1st skyjacking thwarted at El Paso airport: 1961 ordeal resolved with gunfire, fisticuffs
On Aug. 3, 1961, the first attempted skyjacking was thwarted in El Paso. Leon Bearden and his teen son, Cody, had boarded a Continental Airlines jet in Phoenix and demanded to be taken to Cuba. The plane carried 65 passengers. Leon Bearden had a long criminal record and was looking for a fresh start.
The flight's pilot, Bryon Richards, convinced Bearden that they would need to land in El Paso to get enough fuel to fly to Cuba. The FBI was waiting at the airport when the plane touched down. Agents persuaded Bearden to release most of the passengers during the refueling, and as the plane was taxiing down the runway, agents disabled it with machine-gun fire.
An FBI agent boarded the plane, but it was one of the remaining hostages who managed to punch out the enraged Bearden. Cody Bearden appeared glad to surrender. Leon Bearden received a prison sentence, but his son was released from a Colorado juvenile facility when he turned 21.
Jet airliner hijackers captured in EP
Here are excerpts from the El Paso Times story:
A $5.4 million Boeing 707 jet — reportedly constructed for Cuba but never delivered when dictator Fulgencio Batista failed to pay for it — nearly went to that island Thursday.
An Arizona youth and his father attempted to take off in the hijacked Continental Airlines jet from International Airport early Thursday.
The plane played a silent drama as it rested on a runway from approximately 2 a.m. until an attempted takeoff about 6 a.m.
During this four-hour period, the crew stalled as it refueled the plane. Baggage, trailers, trucks, ambulances and armed officers swept about the plane to block takeoff.
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Machine gun fire takes out tires
However, clearance to fly was given at about 6 a.m., and as the plane swept along the runway, officers opened with machine gun fire at the tires. The plane slowed and stopped. Vehicles and armed officers again surrounded the plane.
With tires flattened and bullet holes puncturing the sides and engines of the mammoth craft, officials sought for nearly six hours more to negotiate for the safety of six crew members and four volunteer hostages.
The two gunmen — Leon Bearden, 38, and his 16-year-old son, Cody — finally captured, were charged with kidnapping and interstate transportation of a stolen craft, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover advised.
One of the passengers on the plane who volunteered as a hostage was Border Patrol official Leonard Gilman. After all other passengers and crewmen had been released, Gilman slugged the elder Bearden. The terrific blow sent Gilman to a hospital for treatment of a fractured hand.
El Paso FBI Agent-In-Charge Francis Crosby, who went aboard the plane to negotiate, acted instantly to jump the youth, overpowering him.
The gunmen had made their move 20 minutes before the plane arrived in El Paso.
They took control of the pilot's cabin, but the plane had to land in El Paso for fuel.
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10 hours of tense drama
Thus began the 10 hours of tense drama — pleading, stalling, maneuvering."
Pilot B.D. Rickards of Los Angeles tipped El Paso control tower with a coded radio word that his plane was hijacked. ...
After landing in El Paso, the hijackers ushered most of the passengers off the plane.
The hijackers called for four volunteers to remain as hostages. Gilman, not revealing his identity, was one of them.
Another was Army Pfc. Truman Cleveland of St. Augustine, Fla., on his way to a new assignment at Fort Bliss. Cleveland traded his Army uniform for civilian clothes from Edward Holtman, 19, of Grants Pass, Ore.
Jack Casey, a Continental employee, elected to stay, as did Luis Evrives of Los Angeles.
Crewmen were Capt. Rickards, 1st Officer R.C. Wagner, 2nd Officer Norman Simons, director of passenger service Lou Finch, and stewardesses Toni Bassett and Lois Carnagy, all of Los Angeles. ...
Hijackers show little emotion
The Bearden father-son team showed little emotion during their arraignment before U.S. Commissioner Henry C. Clifton.
Both prisoners, their hands cuffed in front, were led into Commissioners Court on the third floor of the Federal Court House by federal marshals and FBI agents at 2:45 p.m.
The trial for Leon Bearden and his 16-year-old son, Cody, began Oct. 17, 1961. In the "first of its kind" trial, the jury took only 22 minutes to convict Leon Bearden of obstruction of interstate commerce and violating the Federal Motor Vehicle Theft Act. He was sentenced to 20 years in Leavenworth.
Cody went on trial with his father but pleaded guilty under the Juvenile Corrections Act to transporting a stolen vehicle across a state line. He was sent to a juvenile school.
Trish Long may be reached at tlong@elpasotimes.com or 915-546-6179.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: First skyjacking thwarted at El Paso airport in 1961: Trish Long
