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"He shows very little concern over this offense," said a 1951 probation report. "For the past couple of years he led a wild life -spent most of his money on drinking parties and women. His mother appears to be a type that has overprotected her son." Yet Jack Graham seemed to mend his ways. Three years ago he married Gloria Elson, a Denver girl, and settled down to raise a family. Last year, when her third husband died, Daisie King bought the Crown-A, a drive-in hamburger stand in West Denver, for $35,000, put Jack in charge (he also had a job as a mechanic at the local Hertz Drive-Ur-Self agency). She also made a down payment on a small home for the Grahams.
"Anything for Money." Jack worked hard, made regular payments on his forgery debt (by last week he had reduced the balance to $105.34), and seemed to be an exemplary family man. In his business he was erratic and clench-fisted, but he had a weakness for children, often selling 10¢ ice-cream cones to the local kids for a nickel. There were other inconsistencies in the picture. Not long ago, Jack stalled a pickup truck in the path of an oncoming train, collected from his insurance company. Last Labor Day a mysterious gas explosion damaged the Crown-A; the insurance company realized that it had been staged, but reluctantly paid Jack's claim. "He was an average personality but with some strange ideas," said Elvin West, a neighbor. "He once said to me, 'I'd do anything for money.' " And Jack knew that his mother had money -well over $100,000.
Last month, when Daisie King packed her belongings for her trip to Alaska, Jack told his wife about a little surprise he had in mind. Daisie's hobby was making costume jewelry out of shells, and Jack had decided to buy her a small drill, of the type used in making shell jewelry, as a Christmas gift. He planned to sneak it into Daisie's suitcase, so mother would be surprised when she got to Alaska.
By the time FBI agents began to question Jack Graham last week, they already knew most of the answers. Graham had purchased six insurance policies at the airport, and only two -one in the amount of $37,500 made out to Jack Graham -had been signed by Mrs. King. The only Denver resident who boarded the plane in Denver (and therefore the most likely to have a time bomb planted in her luggage) was Daisie King. Graham's actions after the tragedy had been suspicious; on the morning after the crash, he resigned his job at the Hertz agency, although his boss had offered him a three-week compassionate leave. A Kremmling, Colo, merchant, who had known Jack Graham when he was a boy, said that he was "pretty sure" that Graham had purchased 20 sticks of dynamite from him just three days before the fatal explosion.