It looks as if the man known as D.B. Cooper – the legendary criminal who hijacked a USA passenger plane, extorted $200,000 in ransom and parachuted to an uncertain fate – may have gotten away with it. Calling the investigation one of the longest and most exhaustive in the agency’s history, the FBI Seattle field office said in an email that it was time to focus on other cases. If you hear any loud parties it is probably the party DB Cooper is having with Elvis and the REAL Paul McCartney. At one point on the show “Mad Men”, it was even speculated that fictional adman Don Draper would end up being D.B. Cooper. In 2011, the agency reviewed its files again after a woman came forward claiming to be Cooper’s niece; it was a cold lead.
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After landing in Seattle, Cooper allowed 36 passengers to leave the plane in exchange for cash and several parachutes.
The FBI said they have investigated more than 100 persons of interest, trying to find the middle-age man who captivated the country with his dramatic hijacking and escape more than four decades ago. Other tipsters have pointed to a French-language comic book series based on a fictional paratrooper named “Dan Cooper” that may have been the inspiration behind the fake identity. But of course, they would want us to believe that Cooper was dead, and not that they’d let him slip away, right? Handing a stewardess a note saying he had a bomb and flashing a suitcase full of wires, he demanded $200,000 in ransom money and parachutes.
He was never found, but a boy digging on a Columbia River beach in 1980 discovered three bundles of weathered $20 bills almost $6,000 in all.
“Diving into the wilderness without a plan, without the right equipment, in such awful conditions, he probably never even got his chute open”, Carr said in 2007.
At the time, the Seattle Times reported, Carr was renewing his plea for new information in the case, possibly with the help of technology.
None of the bills he was given appeared to make it into circulation, except for $6,000 in cash that washed up near the Columbia River.
“Although the Federal Bureau of Investigation appreciated the vast number of tips provided by members of the public, none to date have resulted in a definitive identification of the hijacker”, the FBI’s latest statement says.
These have included theories about the crime and tips about individuals who closely match the description of the perpetrator.
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However, the FBI said that in case any “specific physical evidence” emerges in the 45-year-old hijacking case, dubbed NORJAK investigation, they would investigate it.
