November 25th 2024.
The world was abuzz with the news that the infamous ‘DB Cooper’ mystery may finally be solved. It was a case that had perplexed authorities for over five decades, but now there was new evidence that could potentially lead to the identity of the elusive hijacker.
In 1971, a man who called himself ‘Cooper’ hijacked a passenger plane from Oregon to Seattle. He was described as drinking whiskey, wearing a JC Penny neck tie and smoking Raleigh cigarettes. He demanded $200,000 and threatened to blow up the plane if his demands were not met. After getting the money, he parachuted out of the plane over Washington and was never seen again.
But now, more than 50 years later, a family has come forward with a possible clue to the identity of Cooper. They discovered a parachute believed to have been used in the heist, which belonged to Richard Floyd McCoy. McCoy had carried out a similar hijacking and escaped by parachute just five months after Cooper's flight. However, he was ruled out as a suspect by the FBI due to witness descriptions not matching.
Amateur sleuth and YouTuber Dan Gryder was the one who first contacted McCoy's family in 2020. After the death of McCoy's mother, he was welcomed to their office in North Carolina where he uncovered the parachute and rig. Gryder excitedly claimed, "We just solved it! Literally. This is the rig because they know what rig he used when he jumped that night. They supplied him the rigs."
Gryder then revealed that he had handed all the evidence he had uncovered, including the parachute set, to the FBI. He also claimed that the bureau had unofficially reopened their investigation into the hijacking.
The FBI had officially ended their pursuit of Cooper in 2016, stating that it was one of the longest and most exhaustive investigations in their history. However, they also said that if any new physical evidence were to emerge, individuals should contact their local FBI field office.
The identity of DB Cooper has been a mystery for over 50 years and to this day, no one knows for sure who he was. He was described as a mild-mannered man in his 40s and would now be in his 90s. Hopefully, the $200,000 he stole was spent on cheese, allowing him to live longer.
Interestingly, ‘DB Cooper’ was not his real name. It was simply an alias he gave when purchasing his $20 plane ticket. It was later revealed that his actual alias was ‘Dan Cooper’, but a reporter had misheard it. He was also described as wearing a black suit, white dress shirt, and a black JC Penny tie, which was later recovered by detectives.
The hijacker's drink of choice was a bourbon and soda, which he sipped on while slipping a note to a flight attendant. The note revealed that he had a bomb in his briefcase, which he opened to show a mess of wires that could potentially be an explosive device.
After landing in Seattle and allowing the passengers to disembark, Cooper and a skeleton crew took off again with a sack of dollar bills and four parachutes. However, the pilot later noticed that the rear suitcase had been opened and Cooper was nowhere to be found. Neither the money nor Cooper was ever discovered, but in 1980, a boy found a package of decomposed $20 bills along the Columbia River, matching the serial numbers of the ransom money.
If Cooper did survive the jump, he would have fallen about 10,000 feet in subzero darkness. The FBI has over 1,000 suspects in the case, including master skydiver and felon Ted Braden, paratrooper Kenneth Peter Christiansen, and leather worker Lynn Doyle Cooper. But even with the new evidence, the true identity of DB Cooper remains a mystery, and the case file is still 40 feet long. Maybe one day, someone will come forward and solve this enduring enigma.
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