Nov. 01, 2005 - 21:34 MST

IN MID AIR

I suppose I shouldn't have watched PBS tonight, but Gene Amole a columnist who was a contemporary of mine played a great part in the program.

Gene and I grew up in Old Denver, way back when.

He served in the military in World War Two, I was 4F and working on the railroad. He grew up on the north side I believe (roughly northwest side) and I on the south side (roughly southwest side) of the Platte River. But we knew the area of central Denver intimately.

As well as being a crackerjack reporter he was quite entrepreneurial in his makeup and at one time jointly owned a radio station on Ruby Hill. I think it was KVOD then. I believe that his was the first station to ever broadcast the song of the meadow lark in the background.

Unfortunately the program tonight centered around one of Denver's shameful bits of "firsts" Gene was an active reporter on the first case of an airliner bombed in mid-air. Graham I think was the perp's name and he planted dynamite, caps and a timer in his Mom's luggage. The airliner exploded east of Denver not too long after take off

In the program tonight I saw Gene Amole as he was back in the 1950s as a young reporter on the case, and portions of the program showed him in later life, quite some time before I first met him in Cherry Creek North at the art festival one year.

He was quite active in reporting on the investigation and trial.

So I saw him in action during that time, taped or shot on film by Harry Rhoads a former Rocky Mountain News photographer.

So, tonight was a sort of fond farewell and a lost look at a beloved Denverite, Gene Amole . . . . . . . . Sort of maundering in a wandering sort of way, about things past, shamed that the first air liner was bombed by a man whose mother was departing on a plane from here in our town. Seems as if that sort of thing took hold like that plague after that and became the popular terrorist activity.

The name of the program on PBS tonight ? ? ? ? ? ? Murder IN MID AIR . . . . . . . . .

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