In the summer leading up to the deadly terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 — 24 years ago — 12 of the 19 hijackers spent much of the final three months of their lives in Palm Beach County, preparing their deadly attacks on the New York Trade Center and other places key in the operating of the U.S. democracy such as the Pentagon.
They shopped at Winn-Dixie and Target, banked at SunTrust and even visited Lion Country Safari. But, of course, they also prepared to unleash the deadliest attack on U.S. soil in history.
The people missing in the attacks are even still being identified decades later. In August, three people who died at the World Trade Center were identified through DNA. The identifications bring the total number of remains matched to victims to 1,653 of the 2,756 killed on Sept. 11.
By combing through the FBI chronology of the events, we found a number of local places frequented by the killers. Here’s where they roamed:
Now, a word about the hijackers’ locations in South Florida and Palm Beach County
Mohammed Atta, 33, and Marwan al-Shehhi, 23, piloted the planes that hit the World Trade Center, the North and South Towers, respectively. They were among the first to enter the U.S. in May and June of 2000. Atta was an urban planner who said he hated hotels and office buildings. Al-Shehhi attended a university on a United Arab Emirates army scholarship. He spent hundreds on sex toys and porn in Broward County.
9/11 hijackers and pilots Mohammed Atta (left) and Marwan al-Shehhi. Atta piloted American Airlines Flight 11 and crashed into the North Tower. Al-Shehhi piloted United Airlines Flight 175, which crashed into the South Tower.
Mohammad Atta’s Florida driver license
Delray Beach: Terrorists in the All America City
Several of the hijackers lived in the All-America city, an accolade Delray earned for the second time in July 2001, a month before the attacks. Hijackers’ names are associated chiefly with two apartments — one in the Hamlet Country Club and another near the Delray Racquet Club. Some of their activities during this period have been documented: They used the internet at the local library; Atta was stopped for speeding; they made use of a nearby Mailboxes Etc. We have since learned more about what they did at places like Lowe’s and Target.
More: ’A day I hope people will never forget,’ Wellington gathers to remember Sept. 11 attacks
Gregg Chatterton, a registered pharmacist and co-owner of Huber Drugs in Delray Beach, in 2001 holds medicines that two of the terrorists of the Sept. 11 airliner hijackings purchased at his drug store. One of the terrorists complained of chest congestion and the other had a skin irritation on his hand. Palm Beach Post file photo
Al-Shehri brothers: Sons of a wealthy man
Brothers Waleed (left) and Wail al-Shehri, who were onboard American Airlines Flight 11 and crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
Waleed and Wail al-Shehri, 28 and 22, respectively, were both part of Mohammad Atta’s crew on the flight that crashed into the North Tower. In their home province in southwestern Saudi Arabia, their father, a businessman, was the richest man in the area. He built a mosque as a gift. One of their 15 brothers told a Boston Globe reporter that they became devout after Wail sank into a deep depression, quitting his job as a gym teacher at an elementary school.
Boynton Beach: Three hijackers living normally
Three hijackers, all part of the crew that hit the North Tower, lived in Boynton Beach. The trail in this city seems to be comprised of places to do errands: the bank, the grocery store, a trip to the mall.
The Homing Inn on Federal Hwy., home during June and July 2001 to two men involved in the terrorist attack. Staff photo by Greg Lovett
2 more hijackers: The money man and the stock boy
9/11 hijackers Fayez Banihammad (left) and Hamza al-Ghamdi. Banihammad and al-Ghamdi were aboard United Airlines Flight 175, which crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
Frequent visitors to Boynton were Fayez Banihammad, 24, and Hamza al-Ghamdi, 20. The 9/11 commission pointed out that Banihammad was the money man, who worked with one of the financial masterminds overseas behind the attack. Banihammad bought four of the tickets for hijackers on the flight that hit the South Tower. In Saudi Arabia, Al-Gamdi worked as a stock boy in a housewares warehouse. During their time in South Florida, he and al-Shehhi spent hundreds of dollars on porn.
Lake Worth: Terrorists hiding in plain sight
Just north and south of Lake Worth’s funky downtown were some small, privately owned apartments and hotels where some hijackers stayed when they first came to Palm Beach County in early June.
9/11 hijackers Satam al-Suqami (left) and Ahmad al-Nami. Al-Suqami was aboard American Airlines 11, which crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Al-Nami was aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Shanksville, Pa.
Hijackers: Prayers and fighting for freedom
Satam al-Suqami, 25, (North Tower) and Ahmad al-Nami, 23, (Pennsylvania) roamed all over south county. Al-Suqami was once a prayer leader in Saudi Arabia. He and another hijacker tried to muscle their way into Maria Siskar Simpson’s Delray Beach condo to retrieve a towel that had fallen off their balcony onto her back window. As a teen Suqami wanted to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan but arrived too late. The Soviets had pulled out, so Suqami worked for a refugee organization.
Greenacres: Work-out city for the ‘muscle hijackers’
Many of the 12 hijackers here bought gym memberships to keep in shape. Why? Most were the “muscle hijackers,” ones who took control of the planes.
Saeed al-Ghamdi (left) and Nawaf al-Hazmi. Al-Ghamdi flew on United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Shanksville, Pa. Al-Hazmi flew on American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon.
Fighters of foreign wars
Saeed al-Ghamdi, 21, spent time with the al-Shehri brothers. He tried to fight in Chechnya against the Soviets. Nawaf Al-Hazmi and his brother, Salam, are from Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Nawaf, 25, was a veteran of at least two wars – Bosnia and with the Taliban in Afghanistan against the Northern Alliance.
Boca Raton: Terrorists taint trendy spot
Right after Sept. 11, as former Boca Mayor Steve Abrams remembers it, FBI agents were swarming the City for All Seasons. They were to find some clues and sightings but not nearly as much as Delray Beach to the north.
Ziad Jarrah’s passport photo found in the wreckage of United Flight 92 in Shanksville, Pa.
Hijacker: Party boy, pilot, failing student
Ziad Jarrah, 26, was a party boy who attended Catholic school in Beirut, Lebanon. He was trained to be a pilot and had a degree in Aviation Mechanics. The Delray Beach Dotterell Road address in The Hamlet is associated with Jarrah. Mohand al-Shehri, 22, (no relation to the al-Shehri brothers) failed his courses at a university in Riyadh and dropped out.
Mohand al-Shehri, no relation to the brothers Waleed and Wail al-Shehri, was on United Airlines Flight 175, which crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
The FBI found a Florida road map at the Dotterell Road address after the attacks. “Shehri” was written on it. Mohand was the only al-Shehri staying there. The FBI believes the map depicted special airspace areas over the Gulf of Mexico.
9/20/01– The Piper Archer II plane, tail #N82226, that was once flown by terrorist Mohamed Atta, on the tarmac at Palm Beach Flighting Training at the Lantana Airport. Staff photo by Jennifer Podis.
Lantana: Training for terror in flight
Lantana, once known as the home of the National Enquirer, also hosted the two pilots who trained there to hit the World Trade Center. Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi spent time at businesses headquartered at the airport and nearby on Lantana Road.
Loxahatchee: Terrorists encounter lions, elephants
Lion Country Safari, 2003 Lion Country Safari Road
Wail al-Shehri buys three adult admissions ($15.50 each), parking for $2 and sales tax of $2.91 to drive through the big animal sanctuary on July 3.
J.D. “Willie” Lee, president of Aerial Crop Protection Inc., with one of his crop duster planes Tuesday in Belle Glade in 2011. Lee had several encounters with 9/11 terrorists who came to visit the airport in Belle Glade and persisted in asking him questions related to the operation of the planes. ” I would not answer nothing,” said Lee, who called Palm Beach County Sheriffs deputies and asked them to remove them from the grounds.
Belle Glade: Poison from the skies?
South Florida Crop Care, Belle Glade Airport, 50 Airport Road
In March, July and as late as Sept. 8 – Mohammad Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, dressed in collared shirts and Bermuda shorts, pester the operator about buying and flying crop dusters. They wanted to know how hard they were to fly and to sit in a cockpit. Employee James Lester remembered Atta literally on his heels. “I just about had to push him away from me,” Lester said.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: 9/11 memorial: hijackers. terrorists in Palm Beach County, Florida