James Kallstrom Dies at 78; Led F.B.I. Review of T.W.A. Crash

The plane’s wreckage, which had been reconstructed in the investigation and later transported to a training center for federal aviation accident investigators in Northern Virginia, is being dismantled and is expected to be destroyed out of respect for the families and friends of those who were lost, officials said this year.

James Keith Kallstrom was born on May 6, 1943, in Worcester, Mass. His father, Todd, was a professional trumpeter. His mother, Edna (Linn) Kallstrom, was a registered nurse.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1966 (he later received a master’s at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University), he joined the Marine Corps and served for four years, including in Vietnam in the fierce defense of the U.S. Marine base at Khe Sanh in 1968. He was discharged as a captain in 1970 and immediately went to work for the F.B.I.

“The F.B.I. is kind of like the Marine Corps without the uniform,” he told The Washington Post in 1996.

Which explains why Jules Bonavolonta, the author with Brian Duffy of “The Good Guys: How We Turned the F.B.I. ‘Round — and Finally Broke the Mob” (1996), said of Mr. Kallstrom: “He’s the ultimate G-man, an Eliot Ness kind of guy. He lives, breathes and bleeds the F.B.I.”

Mr. Kallstrom started working in the New York office in 1971 and spent his entire career there, with the exception of three years spent in Washington in charge of the Special Operations Division, which oversees technical and surveillance operations. He was chosen to lead the New York office, as the F.B.I.’s assistant director, in February 1995.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/us/james-kallstrom-dead.html