FLIGHT INTO INFAMY
In the annals of crime, there is an endless fascination with the unsolved, Iand especially with the unidentified perpetrator. Jack the Ripper and his crimes live on today precisely because no one knows who he was. Similarly, there are the enduring conspiracy theories of the 20th century: Who killed JFK? Who Killed Marilyn Monroe? The fact that no one was ever brought to justice is where enduring contemporary fascination with these events lies. The same is true of American skyjacker DB Cooper, whose identity remains a mystery after five decades. Villain to some, folk hero to others, Cooper carried out, and seemingly got away with, an audacious heist, the kind of thing movies are made about (and several have been).
The basic facts of the case are well-established (see FT139:18, 347:20-21). On the afternoon of 24 November 1971, a man now widely known as “DB Cooper” hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft as it flew between Portland and Seattle. The plane landed at Seattle-Tacoma airport where the passengers were evacuated and $200,000 in cash (equivalent to $1.3 million today) demanded by the hijacker was delivered. He also requested and was given four parachutes. The plane took flight once more and, somewhere over southwestern Washington State, Cooper leapt from the aircraft never to be seen again.
The mystery surrounding this event has resisted any solution for half a century. It remains the only unsolved case of commercial air piracy in the United States, and the 60-volume FBI file, code-named “NorJak”, remains open to new evidence. The true identity of Cooper remains a mystery, as does his fate: did he jump from the plane, survive and live off his windfall for the rest of his days? Or did he die in making his daring escape? If so, where are his remains and the money? Over the past 50 years, various solutions have been put forward to explain exactly what happened aboard the flight and numerous individuals have been proposed as (or have claimed to be) DB Cooper.
THE IDENTITY OF CO0PER REMAINS A MYSTERY, AS DOES HIS FATE
The case has provoked endless speculation, a torrent of articles and books, and several films and television shows. It fascinates because it appears to have been a carefully planned operation that was successfully carried out, harmed no one, and saw a major corporation brought down a peg or two. The mysterious DB Cooper became a folk hero, a modern Robin Hood. While he didn’t redistribute the money to the poor (as far as we know), he certainly stuck it to “the man” at a time when the US was undergoing an economic downturn. In an era when skyjackings were common, and most were political and violent, the DB Cooper case has something of the fairy tale
