Journalist Jeff Harrell spent 32 years as a police crime reporter in NYC. He joined guest host Ian Punnett (Twitter) to discuss his research of the plane crash that killed legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne on March 31, 1931, and its connection to Al Capone and the Chicago mob. Harrell traced the link to Chicago Tribune reporter and mob bagman Jake Lingle, who was shot dead gangland-style on June 9, 1930. Capone had ordered the hit, he added. Father Reynolds, history professor at Notre Dame, witnessed the gunman and eventually testified at the trial of Leo Brothers, who had likely been paid by Capone to be a scapegoat for the real trigger men, Frankie Foster and Ted Newberry, Harrell revealed. Since Father Reynolds knew Brothers was not the killer, he presented a threat to Capone's organization.
Enter Rockne, who during this same period returned from vacation to Notre Dame to oversee football practice. During that week, Rockne received a call his agent about a $50,000 offer to go to LA to consult on the film, The Spirit of Notre Dame, Harrell explained, noting airlines were booked and Rockne could not get a ticket. The day after Father Reynolds testified he bumped into Rockne on campus, found out he needed a plane ticket, and gave the coach his ticket, Harrell reported. The plane, which was carrying Rockne instead of Father Reynolds and had been delayed to allow for a suspiciously large mail shipment to be put aboard, crashed in Kansas. Witnesses claim to have heard an explosion and seen one of the wings fall to the ground, Harrell disclosed.
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The second half of the program was devoted to Open Lines. Blake, who phoned from an airport in California, claimed to have worked for a company in the Twin Towers and has direct knowledge of a tanker full of cancer-causing material located in the basement of the building. He suggested this is why first responders are dying of the disease. Mary from New Jersey spoke to Ian about Old Testament characters Enoch and Elijah, who supposedly did not experience death. She wondered where they "lived" before the arrival of Christ since they could not enter heaven without the crucifixion first taking place. Ian cautioned Mary not to take the biblical account too literally. David in California talked about labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa, who he said was killed, placed into a car, compacted, and ended up in a acid pit. Ian noted another theory about Hoffa being placed in a barrel and submerged into radioactive toxic waste.
News segment guest: Tim Binnall