Perhaps one of the most unnerving of all attempted presidential assassinations, this plan never even was close to coming to fruition.
Samuel J. Byck was an unemployed salesman from the Philadelphia area. For months he plotted the perfect assassination of President Nixon calling it Operation PandoraΓÇÖs Box. His plan involved hijacking a commercial plane at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, having it flown to the White House, shooting the crew, and then plunging the plane directly at the PresidentΓÇÖs home. He hoped he would kill President Nixon, the passengers and crew of the plane, and anyone else who happened to be nearby.
He went into action on February 22, 1974. After driving from Philadelphia to the airport, Byck went to a line awaiting to board a Delta flight bound for Atlanta. As it approached Byck's turn, he stepped behind a security guard and shot his .22 caliber pistol into the manΓÇÖs back, killing him instantly. Mayhem ripped through the airport as he ran up the boarding ramp and into the plane.
Byck entered the cockpit, brandishing his weapon and ordered an immediate departure. He fired two shots and ordered the flight attendants to shut the door. Instead they ran out of the plane. He grew angrier an angrier again ordering that the plane take off immediately. When the pilot said he couldnΓÇÖt leave until the wheel blocks were off, Byck shot the co-pilot in the stomach, screaming the next one will be in the head. Byck ordered a female passenger to help the pilot fly the plane.
Byck then heard shots coming from outside the plane. He forced the woman back into her seat and two more shots were fired. One hit the pilot in the shoulder, the other the co-pilot in the eye. The pilot called to ask for help in flying the plane then went unconscious.
Byck reloaded and took another women passenger by force into the cockpit. In anger he shot the two pilots again and was then fired at from outside the plane. As the woman pleaded with Byck to let her go, he threw her out of the cockpit and told her to go back to her seat. Two more shots came from outside the plane, hitting Byck in the stomach and the chest. He felt to the floor, moaning. He picked up his gun once again and shot himself in the head, dying instantly.
Several days before the attempt, Byck made out a will and left everything to his only friend, a person he knew only by acquaintance that worked at the same tire store he did. He left only one dollar to each of his two children and went on a tirade condemning the US governmentΓÇÖs corrupt acts as responsible for his miserable life.
As far as Byck was concerned, he felt that everyone from his ex-wife to the President of the United States was out to get him. He had been picked up by the Secret Service in 1972 when he allegedly threatened to kill the President. Several psychiatrists who had treated Byck before said that he was only a big talker who makes verbal threats and never acts on them. They decided not to prosecute and Byck was committed to a local mental hospital. He was released shortly after and was arrested again twice in 1973 for parading in front of the White House without a permit.
No one is quite sure what set of Byck in the few days before the assassination attempt. He sent several rambling letters to public figures before writing his will. He had not attempted to contact his family or friends preceding the incident.
