Did Adam Leon Steal a Plane? A Look Backstage at My Podcast

I thought that filmmaker Adam Leon might be a good guest to have on my weekly “Dan’s Talks” podcast. One of his films won the Grand Jury Prize at South by Southwest (SXSW) a few years ago. Another he made got a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Adam grew up spending summers in Sag Harbor and Sagaponack. His mom started renting out here when he was 6. And he occasionally comes back to his old stomping grounds, not just to see friends, but to film here. One scene in his most recent film “The Italian Caper” was shot on the beach in Sagaponack. And, also, he agreed to be my guest on “Dan’s Talks.”

Anyway, before every podcast I go on Wikipedia or Google ahead of time to read a little bit about my guest.

Leon stole an airplane at a flight school in Thunder Bay, Canada and flew off in it. This was 15 years ago, in April 2009, according to the articles I found. He flew off in it, a single-engine Cessna, and headed south, crossing over Wisconsin, Illinois, then Missouri, where, six hours later and running out of gas, he made a perfect landing on a road off of Highway 60 about 120 miles southwest of St. Louis.

There was a picture of him. It didn’t look much like him. But he was, when arrested, 31, so he might have aged and looks different now.

Two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled from a nearby airbase to try to get him to come down. They flew alongside and made gestures pointing down. But Adam would have none of it. He later said, after being arrested, that he was very depressed and had hopes of committing suicide by being shot down by one of the F-16s. But they didn’t fire. The single-engine Cessna was not considered a threat.

Leon’s flight over Wisconsin, however, forced an evacuation of the state capitol. After landing on the road in Missouri, Leon pulled the plane onto the shoulder, turned it off, hopped down and hitched a ride to a gas station. There, he sat in a booth drinking Gatorade while waiting to be arrested, which, soon enough, he was.

“He must have been running on fumes when he landed,” one of the sheriffs supposedly said, referring to the five hours in the Cessna.

A judge was not amused. The pursuit of the plane and the evacuation cost the government around $230,000. For causing such trouble, the judge sentenced him to two years in jail, but he got released in December 2010. And there has been no further trouble reported.

My podcasts run 20 minutes, are done via Zoom video call, and are available to be watched on DansPapers.com and on YouTube. They can also be listened to on podcasts, schnepsmedia.com and on many other platforms including Spotify. I’ve done nearly 200 of them.

To learn more about Leon, feel free to watch this podcast. I did ask him, before we started the recording, what it was like to steal a plane, and he said that was some other Adam Leon.

“There’s lots of Adam Leons,” he said.

I quickly shifted gears.

“Do you know any other Adam Leon escapades?” I asked.

“I was arrested by the FBI and charged with embezzling several million dollars from unsuspecting people in Florida,” he said. “But that wasn’t me either.”

“What happened?”

“I had to hire a lawyer to prove I wasn’t that Adam Leon. And do it quickly. The trial was coming up right away. So my lawyer found out who at the FBI had gotten this mix-up started so we were able to prove this wasn’t me and they finally believed it and let me go.”

“Did anyone reimburse you for the cost of your lawyer? I mean, this was some mistaken identity and they should have taken responsibility, it would seem to me.”

“Nobody reimbursed me.”

“What did Adam Leon do?”

“I’m not exactly sure. But you could look it up.”

“Did he get convicted?”

“I dunno.”

During these last few years I’ve interviewed celebrities, politicians, artists, musicians, authors and real estate gurus. I’m sure you’ve heard of some of them.

As you can see, Adam Leon is a fascinating person and it was a great interview. You should watch it here.

For more of Dan Rattiner’s stories, go to DansPapers.com/voices/dan-rattiners-stories.

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