About this episode Crack open the cold case file of D.B. Cooper, the elusive skyjacker who vanished without a trace in 1971, leaving behind a legacy of intrigue. Join us as we meticulously examine every lead, every suspect, and every wild theory, sifting through the evidence like a detective obsessed with finding the truth. Prepare to dive deep into one of history's most baffling mysteries, gaining a comprehensive understanding of the enduring questions and dead ends that continue to define this legendary unsolved case.
0:00 On November twenty-fourth, 1971, a man in a business suit used the alias Dan Cooper to buy a one-way ticket on Northwest Orient Flight 305.0:11 He never used the return half.0:13 Last week we talked about the kind of questions that can keep a case file open for decades.0:21 Well, tonight's file is built on maybe the boldest question of them all: how does a man jump out of a commercial airliner with two hundred thousand dollars...0:34 and simply cease to exist?0:36 The flight was short, just thirty minutes from Portland to Seattle.0:41 Cooper ordered a bourbon and soda.0:44 Then he passed a note to the flight attendant.0:48 She thought he was giving her his phone number, so she slipped it into her pocket.0:55 He leaned closer.0:56 "Miss, you'd better look at that note.0:59 I have a bomb." The note, written in block letters with a felt pen, was direct.1:06 He showed her his briefcase—a mess of wires and red sticks.1:11 His demands were just as direct: two hundred thousand dollars in twenty-dollar bills, and four parachutes.1:19 When the plane landed in Seattle, he made the exchange.1:24 The thirty-six passengers got off.1:27 The money and parachutes came on.1:29 He kept a few crew members, and ordered the pilot to take off again, this time for Mexico City.1:37 So, here’s the thing you have to picture.1:41 It's just after eight p.m.1:43 The plane is flying low, under ten thousand feet, with the landing gear down to keep the speed under two hundred knots.1:52 The cabin is depressurized.1:55 And somewhere over the forests of the Pacific Northwest, in the middle of a rainstorm, Dan Cooper walks to the back of the Boeing 727, lowers the rear airstair, and steps out into the night.2:10 And vanishes.2:11 The FBI called the investigation NORJAK.2:15 It became one of the longest, most exhaustive in the Bureau's history.2:20 They interviewed over eight hundred suspects in the first five years alone.2:27 They had his DNA from a black J.C.2:29 Penney clip-on tie he left on his seat.2:33 But it never matched anyone.2:35 For nine years, there was NOTHING.2:38 Then, in 1980, a young boy is digging in the sand on the bank of the Columbia River.2:45 He finds three packets of rotting cash.2:48 It’s fifty-eight hundred dollars.2:50 The FBI checks the serial numbers.2:53 It’s Cooper's money.2:55 It’s the only piece of physical evidence from the jump ever found.3:00 Now, you're a detective.3:02 What's your first move?3:04 You look for patterns.3:06 You look for similar crimes.3:08 And just a few months later, in 1972, a man named Richard Floyd McCoy Junior pulls off an almost identical hijacking.3:18 Same type of plane, similar ransom demand.3:21 It has to be him, right?3:23 But it wasn't.3:24 The FBI looked hard at McCoy.3:27 But his alibi for the Cooper hijacking was solid—he was home with his family.3:33 The physical descriptions didn't match.3:36 McCoy was a copycat, not the original.3:40 So the most obvious historical parallel… the most direct analogy… breaks.3:46 Other names have come up over the years—Duane Weber, whose wife claimed he confessed on his deathbed—but the DNA from that tie has ruled out every major suspect.3:59 So what does that leave you with?4:01 Two theories.4:03 One: he was an expert skydiver who planned everything perfectly and survived.4:09 Or two: he was an amateur who had no idea what he was doing and died the second he hit the freezing wind.4:17 The evidence points both ways.4:20 He requested a specific parachute setup, suggesting knowledge.4:25 But he jumped into a terrible storm, and one of the parachutes he was given was a training unit that had been SEWN shut.4:35 He didn't know.4:36 In July 2016, the FBI announced it was redirecting resources.4:41 The active case was closed.4:43 The file sits on a shelf.4:45 It remains the only unsolved commercial airplane hijacking in history.4:51 We have a few thousand dollars of his money, but no body, no briefcase, and no parachute.4:58 The file is closed, but the story isn’t over.5:02 The void he left in the sky over Washington state is still there.
