The unbelievable story of D.B. Cooper
Image credit: stockEU/Shutterstock.com
The unbelievable of D.B. Copper remains “one of the great unsolved mysteries in FBI history” the agency itself has professed. Though it’s some 48 years since the incident – the mystery endures!
On November 24, 1971 passenger Dan Cooper boarded a Boeing 727 Northwest Airlines Flight 305, on a one-way ticket for the 30- minute flight from Portland to Seattle. He was later described by passengers and flight staff as being a polite man in his mid-40s, wearing a dark suit, black tie, and a neat, clean, white shirt. He took his seat, lit a cigarette, and then politely ordered a bourbon and soda.
A Skyjacking
Shortly after take-off, Dan Cooper discreetly handed a note to a 23-year old flight attendant Flo Schaffner. The stewardess chose to ignore the note, assuming the man was attempting to pick her up by giving out his phone number. Cooper told her in hushed tones: “Miss, you’d better look at that note, I have a bomb.” The man then opened his briefcase to reveal wires attached to what looked like dynamite.
The note, which read “Miss, I have a bomb here and I would like you to sit by me” forms part of the mystery. Curiously, Cooper reclaimed the note after the flight attendant had read it. His demands were for US$200,000 in cash (around $1.25 million in 2019), four parachutes, and immediate refuelling of the plane on arrival in Seattle. The flight attendant took the demands to the captain who immediately passed them onto the airline’s president. The airline boss sanctioned full cooperation. Meanwhile, passengers had no idea what was happening having been told landing was being delayed due to mechanical problems.
At 5:39 pm, the plane landed in Seattle. An airline employee delivered the cash in a backpack, along with the parachutes. Cooper allowed all passengers and two flight attendants to leave the plane without incident. During the refuelling, Cooper outlined his plan to the aircrew. He stated that he wanted to set a southeasterly course for Mexico, with a further fuel stop in Reno, Nevada.
A Bizarre Disappearance
The plane took off and landed in Reno two hours later, without incident. However, Cooper soon became most conspicuous by his absence. It would seem sometime shortly after 8 pm, the skyjacker alone at the back of the plane, put on his parachute. He is then must have opened the rear door of the plane and jumped out with the money. The only thing he’d left behind was his J.C. Penney black tie.
The man, mistakenly referred to as “D.B. Cooper” by the media, due to a typing error, was never seen or heard from again. No parachutes were ever found, but inexplicably, traceable through their serial numbers, no attempt was ever made to spend the ransom money. The official line of the FBI was that; ”it’s likely the man died during the night-time jump over wooded terrain”.
In 1980, a boy on holiday with his family in Oregon found US$5,800 of the ransom money in several packets on the banks of the Columbia River. This led to an intense search of the area for Cooper or his remains. However, once again, nothing was found. In 2017, a parachute strap was found at a location that had been suspected as being one of Cooper’s possible landing sites, it was to no avail.
A Credible Suspect?
In June 2019, when 75-year-old grandfather, Robert Rachstraw, died in San Diego, it caused quite a stir. The former Army helicopter pilot and Vietnam veteran had for many years been suspected of being the true identity of D.B. Cooper.
When Rachstraw died, news reports revealed that he had had quite a criminal past. The charges had included aircraft theft, possession of explosives, cheque fraud, as well as murder. However, it appears he was acquitted of all charges, in all cases. He had first come to the attention of the FBI in 1978 through the local police. They alerted them to his resemblance to the Cooper composite sketches, his military past, and his tendency towards criminality. However, the FBI eliminated him from the 1979 skyjacking incident as no evidence of his involvement could be found. During the 1980s and 90s, Rackstraw became a respected law and arbitration expert, attaining three degrees, and lecturing at the University of California.
Police sketch of DB Cooper vs Mugshot of Robert Rackstraw Editorial credit: Wiki Commons/Daily Mail
In 2011, Thomas J. Colbert, a Los Angeles-based television and film producer, began an investigated into the claim that Rackstraw had been Cooper through a documentary, which in 2016 appeared on the History Channel, renewing public interest in the case. He also co-authored a book, titled; The Last Master Outlaw: ‘How He Outfoxed the FBI Six Times—but Not a Cold Case Team’, about the five year FBI investigation into Rackstraw and the evidence they compiled. While Rackstraw is certainly far from being the only one to fall under public scrutiny surrounding the high-profile skyjacking case, Colbert was convinced he was Cooper.
Rackstraw certainly enjoyed playing devil’s advocate, in a face-to-face meeting with Colbert in 2013, he stated, “I told everybody I was (the skyjacker)”. And, in a 1979 TV news interview, Rackstraw hinted he was D.B. Copper: “I coulda’ been. Coulda’ been. Well, should it be fiction or should it be fact? That’s primarily up to the American people someday, how that comes out”.
The Continuing Mystery
There are at least two films, a number of documentaries and countless books about the D.B. Cooper saga. It seems unlikely that public interest in the case will cease with the death of Robert Rackstraw. In fact, an amateur sleuth, Eric Ulis, has already put forward a new suspect in the infamous case, since Rackstraw’s death. Mr Ulis said that he is convinced that Sheridan Peterson is D.B. Cooper. Peterson, now in his nineties, lives in a California retirement community. He was interviewed by the FBI in 2004 about the case but released due to lack of evidence.
Header image credit: Notto Yeez/Shutterstock.com
