3. The Croat Letter

the largest search in American history ended in failure. Despite a colossal effort spanning thirty nine days and three thousand square miles, no sign of the missing plane surfaced, at least at the time, despite the efforts of Coast Guard cutters, a top secret spy plane, an elite Army mountain unit, and hundreds of volunteers. Nothing despite more than a thousand Air Force sorties, forty seven thousand feet of film covering a hundred and twenty five thousand square miles of terrain,

and eight possible sightings. Nothing. Despite everything, nothing, Your first reaction might be, well, it's Alaska, that's not surprising, and that was mine too, at least initially, But for no sign of the plane, not one solitary piece to ever surface was very rare, according to Air Force Major Henry Soccer, who told reporters that quote, what we're looking for we locate of the last twere planes to vanish in Alaska

An official said only three had never been found. From my Heart media, this is missing in Alaska, The story of two congressmen who vanished in two and my quest to figure out what happened to them. I'm your host, John Wallzac. Two days before the surge ended, Peggy beget Nick's wife received a sinister cryptic letter pasted together from scraps of newspaper like an old time ransom note. Your husband, Mr Beck, an American Croatian Alaska Democratic rep. Has been

assassinated by our organization. He and others aboard will not be found reason criminally insane nature of his pact with American Croats separatists. Congressional record e one three five nine five nine six. Croatian nation doesn't exist, never did. Same will happen to everybody in destructible engagement against our dear Yugoslavia. High position in American fascist government will not matter. We are not in connection with Yugoslav government, organization of Yugoslav Nationalists,

or you nah. The letter arrived in a handwritten no envelope post smart November twenty and mailed from Detroit. Think about that for a minute. Someone took the time to pacete together an anonymous letter from newspaper clippings, then mailed it in a handwritten envelope. Sure they could have had someone else mail it, maybe a friend in Detroit, but the whole thing seemed amateurish, like some kind of bumbling hoax. That said, the FBI took it seriously, and for good reason.

Starting in the nineteen sixties, Croatian separatists had waged a violent international campaign to establish an independent Croatian nation split off from socialist Yugoslavia. For two decades, they carried out a series of high profile hijackings, bombings, and assassinations, including multiple attacks in nineteen seventy two, the year Beget, who was of Croatian ancestry, disappeared. Perhaps the most famous occurred in January nineteen seventy two, when a briefcase bomb planted

by separatists ripped apart a commercial airliner high over Czechoslovakia. Today, the bombing is best remembered not for the twenty seven people who died, but for the one who lived, a flight attendant named Vesna Volkovich, who survived a thirty three

thousand foot fall to the ground. Eight months later, on September sixteenth, nineteen seventy two, exactly one month of the day before Nick Beggett vanished, separatists conducted near simultaneous attacks on two different continents, hijacking in Sweden and bombing in Australia.

That day was a turning point for the movement. According to doctor matte Nikola Tokes, the author of a book called Croatian Radical Separatism and Diaspora Terrorism during the Cold War, these two events in coordination with one another, actually very quickly marked I think an important turning point for Chreatian terrorists,

this idea that there are no innocent victims. Before nineteen September nineteen seventy two, creations were very clear about targeting either institutions of the state or those they deemed to be involved in the state. So they were more than willing to to target civilians in places like Belgrade Um Serbian civilians and they're thinking who in any case couldn't

be innocent. But for the first time, non Serbs, non Yugoslavs were involved in Christian terrorism with the hijacking of the airplane and then with the bombing on George Street in in Sydney. Dr Tokis, who conducted extensive research for his book had access to, among other things, the papers of certain international spy agencies. I asked him if he ever came across any mention of Nick Baggett. I've never come across discussions of him in any security services archives

that I've seen. Clearly, there's a lot of stuff I was never able to get to, but particularly in Australia Asio, which belongs to the Five Eyes Agreement, so the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and Baggage never comes up in any of those documents. Beggage had no known ties as separatists, though he did speak to the American Croatian Academic Club of Cleveland, Ohio into nine, but that speech was benign. Not everyone advocating for an independent Croatian state

was violent. The only reason I'm even mentioning it is because it's what you'll find referenced in the exact part of the Congressional record cited in the letter claiming Baggage had been assassinated, which, by the way, how many hoaxters cite the Congressional record That letter had been signed by a right wing fascist group called or You naw The organization of Yugoslav nationalists. The only problem by the time Beggatt vanished or you not have been defunct for forty

three years. Dr Tolke, it's for one, despite deep digging, never found a single reference to any group claiming to be or Youna between nine and now until I emailed him. Do you think that the most likely explanation is that this letter was in fact not sent by pro Yugoslav individuals,

that by the Croasian separatists. That to me would be the most likely UM explanation, right, it's it's the way of exploiting this tragedy to force FBI attention away from krots towards other groups right to to you know, because the resources for combating these organizations was quite small, I

mean they were very limited, certainly in the beginning. And the idea is if if the FBI is spending its time chasing shadows or chasing organizations that don't exist, all the better that they're not chasing pro separatist movements UM.

And I can very easily see the thinking on the part of this letter writer is saying like, look, you know, there aren't so many people UM engaged in these questions in the FBI, and if they are occupied otherwise, not with us, but with something that they'll never even be able to find, than less time for them to deal with us. And this letter strikes me most likely as

serving that purpose, and serve that purpose it did. The FBI conducted investigations in eight cities, even interviewing Baggage his parents in Minnesota, but it found no proof of any plot to murder the congressman. Curiously, though, the Bureau did

recover too latent fingerprints from the handwritten envelope. I'm not sure whether or not those fingerprints still exist, believe me, I looked, But if they do, tucked away in a file somewhere, it would be fascinating to run them through a modern database to see if any matches pop up.

In late December, the missing men were declared dead. Hail Boggs of Louisiana, who was lost last year in an aeroplane over Alaska, was a man who belonged to the House of Representatives as much as any member in this century. Boggs was Majority leader when he was lost. In Today, many of his congressional colleagues, along with Vice President Agnew and former President Lyndon Johnson, were in New Orleans for

a memorial service. Fred Briggs was there. The memorial service was held at St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter. It was open to the public, friends, political and personal, and that takes in a considerable number of people. The late Hail Boggs with a Southern Democrat. In his thirty two years of service in Congress, he bucked many regional trends.

He became an outspoken civil rights advocate. In the mid nineteen six piece, he called for the resignation of j. Edgar Hoover, and he even criticized the oil the police in the lawrence, which is not a necessarily popular thing to do when an oil stake went Louisiana. Yet throughout all this he remained immensely popular in his home state and with his colleagues in Washington. They were here today

to pay their last respects. If Hail Boggs the individual cast a giant shadow, so did his nearly three decades of distinguished service in the House of Representatives. He loved the House, where the esteem, respect and love in which he was held by all members, regardless of political persuasion, have never been surpassed in the history of that great institution. He loved his colleagues, he loved his friends, he loved his family, he loved people, he loved his country, love all.

He loves his God. Three days later, in Alaska, hundreds gathered at East Anchorage High School to pay tribute to Nick Baggage. Sunday, January seven has been proclaimed Nick Baggage Memorial Tribute Day. The voice of Governor William Egan, we are going to miss our friend who contributed so much to the well being of all Alaska during his time with us, distinguished visitors, and makes me love of family. There's something about this great land of ours that attracts men.

Perhaps it is a land it's awesome and even terrifying beauty, the richness of its vast wilderness, the bounty of its forests and streams. Perhaps it is the opportunity the fabled El Dorado, the adventure land we learned about as boys, in which part of us will always pursue. Perhaps it is a challenge of life in a society that is still in the making of existence, in the land where natural always have the upper hand, for the small tasks of survival must compete with the great decisions of the day.

Perhaps it is the people. Whatever the reasons, many come, but as all of us know, very few stay. The challenge of Alaska exceed the strength of all but a few. Good Man Nick Baggage was one who stayed, for he was one of us and Alaska and for all and anything that means he is with hers still. That was

Email Naughty, a prominent Democratic activists and Alaska native. One week after the memorial, Naughty and dozens of others gathered at a convention to choose a candidate to run in a special election called to fill the state's vacant health seat. Three people saw the nomination Naughty, State Senator Chancy Croft and Peggy Baggage. Thanks, Oh, we are now about to set aside as much of our sorrow as our hearts still allowed, and to undertake the process of selecting a

succestance to the last of the US seat. As both a candidate and as Nick's widows, I recognized my own responsibility to indicate the time for setting the side memories and undertaking that process. That time is now, and I expect that Alaskans will react with the same resilience and hard work that always surfaces of difficult times. During the past two weeks. I have traveled throughout the state and spoken with countless alostoms. I've spoken with many of you,

and with friends in Washington. Do seem although the events of the past few days have prevented my speaking to you, I wanted to call this meeting today to renew our discussion, to give you the open opportunity to question me, and to say with as much force as I am able. I am a candidate, and I doubt that many of you will ever see a more resolute or committed candidates.

Competition at the convention was civil but fierce. At one point, Peggy claimed an important committee had been rigged against her when she placed third in an initial vote, She decided to throw her support to Naughty, who then won. Imor Nati, president of the Alaska Native Foundation and chairman of the party that nominated him, a thirty nine year old Native born of Athabaskan and the Italian heritage in the river village of Payattunk, now the first Alaska Native ever nominated

to run for Congress, Larry Carpenter broadcast Center News. Naught East triumph was short lived, though a month later he narrowly lost the special election to Republican Don Young, a riverboat captain from fort Yukon, Alaska, who had been defeated by Nick Beggett's the previous November. Even though Beggetts was missing and presumed at at the time amazingly, Young, now

eighty six, still serves in Congress. I spoke with him by phone in late and so, Congressman, you're the Dean of the House, the longest serving Republican congressman in American history, one of the ten longest serving congressman of any party in history. Often referred to as alaska As third Senator. But you hold another distinction, one of the only people to lose a Congressional race to a dead man. Uh. Do you think you would be in Congress today if

Nick Beggatts had lived? That's the question I can't answer. A chance to be, you know, because remember I were from fort Yukon, I was setting up to run and seventy four. Uh, but you know who knows what the votes November? It was a Democrat state. We had that Bill Egan was with. The governor was a Demot the Democratic legislative body. These were good Democrats, by the way. Uh. So, Uh, you know who knows, uh, you know, he beat me, but I was able to come through the general election.

Around the same time Beggatt's vanished, Young himself had narrowly avoided a deadly crash, something all too common in Alaska. I got on an airplane once eighty five with my wife and myself and the pilot, and we lived. And it was terrible and we got quite a way as an icing condition said, and we started pulling ice in and I'm playing co pilot, and the pilots said, we've got to go down. And I said, you're right, And I thought, ugly, you can't see anything wings or iceing up,

and you started down. We started down, sort of a gradual approach, and we finally broke out out of the icing conditions, and where you can see, we had followed the contour of one of those mountains that comes out of the graph down into the area. And that's that's what God was taking care of me, because we've been two hundred feet or two to two hundred yards uh in a different angle, we would not be here today. Young's victory in the nineteen seventy three special election had

a major, long lasting impact on Alaska politics. Many people in the state Democrats at least wonder what would have happened if Nick Beggett's had lived and Young had never been elected. Sierra Beggett Slade, nick granddaughter is one. Had he lived, UM, and if this never happened, I think that Alaska and our politics would have gone in a much different direction. I think the fact that Don Young has been in his position for so long UM has

taken us down a different path. And I think that if my grandfather we're still here today, and if he would have been able to live that full life, things would have been different. And right now we're you know, we're in a recession as a state and things are looking pretty grim, and maybe that wouldn't be the case if you were still here. Even though you never met your grandfather. Do you feel a sense of loss? I do, UM, just because I feel like we would have had things

in common. And I don't necessarily feel that with too many relatives, UM, But just from what I know about him, it seems that he he had such a genuine heart. Did you ever hear any personal stories about your grandfather that you can share, any anecdotes? Nothing? Honestly, growing up, we didn't talk much about what happened the disappearance about my grandfather in general, I don't know much about him

other than what I've heard from the community. So yeah, hearing the details of that, hopefully through this podcast, will be pretty interesting. And how do you think that the loss of your grandfather affected the family as a whole. It's hard to say, because we really didn't talk much about it. I don't know. I think that it would be a different situation if he were still here. Imagining his children, I think that they had a hard time with his loss obviously. I think that it has affected

generations to come as far as emotional stability. But there is a positive light to it too. And I think that a lot of his kids have been so involved in politics because they felt like they needed to because he missed out on the opportunity to really finish that out. Um. So I think it's driven a lot of us to pursue more in his name. Down in Asiana. That same sense of civic engagement persisted in the Boggs family too.

In nineteen seventy three, like Peggy Baggage, Lynda Boggs sought the Democratic nomination to run in a special election to fill her husband's empty seat. Mrs Lynda Boggs, wide of the late Louisiana Congressman, won the Democratic nomination to succeed him. She got three times as many votes as are four competitors altogether, and Mrs Boggs will face Republican Robert E. Lee in a general election on March. Lindy went on to crush Lee by thirty two thousand votes, making history.

Is the first woman elected to Congress from Louisiana. She would serve nine terms in the House and later as the US Ambassador to the Vatican. She died at the age of so up to this point, I've spent most of my time talking about the Congressman, but there were

two other men who disappeared too. One was Baggage Aid Russ Brown, a Nebraska native who studied anthropology and chemistry before moving to Ketchikan, Alaska, seven where he met his wife, Penny and became a stepfather to her kids from a previous marriage in nineteen seventy two, only three months before he vanished. Russ and Penny had a daughter of their own, Marine Nicole. Other than that, I don't know much about him.

My attempts to contact his family were unsuccessful. I saved Don John's the pilot, for last, because he's a very important character in this story, the man many blame for the planes disappearing. John's was an extremely experienced, incompetent pilot. By the time he vanished, he had accumulated more than seventeen thousand hours of flight time. No pilot last seventeen thousand hours flying small planes and brutal conditions in the

Alaska interior unless they're talented. If you're wondering about his name, yes, John's j O. N Z was originally Jones. He changed it to John's because there was already a pilot in Fairbanks named Don Jones, and he wanted something unique. John's was a blonde, blue eyed ladies man, an army veteran of the Korean War, and a self styled intellectual with a rise sense of humor and a daredevil streak. He did have it a masculine quality to him very much,

so he wasn't a very very attractive person. Effectually had a bit of a hook knows, but he certainly had a lot of Christmas and charm and was attractive enough. That's Mike Gravel, a former U. S Senator represented Alaska from nineteen sixty nine to one. He knew and often flew with John's. He had flown near around repeatedly. Uh and was you know, was active with political figures in the state, helping them get around. Uh and uh and so that's as much as I can recall about him.

He was a very very nice guy and a very competent pilot. Johnson was also a bibliophile who in nineteen fifty six, after moving to Fairbanks, joined the Flying Poets, a group of pilots who flew around the state sharing poetry with school kids in remote villages. Around that time, he also got married, then soon after divorced. In the late fifties, he traveled to the UK, where he tried several times to swim twenty one miles across the English Channel.

He was unsuccessful. Deflated and in need of money, he shuffled around Europe for a while, working for a series of airlines and looting one in Luxembourg. That's where he met his second wife, Willie. He was an extroverted person. He liked to be around people. He also liked periods where he could be alone. You know. He used to write a lot, but you know, I didn't keep any of of the writings. Did he keep a journal or diary? Yeah? He did. You don't still have that to you know?

I don't. Do you know if your son does? By chance? Do you know if your son still has it or do it? Was it lost? That was lost? And I think that was just just throw in a way after he disappeared. As a journalist, you're not supposed to get attached to sources. You're supposed to be cold and objective. But I've never really believed that. I think you can be fair and tell the truth without morphing into an emotional, less automated scribe. Journalists have opinions, and to admit that

doesn't mean every thing we do is fake news. It means we're human, so I'll admit it. I like Willie a lot. She reminds me of my grandma. They're actually the same age, and like my grandma, she's an immigrant with fascinating stories. Willie told me not only of Alaska, but about watching Nazis marched down her street when they invaded Holland in nineteen. By the end of World War Two, she said her family was so hungry they ate tulip bulbs. Willie and Donn had one child, a son, Aaron, who

was only ten when Don vanished. Don's death had a horrible impact on him. Willie said, he's got his own problems and uh, trying to keep his head of earth water. And he's he's a lot like his dad in a way. Um, she's a good She had just fifty on his shold. But he's a good you know, um morally, and he'll give anybody to share him is back but saying Tobe, and he has always had a hard time living in society.

He just doesn't take any ship of anybody. Has put it thataway, you know, So why used him a hard time? He hasn't cower and h they don't like that. But that's the same thing Mrs Dad, you know, and Dad just tell them where to put it. I first interviewed Willie by phone, then visited her at her home in Colorado,

where we spoke for several hours. In the aftermath of Don's disappearance, she said, not only did officials refuse to share information with her, likely because she was Don's ex wife, even though she was still the mother of his only child, but most people also blamed Don for the disappearance itself. They still do. There are a few reasons for this. First and foremost, in October ninety two, the month he vanished, Don had authored a controversial article for Flying Magazine titled

Ice without Fear. In it, he wrote quote, playing with ice is like playing with the devil. Fun but don't play unless you can cheat. Willie said he was being sarcastic, that people didn't get his humor. He took risks, she said, but only when he was flying alone, not when he had passengers. Read the article closely beyond the sensational quotes, and you'll see that, yes, Don was arrogant, but he

also recognized ice to be a formidable, powerful enemy. The weight of ice is not what debilitates, he wrote, It's the shape. Twenty strategically placed pounds of ice will sink a good light Twin the day he disappeared, he flew a light twin assessment three tennessee. There are at least two other things that cast shade on Don too. First, it's unclear whether or not he actually had an Emergency Locator transmitter or e l T on board with him when he vanished. In his final transmission, he said he

did but the National Transportation Safety Board disputed that. Second, the NTSP criticized John's for flying under visual flight Rules or VFR, saying the weather wasn't conducive for a fly by I flight. Multiple pilots I interviewed agreed saying instrument flight rules or i f R would have been preferable. So between the article, the e l T confusion, and the VFR flight plan, I get it, but I also think absent records showing what happened, it's unfair to pin

all the blame on John's. It's unclear, for one, how much of a role passenger pressure played. Several people told me that the Congressman pushed John's to make the flight despite the turbulent weather. They were in a rush to get to Juno then back to d C regardless. As the pilot, it was John's responsibility to say no if he thought conditions were too poor. So then what happened?

It seems simple, right, throwing a cocky pilot and bad weather, and voila, the plane iced up and crashed, probably into Prince William's sound Acam's razor case solved. It makes sense past ice one other explanation. Theoretically could be that the plane suffered a catastrophic mechanical failure, but per my research, that seems unlikely. Phil hewith a mechanic who worked for John's, finished an exhaustive hundred hour inspection of the plane the

day before it disappeared. Typically, how long would a hundred hour and inspection take? Like, how long did it take you to inspect the plane before right before it disappeared? Sometimes it would take me two to three days to do that and readon. I say that because you've got to pull all the inspection covers off, look in there,

and some of them holes are pretty tight. You're using a mirror and the flash Like you get a change your oil, you get a tear to take the spark plugs out, clean them and test them, make sure they function and put everything back. Change the oil in the stuff on it, check the props, clean the prop up for you know, if it has any knicks, looking for obvious stuff that's visible. I mean it varies. It's kind of like vehicle. You know, some of the model TS model as they were easy to work on, easy to

change and so on, change and check spark plugs. Well, you take engines nowadays in the vehicles the open the hood, you can't even see it. It's covered with stuff. So airplanes are no different. Right after he finished the inspection, and I mean immediately after John's flew the plane from Fairbanks Anchorage. If there was some horrible mechanical problem him, it probably would have shown up during this fight. Nevertheless,

he was repeatedly interrogated by authorities, desperate franswers. He had none to give. They just wouldn't leave it alone because they couldn't find anybody. Two blame it on because they

didn't know. They couldn't. They said they couldn't find the airplane, so they couldn't prove what it was, pilot air, mechanical air, and putting me in court only implied that it was a mechanical air on my part, and they needed somebody to get tripped up and say stuff that would incriminate him, and they couldn't do it because first of all, I knew I did everything right. I would have a free conscience of it, including today. So you know, no, I'll tell you the same story. You know, he asked me

over and over different questions. And if you don't tell the truth, you have to remember, and you know It's been two years back and I still remember it. So I did tell the truth. So then again, what happened? Why did the plane disappear? Mechanical failure, pilot error, bad weather, any are possible. All are possible. But sometimes when an answer seems obvious, when you rely too heavily on Acams Razer, you overlook other explanations, explanations that may seem far fetched

but are possible. You hear something crazy and you immediately discount it, even when you shouldn't. And this is where the story takes a dramatic turn, because up until this point, I've had to set the scene, to share exposition and biographies and technical details. All of this is important, but it's not what kept me going. It's not why I'm

talking to you today. See, just when I was about to give up to move on to another story, someone told me something so startling I didn't believe them at first. Only seventeen months after the plane disappeared, they said, the widow of one of the missing men married a murderer, a man with mafia ties, a man who had experienced with explosives, and this man told the FBI the missing plane had been bombed. Next time on Missing in Alaska.

So we sat there and we just kept making notes and watching all the activities and the pictures being taken, and boom, it's noted that Jerry married Peggy. Before I ask again for your help, I want to thank everyone who called in and submitted information online after last week's episode. We're reviewing everything and appreciate your support. This week, I only have one task for you. Sometime between nineteen seventy and seventy two, Don John's, the Missing Pilot, gave an

interview to an Alaska radio station. I don't know which station or in which city, but I guess one in Fairbanks or maybe Anchorage. If you track it down, let me know. I've never heard his voice and I want to see what he said. 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 tip T I p s at I heeart Media dot com. Ben Bolan is our executive producer. Paul Decan 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 c z a K. Footage for this episode was provided by NBC k qu f D and the Vanderbilt Television News Archive special thanks to the Alaska Film Archives at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Missing in Alaska is a co production of iHeart Media and Greenford Media.