Expert Article Final Draft
Finding D.B. Cooper
A Breakdown of America’s Greatest Mystery
By Winston Burks
Imagine your alarm clock rings. It’s Wednesday morning. You work as a flight attendant expecting a regular day on the job. You're scheduled to be aboard an afternoon flight from Portland to Seattle. What you don’t know is that you are about to become entangled in one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history.
This was the exact situation Florence Schaffner and Tina Mucklow would find themselves in on November 24, 1971. Their plane would be hijacked that day by a man using the alias, Dan Cooper. By leveraging a bomb threat, he was able to seize a ransom of $200,000 in cash, then parachuted out of the plane, never to be seen again. Never caught. Never thrown in jail. Nor was his body ever found. For years this case has puzzled the brightest minds in the FBI and has sparked the interest of people from around the world.
To examine this case, we will step into the shoes of a detective tasked with solving this 53 year old mystery. The steps will include the following:
Describing the full sequence of events.
Laying out the available evidence.
Analyzing the leading suspects and theories.
Coming to a conclusion.
Sequence of Events
D. B. Cooper bought his ticket at the Northwest Orient Airlines counter for $20 in cash. He was described as a 6 foot tall male, mid-40s, wearing a business suit and horned-rim glasses. Once he boarded the plane he ordered a Bourbon and Seven, then waited until 3:00 PM to make his move. He called Schaffner over to him and passed her a note:
“Miss I have a bomb here and I would like you to sit by me.”
Cooper opened his briefcase carrying a bunch of wires, red sticks, and a battery. He asked her to write down his list of demands, which included the following:
$200,000 in $20 bills.
Four parachutes.
A fuel truck waiting in Seattle.
Schaffer alerted her fellow flight attendant, Tina Mucklow, who told the pilots what was happening. The 30 minute flight turned into 2 hours as the pilots circled the air strip while the authorities raced to acquire all of Cooper’s demands.
Once they finally landed, Cooper exchanged the 36 passengers, who didn't fully understand what was going on, for the cash and parachutes.
Cooper asked Mucklow to help bring the cash aboard the plane. He then declared that he wanted to go to Mexico City. With the threat of the bomb still in play, the pilots had no choice but to lift off and head to Cooper’s desired destination.
Around 8:00 PM, somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Cooper grabbed his money and asked Mucklow to help him open the door. Once it opened, he told her to reunite with the rest of the crew. Cooper then strapped on his parachute and leaped out of the aircraft into the rainy, dark, wooded area. Never to be seen again (Marks).
The FBI searched the forest for days in dense fog. They looked everywhere but to avail. They also soon realized that the name Dan Cooper was fake. Due to a reporter getting the wrong name from a source in the police department, the name D.B. Cooper was etched into history (Gray).
The Evidence
The FBI immediately opened an investigation called NORJACK, for Northwest Hijacking. Here are the items they found:
Cooper’s tie that he took off on the plane.
A bag that contained one of the parachutes he did not use.
A package of $5,800 in $20s, all matching the serial numbers from the ransom. This piece of evidence was found by a boy along the Columbia River in 1980 (“D.B. Cooper”).
Leading Suspects and Theories
According to the FBI’s website: “We interviewed hundreds of people, tracked leads across the nation, and scoured the aircraft for evidence. By the five-year anniversary of the hijacking, we’d considered more than 800 suspects and eliminated all but two dozen from consideration” (“D.B. Cooper Hijacking”).
Suspect #1: Richard Floyd McCoy
McCoy became a leading suspect because he hijacked a plane and escaped via parachute five months after the events of November 24, 1971.
Unfortunately for investigators, McCoy did not match the physical descriptions of Cooper and had to be crossed off the list. (“D.B. Cooper Hijacking”).
Suspect #2: Robert Rackstraw
Rackstraw was an Army veteran with extensive parachute training. He also had several encounters with law enforcement, such as aircraft theft, possession of explosives and check fraud.
Ultimately, Rackstraw could not be convicted because he was much younger than the mid-40s depiction of Cooper.
Geoffrey Gray, the author of “Skyjack” and historian of the Cooper investigation, said Rackstraw was never a serious suspect and is not mentioned once in his book (Krakow).
Suspect #3: Kenneth Christiansen
Christiansen’s brother Lyle, contacted the FBI stating that Kenneth might be D.B. Cooper. Christiansen was a former military paratrooper and was employed by Northwest Orient Airlines at one time.
In an article written by Geoffrey Gray, he recalls a meeting he had with Florence Schaffner, where he showed her photos of Christiansen. She found the images to have the closest resemblance to the infamous hijacker. However, the conversation ended with Schaffner stating “I can’t say ‘Yay, but I think you might be onto something here.” (Gray).
Surprisingly, Christiansen was taken off the FBI’s list because they did not believe he matched the description. (“D.B. Cooper Redux”)
Suspect #4: Duane Weber
Weber’s wife, Jo, claimed Duane confessed on his deathbed that he was Dan Cooper. Jon notes how he would talk in his sleep about "leaving fingerprints on a plane," complained about a knee injury that came from jumping out of a plane, and how the local library found his handwriting in the margins of a D.B. Cooper book. She also claims Duane took her to the spot where the money was eventually found.
FBI agent Ralph Himmelsbach, who was assigned to the case 29 years ago, commented "He does fit the physical description. He does have the criminal background that I have always felt was associated with the case.” However, Himmelsbach ultimately believed Cooper did not survive the jump. (CBSnews)
Weber was later ruled out of consideration because his DNA did not match what was found on the tie (“D.B. Cooper Redux”).
Suspect #5: Vince Peterson
Peterson is the latest suspect in this decades long mystery. By utilizing new technology to examine Cooper’s tie, investigator Eric Ulis found small metal fragments that he claims trace back to a Crucible Steel plant in Pennsylvania. Employees of this company frequently traveled to Seattle to work on Boeing aircrafts.
These findings have led Ulis to believe that Peterson, a titanium research engineer who died in 2002, may be the infamous D.B. Cooper (Speakman).
However, Ulis interviewed Peterson’s son, who does not believe the claim and is unaware of his father having any skydiving experience (Perry). Ultimately, Ulis’ research is not fully solidified and he will “continue to dig” into Peterson’s history (Speakman).
Theory: Cooper did not survive the jump
Leaping into a dark, rainy forest, wearing a suit, is not the ideal condition to complete such a feat. He also used a parachute that could not be steered. All of these points suggest Cooper may not have been the seasoned pro he was theorized to be.
FBI Agent Larry Carr also agrees with this theory. “Clearly [he] didn’t have the experience to pull this off. He was some guy on the fringes who did this audacious thing… I’m firmly in the camp that Cooper died” on the night of the hijacking, Carr said (Perry).
The counter argument to this theory is Cooper’s body was never found. Also only $5,800 of the $200,000 was recovered.
Coming to a Conclusion
Before conducting this research, I found the D.B. Cooper mystery to be very interesting but I had no idea how deep the story went. Even deeper than what I could fit into this article.
However, after going through all the evidence, suspects, and theories it is clear to me that…
I still don’t know.
I would say the Peterson theory is promising but still has a long way to go to become conclusive. It is also just hard for me to believe he made it through the jump. He was ill equipped and the conditions seemed unsurvivable. But again, his body was never found.
But what do you think? Do you believe he survived the jump? Do you think it was someone from the list of suspects? Let me know your conclusion.
Works Cited
“D.B. Cooper Hijacking.” FBI, FBI, 18 May 2016, www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/db-cooper-hijacking.
“D.B. Cooper Redux.” FBI, FBI, 31 Dec. 2007,https://archives.fbi.gov .
“D.B. Cooper.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 1 Jan. 2024, www.britannica.com/biography/D-B-Cooper.
Gray, Geoffrey. “Unmasking American Legend D.B. Cooper, Who Got Away with Hijacking a Plane” New York Magazine, 18 Oct. 2007, https://nymag.com .
Krukrow, Morgan. “D.B. Cooper Case: Robert Rackstraw Died; Many Believe He Was Infamous ...” Washington Post, Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com/history.
Marks, Andrea. “The Missing Piece of the D.B. Cooper Story.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 18 Aug. 2021, www.rollingstone.com/culture
Perry, Douglas. “D.B. Cooper Identity Remains ‘enduring Mystery,’ but Release of Investigative Files Builds Case for FBI Effort.” Oregonlive, Oregon Live, 27 Nov. 2023, www.oregonlive.com/history.
Perry, Douglas. “New D.B. Cooper Suspect Revealed through Lab Analysis of Skyjacker’s Tie, Just in Time for CooperCon.” Oregonlive, Oregon Live 22 Feb. 2023, www.oregonlive.com/history/.
Speakman, Kimberlee. “New Evidence Discovered in D.B. Cooper Skyjacking Case Uncovers ‘a Compelling Person of Interest.’” Peoplemag, PEOPLE, 14 Jan. 2024, https://people.com/.
CBSNews.com, Staff. “D. B. Cooper -- Found at Last?” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 23 Aug. 2000, https://www.cbsnews.com/news.
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