NEW YORK – A murderer who escaped from a New Jersey prison in 1970 and allegedly hijacked a passenger plane has been captured in Portugal after 41 years as a fugitive, the FBI said on Tuesday.
George Wright (68) was arrested by Portuguese police on Monday after the FBI, the US Marshalls Service and New Jersey authorities tracked him down to a town outside Lisbon.
It was unclear how authorities located him, but some news reports said Wright had recently begun to contact relatives in the United States.
Wright was convicted in 1963 OF the murder of gas station owner Walter Patterson, a decorated second World War veteran, during an armed robbery in Wall, New Jersey.
While serving his 15- to 30-year prison sentence, he escaped from Bayside State Prison in Leesburg, New Jersey, in 1970, along with three other men.
Eventually he made his way to Detroit, where he joined the Black Liberation Army, a black nationalist militant group, according to the FBI.
In 1972, he was among five hijackers who, with three small children in tow, commandeered a Delta flight from Detroit to Miami, the FBI said.
After landing in Miami, the hijackers demanded a $1 million ransom for the passengers. They insisted the FBI agents deliver the money wearing only swimsuits to ensure they had no concealed weapons.
The hijackers then forced the plane to fly to Algeria, hoping to seek asylum. Algerian authorities seized the plane and the money, returning both to the United States, but released the hijackers after a few days.
In 1976, four of the hijackers were located and convicted in France, but Wright remained at large until Monday.
Wright was being held without bail by Portuguese authorities and faces extradition to the United States to serve the remainder of his sentence for his murder conviction.
An FBI spokesman could not comment on whether Wright would face additional charges for his role in the Delta hijacking. – (Reuters)