The Story and the Mystery
Cooper, whose name is believed to be tied to a name on a credit card found on the aircraft seat, parachuted out of the plane with $200,000 in ransom money. He then disappeared.
Cooper had a letter stating that he did not want his hijacking to escalate into a shoot-out, so he planned to let the money drop in Seattle and fly off into the sunset. He had a plan to meet a friend at a McDonald's near the White House.
This friend turned out to be Washington state Senator Roger Walcott who asked the FBI to help. The FBI tracked Cooper's phone calls, interviewed family and friends, and even checked out the story of a postal worker who witnessed a man in a brown coat escaping a DC military aircraft at Dulles International Airport.
What We Know
After collecting a $200,000 ransom, D. B. Cooper absconded with the money and flew the plane to Mexico. For years, the only real clue was the mysterious note left by the hijacker on board, including the famous line, "I need five parachutes.
There is a bomb on board; whether it goes off before we drop or not is in the hands of God. I don't have time to explain more; if you agree to my terms, you may carry on with your lives."
After the FBI was unable to identify the hijacker, the mystery of D.B. Cooper began to unravel. Investigators probed theories for years until interest in the case waned. However, the significance of the case has only started to resonate again in the modern age.
Where Did He Go?
The flight took off from Portland International Airport at 12:40 p.m. and landed at Seattle's Sea-Tac airport at 3:30 p.m. D. B. Cooper boarded the Boeing 727 with two parachutes and a suitcase containing $200,000.
He exited the plane over the Canadian border at 8:30 p.m. with the ransom money. He left a note in the middle of the night for investigators who have never publicly disclosed any clues about the hijacker's identity. D. B. Cooper was the subject of an FBI public appeal on November 27, 1971.
There are over 10,000 pages of documents from the Cooper investigation, and many aspects of the hijacking remain unexplained. Were D. B. Cooper and the Navy the Same Man? Though it is doubtful, D. B. Cooper and Leonard "Red" Reddington might have been the same men.
Where Did the Money Go?
There are a few theories as to why he decided to hijack the aircraft. The most commonly accepted is that he wanted to be a hero. Most of the money was never accounted for, making him likely to be a target for cops.
Did He Want to "Bring the World Together"? Another theory posits that he didn't want to be caught because he had a story to tell. That may not have been what he had in mind.
Conclusion
For more than four decades, the D. B. Cooper case has proven challenging to crack. The investigation was made difficult because the hijacker's eventual physical identity remains unknown, and there is no way to identify him positively. Also, he never demanded any money or requested a specific destination.
The reason for this lack of demand is not known, but it has spawned many conspiracy theories. One of the most popular theories posits that D. B. Cooper was a man, dubbed John Doe, who was not aware he was going to die.
The theory says that John Doe, perhaps a mentally challenged young man, could hijack the aircraft and pilot it to an unguarded landing strip before parachuting to safety and vanishing into the night sky.
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