November 1, 1955 6:29 p.m
The four-engine prop DC-6B revved up its mighty turbines at the end of the runway with a tremendous roar. As the pilot released the wheel brakes, United Airlines flight 629 rolled down the narrow, bumpy tarmac gathering speed. The front wheel gently lifted from the ground as the nose of the aircraft pointed toward the heavens. Within moments, the sturdy airplane soared into the crystal blue sky and banked gracefully to the west, on its way to a 1,029-mile journey to Portland, Oregon. On board, Captain Lee Hall, an accomplished pilot and veteran of World War II, pulled steadily back on the control arm and within minutes, leveled off the plane at 4,000 feet. Visibility was good, and the crew, consisting of pilot, a co-pilot and three stewardesses, prepared for a leisurely flight over Colorado, Wyoming and Idaho.
In the cabin area, small by today’s standards, the 39 passengers observed the blinking “unbuckle seat belts” and “smoking permitted” signs. Some prepared to light up cigarettes while others read magazines. In the front section of the plane, where a few first class passengers stretched their legs, stewardess Peggy Pettacord tended to their needs and began the familiar routine of preparing dinner and refreshments. There was one baby on board, accompanied by his mother, on their way to visit his father, a serviceman stationed in the South Pacific.
Pettacord
Captain Hall announced flying time of about three hours and simultaneously advised the passengers that weather was clear and calm. As the modern aircraft flew over the small city of Longmont, Colorado, just 30 miles from Wyoming, Captain Hall switched on the autopilot and asked one of the stewardesses for a cup of coffee. He checked the instrumentation panel, which showed all indicators were normal and aircraft systems functioning properly.
His first inkling that something had gone wrong was a loud bang that seemed to emanate from somewhere under and behind the aircraft. Captain Hall heard the noise and then felt a deep shudder that lasted a fraction of a second. Then his seat suddenly came up off the floor of the plane and crashed into the metal ceiling of the cockpit. Below him, traveling at several hundred miles per hour, the aircraft erupted into one gigantic blast that ripped the fuselage apart into a thousand pieces sending debris, luggage and passengers tumbling into space. Since the fuel tanks were almost filled to capacity, an immense fireball detonated, beginning in the lower section of the plane, which momentarily enveloped the entire aircraft.
Both engines separated from the wings and the propellers continued to turn as they began their long, spinning descent to the ground below. As the fiery debris plummeted to Earth, several other smaller explosions shattered the remaining parts of the aircraft. Tiny, white-hot bits of metal, similar to the pattern of fireworks, cascaded into the cool November air. These pieces, along with the passengers and their belongings, scattered across several square miles of Weld County in northern Colorado.
There would be no survivors of United Airlines flight 629.
Approximately 10 miles north of Denver and two miles west of the explosion, a Union Pacific freight train cruised toward the city. Floyd Wood, 61, was the conductor on board. He was riding in the caboose taking a cigarette break when he noticed a light in the sky. “It was moonlight out,” he later told the Denver Post, “and I looked up in the sky to rest my eyes a minute when I saw the first flicker. I thought it was a meteor!” His nephew, Roland Wood, 43, was on the same train. “We couldn’t actually see the plane,” he said to reporters, “just the flames from it.” Both men witnessed the impact on the ground a few minutes later. “The moonlight was so bright,” Floyd Wood told the press, “we could see a big mushroom of oily smoke like an atom bomb and then it burst into a real bright flame.”
Outside the city limits of Longmont, a local farmer named Conrad Hopp was in his fields when he heard the loud noise and looked up. “It sounded like a bomb went off,” he later told the press, “I ran out and saw a big fire right over the cattle corral. I hollered back to my wife that she’d better call the fire department…then I turned around and it blew up in the air!” Other witnesses watched in horror as aircraft pieces fell from the sky, twisting and turning until they crashed into the distant plains. Most of the other debris landed in a sugar beet farm east of Longmont. Dozens of people called the police department and soon every available ambulance and fire truck raced to the scene.
The wreckage was spread over two miles of the flat terrain of Weld County, which abuts the Wyoming border. In a recent interview with this author, farmer Arlo Boda described the site. “Pieces of the plane landed right over there,” he said, “there were parts all over these farms.” Boda described what he found. “I was plowing out one of these fields in the 1970s and I dug up part of the engine manifold,” he said. Later, he turned over the relic to his brother who worked for the federal government.
The entire tail section of the Douglas-built aircraft had separated from the main fuselage and, incredibly, landed erect, almost undamaged. Large jagged pieces were strewn all over farmlands belonging to the Lang family. Bud Lang, 20, was almost directly under the plane when it exploded and later told reporters from the Denver Post it “looked like a shooting star.” Another witness, Kenneth Hopp, 22, who lived less than a mile from the site, heard something loud in the sky. “I heard the engines rev up,” he said to the Post, “Then I heard a loud pop. I ran out of the house and saw the burning plane. It was nosing toward the ground all on fire, with sparks trailing!” Hopp jumped into his car and sped over to where he saw the plane hit the ground. He was the first person to reach the scene and what he saw would remain with him for the rest of his life.
“Within a matter of seconds,” he told Post reporters, “I was there, driving my car part way and walking the rest. I walked around the scene, but I heard nobody calling out and I didn’t see anyone.” Hopp searched the area for survivors as another neighbor arrived. “We stayed out in the field for a while and covered up the bodies of two men. Each was lying beside a hole about a foot deep made by the impact of their bodies.” Soon, emergency crews arrived and began the awful task of sorting through the debris and the corpses.
Throughout the frigid night, police, medical personnel and volunteers worked non-stop. They carefully recorded the location of each body and retrieved luggage ejected from the plane. Hundreds of pieces of twisted metal littered the neatly plowed fields of the Lang farm. Large, jagged chunks of aluminum, double seats and charred wreckage seemed to be everywhere. Bodies of the passengers lay frozen in grotesque silence, their limbs mangled. Huge black craters, where fuel-soaked metal had burned during the night, were located on the north edge of the farm over one mile away from the tail assembly.
United Airline employees arrived in the early morning hours to help with the cleanup. They marched through the site picking up bits of clothing, ladies handbags, dinner trays, shoes and hats. In the distance, they could see flames shooting up from another large crater where one of the plane’s engines had landed. In the nearby town of Greeley, off state route 85, a temporary morgue was set up in the state armory. Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph dispatched emergency crews and set up a dozen new telephone lines to the morgue and to hotels in Longmont and Greeley to help with the recovery effort. By mid-morning, curious crowds had gathered in the vicinity. Thousands of people impeded the activities of the emergency crews, forcing sheriff’s deputies to rope off the area.
But the grim work continued. A body was recovered atop a haystack. Feet and legs, some with shoes still attached, were located and brought to a common area where the parts could be matched up. Burned, unrecognizable remains were found still strapped in their seats inside the devastated fuselage. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation were already at the scene and assisting local law enforcement agencies with the identification process. In addition, the Denver office of the FBI volunteered its laboratory facilities and acted as the liaison between all participating agencies. But no one could offer an official explanation as to the cause of the crash. There were simply too many possibilities.
United Airlines, which had lost another passenger aircraft a month before when it crashed into the Wyoming Rockies, sent its top executives to Colorado to offer whatever assistance they could provide. “Determination and responsibility for the accident is beyond the authority of United Airlines alone,” said United President W. A. Patterson to reporters. “Federal and local officials are now working at the scene – we will search out every possibility, however remote.” But airline veterans noted the thousands of pieces of the DC-6B spread out in a wide area of the sugar beet farm. Their experienced eyes told them that, when an aircraft hits the ground, it does not spread out in such a manner. This impact pattern pointed to only one possibility: flight 629 exploded during flight in mid-air.
Troops from the 168th Field Artillery of the National Guard out of Longmont were called in to protect the scene.
After the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) technicians examined the wreckage, it became very clear that the cause of the explosion did not originate with the aircraft itself. Patterson issued a statement from the United. home office that the explosion “was completely foreign to the aircraft or to airline operations.” By November 5, the CAB formally requested the FBI to conduct a criminal investigation into the matter. Chief investigator James Reyton told reporters that the luggage in the airliner had a smell “like gunpowder or an exploding firecracker.”
In the meantime, the U. S. Postal Service was assigned to retrieve any mail from Flight 629 found on the ground. Over a period of several days, postal authorities recovered over 400 pounds of mail that was spread out over an area eight and a half miles long and four miles wide. The pattern of the recovered mail added to the belief that an explosion had occurred on board. One official told the Denver Post, “There’s not one thing outstanding, but things appear out of the ordinary.” When pressed for an explanation, he replied, “We are investigating the possibility of sabotage.”
Slowly, methodically, search teams collected every scrap of metal and debris they could find. Each location of every piece was recorded and mapped on a huge board at a staging hangar in Stapleton airport. Like a giant jigsaw puzzle, investigators began to re-assemble the decimated aircraft. Engineers from Douglas Aircraft Corporation and the technicians from the CAB studied the serrated metal pieces from the underbelly of the plane. Soon it became obvious that the point of explosion was located in the rear luggage compartment of the DC-6B known as luggage pit #4. The recovered luggage from that area had a strong gunpowder odor and was mangled in a way different from the rest of the items, indicating some sort of explosion. Investigators then reviewed the cargo manifest of flight 629 which showed the type and sizes of all cargo on board. There was nothing of an explosive nature in the cargo bay or anything that could be made to explode. Furthermore, it was determined that all the cargo contained in bin #4 had been loaded on the aircraft in Denver.
As the search continued, engineers found four small pieces of an unusual grade of sheet metal. These pieces could not be matched to any part of the DC-6B. Additionally, each one of these fragments was heavily coated with a gray soot residue, which is normally associated with an explosion. Upon further testing, technicians determined that most of the debris from the cargo area, including the luggage, contained traces of sodium carbonate, nitrates and sulfates. The presence of these chemical compounds traditionally indicates the use of dynamite. The FBI became convinced that a bomb, consisting of a large quantity of dynamite and a timing device, had been placed on the aircraft at Stapleton just prior to takeoff.
But who would do such a thing? And why?
In the meantime, agents from the Denver FBI office were dispatched to Stapleton where they succeeded in obtaining a flight manifest. The list showed that the 44 passengers and crew were from all over the nation. Though most of the bodies were mangled and burned, identification was quickly ascertained in nine cases by friends or personal papers. The remaining 35 were fingerprinted. When a search was conducted through FBI files, 21 of those were subsequently identified. Eventually, all others were identified through visual inspection by family members.
stewardess
The youngest person to die in the crash was an infant named James Fitzpatrick. His father was a soldier stationed in Okinawa who had not seen his son since he was 6 weeks old. “Fitzpatrick never will see his lively Jimmy again,” said lead story in the Denver Post the next day. “The boy died Tuesday night, at the age of 18 months in the wreckage of United Airlines Flight 629 east of Longmont. He died in his mother’s arms, probably still sleeping.” It was the first, and last, flight of his young life.
Passengers included a young couple who were celebrating their first wedding anniversary, four Washington state officials, several vacationing stewardesses, the wife of an administrative assistant to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Denver business owner who was on her way to Alaska and two top executives for Oldsmobile. Working on the theory that a disgruntled or recently fired United employee was the culprit, the FBI began an exhaustive investigation into the backgrounds of every passenger. Agents were dispatched to dozens of cities around the country to interview relatives and friends of the victims. Special attention was also paid to anyone with ties to the government.
machine
Part of the investigative process was to check the insurance coverage of all passengers and the cargo on board flight 629. It was discovered that several passengers had large life insurance policies that were purchased shortly before flight time. During the 1950s, airline passengers could purchase flight insurance in coin-operated machines available at almost any American airport. Six passengers had the maximum allowed at that time: $62,000, four had $50,000 and two had $37,500. Agents checked into each of these purchases and recorded the names of all beneficiaries.
In the meantime, the work at the crash site continued around the clock. When recovered items were brought back to the storage hangar at Stapleton, agents took notice of the personal effects belonging to a Denver businesswoman. Her name was Daisie King, 53, on her way to Alaska to visit a married daughter. The recovered property included traveler’s checks, letters and newspaper clippings that were found in King’s handbag. The clippings contained information about King’s son, who had been arrested on a forgery charge in Denver in 1951. When agents checked further, they discovered that King carried $37,500 in insurance with her son listed as the sole beneficiary. Also upon her death, the son would inherit a substantial estate including a successful Denver restaurant. Investigators then made an inquiry with the local police and learned of an interesting coincidence. In early 1955, a suspicious explosion had damaged this same restaurant. A claim was submitted to an insurance company, which was later paid to King’s son.
His name was John Gilbert Graham, but everyone called him Jack.
Jack Graham was born on January 23, 1932, in Denver. When he was just 3 years old, his father died suddenly. Jack was placed in an orphanage because his mother, Daisie, was unable to take care of him. He lived in a succession of foster homes until the age of 13. In 1940, Daisie met a man named John Earl King and the following year, they were married. She retrieved Jack from the orphanage and the family moved to a large ranch in the northeastern part of the state. But they faced financial problems and found it difficult to make a living. John King began to sell the land, piece by piece. By 1950, the ranch was completely sold off and the family moved again to Yampa, a small town located about 100 miles west of Denver. Daisie King, however, was an astute businesswoman. Through a succession of businesses, including a drive-in restaurant in Denver, she became successful and invested in several real estate ventures. She made money.
In the meantime, young Jack had joined the U. S. Coast Guard in 1948. His service record was not a good one, though he had received an honorable discharge in 1949. During his less than one-year service, he was AWOL a total of 63 days. When he retuned to Denver, he held several jobs, excelling at none of them. While he was employed as a clerk for a manufacturing firm in 1951, Graham stole a quantity of payroll checks and cashed them for several thousand dollars. He forged the name of the company president on each one of the checks. With the proceeds, he bought a new convertible and promptly left Colorado and disappeared. During his absence, Denver police built a criminal case against Graham for the theft and forgery of the payroll checks. An arrest warrant was issued and filed away.
On the night of September 11, 1951, outside Lubbock, Texas, a young patrolman attempted to arrest Graham for transporting liquor in his car. Graham decided not to stick around and fled the scene. He led police on a wild, countywide pursuit, which ended when Graham crashed into a police roadblock, injuring several officers and forcing cops to fire dozens of shots into his new convertible. Although he was not injured, Graham was arrested and charged with a number of crimes relating to the chase and illegal transportation of alcohol. On the floor of the front seat of the car, cops found a loaded .44 caliber handgun.
Graham was later sent back to Colorado to face forgery charges. His mother made restitution to the company where he had stolen the checks. Graham was placed on probation and met with his probation officer religiously. By 1953, he was married and had two children. They lived with his mother in a large house, which Daisie had paid for, on Mississippi Avenue in East Denver. Soon, he was managing the drive-in restaurant and business was good. But relations between mother and son were difficult and strained. Graham had to pay back all the money his mother had spent to keep him out of jail. Additionally, he had to pay his mother rent for the house he lived in with his family. Graham fought with his mother publicly and they argued continuously over money. Rumors circulated that Graham was stealing from the family business.
In early 1955, a Chevy truck, owned by Graham, was struck by a train outside Denver. The vehicle had apparently been abandoned on the railroad tracks for some unknown reason, though Graham did not report the truck stolen. The case was never solved. Graham later submitted an insurance claim for the loss of the truck and collected several thousand dollars. He used some of the money to pay back his mother. By October 1955, the debt was almost fully paid.
But Graham’s resentment towards his mother had not diminished.
FBI agents called Jack Graham in for an interview. During questioning, Graham seemed helpful to investigators and eager to find the cause of the explosion that killed his mother and claimed 43 other lives. He provided details of his own background including his criminal past. Though he could not be specific about the contents of his mother’s luggage when she boarded the flight to Portland, Graham gave investigators a description of the bags. He was adamant when he said that his mother always packed her own bags whenever she went on a trip.
When the FBI later interviewed Graham’s wife, Gloria, she said that her husband had bought his mother a Christmas present, which he wrapped himself. She assumed he gave it to Daisie just before she left on her trip, perhaps even at Stapleton. Gloria believed that the present was a special set of hand tools that Jack had mentioned a few days before. Gloria said she last saw the present on the morning of November 1 at home, just before Jack and his mother left for the airport. Over the next few days, local police and FBI agents continued to question family and friends of the Grahams and processed additional evidence at the crime scene.
When agents asked Graham about the Christmas present, he denied that he had ever purchased the tool kit. He said that he was thinking about buying it but couldn’t find the exact one he wanted, so he bought nothing. Graham then told investigators that Gloria had a faulty memory and her statements to investigators could not be relied upon. He said that he would take a polygraph test if necessary and granted permission for agents to search his house. With consent to search, agents rushed over to Graham’s home on Mississippi Avenue and began to rummage through his home, garage and car.
During the search, police found strands of wire similar to those recovered at the crash site. Inside Graham’s bedroom, hidden away in a dresser drawer, agents found additional insurance policies on his mother’s life totaling nearly $40,000. Again, he was listed as the sole beneficiary. Ironically, Graham did not know he could never have collected on any of those insurance policies. In order for the insurance to be valid, his mother had to sign the application. She never did and as a result, the policies were worthless.
After his initial interview, Jack Graham was released and sent home. But he unknowingly had supplied a great deal of information to the investigating officers. The FBI now had a complete version of Graham’s movements during the time immediately before the explosion and details of his actions afterwards. Agents were dispatched to check out virtually every detail of Graham’s statements. They found many discrepancies in his story and quickly learned of the simmering animosity between mother and son. On November 13, Graham was asked to return to Denver for an additional interview.
At first, the suspect repeated his assertions that he did not buy his mother the tools in question. He stated that he merely intended to buy them. He could not explain why his wife told investigators that he had indeed bought the tools and placed them inside his mother’s luggage. Graham also could not explain the evidence found at his home and the Longmont crash site. But investigators would not relent. Late that afternoon, confronted with the growing mountain of evidence against him, Graham admitted that he caused the explosion on flight 629.
According to the FBI, Graham said that he put together a bomb consisting of 25 sticks of commercial dynamite, two blaster caps, a timer with a maximum capability of 90 minutes and a small battery. He said that he wrapped up the device like a Christmas present and placed it in his mother’s luggage just before she left the house for Stapleton. He had set the timer for 90 minutes. Graham said that he knew he had to hurry in order to get his mother on the plane and in flight before the time would expire. After he put his mother on the flight to Seattle, he went to the airport coffee shop, where he had coffee and munched on donuts. When he heard the news that a plane went down outside the City of Longmont, he knew that his bomb had worked.
Investigators were stunned by Graham’s matter-of-fact recital of how he killed 43 people to cover up the murder of his own mother. Graham was unapologetic, yet he assisted the FBI with many details of the plot including where and when he purchased the parts of the bomb. Guided by his admissions, Graham was later identified by the clerk in a hardware store where he purchased the dynamite several weeks before.
On November 14, 1955, Jack Gilbert Graham was arrested and charged with 44 counts of murder.
The sensational confession of Jack Graham was reported nationwide. “Youth Admits Planting Bomb in Airliner,” reported the New York Times on November 15. “FBI Says Suspect Put Dynamite Bomb on Plane,” said the Longmont Times-Call on November 14, 1955. Details of Graham’s statements were leaked to the press and provided the public with a frightening glimpse into the mind of a mass murderer. His indifferent demeanor and lack of remorse continued to astonish police. In his confession, Graham seemed anxious to explain every minor detail of his crime.
“I then wrapped about three or four feet of binding cord around the sack of dynamite to hold the dynamite sticks in place around the caps,” he told police. “The purpose of the two caps was in case one of the caps failed to function and ignite the dynamite … I placed the suitcase in the trunk of my car with another smaller suitcase…which my mother had packed to take with her on the trip,” he told police.
Gibbons
Graham was arraigned on murder charges in a Denver courtroom on December 9. District Attorney Bert Keating announced that the prosecution would be ready for trial after the first of the year and would seek the death penalty. News media representatives immediately appealed to the court to allow live television broadcast of the proceedings. This had never been allowed before, but the press said that interest in the case was so intense that the public demanded it. After all, the media pointed out, a trial is in the public forum. District Judge Joseph M. McDonald ruled on the appeal. He denied the request but not completely. The judge recognized the public’s right to know but at the same time, said it “must be remembered at the outset that the concern of everyone involved…is that all parties should be afforded a fair trial.” Judge McDonald was concerned about the intrusive nature of television cameras and the disruptive presence of reporters. But he struck a compromise. He granted permission to local television crews to film the proceedings and make their broadcasts at a later time. The judge also allowed still photography as long as no flash was used and the taking of pictures did not affect the proceedings. It was the first time television was allowed in the courtroom.
Meanwhile, Graham immediately recanted his confession to police and said that he only confessed to the crime because the police had threatened him. He said that he never put a bomb in his mother’s luggage and had no idea what happened to flight 629. In a jail cell interview, which took place on November 17, he said he didn’t even remember signing a written confession. “I’m not in the habit of doing anything like that!” he told reporters, “I respect people’s lives as much as my own.”
On April 21, 1956, promptly at 9:30 a.m., Jack Graham, then 24, looking pale and emaciated, entered the courtroom in downtown Denver to fight for his life. Looking a lot less than the 185 pounds he claimed when arrested, Graham walked slowly to the defense table and took his seat. The room overflowed with spectators and dozens of newsmen. Outside, a long line of people extended down the hallways and out into the street. City police were posted throughout the building and on nearby street corners. Dressed in a blue suit that seemed too big for his wiry frame, Graham sat passively at the table while the proceedings began. Anticipation was high that the accused killer would take the stand in his own defense.
The prosecution called to the stand dozens of expert witnesses, technicians, crash analysts, scientists and law enforcement personnel. In often riveting testimony they described in detail the catastrophic explosion on board flight 629 on the fateful night of November 1, 1955. CAB investigators explained to the jury how they concluded rather quickly that the cause of the crash was a bomb that was detonated in cargo bay #4. Crime scene technicians reviewed their findings at the Longmont site and presented evidence of a homemade bomb discovered in the debris of the DC-6B. Agents testified to their discovery of incriminating evidence found at Graham’s home during a search of his bedroom. D. A. Keating presented Graham’s 20 page written confession, which provided the exact time line of how and when he placed the bomb in Daisie King’s luggage. It was damning to the point of being overwhelming.
Graham’s attorneys were unable to mount any type of meaningful defense. They called a few witnesses to dispute testimony that Graham had purchased dynamite in a Colorado hardware store. Another witness challenged the prosecution’s contention that wire found in Graham’s house was identical with samples found at the Longmont crash site. The entire defense testimony lasted less than two hours. When asked to take the stand in his own defense, Graham refused. He also requested that his wife not testify in his behalf. In his charge to the jury, Judge Joseph McDonald warned the panel not to assume anything by Graham’s refusal to take the witness stand. He said, “the defendant’s failure to testify shall not be considered by the jury as in any way detrimental.”
The jury deliberated one hour and twelve minutes. Graham was found guilty as charged of murder in the first-degree. The conviction required an automatic death sentence. The defendant accepted the verdict in much the same way he viewed the proceedings, with a benign indifference. “I’m innocent!” he told the press after the verdict was announced.
Graham’s attorneys vowed to appeal the verdict and they later succeeded in obtaining a postponement of the original execution date. Graham was sent over to Colorado State Prison at Canon City to await further developments. There he prepared an affidavit in which he said, “I accept the verdict of the jury and desire that it be carried out with all convenient speed. This is my wish.” Despite newspaper reports to the contrary, Graham accepted his death sentence and soon, he became resigned to his own death. Though his lawyers vowed an appeal, they did so without his permission. “I don’t want any part of any appeal,” he said in court on May 14, “I don’t see why it can’t stop right here!” A lot of people felt the same way. Graham’s attorneys appealed to the state court listing dozens of alleged errors during his trial. Though the prosecution denied any wrongdoing, D. A. Keating supported the right of automatic appeal on the state’s death verdicts. “I can never get used to a jury coming in with a death verdict,” he commented to reporters from the Longmont-Times.
In the meantime, Graham’s wife, Gloria, then 22, vowed to stand by her husband. “I still love him and I’m right behind him!” she once told reporters from the Longmont Times. Throughout the trial she remained steadfast in her support but newspaper reports describe her as “pale from lack of sleep.” However, she did not attend the proceedings every day. Near the end of the trial, she was noticeably absent from the courtroom. According to friends, Gloria had taken a trip to nearby Glenwood Springs with her two small children. A relative told the press, she “needed some rest and had gone swimming.” Gloria had also reported to police that she had received several threatening phone calls in the middle of the night.
Graham’s “I want to die” statements took a serious turn when he attempted suicide. While he awaited the outcome of his attorney’s appeal, Graham decided to end the waiting himself. In September 1956, he was found unconscious in his cell. He had tried to kill himself by tying two socks around his neck and hanging himself from the bars. Guards rushed him to the hospital where he made a full recovery. Courts later ruled that Graham was well enough to face execution.
Anti-death penalty advocates soon joined in the case. They filed additional appeals on Graham’s behalf in an attempt to stop the execution. They appealed to the governor of Colorado to spare his life. Nevertheless, Graham was adamant. “I don’t see why I should have to make a political rally or something out of this!” he told the court, “I believed I had a fair trial as could be had under the circumstances.”
Hanging was the official method of execution in Colorado up until 1933 when it was discarded in favor of the gas chamber. Gassing the condemned was considered a more modern and humane way of taking a life than hanging, whose origins reach back to medieval times. In Colorado, by January 1957, 25 men had met their deaths from the fumes produced by dropping cyanide tablets into a bucket of sulphuric acid. Graham’s execution was set for 8:00 p.m. on January 12. There were 12 witnesses signed up for the event and dozens of photographers and reporters milled around Colorado State Prison in Canon City all day, anxious to report on Graham’s final moments of life. Graham received virtually no sympathy from the press or the public.
enters the death cell
Warden Harry Tinsley later told reporters when he arrived at Graham’s cell at 7:45 p.m., he found the prisoner in “a jovial mood.” He was stripped naked and handed a pair of prison-made shorts. The condemned are only allowed to wear shorts since clothes will retain the poisonous cyanide fumes. Graham put on the shorts and, according to press reports, “walked quickly toward the chamber.” Tinsley, three guards and a clergyman then escorted Graham into the gas chamber. Inside the cylinder-shaped room, Graham sat down in the metal chair while heavy leather straps were tied around each arm, leg and his chest. A black mask was placed over his head. The prison chaplain gave him his final blessing.
“I hope God will forgive you your sins,” he said, “Take it like a man.”
“Okay,” Graham replied softly. “Thanks Warden!” he said to Tinsley. The men exited the chamber and sealed the door tightly using the large wheel. There was absolute quiet in the room. Within seconds, the cyanide pellets fell into the acid making an audible “plop.” Soon, the deadly fumes seeped up into the barren chamber. Graham sat quietly and according to press reports, “continued to breathe normally.” About a minute later, the room was filled with the gaseous fog and Graham had no choice but to breathe it in. He gagged and wheezed as his head shook from side to side. Suddenly, he let out an ear-piercing scream and his chest pounded against the leather straps. Within a moment, Graham fell into unconsciousness. Prison doctors, listening to his heartbeat through an attached stethoscope, announced that there was no pulse. He was pronounced dead at 8:08 p.m. Later, after the fumes had been vented out of the chamber, Graham’s body was removed and cremated.
One of America’s worst mass murderers, Graham remained an enigma to the end. He displayed no sorrow or remorse for his awful crime, nor did he ever explain his consuming hatred for his mother. Shortly before his execution, Graham had a brief conversation with Warden Tinsley. “As far as feeling remorse for these people, I don’t,” he said, “I can’t help it. Everybody pays their way and takes their chances. That’s just the way it goes.”
This article was written using the sources listed below, as well as visits to the Longmont Museum Center and to the actual crash site of United Airlines flight 629 on the flatlands east of Longmont, Colorado.
Boda, Arlo, resident of Longmont, Colorado, a personal interview August 4, 2003.
Brenneman, Bill. “He’ll Never See His Lively Son Again, Crash Investigator Widely Known,” November 3, 1955, Rocky MountainNews.
Brown, George. “Federal Probers Seek Plane Tragedy Cause“, DenverPost.
“Plane Tragedy Reaches All Parts of Nation,” November 2, 1955,
“Crash Victims’ Names Furnished by Airline,” November 2, 1955,
“Grim Corpse Identification Task Parallels Probe of Crash Cause,”
“114 Pounds of Mail Recovered at Crash, Bomb Expert Studies Plane Crash Rubble,” November 3, 1955, DenverPost.
Federal Bureau of Investigation, synopsis of the Jack Gilbert Graham Case.
Fido, Martin (1993) The Chronicle of Crime. London, UK: Carlton Books Limited.
Gaskie, Jack. “Scene of Death and Horror Under Flickering Flames,” November 2, 1955, Rocky Mountain News.
Gauss, Gordon, “Graham Spurns Appeal and is Sentenced to Die,” May 15, 1956, Longmont-Times-Call.
Kallman, Harmon. “Copter Trip Presents Vivid Crash Picture,” DenverPost.
Larsen, Leonard, “Plane Tragedy Reaches All Parts of Nation,” November 2, 1955, The DenverPost.
“Local Guard Company Protects Wreck of Airliner,” November 3, 1955,
“Secrecy Cloaks Check that Bomb May Have Wrecked Big Airliner,” November 4, 1955,
“FBI Lab Expert Here Sifting Airliner Wreckage,” November 6, 1955,
“Bomb Blast Evidence is Reported Found,” November 7, 1955,
“Graham Faces Murder Charge,” November 15, 1955,
“Graham’s “I Want To Die” Statements,” May 7, 1956,
“Graham Spurns Appeal,” May 15, 1956, LongmontTimes-Call.
Nakkula, Al. “44 Killed in Airliner Explosion,” November 2, 1955, Rocky Mountain News.
Nash, Jay Robert (1995) Bloodletters and Badmen. New York, NY: M. Evans and Company Inc.
Pankratz, Howard, “Colorado A Leader in Courtroom Cameras,” December 12, 2002, The DenverPost.
Plasket, B. J. “Denver Airliner Bombing in ’55 Altered Security,” November 5, 1995. The DenverPost.
Roos, Charles. “Plane Parts, Bodies Scattered 2 Miles Over Sugar Beet Fields,” DenverPost.
“44 On Plane Die In Crash In West,” November 2, 1955,
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“FBI is Called In On Airline Blast,” November 6, 1955,
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“Colorado to Try Confessed Saboteur,” November 15, 1955,
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