Mysteries of History-1971

A short lesson in history

Mysteries of History

 

On a cold and rainy night, the day before Thanksgiving in 1971, a man who looked like Dan Aykroyd of the Blues Brothers save for the Fedora, sat aboard a Northwest Orient Airline flight bound for Seattle from Portland, Oregon. Calm, cool, and collectively he handed the flight attendant a hand-written note stating that he had a bomb and demanded $200,000 in cash and four parachutes when the plane landed.

When the aircraft landed, the man released 36 passengers and 2 members of the flight crew, after receiving the items that he requested. When the exchange was made, he demanded the pilot to set a course for Mexico. As the Boeing 727 took off, and climbed into the sky, the man stood up from his seat with the money and parachutes and walked down the aisle to the rear of the plane. He strapped on one of the parachutes, then attached one to the satchels containing the money, pulled off his clip-on tie, and then proceeded to open the rear hatch. At ten thousand feet, a wind speed of 80 knots, freezing rain pelted the aircraft. According to his ticket, Dan Cooper parachuted into the history books, never to be seen again. By the time the story made the media, a reporter misspelled the first name, thus D.B Cooper was born.

For the following five months, the most extensive manhunt in U.S. history was conducted. Federal, State, and local law enforcement converged on the forest north of Portland and found not one trace of the parachutes, money, or Cooper. Late 1978, a placard that contained instructions on how to lower the aft stairs of a 727, was found by a hunter just a few flying miles north of the projected drop zone. Another break came on February 10, 1980, eight-year old Brian Ingram, while on a family outing, found $5,880 of decaying bills bundled with rubber bands not forty feet from the shoreline in a couple of inches of water in the Columbia River near the Washington-Oregon border.

Through the years more than a 1,000 serious suspects had been questioned but none are sounder than Duane Webber. While he lay dying of Polycystic Kidney disease in a Pensacola Hospital, in 1995, the Florida antiqued dealer called his wife Jo Webber to his bedside.

“I’m Dan Cooper,” he whispered.

Jo did not understand what Duane was talking about. She gazed at him with puzzlement in her eyes. When the look had registered, Duane became frustrated and blurted out, “Oh let it die with me.” Duane died eleven days later.

Was Duane Webber’s deathbed confession the actual truth behind D.B. Cooper’s disappearance? Was he really living in the panhandle of Florida all these years? According to the FBI file on Dan (D.B.) Cooper, the case is still active 40 years later.

To find out more about this small piece of history and come to your own conclusion of what occurred on November 24, 1971, visit the library, and step back in time.

Author's Note

Please be honest.

Reviews

[Gray Witch]

I love it. This is my kind of story telling. I like writing about non-fictional characters and situations and having studied deviance and criminology your first post online here is well worth the read...I will be coming back...Thank you for a great experience.

[Fictioneer]

Thank you for the kind words. :)