An impeccably dressed, middle-aged man went to the airport in Portland, in the United States, and bought a ticket on the eve of Thanksgiving 1971, introducing himself as Dan Cooper.
Thus began one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American criminal history.
The man took a Northwest Orient Airlines flight to Seattle and sat in the back of the plane along with 36 other passengers and six crew members.
He ordered a shot of bourbon and soda and began smoking Raleigh cigarettes. Shortly before takeoff, he handed a note to flight attendant Florence Schaffner, 23 years old at the time, who put the paper in her pocket without paying much attention to it. She later commented that she believed it was a sexual proposal, like others she had already received.
But she was mistaken. The man immediately asked her to read the message, saying that he was hiding a bomb and asking her to sit next to her. He then showed a briefcase full of cables and asked for US$200,000 in US$20 bills and four parachutes.
The flight attendant took the ticket to the pilot, who landed in Seattle, where Cooper allowed the passengers to disembark along with two flight attendants, in exchange for what he demanded.
At 3 thousand meters high.
After taking off again with the pilots and a flight attendant, Cooper ordered the plane to head for Mexico City. He specifically said at what height and speed they should fly and the position in which the plane should be placed.
When he was satisfied, he strapped the money to his body and asked the stewardess to go to the cockpit so he could be alone.
Somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Nevada, Cooper opened the back door of the Boeing 727 and parachuted 3,000 meters high, in the middle of the night, over the mountains of Washington State, disappearing forever.
His real name was never discovered. He bought the ticket as Dan Cooper and, later, the press began to refer to him by the acronym D.B. after the FBI, the American federal police, investigated a suspect named D.B. Cooper, who was innocent.
Since then, the FBI has interviewed more than a thousand suspects. The best clue came in 1980, when a boy came across a decomposing package containing $5,800 in $20 bills with serial numbers that matched those on the withdrawal made to pay him.
They also found pieces of a parachute and a black tie worn by Cooper, but no concrete evidence of the thief's whereabouts.
Whoa, super interesting. Where's the best source of info on this one?
Seems like if the FBI had information on serial numbers, that would allow for one heckuva lead, right? How could it be laundered without that being a huge part of the story's investigation?
I grew up during these times.. Possible sightings, etc. was on the news a lot back then.