From one of history’s most daring heists to several potential suspects, join us today
as we ask the question: Who was DB Cooper?
The identity of DB Cooper remains one of the most captivating mysteries in US law enforcement.
His hijacking of a Boeing 727, in the early 1970s, is the only case of unsolved air piracy
in the history of commercial aviation.
The outline of DB Cooper’s heist is well-known.
Shortly after the plane took off, he handed a note to the flight attendant.
Cooper told her that he had a bomb in his briefcase, which he opened enough to reveal
wiring, a battery and eight red cylinders.
He asked for $200,000, four parachutes and a refuelling.
Once the plane landed and his demands were met, the 36 passengers were released.
None of them had been hurt and the plane’s delay had been explained to them as a mechanical
problem.
As per Cooper’s orders and instructions the plane took off again with only him and
four crew members on it.
At one point, Cooper told the crew members to remain in the cockpit.
He then took the money, opened an airstair and parachuted out of the plane in mid-air.
Despite an FBI manhunt and an extensive investigation, his identity was never confirmed.
Many believe Cooper didn’t survive the jump, but his remains were never found.
15 copycat hijackings were subsequently attempted in 1972, but they were all unsuccessful.
Number 5 Walter R. Reca There is considerable circumstantial evidence
linking Michigan-native Walter R. Reca to the DB Cooper case.
He was a military veteran and a member of the Michigan Parachute Team.
In 2008, he confessed that he was DB Cooper to his friend and fellow expert parachuter,
Carl Laurin, in a recorded conversation.
Reca allowed him to tape their phone conversations about the hijacking, which produced new details
about what had happened.
Laurin also got permission from Reca to share his story, which he did, after his death in
2014.
Laurin concluded that Reca had landed near Cle Elum, Washington.
He met a man who’d given Reca a ride on the night he’d supposedly parachuted out
of the airplane.
The man, a Cle Elum native, recognized Reca from a photo Laurin sent him.
Laurin took all the information he had to Principal Media, who hired consultants to
make sure it hadn’t been tampered with.
The media outlet released a documentary, which tracks the investigation, in July 2018.
Before we move on, answer this question.
What’s the only piece of evidence conclusively linked to DB Cooper to have been found outside
the aircraft? a.
a portion of the ransom money b. his suit
c. bomb components d. his fountain pen
Let us know what you think in the comments section below and stay tuned to find out the
right answer.
Number 4 Richard Floyd McCoy Jr Richard McCoy Junior authored the best-known
DB Cooper copycat hijacking.
In April 1972, he used a paperweight that looked like a hand grenade and an empty handgun
to take control of a United Airlines flight from Denver to San Francisco.
He asked for $500,000 in cash and four parachutes.
Once the airplane was back in the sky, he jumped out over Provo, Utah.
He was subsequently caught and given a 45-year sentence.
Then, in 1974, McCoy Jr and several others broke out of Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary
by crashing a garbage truck through the main gate.
Three months later he was found and killed in a shootout with the FBI.
When the rumors started flowing, he neither confirmed nor denied being DB Cooper.
There were a number of people who believed so, including the FBI agent who killed him.
Upon shooting McCoy Jr, he said “I shot DB Cooper at the same time”.
On November 24, 1971, a man who’d only identified himself as “Dan Copper” took control of
the Boeing 727-100 in the airspace between Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington.
The alias DB Cooper, which eventually stuck, was actually the result of a news miscommunication.
Cooper was described as being in his mid-forties, of medium height and build.
Composite sketches of his face are, so far, the only source of identification.
He wore loafers, a black raincoat, a neatly pressed dark suit and a collared shirt with
a clip-on tie.
DNA was recovered from his tie but it’s still uncertain if the samples do indeed belong
to Cooper.
Before revealing he had a bomb, he sat at the rear of the passenger cabin, lit a cigarette
and ordered a bourbon and soda.
Throughout the heist, those who interacted with Cooper described him as calm and composed.
One flight attendant described him as polite and well-spoken while another said he “seemed
rather nice” and added that he was “never cruel or nasty”.
After refuelling at Seattle-Tacoma Airport, Cooper gave his flight plan to the crew.
It was a southeast course towards Mexico City at minimum airspeed and an altitude of 10,000
feet.
His landing zone was initially believed to have been at the southernmost point of Mount
St. Helens, near an artificial lake, but further analysis placed it in the drainage area of
the Washougal River.
Number 3 William J. Smith William J. Smith was a World War II Navy veteran
who would’ve been 43 at the time of the hijacking.
Research gathered by an US Army data analyst point to him being DB Cooper.
After the war was over, Smith worked for a railroad company, which, in 1970, suffered
crippling bankruptcy.
It’s believed that Smith developed a grudge against the transportation industry and corporate
establishment and thus plotted the hijacking.
He’d gone to high-school with a Daniel Cooper, who was killed in WW II, and potentially served
as an inspiration for his alias.
He had the necessary training to jump out of the airplane as well as the knowledge to
find railroad tracks and escape by hopping on a train.
His resemblance to the sketches was described as “remarkable”.
When approached by media outlets, the FBI refused to comment on Smith.
Number 2 Kenneth Christiansen Kenneth Christiansen was proposed as a suspect
by his brother, Lyle.
The man did so after watching a DB Cooper documentary in 2003.
While dying of cancer in 1994, Kenneth reportedly said to his brother there was something he
should know but that he couldn’t tell him.
After his death, his family found gold coins, a valuable stamp collection and over $200,000
in his bank account.
However, it was later found that he’d sold off some land, which may have accounted for
the large sum of money.
Kenneth’s age matched the timeline but he was shorter and thinner than the Cooper descriptions.
Nevertheless, there are a number of similarities to take into account.
He was left-handed, a smoker, had a fondness for bourbon and had trained as a paratrooper
in the army.
One of the flight attendants also said that, from the descriptions she’d been shown,
Kenneth resembled Cooper the best.
He was hired to work as a mechanic for Northwest Orient Airlines, the company that operated
the DB Cooper flight, in the 1950s.
He had a folder full of Northwest Orient news clippings that started from about the time
he was hired and oddly enough stopped right before the hijacking.
He continued to work part-time for the company after 1971, but never added another clipping.
So, what physical evidence found outside the aircraft has been decisively linked with DB
Cooper?
The right answer was a, a portion of the ransom money.
In 1980, 8-year-old Brian Ingram found several packets of twenty-dollar bills, on a beachfront
of the Columbia River, about 9 miles downstream from Vancouver, Washington.
FBI technicians confirmed that they were part of the DB Cooper ransom money but no other
bills have turned up since.
Number 1 Robert Rackstraw Robert Rackstraw is another worthwhile DB
Cooper candidate and a man that definitely had a taste for mischief.
He was arrested in Iran, in 1978, on explosive possession and check fraud charges.
While out on bail, he tried to fake his own death by recording a false mayday claiming
he’d jumped out of an aircraft over Monterey Bay.
Rackstraw had also served on an army helicopter crew during the Vietnam War and bore an uncanny
resemblance to the DB Cooper sketches.
However, he was eliminated as a suspect in 1979, for lack of concrete evidence.
Fresh reports emerged in 2016, in a new investigation which had allegedly obtained documents under
the Freedom of Information Act.
This included a coded letter from the 1971 case that was partially deciphered and matched
to three units Rackstraw had been a part of in the Army.
When Rackstraw was approached by amateur investigators he said “I told everybody I was (the hijacker)”.
However, he added that the admission had been a stunt.
His death in July 2019 and the lack of a deathbed confession most likely means the mystery carries
on.
Thanks for watching!
Suppose DB Cooper was still alive today and you had a chance to meet him, what would you
ask him?
Let us know in the comments section below!