By AFRO Staff
Former plane hijacker Charles Hill reflects on his criminal past. (Courtesy Photo/DeWayne Wickham)
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(October 22, 2009) - Almost 38 years ago, Charles Hill participated in several crimes. According to reports, he, Ralph Goodwin and Michael Finney were driving from California to Mississippi carrying weapons and dynamite. The men, then members of the Black revolutionary group Republic of New Afrika, were stopped by police, the confrontation ending with the death of a New Mexico State Trooper.
The men eventually hijacked a TWA plane headed for Philadelphia from the Albuquerque airport and began a self-imposed exile in Cuba that continues to this day.
On Oct. 15, in his blog “Disturbing the Peace,” DeWayne Wickham wrote about this crime spree after a witness to the events gave him a call. According to the former flight attendant working the TWA flight on the day it was hijacked, Charles Hill was not the man who pulled the trigger and killed the trooper.
Elizabeth Walthall told Wickham the three men demanded to be taken to Africa after illegally boarding the plane. But the plane aircraft could not travel that far and Cuba was deemed an acceptable alternative. Wickham wrote that each man carried a weapon when boarding and that, according to Walthall, Finney had the gun. She said Finney said, and Wickham quotes, "I've already killed somebody ... I didn't like it, but I could do it again."
Walthall told Wickham Goodwin also spoke of the trooper's death, saying Finney "got crazy and he shot him and killed him."
Wickham wrote that Walthall said the now growing possibility Hill might be returned to the United States to stand trial made her decide to speak out and share what she believes she knows – Charles Hill did not commit murder. "I think I know enough that he didn't commit that murder that it would be criminal of me not to say so," Wickham reports her saying. "I'm in favor of capital punishment ... but I don't believe in punishing someone for a murder they didn't commit."
Wickham concludes with a nod to the improving diplomatic climate between Cuba and the U.S. and how this might impact extradition and possibility Hill could actually find himself answering for those crimes from 38 years ago.