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Henry D. Jackson Jr.

Released
Full name:Henry D. Jackson
Gender:Male
Race:Black
Era:1970s
State:Michigan
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Biography

Henry D. Jackson Jr. was a Detroit man who, with Louis Cale (also known as Louis Moore) and Melvin Cale, carried out the November 10-11, 1972 hijacking of Southern Airways Flight 49 from Birmingham — a 29-hour odyssey in which the hijackers collected a $2 million ransom, wounded the copilot, and threatened to crash the plane into the Oak Ridge nuclear complex before landing in Havana. Jackson and Moore had a pending police-brutality suit against the Detroit police, the grievance behind the act, though it is generally treated as a ransom hijacking. Cuban courts sentenced Jackson to 20 years, and he served about eight years in Cuban prisons before being returned to the United States in 1980, where he faced federal air-piracy prosecution and a further prison term.

Case

Charges: Air piracy — Southern Airways Flight 49 (November 10-11, 1972); sentenced to 20 years by a Cuban court on arrival
Arrested: Nov 11, 1972
Sentence: Verdict as recorded: Yes — about eight years in Cuban prisons, then U.S. federal prosecution on return in 1980
Convicted: Yes