Making Of A
his life around, when he married Gloria, and had his children.
Daisie bought a house for the young family and stayed with them for a while when they had their second child.
Far from mending their relationship, Jack became frustrated by Daisie’s interference, and they argued constantly.
It seemed Jack wanted his mother out of his life – for good.
Police learned that an airline insurance policy taken out on Daisie listed her son as the sole beneficiary.
Plus other policies were taken out on her – in total around $40,000 (nearly £26,000), a huge sum in those days.
Gloria and the neighbours recalled Jack talking of wanting to get a Christmas gift for his mother to put into her case before she left.
At the time, Jack was working in an electronics shop, and learned all he needed to build something very dangerous…
What he’d put inside Daisie’s luggage was a homemade bomb of 25 sticks of dynamite, a six-volt battery, two electric primer caps – in case one failed – and a timer.
It’s thought Jack set the timer on the bomb, then Daisie’s luggage was put on the plane.
Before his trial, in April 1956, Jack pleaded not guilty of murder by reason of insanity. Yet four psychiatrists found him sane. ‘I watched her go off for the last time. I felt happier than I ever felt before in my life,’ he told one psychiatrist, of his mother. ‘He never thought about the other 43 people on the plane,’ another therapist said. On 5 May 1956, after just 69 minutes, jurors found Graham guilty of first-degree murder and recommended the death penalty. The following January, Graham had a black mask placed over his eyes as he was strapped to a chair. ‘As far as feeling remorse for these people, I don’t,’ he said. ‘I can’t help it. Everybody pays their way and takes their chances. That’s just the way it goes.’ The doors of the chamber were sealed and lethal cyanide gas was released. Graham, then 24, gasped for air and screamed. He was pronounced dead after 11 minutes – the same length of time for which fatal Flight 629 was airborne.