Seventy years ago, United Flight 629 exploded over Longmont, killing everyone aboard. The investigation that followed unveiled the tragedy, betrayal, and senseless malice behind one of America’s earliest and deadliest air disasters.
The sugar beet harvest in Colorado can be a race against time. The crop is the first planted in the spring and not harvested until late October, when an early snowstorm can leave farmers with a fraction of the yield they planned.
So on Nov. 1, 1955, young Conrad Hopp worked feverishly alongside his family on their Weld County farm to take out the beet crop. But when the clock struck 7 p.m. that evening, the crop was all in and Conrad was hungrily devouring dinner in their farmhouse…