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PRETEND

S212: The Hijacker, Part 1 - Martin McNally

PRETEND

Javier Leiva

True Crime, Society & Culture, Technology

4.72.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2018

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Martin McNally is going to hijack this plane and nobody, not even the FBI, is going to stop him. In today’s episode, Martin McNally recounts his 1972 hijacking of an American Airlines flight heading to Tulsa, Oklahoma. His plan was simple—sneak a submachine gun onboard a 727 jet, demand a half-million dollars in cash, and escape with a parachute. And he almost got away with it. Martin McNally’s story is gripping and will have you at the edge of your seat. He was inspired by the infamous hijacker D.B. Cooper. But unlike D.B. Cooper, we actually know how McNally’s story ends. As you can imagine, his plan didn’t go smoothly. The pilot had to return to St. Louis to get the mailbags full of money. After hours of negotiations with the FBI, there was a crew change and an FBI agent, dressed as crew members, snuck on board. Then, as the plane was preparing for take off, a drunk passenger smashed his Cadillac into the nose of the plane. By now, it should have been over. But McNally persisted and demanded a new plane. Once up in the air, McNally jumped into the darkness and disappeared with the cash. This story was produced by Chris Knittel with the Burner Phone Podcast and was written by me, Javier Leiva. --- FEATURED PROMO Oh No! Lit Class Killafornia Dreaming --- MUSIC The Pretend Radio theme song was composed by Joe Basile with thechicken.net Additional music by Blue Dot Session Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Creative Apple. Today's episode is another collaboration with my buddy, my partner, my badass

0:20.1

extraordinaire, Chris Niddle with the Burner Phone Podcast. It's 1972. 1970.

0:33.0

It's

0:35.0

a... It's 1972.

0:39.0

It's 1972

0:41.0

and you're slowly filing into an American Airlines Boeing 727 with 90 other passengers right

0:47.5

behind you. A young man, going by the name of Robert Wilson enters the plane.

0:53.0

I was in the middle of the seat, about seven or eight

0:57.0

aisles up from the back of the plane.

1:01.0

He may sound like an old man now but back in 1972 he was a fresh-faced 28-year-old

1:07.6

dressed in a sports coat and yellow trousers. Oh and his name wasn't really Robert Wilson. It was Martin McNally. He wasn't a

1:17.4

businessman either. McNally was here to hijack this plane. I'm Javier Lava and this is Pretend Radio. Stories

1:27.1

about real people pretending to be someone else. Attention passengers will be arriving in Tulsa, Oklahoma and about...

1:55.0

The Puyette announces that they'll be landing in 15 minutes at their final destination,

2:00.0

but no one is going to Tulsa today.

2:03.0

McNally is going to take control of this plane

2:06.0

and jump out of it with half a million dollars.

2:10.0

But there's still time to call it off, right?

2:13.0

Who am I kidding?

2:14.0

It's too late for that.

2:16.0

So I sat there and I was thinking to myself,

2:19.0

well, kid, this is it.

...

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