Everything you need to know about D.B. Cooper, the hijacking, the money and the letters
Tim Evans
How crime unfolded
This account comes from an FBI website on famous cases: "On the afternoon of November 24, 1971, a nondescript man calling himself Dan Cooper approached the counter of Northwest Orient Airlines in Portland, Oregon. He used cash to buy a one-way ticket on Flight #305, bound for Seattle, Washington. Thus began one of the great unsolved mysteries in FBI history.
"Cooper was a quiet man who appeared to be in his mid-40s, wearing a business suit with a black tie and white shirt. He ordered a drink — bourbon and soda — while the flight was waiting to take off. A short time after 3:00 p.m., he handed the stewardess a note indicating that he had a bomb in his briefcase and wanted her to sit with him.
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"The stunned stewardess did as she was told. Opening a cheap attaché case, Cooper showed her a glimpse of a mass of wires and red colored sticks and demanded that she write down what he told her. Soon, she was walking a new note to the captain of the plane that demanded four parachutes and $200,000 in twenty-dollar bills.
"When the flight landed in Seattle, the hijacker exchanged the flight’s 36 passengers for the money and parachutes. Cooper kept several crew members, and the plane took off again, ordered to set a course for Mexico City.
"Somewhere between Seattle and Reno, a little after 8:00 p.m., the hijacker did the incredible: He jumped out of the back of the plane with a parachute and the ransom money. The pilots landed safely, but Cooper had disappeared into the night and his ultimate fate remains a mystery to this day."
How Dan Cooper became D.B. Cooper
The Encyclopedia Britannica tells the story this way: The hijacker used the alias Dan Cooper when he purchased the ticket in Portland.
"But, in the subsequent news reporting, a (wire service) reporter misheard the name as D.B. Cooper, which became widely used."
Who was the man behind the sunglasses?
Over the years, the FBI identified and apparently cleared more than 1,000 suspects in the investigation dubbed NORJAK for Northwest Hijacking. But no one was ever arrested.
One suspect, Richard Floyd McCoy, was arrested for a copycat hijacking five moths later, but was cleared because he didn't match the physical description of Cooper provided by two flight attendants, according to the FBI. McCoy was killed in a shootout with police after escaping from prison.
FBI closed case in 2016
In a press release issued July 12, 2016, the FBI announced it was closing the Cooper case:
"Following one of the longest and most exhaustive investigations in our history, on July 8, 2016, the FBI redirected resources allocated to the D.B. Cooper case in order to focus on other investigative priorities. During the course of the 45-year NORJAK investigation, the FBI exhaustively reviewed all credible leads, coordinated between multiple field offices to conduct searches, collected all available evidence, and interviewed all identified witnesses. Over the years, the FBI has applied numerous new and innovative investigative techniques, as well as examined countless items at the FBI Laboratory. Evidence obtained during the course of the investigation will now be preserved for historical purposes at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
"The mystery surrounding the hijacking of a Northwest Orient Airlines flight in November 1971 by a still-unknown individual resulted in significant international attention and a decades-long manhunt. Although the FBI appreciated the immense number of tips provided by members of the public, none to date have resulted in a definitive identification of the hijacker. The tips have conveyed plausible theories, descriptive information about individuals potentially matching the hijacker, and anecdotes — to include accounts of sudden, unexplained wealth. In order to solve a case, the FBI must prove culpability beyond a reasonable doubt, and, unfortunately, none of the well-meaning tips or applications of new investigative technology have yielded the necessary proof. Every time the FBI assesses additional tips for the NORJAK case, investigative resources and manpower are diverted from programs that more urgently need attention.
"Although the FBI will no longer actively investigate this case, should specific physical evidence emerge — related specifically to the parachutes or the money taken by the hijacker — individuals with those materials are asked to contact their local FBI field office."
What the hijacker wanted — and got
The skyjacker demanded four parachutes — not self-opening military chutes, but civilian chutes with user-controlled ripcords — and $200,000 in twenty-dollar bills with random serial numbers, according to the book, The Last Master Outlaw.
In exchange, he agreed to release the 36 passengers and some crew members. His demands were met when the plane landed at Seattle. Once the plane was back in the air, the hijacker instructed the cockpit crew to keep the plane below 10,000 feet, the airspeed at no more than 150 knots (about 200 mph), lower the landing gear, set the wing flaps at 15 degrees, and turn off the cabin pressure.
Then, with the remaining crew in the cabin, Cooper opened the stairway in the plane's tail and jumped into the night.
$200,000 was a lot in 1971
The $200,000 the skyjacker jumped with on Nov. 24, 1971, is the equivalent of more than $1.2 million in 2018, when inflation is taken into account.
The average new car price that year was about $3,500 and gas was selling for 36 cents a gallon. The median home price in Indianapolis was $13,000 in 1971.
Taunting letters followed hijacking
At least six letters claiming to be from the hijacker, and often taunting authorities, were mailed to newspapers across the U.S. in the weeks after the hijacking.
Three were cut-and-paste notes made up of words and letters clipped from newspapers and magazine. Another was handwritten and two were typed. All but one were signed D.b. Cooper. The other was signed "A Rich Man."
Some ransom money recovered
In 1980, $5,800 of the ransom money was recovered, according to Coin World. In a July 2014 post, the website reported:
"On Feb. 10, 1980, 8-year-old Brian Ingram of Washington was vacationing with his family on the Columbia River about 9 miles downstream from Vancouver, Wash.
"He was raking the sandy riverbank to build a campfire when he uncovered three packets of cash, significantly disintegrated but still bundled in rubber bands. It amounted to about $5,800 worth of $20 Federal Reserve notes.
"Ingram’s family gave the money to the FBI who then confirmed the money was a portion of the ransom demanded by 1971 skyjacker D.B. Cooper. The two packets each contained 100 $20 FRNs (Federal Reserve Notes) and a third packet of 90, all arranged in the same order as when given to Cooper."
Contact Tim Evans at 317-444-6204 or tim.evans@indystar.com. Follow him of Twitter: @starwatchtim