On a cold winter morning, a small plane was on its way to Lunken Airport in Cincinnati, Ohio, when something went terribly wrong. Four FBI agents, a confessed bank embezzler, and his representative were on their way to find stolen cash allegedly buried in the Cincinnati area.
On a cold winter morning, a small plane was on its way to Lunken Airport in Cincinnati, Ohio, when something went terribly wrong. Four FBI agents, a confessed bank embezzler, and his representative were on their way to find stolen cash allegedly buried in the Cincinnati area.
I remember it like it was yesterday. It was December 16th, 1982, around 933 in the morning.
Retired Firefighter Frank Lerner:We were all standing there talking. And also in that plane just went right across in front of us. Oh, my God.
Victoria Morgroum:All I saw was fire and smoke. I was just standing there watching the hysterics and I didn't know what to do.
Chief Paul Wright:We did not know that there were FBI agents on the plane. We just thought there was a plane crash.
Matthew Vanderhorst:On a cold winter morning. Something goes terribly wrong in a small plane on its way to London Airport. Here's a reenactment of the air traffic control transcript.
Air Traffic Control:IDAHO seven four Cincinnati approach. IDAHO seven four Cincinnati approach radar contact lost how do you hear me? IDAHO seven four Cincinnati approach. IDAHO seven four if you hear me contact Lunken Tower one one eight point seven. IDAHO seven four Cincinnati.
Amy Frederick:As air traffic controllers try desperately to contact the plane, the small twin-engine Cessna 411 snap threw utility wires and poles on Shelley Lane and Main Street. Witnesses said the plane came loud and low before crashing into the Shepherd bookstore. The impact moved the old farmhouse feet off its foundation. The plane then burst into flames, reaching as much as 1000 degrees.
Matthew Vanderhorst:For FBI agents. An accused bank embezzler and his representative were killed on impact. They were on their way to find stolen cash allegedly buried in the Cincinnati area. Welcome to Loss Heroes, Missing Money, where your host, Matthiew Vanderhorst and Amy Frederick. Our story begins at Mixed Field in Chicago, Illinois, where four FBI agents Robert Connors, Terry Hereford, Mike Lynch and Charles Ellington boarded the small plane that was bound for London Airport. Agents Connors, Hereford and Ellington had been FBI agents for three years while Mike Lynch was with the department for six years. Retired FBI spokesman Ross Rice explains their mission.
Retired FBI Agent Ross Rice:I knew two of the agents very well, Mike Lynch and Charles Ellington. They both worked together on a white-collar crime squad, an organized crime squad. They were the principal investigators on the fraud case that led to their flying to Ohio in the first place. They had investigated, charged and convicted a person that had embezzled a large sum of money from, I believe it was their employer. And part of the money, some of the money was allegedly hidden in a park in Montgomery or near Montgomery. And they were flying down there with this suspect as part of a plea agreement to try and find and recover those funds.
Matthew Vanderhorst:In August of 1975, Johnson disappeared along with $600,000 of the bank's money, which went missing from a vault. Investigators say Johnson briefly lived in Cincinnati in 1975, shortly after he disappeared from Chicago.
Amy Frederick:Johnson resurfaced December 2nd, 1982, when he surrendered to FBI agents in Chicago, saying he wanted to return a substantial amount of money. According to the FBI, Johnson told investigators he had taken the bank's money and split it up, hiding the cash in different areas. Johnson's attorney stated that Johnson was under great pressure when he and the money vanished. The money reappeared first as 92,000 on a pew in a Glenview church. Another $52,000 in the bedroom of his parents Chicago home.
Matthew Vanderhorst:On December ten, Johnson led FBI agents to a remote Chicago forest preserve where the unearth $50,000 of the stolen money. He also led agents with $24,000 in a downtown Chicago bank deposit box. Johnson said he hit another $50,000 in the Cincinnati area and told agents he would lead them to the money. Carl Henry Johnson was being accompanied by 68 year old Patrick Daly, a retired Chicago police detective who was working for a lawyer that represented Johnson. Agent Mike Lynch had started with the FBI in 1976. He and his wife and their four small children lived near Chicago. His daughter, Joanie Konstantopoulos, was seven years old in 1982. She says she knew her father was an FBI agent.
Joni Konstantelos:We knew what our dad did, but we didn't really know the danger. It just wasn't something that we really ever talked about or thought about or worried about. And so that day when he left, we knew he was going to Cincinnati. We knew that he was flying on a plane. It was just sort of any typical day.
Amy Frederick:According to the FBI, it was normal procedure for two FBI agents to fly the plane. This plane was being piloted by Robert Connors and Terry Halford. Both men were veteran FBI agents and licensed commercial pilots. As the plane made its way to Lincoln Airport, disaster happened in the city of Montgomery.
Matthew Vanderhorst:During this time in 1982, Montgomery's fire department was located on Cooper Road. On December 16th, firefighters had just completed a training session. Montgomery firefighters Mark Starkey, Paul Wright, Frank Lerner and Rob Penny describe what they saw. The station's second floor window.
Retired Firefighter Mark Stagge:Training was just getting ready to end when somebody yelled a little bit of an obscenity and there was a plane going right by the window of the firehouse. It hit the top of a building and then ended up smashing into the Shepherd's Bookstore.
Chief Paul Wright:We were upstairs training for the day, and one of the firefighters had seen the plane go across the front of the building. And I can remember walking to the side of the the station, you know, to see what he had seen and looked out at the corner of Cooper and Main Street. And I saw this tremendous fireball explode down at the corner. I still can remember seeing that.
Retired Firefighter Frank Lerner:He was in trouble. We just couldn't figure out why he was so low and he was on the side. And you knew he was in trouble just to see where he was. You knew something was going to happen.
Chief Rob Penny:I ran over to the window, and as soon as I could comprehend that something happened, a ball of flame just rolled.
Amy Frederick:The plane clipped trees and power lines before finally crashing into the Rock Foundation of Sheppard's bookstore. The plane bursts into flames, sending fire through the old wood frame building. Victoria Marjoram was 12 years old in 1982. She was home sick from school that day. Her house was located across the street from Sheppard's Bookstore. Victoria describes what she saw.
Victoria Morgroum:They had a sound. It was such an odd sound. It sounded as if it was a freight train. Like I could hear engines. I'm like, What? What is that? And then the house started shaking. And then all of a sudden, I heard an explosion. My house shook. The noise was indescribable.
Matthew Vanderhorst:Before firefighters arrived at the scene, witnesses scrambled to the burning building to try and help anyone who may have been inside. Two witnesses described to WCPO News how they tried to help.
Bystander:We saw approximately 7 to 8 people. It was probably more, but there were seven or eight that we could make out. We've brought Mrs. Sheppard out around the back and she said her husband was an invalid up on the second floor, was still in there, and there were several people laying around on the ground just to get into one of the corner ends of the house, split open and just too much smoke. I guess I'm smoking my lungs and I made it about halfway through the room and I didn't see nobody. So I went back out over to the other side of the house. We kicked out a couple of basement windows. There was the woman said some people down the basement. We kicked in some windows and we couldn't see nobody in the basement.
Amy Frederick:Bookstore owner Olga Shepherd and several others escaped the burning bookstore.
Matthew Vanderhorst:Firefighter Frank Lerner arrived at the scene and saw a woman trapped in her burning station wagon. 51 year old Phyllis Snyder, a housewife and mother of the eight children, had gone to the Shepherds Bookstore to Christmas shop. She had just pulled into the parking lot when their plane crash happened near became trapped in her car.
Retired Firefighter Frank Lerner:And a couple of people had pointed out there was a woman trapped in a car. We were trying and trying to get that door open. I just got mad. A car was on fire. She had that look on her face. I couldn't see that she was burnt at that point because I was just focusing on getting her out. But I guess it was just panic at that point and you got to get her out.
Amy Frederick:Phyllis's husband, Don Nya, was working in Cincinnati. He remembers getting the call about the crash and his wife's injuries.
Don Neyer:They said, Well, your wife was at the hospital. A volunteer fireman from the station on Cooper Road was there at the time. He was there and he heard a woman screaming and got on the other side of the passenger side. And we some kind of an implement he had without success. He tried to get it open. He then, in frustration, grabbed the passenger, the passenger side door, pulled the door off its hinges. It was just, you know, and then he cut her seatbelt and pulled her out. And then they took it into the burn unit over at University Hospital.
Matthew Vanderhorst:During the chaos at the scene. Victoria saw bookstore owner Joseph Shepherd fighting his way out a second floor window and onto the roof of the porch. Shepherd was 83 years old and unable to walk.
Victoria Morgroum:I just didn't really know what was going on. And then it was at that point, I saw old Man Shepherd. Everybody called him Old Man Shepherd, and he was hanging out of the window and he was trying to crawl out on the roof. Mrs. Shepard started screaming for her husband.
Chief Paul Wright:The window had been painted and nailed shut, and so they didn't think you could get it open. But he had gotten that open, obviously, knowing that he needed to get out of there and crawled out on the roof.
Chief Rob Penny:The one thing I do remember that I thought about the most was the bullets were firing in the guns of the FBI agents. So when we were going past the wreckage and trying to rescue Mr. Shepard, we could hear the guns firing. And that that was a concern because I'm thinking this is going to hurt any minute now. I'm going to get hit with a bullet. So and they were firing a lot. I mean, it just pow, pow, pow, pow. Just going, going, going. So it was that was that was a big concern with that. And then the other big concern was not knowing who, you know, was a bookstore. So we didn't know how many people were inside there. We were just gearing for the worst.
Amy Frederick:At the same time, Rob Penney just happened to see Mr. Shepard on top of the roof of the porch.
Chief Rob Penny:I just happened to get a clearing of smoke enough to see a guy sitting on the roof. And apparently it was old man Shepherd and he was upstairs in his bedroom the way they lived on the second floor. I don't know if he was a paraplegic. So for him to be able to pull himself out of that window and get on our roof was it was amazing that I mean, I don't think he was a guy that could walk. So when we saw him, then I got with a couple of mutual aid companies that were there and they got a ladder up and we brought him down from there, so we pulled him off of the roof.
Matthew Vanderhorst:While Rob Penny saved Joseph Shepherd, the other firefighters were entering the burning bookstore, which was filled with both flames and smoke.
Chief Paul Wright:And I can remember hitting it with the water. And it was kind of curious because the fire wasn't going out as fast as I thought it should have gone out. So then it kind of occurred to me if a plane crashed there, I guess there's aviation fuel that had sprayed into the building. And that's probably why we were having a hard time getting the fire out.
Chief Rob Penny:We took a hose line, we went inside and we put water on the first room and then we were in what we used to be, the old kitchen. And we put that out and we started heading down the hallway into the other house. And when we did, the house just went boom and shook. And when we look back, the whole rooms that we just put out just reignited because of that fuel that was in there and we knocked it out, but the fuel was still there. So as soon as it hit an ignition spot, it just lit back up. We had to run back through the fire. We tried to put out a little bit. We ran back, we dived out to windows to get back outside. And then once we figured out what was going on, we thought we got to make a little bit different attack here. We ended up I think we ended up getting foam and putting the foam together. So it was a mess trying to put it out because of the ignition of all the fuel and everything.
Victoria Morgroum:So when the plane crashed, it nose dived under the stone wall so you couldn't see anything because it was engulfed in flames. So I couldn't tell what it was.
Chief Rob Penny:We really thought that we really thought we weren't going to make it out of there. When that house reignited on us, when we were right in the middle of it, we were right inside. And it's like the only way out is the way we came in, you know, because we had the hose line going that way and we had to use that for our protection. So we were we didn't know if we were going to make it back out there or not. Be honest with you.
Chief Paul Wright:At that time, we did not know that there were FBI agents on the plane. We just thought there was a plane crash. A lot of it had melted by now. So it was hard to see. You couldn't really see a plane there. It was just a pile of melted aluminum and all the cabling from the aircraft.
Amy Frederick:It took firefighters several hours to put the fire out. All six men in the plane died on impact. It was the job of firefighters to remove the victims from the wreckage.
Retired Firefighter Mark Stagge:And were later on the day they set up a temporary morgue at the old firehouse there on Cooper Road where they took care of things and took care of the bodies until investigations and everything could go on.
Chief Paul Wright:And that's when they started saying, well, you know, we're FBI agents. We can't put any I.D. on. However, we believe this is a plane that carried some of our agents. We're just trying to confirm that. So that's when about the time we started realizing that this was something more than just an average plane coming out of the sky.
Matthew Vanderhorst:Thank you for listening to Lost Heroes Missing money. Join us in part two of our story when family members and friends learn of the terrible tragedy.
Joni Konstantelos:I remember walking home from school that day, kind of coming down the hill, and seeing several cars parked in front of my house.
Retired FBI Agent Ross Rice:So I remember sitting in the office in Chicago and an announcement came over the public address system.