Word: tuller
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...skyjacking, the other being the bold abduction of a German plane that forced the release of Arab terrorists (see THE WORLD). In a season of ever more daring and dangerous aerial piracy, the Houston affair was perhaps the most bizarre to date. The leader of the hijackers was Charles Tuller, 48, a federal bureaucrat gone berserk. Going along for the ride were his two sons, Bryce, 19, and Jonathan, 18, and a friend of theirs, William Graham, 18. Only the week before, Tuller & Sons and Graham, two of them posing as telephone repairmen, had entered a bank in Arlington...
...Rage. Tuller's associates at the U.S. Commerce Department were dumbfounded. They considered him to be a mild-mannered humanitarian who worked hard to help blacks in his $26,436-a-year job with the Office of Minority Business Enterprise. Their first reaction was that the work had been too much for him. Said his boss, John Jenkins, a black: "The frustrations build up in a man and can break him down. The system grinds you down." In addition, Tuller had a severe case of diabetes. Last month he submitted his resignation on grounds of ill health...
...four planned to escape to the wilds of Canada after the robbery and live off the loot for the rest of their lives. It was only when the scheme went awry, apparently, that Tuller thought of hijacking a plane. Since he had been reading Che Guevara and admired the Cuban Revolution, Havana seemed a logical destination. Once aboard the hijacked jet, he harangued the passengers with his political notions. "This fascist Government has got to fall!" he ranted. "These fascists have done nothing but keep the little man down. The only way you can be free is with this...
...into custody. They rarely return American hijackers, but when the U.S. State Department asked for their extradition, the Cubans did not say no. Instead, they requested more details on the charges against the men, suggesting that even Cuba may be no refuge for revolutionaries of the likes of Tuller & Sons...
...principal characters in the Houston skyjacking and in an unsuccessful attempt two days later at New York City's Kennedy Airport seem to give Hubbard's theories even more credence. Charles Tuller, who led the band that took over the Eastern jet, could not sustain his marriage, hated his exwife, and was said to be awkward and uncomfortable around women. The man who was subdued before he could hijack a National Airlines jet in New York was discovered to be wearing women's underclothes. What is known about both men seems to confirm Hubbard's belief...