"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...


Roger Long wrote:

They are making a big budget movie with Shawn Penn about the guy who
tried to crash a Cessna into the White House during the Nixon years.

Are you sure of the aircraft type? A report on White House security lists
only
the landing of a stolen helicopter on the grounds by Robert Preston and
the
attempt by Samuel Byck to hijack an airliner and crash it into the White
House.
The latter incident would certainly make an excellent movie, even if they
didn't
hype it up. The only referral to a Cessna crash I can find is the one
during the
Clinton administration.



It is a completly fictionalized account of the Samuel Byck attempt. (if you
can call it an attempt.

Samuel Joseph Byck (1930 - February 22, 1974) was an unemployed tire
salesman who attempted to hijack a plane from Baltimore-Washington
International Airport on February 22, 1974. He intended to crash into the
White House in hopes of killing U.S. President Richard M. Nixon. Byck shot
and killed one of the pilots on the DC-9 Delta Airlines Flight 523, wounded
another, then grabbed a nearby passenger and ordered her to "fly the plane".
He was shot and wounded through the cabin door by police during the attempt
and committed suicide; a gasoline bomb was found under his body.
Subsequently, it was discovered Byck had sent a tape recording detailing his
plan to news columnist Jack Anderson, and a review of records disclosed that
Byck had been arrested protesting in front of the White House, dressed in a
Santa suit, the previous December.

Byck had first come to the notice of the Secret Service in 1972, when he had
first threatened Nixon, whom he had resented ever since the Small Business
Administration had turned him down for a loan. Byck had also sent bizarre
tape recording to various other public figures including Jonas Salk, Abraham
Ribicoff, and Leonard Bernstein.