A Study Guide of Jan 22, 1974
assassination attempt of President Richard Nixon:
The Cast of Characters:
Nixon: (would-be-target)
Nixon files a Message to the Congress "Annual
Report of the National Endowment of the Humanities".
Nixon was actually in the Executive Mansion at
the hour of Byck's would-be assassination, hunkered down in
mid-Watergate.
Samuel Joseph Byck:
(would-be-assassin)
Tried to commandeer an airliner to dive it into
the White House. Mr. Byck wanted to kill President Nixon.
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Samuel Byck (1930-1974) -- Born
into an economically distressed family in Philadelphia, Byck
dropped out of high school and served two years in the U.S. Army,
(at the age of 24) Byck was trained in firearms and
explosives. He was honorably discharged later in 1956. He married
and had four children, but could not hold a job and failed in
several businesses, including selling tires. Byck spent two months
in a psychiatric hospital to be treated for depression and began
to blame his problems on a government conspiracy to keep the poor
man down. He became an outspoken critic of President Nixon.
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The Plan:
"Operation Pandora's Box"
Use a commercial jet airliner as a flying bomb -
fly it into the White House and kill the President. It was decided by
the assassin that the root of the corruption in the western world began
in the Washington DC power seat. He made some tape recordings,
describing his plan. “Allow me to introduce myself – my name is Sam
Byck. I intend to…gain entrance to the cockpit of a commercial airplane.
I intend to instruct the pilot to fly the plan to the target area. I
intend to shoot the pilot and fly the plane into the Executive Mansion
(White House).
Execution:
Just before 7:15 a.m. on February 22, 1974, the
44-year-old Philadelphian cut a sudden, vicious swath through
Baltimore-Washington International Airport, pulling a .38-caliber
revolver, Byck goes through line, shooting an airport security guard in
the back (George Neal Ramsburg, 24), and, before stunned onlookers,
leaping over the security check and boarding a DC-9 Delta Airlines
Flight 523 destined for Atlanta. He storms the planes cockpit and shoots
the copilot. He commands the pilot to take off immediately, Byck then
wounded another after being informed they couldn't depart without
removing the wheel blocks; in desperation Byck became frustrated, he
grabbed a nearby passenger and shouted at her to 'fly the plane.'
Meanwhile, a policeman who heard the shots in the airport runs to the
plane in pursuit. He sees Byck through the plane’s window and shoots
several times, mortally wounding Byck. As authorities moved in, he put
the revolver to his head and pulled the trigger. Under his body was
found a briefcase gasoline bomb.
Motive:
Byck left a tape recording in his car about an
insane murder plot called "Operation Pandora's Box". Byck said his aim
was to hijack the plane and force it to fly to Washington near the White
House. He would then kill the pilots and steer the plane into the White
House incinerating President Richard Nixon, whom he blamed for his
business failures, it is one of the most chilling things that you could
possibly hear because this man was obviously insane, but sounded so calm
and rational. Nixon resigned a few months later..
The Investigation & It's Learning's:
In the investigation that followed this pathetic
incident, it was discovered that Samuel Byck had been making himself
known to the Secret Service since 1972, after making threats against
then-President Nixon's life and was questioned by the Secret Service in
October 1972 for threatening Nixon's life (he claimed he had been
joking). He'd also been sending bizarre, rambling tapes to such public
figures as Jonas Salk, Senator Abraham Ribicoff, his idol, Leonard
Bernstein, and Jack Anderson. Byck spent two months in a psychiatric
hospital to be treated for depression and began to blame his problems on
a government conspiracy to keep the poor man down. He became an
outspoken critic of President Nixon If only he had possessed the
patience to wait until the plane was already in the air, things would
have gone a lot differently.
Apparently, it was after this episode that a bunker
was built in the bowels of the White House, and there were unconfirmed
reports that anti-aircraft missiles were placed on the roof of the White
House. (I continue to hope they are there.)
9/11 (use airplanes as bombs)
The argument that we had no idea that the
hijackers could use the airplanes as bombs is pure bull --
Again, that was in 1974. Our government had about
27 years to learn the lesson of Mr. Byck's aborted attempt to hijack a
plane and crash it into the White House. But, when the hijackings on
9/11 took place, all we heard from the government was how
"unthinkable" this was. It is amazing that the mainstream media did
not pick up on the Byck attempted hijacking in the attempt to place
blame on the government for not anticipating the 9/11 use of airliners
as weapons. In fact President Bush was briefed about the Byck attempt
to use aircraft-missiles prior to 9/11 when questioned if Tom'
Clancy's book plot could actually be of a concern. History has a way
of repeating it's self, perhaps the president should pay more
attention to our past. Vincent Cannistraro, a former head of the CIA's
counterterrorism operations, says that by the mid-1990s, there was
sufficient evidence of terrorists "thinking of flying planes into
buildings" that the Common Strategy clearly needed revision. Even
before that, there had been cases of people planning to use commercial
aircraft as weapons. Troubled Passage, the fifth volume of the
FAA's self-published history, describes two such hijackings. and this
incident was forgotten in the rush of history, but there is a chilling
footnote. Think of this, Byck was going to use an airliner as a weapon
of mass murder, this was 27 years before September 11, 2001. I must
confess I hadn't thought of this until others pointed it out. In fact
there is going to be a movie released the coming year called The
Assassination Of Richard Nixon starring Sean Penn as Samuel Byck.
Quotes:
All I want for Christmas is my constitutional right
to publicly petition my government for a redress of grievances.
—Samuel J. Byck
Other "Attempts":
Robert K. Preston (February 1974). On February 17, 1974, Robert Preston,
a private in the Army, stole an Army helicopter from Fort Meade,
Maryland, and flew It to the White House Complex. He passed over the
Executive Mansion and then returned to the south grounds, where he
hovered for about 6 minutes and touched down briefly approximately 150
feet from the West Wing. Members of the EPS did not know who was
piloting the aircraft and were not aware that it had been stolen from
Fort Meade. They made no attempt to shoot down the helicopter. Preston
left the area of the White House and flew the helicopter back toward
Fort Meade. He was chased by two Maryland State Police helicopters, one
of which he forced down through his erratic maneuvers. Preston then
returned to the White House Complex. As he lowered himself to bout 30
feet above the south grounds, EPS officers barraged the helicopter with
shotgun and submachine gunfire. Preston immediately set the riddled
aircraft down. He was injured slightly.