Prime Crime: Solved Murders - The Bombing of Flight 629 Pt. 1

Episode Date: June 21, 2023

In the mid-1950s, a plane bound for Seattle from Denver exploded mid-flight. 44 people were killed. When investigators began analyzing the wreckage, they couldn’t help noticing a distinctive smell: gunpowder.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this murder case, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes dramatizations and discussions of attempted suicide and murder that some people may find offensive. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. A note before we begin, though today's story is true, certain moments have been fictionalized and dramatized by actors. On November 1st, 1955, the Hop family gathered around. the dinner table, ready to fill up on a hearty supper. They were famished after a long day harvesting sugar beets on their Colorado farm. 18-year-old Conrad Hopp cleared his plate and was ready for seconds, but before he could get more, an explosion erupted outside. The sheer force rocked the house,

shaking its foundations. Conrad and his older brother Kenneth leapt to their feet. They ran outside but stopped in their tracks. A giant fireball was rocketing towards them. The boys froze, and as the object got closer, they realized it was a plane. It had caught fire and was falling from the sky. They watched in horror as it crashed on the east side of their farm. The two hopped into Conrad's truck and raced to the crash site.

It was dark, but in the roaring inferno, they could see the carnage. He littered the ground, suitcases had blown open, their contents scattered, and there was twisted burning metal everywhere. Conrad didn't want to see any more, but as he turned back to his truck,

his eyes landed on the very thing he was trying to avoid. There, right in front of him, was a single airplane seat, with a body still strapped in by its seatbelt. Welcome to Solved Murders, True Crime Mysteries, a Spotify original from Parcast. I'm your host, Carter Roy. And I'm your host, Wendy McKenzie.

Every Wednesday, we step into the world of true crime's most fascinating murder cases and tell the tale of how real-life detectives close the case. You can find episodes of Solved Murders and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free exclusively on Spotify. This is our first episode on the bombing of Flight 629. This week, we'll cover the tragedy that killed all 44 people on board a United Airlines plane in 1955. We'll also explore the first of its kind investigation that followed the bombing. Next week, we'll follow authorities as they narrow in on a suspect and discover the shocking motivation for the crime.

We have all that and more coming up. On November 1st, 1955, members of the Flight Engineers Union protested outside of Denver's Stapleton Airport. After eight days of striking, their chance rang out louder than ever. During the early years of air travel, flight engineers held essential jobs. They operated the plane's engines and managed fuel consumption during trips. But by 1955, times were changing. And with updated flight technology, airlines figured engineers' jobs could be done just as easily by pilots. So to keep costs down, United Airlines required that all future flight engineers were also licensed pilots.

Needless to say, the Union wasn't pleased with United. Until the airline reversed its decision and honored engineers' jobs, protesters would hold the picket line. As a result, flights were to be able to picket line. were canceled left and right. But that evening, United had managed to scrounge together a crew for Flight 629, departing from Denver. One crew member was 38-year-old Sam Arthur. Sam was an engineer, but when the airline called him in, he crossed the picket line. As his colleague's shouts faded behind him, Sam made his way to the plane. Once boarded, he greeted the two stewardesses, Peggy Petticoat and Jacqueline Hines and the co-pilot Don White. Then he took his seat next to the pilot,

38-year-old Lee Hall. Once Sam was settled in, the flight's 39 passengers began to board. They came from all walks of life. Two off-duty stewardesses were enjoying a few days of vacation. A woman was on her way to Alaska for the holidays with her daughter. One of President Eisenhower's aides was even on board. For some, like Patricia Lipton, and James and Saradori, the flight from Denver to Seattle was their first time on a plane. Although they were excited about the experience, they still had some apprehensions. So did many of the passengers. While air travel was generally safe in the 1950s, a few recent airline disasters were fresh in people's minds.

Just 26 days earlier, a flight from Denver to San Francisco had crashed into a mountain. No one knew the cause, which only heightened people's fear. Many felt it could happen to them, too. Because of this anxiety, many passengers purchased life insurance on their way through the airport. Back then, policies were available at vending machine-style ATMs. For just a quarter, you could get $6,250 in coverage, almost $70,000 today. Passengers Stewart and Suzanne Morgan had the largest life insurance policy taken out at $125,000, which is roughly $1.4 million now.

While no one else came close to that, many others bought small policies just in case. As all the passengers settled in, the pilots readied for takeoff. Sam got the engines running while Lee, the pilot, radioed the control tower. This is Flight 629 requesting takeoff clearance. Request granted. Fly 22,000 feet, Victor Airway 4. Copy that. Lee guided the plane into the air at 6.52 p.m., bound for Seattle, with a pit stop in Portland. All was well. In the air traffic control tower, the operator turned his attention to other flights.

For the next 11 minutes, it was business as usual. But then, at 7.03 p.m. a massive explosion. The explosion lit up the night sky. The operator couldn't believe his own eyes. Did an aircraft just explode? The tower operators scrambled to radio every plane within Stapleton's airspace. One by one, all of them responded, except for Flight 629. Flight 629, come in. Flight 629, come in!

Can anyone else reach them? Flight 629, do you read me? Flight 629, do you copy? We've lost them. The air traffic controller wasn't the only one who saw the flash of bright white light. People all over Colorado were stunned by the fiery explosion, and even more so when the plane crashed landed on a farm about 40 miles away from the airport. Soon, locals and investigators alike would face a horrifying.

realization. Coming up, authorities suspect foul play. And now, back to our story. After flight 629 crashed on November 1st, 1955, hundreds of callers contacted the police with accounts of what they just seen. Some even drove out to the crash site. Every local police officer, firefighter, an ambulance available arrived on the scene within minutes. They rushed to scour the farm for survivors. But the crash site was not easy to navigate. The plane's four engines were still ablaze. They'd blown apart, punching craters into the farmland as deep as 16 feet.

The debris was scattered across six square miles. Worst of all were the bodies. Emergency responders and volunteers, like the Hop Brothers, whose family owned the farm, canvassed the land for survivors. But the search was difficult. The crash site was huge and it was pitch blackout, so the crews devised a strategy. If they found a body,

they would stand still with their flashlight to mark the place. Authorities then came to confirm whether the passenger was dead. Soon, volunteers spread out across the farm, all pointing their flashlights across the field. By the time the search was, was over, they'd found all 44 people aboard the flight. Tragically, none of them survived. By the next morning, authorities from various agencies

had descended onto the scene. United Airlines sent their officials, an investigator from the Civil Aeronautics Board, or CAB, arrived. The US Postal Service even sent an investigator since Flight 629 had been carrying mail. But maybe most important, Recently, the FBI sent their disaster squad, a team of forensic experts who could help identify

the bodies through the Bureau's civil fingerprint records. Between the disaster squad's resources and the help of the victim's loved ones, all 44 passengers and crew members were soon identified and accounted for. But authorities were still left with a daunting question. Did Flight 629 malfunction? or did someone crash it on purpose? A team of technical experts got to work, collecting the wreckage and debris. They focused on determining whether or not something had malfunctioned.

Meanwhile, a separate team consisting of CAB and United Airlines officials interviewed witnesses. This team questioned about 200 people who claim they saw the plane go down. Of those, the team put 37 accounts on record. All of these statements corroborated that the aircraft had been flying like normal until suddenly it exploded. This aligned with what the team of technical experts found in the fields. All right, son. Tell me, how do we know this was an explosion? Well, the debris is spread all over this farm. Some of it is miles apart. If the plane had crashed like normal, it would be contained within a smaller area. Good. Now, do you think it was an intentional explosion or a mechanical failure?

We could check out the engines and see if there were any issues there. You're missing something obvious. What do you smell? Dynamite? Bingo. The stench of gunpowder was hard to ignore, but authorities still needed to do their due diligence before jumping to conclusions. Just because there'd been an explosion didn't necessarily mean it was intention. The gunpowder smell could have been something else. To get to the bottom of it, the CAB sent in Jack Partial, the board's regional director. Partial was in charge of overseeing all aspects of air travel, including accidents.

He'd seen his fair share of crashes, but never anything like this. He arrived on the scene the next day. While the dynamite smell convinced many that the flight was sabotaged, Partial was adamant. They rule out all the other possibilities first. The last thing they needed was to overlook something crucial. A plane can go down for any number of technical reasons. Yes, but this one exploded mid-flight. That doesn't happen often. It could have been the result of gas fumes building up in a pressurized compartment.

Sure, but Flight 629 was only in the air for 11 minutes. Okay, what about the engines? Did any of them overheat and blow loose from the plane? The crash site is still on fire. We have to put out the flames before we can analyze the engines. All right, well, let's do that. And if they're all fine? Then we can consider the possibility of sabotage. When authorities finally put out the flames on all four engines,

Partial and his investigators determined the motors had remained attached to the wings all the way until the crash. So finally, Partial weighed the possibility that the explosion came from a combustible piece of cargo. But that begged the question. If it was a piece of baggage, did someone accidentally pack a dangerous item, or did they do it on purpose? Partial and his colleagues considered who might have had a motive to crash an entire plane. Soon a suspect crossed their radar, or rather a whole group of suspects, the Engineers Union. According to Andrew Field, author of Mainliner Denver, The Bombing of Flight 69, the Flight Engineers Union had made some incendiary statements about scabs who crossed the picket line,

and Sam Arthur, the flight engineer, had done just that. Could someone from the union have wanted to take revenge on Sam, or the airline itself? CAB investigators didn't know who the perpetrator was, only that there were indications of sabotage. And with 44 victims, the list of suspects would be enormous. They needed help, so they turned to the FBI. Federal agents had already helped ID bodies, but by November 8th a week after the crash, they opened an official criminal investigation. The Bureau split their agents into four different assignments.

They first re-interviewed all witnesses. A second group traced the plane's cargo, mail, and baggage. The third team conducted background investigations on all passengers and crew members. And a fourth final team supervised the wreckage collection for more leads. To complete the first three tasks, the FBI dispatched agents from nearly every state. They interviewed anyone and everyone associated with the crash. This included airline and airport workers who handled the baggage and cargo, as well as the victim's families. When agents began questioning relatives, things often got tense.

Investigators had to ask extremely probing questions to determine whether a passenger might have a suspicious history. I'll get right to it. We need to know if there's anyone in your husband. husband's life who might have a vendetta against him. I'm sorry? How was he doing financially? Just fine, I suppose. I mean, he was doing fine?

No angry business partners, recent arguments with colleagues. No, nothing like that. No criminal record. Of course not. Okay, last question, ma'am. And again, I'm sorry to ask this, but we just have to to be sure. Is there any reason why he'd want to take his own life? What? No.

The questioning was brutal, but agents needed to explore every angle that might explain someone's motive. Meanwhile, one of the other FBI teams continued to supervise the collection of the wreckage. Eventually, they transferred every last piece of evidence to a warehouse at Stapleton Airport. That way they could work through the evidence day and night. From there, they made a crucial discovery. Agents determined that the source of the explosion occurred near the tail, right by one of the cargo pits, pit number four. There were no gas lines or tanks in that area of the plane, only baggage.

But they did find traces of nitroglycerin, the compound used in dynamite. They finally had the proof they needed. Someone had planted a bomb on Flight 629. Coming up, authorities zero in on an unlikely suspect. And now, back to our story. Once investigators determined that someone likely planted a bomb on Flight 629, their next step was figuring out which bag it had been in. Their strategy was simple.

look for the luggage with the most damage. Theoretically, the closer a bag was to the blast, the less of it they should find. And that could help them pinpoint the bomb's origin. The investigators sifted through all the luggage they'd brought back to the warehouse. But this was easier said than done. Most of the bags were blown apart, and they had to be pieced back together bit by bit.

Eventually, with help from the victim's friends and families, the authorities started to identify which bag belonged to which passenger. At the same time, agents began to interview airport employees and came across another interesting discovery. Usually the cargo pits in a plane contained a variety of things, anything from mail to fresh produce. But due to a random incident, baggage handlers had unloaded all the luggage. from Flight 629 and then reloaded it. And when they did, only baggage that originated from Denver was put in cargo pit number 4, the place where the bomb exploded. Only three passengers checked luggage in Denver.

And only one of those bags was so heavy that its owner had to pay an excess weight fee. As it turned out, that bag had also sustained the most damage. Detectives believe the bag belonged to a 54-year-old widow named Daisy King. While her checked luggage was nearly destroyed, it turns out she'd also carried a purse onto the plane with her. Authorities found the handbag had survived the blast, so they began their investigation into Daisy from there. The contents included her checkbook and traveler's checks, an address list, and a couple of keys. But most interestingly, she also had some newspaper clippings that, miraculously, the explosion hadn't destroyed. One of those newspaper articles revealed that her son, 23-year-old Jack Graham, had been charged with forgery four years earlier.

He'd actually been on the local Most Wanted list by the Denver County District Attorney. It's not clear why Daisy was carrying this article with her to Alaska, but it's certainly. certainly made Daisy and her family look suspicious. So on November 10, 1955, nine days after the crash, two FBI agents tracked them down. When the agents turned up at Jack Graham's home, he was there with his half-sister, Helen Hablitzel.

Helen lived in Alaska, but had come to Denver after the accident. I've just got a few routine questions. Can you tell us what your mother's suitcase looked like? It was a tan Samsonite bag Any idea about its contents? Couldn't say She was very particular about how she packed things

Never wanted the rest of us to help Hmm Actually, I do know she packed some ammunition She was going hunting in Alaska with Helen here That's true We were supposed to hunt caribou How did your mother behave leading up to the trip? Well

Miss Hablitzel, we need to ensure this doesn't ever happen again. So please, tell us everything. No detail is too small. Well, she said some weird things before the flight. Like what? She was going on about flight disasters and that maybe this plane would blow up and she'd be killed. It was crazy talk, but then again, she had mood swings.

and, well, she tried to take her own life once. I don't know if I should say that, but it's true. This is all very helpful. Thank you. The agents were shocked to hear Helen's comments about her mother. Would a middle-aged woman board a plane with the intention of blowing it up and taking down 43 innocent people with her? Graham, who'd been quiet while Helen spoke with the agents, chimed back in. He explained that when he'd taken his mom to the airport that day, she'd made an odd

request. I didn't think much of it at the time, but Daisy insisted we purchased life insurance for her before she flew. We stopped at one of those bending machines at the airport, and she gave me some quarters. She wanted three policies. Why three? One with me as the beneficiary, one with Helen listed, and one with my aunt. And how much life insurance did you purchase? I can't remember the exact amount, but it was the lowest option, just a safeguard, really. At least, that's what I thought. Graham had piqued the agent's interest, but purchasing life insurance alone wasn't enough to convince them that Daisy bombed the plane,

especially when at the time most passengers bought life insurance before flying. But Graham's criminal past stuck with them. So rather than looking into Daisy further, the agents turned their attention to him. And what do you know? This wasn't the first time Jack Graham was connected to a suspicious insurance scheme. And even wilder, that incident had potentially involved a bomb. Graham and Daisy ran a family drive-in restaurant. And just one month earlier in September 1955, the building exploded.

Officially, the cause was listed as a gas line issue, but unofficially, people wondered if Graham might have had something to do with it. As authorities soon learned, he and his mother fought constantly about money. Apparently, Graham was tired of being held under his mom's thumb. Suddenly, the FBI had a new suspect. Perhaps Flight 629 wasn't a tragic coincidence. but rather a tortured son's attempt at breaking free from his mother. Thanks again for tuning in to Solved Murders. We'll be back next Wednesday with part two of the bombing of Flight 629.

For more information on this case, amongst the many sources we used, we found Mainliner Denver, the bombing of Flight 629 by Andrew Field, extremely helpful to our research. You can find all episodes of Solved Murder, and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Solve Murder's True Crime Mysteries is a Spotify original from Parcast. Our head of programming is Julian Blasrow.

Our supervising sound designer is Russell Nash, with Nick Johnson as our head of production and Spencer Howard as our post-production supervisor. Quality control by Lisa Marie Gallegos. Stacey Nemek is our Supervisor. supervising editor, and Derek Jennings is our writing lead. This episode of Solve Murders was written by Alex Burns, edited by Sarah Batchelor and Alex Garland, fact-checked by Catherine Barner, researched by Mickey Taylor, produced by Joshua

Kern, and sound design by Brian Golub. It stars Ellie Schiff, Joe Hernandez, Tommy Arsignaga, Charlie Wes, and Rebecca Thomas. Our hosts are Wendy McKenzie and me. Carter Roy.