| Contents |
"Keep smiling" -- Coos Bay -- "I don't want to be an American anymore" -- Sweet black angel -- "I'm here and I exist -- Operation Sisyphus -- "There are Weathermen among you" -- "Can't you get a chopper?" -- "It's all a lie" -- The choice -- "We are going to be friends" -- "My only bomb is my human heart" -- "How do you resign from a revolution?" -- "The Olympics wasn't anything" -- "Monsieur Lecanuet, anyone can steal-- " -- Omega -- Tweety Bird -- Erased. |
| Abstract |
In an America torn apart by the Vietnam War and the demise of Sixties idealism, airplane hijackings were astonishingly routine. Over a five-year period starting in 1968, the desperate and disillusioned seized commercial jets nearly once a week. Some hijackers wished to escape to foreign lands; others aimed to swap hostages for sacks of cash. The longest-distance hijacking in American history took place in 1972 when a shattered Army veteran and a mischievous party girl, Roger Holder and Cathy Kerkow, commandeered Western Airlines Flight 701 as a vague war protest. Through a combination of savvy and dumb luck, the couple managed to flee across an ocean with a half-million dollars in ransom, a feat that made them notorious around the globe. Journalist Brendan I. Koerner spent four years chronicling this madcap tale, which involves a cast of characters ranging from exiled Black Panthers to African despots to French movie stars.--From publisher description. |
| Abstract |
Documents the 1972 story behind the longest-distance hijacking in U.S. history, tracing the events of the hijacking against a backdrop of civil unrest and the skyjacking wave of the early 1970s. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-308) and index. |
| LCCN | 2012043203 |
| ISBN | 9780307886101 |
| ISBN | 0307886107 |
