George Wright (fugitive)
Encyclopedia
George Edward Wright
is a Portuguese citizen of American origin
who, in 1961, graduated from Mary Bethune High School in Halifax, Virginia
Halifax, Virginia
Halifax is a town in Halifax County, Virginia, United States, along the Banister River. The population was 1,389 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Halifax County.-Geography:Halifax is located at ....
.
Originally arrested and convicted for murder in 1962 and sentenced to up to 30 years in prison,
George Wright escaped from prison in 1970 and hijacked a Delta Airlines flight in 1972 with a number of accomplices.
On September 26, 2011, he was arrested in Portugal.
The FBI requested Wright's extradition
Extradition
Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...
from Portugal to the United States, but was denied on the grounds that Wright is a Portuguese citizen.
Murder conviction
On November 23, 1962, Friday night, the day after Thanksgiving, George Wright, then 19 and from East Orange, New JerseyEast Orange, New Jersey
East Orange is a city in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census the city's population 64,270, making it the state's 20th largest municipality, having dropped 5,554 residents from its population of 69,824 in the 2000 Census, when it was the state's 14th most...
,
and three accomplices: Walter McGhee of Sylvan Avenue in Asbury Park, Elizabeth Roswell (McGhee’s live-in girlfriend), and Julio DeLeon of Munroe Avenue in Asbury Park; were involved in the commission of multiple armed robberies.
The four suspects first robbed the Sands Motel in Englishtown
Englishtown, New Jersey
Englishtown is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 1,847....
of $200. They then made their way to
the Collingswood Esso gasoline station on eastbound Route 33 in Wall,
At around 9:25 PM, during the second robbery, McGhee fatally wounded Walter Patterson, a 42-year-old World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
veteran
Veteran
A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...
and Bronze Star recipient who lived in Howell.
Patterson was a father of two teenage daughters.
Patterson, who earlier that evening had relieved his brother Harry C. Patterson Jr. and sent him home to have dinner with his family,
was taken to Fitkin Memorial Hospital in Neptune
Neptune Township, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 27,690 people, 10,907 households, and 6,805 families residing in the township. The population density was 3,366.8 people per square mile . There were 12,217 housing units at an average density of 1,485.4 per square mile...
, where he died from the gunshot wound two days later.
Wright, armed with a sawed-off .22-caliber rifle, and McGhee, armed with a .32
.32 ACP
.32 ACP , also known as the .32 Automatic is a pistol cartridge. It is a semi-rimmed, straight-walled cartridge developed by firearms designer John Browning, initially for use in the FN M1900 semi-automatic pistol...
-caliber pistol,
were both wearing women’s pantyhose over their faces when they assaulted Patterson.
McGhee fired two shots during the robbery.
Patterson was shot once in the abdomen before the four got away with $70 in cash.
Police later determined it was a shot from McGhee’s pistol that led to Patterson’s death.
The four were all arrested two days later.
On December 13, 1962, Wright was indicted on state charges along with his associates.
McGhee, as the triggerman, was charged with Patterson’s murder and sentenced to a life prison term in February 1963, but was paroled in August 1977.
Wright, as one of the holdup men, was also charged with murder.
On February 15, 1963, Wright reportedly changed his plea
Plea
In legal terms, a plea is simply an answer to a claim made by someone in a civil or criminal case under common law using the adversary system. Colloquially, a plea has come to mean the assertion by a criminal defendant at arraignment, or otherwise in response to a criminal charge, whether that...
from Innocent
to No Defense
No contest
No contest may refer to:*Nolo contendere, a plea in a criminal court case *No contest , a decision at a sporting event *No Contest a film starring Shannon Tweed...
to the charge of murder,
in order to evade a jury trial that could have resulted in the death penalty.
Wright was subsequently sentenced to 15 to 30 years’ incarceration
Incarceration
Incarceration is the detention of a person in prison, typically as punishment for a crime .People are most commonly incarcerated upon suspicion or conviction of committing a crime, and different jurisdictions have differing laws governing the function of incarceration within a larger system of...
.
Escape from prison
On August 19, 1970, between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., after serving over 7 years and 6 months of his sentence, Wright joined three inmates and "just walked out" between bed checksfrom a state prison farm at Leesburg State Prison, now known as the Bayside State Prison
Bayside State Prison
Bayside State Prison is a state prison for men located in Leesburg, Maurice River Township, New Jersey. It is of the New Jersey Department of Corrections. It is adjacent to Southern State Correctional Facility....
in Leesburg, New Jersey
Leesburg, New Jersey
Leesburg is an unincorporated area within Maurice River Township in Cumberland County, New Jersey, United States. The area is served as United States Postal Service ZIP code 08327....
.
Wright escaped with his future hijacking accomplice, George Brown, who was serving a three-to-five year sentence for a 1968 armed robbery conviction.
Allegedly they stole the prison warden’s car to get away.
They made their way to Detroit, then a hotbed of radicalism, where they became affiliated with the Black Liberation Army
Black Liberation Army
The Black Liberation Army was an underground, black nationalist-Marxist militant organization that operated in the United States from 1970 to 1981...
.
On August 26, 1970, federal complaints were issued in Atlantic City, charging Brown and Wright with unlawful flight to avoid confinement.
Hijacking and extortion
On Monday July 31, 1972,Wright, then 29, together with:
- George Brown, then 28, of Elizabeth, NJ, (alias Harry Singleton) with whom Wright escaped from prison
- Joyce Brown (aka Tillerson), then 31, of Spartanburg, SC, accompanied by her 2-year-old daughter
- Melvin McNair, then 23, born in Greensboro, NC
- Jean Carol Allen McNair, then 25, from Winston-Salem, NC, accompanied by her 1-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son
boarded Delta Air Lines Flight 841
Delta Air Lines Flight 841
- Hijacking :Delta Air Lines Flight 841 was an aircraft hijacking that took place beginning on Monday, July 31, 1972, on a flight originally from Detroit to Miami....
in Detroit.
The DC-8 flight was bound for Miami.
Wright was dressed allegedly as a priest and, using the alias the Rev. Larry Darnell Burgess, he smuggled a handgun aboard the flight in a hollowed-out Bible.
One passenger described the apparent ringleader as a black male, about 30, wearing a black mohair suit
which others described as a clerical outfit.
The pilot of the hijacked
Aircraft hijacking
Aircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. In most cases, the pilot is forced to fly according to the orders of the hijackers. Occasionally, however, the hijackers have flown the aircraft themselves, such as the September 11 attacks of 2001...
Detroit-Miami flight, Capt. William Harold May, then 41 and a 20-year Delta employee, said Wright was the group's leader.
The hijackers
Aircraft hijacking
Aircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. In most cases, the pilot is forced to fly according to the orders of the hijackers. Occasionally, however, the hijackers have flown the aircraft themselves, such as the September 11 attacks of 2001...
, allegedly members of the Black Liberation Army
Black Liberation Army
The Black Liberation Army was an underground, black nationalist-Marxist militant organization that operated in the United States from 1970 to 1981...
, seized the plane as it approached Miami, where they
demanded that FBI agents (dressed only in bathing suits) deliver $1 million ransom to the plane; the FBI complied.
The hijackers allowed the 86 hostage passengers to leave the plane in Miami, but kept the flight crew.
They then ordered the plane to fly to Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, where they refueled and took on an international navigator.
They then directed the plane to Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
, the capital of Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, where they sought political asylum since that government had shown compassion towards those struggling for liberation.
May told reporters that two of the hijackers smoked marijuana continuously during the flight, and commented, “They said they were revolutionaries, that America is a decadent society and they didn’t want to live here anymore.”
Upon arrival in Algeria, Melvin McNair had parting words for his pilot: "We're famous," he said, "Send us a copy of your paper."
On Wednesday August 2, 1972, federal complaints of air piracy charges were filed in Miami, naming the five accomplices as defendents.
Asylum in Algeria
Wright and his associates were briefly taken into custody but were eventually released after a few days.Reportedly, Wright and his group were taken in by the American writer and prominent Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver
Eldridge Cleaver
Leroy Eldridge Cleaver better known as Eldridge Cleaver, was a leading member of the Black Panther Party and a writer...
,
whom Algeria's sympathetic Socialist government allowed to open an office.
Cleaver wrote an open letter to the then Algerian President, Houari Boumediene
Houari Boumediene
Houari Boumedienne served as Algeria's Chairman of the Revolutionary Council from 19 June 1965 until 12 December 1976, and from then on as the fourth President of Algeria to his death on 27 December 1978.- Background :Mohamed Ben Brahim Boukharouba was born near Héliopolis in the province of...
, in part:
- In humbleness and all sincerity, I think it would be consistent with the Algerian tradition of struggle and revolution to continue welcoming American revolutionaries ... whether they come to your shores or your airfields, penniless or with millions of dollars. ...
- To carry out our struggle for the liberation of our people, we must have money. Without the money to finance and organize the struggle, there will be no freedom.
This hijacking represented the final test of the Third World nation's commitment to supporting some contingents of the African American freedom movement.
At the request of the U.S. government, the Algerian government confiscated and returned the $1 million in ransom money to the U.S. After the hijackers' calls to have the ransom money restored to them were ignored by the Algerian government, Wright and his associates disappeared.
Allegedly in early 1973, the group traveled by ship to France and lived and worked there with new identities.
Apprehension and refused extradition of accomplices
On May 26, 1976, Wright’s four associates were located in Paris and arrested by the French National Police for carrying falseU.S. passports.
Facing extradition to the United States, the four issued an appeal to the French people on October 11, 1976, claiming that while they were
“ready to face the consequences of our act,” they could not expect a fair trial in America and “would be condemned to spend the rest of our days in infernal prisons.”
French authorities declined the American extradition request in November 1976, holding the four defendants in the Fleury-Mérogis prison
Fleury-Mérogis Prison
Fleury-Mérogis Prison is a prison in France, located in the town of Fleury-Mérogis, in the southern suburbs of Paris. With 3,800 prisoners, it is the largest prison in Europe ...
, awaiting trial on hijacking charges.
On November 24, 1978, the Fleury 4 were convicted by a French court for the hijacking.
All received five year sentences, but two years were suspended from the women's terms.
In the United States, they would have faced a minimum of 20 years.
George Brown and Melvin McNair were released in 1981.
In 2009, a documentary titled Melvin et Jean (La révolte et l'exil) was made by director Maia Wechsler.
Melvin McNair and his wife, Jean, work at an orphanage in the French town of Caen
Caen
Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel....
, where reportedly they have turned their lives around completely.
McNair is known for coaching American baseball, teaching youth the art and strategy of the sport.
In 2010, a documentary titled Nobody Knows My Name was made about the hijacking.
According to Mikhael Ganouna, producer of the film, Wright's hijacking accomplice, George Brown, lives in Paris but isn't worried
about being extradited because he has already served his sentence.
Extradition in a similar preluding hijacking
The Flight 841Delta Air Lines Flight 841
- Hijacking :Delta Air Lines Flight 841 was an aircraft hijacking that took place beginning on Monday, July 31, 1972, on a flight originally from Detroit to Miami....
hijacking was a copycat of a similar incident two months earlier, involving the hijacking of Western Airlines
Western Airlines
Western Airlines was a large airline based in California, with operations throughout the Western United States, and hubs at Los Angeles International Airport, Salt Lake City International Airport, and the former Stapleton International Airport in Denver...
Flight 701 from Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
to Seattle on June 3, 1972 by Black Panthers Willie Roger Holder, a black Vietnam veteran, and Catherine Marie Kerkow. The hijackers claimed they had a bomb in an attache case and demanded $500,000. After allowing all 97 passengers to get off in San Francisco, they flew to Algeria where they were granted political asylum. The Algerian government confiscated and returned $488,000 of the ransom money to US officials.
On January 25, 1975, the two hijackers, carrying passports under the names Leavy Forte and Janice Ann Forte, were arrested on illegal entry charges by French police.
On April 15, 1975, a French court refused a US extradition request for the pair on grounds the hijacking was a political act.
In July 1986, French authorities moved to deport Holder to the US after he completed his sentence for 1984 assault charges.
Kerkow was never extradited.
International fugitive captured
After the apprehensionArrest
An arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the purported investigation and prevention of crime and presenting into the criminal justice system or harm to oneself or others...
of his four accomplices, Wright remained the lone hijacker at large. The elusive fugitive
Fugitive
A fugitive is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from private slavery, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals...
is known to have made his way to France, Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau
The Republic of Guinea-Bissau is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Senegal to the north, and Guinea to the south and east, with the Atlantic Ocean to its west....
(a former Portuguese colony) and finally to Portugal.
While living in Guinea-Bissau in the 1980's, Wright allegedly used his real name and worked as logistics manager of the Belgium-based nonprofit Iles de Paix.
Apprehension
On September 26, 2011, Wright was arrested in AlmoçagemeAlmoçageme
Almoçageme is a village on the Portuguese municipality of Sintra and in the Freguesia of Colares.The name Almoçageme is obviously Arab in origin – the Iberian peninsula is packed with Muslim toponyms that are a legacy of the five hundred years the Moors stayed over...
, Portugal after 39 years on the run, as the result of a combined task force that introduced cold-case evidence from New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. The task force matched Wright's fingerprints from the New Jersey prison with the fingerprints on the ID card
Identity document
An identity document is any document which may be used to verify aspects of a person's personal identity. If issued in the form of a small, mostly standard-sized card, it is usually called an identity card...
issued by the Portuguese government. The United States sought his extradition, with the possibility that he will finish the remaining 22 years of his sentence. However, the request was denied on the grounds that Wright is a Portuguese citizen.
Life in Portugal
Wright, who lived under the name of José Luís Jorge dos Santos, had no known occupation, but allegedly at one point owned a BBQ chicken restaurantRestaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
, sold items at a stall along a popular tourist beach, worked as a bouncer
Bouncer
Bouncer or The Bouncer may refer to:* Bouncer , a person who provides security at a public venue* Bouncer or BNC, a piece of software used to relay traffic and connections in computer networksIn sport:...
at a local bar and, similar to Melvin McNair, coached youth in American basketball. He married a Portuguese-English translator who was 13 years younger. The couple had two children, Marco and Sara, who were 15 years old and 10 years old, respectively, at the time of his arrest. His neighbors knew his first name was George, but did not know his history, assuming he was African, not American.
See also
- Delta Air Lines Flight 841Delta Air Lines Flight 841- Hijacking :Delta Air Lines Flight 841 was an aircraft hijacking that took place beginning on Monday, July 31, 1972, on a flight originally from Detroit to Miami....
- Aircraft hijackingAircraft hijackingAircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. In most cases, the pilot is forced to fly according to the orders of the hijackers. Occasionally, however, the hijackers have flown the aircraft themselves, such as the September 11 attacks of 2001...
- List of aircraft hijackings