The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking

· Sold by Crown
4.0
22 reviews
Ebook
336
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

The true stroy of the longest-distance hijacking in American history.

In an America torn apart by the Vietnam War and the demise of '60s idealism, airplane hijackings were astonishingly routine. Over a five-year period starting in 1968, the desperate and disillusioned seized commercial jets nearly once a week, using guns, bombs, and jars of acid. Some hijackers wished to escape to foreign lands; others aimed to swap hostages for sacks of cash. Their criminal exploits mesmerized the country, never more so than when shattered Army veteran Roger Holder and mischievous party girl Cathy Kerkow managred to comandeer Western Airlines Flight 701 and flee across an ocean with a half-million dollars in ransom—a heist that remains the longest-distance hijacking in American history.

More than just an enthralling story about a spectacular crime and its bittersweet, decades-long aftermath, The Skies Belong to Us is also a psychological portrait of America at its most turbulent and a testament to the madness that can grip a nation when politics fail.

Ratings and reviews

4.0
22 reviews
Sean Massie
May 7, 2014
Very educational, while thrilling and suspenseful at the same time. The author does an excellent job of providing factual information about numerous hijackings in a way that keeps ones interest, while at the same time constantly moving forward about the main plot in a suspenseful manner.
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Kathy Tillman
July 14, 2013
I sampled the first two chapters and Im certainly buying this intriguing book.
1 person found this review helpful
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About the author

BRENDAN I. KOERNER is a contributing editor at Wired and the author of Now the Hell Will Start, which was optioned by filmmaker Spike Lee. A former columnist for both The New York Times and Slate, he was named one of Columbia Journalism Review’s “Ten Young Writers on the Rise." Visit www.theskiesbelongtous.com and follow him at @brendankoerner.

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