Seventy years ago, on November 1, 1955, a man planted a bomb aboard a United Airlines plane shortly before it departed from Denver. The plane exploded in midflight over beet fields in Weld County, killing all 44 people aboard.
It was a mass murder that grabbed headlines across the country. And viewers saw footage of the trial on TV, which was unusual then.
If you've never heard of this crime, though, you're hardly alone. Until recently, there had been no marker to commemorate the tragedy.
That changed this past weekend. Seventy years after the tragedy, supporters and families of those killed gathered for the unveiling of a new memorial.
The granite marker engraved with the names of the 44 victims is placed at the base of FlyteCo Tower, the former control tower for Stapleton International Airport in Denver, from which Flight 629 departed.
Erin O’Toole spoke last year with Andrew J. Field, author of the book Mainliner Denver: The Bombing of Flight 629, to get a sense of the bombing’s legacy and why this new memorial is so meaningful. Field is a retired staff attorney for the Colorado Supreme Court, where he specialized in criminal law. We’re listening back to that conversation today.
