Richard Frederick Dixon (born August 5, 1940[1]) is an American criminal principally known for hijacking Eastern Airlines Flight 953 from Detroit to Cuba in October 1971 and for the second-degree murder of South Haven police officer, Michael McAllister, in January 1976.
He was convicted of a 1963 robbery in New York, but only after a four-year detention in a mental hospital when he was found incompetent to stand trial.
He was initially found incompetent to stand trial and spent three years at Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
[2] On Sunday, March 17, 1968, at 6:30 a.m., Dixon was arrested for burglary at the Diamond Crystal Employee's Federal Credit Union in St. Clair, Michigan.
A police officer, Elmer D. Shirkey, responded to the call and arrested Dixon as he tried to escape from the back of the building.
[5] Dixon was charged in federal court with robbery and pleaded guilty and was sentenced by Judge Thaddeus M. Machrowicz to 20 years in prison.
[2] On October 9, 1971, Dixon, at age 31, hijacked Eastern Airlines Flight 953 which had been scheduled to fly from Detroit to Miami and then to continue to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Once on board, Dixon pointed his gun at the head of 23-year-old stewardess, Carol Bollinger, and ordered the pilot, W. E. Buchanan, to fly to Havana.
[9][10] The plane was given immediate clearance to depart and took off at 9:29 a.m. During the flight, Dixon sat in the passenger area behind the cockpit with his gun pointed at Bollinger.
Dixon claimed to be a convicted bank robber, a member of various extremist organizations, and an admirer of Angela Davis and Soledad Brother George Jackson.
Dixon fled on foot and police tracked his footprints in fresh snow which ended at the basement door of a house owned by automobile dealer William Decker.
[18] A resident of the Sandbar Beach subdivision located north of South Haven reported that Dixon had been living for several weeks in a vacant, concrete-block cottage in the neighborhood.
[19] Dixon's defense counsel filed a pre-trial motion to change venue contending that adverse publicity would make it impossible for him to receive a fair trial in the county where McAllister was killed.
[20] The motion was denied, but jury selection consumed two weeks to allow detailed questioning of potential jurors so as to exclude those who may have been prejudiced by pretrial publicity.
[24] The defense also presented photographs taken at the time of Dixon’s arrest showing that he had a black eye and bruises on the right side of his face.
[29] At the end of a seven-day trial, the jury deliberated for only four hours and found Dixon guilty of both air piracy and kidnapping.
[31] Dixon’s service of the 40-year term was set to commence after he completed his life sentence on the state murder charge.