WELD COUNTY, Colo. – It was just over 69 years ago. A scene on the farm fields near Longmont that was so horrific, the only thing many first responders and eyewitnesses could do was bury their emotions to do the impossible job of recovering victims of United Flight 629.
Some of the victims fell from the sky, still strapped in their seats in what became the first-ever plane bombing over US soil.
United Flight 629 — a state of the art airliner in 1955 — was loaded with 44 people and their luggage, including one bag packed with 25 sticks of dynamite planted by a Denver man who wanted to murder his own mother to collect life insurance money.
The 44 victims of United Flight 629 would include mothers, grandmothers, children. All collateral damage in his evil plan.
But this report is not about the suspect.
It's about understanding why this Colorado tragedy has largely been forgotten and highlighting the growing movement to come together and do something that's never been done: To finally build a permanent, lasting memorial so Coloradans can learn about what happened.
To create a place where first responders and citizen heroes can reflect and heal. To build sacred ground where the families of the 44 have a place to connect to their loved ones.
Denver7 has brought many stories of the tragic bombing of United Flight 629 because so many Coloradans have yet to learn what happened that cold November night in 1955.
There has never been a memorial or marker built to honor the victims, their families and the community of first responders and citizen heroes who rushed to the beet fields where 44 people were killed.
To help change that, we are launching a Denver7 Gives campaign to help support the Flight 629 Memorial Committee in its efforts to build a permanent memorial as time marches toward the 70th commemoration of the tragedy on November 1, 2025.
If you'd like to donate to Denver7 Gives, scroll to the bottom of this story for the secure form and select 'help build United Flight 629 memorial' from the drop down menu.
- You can also watch this Denver7 Gives special report in the video player below.
United Flight 629 bombing: A push to build a permanent memorial
Denver7's coverage of United Flight 629 changed the way courtrooms are covered in Colorado. We continue to share the stories from that dark day many have forgotten.
United Flight 629: Previous Denver7 stories
The night a son blew up his mother's flight over Colorado United 629 bombing and how Denver7 forever changed court coverage in Colorado A mission to build a memorial to remember the bombing of Flight 629 in Colorado The bombing of United Airlines 629 and a journey to forgivenessIt was just after 7 p.m. on November 1, 1955.
United Airlines Flight 629 was a 4-engine DC 6 passenger aircraft - loaded with crew, passengers, cargo and fuel for the hop from Denver to Portland, Oregon, quickly departed Stapleton Airport to the northwest.
A few minutes later,Stapleton tower controllers noticed a bright flash in the sky and witnesses near Longmont heard and saw the huge explosion in the night sky.
There was little anyone could do as the wreckage rained down onto the Weld County beet fields.
As the recovery efforts continued, the investigation quickly zeroed in on the DC 6’s cargo hold.
The Denver Police Museum eventually had possession of a piece of Flight 629’s mangled fuselage which is now on display at History Colorado.
“This is some pretty heavy gauge metal, and it's just bent and torn to pieces,” said Jason Hanson, chief creative officer at History Colorado. “The force of the explosion, I think really comes through when you look at this.”
Evidence from the crumpled plane fragments helped unfurl John Gilbert Graham’s heinous actions before a Colorado courtroom the year following Flight 629’s demise.
He planted a homemade bomb in his own mother’s suitcase. When that timed bomb detonated above Longmont it killed Daisie King, Graham’s mother, and the 43 other passengers.
“There was a distinct smell of dynamite, so they knew something was wrong right from the get go,” said Michael Hesse, president of the Denver Police Museum. “And when they called Mr. Hoover from the FBI, he instructed them to immediately take all of the luggage and lay it out and pair the luggage with the victims.”
Hesse said despite the fact that the DC 6 exploded in mid air, most of the luggage was somewhat intact.
“Except for one bag – just common sense. The solid police work that went into that, that one bag obviously led them down a path and ultimately allowed them to solve this,” added Hesse.
As the 70th approaches next November, Hesse is one of the community members working so that the Flight 629 tragedy will not be forgotten.
“There wasn't an awareness that this happened. It was largely forgotten,” said Hesse. “I have tried over the last several years to find out exactly why that's the case. And I think part of it – is this happened in 1955 – just 10 years after the end of World War Two, after the Korean War I think that the public was a little more familiar with death.”
Hesse said the Denver Police Museum was working on an effort to build a marker outside the front entrance of Flyteco Tower, the site of the old Stapleton Airport control tower.
“This is where the plane took off en route to Portland on November 1, 1955 and so having it here – as patrons come in – will hopefully serve as an educational opportunity,” said Hesse. “
The memorial will be in the shape of an airplane fuselage, and it will be pointed northwest, which is the direction that the plane took off from the airport.”
It will include names of the passengers and crew and will also honor the first responders.
“There will be the logos of the various agencies that responded. The FBI, the Denver Police Department, the Denver District Attorney, Weld and Larimer County Sheriff, volunteer firemen, and it'll be the citizens too, we're going to acknowledge that.”
The goal is to dedicate the memorial on November 1, 2025. They hope to get there by inviting the public to purchase Flight 629 challenge coins to help fund the memorial.
“This challenge coin that we've designed to honor the victims will also create greater awareness and also donations so that we can pay for the memorial in front of the tower here,” said Hesse.
The challenge coins will be available for purchase on the Denver Police Museum’s website.
“They were all human beings. There were countless birthdays and anniversaries and things like that that were missed,” said Hesse.” It was this completely senseless tragedy. It breaks your heart, but we want to make sure the families know that their loved ones are not forgotten.”
History Colorado is also doing its part to raise awareness. A special exhibit is planned near the 70th commemoration next November.
“There will be an exhibition here that will help people engage with that story. I think we're going to put it in a really high traffic area, so our hope is that people who aren't familiar with the story, will be caught by it, and want to learn more,” said Hanson. “Our hope, always, is that people see our exhibitions and want to learn more when they leave, that we inspire and spark some curiosity and so that they will go and learn more on their own.”
The effort to build a permanent United Flight 629 memorial in Weld County
And as more and more Coloradans learn about the tragedy, Becky Tesone – vice president of the Flight 629 Memorial Committee hopes they will be moved to open their hearts to help finally build a permanent memorial in Weld County.
"They have never had a monument, and they have never had their names read or candles lit for them,” said Tesone.
The vision for a future, permanent memorial in Weld County – where the plane went down – is still in the works, but the details are starting to come together.
“What we picture it to be, will be four sides. One side will have the names on it, two sides will have pictures of places that were all connected,” Tesone said, “Greeley was connected with the armory where the bodies went. Stapleton is where they took off from, and where they went back and reassembled the plane."
She said the hope is to have four benches along the memorial for people to reflect with a covering to protect visitors and the memorial from Colorado’s seasons.
“And we're going to have a two-by-four foot plane made out of bronze on top of it. And that's going to be the beauty of it,” said Tesone. “This was a huge tragedy that changed the laws of the airport for checking our baggage and put in new safety regulations. And then the piece about Channel 7 at the time being the first ones into the courtroom.”
The future memorial will be a place for the families of the victims and those who responded to reflect, gather and heal.
And in these divisive times, the Flight 629 Memorial Committee hopes the memorial will serve as a place to lift up the service and sacrifice of first responders, emergency crews and ordinary neighbors whose courage and tenacity are examples of how people can come together.
“We need $30,000 and the goal was by the 31st of this month. I'm sure that Landmark Monument will let us stretch it a little bit, but they need to order what we are going to put on there,” said Tesone. “And we need a total of $150,000 that we could see in the near future just to lay the cement.”
The Flight 629 Memorial Committee – which has registered as a nonprofit – has set up a GoFundMe to raise funds.
“I know there's people out there that can write a check for the whole thing. I know there's people out there that can give us $5, $10 and all of it matters,” said Tesone. “All of it matters because what they put their money into is what they are a part of in their heart. And this is something that the heart needs healing for these people.”
One of those ambassadors of healing is Marian Poeppelmeyer. She knows the deep pain of tragedy better than most losing a father she never even had the chance to meet.
"I wasn’t born yet, my mother was 6 months pregnant with me. I came prematurely at the end of December due to her distress, her trauma," said Poeppelmeyer, who has been working to raise awareness on Flight 629 over the last several years. "I wanted to make my dad's life count. I didn't want him to die in vain."
Marian's journey to healing and forgiveness is an inspiration for anyone who has suffered trauma, a message of hope she penned in a very personal memoir about the tragedy titled: Finding My Father: Beyond Tragedy, Through Trauma, and Into Freedom.
"I’m being real honest and real, but I knew that I couldn’t totally be free until I forgave the man that killed my dad," said Poeppelmeyer. “It was by the grace of God that I could forgive him because I didn’t want to. The repressed hate, anger – everything surfaced."
Her journey to forgiveness ultimately took Marian to the living room of Martha and Conrad Hopp. The Hopps, just teenagers back in 1955, were some of the first Weld County citizens to respond to the horrific scene.
"And then we hear this loud explosion that shook all the windows in the house," Conrad said. "We looked outside, and we could hear the roar of the engines — that's how you knew it was a plane — and the ball of the fire coming through the air."
He jumped up from the supper table into history.
“By the time we got to my car we lost sight of the plane behind the barn,” he said.
Martha, Conrad’s girlfriend at the time, was also sitting down for supper.
“I ran outside and I remember all the roads were white with lights,” Martha remembered. “Everybody was already out on the roads doing the same thing.”
It wasn’t just unformed first responders rushing to the scene, but everyday ordinary citizens who took to the roads to do anything they could to save victims.
“18-year-olds encountering bodies, baseball teams dropping what they were doing. The American Legion was running coffee, and then there was Johnson’s Corner, all this activity going on,” added Poeppelmeyer. “I understand there were more than 200 people on the field, from eyewitnesses I've been able to meet.”
On November 1, 2024, the community gathered to mark 69 years since the United Flight 629 plane bombing.
It was the first-ever commemoration and candle lighting in which Weld County citizens gathered in Firestone to hear the names of the victims and to reflect as more work is done to get the word out on the Flight 629 story.
Denver7 will continue to share more stories of the community connected to Flight 629 and will report on the progress of the Weld County memorial to honor the victims..
Anyone who would like to donate to support the future memorial can do so by donating to Denver7 Gives below. Just select 'Help Build United Flight 629 Memorial' from the drop down menu.
You can connect to the group's efforts through the Flight 629 Memorial Facebook page.
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- You can watch this video report in the player below.
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