Speaker 1: Waine's been off the grid this week, way out in
the woods and the land between the Lakes, doing his thing.
That means we weren't able to record a regular episode
of the show, but I didn't want to leave you hanging,
so I've got something special for you instead. Today I'm
sharing a full episode from my brand new podcast, Disturbing History.
This is a show that takes a hard look at
the story's history, either buried on purpose or just hoped
we'd forget. Disturbing History is all about the strange, spooky,
and little known parts of the past. Secret societies, eerie folklore,
lost colonies, unsolved mysteries, and the kind of dark events
you definitely didn't cover in school. So if you're into
the uncomfortable, the unexplained, or just want to see what
happens when we dig up the past and hold it
up to the light, I think you'll really like it.
There's a link to Disturbing History in the show notes.
Just click it to check it out, and you can
find it anywhere you're listening right now, follow, subscribe, turn
on auto downloads. All that good stuff all right here
it is. Let's disturb some history. Some stories were never
meant to be told. Others were buried on purpose. This
podcast digs them all up. Disturbing history peels back the
layers of the past to uncover the strange, the sinister,
and the stories that were never supposed to survive. From
shadowy presidential secrets to government experiments that sound more like
fiction than fact.
Speaker 2: This is history they hoped you'd forget.
Speaker 1: I'm Brian, Investigator, author and your guide through the dark
corners of our collective memory. Each week, I'll narrate some
of the most chilling and little known tales from history
that will make you question everything you thought you knew.
And here's the twist. Sometimes the history is disturbing to us,
and sometimes we have to disturb history itself just to
get to the truth. If you like your facts with
the side of fear, if you're not afraid to pull
at threads others leave alone, you're in the right place.
History isn't just written by the victors. Sometimes it's rewritten
by the disturbed. On a gray, rain soaked afternoon in
late November nineteen seventy one, a nondescript man in a
business suit boarded Northwest Orient Airlines flight three oh five
from Portland to Seattle. The flight attendants would later describe
him as quiet, polite, and unremarkable in almost every way.
He ordered a bourbon and soda, paid one dollar and
fifty cents, and left a fifty cent tip. By all appearances,
he was just another business traveler heading home for the
Thanksgiving holiday. Yet within hours, this seemingly ordinary man would
pull off the only unsolved hijacking in American aviation history,
parachuting into the stormy darkness above southwestern Washington State with
two hundred thousand dollars in ransom money strapped to his body.
The man had purchased his ticket under the name Dan Cooper,
though a media miscommunication would forever label him as dB Cooper.
His disappearance into the night sky would launch one of
the most extensive manhunts in FBI history, spanning forty five
years before the Bureau officially closed the case in twenty sixteen.
In the decade since his audacious heist, Cooper has transcended
mere criminal status to become an American folk legend, a
mysterious figure who seemed to execute the perfect crime and
then vanish without a trace. To understand the full magnitude
of the Cooper hijacking, We must first consider the America
in which it occurred. The year nineteen seventy one found
the United States at a profound crossroads, both politically and culturally.
The Vietnam War continued to rage overseas, claiming American lives
and dividing public opinion. Richard Nixon I occupied the White House,
having promised to end the conflict with peace with honor,
yet US troops remained in combat. The Pentagon Papers had
been published earlier that year by The New York Times,
revealing years of government deception regarding the war and further
eroding public trust in official institutions. The cultural landscape of
America in nineteen seventy one reflected this disillusionment. The counterculture
movement of the nineteen sixties had begun to fragment and
lose momentum. The Beatles had disbanded the previous year. Iconic
musicians Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison had all
died within the previous fourteen months. The Kent State shootings
in May nineteen seventy where National Guard troops killed four
student protesters, had shocked the nation. A sense of cynicism
had begun to replace the idealism of the previous decade,
with many Americans questioning previously unchallenged authorities. Economically, the nation
faced mounting challenges. Nixon had had taken the United States
off the gold standard in August nineteen seventy one, ending
the Breton Woods monetary system. Inflation was rising, unemployment was growing,
and many Americans felt their financial security slipping away. The
robust post World War II economic boom had given way
to uncertainty and stagnation. Within this turbulent societal context, commercial
air travel operated under conditions almost unimaginable to modern passengers.
Airport security was virtually non existent. No metal detectors greeted
travelers at terminal entrances, No security checkpoints stood between ticket
counters and boarding gates. No identification was required to board
domestic flights. Prohibitions against carrying weapons aboard aircraft existed, but
with no screening procedures, these rules functioned largely on the
honor system. Passengers dressed formally for flights, enjoyed meals served
on china with metal cutlery, and could smoke freely in
the cabin. Most significantly for the Cooper case, the early
nineteen seventies witnessed an epidemic of airplane hijackings. Between nineteen
sixty eight and nineteen seventy two, nearly one hundred and
sixty American commercial flights were hijacked an average of more
than one per week during the peak period. Many of
these incidents involved demands to be flown to Cuba, but
others were motivated by ransom demands. By November nineteen seventy one,
airlines and flight crews had experienced enough hijackings to develop
standard protocols comply with hijacker demands, protect passengers and crew,
and resolve the situation without violence. This compliance focused approach,
while sensible from a safety perspective, inadvertently created an environment
where hijacking for ransom became a viable criminal enterprise. It
was against this backdrop a nation in transition, an airline
industry operating with minimal security but facing a hijacking epidemic
and a general atmosphere of socilt i unease, that Dan
Cooper boarded Flight three oh five on that November afternoon.
What do we know about the man who called himself
Dan Cooper? Despite decades of investigation, his true identity remains unknown,
making him one of the most mystifying figures in criminal history.
Based on witness accounts primarily from flight attendants Florence Schaffner
and Tina Mucklow, along with observations from nearby passengers, Cooper
was a white male in his mid forties, standing between
five feet ten inches and six feet tall, weighing approximately
one hundred seventy to one hundred eighty pounds. Witnesses described
him as having olive toned skin, dark brown or black
hair cut short, and what some called a Latin appearance.
He spoke with a low, measured and educated voice that
carried no discernible regional accent, suggesting he was either American
born or had lived in the United States for many years.
Cooper's attire on the flight was business lane and unremarkable
for a traveler of that era. He wore what witnesses
described as a dark business suit either black or dark brown,
depending on who was asked, with a white dress shirt
and a narrow black tie fastened with a mother of
pearl tie pin. He also wore a black or dark
overcoat and carried a briefcase. Several witnesses characterized him as neat, polite,
and well spoken, creating the impression of a professional businessman
rather than a desperate criminal. Throughout the hijacking, Cooper maintained
a remarkably composed demeanor. He spoke quietly, made no unnecessary
threats beyond indicating he had a bomb, and treated the
flight crew with consistent courtesy. This preternatural calm under extreme
pressure has led many investigators to speculate about his background.
Was he military personnel, perhaps with special operations training, a
law enforcement officer gone rogue, someone with extensive aviation experience.
His methodical approach and precise technical demands have fueled endless theories,
but yielded no definitive answers. What's particularly striking about Cooper
is what he didn't do during the hijacking. He didn't
engage in needless conversation. He didn't reveal personal details that
might later identify him. He didn't mistreat the crew or
terrify passengers, he didn't panic when plans required adjustment, And,
most critically from an investigative standpoint, he left behind minimal
forensic evidence. No clear fingerprints, no distinct photographs, nothing that
would lead directly to his identification, whether through meticulous planning
or extraordinary luck, he maintained an impenetrable shroud of mystery.
The FBI's composite sketch of Cooper, created with input from
flight attendants and passengers who interacted with him, became one
of the most recognized criminal images in American history. The
drawing depicts a man wearing dark sunglasses with a narrow face,
receiving airline and unremarkable features. The sketch is both specific
enough to be distinctive and generic enough that it could
potentially match thousands of men from that era. This combination
of ordinary appearance and extraordinary composure made Cooper the perfect cipher.
Without a confirmed identity, he became whatever the public imagination
wanted him to be. Let us now trace the hijacking itself,
minute by minute to understand how this audacious crime unfolded.
On Wednesday, November twenty fourth, nineteen seventy one, the day
before Thanksgiving, a man approached the Northwest Orient Airlines ticket
counter at Portland International Airport. He paid twenty dollars in
cash for a one way ticket to Seattle Tacoma International
Airport on flight three oh five, a short thirty minute trip.
He gave his name as Dan Cooper and proceeded to
the boarding area. Flight three oh five was scheduled to
depart Portland at two fifty pm, but experienced a slight
delay due to heavy holiday air traffic.
Speaker 2: The aircraft was.
Speaker 1: A Boeing seven twenty seven to one hundred registration number
N four six seven US, powered by three Pratt and
Whitney j T eight D seven engines, two mounted on
either side of the rear fuselage and the third integrated
into the tail section. This specific aircraft configuration would prove
critically important to Cooper's escape plant. At approximately two fifty PM,
Cooper boarded the plane and took seat eighteen C in
the rear of the aircraft. There were thirty six other
passengers aboard, a relatively light load for the seven to
twenty seven, which could accommodate over one hundred travelers. The
flight crew consisted of Captain William Scott, first Officer William Radizach,
flight engineer Harold E. Anderson, and three flight attendants, Alice Hancock,
Tina Mucklow, and Florence Shafner. The aircraft finally took off
at three oh seven PM, seven minutes behind its rescheduled
departure time. As the Boeing seven Ze twenty seven climbed
to its cruising altitude of ten thousand feet for the
short hop to Seattle, Cooper remained inconspicuous among the other passengers.
He ordered a bourbon and soda, for which he paid
one dollar and fifty cents, leaving a fifty cent tip,
a detail often cited as evidence of his politeness and
his effort to blend in as a routine business traveler.
Shortly after the drink service, Cooper discreetly handed a note
to flight attendant Florence Schaffner, assuming it contained the phone
number of a businessman trying to flirt with her, a
common occurrence for stewardesses of that era. Shafner initially placed
the unopened note in her pocket. Cooper leaned toward her
and quietly said, miss you'd better look at that note.
Speaker 2: I have a bomb.
Speaker 1: Startled, but following her training to comply with hijackers, Shafner
opened the note, which was written in neat all capital
letters with a felt tip pen. According to her later testimony,
it read I have a bomb in my briefcase. I
will use it if necessary. I want you to sit
next to me. You are being hijacked. Shaffner took the
seat beside Cooper. As instructed, He opened his briefcase just
enough to reveal what appeared to be a tangle of
wires and red cylindrical objects that resembled dynamite sticks. No
one would ever independently verify whether Cooper actually possessed functional
explosives or merely a convincing facsimile, but the appearance was
sufficient to ensure the crew took his threat with the
utmost seriousness. Speaking in a low, controlled voice, Cooper outlined
his demands two hundred thousand dollars in negotiable American currency,
specifically requesting twenty dollars bills with random, non sequential serial numbers,
four parachutes, two primary and two reserve, and a fuel
truck standing by in Seattle to refuel the aircraft. He
instructed that the money should be delivered in a knapsack
or similar bag. Cooper directed Shaffner to relay these demands
to the captain. Captain Scott was immediately informed of the
situation and contacted Seattle Air Traffic Control, who alerted the
FBI Northwest Orient's Operations office and local law enforcement authorities
quickly decided to comply with Cooper's demands while preparing their
response on the ground. During this communication process, Cooper maintained
a calm demeanor in his seat. He allowed passengers to
move about the cabin normally and made no announcement of
the hijacking to them. Most travelers remained entirely unaware that
anything unusual was transpiring. Cooper requested that flight attendant Tina
Mucklow replaced Shaffner, who was needed for regular cabin duties.
Mucklow would spend the most time with Cooper during the hijacking,
and later provided investigators with detailed observations about his behavior
and mannerisms. While the aircraft circled Puget Sound to give
authorities time to assemble the ransom and parachutes, Cooper revealed
specific technical knowledge about the Boeing seven twenty seven. He
requested that the plane land with fifteen degrees of flat
and maintain a speed of approximately one hundred and seventy
knots about one hundred ninety six miles per hour, technical
specifications that would later lead investigators to believe he had
aviation experience. Possibly even with this specific aircraft model. Throughout
this holding pattern, Cooper displayed remarkable composure. He smoked several
Raleigh filter tipped cigarettes, continued nursing his bourbon, and engaged
in limited conversation with Mucklow. His few personal comments included
observations like seems like we're holding too long and McCord
Air Force Base is just a few minutes away, demonstrating
familiarity with the local geography. After approximately two hours of circling,
Flight three oh five received clearance to land at Seattle
Tacoma International Airport. The aircraft touched down at approximately five
forty five PM and taxied to a remote section of
the airfield. As Cooper had instructed, darkness had fallen and
a light rain was beginning, weather conditions that would significantly
impact the unfolding drama. Northwest Orient's Seattle operations manager Al
Lee had procured the two hundred thousand dollars ransom from
Seattle First National Bank. Bank officials had assembled tenenty twenty
dollars bills, all with serial numbers beginning with the letter
L and from the nineteen sixty nine series. The airline
took photographs of each bill before delivery, recording all serial
numbers in case the money ever surfaced in circulation. Meanwhile,
the FBI had obtained four parachutes, two military grade personnel
parachutes from a nearby Air Force base and two civilian
sport parachutes, one main and one reserve from a local
skydiving school. Cooper permitted the passengers and flight attendant Alice
Hancock to disembark, but insisted that the remaining flight attendants
Shaffner and Mucklow, and all three cockpit crew members remain aboard.
This deviation from typical hijacking protocols, where hostages were often
retained as leverage, suggested a certain confidence in his plan.
Ali approached the aircraft and passed the money in parachutes
to Mucklow through the rear airstairs, which were lowered slightly
for this exchange. Cooper inspected the money briefly and appeared
satisfied with the delivery. When examining the parachutes, however, he
demonstrated enough technical knowledge to recognize that one of the
reserve chutes was a dummy used for classroom instruction and
could not be deployed. He rejected this non functional parachute
and demanded a replacement, which authorities quickly provided further evidence
of his familiarity with skydiving equipment. With the ransom and
parachute secured, Cooper outlined his flight plan to the crew.
He wanted to fly to Mexico City, with a refueling
stop in Reno, Nevada. He specified several technical requirements that
would prove crucial to his escape. The aircraft must fly
with the rear airstairs staircase beneath the tail extended during
takeoff and throughout the flight. The cabin must remain unpressurized.
The plane must not exceed an altitude of ten thousand feet.
The aircraft must maintain a speed of approximately one hundred
and seventy knots. The flaps must be set at fifteen degrees,
and the cockpit door must remain closed throughout the flight.
These highly specific technical demands further suggested to investigators that
Cooper had detailed knowledge of the Boeing seven twenty seven's capabilities.
Speaker 2: The aircraft was one of.
Speaker 1: The few commercial jets equipped with an air stair that
could be opened during flight, a feature originally designed to
allow passengers to disembark at airports lacking ground support equipment,
but one that had already been exploited in a previous
hijacking earlier that year. During the refueling process, Cooper allowed
Schaffner to leave the aircraft, leaving Mucklow as the only
cabin crew member and his primary point of contact. The
FBI I attempted to position special Forces personnel around the
aircraft during this phase, but Cooper remained vigilant and rejected
any approaches beyond what was necessary for refueling. At approximately
seven forty pm, flight three oh five, now with only
five people aboard, Cooper, Mucklow, and the three cockpit crew members,
took off from Seattle. Following Cooper's instructions, The aircraft headed
southeast toward Reno, with its rear airstairs extended and the
cabin unpressurized, creating an uncomfortable cold environment inside the plane.
Cooper had instructed Mucklow to join the cockpit crew and
closed the door behind her, leaving him alone in the
passenger cabin. Once isolated, he apparently began preparing for his jump.
He tied the bank bag containing the ransom money to
his body using cord he had brought with him, and
began readying.
Speaker 2: One of the parachutes.
Speaker 1: At approximately eight PM, a warning light illuminated in the cockpit,
indicating that the aft stairs had been fully deployed.
Speaker 3: Stay tuned for more of that Bigfoot podcast. We will
be right back. After these messages.
Speaker 1: The crew noticed a change in air pressure, confirming that
the stairs were indeed completely extended. At eight thirteen PM,
the aircraft experienced a sudden upward surge, which the flight
crew later interpreted as the moment Cooper jumped from the plane.
The aircraft suddenly lighter by the weight of a man
and his money. The precise location of Cooper's exit has
been debated extensively. Based on the aircraft's radar track and
the crew's observations, investigators believe he jumped somewhere between Seattle
and Reno, most likely over southwestern Washington near the Columbia River,
a rugged, heavily forested area that was being drenched by
a rainstorm that night. The FBI would later establish a
most probable jump zone near Lake Merwin, Washington, though this
remains controversial among case researchers. Flight three oh five continue
to Reno, landing at Reno Tahoe International Airport at ten
fifteen pm. FBI agents, local law enforcement and search and
rescue personnel immediately surrounded the aircraft. The crew reported what
had transpired, and authorities immediately launched what would become one
of the most extensive man hunts in American history. The
timing and conditions of Cooper's jump at night in a
rainstorm over rugged terrain, wearing a business suit and dress
shoes rather than survival gear, led many to believe he
could not have survived. The prevailing theory among law enforcement
officials at the time was that they would eventually discover
his body, along with the parachute and money, somewhere in
the vast forests of the Pacific Northwest. FBI agents meticulously
examined the aircraft for evidence. They recovered Cooper's clip on
tie and tie clip, which he had removed before jumping
on seat eighteen e. They collected eight cigarette butts, carbon
cop of the note he had handed to Shaffner, though
the original was never found, and several partial fingerprints from
a magazine he had handled and from sections of the plane.
None of these fingerprints ever matched any in the FBI's
extensive database. The FBI initially attempted to keep details of
the hijacking from the press, hoping to maintain an information
advantage over any accomplices Cooper might have had on the ground.
This strategy collapsed when a United Press International reporter in
Portland learned of the incident and contacted Northwest Orient's office
for a statement. The airline confirmed the hijacking, and by
the following day, Thanksgiving, the story had become national news,
capturing public imagination across America. In these initial reports, a
miscommunication led to Cooper being identified as dB Cooper rather
than Dan Cooper, as he had called himself. This air
was never corrected in the public consciousness, and the name
D B. Cooper became permanently attached to the mystery man
and his audacious crime. The day after the hijacking, on
Thanksgiving nineteen seventy one, the FBI launched what would become
one of the most extensive man hunts in its history.
The primary search area was determined based on the flight's
radar track, meteorological data, and calculations of possible landing zones,
considering Cooper's exit time and the prevailing weather conditions. Special
Agent Ralph Heimmelsbach, who would lead the investigation for many years,
coordinated the initial ground search. The operation faced extraordinary challenges
from the outset. The search area encompassed potentially hundreds of
square miles of dense Pacific Northwest forest, steep ravines, and
other difficult terrain. The late November weather further complicated matters,
with cold temperatures, persistent rain, and even snow at higher elevations.
Hundreds of Army soldiers from Fort Lewis now Joint Base Lewis,
McCord Force, horse personnel, local law enforcement officers, and civilian
volunteers combed the most probable landing areas on foot. Military
helicopters equipped with then state of the art infrared sensors
searched for any heat signature that might indicate a survivor
or recently deceased body in the wilderness. Despite this unprecedented
mobilization of resources, the search yielded nothing. No parachute, no money,
no body, no clothing, no briefcase, nothing that could be
tied to Cooper or his dramatic exit from flight three
h five. The FBI simultaneously pursued conventional investigative avenues. They
reviewed military and civilian skydiving records, checked recent workplace absences
near the search area, investigated known criminals with parachuting skills,
and followed up on thousands of tips from an interested public.
In the weeks following the hijacking, agents interviewed nearly eight
hundred potential suspects, and extraordin dinary number for an era
before computerized record keeping and database searches. One promising early
lead involved a man named D. B. Cooper, who had
a minor criminal record and lived in Oregon. This individual
was quickly cleared of involvement, but some speculate this might
be the true source of the dB misnomer that stuck.
Speaker 2: In media reports.
Speaker 1: Among the limited physical evidence recovered from the plane, Cooper's
tie would eventually prove the most intriguing. In the immediate
aftermath of the hijacking, the tie was cataloged as evidence,
but didn't receive special scrutiny beyond basic fingerprint analysis. This
changed dramatically in twenty eleven, when a group of citizen
investigators led by Attorney Galen Cook persuaded the FBI to
allow them to examine the tie using advanced electron microscopy.
This modern analysis revealed significant trace evidence that had gone
undetected for decades, pure titanium particles, which were rare in
commercial products of the early nineteen seven aluminum fragments alloyed
in a way consistent with Boeing manufacturing processes of that period,
stainless steel particles, and rare earth elements including serium, strontium sulfide,
and thorium. These microscopic particles suggested to the citizen sleuths
that Cooper might have worked in the aerospace industry, possibly
as an engineer or manager with access to manufacturing areas. Boeing,
the aircraft's manufacturer, maintained extensive operations in the Seattle area,
leading to speculation that Cooper might have been a Boeing
employee with intimate knowledge of the seven to twenty seven aircraft.
The particles were consistent with someone who worked in a
manufacturing environment involving titanium and aluminum during the development of
the Supersonic Transport program or early Boeing seven forty seven production,
both cutting edge aerospace projects of that era. This theory,
aligned with Cooper's apparent technical knowledge about the aircraft and
its operations, potentially explained how he knew about the seven
to twenty seven's unique aft staircase capability and other technical specifications.
He demanded during the hijacking. For nearly nine years after
the skyjacking, no physical evidence connected to Cooper had been
found outside the aircraft itself. This changed dramatically in February
nineteen eighty, when eight year old Brian Ingram was vacationing
with his family on the Columbia River, about twenty miles
northwest of Portland, Oregon, at a beach area known as
Tina Bar. While digging a fire pit in the sand,
Ingram uncovered three packets of deteriorating twenty dollars bills held
together by rubber bands that had disintegrated into a gooy residue.
The family contacted local authorities, who alerted the FBI. Examination
of the serial numbers confirmed these were indeed bills from
the Cooper ransom, specifically two hundred and ninety four bills
amounting to five thousand, eight hundred eighty dollars of the
original two hundred thousand dollars. This discovery represented both the
major breakthrough and a perplexing new puzzle. The location was
approximately twenty miles downstream from Cooper's suspected jump zone, suggesting
that either he or the money had somehow ended up
in the Columbia River and been carried by the current. However,
the condition and arrangement of the money presented complications for
this straightforward theory. The bills were found bundled together rather
than scattered, suggesting they had entered the water as a package.
More puzzling still, the money was buried several inches deep
in sand that, according to geological analysis, had likely been
deposited during spring flooding in nineteen seventy four, meaning the
bills had been at Tina Bar since at least that time,
nearly three years after the hijacking. The bills were severely
decomposed at the edges, but relatively well preserved in the
centers of the bundles, consistent with long exposure to water
and the elements. This discovery spawned multiple theories, each with
significant problems. Perhaps Cooper died during his landing, with his
body and the money eventually washing into the Columbia River,
and the recovered bills eventually reaching Tina Bar through natural
water movement. But if this were true, why had no
other evidence parachute material the briefcase, clothing, or human remains
ever been found in the river or along its shores. Alternatively,
Cooper might have survived but lost some of the money
during his escape, with these particular bills somehow making their
way to the Columbia, but this didn't explain why only
these specific bills were found, or why they remained bundled
together if they had traveled through moving water for miles.
Some theorized that someone had found Cooper's money at the
original landing site, kept most of it, but deliberately planted
a small portion at Tina Bar to mislead investigators, a
theory that seemed implausible given the remote location and the
deteriorated condition of the bills. Others suggested the money reached
Tenabar through human intervention unrelated to Cooper himself, perhaps an
accomplice disposed of a portion of the money that had
become damaged or compromised. The FBI conducted an intensive operation
at tena Bar following the discovery, bringing in archaeologists, geologists, hydrologists,
and oceanographic experts to study the site. Despite an extensive
search and excavation of the surrounding area, no additional bills
or Cooper related evidence was found. The ten of Bar
money remains one of the most tantalizing clues in the case.
The only confirmed physical evidence of the ransom ever recovered,
representing less than three percent of the total amount. The
remaining one hundred ninety four one hundred twenty dollars has
never been found or traced. The FBI checked the serial
numbers against all cash transactions they could access for years afterward,
but none of the bills ever surfaced in circulation, a
fact that many investigators considered the strongest evidence that Cooper
did not survive his jump. In two thousand and eight,
another potential piece of physical evidence emerged when children playing
near the town of Amboy, Washington, within the primary search area,
uncovered a deteriorated piece of fabric buried in the ground.
The material appeared consistent with a parachute, raising hopes of
a significant breakthrough. The FBI dispatched agents to excavate the site,
recovering more material, Initially thought to be from one of
Cooper's parachutes. However, subsequent laboratory analysis determined the fabric came
from an older style Navy parachute used to drop cargo
during World War II, unrelated to the hijacking. This promising
lead ended in disappointment, Like so many others in the
Cooper investigation. As decades passed without resolution, the active investigation
gradually diminished in scale and intensity. Ralph Himmelsbach, the FBI
agent most closely associated with the case, retired in nineteen eighty,
still convinced that Cooper had died in the gym, but
with the mystery unsolved. New agents were periodically assigned to
the case, bringing fresh perspectives but facing the same fundamental
challenges minimal physical evidence, no body, no identified suspect who
matched all the criteria, and an increasingly cold trail. In
July twenty sixteen, the FBI officially closed its active investigation
of the Cooper case, the longest and costliest investigation of
a single unsolved crime in the bureau's history.
Speaker 2: In a public.
Speaker 1: Statement, the FBI indicated that its resources would be better
directed toward cases with more promising leads, and that they
would only reopen the Cooper investigation if definitive physical evidence,
such as the parachutes or the remaining money, were discovered.
The FBI retained all physical evidence, including the partial ransom
money recovered at Tina Bar, the tie, and other items
from the aircraft, preserving them as a cold case. That
could theoretically be reactivated if compelling new evidence ever servedst
Over five decades, hundreds of individuals have been investigated as
potential dB Coopers. Some suspects have been promoted by FBI
agents or other law enforcement personnel, while others have been
advanced by journalists, amateur sleuths, or family members.
Speaker 2: Of deceased suspects.
Speaker 1: Each theory and candidate has added another layer to the
Cooper legend, but none has provided the definitive answer to
the mystery. Just five months after the Cooper hijacking, on
April seventh, nineteen seventy two, Richard Floyd McCoy, Junior, hijacked
United Airlines Flight eight fifty five from Denver to Los Angeles,
using tactics remarkably similar to Cooper's. McCoy claimed to have
a grenade, demanded five hundred thousand dollars in four parachutes,
and jumped from the rear airstairs of a Boeing seven
twenty seven over Utah. Unlike Cooper, McCoy was captured days
later when investigators traced a car spotted near his landing zone.
McCoy seemed to fit the Cooper profile in many ways.
He was a Vietnam veteran with Army airborne training, a
helicopter pilot, and an experienced skydiver, qualifications that matched the
expertise Cooper had displayed. Some FBI agents, including Ralph Heimmelsback,
believe McCoy and Cooper might be the same person. However,
significant problems with this theory included the fact that McCoy
didn't physically resemble the composite sketch of Cooper and had
verifiable alibis placing him in Utah with his family on
Thanksgiving nineteen seventy one. The similarities in their method seemed
to indicate that McCoy had been inspired by Cooper's widely
publicized crime, rather than being Cooper himself. McCoy was convicted
of the United hijacking and sentenced to forty five years
in prison. He escaped from the federal penitentiary in Louisbourg, Pennsylvania,
in August nineteen seventy four, but was killed three months
later in a shootout with FBI agents in Virginia. Whether
he might have been Dan Cooper remained an open question,
though most investigators now consider the connection unlikely. In two
thousand and three, Kenneth Christiansen's brother Lyle came forward with
the claim that Kenneth, who had died of cancer in
nineteen ninety four, was d B.
Speaker 2: Cooper.
Speaker 1: Christiansen had served as a paratrooper during the Korean War,
later worked as a mechanic and flight purser for Northwest
Orient Airlines, the very airline Cooper hijacked and bore some
resemblance to the Cooper Sketch. After Christiansen's death, his family
discovered he had purchased a house with cash not long
after the hijacking, despite earning a modest salary. He allegedly
made a cryptic statement to a friend before dying, saying,
there is something you should know, but I cannot tell you.
The case for Christiansen was strengthened by his intimate knowledge
of the Boeing seven twenty seven through his airline work,
and his familiarity with the Seattle area. However, at five
feet eight inches tall and approximately one hundred and fifty pounds,
he was significantly smaller than witnessed descriptions of Cooper. The
FBI investigated Christiansen, but ultimately concluded he was not a
likely suspect, though his case continues to attract interest among
amateur investigators.
Speaker 2: Robert Rackstraw, a.
Speaker 1: Decorated Vietnam veteran with extensive military training, including parachute experience,
explosives knowledge, and piloting skills, was investigated as a Cooper
suspect in the late nineteen seventies after being arrested for
possessing explosives and check fraud. His case was revived in
twenty sixteen by a cold case team led by documentary
filmmaker Thomas Colbert, who compiled what he claimed was substantial
circumstantial evidence linking Rackstraw to the hijacking. This included alleged
coded messages and letters sent to newspapers after the hijacking that,
when deciphered, supposedly pointed to Rackstraw's military units and training.
Rackstraw himself played coy about the accusations for years, neither
confirming nor explicitly denying them in very media interviews. He
died in twenty nineteen, taking any secrets he might have
had about the Cooper case to the grave. The FBI
had previously eliminated him as a suspect, but Colbert and
his investigative team remained convinced of his guilt, producing a
documentary and book outlining their theory. In nineteen ninety five,
Joe Weber came forward claiming that her husband, Dwayne, who
had died of kidney disease that year, had confessed to
being d B. Cooper on his deathbed. According to Joe,
Dwayne's final words included the statement, I'm Dan Cooper. Weber
had a criminal record, including armed robbery, and was physically
similar to the Cooper descriptions. Joe claimed he suffered from
nightmares about jumping from planes and once took her on
an unexplained trip to the Columbia River in the vicinity
of Tenebar, where he spent time staring intently into the water.
The FBI investigated Weber extensively, but eliminated him as a
suspect after his fingerprints failed to match those found on
the plane and DNA comparison with the tie provided inconclusive results. Nevertheless,
Joe Weber continued to advocate for her husband as the hijacker,
appearing in numerous documentaries and news programs about the case.
In twenty eighteen, a military veteran named William J. Smith
was posthumously identified as a potential Cooper suspect by his
friend Warren Welch. According to Welch, Smith possessed detailed knowledge
of the hijacking that wasn't public information, and had accumulated
a retirement fund that seemed inconsistent with his known income sources.
Smith had served as a paratrooper during the Korean War,
with hundreds of jumps to his credit, and strongly resembled
the Cooper sketch. He also apparently had intimate knowledge of
the local geography where Cooper was believed to have jumped. However,
as with many suspects identified long after their deaths, definitive
evidence connecting Smith to the crime proved elusive. In twenty eleven,
a Way woman named Marla Cooper publicly claimed that her
uncle Lynn Doyle L. D. Cooper was the hijacker. Marla
reported that as an eight year old girl, she saw
her uncle arrive at her grandmother's house on Thanksgiving nineteen
seventy one, bloodied and injured, claiming to have been in
a car accident. She later overheard ld and another uncle
discussing a hijacking, and as an adult, came to believe her.
Speaker 2: Uncle was D. B. Cooper L. D.
Speaker 1: Cooper was a Korean War veteran with parachute experience who
physically matched the description of the hijacker. He died in
nineteen ninety nine, but the FBI collected DNA samples from
his daughter to compare with trace evidence found on Cooper's tie.
The results were inconclusive, neither confirming nor ruling out L. D.
Speaker 2: Cooper as a suspect.
Speaker 1: Marla Cooper's story attracted significant media attention, but without definitive
forensic evidence, L. D. Cooper remains just another name on
the long list of potential Coopers.
Speaker 3: Stay tuned for of that Bigfoot podcast. We will be
right back after these messages.
Speaker 1: One of the more unusual theories involves Barbara Dayton, a
transgender woman who allegedly claimed to friends that she had
committed the hijacking while presenting as male. According to this theory, Dayton,
who had undergone gender reassignment surgery in nineteen sixty nine,
possessed extensive aviation experience and parachuting skills, and had supposedly
confessed to the hijacking to close friends. Years later, Dayton
reportedly detailed how she had disguised herself as a man
for the hijacking. Then returned to living as a woman afterward,
making identification impossible. While intriguing, there has been little official
investigation into this claim, and Dayton's physical characteristics didn't closely
match witness descriptions of Cooper. In twenty eighteen, a Michigan
publishing company released a book claiming to have identified D. B.
Cooper as Walter R. RecA, a military paratrooper and intelligence operative.
The book's claims were based on alleged audio recordings RecA
made before his death in twenty fourteen, in which he
purportedly confessed to being Cooper and described the hijacking and
his escape in detail. According to this theory, RecA jumped
from the plane and landed in Michigan, far from the
FBI's search area in Washington State, a claim that contradicts
known flight data from the hijacked plane. The publication included
statements from individuals claiming to have helped Reka after the
jump or who had knowledge of his involvement in the crime.
Most Cooper experts view the Michigan landing claim as physically impossible,
given the aircraft's known flight path and the time constraints involved,
relegating this theory to the fringes of Cooper speculation. An
intriguing aspect of the case that has gained attention in
recent years focuses on the name Dan Cooper itself. This
wasn't a randomly chosen alias. It was the name of
a popular French Canadian comic book character from the nineteen
fifties and nineteen sixties. The fictional Dan Cooper was a
Royal Canadian Air Force pilot who had numerous adventures, often
involving parachuting from aircraft. These comics were never widely distributed
in the United States, but were popular in Canada, particularly
among French speaking Canadians. This connection has led some investigators
to speculate that the hijacker might have been Canadian or
had spent considerable time in Canada, especially Quebec. The connection
to the comic book character suggests a level of premeditation
and possibly a sense of humor or irony on the
part of the hijacker. It also potentially narrows the field
of suspects to those who would have been familiar with
this relatively obscure to American's comic book series, a tantalizing
clue that has yet to lead to a definitive identification.
Over the decades, several competing theories have emerged about Cooper's
fate and the circumstances of the hijacking. These range from
the plausible to the fantastic, but all attempt to address
the central mystery what happened to D. B. Cooper after
he jumped from that Bowing seven twenty seven on November
twenty fourth, nineteen seventy one. Many FBI investigators, including Ralph Heimmelsbach,
long believed that Cooper did not survive as jump. This
theory holds considerable logic. Cooper jumped at night during a
rainstorm with temperatures near freezing at altitude. He was wearing
a business suit and loafers rather than proper jumping or
survival gear. He parachuted into a heavily forested area with rough,
mountainous terrain without apparent preparation for wilderness survival. None of
the money ever entered circulation, except for the Tina Bar find,
which could be explained by a body and the money
washing down stream in the Columbia River system. Perhaps most tellingly,
an experienced skydiver would have recognized the extreme dangers of
jumping under those conditions and likely would not have attempted
it unless desperate. In this scenario, Cooper's body and most
of the money remain undiscovered in the vast wilderness of
the Pacific Northwest, perhaps buried under decades of forest growth
or in an inaccessible ravine. The lack of evidence would
simply reflect the vastness of the search area and the
challenging terrain that has frustrated many search efforts over the years.
An alternative theory suggests that Cooper survived the initial jump
but lost the money, either during the descent or upon landing.
This would explain why the bills never circulated and why
a portion was found at Tina Bar. The money, but
not Cooper, ended up in the Columbia River through natural
water movement. In this scenario, Cooper might have realized he
had lost his prize and simply returned to his normal life,
perhaps even following the investigation from Afar, with a mixture
of relief and disappointment. Alternatively, he might have been injured
in the landing and died later from his injuries, but
in a location separated from the money and outside the
primary search area where authorities concentrated their efforts. The most
romantic theory, and the one that has fueled Cooper's folk
hero status, is that he executed the perfect crime, a
mid air heist that left no victims and no resolution.
In this scenario, Cooper landed safely, buried or otherwise secured
the money, and made his way out of the search
area before authorities could establish effective containment. Proponents of this
theory point to Cooper's apparent planning and specific technical knowledge
as evidence of a professional approach unlikely to have ended
in failure. This version of events suggests Cooper likely had
a vehicle or accomplice waiting at a predetermined location, allowing
him to quickly exit the search area before the massive
manhunt began. In earnest, the money found at Tina Barr
might have been a portion he deliberately disposed of, perhaps
because it was damaged during the jump, or because he
feared the bills might be traced if used. In circulation
to this theory, Cooper might have lived out his life quietly,
enjoying his ill gotten gains, perhaps amused by the continuing
fascination with his crime, but careful never to reveal his identity.
Some investigators have proposed that Cooper had inside help, possibly
from someone at Northwest Orient Airlines or even among the
flight crew. This theory attempts to explain Cooper's specific knowledge
of the aircraft and the seeming precision of his plan.
In variations of this theory, Cooper wasn't acting alone, but
was part of a team, with the actual jumper being
different from the man who boarded the plane in Portland.
This might explain why none of the hundreds of suspects
investigated fully matched all the criteria. Investigators were looking for
a single individual rather than a team with distributed responsibilities.
The inside job theory has never gained significant traction among
official investigators, primarily due to lack of supporting evidence and
the thorough vetting of the flight crew, all of whom
Kawap operated fully with the investigation and maintained consistent accounts
over decades.
Speaker 2: One of the more.
Speaker 1: Radical theories suggests that Cooper never jumped from the plane
at all, but managed to conceal himself on board until
landing in Reno. Proponents point to the lack of any
reported sightings of a parachutist by other aircraft in the
area and the absence of Cooper's body or equipment in
the extensive search zone. They suggest Cooper might have hidden
in the plane's lavatory or another compartment, then slipped off
the aircraft during the confusion upon landing in Reno. This
theory faces substantial challenges, including the cockpit crew's testimony regarding
the pressure change felt when Cooper apparently jumped, and the
limited hiding spaces on a Boeing seven twenty seven. Furthermore,
the discovery of the money at Tenabar strongly suggests at
least the ransom made it out of the aircraft over
the Columbia River area, making this one of the less
plausible scenarios. The Tenabar money find continues to generate debate
and annaptalysis. Some researchers believed the money may have been
deliberately placed there, either by Cooper himself as a red herring,
or by someone who had found Cooper's body and the
money elsewhere but kept most of it. Geological studies of
the site noted that the money was buried in sand
layers that appeared to have been deposited during a dredging
operation or flood event in nineteen seventy four, about three
years after the hijacking. This has spawned theories involving complex
scenarios of how the money reached this location, none entirely
satisfactory or conclusively proven. The most tangible and lasting impact
of the Cooper hijacking was on aviation security. Within days
of the incident, the Federal Aviation Administration instituted what became
known as Cooper Vans or Cooper Devices, mechanical systems that
prevented the rear airstairs on Boeing seven to twenty sevens
from being opened during flight, closing the specific vulnerability Cooper
had exploited. More broadly, the hijacking could contributed to the
implementation of comprehensive security screening at American airports. By January
nineteen seventy three, the FAA had mandated that all passengers
and their carry on luggage be screened before boarding commercial flights.
Metal detectors became standard features at airports, as did X
ray machines for baggage inspection. The era of simply walking
from the ticket counter directly to the gate without any
security screening ended, partly due to Cooper's audacious crime. These
changes dramatically reduced the frequency of hijackings from nineteen sixty
eight to nineteen seventy two, American commercial aircraft had been
hijacked nearly one hundred sixty times, an epidemic of skyjackings
that threatened the viability of commercial aviation. After implementing universal screening,
hijackings became rare events rather than regular occurrences, a public
safety success story, with Cooper ironically serving as the catalyst.
Despite being a criminal who threatened innocent lives, Cooper has
achieved an unusual status in American folk culture, something between
an outlaw hero and a mythic figure. Several factors contributed
to this unlikely veneration. No one was physically harmed during
the hijacking, and Cooper was described as polite and even
respectful by the flight crew. The target of the crime
was a corporation rather than individuals, aligning with a Robin
Hood esque ethos that resonated during an era of diminishing
trust in institutions and authority figures. The mystery itself captured
the public imagination, not just a daring crime, but an
enduring puzzle that invited everyone to play detective. Perhaps most significantly,
Cooper appeared to be an ordinary man who executed an
extraordinary plan, embodying a certain American archetype of individualism and
audacity that transcended the criminality of his actions. Cooper's cultural
footprint has been extensive and enduring. He has been referenced
in countless books, songs, films, and television shows throughout the
Pacific Northwest. Multiple bars and restaurants bear his name or
serve Cooper themed drinks. The town of Ariel, Washington, near
the primary search area, held an annual D. B. Cooper
Days festival for many years, drawing thousands of curious visitors
and amateur sleuths. Musicians have been particularly drawn to the
Cooper story as inspiration. Songs referencing the hijacking span genres
and decades, from folk artist Todd Snyder's explicitly titled D. B.
Cooper to oblique references and works by Genesis, Kid Coody
and numerous other artists fascinated by the mystery man who
vanished into the night with a fortune. In literature, Cooper
has appeared in novels by authors including J. D. Salinger,
Elmore Leonard, and Don DeLillo. The nineteen eighty one film
The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper starred treat Williams as
a fictionalized version of the hijacker, while the two thousand
and four comedy Without a Paddle featured a plot centered
around finding Cooper's lost money. Television has perhaps embraced Cooper
most enthusiastically, with references appearing in series ranging from Twin
Peaks to prison Break to Leverage. A twenty eleven episode
of Leverage titled the dB Cooper Job was entirely dedicated
to a fictionalized account of the hijacking, while the twenty
seventeen revival of Twin Peaks featured a character heavily implied
to be an aged Cooper living under an assumed identity.
Beyond direct references, Cooper's influence can be seen in other
fictional characters who pull off seemingly impossible heists or vanish mysteriously.
The nineteen ninety four films Drop Zone and Terminal Velocity
both featured skydiving based crimes inspired partly by the Cooper case.
While countless thriller novels and films have incorporated elements of
his story into their narratives, the Cooper Investigation represents the
longest running and most expensive unsolved case in FBI history.
Over its forty five year active period, hundreds of agents
worked on the case, interviewing more than one thousand suspects
and exploring countless leads across multiple states and even internationally.
The investigation pushed the Bureau to develop new techniques in
forensic analysis and case management. The Cooper case files reportedly
fill sixty volumes and include information on more than eight
hundred suspects, representing one of the most extensive investigations of
a single crime in American law enforcement history. When the
FBI officially closed the active investigation in twenty sixteen, it
marked the end of an era. Special Agent Larry Carr,
who handled the case in its later years, acknowledged that
the Bureau had exhausted all leads, but maintained that the
case represented an important chapter in FBI history and American
criminal lore. The Cooper investigation has become a case study
in criminal investigation methodology, both for its thoroughness and for
its ultimate inconclusiveness, a stark reminder that despite advanced technology
and dedicated personnel, some mysteries remain beyond solution. While the
FBI has closed its active investigation interest in the Cooper case,
continues unabated among amateur investigators, forensic scientists, documentary filmmakers, and
the general public. In two thousand one, the FBI extracted
a partial DNA profile from the cigarette butts Cooper left
on the plane. In two thousand seven, they attempted to
extract DNA from the Thai Cooper left behind. Neither sample
provided a complete profile, but these partial results have been
used to evaluate some suspects in subsequent years. As DNA
technology continues to advance, there remains the possibility that these
samples could eventually be matched to a suspect through familial
DNA matching or other emerging TIS techniques. However, the limited
quality and quantity of the original samples may prevent definitive
identification through this avenue. The official closure of the FBI
investigation has, if anything, increased amateur interest in the case.
Multiple groups of citizen sleuths continued to conduct their own investigations,
often publishing their findings online or in books dedicated to
unraveling the Cooper mystery. One notable example is the Cooper
Research Team, which gained unprecedented access to the FBI's physical
evidence in two thousand and nine and performed advanced analysis
on Cooper's tie using electron microscopy. Their discovery of unique
metal particles on the tie led to the theory that
Cooper might have worked in the aerospace industry, potentially even
at Boeing, where he could have gained intimate knowledge of
the seven to twenty seven aircraft he hijacked. Modern computer
mapping and modeling techniques have allowed researchers to create more
precise models of Cooper's possible jump location and landing zone
by incorporating historical weather data, aircraft speed and trajectory information,
and detailed topographic mapping unavailable in the nineteen seventies. These
analyzes have refined potential search areas and challenged some aspects
of the FBI's original investigation. Some researchers have used these
advanced geographic information system techniques to challenge the FBI's original
search area, suggesting Cooper might have landed farther east or
south than initially believed. Others have used this technology to
identify specific locations where Cooper's remains or equipment might be
found based on terrain features, waterways, and other geographic factors
that would have influenced both his descent and any subsequent
movement through the area. The ten of bar money find
continues to generate debate and analysis half a century later.
Recent studies of riverflow patterns, sediment deposition, and historical redging
operations have produced new theories about how the money reached
its discovery location in seemingly contradictory circumstances. Bundled together yet
exposed to water, buried in sand, deposited years after the hijacking,
yet deteriorated as if exposed to the elements for an
extended period. Some researchers believe the money may have been
deliberately buried by Cooper himself or an accomplice, as a
form of insurance or evidence to be used later. Others
suggest it was deposited by natural river processes after Cooper's
body and the money entered the water system, perhaps miles upstream.
The fact that none of the remaining bills has ever
been identified in circulation remains one of the strongest arguments
for Cooper's death during or shortly after the jump. If
he had survived with the money, it seems likely that
at least some of the bills would have eventually been spent,
especially after the passage of years when the investigation had cooled.
As the fiftieth anniversary of the hijacking passed in twenty
twenty one, many fundamental questions remained unanswered. Who was Dan
Cooper and what motivated his audacious hijacking. Did he survive
the jump into the stormy Washington Knight. If he survived,
what happened to the remaining money, and did he evade
capture for the rest of his life? If he died,
Why has his body never been found despite one of
the most extensive searches in FBI history. How did a
portion of the ransom end up buried at Tina barr
under such puzzling circumstances. Was the hijacking truly the work
of a lone individual or did Cooper have accomplices who
have likewise remained unidentified. If he possessed inside knowledge of
the Boeing seven twenty seven's technical specifications, how did he
acquire such specialized information. These persistent questions continue to drive
interest in the case, spawning new books, documentaries, podcasts, and
theories with each passing year. The Cooper case stands at
as perhaps the perfect unsolved mystery, containing enough established facts
to make solutions seem tantalizingly possible while maintaining enough ambiguity
to resist definitive resolution. The D. B. Cooper hijacking occupies
a unique place in American criminal history and cultural mythology.
It combines elements of a daring heist, a perfect disappearance,
technical ingenuity, and an enduring puzzle that has defied solution
for over half a century. It emerged from a specific
historical moment, a time of social upheaval, institutional distrust, technological transition,
and shifting cultural values. Yet its appeal has transcended its
era to become a timeless American legend. Cooper himself remains
an enigma, simultaneously nobody and everybody, a phantom whose true
identity has eluded generations of investigators, both professional and amateur.
He could have been a desperate man making one last
audacious gamble, or a meticulous professional executing a carefully planned operation.
Speaker 3: Stay tuned for more of that Bigfoot podcast. We will
be right back after these messages.
Speaker 1: He might have been a disgruntled airline employee, a former
paratrooper down on his luck, an engineer with specialized knowledge
of aircraft systems, or someone else entirely without a confirmed identity,
Cooper becomes a blank canvas onto which we project our
own interpretations and narratives, a rarshacked test of American attitudes
toward crime, authority, individualism.
Speaker 2: And mystery.
Speaker 1: The cases enduring fascination likely stems from its unique combination
of concrete facts and tantalizing unknowns. We know precisely what
happened on the plane, supported by multiple witness accounts and
physical evidence. We know the exact amount of money taken,
down to the serial numbers of every bill. We know
when and approximately where Cooper jumped from the aircraft. Yet
we don't know who he was, whether he survived his
leap into the darkness, or what happened to most of
the ransom money. This balance of known and unknown elements
has proven irresistible to both professional investigators and armchair detectives
across the decades, offering just enough information to make solutions
seem possible while remaining elusive enough to prevent certainty. At
its core, the Cooper case represents something increasingly rare in
the modern information age, a complete disappearance, a clean vanishing
act from the grid of searchable data and digital footprints
that now track most human activities in an era of
ubiquitous surveillance cameras, cell phone location tracking, DNA databases, and
interconnected information systems, the idea that someone could simply step
off an airplane into the night and vanish without a
trace carries a certain mystique. Cooper stepped out of the
airstairs of Flight three five and in to American mythology
becoming larger than any single suspect or theory. Whether Dan
Cooper died on that reigny November nine in nineteen seventy one,
or walked away to live another day under a different identity,
his legacy as America's most famous unsolved hijacker is secure.
His crime changed aviation security forever, inspired countless creative works,
launched thousands of investigations, and left an indelible mark on
American popular culture. In disappearing so completely, he achieved a
kind of immortality that has outlasted many of those who
hunted him and will likely continue to fascinate generations to come.
The perfect crime may or may not exist.
Speaker 2: But D. B.
Speaker 1: Cooper created the perfect mystery. A puzzle with no solution,
only theories, a story with no ending, only possibilities, A
legend that continues to capture our imagination and invites speculation.
Half a century after, a nondescript man in a bit
business suit stepped off a commercial aircraft and into the
stormy night skies of the Pacific Northwest, taking with him
not just a bag of ransom money, but a place
in American criminal folklore that no identified hijacker could ever
hope to achieve. If today's tale left you a little
more curious and maybe a little more uneasy, then you're
exactly where you belong. Here on Disturbing History, we don't
just tell stories. We dig up the ones they tried
to bury. If you like what you're hearing, help keep
the past alive by subscribing, following, and turning on auto
downloads so you never miss what comes creeping out of
the archives next. And if you've got a minute, drop
a rating and review. It helps more than you know.
But the most powerful way to help the show grow
share it with your friends, your family. That one coworker
who's just a little too into conspiracy theories, you know
the one, Because around here we believe sometimes history disturbs us,
and sometimes we disturb history. Until next time, Keep digging,
keep questioning, and always keep disturbing history.
Speaker 3: I shall your skin.
Speaker 2: Hearth God. It tastes fun.
Speaker 3: Your house.
Speaker 2: I'm see.
Speaker 3: Wat child and come fun. You better know.
Speaker 1: Some moon is out.
Speaker 2: Now you're gonna hear my heart. You'd better run now, SUSA,
Now you gonna hear my
Speaker 1: O