John
Heinz was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
on 23rd October, 1938. His father, H. J. Heinz, was chairman of the
H. J. Heinz Company, the food processing corporation founded by his
grandfather in 1869. After his parents divorced he was brought up
by his mother, Joan Diehl and his stepfather, Monty McCauley.
Heinz
was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and Yale
University. Following graduation in 1960 he piloted a single engine
plane on a trip through Africa and the Middle East. On his return
he entered Harvard Business School and
in 1962 began work with the Union Bank of Switzerland in Geneva. While
in Geneva he met his future wife, Teresa Simoes Ferreira.
In
1963 Heinz joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve and between June to December
he was on active duty at the Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio,
Texas. He then joined the 911th Troop Carrier Group based in Pittsburgh.
Heinz
was an active member of the Republican
Party and became special assistant to Hugh
Scott (March to December, 1964). At this time Scott was involved
with John
Williams
in investigating the Bobby
Baker scandal. Lyndon
B. Johnson attempted
to stop Scott by threatening disclosures about his relationship with
lobbyist, Claude Wilde. Johnson also told Scott that he would use
his influence to "close down the Philadelphia Navy Yard unless
Senator Scott closed his critical mouth".
In
1965 Heinz began work with the financial and marketing divisions of
the H. J. Heinz Company. He left the company in 1970 and taught at
the Graduate School of Industrial Administration at Carnegie Mellon
University in Pittsburgh.
He left this post when he became the Republican Representative from
Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District.
Heinz,
the youngest member of the 92nd Congress, soon became one of its most
progressive figures. He called on President Richard
Nixon to normalize relations with Cuba.
He also criticised the administration for deploying new weapons as
a tactic in arms limitations talks with the Soviet
Union. He also supported a number of liberal social programs in
education, human welfare, health care and housing.
After
winning reelection in 1974 he was appointed to the Commerce Committee's
Energy and Power Subcommittee and the Public Health and Environment
Subcommittee. He also served as chairman of the House Republican Task
Force on Antitrust and Regulatory Reform (1974-1976).
In
1976 Heinz attempted to replace Hugh Scott
as member of the Senate. His main opponent was Arlen
Specter. During the campaign it was revealed that Heinz had accepted
$6,000 in illegal corporate campaign money from Gulf Oil. Despite
this setback, Heinz defeated Specter in the primary and went on to
win victory over William J. Green III in November, 1976.
Heinz
was a member of the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Banking,
Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. In 1981 he was appointed as chairman
of the Special Committee on Aging. In 1983 President George
Bush appointed him to the National Commission on Health Care Reform.
Heinz was also the leader of attempts to extend Medicare
insurance.
Heinz
also became one of the first members of Congress to call for legislation
to protect the environment. In 1989 Heinz was a founder member of
GLOBE (Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment).
He was instrumental in getting the Clean Air Act passed by the Senate
in 1990.
On
4th April, 1991, Heinz flew to Philadelphia
to conduct the first in a series of investigative hearings to examine
the telemarketing of medical equipment to Medicare beneficiaries.
His Piper Aerostar PA60, carrying him and four other adults developed
landing-gear trouble, a helicopter was dispatched to examine the problem.
The helicopter's blades accidentally hit the bottom of the plane.
Both aircraft crashed to the ground killing everyone on board.
Open
Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
(1)
Victor Thorn, George
Bush & John Kerry: Blood Brothers, World Independent
News Group (2004)
According
to researcher Rodney Stich in Defrauding America, when George
Bush Sr. and CIA Director William Casey engineered the October Surprise
to bribe Iranian officials into retaining US hostages until after
the 1980 elections, two of the passengers on Bush’s BAC 111
flight to Paris were Senator John Heinz, along with Senator John
Tower from Texas.
Even more intriguing is
the fact that John Heinz chaired a three-man presidential review board
that probed the Iran-Contra affair and had in his possession all the
damning documents from that sordid affair, while John Tower led the
infamous Tower Commission that investigated a variety of different
CIA criminal activities and dirty dealings. Coincidentally, both John
Heinz and John Tower died in plane wrecks on successive days in 1991
– Tower in Georgia, and Heinz in Montgomery County, Pa. Once
again I must ask: what are the odds of such an occurrence, especially
when both men had close ties to George Bush Sr., who was a former
CIA director in the mid-1970s? Did both of these men uncover information
that they refused to keep silent about any longer?
Before you answer, consider
that after Senator John Heinz died, his wife married Senator John
Kerry, who was chairman of the 1988 Kerry Commission, described in
the Senate Committee Report on Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign
Policy as “focusing on allegations of illegal gun-running and
narcotics trafficking associated with the Contra war against Nicaragua”
in relation to the CIA, Department of Justice, the US State Department,
and the office of the President and Vice President. The testimony
that took place during these trials (both in open and closed door
sessions) was quite possibly the most damning ever against our federal
government, yet mysteriously, nearly all of it was suppressed and
not widely reported in the mainstream media. Why? Senator Kerry as
a Democrat, had every opportunity to blast a Republican administration
out of the water, yet he inexplicably remained silent and the status
quo prevailed. Could it be that someone tapped him on the shoulder
and told him that if he played his cards right and kept these sordid
matters hush-hush, he would be rewarded sometime in the future?
(2)
Anthony Frank, JFK
Lancer Forum (10th February, 2005)
Senator John Heinz was
killed when a helicopter crashed into the plane he was on, a Piper
Aerostar PA60, on April 4, 1991. This was the second time in less
than eight years that a Member of Congress was killed when something
struck the airplane that he was on.
The helicopter was allegedly
inspecting the plane’s landing gear, ostensibly because the pilot
didn’t know if the “nose gear” was “locked”
in the down position, but on April 24, 1991, it was reported that
the plane “did not have landing gear problems, as its pilot first
believed, and was cleared for landing before it collided with a helicopter,
according to an airport communications tape.”
When the control tower
first reported a “possible emergency,” the helicopter pilot
alerted the tower that he had observed Senator Heinz’ plane as
it passed by and saw that the “nose gear” was down, to which
Senator Heinz’ pilot replied, “I can tell its down, but
I don’t know if it’s locked.”
Senator Heinz’ pilot
then made a pass by the control tower and was told by the tower, “Gear
looks down, it appears to be normal... I’ve got a helicopter
north of the airport. He said he could take a look at it if you like.”
(Washington Post, 4-24-91) }
After flying toward the
plane and making one pass, the helicopter pilot made a “second
pass” to “inspect the landing gear” before it collided
with the plane.
“Several experienced
Piper PA60 pilots said in interviews with NTSB investigators that
if the gear was observed to be down, it would automatically be locked.”
The pilot of Senator Heinz’
plane had three hours of experience as the pilot-in-command on a Piper
PA60 and had problems on a previous flight.
Documents released by the
NTSB “indicated there had been no reason for the pilot to ask
the helicopter to check the gear... ‘No evidence of mechanical
or electrical malfunction was discovered’ the documents said.”
(Washington Post, 7-4-91)
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