D. B. COOPER

'D. B. Cooper' (aka '"Dan Cooper"') is a pseudonym given to a notorious aircraft hijacker who, on November 24, 1971, after receiving a ransom payout of $200,000, leapt from the back of a Boeing 727 as it was flying over the Pacific Northwest somewhere over the southern Cascades.
No conclusive evidence has ever surfaced regarding Cooper's whereabouts, and several theories offer competing explanations of what happened after his famed jump. Two significant clues have turned up in the case. In February, 1980, eight-year-old Brian Ingram found approximately $5,800 in decaying $20 bills that washed up on the banks of the Columbia River. Part of a sign believed to be from the rear stairway of the plane from which Cooper jumped was also found. The nature of Cooper's escape and the uncertainty of his fate continue to intrigue people. Today, the Cooper case (code-named "Norjak" by the FBI^[1]) remains an unsolved mystery.

Contents

The hijacking

A briefcase with a bomb

"You are being hijacked"

Releasing passengers in exchange for demands

Vanished (almost) without a trace

Suspects

John List

Ted Mayfield

Richard McCoy, Jr.

Duane Weber

Memorials

Fictional portrayals

Books

Film, TV and Radio

Music

Further reading

See also

References

External links

The hijacking

A briefcase with a bomb

At 4:35pm on November 24, 1971, the day before Thanksgiving in the United States, a man traveling under the name 'Dan Cooper' hijacked a Boeing 727-051 named Northwest Airlines Flight 305 (FAA Reg. N467US)[1], flying from Portland International Airport (PDX) in Portland, Oregon, with the threat of a bomb (he had a briefcase containing wires and "red sticks").
Cooper boarded the plane of only 36 passengers and 6 crew. He wore a black raincoat, loafers, a dark business suit, a neatly pressed white shirt, a narrow black necktie, and a mother-of-pearl stickpin. He also had black wrap-around sunglasses.

"You are being hijacked"

The jet was barely in the air before he paged his flight attendant, Florence Schaffner, sitting nearby, for his drinks. As he paid her, he also handed her an envelope. She thought he was giving her his phone number, so she slipped it, unopened, into her pocket. Cooper leaned closer, "Miss, you'd better look at that note. I have a bomb." In the envelope, was a note, that said, "I have a bomb in my briefcase. I will use it if necessary. I want you to sit next to me. You are being hijacked."
When the flight attendant informed the cockpit about Cooper and the note, the pilot, William Scott, contacted Seattle-Tacoma air traffic control and was instructed to cooperate with the hijacker. Scott instructed Schaffner to go back and sit next to Dan Cooper, who opened his case a crack and closed it again, long enough for Schaffner to see red cylinders and wires. He instructed her to tell the pilot not to land until money and parachutes were ready at Seattle-Tacoma. She went back to the cockpit to relay Cooper's instructions.

Releasing passengers in exchange for demands

When the plane landed at its intended destination, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport near Seattle, Washington, at 5:45 p.m., he released the passengers in exchange for $200,000 and four parachutes, believed to be for the four people on the plane (the pilot, the co-pilot, a flight attendant and himself). This is thought to have been a way for D. B. to make sure that the parachutes given to him were not fakes. At 7:45 p.m. he had the flight crew take the plane back into the air, ordering them to fly toward Mexico at relatively low speed and altitude, around 10,000 feet (normal cruising altitude is around 25,000 feet to 37,000 feet), with the landing gear down and 15 degrees of flap. At some point during the journey he jumped out of the rear stairway of the aircraft with the money and parachutes. He left behind his black tie and a Brigham Young Pin/Medallion later identified by the FBI. The FBI believed his descent was at 8:11 p.m. over the southwestern portion of the state of Washington, because the rear stairway "bumped" at that time. Due to poor visibility, his descent went unnoticed by the United States Air Force F-106 jet fighters tracking the airliner. He was initally believed to have landed southeast of the town of Ariel by the edge of Lake Merwin, 30 miles north of Portland, Oregon. Later pilot information puts the jump location about 20 miles further west. The 727 landed safely in Reno but Cooper was gone.

Vanished (almost) without a trace

Despite an eighteen-day search of the projected landing zone, no trace of Dan Cooper or his parachute was ever found, and it remains a widely disputed subject whether he survived the jump and the subsequent escape on foot. The FBI questioned and then released a man by the name of D. B. Cooper, who was never considered a significant suspect. Due to a miscommunication with the media, however, the initials "D. B." became firmly associated with the hijacker and this is how he is now known.
Following three similar (but less successful) hijackings in 1972, the Federal Aviation Administration required that all Boeing 727 aircraft be fitted with a device known as the "Cooper Vane," a mechanical aerodynamic wedge that prevents the rear stairway from being lowered during flight. Metal detectors were added to the airports by the airline companies and the newly formed FAA set a number of related flight safety rules in place.
On February 10, 1980, Brian Ingram, then 8, was with his family on a picnic when he found $5,800 in decaying bills on the banks of the Columbia River five miles northwest of Vancouver, Washington. The bundles were determined to be from the ransom given to Cooper because the serial numbers on the bills were recorded to track and apprehend him should he attempt to spend or deposit them.^[2] The rest of the money has never been found.

Suspects

At various points, several people have been fingered as possible candidates for D. B. Cooper, though the case remains unsolved (alphabetic order, by last name).

John List

In 1971, mass-murderer John List was considered a suspect in the D. B. Cooper hijacking, which occurred just after his family's murders. List's age, facial features, and build were similar to the mysterious skyjacker's. Cooper parachuted from the hijacked airliner with $200,000, the same amount as List's debts. From prison, List has strenuously denied being Cooper, and the FBI no longer considers him a suspect.

Ted Mayfield

According to a three part series on a local Portland, Oregon, CBS affiliate, KOIN 6, and a national report on Inside Edition, two freelance investigators, Daniel Dvorak and Matthew Myers, once accused Ted Mayfield of being D. B. Cooper. Ralph Himmelsbach's book, Norjack, the Investigation of DB Cooper, notes that Mayfield was phoned in as a Cooper suspect by at least a half a dozen people on the night of the hijacking. Despite this, Himmelsbach, who personally knew Mayfield from an earlier dispute at a local airport, never took these leads seriously, since Mayfield phoned the FBI to offer assistance approximately 2 hours after Cooper jumped from the plane; Himmelsbach argued that that wasn't enough time to land and make it to a telephone. This has been disputed by Dvorak and Myers, as well as a few professional skydivers, who have argued that any trained diver could have landed, hitched a ride and made it to a telephone within that timeframe. They even speculated that, given that Cooper gave the pilot the flight pattern, the speed, and altitude, an experienced skydiver could have stashed a vehicle along the flight pattern, and used dead reckoning, navigational aids, or simply searched for a landmark and jumped within a predetermined area. They also note that Mayfield had the necessary background; according to a local newspaper in Sheridan, Oregon, Mayfield owned a skydiving school for several years before the Cooper heist, and has national medals for skydiving accuracy. Mayfield states that he has over 50 years experience flying airplanes, is a former member of the U.S. Army Special Forces from 1961-63, and has over 8,000 skydiving jumps completed. In an interview with Inside Edition, Dvorak and Myers released some of the evidence of what they say is a strong circumstantial case. When asked for comment, Mayfield noted that the FBI called him for assistance 5 times while Cooper was still on the plane. Dvorak and Myers say that they confirmed with two separate FBI sources, including Ralph Himmelsbach, agent in charge of the case, that Mayfield was never called by the FBI on that night. In a KOIN TV interview, Himmelsbach collaborated their account, indicating that Mayfield called the FBI well after Cooper had jumped, and that the FBI never called Mayfield that night.

Richard McCoy, Jr.

One of the 1972 hijackings was carried out by Richard McCoy, Jr. On April 7, 1972, four months after D. B. Cooper's hijacking, McCoy boarded United Flight 855 during a stopover in Denver. It was a Boeing 727 with aft stairs, the same type used in the Cooper incident, which McCoy used to escape after giving the crew the same type of instructions as Dan Cooper. McCoy was carrying a paper weight grenade and an empty pistol. He left his fingerprints on a magazine he read on the plane. He also forgot to retrieve his hand written message, giving the FBI all they needed for identification.
Police started to investigate McCoy after a tip from a motorist who picked up a hitch-hiker (in a jumpsuit, carrying a duffel bag) at a fast-food place where he had stopped to get a milk shake. He had talked to a number of people about how easy it would be to carry out the hijacking. Married, with two young children, he was a Mormon Sunday school teacher studying law enforcement at Brigham Young University. He was provided with a hero's record as a Vietnam veteran, he was a former Green Beret helicopter pilot, and an avid skydiver. His dream was to be an FBI or CIA Agent.

Following a fingerprint and handwriting match, McCoy was arrested two days after the hijacking. Incidentally, McCoy was on National Guard duty flying one of the helicopters involved in the search for the hijacker. Inside his house FBI agents found a jumpsuit and a duffel bag filled with cash totalling $499,970. McCoy claimed innocence, but was convicted of one of the 1972 hijackings and received a 45-year sentence. An appeal went all the way to the Supreme Court.
Once incarcerated, using his access to the prison's dental office, McCoy fashioned a fake handgun out of dental paste. He and a crew of convicts supposedly escaped in August 1974 by stealing a garbage truck and crashing it through the prison's main gate. It took three months for the FBI to locate McCoy, in Virginia. Supposedly, McCoy shot at the FBI agents and agent Nicholas O'Hara reportedly fired back with a shotgun, killing him. Other witnesses dispute this claim.
''D. B. Cooper: The Real McCoy'', co-authored by Bernie Rhodes and former FBI agent Russell Calame, was published in 1991. The book made the case that Cooper and McCoy were really the same person, citing similar methods of hijacking and a tie and Brigham Young Medallion with McCoy's initials on the back, left on the plane by Cooper. The author said that McCoy "never admitted nor denied he was Cooper." And when McCoy was directly asked whether he was Cooper he replied "I don't want to talk to you about it." The agent who supposedly killed McCoy is quoted as saying, "When I shot Richard McCoy, I shot D. B. Cooper at the same time." The widow of Richard McCoy, Karen Burns McCoy, reached a legal settlement with the book's co-authors and its publisher. They agreed not to do a movie on the theory that McCoy was Cooper.
In the late 1980s an American TV series named ''Unsolved Mysteries'' ran a segment on the hyjacking. Witnesses on the airplane complained that the drawing the FBI made was wrong and they had the face redrawn. Some people speculated it may have been McCoy, but the details do not match.

Duane Weber

In July 2000, ''U.S. News and World Report'' ran an article about a widow in Pace, Florida named Jo Weber and her claim that her late husband, Duane Weber, had told her "I'm Dan Cooper" before his death in 1995. She became suspicious and began checking into her late husband's background. Duane Weber had served in the Army during World War II and later had served time in a prison near the Portland airport. Mrs. Weber recalled that her husband had once had a nightmare where he talked in his sleep about jumping from a plane and said something about "Leaving my fingerprints on the aft stairs." Jo recalled that shortly before his death, Duane had revealed to her that an old knee injury of his had been incurred by "jumping out of a plane."^[3]

Mrs. Weber also recounts a 1979 vacation the couple took to Seattle, "a sentimental journey," Duane told Jo Weber, with a visit to the Columbia River. She remembers how Duane oddly walked down to the banks of the Columbia by himself just four months before the portion of Cooper's cash was found in the same area. Mrs. Weber related that she had checked out a book on the Cooper case from the local library and saw notations in it that matched her husband's handwriting. Mrs. Weber began corresponding with FBI Agent Ralph Himmelsbach, the chief investigator of the Cooper case. Himmelsbach has said Weber is one of the best suspects he has come across.
Although the match between the composite drawing and pictures of Duane Weber must be considered inconclusive, recently, facial recognition software was used on 3,000 photographs (including that of Weber and two other suspects) to identify him as "the best match" of the 3,000.
A positive identification of the photographs of Duane Weber to be those of Dan Cooper was formally made by Robert Knoss of Minneapolis, but no FBI follow up was ever forthcoming.

Memorials

The community of Ariel in Cowlitz County, Washington, commemorates the incident with a celebration, held annually, called "D. B. Cooper Days."

Fictional portrayals

Books

★ Elwood Reid's 2004 novel ''D.B.'' is a fictionalized account of what supposedly happened to Cooper in the years following the hijacking, as a pair of FBI agents attempt to pick up his trail and arrest him.

★ The 1998 novel ''Sasquatch'' by Roland Smith features a character named Buckley Johnson, who eventually admits that he is D.B. Cooper to the novel's protagonist, a boy named Dylan Hickock. In this story, Johnson says he committed the hijacking to pay for cancer treatments for his son.

Film, TV and Radio

★ In 1981 an adventure movie titled ''The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper'' was released starring Treat Williams as Cooper and Robert Duvall as a police officer pursuing him. It was directed by Roger Spottiswoode.

★ A Fox station aired the movie ''The Search for D.B. Cooper''^[4] and received a $27,500 FCC fine due to foul language.

★ The British drama series ''Tales of the Unexpected'' featured an episode called ''Hijack'' starring Simon Cadell, which was first broadcast on ITV on 26 December 1981 (Season 4, Episode 17) [2]. Elements of the Cooper case feature in it, including the unidentified hijacker with bombs in his suitcase, though the action takes place over Europe. The ransom is paid and the passengers released, but then the viewer gets to see that the whole thing is a con perpetrated by the crew, including the pilots and air stewards.

★ The television series ''NewsRadio'' featured a story arc (season 5, episodes "Jail", "The Lam" and "Clash of the Titans"; first broadcast in 1998) in which station owner Jimmy James is believed to be D.B. Cooper. James was arrested after a green duffel bag believed to have been Cooper's was found. At the trial, Adam West confesses he is D.B. Cooper and that James had covered up for him.

★ An episode of the television show ''Renegade'' entitled "The Ballad of D.B Cooper" details how D.B Cooper hijacks a plane, steals $200,000 and lands in a small town where he uses the money to reopen an old factory.

★ The television show ''Prison Break'' featured a character who, after initially denying accusations, eventually admitted that he was D. B. Cooper. The character, played by Muse Watson, went by the name of Charles Westmoreland. According to the show, the amount of money he buried underneath a silo totaled approximately $5,000,000.

★ The television show ''Barnaby Jones'' featured in the second episode (4 February 1973) of the series, a town that found a large bag of money left over from a similar hijacking.

★ In the movie ''Without A Paddle'', three friends go on a canoe trip in search of D.B. Cooper's stash.

★ D.B. Cooper is the subject of episodes of ''In Search Of...'' and ''Unsolved Mysteries''.

★ On the 11th of August 2007 unsolved crimes USA made a new documentary.

★ F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper, the main character of the TV series Twin Peaks, was at least moderately influenced in his creation by D.B. Cooper, mainly due to his full name being Dale Bartholomew Cooper, and possibly the fact that he dresses in the same type of apparel as D.B. is described as having worn (i.e. the dark suit and tie, tench/raincoat, tie clip etc.), although this is most likely accredited to the dress of the Special Agents in the FBI (the opposite position of the real D.B. Cooper).

Music

★ Hip-hop artist MF Doom utilizes the lyric "MF Doom he's like D.B. Cooper,out with the moola" in his song Hoe Cakes.

★ Oregon-native singer-songwriter Todd Snider wrote and performed a song about the famous mystery titled "D. B. Cooper."

★ Singer-songwriter Chuck Brodsky also has included a song titled "The Ballad of D. B. Cooper" on his 2006 CD, ''Tulips for Lunch''.^[5]

★ Roger McGuinn's self-titled 1973 solo album contains the song "Bag Full of Money" referring to Cooper's hijacking: "In the course of Korea I learned how to jump, In the card game of life I was holding a trump, -- Floating I'm floating on down through the sky, Never had no ambition to learn how to fly, Be glad when it's over be happy to land, With this bag full of money I've got in my hands"

★ Diminished Men, an instrumental-cinematic-psych-noir rock band from Seattle, WA have a song entitled "Cooper's Descent".

★ In the Kid Rock song "Bawitdaba" one of the lines is "D.B. Cooper and the money he took."

Further reading

★ Richard T. Tosaw released a book in 1984 published by TOSAW PUBLISHING CO., INC titled ''D.B. COOPER Dead or Alive'' which outlines the events in the highjacking. It also has a full list of serial numbers from the $20 notes that were given to Dan Cooper.

★ Talk radio host Steven Rinehart has interviewed several authors and retired FBI agents about the Cooper case. Included are interviews with Richard Tosaw, who is a proponent of Cooper drowning in the Columbia, Russell Calame, who is convinced McCoy is Cooper, and Daniel Dvorak, who believes Ted Mayfield was erroneously eliminated by Ralph Himmelsbach. His interviews can be heard online at this link.

See also

★ Airport security

★ List of people who have disappeared

★ Cold case

References

1. Norjak: The Investigation of D. B. Cooper, , Ralph P., Himmelsbach, Norjak Project, , ISBN 0-9617415-0-3
2. DB Cooper - Skyjacker and Folk Hero
3. Pasternak, Douglas. "Skyjacker at large." ''U.S. News & World Report'', July 24-31, 2000.
4. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002197348
5. http://www.chuckbrodsky.com/lyrics.html

External links

★

★ Crime Library: D. B. Cooper

★ Rotten Library: D. B. Cooper

★ FBI Files

★ Radio interviews about D.B. Cooper's identity with major authors