Detroit Airline Hijacker Nabbed by Long Arm of the Law
George Wright, escaped murder convict and hijacker of an outbound Detroit flight on July 31, 1972, has be caught. Link
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On 31 July Wright, dressed as a priest and using the alias the Rev L Burgess, hijacked a Delta Air Lines flight from Detroit to Miami accompanied by three men, two women and three small children from his group. They included Wright's companion and their two-year-old daughter, according to Associated Press reports at the time.
When the plane landed at the Miami airport the hijackers demanded a $1m ransom to free the 86 people on board. After an FBI agent delivered a 32kg [[70lb) satchel of money – wearing only a pair of swimming trunks, as per the hijacker's instructions – the passengers were released, according to AP.
The hijackers then forced the plane to Boston, where an international navigator was taken aboard. The group flew on to Algeria where they sought asylum.
They were taken in by Eldridge Cleaver, the American writer and activist, who had been permitted by Algeria's socialist government to open an office of the Black Panther Movement in that country in 1970 after the Algerian president at the time professed sympathy for what he viewed as worldwide liberation struggles.
