November 24th is the anniversary of the most daring bank robbery ever attempted.
And possibly to succeed.
In 1971, D.B. Cooper (real name Dan Cooper) leaped from a Northwest Airlines Boeing 727 with two parachutes and $200,000 in ransom into a stormy southwestern Washington state sky, a temperature of 7 below and a clip-on tie.
The tie was found. His fate remains unknown.
Despite hundreds of leads through the years, no conclusive evidence has surfaced regarding Cooper's true identity or whereabouts.
The bulk of the money has never been recovered, although in 1980, a kid found $5,880 in decaying $20 bills on the banks of the Columbia River which were linked to the ransom money.
Several theories offer competing explanations of what happened but the FBI believes DB did not survive.
Personally I wonder if he ever jumped out. Maybe he just lowered the stairs and hid somewhere else on the plane?
See the original CBS news story on the jump.
PS - Today's also the anniversary of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald.
Bill Curtis reports from the original CBS news story from November 25th, 1971.
Here's another video which recounts some of the theories of DB since the hijacking.
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The DB Cooper story has fascinated me since I was a kid.
I remember when I was younger, I was sure that I knew who D.B. Cooper was.
Yeah, that's a hella interesting story. Nobody knows he was. Even after all this time and all the publicity that must have occurred then? Never found him, or his body. Found some of the money, years later. He must have known some stuff about planes, and the area. Risky jump but he knew the plane was capable of it. Had them keep the pressure off, knew the right altitude.
I like this quote, 'Please don't assume that someone you know would not be capable of this crime.'
Where was this guy from? What was his story? Dmaned inneresting.
I'm
Dave B. Cooper
Man it feels good to get that off my shoulders.
Dave,
Funny. I was thinking that same thing ... only I was going to give you a middle name of Bat.
Tim my boy, we must be on the same page.
Thanks for posting my video to your blog. I'm glad you found it helpful:)
No Josh, thanks for posting your informative video.