ReadeRsdigest.co.in 61laughter, they generally appeared as
living statues—totally motionless for
hours, days, weeks, or years.
The cause is unknown, but one
theory is brain inflammation triggered
by a rare strain of streptococcus, the
bacteria responsible for many sore
throats each year. Science’s best guess
is that the bacteria mutated, provok-
ing the immune system to attack the
brain, leaving the victim helpless.
None of this explains why the ill-
ness disappeared only to resurface
sporadically, be it in Europe in the
1950s or in China 10 years ago, when
a 12-year-old girl was hospitalized for
five weeks with the disease.
Are such occurrences the new nor-
mal, or are they signs that EL could be
planning something bigger any day?
A 2004 analysis of 20 patients with
symptoms remarkably similar to EL
concluded that whatever ailed them“is still prevalent.” As such, history’s
so-called 'sleeping sickness' remains
the stuff of nightmares.tHe perfect crime
Vanishing Hijacker
On the night before Thanksgiving
1971, a middle-aged man wearing a
business suit boarded a commercial
flight headed from Portland, Oregon,
to Seattle in the US. He ordered a
bourbon and soda, then calmly in-
formed a flight attendant that he had a
bomb in his attaché case. Having got-
ten her attention, he dictated the fol-
lowing message to the cockpit: “I want
$200,000 by 5 p.m. in cash. Put it in a
knapsack. I want two back parachutes
and two front parachutes. When we
land, I want a fuel truck ready to re-
fuel. No funny stuff, or I’ll do the job.”
His boarding pass read “Dan Coo-
per,” but thanks to a communication
error, the newspapers identified him
more cryptically as “D. B.”. Over the
next two hours, D. B. Cooper never
took off his dark glasses. He nursed a
second bourbon and waited patiently
while the plane circled Puget Sound.
(“He seemed rather nice,” one of the
hijacked flight attendants later said.)
On the ground, authorities scrambled
to assemble the cash, parachutes and
fuel truck while the 36 passengers on
board were led to believe the delay
was entirely routine.
Upon landing in Seattle and
receiving a knapsack full of $20 billsFlight attendants noted that
Cooper was very well dressed and
never took off his sunglasses (1).
Before announcing he had a
bomb in his attaché case, he
calmly ordered a bourbon (2),
then later asked for a second one.
After his ransom demands were
met, Cooper removed his tie (3),
opened the door at the rear of the
plane (4), and parachuted into the
night (5), never to be seen again.D. B. Cooper
courtesy fbi (head shots, tie). ap photo (airplane). grisha bruev/shutterstock (skydiver)
Cover Story