KEESEE, BOBBY JOE

Name:  Bobby Joe Keesee
Branch/Rank: Civilian
Unit:
Date of Birth:
Home City of Record:
Date of Loss: 18 September 1970
Country of Loss: NORTH VIETNAM
Loss Coordinates: 181000 North  1061700 East
Status (in 1973):
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Aircraft
Missions:
Other Personnel in Incident:
Refno: 1662

Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw
data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews and CACCF = Combined Action
Combat Casualty File, and NAM-POWs, Inc.  2020

REMARKS: 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV

NO ONE KNEW HELD FOUND 1 WK BEFORE RELEASE BY GUTTERSEN

Bobby Joe Keesee was a criminal who had stolen an aircraft in Thailand and
was fleeing from authorities when he ran out of fuel and landed on a NVN
beach.  He is now in a Mexico prison for an assination attempt against the
President of Mexico. Keesee's exploits and his assassination conviction as
reported a number of times in the New York Times in 1975. The understanding
is that Keesee got Life and started serving his sentence at the Federal
Prison in San Diego.

------------
from the Norbert Gotner bio...

One case which supports the theory that only the "Hanoi" group, which
was known to each other, was released is the case of American civilian
Bobby Keesee, whose existence was discovered only days before the general
prisoner release in the spring of 1973. Keesee, who had been held in a
separate section of a prison from other Americans, was not scheduled for
release and may yet be imprisoned were it not for a unified effort on
the part of other POWs to see that he was released....
                

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Date unknown

SOLDIER OF MISFORTUNE CHARGED WITH KIDNAPPING   San Diago (UPI)--
A "massive investigation" by US and Mexican officials led to Federal charges that the
kidnapping of an American diplomat in Mexico was spearheaded by Bobby Jo
Keesee, the "soldier of misfortune" who has been held prisoner in Jordan and
Vietnam and once flew a stolen plane to Cuba.....

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Arizona Republic
9 Jan 99.

"The FBI was continuing a search Friday for an Arizona pilot whose stolen
plane was found with a puddle of blood in the rear passenger area.

Harry Christensen, 48, of Lake Havasu City, has not been seen since
Wednesday morning, when he told his wife he was meeting people interested in
buying his plane, FBI spokesman Doug Beldon said.....

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TV news stated Keesee had been in prison in California.
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Arizona Central

N.M. arrest latest chapter in soldier's strange saga
Bobby Joe Keesee / Has an eventful past.

By Mark Shaffer
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 14, 1999

....A hijacker of planes to North Vietnam and Cuba, a conspirator in the
death of a U.S. diplomat, a consummate scam artist who posed as a CIA
agent -- Keesee, 64, and his wife, Hildgund, 52, were arrested last
Thursday in New Mexico after Christensen's plane was found at an
Albuquerque airport......

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War hero indicted in air piracy case
Tied to Lake Havasu man's disappearance
By Mark Shaffer
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 13, 1999

A former Korean War hero who turned to a life of bizarre international crime
was indicted Friday on air-piracy and related charges in the theft of a
plane owned by a Lake Havasu City businessman who disappeared last month.

Bobby Joe Keesee, 64, who is in federal custody in Albuquerque, ......

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In March 2000, Bobby Jo Keese was sentenced to two "life" sentences -- one
for murder, one for air piracy.