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00:01:56
Hello and welcome to My Favorite Murder. That's Georgia Hartstark. That's Karen Kilgariff.
00:02:09
And we're just here to tell you a couple things before we go. Dish like four. Four things.
00:02:15
And then we're going to go back on tour. Yeah. We'll just go back to the hotel rooms.
00:02:20
Constantly for the rest of our lives. Forever. And eat chicken strips and Caesar salads.
00:02:26
I mean, Caesar Salads, you're being good. Oh, I don't eat it. I just order it. Oh, I see.
00:02:31
And Vince eats it. He gets that roughage? He does. He's so good at it. And I'm just like a child fucking, I just ate a fucking Uncrustable.
00:02:40
Like I don't, I eat like a toddler. I had my first Uncrustable in the Denver dressing room.
00:02:47
Georgia came up and was holding Uncrustables like, would you like some of these?
00:02:51
Because I asked for them in the dressing room because like the perfect snack. And they gave me like 12 of them.
00:02:54
Yeah. So I was like, I'm going to share the wealth. Everyone gets an Uncrustable.
00:03:00
It's so funny. They asked what I wanted in my dressing room. And I'm like, I don't know.
00:03:05
And I said mozzarella sticks, but I meant string cheese. And it's the same thing.
00:03:10
Everyone kind of pauses like, OK, I guess we'll get you hot mozzarella sticks. Impossibly.
00:03:17
Yeah. String cheese is a good idea. Yeah. It's such a weird part of it. You're like, I don't want to people fucking want in green rooms.
00:03:23
I've never. Coke. I don't. Always Coke. Cocaine. Cocaine and edamame. I asked for edamame as well.
00:03:30
I was trying to do protein things, but again, it's absolutely performative. Yeah.
00:03:35
Right. For who? I'm not sure. Well, we're back, except we're not, because when this comes out, we're in Austin.
00:03:42
Yes, that's right. Night two in Austin. That's right. Which I'm very excited about.
00:03:46
I think I'm going to wear cowboy boots to the show. Yeah. Local jokes get local work.
00:03:51
Yeah. In the best way. In the best way. Give them what they want is what I meant for that one.
00:03:56
Thank you everyone who came to Denver. That was like such a fucking amazing time.
00:04:00
It was, I mean, I would have to say to go back on stage after six years, it was perfection.
00:04:07
It was great. We forgot how to do it. They didn't care. They were so supportive.
00:04:12
They were really right there with us as we didn't know our lines in our own show.
00:04:16
It was so much fun. I hope you guys are coming to the live shows coming up. Yes.
00:04:20
I think they're going to be fucking fun. I mean, first of all, I would just say Denver was the loudest audience I've ever heard.
00:04:27
Both nights. Yeah. But that first night was nuts. Yeah. Like nuts. Yeah. And there was Katie dressed as a hot dog front and center.
00:04:35
That's right. I mean, there's just a lot of great stuff. Mary drove from South Dakota.
00:04:40
That's right. A lot of positivity. There was just like people repping from all over this great land.
00:04:47
We were in our own little fantasy worlds in that theater. it was really great. Us and Uncrustables.
00:04:53
Yeah. Wait, were you giving me a signal to put my hair on? No, it was actually my own hair.
00:04:59
When we were in Dunn, I went to a vintage store and I bought this shirt that I wore. Bombshell? This blouse.
00:05:05
What was it called? Goldmine. Goldmine. Thank you. Oh my God. And I steamed it and it smells
00:05:10
vintage now. Yes. You know how that happens? Cigs. Cigarettes and mothballs. Yeah. Well, I have a thing that's very, has nothing to do with anything.
00:05:19
except for that just it was very touching to me. So there was the like the technical Emmys,
00:05:27
but there is an actor who I've always been a huge fan of and I actually kind of became, you know,
00:05:33
fake Twitter friends with for a little while. His name is Sean Haddesey and he has been working since I think he's in his early 20s.
00:05:41
He's been in a million things. He used to be on a show called Southland, but now he's on The Pit
00:05:46
and he won for Best Supporting Actor. Wow. So I have always loved him of course And somewhere in the Twitter world he did something like he posted a picture He like what is this outside of And it was like a bunch of bikes that had goofy shit all over them And people were just guessing And I guessed hot yoga studio in Santa Monica or something like that And he wrote back I expected better from you Karen
00:06:10
wow and then i was like wait what the fuck then i would post a joke and he would be there making
00:06:15
jokes back and so it was almost like we were already friends like i went to high school with
00:06:19
sean hannesie where i was just like my friend molly who was i was also a twitter friends where
00:06:25
she was like what the fuck's going on i'm like i truly don't know but just everybody act calm and
00:06:30
pretend like whatever he's just a funny guy but he's also just like one of those working actor
00:06:35
people that like everybody loves and is so good in everything he does. And when I posted a thing
00:06:42
when my mom died, he DM'd me and sent me the loveliest message of like, whatever. So I just
00:06:49
want to say, because now Twitter's gone. Right. I'm over on TikTok on my TikTok island. On your
00:06:54
own. With no connections to anything. And I'm just fucking basically a weird lurker. I don't get to
00:06:59
write my jokes or do my fun stuff. Yeah. They really ruined that for. They ruined everything.
00:07:04
140 characters. Congratulations to Sean Haddesey. That's amazing. I have an update or a thing that has nothing to do with this except it's true crime.
00:07:13
Oh, maybe we do more stuff like that on our true crime podcast. I guess. So in July of 2024, I did on episode 436 called You, Me, and American Geography.
00:07:27
I covered Buford Pusser, who was the walking tall guy. Yes. And about how they got ambushed. His wife was killed by the people who were like going after him and how he became this hero. Well, looks like he killed his wife.
00:07:43
Oh, no. Spoiler alert. They think he did it. Yeah. Like all the lore around that man is false.
00:07:51
Yep. And they think he killed her. They like looked at the evidence again. The wife's name was Pauline.
00:07:56
it was said that she was shot in the car while riding with him but new evidence shows she may
00:08:01
have been shot outside the car and Buford had been shot in the face which was like a huge and
00:08:06
he survived you know but it's like oh that looks like a self-inflicted gun wound now now do we know
00:08:11
for a fact or is this just is like we think and we're getting close to the answer I think they're
00:08:16
pretty set on it he's dead you know long dead so it's like nothing could be done but there's like
00:08:21
the new evidence is pretty damning. Yeah. I guess. Also, it's the kind of thing where,
00:08:26
and will the new evidence even matter? Because oftentimes when like lore happens like that,
00:08:31
it's just set and people kind of never change their mind. I mean, it's almost like, yeah,
00:08:35
like cold cases that are just so fascinating. It's like, oh, fuck, man. You find out new shit all the time.
00:08:41
That's a real twist. I know. I know. I know. Should we do some highlights? Let's do it.
00:08:46
Okay. We have a podcast network. It's called Exactly Right Media. Here are some highlights.
00:08:50
We've got a new Buried Bones episode this week called Blood on the Cobblestones Part 1.
00:08:56
Kate and Paul head to Boston, 1962, where a series of women are found strangled.
00:09:01
And the story is just beginning. Oh, wow. Speaking of Buried Bones, Kate and Paul are going on vacation and they're taking you with them.
00:09:08
That's right. Buried Bones is setting sail this October as part of Virgin Voyage's first ever true crime cruise.
00:09:15
Can you imagine? I cannot imagine. Do you think that ID Channel will just zap out because everyone will be on it at 1130?
00:09:22
Like buffet, dance party, whatever. Then you need those forensic files. Oh, my God.
00:09:28
That sounds amazing. They're stopping in the Dominican Republic and Bimini and Bahamas.
00:09:32
And there'll be a live taping of Buried Bones and a meet and greet with Kate and Paul.
00:09:37
So make sure you check that out if that's your thing at virginvoyages.com slash true crime.
00:09:42
I mean, that's going to be really fun. Yeah. Also, amazing places to go. Okay, then over on I Said No Gifts, Bridger is joined by some hilarious guests, Lauren Lapkus, Taryn Killam, and Vinny Thomas, my very favorite.
00:09:55
If you haven't followed Vinny Thomas on either Instagram or TikTok, he is one of the funniest people out there.
00:10:02
He was just on I Said No Gifts individually. Anyway, they're live in Los Angeles, and the topics include deodorant application, NOJ Simpson pog, and the Capital One Cafe.
00:10:12
And then over on our newest podcast, Trust Me, Lola and Megan are joined by journalist Jane Borden.
00:10:18
Oh, my God. Good friend of the podcast. Friend of the pod. Author of the book Cults Like Us that I've mentioned here before.
00:10:23
It's so freaking good. She talks about how cult thinking is baked into American life from doomsday myths to self-help empires and why we're all more susceptible than we think.
00:10:33
Fascinating stuff. Yeah, it's very cool. And also, finally over on That's Messed Up, Kara and Lisa covered the SVU episode Dare, which is the tragic story of actress Isabella Grasso, and discussed the gruesome case of Dr. Michael Mastro-Marino.
00:10:48
Oh, I was flipping around on deep cable last night. Want to see what I saw? Yes.
00:10:53
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She is such a treasure. And she's actually at all our live shows. If you're a huge Nicole head,
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then you gotta come to the live shows because she sells the merch. That's right.
00:11:41
She's at our merch booth fucking taking over. Yep. While the world watches the stars
00:11:47
at the FIFA World Cup this summer, Hyundai has its eyes on the next generation of talent.
00:11:51
The future soccer stars who are already churning heads at age 14 Making plays that end up on everyone feed scoring from angles that don make sense rewriting record books that barely had time to gather dust Because Next doesn wait for an invitation and Hyundai doesn either
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From robotics that change how people live to young athletes changing the game, the future isn't some far off concept.
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It's already here. Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. Goodbye.
00:12:30
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Goodbye. Summer is fun, but it can also completely destroy your routine. Between days at the beach, recovering from days at the beach, and then remembering you don't even like the beach, it can really mess up your day.
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00:15:39
Goodbye. All right. Well, I'm solo today. Yes, it's your day. It's my day. It's also 9-11 when this comes out.
00:15:51
Never forget. In the spirit of not forgetting, I'm going to tell you a story that happened exactly 24 years ago on September 11th, 2001.
00:15:59
And as you know, Karen, four hijacked airplanes were used to conduct the deadliest attack on American soil.
00:16:06
And what boggles my mind is that there are people who listen to this podcast who weren't even born yet.
00:16:10
Yeah. And who are adults. Yeah. It's fucking crazy. I know. Like the trauma that we collectively still have from it from that day and people hadn't been born yet.
00:16:20
I can't even imagine. The weirdest thing, and I know I feel like we've talked about this, but I remember like three days later, we all, me and my friends went to the beach.
00:16:27
and we were in the water, you know, out in Santa Monica and a plane came to land and we all just froze in the water.
00:16:34
Everybody at the beach was like, what's going to happen right now? And it's like the plane just landed normal.
00:16:40
Constantly. It was a complete paradigm shift, obviously. Totally. Totally. It changed the way you saw the world completely.
00:16:48
A week after the attacks, the famous journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who then had a column for ESPN's sports writing site,
00:16:54
page two wrote quote the 22 babies born in new york city while the world trade center burned
00:17:01
we'll never know what they missed the last half of the 20th century will seem like a wild party
00:17:06
for rich kids compared to what's coming now the party's over folks end quote and he was correct
00:17:13
dang hunter thompson knew it you imagine give like going into labor when that's happening
00:17:19
and you have to go to the hospital? I mean... In New York? And it's basically like now we're all in a disaster movie.
00:17:25
Right. That no one has even ever imagined. No, it's like the series finale of some fucking hospital movie
00:17:31
that like is awful. So crazy. I had friends that had to run, they lived down near Wall Street
00:17:36
and they had to run out of their apartment with no shoes on and like just to get away from the building.
00:17:41
Jesus Christ. So nuts. The shockwaves from that day have reshaped our country and our world
00:17:46
and we're still living with the consequences. But today story is about some of the people who in the moment decided to sacrifice themselves to ensure that as little harm as possible would come to their fellow Americans This is the story of the passengers and crew of United 93 the only hijacked plane that did not hit its intended target
00:18:07
Holy shit. I know. Great idea. Right? Yes. Thank you to Ali and Molly for suggesting this.
00:18:12
I've been waiting to do this. And today of all fucking days. Yeah, really. Along the way, we'll talk about some of the other people on board the other planes who
00:18:18
sounded the alarm and relayed as much information as possible over the phone. It's because of these phone calls that we have any information about what happened on those planes.
00:18:27
I also want to talk about how like cell phones were like in their infancy. Yes. Everyone maybe had a cell phone.
00:18:33
There was no texting, though. There was no sending photos. If you were on an airplane, you couldn't make a call most of the time.
00:18:39
Yeah, probably not. There was texting, but it was that you had to do, you had depressed the little number a certain amount of times for the certain letter.
00:18:47
Oh, I was so good at that. It was so exhausting. Oh, my God. It was exhausting. It was ridiculous.
00:18:52
People would not understand today. Also, it's so expensive. So expensive, yeah. I'm sure, yeah, calling from an airplane.
00:18:58
Can you, like, yeah. So the main sources I used for the story were an article in The New Yorker by Paige Williams,
00:19:04
a segment from 60 Minutes, and the 9-11 Commission Report, and the rest of the sources can be found in the show notes.
00:19:10
So we're going to start in Oak Brook, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, and we're at the Customer Service Call Center for Verizon's Airphone Service.
00:19:20
Remember, they had phones on the back of the seats. Oh, yeah, with the wire that came out.
00:19:25
You'd press this button, and a phone would pop out of the back of the seat in front of you on an airplane.
00:19:31
And it was $10 a minute, wasn't it? Yeah, it was so expensive. It was so expensive.
00:19:34
Nobody used them. They were for show, it felt like. Well, a woman named Lisa Jefferson is a supervisor at this call center.
00:19:41
She spent the morning working in her office, and sometime after 8 a.m. Central Time,
00:19:46
a co-worker asks if she's heard that two planes have crashed into the World Trade Center buildings in New York.
00:19:51
Lisa hadn't heard yet, and at about 8.45 a.m., she steps out of her office to find out more,
00:19:57
and she's only taken a few steps when one of the call center reps she supervises flags her down.
00:20:02
She says she's on the phone with a man who is on another plane that has been hijacked.
00:20:08
Lisa has the representative get some more information for her to relate to her supervisors,
00:20:11
And by the time Lisa has done this and returns, she can tell that the representative is having trouble handling the information she's hearing.
00:20:19
Obviously, she's panicking. Lisa has to lift her physically out of the chair and sit her down next to her so she can get on the call.
00:20:28
Because this woman is just frozen and fear. She puts on the headset and starts talking to, quote, a soft-spoken, calm man, as she puts it.
00:20:38
He introduces himself as Todd. So Todd Meamer is 32 years old and he's from Cranberry, New Jersey.
00:20:45
He has two little boys, David, who's three, and Drew, who was one and one more baby on the way.
00:20:50
His wife, coincidentally, is also named Lisa. Todd works as a software salesman for the software company Oracle.
00:20:57
He had flown out of Newark that morning to attend a meeting in San Francisco, and he was just going to take the meeting and come right back home to be with his family.
00:21:05
He was supposed to have gone the day before, which is like fucking always, right?
00:21:09
But he and Lisa had just gotten back from a trip to Italy and he wanted to spend that night with his kids.
00:21:16
So he took the flight the next day. So he rushed home. Yeah. So Todd is a baseball fanatic.
00:21:23
He can't wait to start his kids in the sport. He's already assembled a full catcher's uniform for his three-year-old.
00:21:29
Right? Like I could see Vince doing that. Everything except the mitt. And that's because Lisa, the wife, had put her foot down about this.
00:21:37
She's like, he's three years old. He doesn't need the whole thing yet. Like, let's wait on the Met.
00:21:42
You know, these are they're expensive. Yeah. It's sometimes reported that Todd was trying to call his wife initially, but the call wouldn't connect and that he called the air phone customer service desk and said.
00:21:52
But according to Lisa Beamer, the wife and Lisa Jefferson, Todd didn't try to call his wife at all.
00:21:58
He knew she was home with her two very young children and she was pregnant. And Todd did not want to upset his family and freak her out.
00:22:06
So because it was 2001, which is ancient, there's no transcript of Lisa Jefferson's call with Todd.
00:22:13
It was not recorded. Lisa took some notes on a post-it and those were what was handed over to the FBI.
00:22:19
So everything we know about the conversation is from Lisa's memory. There was a transcript circulating online, but it was fake.
00:22:25
So of the four planes that were ultimately hijacked that morning, Todd's flight from Newark, United 93, had been the last to take off.
00:22:32
between the four planes. There were 19 hijackers total and four of them are on flight 93. Each of
00:22:39
the other flights have five hijackers on board and it's guess that the final hijacker was detained
00:22:44
upon attempting to enter the United States. So there's only four on his flight. All 19 hijackers
00:22:49
are members of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network and most but not all of them are from Saudi Arabia
00:22:53
where Al-Qaeda has the strongest presence. The hijackers are between the ages of 20 and 33 with
00:23:00
the majority of them being in their early 20s. I know the whole thing. Just like watching radicalization.
00:23:07
Yeah. And that's what we're doing in this country now. But it just like that thing of there is no end there.
00:23:13
You know, it's the one end, actually. Sorry. It's a zero sum game. Like, it's just so sad.
00:23:18
And then the idea that something has gotten into their head to the degree where they're
00:23:23
like, yep, I'm going to die for this belief. And I'm going to kill a bunch of other people for this belief.
00:23:29
Yeah. It's a horrible thing. Yeah. So some of the hijackers had been in America for years and have attended American flight schools.
00:23:38
Other hijackers that were there just to subdue the passengers and crew mostly arrive in the U.S. later.
00:23:44
And they are kept separate from the pilots until the day of the attack. I mean, you can read about this and watch the details about this everywhere, obviously.
00:23:51
So I'm not going to get super in the weeds. But all four of the Flight 93 hijackers are seated in first class in the front of the plane.
00:23:59
Mm-hmm. So the TSA will be created in response to 9-11, which is so wild. Yeah. You used to be able to go up to the gate.
00:24:06
Yeah. You could walk your person up to the gate. That's right. There was no centralized authority performing security screenings at every airport.
00:24:13
The airlines instead contract out their security to individual companies. You know, so it's just there's no rules.
00:24:21
Yeah. There's no rules. Surveillance footage from these checkpoints show that several of the hijackers set off the metal detectors
00:24:27
and then they get checked with a wand. that morning. In the footage, one of them appears to have something clipped to his back pocket,
00:24:34
but he's allowed through the checkpoint without it being examined. And it will turn out that most
00:24:38
of the hijackers were able to get knives or box cutters on board, which is why you have to take
00:24:42
your shoes off now. I mean, that's not. You absolutely could have a box cutter in those
00:24:48
Dr. Scholes. I mean, it doesn't make sense anymore. I know. It sucks that we do things in response
00:24:54
to tragedy, not to like circumvent it. Yes. Not there's no one sitting down and preventatively.
00:25:01
Yeah. Maybe they are. But I just watched a woman do this TikTok where she's like, so you're telling me that
00:25:07
my pet has to stay in quarantine till his vaccines come all the way through. But there's not going to be any vaccines for children.
00:25:15
Right. And it's just like, oh, my God, like the mentality of things where you're just like, how are we?
00:25:21
There's no not overriding logic. No, it's fucking mayhem now. It's total mayhem.
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Restrictions apply. See the website for full terms and conditions. Hey everyone, it's Cal Penn.
00:27:02
I'm the host of Ear Say, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. This week on the podcast, I'm sitting down with Ray Porter,
00:27:11
the narrator of Andy Weir's audiobook Project Hail Mary, massive sci-fi adventure about survival and science and what happens when you wake up alone
00:27:22
very far from earth. I really had to make a decision because I caught myself getting that
00:27:27
frog in my throat and starting to get teary as I'm narrating some of these sections and it's like,
00:27:32
okay, yo, yo, yo, is this indulgent? And I really thought about it. I was like, no,
00:27:35
at this point it would kind of be betraying the trust the author and the listener have
00:27:41
in telling this story if I don't go through it. But there's places in this book that deeply emotionally affected me,
00:27:49
and I left it on the mic. That's great. Because it served the story. People will say like, oh my God, I cried at the end.
00:27:55
It's like, yeah, dude, me too. Listen to Ear Say, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club
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Data accurate is of 2-20-26. So United 93 boards around 8 a.m. Eastern time. There are 33 passengers who range in age from 20 to 79.
00:28:44
They're from all over the country, Minnesota, California, Florida, some even from overseas in Germany and Japan.
00:28:51
It's believed that the first hijacking on the first plane, American Airlines 11, begins around 8.14 in the morning, shortly after that flight took off out of Boston's Logan Airport.
00:29:01
This is when communications between air traffic control and the pilots started going unanswered.
00:29:07
So that's how they know something had started. There were seven crew members aboard that day and two heroic flight attendants on that flight are able to separately contact American Airlines to sound the alarm that something had happened.
00:29:21
At 8.19 a.m., Betty Ann Ong calls the American Airlines reservations desk from the jump seat in coach and informs them that she believes the flight has been hijacked.
00:29:31
So this is the first they hear about it. Wow. She says that two first class flight attendants have been stabbed and that she believes that the hijackers have taken over the cockpit.
00:29:40
She says people are having trouble breathing and that she thinks the hijackers sprayed mace up in first class.
00:29:46
Oh, my God. I never heard any of that. Yeah, me neither. At 8 Madeline Amy Sweeney another flight attendant on American Airlines 11 who goes by Amy also contacts American Airlines reaching their flight services desk in Boston and confirms that two flight attendants had been stabbed and that an additional passenger in first
00:30:05
class was also killed. It's believed that this was a man named Daniel Lewin and that he had
00:30:11
attempted to stop the two hijackers seated in front of him, not realizing that additional
00:30:16
hijackers were seated behind him. So he just jumped into action. Wow. Yeah. American Airlines
00:30:22
personnel reached the air traffic control tower in Boston, which is already aware that there's a
00:30:26
situation on flight 11 because of the dropout in communication, but also because one of the
00:30:32
American Airlines 11 hijackers mistakenly radios them at 8.24 a.m. He says, quote,
00:30:39
we have some planes, end quote, and tells the passengers to sit down. It seems like he thought
00:30:44
he was using the plane's PA system, but instead had broadcast that out to pilots and air traffic
00:30:51
controllers. So you're just fucking flying your plane and you hear that. Terrifying.
00:30:56
Wow. Both Betty and Amy remain on the line with American Airlines personnel, calmly relaying
00:31:01
information. At 8.46 a.m., Amy said she can see water and buildings and that the plane
00:31:07
is flying way too low. Both phone calls end when American Airlines 11 hits the North Tower
00:31:13
of New York's World Trade Center. And it's just horrific. She seems to know what's coming.
00:31:18
across the river in Newark, New Jersey. Todd's flight, United 93, has taken off four minutes earlier.
00:31:26
So like just... If there was just some delay. Yeah, some delay at 8.42 a.m. after a 25-minute delay on the tarmac.
00:31:34
So if it had just been a little bit longer, I don't know. Between the hijacking of American Airlines 11
00:31:39
and United 93 taking off, the two other flights have also taken off. Those are United Airlines 175 from Boston to L.A.,
00:31:47
which took off at 8.15, one minute after the American Airlines 11 hijacking began.
00:31:53
So too late by then. And American Airlines 77, which took off from Washington, D.C.'s Dulles Airport at 8.20.
00:32:00
These two flights are hijacked within 10 minutes of United 93 taking off. So air traffic control loses contact with American Airlines 77,
00:32:08
the flight that left out of Dulles at 9 a.m., about 15 minutes after the North Tower had been hit.
00:32:14
By this point in time, the FAA is aware that multiple hijackings are taking place, but they have not put out the warning to other planes that are currently flying.
00:32:22
I mean, what would you do? Well, there is no protocol in place for this kind of thing.
00:32:26
Oh. Because this has never happened before. Because multiple, yeah, it's like one hijacking at a time in the past.
00:32:31
Yeah. So they don't know when to, like, emergency land. They don't tell them to stop taking off.
00:32:36
I mean, imagine, it's like, have you ever seen one of those maps with all the planes flying and how many are flying at the same time?
00:32:42
Yes. And you're supposed to get on a mic and be like, guys, everybody land. Yeah.
00:32:46
And then imagine being with the pilots like on the tarmac that day who was told not to take off.
00:32:50
And the people on the plane who are like, what the fuck's going on? You can't tell them.
00:32:54
They'll freak out. It's just the worst. An impossible situation. Yeah. At 8.59, a passenger aboard United Airlines 175 named Brian David Sweeney.
00:33:04
Oh, my God. Have you heard this? He leaves a message for his wife on his home answering machine.
00:33:08
Have you heard it? I think so. It's fucking heartbreaking. He says in a calm voice.
00:33:13
Can I read it to you? Sure. Quote, Jules, this is Brian. Listen, I'm on an airplane that's been hijacked.
00:33:18
If things don't go well and it's not looking good, I just want you to know I absolutely love you.
00:33:24
I know. I want you to do good. Go have good times. Same to my parents and everybody.
00:33:29
And I just totally love you. And I'll see you when you get there. I know. And it's like his voice is like kind of calm, but you can tell it's like resigned.
00:33:40
It sounds resigned. It's just like, I just need you to know this. Yeah. Which is a beautiful thing.
00:33:45
I know. And saying, I want you to do good and go have good times, knowing like, yeah, she's about to lose everything.
00:33:53
What a loss of a man that would place that call. Goddamn. I know. So five minutes later, that flight strikes the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
00:34:04
The attacks in New York ultimately killed 2,753 people. so at this point back on United 93
00:34:12
they've been in the air for about 20 minutes when that happens and in the beginning
00:34:17
the first tower we like weren't sure what it was even the second tower that's when you started
00:34:23
to hear about like the word terrorist but it was slow it was I mean the news I was with my grandma
00:34:29
I was living at her house at the time the news came in so slowly and it came in as the newscasters
00:34:35
were learning it as well like fucking no one knew anything and then suddenly there's another plane that had been hijacked and another plane and like it was
00:34:44
just very it was a pandemonium yeah it's like started surreal yeah then got weirder i've told
00:34:51
you this already but my sister called me and i didn't get up because it was like really early
00:34:55
and she kept calling and when i finally picked up she was like she said they attacked the white
00:35:00
house which i thought she meant aliens so it was just this like what what what and i turned on the
00:35:04
TV, but then it was this like, when the first plane went, you were like, oh, what a terrible
00:35:10
accident. Yeah. Yeah. My grandma came and woke me up, you know, my hundred year old grandma,
00:35:15
she woke me up in a really nervous, weird way. That was like, after the first plane had hit
00:35:20
and she was like, I don't want to be alone anymore. And he came and woke me up. I was like a fucking
00:35:24
20 year old brat, you know, like, and we watched it together. I know. Okay. The pilots on flight
00:35:31
93 are named Jason Dahl and Leroy Homer, and they've already heard the mistaken transmission
00:35:37
go out from one of the hijackers. When at 9.23 a.m., a United Airlines dispatcher named Ed Bollinger lets them know about the
00:35:45
other hijackings sending written transmission, quote, beware any cockpit intrusion to aircraft
00:35:51
hit World Trade Center, end quote. So they fucking midair and they get that fucking message I mean And there a movie called United 93 that seems to like be pretty close to the actual events Yeah Which is terrifying and really hard to watch
00:36:07
But I remember when that movie came out, I was just like, who has the kind of weekend where they feel like they have the capacity to take that in?
00:36:13
Right. Well, I just watched the last scene that I'm going to tell you about. And it was.
00:36:19
It was brutal. Yeah. A few minutes later, air traffic control sees that that plane loses 700 feet of altitude out of nowhere. And the pilots issue a mayday call. This message is received by an air traffic control tower in Cleveland. The plane levels off and 30 seconds later, the Cleveland air traffic controllers hear the sound of a struggle and First Officer Leroy Homer saying, quote, get out of here, end quote. So obviously that's when they breached their cockpit, it seems like.
00:36:48
And also like there wasn't the security with the cockpits that there is now. Like they block the aisle when the pilot has to come out to go to the bathroom.
00:36:55
It's like this whole protocol. It was not like that then at all. Not at all. Like they'd leave the door open sometimes.
00:37:01
The last flight I was on, I think on the way to Denver, the pilot came out a bunch.
00:37:07
Yeah. They kept being like, oh, no, you can't be up here or whatever. And I was just like, I've never seen pilots walk around this much.
00:37:13
Very weird. Yeah. I would have been like, oh, no, what's happening? But just like Charlie Horse is OK.
00:37:20
Meanwhile, at 937, American Airline 77 hits the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. All passengers and crew on board are killed as are 125 people in the building.
00:37:33
Two minutes after this, Cleveland's air traffic controllers hear a message from the hijackers that are on United 93, which had been intended for the passengers, but again was broadcast on the ROG channel.
00:37:45
in it the hijacker falsely claims there's a bomb on board so it seems like that's how they used
00:37:50
they like subdued people as saying there was a bomb and told everyone to remain in their seats
00:37:54
the hijackers engaged the plane's autopilot and the plane turns heading southeast towards
00:38:00
washington dc right then they turn off the plane's transponder making it more difficult to track which
00:38:07
shouldn't be a thing you can turn off probably right i mean they can't do that anymore can they
00:38:10
Who knows? These transponders these days. Truly. The hijackers on the previous three planes had done the same thing, and it's believed that the intended target of this plane is either the White House or the Capitol building.
00:38:23
Yeah. The hijackers split up the passengers, sending most to the back of the plane and some to first class.
00:38:29
And we know this because the passengers and crew in the back of the plane start making phone calls, including Todd.
00:38:36
Todd uses the air phone and wound up talking to Lisa Jefferson at the Verizon call center, as I told you in the beginning of this.
00:38:43
Again, we don't have a transcript, but Lisa says that she does not tell Todd about the attacks on the World Train Center and the Pentagon, not wanting to freak him out.
00:38:51
But there are at least 10 passengers on the phone at the same time as Todd. And so the people on Flight 93 do learn about the other attacks.
00:38:57
So, like, it's not an isolated incident. And this is a suicide mission. Yeah. Finding that out.
00:39:03
Horrifying. Yeah. Just, yeah. They also felt themselves change direction, so they are aware that they are now flying back to the East Coast, which is bad news.
00:39:12
At multiple points throughout her conversation with Todd, Lisa offers to connect him with his wife, but he tells her that he doesn't want to scare her and the children.
00:39:21
It seems from Lisa's end of the conversation then that a decision is made pretty quickly.
00:39:26
In less than a 10-minute time frame, it seems like all those passengers back there decide to retake the plane, which is like fucking bananas.
00:39:34
I know how who did it first I don't know like yeah this like collective like we can't just stand here
00:39:40
yes and these things already have like it's almost better that they knew what had already happened
00:39:45
because otherwise maybe they thought everything would be fine they were just hijacking a plane
00:39:50
it wasn't a suicide mission but right they found out yes and they're like we gotta do something
00:39:54
yes it's so incredible if you're up against it gotta do something yeah like we outnumber them
00:39:59
I mean, and they thought they had a bomb. It's like, but fuck it. Yeah. We have to do something.
00:40:04
I mean, I'm just, it's unbelievable. So the widow of one of the other passengers says that her husband, while he's on the phone with her then, tells her that a group is planning to fight and that they're waiting until they are above a rural area with no houses because they are aware that crashing the plane will be the likely outcome.
00:40:23
They fucking know the plane is going to crash and they're going to die. let's do this somewhere where it will take as few, you know, people on the ground as possible.
00:40:33
Like they're thinking of everybody else the whole time. Because they know if it flies into a building, it's again, like, you know, in Washington where
00:40:42
they think they're going, it's going to kill tons of people. We need to take it down now.
00:40:47
Yes. Somewhere where it does the least amount of damage, but I know I'm going to die. Like that is.
00:40:51
I mean, like that they're not just sitting there frozen, like the person rightfully was like freaking out.
00:40:56
It's like they're the ones taking action and they're in the eye of the storm. So at 9.57 a.m.,
00:41:02
everyone who is on the phone with loved ones say that they have to go. Everyone gets off the phone.
00:41:08
One caller who's not named in the reporting says, quote, everyone is running up to first class.
00:41:14
I've got to go. Bye. End quote. Just like they decided. Todd asks Lisa to recite the Lord's Prayer with him
00:41:22
and he asks her to tell his family that he loves them and then asks her to relay a private message to his wife,
00:41:28
which Lisa Jefferson has never shared, which is like, oh. Then Lisa hears Todd ask the other people around him,
00:41:36
quote, are you ready? End quote. And then she hears them say yes. Todd's the leader.
00:41:41
It seems like Todd is part of the people who are like leading this. Then Todd says, quote, okay, let's roll.
00:41:48
Oh, that's right. Because Neil Young wrote the song. Right. So Let Roll becomes this well part of the story and it like kind of used in a way that is very Hollywood Hollywood but also political Like George W Bush turns it into a political phrase Oh right And it just kind of is gross
00:42:05
But like, so let's just look at it now as a man who knew he was about to die said it.
00:42:09
A man who knew he was about to die and becomes a leader on a plane where these days people can't even like sit next to each other without fighting.
00:42:19
And this guy gets everybody together and then gets them to do that. Let's roll. Let's fucking roll.
00:42:25
The cockpit's voice recorder was recovered from Flight 93, and it captures the sound of what the 9-11 Commission's report will later call a sustained assault outside the cockpit doors.
00:42:37
Wow. Loved ones of the passengers and crew members on that flight can pick out the individual voices of the people they lost who are fighting.
00:42:45
Of course they can. Can you imagine if you lose someone and then you get a tape of their last moments, you would be able to fucking...
00:42:51
Their last moments fighting for civilians' lives. I mean, that's just, it's so heroic.
00:42:59
I can't even, that word isn't even good enough. Yeah. The hijackers try to disable the passengers by flying erratically to like throw them all over the plane.
00:43:08
And the voice recorder captures the sound of things crashing and breaking glass.
00:43:12
The voice recorder captures one hijacker asking the other if he should just crash the plane now.
00:43:17
And the other hijacker says to wait until the people reach the cockpit. Like they realize that they're going to get overtaken.
00:43:25
Yeah. And so he says, wait, the passengers continue their assault. And within two minutes, one of the hijackers yells, put it down.
00:43:33
Like they realize they've been overcome. Put the plane down? Yeah. This leads the 9-11 commission to believe that the passengers and crew were about to overcome them.
00:43:42
Wow. And in that movie, it shows that. So at 10.02 a.m., United 93, after just skimming the village of Lambertsville with 4,000 people in it, crashes into an abandoned strip mine in the rolling hills of Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
00:44:00
So they took it down in the middle of nowhere, barely skimming a town full of people to save everybody's life.
00:44:10
But their own. Fuck. I know. I know. And also, like, how did they do that? How did they do that bravery wise?
00:44:20
Yeah. Incredible. Right. Everyone on board is killed instantly, but there are no additional casualties on the ground.
00:44:28
The plane would have been about 20 minutes away from Washington, D.C. 15 minutes earlier, U.S. airspace had been shut down and all flights had been ordered to land finally.
00:44:38
And it is possible that before reaching D.C., United 93 would have been shot down by military aircraft because at that point they had been deployed.
00:44:47
However, this would not have ensured the safety of people on the ground the way the passengers had taken such care to.
00:44:53
Like they just were trying to get the plane down any way they could. And passengers were like, we got to do it where there isn't anybody.
00:45:00
Yeah. The crash site in Shanksville has since been turned into a memorial honoring the passengers and crew of United 93.
00:45:08
In a clearing in the trees, there's a wall of names with a white marble block for each of the 40 passengers and crew members on board.
00:45:16
There's also something called the Tower of Voices, a 93 foot tall giant musical instrument that holds 40 wind chimes.
00:45:25
Isn't that beautiful? Yeah. One for each voice that was cut short on that flight.
00:45:29
Fuck. Okay, you're going to cry. So in January of 2002, a couple months later, Lisa Beamer welcomes a baby girl named Morgan.
00:45:37
later that year she gives an interview on NBC about her husband Todd and she says that just a
00:45:43
few weeks earlier she'd been digging through some of Todd's things in their home's basement
00:45:47
she says quote I found a catcher's mitt that Todd had bought and I gave it to David and he was
00:45:54
thrilled so now he has the whole gear from daddy end quote I know and that is the story of the
00:46:02
passengers of United Flight 93 on 9-11. God damn it. I know. I mean, people have the potential to
00:46:11
be incredible. Right. And sometimes it does take the worst of the worst to get that out of people.
00:46:17
Yeah. And let's practice doing it while not in a dire situation. Yes, exactly. Let's practice
00:46:25
bringing out the best in you in everyday life. In everyday life. And people have it in them.
00:46:30
Yeah. I mean, goddamn, let's roll. Let's roll. All right. Well, thank you guys for listening
00:46:38
to this solo episode. Sorry, I cried. I'm kind of tired. We have a good Karen cry. Everyone knows
00:46:46
that. And we love your support while we do any kind of type of version of this show so we can do
00:46:52
all of the different things we're doing right now. We're so thrilled to be out there seeing you again,
00:46:58
doing it in person. It really is the best. It's thrilling. It's so fun. Anyway, stay sexy.
00:47:04
And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? Ah! Email your hometowns to myfavoritemurder at gmail.com.
00:47:31
Follow the show on Instagram at myfavoritemurder. Listen to My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:47:38
And now you can watch us on Exactly Right's YouTube page. While you're there, please like and subscribe.
00:47:43
Goodbye. the store and earn four times a point. Look for in-store tags to earn on eligible items from Kinder, Ghost Energy, Cottonelle, Ben & Jerry's, and Popsicle.
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Restrictions apply. See the website for full terms and conditions. Hey everyone, it's Cal Penn.
00:48:23
I'm inviting you to join the best-sounding book club you've ever heard with my podcast, Earsay,
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the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. Every episode, I nerd out with amazing guests
00:48:34
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