﻿Welcome back to Bad Things in History, where once again we serve up a buffet of suffering for your
light entertainment. You’re welcome. Our series examining the worst and mostly
forgotten events of the 1970s continues. This time we focus on the most horrible parts of 1972.
It was a strange and eventful year. Plane hijackings,
vandalism, bank robberies, and riots were just a few of the highlights.
Let’s begin with a Japanese soldier who never surrendered.
The Ghost of Guam Shoichi Yokoi was born in Saori, Japan
on March 31st, 1915. As a young man he worked as a tailor’s apprentice. But in 1941, the Japanese
Imperial Army conscripted Shoichi. By 1943, he was assigned to a unit on the island of Guam.
The United States captured the island in February 1943. Shoichi and nine other Japanese soldiers,
rather than surrender, went into hiding. Eventually most of the group gave up and
left the region. But Shoichi and two other soldiers remained in hiding.
The men lived alone in isolation, but they would visit each other occasionally.
Around 1964, a flood killed Shoichi’s two remaining companions. For the next eight years he
lived in the jungle without any human contact. He found food by hunting, usually at night.
Shoichi maintained a surprisingly varied diet. He typically ate nuts, mangos, papaya, shrimp,
snails, frogs, and rats. On the night of January 24th, 1972 Shoichi was
on the bank of a river. Two local men were nearby checking their shrimp traps. Shoichi attacked
the men, thinking his life was in danger. They subdued him then took him back to the village.
In March 1972 Shoichi finally returned to Japan. As he entered his home country
for the first time in decades, he said: It is with much embarrassment that I return.
When asked why Shoichi supposedly replied:
We Japanese soldiers were told to prefer death to the disgrace of getting captured alive.
He had known since 1952 that the war was over but didn’t want the embarrassment of
being found alive. After returning to Japan, he eventually learned to enjoy being back home.
Shoichi lived until 1997. He died of a heart attack at the age of eighty-two.
Buffalo Creek Flood
Logan County, West Virginia was a sparsely populated area in the 1970s.
Most of the residents earned a living by mining coal. Pittston Coal was the largest company in
the area and employed most of the county. The most popular method of extracting this
precious resource was strip mining. Instead of digging into the ground to find coal,
machinery was used to simply remove all the dirt and minerals above the deposits.
It was cheaper and faster, as well as more wasteful than traditional methods.
The discarded materials from strip mining were used to build three dams on the nearby Buffalo
Creek. They kept wastewater from the mines contained. But one of these dams was built
incorrectly. Instead of being constructed on top of bedrock, it was placed on
top of debris from the mines. On February 26th, 1972 heavy rains arrived.
Then the poorly built dam failed. As water poured through it, the other two dams failed
as well. One hundred thirty-two million gallons of black wastewater poured into the towns below.
A wave thirty feet high crashed into the sixteen small towns around Buffalo Creek.
Only five thousand people lived in the area. Of those, the rushing water killed 125, injured
1,121, and left over four thousand homeless. Governor Arch A. Moore, Jr. created a commission
to investigate the disaster. However, his commission consisted of people who
either worked for the coal industry or were sympathetic to it.
A separate commission of citizens was established to investigate the matter.
The Governor’s commission called for new legislation and more investigation. The
citizen’s report concluded that the coal company was guilty of murder. The chair of the citizen’s
commission even went so far as to state that strip mining should be outlawed in West Virginia.
Hundreds of survivors sued the Pittston Coal Company. After years of court battles, they
settled for $13,000 per individual. That would be equivalent to $92,000 per person today.
Buffalo Creek was rendered mostly lifeless after the disaster. Fish were reintroduced
to the area in 2006. Hijacking for Ransom
The 1970s were a time of frequent plane hijackings.
Some groups did it to achieve political goals. But for some hijackers, the
prospect of becoming rich was the main motivation.
Richard McCoy Jr. was born in Kinston, North Carolina on December 7th, 1942. In 1962
he joined the Army and served in Vietnam. He was a demolitions expert, and a helicopter pilot.
Richard left the military after receiving a Purple Heart in 1964.
He returned to the Army and served another tour in Vietnam. Richard also became an avid skydiver.
For much of his life, Richard wanted to be involved in law enforcement. But instead
of pursuing criminals he would become one. On April 7th, 1972 he boarded a flight in Denver.
As it left the airport, the plane was supposed to go to Los Angeles.
About twenty minutes after the plane took off, someone spotted Richard sitting in his seat.
He was holding a hand grenade. When someone approached to figure out what was going on,
Richard pointed a pistol at the curious person.
Then he handed him a letter and said that the stewardess needed to take it to the captain.
The letter told the captain to land at San Francisco airport.
Next, Richard wanted $500,000 in cash. And he needed four parachutes as well.
The passengers were allowed to leave, and the plane took off again. As the aircraft passed
over Utah, Richard put on a parachute, took his cash, and jumped out of the plane.
Unfortunately, Richard also tended to talk too much.
Once news reports spread news of the hijacking, a man called the FBI. He said that he was friends
with Richard. And he had been told of the hijacking plan a few days earlier.
On April 9th, 1972 the FBI arrested Richard.
While in prison, he used dental paste to create a fake handgun. On August 10th, 1974, with the
help of other convicts, Richard took a garbage truck and crashed through the main gates.
Three months later, on November 9th, 1974 federal agents found Richard. He was in Virginia Beach,
Virginia. When they entered his house to arrest him, Richard grabbed a gun and opened fire on the
agents. They killed him in self-defense. Some of those who knew Richard thought that
he was inspired by the story of D. B. Cooper. In 1971 Cooper also hijacked
a plane and used a parachute to escape. So far, he has never been found.
The Famous Vandal Laszlo Toth was born in Hungary on July 1st, 1938.
As a young adult he attended college and became a geologist. In 1965, Laszlo moved to Australia.
His English was very poor. And Australia didn’t recognize Laszlo’s geology degree.
So instead of becoming a scientist, he started working at a soap factory.
After several years of working in the factory, Laszlo decided to move again.
In June 1971 he traveled to Rome. Also, he didn’t speak any Italian.
There was a very good reason why he needed to live in Rome. Laszlo believed that he
was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. And he wanted everyone to recognize that fact. He sent
letters to the pope explaining why it was true. However, Laszlo was ignored by the church.
On May 21st, 1972 he went to St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. He was viewing the
Pietà statue with another group of visitors. The statue was created in 1499 by Michelangelo and is
among the greatest works of art ever created. Suddenly Laszlo shouted:
I am Jesus Christ—risen from the dead Then he took a hammer and began attacking
the statue. Laszlo struck it fifteen times before bystanders subdued him.
During the short violent attack, he knocked off an arm, chipped a nose, and an eyelid.
After learning of Laszlo’s belief that he was Jesus Christ, the authorities decided not
to charge him with a crime. He was instead sentenced to a mental institution in Italy
on January 29th, 1973. Two years later he was released and sent back to Australia.
The damage to the statue was eventually repaired.
USS Kitty Hawk Riot Racial violence was a persistent
problem all over the United States. In the 1970s it would cause problems in the military too.
During the Vietnam War 2.2 million men were drafted into military service.
Understandably, most of them didn’t want to go into combat and risk getting
shot. So many of those who were conscripted tried to get into the navy.
Sailors on boats usually didn’t have to worry about getting killed.
There was heavy competition to get into the navy. Applicants were required to take a written test.
Thanks to receiving low quality education, many African Americans couldn’t pass the exam. So, most
of the men serving in the navy were white. In 1971 Richard Nixon decided to reduce the
number of people being drafted. He wanted an all-volunteer military instead of forcing
people to serve. With fewer draftees available, the navy failed to meet its recruitment quota.
So, recruiters started convincing African Americans to join.
Although black men could serve, they were given the most undesirable jobs.
Additionally, they faced constant hostility from many of the white sailors.
This would lead to numerous conflicts.
The Kitty Hawk was a naval supercarrier. It normally carried 5,600 men. On October 8th,
1972 the ship was docked at a base in Olongapo, Philippines. The base was racially segregated,
with white and black sailors staying in their respective areas. However,
late in the night a frustrated African American sailor began advocating for black power.
Fist fights between white and black sailors broke out all over the area.
Early on the morning of October 9th a black airman was on his way back to Kitty Hawk. He was arrested
for fighting with two white officers. As the airman pointed out when he finally returned to the
ship, his arm was in a cast. He couldn’t fight the officers, they just decided to beat him up.
The black sailors on Kitty Hawk decided to get revenge for the airman’s suffering.
On October 10th, 1972 a group went to the part of the ship where white sailors usually
entertained themselves. Angry words were exchanged, and another fight broke out.
Several smaller violent encounters happened over the next two days. But on October 12th
groups of black sailors decided to stand up for themselves. They grabbed makeshift weapons
such as wrenches and broom handles. They went through the ship’s passageways attacking white
sailors and, in some cases, vandalizing the compartments as they passed through them.
Eventually a group of Marines arrived. They told the angry black sailors to return to
the back of the ship. The sailors refused to move so a standoff ensued.
Ben Cloud was the Commander of Kitty Hawk. He was half black and half Native American.
After learning about the standoff, he hoped to resolve the situation
peacefully before anybody else was hurt. He convinced the angry group of black sailors
to return to work and stop retaliating. Most agreed, but some continued attacking white
sailors all through the night. By the time the riot ended,
forty white sailors were injured. Six black sailors were injured. But nobody died.
Six weeks later, Kitty Hawk returned to San Diego, California. Twenty-seven black
sailors were arrested and charged. None of the white sailors were accused of wrongdoing.
The court martials concluded in April 1973. Most of the African Americans that were charged
faced demotion and discharge from the Navy. Roy Wilkins, director of the NAACP, complained
that racial tensions were inevitable because the Navy treated black sailors unfairly.
The House Armed Services Committee investigated the incident.
The chairman, Floyd Hicks, concluded that the riot was nothing more than unprovoked attacks
by black sailors. —--------------
Whether it was vandalism or racism, hijackings or industrial accidents,
the 1970s demonstrated again and again that nobody was ever truly safe.
Which of these did you find most interesting? Let us know in the comments below.
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