November 29, 2025 • 22 mins
Reid Carter explores America's only unsolved airline hijacking—54 years ago this week. November 24, 1971: A man calling himself Dan Cooper boarded Northwest Orient Flight 305 in Portland, showed flight attendant Florence Schaffner a bomb, and demanded $200,000 and four parachutes. After releasing 36 passengers in Seattle, Cooper ordered the crew to fly toward Mexico at 10,000 feet. Somewhere over the dark forests of southwestern Washington, he lowered the rear stairs, strapped $200,000 to his chest, and jumped into a freezing rainstorm. He was never seen again. The FBI searched for 45 years. Found nothing.
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Join our new FB groups page here. Take the poll!
Join the Celebrity Trials community on social media! We're building a passionate group of true crime enthusiasts who love diving deep into the most shocking cases in America.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram by searching "Celebrity Trials Podcast" on either platform.
You'll get exclusive behind-the-scenes content, breaking news updates on cases we're covering, and early alerts when new episodes drop. Our social media is where Reid Carter's hottest takes live, including reactions that don't make it into the show.
But more importantly, it's where YOU come in. Share your theories, debate the verdicts, and connect with fellow listeners who are just as obsessed with justice as you are. Did the jury get it right? What questions do you still have? Your comments and insights often shape future episodes.
We cover the trials that matter, but our community makes the conversation unforgettable. Come for Reid's signature cynical commentary, stay for the incredible discussions with thousands of true crime fans who get it.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Callarogu Shark Media. Good morning, I'm read Carter. Saturday, November
twenty ninth, twenty twenty five, fifty four years ago. This week,
the night before Thanksgiving, while Americans were carving turkeys and
fighting traffic, a man in a cheap suit walked into
(00:24):
Portland International Airport and pulled off the most audacious crime
in aviation history. November twenty fourth, nineteen seventy one, two
fifty pm, A man calling himself Dan Cooper board's Northwest
Orient Airlines flight three oh five one way ticket to Seattle,
paid twenty dollars cash, no ID required, different era. Thirty
(00:46):
minutes into the flight, he hands a note to flight
attendant Florence Schaffner. She assumes it's his phone number. Businessman
slipped notes to stewardess as all the time back then.
She puts it in her pocket without reading it. Cooper
leans over whispers, Miss, you'd better look at that note.
I have a bomb. She opens it, handwritten in neat
(01:07):
capital letters. Miss, I have a bomb in my briefcase
and want you to sit by me. He opens his
attache case just enough for her to see wires, red sticks,
a battery reel or fake she has no idea, doesn't matter.
She believes it's real. Cooper's demands two hundred thousand dollars
in unmarked twenty dollars bills, four parachutes, two main chutes,
(01:31):
two reserves, a fuel truck waiting in Seattle. The plane
circles Puget Sound for nearly two hours while authorities scramble
to meet his demands. Passengers have no idea their being hijacked.
Captain tells them there's a minor mechanical problem. Five twenty
four pm, Flight three oh five lands at Seattle Tacoma
International Airport. Cooper releases all thirty six passengers in exchange
(01:56):
for the money and parachutes, keeps three pilots and one
flight attendant, twenty two year old Tina Mucklow. Seven forty pm,
the plane takes off again, destination Mexico City, but Cooper
has no intention of going to Mexico. Somewhere between Seattle
and Reno. A little after eight pm, the rear stairs
(02:18):
of the Boeing seven twenty seven lower, Cooper straps the
money to his chest, puts on a parachute, and jumps
into a freezing rainstorm over the pitch black wilderness of
southwestern Washington, wind chill below zero visibility, nune terrain, dense
forest mountains, no roads for miles. He was never seen again.
(02:41):
No body, no parachute, no money, except for a few
rotting bills found nine years later by an eight year
old kid on a beach. The FBI searched for forty
five years, investigated over a thousand suspects, spent millions of dollars.
In twenty sixteen, they officially gave up. I'm Red Carter.
(03:02):
This is Celebrity Trials today. dB Cooper, the man who
hijacked a plane, stole two hundred thousand dollars, jumped into oblivion,
and became America's most beloved criminal. Part one of two.
Let Me Paint You the picture. November twenty fourth, nineteen
(03:23):
seventy one, Portland, Oregon, overcast, light, rain, temperature in the
mid forties. The day before Thanksgiving, around two thirty pm,
A man approaches the Northwest Orient Airlines counter pays cash
for a one way ticket to Seattle eighteen dollars and
fifty two cents. Gives his name as Dan Cooper. No
(03:45):
identification required. Airlines didn't check IDs In nineteen seventy one.
The man is white, mid forties, approximately six feet tall,
one hundred seventy to one hundred eighty pounds, olive complexion,
brown eye eyes, black hair, neatly combed back, with a
slight wave, no discernible accent. He's wearing a dark suit.
(04:07):
Witnesses would later describe it as brown or burgundy, with
a white dressed shirt and a narrow black clip on
tie from J. C. Penny, black loafers, dark raincoat, sunglasses.
Even though it's cloudy, he carries an attache case and
a brown paper bag. He looks like an accountant, a
middle manager, a traveling salesman, the kind of man you'd
(04:28):
never notice, the kind of man who could disappear into
a crowd and never be found. Flight three oh five
is a milk run Portland to Seattle thirty minute flight
on a Boeing seven twenty seven to one hundred six
crew members Captain William Scott, first Officer William Ratazac, flight
(04:49):
Engineer Harold Anderson, and three flight attendants Senior Attendant Alice Hancock,
Florence Schaffner, and Tina Mucklow. Thirty seven passengers board, including Cooper.
He takes seat eighteen c aisle seat last row of
the passenger cabin, near the rear of the plane. The
flight departs on schedule at two fifty pm. Once airborne,
(05:13):
Cooper orders a bourbon and soda, lights a Raleigh cigarette.
Seems calm, relaxed. Then he makes his move. He hands
a folded note to Florence Schaffner, the twenty three year
old flight attendant seated in the jump seat directly behind him.
Shaffner assumes it's a phone number or hotel room invitation
occupational hazard for attractive stewardesses in nineteen seventy one. She
(05:37):
puts the note in her pocket without reading it. Cooper
leans forward whispers, Miss, you'd better look at that note.
I have a bomb. Something in his voice makes her
believe him. She unfolds the note, handwritten in neat capital
letters with a felt tip pen. Miss, I have a
bomb in my briefcase and want you to sit by me.
(06:00):
Shaffner sits down next to him. Cooper opens his out
of shaycase just wide enough for her to see what's inside.
A mass of red cylinders connected by wires to a
large battery. Looks like dynamite, looks like a bomb. Cooper
is calm, business like, not threatening, almost polite. He dictates
his demands to Shaffner, who writes them on an envelope
(06:23):
two hundred thousand dollars in twenty dollars bills, four parachutes,
two main chutes, two reserves, a fuel truck standing by
in Seattle. He's very specific about the parachutes, two of
each type. Why. The FBI later speculated Cooper wanted them
to think he planned to take a hostage with him.
When he jumped that way, they wouldn't give him sabotage chutes, smart,
(06:47):
calculating this man had thought it through. Shaffner takes the
demands to the cockpit. Captain Scott immediately contacts Seattle Tacoma
air traffic Control. The FBI is notified. Northwest Orient President
Donald Nyrop authorizes full cooperation. The airline has a two
hundred fifty thousand dollars insurance policy against air piracy. He
(07:10):
orders the crew to give Cooper whatever he wants. The
plane enters a holding pattern over Puget Sound, circling for
nearly two hours while authorities scramble. Meanwhile, twenty two year
old Tina Mucklow replaces Schafner in the seat next to Cooper.
She would spend the next several hours as his primary contact.
The last person to see dB Cooper alive. Mucklow later
(07:32):
described him as not nervous. He seemed almost bored, made
small talk, offered her a cigarette, asked where she was from.
When she asked why he was hijacking the plane, he
said vaguely, it's not because I have a grudge against
your airline. I just have a grudge. At one point,
(07:52):
Cooper offered to tip the flight attendants. They declined company policy.
He paid for his drinks like a normal passenger. He
seemed rather nice. Mucklow would later say he was never
cruel or nasty. He was thoughtful and calm All the time.
On the ground, the FBI was moving fast. They gathered
(08:13):
ten tho twenty dollars bills from Seattle area banks, total
weight approximately twenty one pounds. Every single bill was photographed
to record its serial number, a process that took hours.
The parachutes came from a local skydiving school and a
private pilot. Two main chutes, two reserves as requested. Five
(08:33):
twenty four PM. Flight three oh five finally lands at
Seattle Tacoma International Airport. Cooper orders the plane to taxi
to a remote, well lit area, window shades down, cabin
lights dimmed, no vehicles approaching the aircraft. The person delivering
the money and parachutes must come alone. A Northwest Orient
(08:54):
employee drives out to the plane. Tina Mucklow meets him
at the rear stairs. She carries the money in parachutes
back to Cooper makes three trips. At one point, she
jokingly asks Cooper if she can have some of the money.
He immediately hands her a packet of bills. She laughs
and hands it back. Company policy can't accept tips. Cooper
(09:14):
inspects the money, complains it was delivered in a cloth
bag instead of a knapsack. Now he has to improvise.
Using a pocket knife, he cuts the shroud lines from
one of the reserve parachutes and uses them to tie
the money bag shut. The thirty six passengers are released.
Most have no idea what just happened. The captain told
(09:34):
them there was a mechanical problem. They walked off the plane,
annoyed about the delay, completely unaware they just survived a hijacking.
Flight Attendants Alice Hancock and Florence Schaffner are released too.
Only Tina Mucklow remains with Cooper and the three man
cockpit crew. An FAA official requests a face to face
(10:02):
meeting with Cooper aboard the plane. Cooper refuses, no negotiations,
no delays. He wants to leave. Seven forty pm. The
Boeing seven twenty seven takes off from Seattle, refueled and
heading south. Cooper has given the crew very specific instructions.
Fly toward Mexico City, maintain altitude below ten thousand feet,
(10:24):
keep the cabin unpressurized, landing gear down, wing flaps at
fifteen degrees, fly as slow as possible, approximately one hundred
fifty to two hundred knots. These weren't random demands. Cooper
knew exactly what he was asking for. Low altitude meant
he could breathe without oxygen. Slow speed and landing gear
(10:45):
down meant he could survive the jump. Unpressurized cabin meant
he could open the rear door. He knew the Boeing
seven twenty seven knew it had a unique feature, rear
air stairs that could be lowered during flight. No other
commercial aircar had this capability. Once airborne, Cooper sends mucklow
to the cockpit. He wants to be alone in the cabin.
(11:08):
Go join the rest of the crew. He tells her,
I'll be fine. She never sees him again. Eight PM.
A warning light illuminates in the cockpit. The aft airstairs
have been activated. Eight thirteen PM, the aircraft suddenly pitches
nose down, requiring the crew to retrim the controls. Something
(11:29):
heavy just left the plane. The crew knows what happened.
dB Cooper jumped. Ten fifteen pm, the Boeing seven twenty
seven lands in Reno, Nevada. FBI agents swarmed the aircraft.
Cooper is gone, the money is gone. Two parachutes are gone,
one main chute and one reserve left behind his clip
on tie, his mother of Pearl tie clip, two of
(11:51):
the parachutes, and eight Raleigh cigarette butts. The most brazen
hijacking in American history had just succeeded. The FBI launched
what they called nor Jack Northwest Hijacking. It would become
one of the longest and most expensive investigations in Bureau history.
(12:12):
Based on the aircraft's flight path and the time the
rear stairs activated, investigators calculated a drop zone somewhere between
Seattle and Reno, most likely over the Lewis River area
in southwestern Washington. Dense wilderness, mountains, old growth forest, no roads,
no trails, no civilization for miles. The weather that night
(12:34):
was terrible, freezing rain, high winds, temperature at ten thousand
feet approximately seven degrees fahrenheit, wind chill well below zero,
visibility near zero. Cooper jumped wearing a business suit, a
raincoat and loafers, no gloves, no helmet, no survival gear.
The FBI believed he was probably dead. Thanksgiving Day, nineteen
(12:56):
seventy one, the search began. Helicopters, ground crews, army personnel,
National Guard, hundreds of volunteers. They combed the suspected drop
zone for weeks. Found nothing. No body, no parachute, no money,
no clothing, nothing. Cooper had vanished into thin air. The
(13:17):
investigation expanded. FBI agents interviewed every passenger on flight three five,
studied every photograph of the money, traced every lead. Over
the next five years, they considered more than eight hundred suspects,
eliminated nearly all of them. The evidence they had was
frustratingly thin. The clip on tie black JC Penny brand
(13:40):
Cooper removed it before jumping, probably to prevent it from
catching on something. Decades later, forensic analysis would find titanium
particles and rare metal compounds embedded in the fabric materials
used in aerospace manufacturing or certain chemical plants. This suggested
Cooper might have worked in the aviation industry, or might not.
The tie could have been purchased second hand. The cigarette
(14:02):
butts Rally filter tips, an off brand not widely popular.
Cooper smoked with his left hand, possibly left handed fingerprints.
The FBI lifted sixty six latent prints from the plane.
None matched any known criminal or suspect. The composite sketches.
FBI artists created two drawings based on witness descriptions. The
(14:27):
first sketch, completed days after the hijacking, was widely mocked
as inaccurate. Witnesses said it looked like Bing Crosby. A
second sketch, completed in late nineteen seventy two, with more
input from passenger Bill Mitchell, was considered more accurate, But
after fifty four years, eyewitness memory is unreliable and that
(14:48):
was it. No DNA technology in nineteen seventy one, no
security cameras at the airport, no requirement for ID when
purchasing airline tickets. Cooper had been meticulous about leaving no trace.
(15:11):
Then in nineteen eighty a break February tenth, nineteen eighty
Tina Bar, Washington, along the banks of the Columbia River,
about twenty miles west of Cooper's suspected drop zone. An
eight year old boy named Brian Ingram was raking sand
to build a campfire with his family when his shovel
hit something. Three rotting packets of twenty dollars bills rubber
(15:33):
banded together five thousand, eight hundred dollars total. The serial
numbers matched the ransom money. The FBI descended on the site,
excavated the entire beach, brought in metal detectors, back hose divers.
Found nothing else. No parachute, no bones, no other bills.
The money raised more questions than it answered. How did
(15:54):
it get there? Tina Bar was nowhere near the suspected
drop zone. Did Cooper bury it? Did it wash down stream?
Was it planted? The bills were badly deteriorated, some were
the size of business cards, Some were black and unreadable,
but the serial numbers were clear enough to confirm this
(16:15):
was Cooper's money, Brian Ingram became briefly famous. After legal battles,
he was allowed to keep about half the recovered bills.
He later sold some at auction for around thirty seven
thousand dollars, but the rest of the money one hundred
ninety four thousand, two hundred dollars has never been found.
(16:38):
Not a single bill from Cooper's ransom has ever turned
up in circulation. Think about that two hundred thousand dollars
in twenties. If Cooper survived and spent the money, even gradually,
some of it would have surfaced. Bank tellers were given
lists of serial numbers. Nothing. Either Cooper died with the
money still strapped to his chest, or he buried it
(16:59):
and never dug it up, or he was smart enough
to launder it in ways that left no trace. The
investigation continued for decades. Every few years, someone would come
forward claiming to know Cooper's identity, deathbed confessions, family members
with suspicions, amateur sleuths with theories. The FBI investigated them all.
(17:20):
In two thousand and seven, they finally extracted a partial
DNA profile from the clip on tie Cooper left behind,
But DNA is only useful if you have something to
compare it to. None of the suspects matched. July twenty sixteen,
forty five years after the hijacking, the FBI officially suspended
the investigation, announced they were redirecting resources to other cases.
(17:44):
Said they'd reopen the file if someone brought them physical
evidence the parachute, more money, or DNA matching the tie.
No one ever did. The dB Cooper case remains the
only unsolved airline hijacking in American history. Here's what I
can't stop thinking about. We're supposed to hate criminals. That's
(18:06):
how this works. I spend every day covering murderers, rapists,
con artists, people who destroy lives, and we hate them
as we should. But D B. Cooper America loves this guy.
There are dB Cooper bars in the Pacific Northwest. D B.
Cooper Day celebrations every November in Ariel, Washington, the little
town near where he might have landed. People dress up
(18:28):
in suits and clip on ties. They hold lookalike contests,
they jump out of planes. Songs have been written about him,
movies made, documentaries, Netflix, HBO true crime podcasts like this one.
Fifty four years later, and we're still obsessed. Otto Larson,
a University of Washington sociologist, studied the phenomenon. He described
(18:51):
the public's admiration this way. It was an awesome feat
in the battle of man against the machine, one man
overcoming technology, the corporation, the establishment, the system. Thus, the
hijacker comes off as a kind of curious robin hood
taking from the rich, or at least the big and
complex robin hood. That's the comparison. Cooper didn't hurt anyone,
(19:16):
didn't threaten the passengers, paid for his drinks, was polite
to the flight attendants. Then he took two hundred grand
from a faceless airline corporation and disappeared forever in nineteen
seventy one. That meant something. Vietnam was dragging on, Nixon
was in the White House, trust in institutions was collapsing,
(19:37):
and here comes this guy in a cheap suit who
beat the system and got away clean. He became a
folk hero, the everyman who stuck it to the man.
Ralph Himmelsbach, the FBI agent who led the investigation until
his retirement in nineteen eighty, hated the romanticization, called Cooper
a sleazy, rotten criminal, said He probably died cold and
(19:58):
alone in the wilderness, money still strapped to his chest,
but the public didn't care. Cooper was the anti establishment
hero America didn't know it needed. And here's the dark irony.
Cooper's crime changed everything. Within a year, metal detectors were
installed at airports, baggage inspection became mandatory. Passengers who paid
(20:20):
cash for same day tickets were flagged for additional screening.
Boeing redesigned the seven twenty seven added a device called
the Cooper Vane that prevents the rear stairs from being
lowered during flight. Every seven twenty seven flying today has one.
He didn't just steal two hundred thousand dollars. He stole
our innocence about air travel. But we still celebrate him
(20:42):
anyway because he got away with it, because we love
a mystery. Because part of us, the anarchist part, the
anti authority part, wants to believe you can beat the
system if you're smart enough make it make sense. That's
part one of our D. B. Cooper Special. November twenty fourth,
(21:02):
nineteen seventy one, Thanksgiving Eve, a man in a cheap
suit hijacked a plane demanded two hundred thousand dollars and
four parachutes, jumped into a freezing rainstorm over the Pacific
Northwest and was never seen again. The FBI searched for
forty five years, found nothing but five eight hundred dollars
in rotting bills on a riverbank. Tomorrow, Part two. The
(21:25):
suspects Richard McCoy, who pulled an almost identical hijacking five
months later, Kenneth Christiansen, the Northwest Orient flight attendant who
bought a house with cash after the hijacking, Robert Rackstraw,
the con man who denied it until his dying day,
And the question that haunts us. Did D. B. Cooper survive?
(21:46):
The FBI says probably not. The evidence suggests he died
in the jump. Wrong clothing, wrong weather, wrong parachute for
a controlled descent. But no body, no parachute, no proof.
Somewhere in the forests of southwestern Washington. The answer is waiting.
May be buried with his bones, may be scattered with
(22:07):
his money, maybe laughing at us from beyond the grave.
I'm read Carter. See you tomorrow for part two. This
is celebrity Trials
Callarogu Shark Media. Good morning, I'm read Carter. Saturday, November
twenty ninth, twenty twenty five, fifty four years ago. This week,
the night before Thanksgiving, while Americans were carving turkeys and
fighting traffic, a man in a cheap suit walked into
(00:24):
Portland International Airport and pulled off the most audacious crime
in aviation history. November twenty fourth, nineteen seventy one, two
fifty pm, A man calling himself Dan Cooper board's Northwest
Orient Airlines flight three oh five one way ticket to Seattle,
paid twenty dollars cash, no ID required, different era. Thirty
(00:46):
minutes into the flight, he hands a note to flight
attendant Florence Schaffner. She assumes it's his phone number. Businessman
slipped notes to stewardess as all the time back then.
She puts it in her pocket without reading it. Cooper
leans over whispers, Miss, you'd better look at that note.
I have a bomb. She opens it, handwritten in neat
(01:07):
capital letters. Miss, I have a bomb in my briefcase
and want you to sit by me. He opens his
attache case just enough for her to see wires, red sticks,
a battery reel or fake she has no idea, doesn't matter.
She believes it's real. Cooper's demands two hundred thousand dollars
in unmarked twenty dollars bills, four parachutes, two main chutes,
(01:31):
two reserves, a fuel truck waiting in Seattle. The plane
circles Puget Sound for nearly two hours while authorities scramble
to meet his demands. Passengers have no idea their being hijacked.
Captain tells them there's a minor mechanical problem. Five twenty
four pm, Flight three oh five lands at Seattle Tacoma
International Airport. Cooper releases all thirty six passengers in exchange
(01:56):
for the money and parachutes, keeps three pilots and one
flight attendant, twenty two year old Tina Mucklow. Seven forty pm,
the plane takes off again, destination Mexico City, but Cooper
has no intention of going to Mexico. Somewhere between Seattle
and Reno. A little after eight pm, the rear stairs
(02:18):
of the Boeing seven twenty seven lower, Cooper straps the
money to his chest, puts on a parachute, and jumps
into a freezing rainstorm over the pitch black wilderness of
southwestern Washington, wind chill below zero visibility, nune terrain, dense
forest mountains, no roads for miles. He was never seen again.
(02:41):
No body, no parachute, no money, except for a few
rotting bills found nine years later by an eight year
old kid on a beach. The FBI searched for forty
five years, investigated over a thousand suspects, spent millions of dollars.
In twenty sixteen, they officially gave up. I'm Red Carter.
(03:02):
This is Celebrity Trials today. dB Cooper, the man who
hijacked a plane, stole two hundred thousand dollars, jumped into oblivion,
and became America's most beloved criminal. Part one of two.
Let Me Paint You the picture. November twenty fourth, nineteen
(03:23):
seventy one, Portland, Oregon, overcast, light, rain, temperature in the
mid forties. The day before Thanksgiving, around two thirty pm,
A man approaches the Northwest Orient Airlines counter pays cash
for a one way ticket to Seattle eighteen dollars and
fifty two cents. Gives his name as Dan Cooper. No
(03:45):
identification required. Airlines didn't check IDs In nineteen seventy one.
The man is white, mid forties, approximately six feet tall,
one hundred seventy to one hundred eighty pounds, olive complexion,
brown eye eyes, black hair, neatly combed back, with a
slight wave, no discernible accent. He's wearing a dark suit.
(04:07):
Witnesses would later describe it as brown or burgundy, with
a white dressed shirt and a narrow black clip on
tie from J. C. Penny, black loafers, dark raincoat, sunglasses.
Even though it's cloudy, he carries an attache case and
a brown paper bag. He looks like an accountant, a
middle manager, a traveling salesman, the kind of man you'd
(04:28):
never notice, the kind of man who could disappear into
a crowd and never be found. Flight three oh five
is a milk run Portland to Seattle thirty minute flight
on a Boeing seven twenty seven to one hundred six
crew members Captain William Scott, first Officer William Ratazac, flight
(04:49):
Engineer Harold Anderson, and three flight attendants Senior Attendant Alice Hancock,
Florence Schaffner, and Tina Mucklow. Thirty seven passengers board, including Cooper.
He takes seat eighteen c aisle seat last row of
the passenger cabin, near the rear of the plane. The
flight departs on schedule at two fifty pm. Once airborne,
(05:13):
Cooper orders a bourbon and soda, lights a Raleigh cigarette.
Seems calm, relaxed. Then he makes his move. He hands
a folded note to Florence Schaffner, the twenty three year
old flight attendant seated in the jump seat directly behind him.
Shaffner assumes it's a phone number or hotel room invitation
occupational hazard for attractive stewardesses in nineteen seventy one. She
(05:37):
puts the note in her pocket without reading it. Cooper
leans forward whispers, Miss, you'd better look at that note.
I have a bomb. Something in his voice makes her
believe him. She unfolds the note, handwritten in neat capital
letters with a felt tip pen. Miss, I have a
bomb in my briefcase and want you to sit by me.
(06:00):
Shaffner sits down next to him. Cooper opens his out
of shaycase just wide enough for her to see what's inside.
A mass of red cylinders connected by wires to a
large battery. Looks like dynamite, looks like a bomb. Cooper
is calm, business like, not threatening, almost polite. He dictates
his demands to Shaffner, who writes them on an envelope
(06:23):
two hundred thousand dollars in twenty dollars bills, four parachutes,
two main chutes, two reserves, a fuel truck standing by
in Seattle. He's very specific about the parachutes, two of
each type. Why. The FBI later speculated Cooper wanted them
to think he planned to take a hostage with him.
When he jumped that way, they wouldn't give him sabotage chutes, smart,
(06:47):
calculating this man had thought it through. Shaffner takes the
demands to the cockpit. Captain Scott immediately contacts Seattle Tacoma
air traffic Control. The FBI is notified. Northwest Orient President
Donald Nyrop authorizes full cooperation. The airline has a two
hundred fifty thousand dollars insurance policy against air piracy. He
(07:10):
orders the crew to give Cooper whatever he wants. The
plane enters a holding pattern over Puget Sound, circling for
nearly two hours while authorities scramble. Meanwhile, twenty two year
old Tina Mucklow replaces Schafner in the seat next to Cooper.
She would spend the next several hours as his primary contact.
The last person to see dB Cooper alive. Mucklow later
(07:32):
described him as not nervous. He seemed almost bored, made
small talk, offered her a cigarette, asked where she was from.
When she asked why he was hijacking the plane, he
said vaguely, it's not because I have a grudge against
your airline. I just have a grudge. At one point,
(07:52):
Cooper offered to tip the flight attendants. They declined company policy.
He paid for his drinks like a normal passenger. He
seemed rather nice. Mucklow would later say he was never
cruel or nasty. He was thoughtful and calm All the time.
On the ground, the FBI was moving fast. They gathered
(08:13):
ten tho twenty dollars bills from Seattle area banks, total
weight approximately twenty one pounds. Every single bill was photographed
to record its serial number, a process that took hours.
The parachutes came from a local skydiving school and a
private pilot. Two main chutes, two reserves as requested. Five
(08:33):
twenty four PM. Flight three oh five finally lands at
Seattle Tacoma International Airport. Cooper orders the plane to taxi
to a remote, well lit area, window shades down, cabin
lights dimmed, no vehicles approaching the aircraft. The person delivering
the money and parachutes must come alone. A Northwest Orient
(08:54):
employee drives out to the plane. Tina Mucklow meets him
at the rear stairs. She carries the money in parachutes
back to Cooper makes three trips. At one point, she
jokingly asks Cooper if she can have some of the money.
He immediately hands her a packet of bills. She laughs
and hands it back. Company policy can't accept tips. Cooper
(09:14):
inspects the money, complains it was delivered in a cloth
bag instead of a knapsack. Now he has to improvise.
Using a pocket knife, he cuts the shroud lines from
one of the reserve parachutes and uses them to tie
the money bag shut. The thirty six passengers are released.
Most have no idea what just happened. The captain told
(09:34):
them there was a mechanical problem. They walked off the plane,
annoyed about the delay, completely unaware they just survived a hijacking.
Flight Attendants Alice Hancock and Florence Schaffner are released too.
Only Tina Mucklow remains with Cooper and the three man
cockpit crew. An FAA official requests a face to face
(10:02):
meeting with Cooper aboard the plane. Cooper refuses, no negotiations,
no delays. He wants to leave. Seven forty pm. The
Boeing seven twenty seven takes off from Seattle, refueled and
heading south. Cooper has given the crew very specific instructions.
Fly toward Mexico City, maintain altitude below ten thousand feet,
(10:24):
keep the cabin unpressurized, landing gear down, wing flaps at
fifteen degrees, fly as slow as possible, approximately one hundred
fifty to two hundred knots. These weren't random demands. Cooper
knew exactly what he was asking for. Low altitude meant
he could breathe without oxygen. Slow speed and landing gear
(10:45):
down meant he could survive the jump. Unpressurized cabin meant
he could open the rear door. He knew the Boeing
seven twenty seven knew it had a unique feature, rear
air stairs that could be lowered during flight. No other
commercial aircar had this capability. Once airborne, Cooper sends mucklow
to the cockpit. He wants to be alone in the cabin.
(11:08):
Go join the rest of the crew. He tells her,
I'll be fine. She never sees him again. Eight PM.
A warning light illuminates in the cockpit. The aft airstairs
have been activated. Eight thirteen PM, the aircraft suddenly pitches
nose down, requiring the crew to retrim the controls. Something
(11:29):
heavy just left the plane. The crew knows what happened.
dB Cooper jumped. Ten fifteen pm, the Boeing seven twenty
seven lands in Reno, Nevada. FBI agents swarmed the aircraft.
Cooper is gone, the money is gone. Two parachutes are gone,
one main chute and one reserve left behind his clip
on tie, his mother of Pearl tie clip, two of
(11:51):
the parachutes, and eight Raleigh cigarette butts. The most brazen
hijacking in American history had just succeeded. The FBI launched
what they called nor Jack Northwest Hijacking. It would become
one of the longest and most expensive investigations in Bureau history.
(12:12):
Based on the aircraft's flight path and the time the
rear stairs activated, investigators calculated a drop zone somewhere between
Seattle and Reno, most likely over the Lewis River area
in southwestern Washington. Dense wilderness, mountains, old growth forest, no roads,
no trails, no civilization for miles. The weather that night
(12:34):
was terrible, freezing rain, high winds, temperature at ten thousand
feet approximately seven degrees fahrenheit, wind chill well below zero,
visibility near zero. Cooper jumped wearing a business suit, a
raincoat and loafers, no gloves, no helmet, no survival gear.
The FBI believed he was probably dead. Thanksgiving Day, nineteen
(12:56):
seventy one, the search began. Helicopters, ground crews, army personnel,
National Guard, hundreds of volunteers. They combed the suspected drop
zone for weeks. Found nothing. No body, no parachute, no money,
no clothing, nothing. Cooper had vanished into thin air. The
(13:17):
investigation expanded. FBI agents interviewed every passenger on flight three five,
studied every photograph of the money, traced every lead. Over
the next five years, they considered more than eight hundred suspects,
eliminated nearly all of them. The evidence they had was
frustratingly thin. The clip on tie black JC Penny brand
(13:40):
Cooper removed it before jumping, probably to prevent it from
catching on something. Decades later, forensic analysis would find titanium
particles and rare metal compounds embedded in the fabric materials
used in aerospace manufacturing or certain chemical plants. This suggested
Cooper might have worked in the aviation industry, or might not.
The tie could have been purchased second hand. The cigarette
(14:02):
butts Rally filter tips, an off brand not widely popular.
Cooper smoked with his left hand, possibly left handed fingerprints.
The FBI lifted sixty six latent prints from the plane.
None matched any known criminal or suspect. The composite sketches.
FBI artists created two drawings based on witness descriptions. The
(14:27):
first sketch, completed days after the hijacking, was widely mocked
as inaccurate. Witnesses said it looked like Bing Crosby. A
second sketch, completed in late nineteen seventy two, with more
input from passenger Bill Mitchell, was considered more accurate, But
after fifty four years, eyewitness memory is unreliable and that
(14:48):
was it. No DNA technology in nineteen seventy one, no
security cameras at the airport, no requirement for ID when
purchasing airline tickets. Cooper had been meticulous about leaving no trace.
(15:11):
Then in nineteen eighty a break February tenth, nineteen eighty
Tina Bar, Washington, along the banks of the Columbia River,
about twenty miles west of Cooper's suspected drop zone. An
eight year old boy named Brian Ingram was raking sand
to build a campfire with his family when his shovel
hit something. Three rotting packets of twenty dollars bills rubber
(15:33):
banded together five thousand, eight hundred dollars total. The serial
numbers matched the ransom money. The FBI descended on the site,
excavated the entire beach, brought in metal detectors, back hose divers.
Found nothing else. No parachute, no bones, no other bills.
The money raised more questions than it answered. How did
(15:54):
it get there? Tina Bar was nowhere near the suspected
drop zone. Did Cooper bury it? Did it wash down stream?
Was it planted? The bills were badly deteriorated, some were
the size of business cards, Some were black and unreadable,
but the serial numbers were clear enough to confirm this
(16:15):
was Cooper's money, Brian Ingram became briefly famous. After legal battles,
he was allowed to keep about half the recovered bills.
He later sold some at auction for around thirty seven
thousand dollars, but the rest of the money one hundred
ninety four thousand, two hundred dollars has never been found.
(16:38):
Not a single bill from Cooper's ransom has ever turned
up in circulation. Think about that two hundred thousand dollars
in twenties. If Cooper survived and spent the money, even gradually,
some of it would have surfaced. Bank tellers were given
lists of serial numbers. Nothing. Either Cooper died with the
money still strapped to his chest, or he buried it
(16:59):
and never dug it up, or he was smart enough
to launder it in ways that left no trace. The
investigation continued for decades. Every few years, someone would come
forward claiming to know Cooper's identity, deathbed confessions, family members
with suspicions, amateur sleuths with theories. The FBI investigated them all.
(17:20):
In two thousand and seven, they finally extracted a partial
DNA profile from the clip on tie Cooper left behind,
But DNA is only useful if you have something to
compare it to. None of the suspects matched. July twenty sixteen,
forty five years after the hijacking, the FBI officially suspended
the investigation, announced they were redirecting resources to other cases.
(17:44):
Said they'd reopen the file if someone brought them physical
evidence the parachute, more money, or DNA matching the tie.
No one ever did. The dB Cooper case remains the
only unsolved airline hijacking in American history. Here's what I
can't stop thinking about. We're supposed to hate criminals. That's
(18:06):
how this works. I spend every day covering murderers, rapists,
con artists, people who destroy lives, and we hate them
as we should. But D B. Cooper America loves this guy.
There are dB Cooper bars in the Pacific Northwest. D B.
Cooper Day celebrations every November in Ariel, Washington, the little
town near where he might have landed. People dress up
(18:28):
in suits and clip on ties. They hold lookalike contests,
they jump out of planes. Songs have been written about him,
movies made, documentaries, Netflix, HBO true crime podcasts like this one.
Fifty four years later, and we're still obsessed. Otto Larson,
a University of Washington sociologist, studied the phenomenon. He described
(18:51):
the public's admiration this way. It was an awesome feat
in the battle of man against the machine, one man
overcoming technology, the corporation, the establishment, the system. Thus, the
hijacker comes off as a kind of curious robin hood
taking from the rich, or at least the big and
complex robin hood. That's the comparison. Cooper didn't hurt anyone,
(19:16):
didn't threaten the passengers, paid for his drinks, was polite
to the flight attendants. Then he took two hundred grand
from a faceless airline corporation and disappeared forever in nineteen
seventy one. That meant something. Vietnam was dragging on, Nixon
was in the White House, trust in institutions was collapsing,
(19:37):
and here comes this guy in a cheap suit who
beat the system and got away clean. He became a
folk hero, the everyman who stuck it to the man.
Ralph Himmelsbach, the FBI agent who led the investigation until
his retirement in nineteen eighty, hated the romanticization, called Cooper
a sleazy, rotten criminal, said He probably died cold and
(19:58):
alone in the wilderness, money still strapped to his chest,
but the public didn't care. Cooper was the anti establishment
hero America didn't know it needed. And here's the dark irony.
Cooper's crime changed everything. Within a year, metal detectors were
installed at airports, baggage inspection became mandatory. Passengers who paid
(20:20):
cash for same day tickets were flagged for additional screening.
Boeing redesigned the seven twenty seven added a device called
the Cooper Vane that prevents the rear stairs from being
lowered during flight. Every seven twenty seven flying today has one.
He didn't just steal two hundred thousand dollars. He stole
our innocence about air travel. But we still celebrate him
(20:42):
anyway because he got away with it, because we love
a mystery. Because part of us, the anarchist part, the
anti authority part, wants to believe you can beat the
system if you're smart enough make it make sense. That's
part one of our D. B. Cooper Special. November twenty fourth,
(21:02):
nineteen seventy one, Thanksgiving Eve, a man in a cheap
suit hijacked a plane demanded two hundred thousand dollars and
four parachutes, jumped into a freezing rainstorm over the Pacific
Northwest and was never seen again. The FBI searched for
forty five years, found nothing but five eight hundred dollars
in rotting bills on a riverbank. Tomorrow, Part two. The
(21:25):
suspects Richard McCoy, who pulled an almost identical hijacking five
months later, Kenneth Christiansen, the Northwest Orient flight attendant who
bought a house with cash after the hijacking, Robert Rackstraw,
the con man who denied it until his dying day,
And the question that haunts us. Did D. B. Cooper survive?
(21:46):
The FBI says probably not. The evidence suggests he died
in the jump. Wrong clothing, wrong weather, wrong parachute for
a controlled descent. But no body, no parachute, no proof.
Somewhere in the forests of southwestern Washington. The answer is waiting.
May be buried with his bones, may be scattered with
(22:07):
his money, maybe laughing at us from beyond the grave.
I'm read Carter. See you tomorrow for part two. This
is celebrity Trials
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