The Legend of D.B. Cooper
The legend of D.B. Cooper still lives today. Which is actually Duane Cooper, but was mistakenly named D.B. by a newsreporter, and the name has stuck. D.B. Cooper did one of the most amazing robberies in American History. He first hi-jacked an Northwest Airlines flight 305 that was leaving Portland and bound for Seattle. He was sitting in Seat 18C, wearing sunglasses and a dark suit, handed a flight attendant a note. It said he had a bomb and threatened to blow up the Boeing 727 unless he received $200,000 cash and four parachutes when the plane landed. The man in Seat 18C purchased his ticket under the name “Dan Cooper.”
When the plane landed in Seattle, DB Cooper was given his parachutes and the 200,000 dollars that he requested. He released about 3 dozen passengers, and a couple of the flight crew members. He then instructed the pilot to fly toward Mexico, and at an altitude of 10,000 feet. Somewhere along the journey, DB would jump out of the Northwest Airlines Plane and would parachute down with the money with him. He done all of this the day before Thanksgiving in 1971.
The FBI started a massive manhunt for D.B. Cooper, that lasted for several months. It was a very costly manhunt, as they were using so many resources to capture the man that got away with 200,000 dollars of cash. Nothing from the investigations ever help to capture D.B. Cooper. Now more than 3 decades later, there’s still not much new in the case.
There are several people that have claimed to be D.B. Cooper, but nothing has materialized yet. The FBI has 2 canidates that they have strong suspicions about. Then just recently a couple of amateur investigators made a segment on Entertainment Tonight. They are claiming a resident in Oregon is D.B. Cooper, and have even written a book about it. The man does fit the profile, since he is a skydiver, and has been in trouble with the law before. He also called the FBI, just 2 hours after D.B. Cooper had jumped, saying that it wasn’t him, and if they needed any help, he would be happy to. This man from Oregon was apparently struggling for money at the time, and later on was able to buy over 30 acres of land with his own personal airport on it.
Another famous claim, was the death bed confession of a Florida man. He was on his death bed, and told his wife, that he was Duane Cooper. His wife didn’t know what that meant at the time, and later on, found patterns that was consistent to what her late husband was saying. The picture of this man back around the time in 1971, is a close resemblance to the sketch artist drawing of the skyjacker.
The case still remains listed as an active FBI Investigation, and nothing has been closed on the D.B. Cooper Case. It’s the only sky-jacking in the world, that has never been solved. There was also a movie that came out in 1981 that was called The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper.
