On February 22, 1974, Samuel Byck, tired of the personal failings and disappointment which characterized his life, attempted to hijack a Delta Airlines-owned DC-9 at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, which he intended to crash into the White House, thereby incinerating then-President Richard Milhouse Nixon, whom he felt was the root of all his troubles. He took down the pilot and a policeman before taking his own life. He is known for taping long, rambling speeches and mailing the tapes to celebrities (e.g. Leonard Bernstein). He is immortalized in the Stephen Sondheim musical Assassins, as well as the 2001 film "The Assassination of Richard Nixon."