Adeptus Ridiculous - D.B. COOPER: THE GREAT AMERICAN MYSTERY

Episode Date: April 1, 2022

https://www.patreon.com/AdeptusRidiculoushttps://www.adeptusridiculous.com/https://twitter.com/AdRidiculoushttps://orchideight.com/https://www.collectiblesquids.com/ code: ADRICD. B. Cooper is a media epithet used to refer to an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in United States airspace on the afternoon of November 24, 1971. The aircraft was operated by Northwest Orient Airlines and was flying from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington. The hijacker extorted $200,000 in ransom (equivalent to $1,278,000 in 2020), asked to be flown to Reno, Nevada, then parachuted to an uncertain fate over southwestern Washington part-way through the second flight. A small portion of the ransom was found along the banks of the Columbia River in 1980, which triggered renewed interest but ultimately only deepened the mystery; the great majority of the ransom remains unrecovered. The man purchased his airline ticket using the alias Dan Cooper but, because of a news miscommunication, became known in popular culture as D. B. Cooper.Support the show

Welcome, everyone, to another episode of... You know, actually, we have a big change on the horizon because, I don't know. Warhammer 40K kind of cringe. Honestly, kind of cringe. So we've actually decided to just scrap all of it. The whole Warhammer 40K thing, we're getting rid of it. And instead, we're doing true crime and alien discussion. podcasts. Been workshopping a little bit of a name.

Been workshop. Oh, also ghosts. Been workshopping a little bit of a name. I think instead of Adeptus Ridiculous, we could be like truly ridicimeless. Rolls right off the tongue. What the fuck is this? What? It's just, this is what we're doing now, man. This is what we're doing. Adeptus detecticus for one. Ooh, that's good. Dude. That's not.

When you told me to fucking get up this morning for an April Fool's episode, you couldn't have at least done like Sigma or something? You had to go... Sigmar. No. No. Warhammer in general is so cringe, dude. That is the truest thing you've said so far.

It's so cringe. Just leave all that behind, dude. Why are we doing true crime? Because it's fun and it's interesting. And today's particular episode, it happened. This happened. It's a thing that happened. It's not some fake little, you know, tall glass of slanesh, big boobed alien, wifu, blue, tau bullshit.

This happened. It's a real thing. You don't know. You don't know if that's not going to happen or not, okay? Well, that's true. What happens in the 40,000? We have many years to find out. That's true.

We do have many, many years to find out. But this stuff is already, we know this stuff has happened, but there's just some mystery and intrigue to it. Thought you'd like a change of pace, you know? I'm not ready for today. I'm operating on low sleep post-alcohol hangover, and I'm going to be assaulted by the census by D.K.'s true crime. Oh, yeah.

Well, in all fairness, I was only given three days to do this, so not necessarily the foremost. expert, but I'm gonna do my goddamn best. All right, D.K. Yeah. Give me the fucking true crime and ghosts. So normally we'd start this with a quote, but there aren't really a whole lot of quotes to give. Wow, you couldn't even reach my level?

Well, not yet, all right? All right? Like, I've only had three days to get on your level. That's not a lot of time, man. So, anyway. What? What? What?

What? What? I only have a week between episodes. Yeah, I had half the time you did. They give me half a quote. Um, hmm. How's about, um, um, um, uh, Hey, stewardess, I have a bomb.

That's, that's about as good as I can do for you. But that's, that's about as good as I can say. What the fuck? What the fuck? Not an actual quote. I'm just assuming that that was probably something. Who has the bomb? Exactly.

But you know it's on a plane. Okay. Are we talking about like a bomber on a plane? Is that our true crime? More or less. Oh my God. More or less. Oh my God.

Any guesses? The shoe bomber? No. It's D.B. Cooper. Who's that? Who's that? Who's that? Educate me.

I am... I am so glad you asked Houdi, because we're going to go over one of the only unsolved air piracy hijackings in history. American history, because I don't know what's going on in other countries and stuff, but D.B. Cooper. So, you ready for this? I was born not ready. I have a good chunk of stuff, so. Actually?

Yeah, actually. I actually look some stuff up, bro. Listen to some podcasts. I have stuff. You've done more work than me. Oh, man, I'm already past your level and I didn't even have a quote. It's been a long year. Anyway, so we are going back to November 24, 1971, the night before thing.

Thanksgiving. There's a nondescript man in his 40s with a black briefcase wearing a business suit, overcoat, black clip on tie, and a white shirt. He buys a one-way ticket on flight 305, which is specifically a Boeing 727-100. The plane? The type of plane is actually really important, but we'll talk about that later. This flight is going from Portland International Airport to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The man identifies himself as Dan Cooper and pays in all cash. And in the 70s, that's not a cause for alarm. You could just buy a ticket, all cash, no ID.

You could give them any name you felt like. They don't check this shit and get yourself on a plane. They don't check his bags either, because again, it's 1970. They don't do this shit yet. But if they did check his bag, this would have been a really sure. short episode. So, Dan Cooper is sitting in seat 18C. He lights

up a cigarette and orders a bourbon and soda. Nineteen 70s were a hell of a time. God damn. The 70s were fucking cool. Damn it. You could get on a plane and just light up, hit me with a bourbon and soda. Nobody asks any questions. Completely normal. It seems

like he's certainly going to light something up. Well, I mean, I don't want to jump the gun. That's actually not a pun. There's nothing to do with guns. Oh, I was going to say, does he also have a gun? No, he has no gun. He has no gun.

Just this kind of nondescript, normal-looking dude. Just your average. Just imagine any businessman from the 70s. Congratulations. Looks like Dan Cooper. Even with the sort of skinny black clip on tie. This is very nondescript. And the bomb.

Well, you don't know that yet. You only know that he has a black briefcase. You're right. He is a normal man. I am not familiar. How dare? How dare you? Anyway, shortly after takeoff, Cooper would slip a note to a flight attendant named Florence Schaffner,

who easily has the most 70s name I've ever heard in my life. And at this point, Schaffner kind of assumes like, oh, God, this businessman is handing a note. Dude, I'm not going to have sex with you. Go back to your drink. and she kind of just ignores the note until Cooper kind of leans over to her and is like, hey, um, you might want to give that note maybe a quick look because it's, you know. And according to Schaffner, the note basically said, he has a bomb and she needs to sit next to him right now. Nobody really knows the exact wording of it because Schaffner was super panicked.

And because Dan Cooper took him. back the notes so there wouldn't be any physical evidence, there wouldn't be a handwriting sample, you know, he didn't want to leave any, he didn't want to leave a paper trail. So Schaffner sits next to Cooper and asks if she could see the bomb. She wants

to see it, she wants to know that it's real. So Cooper opens up his briefcase and there's just this mess of red wires, batteries, and red cylinders. Sort of like the stereotypical image of a bomb you'd expect to see

on like cartoons or something. Something that fucking wide. The one with a little like little numpad in the center and like a big tube. Oh yeah. Like a big clock and everything. You know, that's sort of just stereotypical image.

And I imagine at this point a lot of people be like that's so fake. What the fuck? But who's going to roll the dice in this situation? Who in their right mind could conceivably see something that is probably a bomb and you're told as a

bomb and be like, yeah, bet? No, you, you have to assume at this point that it's the real deal and just go with whatever the hijacker wants as your best chance of survival. So Cooper makes his demands known to Schaffner who has to relay the information to the captain, William A. Scott, because again, Cooper doesn't want to talk to the captain. He doesn't want to write anything down. So Schaffner and another flight attendant are sort of like his little liaisons that'll go and tell the captain and the crew everything he wants.

So he wants $200,000, which might not sound like a good enough ransom. Inflation. Exactly. By today's standards, that is $1.2 million. And he wants it in negotiable American currency, and he wants four parachutes, which kind of comes into play later. So after Schaffner relays this to the cockpit, they immediately contact Seattle to coma air traffic control, who in turn contact the FBI. Because I guess from a plane, you probably can't immediately contact the FBI herself.

And then when Chavner returned, for some reason, Cooper was wearing these really dorky, like, wrap around your head black sunglasses. Like, if you've ever seen a picture of Dan Cooper, you've ever seen, like, the police composites, these things are so dorky. I don't know why anyone on the planet would put them on. Although, I guess. Wait, wait, what was it? Dan Cooper glasses.

Yeah, it looks really stupid. Oh my God, they're enormous. Yeah, they're enormous. And Shai just posted a picture of like the composite sketch. He's the most normal-ass-looking 1970s person on the planet. This is literally like the parts you see an American psycho where all the businessmen get mixed up on their names because they look fucking identical.

Exactly. That's exactly how this feels like. Exactly. So also, at the time, the rest of the plane, which is like a third full anyway, they weren't even told there was a hijacker on the plane. They didn't know there was a dude with a bomb ransoming off the plane. All they were told is that there would be a delay due to minor technical or minor mechanical difficulty,

when in reality they were circling Puget Sound for two hours waiting for the ransom money and the parachutes to be gathered. Damn. Two hours. Two hours. Well, it takes a lot of time to get all that money. So two hours around Puget Sound. And during this time, one of the other flight attendants, her name is Tina Mucklow, noted that Cooper was surprisingly calm. He wasn't a panicked mess of nerves.

The dude, Dan Cooper ordered another round of drinks. And even though he was hijacking the plane for $200,000, he still paid his drink tab. What a, what an, you know what, what an upstanding, Joe. I'm sure nothing bad will happen to this man and karma will be good to him. Oh, absolutely. But it's like, how often do you hear about a plain hijacking, which actually in the 70s was like really common because they don't have a ton of security?

And the guy, don't like most serial killers and shit though, aren't they like super fucking calm sociopaths? Like, they're always just really leveled and mellow, which is why they were so hard to catch. I guess so, but I feel like in the 1970s, like, there were, like I said, there were a lot of hijackings back in the day. And, like, the stereotypical image were like these hardened, like, psychopaths or, like, Cuban defectors that were trying to get back home or something like that. So they had, like, this stereotype of being, like, these fucking wild and crazy hijackers. So I guess it seemed a little unusual that he was so calm. He also made sure that meals were ordered for the crew when they actually made their stop off in Seattle to get the money.

Oh, they landed. Yeah, they actually do end up landing because he has to get the money and he has to get his parachutes and then they're going to take off again. So that's like his big plan is he's going to get the money, He's going to get the shoots, and then they're going to take off again, and he's going to, you know, fly to safety. Anyway. So, uh, Tina Mucklow specifically told investigators later that he, he wasn't nervous. He seemed rather-

Remind me who Tina Mucklow was again? Oh, she's just one of the other flight attendants that was sort of ferrying messages to the captain on Cooper's behalf. Not Florence in the machine. No, not Florence in the machine. All right, good, good, good. But yeah, she told investigators that Cooper wasn't nervous. He seemed rather nice. He was never cruel or nasty.

And he was thoughtful and calm all the time. So pretty, like, aside from the hijacking, pretty nice guy. You know, aside from the whole bomb threat thing. This is why there are Ted Bundy apologists. I'm sure there are a lot of DB Cooper apologists, too. So it was also clear to Tina Munkloh that Cooper was shockingly familiar with the area. Like, from his seat on the plane, he looked down out the window and was like, oh, yeah, that looks like Tacoma down there. And then he properly mentioned that McCord Air Force Base was a 20-minute drive from the airport.

So he really knew the surrounding area. You're okay? Sorry. Sorry. I'm allergic to good storytelling. Great job, D.K. Keep it up. Thanks, buddy. Thanks. Notice how I'm never sick during our episodes. Oh, wow, you son up. Self burn. Bam. Boom. Bing bong. I'm sorry, he was familiar with the area. He could tell where they were from his seat on the plane. Just looking out the window. He knew where they were.

Dang. Yeah. And Mucklow at one point asked if Cooper had a grudge against the... their airline specifically, which was northwestern orient or something. Um, and he said, I don't have a grudge against your airline, miss. I just have a grudge. Interesting. So there was a motivation to something. There was some sort of motivation.

But at this point, we don't know. And he talked in a southern drawl. No, I just thought that was the proper voice to get on. Don. As far as we know, he was just like, I don't have a grudge against your airline, miss. I just have a grudge. Was he sound like fucking Deltrian?

He's like, I don't have a grudge against your airline. Cease interrupting. Probably something like that, yeah. Yep. So when his demands are finally met, the plane can land at Seattle Tacoma. And Cooper makes sure that all the window shades are closed in case there are snipers trying to look in and pick him off, which pretty big brain move because there are totally snipers trying to pick him off.

So the parachute, parachutes and money in 10,000 unmarked 20s, which I don't know why he wanted 10,000 unmarked 20s. I don't know why any hijacker wants the specific amount of 20s that they want. That's just what he wanted. Easier to spend? Because there's no way to give 100 to a store to like check it and make sure all. stuff like 20s are a lot less suspicious. Oh, that could be. I hadn't thought about that.

It would be a lot easy to spend 20s. Yeah, because you give a 20 to a store, but if I'm getting a fucking, if I'm getting a goddamn Apple at midnight for definitely health reasons and nothing else, and I give them 100, they're going to be super sus. A little suss. Okay, that's fair.

Let's go with that. That's good. All right. That's good. And the money had been microfilmed. The serial numbers were documented. so if any of this money got spent, they would probably know about it. But all of this was picked up by Tina Mucklow via the aft stairs.

Those aft stairs are very, very important later. And all of this stuff was finally delivered to Cooper. So Cooper was actually given the choice of a couple of parachutes that he could take. and he he picked an interesting couple of parachutes. One of the parachutes he picked had an X on it to signify that it was a training parachute. And what I mean by it's a training parachute is it's a dummy. The shoot is just sewn shut.

It doesn't open. He doesn't seem like a dumb man. He just, maybe he just doesn't know parachutes and he doesn't know what a dummy shoot looks like. What? So... Hmm. Okay. He also managed to pick a military shoot.

And until looking up all this stuff, I didn't know that there was a difference between a civilian parachute and military parachute. Apparently, you can't steer a military parachute. That's just not a thing they do, because I guess they would be worried that maybe you'd be like, oh, combat's down there. Let's get away. So, yeah, I wasn't aware of that. That's some Soviet Union-ass shit. What the hell? What if you get dropped off in the wrong spot or the wind takes you?

Shit out of luck, I guess. Apparently, you can't steer a military parachute. This was in the 70s. It could just be that those were the old paratrooper shoots that were just the big circling ones and just like goes down. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's probably what it is. Maybe.

I don't know. We have a lot of fans in the military. Maybe they could tell us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We need some military brats or just military service people to tell us about that. What's the difference?

What's the difference? Because like by today's standard, surely if you're a paratro, you can, you know, aim that shit. But in the 1970s, apparently, you can't steer it. It's also believed that he asked for four parachutes because he wanted everybody

to believe that he was going to take a hostage with him. And so they wouldn't give him faulty stuff because if he does jump and he takes a hostage with him, You don't want to risk the life of the hostage. See, that's super smart, which is like, which makes me think they took the training one, like, as a joke or like he had a purpose. I don't know. Keep talking this. I'm very invested in this. But it's kind of ironic that he was like, ooh, I want to make sure they don't give me faulty stuff. And then the shoots he chose for himself were very poor choices.

So I kind of, kind of evened itself out. But once Cooper's demands had been met, I guess this was the bargain. once he gets to stuff, he would allow all of the passengers and Florence Schaffner to be released, only keeping the necessary members of the crew to fly the plane and Tina Mucklow. Tina Mucklow stayed as well. And in doing research for this, I listened to the Stuff You Should Know podcast. I mentioned this because I couldn't find this little anecdote anywhere else, but I trust their research team. But according to them, Cooper offered to give Mucklow some of the ransom money, I'm assuming because she's

was pretty helpful. She was passing off his demands to the cockpit. Um, but when he offered her the money, she had the most Chad response ever. When offered the money, she simply said, no tipping allowed. Damn. Damn. What a fucking boss. Holy shit. What a baller. What a Chad thing to do. So like in the, all this shit and she's like, I, uh, I, I, sweetie, no tipping. I'm like, God damn. What a fucking queen. Right?

What a beast. What a beast. I had to put the... Even though I couldn't find a specific notation, I had to put it in. The FAA also tried to arrange a face-to-face meeting with Cooper, but for all intents and purposes, his response was lull, la Mao. Uh-uh. Yeah. Yeah, I think he wasn't going to take any part of that.

It should, like I've mentioned before, none of the crew, captain, co-pilot, or anyone ever actually spoke directly with Cooper. All of his demands and instructions were passed on via Schaffner or Mucklow, and the pen messages were never in his handwriting. He was super careful to try not to leave any fingerprints. And really the only time that he got even a little bit upset, or it seemed like he got, upset was when the refueling of the plane, so they could take off again and whatever, was going, it was going a little slower than he liked. So we sent a note up to the crew that just said, let's get this show on the road. And that's, that's angry Dan Cooper right there. That is, that is the mad variant. Well, I don't know. I would assume the mad variant is the one

with the thing off the bomb, but there's also that, damn. Yep. Um, so, actually, I bet though, do we think that let's get the show in the road was more slaying to say hurry up back in the 70s though, perhaps? I mean, you got to assume it is the 70s. They're not going to swear. They're not going to curse, really. That wasn't that popular of a thing back there, right? Well, I don't know about that one, but the hippie movement just came around. Oh, that's fair.

The late 60s and all, ah, whatever. That's fair. But it could be it. Let's get the show in the road. Let's get the show on the road means one or two things. Either like, let's hurry up or let's get started. Yeah. All right.

But even though he hadn't been, like, contacting much with the crew, he kind of had to speak with the crew because he had a flight plan from here on out. He had a very specific way that he wanted this plane to take off and where he wanted it to go. He wanted to head towards Mexico City at the minimum speed they could go without stalling. and at a max of 10,000 altitude. Now, I think it should be pretty obvious why he wants these specific things, but, if it wasn't obvious,

he also wanted to make sure that the landing gears were down, the whole flight, the cabin remained unpressurized, and that the wing flaps be lowered 15 degrees, and, most importantly, he wanted to make sure those aft stairs that were only on a Boeing 727-1-H1-H1. remained lower during and after takeoff. Okay, so you just threw a lot, you just threw a lot of come at me,

so let me see if I can catch it. So 727 has the stairs, so basically the reason he has it slow and unpressurized is so that he could easily jump from it, obviously. I'm not sure what the wing flaps being down means. I would assume that just puts less pressure. on the plane or something. Makes it easy to jump out

or puts more drag on it so it has to go even slower. I don't know. Less speed is obvious. The height is obvious. So basically the entire point is make the plane go slow and low and the stairs are out

because then if it's pressurized and you open the door, the thing goes and it flies away. So you can basically walk down the stairs and then jump off like it's stairway to heaven or hell. Pretty much. Why the landing gear?

I'm not really sure why the landing gear That's just one of the things they always mentioned Whenever I looked anything up is one of the things he wanted That landing gear down The unpressurized thing The slow speed Oh the landing gear down also slows down Well I guess it would slow down the plane wouldn't it

But he specifically said slow as you can do without stalling That's true so you would assume that you would Yeah Whatever All right continue This guy this guy thought the shit out He really did couple problems that the crew noted when they were given all of these details.

One, the range of the plane, they were like, well, okay, so we need to stop somewhere before we reach Mexico City because, man, we just don't have enough fuel to get to Mexico City, because they were still apparently completely oblivious to what he was planning to do. So they actually discussed, Cooper discussed with the crew, where to stop and refuel. And I have to believe this was the most whatever conversation Cooper ever engaging. Just whatever. Just go somewhere. It doesn't matter if you just, ugh. So they agreed to stop and refuel in Reno when they needed to. Second problem, or third problem, or whatever problem we're on, is that it was decided it was far too dangerous to take off with the aft stairs lowered.

You just couldn't do it, too dangerous. you might hurt the ship, or ship, you might hurt the plane, you might hurt the crew that's still in there. So they decided that Tina Mucklow would just teach Cooper how to use the aft stairs, and he would just do it midair. So, again, it's pretty obvious what he's trying to do. He wants these aft stairs down. He's like, okay, fine, if I can't take off with it, I'll just lower it when we're in the air. So 727 takes off, and at this point the only people on board are, the captain, the first officer, the flight engineer, Cooper, and Tina Mucklow.

They did have a couple of, I think it's F106 fighters tailing above and below them. I assume that they would have some jets on them, yeah. Also, the flight attendant lady, Florence and the machine is gone. Yeah, Florence and the machine got off with the other passengers. Oh, all right. Well, at least Tina's around because she's a fucking Chad. Yeah, Tina's still around to sort of help with any sort of last minute relaying of messages that Cooper might need and, you know. But there wasn't a whole lot the fighters could do.

I mean, the crew's still on board with Cooper. He still assumed to have a bomb. I can't imagine anybody's going to give the order to just blow this passenger plane out of the air. Also, the weather conditions on this night were pretty bad. It was cloudy, it was rainy, and it was very cold. So visibility real bad. So once they're in the air, Cooper tells Mucklow to head to the cockpit and keep that curtain closed. I don't want you to see what I'm up to back here. Nobody gets to see. And not long after, there is an indicator in the cockpit that's like, hey, those upstairs are being lowered.

And the captain calls back to Cooper on the cabin phone. He's like, hey, you need help back there? there's some, we're getting some weird readings up there. And, uh, the only response from Cooper was he picked up the phone and just said, no. That's all he's, no. This guy. This guy, right? This fucking guy.

And that is the last time that anyone ever heard from Cooper. As the crew noticed a significant change in air pressure and a sudden sort of upward, uh, uh, movement from the tail section Cooper just up and jumped out the goddamn plane and would never be seen again never again

never again he would never be seen again he's come he completely got away with it well that that so that depends right that depends um so when the plane landed in Reno

the afstairs still open and rattling around and juttering around as they land. The police, local sheriffs, FBI, all of the king's men were waiting for this plane to land. They obviously didn't immediately charge into the plane because who the fuck knows if Cooper is still there? Does he still have the bomb? Did he hide a bomb on the plane to detonate

after he was a certain distance away? Who knows? So once the captain went back and confirmed that Cooper and the bomb were no longer, on the plane. The FBI charged in, and they did a very thorough, like, half hour sweep to confirm that the Cooper bomb wasn't there, and there were no hidden bombs, and everything was safe. So there was, even though there was no sign of Cooper, the bomb, or the money, there were a few pieces of evidence left. Cooper actually did leave a few fingerprints, although I say a few,

it was something like 60 fingerprints they actually found. He left his clip on top. He left his clip on top. which I'm not sure why he bothered taking that off, but whatever. Two of the four parachutes, since he used the sewn shut... He actually jumped with the reserve shoot as the sewn shut one and the military one as his primary, and they found a couple hairs on the headrest he was sitting at. So that's... So basically the exact things you would find from a regular person going on a regular flight.

Yeah, basically all of the normal things that a normal person would leave behind because he wasn't writing notes. The one note that he did write to Florence in the machine he took back from her. So they didn't even really have a writing sample of his. So, yeah.

If he never went, if he was never in jail prior to this and they wouldn't have any DNA to like match. Yeah, he I don't even know if they had that in the 70s though. So yeah, they had no record. Yeah. So did he, did he jump over Mexico City or do he jump over Reno? So he actually jumped

over, um, it was actually, it was pretty shortly after the flight took off. So it was around Oregon. Ah, so he knew he wasn't, he knew he wasn't getting there. He's like, if I, if we land in Reno, I'm screwed. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So that, that's why like when they were discussing like, oh yeah, where should we stop and refuel? He was just like, dude, whatever, just take off. I don't give a shit. I don't give a shit. Where you go to? Just go somewhere. Oh, you want to stop in Reno? Sure. Reno. I'm getting off in like 20 minutes. So yeah, other than that, Cooper was never seen again. He was never caught.

And it remains as like one of the only unsolved hijacking air piracy cases. So wait a second. He left the flight from Oregon. It's a flight from Oregon to Seattle. They landed in Seattle and then went back. And then he jumped back out around Oregon. Yeah, something like that. If he just like,

what if he just fucking went home? Could have. I mean, who knows? We just went home. Like, it's in the same state. What if it's, like, all you,

I mean, you have this image of him, sure, but. Yep. It's the 70s. Like, it just went home with this buddy.

Yep. So what would come next was one of the most exhaustive FBI searches ever. It came to be known as Norjack, which was short for the northwestern hijack. King. And first things first. Obviously, I think it should be clear at this point, Dan Cooper was a fake name. Yeah, yeah, obviously. Yeah, like we said earlier, in the 70s, you didn't have to present any sort of formal

identification to buy a plane ticket and board a plane. You showed up, you could tell them whatever name you want, pay for your ticket, didn't even get your bag, didn't get your baggage check for tampering. But after the Cooper hijacking, it would become pretty commonplace for bags to be searched for tampering and actually be put through an x-ray. Actually, the ID thing didn't start to become popular until like fairly recently.

Like, you didn't have to do IDs until like 2005 or something. Oh, so the D.V. Cooper thing is what started the bag scan. I always thought it was post-9-11 stuff. Nope, that was good old coop. That was our boy coop. I always assumed that all the horrible shaves deal with

at the airport is post-9-11 stuff. So that's interesting. That's fair. And that fucking shoe bomber douchebag makes you take off your fucking shoes every time, bitch. But back to the fake name, Dan Cooper. Now, most people know this as the DB Cooper heist, right?

So you're probably wondering, well, why the fuck is it called DB Cooper, like, DB Cooper case when this is Dan Cooper? Where'd the B? Where'd that B come from? Well, during the investigation, they decided that one of the ways they could maybe find out, or maybe find him was he was using his real name or a prior alias that he had used before for a heist or something like that.

And they were suspect of someone named D.B. Cooper. I think he was like a jewel thief or something or like a cat burglar. And he had this record and they were investigating him. And there were like a couple of police officers that were talking about. They're like, oh yeah, you know, There is a D.B. Cooper that we're thinking could be a suspect. And there was just some journalist that happened to hear them talking about it and just misunderstood. He thought that D.B. Cooper, they were like, oh, yeah, D.B. Cooper is the actual pseudonym for the hijacker.

And he didn't realize that it was just a potential suspect that the police had already eliminated. The mistake that this journalist made was then republished. several more times and wham everybody knows it as the DB Cooper heist because some journalists just fucked up heard the wrong thing published the mistake everybody republished

it you know so often whenever I hear about these true crime things and it's like how did they get away with it 90% of the time it's like police incompetence or some bullshit like this that just derails the entire goddamn case it's always incompetence from like law enforcement so fucking aggravating

Although, I mean, to be fair, this was more the journalist, right? Because the police were just like, you know, we're looking, we're looking everywhere we possibly can. We're trying. We're just, we're casting a wide net. And this journalist was just like, ah, you know, I've got deadlines coming up. I got to get, I got a scoop. I got a scoop. Also, this isn't the first time.

I guess, but like, they should not be taking the journalist's word on a goddamn investigation of a fucking plane bomber. Probably not. Also, this is not going to be the last example of some maybe journalists jumping the gun trying to get a scoop. There's another pretty funny example, actually. Anyway. Wait, it's still involving this case, though, right? Oh, yes, yes, yes. Still this case.

Okay, okay. So they decided to try to figure out or to sort of tighten the area where Dan Cooper could have landed. They wanted to recreate the events of that night. So they got themselves a 200-pound sled, and they just recreated the events. They pushed the sled off, and the search area ended up being a few miles southeast of Ariel, Washington, near some artificial lake. And despite their best efforts and exhaustive searches, including door-to-door searches of local farm houses and some air sweeps, nothing. They found no trace of Cooper or the money in that area. This little sled experiment also proved that Cooper didn't like burn up in the engine's exhaust.

Because some people would be like, oh, well, if he jumped, shouldn't the engines have fucked with him or sucked him in or burned him alive or something? No, the sled just dropped like a ton of bricks. So, yeah. So it is, it is completely plumbed. plausible that he jumped and was just, you know, he just jumped. And he did his parachute, and he, because the Jets couldn't keep up with that parachute, they're going to fly right past his ass. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was also really bad visibility.

So the chances that they could even see him were probably pretty slim. Also, in an effort to find the ransom money, which was microfilmed and had specific serial numbers, This is more journalistic prowess. The FBI released the serial numbers to establishments that could see large sums of money pass through, mostly places that, you know, casinos, racetracks, gambling halls, stuff like that. And Northwest Orient offered up to $25,000

as a reward to anyone that could recover the money or potentially help them recover the money, which kind of backfired on them, more specifically, it backfired on a Newsweek reporter. There was an incident where two guys got some counterfeit money that they printed Cooper Ransom numbers on. They offered it to a Newsweek reporter, Carl Fleming, and an interview with someone they falsely claimed was the hijacker for the low, low price of $30,000.

Oh, my God. And Carl Fleming agreed. read to this exclusive deal, and the two actually conned him out of $30,000 for the bogus counterfeit money and interview. Oh, okay, smart? Okay, smart. But Jesus. Yeah, but don't worry.

The two guys, they were caught. They were charged with impersonating a hijacker and extortion of Carl Fleming, and I'm pretty sure he got all his money back, and the two just ended up rotting. prison. So they didn't technically get away with it, but the fact that they had the balls, the balls to try something like that is... That's one of those things where it's so outlandish that they're probably like there's no way they'll think we're lying because it would be so crazy if we did. Yeah. But at some point you had to realize you were going to get just absolutely, you know.

Yeah, I mean, and they did, so... Yeah. In 1978, there were some hunters in Oregon. They were in the woods, and they found a placard. That sort of metal sign that was attached to the plane that had instructions on how to operate the aft stairs. So they actually found a little piece of Cooper history. Didn't really lead to anything because it could have blown in from anywhere. It was on the flight path anyway.

It didn't lead to anything new, but it sparked a whole shitload of new interest. in the D.B. Cooper case, because surprisingly, at this time, people kind of just forgot about it. You know, it's like, oh, yeah, there was that heist where some dude got away and he jumped out the plane. Nothing ever came of it.

And this sort of renewed a little interest in it. And then on February 10th, 1980, there's a boy named Brian Ingram. He was digging a fire pit, fire pit, fire pit. Fire pit. Fire pita. Mmm, love it. Mmm, delicious.

Mediterranean food. He was digging a fire pit on a beach in Vancouver, Washington. And while digging this fire pit, he stumbled upon a sack of actual Cooper ransom money. The money has, it was in pretty rough shape. It was deteriorated. It was rotting. It somehow, the rubber bands hadn't deteriorated, though. So even though it was in kind of rough shape, still, you know, still, you know.

But when Ingram's father called the authorities, who then, called the FBI, because who just has the number of the FBI rolling around, they were able to confirm that they were indeed part of the ransom money. They got the serial numbers, or most of the serial numbers, a good chunk of the serial numbers. Shai just posted a picture of what this deteriorated rotten money looks like. It looks like trash. It's in pretty rough shape. You're not going to be spending that.

So it's the Cooper money. And fun fact, Brian Ingram, who found it, he was allowed to keep. some of the money that he found. I think reports say that they like literally split the money, like the FBI kept half of it because, you know, we should hold on to some of it. And Brian Ingram was allowed to keep half of it because, hey, good job finding it, kiddo. In 2008, Brian Ingram actually auctioned off people think it was around 15 of these bills, these deteriorated rotten bills and uh how much

how much did you get he got thirty eight thousand dollars for it what a fucking chad good job dude knowing exactly what to do with that stuff exactly the right decision good job yeah he held on to it like you can look up pictures of it he there are pictures of him holding it and he put it in these

really nice cases for authentication and it was 38,000 dollars good for you from maybe from what might have been $3,000 worth of bills turned it into $38 grand. Good for him. Good job.

God damn, good job. Yeah. And normally finding this money would have been a super good thing. Big clue. Big revelations. This is where the money is. We're on the right track. We've got a new area to search. Unfortunately, it kind of did the exact opposite

because this money, it was found nowhere near where they thought Cooper should have landed. It was like 20 miles south of where they thought their search area was. And nobody's confirmed exactly how it got there, but the best I've heard is that it was probably in a lake in the initial search area, or at least close to the search area they had, but that lake flooded and was like dredged,

and so the money kind of just just kind of crashed out from that spot all the way down to Vancouver, Washington apparently. So... Damn, okay.

Didn't really help figure out what the hell happened to a good old coop. And in all the time they spent investigating DB Cooper, it's believed that there were like over 800 somewhat serious

suspects that were ruled out. For some reason, a lot of people confess to being D.B. Cooper on their deathbed. They wanted the, they wanted the notoriety. They wanted that last bit of notoriety before going out. Yeah, yeah. They wanted to be like, I'm about to die anyway, so like, I was the guy the whole time. I'm the, I'm the master, the master manipulator. It was me, Austin.

It was me all along, Austin. And a lot of these they were able to debunk because they had his age, they had his appearance. So they could be like, yeah, dude, you just, you don't match up. Like your age doesn't match up with how old D.B. Cooper would have been. You don't look anything like him. So in 2016, the investigation was announced suspended, stating that their resources were just... 2016. They hadn't found him.

They never found him. and they would still take tips, you know, after two of that, they'd still be like, oh, you can still send in tips, but like, this thing is closed. Like, it's been this long. We haven't found out shit. Our resources are better used on other cases. And the most common belief on the fate of Dan Cooper is simply he didn't survive the jump. And that there was almost no way he could survive the jump, which it's a fairly reasonable thing. to think when you look at it. Um, I mean, Cooper very clearly was no expert when it came to skydiving. He picked a fucking training shoot and a shoot that you couldn't steer. Uh, he was also just horribly dressed for such a, for such a crazy jump. He had on loafers, a business suit,

and a basic overcoat. When he jumped out of that plane, it would have been, 15 degrees, pitch black, cloudy with near no visibility, freezing rains, and he'd be jumping into heavily forested areas. That jump is wild, even for someone that knows what they're doing with the proper equipment. And Cooper, who seemed like, they thought maybe he had some military training because he knew about the aft stairs and like, nobody knew about the aft stairs unless you were like really into planes, or maybe you had like served in Vietnam. or something. But he was no skydiver.

And unless he had someone waiting for him at the exact location he was going to land with aid and was a pro skydiver, it is really, really unlikely that he survived. Oh, go ahead. But I actually like the military angle of this thing, though. I mean, the possibility that he could have known because he served in Vietnam,

which is the reason he took the military training shoot, because he was more familiar with it could certainly make sense the idea that he just straight died on the way down is extremely fucking boring and I is one of the few situations where I almost wish he just got away with it because that would be cooler

a lot of people kind of share your mindset where it's just like man the balls on this guy I kind of hope he got away with it yeah like no one got hurt no one died. I mean, I'm obviously not defending what the fuck he did, because he did some really fucking terrible shit.

But like, I don't know, the possibility that he just straight up got away with it is kind of an interesting concept. Yeah, and like Shai said, the CIA actually used Boeing 727s in Vietnam to drop off support, drop off AIDS, discreetly drop off agents. So it fits.

and these were the type of people that they were actually looking for when they were looking for suspects, which brings us to one of the more popular suspects that they found, whose name was Richard McCoy Jr. And the reason Richard McCoy Jr. is so popular is because this guy actually staged a copycat hijacking of what Dan Cooper did, but he survived. He survived the jump.

But he was caught? Well, we'll get into that. Okay. Okay. So, McCoy was an army veteran, and he served in Vietnam, which again, kind of lines up. And he was said to have been a very avid and capable skydiver. In his copycat of the Cooper Heist, he boarded United Airlines Flight 855, obviously also a Boeing 727. dash 100 with the same aft stairs, and he boarded this flight in Denver, Colorado.

The heist, of course, being a copycat, was very close to what Cooper did, except McCoy held up the plane with... He had a fake paperweight that apparently looked like a hand grenade and an unloaded handgun. This is what he held the plane up with. Okay. And he did also demand four parachutes, but this time he asked for $500,000 instead of the previous $200,000, which I guess you might as well make a little extra bank if you're going through all the trouble. He also, unfortunately, wrote down in his own handwriting, all the instructions to the pilot on what he wanted them to do. So, once his demands are met, just like D.B. Cooper, he jumped out the plane via the aft stairs while they were flying over Provo, Utah. And he threatened that if anyone followed him or if he spotted any pursuit planes, he would blow up a secret device that he hid inside the plane.

Problem is, McCoy left maybe just a little too much evidence behind. while the FBI were searching for just anything they could use, they found one of the handwritten notes he was using to communicate with the crew. Ah, handwriting. Yeah. Yep, yep. He forgot to take that one note with him, whether it slipped off of him or he just had a brain fart. They found that note.

And as they were doing this investigation, turns out there was a concerned citizen who'd called in like a tip line because he knew someone that was like, hey, yo, I've got this full proof plan for a hijacking. Oh yeah, I've got the goods, I've got the deets, I've got the plan. And who was he calling about?

He was calling about Richard McCoy, Jr. I must say Richard McCoy does look a lot like the sketch of DB, though. They're very similar looking. He does. He fits the description. I mean, obviously a sketch is just from memory and memory is fickle, so I could absolutely see that it looked at the same person. But DB acted too smart to do it again.

I don't know. He was way too clean and crisp. For him to fuck up like that, I don't know. It doesn't sound right. Yeah, it really does. And there are more things that point towards them not being the same person. But we'll get to that. So the FBI obviously bring him in and they want to interrogate him.

And for some reason, McCoy freely offers up his fingerprints, a sample of his handwriting, and he just, of course, he's going to continue to pretend like he was innocent. I'm assuming that Homeboy had no idea they had a sample of his handwriting. Otherwise, why would you give it so willingly? Why would you cooperate so willing? Although I guess if you don't cooperate, it's like, oh, shit, I'm looking pretty sus, bros. Yeah. Yeah.

So not only did they have the writing samples to compare, but they also were able to match his fingerprints from a magazine that he had been reading on the plane. And they actually matched it up with, he served in the military, as we said, he served in Vietnam. So they actually had some fingerprints on like his military file that they could match up. And they're like, yep, that's the guy.

So on April 9th, his home was searched under warrant and, what do you know? They found the money. All, well, almost, all of the money, because apparently, after he survived his daring caper, he bought a milkshake and a $5 ride into town. Oh, yeah, this is no DB Cooper. This guy's an amateur. Yeah. So technically, they only found $499,970. Oh, oh, big spender.

Big spender. That milkshake. And he was sentenced... With $5, but, you know. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And McCoy was then sentenced to 45 years in prison. Ooh. Yeah, a little bit of a sentence. But McCoy actually wouldn't see all 45 years of that sentence because he and some inmates

commandeered a garbage truck and crashed through the front gates to escape. This guy is like a total hick. Yeah. But he was later found in Virginia Beach and he would be killed in a shootout with FBI agents. Ah. Well, you get what's coming to you. Yeah, you kind of do.

You get what you deserve, Murray. Get what you fucking deserve. Now, obviously, everyone is welcome to believe what they want. And I think there are still a lot of people that genuinely believe that Richard McCoy Jr. and Dan Cooper are the same person. There are even a few books out there that are like, yo, yeah, there's no doubt in my mind. This guy was Dan Cooper, no doubt about it. But there are a few counterpoints to be made, and the first kind of big issue was just how avid a skydiver McCoy was.

And most people believe that Cooper was not. Maybe he was in the military, maybe he served in Vietnam, but he was most assuredly not an avid professional skydiver. If they were the same person, there's no way the first go around McCoy picks a dummy shoot and an unsteerable military one. Okay, maybe he picks the military one because he's more familiar with it. No way he picks a dummy shoot. No chance. Also, the FBI, even though that picture looks pretty similar to the sketch, the FBI claimed there was a pretty big mismatch in his age and his description. They also found through a rather

credible source that McCoy was actually he was at home in Utah with his family for Thanksgiving. So he... Yeah, that right there is probably the biggest alibi. Yeah, so he couldn't have performed the Cooper Heist because he was with family and joined Thanksgiving. So,

more than likely, McCoy, just a copycat. He managed to survive a somewhat similar jump. But, yeah, just a copycat. In fairness, he did pull off the same a heist. He just didn't get away with it. Yeah, he basically did pull off the same thing.

Although, I don't remember what the weather conditions were like for McCoy. I'm not sure if it was like low visibility, freezing. I have to assume it was pretty close, though, because they're flying in like the Denver, Utah area, so, I mean, it gets pretty chilly up there.

So it was also because of Dan Cooper and these copycat hijacks that it became standard for the Boeing 727 to be equipped with a sort of like small, simple, aerodynamic, it's kind of like this wedge plate, and it would make opening the aft stairs mid-flight impossible. So basically it's like this little sort of wedge flap thing, and if there's enough air pressure on this wedge, it sort of slides up and slides close, and it blocks the

aft stairs from opening. When the plane lands and the air pressure subsides, the wedge sort of slides back and lets the stairs be opened again. This device is called the Cooper Vane. And that's all I got. And that's and that's where it ends right there. That's where it ends. Nobody's

found him. Nobody knows if he survived. Some knick-knack paddywax have been found. Also, no body. No, only found like 15 of the bills or whatever. Yeah, they found like $5,000 worth of the 20s. That's how much Brian Ingram found.

like $5,270 worth of the $200,000. That's all that was found. Yeah, no, but like, like bones stay for a long time. It's true. Like, like a parachute is big. It doesn't just go away. Yep, yep. I think, I think they found a, like,

they found a parachute that they thought was Cooper's, but then when they analyzed it, it turned out, no, it was, it was not Cooper's. It was from a different hijack. And I think that parachute actually led them to finding the hijacker of a completely separate hijacking. So yeah, they found nothing. Did he survive? Maybe.

Did he die? Possibly. Who knows? Also, there are a shitload more suspects that I didn't mention because, again, I only had three days and there's a fuckload of suspects. But I thought McCoy was kind of the most interesting one. so I thought, you know, that'd be a cool one to sort of end it on and the Cooper vein. And air security was completely changed because Cooper and these sort of copycat hijacks kept using those goddamn stairs.

So, D.K., I am genuinely angry. This was by far a more interesting and exciting episode than anything I have done in the past six months. I have been thoroughly outclassed by both your, by, by your, uh, your, your, your, your, Method of storytelling and your excitement in doing it. I think I've become a jaded ma'am. And I need to fix this. I need to get better at this. What do you mean?

I, I, you're the hallmark of the team. I genuinely think you could replace me easily. Easily. The only difference is that I have, I have the knowledge and I still get half my shit wrong. I mean, I bet you the comments are going to be like, DK, you got so much stuff wrong. And you left so much stuff out. No, no, the comment's gonna be like, holy shit, do more of these.

D.K. was really good at it. Oh, no. Yeah. We're doomed. We're doomed. Oh, no, this was, look, look, guys, this was just supposed to be a fucking April Fool's Day joke. This is a really good episode. What the fuck?

I'm being real with you guys. This is supposed to be just a one-time thing. Like, I don't, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be a, I'm a fucking Cooper apologists also, apparently. Like, just like, damn, I hope he got away with things. That's cool. But also bad. but also cool. Yeah, like, I was talking to Shy about it,

and she was like, yeah, I kind of hope Cooper got away with it because, you know, I mean, it'd be so much more interesting if he just, and there's nothing. They didn't even find the shoots. They didn't find the shoots. They didn't find, well, they found a little bit of the money. They didn't ever find a body. Like on that stuff, you know podcast.

They were like, oh, yeah, there's this guy that had a theory that, you know, Homeboy didn't even get a shoot open. He just kind of froze to death, midair, and he hit the ground so fucking hard that he just, Blah! Was buried on impact with his shooting the money.

It's just he hit so hard that it was just thrust into the fucking Earth's crust. But I think there would be a little bit of an indication of someone hitting the ground that fucking hard. Also, the ground is very hard. I don't think you would go too deep. Yeah, it's kind of hard.

Just be like, oh, yeah, you hit so hard, buried. More like you just find a splattering of fucking blood and guts and bones all over the place. God damn it. I'm mad. D. B. Cooper It's not even fucking name.

This was this was genuinely fucking fascinating. I am I am livid I am livid. I am livid. I am livid. I was so into this. Fucking hell, man.

I unironically thought when Shai mentioned that in April Fool's episode that you were going to show up and be like let me tell you about this cat girl felonid guardsman fan fiction or something. I expected pure curse

And I got a genuinely interesting story. Have we missed our calling as like, who are those two dope-ass dudes that were from BuzzFeed and they made their own channel? Oh, yeah, that's one of the ones that I, um, I listen to. Shane and Ryan, Shane and Ryan, Watcher. Redwire or something? No, Watcher. That's the name, I believe. I haven't heard of that one.

It's two guys, I think they used to be working for BuzzFeed, but not anymore. One of them is named Shane. He doesn't believe in ghosts at all. and the other guy does, every name Ryan does believe in ghosts. They go to like haunted shit. And the guy who believes in ghosts, freak the fuck out.

And the other guy is like, yeah, come on, kill me, ghosts, fucking pussy's. Wow. That sounds like the most interesting premise ever. It is genuinely entertaining. It is so good. Let's go. Yeah, it's never too late for truly ridicimeless.

Adeptus detecticus. Adeptus, yes, yes. We can be inquisitors looking into, crazy inquisitorial bullshit. I think we already have that. I think it's called Eisenhorn. Oh, damn. Which is the thing we do need to read at some point.

Maybe we do that after Krieg. Oh, shit, I need to read Krieg. I spent the last three days just like literally looking up TV Cooper stuff. And now I'm like, oh shit, that's right. We have a book club. God damn, I've been so outclassed. Oh, man. Anyway, happy April fools, idiots.

Get rotated. We're going back to 40K next week. Get rotated. I don't know.