The Crime Book

42 D.B. COOPER

At one point they decided to treat

the case as if it were a bank

robbery and appealed to the public

in a bid to extract any relevant

information. They released

previously unknown facts about the

case, including that he was

wearing a clip-on tie, and the D.B.

Cooper frenzy started up again.

Comic theory

When Seattle Special Agent

Larry Carr took over the FBI’s

investigation in 2008, he disclosed

that most of the messages he

received were from people asking

him not to solve the case. It seemed

that D.B. Cooper had become a folk

hero to some.

Nevertheless, Carr went

diligently about his business. He

thought it was possible the hijacker

took his name from a French-

Canadian comic book. In the

fictional series, never translated

into English, Royal Canadian Air

Force test pilot Dan Cooper takes

part in adventures in outer space

and historical events of that era.

One episode, published around

the date of the hijacking, features

an illustration of Dan Cooper

parachuting on the cover. This led

Carr to suspect that the hijacker

had been a member of the Air

Force, but also that he had spent

time overseas where he could have

read the comic book.

With the development of DNA

profiling, FBI agents took another

look at the clip-on tie Cooper left

behind on the plane. They found a

partial DNA sample on the tie but it

did not match up with any suspects

they had looked at over the years.

Promising leads

One intriguing suspect was

Vietnam veteran L.D. (Lynn)

Cooper. His niece, Marla Cooper,

contacted the FBI in 2011, claiming

she had been keeping a 40-year-old

family secret – that her uncle Lynn

Doyle Cooper was D.B. Cooper. She

said she was eight years old when

her uncle came home badly injured,

a day or two after Thanksgiving in

1971. He claimed that he had been
      hurt in a car crash. She said she
      heard him tell the family “our
      money troubles are over.” Cooper,
      who had died by the time his niece
      went to the FBI, worked as an
      engineering surveyor, which may
      have given him some of the
      training he needed to make the
      successful jump and knowledge
      of the safest places to land
      in the area.
      Marla Cooper loaned the FBI a
      guitar strap she thought would
      contain his DNA but no DNA was
      found on it. She put investigators in
      touch with her uncle’s daughter,
      but the woman’s DNA did not
      match the sample on the clip-on
      tie – which may or may not have
      D.B. Cooper’s DNA. Still, the FBI

14:15

D.B. Cooper boards a

Boeing 727 in Portland,

bound for Seattle.

14:50

Shortly after takeoff,

Cooper orders a

bourbon and soda.

15:00

Cooper passes a note

to flight attendant

Florence Schaffner,

which states, “I have a

bomb in my briefcase.”

15:05

Cooper orders the

pilots to tell air

traffic control that

he wants $200,000

in $20 notes and

four parachutes.

17:24

Cooper is informed

that his demands

have been met and

the plane lands at

Seattle-Tacoma

airport.

19:00

Cooper is given four

parachutes and a

bag containing

$200,000.

038-043_DB_Cooper.indd 42 02/12/2016 14:40

43

Dan Cooper was the name that the

unidentifed man gave to the airport

cashier. Along with the clip-on tie and

the money recovered in 1980, this

ticket is the only proof of his existence.

BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS

called it “a promising lead,” but

investigators were never able to

definitely connect L.D. Cooper to

the hijacking. At the end of the

investigation, the FBI was still

attempting to match a fingerprint

to prints the hijacker left on the

Boeing 727.

Lasting legacy

The D.B Cooper case prompted

a spate of copycat crimes,

particularly in the two years

immediately after the hijacking. In

1972 alone, 15 similar skyjackings

were attempted, but all of the

perpetrators were captured. In

total, approximately 160 planes

were hijacked in American airspace

between 1961 and 1973, after

which security was improved

markedly and both passengers and

their luggage began to be screened.

Whether D.B. Cooper survived

the jump or not, his legacy lives on

through an aircraft component that

was named after him. In 1972, the

Federal Aviation Authority (FAA)

ordered all Boeing 727s to add what

was later named a “Cooper vane”, a

mechanical aerodynamic wedge

that prevents the rear stairway

from being lowered in flight.

The enigmatic D.B. Cooper case

is the world’s only unsolved

skyjacking. After investigating

thousands of leads over 45 years,

the FBI announced in July 2016

that it was ending active

investigation of the case, but

insisted that the file remains

open. Meanwhile, the legend of

D.B. Cooper lives on in music, films,

documentaries, scores of books,

and in the lives of thousands of

armchair sleuths. ■

19:40

The plane is refuelled and

takes off again. Cooper

explains his flight plan to

the pilots and orders them

to remain in the cockpit

until they land.

20:00

A warning light alerts

the pilots that the plane’s

rear stairway has been

opened.

20:13

The plane experiences

a sudden upward

movement; the pilots

bring the plane back

to level flight.

22:15

The plane lands safely

at Reno Airport and is searched

by police and military officials.

The sequence of events on

24 November 1971 is clear enough

through the testimony of witnesses,

but the fate of D.B. Cooper after he

exited the plane remains a mystery.

038-043_DB_Cooper.indd 43 02/12/2016 14:40