Denver, CO
A worst act of terror: The mission to build a memorial to remember the bombing of Flight 629 in Colorado
WELD COUNTY, Colo. – It was one of Colorado’s darkest days, yet when asked, most Coloradans will say they never heard of it.
It was an act of terror in the skies just a few miles north of Denver that killed dozens of people and quickly faded from the headlines, but forever burned into the Weld County community.
It was just after 7 p.m. on November 1, 1955.
United Airlines Flight 629 – a 4-engine DC 6 passenger aircraft – loaded with crew, passengers, cargo and fuel for the hop from Denver to Portland, Oregon, quickly departed Stapleton Airport to the northwest.
A few minutes later, Stapleton tower controllers noticed a bright flash in the sky and witnesses near Longmont heard and saw the huge explosion in the night sky.There was little anyone could do as the wreckage rained down onto the Weld County beet fields.
FBI
Keith Cunningham, the Longmont police chief rushed every available officer and firefighter to the fields along with ambulances.
Just a few minutes later, a patrolman radioed: “No ambulances are necessary,” the Rocky Mountain News reported,
Conrad Hopp was just a teenager. He was sitting down for a meal in his home on a farm just east of Longmont.”And then we hear this loud explosion that shook all the windows in the house,” Hopp said. “We looked outside, and we could hear the roar of the engines — that’s how you knew it was a plane — and the ball of the fire coming through the air.”
He jumped up from the supper table into history.
“By the time we got to my car we lost sight of the plane behind the barn,” he said.
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Nearby, Martha Hopp, Conrad’s girlfriend and also just a teen, was also sitting down for supper.
“I ran outside and I remember all the roads were white with lights,” Martha remembered. “Everybody was already out on the roads doing the same thing.”
It wasn’t just unformed first responders rushing to the scene, but everyday ordinary citizens who took to the roads to do anything they could to save victims.
“18-year-olds encountering bodies, baseball teams dropping what they were doing. The American Legion was running coffee, and then there was Johnson’s Corner, all this activity going on,” said Marian Poeppelmeyer, who lost her dad on Flight 629. “I understand there were more than 200 people on the field, from eyewitnesses I’ve been able to meet.”
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Martha remembers by the time she reached the road and saw all the headlights there was debris everywhere.
“So we drove the truck around each body so that it could be found easily,” said Martha.
Conrad was doing the same.
“So we could drive around and then signal so someone could stay by the body and then we’d look for another one, ” he said. “I don’t think I probably went to bed for two days. We were busy even the next day looking for bodies, we didn’t find them all that night.”
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Conrad, just barely 18-year-old, would carry that trauma well into his adult life.
“Finding a body was fairly simple but later on to try and pick that body up and put it in a body bag, that was the tough part.”
While the Weld County community was responding and processing the mayhem, aviation investigators, the FBI and local law enforcement were trying to piece together how a state-of-the-art, widely used passenger plane could suddenly explode into pieces.It wouldn’t take the FBI long to piece it all together.
Their suspect quickly came into focus. An announcer – in a vintage Denver7 news clip – painted the picture.
“John Gilbert Graham, you remember him? He planted a bomb in a suitcase carried by his mother on the United Airliner.”
Denver District Attorney’s Office
It had never happened before in the United States.
As part of the investigation, every piece of baggage carried on board by a United Flight 629 passenger was scrutinized,
The FBI focused on the destroyed luggage of Daisie E. King, a 54-year-old Denver woman.
King, according to the FBI, was carrying several items with her on the plane that were recovered.Those items included personal letters, a checkbook, an address list, two keys for safe deposit boxes and newspaper clippings about her family, including her 23-year-old son, John “Jack” Gilbert Graham.
Graham had been charged with forgery several years earlier and was placed on a “most wanted” list by the Denver County District Attorney, that newspaper clipping showed.
FBI
The investigation focused on King and the fraught relationship with her son.
Graham, the FBI learned, was to receive an inheritance but the mother and son had argued for years. He had lived with other family members through the years and left home at 16.
While Graham returned to Denver to help run his mother’s drive-in restaurant, they still “fought like cats and dogs,” according to the FBI.
On the day of Flight 629’s demise, Jack Graham was planning to give his mother an early Christmas present, believed to be a set of small tools. He had apparently searched all day for the special gift, a neighbor later told investigators.
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Graham, his wife recalled to the FBI, brought the package into the house and carried it to the basement, where his mother had been packing her luggage.
King finished packing, and the family loaded into Graham’s 1951 Plymouth and headed across town to the airport.
He later admitted to the explosion of Flight 629. He said he built a time bomb, with 25 sticks of dynamite and placed it into his mother’s luggage.
Justice was swift. Just 14 months after the terror and a quick trial, Graham was executed.
Rocky Mountain News via Denver Public Library
The dark headlines began to fade into history.
Marian Poeppelmeyer, who never got to know her father, adds that during tragedies, too much focus lands on the perpetrator and not the victims.
Through the power of faith she found healing to write a book about her traumatic journey. Over the last 2 years, Marian has bonded with the Hopps’ and other Weld County citizens who tried to save anyone they could.
The explosion of United Airlines Flight 629 was one of the first attacks on a commercial airliner in the United States. Murdered were 44 people – a five-person crew and 39 passengers including a 13-month-old boy.
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But nearly 69 years later, driving through Longmont or the roads surrounding those Weld County beet fields there’s no sign or monument marking the deadliest act of mass murder in Colorado history.
“It’s important to me because nothing has ever been done for the passengers who lost their lives and nothing has been done for the families whose lives were totally shattered by what happened on November 1, 1955,” Marian said through tears.
Visiting those beet fields where her dad died has been a healing step but she dreams of the day when there’s a place to also honor not only the victims but the heroic citizens and first responders.
“’I’ve encountered people here who have never known the history. And why? Because it got shoved underneath and became quiet. It was too traumatic for this area. How do you even speak of it?” she added.
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Marian, who lives out of state, first traveled to Weld County a couple of years ago to visit the scene and met Becky Tesore, a local resident. The two quickly bonded over shared faith and Tesore felt called to serve and help in any way for the future of a Flight 629 memorial.
“I was at a publishers conference and this lady came up to me and said, Becky, you live in Weld County, I need a place to stay – and it was Marian Poeppelmeyer,” said Tesore. “And she had her book at the conference, ‘Finding My Father’ – which is a great book on healing – I just love it. And so we got to know each other.”
The two grew a greater movement in the community attracting fellow citizens who felt called to serve and right a wrong. “I would say 99.5% of the people do not know about Flight 629,” Tesore said. “It kind of shocks them and it pulls them in, and they’re like, I’m so glad I now know and then I give them our website, which is like flight629memorial.org.’
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Together, Marian and Becky drove hundreds of miles around the area going to appointments, speaking to local groups and inspiring others to believe in a tribute to the victims, families and heroes of United Flight 629.
A group of local citizens formed the Flight 629 Memorial and Unsung Heroes Across America Committee of which Tesore serves as Vice President. The memorial board’s president, Greg Raymer, has worked hard on a weekend concert event at Rialto Theater in Loveland to help raise money.
The first fundraising event is a concert at the theater on Saturday, August 3, 2024 runs from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and features Christine Alice and the Canyon Echos. The group hopes to raise money from the event and further share the story of Flight 629.
“Tickets are $25 until the day of and then we’ll be back at $30,” said Becky. Tickets can be purchased at this link and they say every dollar helps so that the history of Flight 629 can finally be properly honored – for today and future generations.
“They weren’t taught they weren’t talking about it. One of our members Conrad Hopps said he didn’t tell his kids till years later, so he is so thankful that he’s getting healed of it.” added Becky. “And we don’t want this generation to pass away without seeing the results of what they did that night by going out. Many were traumatized by the events that they saw.”
In the video player below, Watch Marian Poeppelmeyer share her journey of healing through trauma
The bombing of United Airlines 629 and a journey to forgiveness
As fundraising efforts ramp up, including the launch of a Flight 629 GoFundMe page, Becky and the committee are working toward an important date.
“The mission is to try and have a memorial or ribbon cutting by November 1, 2025 as that will be the 70th year. We are really going to try and get the memorial up,” Becky said. “And we have seen God do amazing things in the process of this journey, so we’re still believing for it.”
She says the committee needs $26,000 to order material for the memorial.
Marian is returning to Colorado over several days in August to speak at local community centers about her father’s tragedy and her healing journey. She’ll share her story on Monday, August 12 between 2 and 4 p.m. at the Carbon Valley Parks and Recreation Center in Firestone.
The night a Denver man blew up his mother’s flight
She’ll also be at the Carbon Valley Public Library on Wednesday, August 14 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.She has appearances scheduled in Greeley and Longmont, all of which are detailed on her Facebook page.
“It took great courage to do what 18-year-olds did, what teenagers did and what fathers and mothers did on the field that night,” said Marian.
And while the future site and logistics of the memorial are still a work in progress, all are on the same path to create a space where those who through the years suffered trauma, like so many first responders and citizen heroes do, have a place to remember what happened in those beet fields, honor the lives cut short and find the gift of healing.
“It’s not just about me, my dad is about 43 other families that were involved,” Marian reflected. “And it’s about the history and legacy of Weld County.”
Watch the full video special report in the video player below:
A mission to build a memorial honoring the bombing of Flight 629 in Colorado
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When Denver Central Market opened at 2669 Larimer Street 10 years ago, the food hall was a harbinger of RINo’s revitalization, serving as an anchor destination for residents and visitors alike.
Today, the space looks to be in the midst of a seismic transition. Over the past week, three of the vendors occupying prime real estate in the 12,000 square-foot facility have exited, leaving behind empty shelves, empty counters and, in some cases, hard feelings.
The Curio bar is now temporarily closed. Shelves once full of spirits and mixers sit as empty as a frat house liquor cabinet after rush week; the long tables and stools have no drinkers to fill them. Directly across from the bar are the empty glass cases of the Butchers at RiNo, which once stored large cuts of beef, pork and chicken that customers could either order sandwiches made from on-site or take home to cook themselves.
And the long counter at High Point Creamery, occupying the space connecting the Crema coffee shop to Izzio Bakery, now lies bare, with exposed wires and broken drywall as the only evidence of its former occupant.
While there’s still plenty of activity at the other food stalls that call Denver Central Market home, all this begs the question: What the hell is going on? The food-hall’s management says it’s just part of the natural cycle of concepts entering and exiting as leases expire. Vendors, however, say they’re being pushed out.
“Changes in tenants are pretty typical for a Market/Food Hall and we’ve had very little over the past ten years,” reads a statement from Denver Central Market, delivered through a spokesperson, who notes that the exiting businesses were on 10-year leases that had expired. “But we are excited for what’s to come. News to follow.”
Vendors, however, tell a different story, accusing Denver Central Market owner Ken Wolf of pushing them out and generally making them feel unwelcome during their time at the space.
“After a decade of building High Point Creamery at Denver Central Market, we weren’t given a meaningful opportunity to continue operating there,” says High Point Creamery founder and CEO Erika Thomas. “Ken Wolf chose not to renew our lease and instead gave the space to Etai Barron of Izzio.”
Neither Denver Central Market nor representatives of Izzio have confirmed that Etai Barron is taking the space. But Thomas isn’t the only vendor to complain.
“I’d like to thank all my customers, employees, vendors, friends and family for helping Butchers at RiNo operate and almost flourish,” writes Butchers at RiNo owner and general manager Brent Ratliff. “I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this business that hopefully brought immense joy. It’s unfortunate property management didn’t make us feel welcome when we began, nor when we closed. Best of luck to everyone.”
Among the various allegations of heavy-handed management are instances of DCM ownership dictating the name and branding of new businesses entering the space, and even pushing back on products they chose to sell. Tenants have also cited confusing and expensive facility fees that all vendors must pay in addition to rent for shared services, such as table busing, security and maintenance services that they claim proved inadequate. Saying they fear legal action, some of the vendors who share these complaints request anonymity.
They have more specific concerns, too. On May 29, for instance, the building was temporarily closed to address an issue with the water, which vendors say was regularly not hot enough to pass health inspections, or was too low in pressure to be useful. According to city records, three in-progress Denver Department of Public Health & Environment complaints were filed against the facility May 28-29, but it is unclear if those are directly related to water problems.
According to sources, fingerpointing between DCM owner Wolf and the building’s owner, Eden Ventures, has turned this and other facility issues into a game of endless hot potato, leaving problems unresolved.
Wolf and chef Jeff Osaka — who operated the Sushi-Rama franchise in Denver, among other concepts — opened DCM in 2016 to great fanfare and customer traffic, filling a void in the then-nascent RiNo neighborhood. In 2019, Wolf sold the building occupied by Denver Central Market, along with other properties along the block, to Eden Ventures for a reported $55 million. Soon after the sale, the relationship between Wolf and Eden Ventures soured, with Wolf suing the new owners over lease-extension terms and, at one point posting signs at the food hall forbidding Eden employees from entering.
While Eden Ventures owns the building, Wolf still leases the space, and in turn leases the individual food and retail stalls to vendors. Of the 11 original vendors from a decade ago, only three are left: Izzio, Crema and Green Seed Market. Most of the concepts that have entered DCM since — including Tammen’s Fish Market, Lunchboxx, Vero, and Temper Chocolates and Confections — are companies in which Wolf has an ownership stake.
DCM management is rumored to be taking over the Curio bar space, which could reopen as soon as next week, and the Butcher in RiNo space also reportedly has an interested buyer. And whether or not Izzio replaces High Point Creamery, the owner of that venture is relieved to move on.
“Fortunately, High Point was never defined by a single location,” says Thomas. “Today we operate five locations, including our newest shop at McGregor Square. We’ve found fantastic partners who value what we bring to the table, and we’re excited about what’s ahead.”
Denver Central Market is located at 2669 Larimer Street and is open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For more information, visit denvercentralmarket.com.
Denver, CO
Defensive lineman Jordan Miller has a tough battle to make the Broncos’ final 53-man roster
As the Denver Broncos prepare for the 2026 season, they have a lot of positives going for the franchise. One of them would be their defensive line. Once a position group with a lot of questions marks, it has ascended to one of the best units in the National Football League over the past few seasons.
The departure of John Franklin-Myers in free agency may have an impact on the group’s performance for the upcoming gridiron campaign. Though the Broncos are hoping a combination of young players they have drafted over the past several seasons can offset the loss of Franklin-Myers.
One player hoping to make the squad is defensive lineman Jordan Miller. At the conclusion of the 2024 NFL Draft, the Broncos signed Southern Methodist standout and gave him one of the biggest signing bonuses from that cycle. For the past two seasons, Miller has been a practice squad player for the Broncos. After two years learning the ropes, is Miller finally ready to earn a spot on Denver’s final 53-man roster? Let’s discuss.
Age: 26 | Experience: 2 | College: SMU (via Miami) | Height: 6’3” | Weight: 307 pounds
Arm Length: 33-3/8” | Bench: 27 reps | 40-Yard Dash: 5.18 seconds
Jordan Miller’s 2026 outlook with the Broncos
Several years ago, I highlighted Miller’s strengths in our 2024 roster review series. His strength and size at the point of attack are enticing. Additionally, he boasts a tremendous wingspan on the interior which routinely gave opposing offensive linemen in his collegiate career fits.
The physical traits Miller has are certainly promising. However, entering his third year with the Broncos, he faces steep competition in order to make the final 53-man roster. That’s no fault of his own—it’s just the reality of the situation—Denver’s defensive line is stacked.
I believe the franchise will keep six defensive lineman in the rotation once again this season. Having six players in their trenches will help keep the rotation fresh and give them a shot to be at their best. Zach Allen, Sai’vion Jones, Tyler Onyedim, D.J. Jones, Malcolm Roach, and Eyioma Uwazurike appear to be the favorites set to make the squad. With that in mind, it is hard to see a viable path for Miller to make the squad.
Given the aforementioned, it seems like Miller will once again be a practice squad candidate for the Broncos. In the event that something were to happen to Jones or Roach, I could see Miller getting called up to the active roster to help handle spot duty reps on the interior of Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph’s defensive front.
DENVER — A lieutenant with Berthoud Fire who was injured after he was struck head-on by a wrong-way driver in Denver last month is making progress, according to a Tuesday update.
The wrong-way driver, identified as 25-year-old Kevem Dos Santos, was killed in the May 17 crash inside the barrier-separated HOV lanes on Interstate 25.
Ken Bradley, the Berthoud Fire lieutenant, was traveling to work when the crash occurred. He was transported to the hospital with serious injuries.
The crash left Bradley with multiple fractures in both legs, fractures to his left arm, a dislocated right shoulder, several broken ribs, and a collapsed lung.
Bradley’s family said he is now able to get in and out of his wheelchair on his own. But he faces additional surgeries this week to reconstruct his ankles and feet.
His family thanked the more than 800 donors who have contributed $85,000 to his GoFundMe and said he remains in good spirits.
Police have not said how Dos Santos managed to access the gate-controlled HOV lanes, leaving many questions unanswered.
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