A 1970s militant and convicted killer who escaped from captivity in New Jersey and allegedly carried out one of the most brazen hijackings in U.S. history was captured in Portugal after more than 40 years as a fugitive, authorities said Tuesday.
After decades of stagnancy, there was a sudden break in the case when police matched a fingerprint for George Wright to a resident ID card.
Wright, 68, was arrested Monday by Portuguese authorities in a town near Lisbon at the request of the U.S. government, said a member of the fugitive task force.
Wright was convicted of the 1962 murder of a gas-station owner in Wall, N.J. He had served eight years of a 15- to 30-year sentence when he and three other men escaped from a prison farm.
The FBI said Wright then became affiliated with an underground militant group, the Black Liberation Army, and lived in a “communal family” with several of its members in Detroit. On July 31, 1972, Wright — dressed as a priest — and other members of the group hijacked a flight to Miami, took a $1 million ransom to free the 86 people on board, then flew to Algeria. He had been at large ever since.
