Details & Documentation

[Tony Frank]

Seventeen Members of Congress died from unnatural causes from 1957 to 1991.

Why don't you theorists explain these details and sources, starting with the death of Warren Commission member Hale Boggs?

On October 16, 1972, a light plane carrying Congressman Hale Boggs and Congressman Nick Begich disappeared in the mountainous Alaska wilderness while Boggs was making a campaign appearance for Begich, Alaska’s Representative-at-large.

The pilot, Don Jonz, “once had been grounded by the FAA for several violations” but was “re-accredited.” (Washington Post, 10-19-72, pg.1)

“Campaign workers” caused Boggs to miss a “commercial flight.”

They “let him sleep a few extra hours, passing up a commercial flight to Juneau and chartering the plane flown by Jonz, owner of Pan-Alaska Airways . . . Ironically, it was a campaign trip Begich and Boggs probably did not have to make. Begich polled 37,900 votes to 16,500 for his two Republican opponents in the August Alaska primary election. Most political observers believe he would have no trouble in his re-election bid.” (Washington Post, 10-20-72, pg.1)

Since their disappearance while on a plane that they weren’t supposed to be on, during a trip that they didn’t have to make, with a pilot who was once grounded by the FAA for several violations, Hale Boggs and Nick Begich have been “presumed dead.”

Fifty-three days after Boggs and Begich were killed, there was another flying fatality.

Congressman George W. Collins was returning to Chicago from Washington “to make a speech,” on December 8, 1972. He was on board United Air Lines Flight 553, which was “descending near 71st Pl and Lawndale Ave when it plunged to the ground, smashed through a row of one-story houses and burst into flames . . . The FAA control tower in Aurora, Illinois, said that its transmissions indicated that there were no ‘irregularities’ reported in the plane’s approach to Midway Airport.” (New York Times, 12-9-72, pg.1)

On February 14, 1975, Congressman Jerry L. Pettis died when a private plane he was piloting crashed. (New York Times, 2-15-75, pg.32)

The NTSB said the 58-year-old Pettis “was a veteran pilot with 18,250 hours of flying time, including 700 in the type of small plane he was flying at the time of the crash,” and the NTSB “listed the probable cause of the crash as Pettis’ continued flight into adverse weather conditions. It said Pettis had been adequately briefed on the weather before his flight.” (Washington Post, 9-13-75, pg.10)

On August 3, 1976, Missouri Congressman Jerry L. Litton, “who was winning the Democratic nomination for the US Senate,” died when his plane “plummeted into a field shortly after taking off. He and his family were on their way to Kansas City for a victory celebration.”

The NTSB “said its investigation showed a broken crankshaft in the left engine caused the engine to fail on take-off.” (Washington Post, 8-11-76, pg.15)

After Congressmen Boggs, Begich, Collins, Pettis, and Litton were all killed in airplane “accidents” in less than four years, there was a thirteen-year lull in plane crashes. The next plane to go down with a Member of Congress on board didn’t crash. The Congressman who died was on board a plane that was shot down by a Soviet fighter jet.

Congressman Lawrence McDonald died on September 1, 1983, when a Soviet fighter jet shot down the commercial flight he was on, Flight “Double-O-Seven.” The pilot had taken it hundreds of miles off course and it was shot down near a Soviet island off of Siberia. (New York Times, 9-2-83, pg.1)

“Korean Air Lines officials in New York contended that the airliner could not have strayed off course into Soviet airspace because of what they called ‘sophisticated’ navigational equipment on board.”

“‘Since we skirt this area here very closely,’ said Ralph Strafaci, the district sales manager, ‘the equipment we have on board is very important and very technical. It’s a very difficult thing for that aircraft to stray.’”

Secretary of State George Schultz “said the Soviet fighter that fired the missile was ‘in constant contact with its ground control’ and flew ‘close enough for a visual inspection.’”

Japanese military intelligence was monitoring communications “between the Soviet fighter and its ground station just before the airliner’s disappearance:”

“Take aim at the target.”

“Aim taken.”

“Fire.”

“Fired.”

The pilot of Flight 007 “accidentally” ran low on fuel and had to take the “shortcut” through Soviet airspace.

The thirteen-year lull in plane crashes ended on August 7, 1989, when Congressman Mickey Leland’s plane crashed in Ethiopia. Ground and air patrols searched for six days before the plane was found on August 13, 1989, on a “mountainside” in a “remote region of Western Ethiopia.” (New York Times, 8-14-89, pg.1)

Congressman Leland’s plane crash was the first of the four plane crashes that killed Members of Congressin less than two years during the Administration of George H. W. Bush.

On August 13, 1989, six days after Congressman Leland’s death, Congressman Larkin Smith died when the Cessna he was on board crashed.

Officials investigating the crash said that the pilot “appeared nervous and even ran the aircraft off the taxiway shortly before take off . . . The Cessna 177 later veered east from its planned flight path before hitting a 70-foot pine tree in the Desoto National Forest.”

Jorge Prellezo, the regional director of the NTSB, stated that people who saw the pilot before takeoff “said he appeared nervous, like he was concerned about the flight.”

“He taxied straight out off the ramp area onto the grass” and then “made a 180-degree turn and taxied slowly out to the runway. The taxiways are lit up with blue lights and what happened struck us as being highly unusual.” according to William Dowden, an employee of Southeast Aviation who watched the plane “both during and after takeoff.”

Mr. Prellezo “said investigators ‘also wanted to know why the pilot told controllers that he would follow the established route along US 49 but instead flew about nine miles to the east over the Desoto National Forest.’” (New York Times, 8-17-89, section II, pg.10)

Senator John Heinz was killed in a plane crash on April 4, 1991, when a helicopter crashed into the plane he was on, a Piper Aerostar PA60.

The helicopter was inspecting the plane’s landing gear, ostensibly because the pilot didn’t know if the “nose gear” was “locked” in the down position, but on April 24, 1991, it was reported that the plane “did not have landing gear problems, as its pilot first believed, and was cleared for landing before it collided with a helicopter, according to an airport communications tape.”

When the control tower reported a “possible emergency,” the helicopter alerted the tower that he had observed the Aerostar as it passed by and saw that the “nose gear” was down, to which the Aerostar pilot replied, “I can tell its down, but I don’t know if it’s locked.” (Washington Post, 4-24-91, pg.5)

The pilot then made a pass by the control tower and was told by the tower, “Gear looks down, it appears to be normal . . . I’ve got a helicopter north of the airport. He said he could take a look at it if you like.”

After flying toward the plane and making one pass, the helicopter made a “second pass” to “inspect the landing gear” before it collided with the plane.

“Several experienced Piper PA60 pilots said in interviews with NTSB investigators that if the gear was observed to be down, it would automatically be locked.”

The pilot of Senator Heinz’ plane had three hours of experience as the pilot-in-command on a Piper PA60 and had problems on a previous flight.

Documents released by the NTSB “indicated there had been no reason for the pilot to ask the helicopter to check the gear . . . ‘No evidence of mechanical or electrical malfunction was discovered.’ the documents said.” (Washington Post, 7-4-91, pg.4)

On April 5, 1991, the day after Senator Heinz was killed, former Senator John Tower became the fourth victim of a plane crash during the Administration of George H. W. Bush. Senator Tower had retired from Congress in 1985, two years before his “Tower Commission” investigated the CIA’s Iran-Contra scandal, to which President George H. W. Bush had been linked during his Vice Presidency. (New York Times, 4-6-91, pg.26)

Like Congressman Jerry Litton who died fifteen years earlier, Senator Tower’s death was attributed to mechanical failure. The NTSB said that “failure of a severely worn part in the plane’s propeller control unit caused the aircraft to spin out of control.” (New York Times, 4-29-92, section D, pg.24)

There was one airplane “accident” that killed a Member of Congress ten years before the airplane slaughters began in October 1972, and the KGB officers admitted that they were responsible for it.

Congressman Clem Miller died on October 7, 1962, when his plane crashed “in bad weather in a mountainous section of northern California . . . This was the first private plane flight Mr. Miller had made in this campaign.” (New York Times, 10-9-62, pg.30)

Traffic “accidents,” spaced out over the years 1957, 1959, and 1965, killed Members of Congress before the airplane slaughters began in 1972.

In the last traffic “accident” on July 1, 1965, Louisiana Congressman T. Ashton Thompson was killed in North Carolina after a state trooper had him pull over onto the apron of a highway, allegedly for speeding. (New York Times, 7-2-65, pg.15)

“As Mr. Thompson got out of the car, a truck veered onto the apron. It struck the Congressman, crushing him against his car and then hurling him over it . . . Mr. Thompson and his family were returning to Louisiana for the Fourth of July weekend.”

“The impact sent the Congressman’s car crashing into the rear of the patrol car.”

The Congressman’s wife, along with his 7-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter, “were taken to a hospital for treatment of shock and bruises.”

The state trooper “said the truck overturned about fifty yards away,” after which the driver of the truck “was taken to a hospital with internal injuries.”

Four months later, in November 1965, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued a report recommending “a review of physical standards for truck drivers,” a report allegedly prompted by the killing of Congressman Thompson. (New York Times, 11-19-65, pg.29)

The report alleged that an examination of the truck driver’s eyes in August 1965 showed that “cataracts existed in both of the driver’s eyes,” and it alleged that his physician reported that he was “being treated for asthma and high blood pressure.” It further alleged that he “had been exceeding the ICC limit on maximum hours of service,” and that he killed Congressman Thompson when he allegedly lost control of his tractor-trailer due to “vision impairment” as Congressman Thompson was “talking to a state trooper who had stopped him for alleged speeding.”

The Justice Department charged the truck driver with violating the Interstate Commerce Act.

High blood pressure is something that a hospital would invariably determine when treating a man with internal injuries and they would certainly need to know if he suffered from asthma. Having just killed a Member of Congress would also have instantaneously qualified the truck driver for an eye examination on July 1, 1965, but the Federal report from a Federal agency said that the alleged eye examination which allegedly found cataracts on both of his eyes was in August, and it was allegedly his physician who said the truck driver had asthma and high blood pressure, not the hospital report.

The ICC also said the truck driver had exceeded their limit on maximum hours of service and ostensibly, everything culminated in the “vision impairment” that caused the “accident” that tragically killed Congressman Thompson.

This would include the premise that people who were affected by Congressman Thompson’s death were surprised to learn, at least a month later, that the truck driver who killed him had cataracts on both of his eyes, and the premise that the truck driver offered no explanation for how he happened to “accidentally” kill a member of Congress, which would explain why his eyes weren’t examined for a month, if they were examined at all.

And since the truck “overturned about fifty yards away,” it’s obvious that the truck driver didn’t plan on sticking around after he “veered onto the apron” and ran down the Congressman with his tractor-trailer.

Until Boggs and Begich were killed in 1972 as part of the airplane slaughters, only one Member of Congress died of unnatural causes after Congressman Thompson’s 1965 murder. It was Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968.

In the traffic “accident” which preceded Congressman Thompson’s murder there was another “need for sleep.”

“Early” on November 4, 1959, Congressman Charles A. Boyle was killed when his car “smashed into an elevated train pillar” in Chicago.

“The police said he had apparently fallen asleep at the wheel or had been cut off by another car . . . He was alone at the time of the accident.” (New York Times, 11-5-59, pg.27)

The “accident” was early enough on November 4th to be front page news in the late edition of the Chicago Tribune on that day, and the fact is, if Congressman Boyle hadn’t been a victim of homicide, killed by another driver who ran him into a pillar, it would appear that he simply hadn’t gotten enough sleep or that he had been awake for too long and thus “had apparently fallen asleep at the wheel.”

This “need for sleep” was no different than the truck driver who ran down Congressman Thompson with his tractor-trailer six years later. The “sickly” truck driver not only had “cataracts on both of his eyes,” he also had a “need for sleep” because he “had been exceeding the ICC limit on maximum hours of service.”

Maybe there was a problem with continuing to put forth premises like: “Congressman Boyle wasn’t murdered. He just didn’t get enough sleep,” and “Congressman Thompson wasn’t murdered. The sickly truck driver who killed him with his tractor-trailer just didn’t get enough sleep”

In the 1957 traffic “accident,” Congressman Henderson Lanham “was killed instantly” when a switch engine (a train engine used to switch train cars) struck his car as he was “en route to a speaking engagement before a PTA group” in his hometown of Rome, Georgia, on November 10, 1957. (Atlanta Constitution, 11-12-57, pg.1)

In the traffic “accidents” of 1957, 1959, and 1965, which were the last three traffic “accidents” to kill Members of Congress, the Member of Congress was the only one killed

Culpability didn’t seem to be a problem in the 1957 “accident,” but the 1959 “accident” and the 1965 “accident” had to be raising the specter of responsibility and believability.

Congressman William O. Mills was found shot to death on May 24, 1973. He had taken office two years earlier when a special election was held in 1971 to fill the seat of Congressman Roger Morton, who had become President Nixon’s Interior Secretary.

The Congressman died of “a single 12-gauge shotgun wound in the left side of his chest. The automatic gun and a single spent shell were at his side.”

Mr. Mills, “a Republican whose 1971 special election was aided by an unreported cash transfer of $25,000 from the Nixon campaign committee, was found shot to death and the authorities called his death an apparent suicide . . . Mr. Mills had left at least seven notes, including one found on his body.” (New York Times, 5-25-73, pg. 1 & 17)

“One official said that in one of the notes, Mr. Mills said ‘He had done nothing wrong but said he couldn’t prove it, and so there was no other way out.’”

“Mr. Mills was reported to have had no serious domestic or personal problems,” but a “former associate” said that the Congressman had been “‘depressed’ since the death in an automobile accident in 1972 of three of his Congressional aides including his former campaign treasurer, Col. James L. Webster.” (How convenient that his campaign treasurer had already been killed.)

Mr. Mills’ death “followed by five days the disclosure by the General Accounting Office that Mr. Mills’ 1971 campaign was aided by an unreported cash transfer from the Finance Committee to Re-elect the President.”

(There had been an “unreported cash transfer of $25,000” from a political committee to the Congressman’s campaign two years earlier and therefore the Member of Congress allegedly killed himself and “left at least seven suicide notes,” one which allegedly stated that “he had done nothing wrong but said he couldn’t prove it, and so there was no other way out.”)

An “official” suicide that killed a Members of Congress occurred on June 19, 1960, when 39-year-old Congressman Douglas H. Elliott, married and the father of three children, died of carbon monoxide poisoning. He had been elected less than two months earlier to fill the vacancy of Congressman Richard Simpson, who had died of natural causes in January 1960.

“A coroner ruled that he had died of ‘carbon-monoxide poisoning, self-administered’. . . Friends and associates were unable to provide a clue that might explain his suicide.” Mr. Elliott had been elected to the Pennsylvania state senate four years before his brief service in Congress proved to be fatal. (New York Times, 6-20-60, pg.14)

No one questioned the two “official” suicides, especially that of Congressman Mills, whose campaign had received an unreported cash transfer of $25,000 and whose campaign treasurer had already been killed, but friends and associates of Congressman Elliott had no idea why he would have committed suicide in 1960.

Both of these Congressmen were killed shortly after being elected in special elections.

After five Congressmen were killed in less than four years in the airplane slaughters, two of the next five flying fatalities came by way of an aircraft that the Member of Congress was not on board.

Congressman McDonald’s plane was shot down by a Soviet fighter jet in 1983, and a helicopter crashed into Senator Heinz’ plane in 1991.

Senator Heinz’ “accident” harkens back to two earlier “accidents,” the train engineer who crashed his switch engine into a Congressman’s car in 1957, and a truck driver who ran his tractor-trailer off the road before running down a Congressman in 1965.

With the Soviet fighter jet included, four vehicles became instruments of death for a Member of Congress who was not on board the vehicle.

****OK KIDS!**** ****LET'S RECAP!****

>Four vehicles became instruments of death for Members of Congress who were not on board the vehicles on four separate occasions.

>The pilot of a Congressman’s plane “appeared nervous and even ran the aircraft off the taxiway shortly before take off.”

>Two “mechanical failures” caused planes with Members of Congress on board to crash.

>A helicopter crashed into a Senator’s plane after flying towards it to “inspect the landing gear,” but documents released by the NTSB “indicated there had been no reason for the pilot to ask the helicopter to check the gear.”

>A Congressman named Mills allegedly left “at least seven” suicide notes in 1973 when it was reported that prior to his special election in 1971, his campaign had received “an unreported cash transfer of $25,000” from President Nixon’s campaign.

“One official said that in one of the notes, Mr. Mills said ‘he had done nothing wrong but said he couldn’t prove it, and so there was no other way out.’”

>Two Congressmen have been “presumed dead” since October 1972 when a plane that they weren’t supposed to be on disappeared in the Alaska wilderness.

>No one in Congress has died in a traffic “accident” since 1965, but three Members of Congress died in traffic “accidents” in 1957, 1959, and 1965.

>In the final traffic “accident” in 1965, a truck driver ran down a Congressman with his tractor-trailer, allegedly because he had cataracts on both of his eyes, suffered from high blood pressure and asthma, and had exceeded the ICC limit on maximum hours of service.

>The traffic “accidents” of 1957 and 1959 each took place in the Congressman’s hometown, but no one in Congress has died while driving in their hometown since 1959.

>In 1957, a train engine (just an engine; not a train) smashed into a Congressman’s car.

>In 1959, a Congressman crashed into an elevated train pillar “early” one day and the New York Times reported that he “had apparently fallen asleep at the wheel or had been cut off by another car.”

There you have it! The source for every detail. If you have taken the time to read it, I'm sure you will say it is fascinating.

Tony

Edited July 1, 2004 by Tony Frank

[Ron Ecker]

I recall a plane crash years ago in which Senator Ted Kennedy was seriously injured. It wouldn't surprise me if that crash wasn't accidental.

[Tony Frank]

When was Ted Kennedy in a plane crash? John Kennedy Jr died in a plane crash, but I don't believe Ted was ever in a plane crash.

[Wim Dankbaar]

When was Ted Kennedy in a plane crash? John Kennedy Jr died in a plane crash, but I don't believe Ted was ever in a plane crash.

According to this site:

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/kennedytimeline.html

it was in 1964

Wim

[Nelson Redd]

Does the air plane crash that killed Clinton Commerce Secretary Ron Brown fall into this "pattern" of accidential deaths?

[Anthony Frank]

Ron Brown's death is not part of this.