Jetpack Partnership Ended In Murder

In 1992, three men named Brad Barker, Larry Stanley, and Joe Wright founded the American Rocket Belt Corporation, and by 1994 they had built the functioning RB-2000 jetpack. The machine completed its only flight over Houston in 1995, but disputes over its ownership soon destroyed the partnership. Someone bludgeoned Wright to death shortly before a 1999 civil trial, and the murder remained unsolved. In 2000, Stanley arranged Barker's kidnapping to force him to reveal the jetpack's location, but Barker escaped after eight days and Stanley received a prison sentence.

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