EPISODE 43 - The Mystery Of DB Cooper

Jo is who does it to me , and when she does it to me it's a really good one . I love it . And this morning I'd climbed up on the chair at breakfast table because we've got the cabinets up there and I can't really reach , so I climbed up on the chair to stand up to get it . She just run in and I went whoop , pants are good . Pants are good .

Yeah , I love that . Oh , excuse me , are you wearing underwear when this is happening ? Oh , yes , absolutely . Oh , okay , good , okay , yeah . Pants in public no , no , I think that's a step too far . You haven't done a good public pants in . No , it's hard as well in jeans and stuff .

It's all right , joggy , bombs are fine , but I just appreciate it makes me really proud when I get a good pants . Yes , completely unexpected pantsing . Claire had an unexpected cuddle yesterday because she's been doing this like restraint , training and things for work . So when she gets back from her training . I say to her like do you want to practice ?

And she's like yeah , yeah , yeah , let me practice . And I go , okay , and she's like right . And yesterday she came in and she was like right , come at me . And I was like you need to be really careful . Did you get the knives out the drawer ? Yeah , and the thing is in my head .

I start off like you know playful and you know I'm like she's small , claire , so I don't want to like go out . She's feisty and strong . She is feisty , yeah , like she's handsome .

So I was like I start off like that and you know I'm sort of you know pushing and just doing a little bit of like knocking her hands away and things like that , and then , like something else takes over , I fall like runner and like take her down . Yeah , yesterday she went right like grab me .

And it's like she'd done training of trying to get people off of her . Or if people have grabbed her arm , she knows a way of twisting her arm around and getting their hands off and all that . So she was like , okay , grab me .

So I was like okay , so I grabbed the front of her top that she was wearing and she got me off really quick and I was like , oh , that's really good . And she went , yeah , okay , do it again , but not the same way , try a different way . So I was like , okay . So I grabbed her arm and then she got me off and then she went , okay , do it again .

And I thought I don't know how else to grab someone . So I was like she went grab my hair or something . And I went , oh no , that's not cool . And I was like that's not cool , claire , and I was like I feel a bit out of order doing that . And she was like , no , it's fine , because I've got to practice him .

And I was like I thought I just don't feel like I want to grab her by her hair or anything . So I just literally run across the lounge and like bear hugged her and like put my arms right round her and she didn't do anything . And I was like what's happening ?

Like that I just heard this little voice from over my shoulder go , we haven't practiced bear hug ones yet . And I was like that and I was like , oh right , you can't say that to an attacker , really , can you ? She went oh well , how do you think you'd get them off ? She went . Uh , well , I don't know , because you've got a really good grip .

So I was like , all right , she just accepted her fate . She's like , oh , I'm done , she just went limp . That's the end of me . Well , I've taken you now , random blam go . I am currently starting my menopause . What was that ? You just showed him Black cohosh . Oh , relief from what ? Night sweats , hot flushes and mood swings , and mood swings .

I haven't started taking them yet . Oh , moody , random blam go . Um , I know every single word of every single friend's episode . Yeah , that is true , you do . Yeah , oh , speaking of which I read a couple of months ago I read Matthew Perry's . Have you ? Yeah , I have as well . What did you just eat ? What animal was that ? You didn't even look .

Did you Just shoved it in your face ? I do do that . Yeah , I was shoving things in . Yeah , josie eats her Maltese is one by one , as do I , really . Yeah , and most of the time I nibble the chocolate off as well . I ain't got time for that Handful .

No , I mean , I do if I'm like in an absolute frenzy where I'm like I need Maltesers and then I'll have to be all the time Shove them in , but no , I enjoy the process of eating a Maltese . Oh , this is a footprint . A footprint or a paw print ? Because they're two different things . Is that your paw print ? Thank you , no , you're welcome .

Footprint , footprint , so Right . Anyways , what story you got for me ? Well , first I have to say morning , ronan . She says with a paw print in her mouth . And it is morning . I should not be in sweets , it is . I took sleeping tablets last night , so this morning I'm really tired . I had a good sleep though . Yeah , yeah , yeah .

So today I am going to tell you the story , or should I say the mystery , of DB Cooper . Yeah , gosh , such a mystery . Have you heard of it ? Yeah , oh , okay , good , db's treasure . Yeah , on November 24th 1971 , a guy called Dan Cooper walks into an airport and buys a ticket to fly from Portland Oregon to Seattle Washington .

He was all booked and ready to fly upon Northwest Airlines flight 305 . When boarded , dan sat in the back row , right side of the plane and he got himself comfy in the middle seat of three . He ordered a drink and relaxed and had a cigarette . Because it was 70s and you could do that on planes , no complaints .

Yeah , so he was drinking and smoking and relaxing as the plane was getting ready to take off , dan turned to his left where a flight attendant was sitting and this was Florence Schaffner , and he handed her an envelope . When Florence opened said envelope , she found a note that read Miss , I have a bomb here and I would like you to sit by me .

Florence calmly got up and sat next to him , so she was sitting in between the aisle and Dan . She sat next to him and she could clearly see that he had eight sticks of dynamite in his briefcase that he'd had on his lap . And Dan then went on to explain what his demands were , and these were $200,000 in cash by 5 pm . Put it in a bag or a knapsack .

He wanted four parachutes , and these were two back parachutes and two front parachutes . Then that's what I'd want if I ever jumped out of a plane . Yeah , just a parachute attached to every part of your body . Yeah , one on each leg . Mind you , you'd be stuffed , wouldn't you , if the only two that went off were the two attached to each leg .

Woo , one leg goes that way , one leg goes that way . I'd say that'd be a good pants in , wouldn't it ? That's the ultimate pants in . Yeah , yeah so . And then he said and then when we land in Seattle I need a fuel truck , a fuel truck ready for us to refuel . And then he said no funny stuff or I'll do the job , insinuating that you'd set the bomb off .

That's important for later . During this time the plane was taken off . So once that they were in the air , florence decided to go to the cockpit and tell the rest of the crew what was happening . Another flight attendant called Tina Muclo . She came back and she sat with Dan and she would stay there for the rest of the flight .

Tina had a phone that went directly , like an intercom system that went directly to the cockpit and she would , throughout the flight , relay information from the cockpit to the rear of the plane where they were sitting , and so on .

The plane then circled around Seattle airport while the people on the ground scrambled to get money and parachutes and everything else , fuel trucks arranged as the plane circled the airport . Tina asked Dan why , why ? She said why did you pick Northwest Airlines ?

And Dan laughed and said it's not because I have a grudge against your airline , it's just because I have a grudge the authorities you demand money from , just like Tina . Just get me the money . Yeah , just saying to her . This is what I need . I need you to arrange four parachutes , $200,000 in cash and a fuel truck ready .

I don't suppose he cared where the money came from . It's just probably like the authorities , isn't it ? Because if I made a ransom demand I would expect the money to come from the government , from the authorities Not that I'm planning on doing that . So the authorities went to Seattle First National Bank and they got $10,020 bills , which totals $200,000 .

And an interesting fact banks often have ransom money in a bag ready to go , just set aside yeah , set aside For a rainy day . So the First National Bank had actually a bag that contained $250,000 , which obviously they'd written all of the serial numbers for all of those notes , and they had that set aside ready . But Dan had only asked for $200,000 .

So I suppose they got out $50,000 and fought touch , they've got some money , they've got some money , yeah . So it was a ready to go bag of money in case they had a ransom demand .

So that's what they grabbed super quick and Seattle Sky Sports , which was a skydiving school nearby , supplied four parachutes At 545 , flight 305 , touched down in Seattle and obviously this was delayed because they were circling in the air waiting for them to get all the stuff and all that .

Once the plane was down , it trundled round to a remote section of the airport where Tina , who had been with Dan this whole time , got off the plane and went to get the demands from the authorities . How brave is Tina ?

Because she got off the flight , she was away from the aircraft , she was completely safe , but she was still brave enough to take the bits and pieces and go back to the plane , like she had the option of not getting back on that plane and possibly getting blown up . Because they had no idea what was gonna happen .

Dan very kindly allowed all of the 36 passengers who didn't even know that the plane had been hijacked . They had no idea . They just thought that the plane was the routine flight , yeah , some kind of delay and all that , and then come down . But he said , yeah , the 36 passengers can get off Along with two of the other flight attendants .

So now on the plane remained Dan and four crew , including one of those four was Tina . Dan told the crew that they needed to fly him to Mexico City . He had specific demands about the flight . They were to leave the landing gear down . The flaps had to be at 15 degrees , which mine are normally at 15 degrees .

I mean , I'm talking about the flaps on my hat , because I appreciate people not watching on YouTube listening to me talk about the flaps . I've no idea what you're talking about . I'm talking about my hat flaps . They must stay at below 10,000 feet .

The lights in the cabin were to be switched off and the aft staircase , which was in the underbelly of the plane , was to remain down and fully extended . I actually didn't know that exists . Well , we're going to touch on that later . So the aft staircase , which is in the underbelly of the plane .

So if you imagine like a plane that you would fly on holiday in , you imagine following the aisle down the middle of the plane . So imagine it's one of those , like maybe Ryan Air flights , that's got three seats on one side , three seats on the other side and then an aisle that goes down the middle .

Imagine following that aisle all the way to the butt end of the plane and then walking down a staircase that's in alignment with that aisle . So you would just , and so the staircase would literally be like a butt of the plane . So it would literally lower down from the middle aisle of the plane . I can see what you mean .

And then passengers could then walk down that and then onto like the runway . Yeah , exactly so that's , or it's almost like a loading door . Yeah , so you could . Literally , if you walked up that staircase from the tarmac , you'd walk up that staircase and you would right in front of you you'd have the whole aisle of the plane .

So he wanted that down and fully extended . I'm surprised the plane could even take off with the landing gear still down the flaps at 15, . All of that creates drag . Yeah , well , that's a good point , because it couldn't . So the pilot said no , he went . No , mate Can't take off like that Can't be done .

We can't take off with the aft staircase down Like it just won't happen , it'd rip it off or something like that . So he also said that the flight from Seattle to Mexico City also couldn't be done nonstop . They would have to stop somewhere and refuel again and then go on . So Dan said OK .

So there was a lot of negotiations how about we stop and refuel in either Phoenix , arizona , yuma , arizona , or Sacramento in California ? So there was a lot of discussion , back and forth and eventually they all agreed on stopping in Reno , nevada . So none of the above ? None of the above .

So the pilot said well , we could safely stop in Reno , we could refuel , go on . Dan was like fine , fine , fine

, do that . Then the pilot also stated , obviously , that they wouldn't be able to take off with the staircase down . So Dan said fine , we'll bring the staircase up for takeoff , but flight attendant Tina , who will need to stay with me , she can stay with me and she can show me how to put the staircase down when we're in the air .

Wouldn't that cause like a massive decompression ? Well , I guess not if you're at 10,000 feet . Oh , ok , yeah , I mean it's not safe . Do you know what I mean ?

They're not going to just be like , yeah , we'll walk around , carry on having our sandwiches and drinks , yeah , drinks , cup of tea , cup of coffee , watch that door and all that , and , just you know , have their hair being blown off . When the pilot was trying to sort out the flight plan , dan told him , to quote get the show on the road .

So they left without an exact flight plan , and the flight plans are exact . So they'll say exactly where the flight , where the plane would suddenly turn to go slightly southeast or south , where it's all done on the computer , isn't it so they ? The computer sorts out the head in . When it's on autopilot it flies directly to those places .

They don't really have to fly it . So if there's no input into that , they would have to manually fly it around . Yeah , so they in the end . Dan was like impatient . He was like you know , get the show on the road , let's go . So , with two fighter jets following the plane at 736 , flight 305 was once again airborne and heading to Reno as its first stop .

However , only five minutes max after the plane took off , dan told Tina to go to the cockpit and to not be disturbed anymore . So I said go there , stay there , I don't want to be disturbed .

Before Tina shut herself in the cockpit , she turned to look and saw Dan standing in the middle of the aisle , as though he was preparing to jump out because obviously they'd Delt with the stairs at that point . She legged into the cockpit , locked herself in with the other three crew and three hours later the plane landed safely in Reno .

Once on the ground , the crew of four cautiously checked the cabin of the plane , but there was no sign of Dan or the bomb . The rear staircase was down and it had some minor damage due to them landing with it already down .

There was only one explanation , and that was Dan had donned a parachute and thrown himself out the back of the plane into the darkness somewhere between Seattle and Reno . The FBI then kicked into gear and started to examine the plane .

They found a disappointing amount of evidence left behind , but what they did find was a black clip on tie , eight fag butts or , for people that don't call them fags , cigarette butts Two of the four parachutes . And the FBI questioned the crew at length and got a description of Dan Cooper .

They said he was a Caucasian male around his mid forties , around six foot tall , about 170 pounds , black or very dark brown hair , brown eyes , and he wore a dark colored trench coat , a dark suit with a white shirt , a black tie , dark colored shoes and , periodically , sunglasses . The FBI made some sketches .

The only problem was the sketches all looked quite generic , like there was nothing that sort of jumped out at you that you thought , oh , I look for someone that's got like scar or something on his face or you know he's missing an eyebrow or missing a nose , or there wasn't anything that was like massively jump out at you .

They also lifted 66 unidentified fingerprints from the seat that Dan had been in , but it matched nothing that they had in the database .

The difficult thing about that was obviously the seat had been sat in by many , many , many , many other people before Dan , so there was absolutely nothing to say that any of those 66 fingerprints found actually belong to him anyway . Yeah , he might not have touched Anything , he might literally just sat down and wearing gloves .

Could have been wearing gloves I mean , they didn't say it was . But so the FBI's point of call now was to work out where Dan was now . So he wasn't in the plane . They knew he'd got on the plane so he must have jumped out . The crew did not witness , nor have any idea , when Dan actually left the aircraft .

The two fighter jets that were following the plane on its journey to Reno said that neither of them saw Dan exit the plane at any point and they were relatively close . However , at 8.05pm co pilot William called Dan on the intercom to see if he needed anything . Dan said no .

Five to ten minutes after that call , the crew said that they felt an unusual vibration and that could have been when Dan jumped out the plane , because they said the plane kind of made this oscillation . It doesn't normally and they couldn't explain what that was .

So they said , as he jumped from the staircase , that vibration could have caused a shudder in the aircraft . So they said , okay . So somewhere around possibly 8.15pm that kind of time could have been when he jumped .

Now the pilot had been flying along what was called Victor 23 airway , which was a flight route Dan did not know this around 8pm ish to 8.15 that kind of thing . The plane would have been over an area that was about 25 miles north of Portland , oregon . The FBI sent helicopters , aeroplanes and troops on the ground to start a detailed search of the area .

Unfortunately , this particular area is covered in mountains , very dense forest , and also the weather was cold . It was November , so that a lot of these pieces of land had been covered in snow . So nothing great . But they found absolutely nothing . Not a trace , not him , not his briefcase , no bits of material , no bits of parachute , nothing .

By December they had still not found anything at all . So they decided to try and track him through the ransom money , because they had all of the serial numbers .

Smart , the FBI released the info of the serial numbers and to the authorities , financial institutions and the general public they issued a $25,000 reward to anyone that could find a note with a missing serial number , like a Wonka golden ticket . So everyone was looking for these serial numbers .

Unfortunately , no one ever won a golden ticket until 10th of February 1980 . So nearly a decade later , a boy named Brian Ingram was on a beach in southern Washington , called Tina Bar , and he was making a campfire and he found three bundles of cash that totaled $5,880 .

Brian's parents had heard of the hijacking so they took the money that had almost fallen apart by then . You couldn't tell that . It's the note of a bank note . Yeah , since it's been there for like 20 years . Yeah , no , 10 . Well , nearly nine , nine , yeah , nine years . But yeah , all kind of frayed around the edges and completely fuckled . It was .

Yep , yeah , yeah , so Brian's parents , being good , dutiful parents and citizens , took the cash . I mean , I suppose . I mean I looked at it . Is is like messed up . So it's . Yeah , it's fuckled . Yeah , you wouldn't take it into a shop and go . I would like to pay for my shopping . I'd like to pay 5,800 and 80 in the bank , please .

What the hell is this ? Yeah , so they took it to the FBI and said we found this . The FBI will like . All right , we'll check it . And all of the notes were found to be the ones from the ransom

bag . However , they now had more questions . Why was this money found so far away from the possible landing site ? I mean , they mapped a huge area around this possible landing site or drop zone and I mean they're saying it was nowhere near . It was actually 27 kilometers from the drop site .

So I mean that's not something that strikes me , it's not like in a different country or anything . No , it's not like they found it on the opposite coast or something when they'd be like . Well , how did it get here ?

So , and I looked into a lot of it , I looked whether , obviously because it was found on a beach I looked to see if it was possible it could have been carried down downstream . So I went to the fact that the money was found further on in the journey , which means that the bundles could have been carried down river .

However , when I looked this up , it's found that the river actually flows in the opposite direction . So it would have yeah , it couldn't have landed downstream , it would have been carried the opposite way . Yeah , the FBI then had to reassess , reassess the landing zone that Dan could have landed in .

So they worked out and they said it could have been much further south-west , which meant the bundles could have then floated in the correct direction and been carried to Tina Bar .

But the biggest question they had was how was it possible and what are the chances that three separate bundles could end up , nearly a decade later , all in the same spot and together , because the three bundles although bundled in individual bundles , there was nothing holding them all together and they were all together , which they were like . That doesn't make sense .

That particular section of the beach was actually excavated in 1974 , which would mean the money would have been . They should have found it if it had been carried . So the money , what would have been put there after 1974 ? Strange . Also , the biggest question over this was the rubber bands that were keeping each bundle of notes together were still completely intact .

This particular type of rubber would have perished in open-air and water and broken maximum after a year . Well , you know , when you find a rubber band on the ground outside of the Postman's Drop Gym , it's so brittle , it just kind of comes apart .

Yeah , I used to have a rubber band ball , so I used to pick up rubber bands that I found and put it on and if you tried to stretch it over the ball it'd just snap . Well , there you go . You heard it here . First . People Random blam doing our own research .

So yeah , they did a lot of experimentation with different types of rubber bands and that , and exposed to air , exposed to water , and the max they would have gone would be a year . This was approximately eight , nine years , so 1971 , this was 1980 . It's just bizarre . The notes as well , although they you know ten years and there was some damage to them .

But I think after ten years they just wouldn't have been there at all . No , I think so as well . I mean , the FBI seemed to be more concerned about the rubber bands because the difference between one year and like eight years or nine years , whatever , is massively different .

Anyway , the whole area and surrounding land had been searched and searched and searched many , many , many , many , many times and there was still no sign of Dan , no sign of a body , no sign of any more of the money .

So now we're going to look a little bit closer at the circumstances of the night of the hijacking Around 805 or 815 is when they thought that Dan had jumped . The plane was travelling at 170 knots , which is around 196 miles per hour . They were 10,000 foot up , which was two miles , and they were also flying through a freezing rainstorm .

That is how far Julianne the Cope key fell , by the way . Do you know what I thought of that ? Yeah , I thought of that 10,000 foot , two miles when I worked it out and I thought , oh , two miles up , and I thought , oh , that's the exact height that Julianne fell from without a parachute . Without a parachute , this guy had the choice of four .

Wind was so brutal that it ripped off the placard that was on the stairs , on the staircase that was down , and it ripped that whole thing off and it was found in 1978 directly under the flight path . So they found that , but nothing else . Also , dan was not dressed in clothes to withstand these cold temperatures .

He would have jumped without knowing where he was and , due to thick cloud layers , he could have landed on anything . He may not have been able to see what he was landing on . He could have smacked straight into a mountain . He could have smacked straight into a mountain anywhere .

The parachute also that he was wearing was a non-steerable chute , so that meant that he had zero control about where it was coming down . So if he thought , oh no , I'm going to land straight on top of that giant barbecue , he would have just landed on top of it and cooked . He had absolutely no control over it whatsoever .

But he was super smart for asking for four shoots , because this gave the authorities the impression that he was going to take a hostage with him , which meant that the authorities would not tamper with any of the shoots in case he gave the tampered one to an innocent crew member .

However , when they gave him these four parachutes that he'd asked for , they actually accidentally gave him a dummy chute , which is not a working parachute , it's used for training purposes only . So , yeah , but it looks like , potentially , dan may not have noticed that he was given a 40 shoot , as this was one of the two that he took . Oh , what the chance is ?

Oh , I know .

So another explanation is it's possible that he could have intentionally taken the dummy chute to put the money in , so to better secure the money , as there was evidence of him trying to do this with one of the shoots that had been left in the plane , and he obviously thought because they were all kind of different , these shoots , they weren't just four standard

parachutes One was a luxury chute , one was a military chute , one was something else , a dummy chute , and one was a dummy chute . So , yeah , they found evidence that he'd been like messing around with one of the shoots that had been left to like wrap something in or put a bag in or something like that .

So it's possible that he might have looked at the dummy chute and thought , well , this is a dummy chute , I'm going to use the bag of it to like wrap the money in , and maybe it worked out great for him .

And he thought that will do the job , even though one of the other parachute that he took and wore was actually inferior to the other shoots that he left behind in the plane . And this was not necessarily due to lack of knowledge or experience . It's the one that he took was a military chute , so it could have been that it was more familiar to him .

So if he saw that shoot and he thought , ah well , I know how that works , yeah , I know that I'll use that . It's been suggested that that's potentially why . So , on that note , let's have a look at evidence that Dan was a former military man .

So Flight 305 was on a Boeing 727 and these planes were used in the Vietnam War to covertly drop supplies and the aft staircase was distinctive to the Boeing 727 and if Dan had links , potentially , to the CIA , he would have known this . He would have known that it's like one of the only planes that's got this staircase that opens in you .

It kind of looks like he's got knowledge of parachutes . Well , he's got knowledge of planes , because what normal person would be like you need to leave the landing gear down and you need to leave the flaps extended at 15 . Exactly , unless you watch a lot of programs which they wouldn't have back then .

No , so he would have known that and he also would have known about how to work a parachute , how to use a parachute , what the different parachutes were . He would have known that you can be at 10,000 feet to maximum to throw himself out safely or whatever . That reason that he could have been a military man is .

He knew before the flight landed in Seattle , dan mentioned to Tina , the air hostess about the airport being only 20 minutes away from McCord Air Force Base and this was accurate . I mean there's a chance that he might have just known that anyway , but you know the other facts about the case are that there was never any missing person .

That because obviously the FBI rooted through all missing people and there was no one that looked anything like Dan Cooper . One possible excuse for this is that he survived the fall and resumed his normal life , so he never became a missing person .

He could have requested better clothes for the jump , so he asked for parachutes , money , refueling trucks and all that , but not at any point did he ask for warmer clothes , boots , rain covers , nothing like that at all , which was odd . There were extensive searches carried out over the years that yielded no results , no results of Dan .

They never found any parachutes anywhere in the forest . They never found any of the other money . So it is thought of the FBI assume that there's far more likelihoods that he survived .

He would have landed , collected together all the bits and pieces gone on his way , the money that was found in 1980 , they suspect that it could have possibly been planted there by someone Don't know . They think it's very unlikely that it would have just come out of the bag and floated along in the river and been found Ten years ago . Yeah , exactly , so weird .

So that's the story of the hijacking .

Now I'm going to go into the possible Dan Cooper's . Who was he ? So , because this is the mystery . It's not that the hijacking was a sort of crazy mad story , it's the fact that nobody knows who he was . Yeah , they've never been able to find out who he is . There's no before and there's no after , is there ? There's only the hijacking .

Yeah , yeah , it's like he appeared , did the hijacking and then disappeared . There was a man that was called DB Cooper . That was a suspect , really really quickly , straight after the case . But he was very quickly cleared and the police said no , there's absolutely no way that it could have been him .

But the press got hold of it and then named this hijacker as DB Cooper . But that wasn't his name . That wasn't his name . That's not his name . His name was Dan Cooper . Well , that probably wasn't his name , but you know , yeah , so ever since he's been called DB Cooper , it's assumed that Dan Cooper was a fake name .

However , on that note , there's a French comic about a man who jumps from planes , and he would jump from planes , plummet down using a parachute . His name and the name of the comic was Dan Cooper .

So , bit of a coincidence , the comic was available in Canada and it wasn't available in the US and obviously Canada has a large population of French speaking citizens . So again , it was suggested that this Dan Cooper could have been from Canada , although a French accent was never picked up on .

In fact , the people on the plane , the air stewardesses , said that he had no discernible accent . So the suspects and this was one of the things where , where I was reading about each suspect , I was like that's him , that's definitely him , I think it's him . So now I know what I think .

So I'm going to tell Sarah confirmation by this is the one that I think did it . And then I read about the next one and I was like , oh no , I think this is him , this is definitely . And I did that with pretty much all of them . Yeah , I'll let you decide who you think .

In 1972 , richard F McCoy was suspected and the pros for him being DB Cooper was . He looked exactly like the sketches that they made of Dan Cooper . In 1972 , he hijacked a Boeing 727 and escaped via the aft staircase with the use of a parachute . He even had a flight suit with him and a skydiving helmet . He used a fake name .

He carried an explosive device . He had handwritten notes to issue his demands . He used the phrase no funny stuff . Oh yeah , do you remember that's the guy ? That's the guy then . That's him , the same as Dan Cooper did . His demands included $500,000 in cash , and he asked for four parachutes . He served in Vietnam as a demolition expert and helicopter pilot .

He survived the fall from the Boeing 727 . But he was caught by police two days later after he landed and was sentenced to 45 years . Interestingly enough , he would never neither confirm nor deny that he was DB Cooper , and he died in 1974 . Oh , hmm , the . How old was he then ? In 72 , when he'd done the plane ? I'll tell you .

So the negatives are for him to have been DB Cooper . Richard gave a very specific flight path and instructions , whereas DB Cooper didn't . He just said we could go to this airport to refuel , or we could go here , or , and the pilot was like no , no , no , that's not going to work . We need to go to Rio , and he was like all right , fine .

Richard was very specific about the flight path instructions . It could have been , though , that he'd learned from his mistake , possibly , and therefore researched yeah , possibly . He introduced a hand grenade and a handgun to threaten the crew , whereas DB Cooper had a briefcase with explosives .

Richard left a handwritten note that he had given to the flight attendant and it was later used in evidence on him in court , which obviously got him sentenced to 45 years . One of the big things was Richard was only 29 in 1971 . And by all accounts people are saying he couldn't have been mistaken for mid forties .

All three flight attendants were sure that this wasn't DB Cooper . So they looked at him and said no , they thought that it's possibly that he was a copycat and he'd read the story about DB Cooper and thought I could do that . And this DB Cooper obviously got away with it . So , yeah , so possibly not . I mean massive , like a massive load of coincidences .

But I don't know . How did he ? How did you die ? Don't know . He was in prison . Yeah , he was still very young . There wasn't

he . Yeah , in 1978 , robert Rackstraw was suspected . So pros for him being DB Cooper were . He looked a lot like the sketches of Dan Cooper . He had military background as a paratrooper . He had experience with explosives . He also had a criminal record . His uncle was a skydiver and his uncle was called John Cooper .

It was kicked out of the army a few months before the hijacking . So possibly enough of a grudge , you know , booted out the army and thought , right , well , screw you all . When questioned by the media , he said I could be DB Cooper , but I'm not saying I am . And he also said well , I wouldn't discount myself , who knows .

The negatives are that Robert had blue eyes , not brown , and the flight attendants were pretty certain that DB Cooper had brown eyes . Robert was 28 years old , not anywhere near his mid-40s , and Tina that had sat with DB Cooper for a good many hours , she felt confident that she had a good idea of his age and she was certain that , yeah , absolutely mid-40s .

So that kind of , I guess , squashes that one . In 1995 , dwayne L Weber was suspected Again the pros . He also looked a lot like the sketches of Dan Cooper . Just before his death he made a deathbed confession to his wife and said I've got a secret to tell you I'm Dan Cooper .

After he died his wife said that she started thinking this over and she started getting sort of memories of things and she said do you know what years ago I remember finding in the house , finding a bank bag like the one that was used in the hijacking . She also recalls him having quite a serious knee injury and when they said how did he do that ?

And she said he said that he jumped from a plane and hurt his knee . She said she remembers him having a nightmare where he cried out in his sleep about leaving his fingerprints on the aft stairs . In 1979 , dwayne had also paid a visit to a small beach called Tina Bar . He also had a military background .

He also had a criminal record and in 1971 , he was 47 years old . There I suppose the negatives his fingerprints did not match any of the 66 that were found on Dan's seat . But that doesn't mean that Dan Cooper left his fingerprints on the seat . He may have been very aware of it and thought I'm not touching anything .

Well , yeah , if he's all of a sudden having nightmares gone , oh shit , I left my fingerprints on the stairs . Yeah , yeah , exactly Because he'd been so careful he would have been conscious of it .

The other very disappointing thing is in 1995 , they could have used DNA from the cigarette butts that were left on the plane , because there were eight cigarette butts that were left from and they know that that was from DB Cooper . Was he a smoker , dwayne ?

Yeah , but the cigarette butts were lost so they were never able to test the DNA of them , and that was the only thing they had that had proper DNA on it . So far . Dwayne Weber looks good for it , I think . Yeah , in 2003 , kenneth P Christensen was suspected . Kenneth's brother reported that he looked just like the sketches a proper Dumpteys-like brother in it .

He was like you know what ? You know what my brother looks ? Well like him . Kenneth served as a paratrooper in World War II . Since 1953 , kenneth worked for Northwest Airlines as a mechanic and flight attendant . In 1971 , kenneth was 45 years old .

In 1994 , just before Kenneth passed away , he said to his brother there's something you should know , but I can't tell you . I mean , that's got to be the most annoying thing , isn't it ? Yeah , you know , when someone goes oh , I've got something really important to tell you , but I'll tell you later .

Either I can't stand that , get out of my face telling me things like that , tell me now , or just don't mention it , yeah , anyway . So there's something you should know , but I can't tell you . After his death he was found to have over $200,000 in his bank accounts .

Flight attendant Florence said when she saw a photo of Kenneth that he bore a very , very strong resemblance to Dan Cooper . The negatives are Kenneth didn't match the physical description . He was a lot shorter , a lot thinner and a lot smaller than Dan Cooper . Kenneth didn't have anywhere near as much hair as Dan Cooper , and this was from Florence .

The flight attendant , kenneth , had sold a lot of land as well , so him having just over $200,000 in his account is explainable . It's highly likely that he would have had that when we go to 2018, . William J Smith was a suspect . Again , william looks a lot like the sketches . William served in the Navy in World War II and he trained in parachuting as well .

He was 43 in 1971 . He had brown eyes . He was the same height and weight described for Dan Cooper . A friend of William's who sadly died in World War II , was called Dan Cooper . William's company filed for bankruptcy in 1970 . So William was skinned and he also lost his whole pension . So obviously that could have been a motive .

William worked as a yardmaster on trains and this was what sent him out of business , because they went bankrupt . So this could have given William a motive because he would have had a grudge against airlines because it brought an end to people traveling on trains . So all these train companies were closing down and going out of business .

On that subject , the tie the clip on tie that they found on the plane . When observed under a microscope , they found many metal particles and they found pure titanium , which was super , super rare in 1971 , but it's often used in rail yards . Goodness , I know there's so many of them . Could be any one of them , I don't know . I reckon it's the first two .

No William On . Then on A con for William being DB Cooper is that William lived on the other side of the country . He lived and worked over the other side , so he lived nowhere near Seattle , and that Dan Cooper would have had a good knowledge of the area if he was planning to jump out of the plane and all that .

Why do it in an area that you really don't know much about ? That's pretty much that for the suspects . In 2016 , the FBI officially closed the case and the report was titled the investigation of 1971 hijacking by DB Cooper . So even the FBI called him DB Cooper , just known as DB Cooper . Now , yeah , it's on his death pic on .

That Wasn't even the name I got . I said Dan , yeah . The 2016 update read following one of the longest and most exhaustive investigations in our history , on July 8th 2016 , the FBI redirected resources allocated to the DB Cooper case in order to focus on other investigative investigative properties .

During the course of the 45 year Norjack investigation , the FBI exhaustively reviewed all credible leads , coordinated between multiple field offices to conduct searches , collected all available evidence and interviewed all identified witnesses .

Over the years , the FBI has applied numerous new and innovative investigative techniques , as well as examined countless items at the FBI laboratory . Evidence obtained during the course of the investigation will now be preserved for historical purposes at FBI headquarters in Washington DC .

So my closing questions are was DB Cooper actually in his mid 40s or did they estimate his age wrong ? Did he have military experience ? Was he a previous military man ? Did he survive the jump ? Will the rest of the money ever show up or be discovered ? Will the remains of DB Cooper ever be found ? But the biggest question who was he ? Who was DB Cooper ?

Tell me now , sarah , who is Dan Dan Cooper ? Dan , yeah , he was Dan . He wasn't DB Cooper . He wasn't DB Cooper is Dan ? Yeah , I think I think he was Dwayne Weber . He sounds the most likely because and here for why on his deathbed he didn't say I'm DB Cooper , the same as the other ones were saying , oh , I could have been DB Cooper .

That's true , because that's not the name that he gave . He actually said I was Dan Cooper . Yep , could have been that one , and I feel like he wouldn't have . It would have been a one off . I don't feel like he would have tried again . I feel like he would have done that and then gone and lived a normal quiet life .

Yeah , his wife found a bank bag that looked just like he had a knee injury . I wish that his wife could have recalled when he had that knee injury . Maybe , if we ever touch on this as like blam or a discussion of some , I'll look more into Dwayne Weber , because I just feel that everything fits with him .

Like the only negatives that I could find to say that it wasn't him was that his fingerprints didn't match the 66 , which is irrelevant Because they've never been able to get a fingerprint of Dan Cooper . Yeah , they said we've got a fingerprint of Dan Cooper . This one's definitely his . Yeah , if it is and Dwayne's doesn't match , then I'd get it .

But those 66 fingerprints I mean the fact that there's 66 are not two sets of fingerprints , and yeah , and the fact that they couldn't identify him by DNA because they'd lost the cigarette butts . It's like neither of those say these are the reasons why he's not Dan Cooper .

Yeah , and the fact that he went to that beach , yes , yeah , he went to Tina Bar 10 years later and he was kind of like , oh you know , people might have forgotten about Dan Cooper . Well , think about it . Dwayne went to Tina Bar in 1979 and the bundles of money were found in 1980 . And the rubber bands were still intact .

And the company that supplied that rubber said only a year , and it was only a year , less than a year . Yeah , I feel like a year is more reasonable . I don't feel like it would have lasted 10 years , like it would have just fallen out of the airplane and then landed there and been completely undiscovered and remained intact . Like that .

I don't feel that's viable . It's a mystery . Well , that's why it's called the mystery of DB Cooper . It is . If you have enjoyed listening to our episodes , make sure you rate us and leave us a review on whatever platform you are listening . We absolutely love hearing from you guys .

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Oh , oh , it's messing your hair up . What's wrong with you ? What's wrong with you ? What's wrong with you ? Oh , come on , panic over . It's nearly a whole thing .