Burner Phone Podcast Chris K

Today’s episode, picks up where we last left off. It’s 1972, and Martin McNally just hijacked a plane heading to Tulsa, Oklahoma. His plan was simple… Demand a half a million dollars, jump out of the plane, and disappear into the darkness of night.

After 15 seconds of freefall, McNally pulls the ripcord. He begins to spin out of control. The parachute whips out and blasts him in the face. McNally looks up at the canopy as it pulls him away from the Earth. Then he looks down, and he realizes that the money bag strapped to his body detached and fell into the night sky.

What now? He’s beat up, he lost all the money, and by the time he reaches the ground, there will be hundreds of FBI agents searching for him. What’s the point? McNally, considers ending it all.

This is a Burner Phone Podcast X Pretend Radio collaboration

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.

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 is part one of a two part series. In part two, you’ll learn what happened after Martin McNally lands and how he eventually got caught.

SPECIAL EPISODE
Pretend Radio X Burner Phone Podcast

Officer Palomares’ story begins with his first undercover assignment. In the late 1980s there was this show called 21 Jump Street. Johnny Depp starred in it. It was about undercover cops, who pretended to be students, in order to bust drug dealers in schools.

But did you know that back in the 1994, the Los Angeles police department juvenile narcotics unit actually recruited young officers to infiltrate classrooms in order to investigate drug dealers? They couldn’t just get any cop to fill this undercover role. They needed a fresh face who could blend in with the students. So, they approached officer Ruben Palomares.

Corrupt police officer, Rubin Palomares - Rampart Division LAPD
Rubin Palomares – Rampart Division, LAPD
In 1995, Ruben Palomares got transferred to LAPD’s Rampart Division where he continued to work undercover cases. He was specifically assigned to the anti-gang unit called CRASH. CRASH is an acronym for the Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums. This is when Ruben’s fate will be decided.

For the first four years, during his time at the Rampart Division, his superiors described him as a leader with a reputation for excellence. But Ruben was committed to cleaning up his neighborhood—and he was willing to use his authority to do so.

That’s when the suspicious shootings started to happen, then the robberies, and before anyone even noticed, he was wrapped up with the same officers suspected of orchestrating the assassination of The Notorious B.I.G.

At an early age, Dan DeFelippi was introduced to computers. He took an interest in exploring the ways in which technology could be modified. During his college years, he manufactured fake ID's to generate extra income. This led him into the World of credit card fraud and phishing scams... He was eventually caught and faced 8 years in the federal penitentiary. Taking a plea deal, he was enlisted into the U.S. Secret Service in order to infiltrate other blackhat circles and educate agents on the latest fraud methods. 

Interview with former moonshiner, Jim Tom. At 76 years old and known for his homemade "white lightning", he's a legend in Southern Appalachia. For decades, his illegal liquor filled the bellies of outlaws across America.

Interview with Seth Ferranti, a former LSD Kingpin who was on the top 15 U.S. Marshal's most wanted list. He started out life as a quintessential all American boy growing up in the suburbs. This changed as he rose through the ranks of the drug game, moving LSD and cannabis to over a dozen colleges up and down the east coast. He was eventually caught by law enforcement but managed to evade capture for two years til he was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison. He quickly adapted to life inside the penitentiary and was able to build a successful writing career while serving time.