Spookdaddy
Cuckoo
- Joined
- May 24, 2006
- Messages
- 7,899
- Location
- Midwich
On Monday, October 16, 1972 a twin engine Cessna 310 disappeared while on a flight from Anchorage to Juneau in Alaska. On board were the US House majority leader Hale Boggs, of Louisiana, and Congressman Nick Begich, of Alaska, the latter’s aide, Russell Brown, and their pilot, Don Jonz. The consequent search was officially suspended on November 24 and on December 12 the men were declared dead and a presumptive death certificate recorded on December 29.
Now, all of this might just be another incident in the long line of disappearances that occur in that vast and icy land if it wasn’t for the fact that twenty years later a Washington newspaper discovered FBI documents that stated that the plane had been found and that there were two survivors. The Begich family were never informed.
I’m not a big believer in big conspiracies. It always seems to me that they end up relying on a huge and unwieldy set of circumstances, organisations and individuals. I’ve always half suspected that those big, brassy conspiracies we associate with the Kennedy’s, Monroe’s and Hoffa’s of the world are encouraged in order to distract us from the Boggs and Begichs of the world. The nearest equivalent I can think of on this side of the Atlantic is the mystery surrounding the death of the radical Scottish Nationalist, Willy McRae, in April 1985. See here
I’d like to ask any Americans out there if the Boggs/Begich mystery is maybe better known over there? I suspect not that much. Of course at the time it would have been front page news but has it entered the Big Book of Conspiricy or just been forgotten? Why do we give some mysteries the four-star, blockbuster, Oliver Stone treatment and choose to push others to the back of the cupboard?
I find these lesser known apparent conspiracies infinitely more fascinating, and more worrying, than the big ones.
Now, all of this might just be another incident in the long line of disappearances that occur in that vast and icy land if it wasn’t for the fact that twenty years later a Washington newspaper discovered FBI documents that stated that the plane had been found and that there were two survivors. The Begich family were never informed.
I’m not a big believer in big conspiracies. It always seems to me that they end up relying on a huge and unwieldy set of circumstances, organisations and individuals. I’ve always half suspected that those big, brassy conspiracies we associate with the Kennedy’s, Monroe’s and Hoffa’s of the world are encouraged in order to distract us from the Boggs and Begichs of the world. The nearest equivalent I can think of on this side of the Atlantic is the mystery surrounding the death of the radical Scottish Nationalist, Willy McRae, in April 1985. See here
I’d like to ask any Americans out there if the Boggs/Begich mystery is maybe better known over there? I suspect not that much. Of course at the time it would have been front page news but has it entered the Big Book of Conspiricy or just been forgotten? Why do we give some mysteries the four-star, blockbuster, Oliver Stone treatment and choose to push others to the back of the cupboard?
I find these lesser known apparent conspiracies infinitely more fascinating, and more worrying, than the big ones.