FRANK EUGENE CORDER

When he died by crashing a stolen Cessna into the White House Frank Corder was 38 years old, the younger son of Dorothy Corder, a 63 year old housewife in bad health and William, an airplane mechanic and amateur pilot, who had died in 1997. Whether the Abedeeen, Maryland, truckdriver should be counted as a presidential assassin or not is questionable: he was suicidal, who knew him all agreed, depressed by the loss of his father and the breakup of his third marriage. He spent his last day drinking, smoking coke, and musing about his airplane. He had never expressed any animosity against the president, but had often expressed admiration for the West German teenager who in 1987 had flown a Cessna through Soviet airspace to land in Red Square. His brother also recalled that about a year previous to his death, Frank had said, at a party, "If you're going to kill yourself, the way to do it is to take an airplane and crash it into the White House." Of course, everybody had thought he was joking. Regardless of his intent, had he been just a little less steep in his landing, and had the Clintons not been sleeping in Blair House while their White House suite was undergoing some remodeling, he would have assassinated the President. The single engine Cessna 150 two-seater, which showed up on the radar at the National Airport but was unobserved by busy controllers, came bobbling in undetected, clipped a hedge, tore through a magnolia tree planted by Andrew Jackson in 1832, and crashed just 30 feet from the window of the Presidential bedroom.

Frank Corder always believed he was the black sheep of his family. A Maryland native, he dropped out of Aberdeen High School in the 10th grade. Although he would later get a GED, his overall performance never seemed to quite make the grade. He was honorably discharged from the Army after a lackluster performance. He worked as a truck driver and house builder until a few years ago, when he and his older brother opened a trucking business, only to see it collapse last year.

Corder had also battled drug and alcohol problems for years. His rap sheet shows that after his father's death, he did 30 days in the county jail for drunk driving. Within the last 36 months he had another arrest for drunk driving and two for theft. At the time of the assassination attempt he was on probation for marijuana and driving with open bottles of liquor in his car. Last year he entered treatment for alcoholism at the VA hospital in Perry Point, VA. However, whenever anything went wrong in his life, he slid back off the wagon.

During the weeks before his death, Corder had been living in a Keyser's Motel. Residents stated that he had stolen a $400 TV from his room the previous weekend and sold it to buy drugs. This Saturday he seemed to hit rock bottom. He complained about missing his wife and said he wanted to just get a Harley motorcycle and just take off. He invited the motel manager who had befriended him up for a ride in his airplane. She declined. On Sunday night Corder drove to the Harford County Airpark where he had taken flying lessons and stole the Cessna. He then flew the 65 miles south to Washington, straight into the no-fly zone around the capitol. Using the Washington Monument as a beacon, he banked a U-turn over the Ellipse and headed up the South Lawn to his destiny. When it stuck the White House, the plane's wing flaps were up and its throttle position was "full forward," neither of which is characteristic of an aircraft in a landing position. He was killed upon impact. Both cocaine and alcohol were found in his blood after the crash.

The incident triggered an immmediate investigation into how such a thing could happen and what steps should be taken to strengthen the White House security system. Former CIA Director Richard Helms commented:

For years I have thought that a terrorist suicide pilot could readily divert his flight from an approach to Washington to blow up the White House. It has been said that the Secret Service is primed for just such a venture. Perhaps so, but the episode this week hardly gives one much confidence.

Sources: Duffy, Michael. "Flight of the Intruder." Time 26 Sept. 1994:47; Gleick, Elizabeth, et al. "Upfront: It Was a Melodramatic End." People 26 Sept. 1994:47-48; "The September 12, 1994 Plane Crash." The White House Security Review May 1995. Online. Internet. 29 Jan. 1997. Available http://www.prop1.org/clues/951018/rev6.htm; Liu, Melinda, and Douglas Waller. "Terror on the South Lawn." Newsweek 26 Sept. 1994:46.