Julienne Bušić (; born Julienne Eden Schultz; September 20, 1948) is an American writer, activist, and the 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
Eugene ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lane County, Oregon, United States. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie River (Oregon), McKenzie and Willamette River, Willamette rivers, ...
, and was raised in
Portland, Oregon
Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...
. She graduated from the
University of Oregon
The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...
, attended
Vienna University
The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...
(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, United States. 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 next ...
.
[ 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, also known by its original name as the Directorate for State Security, was the secret police organization of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Communist Yugoslavia. It was at all times best known by the acrony ...
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
Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1930 until it was acquired by American Airlines in 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles ...
flight 355 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
Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal station, terminal located at 42nd Street (Manhattan), 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York Ci ...
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'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', the ''Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'', the ''Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'', the ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'', and the ''International Herald Tribune
The ''International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') was a daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, France, for international English-speaking readers. It published under the name ''International Herald Tribune'' starting in 1967, but its ...
''. 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, Keflavík merged with nearby Njar ...
, Iceland
Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...
. 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
A pressure cooker is a sealed vessel for cooking food with the use of high pressure steam and water or a water-based liquid, a process called pressure cooking. The high pressure limits boiling and creates higher temperatures not possible at low ...
.
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 woman 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, she ...
. She was released from federal prison in 1989 after serving 13 years in the minimum security Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin 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.
The Snap Judgment radio show March 29, 2018 episode "Unforgiven" discussed her case.
In January 2020, she took part in a controversial ]Croatian Democratic Union
The Croatian Democratic Union (, , HDZ) is a major conservative, centre-right political party in Croatia. Since 2016, it has been the ruling political party in Croatia under the incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. It is one of the ...
ad to support the re-election
An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...
of Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović (; born 29 April 1968) is a Croatian politician and diplomat who served as the 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 ...
as the President of Croatia
The president of Croatia, officially the president of the Republic of Croatia (), is the head of state, commander-in-chief of the military and chief representative of the Republic of Croatia both within the country and abroad. The president ...
.
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.
References
External links
* (archived)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Busic, Julienne
Living people
1948 births
Croatian non-fiction writers
Hijackers
21st-century American women writers
21st-century Croatian writers
American expatriates in Austria
Writers from Eugene, Oregon
American people imprisoned on terrorism charges
American people convicted of murdering police officers
American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
University of Oregon alumni
Portland State University alumni
American emigrants to Croatia
Writers from Portland, Oregon
People paroled from life sentence
People convicted of murder by the United States federal government
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States federal government