The Bergdoll Boys
America's Most Notorious Millionaire Draft Dodgers

​Heirs to the renowned German-American Bergdoll Beer fortune at a young age, the Bergdoll boys used their millions to become champion racing car drivers and pioneer aviation heroes in the early 1900s. Grover, the most notorious, is celebrated for his daring record-setting flights in a Wright Brothers airplane. Erwin drove a powerful Benz to win a prestigious race, the equivalent of the Daytona 500. Then, just as Grover was trying to buy a bigger plane and attempt to fly the Atlantic a decade before Lindbergh, they were snared by vengeful local military draft officials. Running and hiding from their war duty, the fugitives were so reviled by nationalistic Americans that two older brothers changed their names to avoid infamy.

Eluding capture for years with financial help from their wealthy German mother, the Bergdoll boys were entangled with kidnapping and murder, federal agents and bounty hunters, Nazis, and Congressional investigators. There was an incredible story of release and escape from an Army jail with bribery, and tales of the search for buried gold went all the way up to the White House.

Hounded by the unsympathetic press and public, and Congress, the Bergdoll fortune was confiscated by the federal government, but Grover remained one step ahead of bungling lawmen by hiding in Germany until the start of World War II. This first, full history offers an intriguing insight into the downfall of this once famed and immensely wealthy family, set against the backdrop of the U.S. draft in World War I and the inter-war years.
Release Date: Summer - Fall 2023

Hang on and Fly
A Post-War Story of Plane Crash Tragedies, Heroism, and Survival
Picture

 Hang on and Fly is the forgotten and emotional story of the first deadliest year of  passenger plane crashes in America: 1951.

​  ​ Pearl, George, Lt. Bischof and eleven others are trapped on a mountain after a violent crash that kills twenty-six people, including the pilots. The survivors believe they'll be rescued immediately, but for more than forty hours no one can find them! They are the largest group of plane crash survivors stranded for an extended period in North America without rescue. 
 They argue over food, and someone commits a crime on a dead passenger. When they can't be found after three days of fog, one of them courageously walks through deep snow to find help from Ruby, a farmer's wife with a deadly secret of her own.
 Their plight reaches all the way to the White House and is the origin of our perception that we're always safest in the back of a plane. It's the first time the nation's top crash investigator personally visits a plane crash scene, setting a precedent for all significant crashes of the future.
​
 Hang on and Fly is twenty-two chapters of intense drama and more than forty pages of previously unpublished photographs.  This exhaustively researched original story portrays the deadliest year in the early stages of passenger flying, and the most significant period in the evolution of passenger aviation in American history. It is expertly narrated with painful emotion, heroism among survivors, and political intrigue as the nearly free-flying first budget airlines are reigned in to make air travel safe for everyone.
​

​
 "This is one book you can't put down."              Amazon Orders Here                      
                -CDR Donald Budrejko, USNR (Ret.)

 "Hang on and Fly is North America's Alive, 20 years earlier."
                 -Bill Shull, Author of Philadelphia Television

  "I was unable to put the book down until finished. Wish they would make a movie of it."
             -Doris Gainer, Texas
 "I was very impressed with the detail throughout the book. Your writing brought that story to life. I truly believe that this would make a great movie."
             -Frank Milks, Florida
​
​
    "I grew up just a few miles east of the Bucktooth Run. My dad is big into the local history and shared the information with me. Thank you for authoring this book. It is an amazing collection and I enjoyed every page."
             -Mark Burger, New York State
Picture
The C-46 flying for Riddle Airlines with N 3944 C. Probably in 1950, prior to being transferred to Continental Charters.

​​Check out the Blog!!

Like on Facebook   -    Follow on Twitter

Order Now at these Online Bookstores

Back Cover Description
Tim on Facebook
Tim on Twitter
Tim on Instagram
Tim on YouTube
Tim's Favorite Wine
Flickr Photos
Contact Tim
Appearance Request

The C-46

 Picture
 Passenger planes are crashing three and four times a month in 1951 just as Americans are beginning to fly. Then, a loaded plane disappears in the night and can't be found. Panic and frustration reach all the way to the White House.
 
 Twenty-six are killed in the most spectacular crash that no one heard on a mountain frosted with snow and fog. Fourteen survivors are the largest group of plane crash victims to be lost and stranded in North America. The stewardess holds a baby in her arms until it dies. They huddle beneath a parachute tent arguing over food and how to get out. One commits a dastardly criminal act upon the dead. When rescuers don't arrive after 40 hours, a hero passenger stumbles out of the snow-filled woods to find help from a farmer's wife with a secret deadly threat of her own. 
 
 Distracted by blazing headlines, crash tourists, and a federal probe, simple farm families are intertwined with urban crash survivors leading up to more tragedy on the plane crash mountain.

 Hang on and Fly is a dramatic tale of the most incredible year of aviation disasters that made Americans plane crash jumpy. Sharks eat passengers in rope seatbelts; a pilot with heart disease flies into a hill; three crashes close a major airport; a lost pilot mistakes Lake Ontario for the Atlantic. It's the origin of our belief that we're safest in the back of the plane. It's the beginning of modern plane crash investigations, inspired Hollywood's airplane disaster movie genre, and caused safety regulations we all take for granted today. 

 Tim Lake tells the gripping story of America's first budget airlines as only he can. His family was there.
Characters & Elements

Subscribe