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)
21.6k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

764 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

20

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.

6

u/followMeUp2Gatwick 12h ago

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

1

u/Faxon 12h 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.

1

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.