Jack Gilbert Graham
| Jack Graham | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
John Gilbert Graham January 23, 1932 Denver, Colorado |
| Died | January 11, 1957 (aged 24) Colorado State Penitentiary Cañon City, Colorado |
| Nationality | American |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
| Spouse(s) | Gloria A. Elson |
| Parent(s) | William H. Graham and Daisie E. Walker |
| Motive | Life insurance money |
| Killings | |
| Date | November 1, 1955 7:02 p.m. |
| Location(s) | Longmont, Colorado |
| Target(s) | Mother |
| Killed | 44 |
| Weapons | Dynamite bomb |
John "Jack" Gilbert Graham (January 23, 1932 – January 11, 1957) was an American mass murderer, who on November 1, 1955, killed 44 people aboard United Airlines Flight 629 near Longmont, Colorado using a dynamite time bomb. Graham planted the bomb in his mother's suitcase, who was killed along with 43 other people, in an apparent move to claim US$37,500 (US$335,300 today) worth of life insurance money from policies he purchased in the airport terminal just before the flight departure.
Graham was convicted only of the murder of his mother due to laws at the time, for which he was sentenced to death and was executed by the state of Colorado in 1957.
John Gilbert Graham was born on January 23, 1932, in Denver, Colorado, the child of Daisie Graham and her second husband. Nicknamed "Jack", Graham was Daisie's second child, as she already had a daughter from her first marriage. Graham was born during the height of the Great Depression, and in 1937 his father died from pneumonia, causing Daisie to send the young Jack to an orphanage due to their poverty. In 1941, Daisie married for the third time to Earl King, who died shortly after their marriage. Using her inheritance from King's death, Daisie became a successful businesswoman, but despite her newfound wealth Daisie did not collect Graham from the orphanage. The two remained estranged until 1954 when Graham was 22-years-old, and Daisie King was running a successful restaurant. After their reunion King and Graham had a poor relationship and were often witnessed arguing, and in 1955 shortly before the bombing King's restaurant failed due to a gas explosion causing severe damage.
United Airlines Flight 629 was using a Douglas DC-6B airliner (named "Mainliner Denver") piloted by World War II veteran Lee Hall, on the evening of November 1, 1955. The flight had originated at New York City's LaGuardia Airport, making a stop in Chicago before continuing to Denver; it then took off from Denver, Colorado's Stapleton Airfield (now Stapleton International Airport), bound for Portland, Oregon, with continuing service to Seattle, Washington. Minutes after the plane's departure from Denver, the DC-6B exploded and the flaming wreckage fell to earth over tracts of farmland and sugar beet fields near Longmont, Colorado. There were no survivors.
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