Found and Lost

An FBI search ends in tragedy

When a twin-engine Cessna lost power and crashed in Montgomery, Ohio, last week, four FBI agents and a retired policeman were killed, the largest single-day loss of FBI agents. But the revelation that the sixth passenger, Carl Johnson, had been declared legally dead just weeks before the crash put a bizarre twist on the disaster.

Johnson, 48, had been missing since 1975, when he was accused of embezzling $614,851 from a Chicago bank where he worked. Johnson's wife Lois had him declared legally dead by a court last Nov. 4. But Johnson was far from dead; he had been living in San Diego and had become an active member of the Religious Science Church Center there. Johnson turned himself in to authorities on Dec. 2. Eight days later Johnson led FBI agents to a cache of $53,000 he had buried in a wooded area northwest of Chicago. When the Cessna crashed, Johnson was helping agents find $55,000 he said he had buried near Cincinnati. Johnson's attorney, Louis Garippo, said that his client was the only person who knew the exact location of the loot.