Mark Bingham

Mark Bingham born 22 May 1970 (d. 11 September 2001)

Mark Kendall Bingham was an American public relations executive who founded his own company, the Bingham Group. He died at age 31 in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on board United Airlines Flight 93.

Bingham is believed to have been among the passengers who attempted to storm the cockpit to try to prevent the hijackers from using the plane to kill hundreds or thousands of additional victims. He made a brief mobile phone call to his mother, Alice Hoagland, shortly before the plane went down. Hoagland, a former flight attendant with United Airlines, later left a voice mail message on his mobile, instructing Bingham to reclaim the aircraft after it became apparent that Flight 93 was to be used in a suicide mission.

Bingham was survived by his former boyfriend of six years, Paul Holm, who says this was not the first time Bingham risked his life to protect the lives of others. In fact, he had twice successfully protected Holm from attempted muggings, one of which was at gunpoint. Holm describes Bingham as a brave, competitive man, saying, 'He hated to lose — at anything.' He was even known to proudly display a scar he received after being gored at the running of the bulls in Pamplona.

Bingham attended Los Gatos High School. He was a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where he was also president of his fraternity, Chi Psi. In college, he played for the UC Berkeley rugby team and helped them win a string of national championships.

A large athlete at 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) and 225 pounds (102 kg), he also played for the San Francisco Fog, a rugby union team.

The Mark Kendall Bingham Memorial Tournament (Bingham Cup), an annual international rugby union competition predominantly for gay and bisexual men, was established in 2002 in his memory.

He is portrayed in the 2006 movie United 93 by gay actor Cheyenne Jackson.

Oliver Sipple

Oliver Sipple born 20 November 1941 (d. 1989)

Oliver 'Billy' Sipple was a decorated Marine and Vietnam War veteran widely known in the US for saving the life of President Gerald Ford during an assassination attempt in San Francisco on 22 September 1975.

Sipple was born in Detroit, Michigan. He served in the United States Marines and saw action in Vietnam. Shrapnel wounds suffered in December 1968 caused him to finish out his tour of duty in a Philadelphia veterans hospital, from which he was released in March 1970. He later spent six months in San Francisco's VA hospital, and was frequently being readmitted into the hospital in 1975, the year he saved Ford's life.

Listed as being totally disabled on psychological grounds, he was unable to hold a job and was receiving disability pay. He lived, with a merchant seaman room-mate, in a fourth-floor walk-up apartment located in San Francisco's Mission District. Sipple was active in local causes, including the historic political campaigns of openly gay City Council candidate Harvey Milk.

Sipple was part of a crowd of about three thousand people who had gathered outside San Francisco's Saint Francis Hotel to see President Ford on 22 September 1975.

Ford, just emerging from the building, was vulnerable despite heavy security protection. Sipple noticed a woman next to him had pulled and levelled a .38-calibre pistol as Ford headed to his limousine. Reacting instinctively, Sipple lunged at the woman, Sara Jane Moore, just as her finger squeezed the trigger. While the gun did go off, the impact was enough to deflect her aim and cause the bullet to veer five feet wide of its mark. Had it not been for Sipple's action, the bullet could have struck the president.

The police and the Secret Service immediately commended Sipple for his action at the scene, while Ford thanked him in a letter. The news media portrayed Sipple as a hero but would eventually report on his outing by San-Francisco gay activists, thus disclosing his private life.

Though he was known to be a homosexual by various fellow members of the gay community, Sipple had not publicly 'come out of the closet'. His sexual identity was something he had always kept a secret from his family. He asked the press reporters to keep his homosexuality off the record, making it clear that neither his mother nor his employer had knowledge of his sexual orientation.

Despite his wishes, gay activist and politician Harvey Milk publicly proclaimed Sipple a 'gay hero' and said his act 'will help break the stereotype of homosexuals'. Gay liberation groups petitioned local media to give Sipple his due as a gay hero. Then columnist Herb Caen published the private side of the former Marine's story in the San Francisco Chronicle. Six other papers ran the column as well. After discovering her son's secret, Sipple's mother reacted to the knowledge of her son's sexual orientation by cutting off contact with him. Sipple's mother was reportedly harassed by her neighbours. When her son called to talk to her, she hung up on him. According to a 2006 Washington Post article, Sipple went through a period of estrangement with his parents, but the family later reconciled with his sexual orientation.

Sipple's mental and physical health sharply declined over the years. He drank heavily, gained weight, was fitted with a pacemaker, became paranoid and suicidal. On 2 February 1989, he was found dead in his bed, at the age of forty-seven. Earlier that day, Sipple had visited a friend and said he had been turned away by the Veterans' Administration hospital where he went concerning his difficulty in breathing.

His $334 per month apartment near the Tenderloin District of San Francisco was found with many newspaper clippings of his actions on the fateful September afternoon in 1975. His most prized possession was the framed letter from the White House.

Sipple's funeral was attended by 30 people, and he was buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery south of San Francisco.

A letter addressed to the friends of Oliver Sipple was on display for a short period after his death at one of his favourite bars.

'Mrs. Ford and I express our deepest sympathy in this time of sorrow involving your friend's passing...' President Gerald Ford, February, 1989.

Sipple's outing by the Chronicle remains a controversial subject in journalism ethics, raising questions about the appropriateness of reporting on his personal life.

Sipple filed a $15 million invasion of privacy suit against Caen, seven named newspapers, and a number of unnamed publishers, for publishing the disclosures. The Superior Court in San Francisco dismissed the suit, and Sipple continued his legal battle until May 1984, when a state court of appeals upheld the original dismissal.