Well thanks a lot, A4s. Had you posted a picture of Stalin or even Mohammad Atta, it would not have raised my blood pressure as much as seeing Frank Lorenzo again. :icon_rage
He was hated with cause, not only by his employees, but also by his business partners, competitors, and the government – at least those he had not yet bought off. He was so hated, and had made so many enemies, that he had two full time bodyguards everywhere. And when he was in public, he had four bodyguards. He needed them.
I learned (2nd or 3rd hand) that there were a couple of contracts on his life. The first involved a $300,000 (1980 dollars) contract on his life. It allegedly was brought to the Mafia in Florida. But the Mafia refused the contract. They said Lorenzo was "connected" and they would not touch him.
Some time later, a Samoan was allegedly recruited to terminate Lorenzo for one-tenth the money. After initially agreeing, he subsequently backed out citing his conflicted religious beliefs.
Earlier, in the midst of the austere Carter years, the Navy was shocked to suddenly learn that a majority of TOPGUN instructors had put in their letters, en masse. (They all shared a FAPA membership). Continental – who had earlier preferred FLAPS and Air Force pilots – after a visit to an Aircraft Carrier during flt. ops., suddenly wanted to hire mostly Navy carrier pilots. And they did.
At the time, CAL pilots were the highest paid, with the highest benefits in the industry. Moreover, they were #1 in ammenities and passenger preference.
Many of those TOPGUN instructors and others at NKX went to CAL, only to be later kneecapped by Lorenzo. Many left the airline and flying altogether, forever, and some to much greater success elsewhere. Some stayed with CAL through some bitter years.
Lorenzo lived, but he was thankfully, eventually banned by our government from ever becoming involved in any US airline ever again. And while he was never assassinated, he was disgraced some years later by being allegedly caught by the police with a young male in his car, at night near his home in Houston.
And to disagree, it doesn't all work out in the end. Personally, I was eventually, extremely lucky. But I know many who were devastated, and never really recovered from deregulation, or especially, Frank Lorenzo.
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Olie and I crossed paths a number of times in the Training Command. Later we went through VF-121 as a class of 3 pilots, and maybe 5 RIOs. We all were "must-pumps" and all were close. I remember Olie bought a 9mm since he didn't like his Navy issue. We shot up a canyon north of NKX on the day he got it. Great fun. Haven't seen him since VF-92.
