Samuel Byck was a man for whom few things went right; he never finished high school, his marriage ended in divorce, he started several businesses that failed, and he could not hold down jobs. He came to believe his misfortunes in life were due to a plot by the U.S. government to oppress poor people and decided to do something drastic to air his grievances.
Sam Byck’s Early Life
Born into a poor family in Philadelphia in 1930, Byck left school after Grade Nine. He did a two-year stint in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1956.
He married shortly after discharge and he and his wife had four children together. But the marriage didn’t last, in part because of Byck’s inability to hold down a job and his growing mental instability.
Bouts of depression became increasingly debilitating and he checked himself into a mental hospital in 1972.
Byck Sees Richard Nixon as the Cause of His Problems
At about the same time, Samuel Byck began sending threatening letters to President Richard Nixon. He turned up outside the White House a couple of times carrying placards protesting Nixon’s presidency.
Also, he made tape recordings about the injustices he believed he had suffered at the hands of the Nixon administration, in particular being turned down for a federal loan to start a business. He sent these tapes to prominent people such as Benjamin Spock, Leonard Bernstein, and Jonas Salk.
He came to the attention of the Secret Service but the organization decided he was just an unbalanced man who posed no real threat.
Operation Pandora’s Box
In 1973, Byck started to develop his plan to assassinate Richard Nixon, giving it the name “Operation Pandora’s Box.”
In one of his tape recordings Byck warned that, “This government does not have the ability to cleanse itself and I will cleanse it by fire.”
He deluded himself that he would be recognized as a hero for his actions. Cabinet Magazine quotes from another of his tapes: “One grain of sand, any individual…has within his power, his willpower, to cause havoc amongst the leaders of any nation of the world…I’m only a little ant amongst billions of ants in this world and I’m sure that my life and my death can have meaning.”
On the morning of February 22, 1974 arrived at Baltimore Washington International Airport; he had with him a homemade gasoline bomb in a briefcase and a stolen .22 calibre handgun.
At a Delta Airline check-in desk he pulled his gun and shot dead an airport police officer. He ran down the jetway and boarded a DC-9 that was ready for departure to Atlanta.
Who2 Biographies picks up the story: “He ordered the pilots to take off, and when they hesitated he shot them, fatally wounding the co-pilot. Police outside the plane fired at Byck and wounded him, and he shot himself in the head.”
Byck’s Motives Concealed
Although his attempted hijacking was reported the nature of his plan was not revealed until years later; the U.S. government did not want deranged people from trying to pull off a copycat crime.
In 1987 Edmund Preston mentioned Byck’s escapade in a report, Troubled Passage: The Federal Aviation Administration During the Nixon-Ford Term, 1973-1977. He wrote that relaxed airport security could lead to a successful attempt. And, the incident popped up in the 9/11 Commission Report (page 561) as an example of an earlier use of the idea of crashing a passenger jet into a building to make a political statement.
Stephen Sondheim and Joel Weidman’s 1991 musical Assassins contained a segment on Samuel Byck, and his life formed the basis of the 2004 movie The Assassination of Richard Nixon.
Sources
- “Samuel Joseph Byck.” Juan Ignacio Blanco, Encyclopedia of Murders.
- “Troubled Passage: The Federal Aviation Administration During the Nixon-Ford Term, 1973-1977.” Edmund Preston, U.S. Department of Transportation/Federal Aviation Administration, 1987.
- “Samuel Byck Biography.” Who2, undated.
- “The Plot to Kill Nixon.” The History Channel, 2004.
- “Attention Must be Paid.” Joshua Dubler and Andrea Sun-mee Jones, Cabinet Magazine, 2009.
Rupert Taylor - Rupert Taylor is the editor of a magazine that provides background to current events.
Join the Conversation