Notorious Criminals & Outlaws Codexery

D. B. Cooper

Unidentified hijacker who vanished after a 1971 parachute escape.

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His true identity and fate remain unknown, and the case is one of the most famous unsolved crimes in American history.[1][2]

Key facts and history

The hijacker, described as a white male in his mid-40s wearing a business suit and black tie, bought a one-way ticket from Portland to Seattle and boarded the Boeing 727-100.[3][1] Shortly after takeoff at 2:50 pm, he handed a note to flight attendant Florence Schaffner claiming he had a bomb in his briefcase.[4][5] He demanded $200,000 in negotiable American currency and two front and two back parachutes.[6][7] Around 8:13 pm, the aircraft's tail pitched upward, indicating Cooper had jumped near Portland's northern suburbs.[8]

The FBI recovered Cooper's black clip-on tie, tie clip, and two of the four parachutes from the plane.[9] Cooper then ordered the crew to fly toward Mexico City at minimum airspeed and a maximum altitude of 10,000 feet, with the aft airstair deployed.[10][11]

What the cited sources add

In February 1980, an eight-year-old boy found $5,800 in decomposing $20 bills along the Columbia River, and the FBI matched the serial numbers to Cooper's ransom—the only portion of the money ever recovered.[12] The same article reports that a woman named Clara claimed to have discovered an injured Cooper two days after the skyjacking and later fell in love with him.[12] The FBI redirected resources from the Cooper case to other priorities as of July 2016.[1] The official account from the Federal Bureau of Investigation states that Cooper's parachute could not be steered and his clothing was unsuitable for a rough landing, suggesting he may not have survived the jump.[1]

References

  1. "D.B. Cooper Hijacking", Federal Bureau of Investigation. facts only, no text reused. fbi.gov
  2. "Unmasking D.B. Cooper", October 18, 2007. facts only, no text reused. nymag.com
  3. Wikipedia, "D. B. Cooper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "D.B. Cooper Hijacking", Federal Bureau of Investigation (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "D. B. Cooper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Hijacked plane makes landing at Seattle airport", Spokesman-Review, November 25, 1971, p. 1; "Northwest Airlines Flight Operations Memo from night of hijacking", Federal Bureau of Investigation, November 2023, p. 329 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "D. B. Cooper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Unmasking D.B. Cooper", October 18, 2007; "FBI Interview with Florence Schaffner, Nov 24, 1971", November 24, 1971; Himmelsbach Worcester 1986, p. 19 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "D. B. Cooper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "FBI Interview with Florence Schaffner, Nov 24, 1971", November 24, 1971 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "D. B. Cooper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gray 2011b, p. 41; Mentour Pilot, "How Dan Cooper JUMPED from an aircraft and the end of aft Air-stairs!", January 22, 2021 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "D. B. Cooper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Himmelsbach Worcester 1986, p. 19; Caldwell, "Hijacker collects ransom of $200,000; parachutes from jet and disappears", The New York Times, November 26, 1971; Perry, "D.B. Cooper at 50: Push to solve case gains steam, but much about famous skyjacking remains a mystery", The Oregonian, November 8, 2021; Bragg 2005, p. 2 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "D. B. Cooper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Francis, "Piece of Washington's most famous unsolved crime on display", News Radio 610 KONA, September 5, 2024; "D.B. Cooper part 07 of 67", FBI Records: The Vault; "D.B. Cooper Hijacking", Federal Bureau of Investigation; Tilkin, "50 years ago: DB Cooper left Portland, jumped into history", KOIN 6, November 24, 2021; "Reporter who added some swagger to the D.B. Cooper legacy comes clean", Los Angeles Times, July 28, 2016; Browning, "One mystery solved in 'D.B. Cooper' skyjacking fiasco", Columbia Journalism Review, July 22, 2016; Guzman, en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "D. B. Cooper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rothenberg, "The New Earth Reader: The Best of Terra Nova", MIT Press, 1999, p. 4; Elliott, "CRIME: The Bandit Who Went Out into the Cold", December 6, 1971; Caldwell, "Hijacker collects ransom of $200,000; parachutes from jet and disappears", The New York Times, November 26, 1971 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "D. B. Cooper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rothenberg Ulvaeus 1999, p. 5 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  12. Coreno, "D.B. Cooper: A Timeline", New York, October 22, 2007. facts only, no text reused. nymag.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article D. B. Cooper (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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