Fifty Years Later, a Rookie Deputy Steve Ferdin Recalls a Night That Turned Deadly for Hijacker Fred Solomon
SAN JOSE — It has been half a century since a young Santa Clara County deputy worked the overnight shift on the second floor of the old main jail, a night that began with routine cell checks and ended with a brush with infamy.
In September 1975, fresh from the academy, the rookie deputy was assigned to monitor roughly 250 inmates, his partner absent for reasons long forgotten. Only a single inmate trustee shared the duty.
During a routine inspection of one-man cells, the deputy came upon a chilling scene: inmate Fred Solomon hanging by the neck from a makeshift noose.
“I probably said something like, ‘Oh, no!’ and called for help,” the deputy recalled. He cut Solomon down and performed CPR, willing the man to live. Paramedics arrived, and Solomon survived. Soon after, he was released on bail or his own recognizance.
Days later, Solomon unleashed a violent rampage across San Jose—raping and stabbing a woman, carjacking three vehicles, and kidnapping four people. The chaos culminated at San Jose Airport, where he attempted to hijack a Continental Airlines 727.
The standoff ended when a San Jose police sniper fatally shot Solomon, closing a case that had begun with a near tragedy the deputy had once prevented.
Looking back 50 years later, the retired deputy still recalls the frantic moment in the jail and the unsettling realization that saving a life can sometimes be only the beginning of a larger story.