Man held hostage in Iran more than 20 years ago killed in two-car accident

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Posted 8:23AM on Monday, April 8, 2002

BOSTON - A former U.S. Embassy worker in Iran who survived 444 days of captivity after he was taken hostage in 1979, died in a two-car accident allegedly caused by a drunk driver. Malcolm Kalp, 63, was pronounced dead at the scene Sunday after his pickup truck apparently was rear-ended by another driver, state police Trooper David Paine said. Kalp apparently lost control and the truck rolled over, Paine said. Richard Clinch, 22, was arrested and charged with operating under the influence and motor vehicle homicide due to negligence. He was scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Stoughton District Court. "Aside from all the things he did for his country, my husband was a very good, wonderful man. Life is often unfair," his wife, Marie Kalp, told the Boston Herald. Kalp was the embassy's commercial officer when he and 51 others were taken hostage Nov. 4, 1979. Kalp said he tried to escape three times, and was beaten and held in solitary confinement for 374 days as a result. His captors accused him of being a CIA spy. Kalp, a Boston native, remained bitter and unforgiving almost two decades after his release. In March of 2000, shortly after former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced the United States was extending an olive branch to Iran by opening some trade, Kalp rejected the overture. "I wouldn't have anything to do with them," he told The Associated Press. Kalp thought Iran should first demonstrate "major corrections in their international behavior," including ceasing to send arms "through Syria to attack Israel." A year later, in a story about how Iran had turned the former embassy into a museum, Kalp's feelings had not softened. He said the museum was propaganda. "I wouldn't expect any balance. What else is new? They're still talking about American imperialism. They'll never change," he told the Los Angeles Times.