John Heinz
April 4, 1991: A Piper Aerostar jet collides with a helicopter in the Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion, Pennsylvania. Among the 9 people killed is Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania), age 52, great-grandson of the founder of the Heinz condiment company.
The next day, Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2311 crashed in Brunswick, Georgia. All 23 people on board are killed, including John Tower and one of his daughters. Tower was 65, and was a major figure in building the Republican Party in Texas, serving in the U.S. Senate from 1961 to 1985.
John Tower
So, on back-to-back days, Republican Senators named John died in crashes of small propeller-driven planes. As far as I know, no conspiracy theorist has attempted to tie these 2 crashes together, for any purpose. It remains a tragic curiosity.
Henry John Heinz III was born in Pittsburgh in 1938. He served as an assistant to Senator Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania, who eventually became the Senate Minority Leader. In 1970, John Heinz was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1976, when Scott retired from the Senate, Heinz ran for his seat, and won it, beating 2 Philadelphians, prosecutor and future Senator Arlen Specter in the Primary, and Congressman and future Philadelphia Mayor Bill Green in the general election.
He was re-elected in 1982 and 1988. He became known for defending the rights of the elderly, and, as befitting a Pittsburgher, fighting for the declining steel industry. He was married to Maria Teresa Thierstein Simões-Ferreira, a.k.a. "Teresa," a Portuguese immigrant who fit in well with the charitable foundations with which the Heinz family is associated.
According to an aide, Heinz was considering a run for Governor of Pennsylvania in 1994, since incumbent Democrat Bob Casey Sr. would not be running for a 3rd term, and might use that as a springboard for the Presidency. But his plane crashed into a helicopter over a school, killing all 5 people on board the 2 aircraft, and 2 children on the ground. The crash was blamed on pilot error aboard both craft, and no one has seriously suggested sabotage.
John Goodwin Tower was born in Houston in 1925. In 1961, he won the special election to the U.S. Senate seat from Texas, vacated by Lyndon Johnson's election as Vice President. Because of the extent of Texas' conservatism, he was the 1st Republican ever elected to the Senate from a Southern State by popular vote, rather than by the State legislature during Reconstruction, prior to the ratification of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution.
However, he was still a Southerner. He voted against all the civil rights bills of the 1960s, except for the Fair Housing Act of 1968, for which he was not present. He did, however, vote to confirm Thurgood Marshall as the 1st black Supreme Court Justice.
In spite of his tall-sounding name, he was just 5 feet, 5½ inches tall, earning him the nickname "the Rhode Island-sized Senator from Texas." He was re-elected in 1966, 1972 and 1978. From 1981 to 1984, he was Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. In 1987, he chaired the committee investigating the Iran-Contra affair.
In 1989, his fellow Texan, George H.W. Bush, appointed him to be Secretary of Defense. However, there were conservatives objecting to his appointment, and it had to be scrapped. Instead, the House Majority Whip, Dick Cheney of Wyoming, was appointed, and confirmed.
This led to Newt Gingrich of Georgia rising through the Republican House Leadership, becoming Speaker of the House from 1995 to 1998. It also led to Cheney becoming George W. Bush's Vice President, and starting the Iraq War in 2003. Without Cheney on the ticket, George W. might not have "won" in 2000. So the torpedoing of Tower's nomination to run the Pentagon changed history in ways we can only imagine.
The elder Bush appointed Tower to be the Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, a post he still held at the time of his death. The cause of the crash was found to be a malfunction, and, in spite of the sketchiness of both Bush Administrations, no theory to the contrary has been seriously entertained.
George W. Bush's Democratic opponent in 2004 was Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. In 1995, he married Teresa Heinz, John's widow.
*
April 4, 1991 was a Friday. Baseball's regular season was about to begin. Football was out of season. There were 7 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks lost to the Chicago Bulls, 101-91 at Madison Square Garden.
* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Boston Celtics, 123-104 at the Boston Garden.
* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Washington Bullets, 105-96 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.
* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 98-91 at the Charlotte Coliseum.
* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 105-101 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. David Robinson scored 35 points.
* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Denver Nuggets, 134-122 at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Michael Adams scored 34 in defeat for the Nuggets.
* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns, 102-98 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix. Kevin Johnson scored 33 in defeat for the Suns.
And there were 4 games played in the NHL's Stanley Cup Playoffs:
* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-3 at the Chicago Stadium. Brian Propp scored the winner at 4:14 of overtime.
* The Detroit Red Wings beat the St. Louis Blues, 6-3 at the St. Louis Arena.
* In "The Battle of Alberta," the Edmonton Oilers beat their arch-rivals, the Calgary Flames, 3-1 at the Saddledome in Calgary.
* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Los Angeles Kings, 6-5 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.
No comments:
Post a Comment