Who Is Gerald Kendall Bingham?

An Independent Investigation

About a year or so ago, I came across this memorial stone of “alleged” United 93 passenger Mark Bingham. The stone is situated at the Flight 93 Memorial, Union City, California, USA, which has Mark Bingham’s name as Gerald “Mark” Bingham?

Since writing an earlier article about this in August 2024, I have been trying to establish why this would be the case, that Gerald is the first name written on the stone? I know that Mark Bingham’s father was named Gerald, and died some years back. However, why would they list Mark Bingham as Gerald “Mark” Bingham?

According to Wikipedia, which is considered a more mainstream data-base for information, it lists Mark Bingham’s details as - Mark Kendall Bingham (May 22, 1970 – September 11, 2001). There is no mention to Mark Bingham’s name change.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Bingham

Even in an AI search I conducted using on Google, it produced this response to my question regarding Mark Bingham’s “real” name being “Gerald”. See below:

I also conducted a search using the Brave search engine, which gave me this response. See below:

I conducted another search using Google, and it produced this AI response. See below:

In 2001, the Baltimore Sun published an article on 11th December, and it references Mark’s mother Alice, explaining that Mark changed his name from Gerald to Mark.
Source: https://www.baltimoresun.com/2001/12/11/defining-moments-3/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CHe%20considered%20it%20a%20moment,surprise%20to%20those%20with%20preconceptions.

In another article published in 2015, at GLBTQ Archives, it says, “Mark Bingham was born Gerald Kendall Bingham in Phoenix, Arizona on May 22, 1970”. It also goes onto say, “when he was ten years old, Alice let him rename himself. He chose to be Mark”.
Source: http://www.glbtqarchive.com/arts/bingham_m_A.pdf

According to the ‘Find A Grave’ website, there is a listing of Mark Bingham’s father’s grave, and his name is Gerald Warren “Jerry” Bingham. In the write-up, it also refers to his son as Gerald “Mark” Bingham.. See below:

Source: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/260003680/gerald_warren_bingham

From what can I ascertain from my research, Mark Bingham was only an alias name change, which was made on a personal level, and not done legally, to change his name from Gerald to Mark. This seems what is implied in both the 2015 GLBTQ article and the 2001 Baltimore Sun article.

If this was the case, of no legal name change, then his name should have been listed as his legal name “Gerald” Kendall Bingham, and should be reflected as so in the “official” investigation findings. Another discrepancy is, why any reference in official investigation documentation always uses Mark Kendall Bingham, and not his birth legal name, Gerald Kendall Bingham? His legal name should surely be reflected in any official documentation such as Flight Manifests and Boarding Passes.

Using A Different Name for Flights Pre-9/11

In 2000, airlines generally allowed minor name corrections or typos to be fixed on a ticket, but changing the name to a completely different person was not permitted. In the United States, to board a plane, your name must match your legal name, which is typically your real name. It's important to ensure that the name on your ticket matches the identification you will present at the airport to avoid any issues.

Employee Passes

In 2001, a United employee could have brought a family member along on their employee pass, and their name would have appeared on the flight manifest. Most airlines, including United, allowed employees to bring their immediate family (spouse, children, parents) and often a designated companion on employee passes.

Manifest Inclusion

Regardless of how they were traveling (employee pass, buddy pass, or a paid ticket), passenger names were included on the flight manifest. This is a standard security and operational procedure for all flights.

As I highlighted in an earlier Substack post, Mark Bingham was not assigned a seat number on United 93 according to an “official” investigative document I obtained.

Source: Any Report Prepared By The Chicago Field That Analyzed The Load Patterns On United Airlines Flight 175 And 93 - Responsive To Requests #35-2 (Packet #1

Also, Mark Bingham was not listed on the early version of the Flight Manifest which was released for United 93, which is inconceivable if he was aboard the flight.

Mark Bingham’s name should have been listed on the flight manifest, if he was indeed aboard the flight without any question, due to standard operating procedures. Mark Bingham’s name only appeared in later versions, used in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial in 2006, which listed him using his alias name, and not his legal name. One can only find this highly suspicious.

As it stands officially, neither Mark Kendall Bingham or Gerald Kendall Bingham were listed on United 93 on 9/11.

Thanks for reading & caring!