On Feb. 22, 1974, nearly three decades before the 9/11 attacks, a failed businessman who once protested in front of the White House wearing a Santa suit blamed the federal government for his problems and decided to kill President Richard Nixon by hijacking a plane and crashing it into the White House.
He failed, obviously, although he killed two others and committed suicide rather than be captured. I doubt many of us have heard this story -- I hadn't, until the publicity about The Interview. But it's true.
Samuel Byck was a Philadelphia businessman. He also was a high school dropout, an Army veteran, and a psychiatric patient with a history of depression and job failures. He first threatened Nixon in 1972, after the Small Business Administration turned him down for a loan.
Byck became convinced that the White House was trying to oppress the poor, and he sent rambling tape recordings to many different public figures with his tales of woe. They included polio vaccine inventor Jonas Salk, composer Leonard Bernstein, Sen. Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut, and syndicated columnist Jack Anderson. Although the U.S. Secret Service had Byck on its radar, the agency considered him harmless.
Byck apparently got the idea to fly a plane into the White House when Army PFC Robert K. Preston buzzed the White House in a stolen helicopter on Feb. 17, 1974. Byck then developed a plot he labeled "Operation Pandora's Box." Since Byck already was known to the Secret Service, he stole rather than bought a revolver to carry out his hijacking plan. He also constructed a bomb made out of two gallons of gasoline and an igniter, which he carried in a briefcase (although the bomb probably would have had negligible effect). Byck made recordings of his plans and motives, apparently expecting to be seen as a hero.
On Feb. 22, Byck drove to the Baltimore/Washington International Airport. He shot and killed George Neal Ramsburg, an officer with the Maryland Aviation Administration, and stormed aboard a Delta flight to Atlanta, because it was scheduled as the next flight to take off. The aircraft’s pilots, Reese Loftin and Fred Jones, told Byck they couldn’t take off until blocks were removed from the plane’s wheels. Byck shot them both, grabbing a passenger and ordering her to fly the plane. (Jones later died, while Loftin survived.)
Byck then threatened to blow up the plane with his homemade bomb and forced a flight attendant to shut the plane’s door. A standoff developed with police as the plane remained at the airport gate.
Finally, Charles Troyer, an Anne Arundel County police officer, took the .357 Magnum from Ramsburg’s body and stormed the plane himself, firing four shots through the aircraft door. Two shots went through the door’s window and wounded Byck. Before the police could enter the plane, Byck shot himself in the head. The plane never left the gate.
For years, Byck’s story stayed relatively unknown except to the Secret Service, although it was reported as news in 1974. This was in the Baltimore Sun:
Three days after the incident, a letter from Byck arrived at the desk of the now-defunct
Miami News. Here's the transcript:
"It has become evident to me that this government that I love, dearly, will not respond to the needs of the majority of the American citizens.
"The majority of the people in government, so called 'Public Servants', are financed by special interest groups and if they are servants, they are servants to these groups.
"Now is the time! Independent-minded citizens must take back the government before their government takes complete control of them all.
"I, for one, will not live in a controlled society and I would rather die as a free-man than live like a sheep.
"Power to the People,
"Sam Byck"
Sound like a certain current-day mindset?
The Christmas before the assassination attempt, Byck had been arrested protesting in front of the White House dressed in a Santa Claus suit. Byck is one of the failed assassins portrayed in the Stephen Sondheim 1991 musical Assassins. His role was developed around the tapes he had sent to Leonard Bernstein, and the character is portrayed wearing a Santa suit.
Byck's plot also was featured in a 2004 film,
The Assassination of Richard Nixon, starring Sean Penn as "Sam Bicke."
I thought this story was so fascinating I made it my "political murder of the day" on my website, politicalmurder.com.