It’s unclear exactly how long a man who called himself Barry O’Beirne lived a quiet life in Daly City, the sleepy suburb a few miles south of San Francisco. It’s also unclear what he was doing on the morning of Wednesday, June 6, 2018, when, after 35 years, Air Force special agents knocked on his door and arrested him for desertion.
The puzzle of the life of William Howard Hughes Jr. has many missing pieces. After disappearing into thin air in 1983, he was wanted worldwide by numerous agencies, from the Air Force to the FBI to Interpol. At one point it was thought he had defected to the Russians. Some have suggested he sabotaged the disastrous launch of the space shuttle Challenger. Even after his recent capture, much of this unlikely story remains a mystery for the ages. Here’s what we discovered.
Born in Seattle in 1950 to a father who worked in the airline industry, Hughes had three sisters. He left the Pacific Northwest in his twenties to embark on a career in the Air Force, where he enlisted in 1973. At age 33, he was a base captain of the Kirtland Air Force in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he was granted top secret access. , working on a NATO program that controlled missile launches and missile warning systems.
Hughes bought a modest house in Albuquerque near the base and lived alone. In July 1983 he was transferred to the Netherlands for a short trip to work on the same technology there. He was due to report to Kirtland on August 1.
Hughes never returned to his airbase. The Air Force revealed he was seen withdrawing cash from various ATMs in Albuquerque in late July – the Air Force reported $28,500 was withdrawn from his account at 19 different locations. A search of his home on Chandelle Loop turned up to-do lists and books to read upon his return. His car was later found at Albuquerque International Airport. William Howard Hughes was officially classified as absent without leave on August 10, 1983.
Around this time in New York, 37-year-old real estate developer Donald Trump was completing construction of Trump Tower. Hughes would not be seen again until Trump was president.
Hughes’ disappearance came during the dark days of the Cold War. The U.S. government would later describe the probability of a nuclear strike in the fall of 1983 as relying on “hair relaxation”.
With his recent trip to Europe in mind, when asked if there was a possibility that Hughes had defected to the Russians, an Air Force captain in Kirtland told a reporter from the Arizona Journal, “it has to be an option”.
He was not charged with being a spy, but on December 9 Hughes was declared a deserter – a crime punishable by 5 years’ imprisonment or execution in wartime.
The story made headlines in January, five months after her disappearance, when her photograph was published in the Chicago Tribune after the Air Force sent it to police departments across the country.
Pentagon officials have confirmed that a captain “with top secret access is missing under mysterious circumstances.” With Cold War paranoia, the FBI attempted to play down fears, telling the press that “there is no indication of espionage at this point”.
After months of silence, Hughes’ sisters in Seattle have spoken out, pushing back against the idea that their brother was a spy, saying instead that he was likely abducted. Sister Christine Hughes described his disappearance as “totally irrelevant to Bill as we knew it. We don’t think he disappeared on purpose.
In a prepared statement, the family added that William was a brilliant and dedicated man who regularly phoned his parents before he disappeared. A family reunion had been scheduled for the fall and Hughes was “always alert to let his family know his whereabouts”.
Police forces across the country and numerous military and international agencies have attempted to locate Hughes, without success. The Air Force said it interviewed friends and colleagues to no avail.
In an interview with the Seattle Times a year later, Hughes’ sister Christine described the family’s heartache: “Holidays are the worst time, we make sure we’re together trying to help each other out. .”
Hughes’ name was then aired in the press by an acclaimed journalist credited with breaking up the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion – New York Times foreign correspondent Tad Szulc.
In his 1986 LA Times article, “Sabotaged Missile Launches?” Szulc noted a “bizarre pattern” of failed rocket and space missile launches by the United States and France in recent months. Three plane launches with US surveillance satellites on board, including the space shuttle Challenger which launched from Cape Canaveral on January 28 and exploded 73 seconds later killing all 7 crew members, have been designated as potentially caused by sabotage. These failures prevented the United States from monitoring Russia’s nuclear deployment.
In the article, Szulc named only one possible suspect – William Howard Hughes, as a potential saboteur, saying his Pentagon sources told him.
“They see a clear connection between Hughes and possible sabotage of US and French launches,” Szulc wrote before quoting an unnamed Pentagon source as saying “He’s worth his weight in gold for the Russians.”
As the Cold War began to thaw, the story and the missing air force captain were largely forgotten in the media.
A search of the archives reveals that the name of William Howard Hughes was not mentioned once in the press between 1987 and 2017.
In June 2018, US State Department special agents traveled to Daly City as part of a passport fraud investigation to interview a man living as Barry Timothy O’Beirne.
“After being confronted with inconsistencies over his identity, the individual admitted that his real name was William Howard Hughes Jr., and that he had deserted the United States Air Force in 1983,” the press release said. ‘Air Force.
On the quiet suburban street of Michelle Lane, just a few miles south of the San Francisco city limit, Hughes lived with his wife in a modest two-bed, two-bath townhouse.
Neighbors of the man they knew simply as “Tim” were surprised to learn they lived next door to the Air Force’s most wanted man.
“He was very nice,” Daly City resident June Dayao told reporters when shown his picture, “that’s him but he was still wearing his Giants hat.”
“We see him at the gym all the time,” fellow neighbor Barbara Laurel told CNN. “But when he’s training, he just uses the treadmill and doesn’t really interact with anyone.”
Seemingly a very private man, “Tim” was assumed to be retired by his neighbors and known for little beyond his devotion to the Giants.
“I guess you never know a person until you dig deep,” another neighbor told TV news crews.
It was later revealed that Hughes worked as a consultant and actuary for the University of California, Oakland in the 2000s, under the name Barry Timothy O’Beirnes. Colleagues there remembered him in positive terms.
“He’s very smart,” his colleague Stephanie Rosh told the Chronicle at the time. “Always had a wry sense of humor. Always joking.
Upon his arrest, Hughes was taken to Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield. There he told investigators he was not a spy. He claimed he became depressed about being in the Air Force in 1983, so he simply left, changed his identity, and has lived in California ever since.
Facing five years in detention, forfeiture of his salary and a dishonorable discharge, military court records reveal that Hughes was convicted of desertion and sentenced to 45 days in military prison in September 2018. He was later sentenced to lost a call a month later.
It seems possible that Hughes’ wife doesn’t know his true identity either – San Mateo County court records reveal that the woman, who took his fake last name, filed for annulment of her marriage two months later. his arrest.
Why didn’t Hughes just resign his commission in the Air Force? What drove him to change his identity and make his family suffer for decades? Was it just a coincidence that a captain with top secret clearance working on highly classified missile technology became disillusioned with the job and left during the height of the Cold War, without telling anyone?
Perhaps Hughes’ explanation was true – the pressure of working with NATO during a time of nuclear threat is no small burden. We’ll never know the intricacies of what was going on in his life, but maybe the opportunity to clean the slate and live an anonymous life, say hello to the neighbors, run the treadmill and watch the Giants seemed like the only way forward. It is unclear if Hughes’ once heartbroken siblings have ever reunited with their brother, they have not spoken publicly since his arrest.
The current whereabouts of William Howard Hughes are unknown.
SFGATE has contacted the Air Force Office of Special Investigations for further details on the case, but had not heard back as of press time.
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