The Infamous Tale of D.B. Cooper

Date: November 24, 1971 (the day before Thanksgiving)
Time: after 4:35pm
Location: en route from Portland International Airport to Seattle-Tacoma Airport
Flight: Northwest Airlines Flight 305, Boeing 727-100

Graphic Representations of D.B. Cooper. ("D.B. Cooper Redux.")

   At 4:35pm on November 24, 1971, Northwest Airlines Flight 305 left Portland International Airport on a routine flight to Seattle, Washington. There were 36 passengers aboard the plane as well as crew members. Little did anyone suspect that the flight would become the center of one of the most intriguing FBI cold cases which would remain unsolved for decades.
   A man by the name of D.B. Cooper was among the passengers on Flight 305. After the flight had departed Portland, Cooper passed a note to one of the stewardesses stating that he had a bomb in his briefcase; Cooper demanded a ransom of $200,000 in twenty dollar bills and four parachutes. The pilots contacted air traffic control, who relayed the message to the police and the FBI. The ransom was obtained, and arrangements were made to land the plane and do an exchange. Cooper and the crew members did not publicize the harrowing situation, so most passengers were unaware that their plane had been hijacked ("D.B. Cooper"). Cooper released the passengers as well as one of the two stewardesses, and ordered the plane to fly to Mexico City at an altitude of 10,000 feet ("D.B. Cooper"), much lower than planes usually flew. The plane planned to make a stop in Reno, Nevada to refuel. While en route to Reno, Cooper jumped from the plane with the cash and the parachutes. The location of the jump was estimated to be somewhere north of Portland ("D.B. Cooper"). The FBI launched a full-scale search to find D.B. Cooper, but they found no evidence of him or his belongings. The only items they found were two of the parachutes and his tie, which all remained on the airplane ("D.B. Cooper Redux.") 

D.B. Cooper's tie and money found near Columbia River
("D.B. Cooper Redux")

  The D.B. Cooper case remained open for decades. In 1980, a boy found $5,800 in twenty dollar bills near the Columbia River; the serial numbers on the bills were a match to the ransom money given to D.B. Cooper. The find reinvigorated the case, but eruptions of Mount St. Helens that spring likely obscured any remaining evidence in the area ("D.B. Cooper)". The FBI investigated numerous suspects and leads but were unable to make much headway on the case until 2011, when a woman named Marla Cooper came forward with new information. She claimed that her uncle, L.D. Cooper, was the infamous D.B. Cooper. She explained that, on Thanksgiving Day 1971, her uncle came to dinner badly injured, claiming he had been in a car accident. Marla was young at the time, but she remembered that her father had talked to L.D. and her other uncle, whom she believed was also in on the hijacking. Both of her parents had later made comments about L.D. Cooper being involved in the hijacking and hiding from the FBI. Marla recalled that her uncle was obsessed with a comic book character named "Dan Cooper," who was a skydiver, and provided some of L.D.'s belongings as well as a photograph of him to the FBI. While no fingerprints were recovered from the belongings, the photograph matches up closely with the sketches of D.B. Cooper, making L.D. Cooper the most logical suspect of the hijacking (Thomas).

Comic Book Character D.B. Cooper
("In Search of D.B. Cooper")

   The search for D.B. Cooper has fascinated the public for decades. Hollywood even produced a movie based on the event in 1981, entitled The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper (Thomas). While it appears that the mystery has finally been solved, the legend of D.B. Cooper lives on as one of the most daring air piracy schemes in U.S. history.

Sources:
"D.B. Cooper." Crime Museum. National
   Museum of Crime & Punishment,2015.
   Web. 10 April 2016.
   http://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/d-b-cooper

"D.B. Cooper Redux: Help Us Solve the Enduring Mystery." Stories.
   The Federal Bureau of Investigation. 31 December 2007. Web. 10
   April 2016.

"In Search of D.B. Cooper: New Developments in the Unsolved Case."
   Stories. The Federal Bureau of Investigation. 17 March 2009. Web.
   10 April 2016.  https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2009/march/in-search-of-d.b.-cooper/dbcooper_031709

Thomas, Pierre, and Jack Cloherty. D.B. Cooper Exclusive: Did Niece
   Provide Key Evidence? ABC News, 3 August 2011. Web. 10 April
   2016. http://abcnews.go.com/US/db-cooper-exclusive-niece-provide-key-evidence/story?id=14219052