When it comes to flying, well, as you can see on the sidebar of this page, I get around. I've seen quite a few famous people in airports (the Miami Ink cast, Bruce Bruce), met a few (
Lou Farigno and
Cesar Millan), and flown with more (
John Witherspoon,
John Anderson,
Chris Broussard,
Nicholas Turturro). With my LAX - JFK weekly route, I'm sure that there have been more that I just haven't seen. However, this Thursday's flight took the cake.
When I got to the security line at JFK, I noticed a few extra policemen walking around but didn't think anything of it. I grabbed a bite to eat before boarding, where I was in the second row aisle seat. A guy with a tennis bag came to sit down at the window in my row and asked if I'd heard about the 'coffee cup murderer' in the news. I had
read about it, but hadn't seen her picture until I looked it up on my phone as we sat there. Apparently she had just boarded our flight with two large looking marshal types.
The short story is that back in April, 70 year old Lois Ann Goodman's husband of almost 50 years died from a supposed fall down the stairs. She is a professional tennis line judge and was in New York for the upcoming US Open. The Los Angeles coroner found some inconsistencies with a fall, mostly the fact that fragments of a coffee mug were found in his head. Why it took 4 months to figure this out, I don't know. She was arrested in New York and they were flying her back to LA to face charges.
I discreetly got up to use the restroom as others were still boarding, and sure enough - 4 rows behind me, there she was in the window seat. The middle seat was empty and the officers sat in both aisle seats in that row. There were no announcements and it was all very hush-hush. If my seatmate hadn't told me, I never would've known.
At one point on the flight, one of the officers got up and escorted her to the restroom. She was still in her US Open uniform and had her jacket draped over her hands to hide the cuffs. The officer unlocked them when she got to the restroom and then put them back on when she came out. Again, very subtle and most people didn't know to pay attention. She brushed against me as she went back to her seat (as does everyone since I don't really fit into the seats very well). Eerie for me, but she had a blank, emotionless stare the whole time.
When we got off of the plane, it was obvious that they weren't going to escort her through the main terminal. There was a policeman waiting at an emergency exit at the end of the jetway, and luckily it was glass and I could see through it. A few passengers 'in the know' and I waited to try to snap a picture as she left. We could also see a police car on the runway, so I know that the paparazzi and news crews surely waiting at baggage claim weren't going to get a thing.
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| My horrible photo made it onto a local LA news broadcast |
Looking back, I really should've taken a video instead of a picture. They waiting for everyone to get off the flight before bringing her out, and all I got was this lousy, blurry, pic (I blame the glass that separated us). Regardless, I had a pic, and I know no one else did.
As I descended the escalator toward baggage claim, I could see the ruckus of reporters, cameramen, and others with microphones. A reporter (very hot, I might add) with a KTLA mic was asking everyone if 'she' was coming. I delivered the bad news that she wasn't... but I got a pic.
Immediately, everyone was crowded around me, asking if I could text it to them. It was funny because as you can see, the picture quality is really bad. I briefly had a thought that I could sell it, but I was so embarrassed that they were so desperate for anything that I gave it away to whoever asked.
Once that was finished, the lights came on, mics came up and it was like I was in a press conference. Questions came from all sides - Where was she sitting? What was she wearing? Did she look sad? Did she say anything? Etc. etc.
After the lights went down I made my way to my car and to Lindsay's house. Sure enough, clips from my interview made it on the lead story of all four major LA networks (and even the blurry pic on one channel).
Almost famous.
