The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking (ALA Notable Books for Adults)

In an America torn apart by the Vietnam War and the demise of sixties idealism, airplane hijackings were astonishingly routine. Over a five-year period starting in 1968, the desperate and disillusioned seized commercial jets nearly once a week, using guns, bombs, and jars of acid. Some hijackers wished to escape to foreign lands, where they imagined being hailed as heroes; others aimed to swap hostages for sacks of cash. Their criminal exploits mesmerized the country, never more so than when the young lovers at the heart of Brendan I. Koerner’s __The Skies Belong to Us__ pulled off the longest-distance hijacking in American history.A shattered Army veteran and a mischievous party girl, Roger Holder and Cathy Kerkow commandeered Western Airlines Flight 701 as a vague protest against the war. Through a combination of savvy and dumb luck, the couple managed to flee across an ocean with a half-million dollars in ransom, a feat that made them notorious around the globe. Koerner spent four years chronicling this madcap tale, which involves a cast of characters ranging from exiled Black Panthers to African despots to French movie stars. He combed through over 4,000 declassified documents and interviewed scores of key figures in the drama—including one of the hijackers, whom Koerner discovered living in total obscurity. Yet __The Skies Belong to Us__ is more than just an enthralling yarn about a spectacular heist and its bittersweet, decades-long aftermath. It is also a psychological portrait of America at its most turbulent, and a testament to the madness that can grip a nation when politics fail.

In an America torn apart by the Vietnam War and the demise of sixties idealism, airplane hijackings were astonishingly routine. Over a five-year period starting in 1968, the desperate and disillusioned seized commercial jets nearly once a week, using guns, bombs, and jars of acid. Some hijackers wished to escape to foreign lands, where they imagined being hailed as heroes; others aimed to swap hostages for sacks of cash. Their criminal exploits mesmerized the country, never more so than when the young lovers at the heart of Brendan I. Koerner’s The Skies Belong to Us pulled off the longest-distance hijacking in American history.

A shattered Army veteran and a mischievous party girl, Roger Holder and Cathy Kerkow commandeered Western Airlines Flight 701 as a vague protest against the war. Through a combination of savvy and dumb luck, the couple managed to flee across an ocean with a half-million dollars in ransom, a feat that made them notorious around the globe. Koerner spent four years chronicling this madcap tale, which involves a cast of characters ranging from exiled Black Panthers to African despots to French movie stars. He combed through over 4,000 declassified documents and interviewed scores of key figures in the drama—including one of the hijackers, whom Koerner discovered living in total obscurity. Yet The Skies Belong to Us is more than just an enthralling yarn about a spectacular heist and its bittersweet, decades-long aftermath. It is also a psychological portrait of America at its most turbulent, and a testament to the madness that can grip a nation when politics fail.

A letter from the author:

On October 11, 2009, I first encountered the 616-word story that would change my life. It was a New York Times report about a Puerto Rican nationalist who had hijacked a Pan Am jet to Cuba in 1968, then spent the next forty-one years living in Fidel Castro's socialist “paradise.” He had finally elected to come back to the U.S. voluntarily, knowing full well that he would have to serve time in prison for his long-ago crime. The article made me wonder how many other American hijackers might still be on the lam. I soon discovered that there are several, most of whom live openly in Havana. But there is one fugitive hijacker whose whereabouts remain a total mystery: a beautiful native Oregonian named Cathy Kerkow, who helped divert Western Airlines Flight 701 from Seattle to Algiers in 1972. Unearthing the saga of what happened to Kerkow and her lover-cum-accomplice, Roger Holder, has been my great obsession these past four years. In bringing Kerkow and Holder's tale to life in The Skies Belong to Us, I became fascinated by the “Golden Age of Hijacking”—the chaotic period in the late 1960s and early 1970s when desperate and deluded Americans seized commercial jets nearly once a week. It is an era that produced scores of compellingly bizarre historical nuggets, such as:

At the height of the epidemic, the FAA considered building a fake airport in south Florida, so that hijackers could be tricked into thinking they had reached Cuba.

Hijacker Rafaelle Minichiello, who went from Los Angeles to Rome in 1969, was so adored in Italy that he eventually signed a contract to star in a spaghetti Western.

The first American hijacker to ask for ransom, Arthur Barkley, demanded $100 million in cash, to be taken directly from the coffers of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Before he surrendered, hijacker Ricardo Chavez Ortiz was allowed to give a rambling speech about his tragic life; his words were broadcast live on Los Angeles radio.

David Hubbard, a famous psychiatrist, believed that all hijackers had deformed inner ears. He tried to find a cure by conducting experiments on baby chimpanzees.

Universal passenger screening wasn't instituted until January 5, 1973, shortly after three hijackers threatened to crash a plane into a Tennessee nuclear reactor.

The true stroy of the longest-distance hijacking in American history. In an America torn apart by the Vietnam War and the demise of '60s idealism, airplane hijackings were astonishingly routine. Over a five-year period starting in 1968, the desperate and disillusioned seized commercial jets nearly once a week, using guns, bombs, and jars of acid. Some hijackers wished to escape to foreign lands; others aimed to swap hostages for sacks of cash. Their criminal exploits mesmerized the country, never more so than when shattered Army veteran Roger Holder and mischievous party girl Cathy Kerkow managred to comandeer Western Airlines Flight 701 and flee across an ocean with a half-million dollars in ransom—a heist that remains the longest-distance hijacking in American history. More than just an enthralling story about a spectacular crime and its bittersweet, decades-long aftermath, The Skies Belong to Us is also a psychological portrait of America at its most turbulent and a testament to the madness that can grip a nation when politics fail. In an America torn apart by the Vietnam War and the demise of sixties idealism, airplane hijackings were astonishingly routine. Over a five-year period starting in 1968, the desperate and disillusioned seized commercial jets nearly once a week. Some hijackers wished to escape to foreign lands; others aimed to swap hostages for sacks of cash. The longest-distance hijacking in American history took place in 1972 when a shattered Army veteran and a mischievous party girl, Roger Holder and Cathy Kerkow, commandeered Western Airlines Flight 701 as a vague war protest. Through a combination of savvy and dumb luck, the couple managed to flee across an ocean with a half-million dollars in ransom, a feat that made them notorious around the globe. Journalist Brendan I. Koerner spent four years chronicling this madcap tale, which involves a cast of characters ranging from exiled Black Panthers to African despots to French movie stars.--From publisher description. Documents the 1972 story behind the longest-distance hijacking in U.S. history, tracing the events of the hijacking against a backdrop of civil unrest and the skyjacking wave of the early 1970s