American Skyjacker · Imperative Entertainment and Pegalo Pictures

THE LOST MEMOIR OF GARRETT TRAPNELL

October 7, 2025·43 min·3 clips

Garrett Trapnell's first air piracy trial ended eleven-to-one for conviction — then the judge died, and the U.S. Attorney jumped out a sixth-floor window.

Five years after the American Skyjacker podcast first aired, host Danny Wisentowski introduces a bonus episode timed to the release of the American Skyjacker documentary film. The episode centers on an email from Liane Blevins, a retired FBI agent who, in an earlier career as a TV producer, secured an exclusive on-camera interview with Garrett Trapnell at USP Marion for ABC's FBI Untold Stories. Blevins grew up in Los Angeles as the daughter of a single mother who cycled through stepfathers. She studied journalism at Cal State Northridge and discovered her biological father by recognizing the name of a production designer in the credits of a Jim Belushi film. That reconnection led her to Los Angeles and into television production. She was hired as a research coordinator on FBI Untold Stories, a half-hour documentary series that combined FBI agent interviews with dramatic recreations. Blevins identified hostage negotiation cases as her specialty because the 'good guys and bad guys interacted in the same scenes.' She pitched the story of Robin Oswald's 1978 plane hijacking — a 17-year-old coerced by Trapnell into strapping a fake bomb to herself — and was assigned as associate producer. To secure Trapnell's cooperation, she wrote a calculated flattery letter acknowledging his celebrity and inviting his perspective. Trapnell responded and called collect. Blevins describes recognizing in Trapnell the same personality pattern as a violent stepfather from her own childhood — charm followed by manipulation — which gave her a resistance to his influence. After months of phone correspondence, she brought a small TV crew into Marion Penitentiary. The entry process took two hours of equipment inventory. Inside, the prison was silent in a way unlike any facility she had previously visited. Trapnell appeared frail and subdued in person, likely already suffering from emphysema. In his on-camera interview, Trapnell expressed ambivalence about having motivated Robin Oswald's hijacking while simultaneously defending the prisoner's moral right to escape. After the episode aired in February 1992, Trapnell sent Blevins a photocopied manuscript of his unpublished memoir, titled 'Trap.' She describes it as better written than the published book about him. Excerpts from the memoir read in the episode include Trapnell's account of his 1972 air piracy trial, which ended in a hung jury of eleven to one; the judge then died of a heart attack and the U.S. Attorney jumped from his apartment. Trapnell writes he was 'the only one left standing.' Another excerpt describes his first night at Marion, meeting McNally through prison bars and receiving coffee and tobacco. Blevins ended her correspondence with Trapnell after her FBI-agent husband warned that continued contact could cost him his career. Trapnell died of emphysema in September 1993 at age 54. The manuscript cuts off mid-sentence at page 139. Wisentowski suggests a future season of the podcast may be devoted to the full story of Trapnell's life.

As heard by us

A prison interview episode that lets detail and memory do the unsettling work.

Mac's story opens out into a prison-side look at Garrett Trapnell, and the episode works best when it treats the interview process itself as part of the case.

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Why you'd press play

When a prison interview opens into charm, manipulation, and a very patient trap.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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