Infamous America - DB COOPER Ep. 1 | “The Skyjacking”

Episode Date: July 8, 2020

This is the story of one of the most infamous unsolved crimes in American history. In November of 1971, a man calling himself “Dan Cooper” hijacks an airplane out of Portland, Oregon. He demands four parachutes and a ransom of $200,000. When he receives the money, he leaps out of the back of the plane and disappears into the stormy night. And the legend of the D.B. Cooper begins… Join Black Barrel+ for early access and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In late November, 1971, a man wearing a dark suit and an overcoat enters Portland International Airport in the mid-afternoon. He approaches the ticket counter for Northwest Orient Airlines. There's nothing troubling about the man. He doesn't seem anxious as he asks for a ticket for the short flight to Seattle. He pays cash for the ticket. His only luggage is a briefcase. Before he walks away, the man asks one last one last one last time.

question. The flight is on his 727, right? The agent confirms that it is. The man in the dark suit takes a seat by himself in the terminal. He'll sit there quietly and then he'll calmly walk onto the plane. On board, he'll have a bourbon and soda and smoke cigarettes. About five hours later, he'll jump out of the plane with a military parachute strapped to his back at $200,000 in a satchel. He'll disappear. off the face of the earth, but enter the hallowed halls of American folklore. The man will be known as D.B. Cooper. From Black Barrel Media, this is Infamous America.

I'm your host, Chris Wimmer. In this season, we're telling the story of D.B. Cooper, the mystery man who pulled off the only unsolved skyjacking in American history. This is Chapter 1, The Skyjacking. The world's most famous case of air piracy took place in America's Pacific Northwest on the Thanksgiving holiday, 1971. But many in America felt little thanks for the state of the world. The U.S. remained in the grip of an unpopular war that polarized the country. The principles that should have led to prosperity during the economic boom following World War II

were not playing out for all Americans. Racial and social unrest led to violence and distrust of law enforcement. Cities were on fire. Youth movements throughout the 1960s called for social reform, a rejection of consumerism, and an end to the American presence in Southeast Asia. Standard bearers of hope were assassinated in Dallas, Memphis, and Los Angeles. The silent generation had been promised that if they donned their gray flannel suits and worked hard, they could pluck the American dream from the pages of a Macy's catalog. The Baby Boomers championed the voice of the people and peace and love over war and consumerism. Both generations felt betrayed.

In 1971, barely a year after the shootings at Kent State University, America witnessed the riots at Attica State Prison and the Stonewall Inn. Trust in Leaders was tested again with the release of the Pentagon Papers. Violent crime was up. So was unemployment. 6% nationally. And there was also a recession. A few years later, after the Watergate scandal,

the new president, Gerald Ford, declared, My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. But in November of 1971, not many Americans would have believed him. This was the anxious state of the Union when a man who looked to be in his early to mid-40s bought a one-way ticket from Portland to Seattle. He has slightly receding hair and wears a dark suit when he walks into Portland International Airport on November 24, 1971. He buys a one-way ticket for a Northwest Orient flight to Seattle-Tacoma Airport that leaves at 250 p.m.

He wears a white shirt under his dark suit, complete with a black tie and a raincoat. His only luggage is a small briefcase. He pays cash for his ticket. It costs $20, including tax. Although it's the Wednesday afternoon before the Thanksgiving holiday, Flight 305 is only about a third full. The man is one of the last people to board the aircraft. He's greeted by one of the three flight attendants, Florence Schaffner. He takes a seat at the back of the plane in the last row, just in front of the lavatories in the rear galley. By most accounts, it's seat 18C.

Florence Schaffner thinks nothing of the man as she begins her duties before takeoff. Like many women of her time, Schaffner is drawn to her profession by perceived glamour and promised adventure. Aviation still holds some of that for some Americans. It can still mean freedom and reinvention. Before air travel becomes an anxious chore, it seems like lounges and parties in the air. And stewardesses, as they're called at the time, are the front line of that fantasy. They wear go-go boots and offer free cocktails and the illusion of possibility, even if it's only from wheels up to wheels down.

Florence Schaffner has been on the job for less than two years. If she was promised adventure and the chance to be sexually objectified, then her career as a flight attendant has only made good on one of those promises. Her life is a grind. Schaffner's big brown, well-shadowed eyes hide her exhaustion. This is the last leg of a flight that began early that morning in Minneapolis. There were stops in Great Falls, Missoula, and Spokane before touching down in Portland at midday. Just get to Seattle, she thinks as she smiles.

Just get to Seattle, and the Thanksgiving holiday can begin. This is her mindset as she takes a drink order from the man in 18C. He politely asks for a bourbon and soda. He attempts to pay for the $1 drink with a $20,000. dollar bill. She tells him she can't make change yet and she'll come back with it. He sips his drink and takes long drags from his cigarettes. He has an entire row to himself. In the cockpit, Captain William Scott and his co-pilot and flight engineer ready the plane for takeoff. Flight 305 is a Boeing 727-100 with the FAA registration number of N-467 U.S.

The Boeing 727 was first flown commercially in 1964, and it became arguably the most important aircraft in commercial travel history. More than 1,800 727s would be manufactured during its production years. It was still in use all the way up to 2019. Larger and more powerful than its competition, it's powered by three Pratt & Whitney JT8D engines, two on either side of the rear fuselage and one at the base of the T-tail. It is a top speed of 630 miles per hour and a maximum altitude over 35,000 feet. It has a range of 3,100 miles. It can take off and land using shorter runways and taxi without ground assistance.

It's the ideal plane for business travel because it can operate in and out of smaller regional airports, even ones that don't have terminals. But the man in 18C, sipping his bourbon and soda and working his way through a pack of Raleys, is just 10 feet away from the most important feature of the plane, the rear air stairs. To allow for use at smaller airports

that don't have mobile jet bridges, the 727 is equipped with hydraulic stairs that lower from the rear fuselage. This allows the passengers to safely get on and off the plane directly from the tarmac, even with the engines on. This set of stairs will make the Boeing 727 one of the most important characters in the tale of the man who will soon be known as D.B. Cooper.

With the cabin prepared, Florence Schaffner settles into the jump seat at the rear of the plane. But as she does, the man in 18C hands her a note. She's experienced this before, a lonely businessman taking a low-stakes shot that she wants something more than just to do her job. She refuses to be the me in the coffee, tea, or me, promiscuous flight attendant trope.

She slips the note into the pocket of her uniform without reading it. But the man persists. It's only a 30-minute flight, and he has work to do before they reach Seattle-Tacoma Airspace. With mild urgency, he makes a compelling argument that Florence Schaffner should read the note. He says, Miss, you'd better read that note. I have a bomb. Schafter's initial reaction is disbelief.

She reads the note. Miss, I have a bomb in here. I would like you to sit by me. She looks back at him. This is for real, he says, and places a hand on his briefcase. He motions to the empty seat beside him and tells her to sit. The reality of the situation is not quite rushed over her. She asks him if he's really serious.

Calmly, the man opens the briefcase enough for her to see inside. There are no files, no quarterly reports, no magazines. Instead, there are eight long cylinders connected to wires. The insulation on the wires is the same red color of her uniform. The insulation of one of the wires is stripped back, and there's a large battery as well. They could just be firecrackers, Schaffner thinks. Firecrackers could be that big, right? But she realizes it's not a hoax.

The man in 18C is hijacking the plane. To say that the world had a hijacking problem in 1971 would be a big understatement. From 1968 to 1972, over 300 aircraft were hijacked worldwide. That was about one every six days. Academics and psychiatrists referred to it like a disease, skyjacking. It's a contagion, spreading from desperate person to desperate person. As the media sensationalizes it, Americans grow desensitized. Major magazines run parody articles about imaginary hijackers.

The previous spring, a disaster movie with an all-star cast called Airport hit theaters. It was about a hijacking, with a bomb explosion. and grossed $100 million at the box office. From the galley, fellow flight attendant Tina Mucklo has been watching Florence Schaffner. Tina wonders why the man in the last row is taking up so much of her co-workers' time. And then, does Florence look worried? Tina gets the attention of the third flight attendant, then she makes her way through the cabin.

Schaffner shows her the note. Tina immediately goes for the intercom phone near the rear galley and calls the cockpit. In the cockpit, Captain Scott already has the plane over 10,000 feet. The trip is short, but the cabin has become pressurized.

The pressurized air lowers the humidity in the cabin. Food has less taste. Alcohol works faster. At Flight 305's maximum altitude, if the plane suffers rapid decompression, the passengers will be unconscious within minutes and brain damage will be setting in. And that's if the decompression isn't instantaneous.

If the plane suffers an explosive decompression, say from a bomb, the trauma would be immediate, hypoxia and burst lungs. The rapid change in humidity will fill the cabin with mist and limit visibility. Unsecured luggage and other objects will become shrapnel. Bodies will fly. If the damage is bad enough, passengers will get sucked out of the plane more than 30 5,000 feet above the earth. Captain Scott isn't thinking about rapid decompression at the moment, but he will be very soon.

Tina Mucklow tells the captain, there is a man in the back of the plane with a bomb. The crew in the cockpit contacts ground control immediately. Captain Scott calls the airline's headquarters in Minnesota. They inform all parties that a man has told members of the flight crew that he has a bomb in a briefcase. They're confident he's serious, but they haven't been given demands. In the rear of the plane, the man explains the situation to Florence Schaffner. He says he wants $200,000 in a backpack. He wants fuel ready on the ground when they land, and he wants four parachutes,

two front packs and two rear backpacks. Schaffner furiously scribbles the demands. The man puts on black sunglasses to hide his eyes. He continues to be calm but clear. I don't want any funny business, he says. Tina Mucklow stays with the hijacker while Florence Schaffner takes the demands to the cockpit. Tina lights a Raleigh cigarette for him. The butts are filling up the ashtray in the armrest.

Tina has an image of a hijacker in her mind. Irrational, desperate, terrifying. This man is none of those things. He's polite when she gets him another drink. He doesn't appear nervous or overwhelmed. She'll describe him later as thoughtful and rather nice and never cruel or nasty. In the cockpit, Captain Scott and his crew listened to Florence Schaffner's description of the bomb and the hijackers' demands. She shows them the note.

They can't discern anything about his plan or his motivation. But when they call headquarters again, they make it clear. He will use this bomb if anyone tries to block his demands. And the man has four more instructions. Number one, don't tell the passengers. Number two, stay in the air until all demands are met. Number three, meet those demands by 5 p.m., less than two hours from now. Number four, the flight crew doesn't quite know what to make of this one.

The man wants meals for everyone. Captain Scott flips on the intercom to speak to the passengers. In row 18, Tina Mucklow shares a cigarette with the hijacker, even though she's recently quit. He informs her that when they land, she will be in charge of retrieving the money and the parachutes. He takes a long drag and looks out at the early evening sky. Looks like Tacoma down there, he says mildly.

As Flight 305 circles over Seattle-Tacoma Airport, The scene grows chaotic on the ground. Local law enforcement, FBI agents, officials from Northwest Orient, and administrators at the Portland and Seattle airports scrambled to address the problem. Is this hijacker a serious threat? Is the bomb real? Can they negotiate a surrender? Do they meet his demands? Can they meet his demands? When FBI Special Agent Ralph Himmelsbach gets the call near Portland, he has no idea, he will be linked to this evening for the rest of his life. Himmelsbach served in World War II and is already a 20-year veteran of the Bureau. He's dealt with robberies, kidnappings, extortionists, and terrorists. Last year, he worked on the bombing of a campus building at his alma mater, the University of Oregon. Agitators were protesting the presence of the ROTC on campus. The bomber has not yet been identified.

Himmelsbach has little patience for those who break the law in an effort to change it. He has even less for those who break the law out of greed. He coordinates with the office in Seattle as jurisdictions are negotiated and a plan is made. Some in local law enforcement want to raid the plane. Northwest Orient wants the pilot to have the last say. The airline decides to comply with the hijackers' demands and it puts Captain Scott in control of the situation. Even though airplane hijackings have become commonplace, they've usually ended without casualties. For the most part, they've been carried out by Cuban nationals

who are doing anything to get back home after their country was embargoed since Fidel Castro seized power. But occasionally, the hijackings are the acts of madmen, desperate madmen. They want to dodge the draft. They want political prisoners released. They want an audience with President Nixon, or they want to kill him. The hijackings have rarely been about money, but there have been several close calls with hijacking incidents in the last few weeks. Northwest Orient does not want to be linked

to the first tragedy, not over a mere $200,000. As the 5 PM deadline approaches, Seattle banks are contacted. A mad dash is underway not only to collect the money in negotiable bills as the hijacker has requested, but to catalog the serial numbers for the FBI. Seattle-Tacoma Airport is closed, and a local recreational skydiving establishment

is contacted to provide parachutes. The hijacker wants two sets of parachutes. The main shoot is worn on the back, and a smaller reserve shoot is worn on the chest. He specified that the main shoots needed to be military style, which don't allow for steering during freefall. Those two shoots arrive quickly at the airport. The two smaller reserve shoots are still on their way.

Meanwhile, Agent Himmelsbach is in Portland trying to find out who the man is. Two separate employees for Northwest Orient remember a single man who seemed a bit off. They both recalled dark clothes. They both recall the man keeping to himself. One employee, the ticket agent, remembers that he asked if the flight to Seattle was on a 727. And he remembers a name, Dan Cooper. Here in 1971, your identity on a flight manifest is whatever you decide to write on the ticket. No IDs are required.

The hijacker paid cash for his ticket, so there's no paper trail or electronic record. He would have then walked unobstructed through the airport without going through any kind of security or search of his person or property. He would have walked right into the Northwest Orient terminal and right onto the plane. Back in the rear of the plane, Tina Mucklow peers out the window as the minutes creep by. The rain against the windows has increased. If they ever land and take off again, it could be in the middle of a storm. The 5 p.m. deadline has passed. The hijacker wants an update, so Tina calls the cockpit.

Captain Scott calls the airport in Seattle and makes it clear the deadline. the hijacker seems to be getting agitated. They need to know what is going on. Captain Scott calls again at roughly 5.20 p.m. A couple of the parachutes still haven't arrived, but the money is there and the fuel trucks are ready. Scott sends a message back to the hijacker. Scott asks if the hijacker would like the plane to land, and the man agrees. Flight 305 is cleared to land and begins its descent through the thickening clouds and the pelting rain. Seattle-Tacoma Airport looks abandoned. The plane touches down safely at 5.39 p.m. Pacific Standard time.

35 of the 42 people on board have no idea they've just completed the first leg of the flight that will be America's most infamous act of air piracy. The plane taxis to a dark, secluded area of the airport. The fuel truck and a pickup truck with a ladder cruise onto the wet tarmac. There's also an unmarked police car. The ladder truck lines up against the plane next to the front doors of the 727. In the unmarked police car, a local detective and a director from Northwest Orient watch the activity.

The director takes a large satchel out of the trunk of the car. It weighs more than 20 pounds and contains $200,000 in the direction. rubber-banded stacks of $20 bills. In the last row of the plane, Tina Mucklow stands up. The hijacker sends her forward where she makes her way down the mobile stairs and out into the rain.

She's anxious, but she takes the satchel and gets back on the plane. The other passengers grow frustrated. They see men and lights and trucks down on the runway. They see the flight attendant leave the plane and then return with a bag for the man in the back row. but they're still stuck in their seats, and they should have landed two hours ago.

Tina Mucklow delivers the bag to the man in 18C. She makes an appeal. She says, you have your money, why not let the passengers go? And he agrees. The flight crew informs the passengers that they can leave, and the tired men and women of Flight 305 hustled to get their possessions.

They exit the plane and get onto a school bus to take them to the terminal. Now, the only people on the plane are the three men in the cockpit, the three flight attendants, and the hijacker. The hijacker sends Tina Mucklow back outside to get the parachutes. The captain takes the opportunity to tell Florence Shafter and Alice Hancock to get off the plane. Tina returns to the back of the plane to deliver the four parachutes. Law enforcement is concerned about the number. Why does the guy need two sets of parachutes?

Maybe he plans to take an airborne hostage. In seat 18C, the hijacker's anxiety rises. One of the fuel trucks malfunctioned. The refueling is taking too long. He's frustrated that the money was not put in a backpack as he instructed. It's in a satchel with handles, but not straps to wrap around his body. He's paranoid that law enforcement might be trying to mount an operation against him. He tells Tina Mucklo to close all the windows.

shades so no one can see into the cabin. While they all nervously wait for the refueling process to finish, the hijacker pops one of the reserve shoots. With a small knife, he begins to cut long pieces of cord from the canopy, possibly to make straps for the satchel to tie it to his body. Ground control calls the cockpit. They want to know if the last flight attendant can get off the plane. Florence Schaffner and Alice Hancock successfully made it off the plane. plane, but Tina Mucklow is in the back with the hijacker and he doesn't want to let her go. It's suggested that the three-man crew in the cockpit try to escape through one of the cockpit windows by using a rope ladder that's on board the plane. The men refuse. They want the authorities

to stay back. They're not leaving the young flight attendants stranded in the back of the plane with the hijacker. Ground control understands. The plane will be refueled shortly. But when it's done, The question on everyone's mind is, what's the plan then? Tina Mucklow certainly wants to know as well. The hijacker is specific. He gives a new set of instructions. The plane should take off and proceed at a maximum altitude of 10,000 feet. The flaps should be at 15 degrees.

He wants the landing gear deployed. He wants to take off with the rear air stairs down. He wants the plane to fly as slowly as possible without safe. stalling. Do not pressurize the cabin. And they aren't going to Cuba. They're going to Mexico City. Tina relays the directives, but there's confusion. Even with the 727's long-range capabilities, they'll never reach Mexico City if they follow his instructions. At that low altitude, with the landing gear and flaps down, the three engines will have to work much harder to stay airborne. The plane is able to fly at more than 600 miles per hour, but with the hijacker's

conditions, they'll be traveling under 200 miles per hour. They'll run out of fuel long before they make it to Mexico City. Captain Scott is also concerned about the air stairs. He's not sure if they can take off with the stairs down. That might render the plane inoperable. The hijacker concedes that point. He'll lower the stairs when they're in the air. The hijacker asks, Tina to show him how to work the air stairs. It's pretty simple. Just pull a lever. At that point, he tells her he has everything he needs. It's time to go. The crew engages the engines and the plane begins to roll down the runway. The hijacker and the captain have agreed on a flight plan. They'll go south toward Portland, Oregon. They'll stay west of Mount Rainier and fly over the Columbia

River. They'll refuel in Reno, Nevada, and then continue south toward Mexico. The flight path is known as Victor 23. The plane is back in the air at 7.40 p.m., almost exactly two hours after it landed in Seattle. As it flies relatively low in the sky, the hijacker begins the final sequence of his plan. He sends Tina Mucklow to the cockpit. As she walks up the aisle toward the front of the cabin, she reaches the first-class seats. She grabs the curtain that separates first-class from the rest of the plane and takes one last look at the hijacker. Then she closes the curtain and continues toward the cockpit.

On the ground, authorities scramble fighter jets to follow the plane. Two F-106 fighters trail the commercial airliner, but there's yet another problem. Flight 305 is moving so slowly that the fighter jets have trouble maintaining visual contact. They're not designed to fly that slow. Special Agent Himmelsbach recruits a helicopter and flies into the rainy night to locate the plane.

But in the bad weather, he can't find it either. While authorities struggle to keep track of the hijacked plane, FBI agents on the ground begin conducting interviews. For the first time, the other passengers learned they were part of a skyjacking. As agents talked to the passengers and the two liberated flight attendants, they check names against the ticket information from Portland International Airport. All the passengers are accounted for, except one. Dan Cooper. On the plane, the cockpit communicates briefly with the hijacker.

He's struggling with the air stairs, but he refuses to let anyone help. Captain Scott reports a change in cabin pressure at 8.05 p.m. He assumes that the hijacker has deployed the stairs. Outside the plane, in the rain and darkness of the November night, the lights of Flight 305 will be the only ones the hijacker can see. The wind speed out there is 10 knots for approximately 11 miles per hour. At roughly 8.13 p.m., the crew experiences something that they will later describe as sudden and sustained upward movement. It requires them to make adjustments to bring the plane back to level flight. The cockpit calls back to the hijacker, but receives no response.

The man doesn't communicate again. More than an hour and a half later, the crew calls back to tell him they're starting their final approach into Reno, Nevada. They receive nothing in return. Authorities on the ground in Reno spring into action as the plane approaches the tarmac. Everyone assumes their rear air stairs are still deployed. But no one has visual confirmation. The fact is confirmed when sparks cascade across the tarmac as the plane touches down. Emergency vehicles and law enforcement speed toward the plane as it rolls to a stop.

Police and FBI storm the cabin. They find one of the two sets of parachutes. The larger main parachute is in tatters from the hijacker cutting it with his knife. The smaller reserve shoot is still intact, and this will raise a huge, question later on. One of the two reserve shoots is a dummy shoot. It doesn't work. It's been sewn shut and it's only used for training on the ground. For some reason, the hijacker took that one as his reserve. Why? Lastly, authorities find a black tie with a mother of pearl tie clip. But there's no money, no briefcase with a bomb, and no Dan Cooper. Next time. Next to

time on Infamous America, the manhunt begins for the missing hijacker. A reporter writes down the wrong name, and for the rest of time, the world will know the man as D.B. Cooper. That's next week on Infamous America. And if you're a member of our Black Barrel Plus program, you already have access to the full season. If you're not a member, you can sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Members receive access to the full season. If you're not a member, you can sign up now, to each new season in its entirety one week before the season begins for the general public.

And members receive exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up today for just $5 per month. This season was researched and written by Jamie Lyko. Audio editing and sound design by Dave Harrison. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer.

Find us at our website blackbarrelmedia.com or on our social media channels. We're BlackBeryl Media on Facebook and Instagram and B-Barrel Media on Twitter. And you can stream all our episodes on YouTube. Just search for Infamous America Podcast. Thanks for listening.