Francisco Gonzales (murderer)

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Francisco Paula Gonzales (January 26, 1937 – May 7, 1964) was a Filipino sailor and mass murderer. He was the perpetrator behind the crash of Pacific Air Lines Flight 773, where he hijacked the plane and crashed it. The hijacking became the deadliest act of mass murder in California’s history. He competed in the Dragon event together with Fausto Preysler and Jesus Villareal at the 1960 Summer Olympics. After the Olympics he moved to San Francisco, United States. A warehouse worker living in San Francisco, Gonzales had been "disturbed and depressed" over marital and financial difficulties in the months preceding the crash. Gonzales was deeply in debt and nearly half of his income was committed to various loan payments, and he had advised both relatives and friends that he "would die on either Wednesday, the 6th of May, or Thursday, the 7th of May." In the week preceding the crash, Gonzales referred to his impending death on a daily basis, and purchased a Smith & Wesson handgun through a...

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