WEBVTT - 9. Anchorage 0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:09.799 The biggest airport in Alaska is named after a man 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:13.039 who died in a plane crash, a man whose wife 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:16.440 also died in a different plane crash at the airport. 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.560 I'm talking about Senator Ted Stevens, who survived the nineteen 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:24.640 seventy eight crash that killed his first wife, only to 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:28.880 die thirty two years later in another crash. Stephen served 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:31.360 in the U. S. Senate for forty years until two 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:34.000 thousand and eight, when, in the wake of a controversial 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:37.320 corruption trial, he narrowly lost his seat to then Anchorage 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:41.680 Mayor Mark Begat. Begat his father, of course, Congressman Nick Beget, 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:45.360 disappeared on a small plane in Alaska in nineteen seventy two. 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:49.879 So many politicians have died in plane crashes, and there 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:53.400 are so many random coincidences tied to those crashes too. 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:57.720 Take the tiny town of Eveleth, Minnesota, for example. It's 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:00.840 both where Nick Beggitt is from and the spot where 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.120 in two thousand two U S. Senator Paul Wellstone died 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:07.600 in a plane crash right before the midterms. Or take 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:11.280 Check Morrison, the former mayor of New Orleans. Morrison, a 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:14.280 close friend of Congressman Hail Boggs died in a plane 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:17.800 crash in Mexico in nineteen sixty four. At the same time, 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:21.600 Boggs was serving on the Warrant Commission investigating the assassination 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:25.600 of President John F. Kennedy. Morrison actually died six months 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:28.880 to the day after Kennedy. Heck, even Kennedy's son died 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:33.320 in a plane crash in You see what I'm doing. 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:37.080 I'm dropping a load of conspiratorial bricks into your brain. 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:40.160 If you want, you can use them to build up 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:44.119 some crazy narrative of intrigue and murder, or you can 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:48.000 rely on common sense, because people who fly often on 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:51.360 small planes are more likely to die on small planes. 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:56.680 There's no grand conspiracy here, no Illuminati plot cooked up 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:59.960 in the basement of a little Caesar's. Now that doesn't 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:04.320 mean conspiracies never exist. They do. Plots are hatched and 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:07.600 people are killed all the time. And let me ask 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:11.360 you the claims we are investigating, the claims made by 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:15.880 Jerry Paisley, a mobster, a murderer, a bomber, that he 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:18.960 and Peggy Beggitt played a role in the disappearance of 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.760 Congressman Nick Begget. Are they really so crazy that they 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:27.600 didn't warrant a legitimate investigation. I don't think so, because 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:30.120 when you boil it down, when you remove the words 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:34.440 mobster and congressman and bomb, what do you get? You 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:36.720 get a claim made by a man that he played 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:38.840 a role in the death of his second wife's first 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:43.200 husband and that she did too. Typically, that's the type 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:48.800 of claim investigators and reporters take very seriously. Typically, but 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:53.239 in this case they didn't. The FBI never even interviewed Peggy, 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:57.639 not once, and the Alaska news media never reported the story. 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:00.920 It's not hyperbolic then, in my opinion, in to say 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:04.799 that if I didn't ask hard questions, nobody would. That's 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:07.360 why I had to go back to Alaska. There's only 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:09.800 so much you can do from Afar. I needed to 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:13.000 be on the ground, So I was grateful to touch 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:19.040 down on October at Ted Stephens Anchorage International Airport, the 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:27.480 airport named for a man who died in a plane crash. 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:30.400 From my heart, media, this is missing in Alaska, the 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:33.840 story of two congressmen who vanished in nineteen two, and 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:36.400 my quest to figure out what happened to them. I'm 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:47.640 your host, John Wallzac. I want to talk for a 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:52.480 minute about bodies, specifically the importance of recovering physical remains 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:56.320 in the wake of tragedies. No matter how someone dies, 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:59.280 when you lose a loved one, if you lack of body, 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:03.320 you're deny some sense of finality. This is something Hail 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:07.920 Boggs's daughter Cokey Roberts discussed multiple times before she died, 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:11.440 how she knew her dad was dead, but without a body, 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:14.200 she still imagined him just walking in the door. One 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:19.200 day on October nineteen, only twenty four hours before I 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:22.640 landed in Anchorage, a man named Brian Stephen Smith was 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:26.120 arrested at the airport for murder. But it wasn't a 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:29.040 body that led to his arrest. It was a memory card. 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:32.880 On the card, an SD card, which someone found on 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:36.120 a downtown street, were photos and videos of a man 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:39.400 strangling a woman to death and laughing while he did it. 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:43.680 Four days later, while in Anchorage, I awoke to another 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:47.839 violent video, this one streamed to the world from my city, 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:52.160 New Orleans, where a hotel under construction partially collapsed into 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:55.400 the street, spewing up a dust cloud reminiscent of nine 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:59.880 eleven and killing three men. Amazingly, as of this record, 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:03.240 eight months later, the bodies of two of those men 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:06.960 are still stuck in the wreckage. Both of these events, 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:10.640 the SD card murder and the hotel collapse, are tragic. 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:15.720 Both killed people, but in one case a body was recovered. 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:19.640 The remains of Kathleen Joe Henry, the SD card victim, 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:22.520 were found on the side of a highway. In the 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:28.920 other two, families are still waiting to bury their loved ones. Now, 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:33.520 obviously we all grieve differently, but most of us, when 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:36.359 we lose a loved one, want to bury them or 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:41.440 scatter their ashes. We want finality, that moment when dirt 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:44.839 covers a coffin, or we throw ashes into the wind. 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:48.520 At least then we can try to move on. It's 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:54.000 some sense of finality. This sense of finality, any finality, 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:56.800 was cruelly denied to the families of the four men 0:05:56.880 --> 0:06:01.839 whose disappearance we're investigating, the can rassman, the pilot, the 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:07.200 political aid. Their bodies are still out there somewhere. Hail Bogs, 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:13.280 Nick Beggett, Don John's Russ Brown, all had wives, all 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:19.080 had children. Beggage had six kids. I am, of course, 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.200 well aware that this story is making them relive their 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:26.240 father's death. And confront allegations that their mother was involved. 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:31.080 That makes me feel kind of sick. So the idea 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.400 of meeting them in person and interviewing them was not 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:39.839 something I cherished, but I had to try. Before our trip. 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:43.480 I told three of them, Mark, Tom, and Nick Jr. 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:45.960 That I would be an anchorage and asked if we 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.720 could meet the other three their siblings. I left alone. 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:52.960 They were young when their dad died, and I didn't 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:56.680 want to bother them. Nick Jr. Declined an interview request. 0:06:57.240 --> 0:06:59.840 Mark and Tom, however, agreed to sit down with me, 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:03.960 but then Tom started pressing for information, who was funding 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:07.800 the show, etcetera. Stuff like that, which I get. They're 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:12.520 a political family. Good questions. Eventually, Tom and Mark backed 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:15.120 out of the interview and they said their mother, Peggy, 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:19.240 would never do an interview. Tom did, however, agree to 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:25.360 answer questions via email. On the record. I asked about 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:30.280 his mom and Jerry Paisley from Tom quote, my mother 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.320 is eighty one. You have deeply upset her and it 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:36.680 is not our intent to add to her pain. Comparing 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:39.320 her word to that of a convicted killer is like 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:43.640 comparing climate change deniers to the scientific evidence of climate change. 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:48.880 These aren't journalistic equivalences. Those are the values of entertainment 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:55.520 journalism end quote. Again, I understand that my investigation is painful, 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:59.680 but I disagree with Tom. He said, she said, is 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:03.360 not the equivalent of comparing scientific fact to denial of 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:06.600 that fact. And I don't think Paisley's claims should be 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:10.720 written off without an investigation just because he was a criminal, 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:14.480 especially when evidence backed up parts of his story, his 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:18.760 marriage to Peggy, his business dealings, his mob ties, the 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:23.240 murders and bombings he committed, etcetera. I went on to 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:26.080 ask Tom about the state of his parents marriage around 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:29.960 the time his dad disappeared. Now this might seem cruel, 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.720 but it's relevant. Multiple sources told me that Nick and 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:37.240 Peggy Begetts were separated in nineteen seventy two, that they 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:41.400 were on the verge of divorce. If true, that's obviously 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:47.480 Jermaine as we try to evaluate Paisley's claims. Tom denied it, saying, quote, 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:51.480 my parents had difficulty in early nineteen sixty nine, which 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:55.280 they resolved that year. They were not separated. My dad 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:58.559 was in juno for sessions, as was the case every spring, 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:02.480 and even then they worked through it together. I know 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:04.840 that they sat all of us down and walked us 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.040 through it at the time, years before the disappearance, if 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:10.920 that helps. By the end of that year, they were 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:14.400 strong with each other as kids. We saw and knew 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:16.720 that that remained the case for the rest of his life. 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:22.240 End quote. I asked Tom about Paisley's claim that Peggy 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.640 met mob boss Joe Bonano in Tucson in nineteen seventy 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:30.960 two before Nick disappeared. Tom said, quote, I never considered 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.079 the comment about my mom by Jerry in that transcript 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:37.320 to be credible, not only because he was a consistent 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:40.840 liar in my direct experience with him, not only because 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:43.520 I know how she loved and still loves my father, 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:46.920 but because she could not have been there as Jerry claimed. 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:51.240 She was with us kids as our primary caretaker. Dad 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.480 was often traveling or in Juno. My mom was never 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:58.720 in Tucson, Arizona prior to nineteen seventy four. The suppose 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:02.320 dating at the hard of his conjecture never could have happened, 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:05.920 but that is the primary source of your conjecture. Jerry 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:08.760 was a bartender when they met an anchorage in December 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:12.800 nineteen seventy three, after we returned to Anchorage. When she 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:15.960 realized how violent he was, she threw him out to 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:22.400 protect us kids. End quote. Paisley, Tom said, quote continues 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:25.000 to victimize us in death as he did in the 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:29.440 brief time we knew him. End quote and quote. Jerry 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:32.280 was a violent and vicious man who had a skill 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:35.120 at charming a person who was widowed with six kids. 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:38.400 My father never had a will, so she gained little 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:41.880 but heartbreak from his death. When she married Jerry, she 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:45.200 even lost her survivor's benefit. She ended up having to 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:47.960 cook meals and clean houses in the late eighties to 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:51.280 make ends meet. My family is wearied by the things 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:53.720 people like Jerry have said for their moment of fame 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.840 or notoriety. We want nothing more to do with it. 0:10:57.320 --> 0:10:59.960 I wish you weren't doing this story, which will only 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.520 cause hurt and accomplished little but I understand from your 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:09.400 words to me your reasons end quote. Finally, Tom confirmed 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:12.559 that Peggy was never interviewed by law enforcement in regards 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:42.120 to Paisley's claims. After the Beggage has backed out, I 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:46.320 shifted my attention to other sources, including Tom Anderson, the 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:49.360 former head of the Alaska State troopers who I interviewed 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:53.800 in downtown Anchorage at the Alaska Law Enforcement Museum. Anderson 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:56.440 was directly involved in the search for the missing congressman 0:11:56.880 --> 0:12:00.520 in nine two when they disappeared. He was a Captain 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:03.880 in charge of the troopers Criminal Investigation Bureau or c 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:07.000 i B. This is serious business. This was the most 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:10.600 serious search and rescue of this state ever had. And 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:14.080 there was no room for air. And the boss came 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:16.840 down and says, hey, we will follow up on everything 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:22.199 that comes along. Don't discount anything, And it was kind 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:24.160 of a cover your butt thing, but it was also 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:29.280 you never know, so we covered everything. I also met 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:32.560 up with Perry Green, who's famous for two things. His 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:35.760 poker skills, which have won him more than a million dollars, 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:41.479 and his first shop. Green's furs are beautiful, meticulously crafted, 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:45.400 often colorful works of art, purchased over the years by 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:50.079 celebrities like Muhammad Ali. During my research, Green's name came 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:54.240 up often, probably because he knew literally everyone in Anchorage 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:57.880 in the seventies or so it seemed, including Gene Fowler, 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:00.880 one of two men Paisley claimed picked him up when 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:05.600 he allegedly transported a bomb to Alaska and Jean's brother Larry, 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:08.240 who Paisley said they met up with that night. Can 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:11.280 you tell me how you knew Gene and Larry. Well, 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:13.680 Jean was a partner of mine until we had a 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:19.120 parting of the ways. Um. Larry Fowler was his brother 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:24.679 who was just I think he had a pawn shop 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:28.040 at the end. Maybe he had a bar, I can't remember, 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:32.040 but he I know he was thrown to drink a 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:39.839 little bit. But Jeane might have known Jerry Paisley in Arizona, 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:46.280 I think, But just you know, it would be hard 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:51.160 for me to fathom that Gene would be involved anyway 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:57.640 in such a destardly deed. And did you know Jerry Paisley. 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:02.120 I knew Verry Jerry Paisley pretty well, pretty well. He 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:06.400 across the street was a holiday and today they call 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:11.319 it something else. And I knew him. He started there 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:15.559 as a bartender, and he was a friendly enough certainty. 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:20.360 Get off shift and and he would come over here 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:24.240 and sit in a chair and we'd talk a little bit. 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:29.200 And that's how I knew Jerry Green. Also knew Nick 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:44.280 and Peggy Baggage. And what was Peggy like? Moderately intelligent? Uh, 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:47.960 is that a bad way to describe somebody. She's not 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:53.720 an intellect. She was by no means intellectual, but she 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:58.560 wasn't from the hills. I don't want to despair anybody 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:04.000 who might be from uh, apple Chia or some place. 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:12.120 She was an average person. You know some people who 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:17.440 uh in spite of themselves, uh come from poor upbringing, 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:21.400 but they're pretty smart people. They got a lot of moxie. 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:25.240 She did not have what I call maxie, which is 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:30.800 a ability to size people up or two. Um, really 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:38.239 understand that sometimes people have old terrior motives or um, 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:41.400 maybe I'm wrong. Did you know a man named Alex Miller? 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:47.080 Very well? I loved Alex Miller. Everybody everybody loved Alex Miller. 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:50.800 Alex Miller is the man who arranged the missing flight. 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:58.920 Pay attention. He's important. He was bar owner who probably 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:02.800 never went into his own barn, never drank that I 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:07.040 know of, but always had a cigar in his mouth, 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:15.960 who claimed friendships with big Democrats back in the East Coast. 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:22.920 He was never a boaster. He would he would always 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:26.320 get two three. You know at that time, there's a 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:29.560 lot of money to three bucks out of you for 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:33.080 a candidate I don't know whether it went to him 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:37.840 or what. In fact, when the first governor of Alaska 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:41.760 was elected, he had him as the chief of staff. 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:46.000 He knew as much about how to pass legislation as 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:55.560 as I know about plumbing. On October, Miller, a well 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:59.520 connected political operative, called pilot Don John's at the last 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.560 minute to arrange the ill fated flight, something that always 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:08.760 struck me as odd. See. John's was in Fairbanks, sixty 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:12.960 miles north of Anchorage. Why ask a pilot to fly 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:16.359 from Fairbanks to Anchorage to Juno when you could just 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:20.879 call a pilot already in Anchorage. The answer lies with 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:25.280 who paid for the flight? Nobody. It was free, likely 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:29.280 an illegal contribution to beget his campaign, though it's doubtful 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:32.560 Beggett knew that at the time. But why did John's 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:35.639 do it? Two witnesses told me he was having money 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:40.240 issues and Miller twisted his arm. Here's Cheryl James, who 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.320 dated John's and was the last person to see him alive. 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:46.879 He was having financial trouble. He had geared up for 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:51.480 the pipeline and then that what had just been delayed delayed, delayed, 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:53.879 and he was paying insurance on costs on all of 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:57.040 these um I think they were called herks, these large 0:17:57.040 --> 0:17:59.639 aircrafts that could shuttle supplies back and forth to the 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:04.919 North Lope. And he was behind in landing fees and 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:07.720 he was told by somebody out of Juno that if 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:10.920 he did this flight that his landing fees is past 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:18.199 two landing fees would just go away. Which person it 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:20.560 wasn't the governor, but it was somebody right in the 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:24.639 Governor's office, and I cannot remember his name, said Alex 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:29.480 Miller it was. And here's John's friend, Tom cor Mettis, 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:32.880 who was actually with John's when Miller called on October 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:35.920 when he got the call, and you were there? Who 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:40.439 made that call to him? Alex Miller? Don said it 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:47.119 was Alex Miller, And did don disclose what Alex said? 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.760 I only to pick up bogs and baggage and take 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:56.160 him to the airport to Juno. And that's when I said, well, 0:18:57.160 --> 0:18:59.600 And Don did say something about he thought it was 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:01.679 bad either, but he was going to check it out. 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:08.159 And that's that's when he told me that he owed 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:13.840 it back rent on lending fees and the rent on 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:19.399 the hangar space. So why am I focusing on Alex Miller, 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:24.280 who cares who arranged the flight. Well, if Jerry Paisley 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:27.280 told the truth, if someone put a bomb on the 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:30.320 missing plane, that person would have had to know the 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:33.760 details of the flight, and the flight wasn't arranged until 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:38.760 the last minute on October ninety two. Miller is one 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:42.280 of very few people who knew those details. And remember 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:45.920 witnesses allegedly told members of law enforcement that they saw 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:49.240 someone lurking around the plane the night before it disappeared. 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:53.280 I'm also discussing Miller because when I started researching him, 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:58.040 I found red flags. Most importantly, in nineteen seventy six, 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:00.800 at the height of the oil boom, he was indicted 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:04.119 alongside a former U. S attorney for allegedly trying to 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:08.639 set up a large scale prostitution and gambling operation in Alaska. 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:13.640 He was acquitted, but again red flags. This guy, who 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:17.040 the mayor of Fairbanks in nineteen seventy two jokingly called 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:22.240 the Godfather, arranged the missing flight. There's another twist though, 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:25.960 see Miller worked for a man named Neil Burke, a 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:30.000 wealthy businessman and pilot who owned an airline. Burke at 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:34.280 points was the richest man in Alaska. A CIA contractor 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:39.880 and briefly George W. Bush's boss. But I digress. When 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:43.800 we first spoke, Burke told me something surprising. He claimed 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:46.439 that he was supposed to fly the missing congressman to 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:49.880 Juno the day they disappeared, but he got stuck in England, 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:53.359 he said, so he asked Miller to arrange an alternative. 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:56.119 If you were a Republican in the head of the 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:58.960 Young Republicans Club, why were you arranging a flight for 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:05.600 two Democratic congressman And that's my own business. I don't 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:07.480 care who I flew forward as long as we paid 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:12.440 the bill. It was like, that's what I did. But 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:19.320 the flight was unpaid. It was a free flight. Thank 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:24.280 I'm sorry you think, Yeah, no, I it was I 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:26.320 It was reported in the news afterward, and I've I've 0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:31.720 talked a few people. M. Well, then maybe I was billions, 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:38.000 you know, from political reasons, and M yeah, I gave by. 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:43.920 Interestingly enough, later, while discussing his company's work for the CIA, 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:48.480 Burke mentioned a business partner in Arizona, something that immediately 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:51.439 piqued my interest. These guys were out of Tucson or 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:55.240 this company was out of Tucson. Yeah, not too soon. 0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:58.480 There's an air base right between two Sons and Phoenix. 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:03.600 So was you know we're called and uh, anyway, that's 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:06.159 where they've been based. They were based, I don't know. 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:08.760 And this was a company that you worked with or 0:22:08.800 --> 0:22:14.040 the CIA, folks, It was company intermount Intermountain Aviation, But yeah, 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:17.520 they were all CIA. They advanced several airlines. Seven Are 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:22.480 Transport was the CIA operations. But we worked with a 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:25.440 lot of different airlines and things around the world in 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:29.480 those days. And well, answering operations. Do you remember what 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:34.199 year you first did contract work for the CIA? Primary 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:37.960 around seventy one or seventy two when I first you know, 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:40.679 part of the story takes part in Arizona. So I 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:44.240 also asked people, Um, were you in Arizona in the 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:52.760 sixth season? Seventies? No? I mean was that Ondesday? Did 0:22:52.800 --> 0:22:55.720 they ever go to Arizona in those years? Probably? I 0:22:55.800 --> 0:23:00.480 don't know. I traveled constantly, so I felt who he 0:23:00.600 --> 0:23:04.320 was there. But you don't recall you don't recall going 0:23:04.400 --> 0:23:07.840 to Tucson in the late sixties or early seventies. Yeah, 0:23:08.000 --> 0:23:10.240 I did. I went down to the Inner Mountain one time. 0:23:12.640 --> 0:23:15.320 What do you it was? This flying business? I mean 0:23:15.400 --> 0:23:19.600 it wasn't there. I mean, I don't even remember what 0:23:19.680 --> 0:23:24.480 it was for Mozzano or now do you remember when 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:30.480 that was? No, No, I don't. I traveled the world 0:23:30.560 --> 0:23:34.679 for forty years. I mean, you know, I went everywhere. 0:23:35.920 --> 0:23:38.680 At the end of our call, I circled back and 0:23:38.840 --> 0:23:42.040 pressed burked on an important detail. I guess the question 0:23:42.119 --> 0:23:46.000 that I would have is, why call a pilot in 0:23:46.240 --> 0:23:49.520 Fairbanks to go down to Anchorage to go down to Juno? 0:23:49.600 --> 0:23:52.600 Why not just call a pilot an Anchorage directly? It 0:23:52.640 --> 0:23:56.000 seems kind of a long journey when there were so 0:23:56.080 --> 0:24:04.080 many pilots available in Anchorage. Sure, I don't know, I know, 0:24:06.240 --> 0:24:11.960 but why that? I mean, I I had my recollection 0:24:12.040 --> 0:24:15.119 and it was a revenue trip, and probably I was, 0:24:15.560 --> 0:24:17.920 you know, because Don was a friend of mine. I 0:24:18.040 --> 0:24:22.200 was throwing some business this way. But you're telling me 0:24:22.280 --> 0:24:24.720 it was a non revenue trip. So that shows you 0:24:24.840 --> 0:24:28.320 how much I had to remember. Yeah, I know it was. 0:24:29.040 --> 0:24:36.200 It was an unpaid, unpaid trip. Yeah, that's that's just 0:24:37.960 --> 0:24:44.840 that strikes me as strange. Why because I didn't do 0:24:45.000 --> 0:24:48.800 much for me, that was my business was, And then 0:24:48.880 --> 0:24:52.560 why why when I fly unpaid trip for the Democrats? 0:24:53.480 --> 0:24:57.760 I feel while a hitckled around and uh his first 0:24:58.800 --> 0:25:03.200 campaign for governor. But I donated my time, but they 0:25:03.560 --> 0:25:08.960 made them get an airplane and and just listen and 0:25:09.720 --> 0:25:12.800 given away free fights. Wasn't my thing in those days. 0:25:15.000 --> 0:25:17.960 We were in the business to selling the place. But 0:25:18.560 --> 0:25:22.119 you know, you may have better records than I do. 0:25:24.080 --> 0:25:44.119 Where somebody has a better memory than I do. H 0:25:53.440 --> 0:25:56.440 in Anchorage, the person I wanted to interview most was 0:25:56.560 --> 0:26:00.280 danny's Ivenage, one of two men Jerry Paisley claimed him 0:26:00.359 --> 0:26:02.720 up at the airport in the summer of nineteen seventy 0:26:02.760 --> 0:26:07.639 two when Paisley allegedly transported explosives from Arizona to Alaska. 0:26:09.680 --> 0:26:13.159 After Nick Begett disappeared, Zivinach had gone into business with 0:26:13.280 --> 0:26:17.280 Paisley and Peggy Baggage. The trio started Max Inc. Which 0:26:17.359 --> 0:26:21.120 ran a bar the Alaska mining company. Peggy was president, 0:26:21.400 --> 0:26:26.960 Paisley secretary treasurer, Zivinach vice president. Paisley told investigators that 0:26:27.320 --> 0:26:30.240 while drunk on a fishing trip, Zivinach said that the 0:26:30.280 --> 0:26:33.639 Congressman's plane was bombed and that he played a direct 0:26:33.800 --> 0:26:36.879 role in bombing it. I did end up speaking with 0:26:37.000 --> 0:26:41.280 Zivinas several times for hours by phone, but he declined 0:26:41.400 --> 0:26:44.960 to do a recorded interview. Every time we spoke, he 0:26:45.080 --> 0:26:49.119 was defensive and sarcastic, though people who know him repeatedly 0:26:49.200 --> 0:26:53.560 told me he's an upstanding guy. Every time he vehemently 0:26:53.680 --> 0:26:57.240 denied Paisley's claims. But when I asked him why he 0:26:57.359 --> 0:27:01.360 got fifty percent ownership of Max Inc. Why Peggy Begette 0:27:01.400 --> 0:27:04.280 insisted he be a partner in the business, even though 0:27:04.520 --> 0:27:07.800 at the time Peggy had plenty of money and Zivinich, 0:27:07.920 --> 0:27:11.960 a bartender, had no experience managing a bar. He didn't 0:27:12.000 --> 0:27:14.920 have a good answer. In fact, he said he's still 0:27:15.080 --> 0:27:21.159 not sure. So the story of our Alaska trip is 0:27:21.359 --> 0:27:26.160 in part like that of Arizona, one of frustration, interviews, denied, 0:27:26.600 --> 0:27:30.320 dead end leads. That's to be expected to be honest. 0:27:30.680 --> 0:27:32.840 It's not like I thought we'd fly into Anchorage and 0:27:33.000 --> 0:27:36.280 solve everything in a matter of days. When I say we, 0:27:36.680 --> 0:27:39.480 by the way, I'm talking about myself plus three of 0:27:39.520 --> 0:27:44.240 our producers, Ben Bolan, Paul Deckett, and Chris Brown past 0:27:44.359 --> 0:27:48.600 interviews past the bombing claim. The most important reason we 0:27:48.680 --> 0:27:51.080 went to Alaska was to embark on a search for 0:27:51.160 --> 0:27:54.359 the missing plane, and not some fake search because I 0:27:54.480 --> 0:27:59.040 heard interesting stories about certain reality TV shows fabricating searches 0:27:59.080 --> 0:28:04.440 in Alaska. This search was real. In late I received 0:28:04.480 --> 0:28:07.919 an absolutely fascinating tip from a man named Bob Martinson, 0:28:08.320 --> 0:28:13.760 a longtime commercial fisherman and photojournalist. Around nineteen Bob said, 0:28:14.280 --> 0:28:17.480 he and two other men, including his dad, we're fishing 0:28:17.520 --> 0:28:19.920 off the coast of an island in Prince William Sound 0:28:20.200 --> 0:28:24.040 when they pulled up something surprising. Part of Assessina tale. 0:28:24.960 --> 0:28:27.920 Here's Bob. I had a reel in the boat that 0:28:28.000 --> 0:28:31.159 would pull the net in, and I'd step on a 0:28:31.320 --> 0:28:37.560