Today is Saturday, February 22nd, 2020.

On this day in 1974, out-of-work tire salesman Samuel Bick murdered two people in an attempt to hijack an

aircraft and crash into the White House. Welcome to Today in True Crime, a parcast original.

Today we're covering the little known assassination attempt on President Richard Nixon,

just five months before he resigned from office.

Let's go back to the morning of February 22nd, 1974, right around 7 AM. 44 year old

old Samuel Bick pulled up to a gas station just outside of the Baltimore

Washington International Airport.

By his own estimation, he was about 70 pounds overweight, and so his back ached as he got out of

the driver's seat.

He walked inside to the front desk where the teenage cashier eyed him with suspicion.

Holding two half-gallon gas canisters in his hand, Bick dropped a crumpled up $1 bill on the counter.

The teenager asked him what he wanted with a dollar's worth of gas.

Bick gestured to the canisters, he was going to fill them up.

Something about this struck the teenager as odd.

Maybe it was Bick's nervous, sweaty demeanor.

Maybe it was the request for such a small amount of gasoline in an urban area where people

didn't really use lawnmowers or generators. Deciding to play it safe, the cashier denied Bick his request.

Bick was irate, swearing at the teenager that this really was becoming a fascist country.

He made his way back to his car and sat inside. This was just another example of how

this country was infected with a cancer that only he could remove.

He was more determined than ever to cut that sickness out

...