The Invisible Pilot, HBO’s Adam McKay-produced three-hour docu-series, defies easy classification. It’s part small-town mystery, following the suspicious death of a local crop duster in Hazen, Arkansas, in 1977. It’s part thorny family history, following the ex-wives and children left to grapple with such a foundational, traumatic event. It’s part true crime, as the mystery ropes in drug smugglers, the 80s cocaine trade in Miami, and illegal US weapon deals as part of the Reagan administration’s Iran-contra scandal. And it’s yet another iteration of our evergreen fascination with scams, as the central mystery played out in the first episode – why Gary Betzner, a 36-year-old married father of three, jumped off a bridge while taking his wife and daughter for sundaes in 1977 – is not what it seems.
As the first episode aired on Monday (the remaining two will air on HBO weekly), I can say – spoiler alert! – that Gary Betzner did not die in the jump off the Arkansas bridge. In fact, he didn’t jump into the White River at all; a friend took Gary in a pickup truck to Texarkana, where he picked up a motorcycle and drove off to California as a fugitive. Facing up to 20 years in prison on federal drug charges for smuggling marijuana and cocaine in Florida, and another drug possession charge in Arkansas (Gary says he self-medicated gout with cocaine), he and his wife, Sally, staged the suicide (with the help of hypnosis, if you can believe it). Their two young children, Travis and Sara Lee, didn’t know their dad survived. Neither did his first wife and his eldest daughter, Polly, who were never privy to the plan.
