Garrett Brock Trapnell

Garrett Brock Trapnell (January 31, 1938 – September 7, 1993) was a con man, bank robber, and aircraft hijacker of the 1960s and early 1970s. Trapnell robbed a string of banks in Canada,^[1] frequently posed as an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency, masterminded a $100,000 jewelry store heist in Freeport, Bahamas,^[2] and simultaneously maintained marriages with at least six women.^[3] When arrested for his crimes, he frequently feigned madness and successfully used the insanity defense to be committed to mental institutions, from which he would later escape or be released on the grounds that he was no longer dangerous. While serving life imprisonment for the hijacking of a passenger airliner in 1972, he was the subject of a book, The Fox Is Crazy Too, written by journalist Eliot Asinof. A paperback copy of that book was later found in the possession of John Hinckley, Jr., who successfully pled insanity after attempting to assassinate President Ronald Reagan.^[4]

Trapnell was a nephew of World War II hero and Bataan Death March survivor, LTG Thomas Trapnell and a cousin of naval aviation pioneer VADM Frederick M. Trapnell. A lifelong smoker, he died at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri after developing emphysema.^[4][5]

Hijacking and trial

On January 28, 1972, Trapnell, using a .45 caliber pistol he had smuggled aboard inside a plaster cast on his arm, hijacked TWA Flight #2 on a flight from Los Angeles to New York while over Chicago. Trapnell demanded $306,800 in cash (to recoup the loss of a recent court case), the release of Angela Davis (as well as that of a friend of his who was also imprisoned), and a formal pardon from President Richard Nixon.^[4] The FBI was able to retake the aircraft during a crew switch at Kennedy Airport; Trapnell was shot and wounded, no one else was hurt. Trapnell's skyjacking came after a string of similar domestic incidents (especially Cuba-bound hijackings) and was directly responsible for an overhaul of security procedures by the Federal Aviation Administration that remained in place until the September 11 attacks almost 30 years later.

At trial, he once again pled insanity, claiming that he suffered from multiple personality disorder and schizophrenia and that the hijacking was actually committed by an alter ego named "Greg Ross." This position was discredited when the prosecution produced a video tape of Trapnell, recorded months before the hijacking, in which he had boasted to a journalist of his skill at faking insanity. Nevertheless, the trial still ended in a hung jury when a lone juror (a social worker by profession) held out for acquittal.^[4] At his retrial four months later, however, he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. His subsequent incarceration at USP Marion, the first federal supermax prison, was marked by continued scheming and criminal endeavour.

Attempted breakouts

In March of 1974, while being held at the Los Angeles County Jail for trial on charges of kidnapping and armed robbery relating to the 1971 abduction of the owner and manager of the SS Princess Louise (a charge to which he would eventually plead guilty in exchange for a plea bargain sentence of five years to life concurrent with the life sentence he was already serving for the TWA hijacking^[6]), Trapnell was accused of conspiring with a fellow inmate, convicted heroin dealer Robert Bernard Hedberg, and Hedberg's girlfriend, former Manson Family member Maria Theresa Alonzo, to abduct the consul general of a foreign nation and hold him or her for ransom.^[7]

According to federal prosecutors, Trapnell had, from his jail cell, contacted Alonzo through Hedberg and asked her and a fourth, unnamed individual to arrange for the kidnapping of the consul general of Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland, Haiti, Paraguay, Uruguay, or Estonia and demand a ransom of $250,000, freedom for Trapnell and Hedberg, and political asylum in Sweden.^[8] The unnamed person contacted by Alonzo to aid in the kidnapping then informed the FBI, who placed Alonzo under surveillance. After the planned abduction was delayed for a day by Alonzo seeking medical treatment for a boil, federal agents arrested her.^[9] Trapnell was the only one of the three not to plead guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for a reduced sentence (Alonzo was sentenced to six months in jail and five years probation, Hedberg received a five-year prison sentence), went to trial, and was convicted of kidnapping. U.S. District Judge Manuel Real sentenced Trapnell to an additional 15 years in prison, consecutive to his life sentence for air piracy.^[10]

On May 24, 1978 his friend, 43-year-old Barbara Ann Oswald, hijacked a St. Louis-based charter helicopter and forced the pilot to land in the yard at USP Marion, where Trapnell was serving his sentence. While landing the aircraft the pilot, Allen Barklage, who was a Vietnam veteran, struggled with Oswald and managed to wrestle the gun away from her. Barklage then shot and killed Oswald, thwarting the escape.^[11] In addition to Trapnell, another inmate involved in the escape was Martin J. McNally, who had hijacked a St. Louis-Tulsa American Airlines Flight on June 23, 1972 and demanded $502,500 before jumping out of a Boeing 727 over Peru, Indiana. Barklage died in a helicopter crash in 1998, and McNally was paroled on January 27, 2010 ^[12] According to Eddie G. Griffin, an author, former member of the Black Panther Party, and convicted bank robber who was incarcerated at Marion at the time, Trapnell was placed under a "no human contact" order following the attempted escape and spent most of the remainder of his life in solitary confinement.^[13]

On December 21, 1978 Robin Oswald, the 17-year-old child of Barbara Ann Oswald, hijacked TWA Flight 541 and demanded that Trapnell be freed or she would detonate dynamite that was strapped to her body. Robin Oswald was remembered by the hostages aboard the flight as a "beautiful girl" with a serious demeanor, who never exhibited any signs of nervousness.^[14] FBI negotiators were able to free the passengers and induce her to surrender with no injuries or deaths. The bomb that was strapped to her chest later emerged to be a set of railroad flares wired to what appeared to be a doorbell.^[15] Robin Oswald was charged as a juvenile with charges not being announced as is the law in Illinois.^[16]

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