Robert Spears

Robert Vernon Spears (June 26, 1894 – May 2, 1969) was a naturopath who is alleged to have placed a bomb aboard National Airlines Flight 967, an aircraft that went missing over the Gulf of Mexico on November 16, 1959, killing 42 people.

History Spears had a long history of crime, having been arrested 17 times under 14 different aliases. He had become financially successful in Texas as a naturopath, even becoming president of the Texas Naturopath Association in 1954. But in 1957 he was expelled from the organization in a bribery scandal. He moved to California and took up hypnotism, his business was with a doctor performing abortions (which were then illegal in the U.S.). He was charged with three felony accounts and was set to stand trial in Los Angeles on December 3, 1959. In February 1960, Spears was convicted of interstate transportation of a stolen car (Taylor's Plymouth). He was sentenced to the maximum term of 5 years. Spears also received a 2-to-5 year sentence in California after pleading guilty to performing illegal abortions. While in prison, Spears confessed to having knowledge of the "probability of a bomb aboard the airplane." Due to a lack of evidence, however, he was never charged with any offense in relation to the Flight 967 crash.

Spears died in Dallas, Texas on May 2, 1969, of coronary thrombosis.