D. B. Cooper

"Dan Cooper" redirects here. For the Sigma Chi founder and Presbyterian minister, see Daniel William Cooper.

A 1972 FBI composite drawing of 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, jumped from the back of a Boeing 727 as it was flying over the Pacific Northwest somewhere over the southern Cascades, possibly over Woodland, Washington.

No conclusive evidence has 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 were uncovered on the banks of the Columbia River. In late 1978, a placard, which contained instructions on how to lower the aft stairs of a 727, believed to be from the rear stairway of the plane from which Cooper jumped, was found just a few flying minutes north of Cooper's projected drop zone. 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) remains an unsolved mystery.

The hijacking

FBI sketch of D.B. Cooper age progression.

A briefcase with a bomb

At 2:58pm, PST, on Wednesday, November 24, 1971, the day before Thanksgiving in the United States, a man traveling under the name Dan Cooper hijacked a Boeing 727-051, Northwest Airlines Flight 305 (FAA Reg. N467US), flying from Portland International Airport (PDX) in Portland, Oregon, with the threat of a bomb (he had a briefcase containing wires, large battery and "red sticks").

Cooper boarded the plane of only 36 passengers and 6 crew. He wore a black raincoat and loafers, a dark suit, a neatly pressed white shirt, a black necktie, and a mother-of-pearl tie pin. He also had black sunglasses.

FBI wanted poster of D.B. Cooper

"You are being hijacked"

The jet was taxiing on the ground in Portland, when Cooper, who was seated in the last row of the jet, handed a note to his flight attendant, Florence Schaffner, who was seated in a jumpseat attached to the aft stair door, situated directly behind and to the left of Cooper's seat. 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, and ascertain if the bomb was in fact real. Sensing this, Cooper, opened his briefcase momentarily, long enough for Schaffner to see red cylinders, a large battery, and wires, convincing her the bomb was real. 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

According to Cooper's demands, the jet was put into a holding pattern over the Puget Sound, while Cooper's demands for $200,000 and four parachutes (two main back chutes and two emergency chest chutes) were obtained.

Once his demands were met, Cooper gave Captain Scott permission to land at the flight's intended destination, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport near Seattle, Washington. The plane landed at 5:45p.m., and after a few minutes, he released the passengers in exchange for $200,000 and the four parachutes.

The FBI was puzzled regarding Cooper's plans, and his request of four parachutes. They wondered if Cooper had an accomplice on board, or if the parachutes were intended for the four people on the plane (the pilot, the co-pilot, a flight attendant and himself). Up to this point in history, nobody had ever attempted to jump with a parachute from a hijacked commercial aircraft.

After refueling, careful examination of the ransom and parachutes, and negotiations regarding the flight pattern and the position of the aft stairs upon take-off, Cooper ordered the flight crew to take the hijacked jet back into the air at 7:38pm. The crew was ordered to fly toward Mexico at relatively low speed of 170 knots, an altitude at or under 10,000 feet (normal cruising altitude is between 25,000 and 37,000 feet), with the landing gear down and 15 degrees of flap.

Immediately upon takeoff, Cooper, who had kept one of the stewardesses with him as a hostage, asked how to lower the aft stairs and then ordered the young hostage into the cockpit. That was the last time any person has knowingly laid eyes on D.B. Cooper. At some point during the journey, he jumped from the aft stairway of the aircraft with the money and one of the parachutes. The FBI believed his descent was at 8:13 p.m. over the southwestern portion of the state of Washington, because the aft stairway "bumped" at this time, which was most likely due to the weight of Cooper being released from the aft stairs.

Due to poor visibility, his descent went unnoticed by the United States Air Force F-106 jet fighters tracking the airliner. He was initially believed to have landed southeast of the town of Ariel by the edge of Lake Merwin, 30 miles north of Portland, Oregon. Later information puts the jump location about 20 miles further west.

Nearly 3 1/2 hours after take-off from Seattle, at approximately 11pm, with the aft stairs dragging on the runway, the 727 landed safely in Reno. The airport and runway were surrounded by FBI agents and local police. After communicating with Captain Scott, it was determined Cooper was gone, and FBI agents stormed the plane looking for evidence left behind. They recovered a number of fingerprints which may or may not belong to Cooper, a tie and mother-of-pearl tie clip, and two of the four parachutes. Cooper was nowhere to be found, nor was his briefcase, the money, the moneybag, or the one missing parachute.

Vanished (almost) without a trace

Illustration of how the 727's rear airstair was used by Cooper to effect his escape. The airstair had not been designed for deployment in flight and was gravity-operated, meaning it fell open and stayed that way until the aircraft landed.

Despite an eighteen-day search of the projected landing zone in 1971, no trace of Dan Cooper or his parachute was ever found. A ground search, using the assistance of 400 troops from nearby Fort Lewis, was conducted in April 1972. After six weeks of searching the projected dropzone on foot, no evidence was found related to the hijacking. As a result, 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, approximately 40 feet from the waterline and just two inches below the surface, on the banks of the Columbia River five miles northwest of Vancouver, Washington. After comparing the serial numbers with those from the ransom given to Cooper some 8 years earlier, it was proven the money found by Brian was part of the ransom given to Cooper. To this day, the rest of the money has never been found.

Suspects

At various points, several people have been suggested as possible candidates for Cooper, though the case remains unsolved. Over the years, the suspect list has exceeded over 1,000 people.

Some of the favorites are listed below:

Kenneth Christiansen

In the October 29, 2007, issue of "New York Magazine", a new suspect, Kenneth P. Christiansen, was identified by Sherlock Investigations. The article notes that Christiansen was a former army paratrooper, a former airline employee, had settled in Washington State near the site of the hijacking, was familiar with the local terrain, had purchased property with cash a year after the hijacking, drank bourbon and smoked (as did D. B. Cooper during the flight) and resembled the eyewitness sketches of D.B. Cooper.

John List

In 1971, mass-murderer John List was considered a suspect in the Cooper hijacking, which occurred just after his family's murders. List's age, facial features, and build were similar to the sketch of 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.

Richard McCoy, Jr.

One of the 1972 hijackings was carried out by Richard McCoy, Jr. On April 7, 1972, four months after Cooper's hijacking, McCoy boarded United Flight 855 during a stopover in Denver, and demanded four parachutes and $500,000. 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 similar 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 Utah Highway Patrol Officer, Robert Van Ieperen, who was a friend of McCoy's. Apparently, after the Cooper hijacking, McCoy had made a reference that Cooper should have asked for $500,000, instead of $200,000. Van Ieperen thought that was an odd coincidence, so he alerted the FBI. Married, with two young children, McCoy was a Mormon Sunday school teacher studying law enforcement at Brigham Young University. He had a 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.

The Salt Lake Tribune's article about the 1972 capture of Richard McCoy

The Salt Lake Tribune's article about the 1972 capture of Richard McCoy

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 $499,970 in cash. 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 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. McCoy supposedly shot at the FBI agents, and agent Nicholas O'Hara reportedly fired back with a shotgun, killing him.

D. B. Cooper: The Real McCoy, co-authored by Bernie Rhodes and former FBI agent Russell Calame, was published in 1991. Both admit that neither had any participation in the investigation of D.B. Cooper. Agent Calame was the head of the Utah FBI office that investigated McCoy, and eventually arrested him for the copycat hijacking which occurred in April 1972. The book made the case that Cooper and McCoy were really the same person, citing similar methods of hijacking and a tie and mother-of-pearl tie clip, 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. The FBI agent who worked the Cooper case during the 70s claims McCoy was thoroughly investigated by the FBI, and was eliminated as a suspect, because he was in California on the day of the hijacking.

In the late 1980s an American TV series named Unsolved Mysteries ran a segment on the hijacking. Witnesses on the airplane, especially Florence Schaffner, complained that the drawing the FBI made was wrong and they had the face redrawn. During the piece, a new sketch was drawn, and it was implied that Schaffner did not believe Richard McCoy was Cooper. In subsequent interviews, she has reportedly made these same remarks to other investigators.

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 L. Weber (born 1924 in Ohio), had told her "I'm Dan Cooper" before his death on March 28, 1995. She became suspicious and began checking into his background. Duane Weber had served in the Army during World War II and had later served time in a prison near Portland airport. 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."

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 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. 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. Initially, Himmelsbach had said Weber is one of the best suspects he had 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. However, according to the Steve Rinehart's interviews with various D.B. Cooper authors, investigators have shown photos of Duane Weber to Florence Schaffner, and she has reportedly stated that Duane is not Cooper.

The FBI has compared Duane Weber's prints with those processed from the hijacked plane, without finding a match and has closed the case against Weber due to lack of evidence.

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 and received a $27,500 FCC fine due to foul language.
• 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.
• 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 History.
• A fictional character named Dylan McClean jumps out of airplane with a parachute and a suitcase full of money in the NBC TV series Journeyman.

Music

• 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.
• 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"
• Rapper MF DOOM makes reference to Cooper in his song "Hoe Cakes" on his 2004 album MM..Food, rapping, "Average MC's is like a TV blooper/MF DOOM, he's like D.B. Cooper/out with the moolah".
• Rock-Rapper Kid Rock sings about Cooper in his song Bawitdaba off his 1998 album Devil Without a Cause in the verses, "And for DB Cooper and money he took/ You can look for answers but that ain't[sic] fun/ Now get in the pit and try to love someone."

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 hijacking. 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.
• Author Max Gunther wrote a 1985 book entitled "D. B. Cooper -- What Really Happened" (ISBN 0-8092-5180-9, in which he speculated that Cooper landed injured, took up residence with a local woman whose property he stumbled onto. The book is listed as "fiction" at Amazon, and uses the Cooper story as a backdrop for a love story.

See also

• Airport security
• List of people who have disappeared
• Cold case

External links

• "D.B. Cooper". The Columbian. 1989. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
• Crime Library: D. B. Cooper
• FBI Files
• Radio interviews about D.B. Cooper's identity with major authors
• D.B. Cooper at Findagrave.com
• Unmasking D.B. Cooper