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

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.

Author: Brendan I. Koerner
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
Published: 06/17/2014
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.56lbs
Size: 8.06h x 5.07w x 0.74d
ISBN13: 9780307886118
ISBN10: 0307886115
BISAC Categories:
- True Crime | Con Artists, Hoaxes & Deceptions
- Political Science | Terrorism
- History | United States | 20th Century

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.