Flight 629 took off from Denver, Colorado, at 6:52 pm on November 1, 1955. There were 44 people on board. Just after 7 pm, the plane crashed on a farm outside Longmont, Colorado. Nobody on board survived. Right after the crash, representatives from United Airlines and the Civil Aeronautics Board started interviewing witnesses to figure out why the plane went down. Over the course of three days, they spoke to 200 residents who lived within 140-square-miles of the crash. Only 40 were able to give testimony that was useful. Soon, the FBI joined in on the investigation to find out why the plane crashed.
While the investigators combed through the wreckage of Flight 629, the investigator discovered that the plane had been cleanly severed from the rest of the fuselage. The FBI said that it was so clean that it looked as though it was cut with a knife. They also found it strange that the tail came to a rest a mile and a half from the nose and the engines. Also, the nose and tail were in perfect condition, and the est of the plane was destroyed. Finally, on November 7th, it was determined that the plane went down not because of a malfunction, but because it was sabotaged.
It was clear that someone on that plane was a target. This meant digging into the lives of the 39 passengers and five crew members. First, they would need to identify the bodies.
Right after the crash, nine of the bodies were identified and removed to the morgue. The FBI had to use fingerprints to figure out who the other bodies belonged to. They ended up finding that 21 of the passengers had prints on record. In the '50s, fingerprinting wasn't commonly used as it is today. However, there were circumstances that a person would have their fingerprints on record. Six of the victims worked at defense plants during World War II, so their prints were in the FBI files. Five of the victims served in the U.S. armed services, so their prints were on file. Tow of the victims worked for the government, so their prints were on file. A Canadian couple died in the crash, and because they had applied for naturalization the year before they died, their fingerprints were on file. One of the victims asked the government to keep his fingerprints on file. Finally, United Airlines kept its employees' prints on file, so they were identified as well. There were only 14 people who weren't identified, and their families came forward within a few days.
To get to the truth, the investigators went through every inch of the wreckage. They reassembled the plane in a warehouse that was kept under guard. Finally, they were able to pinpoint the location of the fatal blast. It occurred in the cargo compartment. The investigators were able to find traces of explosive items and found material that came from a destructive device. They also found evidence of explosives. Now it was time to figure out who would bring a bomb on board.
The FBI started its focus on passengers who lived in the Denver area. They would be the most likely to have been the target of an attack. During their investigation, the FBI found that some of the victims had taken out substantial insurance policies before traveling. One of the people who had a policy taken out was Daisie E. King.
Daisie's insurance policy piqued the interest of the FBI, and they went through what was left of her purse. They found $1,000 in traveler's checks, a checkbook, a receipt for a storage unit, and two keys. The FBI discovered that Daisie was on the plane to visit her daughter in Alaska. When they went through her wallet, they found newspaper clippings that raided red flags. The excerpts were about a man named John "Jack" Gilbert Graham, who was Daisie's son. He was wanted in Denver County on charges of forgery. He was born in 1932 and placed in an orphanage. His father died, and Daisie didn't have the money to care for her son, so she gave him up. When she started a career, she became wealthy, but she never went back to the orphanage to pick up her son. The two finally reconciled in 1954, but Jack held a grudge against his mother. He was the one who took out the insurance policy on his mother and made himself the beneficiary.
Jack claimed that he had nothing to do with his mother packing her bag before the trip, but his wife Gloria said otherwise. She said that she saw her husband pack a bag for his mother on the morning of November 1st. After digging into his past more, they found that property was damaged, and he was the beneficiary of the insurance policy. The same happened with a truck that he intentionally wrecked for the insurance money. Finally, he wrote checks for over $4,000, which was why he was wanted for fraud.
When the police searched his home and found bomb-making supplies that matched those on Flight 629, Jack was arrested. He tried for an insanity defense, but it didn't work. He was found guilty and put to death on January 11, 1957.
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