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- [00:02]
Vanessa Richardson
Hi listeners. Exciting news Crime House plus and Murder True Crime Stories are celebrating America's 250th by dropping a four part limited series on the crimes that built America. These are the crimes and cases that gave us Miranda rights, sparked criminal profiling, and a murder that built America's missing children movement. Follow Murder True Crime Stories for a new episode every Monday leading up to July 4th or or you can listen to all of them right now with Crime House Plus. To join, go to crimehouseplus.com or if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, tap try free at the top of this show's page.
- [00:49]
Carter Roy
This is crime house.
- [00:55]
Vanessa Richardson
On the morning of April 8, 2009, a teenager from Somalia named Abdouwali Musi crouched in the front of a small flat bottomed boat. He and three of his friends were 240 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia, armed with AK47s and they were about to make history. Muci's tiny boat was bouncing across the waves towards a 500 foot, 14,000 ton container ship called the Maersk Alabama. The ship was less than a mile away and Muse and his crew were closing in fast. The crew on the Alabama knew they were coming. Intruder alarms blared from the deck. Sailors fired flares and sprayed the water with high pressure hoses, trying to scare them off. But Musi was dead set on capturing that ship. He lifted his rifle, aimed it at the towering hull ahead and opened. From UFO cults and mass suicides to secret CIA experiments, presidential assassinations, and murderous doctors, these aren't just theories, they're real stories that blur the line between fact and fiction. I'm Vanessa Richardson and this is Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I'll explore the real people at the center of the world's most shocking events and nefarious organizations. These cases are wild and I want to hear what you think at the end of each episode. Please leave a comment wherever you listen. Be sure to rate, review and follow so we can continue building this community together. And if you want even more, subscribe to Crime House plus and get every episode of this show and the rest of the Crime House lineup ad free and early, plus at least two bonus episodes every month. To join, go to crimehouseplus.com or if you listen on Apple Podcasts, tap try free at the top of Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes show page. Today I'm digging into the Mayorsk Alabama hijacking in April 2009, four heavily armed Somali teenagers pulled off the first successful act of piracy against an American ship in nearly 200 years. Over the next four days, what was supposed to be a simple kidnapping spiraled completely out of control. The pirates hadn't counted on the resourcefulness of the men on the Alabama or their captain, 53 year old Richard Phillips. As both crews played cat and mouse below decks, Phillips and the young pirate leading the charge found themselves locked in a tense battle of wills, one that would end in a daring hostage rescue by U.S. navy SEALs. All that and more coming up.
- [03:59]
Podcast Advertiser 1
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- [05:04]
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- [05:21]
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- [05:33]
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- [05:40]
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- [06:00]
Vanessa Richardson
to understand how Abduwali Musi ended up on that boat, you have to understand Somalia. For thousands of years, this stretch of East Africa was one of the most active trading hubs in the ancient world. With thousands of miles of coastline along the Gulf of Aden, Somalia was perfectly positioned to trade with Egypt, the Middle east and India. By the 14th century, cities like Mogadishu were among the wealthiest on the continent. Then came the colonial era. Italy and Britain divided the country between them, with Italy controlling the south and Britain the north. Both territories merged into an independent Somalia in 1960. But that didn't bring stability. In 1969, a military leader named Siad Barre seized power in a couple. Barre's regime was a mix of contradictions. On one hand, he poured money into public works projects and education, eventually pushing the country to one of the highest literacy rates in Africa. On the other hand, he jailed his political opponents and bombed his own cities when locals rose up against him. He ran Somalia like that for 21 years. By the early 1990s, the people of Somalia had had enough. Rebel groups across the country rose up and overthrew Barre, but once he was gone, the rebels couldn't agree on who should take his place. The country slipped into a long, devastating civil war, and with no central government, there was no coast guard to patrol Somali waters and no real authority to stop anyone who decided to put a boat in the water and try their luck. Around that same time, as Somalia descended into chaos, the Abdoulaye Musi was born in the northern city of Galkayo. According to Musi's mother, he stayed out of trouble. As a young boy, he liked reading more than horsing around with the other kids while they all played soccer in the dusty streets of Galkayo, he'd sit by the window with a book. He grew up working as a fisherman down at the harbor, then as a taxi driver, ferrying passengers around in a beat up sedan. He was scrawny and quiet and didn't fit the picture most people had of a pirate. But by his late teens, he was on a tiny skiff with three friends and an AK47 racing across open water toward a ship he'd never seen before. Mucy's mom says her son was a good kid who got brainwashed by local gangs. We don't know exactly what pulled him into that world, but poverty was almost certainly a huge part of it. The civil war that started when Musi was a baby turned Somalia into one of the poorest countries on earth. By the late 2000s, nearly three quarters of Somalis were living on less than $2 a day. But just off the coast, there was a glimpse of a different kind of life. Every year, roughly a trillion dollars worth of goods passes through the Gulf of Aden on container shipsoil, food, consumer products. In the early 2000s, daring Somalis started trying to board those ships, using repurposed fishing vessels to chase them down. And there was another driving factor in all this. When the Somali government collapsed, foreign travelers from Europe and Asia poured into Somali waters and started fishing illegally, wrecking the fishing grounds that local communities had depended on for generations. Some Somali fishermen tried to defend their waters by force. Others gave up on fishing entirely and turned to hijacking the passing cargo ships instead. For a young man in a country with no jobs and no future, piracy started to look like a reasonable career choice. According to the International Maritime Bureau, in 2008 alone, Somali pirates attempted to board 111 cargo ships. 42 of those attempts were successful. The pirates would take the crew hostage, then demand multi million dollar ransoms from the shipping companies or governments. Just a fraction of one ransom could change a Somali family's life forever. That was the promise Abdoulay Musi was chasing on April 8, 2009, as he and his three companions raced up alongside the Maersk Alabama. Once they were close enough, Musi hoisted a long white ladder and hooked it over the edge of the ship, which towered 40ft above them. In a matter of seconds, he scrambled up and onto the wide empty deck. His three fellow pirates were right behind him. Back in the water, their unattended skiff drifted away and sank into the Alabama's wake. But Mucy didn't care. There was no turning back now. They'd capture the Alabama or they'd die trying. The bridge of the Maersk Alabama sat at the back of the ship, three stories above the deck. Inside, alarms blared as the captain, 53 year old Richard Phillips, tried to keep control of the situation. Phillips had already radioed the United Kingdom Maritime Office, the high seas equivalent of dialing 911 to let them know his ship had been boarded. But in the middle of the open ocean, help was hours away. For now, he and his crew were on their own. Phillips had been captaining cargo ships since the early 90s. He was demanding, detail oriented and seriously focused on safety. He liked to tell his crews, quote, you hope for the best, but you train for the worst. Now the worst was happening and luckily he and his crew were ready. In the weeks before the Alabama left port, there'd been multiple attempted hijackings off the coast of Somalia. So once they were at sea, Phillips ran piracy drills with his 20 person crew. They practiced evacuation procedures. They set up code words and all clear signals. And they picked a fortified engine room where the crew could lock themselves in and hide from any intruders. As Musi and his pirates advanced across the deck, Phillips ordered the rest of the crew to lock themselves in the engine room and wait. He stayed behind as captain. He wasn't about to give up the bridge. The only people left up there were Phillips, the ship's third mate, Colin Wright, and a Bangladeshi seaman named Abu. Their mode, Zahid, who everyone called atmosphere. The Maersk company didn't allow sailors to carry firearms, so Phillips had to improvise. He fired a flare gun at the pirates, but they took cover among the shipping containers and shot back with their AK47s. Phillips dodged the gunfire and ran to lock the door to the bridge and suddenly came face to face with Meucy, pointing his rifle through the window. Muse said, quote, relax, Captain, relax. Business, just business. Stop the ship. End quote. Five minutes after climbing up the ladder from the skiff, Abdouwali Musi had taken command of the Maersk Alabama. But he was about to find out he wasn't really in control. 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- [14:47]
Podcast Advertiser 3
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- [15:16]
Vanessa Richardson
On April 8, 2009, a group of Somali pirates led by Abdouwali Musi boarded The mayors Alabama, 240 miles off the coast of Somalia. They were planning to capture the crew and demand a hefty ransom for their safe return. But Musi had underestimated the Alabama's captain, Richard Phillips. He was an experienced sailor who'd been preparing his crew for exactly this kind of attack. When the pirates burst onto the bridge, they had Phillips, the third mate, Colin Wright, and another sailor named ATM at gunpoint. But even though the pirates had the guns, it didn't take long for Phillips to turn the tables on them. Just before the pirates took the bridge, Phillips had quietly transferred control of the ship to a secondary panel in the engine room, where the rest of the crew was now hiding. Then, just like they'd rehearsed, the crew shut off the ship's engines. The Alabama drifted in slow circles. When Musi demanded to know why the ship wasn't moving, Phillips lied and said the engines had broken down during the chase. While the pirates were distracted, he quietly disabled the radar and the radio, too. And when Musi tried to use the satellite phone to call for reinforcements, Phillips gave him the wrong instructions on purpose. The call didn't go through. Philip said the phone must be broken, and Musi believed him. This was huge. If Musi had managed to get another boat to the Alabama, the pirates could have all floated the hostages to the Somali Main, where they could be held for months with no real chance of rescue. Phillips knew his crew was much safer aboard their own ship. It was unfamiliar territory for the pirates, and it was where rescuers would know to look for them. Musi knew that, too, which is why he was so desperate to get the rest of the crew off the boat before help could arrive. Waving his gun around, he kept ordering Phillips to get on the ship's PA system and call the crew up to the bridge. And every additional hostage meant a bigger ransom. Every time Musi told him to make the call, Phillips did it. But they'd rehearsed for this too. The crew knew to ignore Phillips messages and stay hidden unless he gave them a secret code word that meant it was safe to come out. Muci was running out of patience, so he tried a different approach. He left the other three pirates to guard Wright and ATM and made Phillips walk him through the ship to find the rest of the crew himself. A cargo ship like the Maersk Alabama is kind of like a skyscraper laid on its side, dozens of rooms across thousands of square feet, connected by a maze of stairwells and corridors. Phillips knew exactly where his crew was, so he made a point of leading Muci to all the places they weren't. And he talked loudly the whole time so any hidden crew members would hear them coming and stay quiet. After a fruitless search, Mucy and Phillips returned to the bridge empty handed. By then, the other pirates had managed to get the ship's radio working. When they turned it on, they were shocked. The ship's first mate, Shane Murphy, hidden away with the rest of the crew, was on the radio with a Navy officer aboard the USS Virginia. As the pirates listened to the officer confirmed that attack helicopters had launched and were on their way to the Alabama, Muse and his crew started to panic. The clock was ticking. But what they didn't know was this. There was no USS Virginia. The Navy officer on the radio was just Shane Murphy disguising his voice and talking to himself. The whole thing was a bluff and the pirates had bought it, hook, line and sinker. But now that they'd figured out the radio, Muci started calling allied pirate ships in the area for help. Somali pirate gangs had bigger ships, usually repurposed fishing boats or freighters that they used to ferry hostages, weapons and other pirates around. Meucy begged them to come out to the Alabama and pick them up. But the other pirates had also heard that fake conversation with the USS Virginia. And nobody wanted to come anywhere near the Alabama if Navy helicopters could show up at any minute. So Musi came up with a new plan. He'd load as many crew members as he could find into the Alabama's lifeboat, then use that to meet up with another pirate ship offshore. He told his three companions to take Phillips down to the deck and get the lifeboat ready to launch. Then Musi set off to search for the crew again, this time taking ATM as his guide. But in his rush to get going, he left his gun on the bridge. Meanwhile, several decks below, the rest of the Alabama's crew was sweating it out. In the engine room, they could hear Phillips over the PA ordering them to come up to the bridge. They knew to ignore him, but they also knew that if Muci found them, the whole plan fell apart. So they sat in the dark and in 110 degree heat, listening to footsteps and shouts echoing through the steel corridors above them, waiting for the secret code word that would tell them it was safe to come out. Down on the lower deck, ATM led Musi through the maze of corridors. With the engines shut down, there was no power for lights or air conditioning. The lower decks were dark and brutally hot. As the metal ship baked in the sun, Musi swept a flashlight back and forth, illuminating his way down the corridor. Suddenly, the beam lit up the sweaty, desperate face of Mike Perry. He was the Alabama's chief engineer and had crept out of the crew's hiding spot to check on some equipment. Perry took off running and Musi sprinted after him, screaming at him to stop. But Perry had two big advantages. He knew the layout of the ship, and he had a knife. Up ahead, the hallway made a sharp 90 degree turn. Perry ducked around the corner and pressed his back to the wall, gripping his knife as Musi's footsteps and hoarse screams got closer and closer. When Musi rounded the corner, Perry lunged. The burly engineer and the small, wiry teenager grappled for a few seconds. The knife sliced across Mucy's palm, opening a deep gash. Perry threw Mucy to the floor and crouched on top of him, the blade pressed to his throat, bleeding and pinned. Mucy surrendered. Meanwhile, back up on the deck, the other three pirates were standing guard as Captain Phillips got the Alabama's lifeboat ready. The lifeboat was 28ft long, fully enclosed under a bright orange fiberglass roof with an outboard motor on the back. As Phillips filled the fuel tank, one of the walkie talkies the pirates had grabbed from the bridge crackled to life. Mike Perry was calling from below the decks. He said, quote, you there, pirates, we have your buddy and we'll trade him for the captain. Abdoulaye made had come aboard the mayor Scalabama to take hostages. He never could have guessed he'd become one. The pirates on deck and the crew below spent the next couple of hours negotiating. Over the walkie talkie. The crew proposed a prisoner swap. Phillips would get into the lifeboat with the pirates and help them launch it. Once it was in the water, the Alabama's crew would release Mucy in exchange for Phillips. The pirates didn't want to leave empty handed, so Phillips threw in $30,000 from the ship's safe to sweeten the deal. Plus, the pirates still believed Navy helicopters could swarm in at any moment. So eventually, they took the deal. Phillips walked the pirates through the complicated process of launching the lifeboat, operating cranks, winches, and mechanical systems until it was hanging off the deck of the Alabama. For a few minutes, Phillips and the pirates were just a bunch of sailors working on the same problem. They even traded jokes. But the good vibes wouldn't last. Phillips and the pirates climbed into the lifeboat's cramped, stuffy interior, and Phillips lowered the boat into the water. Up on the deck of the Alabama, his crew emerged from their hiding place. They were escorting Muci, his injured hand wrapped in a white handkerchief. They lowered a ladder, and Muci climbed down into the lifeboat through a hatch on top. Despite the injury, Musi was in good spirits. He was back with his crew. He took a seat at the controls while Phillips made his way toward the ladder to complete the exchange. Suddenly, Mucy gunned the engine and steered the lifeboat away from the ladder, out to sea. Phillips asked, what about the deal? Nusy just shook his head and said, no deal. On board the mayor's Alabama, Phillips had been in control, but now his ship was disappearing into the distance, and Musi was the one calling the shots.
- [24:48]
Podcast Advertiser 4
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- [25:19]
Vanessa Richardson
Why have I asked my H Vac guy I found on angie.com to change my grandpa's trachea tube? Because I was so amazed by how quickly he replaced our air ducts, I knew I could trust him to change Pop Pop's tube while I was on vacation. Make it quick, young man.
- [25:34]
Podcast Advertiser 2
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- [25:34]
Podcast Advertiser 5
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- [25:35]
Vanessa Richardson
Pop Pop trusts you.
- [25:37]
Carter Roy
I think we should call a doctor. Connecting homeowners with skilled pros for over 30 years, Angie the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects@angie.com hi listeners, it's Carter Roy, host of Murder True Crime Stories. I wanted to let you know that Crime House plus and True Crime Stories are celebrating America's 250th by dropping a four part limited series on the crimes that built America. These are the crimes and cases that gave us Miranda rights, sparked criminal profiling, and a murder that built America's missing children movement. Follow Murder True Crime Stories for a new episode every Monday leading up to July 4th, where you can binge all of them right now ad free with Crime House Plus. To join, go to crimehouseplus.com or if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, tap Try free at the top of this show's page.
- [26:42]
Vanessa Richardson
On the afternoon of April 8, 2009, Captain Richard Phillips and his crew had outwitted the four Somali pirates who'd hijacked the mayor Scalabama. They'd captured the lead pirate, Abdouli Musi, and cut a deal Musi for Phillips, with the pirates getting the ship's lifeboat in exchange. But the moment Musi was on board the lifeboat, he gunned the engine and sped off into the open ocean, taking Phillips with him. For Phillips, it was a devastating double cross, but for Meucy, it was just business. Like most Somali pirates, he had ties to a larger gang back home, and the men running that gang expected results. So far, Musey's assault on the Alabama had been costly. He'd lost his boat, he was injured, and he couldn't come home empty handed, and even a single American hostage was a valuable commodity. Americans were rich. He was sure he could convince the US Government to pay a small fortune to get Richard Phillips back. It was dusk on April 8th when the pirates sped away from the Maersk Alabama with Captain Phillips still aboard their lifeboat. Then, through the open hatch, the pirates saw something they didn't expect. The Alabama's engines roared back to life. While they were aboard, Phillips had claimed the engines were broken. Now the massive cargo ship was moving again, and it was turning around to face them. Phillip's crew was trying to chase the pirates down and get their captain back. Phillips lingered near the open hatch at the back of the lifeboat, waiting for his captors to look away so he could dive out and swim back to his ship. But he never got the chance. The pirates slammed the hatch shut, then shoved Phillips over to the controls and forced him to drive the boat away. The lifeboat was smaller, faster, and more nimble than the cargo ship. After half an hour, the Alabama gave up the chase. As the pirates taunted the Alabama's crew over the radio. Phillips reluctantly accepted that he was on his own now. As night fell, Musi took over the controls and steered the lifeboat back toward the Somali coast, about 300 miles away. It would be a long trip, especially in a small boat with no toilet or air conditioning. So Musi used the satellite phone he'd stolen from the Alabama to call other nearby pirate ships and see if anyone could pick them up. He eventually got through to three pirate ships in the area carrying a combined 50 hostages between them. German, Russian, and Indonesian sailors taken in earlier hijackings. The three ships started motoring toward the lifeboat at full speed, hoping to add an American to their collection and get a cut of Musi's ransom. As the night wore on, the pirates took turns driving, guarding Phillips and sleeping. The lifeboat got hotter and hotter. With the hatch closed, all the heat and diesel fumes from the engine were trapped inside the cramped little cabin. But somehow, despite the brutal heat and the fear that he might never see his family again, Phillips managed to doze off. Meanwhile, more than 7,000 miles away in a small town in Vermont, Phillips wife Andrea was watching the news in shock. She'd gotten a call from the Maersk company hours earlier. By now, the hijacking was front page news across the country. Friends and neighbors had started showing up at the Phillips house, bringing food, sitting with her, refusing to let her wait alone. Andrea kept the kitchen radio on at all hours, hoping for any update on her husband. What she didn't know was that while she was sitting in their kitchen worrying, the US Navy was already on the way. Back in the lifeboat, Phillips jolted awake. Just after 2am on April 9th. Bright white light was pouring through the windows of the lifeboat. Musi was freaking out, screaming into the satellite phone, demanding that someone turn off the lights. Phillips pulled himself up to one of the windows and saw the source. A US Navy destroyer, the USS Bainbridge, was steaming toward them at first, full speed, spotlights blazing. Yesterday, his crew had been bluffing when they said the Navy was on its way. But this was the real deal. Once they'd taken control of the ship back, the Alabama's crew had called the Navy and told them the pirates had taken their captain. And now the cavalry had finally arrived. The presence of a US Navy ship scared off the three other pirate vessels that had been heading their way. Now Musi's only hope was making it back to the Somali coast. But unlike the Alabama, the Bainbridge had no trouble keeping pace with the lifeboat. Still, Muci was holding all the cards, and he knew it Phillips was a high value hostage. As long as he was on board the lifeboat, the Navy couldn't do much. All they could do do was negotiate. The Navy called Musi on the satellite phone and made arrangements to send supplies just to get the conversation going. A group of sailors in a rubber boat approached the lifeboat and dropped off a package of bottled water, handheld radios and chocolate Pop Tarts. Musey used one of the radios to reach a hostage negotiator on the Bainbridge. He demanded $2 million in exchange for handing Phillips over. The negotiator told him to sit tight while they considered the offer. In the meantime, Musi kept the lifeboat pointed toward Somalia. If they could get Phillips onto dry land away from the Navy, they'd have more leverage and they could ask for even more money. So they kept puttering toward the coast, the Bainbridge trailing close behind. The pirates munched on Pop Tarts and complained about how rude Philip's crew had been to them. And as the sun rose, the lifeboat got hotter and hotter. By mid afternoon, it was over a hundred degrees. Inside, the pirates started smashing the lifeboat's Plexiglas portholes with their AK47s, trying to get more airflow. It didn't really help. As the sun set, the heat, the boredom and the fear all pushed Phillips to his breaking point. Late Thursday night. One pirate was driving the lifeboat. Another was guarding Phillips. Mucy and the fourth pirate were asleep on the floor. When the guard stepped out of the back hatch to pee into the ocean, Phillips realized this was his best chance to get away. He jumped up, followed the pirate out of the hatch and shoved him into the water. Then he dove off the back of the lifeboat and started swimming as fast as as he could toward the Bainbridge, about half a mile away. Mucy and his crew woke up to the commotion. They ran to the hatch with their AK47s and opened fire. Phillips ducked underwater, trying to stay out of sight. But the bright moon and the destroyer's lights made him easy to spot. He was never going to make it. So he doubled back, trying to take cover beneath the lifeboat. But Musi was at the controls, gunning the engine and spinning the boat in circles to find him, putting Phillips dangerously close to the propeller blades. Running out of air, Phillips surfaced beside the boat and came face to face with the pirate he'd just pushed into the water. Musi and his crew were furious. They hauled Phillips back into the lifeboat, threw him down, and started beating him with their fists, feet and rifle butts. When they'd finally worn themselves out, they tied his hands to a bar on the canopy. Meucy scolded his crew for letting Phillips get loose and ordered them to keep their guns trained on him at all times. He'd fought hard for this hostage. He wasn't about to lose him now. After Philip's escape attempt, everybody in the boat started to lose it. Throughout the next day, April 10, Musi kept calling the Navy on the radio, yelling at the hostage negotiator and demanding more money. The pirates had been chain smoking the cigarettes they'd brought with them when their lighter broke. It triggered a full blown meltdown. They spent the next half hour cursing and shouting at each other, arguing over whose fault it was. To distract themselves from the heat and the boredom, they started tormenting Phillips. They'd force him to walk in circles around the lifeboat. They made him do menial tasks like tying knots in a length of rope. Whenever he didn't do something the way they wanted, they'd smack him. Eventually, the pirates worked their way up to psychological torture. Mucy started telling Phillips he actually worked for the Navy. The officers on the Bainbridge were his bosses, and this whole thing was just a training exercise. By the night of the 10th, the pirates were staging mock executions. According to Phillips, Musey held an unloaded pistol to his head and pulled the trigger. Phillips also said that later on, another pirate loaded the gun, held it inches from his ear and fired a bullet right past his head. The sailors aboard the Bainbridge were watching the lifeboat through high powered binoculars. They could see the situation was deteriorating fast. The Navy knew they had to act soon before things got even worse. On the afternoon of Saturday, April 11, three days after the hijacking began, hostage negotiators on the Bainbridge told me, you see, they needed to check on Captain Phillips before negotiations could continue. An hour later, a rubber boat with a few sailors and a Navy medic pulled up to the lifeboat. The pirates brought Phillips up to the back hatch so the medic could talk to him. The medic asked Phillips a few questions about his health. He also tried to coax him out of the hatch and onto the back of the lifeboat, supposedly just to talk. What Phillips and the pirates didn't know was that the other sailors on the rubber boat had submachine guns hidden under blankets. If Phillips could be convinced to dive into the water, the Navy was ready to open fire and take out the pirates the second he was clear. But Nusi wouldn't let Phillips out of the hatch. Once the medic confirmed he was okay, the sailors handed over some Military rations and went back to the Bainbridge. The Navy had slipped a bottle of A1 steak sauce in with the the rations. There was a message hidden on the label. Stay strong. We're coming to get you. At the time, Phillips didn't even see the bottle. But he'd get the message soon enough. As night fell on Saturday, Muci and the pirates realized they were in trouble. They were only 20 miles from the Somali coast, but they drifted off course into the territory controlled by a rival gang. If they came ashore there, the rival gang would kill them and take Phillips for themselves. And soon the situation got even worse. The lifeboat's engine had broken down. They couldn't get back on course. Growing desperate, Musi called the Navy for help. The officers on the Bainbridge offered to tie a long rope to the lifeboat and tow them toward friendlier territory while negotiations continued. Muci agreed, but he had another problem. The cut on his hand, the one Mike Perry had given him with the knife days earlier, had gotten badly infected. He mentioned it on the radio, and the Navy offered to let him come aboard the Bainbridge for treatment. He could continue negotiations face to face. For a Somali pirate, walking onto a US Navy ship was a huge risk. Nusy thought about it that night, and on the morning of April 12, Easter Sunday, he decided to take the Navy up on the offer. Now Phillips was alone with the three remaining pirates, and without Musi there to keep them in line, things got even more dangerous. Not long after Musi left, the three remaining pirates started fighting among themselves. The two older ones started berating the youngest, calling him names in English and Somali. He yelled back. Pretty soon, all three of them were threatening each other with their AK47s. After a few hours, Phillips hit his limit. He got off the floor and started walking toward the rear hatch, telling the pirates he was going to jump in the water to cool off. Two of them leapt up to grab him and pull him back. Meanwhile, the third pirate picked up his AK47 and started firing through the hatch, straight in the direction of the Bainbridge. It's not clear why he started shooting, but the response was swift and decisive. For more than a day, an elite team of snipers from Navy Seal Team 6 had been lying flat on the stern of the Bainbridge, tracking the pirates every move through their rifle scopes. The moment they saw the pirates grab Phillips and start shooting at the ship, they had clearance to shoot back. It was a near impossible shot. The Bainbridge was rocking on ocean swells. The lifeboat was 25 yards away, bobbing on the Same swells. The pirates heads were only partly visible through the small windows. And it was happening after dark. Three snipers fired at once. They killed all three pirates while somehow leaving Phillips unharmed. Within seconds, more seals boarded the lifeboat and pulled out a shaken, exhausted, blood spattered Richard Phillips. After four horrendous days, his ordeal was finally over and it came to an end. On Easter Sunday, Philip Phillips was brought aboard the Bainbridge for a medical evaluation, then taken to a cabin to recover. The Navy took good care of him. When Phillips asked for a beer, the captain of the Bainbridge sent him an entire cooler full. A few days later, Phillips was flown home to Vermont where Andrea and his kids were waiting. He eventually returned to work as a cargo ship captain and he wrote a best selling memoir about the hijacking, A captain's duty. In 2013, Hollywood adapted the book into a major film starring Tom hanks. Titled simply Captain Phillips, the movie grossed over $200 million at the box office and earned six Academy Award nominations. For Phillips, the hijacking turned him into an unlikely household name and hero. But not everyone agrees agreed with the characterization. Eleven members of his own crew sued Maersk, alleging that the company and Phillips had received multiple warnings to stay at least 600 nautical miles off Somalia. According to them, Phillips didn't listen. In a 2013 deposition, Phillips defended his decision, saying he didn't believe even 1200 miles would have made the ship safe. The lawsuit was settled out of court. Meanwhile, Musi was arrested as soon as the negotiators learned Phillips was safe. After a brief stay in the ship's brig, he was flown to New York City where he became the first person charged with piracy in a US court in more than a century. He pleaded guilty and in 2011 was sentenced to 33 years and nine months in federal prison. Today, Abdoulaye Musi is locked up in a medium security federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. When he's released in 2038, the Somali pirate who dreamed of making his fortune on the high seas will have spent more than half his life living high and dry in the American Midwest. The hijacking marked a turning point for maritime security. Shipping companies began arming their crews and hiring private security teams. International navies, American NATO, European Union, even Chinese ramped up patrols in the Gulf of Aden. And the strategy worked. Somali pirate attacks peaked at 160 in 2011, then plummeted between 2016 and 2022. There were only eight attacks in the entire region. The era of Somali piracy seemed to be over, except it Wasn't in late 2023, Somali piracy roared back. The trigger was the conflict in the Red Sea. When Houthi militants in Yemen started attacking Western shipping. International naval forces shifted their attention away from the Somali coast. That gave a new generation of pirates an opening. In March 2024, Somali pirates seized a Bangladeshi cargo ship called the MV Abdullah and held its crew for a month before collecting a five million dollar ransom. As of late 2025, pirates are operating up to 800 miles offshore using hijacked fishing boats as motherships. The threat is back. As for the lifeboat itself, it sits in a museum in Florida today. After the rescue, the Mayorsk company donated it to the National Navy Seal Museum in Fort Pierce. You can walk right up to it, 28ft of bright orange fiberglass still showing the bullet holes from the night the snipers took their shot. It doesn't look like much, but for four days in April of 2009, that little boat held a 53 year old American captain, four Somali teenagers with AK47s and the entire attention of the world. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Vanessa Richardson and this is Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes. Come back next time. We'll hear another story about the real people at the center of the world's most notorious cults, conspiracies and criminal acts. Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media, rimehouse on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and follow Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference and to enhance your Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes listening experience, subscribe to Crime House. Plus. You'll get every episode of this show and the rest of the Crime House lineup ad free and early, plus at least two bonus episodes every month. To join, go to crimehouseplus.com or if you listen on Apple Podcasts tap, try free at the top of the Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes show page. Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson and is a Crime House original. Powered by Pave Studios, this episode was brought to life by the Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro Hero Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertzovsky, Lori Marinelli, Alyssa Fox, Truman Capps, Kaylee Pine, and Michael Langsner. Thank you for listening.
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