The State - News from Oct. 14, 1988

William Hartman Osgood, a tight-lipped escaped convict who landed a stolen plane in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park after dropping political leaflets over San Quentin Prison, pleaded guilty to one felony count of joy riding in an airplane. Robert Ring, assistant city attorney, said that the plea bargain provides for a two-year sentence. Osgood, 40, will wind up serving the time in federal custody in Texas, after which he will be turned over to Texas authorities, where he is wanted for escape, Ring said. Last November, Osgood walked away from a minimum-security facility in La Tuna, Tex., where he was serving 14 years for cocaine smuggling, FBI officials said. He surfaced later in the San Francisco Bay Area, living near his parents’ home in Santa Cruz, authorities said. A flying instructor said Osgood had been taking lessons in a single-engine Citabria but was not authorized to take the plane out by himself.