Hello Everyone!

The post for this week doesn’t involve any murder! So no gruesome or gory detail warning, yay!

November 24, 1971 – The day before Thanksgiving

Dan Cooper, a “nondescript” man carrying a black briefcase, stood at about 6-feet tall and appeared to be in his mid-40s and wearing a business suit with a white shirt and a black tie. He bought a one-way ticket with $20 in cash for Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 out of Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington, a 30-minute trip.

While waiting for the flight to take off, he ordered a bourbon and soda drink.

The flight took off at 2:50 p.m. with 36 passengers. At about 3:00 p.m., Cooper handed Florence Schaffner (a flight attendant) a note. She put it in her purse, assuming it was just a phone number. Cooper leaned into her and said,

“Miss, you’d better look at that note. I have a bomb.”

Schaffner looked at the note which had “neat, all-capital letters with a felt-tip pen” (Wikipedia). Cooper later took back the note so we still don’t know the exact wording of the letter. Schaffner remembered that the note said Cooper had a bomb in the briefcase. Cooper told her to sit beside him, she did, and she asked to see the bomb. She saw eight red cylinders attached to wires with red insulation and a large cylindrical battery.

He closed the briefcase and told Schaffner he wanted $200,000 in $20 bills (the equivalent of $1.2 million today). He asked for the money in “negotiable American currency”. He also asked for four parachutes (two primary and two reserve), as well as a fuel truck waiting in Seattle to refuel the plane.

Schaffner was freaking out a little bit by this point, but Cooper calmed her down gently. She took Cooper’s instructions to the pilots and when she came back, he was wearing dark sunglasses.

Police sketches of D. B. Cooper

The pilot, William A. Scott contacted the air traffic control at Seattle airport who then told the local and federal authorities. The pilots told the other 35 passengers that there was going to be a delay in their arrival due to a small mechanical problem.

The president of the airline authorized the payment of the ransom and told the employees on the plane to cooperate. The plane circled around for about 2 hours to give the FBI and Seattle police enough time to get Cooper’s demands and gather emergency personnel.

Cooper made comments to Tina Mucklow (a flight attendant) that made it seem like he was familiar with the area. A flight attendant named Tina Mucklow said that Cooper stated “Looks like Tacoma down there” and mentioned an Air Force Base that was close to the Seattle airport and the correct distance between the two.

D.B. Cooper was described as polite, calm, nice, and eloquent. This description was not consistent with the stereotypes that were associated with place hijackers (air piracy) at the time. He wasn’t nervous, he wasn’t cruel, he wasn’t rude. He was also thoughtful. This is all according to the flight attendants.

Cooper then ordered a second bourbon and soda, paid the tab, and attempted to give a flight attendant the change. He also offered to request meals for the flight crew during the stop in Seattle.

FBI agents were able to gather the ransom money from banks around the area, 10,000 unmarked $20 bills, most of them had serials beginning with the letter L and from the 1963A or 1969 series. Cooper refused the parachutes that were military-grade and demanded civilian parachutes with ripcords that were manually operated, the police were able to get them from a local skydiving school.

The Release of the Passengers

Cooper was told that his demands were met at 5:24 p.m., at 5:39 p.m the plane landed at the airport. Cooper told Scott (one of the pilots) to taxi the jet to an isolated section of the airport and close each of the shades on the windows to deter snipers.

The airport operations manager delivered the cash and parachutes to Mucklow from the stairs. After the delivery, Cooper told all the passengers, Schaffner, and Alice Hancock to leave the plane (the senior flight attendant).

While refueling, Cooper told the cockpit crew his flight plan, which involved going to Mexico. Cooper didn’t know that the plane would require another refueling before reaching the end so they agreed on Reno, Nevada.

Cooper lowered one of the plane staircases while they were airborne.

Flight #2

The plane took off at about 7:40 p.m. with only Cooper, pilot Scott, flight attendant Mucklow, copilot Rataczak, and flight engineer Harold E. Anderson.

Two planes trailed the 727 outside of Cooper’s view. They ended up running low on fuel and had to turn back.

Cooper told Mucklow to go to the cockpit with the rest of the crew and stay there with the door closed. She did and saw Cooper tying something to his waist (most likely the money bag).

A parachute that wasn’t used.

At about 8:00 p.m., Cooper refused to close the door and bring up the stairs. At 8:13 p.m. the tail section of the plan had sudden upward movement. At about 10:15 p.m., the pilots landed the plane with the stairs still down at Reno Airport.

The plane was quickly surrounded by FBI agents, state troopers, sheriff’s deputies, and Reno police because no one could be certain that Cooper wasn’t on board. A search of the plane confirmed that he was not in there.

Theories

Richard Floyd McCoy

This theory was popularized by Russell Calame, a former FBI agent, and Bernie Rhodes, a former probation officer.

Five months after the D.B. Cooper hijacking, McCoy was arrested for hijacking an airplane in a way that was similar to Cooper’s.

They were both calm during the heist, passed a noted to a flight attendant about a bomb on board, both notes used the phrase “no funny stuff”, requested four parachutes, and both parachuted off of the rear of a Boeing 727.

Both of the hijackings occurred while BYU (Brigham Young University) was on a break. McCoy was a BYU student.

Members of McCoy’s family identified an object that was left on the plane by Cooper. This object was never released to the public. Some people theorize that it was a BYU medallion, these claims are unverified.

He was eventually ruled out because he didn’t fit the physical description that was provided by the flight attendants. He was also, reportedly, home with his family for Thanksgiving the day after the heist.

Duane Weber

Jo Weber, Duane’s wife, publicly made and delivered this theory to the public. She said that while her husband was on his deathbed, he pulled her in close and said…

I have a secret to tell you…I’m Dan cooper.

This made Jo look back at the clues in his life.

She said that Weber would have nightmares and sleep-talk about leaving fingerprints on a plane. He also took her to “Tina Bar”, this is where the money was found.

Weber’s handwriting was found on the sides of a book on D. B. Cooper. Weber also told her that his knee injury was from jumping out of a plane. Jo said that Weber had one old Northwest Airlines ticket, but there was no reason for him to have it.

A former FBI agent, Ralph Himmelsbach, said that Weber did fit the physical description. He did not, however, fit the criminal background that FBI agents associated with Cooper. Himmelsbach, in the end, did not think Weber was Cooper.

Kenneth Christiansen

This theory was made public by Lyle Christiansen, Kenneth’s brother, and Geoffrey Gray (an author) supported it.

Lyle saw an episode of “Unsolved Mysteries” and came up with the theory. Lyle was absolutely convinced that his brother was D. B. Cooper. He even said that his brother made a “confession” on his deathbed.

There is something you should know…but I cannot tell you.

Kenneth Christiansen was a head flight attendant for Northwest Orient Airlines. Kenneth also loved bourbon and bought a house shortly after the hijacking.

One of the flight attendants was shown a picture of Kenneth Christiansen and she said that it was the closest match. She couldn’t be sure though.

The FBI got rid of Christiansen as a suspect because he did not fit the description. He was a paratrooper and the FBI did not think Cooper was a skilled jumper.

Boeing Employee

Many think that this was an inside job from Boeing. This is the theory that is widely believed by an online crime-solving organization called CitizenSleuths. CitizenSleuths found particles on Cooper’s tie that are used in very specific fields, most specifically in Boeing for the creation of a “supersonic transport” plane. He did wear a tie though, so he wasn’t making the planes. He was either an engineer or a manager in one of the plants that made the plane.

The black-tie D. B. Cooper wore. (He had taken it off before he jumped out.)

Cooper did not survive

This is the leading theory of the investigators. Money that matched the serial numbers of the ransom money was found in a stream only further supported the theory. Many believe he was a professional skydiver because of his knowledge of the plane’s system. People have since said that a jump in those weather conditions (middle of winter) and over that area (heavily wooded) was a stupid mistake that an expert wouldn’t have made. It was pitch-black, 200-mile-an-hour wind, he had on loafers and a trench coat. There was no visibility of the ground. The odds of him surviving are not high.

Another reason for this theory is that only one of Cooper’s parachutes was functional. The other was a training parachute that couldn’t be opened, and the only functional one was a military-grade parachute that couldn’t be steered.

Cooper’s body and parachute were never found.

Today

The FAA, 1973, began requiring airlines to search passengers and bags because of the high level of hijackings during this time (31 in 1972). There were lawsuits that claimed these searches were unconstitutional but federal courts upheld the search laws. The FAA also required that all Boeing 727 aircraft be fitted with a device that stopped the lowering of the airstairs during flight. Peepholes were also mandated in all cockpit doors so the cockpit could observe passengers without opening the door.

In July of 2016, the FBI announced that they were going to stop “allocating active resources” to the D.B. Cooper investigation (crimemuseum). They have not solved the case.

Sources –

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper 

https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/db-cooper-hijacking

https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/cold-cases/d-b-cooper/

https://buzzfeed-unsolved.fandom.com/wiki/The_Strange_Disappearance_of_D.B._Cooper

https://www.britannica.com/biography/D-B-Cooper