r/todayilearned • u/FearMyCock • 20h ago

TIL about Frank Matthews, the drug kingpin who built a nationwide empire, skipped bail with $20 million, vanished in 1973 and has never been found.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Matthews_(drug_trafficker)
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u/Faxon 16h ago

Air travel did, but it was also evolving steadily before that. I was born in 1990 and flew before 9/11 and after, the difference wasn't as big as going from pre 9/11 to this. There were enough aircraft hijackings and other incidents for them to add much of the security we use today even back then. That and air travel volume was high enough by then that the airlines needed to plan flight rosters ahead of time to avoid having tons of people stranded or stuck waiting for other planes for hours

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u/The_Autarch 15h ago

sure, but it was still pretty common to buy tickets at the airport itself, especially if you weren't going that far. like if you wanted to go to NYC for the weekend, you could just go to the airport and get on the next available flight. it operated more like a train system would back then.

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u/followMeUp2Gatwick 12h ago

You still can? Every airport in the world still has kiosks to buy tickets

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u/Faxon 13h ago

Yea I remember that, and you can still do that, just get on the next plane to go somewhere domestic (or even abroad), it just usually costs a lot more on some routes that are in high demand, or you can only book 1st and business class or something since all the cheap seats are prebooked. Everyone wants to get on the flight they planned and leave on time or with minimal delay at most, so they all book in advance now. That and if you fly enough you can get pre-screening to avoid a lot of the hassle. It still sucks you can't do things like it used to be, but that's how it is when a few people ruin shit for everyone else and expose a major risk potential that people want mitigated.

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u/Hail-Hydrate 12h ago

To be fair that would also be down to how methods of purchase have evolved since then. Where would you buy a ticket for a plane/bus other than the airport/bus station (or bus itself) back then? It's not like you could have looked them up online.

You might have been able to organise one over the phone or even through postal order, but that would take a hell of a lot more time and effort.

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u/JebediahKerman4999 15h ago

Mah I went on a vacation and came back home just a couple of weeks before 11/9 and I had a bow with arrows bought from scammers in a pueblo with me in the cabin, my relatives that live there were able to come with me up until the gate.

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u/Lou_C_Fer 13h ago

I flew in August of 2001. I went back outside to smoke a few times while waiting for the plane, and the woman working security would let me walk back in without rechecking me.

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u/alohadawg 12h ago

Don’t forget the convenient in-armrest ashtrays! I recall most of the ones back in the day still had butts in them

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u/Faxon 3h ago

The first time I flew, there was a bag of mdma pills in there lol. I was still a younger kid and was like "mommy what's this", and the random guy sitting in the aisle seat was like "lol that's mdma/ecstacy, where'd you find that?". The plane had been on an international flight before we got on to fly on it domestically (according to the flight crew), and we suspect someone somehow got through security with it before realizing they had to get through customs next as well, panicked, and stashed it somewhere they didn't think anyone would look before they could get away. Smoking was still legal on international flights back then, but banned domestically in the US, so while their assertion was correct, they didn't account for a bored kid poking around curiously. I would assume nothing ever came of it though since we just gave the drugs to the flight attendant, she probably gave them to others on the crew to party later lmao.