Klinghoffer, Leon
Identification American victim of terrorism
Born September 24, 1916; New York, New York
Died October 8, 1985; Mediterranean Sea, off
the Egyptian coast
Klinghoffer was killed by Palestinian terrorists during the
hijacking of theAchille Laurocruise ship. His death epit-
omized, and put a human face on, the senseless, cause-
based killings of the international terrorism spree of the
1980’s.
Four men representing the Palestinian Liberation
Front (PLF) gained passage aboard the Italian-
flagged shipAchille Lauroin 1985 using false pass-
ports. When the ship’s steward, mindful of the men’s
suspicious behavior, entered their cabin, he found
them cleaning guns, forcing the hijackers to execute
their takeover plan earlier than they had intended.
The hijacking was not difficult, however, because
most of theAchille Lauro’s passengers were partici-
pating in a day trip in Egypt. Those people remain-
ing aboard the ship were citizens of a variety of
different nations. In short order, the terrorists sepa-
rated the American and British citizens from the
remainder of the ship’s passengers and crew.
Among the British and Americans was sixty-nine-
year-old Leon Klinghoffer, a wheelchair-bound re-
tiree, accompanied by his wife, Marilyn Klinghof-
fer. The hostage-takers shot Leon dead, because he
was Jewish. They then forced two crew members to
throw the body overboard at gunpoint and ordered
the ship out to sea. The U.S. government was soon
made aware of the hijacking, but initially not of
Klinghoffer’s murder. A federal antiterrorist group
dispatched U.S. military resources to the region, in-
cluding the elite Seal Team Six special operations
unit. On the third day of the ordeal, the ship an-
chored off of Port Said, Egypt, and the terrorists
were flown toward Tunisia on an Egyptian commer-
cial aircraft.
Just four months earlier, an American serviceman
had been killed during the hijacking of Trans World
Airlines (TWA) Flight 847, and the Ronald Reagan
administration was in no mood to see the perpetra-
tors of theAchille Laurohijacking escape justice. A
flight of U.S. Air Force jets forced the Egyptian plane
to land in Italy, where the four hijackers were ar-
rested. The PLF was a militant faction of the Pales-
tine Liberation Organization (PLO), headed by the
notorious Mohammed Abu Abbas. At the time of
theAchille Lauroincident, which he masterminded,
Abbas held a top position within Yasir Arafat’s cabi-
net. Abbas was actually on the Egyptian plane as well,
but he was allowed to stand at the doorway of the air-
craft and wave at American forces. He was given safe
passage because of a disagreement between the U.S.
government and the Italian government. As a result,
Abbas remained at large for the better part of two de-
cades.
Impact Klinghoffer’s death prompted the U.S.
Congress to pass Concurrent Resolution 213, which
called for the formation of a multinational force de-
signed to address international terrorism. Although
Marilyn Klinghoffer died of natural causes months
after her husband’s slaying, she was able to testify be-
fore Congress about the hijacking before her death.
Later, Klinghoffer’s family would form the Leon and
Marilyn Klinghoffer Foundation in association with
the Anti-Defamation League.
In the short run, the hijacking of theAchille Lauro
and the murder of Leon Klinghoffer flamed ethnic
hatred and resulted in the retaliatory killing of an
Arab American college professor in California who
spoke out in the media about the shamefulness of
the violent hijacking. In the long run, the incident,
taken in combination with the TWA Flight 847 hi-
jacking and the 1983 attack upon the U.S. Marine
Corps compound in Beirut, highlighted ongoing
Middle Eastern tensions that, although somewhat
dissipated by the Camp David Accords of the previ-
ous decade, remained a source of violence and strife
both within the Middle East and between that region
and the West.
Further Reading
Bohn, Michael K.The Achille Lauro Hijacking. Wash-
ington D.C.: Brassey’s, 2004.
U.S. House of Representatives. Committee on For-
eign Affairs.Aftermath of the Achille Lauro Incident:
Hearing and Markup Before the Committee on Foreign
Affairs and Its Subcommittee on International Opera-
tions. Washington, D.C.: Government Publica-
tions Office, 1985.
Wills, David C.The First War on Terrorism. Lanham,
Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.
R. Matthew BeverlinSee also Beirut bombings; Middle East and North
America; Pan Am Flight 103 bombing; Terrorism.566 Klinghoffer, Leon The Eighties in America