It’s good to see cold cases solved but some notorious crimes are bound to remain unsolved for good – The identity of Jack the Ripper will almost certainly remain a mystery. The FBI seems determined to ensure that one 36 year old crime that does not fall into that category. It has just reopened the D B Cooper case, the world's only unsolved hijacking
In November 1971, DB (or Dan) Cooper, not his real name, stepped off the back stairway of a Northwest Orient Boeing 727. Equipped with two parachutes and a bag of $200,000 in ransom money, he jumped into the rugged terrain of Washington State. No one was hurt and it became an act that entered modern American folklore. The FBI has reassembled the few fragments of evidence that it has and made a fresh appeal to the public for help. "Would we still like to get our man?" the FBI said in a release out of its Pacific Northwest office in Seattle this week. "Absolutely. And we have reignited the case."
The public is being invited to visit the FBI website where, for the first time, it has displayed sketches of Cooper together with photographs both of a cheap clip-on tie he left behind on the plane before making his mid-air exit and of ragged remains of a few $20 bills found in the vicinity on the ground by a boy in 1980. By making this of information available to the public, the FBI is hoping they will jog someone's mind somewhere and they will come forward with the key to unlock the mystery.
Dan Cooper is the name the hijacker gave when he showed up at the Northwest Orient desk at the airport in Portland, Oregon, on 24 November 1971, and bought a ticket to Seattle. He settled quietly in a seat towards the rear of the plane and paid $2 for a bourbon and soda shortly after take-off. Then he handed one of the flight attendants a note. "I have a bomb in my briefcase. I want you to sit beside me." Cooper showed the attendant tangled wires and what looked like red sticks of dynamite. He then gave her his instructions. "I want $200,000 by 5pm. In cash. Put in a knapsack. I want two back parachutes and two front parachutes. When we land, I want a fuel truck ready to refuel. No funny stuff or I'll do the job." Flight 305 landed and the money and parachutes were handed over as requested. Cooper allowed all 36 passengers off the plane leaving only the crew on board. He then ordered the pilot to take off again, and head for Mexico City. A few minutes after leaving Seattle that Cooper performed his disappearing act.
Over the years, multiple people have come forward claiming to know the real identity of Cooper. Many pointed to a Vietnam War veteran named Richard McCoy who staged a similar hijacking over Utah, leaping out and wafting to the ground below under a parachute with $500,000 in ransom money. He was captured, imprisoned and subsequently shot in 1974 by prison officers during a botched break-out. Minnesota man, Lyle Christiansen, believed his deceased brother, Kenneth was the culprit while Duane Weber, claimed on his deathbed that he himself was Cooper. All of these have been discounted by the FBI.
The agency with nothing beyond the vague hope that the pictures on the web page launched this week will mean something to someone. On it, the agency admits that over the years it has pursued "thousands of leads and considered all sorts of scenarios" but to no avail. "And amateur sleuths have put forward plenty of their own theories. Yet the case remains unsolved. Please look it all over carefully to see if it triggers a memory or if you can provide any useful information."
6 comments:
The man almost certainly died. A bunch of the money washed up in a river years back.
Cooper's motive was purely monetary
unlike the many far left hijakers of the era. If he said a few words about social justice the usual types would be posting about him daily.
I agree he almost certainly is dead but it still is an intriguing case
There is something interesting about unsolved mysteries. They may not be spectacular in and of themselves if not for the unknown angle.
The funniest of all these odd theories is the famous Mad trapper "Albert Johnson" had a hearing disorder. He never knew why all those crazy Canadian Mounties were chasing him across the arctic. This does sound like a very bad comedy, but some people think it is true.
Would we remember the case if we knew who Albert Johnson was?
THe Mad Trapper is a truly odd case but you're right: if we knew is identity then nobody would be interested
I'm more interested in the prospect of finding missing money than finding missing terrorists/hijackers.
THat would be quite a find, definitely
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