worked with a
Speaker 1: lot of different airlines and things around the world in
Speaker 1: those days. And well, answering operations. Do you remember what
Speaker 1: year you first did contract work for the CIA? Primary
Speaker 1: around seventy one or seventy two when I first you know,
Speaker 1: part of the story takes part in Arizona. So I
Speaker 1: also asked people, Um, were you in Arizona in the
Speaker 1: sixth season? Seventies? No? I mean was that Ondesday? Did
Speaker 1: they ever go to Arizona in those years? Probably? I
Speaker 1: don't know. I traveled constantly, so I felt who he
Speaker 1: was there. But you don't recall you don't recall going
Speaker 1: to Tucson in the late sixties or early seventies. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I did. I went down to the Inner Mountain one time.
Speaker 1: What do you it was? This flying business? I mean
Speaker 1: it wasn't there. I mean, I don't even remember what
Speaker 1: it was for Mozzano or now do you remember when
Speaker 1: that was? No, No, I don't. I traveled the world
Speaker 1: for forty years. I mean, you know, I went everywhere.
Speaker 1: At the end of our call, I circled back and
Speaker 1: pressed burked on an important detail. I guess the question
Speaker 1: that I would have is, why call a pilot in
Speaker 1: Fairbanks to go down to Anchorage to go down to Juno?
Speaker 1: Why not just call a pilot an Anchorage directly? It
Speaker 1: seems kind of a long journey when there were so
Speaker 1: many pilots available in Anchorage. Sure, I don't know, I know,
Speaker 1: but why that? I mean, I I had my recollection
Speaker 1: and it was a revenue trip, and probably I was,
Speaker 1: you know, because Don was a friend of mine. I
Speaker 1: was throwing some business this way. But you're telling me
Speaker 1: it was a non revenue trip. So that shows you
Speaker 1: how much I had to remember. Yeah, I know it was.
Speaker 1: It was an unpaid, unpaid trip. Yeah, that's that's just
Speaker 1: that strikes me as strange. Why because I didn't do
Speaker 1: much for me, that was my business was, And then
Speaker 1: why why when I fly unpaid trip for the Democrats?
Speaker 1: I feel while a hitckled around and uh his first
Speaker 1: campaign for governor. But I donated my time, but they
Speaker 1: made them get an airplane and and just listen and
Speaker 1: given away free fights. Wasn't my thing in those days.
Speaker 1: We were in the business to selling the place. But
Speaker 1: you know, you may have better records than I do.
Speaker 1: Where somebody has a better memory than I do. H
Speaker 1: in Anchorage, the person I wanted to interview most was
Speaker 1: danny's Ivenage, one of two men Jerry Paisley claimed him
Speaker 1: up at the airport in the summer of nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: two when Paisley allegedly transported explosives from Arizona to Alaska.
Speaker 1: After Nick Begett disappeared, Zivinach had gone into business with
Speaker 1: Paisley and Peggy Baggage. The trio started Max Inc. Which
Speaker 1: ran a bar the Alaska mining company. Peggy was president,
Speaker 1: Paisley secretary treasurer, Zivinach vice president. Paisley told investigators that
Speaker 1: while drunk on a fishing trip, Zivinach said that the
Speaker 1: Congressman's plane was bombed and that he played a direct
Speaker 1: role in bombing it. I did end up speaking with
Speaker 1: Zivinas several times for hours by phone, but he declined
Speaker 1: to do a recorded interview. Every time we spoke, he
Speaker 1: was defensive and sarcastic, though people who know him repeatedly
Speaker 1: told me he's an upstanding guy. Every time he vehemently
Speaker 1: denied Paisley's claims. But when I asked him why he
Speaker 1: got fifty percent ownership of Max Inc. Why Peggy Begette
Speaker 1: insisted he be a partner in the business, even though
Speaker 1: at the time Peggy had plenty of money and Zivinich,
Speaker 1: a bartender, had no experience managing a bar. He didn't
Speaker 1: have a good answer. In fact, he said he's still
Speaker 1: not sure. So the story of our Alaska trip is
Speaker 1: in part like that of Arizona, one of frustration, interviews, denied,
Speaker 1: dead end leads. That's to be expected to be honest.
Speaker 1: It's not like I thought we'd fly into Anchorage and
Speaker 1: solve everything in a matter of days. When I say we,
Speaker 1: by the way, I'm talking about myself plus three of
Speaker 1: our producers, Ben Bolan, Paul Deckett, and Chris Brown past
Speaker 1: interviews past the bombing claim. The most important reason we
Speaker 1: went to Alaska was to embark on a search for
Speaker 1: the missing plane, and not some fake search because I
Speaker 1: heard interesting stories about certain reality TV shows fabricating searches
Speaker 1: in Alaska. This search was real. In late I received
Speaker 1: an absolutely fascinating tip from a man named Bob Martinson,
Speaker 1: a longtime commercial fisherman and photojournalist. Around nineteen Bob said,
Speaker 1: he and two other men, including his dad, we're fishing
Speaker 1: off the coast of an island in Prince William Sound
Speaker 1: when they pulled up something surprising. Part of Assessina tale.
Speaker 1: Here's Bob. I had a reel in the boat that
Speaker 1: would pull the net in, and I'd step on a
Speaker 1: card to upgrade the hydraulic valve and it would It
Speaker 1: would just bring the net in. And when I came
Speaker 1: to weeds or sticks or fish or whatever in the net,
Speaker 1: you just take your foot off the pedal and pick
Speaker 1: it out of the net. Well, something big and loud
Speaker 1: and italic punked into the bow of the skiff, and
Speaker 1: I saw, what the heck is that? To look over
Speaker 1: and see the tail of an airplane was pretty shocking
Speaker 1: to say the least. But you know, I didn't want
Speaker 1: to drop it because of all the tangled metal it was.
Speaker 1: It was fairly fresh looking tears, you know, but like
Speaker 1: I said, that aluminum was shiny and it didn't have
Speaker 1: things growing on it. Bob found the tail wreckage in
Speaker 1: port off the coast of Hinchinbrook Island, at the entrance
Speaker 1: of Prince William Sound. It came up in the lead
Speaker 1: of his pers sing a type of net. And it
Speaker 1: was when I was fishing with my dad and a
Speaker 1: guy named Holi Risa, and we fished port ches quite often,
Speaker 1: and we didn't usually fish this one beach, but we
Speaker 1: tried it because we saw some fish over there and
Speaker 1: and we lay a lead off for the beach, which
Speaker 1: is a heavy white net that the fish will see
Speaker 1: and it takes them out to where the the person
Speaker 1: can operate without hanging up on rocks, and so it
Speaker 1: leads the fish off for the beach. And when I
Speaker 1: picked up the lead, it had a tail of what
Speaker 1: looked like assessina. It was. It was pretty shredded, you know.
Speaker 1: Obviously the rest of the plane was gone, so what
Speaker 1: I caught in the net was it was probably all
Speaker 1: that we remained on that beach. Amazingly, most of the
Speaker 1: tail number was still visible. I know it's been a
Speaker 1: long time, but would you feel comfortable saying that it
Speaker 1: was at least four characters. Yeah, it was. It was
Speaker 1: like four or five numbers, and the tail was, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, four and a half. The piece I had
Speaker 1: was like four and a half ft five ft long
Speaker 1: and maybe three four ft tall. It was pretty much
Speaker 1: the whole upper section of the tail. And can you
Speaker 1: tell me um more detailed you mentioned port? Do you
Speaker 1: remember exactly specifically where around tension book you caught it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It was the western shore of of Poor Edges, just
Speaker 1: outside of the entrance to Constantine Harbor. And how how
Speaker 1: far off the shore? How how deep into the water? Oh,
Speaker 1: it was probably um maybe a hundred and fifty ft
Speaker 1: off shore and maybe tep something like that. Bob remembers
Speaker 1: the tail as being reddish and white. The color of
Speaker 1: the missing plane was described on paper as orange and white,
Speaker 1: but I'm not sure which shade of orange. Bob also
Speaker 1: told me that he's shade blind, so the reddish color
Speaker 1: he remembers could have been more of an orange. You know,
Speaker 1: I had asked you a few years ago if you
Speaker 1: had any photos you by chance have a chance to
Speaker 1: look or do you know if you have any photos
Speaker 1: of the tailpiece? No, I don't think I do. We
Speaker 1: were we were fishing. It's possible I could have taken him,
Speaker 1: but then it would have been on film. And I
Speaker 1: don't remember seeing pictures of it. And can you tell
Speaker 1: me what kind of you were talking a little bit
Speaker 1: about the condition, what kind of condition was in in Well,
Speaker 1: the tail looked like necessarily new plane, like it didn't
Speaker 1: have anything growing on it. I don't remember. It looks
Speaker 1: pretty shiny, but it was shredded, you know, like like
Speaker 1: it was torn off, and it was it was just
Speaker 1: the upright section of the tail, you know, the top piece.
Speaker 1: Bob said that he, his dad, and their fishing partner
Speaker 1: only Resa, reported the wreckage, including the partially visible tail number,
Speaker 1: to the Alaska State Trooper's office in Cordova, a town
Speaker 1: on Prince William Sound. He doesn't remember exactly how, whether
Speaker 1: they radio did in or reported it once they got back.
Speaker 1: He's also fuzzy on what they did with the actual wreckage.
Speaker 1: He doesn't recall whether or not they left it in
Speaker 1: the water, brought it to Cordova themselves, or sent it
Speaker 1: back on a tender, a small boat that resupplied them
Speaker 1: during their fishing trip. I know we reported it, and
Speaker 1: I know we heard that it was suspicious because of
Speaker 1: the numbers and the coloring, and so it seems like
Speaker 1: they they wanted that piece. And I can't remember what
Speaker 1: we in with it. You know, we were in the
Speaker 1: middle of fishing, so there's not a lot of room
Speaker 1: on the boat, so I don't know if we kept it,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, something like that's pretty important, So
Speaker 1: I doubt I threw it out until they said it
Speaker 1: wasn't important or something. And I don't remember if anybody
Speaker 1: came and collected it or it was a long time ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but they specifically told you that it might be tied
Speaker 1: to the missing Bog's baggage plane. Yes, yeah, that's the
Speaker 1: only reason I I was aware of it. You know,
Speaker 1: what Bob does clearly remember is that after the troopers
Speaker 1: got the partial tail number, they were very interested in
Speaker 1: the wreckage. So let me dig in here and review
Speaker 1: a few things. First, Bob is reliable. I wouldn't take
Speaker 1: a lead from some random person this seriously, without vetting them.
Speaker 1: I checked his background. People in Cordova know him. He
Speaker 1: is a longtime fisherman and photographer. He's calm. He hasn't
Speaker 1: sought out media attention ever, He only contacted me in
Speaker 1: after reading about my work because I specifically mentioned Hinchinbrook Island,
Speaker 1: the island off which he found the tailpiece. Sadly, the
Speaker 1: two men with Bob that day, his dad and Oli Reza,
Speaker 1: who could have corroborated his story, have died. But in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen I spoke with Only's son, Steve, a physician
Speaker 1: in Washington State, who said Bob is reliable and honest.
Speaker 1: Steve used to fish in Alaska with Bob, Bob's dad
Speaker 1: and his dad. He stopped right before he went to
Speaker 1: med school in nineteen seventy nine. Since he wasn't there
Speaker 1: when the other men pulled up the tail piece, they
Speaker 1: must have founded around nineteen eighty or later, he said,
Speaker 1: which matches up with what Bob told me. I also
Speaker 1: compared everything Bob said in with what he told me
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen. His story was consistent, So I believe Bob.
Speaker 1: I believe that he found part of a plane. The
Speaker 1: question is whether or not it was part of the
Speaker 1: missing plane. Second, the location where Bob found the tailpiece
Speaker 1: is very interesting. Nearly every person I interviewed believes the
Speaker 1: missing plane crashed into Prince William Sound somewhere between Portage
Speaker 1: Pass and Hension Brook Island. See there was a communication
Speaker 1: station on Nsion Book that the pilot Don John's should
Speaker 1: have been able to use to make radio contact while
Speaker 1: over the sound, but the day he vanished, he didn't.
Speaker 1: Now there are multiple possible explanations for this. His radio
Speaker 1: could have failed, he might have been flying low, somewhat
Speaker 1: off course and unable to make line of sight contact.
Speaker 1: But the likeliest explanation is that he crashed somewhere between
Speaker 1: Portage Pass and Hension Brook into Prince William Sound. So
Speaker 1: the spot where Bob found the cessenon tail right off
Speaker 1: Hension Brook lines up roughly with the missing planes flight path. Third.
Speaker 1: While a number of planes have crashed on or near
Speaker 1: Hensin Brook, most were recovered or their craft sites were cataloged.
Speaker 1: There are only so many Sessna like planes that disappeared
Speaker 1: in the vicinity of Hension Brook before nineteen eighty and
Speaker 1: were never found. Unfortunately, I can't give you an exact number.
Speaker 1: The database of crashes hosted by the NTSB is clunky, incomplete,
Speaker 1: and hard to parse. If somehow we were able to
Speaker 1: get this figure, to know that say, ten Cessna like
Speaker 1: planes vanished within twenty miles of hension book before nineteen eighty.
Speaker 1: It would help immensely. We would be able to better
Speaker 1: judge the odds of whether or not the tailpiece Bob
Speaker 1: found belonged to the baggage Bogg's plane. Fourth, the color
Speaker 1: of what Bob found roughly matches the color of the
Speaker 1: missing plane. He remembers it as being reddish and white.
Speaker 1: The missing plane, again was orange and white, but Bob
Speaker 1: is aid blind, so there's some ambiguity. One key piece
Speaker 1: of documentation that would be invaluable right now is a
Speaker 1: photo of the missing plane, which Don John's repainted around
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy when he bought it. But I've never been
Speaker 1: able to find one, and I asked everyone. So here's
Speaker 1: the next best thing. A description of the plane and
Speaker 1: its coloration from the mechanic who worked on it the
Speaker 1: day before it disappeared. Here's Phil hewith. I can't remember
Speaker 1: what the name of the color was. That it was
Speaker 1: fairly bright, it was almost it was I'm going to
Speaker 1: call the international orange color and white and the orange
Speaker 1: was on the top portion of the aircraft, and it
Speaker 1: was it was I don't remember it being striped. I
Speaker 1: remember where the orange was. It was a solid color,
Speaker 1: but the whole airplane wasn't orange. It was orange and white.
Speaker 1: It was a two tone. And you know it's just
Speaker 1: multi engine Cessna three Tennessee. And what the tail numbers?
Speaker 1: Do you remember where the tail number was painted on
Speaker 1: the plane? Yeah? It was if I remember correctly, it
Speaker 1: was on the tail, you know, on the upright the rudder.
Speaker 1: It wasn't visible from the air looking down on it.
Speaker 1: Would it have been um painted at the top or
Speaker 1: bottom of the tail a small or large characters? I
Speaker 1: think it was in the middle of the rudder tail
Speaker 1: and it was the fond size was to fit the
Speaker 1: basically the whole middle of that tail rudder. It wasn't
Speaker 1: overly big and it wasn't overly small. All they had
Speaker 1: so many numbers and letters to get into that space
Speaker 1: that that's where it was. And so when you say
Speaker 1: the middle, it was kind of like, I'm I know
Speaker 1: what the plane looks like. So if I'm looking at
Speaker 1: the tail, it would kind of just be a dead
Speaker 1: set in the middle and going across the tail horrid, Yeah,
Speaker 1: horizontally across. It wasn't it askew or anything like that.
Speaker 1: It would just horizontally down out midway of that Dale rutter.
Speaker 1: And was the tail um also to tone? Was it
Speaker 1: also orange and white? Uh? I don't remember that. If
Speaker 1: it was, it might have been fifth, And most importantly,
Speaker 1: Bob said that four or five characters were still visible
Speaker 1: on the tailpiece. The Beggetts Bob tail number had six
Speaker 1: characters N one eight one to h. The end doesn't
Speaker 1: mean much. It's generic and on most small planes in
Speaker 1: the US. But if Bob found a tailpiece that said
Speaker 1: N one eight one or N one eight one two,
Speaker 1: that would be extremely significant. The odds of Assessina tail
Speaker 1: with four or five of the same characters as that
Speaker 1: of the missing plane with a similar color found off
Speaker 1: Hinchinbrook Island not being the baggage Bogg's plane are next
Speaker 1: to zero. This is why I think Bob's lead is
Speaker 1: the most important lead on where the plane may have
Speaker 1: crashed in nearly fifty years. According to Bob, troopers and
Speaker 1: Cordova were very excited when they learned about the Cessina tail.
Speaker 1: They thought it could be part of the baggage Bogg's plane.
Speaker 1: A key question I had for Bob. Did the troopers
Speaker 1: say that before they learned the partial tail number or after,
Speaker 1: because if before, it's not surprising that they would have
Speaker 1: linked it possibly to a famous missing plane. But if after,
Speaker 1: if they still thought it was part of the missing plane,
Speaker 1: that's very important because they almost certainly would have known
Speaker 1: the tail number of the missing plane, and they would
Speaker 1: have compared it to what Bob found. Bob said, the
Speaker 1: troopers told him they thought it was part of the
Speaker 1: baggage Bog's plane after they compared the tail numbers. This
Speaker 1: is why I was so excited that day a month
Speaker 1: earlier in Arizona, when Bob texted me the exact coordinates
Speaker 1: of where he found the tail. And this is why,
Speaker 1: as winter loomed, I boarded a salvage boat and went
Speaker 1: onto Prince Williams Sound to hintin Brook Island to that
Speaker 1: exact spot next time on missing in Alaska. We have
Speaker 1: a radio, We have air horn and flares, so Tin
Speaker 1: if you see a bear coming tardsas yeah. This week,
Speaker 1: I have two very important task for you. First, look
Speaker 1: for a photo of the missing plane and orange and
Speaker 1: white twin engine Cessna three tense with the tail number
Speaker 1: and one eight one to h Second, help us figure
Speaker 1: out how many small planes crashed on or in the
Speaker 1: vicinity of hensin Brook Island before nineteen eight, especially if
Speaker 1: wreckage was never located. We'd love to speak with an
Speaker 1: expert who can sort through NTSB data and give us
Speaker 1: an exact number. You can reach us by phone at
Speaker 1: one eight three three m I A tips that's one
Speaker 1: eight three three six four two eight four seven seven
Speaker 1: again one eight three three six four two eight four
Speaker 1: seven seven, or you can reach us via email at
Speaker 1: tips at I heeart media dot com. That's tips, T
Speaker 1: I P s at I heart media dot com. Ben
Speaker 1: Bowen is our executive producer, Paul is our supervising producer,
Speaker 1: Chris Brown is our assistant producer, Seth Nicholas Johnson is
Speaker 1: our producer. Sam T. Garden is our research assistant, and
Speaker 1: I'm your host and executive producer, John Wallzac. You can
Speaker 1: find me on Twitter at at John Wallzac j O
Speaker 1: n W A l c z A K special thanks
Speaker 1: to Bob Martinson. Missing in Alaska is a co production
Speaker 1: of I heart Media and Green Fork Media