Retired appliance manufacturer Leon Klinghoffer, 69, was the victim of Palestinian terrorists in 1985, when he was shot and dumped overboard from an Italian cruise ship.
The Klinghoffers were celebrating a wedding anniversary aboard the Achille Lauro. Four armed Palestinians came aboard. They singled out the wheelchair-bound Klinghoffer, apparently because he was Jewish, shot him in the head and chest and forced two ship employees to dump him overboard into the Mediterranean.
After a tense two-day period of negotiations, the terrorists agreed to leave the ship if given safe passage on an Egyptian jet. President Ronald Reagan ordered the U.S. military to intercept the plane and force it to land. Navy fighter jets did so, and the plane landed in Sicily. The four men were arrested by Italian authorities.
The leader of the four, Abu Abbas, worked out a deal and was allowed to go free.
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