Do Go On - 22 - The Mystery of D.B. Cooper...

Episode Date: March 23, 2016

November 1971, a man identifying himself as Dan Cooper uses a bomb to hijack an American plane. He asks for four parachutes and $200,000. But what the hell happens next? The story of the coolest and most mysterious hijacker of all time. Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] the show and get rewards like bonus episodes:www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPod  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serengy Amarna 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there. Canada, we are visiting you in September this year.

If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. Hello and welcome to another episode of Do Go On. Episode 22, I believe. Can you believe we've made it this far? My name is Dave Warnocky and I'm sitting here with Jess Perkins and Matt Stewart.

Guys, happy 22nd birthday. Oh, thank you. Thanks, Dave. And to you? To you. Two as well. As well. Thank you so much.

Also. You'll be speaking in Unison again. I thought we'd broken out of that habit. That is okay. Matt. We're doing some improv again, Is that what we thought improv was? Yeah.

Speaking at the same time. Yeah, just speaking over each other sentences. That's right. Are you well, Matthew? I am very well. Thank you. Thank you. Got a little bit of a voice thing going on.

Jess is trying to do an impression of you as well with a low voice. I'm going to ask Jess how she is. Jess, how are you? I'm pretty good. You used to use your Queen Elizabeth the second voice. I'm pretty good. Isn't that how you talk? Yeah, it is how I talk.

That's very nice. confused when I hear the queen on the radio. I'm like, oh, Jess, she's doing breakfast radio for Joy now. But, yeah, it's very confusing. Jess, of course, for Contex Air, is hosting breakfast radio on the Joy Network.

I am. Will I say that properly? On Wednesdays? Yeah, very good. Thanks for that little plug. I do that on Wednesday. Really good radio if you're in Melbourne, Australia. Correct. Or there's probably a podcast of it too somewhere. Yeah, in Melbourne, Florida.

Yeah. But it's not like anyone listening to this in Joyce podcast. No, no, no. Anyway, guys, this is a podcast where we take it in terms to research a topic, prepare a report on that topic and present it to the other two guys in the room. It is my turn this week. We always start with a question. Now, I am going to say that this one is from a listener's suggestion.

Oh, cool. From the hat. From the hat. It's from the hat, but also I specifically chose the topic. I didn't pull it at random We just had an email from Brett He said he enjoyed one of the last ones I did The Curse of the Pharaohs

And he wanted another mystery Sort of one Okay cool So I went through a lot Of you know Did a lot of Googling Finding mysteries that I'd never heard of And I found one that I'm not

I wasn't familiar with And maybe you aren't either But I'm going to start with We've got two questions First of all For a bit more ambiguity Have you ever been skydiving Jess No I have not

Matt, skydiving? I feel like that you, out of the three of us, are the most likely to say yes. They haven't. I'd be up for it, but you would do it, yeah. But I think it's expensive. And it's the kind of thing, like, when do you go, you know what I'm going to do? Like, who makes plans to go skydiving? I think it's usually more of a holiday type of thing.

Like, you're in Queensland. Like, I went bungee jumping when I was in New Zealand. Yeah, that's it's because you're going past somewhere that's famous for it. And that's why I would. Or if someone's like, do you want to come skydiving with me? I'd say yes. Like, you get like a voucher jumping. of Christmas.

That's it. I was going to say a few of my friends got vouchers for their 21st, so they all sort of went together and I drove them and I watched and then I waited and went, okay, do you have fun? Cool. Did you, were you left out by them or by yourself? By myself. I was my question. I was wondering, were you not invited or?

No, she was invited to drive them. Yeah, no, I just, I was like, no, I'm good. So you would never do it? No, no, thank you. All right. Well, okay, so none of us are skydivers. That's the first question. Second question is, it's pretty much have you ever heard.

heard of this story. Have you ever heard... Well, I just want to know if you have. Have you ever heard of a man called D.B. Cooper? D.B. Cooper? No. D.B. Cooper. I don't know any skydiving mystery. Yeah, as soon as you said skydiving, I was like, I do not know this story. Oh, that's great.

That is great news because I found this story and I'd never heard of it. I started reading about it and I was gripped about the mystery of D.B. Cooper. So let's just get into it, shall we? Okay. Is the first mystery what DB stands for? That will never be explained. Drum and bass.

It'll never be explained. You don't know? But I'll come back to DB Cooper at the end of this episode. Oh, okay. So it's not even about DB Cooper. No, I'll come back to that name. Oh, okay. With a little not so fun, fun fact at the end.

Okay. Oh, man, this is already exciting. Okay, so I've got to take you back. Back in time to... Deadbeat. Deadbeat Cooper. Deadbeat Cooper. I think that's it.

Decibel Cooper. Database, Cooper. Dingbat Cooper. Dog boy. Dog boy Cooper. Oh, that's my favorite. I thought we weren't going to beat dingbat, but... She did it with dog boy.

Dog boy is pretty good. All right, let's continue to call him Dog Boy Cooper. I've got to take you back in time to a simpler time, known as 1971. Quaint, a simple time. We've got to go to the United States of America. On November 24th, 1971, the eve of... Thanksgiving. This is before a long weekend. A man wearing a black suit carrying a black attaché case approaches the flight counter of Northwest Orient Airlines, the Portland

International Airport in Oregon on the west coast of the United States. He walks up to the counter and identifies himself as Dan Cooper. Oh, disappointing. There's the day. He puts a single $20 bill. Could be an alias. You've actually guessed You actually have So he says his name is Dan Cooper

He puts a single $20 bill on the counter And purchases a one-way ticket on flight 305 Which is a 30-minute trip to Seattle, Washington $20 flight 20 bucks back then Okay, well that's the first mystery The mystery of the Lolo Price Well, it's only a 30-minute flight

Still, Jet Star to bloody Tazi, yeah How about it's 20 minute flight No, 30 minute fly. About 20 minutes. How much you're paying, Matt? I reckon you could... Oh, I got $50 flights, actually.

You could get cheap. That was Tiger, though. 50 bucks. So we had to fly the plane ourselves. But you're not rocking up and putting 20 bucks on the counter for that. You've got to find an internet deal. I imagine. Oh, not again.

This happens so much. It's fine, whatever. Don't worry. One of our friends will pick up. Yeah. Please go on. Is it worth repeating? Nah.

Which... Well... I'll listen back, all right, yeah. Rewin for that little nugget. And we do enjoy when people post the jokes. No, we generally do when people repeat stuff that Matt and I have probably missed by speaking over one Jess Perkins. But Dan Kuban didn't have to show ID at all at this time. Okay.

He was just given the ticket. They just take your name. You just write it down. Pre-9-11. It was a different time. That's how sophisticated their system was. Cooper obviously waited around a bit, but we cut to when he's boarding the aircraft, which is a Boeing 727. It's quite important.

Boeing 727. 727. He took a seat in the rear of the passenger cabin. He lit a cigarette, as you're allowed to do back then. What a gangster. Simple a time. And he ordered a bourbon and soda. Bourbon and soda.

Alrighty. Eyewitnesses on board just to paint the picture of this guy. Rick called Cooper to be a man in his mid-40s. He's between 5'10, 178 centimetres, and 6 foot exactly 183 centimetres tall. He wore a black, lightweight raincoat. He's wearing loafers, dark suit, neatly pressed white-collared tie,

a black neck tie, and a mother-of-pearl tie-pin. You know what a tie-pin is? Those things that you... Pin on your tie? Clip onto the tie, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not a fucking idiot, Dave.

A tie pin. Do you know what that is? Hey, Dave, you see that wall over there? You know what a wall is? Well, the tie-pin might come back to the story. Oh, okay. I'm writing that down, too. I'm going to draw it.

Okay. Because I know what it looks like. Draw to me what you think a tie-pin looks like. I actually don't know. A mother of... Pearl type in? Yeah, do you know what a tie in looks like? Well, like, where does the tie go?

I wore one at a wedding recently. On the tie. On the tie itself. To keep it onto the shirt. No? Just keep it. It's just, oh, keep the tie together. Yeah, to keep the front of the tie together.

That's right. Matt, are you actually aware of what a tie clip is? Yeah. I wore one at a recent wedding. In fact, I've still, I still got it. Do you want it? Is it a mother a pearl one? No.

It's an uncle. Uncle of Pearl. Matt's probably. Why didn't you miss that joke, Jeff? He never missed the wrong ones. I don't miss anything. She never misses. So, B.B.

Or Dan Cooper, as he's known at this stage, is on the flight, which took off at 250 on time. So he's used an alias, right, with the same initial and exact same surname. No, no, no, no. Shitest alias have ever heard. No, no, no. I'll explain the two names. Okay. It's a bit confusing.

It's exciting. So at this stage, we're calling him Dan Cooper, because that's what he's called himself. So he's on the plane. It took off on time 2.50pm. The afternoon is supposed to take 30 minutes. It's only a third full. Okay.

There's not that many people sitting there. Does that mean they'll get there faster because the plane is lighter? Science says yes. So far you've just told quite a boring story about a man catching a plane. No. Okay. All right. Next paragraph.

Whilst taking off, Cooper passed a note to a flight attendant nearest to him. Her name is Florence Schaffner. Shall I write that down? Is she important? She's going to be. the story, Flores Chapman? Can we call her Flo Chef? I insist.

Flo Chef. He passes a note to Flo Chef, who was sitting in a what's known as a jump seat, which is like a crew seat attached to the door. You know when they get to sit down for a little bit while it takes up? But he's sitting close to her, so he passes her a note. Flo Chef assumes the note contains this lonely businessman's phone number and that he was just hitting on her.

Good assumption. She just dropped it into her purse. Oh, flow shaft. So up yourself. She's like, whatever. I get phone numbers every flight. I think it's in 1970s. They're smoking on a plane.

It's pretty, you know. It's a sleazy time. It's a sleazy time. That's what I'm trying to paint the picture here. Anyway, Cooper then leans to water and whispers, Miss, you'd better look at that note. I have a bomb. Bombshell.

Boom. Are the notes... It feels like a bit of an attention. Like a primary school thing? Like, I just got a bomb. I've got a check If you really had a bomb Do you need people to know you have a bomb?

Just blow it up Just blow up the bomb That's when people all know that you've got a bomb Not because you've written a little note You fuckhead Jess, I'm not going to lie here You're clearly not very good At hijacking a plane and getting what you want

You're absolutely right You get the bomb on board and you just blow it up Before shit I should have asked for money But those plans never work What happens they give him the stuff he wants And then they land the plane where there's only one exit, you know, two exits, which they can have surrounded by whoever.

I guess he's still got the bomb. Plus the plane's only a third full. They'd probably be like, nah, just let them go. Just let him go. Let him blow it up. They paid $20 fares. Yeah, we're fine. They're dead to us already.

The note, it was printed in neat all capital letters written with a felt pen. It read approximately because he asked to get the note back later. I have a bomb in my briefcase or use it if necessary. I want you to sit next to me because you are being. hijacked. That's like such a sexy threat. What's it?

Looking back at this. And then she said, is that a bomb in your briefcase? Or you just said. Yes, I just said. Read the fucking note. Floch shaft is a slow shaft. If you pass a note to someone and you are hitting on them and they don't read it, if you say you better read it, I've got a bomb, they're probably going to read it.

And then they're reading it says, lull jokes, my phone number is. Yeah. Oh, four. Jeez, how low in confidence were you that you had to do the lull jokes before you even giving it to them? Do you like me? Tick yes or no. I mean, you just handed to him and just said lull jokes.

My phone number is. No, it's actually got a question here. It says it's in two pages. If I've just told you I have a bum, turn to the next page. If not, read on. Hello, my name is Dan Cupert. I could create your own ending story. Yes, it's a great.

Choose your own adventure. Picking up. Great. Great. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. Without the bomb, probably. Probably.

Interesting. So he's asked Floshaf to sit next to him, and of course she has obliged. But imagine if it had been a full flight, and he'd had someone sitting next to him. It would have been difficult for her to sit there. So luckily it's pretty empty. Flooshap asks to see the bomb. So Cooper cracks over his briefcase long enough for her to glimpse eight red cylinders, attached to wires coated with red insulation and a large cylindrical battery.

So it was assumed at the time. time that the red cylinders were sticks of dynamite. And for the rest of the flood, he sat with his hand inside the suitcase with the wire, ready to touch it to the battery, which in theory would set off the bomb. Oh man, all this in theories, and they thought this at the time, means it's Plato or some sort of... Dave, you've given it away. This is a fake bomb.

It is not a fake bomb. Oh, seriously? It is not a fake bomb. Holy shit. Okay, then Cooper. Then Cooper. He dictated his demands to Flochaf. He wanted $200,000 in quote American currency.

Oh, interesting. Well, okay, so he's paid $20 for a flight. He's going to turn that into $200,000. That's a lot of money. In modern day money is over a million US dollars. I mean, he has overheads. So he's got to recoup those before he makes a profit. Recuper those.

Ah, DB recouper. Do you think the B's for BOM? That's what I was saying before. Dirty bomber. Dirty bomber. Dirty bomber. Dodgy bomber. Dabom.

I am Dabom. He also wanted four parachutes. That's too many. Two primary and two men. And two reserves. So two main ones. He's taken Flo Chef with him. He's got one on age of limb.

Takes it a heaps longer to land, though. That's a really funny visual. If you've got four parachutes, I'll never die this way. And then that is get horribly tangled. Your arms get ripped off. They get horribly tangled and you fall to your death. Yeah.

He wanted a fuel truck standing. by in Seattle to refuel the aircraft when they land. Flo Shaf conveyed Kubus instructions by going to the cockpit and she told the pilot hey we're being hijacked and they all Hey just let you know. And again, do you reckon this is a different time when

because the cockpit's locked now like nobody can get in there right? So you make it it it just a time when there's just a curtain and she was like, um guys. Sorry just quickly I will get your cup of tea just firstly. Quick night. The back of the plane there's a guy called DeBom Kufa. He's got a bomb.

He just wants a few. few things. Anyway, sandwiches, cool for you guys. I'll be back in a minute then. Because she's a professional. That's right. Well, she is a goddamn professional. Flo, have you seen the bomb? Because I'm not going to start driving this plane differently unless someone's seen the bomb. Have you seen the bomb? Are I playing Flo again? No, I'm looking at you hoping that you... Anyway, let's move on.

She had nothing. Flow right there. I thought you said she was a professional. She's not. Too bad that the actor portraying her was not. not. No, go on. I will go on, because this is one of my favorite parts of the story. Okay. When Flo Schaff returns, Cooper was wearing dark sunglasses.

Hey, it is. Just put sunnies on. I just go tell the pilot I've got a bomb. She comes back. He, baby. He's the coolest guy ever. I don't know. Even though you've told me it's a real bomb and this seems like a really dumb thing to do.

I like this guy. He seems cool. D.B. . Terrorists are cool. There are a set. it. So anyway, should I keep that in?

Yes. Well, every now and then Jess tells her like it is and you want to silence her? Not good, Dave. I just want to say if Aesio, the federal police are listening, then, do not agree with what Jess just said.

Remember, this is a comedy podcast. I think Azeo know better than anyone that terrorists are rad. Like, they know all about it. Do you feel like that half our downloads are from federal police officers scanning the topics? The opening of Disneyland, that sounds suspicious. Left-handedness, I'm on to you.

Who would talk about that for an hour and 15 minutes? Perkins. This is clearly some sort of coded message. So anyway, the pilot, William Scott, he contacted the Seattle-Tacoma Airport Traffic Control. I told them what was going on about the bomb and Cooper's demands, and they informed local and federal authorities. The 36 other passengers 36 passengers

That's not many people I think 20 bucks each It's not very much They were informed that their arrival instead Would be delayed because of minor technical difficulties So they don't know they're being hijacked Everything's still cool for them Even though

That's a guy in sunglasses on the plane I reckon I would have figured it out We're clearly being hijacked But it was like 3 o'clock in the afternoon So it could have been bright Have you ever seen someone wear sunglasses on an airplane. Well, I've seen people wearing them around a shopping center.

I'm sure people have worn them on an airplane. Every time you see that, just think terrorists. Yeah, definitely. Everyone out! The president of the Northwest Orient airline, which is Donald Nyrop, which, if you're a fan of sport, his son was ice hockey legend Bill Nyrop. Oh, yes.

Is he Wayne Gretzky? Is he in Mighty Ducks? It's like an early Wayne Gretzky. You won several ice hockey championships in the 1970. Not in Mighty Ducks. Anyway. Is he played by Emilio Estephan? Estefan?

Estabez. As long as you have no follow-up questions, then, yes. Okay, great. So, but anyway, the president of the airline, he authorized payment of the ransom. He ordered all employees to cooperate fully with the hijackers. He just said, give him what he wants. I don't want anyone to get hurt. So the aircraft then just circled the airport for approximately two hours.

What? To allow the... It's a half-hour flight. I know. To allow the police and the FBI to assess. assemble the parachutes and ransom money. Okay, well, by this time, if I was on that plane, I'd be like, well, I can see Seattle Airport.

Seattle is where they're landing, right? Yeah, you can see the airport. No, I would, to be honest, I wouldn't think terrorist attack. I would think they've said mechanical difficulties and you can't land for two hours. I would think. Yeah, get the thing down. I would think someone's gone wrong. Like, you can't land a plane, what's going on.

The wheels aren't coming down. And this guy's briefcase is ticking. Is that? Is that at all involved in this? Is that related? And that air hostess isn't serving sandwiches. She's just sitting next to that guy with sunglasses for two hours. That's weird.

I mean, it's pretty cool, but you could maybe chat to him later. Yeah, come on. Well, he handed her the number. Just, yeah. Yeah, you've got his contacts. They also needed time to mobilize emergency personnel, like cops and ambulances, fire engines, that kind of stuff. Two hours it takes.

Dave, Dave, just explained to us what emergency personnel were. Fucking hell, first the tie pin. I better write down. what an emergency person is. Okay, thanks. I am using my voice to paint a delightful picture of this undelightful situation.

Yeah, do go on. Thank you. Stuart Flo Chef. She recalls that Cooper appeared familiar with the local terrain at one point he remarked, oh, looks like Tacoma down there. What the fuck?

It's like a weird small talk. As the aircraft flew above it, he also mentioned correctly that the McCord Air Force Base was only a 12th. when he made a drive from the Seattle, Tacoma airport. He's making the strangest small talk ever. He is, but also, he obviously clearly knows the area well.

I reckon he's trying to get him off the scent. I reckon he's from Canada. Yeah. Could be Canadian? I reckon. I think you're on something there, Matt. Well, this is more, he was described as calm, polite. Too calm, maybe.

And well-spoken. No, I never trust those people. Never trust them. Well, were you trusting this hijacker before? Well, spoken and calm. No, thank you. you. Polite, get out.

I think that this man with a bomb has some sinister plan. Wait, Dave, spoiler. Another attendant told investigators that he wasn't nervous, he seemed rather nice, he was never cruel or nasty, he was thoughtful and calm all the time. Oh, I have the biggest crush on Dan Cooper right now. In fact, he ordered a second bourbon and paid his drink time.

Fuck, he's cool! He's so cool! And insisted that Flo Chef keep the change. Fuck off. He's tipping. What a legend! Well, he's about to make 200 grand fair, but I love this guy. I hope it all works out really well for him. He's either making 200 grand, he's going to be blown up by himself or he's going to jail. All good options.

He's got nothing to lose. He's got no reason for the change in his pocket. Except his life and 200 grand. He's got everything to lose. He also offered to request meals for the flight crew during the stop in Seattle. adult. He is the hijacker dreamboat we've been waiting for. Oh my god, he's a babe. I'm imagining him, well, because he's quite tall too. I'm imagining just like super hot. And he's wearing sunnies. Yeah, it's cool. They don't make hijackers like that anymore.

They just don't. When was the last time you heard of a hijacker wearing a clip on on his tie? You know what? Let alone one maid of mother propell. Yeah. You know, I just realized what DB stands for? Dreamboat. Oh, dreamboat. Cooper. Coops the Dreamboat. I really hope everything's turned out well for him. I reckon it has. Yeah.

I reckon he's okay. I reckon he's now... Making some predictions early on here, guys? Yeah, early predictions. I reckon he went on to become Obama or something like that. Yeah, no, yeah. Like, it's president. Because, yeah, I reckon it's...

Or Donald Trump, soon to be president. I've just dated this episode. Hopefully badly. Did he become president? or you're going to, you'll say that for the end. I will, that's one of the fun facts. I'll tell you what countries he became president of and what countries he never became president of.

There's a long list of both. Me, me. The wild dream boat de Bomb Cooper is discharming the whole plane while still having a bomb. So good. On the ground, the FBI agents are hurriedly assembling the ransom money

from the several Seattle area banks and they're making the $200,000 in $20 bills because he didn't say what denominations he wanted. So are they kind of being dicks about it then? A little bit. I like that.

It makes it heavier or harder to do? When you said they were like hardly collecting and I'd like to think they were going around to everybody in the office like whatever you got, just come on. Chip it in. No, no, seriously it's important. 36 people could die.

Plus flow chef. They made a microfilm photograph of each which doing the maths is 10,000 photographs. Oh, that's so they could track it. Yeah, so they made a record. and they're non-marked, but they are, they've taken a note of every single serial number.

So when DB Cooper spends these, you can track it later. They also had to get his parachutes ready. Cooper rejected military-issue parachutes initially offered by authorities, demanding instead civilian parachutes with manually operated rip cords. So military ones, you jump out of the plane,

it just goes automatically. He wanted ones where he was in control of it. So they had to obtain them from a local skydard, I think school in Seattle. That's where they have them. But he was very clever. You said that you should have just asked for one. He's very actually clever to ask for four

because they had to assume that he might put one on the flight attendant or the pilot or so on and take them with him. So that way they couldn't give him just a fake parachute. So if he jumped out, he would just die. So he might take up to three people with him. So they had to give him. Far out. So they all had to work just in case that he was going to take some innocence with him.

He's a genius. I reckon he's got some sort of military police background. You think so? Yeah. I was trying to read your face then, and you did not react at all. I think that we could... I studied you just then. Describe him as dance break, Cooper.

Oh. Do a little boogie with a 200 grand. Boom. At 5.24 p.m., Cooper was informed that his demands had been met, and at 539, the aircraft landed safely at Seattle, Tacoma Airport. So their 30-minute flight took nearly three. hours. Great. Well, for 20 bucks, that's what you get. That's what you get. Yeah. Some people... Maybe a stopover. I think it would be pretty hilarious if, um, so the, because the people on board

still don't know, they're probably starting to complain, hey, I'm going to miss my, you know, my connecting flight, all this stuff. Or my, uh, Seattle Supersonics versus Houston Rockets match. Or my son's birthday. I'm going to miss the big game and you can't whisper, just calm down. Someone's got a bomb. Yeah. There's bigger issues here. You guys, you fell into my trap. The Supersonics weren't a team yet. Oh no! He's got us.

I don't think, I have no idea. It's the dumbest thing you've ever said. You just, you walked right into it. Perko, you far. You bloody idiot. The plane taxi to an isolated area of the airport, and Cooper, one of the lights dims so snipers couldn't try and take him out.

He's clever. I don't think that stops him from trying. I'd stop him from succeeding, Dave. Got him. You're on fire today. I'm going to stop talking for a little while. Good idea. Thank you.

A North Worth Orient, Seattle, Operation Manager, L. Lee, he approached the aircraft in street clothes so that Cooper wouldn't think that he was a police officer. I'm imagine he with like a backwards cap? Like, sup dudes. Sub-D-B. I'm one of you. I'm just like you. I'm just a normal youth.

Hey, what's up, man? Do you want to go skateboarding later? Cool. Meet you at the diner. He raises scooters up to the side of the side of. I want to go get cheese burgers, cool. Cool, man, whatever. Nali, bro.

Fight the power. Peace out. Shaka. He delivered the... Namaste. He delivered the cash-filled knapsack. Oh yeah, cool. Put it in a backpack.

It's a turner-in-in-in-in-a-back-back. And the parachutes to the flight attendant Maclo, who's another flight attendant, via the plane's rear stairs. So this plane's... very special 727 Scott Rear stairs that actually fold down from underneath the tail at the back. He hands all the money

once the delivery was completed Cooper permitted all the passengers Flo Shaff and senior flight attended Alice Hancock to leave the plane so they all got off these people did not know that they'd been hijacked. They just thought that they had to wait a while on the tarmac that kind of stuff

and a man's delivered a knapsack full of cash no one's suspicious and some random guy in sunglasses as I said, yeah, you can all go. And they're like, yeah. Thanks, man. We know. Yeah, fuck off 1D.

So most of the people have left, but this left on board with Cooper. The pilot, Scott, that flight attendant, Mucklo, the co-pilot and the flight engineer report. So he let Flo-Shaff off. Flo-shaft off. Flo-shaft off. But he kept Maclo. Maclo. What's her name is that?

M-C-L-O-M-O. How you spell that? M-U-C-K-L-W. M-L-O-W. M-L-L-L-O. That is the ugliest name I've ever heard and now seen written down. That is an ugly name. I'm assuming Mucklow is very unattractive.

Sounds like a James Bond enemy. Whereas Flo Shaff, I was imagining her to be a real babe. Yeah, Flo Shaf sounds really hot. I kind of hoped there'd be like this super cute romance. Like he'd be like, you can go and she'd be like, I'm going to stay. That's what I imagined. He turns around and she's putting a parachute on. Yeah.

Hang on. whilst the plane refueled Cooper told the pilot his plans what he wanted was to fly towards Mexico City which is quite a long way south at the minimum airspeed possible without the aircraft stalling which is approximately

flies slowly without killing us which is approximately this plane can fly at 190 kilometres per hour which is quite slow for a plane and at a maximum its lowest altitude is

10,000 feet which is 3,000 meters 190Ks. I reckon if I really flawed it, my car could do that. Yeah. Yeah, so this is a big jet, like a big 727. He further specified that the landing gear remained deployed in take-off,

in the take-off and landing position, so they never put the wheels up. He wanted the wing flaps to be lowered to 15 degrees, and the cabin remain unpressurized. So he knows a lot about airplanes. He knows a lot. Okay, so maybe he's Air Force. Yeah, he was something.

I think he's some sort of spy. Yeah, I'm sorry. starting to think MI5. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. But we assume he's American. Nobody's commented yet that he has a British accent. Maybe DB could it be... DB 9.

He's James Bond. He's at Aston Martin. He's at Aston Martin. He is a high-performance English. Maybe... Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. He's a car. Anyway.

That's why no one's been suspicious this whole time. There's a car on the plane. Welcome to the flight, ladies and gentlemen to our special guest, the DB9 in the back left corner. She keeps beeping demands. people. Guys got a novelty horn. Well, the car's beat three times.

I think we're all free to leave the plane. The co-pilot told Cooper the bad news, though, that they could only fly 1,600 kilometres without refueling and wouldn't make it to Mexico, so it was decided that they would refuel in Reno, Nevada, on the way down. Sure. Cooper directed that the plane takeoff with a rear exit door open, and its staircase extended so those stairs underneath.

We're just open. The flight. Northwest Home Office, Abyss. objected on the grounds that it was unsafe to take off with the staircase deployed. Cooper counted that it was indeed safe, but he would not argue the point. He would lower it himself once they were airborne. This guy is a fucking boss. And he's so polite and reasonable.

You're wrong, but don't worry about it. What I love is that he's like, all right, guys, so here's my plan, want to fly to Mexico, here's all the specifications, and the co-pilot's like, well, actually, okay, not a problem at all. One thing, we're not going to make it. How about we stop? Yep, no problem. Sounds great. Thank you for your cooperation.

Honestly, that's great. I appreciate you having that knowledge. Yeah. And sharing it with me and we're going to sort out a much better solution. I really appreciate your time. The communication here, outstanding. Really good. I think everyone's learning together.

Yeah. And that's so lovely, isn't it? Oh, God, this is a great terrorist situation. I'm so intrigued as to why he wants to go so slowly. I guess he wants to go low to be out of not being able to be tracked or something. We'll see. Okay, good. So the plane took off at 7.40pm, so a bit over two hours after it landed.

Has he had anything to eat? It's a long time. I'm always thinking about when I'm eating next. I think he's stressing me out of it. When you're terrorising, you really need something in your tum-tum. You've got to keep up the fluids and the food so that you can stay sharp. Yeah, because you've got to be on it. It's a high-pressure situation and you don't want to be running low on your key.

Yeah. Nutrients. But you also don't want to just. just go for like a quick burst like sugar because you'll just crash you need low GI you need banana that's why they aware of low GI in this in the 70s different time that's what they call him vitamin D B Cooper I'm loving all of the names we have for him so far he was bigger vitamin D B what a guy so anyway so it took up at 740 two hours later two fighter jets shattered the plane one below and one above so from the air force so Cooper couldn't

see them but they couldn't fly at the low speed that the 727 could so they had to keep doing loops and coming back that's so that's why he wanted to go slow after take off uh cooper probably not because they're still they're still watching him is that why or you got a you got something bigger i've got something bigger oh it's exciting i like when we guess something and dave knows the answer and he's like face lights up this is very exciting after take off cooper told mucklow the mucklo unfortunately i cannot wait till this girl she's female mucklo I believe so. Mucklo.

Yes, no, she was Mucklo. Yuck. He told me. Yuck Lo. I pictured a moustachioed man, to be honest. Really? Camp? No.

Just a really hairy, like, dumb guy. Not camp, not, not camp. Just like a dull. Just a dull human called Mucklo. Yeah. The opposite of Cooper. Yes. Yes, exactly.

He's the anti-Cupor. No. Mucklo is a female. She was told to join the rest of the crew in the cockpit and remain there with the door closed. So there you go, there is a door. There is a door, not a curtain. As she complied on the way out, Mucklow observed Cooper tying something around his waist. She would later say that she thought it may have been the bag with the money.

Sure. Makes sense. You want to take that with you? Oh, yeah, that's true. I'm so bad with packing that I reckon I'd be, that's the bag I leave behind. Oh, shit. You take all four parachutes. behind the money. That's exactly how I pack when I go away for a weekend or something.

I'm always getting there and we're going, we've got four parachutes, probably only need two of these. Where's my bag of 200 grand? Silly duffer. It's with all my jocks and socks. I'm going to have to go down a safeway. Bloody hell.

Be great doing the check. Like he's like, I've got the parachutes, got the 200 grand. He's got like a little check list. Tinging enough. At approximately 8pm, a warning light,

flashed in the cockpit, indicating that the rear air stair apparatus had been activated. The crew offered to help, but Cooper refused. They were talking through intercom. They said, do you need any help back there? And he was like, I'm fucking DB.

Any refreshments? Can I get you a cup tea, coffee, pringles, only $9. Cooper's like, I'm DB. I am all over this. Still, in the cockpit, the crew soon noticed that a subjective change of air pressure indicating that the stair doors were open.

So he's opened the back door underneath the plane. So he's like put himself out in this little area at the back. It feels like someone could just close and lock a door. Yeah, all right. Let's head back to Seattle. Which door? But no, they can't lock him out because if they do, then he can just set off the bomb.

Ah, yeah, we keep forgetting about the bomb. So he's back there with the bomb. Oh, yeah, that makes sense. With the bomb. Now I understand why they're cooperating. Yeah, that does make sense. I'm like, he is very charming. Really?

Really, 200 grand with no weapon? Well, a charm bomb. Have you gone with DeBomb yet? You must have said DeBom. Several times. Yeah, good. Several. I have not been paying attention.

No, I think Dave's mainly done. I don't know if I've gone for DeBomb. I think they're probably referring to him as Dick Bag Cooper because he's holding them captive. Yeah, sure. No. No, you've never met D.B. Have you? Not Mucklow.

She would never betray him. I miss Floce. So the lights gone off, the cabin pressure has changed. They thought that Cooper had jumped out, so the pilot radioed the control tower to mark their spot so they could work out approximately where he'd jumped to. So they've marked it on a map. It was 8.13pm, and they were travelling above the Lewis River in southwest Washington State.

The crew were still very nervous as they were terrified that he would jump out and then detonate the bomb and blow them all up. Why would he do that? Well, they would get rid of all the evidence, that kind of stuff. But they still fly all the way to Reno. 10.15pm, two hours later, they landed the 727, with the Uriestres still deployed. So they've just stayed in the cockpit together.

FBI agents, state troopers, sheriff deputies, and Reno police surrounded the jet as it had not yet been determined whether Cooper was still aboard or not. But an armed search quickly confirmed that he was gone. Weird. He's gone. But I don't believe it. I'm not sure. Someone who are the stairs.

Yeah. He's sitting on the steps. He's down on his stoop. He's just hanging on to one of the wheels. And they just haven't noticed. They walked past him. How many parachutes were there? Well, this is what remained.

The FBI found 66 fingerprints and Cooper's... But he only has 10 figures. He was a shape shifter. Into lots of fingers. That's the shape he changed into many fingers. Transform. Select form. 66 fingers.

That's the noise he makes as he moves around. They just see 66 fingers holding bundles of cash. He's parachuting to freedom. He gets on the ground, transforms back into a suave-looking guy in a suit, and walks to freedom. I think he touched seats. Still wearing the sunglasses. He's a twin limb between his fingers.

No, they found 66 fingerprints and Cooper's black clip-on tie. So he's taken his tie up. Possibly to avoid being strangled. How are they going to know who he is now? Where did he go? It's like Clark Kent takes off his glasses and it's like, well, Clark, where? I don't understand. Where's the mother of pearl?

No, that was on the tie. It was still his mother of pearl tie clip. They also found two of the four parachutes, one of which had been opened and two shroud lines cut away from its canopy, which is the actual parachute part. Some people think that he may have cut those off to tie the money to himself. Sure. Might have used those as rope.

And that was it. Apart from that, he was completely gone. Local police and FBI agents, of course, immediately began questioning possible suspects. One of the first was an Oregon man with a minor police record named D.B. Cooper. He was contacted by... I wonder why they got under him. He was contacted by Portland police on the off chance that the hijacker had used his real name. Or the same.

as in a previous crime, which would have been incredibly stupid, but maybe you did. His involvement was quickly ruled out, but inexperienced wire service operator, rushing to meet an immediate deadline who was wiring the report to his newspaper, confused the eliminated suspect's name with the pseudonym used by the hijacker, Dan Cooper. So he wrote DB Cooper, which is that suspect. And then all the newspapers published DB Cooper as the alias. And that's why to history he's known as DB Cooper. So they've never found him. Even though Dan Cooper is what he said, his name was.

Right. Then they got to go look for him, right? It was very difficult to work exactly where Cooper had landed. If the area they thought he had parachuted into was even slightly off to where he had, then it would alter the landing point. Nobody actually saw him jump. So they reckon like, okay, air pressure has changed. We reckon he's probably jumped. But he could have just like opened it and sat there for a bit, checked his Facebook, and then,

jumped. Yeah, so he could have waited 10 minutes. Which could alter it a lot. Yeah, exactly. So they just assumed 8.13 was when he jumped. Also, they didn't have Facebook in the 70s, so that was the joke there, kind of similar to your terrible joke before about a team that nobody cares about. Do go on.

Love on we all turn on each other when one of our jokes doesn't land. Like, that was great. You guys are fuckheads. Wait, no, I've never said a good joke. What was yours? I was coughing. Cuffed and I missed it Give it to me once more

Speaking of landing Another important variable was the length of time He remained in free fall before pulling his rip cords He may have dangled for ages Or he may have gone straight away That's smart He did all those things on purpose So that's only if he didn't succeed

In opening the parachute at all Right? He could be dead So have you said why he wanted the plane to go so slowly It was just so he could jump out. Just so he could jump out. Jump out the back. Do you think the authorities knew that? I think they thought he was planning to jump,

but neither of the Air Force fighter pilots shadowing the plane above or below saw anything exit the airliner or either visually or on their radar. They didn't pick anything up. And they didn't see a parachute open, but I would say it was at night, extremely limited visibility, lots of cloud. And he would have seen them doubling back.

So he would have known when to go maybe based I think that they were too low for him to see them. Oh, right, okay. So they were like flying very low and very high. Maybe you landed on one of them. He's still on the roof. Check your roof. Check your roof.

Also, he's wearing entirely black clothing, so it's difficult to see him in the night. But can you just go skydiving in normal clothes? You know, like, wouldn't you get a bit chilly? If anything, he's got a bit of a cold now, doesn't he? Well, yes, I did read that when he opened the back stairs, the wind chill would have been up at that height. would have been at night would have been up to like minus 30 degrees.

That's cold. It's pretty cold. That's pretty cold. So that's what I think... Fahrenheit? Celsius. Celsius, that's cold. It gets like 10 degrees here and I'm bloody chilly.

Yeah. 10 degrees, I'm putting on a cardigan at least. If not a jacket. Yeah. I reckon a hoodie. I'd put on a hoodie. Hoodie's not bad. Hoodie and scarf.

Definitely long trousers. Oh, easily. And I'd be putting socks and shoes on too. Yeah. Well, he was wearing loafers. Let's not forget. Loifers. So his feet are fine.

That's good. Also a hampering visibility and a challenge for Cooper himself was that at 8.13pm, if that was the time he jumped, the plane was actually travelling through a rainstorm. Oh no. Now he's definitely got a cold. Maybe even the flu. That's not how flu works, Jess. No, I think it is, though. You are a medical doctor. Science says, yes. Both the FBI and the sheriff's deputies searched the area around the river. They thought he would have.

have landed around on foot and by helicopter. Daughters or searches of local farmhouses were carried out. They ran patrol boats on the river. It's nearby lakes and reservoirs. No trace of Cooper, nor any of the equipment presumed to have left the aircraft with him, was found. They even used a submarine to search the 200 foot or 61 metre depths of a local lake, like Merwin. So what's the area they think he's landed in? So a forest in Washington State.

Oh, this guy's fucking so cool. so cool he's so cool did you mention at the start like how old i reckon he is so mid-forties oh that's hot i imagine like not silver fox but like salt and pepper you know oh yeah that's creepy sorry i can show you a maybe db down to bone down to bone cooper do you think yeah dirty boy cooper oh yeah dirty boy cooper

so they didn't find him in 1971 so that remember was November 24th, 1971. Then in early 1972, shortly after the spring Thor, teams of FBI agents aided by 200 army soldiers, along with Air Force personnel, National Guard, and other volunteers conducted another search throughout the grounds for 18 days. Then they did an additional 18-day search in April, so 36 days. They've looked everywhere.

The only thing they found was two local women stumbled upon a skeleton in an abandoned structure. It was later identified as the remains of a female teenager, who had been abducted and murdered several weeks before. So awful. But had nothing... At first they were like skeleton. Wow.

Several weeks and she's already a skeleton. Yeah, is that the mystery? Yeah, that seems like pretty... Science says, that's fast. Do you think DB ate all of her flesh and muscle? And wore it as some sort of neat suit. He ate it and then wore it. Dave, come on.

Let's keep it realistic, please. Matthew? DB would never do that. No, he's a cool guy. He just sip a bourbon and saw it. I was thinking. Take it back. I take that back.

Thank you. So I will say that nothing to do with the hijacking was found. Cooper had vanished without a trace. So cool. What a cool guy. So the theory is if you get $200,000 and you spend it, right? Yeah. Um, I don't know.

I'd go back to my call center job, I reckon. Yeah. I'd just build a hut out of it in the forest. Mm, live in it. Live in the money. I'm in the money. say. DB in the money.

In de money. In Da Bank. Da Bank. Da Bank Cooper. Da Bank. Straight to Da Bank. In late 1971, the FBI distributed list of the ransom serial numbers that they'd taken photos of to banks, casinos, race tracks and other businesses that

routinely conduct significant cash transactions. And they also gave it to law enforcement agencies around the world in case he was spending it overseas. The airline even offered a 15% reward of any. recovered money that people found. Oh, wow. They're trying to find the money. Then in 1972, also, serial numbers were released to the public.

And later that year, two men used a counterfeit $20 bill printed with Cooper serial numbers on it to swindle $30,000 from a Newsweek reporter in exchange for an interview with the man they falsely claimed was the hijacker. Oh, wow. So that's the downside of letting the public know the serial numbers. These guys made fake cash and said, yeah, we got DB, Cuba. You can interview him for 30 grand. him. It was completely fake.

He's my mum. Yes, I'm DB. It's a dog. He's just out of the back in his kennel. Can I have a chat? I don't know. People also offered rewards for found notes, but Cooper was still nowhere. Then in 1975, the airline Northwith Orientinsinsurer

complied with an order from the Supreme Court, and they paid their airlines to $180,000. claim on the ransom money. So they're insured for that. They're insured for ransom money? So the real loser in this story is the insurance company. Good. Fuck him.

You know who I hate almost as much as accountants? Insurance companies. Go get fucked. Just, you know, now we're all just paying higher premiums because of people like DB. So he's cost us all money in a way. Why do you keep turning on DB? What's your problem with DB? Are you jealous of DB?

Yes. Fair enough. Because he's the coolest guy in the world and you'll never be that cool. He's a cool guy. Doesn't mean you have to shill over him, Matt. Hey, Jess. Who says I'm not DB? So we all love DB.

He's a clever guy, but he was not the first to attempt to hijack a plane, nor was he the last. Two weeks prior, for example, a Canadian man named Paul Joseph Sini, hijacked an air Canada flight over Montana, but he was overpowered by the crew when he put down his shotgun to strap on the parachute he had brought with him. No one was. No one. good. You want a bomb. You want a bomb. Also, he bought his own parachute. Amazing. Then in the 12... So, D.B. Cooper, this is a massive news story in the US because it's a big mystery at the time. Everyone wants to know what happened to him. In the 12 months after he made

headlines for his crime, 15 hijackers attempted similar plans with guns or a bomb, but we're all either arrested, and to parachute out, but they were all either arrested when they landed or a couple of days after. Well, I think that's because they didn't have the crazy brain of DB. DB sounds like he was a bit of a genius. A bit of a genius. Also, the airlines, before that, before 1973, when they invented universal luggage searches, before that, no one got searched at all.

So you could bring literally any weapon onto a plane. Say a, like a bomb. A bomb, a shotgun. One of them hijacked a plane with a submachine gun that he had hidden in his bag and then parachuted it out, but it was caught. So it's absolutely crazy bit. They started learning their lesson two years later in 1973, and they started searching everyone's bags. So that's, that mainly stopped.

I know, exactly. There were no further Cooper imitators until July 11th, 1980, when a guy called Glenn Tripp sees a northwest flight, also at Seattle, Tacoma Airport, demanding $600,000. Do you think this is DB? No, he wouldn't choose a shit name like Glenn Tripp. Fuck off Glenn. But he did want to do. want more, he won $600,000 he wanted two parachutes and the assassination

of his boss. Oh, Glenn. What a demand. You're a dickhead. They're not assassinating a boss for you, Glenn. Come on, Gwen. And tell my mom that I won't clean up my room. You get it in writing that I won't have to clean up my room. I want $600,000, I want two parachutes,

and I want some pesquetti. None of that should. shit in a can. A homemade pesquetti and a sippy cup. He's obviously crazy right, but after a 10-hour standoff he was apprehended. But then in July 1983, while still

on probation, so he got arrested, they let him out. Sure. Three years later, he hijacked the same Northwest flight. No, I'll do it again. I reckon I got it. This time demanded to be flown to Afghanistan. But when the plane landed in Portland to refuel,

he was shot and killed by FBI. So there you go. Glenn. It doesn't end well for Glenn. Nor should it. Glenn's a dickhead. I like, you know, D.B. was just this mysterious man.

Glenn's like, well, this is where I work. I want you to kill my boss. Kill my boss. What else do you need to know about me to make this hard? Why do you want to kill your boss? I don't know. He doesn't, I asked for the day off. I couldn't have it.

I always said I'm going to go terrorizing. Also, don't tell him where I am. He thinks I'm sick. Just kill him. Kill him before he asked any questions. Hey, don't you think it's interesting, we assumed his boss was male? It's 1980. They were the times, Jess.

You're right. Sorry. And we also assumed that Glenn Tripp was a male as well. Sure, Glenn Close is female. Goes both ways there, Jess. Well played. Thank you. But also, the boss was a dickhead, obviously, so that's why I thought it was a man.

Yeah. Because you wouldn't ever want to kill a lady That's not what I said Well no, hang on I always want to kill ladies I was like pushing the equal opportunity And I really Messed me

That's, look Jess I'm not saying Oh fucking hell Fighting for equality man I think bosses male or female Should be Okay so Those are the copycat crimes

But back to DB They didn't find any trace of him until 1978, a placard containing instructions for lowering the aircraft stairs from that 727 was found by a deer hunter on the logging road about

21 kilometres east of Castle Rock in Washington, well north of Lake Merwin where that submarine had searched. Seven years later. But still within the basic path. So the instructions are clearly just blown out the window. Yeah. At the stairs.

At the stair holes. Big old stairhole. Technical term. Then in February 1980, an 8-year-old boy named Brian Ingram. Brian Ingram. He was vacationing with his family on the Colombian River about 14 kilometers downstream from Vancouver, Washington. He uncovered three packets of the Cooper ransom money. They were significantly disintegrated but still bundled in rubber bands.

Oh, he did. And were found when Ingram was raking the sandy river banks to make a campfire. I want him to be dead. I want him to have just dropped him. I want him to have gone on to become Donald Trump or some sort of president. FBI technicians examined the money and confirmed that the money was indeed a portion of the ransom, two packets of the $120 bills each, and a third packet of 90, so 10 had fallen out. All arranged in the exact same order as they were when they were given to Cooper.

There was a big search, they searched the bank for the rest of the money, but none of it was ever found. But this raised a lot of questions. First of all, how did the money get there? It may have floated there naturally. An Army Corps engineer hydrologist noted that the bills had disintegrated in a rounded fashion and was matted together indicating that they've been deposited by river actions. They just floated down as opposed to being deliberately buried. Like if someone lands, buries it to get the money later.

If this is true, it means Cooper never landed near Lake Merwin as originally thought because that is downstream rather than up. The money's not going to flow up. So they may have been looking in the wrong place. But this does not explain the 10 bills missing from one packet, nor was there a logical reason that three packets would have remained together after separating from the rest of the money. If you had died and dropped all of the money,

while would three packets stay together and then the rest of it... Sure. Unless he's purposefully dropped it to send him on a wild goose chase. Oh my goodness, this guy. Well, the river was... That river was dredged in 1974, so it's likely that the bills arrived there after 1974. What?

Three years after the hijacking. Oh, this is exciting. If those bills could talk. If they could. What an adventure they've been on. Some surmised that the money had been found at a distant location by someone or possibly even a wild animal, carried to the riverbank, re-buried there.

There was also the possibility that the money had been found on the riverbank earlier before the dredging and buried in a superficial sand layer at a later time. So someone may have come across the money and buried it for later. Who buries money? Next to a river as well. I don't know. If you find like $30,000 in bills. And I'd bury it in something so it doesn't get all damaged.

I mean, our money's plastic, so it would be a bit, it would last a bit better. But there's isn't it, isn't it? Isn't it a paper? So it's just going to disintegrate anyway. So why would you bury it? I don't know why you'd bury it. I don't know why. Well, the sheriff of Colbert's County, who had been part of the search,

he proposed that Cooper may have accidentally dropped a few of the bundles when he's on the air stair before he parachutes down, which then blew off, and he jumped, and then they just fell into the river. Yeah, that could make sense. So then Cooper kept the rest of the money, maybe. In 1986, after a lot of negotiation, the recovered bills were divided equally between the boy who found them, Brian Ingram, and Northwest Orients and Shura, those people that... Oh, sure. The FBI retained some examples as evidence.

Ingram, so the 8-year-old boy, sold 15 of his bills at auction in 2008 for $37,000. I reckon Brian Ingram is D.B. Cooper's son. And another smart cookie. So obviously there's still a lot of interest in this mystery in America if people are still paying for. Which means they never found him. Well, the three bundles of $20 bills found on Tina Bunn. which is that sandbar in 1980, the only evidence ever found after the hijacking. The simplest explanation that Cooper landed on or near Tina Bar would require that the published

flight path was off by many miles. The jump timing would have to be off so they miscalculated and the pilots were not navigating in their normal manner so they didn't properly work out on the map where he'd jumped. There was currently no good data indicated that the flight path and timing of Cooper's jump were off enough for him to have been landed in that area. So he probably didn't land where the money was. It's a short story there. So, there are a lot of theories as to what happened to old mate DB Cooper. This is the mystery part. FBI agents

believe that Cooper was familiar with the Seattle area as he made comments about that stuff. He may have been an Air Force veteran based on testimony that he recognized that Air Force base on the ground and his accurate comment to where it was 20 minutes from the airport, which is something

a detail most civilians would not know or comment upon. Though DB is a bit of a So no. So yeah, it seemed weird that he was given stuff away like that

but obviously it didn't matter. Yeah. They believe he was a careful intrude planner because he asked for four parachutes that thing I said before.

He knew the plane that's 727 that's the only type of plane that has the stairs at the back that you can open whilst you're in the air. So he knew that.

Yeah, and he also knew that that plane could fly slowly so you could jump out. In 2009, Tom Kay, he was a paleontologist from a museum in Seattle,

put together a team of citizen sleuths to look into the case. They did a bunch of experiments and came to some conclusions, and there's this great website which I'll link to about the citizen sleuths and there's all this extra info. I kind of get obsessed with the case through it. You can look through their findings. So he collaborated with some of the FBI's or evidence and also came out with his own stuff.

He concluded that Cooper's meticulous planning may have also extended to the timing of his operation and even his choice of attire. This is a quote. The FBI searched but couldn't find anyone who disappeared that weekend. So you think that if he did die, then someone would be like, because I had a sketch of what he looked like. Oh, yeah, my friend at work didn't come back on Monday.

Yeah. It suggested that the perpetrator may have simply returned to his normal occupation on Monday. With or without the money. If he'd lost the money, you'd still, you couldn't tell anyone. You just go back to work on Monday. So if you were planning to go back to work on Monday, then you would need as much time as possible to get out of the woods find transportation and then get back home without anyone noticing.

The very best time for this to happen is a four-day weekend, which is when he jumped out. He jumped out just before Thanksgiving. He's got four days to get back to work. Where is D.B. Cooper? It's on aeroplane mode. How did that happen? This is bullshit. That's very.

Where is she? Where is I? Furthermore, if he was planning ahead, he would knew he'd had to hitchhike out of the woods, and it'd be much easy to get picked up in a suit in tie rather than old blue jeans. So if you're well-dressed, people are more likely to pick you up. That's the theory there. And he was very well-dressed.

Wow. Yeah, but then you're also, you'd stand out. Like, why is this well-dressed man hitchhiking? And then when it was all over the news, you'd be like, well, hang on a second. I saw that very well-dressed man. I'll pick down that guy. Hmm.

The other thing that these guys fan was in November 2011-K, the paleontologist announced that particles of pure titanium had been found on Cooper's tie that had been left behind. Kay explained that titanium, which was very rare in the 1970s, was found at the time early in metal fabrication or production facilities or chemical companies that use it. So the finding suggested that Cooper may have been a chemist or someone working with metal or an engineer or a manager of a metal plant.

So that's why? Because it would be really strange for someone to have that kind of metal found on them in the 70s. Or a spy. Or a metal spy. Or a robot. Oh, a transformer. He was a transformer. Yeah, he was a transformer.

He lands in the woods, gets to a road, turns into a DB 9, away he goes. Yep, from his 62-finger formation. Well, the FBI, they think that he died. They think that he didn't make it. They think despite... They want to say that. They wouldn't know. That's my opinion.

They want to say that. Despite his careful planning and attention to detail, the FBI believes that Cooper lacked crucial scum. skydiving skills and experienced. They originally thought the Cooper was an experienced jumper, perhaps maybe even a paratrooper or someone from the army. But they did another investigation in 2006 and concluded that this was simply not true.

No experienced parachutist would have jumped in the pitch black night, in the rain, with a 200-mile-hour wind rushing against your face, wearing loafers and a trench coat. Like you were saying, Jess, most people when they jump, wear a lot of safety gear. He wasn't even wearing a helmet. The FBI say that that was simply too risky, but like the whole thing is ridiculously risky, right? I reckon because he knew the risks, because he was really experienced, that's why he knew he could get away with it, right?

And why he knew that, like, everyone, like helmets. And what else did they want him wearing like knee pads or something? Come on, Ross. You'd look a bit silly getting on a plane with a helmet on. You reckon that might give it the game away? More so than the sunnies. Yeah. Oh, he's definitely pitch black at night, skydiving through the dark sun he's on.

The other fact that they argue is that he also missed that his reserve shoot was only for training and being sewn shut. In the panic to get the four parachutes to him from the skydiving school, they accidentally gave him a dud parachute. Shit. And that he picked that one as his backup. Right. But, I don't know, like if you're on a plane, you want to jump out of the plane, even if you are experienced, you could make mistakes like that, couldn't you? Good. You'd panic, so I'm thinking.

But the FBI has argued from the start that Cooper did not survive the jump. But where's the body? Where's the body? Or even part of the parachute. None of that was ever found. But the money was never used. And the money was never used. Do they know that for sure?

Well, they were tracking it. It's never been picked up by casinos or banks. Right. So he could just be using it for groceries. He could just still be living off it, being his own bank. there's been a bunch of suspects as to who D.B. Cooper really is. A lot of people have come forward,

especially after relatives die and said, you know what? My uncle gives D.B. A lot of people have come forward. Most of them ruled out. The one that I think is most likely is that I read about. In 2003, a Minnesota man named Lyle Christensen,

after watching a documentary on the Cuba hijacking, he became convinced that his late brother Kenneth Christensen was D.B. Cooper. So this is... I'll read his stats. You tell me if you think he fits the profile.

Christensen was enlisted in the army in 1944. He was trained as a paratrooper. He was never actually deployed, but he'd made occasional training jumps. We had a bit of parachuting experience. He joined the Northwest Orient airline in 1954 as a mechanic. He subsequently became a flight attendant based in Seattle, so he knew a lot about planes. But would somebody have recognized him then?

He would have he worked with that thing. He was 45 years old at the time of hijack. but he was a bit shorter 5'8 than the 6 foot claim of... Well, they said 510 to 6 foot, so 5'8's kind of short. I feel like DB walks taller as well.

I reckon 58's too short. That confidence, that charm. He would appear a bit taller. And his loafers had heels as well. Platform loafers on. I love this. Christensen, the suspect, as did the hijacker, smoked. Oh, hello.

Everybody did in the 70s. No, display to Fondas for Bourbon. Okay, well... It doesn't mean too much, I said. He was also left-handed. Yeah! Left-handed. Sinister.

He was the sinister man. But we never said that DB was. Well, evidence of photos of Cooper's black tie showed the clip tie from applied on the left side suggesting that he was a left-hander. Oh, that's why I like him. See, from the beginning I liked him. Now it makes sense.

Flight attendant Flo Shaf told a reporter that photos of Kenneth Christensen fit her memory of the hijackers appearance more closely than any other suspect she's been shown. But it can't be a Kenneth. But 30 years has passed. It can't be hard for Flo Schaft to remember. He's not a Kenneth.

Someone that's sexy cannot be a Kenneth. Kenneth has never done anything cool. Certainly never had sex. And DB has had heaps of sex. Oh, so too much sex. Appeal. Apeal. Kenneth reportedly purchased a house with cash a few months after the hijacking.

While dying of cancer in 1940, he told his brother, there was something you should know, but I cannot tell you. What a fucking tease. No, that's bullshit. His brother's just, like, he's just clutching its straws now. Though I would say after Kenneth's death, his family members discovered gold coins in a valuable stamp collection, along with $200,000 in bank accounts.

Holy fuck. $200,000. Where was he for Thanksgiving in 1971? Anybody remember? Was Uncle Kenneth around? for that Thanksgiving or was that Thanksgiving he was away on holiday? I love a mystery, but I hate one that doesn't have a nice, like a nice, tidy solution. I'm so frustrated right now.

I can hardly sit in this chair right now. I feel very uneasy. They also found a folder of Northwest Orient's news clippings, which began about the time he was hired in the 50s and stopped just prior to the date of the hijacking. I mean, a lot of this does sound pretty good, right? despite the fact that the hijacking was by far the most momentous news event in the airline's history ever. So he didn't cut anything about that out, but he cut out everything else about the airline. Christensen continued to work part-time for the airline for many years after 1971.

So you think that someone would recognize him, but apparently never clipped another Northwest news story. Weird. So there was a book published about Kenneth Christensen, and there was a lot of publicity about that, but the FBI addressed that standard, they stood by their position that he cannot be considered a prime suspect. they signed a poor match to eyewitness physical description. The level of skydiving expertise that they predicted was above the actual DB Cooper. FBI sound like stubborn kids. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, can't be, can't be.

But it sounds like it probably is. No. I said it isn't. Just three final things to follow. Not fun facts, but just... You better just have the answer. You better just be like, well actually, I've found him and he's here with us today. He's hiding under the table.

Classic TP. Classic TV. Matt checked. In the wake, so I told you about those multiple copycat hijackings the year after in 1972. In the wake of that, the FAA required that all Boeing 727s, the one with the lower aircraft, be fitted with the device that was later dubbed the Cooper Vane, which prevents the lowering of the aircraft during flight. so no one could jump out of those stairs anymore. Oh, they named it after him.

That's how charming he was. Several airlines elected to abandon the use of the air stair entirely and welded the door shut, so you couldn't go through the back anymore. What I love about him being known as DB Cooper is that it was one error one time by a journalist? Yeah. There is a DB Cooper. Yeah, and he's fine. He's a normal person.

I know, he's not even, he's Dan Cooper. No one ever went, we should probably fix this. No, just leave it at DB. Nah. We've done it now. We wrote one article, so I don't see how we could possibly fix this. That was very strange, isn't it? Everyone still calls him DB 45 years later. So weird. And the most recent note on the story in late April 2013, Earl Kossi, the owner of the skydiving school that furnished the four parachutes given to Cooper, was found dead in his home in the suburb of Seattle.

His death was ruled a homicide due to blood forced trauma to the head. the perpetrator remains unknown conspiracy theorists immediately began pointing out possible links to the Cooper case but authorities responded that they had no reason to believe that they had such a link exists and I think that that was the work of one Pharaoh Tutankham I was thinking Pharaoh too

curse yeah because as if it would be DB he's not the murdering type he's not he let everybody off the plane charming he's a bloody charmer nah that's silly hot for DB this is the final note on DB in pop culture obviously this is a very famous story in the 1970s

a lot of books and movies and things have been made out of this story Cooper has been used in a number of storylines of popular TV shows such as Prison Break Ah cool Numbers as well as the 4400 TV series But this is the final note Remember I asked you if you've ever heard the name

DB Cooper at the start of the show In the 1990 Hits television series Twin Peaks You ever seen Twin Peaks? No I haven't No I haven't I was talking about it just yesterday Because I saw a Mile Holland Drive the other day

And that was a frustrating fucking... I studied it at uni. I enjoyed it, but it was like this story. What is happening? I know. This is it? I'm afraid that this story that I've told you today is pretty David Lynch. It has no real good story.

But in the Twin Peaks, which is a great show, the main character is FBI Special Agent Dale Bartholomew Cooper. Oh. Who's named after D.B. Cooper. That's cool. That's a fun fact. That would have been more fun if you were both fans at the show. Yeah, and then we'd be like, what?

I believe I'm going to be a fan of it. Well, Dave, that was very interesting. But at the same time, and no offense. I'm so unsatisfied. I feel uneasy. You've ruined my day. I'll say that this is the only hijacking in US history that has not been solved. Are you kidding?

Every other one, they know who it is. This guy, to this day, I'll show you a photo of the drawing, which I will be tweeting out. This is the attractive band that you... Oh, yeah, he's a bit of a babe. He is a bit of a babe. There's also a... Oh, with the glasses. Oh, with the glasses.

Oh, my. Goodness me. He's popular. He's like Ned Kelly. Somewhere in the US, they have like an annual Cooper date. They do not.

Yeah. Because he never harmed anyone. He never heard anybody? It was like a victimless crime apart from the fucking insurance companies. And good, fuck him. And you know who also works for insurance companies? Probably accountants.

Oh my God. Fuck all of you. I bet they employ quite a few. Right a few. Probably doesn't. But if it was Kenneth and he paid for his house in cash, well, firstly, you should be suspicious if somebody pays for a house in cash. So you'd think you'd maybe run over those bills a couple times.

$20 notes too. No, thank you for this information, but no, definitely not him because someone said he looked slightly different. So definitely not him. But thank you letting us know. That's fucked up FBI. Pieces of shit. But there's been like, that was the one.

that I thought was most intriguing. There's been dozens of people that have suggested or come forward but the FBI has always ruled them out for one reason or another. But I like to think that he made it because if he did, well, I'm in two camps on it because if he did live, why didn't you spend the money?

Yeah. Possibly he just lost it. He dropped it on the way down. Which sucks. Which sucks, but that's definitely a possibility. And that's why some of the money washed up. You know, it could have been rummaged through by a wild animal or when he hit trees, it split into little bags.

And the other thing is if he did die, then why didn't they find the one parachute and his body? Yeah. They did a massive search. Even now, like the hunter found that plate. So someone, the people go through forests. Someone will stumble upon his body. Yeah.

Oh, man. I mean, that might be ridiculous. I have no idea what this train's like. But I reckon he made it. Why couldn't he have just spent the money bit by bit? Like, you're saying he didn't spend it because he didn't go launder it at a casino or a bank. Bank, yeah, but maybe... I think they probably of the...

10,000 notes. They end up at a bank sometime. Exactly. So like a shop would take it to the bank and then they'd be able to trace it back. What I was saying, there was really dumb. No, not really dumb. Pretty dumb. And as technology improves now, I think they probably have alarms on,

they probably scan each note as it comes through. Yeah, so the bank records all the numbers. Yeah, you can trace it. And they've all been marked. They've all been further. I don't know. That's amazing. But when I was reading the story, I was like,

and then I was like, he's not going to jump out. Is he? He jumped. down and then he disappeared. Oh, so cool. So cool. That's a great story. That's the mystery of D.B. Cuba, that was for you. Brett, I hope you enjoyed that mystery. Yeah, I reckon Brett would have enjoyed that. I never, that never even went in the actual hat. You just siphoned that one off for yourself, you had a low dog.

Dude, I got an email and thought, LD. L.D. Warnockie. No, good one. And it's good because then we had no idea, so that's great. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, you didn't have a chance to look into it because I just secretly didn't mind himself. But if you want to get an idea into the hat, you can email us do go on pod at gmail.com or on Twitter. We like getting those. We keep a record of all the suggestions we get on Twitter.

At do go on pod is our handle. We're on Facebook as well. You can send us a message. Cecil sent one to me directly during the week. So maybe I can siphon one off as well. I've already put in the hat, though. You guys can all see it. I haven't checked the hat recently if you want to delete it.

Yeah. I haven't changed that out either. The E-Hat. The Google Doc hat. We will all dawn at one state. Thank you so much. That is us for now and we'll be back with the report next week. Bye.

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