D.B. Cooper: He Hijacked a Plane, Jumped Into a Storm, and No One Ever Found Him
The night before Thanksgiving, 1971. A man in a business suit. A bomb in a briefcase. $200,000 in twenties. And a jump into the freezing darkness over Washington state.
This week on Mugshot Mysteries, we're diving into the only unsolved air piracy case in American history, the legend of D.B. Cooper (or Dan Cooper, because the media got his name wrong from day one).
Join us as we break down how a polite, bourbon-sipping hijacker outsmarted the FBI, traumatized a flight crew with excessive courtesy, and vanished into thin air...literally. We cover copycat hijackings, mysterious money found by an 8-year-old on the Columbia River, deathbed confessions that lead nowhere, and Gabriel's wild CIA theory that... actually kind of makes sense?
From Kenneth Christiansen to Richard Floyd McCoy to Barbara Dayton, we dig into every suspect and theory from the past 50+ years. No blood, no bodies, just pure, unsolvable mystery.
You might hear tiny humans in the background this episode. Crime doesn't stop for bedtime, and neither do we.
Sources:
- FBI Vault: D.B. Cooper (NORJAK) Case Files (vault.fbi.gov)
- Himmelsbach, Ralph & Worcester, Thomas. NORJAK! The Investigation of D.B. Cooper (1986)
- Gray, Geoffrey. Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper (2011)
- Forman, Tom (Director). D.B. Cooper: Where Are You? Netflix (2022)
- Smithsonian Magazine: "D.B. Cooper: The Enduring Mystery of the Only Unsolved Airline Hijacking in U.S. History"
- Seattle Times: D.B. Cooper archives (1971-2016)
- The Oregonian: Cooper coverage and Brian Ingram discovery (1980)
- New York Times: Original hijacking coverage (November 1971)
- Tina Mucklow interviews (various, 2011-2020)
- FAA records: Cooper Vane implementation
- Tosaw, Richard. D.B. Cooper: Dead or Alive? (1984)
📸 Can't get enough? Follow @MugshotMysteries on TikTok and Instagram for mugshots, unsolved mysteries, and the stories we couldn't fit (because Gabriel went on another tangent).
⭐ Rate us if you enjoyed this. Seriously, it's how the algorithm gods bless us.
🎧 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode.
Thanks for hanging with us. See you next time with another face, another crime, and probably another debate between us.
Stay curious. Stay suspicious.
