WEBVTT - 3. The Croat Letter 0:00:02.080 --> 0:00:05.200 Six weeks ago, a light plane carrying House majority leader 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:08.960 of Hail Bobs and Alaskan representative Nick Vegas, disappeared on 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:11.920 a flight in Alaska. Today, the Air Force They're announced 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:25.720 that the search is being called off. On November two, 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:30.240 the largest search in American history ended in failure. Despite 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:34.479 a colossal effort spanning thirty nine days and three thousand 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:38.159 square miles, no sign of the missing plane surfaced, at 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:42.159 least at the time, despite the efforts of Coast Guard cutters, 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:45.760 a top secret spy plane, an elite Army mountain unit, 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:50.959 and hundreds of volunteers. Nothing despite more than a thousand 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:54.360 Air Force sorties, forty seven thousand feet of film covering 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:57.000 a hundred and twenty five thousand square miles of terrain, 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:07.800 and eight possible sightings. Nothing. Despite everything, nothing, Your first 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:12.160 reaction might be, well, it's Alaska, that's not surprising, and 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:15.600 that was mine too, at least initially, But for no 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:19.119 sign of the plane, not one solitary piece to ever 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:23.160 surface was very rare, according to Air Force Major Henry Soccer, 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:28.640 who told reporters that quote, what we're looking for we 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:32.880 locate of the last twere planes to vanish in Alaska 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:42.520 An official said only three had never been found. From 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:45.360 my Heart media, this is missing in Alaska, The story 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:48.960 of two congressmen who vanished in two and my quest 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:51.440 to figure out what happened to them. I'm your host, 0:01:51.560 --> 0:02:03.920 John Wallzac. Two days before the surge ended, Peggy beget 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:08.239 Nick's wife received a sinister cryptic letter pasted together from 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:13.440 scraps of newspaper like an old time ransom note. Your husband, 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:17.560 Mr Beck, an American Croatian Alaska Democratic rep. Has been 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:21.880 assassinated by our organization. He and others aboard will not 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:26.880 be found reason criminally insane nature of his pact with 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:32.840 American Croats separatists. Congressional record e one three five nine 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:39.080 five nine six. Croatian nation doesn't exist, never did. Same 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:43.760 will happen to everybody in destructible engagement against our dear Yugoslavia. 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:48.480 High position in American fascist government will not matter. We 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:53.560 are not in connection with Yugoslav government, organization of Yugoslav Nationalists, 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:59.280 or you nah. The letter arrived in a handwritten no 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:03.200 envelope post smart November twenty and mailed from Detroit. Think 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:06.000 about that for a minute. Someone took the time to 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:09.800 pacete together an anonymous letter from newspaper clippings, then mailed 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:12.960 it in a handwritten envelope. Sure they could have had 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:15.720 someone else mail it, maybe a friend in Detroit, but 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:19.600 the whole thing seemed amateurish, like some kind of bumbling hoax. 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.800 That said, the FBI took it seriously, and for good reason. 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:28.080 Starting in the nineteen sixties, Croatian separatists had waged a 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:32.919 violent international campaign to establish an independent Croatian nation split 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.720 off from socialist Yugoslavia. For two decades, they carried out 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:41.280 a series of high profile hijackings, bombings, and assassinations, including 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:44.520 multiple attacks in nineteen seventy two, the year Beget, who 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:48.840 was of Croatian ancestry, disappeared. Perhaps the most famous occurred 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:52.640 in January nineteen seventy two, when a briefcase bomb planted 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:58.280 by separatists ripped apart a commercial airliner high over Czechoslovakia. Today, 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:00.560 the bombing is best remembered not for the twenty seven 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:02.880 people who died, but for the one who lived, a 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:06.440 flight attendant named Vesna Volkovich, who survived a thirty three 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:10.160 thousand foot fall to the ground. Eight months later, on 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:13.640 September sixteenth, nineteen seventy two, exactly one month of the 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:18.200 day before Nick Beggett vanished, separatists conducted near simultaneous attacks 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:22.240 on two different continents, hijacking in Sweden and bombing in Australia. 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:25.240 That day was a turning point for the movement. According 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.080 to doctor matte Nikola Tokes, the author of a book 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:32.720 called Croatian Radical Separatism and Diaspora Terrorism during the Cold War, 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:36.280 these two events in coordination with one another, actually very 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:40.440 quickly marked I think an important turning point for Chreatian terrorists, 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:44.279 this idea that there are no innocent victims. Before nineteen 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:49.440 September nineteen seventy two, creations were very clear about targeting 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:52.960 either institutions of the state or those they deemed to 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:55.800 be involved in the state. So they were more than 0:04:55.839 --> 0:05:00.480 willing to to target civilians in places like Belgrade Um 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:04.400 Serbian civilians and they're thinking who in any case couldn't 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:08.400 be innocent. But for the first time, non Serbs, non 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:12.680 Yugoslavs were involved in Christian terrorism with the hijacking of 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:16.000 the airplane and then with the bombing on George Street 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:20.320 in in Sydney. Dr Tokis, who conducted extensive research for 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:23.640 his book had access to, among other things, the papers 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:27.000 of certain international spy agencies. I asked him if he 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:30.080 ever came across any mention of Nick Baggett. I've never 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:34.080 come across discussions of him in any security services archives 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:36.800 that I've seen. Clearly, there's a lot of stuff I 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:39.880 was never able to get to, but particularly in Australia Asio, 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:45.239 which belongs to the Five Eyes Agreement, so the United States, Canada, 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:49.920 Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and Baggage never comes up 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:54.000 in any of those documents. Beggage had no known ties 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:57.320 as separatists, though he did speak to the American Croatian 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:02.240 Academic Club of Cleveland, Ohio into nine, but that speech 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:05.760 was benign. Not everyone advocating for an independent Croatian state 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:08.520 was violent. The only reason I'm even mentioning it is 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:11.039 because it's what you'll find referenced in the exact part 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.919 of the Congressional record cited in the letter claiming Baggage 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:17.320 had been assassinated, which, by the way, how many hoaxters 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:21.040 cite the Congressional record That letter had been signed by 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:23.760 a right wing fascist group called or You naw The 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:28.360 organization of Yugoslav nationalists. The only problem by the time 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:31.640 Beggatt vanished or you not have been defunct for forty 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:35.520 three years. Dr Tolke, it's for one, despite deep digging, 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:38.680 never found a single reference to any group claiming to 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:42.800 be or Youna between nine and now until I emailed him. 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:45.480 Do you think that the most likely explanation is that 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:50.760 this letter was in fact not sent by pro Yugoslav individuals, 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:55.960 that by the Croasian separatists. That to me would be 0:06:55.960 --> 0:07:00.480 the most likely UM explanation, right, it's it's the way 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:08.200 of exploiting this tragedy to force FBI attention away from 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:13.840 krots towards other groups right to to you know, because 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:19.640 the resources for combating these organizations was quite small, I 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:23.080 mean they were very limited, certainly in the beginning. And 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.120 the idea is if if the FBI is spending its 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:31.920 time chasing shadows or chasing organizations that don't exist, all 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:37.360 the better that they're not chasing pro separatist movements UM. 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:41.080 And I can very easily see the thinking on the 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:43.720 part of this letter writer is saying like, look, you know, 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:48.240 there aren't so many people UM engaged in these questions 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:51.680 in the FBI, and if they are occupied otherwise, not 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:53.800 with us, but with something that they'll never even be 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:58.320 able to find, than less time for them to deal 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:04.160 with us. And this letter strikes me most likely as 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:08.880 serving that purpose, and serve that purpose it did. The 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:13.200 FBI conducted investigations in eight cities, even interviewing Baggage his 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:16.280 parents in Minnesota, but it found no proof of any 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:20.240 plot to murder the congressman. Curiously, though, the Bureau did 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:24.080 recover too latent fingerprints from the handwritten envelope. I'm not 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:27.200 sure whether or not those fingerprints still exist, believe me, 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:29.920 I looked, But if they do, tucked away in a 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:32.679 file somewhere, it would be fascinating to run them through 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:35.200 a modern database to see if any matches pop up. 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:06.199 In late December, the missing men were declared dead. Hail 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:09.480 Boggs of Louisiana, who was lost last year in an 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:12.760 aeroplane over Alaska, was a man who belonged to the 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:15.920 House of Representatives as much as any member in this century. 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:19.040 Boggs was Majority leader when he was lost. In Today, 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:22.800 many of his congressional colleagues, along with Vice President Agnew 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:25.880 and former President Lyndon Johnson, were in New Orleans for 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:31.680 a memorial service. Fred Briggs was there. The memorial service 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:34.600 was held at St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter. 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.160 It was open to the public, friends, political and personal, 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.680 and that takes in a considerable number of people. The 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:44.600 late Hail Boggs with a Southern Democrat. In his thirty 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:47.760 two years of service in Congress, he bucked many regional trends. 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:50.679 He became an outspoken civil rights advocate. In the mid 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:53.599 nineteen six piece, he called for the resignation of j. 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:56.920 Edgar Hoover, and he even criticized the oil the police 0:09:56.920 --> 0:09:59.600 in the lawrence, which is not a necessarily popular thing 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:02.760 to do when an oil stake went Louisiana. Yet throughout 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:05.480 all this he remained immensely popular in his home state 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:08.480 and with his colleagues in Washington. They were here today 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:16.239 to pay their last respects. If Hail Boggs the individual 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:26.240 cast a giant shadow, so did his nearly three decades 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:34.920 of distinguished service in the House of Representatives. He loved 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:43.640 the House, where the esteem, respect and love in which 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:48.679 he was held by all members, regardless of political persuasion, 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:54.679 have never been surpassed in the history of that great institution. 0:10:56.360 --> 0:11:03.720 He loved his colleagues, he loved his friends, he loved 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:13.440 his family, he loved people, he loved his country, love all. 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:20.520 He loves his God. Three days later, in Alaska, hundreds 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:23.040 gathered at East Anchorage High School to pay tribute to 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:32.000 Nick Baggage. Sunday, January seven has been proclaimed Nick Baggage 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:39.480 Memorial Tribute Day. The voice of Governor William Egan, we 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:43.600 are going to miss our friend who contributed so much 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:49.480 to the well being of all Alaska during his time 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:57.760 with us, distinguished visitors, and makes me love of family. 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:03.840 There's something about this great land of ours that attracts men. 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:11.959 Perhaps it is a land it's awesome and even terrifying beauty, 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:17.120 the richness of its vast wilderness, the bounty of its 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:23.960 forests and streams. Perhaps it is the opportunity the fabled 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:27.880 El Dorado, the adventure land we learned about as boys, 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:34.240 in which part of us will always pursue. Perhaps it 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:39.120 is a challenge of life in a society that is 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:43.160 still in the making of existence, in the land where 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:48.000 natural always have the upper hand, for the small tasks 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:51.760 of survival must compete with the great decisions of the day. 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:59.400 Perhaps it is the people. Whatever the reasons, many come, 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:06.960 but as all of us know, very few stay. The 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:10.439 challenge of Alaska exceed the strength of all but a few. 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:18.560 Good Man Nick Baggage was one who stayed, for he 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:24.800 was one of us and Alaska and for all and 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:29.120 anything that means he is with hers still. That was 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:35.480 Email Naughty, a prominent Democratic activists and Alaska native. One 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:38.640 week after the memorial, Naughty and dozens of others gathered 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:40.800 at a convention to choose a candidate to run in 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:43.800 a special election called to fill the state's vacant health seat. 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:48.720 Three people saw the nomination Naughty, State Senator Chancy Croft 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:52.000 and Peggy Baggage. Thanks, Oh, we are now about to 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:54.600 set aside as much of our sorrow as our hearts 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:57.520 still allowed, and to undertake the process of selecting a 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:01.679 succestance to the last of the US seat. As both 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:05.280 a candidate and as Nick's widows, I recognized my own 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:09.000 responsibility to indicate the time for setting the side memories 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:14.120 and undertaking that process. That time is now, and I 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:17.920 expect that Alaskans will react with the same resilience and 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:22.760 hard work that always surfaces of difficult times. During the 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:25.960 past two weeks. I have traveled throughout the state and 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:29.920 spoken with countless alostoms. I've spoken with many of you, 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:34.360 and with friends in Washington. Do seem although the events 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:36.960 of the past few days have prevented my speaking to you, 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:40.720 I wanted to call this meeting today to renew our discussion, 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:44.800 to give you the open opportunity to question me, and 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:47.240 to say with as much force as I am able. 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:51.400 I am a candidate, and I doubt that many of 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:55.320 you will ever see a more resolute or committed candidates. 0:14:56.560 --> 0:15:00.520 Competition at the convention was civil but fierce. At one point, 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:03.480 Peggy claimed an important committee had been rigged against her 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:07.040 when she placed third in an initial vote, She decided 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:10.240 to throw her support to Naughty, who then won. Imor Nati, 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:12.920 president of the Alaska Native Foundation and chairman of the 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:15.800 party that nominated him, a thirty nine year old Native 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:19.000 born of Athabaskan and the Italian heritage in the river 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:22.480 village of Payattunk, now the first Alaska Native ever nominated 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:31.560 to run for Congress, Larry Carpenter broadcast Center News. Naught 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:34.560 East triumph was short lived, though a month later he 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:38.040 narrowly lost the special election to Republican Don Young, a 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:41.400 riverboat captain from fort Yukon, Alaska, who had been defeated 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.400 by Nick Beggett's the previous November. Even though Beggetts was 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:48.440 missing and presumed at at the time amazingly, Young, now 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:52.160 eighty six, still serves in Congress. I spoke with him 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:55.760 by phone in late and so, Congressman, you're the Dean 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:59.160 of the House, the longest serving Republican congressman in American history, 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:02.200 one of the ten longest serving congressman of any party 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:05.400 in history. Often referred to as alaska As third Senator. 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:08.440 But you hold another distinction, one of the only people 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:11.960 to lose a Congressional race to a dead man. Uh. 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:13.960 Do you think you would be in Congress today if 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:18.080 Nick Beggatts had lived? That's the question I can't answer. 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:20.320 A chance to be, you know, because remember I were 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:22.640 from fort Yukon, I was setting up to run and 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:26.200 seventy four. Uh, but you know who knows what the 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:29.240 votes November? It was a Democrat state. We had that 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:32.120 Bill Egan was with. The governor was a Demot the 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:37.560 Democratic legislative body. These were good Democrats, by the way. Uh. So, Uh, 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:40.920 you know who knows, uh, you know, he beat me, 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:44.160 but I was able to come through the general election. 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:48.960 Around the same time Beggatt's vanished, Young himself had narrowly 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:52.360 avoided a deadly crash, something all too common in Alaska. 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:55.680 I got on an airplane once eighty five with my 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:59.640 wife and myself and the pilot, and we lived. And 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:04.639 it was terrible and we got quite a way as 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:07.320 an icing condition said, and we started pulling ice in 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:11.679 and I'm playing co pilot, and the pilots said, we've 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:13.320 got to go down. And I said, you're right, And 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:17.000 I thought, ugly, you can't see anything wings or iceing up, 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:19.040 and you started down. We started down, sort of a 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:22.800 gradual approach, and we finally broke out out of the 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.480 icing conditions, and where you can see, we had followed 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:28.080 the contour of one of those mountains that comes out 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:31.080 of the graph down into the area. And that's that's 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:33.680 what God was taking care of me, because we've been 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:37.480 two hundred feet or two to two hundred yards uh 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:42.240 in a different angle, we would not be here today. 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:47.600 Young's victory in the nineteen seventy three special election had 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:51.600 a major, long lasting impact on Alaska politics. Many people 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:54.320 in the state Democrats at least wonder what would have 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:56.800 happened if Nick Beggett's had lived and Young had never 0:17:56.840 --> 0:18:02.320 been elected. Sierra Beggett Slade, nick granddaughter is one. Had 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:05.040 he lived, UM, and if this never happened, I think 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:08.720 that Alaska and our politics would have gone in a 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:11.720 much different direction. I think the fact that Don Young 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:15.440 has been in his position for so long UM has 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:17.400 taken us down a different path. And I think that 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:20.320 if my grandfather we're still here today, and if he 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:22.960 would have been able to live that full life, things 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:25.240 would have been different. And right now we're you know, 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:28.240 we're in a recession as a state and things are 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:30.920 looking pretty grim, and maybe that wouldn't be the case 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:32.960 if you were still here. Even though you never met 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:37.119 your grandfather. Do you feel a sense of loss? I do, UM, 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:39.640 just because I feel like we would have had things 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:43.280 in common. And I don't necessarily feel that with too 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:46.320 many relatives, UM, But just from what I know about him, 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:49.560 it seems that he he had such a genuine heart. 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:52.600 Did you ever hear any personal stories about your grandfather 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:57.879 that you can share, any anecdotes? Nothing? Honestly, growing up, 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:02.480 we didn't talk much about what happened the disappearance about 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:05.920 my grandfather in general, I don't know much about him 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:09.280 other than what I've heard from the community. So yeah, 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:12.160 hearing the details of that, hopefully through this podcast, will 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:15.520 be pretty interesting. And how do you think that the 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:18.200 loss of your grandfather affected the family as a whole. 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:22.000 It's hard to say, because we really didn't talk much 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:24.240 about it. I don't know. I think that it would 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:27.680 be a different situation if he were still here. Imagining 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:31.600 his children, I think that they had a hard time 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:34.240 with his loss obviously. I think that it has affected 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:39.240 generations to come as far as emotional stability. But there 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:41.080 is a positive light to it too. And I think 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:44.160 that a lot of his kids have been so involved 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:46.800 in politics because they felt like they needed to because 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:50.720 he missed out on the opportunity to really finish that out. Um. 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:52.320 So I think it's driven a lot of us to 0:19:53.000 --> 0:20:01.240 pursue more in his name. Down in Asiana. That same 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:04.440 sense of civic engagement persisted in the Boggs family too. 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:08.800 In nineteen seventy three, like Peggy Baggage, Lynda Boggs sought 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:11.800 the Democratic nomination to run in a special election to 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:15.800 fill her husband's empty seat. Mrs Lynda Boggs, wide of 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:19.520 the late Louisiana Congressman, won the Democratic nomination to succeed him. 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:21.680 She got three times as many votes as are four 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:25.320 competitors altogether, and Mrs Boggs will face Republican Robert E. 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:29.679 Lee in a general election on March. Lindy went on 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:32.879 to crush Lee by thirty two thousand votes, making history. 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:36.280 Is the first woman elected to Congress from Louisiana. She 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:39.120 would serve nine terms in the House and later as 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:43.439 the US Ambassador to the Vatican. She died at the 0:20:43.480 --> 0:21:12.640 age of so up to this point, I've spent most 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.400 of my time talking about the Congressman, but there were 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:18.960 two other men who disappeared too. One was Baggage Aid 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:23.240 Russ Brown, a Nebraska native who studied anthropology and chemistry 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:27.440 before moving to Ketchikan, Alaska, seven where he met his wife, 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:30.040 Penny and became a stepfather to her kids from a 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:34.480 previous marriage in nineteen seventy two, only three months before 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:37.280 he vanished. Russ and Penny had a daughter of their own, 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:42.000 Marine Nicole. Other than that, I don't know much about him. 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:52.760 My attempts to contact his family were unsuccessful. I saved 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:55.800 Don John's the pilot, for last, because he's a very 0:21:55.840 --> 0:21:58.840 important character in this story, the man many blame for 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:04.000 the planes disappearing. John's was an extremely experienced, incompetent pilot. 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:07.000 By the time he vanished, he had accumulated more than 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:11.280 seventeen thousand hours of flight time. No pilot last seventeen 0:22:11.359 --> 0:22:14.920 thousand hours flying small planes and brutal conditions in the 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:19.680 Alaska interior unless they're talented. If you're wondering about his name, yes, 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:24.399 John's j O. N Z was originally Jones. He changed 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:26.800 it to John's because there was already a pilot in 0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:31.040 Fairbanks named Don Jones, and he wanted something unique. John's 0:22:31.080 --> 0:22:34.240 was a blonde, blue eyed ladies man, an army veteran 0:22:34.280 --> 0:22:37.240 of the Korean War, and a self styled intellectual with 0:22:37.280 --> 0:22:40.320 a rise sense of humor and a daredevil streak. He 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:44.440 did have it a masculine quality to him very much, 0:22:44.480 --> 0:22:50.040 so he wasn't a very very attractive person. Effectually had 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:53.480 a bit of a hook knows, but he certainly had 0:22:53.480 --> 0:22:56.520 a lot of Christmas and charm and was attractive enough. 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:01.120 That's Mike Gravel, a former U. S Senator represented Alaska 0:23:01.240 --> 0:23:04.800 from nineteen sixty nine to one. He knew and often 0:23:04.920 --> 0:23:09.680 flew with John's. He had flown near around repeatedly. Uh 0:23:09.720 --> 0:23:13.280 and was you know, was active with political figures in 0:23:13.359 --> 0:23:18.640 the state, helping them get around. Uh and uh and 0:23:18.720 --> 0:23:22.720 so that's as much as I can recall about him. 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:25.119 He was a very very nice guy and a very 0:23:25.160 --> 0:23:31.359 competent pilot. Johnson was also a bibliophile who in nineteen 0:23:31.359 --> 0:23:34.800 fifty six, after moving to Fairbanks, joined the Flying Poets, 0:23:35.040 --> 0:23:37.280 a group of pilots who flew around the state sharing 0:23:37.320 --> 0:23:41.040 poetry with school kids in remote villages. Around that time, 0:23:41.119 --> 0:23:44.840 he also got married, then soon after divorced. In the 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:47.760 late fifties, he traveled to the UK, where he tried 0:23:47.800 --> 0:23:51.280 several times to swim twenty one miles across the English Channel. 0:23:51.840 --> 0:23:55.879 He was unsuccessful. Deflated and in need of money, he 0:23:55.960 --> 0:23:59.000 shuffled around Europe for a while, working for a series 0:23:59.040 --> 0:24:02.040 of airlines and looting one in Luxembourg. That's where he 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:05.679 met his second wife, Willie. He was an extroverted person. 0:24:05.800 --> 0:24:10.640 He liked to be around people. He also liked periods 0:24:10.760 --> 0:24:14.480 where he could be alone. You know. He used to 0:24:14.520 --> 0:24:19.600 write a lot, but you know, I didn't keep any 0:24:19.680 --> 0:24:24.520 of of the writings. Did he keep a journal or diary? Yeah? 0:24:24.560 --> 0:24:28.159 He did. You don't still have that to you know? 0:24:28.280 --> 0:24:31.359 I don't. Do you know if your son does? By chance? 0:24:32.320 --> 0:24:33.919 Do you know if your son still has it or 0:24:33.960 --> 0:24:37.240 do it? Was it lost? That was lost? And I 0:24:37.320 --> 0:24:40.960 think that was just just throw in a way after 0:24:41.080 --> 0:24:45.480 he disappeared. As a journalist, you're not supposed to get 0:24:45.480 --> 0:24:48.959 attached to sources. You're supposed to be cold and objective. 0:24:49.520 --> 0:24:51.920 But I've never really believed that. I think you can 0:24:51.920 --> 0:24:54.880 be fair and tell the truth without morphing into an emotional, 0:24:54.960 --> 0:24:59.199 less automated scribe. Journalists have opinions, and to admit that 0:24:59.240 --> 0:25:02.040 doesn't mean every thing we do is fake news. It 0:25:02.080 --> 0:25:05.520 means we're human, so I'll admit it. I like Willie 0:25:05.640 --> 0:25:08.760 a lot. She reminds me of my grandma. They're actually 0:25:08.760 --> 0:25:11.960 the same age, and like my grandma, she's an immigrant 0:25:12.000 --> 0:25:15.560 with fascinating stories. Willie told me not only of Alaska, 0:25:15.880 --> 0:25:18.399 but about watching Nazis marched down her street when they 0:25:18.400 --> 0:25:21.760 invaded Holland in nineteen. By the end of World War Two, 0:25:21.840 --> 0:25:25.080 she said her family was so hungry they ate tulip bulbs. 0:25:26.040 --> 0:25:29.120 Willie and Donn had one child, a son, Aaron, who 0:25:29.160 --> 0:25:32.639 was only ten when Don vanished. Don's death had a 0:25:32.640 --> 0:25:36.200 horrible impact on him. Willie said, he's got his own 0:25:36.600 --> 0:25:42.080 problems and uh, trying to keep his head of earth water. 0:25:42.880 --> 0:25:48.680 And he's he's a lot like his dad in a way. Um, 0:25:48.840 --> 0:25:51.560 she's a good She had just fifty on his shold. 0:25:51.680 --> 0:25:58.560 But he's a good you know, um morally, and he'll 0:25:58.600 --> 0:26:02.000 give anybody to share him is back but saying Tobe, 0:26:02.080 --> 0:26:07.600 and he has always had a hard time living in society. 0:26:08.240 --> 0:26:11.640 He just doesn't take any ship of anybody. Has put 0:26:11.680 --> 0:26:14.800 it thataway, you know, So why used him a hard time? 0:26:15.040 --> 0:26:22.080 He hasn't cower and h they don't like that. But 0:26:22.840 --> 0:26:25.240 that's the same thing Mrs Dad, you know, and Dad 0:26:25.280 --> 0:26:29.800 just tell them where to put it. I first interviewed 0:26:29.800 --> 0:26:33.959 Willie by phone, then visited her at her home in Colorado, 0:26:34.080 --> 0:26:37.240 where we spoke for several hours. In the aftermath of 0:26:37.280 --> 0:26:40.920 Don's disappearance, she said, not only did officials refuse to 0:26:40.920 --> 0:26:44.520 share information with her, likely because she was Don's ex wife, 0:26:44.680 --> 0:26:46.959 even though she was still the mother of his only child, 0:26:47.359 --> 0:26:50.639 but most people also blamed Don for the disappearance itself. 0:26:51.440 --> 0:26:54.240 They still do. There are a few reasons for this. 0:26:55.280 --> 0:26:59.280 First and foremost, in October ninety two, the month he vanished, 0:26:59.640 --> 0:27:03.400 Don had authored a controversial article for Flying Magazine titled 0:27:03.440 --> 0:27:07.480 Ice without Fear. In it, he wrote quote, playing with 0:27:07.560 --> 0:27:10.680 ice is like playing with the devil. Fun but don't 0:27:10.680 --> 0:27:14.760 play unless you can cheat. Willie said he was being sarcastic, 0:27:14.880 --> 0:27:18.680 that people didn't get his humor. He took risks, she said, 0:27:18.960 --> 0:27:21.359 but only when he was flying alone, not when he 0:27:21.400 --> 0:27:26.080 had passengers. Read the article closely beyond the sensational quotes, 0:27:26.400 --> 0:27:29.639 and you'll see that, yes, Don was arrogant, but he 0:27:29.720 --> 0:27:33.720 also recognized ice to be a formidable, powerful enemy. The 0:27:33.800 --> 0:27:36.960 weight of ice is not what debilitates, he wrote, It's 0:27:37.000 --> 0:27:41.040 the shape. Twenty strategically placed pounds of ice will sink 0:27:41.080 --> 0:27:45.119 a good light Twin the day he disappeared, he flew 0:27:45.160 --> 0:27:53.080 a light twin assessment three tennessee. There are at least 0:27:53.080 --> 0:27:56.959 two other things that cast shade on Don too. First, 0:27:57.080 --> 0:28:00.000