I want to start this post with a disclaimer, I am not a professional detective or familiar with skydiving. In fact, a lot of the aspects of this case are brand new to me. So, with that being said…here are my thoughts on the search for DB Cooper.
It was the day before Thanksgiving, November 24, 1971, when a man dressed in a business suit and tie bought a $20 one way ticket from Portland Oregon to Seattle Washington on Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305. The name on the ticket was Dan Cooper. (He became known as DB Cooper due to a media miscommunication.) Shortly after takeoff, the man ordered a bourbon and soda and gave a note to the flight attendant. In this note, he claimed he had a bomb in his briefcase and showed her red tubes and wires. He had her write a new note to take to the captain and demanded $200,000 in $20 bills and 4 parachutes on landing, in exchange he would release all 36 passengers on board. Incredibly, none of the passengers on board the flight knew what was happening.
The flight landed in Seattle. The passengers got off and the money and parachutes were loaded. Cooper kept the two pilots, a flight engineer, and a flight attendant on board and ordered the plane to head towards Mexico City. Cooper was specific with the way the plane should fly, however, under 10,000 feet and at a speed slower than 200 knots. At some point between Seattle and Reno, Cooper left the plane. Flight 305 was a 727 passenger jet equipped with rear stairs. It is unknown as to when exactly Cooper lowered the stairs and jumped, once in flight Cooper had the flight attendant move to the cockpit and remain there. Only the clip-on tie and two of the four parachutes remained in the cabin upon landing.
In 1980, a young boy while digging for a campfire with his family found a decaying package with $5800, all $20 bills, buried in the sand along the Columbia River. The serial numbers matched those of the Cooper ransom money. This was the only money to have been found from the hijacking.
The Investigation
The FBI became aware of the hijacking in flight and interviewed the passengers in Seattle and also searched the plane and conducted interviews when it landed in Reno. As well, in 1980 when the $5800 was found that area was extensively searched but with no luck.
To date and to my knowledge, human remains, the rest of the money or the parachutes have never been found.
Below is the FBI description of Cooper.
The FBI official investigation lasted from November 1971 until 2016. By the 5 year anniversary of the hijacking over 800 suspects had been investigated. Over the course of the case about 1,100 suspects have been investigated with most being cleared for one reason or another.
There are numerous books, documentaries, websites, blogs, and the FBI’s own Vault where you can read detailed reports of the investigation and various theories. Here are three of the best sites I found in my reading. You could spend hours reading through these sites…just felt it fair to warn you. It is an amazingly interesting and complex case and I would recommend checking out their research.
- themountainnewswa.net- Bruce Smith is a journalist who has extensively researched DB Cooper
- FBI Records: The Vault– you can also look into other FBI files as well. This was my favorite site if you can get past all the redactions
- Citizen Sleuths– the website of the private investigators who worked with the FBI to add to the investigation
It Remains a Mystery
Almost every point of view comes with their own favorite suspect of who could actually be DB Cooper. What was interesting is that the hijacking happened the day before Thanksgiving, which traditionally is a 4 day weekend. There were not any missing person cases that came up, matching the description, after the hijacking.
So did DB Cooper survive the jump? Did he make it back to his normal life? The only traces of the money found was what was dug up in 1980. So did Cooper never spend it? Or did he somehow launder the money?
There were 922 additional people that confessed to being DB Cooper, and at least one on his deathbed. Other suspects were identified by various family members or friends based on odd behavior and circumstantial evidence. We may never know the truth behind what happened.
Questions from my research…
1. The FBI Investigation
The FBI has been criticized for how evidence was gathered from the plane. Namely the tie and the cigarettes that Cooper smoked on the plane. The cigarettes are no longer part of the evidence in FBI possession and the tie was missing for the first few days of the investigation. What else was missed? Did they collect the glass he drank from? Magazines he touched? Hair or fibers from the seat he was sitting? Was anything overlooked that could have helped catch Cooper?
2. A Fun Bonus from the FBI Files…
I loved reading the FBI case files and I found this gem. This made me laugh and I am going to post the full images below.
So let this just be a lesson for you…crime doesn’t pay! Or at least claim your ill-gotten gains with the IRS and pay taxes on it…but even then, it still doesn’t pay! How was this even an incentive for someone to come forward?
3. The Jump from the Plane
There was a pressure bump during the flight to Reno that the pilots used to assume the location where Cooper parachuted out of the plane. Ok. Seems logical. However, could Cooper not have gone to the bottom stair, caused the pressure bump, and then have gone back to the top of the stairs and actually jumped later than pilots think? Were there multiple pressure bumps? The flight attendant stated that Cooper did not need help lowering the rear stairs. This indicates he familiar with the aircraft. Would he have known enough to cause a misleading pressure bump?
4. What kind of man was DB Cooper?
Reports after the hijacking said he was a master criminal and must have been an experienced skydiver. The parachute he used was unable to be steered and he was wearing a business suit, trenchcoat, and loafers. This was clothing and equipment completely inappropriate for a cold and wet nighttime jump.
Later in the investigation minds changed and Cooper became someone who didn’t know anything and was quite foolish. So what kind of man was he? Was he a thrill seeker who was looking to have a huge adrenaline rush and masterfully planned out this heist or was he a foolhardy man who made mistakes and plunged to certain death?
5. What about the paper bag and briefcase?
What was in that paper bag he had on the plane? A meal? Was it big enough for a change of clothes/shoes for the jump? Was it ever found on the plane or did Cooper take it with him?
What about the briefcase with the bomb? Was it a real bomb or a great fake? What happened to that briefcase?
In Conclusion…
The case remains to date unsolved. Many of the leading suspects from the various investigations and theories have passed away…did the truth of the DB Cooper mystery die with them? A body was never found and that leads me to think that he survived the jump from the plane, with a parachute he couldn’t steer, wearing a business suit and loafers. What a story that would have been to listen to…minus the stolen money and hijacked a plane of course.
What do you think? Did Cooper survive the jump? Did he somehow launder the money and evade investigation? Or did he die in the remote areas and the cash forever lost with him? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Thanks for journeying through history with me. If you are new to the blog, I am in the middle of Mystery Month and have tackled several topics already, you can check out past posts here and I have some exciting ones coming up. You can get updates on new posts by following CampTown Media on Instagram (@camptownmedia) or Facebook.
Till next time,
Kimberly
P.S. – Did you know my husband and I wrote a kids’ book? It is now available on Amazon!! Piggy & his best friend The Bear are excited to go trick-or-treating and need to find the perfect costumes. You can click here for more details.
