ARLINGTON, Va. -- A man wanted for 20 years for bank robbery, murder and hijacking a plane to Cuba, turned himself in to authorities Wednesday.
FBI spokesman Frank Scafidi said William White Graham, 38, surrendered after arriving at Washington's National Airport on a 2 p.m. EDT flight from Miami. Scafidi said the surrender details had been worked out in advance with Graham's attorney.
Graham's case was featured recently on the television show 'America's Most Wanted,' and Scafidi said FBI agents also had been leaning on his family for information.
'We had information his family was helping him remain underground. . .. We used the harboring of a fugutive statute as a method of interview. That and the publicity ... apparently caused today's results,' Scafidi said.
The FBI said that in October 1972, Graham and three others tried to rob a Crystal City bank, a botched attempt that left a bank manager and a policeman dead.
From there, the four escaped to Texas, where the FBI says they killed an airline attendant and injured another airline worker before hijacking an Eastern Airlines jet to Havana.
The three others returned to the U.S. to face charges in 1975. Scafidi said Graham attended the University of Havana -- 'stayed there for some time' -- and at the time of his arrest, he was living in San Francisco, working for a computer company.
Graham, by surrendering, had his unlawful flight charge dropped. He was arraigned Wednesday on air piracy, murder and attempted robbery charges, and taken to the Arlington County jail.
'You have to look at it in the era it occurred,' Scafidi said. 'There's no death penalty to attach to these crimes,' because the death penalty was not reinstated until 1976.
Graham gave no motive for his surrender.
'His attorney said earlier in the week that Graham was thinking about surrendering,' Scafidi said. 'We said fine, we're here.'
