On November 24, 1971, a middle-aged man boarded a plane flying from Portland, Oregon to Seattle,
Washington carrying a briefcase and wearing a dark suit and sunglasses. His ticket, which was
paid for in cash, identified him simply as Dan Cooper. The nondescript man did little to draw
attention to himself as the plane boarded, aside from ordering himself a bourbon and soda. However,
once the plane was in the air, Cooper signaled for the flight attendant,
a young woman named Florence Schaffner, and handed her a note.
At first, Schaffner thought nothing of it, as she believed he was simply a businessman
attempting to flirt with her by giving her his phone number. She slipped the paper into
her pocket and might have forgotten all about it. However, when Schaffner passed by again,
the man made a motion to get her attention. He leaned toward her and quietly told her she had
better read the note because he had a bomb on board. He then opened his briefcase to
show Schaffner a glimpse of batteries, wires, and red sticks contained inside.
Schaffner delivered the note to the plane's captain, with a transcribed list of Cooper's
demands: two front parachutes, two back parachutes, $200,000 cash, and a fuel truck
waiting for them at the Seattle airport to refuel the plane. Cooper demanded the note back from
Schaffner after it had been read by the pilot, so its exact wording has never been recorded,
although some witnesses do remember that it contained the phrase, "no funny business."
The pilot contacted air traffic control, who urged the flight crew to comply with Cooper's demands.
The plane then circled around the Seattle airport
for two hours while authorities scrambled to meet all of the ransom note's demands.
Cooper was true to his word, allowing the flight's 36 passengers to leave the plane safely,
in exchange for the four parachutes and $200,000 worth of twenty-dollar bills.
"And once he had the money, he was okay with passengers getting off."
With the ransom demands met, Cooper then ordered the plane to take off again,
en route to Mexico City with only himself, the pilot and first officer, a flight engineer,
and a flight attendant left on board. Per Britannica, D.B. Cooper also demanded that
the pilot fly low and slow, at just 10,000 feet and less than 200 knots.
Around 8 p.m., Cooper lowered the rear steps and took a daring leap out of the plane somewhere over
southwestern Washington, never to be seen or heard from again. The only trace of the
mysterious Cooper appeared years later, in 1980, when a young boy exploring the banks
of the Columbia River in Washington state came across packets of cash totaling $5,800, which
authorities confirmed matched the serial numbers of the bills that had been given to Cooper.
Some people believe it is impossible that the man calling himself D.B. Cooper survived the fall
at all, but despite an extensive search of the area between Seattle and Reno, a body has never
been found. Others believe this may simply have been an incredible case of a man who defied the
odds and escaped with the money, living out his life somewhere in the world undetected.
The FBI spent 45 years trying to track down the true identity of D.B. Cooper, perhaps the
world's most infamous skyjacker, before finally officially calling off the investigation in 2016
However, one documentary filmmaker believes they may know the man behind the alias.
In 2016, documentarian Thomas Colbert released a documentary film called D.B. Cooper:
Case Closed?, which claimed that the man known only as D.B. Cooper was really an
Ohio native named Robert Rackstraw. According to Colbert, Cooper not only survived the fall,
he went on to live a long, colorful life, racking up a lengthy criminal
record along the way and eventually settling in San Diego, California.
Rackstraw was a Vietnam veteran and paratrooper, so he would have the skills needed to execute the
hijacking and subsequent daring escape. He also had a shady past, according to those who knew him.
In 1978, Rackstraw faked his own death in an airplane crash to evade charges of passing bad
checks and stealing a plane, just months after he was acquitted of killing his own stepfather
by a sympathetic jury. He was convicted and served time in Folsom State Prison, after which he went
on to start his own business and earn an economics degree from the University of San Francisco.
After an analysis of his explosives training, paratrooper experience, and photos,
which show a striking physical resemblance to descriptions of the skyjacker, Colbert and his
team of investigators determined that Rackstraw was the man behind the crime. However, while
Rackstraw was briefly investigated by the FBI in connection with the Cooper case, they eventually
ruled him out as a suspect, believing him to have been too young at the time the crime occurred.
Throughout his life, Rackstraw never confessed nor definitively denied the rumors that he may
have been the real D.B. Cooper. Rackstraw passed away in 2019, at the age of 75.
And while some people, like Colbert, remain convinced that they have finally cracked the case,
the real truth behind the mystery of D.B. Cooper may have died with Rackstraw.
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