October 16, 1972: The Boggs-Begich Crash

Hale Boggs (left) and Nick Begich,

shortly before boarding the plane

October 16, 1972: A plane carrying House Majority Leader Hale Boggs of Louisiana, Congressman Nick Begich of Alaska, and two other disappears in Alaska. It has never been found.

Thomas Hale Boggs was born in 1914 in Long Beach, Mississippi, and got his law degree from Tulane University in nearby New Orleans. As a prosecutor, he had put several corrupt Louisiana politicians away, including some from the late Governor Huey Long's political machine. In 1938, he married Corrinne "Lindy" Claiborne, and they had 4 children, 1 who died in infancy.

He was elected to Congress in 1940, making him the youngest member at the time. He was defeated for re-election, enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and returned to the country and Congress in 1946. He continued to be re-elected every 2 years, probably aided by the fact that he opposed civil rights legislation, up to and including the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, he voted for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

In 1962, he was elected House Majority Whip in the reorganization of House Democratic leadership following the death of Speaker Sam Rayburn. He was a member of the Warren Commission that decided in 1964 that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy. In 1970, he was elected House Majority Leader.

Nicholas Joseph Begich was born in 1932 in Eveleth, Minnesota, the brother of a State legislator. After the University of Minnesota, he became a teacher in Alaska, winning election to the State Senate in 1962 and to the State's lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1970.

He was in a tough race for re-election against the Republican who won his State Senate seat, Don Young. Majority Leader Boggs agreed to campaign for him. On October 16, 1972, Boggs, Begich, Begich's aide Russell Brown, and pilot Don Jonz boarded a Cessna 310 in Anchorage, the State's largest city, intending to fly to a fundraiser in Juneau, the State capitol.

A Cessna 310

The plane never arrived, and searching the wildest of Alaska proved to be an impossible task. In half a century, this most-searched-for plane in American history has never been found.

Hale Boggs was held in such regard that, when the Democrats elected a new Majority Leader, it was Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill of Massachusetts, and he left the Seal of the State of Louisiana on the door, until he was elected Speaker following the 1976 elections.

In 1973, Boggs' wife, Lindy, was elected to his seat, and was continually re-elected to it until retiring in 1990. In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed her to be U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, and she held the post until 2001.

Hale and Lindy Boggs had 4 children, but tragedy would follow them. William Roberts Boggs died as an infant. Barbara Boggs Sigmund became a teacher in Princeton, New Jersey, and was elected the town's Mayor. She lost an eye to cancer, leading to her distinctive eyepatches, color-coded to match her clothes. The cancer returned, and she died in 1990. She is buried in the same cemetery in Princeton as President Grover Cleveland and Vice President Aaron Burr.

A son, Thomas Hale Boggs Jr., became a prominent lawyer and lobbyist. And there was another daughter, Corrine. As a boy, Tommy couldn't say, "Corrine," and it came out, "Cokie," so that became her nickname. Tommy ran for Congress in Maryland in 1970, but lost. He died in 2014. Cokie became a journalist, and, upon marrying another, Steven V. Roberts, became known as Cokie Roberts. She and Steven wrote books together, until Cokie also developed cancer, and died in 2019.

Begich's son Mark served as Mayor of Anchorage from 2003 to 2009, and as U.S. Senator from then until 2015. Another son, Tom Begich, was elected to the State Senate in 2016. In 2022, redistricting has led him to withdraw from re-election.

Don Young won Nick Begich's U.S. House seat in 1973, and was Alaska's long Congressman from then until his death in 2022. He built a record as the most anti-environmental member of Congress, a despicable status given Alaska's needs. He was also one of the most pro-gun members.

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October 16, 1972 was a Monday. Football quarterback Kordell Stewart and Lithuanian hockey player Darius Kasparaitis were born.

This was a travel day in the World Series, in which the Oakland Athletics eventually beat the Cincinnati Reds in 7 games. On ABC Monday Night Football, the Green Bay Packers beat the Detroit Lions, 24-23 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

There was 1 game played in the NBA: The Golden State Warriors beat the Baltimore Bullets, 97-96 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. There was 1 game played in the new World Hockey Association: The New England Whalers beat the Chicago Cougars, 4-1 at the Boston Garden. There were no games in the NHL or the American Basketball Association. Apparently, Monday Night Football had already become enough of a TV juggernaut that the indoor-sports leagues felt it would be, for the most part, pointless to compete with it.