Owen J. Quinn

Owen J. Quinn (born 1941 in the Bronx, New York) is an American man who was the first person to successfully parachute off one of the World Trade Center towers, on July 22, 1975.

Early life In an interview with C. J. Sullivan of the New York Press, Quinn claims that his first memories were of "how it all got bad very quick". His mother grew sick and was hospitalized for a long stretch of time and finances for the family were low, so his father had to place him and his sister in an orphanage for six years. Later on, when his mother got well, the family moved to Highbridge together. Even though things were looking up, they were still tough. Quinn got into trouble running the streets of Highbridge and hated school, so he began working at 15.

After traveling the world (twice), getting married in 1962, and a tour of duty with the Merchant Navy in Vietnam in 1966, Quinn decided to settle down after his first child was born, and went into construction. He soon got a job with the dock builders' union, working at the World Trade Center (WTC). He claims to have been inspired after seeing a model of the WTC, not paying much attention to the grandness of such an architectural achievement, but the great BASE jumping opportunity that it offered. By that time, Quinn had extensive experience with parachuting; he stated in an interview that "When I did it I loved it. I thought, when I die this is what I want to be doing." Within the course of a year, Quinn made 19 appearances in court, but the case was eventually dropped.

On June 22, 1977, Quinn appeared on the game show To Tell The Truth.