Mystery Unsolved Inc True Crime

D.B Cooper

This week on Mystery Unsolved Inc, we discuss the famous case of D.B. Cooper, a case that the FBI's referred to as one of the great unsolved mysteries in FBI history. It's also considered one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in US history.

Reynard relays the information, "On Wednesday, November 24th, 1971 the day before Thanksgiving, a man going by the name Dan Cooper bought a twenty dollar one way ticket on NorthWest Orient Airlines with cash for flight number 305 from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington. Cooper was described as being in his mid-forties, and wearing a business suit, a black rain type overcoat, brown shoes, a white shirt, and black tie. He carried a dark briefcase and a four inch by twelve inch by fourteen inch paper bag. Before the plane took off, Cooper, seated in seat 18C ordered a bourbon and soda."

"After the plane had taken off, a little after 3PM, Cooper handed the stewardess a note. At first, she just put it in her pocket without looking at it, but Cooper said, 'Miss, you better look at that note. I have a bomb.'"

"Cooper told her the bomb was in his briefcase and asked her to sit next to him. He opened his briefcase to show red colored sticks surrounded by an array of wires. After that, Cooper asked the stewardess to write down what he was saying and take it to the captain. 'I want two hundred thousand dollars 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.'"

"One odd detail was that Cooper asked for the two hundred thousand to be exclusively in twenty dollar bills. The flight landed in Seattle, and Cooper exchanged the thirty-six passengers on the plane for the money and the parachutes he had requested. Cooper kept some crew members on the plane and had the plane take off for Mexico City, requesting that the plane remain below ten thousand feet. During the second half of the flight, Cooper put on a pair of dark wrap-around sunglasses with dark rims that would later become part of the sketch that would become famous for anybody familiar with the case."

"A little after 8PM. when the plane was somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Nevada, Cooper jumped out of the rear doors of the Boeing 727 with two of the parachutes and the money, never to be seen again. One thing worth noting is that Cooper took off his black J.C. Penney clip on tie before jumping, a piece of evidence that the FBI was able to procure a DNA sample from."

"With the DNA sample from the tie, let's jump into the investigation launched to identify the man who called himself Dan Cooper. The case was called NORJAK, standing for Northwest Hijacking, and would last decades. The plane was intensely searched for evidence. Desperate to find Cooper's identity, there was extra interest in twenty dollar bills because the FBI had released the serial numbers of the bills stolen by Cooper. Remarkably, in 1980, nine years after Cooper's escape, a young boy found a rotted package filled with twenty dollar bills that matched the ransom money's serial numbers. There was five thousand and eight hundred dollars in all. The boy found the bills on a beach at Tina Bar while making a campfire with his father. People theorize that when Cooper jumped out, the money possibly fell into the Washougal River before eventually making its way to Tina Bar."

"Though this discovery would ultimately lead to nothing as the FBI scoured the surrounding beaches, finding nothing else. In the year that followed the hijacking, several letters were sent to the FBI, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and The Seattle Times, either confessing to the crime, eulogizing a recently-deceased D.B. Cooper, or claiming to be his brother. In fact, in November 1972, two men, Donald Sylvester Murphy and William John Lewis were taken into federal custody on charges of extortion for impersonating Cooper and selling his tell-all story to a tabloid."

"Leads were tracked all over the country and more than eight hundred suspects were considered over the first five years of the investigation. All but twenty-four suspects were eliminated from consideration. One peculiar fact is that the initials D.B. have no actual relevance to the case, and the FBI isn't sure where they came from. It was reportedly a mistake from a wire service that caused him to be called D.B. Cooper instead of Dan Cooper, which is how he presented himself when buying the plane ticket."