US Fugitive Captured After 41 Years, Found Hanging Out In Portugal
68-year-old George Wright has been running from the FBI since 1970 when he escaped from prison by stealing the warden’s car and then went underground by joining the Black Liberation Army and now it looks like he might finally be getting what he deserves.
Jailed in 1962 for killing a decorated WWI vet who was working at a gas station Wright would later dress as a priest in 1972 and hijack a plane to Algiers but not before making FBI agents dress in bathing suits to deliver ransom money.
While the plane and money were eventually returned by Algeria thanks to the help of Black Panther activist Eldridge Cleaver it was at that time that Wright disappeared and remained on the run until 2011.
The convicts capture was likely due to a New Jersey corrections officer who received a lead that Wright was contacting family in the United States
The convict is fighting extradition which he will likely lose. It was because of George Wright’s 1972 hijacking that stricter airport security rules were enacted, making handbag and passenger screenings a mandatory part of flying for the first time.
Do you think Wright should be extradited and spend the rest of his life behind bars in the United States?
