11. Tail End

boost creativity, focus, or conversely go blank. I don't zen out, though, I think about this story, about how the missing men likely crashed into water and drowned, About the violence of nature and the brutality of loss, About my burning eyes. From my heart Media, This is Missing in Alaska, the story of two congressmen who vanished in nineteen two, and my quest to figure out what happened to them. I'm

your host, John Wallzac. Full disclosure, This was supposed to be our final episode, but we're getting so many new leads that we'll likely be back in the future with updates. For now, though, let me examine sixteen critical questions about the disappearance and give you some unexpected answers. You'll hear it back and forth between me and Paul Deckett are supervising producer one. Is it really so bizarre for a

small plane to disappear in Alaska and never be found. Yes, of course planes do vanish in Alaska without a trace, but it's not the norm. In nineteen two, Air Force Major Henry Stocker, the search commander, told reporters, quote, of what we're looking for, we locate. Of the previous twelve hundred planes to disappear, one official said only three had

never been found. An Air Force document I obtained says, quote, had the aircraft or its occupants have been able to send an electronic signal, the probability of detection of this signal was. The probability of detection of fires or other visual signals from survivors was the probability of detection of the aircraft if intact in the search area was an

excess of nine. The probability of locating aircraft, wreckage or survivors without fires or signaling devices was an excess of in all search areas, and an excess of in the highest probability area end quote. So, according to the Air Force, there was a chance of finding wreckage in the highest probability surge area, but still nothing, no debris, no oil slick nothing from the plane. And even when planes do disappear,

they're often located years or decades later. Take the case of Clearance Road, a U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service official who vanished on a small plane in Alaska in nineteen fifty. Despite a hundred and forty seven thousand square miles search, his plane was never found either until nineteen seventy nine, when hikers stumbled upon it in a remote part of the Brooks Range, high above the Arctic Circle two. Where did the plane crash, probably into Prince William Sound,

somewhere between Portage Pass and Henson Brook Island. The last time anyone heard from the plane was right before it entered the pass, but searchers found no wreckage in the past, nor has any sign of it surfaced there in the

last fifty years. We also have a critical clue. Around am on the morning of October six, nineteen seventy two, at least one to three people described in various accounts as a dock worker, construction worker, and or fisherman, heard a small plane fly over Whittier, The only plane in the vicinity of Whittier at that time was the baggage Boggs plane, so it seems that the missing plane did make it through Portage Pass over Whittier and onto Prince

William Sound. At that point, it would have been about seventy five miles from Johnstone Point on the northern tip of Hension Brook Island. At Johnstone there was a radio relay that would have allowed the pilot, Don John's to speak with the flight service specialist in Anchorage, but Don never radioed in after crossing through Portage Pass. Why. There are a few possible explanations. Don's radio broke at that very moment, right after he crossed through Portage Pass, but

before he was within range of Johnstone. Verdict possible, but very unlikely. Since Dawn wasn't required to make contact at Johnstone, he chose not to, so he actually made it past Hinsion Brook without checking in. But Don was known to radio in three to four times when flying between Anchorage and Juno, and he probably would have wanted to check in to see if there were any new weather updates.

Verdict possible but unlikely. Don crashed right after he got through Portage Pass, but before he was within range of Johnstone. This would have had to occur during a narrow window of time, though, say five to fifteen minutes, because once he got through the pass he would have been within range of the radio relay pretty quickly. Verdict possible, but less likely. Don had a sudden emergency while he was

within range of Johnstone and then crashed. In this case, even if he could radio in, he would have been preoccupied with saving the plane. Verdict possible. On this note, there's also a chance Don was within range of Johnstone but too low to make contact. Maybe there was an emergency and he wanted to call in, but he couldn't. His radio was line of sight, so terrain like mountains could have blocked a transmission. Verdict possible. Some people speculate

that Don did not cross through Portage Pass. They think he took an alternate route without notifying the authorities. Maybe he followed a rail line down to seward, crossed over water, and then disappeared. But this doesn't take into account witness

reports of a plane crossing over Whittier that morning. Verdict possible, but very unlike so to recap based on available evidence, it's still most likely that the plane craft somewhere between Portage Pass and Henshon Brook Island, probably into Prince William Sound. Three was the Cessina tail Bob Martinson found around right off Henshon Brook Island, part of the Beggage Bogg's plane. Maybe the coloration, size and tail number all apparently match,

so does the location. Poor Duchess is only about ten miles south of V three one seven, the route Don John's planned to take on October six ninety two. That day, if Don flew low under a cloud ceiling, he would have had to circle around Hension Brook, not over it by heading north or south. If he flew south trying to circle around the island, and if he had an emergency, he would have likely turned east into port Us instead

of heading out over open ocean. Once in port Ches, he likely would have tried to cross through a low pass of about a thousand feet and then attempted to land either somewhere on Hension Book or in Cordova. Four. What happened to the tailpiece Bob found Bob is fuzzy on whether he, his father and only Resa there fishing partner left the tail in the water, if they brought it back to Cordova, or if they sent it back on a tender, a type of supply boat. Bob thinks

they sent it back to Cordova on a tender. Five. If it made it back to Cordova to the Alaska State troopers, what happened, then where is it? Honestly, I have no idea. I tried to track down troopers who were stationed in Cordova around nineteen to ask them, because even if they determined that it belonged to a different plane, that's not the type of thing you forget. There should

be documentation of which plane it belonged to. Unfortunately, the only troopers I could find have died six What happened to the plane on October sixteenth? Why did it crash again? There are multiple possible explanations, including a mechanical failure, be whether see pilot error or d a bomb or some other black swan event. I don't buy option a catastrophic mechanical failure. The plane had just undergone a hundred hour inspection the day before it disappeared, and then that night

Dawn flew it safely from Fairbanks to Anchorage. I know at this very moment some pilots are squirming in their seats, so let me explain to the general public what these pilots have explained to me. The odds of a small plane suffering a mechanical failure actually go up after a through inspection because everything gets jostled around, etcetera. But the higher odds are still extremely low. So option B, whether this is what most people believe brought down the plane, specifically,

ice turbulence seems less likely. It would have been most severe in portage pass, but the plane apparently made it through the pass through the worst of it, So again ice. To be clear, there's zero doubt that icing conditions were present that day. The weather was undeniably bad. But it's important to explain a few things first. When you think of a small plane icing up and crashing, what do you picture? Do you see it freezing into an ice cube and just falling out of the sky, Because if so,

that's not how it works. The real reason ice is so dangerous, as Don himself pointed out in his article Ice Without Fear, which ran the same month he disappeared, is not the weight it adds. It's because ice can interfere with airflow, making it hard, if not impossible, for small planes to climb. So you risk losing altitude, stalling and then eventually crashing. Second, why does nearly everyone believe ice brought down the missing plane? There are two important

reasons here. No wreckage was ever found, so zero evidence that everyone wants some explanation. And that brings me to Don John's the pilot. He's an easy scapegoat. In Ice Without Fear, which again was on news stands when the plane disappeared, Don made several inflammatory comments, including quote, playing with ice is like playing with the devil. Fun but don't play unless you can cheat. But that's only a single line. Read the whole article. Don was wicked, smart,

and a damn good pilot. He survived more than seventeen thousand hours flying and often brutal Arctic conditions. Yes, he was arrogant, but there's a difference between arrogance born of inexperienced youth and arrogance born of actually being good at what you do. Now, grizzled pilots like to say there are old pilots and bold pilots, but no old bold pilots, And there's some truth to that. If you take risks, your odds of dying obviously go up to these old Timers.

Don is a very polarizing figure. They see him as either a genius or a fool. And this polarization is very important because when you can bind bad weather and Don's article, conditions were right for Don to take the fall for the cocky pilot who iced up and crashed narrative to dominate, even though since no wreckage was ever found,

that theory, too, is based entirely on speculation. Furthermore, while evaluating the ice theory, let's take a closer look at weather conditions that a by Alaska standards, they were actually pretty mild. The surface temperature along much of the plane's route was in the forties, well above freezing, and in the air the freezing level was at about five to six thousand feet. What does this tell us For argument's sake,

Let's say Don did encounter moderate to severe icing conditions. First, as an experienced pilot, he would have known quickly that he was in trouble. Second, it's extremely unlikely, almost impossible, that ice could have built up so quickly that it caused the plane to suddenly plummet into the sea. If Don was flying high enough and to accumulate a significant amount of ice, that day he would have had to have been he would have had time to descend into

warmer air. And even if he iced up while crossing through Portage Pass, he still had seventy five miles ago before reaching hnsin Brooke. He would have been over open water most of the time. He had time to escape into warmer air, and he had room. Now, let's look at the plane itself, a twin engine Cessna three ten. See the three ten is not intended to find icing

conditions for any extended period of time, no matter what. Regardless, just because the three ten encounters icing conditions doesn't mean it will automatically crash. So other than pilot experience, the vital question is what kind of icing equipment did the plane have. First, you have to delineate between anti ice equipment and d ice equipment. Anti ice equipment helps prevent

ice build up, d ice equipment helps remove it. According to the NTSB's final accident report, the missing plane had only a single piece of icing equipment, a heated pet tube, which is a device that prevents ice from interfering with air speed measurements. Past that, the NTSB report states explicitly that the plane had no other anti I equipment, and it makes no mention of any d ice equipment either. Since ice is most often cited as the reason the

plane crashed, this is extremely important. Now listen closely to what I'm about to tell you, because to my knowledge, nobody has ever reported it until now. There appeared to be major errors in the NTSB report discrepancies and omissions. Before I go on, let me credit Mike Travis, a pilot based in Washington State who has extensive experience flying

in Alaska, as the first person to notice this. Mike and I both obtained the missing planes airworthiness records from the f a A. Mike also obtained copies of the plane's original records from Cessna. In these records, we found something fascinating. It appears that the missing plane was outfitted with three pieces of anti ice and d ice equipment that we're not mentioned in the NTSB accident report. This

is a huge deal. Specifically, Mike and I found documentation that the plane had one pneumatic d ice boots on both its wings and horizontal stabilizer part of its tail. Pilots inflate d ice boots to crack ice off a plane's airframe and allow wind to carry it away. Two an alcohol based anti ice propeller system which pumps anti ice fluid onto propeller blades, and three a d ice light.

According to Andrew Kalett, a Georgia based pilot who co hosts the defense security podcast, d ice lights let you light up the leading edge of wings at night to see if you're picking up ice. So why did the NTSB mentioned none of this? How did the NTSB missed three pieces of anti ice and d ice equipment on a plane presumed have been felled by ice. The most generous explanation is gross negligence that d NTSB just missed

the equipment. It beyond that, it's possible that the icing equipment was removed sometime before the plane disappeared, but if it was removed, that should have been documented. Finally, it's possible that the icing equipment was there but it didn't work. It was inoperative, so the NTSB just didn't mention it. But the NTSB did mention a different system on the plane that was functional but inoperative, an oxygen system that

worked but had not been serviced with oxygen. So even if the plane had an operative icing equipment, the NTSB should have mentioned it, as it did with the oxygen system. For clarification, I called Phil Hewith, the mechanic who worked

on the missing plane the day before it disappeared. Phil remembers that at the very least, the plane did have functioning d ice boots, meaning not only were they not removed, but they worked to recap According to FAA records, CESSNA records, and Phil Hewith, the missing plane apparently had three pieces of icing equipment not included in the NTSB accident report.

Why did the NTSB exclude this equipment, I don't know, but by not including it, the NTSB helped further the iced up and crashed narrative, the narrative that most people to this day still believe. Now. The fact that the plane had this extra equipment does not mean it's impossible that it iceed up and crashed. It means it's less likely the extra equipment should have bought Don John's, the pilot, at least an additional five to ten minutes to escape

into better conditions and or warmer air. All together, when you combine Don's experience, mild temperatures, and extra unreported icing equipment not cited by the NTSB, the ice up and crash theory seems much less likely today than at any point in the last fifty years. So I've examined two possible explanations for why the plane crashed, mechanical failure and weather. What about the others options? See? Is pilot error? Now, Dawn was very smart and very experienced, but that doesn't

rule out pilot error. It just means it's less likely. For argument's sake, let's say pilot error did play a role here. There are many possible scenarios, and we can't examine them all but one, perhaps the likeliest, is that Dawn flew too low and slammed into a mountain or glacier. But this doesn't make sense. Remember when US has heard a plane, probably this plane pass over Whittier, and beyond

Whittier it's mostly open water until hension brooke. That leaves us with option D, the black Swan event, a bomb or something else unexpected and extreme. Seven. Was the plane bombed? I don't know. Eight? Could the plane have been bombed? Yes, how maybe with the bomb triggered by a barometric pressure or a timer or a radio receiver. The possibilities are endless. Where would you hide it? Probably in the tail compartment. Why would anyone bomb it? Well, that gets the motive

that gets to Jerry Paisley and his claims. Nine do you think Jerry Paisley lied? I think there's a strong possibility that he did tell the truth, at least in part. And I'm not alone in that opinion. The three members of law enforcement and the NBC producer who interviewed him all agree with me. Look, if I thought everything Paisley said was bullshit, I would tell you. I'm not here to lie to you. I'm here to tell the truth to the best of my ability. I've tried to keep

speculation to a minimum. I want you to make up your own mind. But come on, you mean to tell me that one year after congressman vanished, by pure coincidence, his widows stumbled into a mobster, married him. And by the way, this guy murdered five or six people, bombed a judge's house, and had close ties to two prominent mafia families. For argument's sake, okay, chalk it up to coincidence. Twenty years after this coincidence, this guy, Jerry Paisley, tells

law enforcement a shocking story. He claims that Peggy Begett met with mob boss Joe Bonano in Tucson in the summer of nineteen seventy two, right before her husband, Congressman Nick Beggett, disappeared. He claims that shortly thereafter, a Banano lieutenant named Joe I Trolla or Joey the I asked him to fly a suitcase to Anchorage. He claims he

did fly a suitcase to Anchorage. He claims that two men, Danny Zivanich and Jean Fowler, picked him up at the Anchorage airport, and that later that night the three of them met up with Jean's brother Larry. He claims that after he, Peggy and Zivinich went into business in nineteen seventy four, Zivinas told him that Peggy owed him because he quote blew her old man out of the sky. Now, what of Paisley's story? Can we prove? Paisley did marry

Peggy Baggage. Paisley and Peggy did go into business with Zivinage. Paisley did have close ties to to mob families, the Bananas and the Lick of Olie's. Paisley did murder people and conduct bombings. The rest I'm not a hundred percent sure, but if Paisley's claims are true, if I'd speculate the following things. One, Jean and Larry four were bit players. Jeane was paid to pick up Paisley at the airport and not ask questions, and the three men just hung

out that night with Larry. Two Joeyah Tarrola was also a bit player. He ran an errand for his boss. Three. Paisley knew more than he led on, but he was still mostly a bit player. Four. As for Danny Zivinag, he's a cipher. I don't know much about him. He was in the military, moved to Alaska and was a bartender. Next thing you know, he owns fifty of Max Inc. The company he started with Peggy and Paisley. Five. The Mob would have gotten involved for one of two reasons. First,

there's always a direct payment. Give us money, We'll give you a bomb. Second, and I think this is more likely if Peggy won nick seat and she did run for it, the mob would have had Alaska's only congress person in its back pocket. During a gold rush time, the oil boom, when there were moves and money to be made. You could ask well, why go through all that trouble? Why not bribe or blackmail Nick Baggage instead?

And my answer would be that every single person I've interviewed, and I mean every person, said Nick was clean and a man of integrity. I don't think he could be bought off or blackmailed. Six If the plane was bombed, why do it with hail bogs on board? To that, I'd say, if someone bombed the plane, they would have had the factor in the likelihood that wreckage would be found and a bomb identified as the cause of the crash.

And then who would everyone pinpoint as the target, the nerdy first term congressman from Alaska or the House Majority leader who served on the Warrant Commission seven? Why would Peggy get involved? Though her son Tom denies it, multiple people told me that Peggy's marriage to Nick was strained, that they were separated and considering a divorce. Peggy met Nick in Minnesota when Nick was a young twenties something

high school teacher, her high school teacher. They got married, moved to Alaska, had six kids, and then Nick was gone most of the time. Working documents show that Peggy got about a million dollars in today's dollars after Nick disappeared. Eight. Even if Paisley told the truth, it's possible Peggy did not know what she was getting herself into. She could have been manipulated and used. Nine. Paisley might have told the truth in part. It might not be so simple

as he lied or he told the truth. Maybe he told part of the truth. And this leads me to an interesting theory. When I sat down with Tom Davis, the Arizona investigator who observed Paisley's wedding to Peggy in nineteen seventy four and interviewed Paisley in he pointed out something interesting in the red dot photos, the Peggy Paisley wedding photos. Every person connected to organized crime is tie

primarily to the lick of OLiS, not the bananas. Heck, even Pete Lackavoli Jr. Himself is there, but none of the bananas. In addition, the Conti Qui, where Paisley claimed Peggy met with Joe Bonano, was owned, at least in part, not by the bananas but by the lick of OLiS.

Also in nineteen seventy four, Joeya Tarola or Joey the I, the man who allegedly gave Paisley the suitcase filled with explosives, was secretly photographed at a Tucson golf tournament with two of Paisley's friends, Sal Spinelli and Pete Likavoli Jr. Finally,

in FBI records, I found something very interesting. An FBI memo dated October six, nineteen seventy two, only ten days before the congressman disappeared, states that Jerry Paisley was spotted in September nineteen seventy two, around the same time he claimed to have transported explosives to Anchorage with Pete Likavoli Sr. The Big Boss. Here's part of the memo with the

word blank substituted in for redacted sections. Quote source advised that on nine, nineteen seventy two, Jerry Max Paisley and Pete Lookavoli Senior had been in the Hilton Inn bar together. During the time they were in the bar, they blank. Source stated that she had heard that Paisley was presently

residing at the Hilton Inn motel. End quote. And there's a second FBI memo quote On September twenty one, nineteen seventy two, p x T DASH two advised that on Blank, Jerry Max Paisley and Pete Lookavoli Senor had been in the Hilton Inn bar together. During the time that they were in the bar together, they were also joined by blank. Source stated he had heard that Paisley was presently residing

at the Hilton Inn motel end quote. So, per two FBI memos, Jerry Paisley was observed with Pete Lackavoli year in Tucsson on September nineteenth, nineteen seventy two, only twenty seven days before the congressman disappeared again. Paisley claimed that Peggy Beggett visited Tusson sometime around August nineteen seventy two, and that about two weeks later he transported a lock suitcase with explosives to Anchorage. So why would Paisley blame

the bananas instead of the lick of OLiS. I don't know. Maybe he wanted to protect them, Maybe he wanted to protect himself by changing key details. At this point, let me pause because I need to correct an error I made in two previous episodes. In episodes four and eight, I stated that Peggy Beggett and Jerry Paisley were accompanied on their honeymoon to Mexico in nineteen seventy four by Pete lick of Ol Jr. And his wife Cathy. That's incorrect.

Cathy is Pete's sister, not his wife. So my correction is this. Peggy Beggett and Jerry pay Easily were accompanied in March nineteen seventy four on their honeymoon to Mexico by Pete lack of Ole Jr. And his sister Cathy two of mob boss Pete look Ofoly seniors children ten. Whether or not his claims are true, why did Paisley make them at all? Why did he speak to law enforcement? I don't know. However, I've said it before and I'll say it again. It is possible Paisley just lied. Maybe

there's no good reason why. Maybe he was just an asshole. But beyond lying for the fun of it, I struggled to see any logic a reason why he would make these claims if they were false. He got no time off his sentence, no media attention, no money, and he did not express a boiling hatred of Peggy Baggage. In fact, if you read the transcript, even Paisley speculates that she

didn't really know what she got herself into. In an email, Tom Beggatt told me, quote, my family is wearied by the things people like Jerry have said for their moment of fame or notoriety. End quote. But to Tom, I'd ask this, what fame? What notoriety? Paisley spoke about this with one journalist before he died. He did not embark

on a publicity campaign. Paisley even asked his biographer Sean Atwood to use a pseudonym after he died, and in Atwood's book The Mafia Philosopher, there's no mention of the alleged bombing, something you'd figure Paisley would want if he craved fame. Finally, if what he wanted was fame and glory, why would Paisley downplay his role, Because in the bombing narrative, he's not some badass mob guy. He's a glorified delivery

man who flew a suitcase from Tucson to Anchorage. Past speculation, is there anything that backs up paisley story, even parts of it? In short? Maybe Paisley told investigators that when Peggy Begetts visited Tucson around August nineteen seventy two, he used a fake name to book her a room at the Spanish Trail Motel. In the FBI records I obtained, there are conveniently multiple memos detailing where Paisley lived at

various points during the summer of nineteen seventy two. June one, nineteen seventy two, the Thailand's Motel August eighteen, nineteen seventy two, the Spanish Trail Motel September twenty one, nineteen seventy two, the Hilton Inn. So the FBI records document that not only did Paisley live at the Spanish Trail Mode Tell in August nineteen seventy two, when Peggy Baggage allegedly stayed there,

but also that Paisley moved frequently. So if Paisley lied, he had an amazing ability twenty four years later to remember exactly where he lived during one month in the summer of nineteen seventy two, so that he could incorporate that detail into his lie twelve. Did you find anything else in the FBI records? Yes, and it's weird again. Let me read you part of an FBI memo using the word blank for redacted sections. Quote on August twenty three,

nineteen seventy two Blank telephone. Blank advised that he had received information from his Blank that during the early part of August nineteen seventy two, Blank had told her that he had been brought to the Tucson area by the chief of the FBI in New Orleans. He stated that this trip had been made on an FBI jet aircraft and at several other agents, possibly from the Albuquerque area, had a companied Blank and the agent from New Orleans.

Blank stated that he was told by Blank that upon their arrival at Tucson, all of the individuals interviewed Jerry Paisley at the airport, and that Paisley had been taken to the airport by local Tucson FBI agents end quote. So here in an FBI memo we have an allegation that Jerry Paisley was taken to the Tucson airport in early August nineteen seventy two and interviewed by FBI agents. Does the idea of the plane being bombed make any sense? Yes,

here's what we know. The missing plane likely made it through Portage Pass within five to fifteen minutes. It would have been within range of the radio relay at Johnstone Point. But the pilot Don John's never radioed in again. So, as far as I can tell, something catastrophic and sudden caused the plane to crash. I've told you why. I think mechanical failure and pilot error are unlikely. So what does that leave fourteen? Aren't you reading too much into this?

The simplest explanations still is that the plane iced up and crashed. The weather was bad that day. Yes, the weather was bad, But let's do an exercise. Let's say you put a bomb in my trunk and I drive off a cliff during a blizzard. Nobody finds me. Does the fact that I drove off a cliff in a blizzard mean the bomb wasn't in my trunk? Aren't you being extremely unfair to Peggy begat in my opinion? No. I gave Miss Baggett and her family plenty of opportunities

to tell their side of the story. Except for Tom Beggatt's emails, they declined to answer any questions, and Charles wolf Fourth, their friend, the author who investigated Paisley's claims but never published them, posted a message with multiple inaccuracies on Facebook last year warning people not to work with me. I still want to tell Peggy side of the story. She always has an open invitation to do an interview.

The Beggage is probably figured it was wise not to speak with me to deny the story oxygen and hey, it worked to some degree. As of this recording, no media in Alaska except the Fairbanks Daily News Miner has reported this story. Still, it's especially egregious, in my opinion, that the Anchorage Daily News hasn't covered it at all. Six So what now? Two things? First, the FBI should reopen its investigation into Jerry Paisley's claims. There are people

alive who have answers. It's not too late. Also, the Bureau should examine how the case was handled in the nineteen nineties. Second, someone should conduct a full search for the plane in and around port Edges where Bob Martinson found the tailpiece. We searched, but obviously we don't have the resources of say the federal government or James camp Rent. Now we could go back with more equipment, So if you're listening and you want to fund another search, email

us seriously. If we go back to Port Uches. In addition to r o v s or remotely operated vehicles, we need at least three other things, a magnetometer, a toe behind metal detector, and side scan sonar. A magnetometer would allow us to detect certain metals ferris metals like iron and steel, but not aluminum. It would allow us to search for parts of the plane like the engines. A toe behind metal detector, on the other hand, would allow us to detect aluminum, and side scan sonar would

allow us to look at the sea floor. With this equipment, if the baggage box plane is in port edges, there's a good chance we could find it. Regardless of what comes of this show, whether or not the FBI reopens its investigation or another search is conducted in Port Uches, I will continue to investigate new leads, and we are getting them every day. For now, though, this is a story with no ending, but even stories with no ending

deserve to be told. But wait, only a few days ago after we finalize this episode, we got some startling new information. So even though this was supposed to be our final episode, we'll be back. However, at this point we're reporting the story in real time, meaning we can't publish every week. Stay tuned. No task this week. Instead, Questions for the Alaska news media, especially the Anchorage Daily News. How long can you ignore the story? When will you

report it? And why haven't you reported it? Ever? You can reach us by phone at one eight three three m I A Tips. That's one eight three three six four two eight four seven seven again one eight three three six four two eight four seven seven, Or you can reach us via email at tips at iHeart media dot com. That's tips, T I P s at I heeart media dot com. And you've already been very helpful.

Among other things, you helped us find Joe Tatum, the last man alive who heard the bizarre radio transmission the day of the plane vanished. You helped us find Alex Dressler, the reporter who observed Peggy and Paisley's wedding. Dressler did not respond to interview requests regardless, thanks to Michael Knacka for helping us find him. Finally, you also helped us figure out that the photo everyone thought was the last known photo of the missing congressman is actually not the

last known photo of them. There are others. Unfortunately, the photographer who did take the final known photos did not respond to interview requests. An important note, none of the people Jerry Paisley claimed took part in or had knowledge of the alleged bombing. Joe Banano, joeyat Tarrola, Danny Zevinich, Gene Fowler, Larry Fowler, or Peggy Begat where ever charged with or convicted of any crimes tied to any of

Paisley's allegations. Peggy Begat and Danny Zevenich declined multiple interview requests. Gene Fowler was unavailable for an interview. Joe Banano, joeyat Trolla, and Larry Fowler are dead. Pete Lacavoli Jr. And Mike Lackavoli did not respond to multiple interview requests. We were unable to reach Kathy Lookavoli. Pete Lakavoi Senior is dead. Ben Bowen is our executive producer. Paul Decant is our supervising producer. Chris Brown is our assistant producer. Seth Nicholas

Johnson is our producer. Sam T. Garden is our research assistant. And I'm your host and executive producer, John Wallzac. You can find me on Twitter at at John Wallzac, j O n w A l se z A k. Our team has been amazing. Ben Paul, Chris Seth, and Sam thank you and thank you to I Heart for supporting this show. Paul is also a filmmaker. He directed a movie that came out last year called Annie in the City. Check it out on Amazon, A, n n E y

in the City. On a personal note, thank you to my friends and family, especially the three fearless women who helped raise me, my mom, aunt and grandma and my dad too. A shout out to my alma mater umc Asheville, and a special thanks to Jen and Rob for studio space and for your support. Missing in Alaska is a work of investigative journalism. I spent nine years researching this story, but most journalists don't have the luxury of spending years,

or months or even weeks on a single story. To that end, please support local media, regardless of your politics. A strong local press is vital to hold everyone accountable, and I'd like to ask you a favor. If you can, please donate to the Lens, a small nonprofit news outlet in my city, New Orleans. Go to the Lens NOLA

dot org. That's the Lens Nola dot org. Finally, there's also an amazing nonprofit that cleans up marine debris and Prince William Sound called Gulf of Alaska Keeper or go a k Thank you to Chris Pallister, who founded the organization for consulting with us before our trip to henshin Brook Island. You can learn more about and donate to go a K at go a k dot org. That's go a k dot org. Missing in Alaska is a co production of I Heart Media and Greenfork Media.