D.B.Cooper
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| Northwest Airlines flight #305 on Seattle tarmac awaiting money and parachutes prior to taking off for Reno. |
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Boeing 727-100 aft stairway, photo from airliners.net. |
Cooper had chosen this date with its new moon so that other aircraft (such as the Air National Guard planes that tried to follow behind the 727) would have insufficient light to see him drop out the back of the airliner.
The Boeing 727-100 was the only commercial airliner that would permit a safe parachute jump because the plane had an aft stairway that could be lowered by hand from inside the cabin while in flight, and jumping from it would enable one to avoid being fried by jet exhaust or hitting a part of the plane. Cooper instructed the crew to fly with the cabin non-pressurized so he wouldn't be sucked out of the plane when he lowered the rear stairs. He limited the amount of money to something practical for the jump. The amount and denominations he asked for weighed about twenty pounds and would fit in a bag the size of an Oxford dictionary. The 727 was capable of staying aloft at speeds of around 100 mph when empty. Cooper instructed the crew to stay at 10,000 feet with the flaps at 15 degrees and the landing gear down. He was able to monitor this with the altimeter he wore on his wrist and the flaps and landing gear were visible out the cabin windows.
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| NWA flight #305 Capt. William Scott, 1st Officer Robert Rataczach and Flight Attendant Tina Muckrow |
With the flaps and landing gear down and the aft stairs deployed in flight, at 10,000 feet the 727 would be slowed to a speed that would reduce the winds to a point where the jump would be feasible. The altitude would allow Cooper 10 seconds of free fall prior to opening his chute by which time any planes following the 727 would have passed over him. The 727 had no peep hole in the cockpit door. Once he had sent Tina Muckrow, the flight attendant, to the cockpit and shut the door, he lowered the aft stairs and there was no way for anyone to know exactly when he made his jump during the 600 miles to Reno. His request for multiple chutes was intended to plant the idea that one or more of the chutes might be for the crew, ensuring that every effort would be made to provide fully functional equipment.
He was then, and is now still, the only person ever to hijack a U.S. commercial airliner and avoid being captured or killed. In February of the following year a man claiming to be the hijacker sent a letter to Max Gunther who wrote for Business Week and Time, asking if he was interested in his story. If so, the letter asked Gunther to place a small ad in the Village Voice that read simply: Happy birthday Clara. Gunther did so and soon received a phone call from someone calling himself Dan Cooper and asking for assistance. The reason given for contacting Gunther was an article he wrote nine years earlier for True magazine which the caller credited with having been a catalyst for taking steps to change his life. The article was a do-it-yourself tutorial for
husbands in bad marriages,
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| Image from Ebay.com |
True was put out by Fawcett Publications from 1937 to 1974 and with over three million readers was the most popular magazine for men until the introduction of Playboy in the mid 1960s. True was among a great many "pulp" magazines whose issues, covers and artwork
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| Escape to Adventure, November 1960; cover art by Frank M. Rines. |
One thing that lent at least a bit of credibility to the caller was that he identified himself as "Dan" Cooper which had been the name the hijacker had used to purchase his ticket the night of the hijacking. "D.B." Cooper was the name mistakenly assigned to the hijacker in early news reports after having been confused with a lead initially pursued by the Portland Police. The lead
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| Carbon copy receipt for $20 cash ticket purchased by Dan Cooper. |
The caller claimed his motive for wanting his story published was a need for money. He offered no more details but it is quite possible he was reluctant to spend any of the $200,000 as it was made known early on that the FBI had recorded the serial numbers of all 10,000 twenty-dollar bills. Gunther told the caller he could help him write the story and recommended he contact Ed Kuhn, Gunther's friend and the Editor-in-Chief of Playboy Press. A few days later Ed Kuhn received a call from the same Dan Cooper and discussed what arrangements might be possible for publishing a story. Kuhn later phoned Gunther and the two of them were both of the opinion that the caller was believable.
Two months later both Gunther and Kuhn received identical letters from the caller expressing thanks for their interest and although he was still in need of money he hadn't been able figure a way for him to receive cash for the story without tipping off the authorities. He stated that he would continue to study the situation and get back to them when he had a solution. A year passed with no addition contact from the caller. Max Gunther decided to meet with members of the FBI task force assigned to the case and inform them of the letters and phone calls. The FBI showed no interest whatsoever.
Ten years later..........................
In March of 1982, Max Gunther received a call from a woman named Clara who claimed to have taken an injured Dan Cooper into her home 36 hours after he jumped from the plane and had lived together with Cooper until he passed away in February of 1982. She knew about the letters and phone calls from Cooper to Gunther and Kuhn in 1972. She also knew of an additional letter that Cooper had sent in 1972 to Max Panzer who was Editor-in-Chief for True magazine at the time. When Gunther finished speaking with Clara he immediately called Max Panzer who confirmed having received such a letter ten years earlier.
Clara phoned and spoke to Gunther a half dozen times during the next few months. She stated her reason for calling Gunther was to give an accurate portrayal of the kind and gentle man with whom she had shared the last 10 years. She insisted on remaining anonymous and never provided any contact information for fear of prosecution. She also insisted on not revealing Dan Cooper's real identity for the sake of the family that he had abandoned a few years prior to the hijacking. She expected that she would have to provide convincing details to be taken seriously and did so yet never asked for nor received anything in return.
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| FBI composite sketch, from sdtimes.com |
Clara told Gunther that she was house sitting for an uncle of hers in 1971 whose residence was in Clark County in the State of Washington. On the morning after Thanksgiving, Clara discovered Cooper in a tool shed. He had lost his flash light on his descent and couldn't see the ground when he landed. He injured his foot and ankle but managed to hobble about 2 miles to where Clara found him. She soon figured out who he was but found him so pleasant and in such desperate need of help that she was won over. It took several weeks for his injuries to heal and by that time they were a couple. Clara said they both found humorous the sketch of Cooper making the rounds as it didn't resemble him at all. They were hesitant to spend any of the money and after a few months relocated to upper New York State. They lived off of Clara's savings until they were both able to eventually find work. When they were struggling financially Cooper had contacted Gunther in an effort to get their hands on some money. Shortly thereafter Cooper was hired on as a salesman for a chemical company with a reasonable salary so he dropped the idea of trying to get a story published. Clara never regretted her decision to join up with Cooper but she did make it clear that they lived with the constant fear that they might be found out one day.
When Gunther's conversations with Clara
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| Photo from telegraph.co.uk |
Himmelsbach stated that Clara's account provided a logical resolution to all of the many puzzling facets of a case that Himmelsbach had come to know more thoroughly than anyone else. He acknowledged that Clara had offered several details that had never been shared with the public including the Nylon jumpsuit he wore underneath his business suit when he boarded the plane. The layers of clothing caused him to sweat and he was concerned that this might draw attention. When the flight attendants were interviewed after the flight they both mentioned that the hijacker was perspiring but this information had never been made public. Clara claimed that Cooper didn't remove his business suit until the flight attendant had been sent up to the cockpit. She also pointed out that the type of shoe she helped remove from Cooper's injured foot was not a loafer as reported but something suitable for the terrain. She provided the precise colors of his chute that she helped destroy that had also been reported incorrectly in the news. Himmelsbach contended that he could never officially accept Clara's version of events as true because there wasn't sufficient proof.
Max Gunther couldn't find any basis to doubt Clara's story. What other reason could the caller and Clara have for going to such lengths over a period of 10 years? In 1985 Gunther published a book entitled D.B.Cooper, What Really Happened that includes all of the information provided by Clara during their phone conversations.