Julienne Bušić (; born Julienne Eden Schultz; September 20, 1948) is an American writer, activist, widow and co-conspirator of
Zvonko Bušić. She was arrested with Bušić in 1976 after hijacking
TWA Flight 355 and sentenced to life in prison, with early parole.
Life
According to her memoir,
she was born in
Eugene, Oregon, United States, and was raised in
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...
. She graduated from the
University of Oregon
The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...
, attended
Vienna University (Austria), and obtained a master's degree in German language, literature, and linguistics at
Portland State University
Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the following two decad ...
.
[ In Oregon, she worked as a nurse's aid, teacher, and mental health therapist for abused teenagers.]
She married Zvonko Bušić in 1972 and they lived together in Austria, Germany, Oregon, and Ohio before moving to New York City. They were active in publicizing human rights abuses in the former Yugoslavia, especially the murder of Croatian dissidents by the Yugoslav secret police organization UDBA
The State Security Service ( hr, Služba državne sigurnosti, sr, Служба државне безбедности; mk, Служба за државна безбедност; sl, Služba državne varnosti), also known by its original name ...
in the so-called "black program," and in promoting the cause of Croatian independence. Julienne Bušić and a friend were imprisoned briefly in Zagreb in the early 1970s for disseminating literature critical of the Yugoslavian government.[
On September 10, 1976, she, her husband, and three others hijacked domestic Trans World Airlines flight ]355
__NOTOC__
Year 355 ( CCCLV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Arbitio and Maesius (or, less frequently, year 1108 '' Ab ...
departing from New York for Chicago, using the threat of a bomb. While refueling the hijacked plane at Montreal's Mirabel International Airport, they told officials that they had planted a bomb in a locker at Grand Central Terminal and gave them instructions on finding it. They demanded that an appeal to the American people concerning Croatia's independence be printed in the ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', the ''Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...
'', the ''Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
'', the ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'', and the '' International Herald Tribune''. The plane was then flown to Gander, Newfoundland, where 35 of its passengers were released. From there the plane was accompanied by a larger TWA plane that guided it to Keflavík
Keflavík (pronounced , meaning ''Driftwood Bay'') is a town in the Reykjanes region in southwest Iceland. It is included in the municipality of Reykjanesbær whose population as of 2016 is 15,129.
In 1995, Keflavik merged with nearby Njarð ...
, Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
. The hijackers' initial European destination was London, but the British government refused them permission to land.[Bombs for Croatia (Part I)](_blank)
''Time Magazine''
During the hijacking the device at Grand Central Terminal was found and taken to Rodman's Neck Firing Range where police attempted to dismantle it rather than detonate it. This bomb exploded, killing NYPD officer Brian Murray and wounding another, Terrence McTigue. The hijackers had the airliner flying over London, where they dropped pamphlets promoting Croatian independence from Yugoslavia. The group surrendered without bloodshed, with their onboard bomb proving to be a harmless pressure cooker
Pressure cooking is the process of cooking food under high pressure steam and water or a water-based cooking liquid, in a sealed vessel known as a ''pressure cooker''. High pressure limits boiling, and creates higher cooking temperatures which ...
.
Zvonko and Julienne Bušić were convicted of air piracy resulting in death, which carried a mandatory life sentence with parole eligibility after 10 years. In 1979, she was attacked in prison by Manson Family member Lynette Fromme
Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme (born October 22, 1948) is an American criminal who was a member of the Manson family, a cult led by Charles Manson. Though not involved in the Tate–LaBianca murders for which the Manson family is best known, sh ...
. She was released from federal prison in 1989 after serving 13 years in the minimum security Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin
The Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin (FCI Dublin) is a low-security United States federal prison for female inmates in Dublin, California. The facility also has an adjacent satellite prison camp housing minimum-security female offenders ...
in Dublin, California.[
During and after her stint in prison, Bušić corresponded at length with Kathleen Murray Moran, the wife of the bomb squad member killed during the incident. Murray Moran advocated for Bušić's early release. Murray Moran would later, quite publicly, regret that advocacy. In 1982, Murray filed a lawsuit against the NYPD, charging gross negligence in the handling of the explosives, which "caused the death of Officer
Murray".
Bušić subsequently moved to Croatia and has supported Croatian political causes in the United States and Europe. She has been involved in publishing, translation, and literary projects, and written for literary journals both in Croatia and the United States, including Ooligan Press, Verbatim, Gobshite Quarterly, and Vijenac. She is also a weekly columnist for the Croatian news portal Dalje. Her husband was granted parole in 2008, at which time he rejoined his wife in Croatia. Zvonko Bušić committed suicide in 2013.
In January 2020 she took part in a controversial Croatian Democratic Union ad to support the re-]election
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
of Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović (; born 29 April 1968) is a Croatian politician and diplomat who served as President of Croatia from 2015 to 2020. She was the first woman to be elected to the office since the first multi-party elections in 1990 and ...
as the President of Croatia
The president of Croatia, officially the President of the Republic of Croatia ( hr, Predsjednik Republike Hrvatske), is the head of state, commander-in-chief of the military and chief representative of the Republic of Croatia both within the ...
.
Books
Her first book, ''Lovers and Madmen'' (2000), chronicles her relationship with Zvonko and the death threats and attempts on their lives that led up to the hijacking. Her second book, ''Your Blood and Mine'' (2008), is an extended commentary on the American federal prison system, as portrayed by her letters to Zvonko throughout his 32-year incarceration. Her third book, ''Living Cells'' (2012) is a true story of a Croatian woman held as a sex slave during the siege of Vukovar.
In media
Bušić is featured prominently in the radio sho
Unforgiven
The segment of the show titled The Hijacker's Letter features information on the relationship that developed between Bušić and Kathleen Murray Moran, widow of Brian Murray, the officer killed by her bomb.
References
External links
Zvonko and Julienne Busic's official website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Busic, Julienne
Croatian non-fiction writers
Hijackers
1948 births
Living people
People imprisoned on charges of terrorism
People paroled from life sentence
Writers from Eugene, Oregon
American expatriates in Austria
University of Oregon alumni
Portland State University alumni
American emigrants to Croatia
Writers from Portland, Oregon
American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States federal government
21st-century Croatian writers
21st-century American women writers