Famous Enigmas: From the Voynich Manuscript to the Zodiac Killer
In 1971, a man known only as D.B. Cooper hijacked a plane, collected a ransom, and parachuted into the wilderness, never to be found.
Imagine this: on November 24, 1971, a man known as Dan Cooper (media mistakenly called him D.B. Cooper) boards a Northwest Orient Airlines flight from Portland to Seattle. He's unremarkable at first glance— wearing a business suit and a black tie, carrying a black attaché case. Little did the passengers and crew know, they were flying with a man about to make criminal history.
As the flight settles at cruising altitude, Cooper hands a note to a flight attendant. At first, she assumes it's the number of yet another businessman. But, oh, how wrong she was. Cooper's note isn't asking for a date; it's declaring a hijacking. He shows her a glimpse of his attaché case: wires, red sticks—something that looks a lot like a bomb. His demands? $200,000 in "negotiable American currency" (over $1 million today), four parachutes, and a fuel truck standing by in Seattle to refuel the aircraft for a getaway. Cooper is cool as a cucumber through it all.
The plane lands in Seattle. The passengers disembark, blissfully unaware of the drama they've just exited, while Cooper and the crew stay on board. The ransom and parachutes are delivered, the plane refuels, and taking only a skeleton crew with him, Cooper orders the plane to head for Mexico City. It's getting dark, and a storm is rolling in—perfect conditions for a vanishing act.
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Around 8 pm, with the plane flying at a low altitude as per his specifications, Cooper dons one of the parachutes. He ties the ransom moneybag to himself, heads to the back of the plane, lowers the aft stairs, and—stepping into the biting cold and the pitch-black night—jumps. Into the abyss. Into the pages of mystery and legend. The man known as D.B. Cooper just disappears.
The FBI launches what becomes one of the longest and most exhaustive investigations in U.S history, named "NORJAK" (Northwest Hijacking). Thousands of leads are followed, the landing area is combed over, but the Pacific Northwest's vast wilderness doesn't give up its secrets easily. Not a trace of Cooper, not even a piece of parachute or a dollar of the money, is found in initial searches.
Over the years, bits and pieces allegedly connected to the hijacking sporadically turn up. A decaying package of $20 bills matching the ransom money's serial numbers is found by an eight-year-old boy on a Columbia River beach in 1980. Theories abound. Was Cooper a paratrooper? A desperado with nothing to lose? Did he survive the jump, or did the brutal elements claim him?
The skyjacker's enigmatic tale captivates the public and the press. Books are penned, songs are sung, even a movie is made. Speculation about his true identity and fate continues to swirl. In 2016, the FBI officially suspends its investigation, leaving the enigmatic criminal in the realm of legend—a ghost in the annals of unsolved crimes.
D.B. Cooper’s story is a paradoxical mix of audacity and meticulous planning, an unfathomable daredevil act that's neither condemned nor condoned. It's a heist story where the anti-hero vanishes, leaving behind a jet stream of questions and a mythology that endures. It's no wonder that after all these years, the D.B. Cooper hijacking remains one of the most tantalizing enigmas in American lore. Will the world ever know what became of the bold man in the business suit with a bag full of cash, who vanished into the cold, vast nothing? The Earth keeps its secrets, and D.B. Cooper? Well, he may just be the Earth's accomplice in this enduring mystery.
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