It wasn't too many years ago that we were flying from New York to Los Angeles when I received a message from air traffic control that we were going to be held at the gate pending the arrival of two U.S. Marshalls that were escorting a well known prisoner back to LA. Originally, I had been advised that it would only be 5-10 minutes. Of course, I didn't believe that for a minute. After almost waiting 20 minutes, we were told to push back from the gate and hold before turning to go to the runway. The next thing that I saw happening was a couple of the baggage handlers pushing out an airstair, so the three men could board the plane without having to go through the terminal.
Once boarded, the three men sat in the last row of the plane with the prisoner between them. Everything went well, until we reached the runway and I throttled up the engines when the prisoner started complaining very loudly that he was scared to death to fly and was also claustrophobic. The one Air Marshall gave the prisoner a pill and told him to take it and he would feel better in a few minutes, which he did. I have always wondered what the pill was that they gave him. One of the flight attendants told me that he slept almost the whole way to LA.