Skyjack: The Hunt for D. B. Cooper
by Geoffrey Gray · 8 Aug 2011 · 308pp · 82,290 words
CROWN and the Crown colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gray, Geoffrey. Skyjack: the hunt for D.B. Cooper / Geoffrey Gray. 1. Cooper, D.B. 2. Hijacking of aircraft—United States. 3. Criminal investigation—United States. I. Title. HE9803.Z7H5352 2011 364.15
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Porteous everything. His hunt started on television. Flipping around the dial, Lyle settled on the program Unsolved Mysteries. The topic of the episode was D.B. Cooper: the famous hijacker who in the fall of 1971 parachuted out the back of an airplane with $200,000 in stolen cash—and was never
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. PARACHUTIST’S BADGE, ASIATIC PACIFIC THEATER. So it was true. Kenny knew about parachutes. He could have jumped out of that plane just like D.B. Cooper had. I pull another photo. In this one, Kenny is in uniform. He wears a skinny tie with a clasp. He is standing in
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the ballad out of my head. I can hear guitar strings. I hum along to the chords. With your pleasant smile And your dropout style, D.B. Cooper, where did you go? I know exactly where: 18406 Old Sumner Buckley Highway. November 24, 1971 Portland International Airport, Oregon She is a specimen
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“Right,” the agent says. Jabin scribbles down the “D” and “B” and the name “Cooper.” He calls in the story. The name of the hijacker—D.B. Cooper—hits the wires. Mexico City? In Portland, Special Agent Ralph Himmelsbach goes over the flight path in his mind. As a pilot, he knows the
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dear manager, much of the credit for my success is yours, thanks. I am departing very soon for foreign soil, flying naturally, thanks again. D.B. Cooper August 24, 2007 Approaching Portland International Airport, Oregon I am on the plane and I am thinking of the Pulitzer prize. What is the prize
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my own logic. My first interview is forty miles south of Portland, with the man considered to be the world’s foremost expert on the D.B. Cooper case, Ralph Himmelsbach. The retired special agent is now in his eighties, and there is talk about how he became “obsessed” with the case
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, Walter Cronkite reads the intro. When he boarded a plane in Portland Oregon last night he was just another passenger who gave his name as D.[B.] Cooper. But today, after hijacking a Northwest airlines jet, ransoming the passengers in Seattle, then making a getaway by parachute somewhere between there and Reno,
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.” In small towns, civic groups include the hijacker in weekly programming. One sign reads: Thurs—Pops Concert Wed—Dad’s Club Tue— Mon—CONGRATULATIONS! D.B. COOPER “That guy is smart,” a waitress in Woodland says. “He’s probably in Mexico laughing about all these federal agents looking all over Washington for
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him.” D.B. Cooper. The name is everywhere. A bowling alley organizes the D.B. Cooper Sweepstakes. An unknown prankster places a classified ad in The Barometer, Oregon State University’s college paper: “David B.
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the trees the children find a plane, a rusted-out two-seater. The windshield is gone. The cloth on the seats has deteriorated. “This is D.B. Cooper’s plane,” one of the girls says. In Seattle, reporters flood the city for local reaction quotes. “I hope he isn’t caught,” a
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SECRETS, it says. November 27, 1971 Seattle, Washington The name of the hijacker is kept confidential. This is by design. With the false alias D.B. Cooper in the press, agents now know that all leads that come in about a “D.B.” can be ignored, and all leads with the name
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the woods after the hijacking. “The country is like a beautiful and moody woman,” he wrote. “It is itself a character in the story of D.B. Cooper.” December 5, 1971 Woodland, Washington The weather is taking over. The search teams are stuck. Daily Teletypes are sent back to headquarters. FOR INFORMATION
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stunned the world. Nothing like it had ever been done before. Others have tried it since, but nobody else has ever succeeded. The man called D.B. Cooper became a legend. Millions of people in America, Europe, even Russia wondered who this man was, where he had come from, what had driven
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to Fort Collins, Colorado, they drove west on a trip over the Cascades. Outside of Vancouver, Duane took her on a hike. “This is where D.B. Cooper walked out of the woods,” he said. “How would you know?” Jo said. “Maybe I was there,” Duane said. She assumed he was joking.
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arm is raised. “I left my prints on the aftstairs,” he said. “I’m going to die.” Aftstairs? An odd word. Reading books on D.B. Cooper, she learns the aftstairs are where the hijacker made his infamous leap from the Northwest Orient 727. There was also an airline ticket she found
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as a teenager, after he ran away from home. I ask him about Lyle’s theory: that Kenny was the infamous hijacker D.B. Cooper. “He could have been him,” MacWilliams says. “D.B. Cooper could have been anybody if you really think about it … But I can’t really see that happening.” Why not? “
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removes an initialed handkerchief and mops his brow. The agents discuss the case they failed to make. All along, they have been convinced McCoy is D.B. Cooper. They’ve been able to match up physical evidence. During his investigation, Thiessen showed the photos of Cooper’s black clip-on tie left in
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. President Jimmy Carter called in once. Some years, before the bands played, hundreds of partygoers were offered search tours, parachute jumps, seaplane rides, a D.B. Cooper look-alike contest. Lunch and dinner were the same: buffalo stew served with slices of buttered white bread. News clippings are spread along the walls
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out alive. Barb defends Cooper’s intelligence. She sounds angry, offended almost. Ron jokes with her. “I know,” he says. “Barb is the real D.B. Cooper!” Later that day, Barb pulls Ron aside. “Don’t ever say that in public again,” she says, about calling her Cooper. “Not even as a
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was searching. The Foremans are skeptical. How does Barb know so much about the case? “Okay,” Barb says. “Ron guessed it at Sanderson. I am D.B. Cooper.” They don’t believe her. How could they? “You can’t tell anyone,” Barb says. “I get claustrophobic. I couldn’t survive in prison.”
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hijacking. But Barb’s condition had deteriorated. She could no longer talk. Then she was gone. “I have no doubt in my mind Bobby was D.B. Cooper,” Billie says. “I know it.” August 2000 Pace, Florida Jo Weber does not leave her house. She has too much work decoding the clues
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agent says. “That son of a bitch just tried to kill me.” The agents hover over McCoy’s body. It is too late for a D.B. Cooper confession. The coroner is called. February 28, 2009 Battleground, Washington I pull into the parking lot of the Best Western in southern Washington. It’
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lost confidence in Tom’s judgment and scientific methods. He felt Tom was more concerned with attracting attention to himself and his role in the D.B. Cooper investigation than with executing his assignment. “We were asked to analyze the money and we agreed to analyze the money–that’s it, not
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“I can photograph into that.” “That’s good. One more.” “I got a gazillion megapixels.” “Hold it right there.” “Oh yeah. We be the bad D.B. Cooper investigators. Yeah, baby, yeah. Show me the money.” “It’s in the Columbia.” “How do they look?” “There’s obviously stuff in there. Mmmmmm.” “
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told me about the envelope he delivered to Nora Ephron for Lyle Christiansen. Now, more than ever, the Manhattan PI is convinced Kenny Christiansen is D.B. Cooper. “I’d say with ninety-five percent certainty it’s him,” Porteous says. I have doubts. Himmelsbach was right. Kenny was too short. In
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emotional despair. “All of the forces in life converge in one moment in which there is an impulsive act,” Hubbard wrote. Yes, Barb Dayton was D.B. Cooper. She had it all! Except the hair (blond), the height (five eight), and the right color eyes (blue). And what was her connection to
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movies the doctor snapped his fingers and—poof!—Knoss was under the spell. The hypnosis poisoned his mind and he wants payback for his nightmares. D.B. Cooper ruined his life, he says. He thought he would go to prison for what he witnessed in the late 1960s. In Bloomington we pull
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to confirm the date and time. I call again. I leave several messages. I finally reach him several days later. He can’t talk about D.B. Cooper. His wife’s orders. “Sorry to have led you down the primrose path,” he says. I check out another lead. Another confession. Bryant “Jack”
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one was it? I confront Jake about these discrepancies. Is the file off? Or is he using his Thanksgiving furlough to feed me another bullshit D.B. Cooper story? “I am incredibly surprised there is any record at all,” he says. I check my saved phone messages. “Geoff, it’s Jo.
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“Hijacker of Jetliner Steals Public Fancy Here,” Ross Anderson, November 28, 1971. Quotes from sheriff and agent in newsclips following hijacking, FBI file. Information about D.B. Cooper FBI file: author reporting, FBI agent Larry Carr. Near death of treasure hunter John Banks, NORJAK, by Ralph Himmelsbach. Journalist’s suicide attempt and electroshock
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skyjackers: The Skyjacker: His Flights of Fantasy by David G. Hubbard, M.D. (Macmillan, 1971). Kenneth Christiansen: military records, interviews with Lyle Christiansen. Lyrics: “D.B. Cooper, Where Are You?” by Judy Sword. NOVEMBER 24, 1971. ABOARD NORTHWEST 305. The description of the events aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 305, and of the
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medical files of Barbara Dayton; letters and postcards of Robert Dayton; interviews with Ron and Pat Foreman, Rena Ruddell, and Sharon Power; The Legend of D.B. Cooper by Ron and Pat Foreman. Himmelsbach: interviews with Himmelsbach; NORJAK by Himmelsbach; Paul Cini, recounted in NORJAK; news clips. Nyrop and life at Northwest
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reports. DECEMBER 7, 1942. COVE CITY, NORTH CAROLINA. Details from Richard Floyd McCoy’s childhood, family life, and schooling at Brigham Young University from D.B. Cooper: The Real McCoy, by Bernie Rhodes. Details on McCoy’s military record: court documents and exhibits from McCoy’s 1972 criminal trial. NOVEMBER 24, 1971
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Dayton. History of Bobby Dayton: interviews with Ron and Pat Foreman, Rena Ruddell, Sharon Power. Postcards and letters of Bob Dayton, from The Legend of D.B. Cooper by Ron and Pat Foreman. NOVEMBER 26, 1971. WOODLAND, WASHINGTON. Details of search headquarters found in local news accounts and FBI summary reports. Details
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Crowley, historylink.org. FBI investigation into Air America connection: FBI summary reports. FALL SEMESTER 1971, BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY, PROVO, UTAH. McCoy’s medical condition: D.B. Cooper: The Real McCoy by Rhodes. Passages on skyjacker psychology: The Skyjacker by Hubbard. Mormon articles: Lds.org. Details about McCoy’s home life and idea
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AUGUST 24, 2007. WOODBURN, OREGON. Interview of Himmelsbach conducted by author. Details of the hijacker’s description: FBI files. “A beautiful but moody woman,” from D.B. Cooper: What Really Happened? by Gunther. DECEMBER 5, 1971. WOODLAND, WASHINGTON. Teletypes from agents about the search: the FBI files. Details about suspects and descriptions and
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Angeles Times, April 10, 1972. FEBRUARY 18, 1970. UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON. Dayton medical files, including psychological evaluations, surgical and nurses’ notes. The Legend of D.B. Cooper by Ron and Pat Foreman. Interviews with Sharon Power, Rena Ruddell, Ron Foreman, Pat Foreman. JANUARY 6, 1972. MCCHORD AIR FORCE BASE. Experiment with the
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March 30, 1972. Army search: FBI files and Bureau Teletypes. APRIL, 1995. PACE, FLORIDA. Discovery of “Dan Cooper”: interviews with Jo Weber. Summarization of hijacking: D.B. Cooper: What Really Happened? by Gunther. Memories and experiences of Jo Weber: interviews conducted by author. “Bloodiest forty-seven acres” and conditions inside Missouri State prison
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with Larry Carr. APRIL 7, 1972. PROVO, UTAH. Richard McCoy’s hijacking of United Airlines Flight 855, and his parachute jump, his escape, and capture: D.B. Cooper: The Real McCoy by Rhodes. The response from neighbors: “FBI Captures Student, ‘Evidence’ in Skyjack,” the Salt Lake Tribune, April 10, 1972; “FBI Holds
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. JUNE 29, 1972, SALT LAKE CITY, MCCOY ON TRIAL. McCoy in court; the feds lay out their case; Rhodes attempts to get McCoy’s confession: D.B. Cooper: The Real McCoy by Rhodes. McCoy’s escape: Deseret News. NOVEMBER 23, 2007, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON. Carr’s report on the evidence: interview with Carr.
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Indictment: “ ‘Dan Cooper’ Has One Year to Go Before Statute of Limitations Runs Out,” The Columbian, December 25, 1975. Money is found: NORJAK, by Himmelsbach; D.B. Cooper: Dead or Alive? by Tosaw; interviews with Patricia and Dwayne Ingram. NOVEMBER 23, 2007, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON. Larry Carr takes the investigation into cyberspace: interview with
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7, 2008. Details on dropzone.com: interviews and research conducted by author. Jerry Warner (Georger): interviews conducted by author. Cooper Days: “A Party for D.B. Cooper” by Bob Burnett, November 28, 1976; interviews with bar owner Donna Elliott; lyrics found on newspaper clips on the walls of Ariel Tavern. Ron Foreman
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with Ron Foreman. Barb is depressed: interview with Pat Foreman. Barb confesses to the Cooper hijacking: interviews with Ron and Pat Foreman, The Legend of D.B. Cooper by Ron and Pat Foreman. AUGUST 2000. PACE, FLORIDA. Prison records of Duane Weber: provided by Jo Weber, courtesy of Doug Pasternak. Details of
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, BRIGHTON, COLORADO, MCCOY. Richard Floyd McCoy’s escape from prison, letters to the judge appealing for a reduction in his sentence, and planning another escape: D.B. Cooper: The Real McCoy by Rhodes. MARCH 1, 2008, CATHEYS VALLEY, CALIFORNIA. Bobby Dayton and biography of his children: Rena Ruddell. Psychology of hijackers: The
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Valerie Fischer. AUGUST 10, 1974, LEWISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA. Details of the prison escape, the flight on the lam, bank robberies, and shootout with federal agents: D.B. Cooper: The Real McCoy by Rhodes. Additional details on the shootout: interview with retired federal agent Nick O’Hara. FEBRUARY 28, 2009, BATTLEGROUND, WASHINGTON. Following the
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Cooper: interview by author. Bills were found in the tree on Christiansen’s property: interview with Porteous, and Into the Blast: The True Story of D.B. Cooper by Porteous and Blevins. Barb Dayton loves to fly: “After She Shelves Her Job, She Opens Her Wings,” The Daily, University of Washington newspaper,
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a Great American Family by Charles Lachman (Union Square Press, 2008). Details on Gossett: interviews with Galen Cook. “A steady third place finisher,” from D.B. Cooper: What Really Happened? by Gunther. Jake and Black Bag Jobs: interviews with the source conducted by author. Prison records from Washington State obtained by author
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