The Legend of D.B. Copper

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The Legend of D.B. Copper
On November 24, 1971 a man going by the name of Dan Cooper purchased an airline ticket from the ticket counter of the Northwest Orient Airlines in Portland Oregon. Dan Cooper paid cash for a one-way ticket from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington. Dan Cooper boarded a Boeing 727 carrying 37 passengers and 5 crewmembers. What followed is a series of events that has left law enforcement agencies and amateur sleuths alike dumfounded for well over 40 years. Who is the D.B. Cooper?
Dan Cooper, now famously known as D.B. Cooper due to a mix up by the media in the early days of the investigation, was the embodiment of nondescript being about 45 years old, standing around 6 feet tall and weighing in at approximately 175 pounds. D.B. Cooper was wearing a typical business suit and Homburg style hat, which was typical for males in the early 1970’s. He had brown eyes short brown hair and wore no facial hair. D.B. Cooper was a white man and spoke with no discernable accent. No passenger or crewmember took particular note of D.B. Cooper before boarding the airliner.
Shortly after takeoff D.B. Cooper handed Flo Schaffner, a flight attendant with less than 2 years of flying experience, a note. Schaffner immediately stuffed the note in the pocket of her uniform incorrectly assuming it was a come-on from Cooper a room number to his Seattle hotel or his telephone number. Noticing this Cooper later told her, “You’d better read that. I have a bomb” Cooper then gestured toward the briefcase he was carrying on his lap. Schaffner soon share the note with fellow flight attendant Tina Mucklow. The pair showed the note to the cockpit Capt. William Scott, First Officer Bob Rataczak, and Flight Engineer H.E. Anderson. Captain...

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...s arrested for highjacking a commercial airliner on April 9, 1972 using techniques very similar to the Cooper highjacking. It is also claimed that McCoy once owned a mother of pearl tie clasp similar to the one found onboard by investigators onboard the airplane. The FBI does not consider McCoy a suspect in the Cooper highjacking due to the significant age difference between what witness estimated as Cooper’s age and McCoy’s actual age at the time of the crime.
While D.B. Cooper left behind few clues to his actual identity, this has not prevented law enforcement and amateur detectives alike from pouring over them in in an attempt to uncover the infamous D.B. Cooper. Cooper’s identity will likely never be definitively determined although several men have proclaimed and some proposed to be Cooper none of these men have been linked by physical evidence.

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