Forty years ago tomorrow, Novemeber 24, 1971, a man boarded a 747, thirty minutes before the flight and paying in cash, headed from Portland to Washington. It was Thanksgiving eve and many passengers were making their final flight for home to be with their family. This man had other ideas. He gave his name as Dan Cooper, a nondescript middle age man that stood 5'10", between 170 and 180 pounds, with brown eyes and dark hair. Sound like anyone to you?
Dan Cooper, armed only with a briefcase, took a seat by himself on the plane. He smoke heavily and had a few cocktails as they pushed off to Washington. Nothing out of the ordinary for the time. What he did next was straight out of a Hollywood movie. Cooper took a note and gave it to the flight attendant alerting her that he was hijacking the plane. Inside his briefcase she was given a glimpse of a bomb. He wanted $200,000 or he would blow up the planes. The airlines agreed.
The plane landed down in Seattle, Washington, with local police and FBI in wait, where the pilots were instructed to refuel and set a course, which Cooper provided, to Mexico. Cooper allowed all passengers off the flight keeping one stewardess as a hostage. The FBI strategized, but ultimately allowed for Cooper to leave believing he would have to stop before getting to Mexico. They would just bide their time and wait. Unbeknownst to them Cooper never wanted to make it to Mexico.
The flight took off from Seattle and headed south. Cooper had received four parachutes, at his request, while in Seattle. He strapped one to himself and tied the other to the ransom bag. Cooper ordered the stewardess to lock herself in the cockpit with the rest of the crew. She did and it was in the cockpit that the crew noticed the rear door or aft door of the plane had been opened. They called back to Cooper, but received no response.
On that cold, and dark night in November a man set out to accomplish an extremely daring feat. With a parachute strapped to himself and the ransom bag gripped in his other hand he stepped calmly and fluidly down the steps. With the wind ripping through the night sky, his heart racing as he looked down into a deep abyss. A flutter of nerves quickly struck, but Dan Cooper composed himself. He took one last look back at the plane before turning his attention back to the night sky. And then he jumped.
That was forty years ago tomorrow when Dan Cooper, now known as D.B. Cooper, took to the air to pull off one of the most well known heists of all time. His plot remains one of the all time great heists, and subsequent mysteries, in the history of the United States, as Cooper was never captured, only some of the money he stole was recovered, and numerous suspects have come and fell by the wayside.
It is that one act, the jump, that propelled a once unknown Dan Cooper into D.B. Cooper: American Folk Hero. His legend spawned numerous books, a movie, a festival in Ariel, Washington held the weekend of Thanksgiving, and at one time my hometown had a bar named D.B. Cooper in his honor. The other seemingly odd note to this story is the number of people that have claimed to be D.B. Cooper over the years. Or the abundance of people that stepped forward to allege they could unmask Cooper as a family member. The likes of which contended they had evidence that their brother, their uncle, their father, or a friend bared a resemblance to Cooper, or lived in the area of the hijacking, or confided in them upon their death bed. However, all roads have come up as dead end to this point, baffling the FBI, the local police, and the general public as a whole into the identity of this ordinary guy who pulled off a robbery the likes of which could only be scripted in Hollywood.
The question is why is D.B. Cooper still relevant? How does a man who committed a crime become a pop culture icon for the last forty years? And why do people want to answer the question to his identity by forcibly claiming to be him or know his true identity?
I thought the world loved a good mystery?
They do, but they also love closure... or so they thought.
Remember what drove the Watergate scandal years after Nixon resigned? It was the mystery of who was Deep Throat, right. Everyone always wanted to know his identity and then when they found out it was FBI associate director Mark Felt the mystery and excitement of watergate died with it. People wanted to know, but really it was the idea of not knowing that drove the anticipation and speculation of that incident.
In our world of TMZ, smart phones, and high tech video systems that capture virtually everything it seems odd that a single man, identified by dozen's of eye witnesses, was able to get away with such a feat. How long would he be able to hide now? 15 seconds? 45 seconds? It would be nearly impossible for this type of caper to be pulled off in our day and age without video footage, DNA, and heat-seeking infrared sensors tracking him down like a blood hound. Another reason his feat is that more intriguing to our current generation- people just don't get away with crimes anymore, especially a crime that has been in the spotlight for over forty years. Not to mention his face was plastered all over TV's and wanted posters during a highly publicized search; coupled with the fact the Feds found no discernible evidence or fingerprints that could lead to a concrete identification. It as if when he jumped he took all of his DNA with him into the night sky and vanished like a ghost. And not having found even an inkling of evidence to come put them close to finding Cooper has only driven people to want to know more, thus keeping his legend intact.
However, for all the mystery, the lack of evidence, and the conspiracy theory's attached to the case the answers to why D.B. Cooper still resonates with society today lies in once fact. The answer lies in the question- who is Dan Cooper? The answer is he could be any of us. And maybe he is just that- He is one of us.
Like I mentioned before he was a nondescript middle aged man: average height, average build, even an average name. Nothing about him stood out. He was not a sophisticated, debonair James Bond type or a Herculean type specimen. He was just an average looking person that wore a cheap JC Penny tie, smoked cheap cigarettes, and was said to be very nice and cordial man during the hijacking. I think that quality of the common man who took a huge risk and got away with it is what resonates in the minds and hearts of America who's main demographic are much like D.B. Cooper- Average.
He is an every man. The unassuming person we all walk around being in our everyday life. The difference with D.B. Cooper is that he took an unassuming, every day man and used it to his advantage. A folk hero that stepped outside of himself to become something more than even he probably suspected he could be. While most of us hope to win the lotto or wait for good fortune D.B. Cooper went out and forged that luck, he forged that moment himself. In that one fateful act he inspired people, not to rob and be criminals, but to become more than what you ever expected. Cooper could be characterized as a cross between Robin Hood and Tyler Durden. Two men that propelled themselves, in their own unique way, to launch themselves and their cause into the social conscience of American culture. That was what D.B. Cooper accomplished with one flying dive into the night sky.
Which is why so many people both revere and want to be D.B. Cooper. They admire the courage and the guts to do something daring and get away with it. The capability of visualizing a moment and then grabbing that moment to achieve your goal by any means necessary. People gravitate and romanticize these polarizing events in their heads, but rarely do any of us have the courage to enact upon that one unique and incredible moment when they can become something great. Even if it is just for a split second.
Dan Cooper was an ordinary man that became a legend. In doing so he cast a shadow upon the doubt and consternation that we all fill in our day to day life as an average person. He set out to accomplish an incredibly insane plan, stuck to that very idea, and was able to get away with that act scott free. He looked down upon an abyss of darkness as he himself was cloaked in both a heavy fear and uncertainty at what may happen. Cooper looked that fear in the eye and turned his very average existence into an extraordinary leap of faith that still fascinates and captures the imagination of many even today, forty years later.
We all can see a little Dan Cooper in ourselves. Maybe we do not hijack a plane or commit the crime of the century, but we all can be something great. We all can do something great. We just need to find that moment when fate turns its head and tells us its our time to be great. And then we jump.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!
I am thankful for all of you and the time you give to me in your day to read my thoughts, ramblings, and ideas.
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