November 30, 2025 • 23 mins
Reid Carter concludes the D.B. Cooper special with the parade of suspects who haunted the FBI for five decades. Richard Floyd McCoy pulled an identical hijacking five months later—same plane, same method—but didn't match the description. Kenneth Christiansen worked for Northwest Orient, bought a house with cash, and on his deathbed told his brother there was 'something you should know.' Robert Rackstraw faked his own death, wore a D.B. Cooper t-shirt to Cooper Day, and died denying everything. Duane Weber whispered 'I'm Dan Cooper' as he took his last breath. After 54 years and a thousand suspects: Who was D.B. Cooper?
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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):
Caalarogu Shark Media. Good morning, I'm read Carter Sunday, November thirtieth,
twenty twenty five. Yesterday we covered the hijacking November twenty fourth,
nineteen seventy one Dan Cooper two hundred thousand dollars, four parachutes,
(00:23):
one jump into darkness, never seen again today. The suspects,
and there have been hundreds of them. Between nineteen seventy
one and twenty sixteen, the FBI investigated over a thousand
serious suspects. Some were publicity seekers looking for attention. Some
were deathbed confessors clearing their conscience or seeking one last
(00:46):
bit of fame. Some were fingered by family members with
grudges or genuine suspicions. The FBI eliminated them all, no arrest,
no conviction, no definitive identification, but a handful of suspects
and out men whose backgrounds, skills, and behavior made them
more plausible than the rest men who might actually have
(01:07):
been D. B. Cooper. Richard Floyd McCoy, Vietnam veteran helicopter
pilot expert skydiver. Five months after Cooper's hijacking, McCoy pulled
an almost identical heist same type of plane, same demands,
same parachute escape, got caught, died in a shootout with
police after escaping prison. His children now claim he was Cooper.
(01:30):
They found a parachute in his storage shed. Kenneth Christiansen,
former Army paratrooper, worked for Northwest Orient Airlines, the very
airline Cooper hijacked. Knew the Boeing seven twenty seven inside
and out. One year after the hijacking, bought a house
with cash on a flight attendant's salary. On his deathbed
in nineteen ninety four, told his brother, there is something
(01:52):
you should know, but I cannot tell you. Robert Reckstraw,
Vietnam veteran helicopter pilot con man faked his own death
in nineteen seventy eight, had parachute training physically resembled the
composite sketches. Amateur investigators spent years building a case against him.
He attended D. B. Cooper Day celebrations wearing a T
(02:15):
shirt that said I'm dB Cooper. Died in twenty nineteen,
denying everything. Dwayne Weber, career criminal ex convict in nineteen
ninety five, on his deathbed, whispered to his wife, I'm
Dan Cooper She didn't understand the reference until months later.
Then she started connecting dots. Old injuries he claimed came
(02:37):
from a plane jump trips to the Pacific Northwest. He
couldn't explain a hidden criminal past. Today we dig into
each of these suspects. We examined the evidence, we weigh
the theories, and we answer the only question that matters,
is D. B. Cooper alive or dead? I'm Reed Carter.
This is Celebrity Trials, Part two of two. Richard Floyd
(02:59):
MCA April seventh, nineteen seventy two, less than five months
after dB Cooper's hijacking, a man traveling under a fake
name boards United Airlines flight eight five five from Newark
to Los Angeles. Shortly after takeoff, he hands a note
to a flight attendant, claims he has a bomb, actually
a hand grenade and a pistol. Demands five hundred thousand
(03:22):
dollars and four parachutes. Sound familiar. The plane lands in
San Francisco. The hijacker releases the passengers, gets his money
in parachutes, orders the crew to fly toward Utah Somewhere
over Provo. He lowers the rear stairs of the Boeing
seven twenty seven, same model Cooper used and jumps with
the cash strapped to his body. Unlike Cooper, this guy
(03:43):
gets caught. Two days later, FBI agents arrest Richard Floyd McCoy,
Junior at his home in Provo, Utah. In a search
of the house, they find skydiving equipment, an electric typewriter
with impressions matching the hijacking instructions, and four hundred ninety nine,
nine hundred seventy dollars of the ransom money. McCoy was
(04:04):
twenty nine years old, Vietnam veteran helicopter pilot, National Guard member,
expert skydiver with dozens of jumps, married with two children,
Sunday school teacher, law enforcement student at Brigham Young University.
He was convicted of air piracy sentenced to forty five
years in federal prison. But here's where it gets interesting.
(04:26):
August tenth, nineteen seventy four, McCoy and two other inmates
hijack a garbage truck and escape from the federal penitentiary
in Louisbourg, Pennsylvania. Three months later, FBI agents tracked McCoy
to a house in Virginia Beach. In the ensuing shootout,
McCoy is killed. The similarities between McCoy's hijacking and Cooper's
(04:47):
were striking. Same type of aircraft, same demands for money
and parachutes, same method of escape, jumping from the rear
stairs over remote terrain. McCoy clearly studied Cooper's playbook, which
raises the obvious question was McCoy also Cooper. The FBI investigated,
and they said no. The flight attendants and passengers from
(05:08):
flight three oh five who saw Cooper up close said
McCoy didn't look like him. Cooper was described as mid forties,
olive complexion, brown eyes, dark hair. McCoy was twenty eight
at the time of Cooper's hijacking, almost twenty years younger,
with light blue eyes and a different facial structure. Cooper's
composite sketches showed a middle aged man. McCoy looked like
(05:30):
a college student. The FBI also checked McCoy's alibi. On
November twenty fourth, nineteen seventy one, the day of Cooper's hijacking,
McCoy was supposedly in Las Vegas with his family celebrating Thanksgiving.
But alibis can be faked, especially family alibis. The case
against McCoy as Cooper seemed closed until twenty twenty. That's
(05:53):
when McCoy's adult children, Chante and Richard the Third, contacted
amateur investigator Dan Grider, who'd been re searching the Cooper
case for over twenty years. The siblings said they'd waited
until their mother, Karen died before coming forward. They had
something to show him. In a storage shed on the
family's North Carolina property, Grider found a heavily modified parachute
(06:15):
rig that had been hidden for decades. The siblings also
produced a logbook they claim places their father in the
Pacific Northwest around the time of Cooper's hijacking. More significantly,
the children said their mother, Karen had confessed on her
deathbed that she helped plan both of his heists, both
not just the nineteen seventy two hijacking. McCoy was convicted
(06:37):
of both. The evidence was compelling enough that the FBI
reopened the Cooper case file in late twenty twenty four
after officially closing it in twenty sixteen. Is Richard McCoy
dB Cooper The physical description doesn't match the eyewitnesses said no,
but the method was identical. The skills were there and
(06:58):
now there's physical evidence his family kept hidden for fifty years.
My take McCoy was clearly inspired by Cooper. Whether he
was Cooper is still unproven, but if that parachute matches
the type used in the nineteen seventy one hijacking, we
might finally have an answer. Smart enough to plan two hijackings,
too stupid to avoid getting caught on the second one.
(07:20):
Classic Kenneth Peter Christiansen born nineteen twenty six died nineteen
ninety four, Army paratrooper during World War II, made training
(07:41):
jumps while stationed in Japan during the post war occupation.
Left the military and joined Northwest Orient Airlines in nineteen
fifty four, first as a laborer, then as a flight attendant,
then as a purser. Northwest Orient, the airline Cooper hijacked.
Christiansen worked for the company for decades. He knew the
Boeing seven twenty seven inside and out. Knew about the
(08:03):
rear airstairs, knew the procedures, the roots the crew schedules.
In two thousand and three, Christiansen's brother Lyle was watching
a television documentary about the Cooper hijacking. Something clicked. He
became convinced his late brother Kenny was d B. Cooper.
The evidence was circumstantial but intriguing. Christiansen was a smoker,
(08:25):
so was Cooper. Christiansen drank bourbon, Cooper ordered bourbon and
soda on the flight. Christiansen was a trained paratrooper with
dozens of jumps. Cooper clearly knew how to use a parachute.
Most significantly, in nineteen seventy two, one year after the hijacking,
Kenneth Christiansen, a flight attendant earning a modest salary, bought
(08:45):
a house with cash. Where did the money come from?
When Lyle confronted his brother about the cash purchase years
before Kenny died, he got evasive answers, something about good investments.
Then there was the deathbed moment. In nineteen ninety four,
Kenny was dying, Lyle was at his side. Kenny looked
at him and said, there is something you should know,
(09:07):
but I cannot tell you. Those were among his last words,
and Lyle became obsessed with finding out what Kenny couldn't
tell him. Lyle spent years trying to convince the FBI
to investigate his brother. He contacted private investigators. He reached
out to journalists and filmmakers. In twenty ten, private investigator
(09:28):
Skip Portius published a book making the case that Christensen
was Cooper. A twenty eleven episode of the History Channel
series Brad Meltzer's Decoded examined the theory. Flight attendant Florence Schaffner,
who sat next to Cooper and saw him up close,
was shown photographs of Christensen. She said the photos fit
(09:49):
her memory of the hijacker's appearance more closely than any
other suspect she'd been shown, but she couldn't make a
definitive identification. After forty years, memory is unreliable. The FBI
looked at Christiansen, but never named him a prime suspect.
The problems Kenny was forty five years old in nineteen
seventy one, which matched Cooper's apparent age, but he was
(10:11):
shorter than eyewitness descriptions five foot eight versus Cooper's estimated
six feet. He was also thinner one hundred fifty pounds
versus Cooper's estimated one hundred seventy to one hundred eighty,
and there was no physical evidence, no parachute, no money,
no confession beyond those cryptic deathbed words did Kenneth Christiansen
hijack his own airlines plane, steal two hundred thousand dollars
(10:35):
and then go back to work like nothing happened. It's
possible he had the knowledge, the skills, and apparently the cash,
but proof none. There is something you should know, but
I cannot tell you. Kenny took whatever that something was
to his grave. Robert Wesley Rackstraw born nineteen forty three
(11:00):
he died twenty nineteen. Vietnam veteran helicopter pilot, parachutist, con man,
and for two decades the most controversial dB Cooper suspect.
Rackstraw's life reads like a crime novel. Served in Vietnam
as an Army helicopter crew member, claimed to have worked
with the CIA, a claim that may or may not
(11:21):
have been true. After the war, he got into trouble
check kiting fraud, possibly murder. He was tried and acquitted
for the death of his stepfather. In nineteen seventy eight,
Rackstraw faked his own death. Radioed a false May Day
call claiming he was bailing out of a rented airplane
over Monterey Bay. Police found him months later in southern California.
(11:43):
The plane he supposedly ditched was sitting in a nearby
hangar repainted. He went to prison for check fraud and
aircraft theft, got out kept running scams. The FBI investigated
Rackstraw as a Cooper suspect in nineteen seventy eight. He
physically resembled the composite sketch, even though he was only
twenty eight at the time of the hijacking, younger than
(12:04):
witnesses estimated. He had military parachute training, he had aviation experience,
He was clearly capable of elaborate schemes, but the bureau
eliminated him in nineteen seventy nine no direct evidence of involvement. Then,
in the twenty tens, amateur investigator Thomas Colbert and his
team of retired law enforcement officers built a new case
(12:25):
against Rackstraw. They obtained FBI files through freedom of information requests.
They analyzed letters allegedly sent by Cooper to newspapers after
the hijacking, letters, some dismissed as hoaxes, but which Colbert
believed contained coded messages implicating Rackstraw. The team found what
they claimed was an old parachute strap in the Pacific Northwest.
(12:48):
They tracked Rackstraw for years. Published a book in twenty
sixteen titled The Last Master Outlaw, naming him as Cooper.
Rackstraw denied everything, called the allegationations the stupidest thing I've
ever heard. Claimed he lost his job because of the publicity,
but he also seemed to enjoy the attention. He attended D. B.
(13:08):
Cooper Day celebrations in Ariel, Washington, the annual folk festival
honoring the Hijacker, bought a T shirt that said, I'm
dB Cooper made cryptic comments that weren't quite confessions, but
weren't exactly denials either. I told everybody I was the hijacker.
Rackstraw once admitted to Colbert, then clarified it was just
a stunt. Flight attendant Tina Mucklow, who spent hours with
(13:33):
Cooper on the plane, was shown photographs and video of Rackstraw.
Decades later, she said she didn't find any similarities between
his appearance and her recollection of the Hijacker. Rackstraw died
of heart failure in twenty nineteen. He never confessed. The
FBI never charged him. Was Robert Rackstraw D B. Cooper.
(13:54):
He had the skills, he had the temperament. He loved
the notoriety, but he also loved line saying about everything.
His whole life was a con. Maybe the biggest con
was convincing people he might be Cooper when he wasn't.
Or maybe the biggest con was convincing people he wasn't
when he was. Either way, he took the truth with him.
(14:17):
We'll be right back with a deathbed confession that haunted
a widow for years, and the question we've been asking
for fifty four years? Did D. B. Cooper survive? The
(14:38):
parade of suspects never stopped. Dwayne Weber, career criminal, ex convict.
In nineteen ninety five, dying of kidney disease, he turned
to his wife Joe and whispered, I'm Dan Cooper. Joe
didn't understand Dan Cooper. Who's Dan Cooper? Months later the
connection hit her. D B. Cooper's real alias Dan Cooper,
(15:00):
the name on the airline ticket. She started remembering things.
Dwayne had a knee injury he claimed came from a
plane jump. He'd made unexplained trips to the Pacific Northwest.
He'd once taken her to the Columbia River and walked
along the bank in an area near where Cooper's money
was found, muttering about an old business transaction. Dwayne Weber
(15:20):
physically matched the composite sketches. He had a criminal history,
including forgery and fraud. He'd been in the Pacific Northwest
in nineteen seventy one. Joe reported his confession to the FBI.
They investigated couldn't confirm it. Weber's claims were circumstantial. No
physical evidence linked him to the crime. The confession could
(15:41):
have been the ramblings of a dying man seeking one
last moment of significance, but it was never definitively ruled
out either. Lynn Doyle Cooper, his niece Maria, came forward
in twenty eleven, claiming that in nineteen seventy one she
heard her uncle say, we did it. Our money problems
are over. We high jacked an airplane. The FBI investigated
(16:03):
ruled him out. Lynn Doyle Cooper died in nineteen ninety
nine without ever being charged. Walter Rica, former military paratrooper,
in two thousand and eight recorded phone conversations with his
friend Carl Lauren, claiming to be the hijacker, gave what
he said were inside details about the crime. Died in
(16:24):
twenty fourteen. His friend went public in twenty eighteen. The
FBI declined to confirm or deny his claims. Sheridan Peterson,
former Boeing employee who worked in the department that wrote
flight manuals for the seven twenty seven, the exact plane
Cooper hijacked, accomplished Skydiver, fell under suspicion within a week
(16:45):
of the hijacking, but wasn't interviewed by the FBI until
decades later. Died in twenty twenty one at age ninety four.
Barbara Dayton, a transgender woman who reportedly confessed to friends
that she was D. B. Cooper and that she'd committed
the high hijacking while still presenting as male. She died
in two thousand and two. The FBI investigated and found
(17:07):
the claim implausible, but couldn't completely rule it out. Over
a thousand suspects, hundreds of confessions, dozens of seemingly credible leads,
none proven, none definitively identified, none charged. dB Cooper remains
a ghost. The question that haunts everyone who looks at
(17:28):
this case. Did D. B. Cooper survive the jump? The
FBI's official position, at least while the investigation was active
was probably not consider what Cooper faced. The weather freezing rain,
wind gusts over thirty miles per hour, temperature at altitude
approximately seven degrees fahrenheit, wind chill well below zero. The
(17:52):
clothing business suit, loafers, thin raincoat, no gloves, no helmet,
no goggles, no survivor. The terrain dense old growth forest, mountains, ravines,
no roads or trails for miles. Even in daylight with
good weather, the area is treacherous. The parachute. Cooper took
(18:13):
one main parachute, a military style NB six or NB
eight that was not steerable. He couldn't guide his descent.
He'd land wherever the wind took him. The reserve chute
he grabbed was a dummy, a training parachute with the
canopy sown shut. If his main chute failed, he had
no backup the jump itself. Cooper leaped from the rear
(18:35):
stairs of a Boeing seven twenty seven, flying at approximately
two hundred knots around two hundred thirty miles per hour
at ten thousand feet at night, into a thunderstorm, with
no light, no instruments, no way to see where he
was going. Even experienced skydivers with proper equipment would hesitate
to make that jump. Cooper did it in loafers and
(18:57):
a clip on tie. The search teams found nothing, no body,
no parachute, no clothing, no bones. The terrain was so
rugged that search crews couldn't cover it all. But they
found zero evidence Cooper survived or died. Then there's the money.
If Cooper survived and spent the ransom, some bills would
(19:18):
have surfaced. The FBI distributed the serial numbers to every
bank in the country. Not a single confirmed Cooper bill
has ever turned up in circulation. The only money found
was those rotting packets on Tina Bar in nineteen eighty,
and those bills hadn't been in circulation. Possible explanations. If
he survived, he buried the money and never retrieved it,
(19:41):
either because he died later went to prison for something else,
or was too paranoid to touch it. He laundered the
money through channels that left no trace, foreign banks, criminal networks,
gambling operations. He destroyed the money to eliminate evidence, and
lived off other means. Possible exit explanations. If he died,
(20:02):
his body landed in an inaccessible area and was never
found decomposed, buried by landslides, eaten by animals, absorbed by
the forest. The money was buried with him, except for
the bills that somehow washed down to Tina Bar. The
Truth died in the Pacific Northwest Wilderness on November twenty fourth,
(20:23):
nineteen seventy one. Here's my take. D B. Cooper probably died.
The evidence points that way. The conditions were unsurvivable for
anyone without proper equipment and extreme skill, and despite fifty
four years of searching, nobody has ever proven he lived.
But probably isn't. Certainly no body, no parachute, no definitive
(20:44):
proof of death, and one hundred ninety four thousand, two
hundred dollars that was never found somewhere out there under
the moss and ferns of the Pacific Northwest or in
a storage locker nobody's checked or dispersed through channels will
never trace. Theer is waiting. Maybe D. B. Cooper died
cold and alone in the forest, money strapped to his chest,
(21:07):
the victim of his own hubris, Or maybe just maybe
he landed, buried the cash, changed his name, and lived
out his days as the only successful skyjacker in American history.
Watching the documentaries, reading the books, smiling at his own legend.
We'll probably never know, And maybe that's the point. Maybe
(21:27):
the mystery is the story. Maybe D. B. Cooper understood
that disappearing completely was the greatest trick of all. Truth
is stranger than fiction. That's part two of our dB
Cooper special. Fifty four years ago this week, a man
in a cheap suit hijacked a plane, stole two hundred
(21:47):
thousand dollars, jumped into darkness, and became America's favorite criminal.
Richard McCoy pulled an identical heist five months later and
got caught. His children now claim he was Cooper. The
FBI reopened the case. Kenneth Christensen worked for the airline
Cooper hijacked, bought a house with cash, told his brother
(22:08):
on his deathbed, there is something you should know, but
I cannot tell you. Robert Rackstraw wore an I'm dB
Cooper t shirt to Cooper Day celebrations, denied everything, died
in twenty nineteen. Dwayne Webber whispered I'm Dan Cooper with
his last breath. His widow spent years wondering if she'd
been married to a legend. The FBI investigated over a
(22:30):
thousand suspects, found nothing conclusive, closed the case in twenty sixteen,
no body, no parachute, five thousand, eight hundred dollars found
rotting on a riverbank. One hundred ninety four thousand, two
hundred dollars still missing. D B. Cooper remains the only
unsolved airline hijacking in American history. A folk hero for
(22:51):
the anti establishment crowd, a cautionary tale for the FBI,
A mystery that refuses to die. Tomorrow, the courts reopen
after the Thanksgiving break. We'll have fresh trials, new verdicts,
and the daily chaos of the American justice system. But
this weekend we took a break from the courtrooms to
remember a crime from a different era, when you could
(23:14):
board a plane without ID, when hijacking was almost romantic,
when one man proved you could beat the system if
you were willing to jump into the void and never
look back. D B. Cooper, wherever you are dead or alive,
bones in the forest or ghost in the machine, you
magnificent bastard. You actually got away with it. I'm read Carter,
(23:35):
see you tomorrow. This is celebrity trials,
Caalarogu Shark Media. Good morning, I'm read Carter Sunday, November thirtieth,
twenty twenty five. Yesterday we covered the hijacking November twenty fourth,
nineteen seventy one Dan Cooper two hundred thousand dollars, four parachutes,
(00:23):
one jump into darkness, never seen again today. The suspects,
and there have been hundreds of them. Between nineteen seventy
one and twenty sixteen, the FBI investigated over a thousand
serious suspects. Some were publicity seekers looking for attention. Some
were deathbed confessors clearing their conscience or seeking one last
(00:46):
bit of fame. Some were fingered by family members with
grudges or genuine suspicions. The FBI eliminated them all, no arrest,
no conviction, no definitive identification, but a handful of suspects
and out men whose backgrounds, skills, and behavior made them
more plausible than the rest men who might actually have
(01:07):
been D. B. Cooper. Richard Floyd McCoy, Vietnam veteran helicopter
pilot expert skydiver. Five months after Cooper's hijacking, McCoy pulled
an almost identical heist same type of plane, same demands,
same parachute escape, got caught, died in a shootout with
police after escaping prison. His children now claim he was Cooper.
(01:30):
They found a parachute in his storage shed. Kenneth Christiansen,
former Army paratrooper, worked for Northwest Orient Airlines, the very
airline Cooper hijacked. Knew the Boeing seven twenty seven inside
and out. One year after the hijacking, bought a house
with cash on a flight attendant's salary. On his deathbed
in nineteen ninety four, told his brother, there is something
(01:52):
you should know, but I cannot tell you. Robert Reckstraw,
Vietnam veteran helicopter pilot con man faked his own death
in nineteen seventy eight, had parachute training physically resembled the
composite sketches. Amateur investigators spent years building a case against him.
He attended D. B. Cooper Day celebrations wearing a T
(02:15):
shirt that said I'm dB Cooper. Died in twenty nineteen,
denying everything. Dwayne Weber, career criminal ex convict in nineteen
ninety five, on his deathbed, whispered to his wife, I'm
Dan Cooper She didn't understand the reference until months later.
Then she started connecting dots. Old injuries he claimed came
(02:37):
from a plane jump trips to the Pacific Northwest. He
couldn't explain a hidden criminal past. Today we dig into
each of these suspects. We examined the evidence, we weigh
the theories, and we answer the only question that matters,
is D. B. Cooper alive or dead? I'm Reed Carter.
This is Celebrity Trials, Part two of two. Richard Floyd
(02:59):
MCA April seventh, nineteen seventy two, less than five months
after dB Cooper's hijacking, a man traveling under a fake
name boards United Airlines flight eight five five from Newark
to Los Angeles. Shortly after takeoff, he hands a note
to a flight attendant, claims he has a bomb, actually
a hand grenade and a pistol. Demands five hundred thousand
(03:22):
dollars and four parachutes. Sound familiar. The plane lands in
San Francisco. The hijacker releases the passengers, gets his money
in parachutes, orders the crew to fly toward Utah Somewhere
over Provo. He lowers the rear stairs of the Boeing
seven twenty seven, same model Cooper used and jumps with
the cash strapped to his body. Unlike Cooper, this guy
(03:43):
gets caught. Two days later, FBI agents arrest Richard Floyd McCoy,
Junior at his home in Provo, Utah. In a search
of the house, they find skydiving equipment, an electric typewriter
with impressions matching the hijacking instructions, and four hundred ninety nine,
nine hundred seventy dollars of the ransom money. McCoy was
(04:04):
twenty nine years old, Vietnam veteran helicopter pilot, National Guard member,
expert skydiver with dozens of jumps, married with two children,
Sunday school teacher, law enforcement student at Brigham Young University.
He was convicted of air piracy sentenced to forty five
years in federal prison. But here's where it gets interesting.
(04:26):
August tenth, nineteen seventy four, McCoy and two other inmates
hijack a garbage truck and escape from the federal penitentiary
in Louisbourg, Pennsylvania. Three months later, FBI agents tracked McCoy
to a house in Virginia Beach. In the ensuing shootout,
McCoy is killed. The similarities between McCoy's hijacking and Cooper's
(04:47):
were striking. Same type of aircraft, same demands for money
and parachutes, same method of escape, jumping from the rear
stairs over remote terrain. McCoy clearly studied Cooper's playbook, which
raises the obvious question was McCoy also Cooper. The FBI investigated,
and they said no. The flight attendants and passengers from
(05:08):
flight three oh five who saw Cooper up close said
McCoy didn't look like him. Cooper was described as mid forties,
olive complexion, brown eyes, dark hair. McCoy was twenty eight
at the time of Cooper's hijacking, almost twenty years younger,
with light blue eyes and a different facial structure. Cooper's
composite sketches showed a middle aged man. McCoy looked like
(05:30):
a college student. The FBI also checked McCoy's alibi. On
November twenty fourth, nineteen seventy one, the day of Cooper's hijacking,
McCoy was supposedly in Las Vegas with his family celebrating Thanksgiving.
But alibis can be faked, especially family alibis. The case
against McCoy as Cooper seemed closed until twenty twenty. That's
(05:53):
when McCoy's adult children, Chante and Richard the Third, contacted
amateur investigator Dan Grider, who'd been re searching the Cooper
case for over twenty years. The siblings said they'd waited
until their mother, Karen died before coming forward. They had
something to show him. In a storage shed on the
family's North Carolina property, Grider found a heavily modified parachute
(06:15):
rig that had been hidden for decades. The siblings also
produced a logbook they claim places their father in the
Pacific Northwest around the time of Cooper's hijacking. More significantly,
the children said their mother, Karen had confessed on her
deathbed that she helped plan both of his heists, both
not just the nineteen seventy two hijacking. McCoy was convicted
(06:37):
of both. The evidence was compelling enough that the FBI
reopened the Cooper case file in late twenty twenty four
after officially closing it in twenty sixteen. Is Richard McCoy
dB Cooper The physical description doesn't match the eyewitnesses said no,
but the method was identical. The skills were there and
(06:58):
now there's physical evidence his family kept hidden for fifty years.
My take McCoy was clearly inspired by Cooper. Whether he
was Cooper is still unproven, but if that parachute matches
the type used in the nineteen seventy one hijacking, we
might finally have an answer. Smart enough to plan two hijackings,
too stupid to avoid getting caught on the second one.
(07:20):
Classic Kenneth Peter Christiansen born nineteen twenty six died nineteen
ninety four, Army paratrooper during World War II, made training
(07:41):
jumps while stationed in Japan during the post war occupation.
Left the military and joined Northwest Orient Airlines in nineteen
fifty four, first as a laborer, then as a flight attendant,
then as a purser. Northwest Orient, the airline Cooper hijacked.
Christiansen worked for the company for decades. He knew the
Boeing seven twenty seven inside and out. Knew about the
(08:03):
rear airstairs, knew the procedures, the roots the crew schedules.
In two thousand and three, Christiansen's brother Lyle was watching
a television documentary about the Cooper hijacking. Something clicked. He
became convinced his late brother Kenny was d B. Cooper.
The evidence was circumstantial but intriguing. Christiansen was a smoker,
(08:25):
so was Cooper. Christiansen drank bourbon, Cooper ordered bourbon and
soda on the flight. Christiansen was a trained paratrooper with
dozens of jumps. Cooper clearly knew how to use a parachute.
Most significantly, in nineteen seventy two, one year after the hijacking,
Kenneth Christiansen, a flight attendant earning a modest salary, bought
(08:45):
a house with cash. Where did the money come from?
When Lyle confronted his brother about the cash purchase years
before Kenny died, he got evasive answers, something about good investments.
Then there was the deathbed moment. In nineteen ninety four,
Kenny was dying, Lyle was at his side. Kenny looked
at him and said, there is something you should know,
(09:07):
but I cannot tell you. Those were among his last words,
and Lyle became obsessed with finding out what Kenny couldn't
tell him. Lyle spent years trying to convince the FBI
to investigate his brother. He contacted private investigators. He reached
out to journalists and filmmakers. In twenty ten, private investigator
(09:28):
Skip Portius published a book making the case that Christensen
was Cooper. A twenty eleven episode of the History Channel
series Brad Meltzer's Decoded examined the theory. Flight attendant Florence Schaffner,
who sat next to Cooper and saw him up close,
was shown photographs of Christensen. She said the photos fit
(09:49):
her memory of the hijacker's appearance more closely than any
other suspect she'd been shown, but she couldn't make a
definitive identification. After forty years, memory is unreliable. The FBI
looked at Christiansen, but never named him a prime suspect.
The problems Kenny was forty five years old in nineteen
seventy one, which matched Cooper's apparent age, but he was
(10:11):
shorter than eyewitness descriptions five foot eight versus Cooper's estimated
six feet. He was also thinner one hundred fifty pounds
versus Cooper's estimated one hundred seventy to one hundred eighty,
and there was no physical evidence, no parachute, no money,
no confession beyond those cryptic deathbed words did Kenneth Christiansen
hijack his own airlines plane, steal two hundred thousand dollars
(10:35):
and then go back to work like nothing happened. It's
possible he had the knowledge, the skills, and apparently the cash,
but proof none. There is something you should know, but
I cannot tell you. Kenny took whatever that something was
to his grave. Robert Wesley Rackstraw born nineteen forty three
(11:00):
he died twenty nineteen. Vietnam veteran helicopter pilot, parachutist, con man,
and for two decades the most controversial dB Cooper suspect.
Rackstraw's life reads like a crime novel. Served in Vietnam
as an Army helicopter crew member, claimed to have worked
with the CIA, a claim that may or may not
(11:21):
have been true. After the war, he got into trouble
check kiting fraud, possibly murder. He was tried and acquitted
for the death of his stepfather. In nineteen seventy eight,
Rackstraw faked his own death. Radioed a false May Day
call claiming he was bailing out of a rented airplane
over Monterey Bay. Police found him months later in southern California.
(11:43):
The plane he supposedly ditched was sitting in a nearby
hangar repainted. He went to prison for check fraud and
aircraft theft, got out kept running scams. The FBI investigated
Rackstraw as a Cooper suspect in nineteen seventy eight. He
physically resembled the composite sketch, even though he was only
twenty eight at the time of the hijacking, younger than
(12:04):
witnesses estimated. He had military parachute training, he had aviation experience,
He was clearly capable of elaborate schemes, but the bureau
eliminated him in nineteen seventy nine no direct evidence of involvement. Then,
in the twenty tens, amateur investigator Thomas Colbert and his
team of retired law enforcement officers built a new case
(12:25):
against Rackstraw. They obtained FBI files through freedom of information requests.
They analyzed letters allegedly sent by Cooper to newspapers after
the hijacking, letters, some dismissed as hoaxes, but which Colbert
believed contained coded messages implicating Rackstraw. The team found what
they claimed was an old parachute strap in the Pacific Northwest.
(12:48):
They tracked Rackstraw for years. Published a book in twenty
sixteen titled The Last Master Outlaw, naming him as Cooper.
Rackstraw denied everything, called the allegationations the stupidest thing I've
ever heard. Claimed he lost his job because of the publicity,
but he also seemed to enjoy the attention. He attended D. B.
(13:08):
Cooper Day celebrations in Ariel, Washington, the annual folk festival
honoring the Hijacker, bought a T shirt that said, I'm
dB Cooper made cryptic comments that weren't quite confessions, but
weren't exactly denials either. I told everybody I was the hijacker.
Rackstraw once admitted to Colbert, then clarified it was just
a stunt. Flight attendant Tina Mucklow, who spent hours with
(13:33):
Cooper on the plane, was shown photographs and video of Rackstraw.
Decades later, she said she didn't find any similarities between
his appearance and her recollection of the Hijacker. Rackstraw died
of heart failure in twenty nineteen. He never confessed. The
FBI never charged him. Was Robert Rackstraw D B. Cooper.
(13:54):
He had the skills, he had the temperament. He loved
the notoriety, but he also loved line saying about everything.
His whole life was a con. Maybe the biggest con
was convincing people he might be Cooper when he wasn't.
Or maybe the biggest con was convincing people he wasn't
when he was. Either way, he took the truth with him.
(14:17):
We'll be right back with a deathbed confession that haunted
a widow for years, and the question we've been asking
for fifty four years? Did D. B. Cooper survive? The
(14:38):
parade of suspects never stopped. Dwayne Weber, career criminal, ex convict.
In nineteen ninety five, dying of kidney disease, he turned
to his wife Joe and whispered, I'm Dan Cooper. Joe
didn't understand Dan Cooper. Who's Dan Cooper? Months later the
connection hit her. D B. Cooper's real alias Dan Cooper,
(15:00):
the name on the airline ticket. She started remembering things.
Dwayne had a knee injury he claimed came from a
plane jump. He'd made unexplained trips to the Pacific Northwest.
He'd once taken her to the Columbia River and walked
along the bank in an area near where Cooper's money
was found, muttering about an old business transaction. Dwayne Weber
(15:20):
physically matched the composite sketches. He had a criminal history,
including forgery and fraud. He'd been in the Pacific Northwest
in nineteen seventy one. Joe reported his confession to the FBI.
They investigated couldn't confirm it. Weber's claims were circumstantial. No
physical evidence linked him to the crime. The confession could
(15:41):
have been the ramblings of a dying man seeking one
last moment of significance, but it was never definitively ruled
out either. Lynn Doyle Cooper, his niece Maria, came forward
in twenty eleven, claiming that in nineteen seventy one she
heard her uncle say, we did it. Our money problems
are over. We high jacked an airplane. The FBI investigated
(16:03):
ruled him out. Lynn Doyle Cooper died in nineteen ninety
nine without ever being charged. Walter Rica, former military paratrooper,
in two thousand and eight recorded phone conversations with his
friend Carl Lauren, claiming to be the hijacker, gave what
he said were inside details about the crime. Died in
(16:24):
twenty fourteen. His friend went public in twenty eighteen. The
FBI declined to confirm or deny his claims. Sheridan Peterson,
former Boeing employee who worked in the department that wrote
flight manuals for the seven twenty seven, the exact plane
Cooper hijacked, accomplished Skydiver, fell under suspicion within a week
(16:45):
of the hijacking, but wasn't interviewed by the FBI until
decades later. Died in twenty twenty one at age ninety four.
Barbara Dayton, a transgender woman who reportedly confessed to friends
that she was D. B. Cooper and that she'd committed
the high hijacking while still presenting as male. She died
in two thousand and two. The FBI investigated and found
(17:07):
the claim implausible, but couldn't completely rule it out. Over
a thousand suspects, hundreds of confessions, dozens of seemingly credible leads,
none proven, none definitively identified, none charged. dB Cooper remains
a ghost. The question that haunts everyone who looks at
(17:28):
this case. Did D. B. Cooper survive the jump? The
FBI's official position, at least while the investigation was active
was probably not consider what Cooper faced. The weather freezing rain,
wind gusts over thirty miles per hour, temperature at altitude
approximately seven degrees fahrenheit, wind chill well below zero. The
(17:52):
clothing business suit, loafers, thin raincoat, no gloves, no helmet,
no goggles, no survivor. The terrain dense old growth forest, mountains, ravines,
no roads or trails for miles. Even in daylight with
good weather, the area is treacherous. The parachute. Cooper took
(18:13):
one main parachute, a military style NB six or NB
eight that was not steerable. He couldn't guide his descent.
He'd land wherever the wind took him. The reserve chute
he grabbed was a dummy, a training parachute with the
canopy sown shut. If his main chute failed, he had
no backup the jump itself. Cooper leaped from the rear
(18:35):
stairs of a Boeing seven twenty seven, flying at approximately
two hundred knots around two hundred thirty miles per hour
at ten thousand feet at night, into a thunderstorm, with
no light, no instruments, no way to see where he
was going. Even experienced skydivers with proper equipment would hesitate
to make that jump. Cooper did it in loafers and
(18:57):
a clip on tie. The search teams found nothing, no body,
no parachute, no clothing, no bones. The terrain was so
rugged that search crews couldn't cover it all. But they
found zero evidence Cooper survived or died. Then there's the money.
If Cooper survived and spent the ransom, some bills would
(19:18):
have surfaced. The FBI distributed the serial numbers to every
bank in the country. Not a single confirmed Cooper bill
has ever turned up in circulation. The only money found
was those rotting packets on Tina Bar in nineteen eighty,
and those bills hadn't been in circulation. Possible explanations. If
he survived, he buried the money and never retrieved it,
(19:41):
either because he died later went to prison for something else,
or was too paranoid to touch it. He laundered the
money through channels that left no trace, foreign banks, criminal networks,
gambling operations. He destroyed the money to eliminate evidence, and
lived off other means. Possible exit explanations. If he died,
(20:02):
his body landed in an inaccessible area and was never
found decomposed, buried by landslides, eaten by animals, absorbed by
the forest. The money was buried with him, except for
the bills that somehow washed down to Tina Bar. The
Truth died in the Pacific Northwest Wilderness on November twenty fourth,
(20:23):
nineteen seventy one. Here's my take. D B. Cooper probably died.
The evidence points that way. The conditions were unsurvivable for
anyone without proper equipment and extreme skill, and despite fifty
four years of searching, nobody has ever proven he lived.
But probably isn't. Certainly no body, no parachute, no definitive
(20:44):
proof of death, and one hundred ninety four thousand, two
hundred dollars that was never found somewhere out there under
the moss and ferns of the Pacific Northwest or in
a storage locker nobody's checked or dispersed through channels will
never trace. Theer is waiting. Maybe D. B. Cooper died
cold and alone in the forest, money strapped to his chest,
(21:07):
the victim of his own hubris, Or maybe just maybe
he landed, buried the cash, changed his name, and lived
out his days as the only successful skyjacker in American history.
Watching the documentaries, reading the books, smiling at his own legend.
We'll probably never know, And maybe that's the point. Maybe
(21:27):
the mystery is the story. Maybe D. B. Cooper understood
that disappearing completely was the greatest trick of all. Truth
is stranger than fiction. That's part two of our dB
Cooper special. Fifty four years ago this week, a man
in a cheap suit hijacked a plane, stole two hundred
(21:47):
thousand dollars, jumped into darkness, and became America's favorite criminal.
Richard McCoy pulled an identical heist five months later and
got caught. His children now claim he was Cooper. The
FBI reopened the case. Kenneth Christensen worked for the airline
Cooper hijacked, bought a house with cash, told his brother
(22:08):
on his deathbed, there is something you should know, but
I cannot tell you. Robert Rackstraw wore an I'm dB
Cooper t shirt to Cooper Day celebrations, denied everything, died
in twenty nineteen. Dwayne Webber whispered I'm Dan Cooper with
his last breath. His widow spent years wondering if she'd
been married to a legend. The FBI investigated over a
(22:30):
thousand suspects, found nothing conclusive, closed the case in twenty sixteen,
no body, no parachute, five thousand, eight hundred dollars found
rotting on a riverbank. One hundred ninety four thousand, two
hundred dollars still missing. D B. Cooper remains the only
unsolved airline hijacking in American history. A folk hero for
(22:51):
the anti establishment crowd, a cautionary tale for the FBI,
A mystery that refuses to die. Tomorrow, the courts reopen
after the Thanksgiving break. We'll have fresh trials, new verdicts,
and the daily chaos of the American justice system. But
this weekend we took a break from the courtrooms to
remember a crime from a different era, when you could
(23:14):
board a plane without ID, when hijacking was almost romantic,
when one man proved you could beat the system if
you were willing to jump into the void and never
look back. D B. Cooper, wherever you are dead or alive,
bones in the forest or ghost in the machine, you
magnificent bastard. You actually got away with it. I'm read Carter,
(23:35):
see you tomorrow. This is celebrity trials,
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