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-(quiet rumbling)
-(jet roaring)

-(clicking)
-(indistinct announcement)

-(airport chatter)
-Walter Cronkite:
When he got on a plane

in Portland,
Oregon, last night,

he was just
another passenger.

But today, after hijacking
a Northwest Airlines jet,

a description on
one wire service...

master criminal.

♪ ♪

Reporter 1:
It was Thanksgiving Eve, 1971,
when a hijacker named

DB Cooper parachuted
out of the tail door

of a Northwest
Airlines 727...

Reporter 2:
A daring parachute
escape somewhere

between Reno
and Seattle, Washington.

(helicopter hovering)

Reporter 3:
The only unsolved
airplane hijacking

in United States history.

Man:
He demanded $200,000
and four parachutes.

Then, he disappeared.

Reporter 4:
They really didn't know

if the hijacker parachuted
around here.

Reporter 5:
The story begins there,
but how it ends?

That's the mystery.

Reporter 6:
But today, they still
could not explain

what really happened
to DB Cooper.

Reporter 7:
Leaving only the question,

did the man
the world now knows

as the legendary
DB Cooper live...

or did he die?

♪ ♪

Bruce Smith:
DB Cooper.
Don't know his identity.

Don't know where
he came from.

Don't know what
happened to him.

It's just one more
mystery after another.

♪

Marla Cooper:
I remembered my father
telling me this story.

"Don't you remember?
He hijacked that airplane."

Ben Anjewierden:
He ended up
being my roommate,

and he talked an awful
lot about hijacking.

Bernie Rhodes:
He knew that I was
closing in on him.

Cooper:
The first thing that kind
of hit in my head was

that looks like my dad.

♪ ♪

Geoffrey Gray:
It almost defied
the imagination.

Defied the imagination
to do it...

and defied the imagination
to get away with it.

(birds chirping)

John Dower:
DB Cooper.

Sounds like he's been
a big part of your life.

Yeah.

It's used up a lot of good years

that I could've
put somewhere else.

That I should have
put somewhere else.

And I lost a lot of my life.
I mean, you know...

I wish he had never
told me anything.

(slide projector clicking,
focusing)

♪ ♪

He treated me nice.
He...

When he would dance with you,

he knew exactly where to
put his hand on your back.

I mean, it was... I'd never
been treated like a queen.

(projector clicking)

Dower:
What did you know
about his past life?

Weber:
I didn't ask.

If you love someone,

the past is not important.

(clicking)

We were married
March the 27th, 1978.

He died on
March the 28th, 1995.

And that's where
the story starts.

(clicking, focusing)

He was in the hospital

three days before he died.

-(ECG beeping)
-(ventilator hissing)

♪ ♪

He had some kidney disease.

At first, he allowed
them to dialysize him,

and then he removed
himself from the machine.

The doctors told him
he would be dead
within so many days.

When you're like that,
you're going back into things.

Your brain takes you
back to your memories.

-(ventilator hissing)
-(ECG beeping)

I went to adjust
his pillow,

and then he tries
to tell me something.

(inaudible)

He kept on rambling,
rambling,

"I buried a bucket
and I don't know where--
I can't find the bucket."

-Tim Collins: Jo.
-Huh?

You know it
better than I do.

No, the day, the day
you brought him,

you brought him
to the hospice care,

-and you were helping
him put on his pants.
-Weber: Uh-huh.

And you asked him
about his knee.

Yeah. He said he hurt
it jumping out of a plane.

Right. Then,
you got to hospice care...

♪ ♪

And when the nurses left,

he wanted to
tell you a secret.
He says, "Come closer."

-And you thought
he wanted a cigarette.
-Weber: Yeah.

-Collins:
So start, start with that.
-Weber: Right.

(beeping)

He says, "Jo,
you and I've got to talk."

(inaudible)

He was trying to
tell me who he was.

He says-- talking about
jump out of a plane.

I said,
"You jump out of a plane?
Come on. Gimme a break."

And that's when he...
I'm gonna say a bad word.

That's when
he shouted, "Oh, fuck!

Let it die with me."
Well, then they came in

and started giving
him injections.

He still kept trying
to tell me the story.

I did not know what
he was talking about.

Dower:
But there was one key
thing he said to you.

"I'm Dan Cooper."

(ECG continuous beep)

♪ ♪

Those were
his last words...

except, "I love you."

Dower:
What did you do next?

Called the FBI.

♪ ♪

Narrator 1:
The jet age is now here.

The advent of
commercial flying

by jet clipper.

Near sonic speed,

but inside, one of
the most stunning
discoveries.

There is no feeling
of movement at all.

(jet whirring)

Narrator 2:
Now, over 400 flights a day

by 22 airlines serving
over 80 destinations.

You'll find this airplane

much more roomy than
the ones you've been used to.

♪

Narrator 3:
If this is what comes
with the coffee,

you can imagine
what goes before.

Tina Mucklow:
Let's see if I can
find anything else.

Some letters...

My name is Tina,

and, um, I was hijacked

many years ago.

-Dower: There's you.
-Mucklow: And there's me.

Think I must've been 20 or 21

at the time of the hijacking.

They painted the job as
being glamorous, and it...

I guess, to a certain extent,
it was glamorous.

Narrator:
When a Braniff International
hostess

meets you on the airplane...

she'll be dressed like this.

♪ ♪

Pilot:
I believe that

for every dollar that
our passengers give us,

they're gonna get $1.50
back in terms of service.

We do it because we want to
and not because we have to.

Mucklow:
We signed a contract
that we wouldn't gain

over a certain
amount of weight,
but when I was hired,

even if you were married
and you became pregnant,

you had to resign.

Plus one thing no other
airline can ever offer.

Me.

It was a different world.

Another airplane
has been hijacked.

This time by a gunman who
said he wanted to go to Cuba

because he said he was
tired of TV dinners.

♪ ♪

John Chancellor:
Governments of Cuba
and the United States

are talking about getting
together to curb hijacking.

The only time American
planes go to Cuba

is when
they've been hijacked.

(siren blaring)

William Rataczak:
There was a fair amount
of frequency of hijacks.

Typically Cuban nationals

who wanted to return
to their homeland.

Everybody on the airplane
would get a bottle of rum

and a couple of cigars
and got back on the airplane

and flew home and thought
it was really a fun thing.

But this one was
different because it was

a hijacking demanding money.

♪ ♪

Bill Mitchell:
I was coming home
for Thanksgiving

from the University of Oregon.

I had run into
Portland Airport.

I threw down cash.

This is 50 years ago,

and there was no...

metal detectors.
It was just...

a different era.

Bob Fuhriman:
All you had to
have was a ticket

to get on the flight.

Dower:
Security?

What? (laughs)

(plane idling)

Mitchell:
You just walked up

the back steps of
the stairs and sat down.

He sat

in the middle seat

on the back row on the right.

♪ ♪

This guy in this suit and tie,

he had sunglasses on,

and it was dark.

And I thought...

that's not very cool.

Rataczak:
Florence Schaffner, the number
two stewardess, was...

tending to the passengers
when they came in,

helping them find their seats

and magazine handouts
and what have you.

Um, and he gave her this note.

And she thought he
was hitting on her.

So she tucked it in
her coat pocket,

if you will,
her jacket pocket.

Finally, he said,

"Miss, I want you
to read that note."

Just as we were starting
to roll down the runway...

(PA announcement)

the flight attendant
next to me, Flo,

handed me this note,

and it said, um,

"Miss, you're, um...

you're being hijacked.
I've got a bomb.
Come sit next to me."

♪ ♪

He opened the briefcase
and showed me that

there were these,
what looked like, dynamite.

They were strapped together
with electrician's tape,

and out of it was running wire,

and there was a large battery.

And he also expressed

that he wasn't going
to be taken alive.

(plane chatter)

Rataczak:
We were rolling
down the runway.

All of a sudden, we hear chimes.

-(chiming)
-One chime is usually,

"Would you like
a cup of coffee?"

Harold Anderson:
Immediately followed by

a number of rings.

-(ringing)
-Rataczak:
When a series of chimes rings,

that is an emergency.

And it was Tina Mucklow
that came on--

on the interphone,
and she said,

"We are being hijacked,
and I'm serious."

But it was too late
to abort the takeoff.

(jet engines roaring)

♪ ♪

Mitchell:
I did think, you know,
this is, I guess,

my college sophomore ego.

But I couldn't
quite figure out

why this young
flight attendant

would be sitting next

and talking to this guy.

Mucklow:
He had ordered
a drink, a bourbon.

He was a smoker,
and I actually lit

several of his cigarettes

because he didn't wanna take
his finger off that trigger.

I said a prayer
for the passengers,

and for the crew, and...

for the hijacker as well.

Um, you know, I didn't know
what his history was.

I wanted to run.

But, you know, on a 727,

there's no place to run.

♪ ♪

(insects chirping)

-Dower: If you could
mentally time travel...
-Ron Forman: Yeah.

Dower:
...go back to that
very first day.

Pat Forman:
I was just hanging out at
the airport, as always,

and Ron took

a break, and he said,

"Let's go over
and talk to that lady

that's out there
on the field."

♪ ♪

Ron:
Every weekend,
if the weather was good,

she was up flying.
And if it was a rainy day,

she would just be
sitting in her car,

you know, if it's pouring
down, always by herself.

And I thought there was
something unusual about her,

but I didn't know what,

so that's why I decided,
let's go talk to her, right?

And then,
Ron was telling her

that he had just got
his pilot's license,

and he was
actually flying

for the Kiwanis Club
to build up hours

to get
a commercial license.

Dower:
And what was
she like as a pilot?

-Pat: Oh, man. (laughs)
-Ron: Great.

-She was great.
And she was daring.
-Pat: She was a great pilot.

-She had all the talents,
I mean...
-She had all the talents.

Pat:
She was parachuting.

Ron:
Then, after that, she came
over every Sunday night.

When she came over, after
we knew her a year, right?

That's when she
told us, you know...

You-you-you tell that story.

♪ ♪

Pat:
Well, she came over one
Sunday night, as usual.

She said that
she had something
that she had to tell us.

All of a sudden,
I had this funny feeling.

It was really weird.

I started forming
in my mind that...

maybe she used
to be a man.

Can that be possible?
Can they do that?

Barb stopped talking in
the middle of talking,

and she told Ron,
she says,

"Well, your wife knows now."

(laughs)

Then she started telling
us all the details

of what she had gone through,

and why she had
gone through it.

Ron:
She was the first woman
to have a sex change

-in Washington.
-Dower: Or the first man.

-Yeah, first man!
Yeah, first man. Yeah.
-(laughing)

Dower:
What was she called before
she had the sex change?

Pat:
Her name was Robert Dayton.

(click)

Dower:
How did DB Cooper
first come up?

Pat:
The pilots always are
discussing DB Cooper.

-Dower: Well it's this area?
-Ron: Yeah, it's this
area right here.

And it's one of the,
you know, a great mystery,
you know?

Pat:
Every time there
was an article

that said that DB Cooper
was an idiot,

-that he did stupid things...
-Common criminal.

He was a common criminal,
she would actually get angry.

♪ ♪

-She just went off.
-Ron: She really
defended DB Cooper.

I just looked at her,

and I don't know
what made me say it,
I just said,

"You know what?
I know who DB Cooper is.
It's Barb."

And, man, all of a sudden,

she just stared at me,
gave me a really dirty look.

She says,
"Don't ever
say that again."

So I thought that
was kinda unusual.

-(birds chirping)
-(plane flying)

And then, it was a few--

-a week or two later, right?
She came over. And I...
-Pat: Right.

happened to have a
newspaper article about it,
you know,

with a picture of
DB Cooper, the sketch.

I said, "Let me comb
your hair to the side."

So we combed it to the side,
and we put sunglasses on,

and we had one of
the old Instamatic cameras.

You know, you take a picture,
and it develops.

-(flash)
-We were watching it
develop,

and I looked at the sketch,
and I said, "Jesus Christ."

I said,
"She really matches.

I think maybe
she is DB Cooper."

♪ ♪

Pat:
We had another couple here.

Ron:
A couple here, too,
a young couple here, too.

And we all kind of just were
sitting around the table

with our mouths open,
watching her, like,

what is she--
what is she doing here?

And all of a sudden,
she realized

nobody was talking.
We were all sitting
there staring at her.

And then she,

you know, she said,
"Well," she says, "Okay.

I am Dan Cooper."

Ron:
The couple that was
with us, she panicked.

-She just started screaming.
-(screaming)

"We're all going to jail now,"
you know.

And she just
went into a panic,
and she just tore it

into little bitty pieces.

Threw it down,
and they went home.

♪ ♪

We just spent another
sleepless night

just like we did
when she told us

she was a man
because we were...

what if this is true?
I mean,

what if, uh,

she starts
thinking about it,

and she just told us this,
and she comes back here

-and kills us? (laughs)
-Yeah, 'cause we know
this secret, you know.

(projector clicking, whirring)

Pat:
I don't think I wanted
to believe it actually.

♪ ♪

But then there kept being more
and more and more things

that were popping up.

Then she started giving
us details about the jump.

She said she jumped
from 10,000 feet.

She kept the chute.
She didn't open
the chute till 1,000 feet.

Pat:
She told us that she had tied

-the money belt
around her waist...
-The strap around.

...in a manner that, um,

-she could use it
as a depth finder.
-Depth finder.

And she described the dynamite
to us, too, right?

And I said, "Was it
real dynamite, Barb?"

"I don't do anything
phony," she said.

-Got mad at me
because I brought that up.
-(laughing)

♪ ♪

Pat:
She told us that she landed
in the field near Woodburn.

Which is a perfect place.
There is the Interstate 5,

the freeway,
there's lights there.

Did the jump,
changed her clothes,

took off her suit and tie,

put a blonde wig on.

A policeman
could've picked her up.

Could've hitchhiked home,
they would have never--

She's got a wig on.
She's a woman.

Who's gonna--
who's gonna stop her?

♪ ♪

Dower:
So what happened next?

Anderson:
Well, once we got
into the climb,

Florence Schaffner
came up to the cockpit

with the other note that had
all of the demands on it.

$200,000 in
negotiable currency,

four parachutes,

fuel truck standing by,

and, "no fuzz."

Rataczak:
That got us thinking that

this guy is no dummy.
Four parachutes.

One for him,
and one for each one of us.

That was our concern that

he wanted us to bail with him.

I get a hold of our company
in Seattle on our

discrete frequency,

and tell them what's going on.

So, the FBI was involved stat.

-(phones ringing)
-(office chatter)

Fuhriman:
I remember being in the office,

and all of a sudden,
over the PA system,
came an announcement.

Man (on PA):
Attention all agents.

We've had a hijacking.

Then a few minutes later,
the boss,

the special agent in charge,

came out of his office
and grabbed me.

He says, "You're driving me
to the airport. Let's go."

♪ ♪

In any hijacking,
or a case like that,

potentially lives
are at stake.

But I just remember
he was saying,

"Get me there. Let's go."

(plane humming)

I asked Scotty, I said,
"Scotty, do you think
I should make a PA

"and kinda keep people from
roaming around the airplane

while we're trying to
get organized here?"

And he said,
"I think that's a good idea."

My mother and dad told
me never to lie, but...

I told a fib,

and I told them that
we had a mechanical problem,

but it was no
great consequence.

It was just something
that we're gonna--

We're gonna go up into
a holding pattern,

most passengers will
refer to it as circling.

(engines roaring)

-(siren blaring)
-Fuhriman: We had no plan.

The boss is talking to
Northwest Airline people,

the airport people,
the airport police.

Everybody was coordinating
who's gonna do what,

how do we handle this?
What do we do?

(engines roaring)

Mucklow:
I did ask him

did he have a grudge
with the airline.

(inaudible)

He said, "No.
I don't have a grudge

with the airline,
but I do have a grudge."

♪

(tires screech)

♪ ♪

Fuhriman:
Upon landing in Seattle,

the money,

the parachutes were brought out.

One of the flight attendants

was allowed to get off
and pick those up.

I got the money,

brought it back to him.

And then, we asked

if he would allow
the passengers off.

And once he had the money,

he was okay with
passengers getting off.

(siren blaring)

Mitchell:
It was dark, rainy...

and we are...

miles away from
Sea-Tac terminal.

A stairs came up,
portable stairs.

And as we all walked down,

we were all kinda
standing there,

and somebody on the plane said,

"Hey, we--
we were hijacked."

We didn't know
anything was happening.

Nobody knew anything
was happening.

-Reporter: When did
you find out?
-After we landed.

When they brought
the money aboard.

The crew kept us ignorant
of what was taking place,

I guess to avoid a panic.

And so, we really didn't
know what was taking place.

We cruised around for two
and a half hours up there.

Wasn't until
we got off the plane,
got near a vehicle,

and it looked like a money
bag was being handed over.

I then thought of a statement

that I'd heard early on right
as we were just in the air

a few minutes when one
of the stewardesses said,

"Keep the curtain
open so he can see."

(birds cawing)

Dower:
Nice room.

It's very, um, "Twin Peaks."

(Cooper laughs)

Cooper:
Well, back when that
show as on, apparently,

I looked a lot
like the dead girl.

And I would
hear it all the time.
"You look like

the dead girl in 'Twin Peaks.'"
(laughs)

Dower:
Now...

why am I here,
sitting talking to you?

What's, what's your--
Where do you come
into the story?

♪ ♪

Cooper:
It was 1971.

We were back in my
grandmother's home in Oregon,

a couple days
before Thanksgiving.

And my uncles,
LD and Dewey, are there.

(projector clicking, focusing)

I was always
intrigued by them.

They were really rowdy.

And on this particular
Thanksgiving,

we go out in the woods near
my grandmother's house,

and I'm walking along
with Uncle LD,
just shadowing him.

(birds chirping)

I had a great
affection for him.

He was a very sweet man
and...

always my favorite
in my dad's family.

They were talking about

something they were plotting,
and I,

I said, "What are you doing?
What are you up to?

What's going on?"

-(dogs barking)
-And they said, "Oh,

we're gonna go hunting
tomorrow morning."

I said, "Are you
going turkey hunting?

Because it's almost
Thanksgiving,

and I'm really looking
forward to a turkey.

And, and they kinda laughed.

"Yeah, we're gonna go--

we're gonna go shoot us
a great big turkey."

And they're just sort of
playing a game

of mental keep-away with me.

Like they've got a secret.
What they're telling me

is not the whole truth,
and so I keep probing,

trying to get
information out of them,

and they're not
talking about it.

They're just taunting me with
this story of a turkey hunt.

And so early the next morning,
I'm waiting in the driveway.

And they came driving up,
and I came

running to the side of the car.

♪ ♪

And I looked in
the passenger seat,

and there was my Uncle LD,

in a white T-shirt that
had blood all over it,

and he's nearly unconscious.

♪ ♪

"Daddy, Daddy!
Come out here!
Uncle LD's hurt!"

And my dad came running
out of the house,

and ordered me
to go back inside.

But I didn't go back inside.

-(barking)
-And then I heard
Uncle Dewey say,

"Well, we did it.
We hijacked the airplane.

We're rich. Our money
problems are over."

As soon as my uncles left,
my dad sat me down,

and he swore me to secrecy,
telling me

it's a matter of life and death.

"You cannot talk about
this to anybody."

I was 8 years old, and now,

I am left

with keeping a secret that

one of them is hurt
horribly, and...

and not able to talk about
what I'd seen that morning.

(engines roaring)

♪ ♪

Fuhriman:
We know the destination was
supposed to be Reno, Nevada,

and he wanted to go
further south from that,

I believe into
Mexico as I recall.

But... (clears throat)

we didn't know.

Rataczak:
I guess I said
something about,

"Oh goody. Maybe he
wants to go to Acapulco.

(laughs)

That beats Seattle
on a rainy night."

-(radio chatter)
-We got rid of the people.

We got rid of two of
the three stewardesses.

We have a supposedly calm...

guy back there,

and Tina is still there.

Mucklow:
I brought him to the back
of the airplane.

I was trying to keep him,

and probably myself,

grounded (laughs)
and calm.

Whenever I could, I tried
to engage the intercom,

and I would just
leave it engaged,

so the cockpit could hear

some of the conversation
that was going on.

So I think they were aware
that his anxiety was going up

as the time lapsed.

♪ ♪

Rataczak:
The hijacker demanded

the airplane flew in
at 10,000 feet.

"I want the flaps down
and the gear down."

Dower:
Do you remember what your
reaction in the cockpit

-to those instructions were?
-(chiming)

Well, it was quite obvious

he was going to jump
out of the airplane.

Rataczak:
Our biggest concern was
how it was going to fly

when and if he
lowered the stairs,

which he seemed like he
was intent on doing now.

Mucklow:
He wanted me to

open the airstairs.

Rataczak:
There is a bulkhead
door that opens inward,

and it's very noisy
when that door was open.

Mucklow:
At that point, he just said,

"I'll do it.
You go up front."

Rataczak:
And all of a sudden,
the cockpit door opens,

and it's Tina.
And I said, "Tina,

"I've never been
so happy in my life

to see a young lady as you."

-(cranking)
-(alarm blaring)

So he's taken over
the telephone back there.

So the first thing we hear is

-he's got the door open.
-(alarm continues)

Now it gets really noisy.

-(rattling loudly)
-And so,

he's...

(PA, distorted):
"I can't get the,
the stairs down.

I can't get the stairs down.
The stairs won't open up."

(undistorted, imitates wind)
All this noise.

Because the stairs
will not come down

all the way because
there's too much wind.

♪ ♪

We slowed the airplane down,
and I got on the phone
then and said,

"Alright, now you should
be able to lower the stairs."

-(wind blowing)
-(alarm blaring)

(mechanical whirring)

Then we got a big bump.

-(loud bang)
-Rataczak:
We felt those stairs

bounce back and closed,

and we felt a pressure
bump in our ears.

-(engines whining)
-(rattling, wind blowing)

Anderson:
Bill turned around and said,

and he said this
over the air...

Mark your screens

'cause I think our friend
just took leave of us.

-(rattling)
-(alarm blaring)

(alarm fades away)

♪ ♪

(traffic noise)

Fuhriman:
Seattle had just gone
through what they called

the Great Boeing Bust.

It was a Boeing town largely.

And so, when Boeing laid off
something like 60,000 people,

it just devastated
the whole city.

Man:
This is in anticipation

of early direction from
the Department of Transportation

to close the program down.

Fuhriman:
The economy was hurting.

In fact, there was
a billboard that we saw

when we drove into
town that said,

"Will the last person
out of Seattle
turn out the lights."

Gray:
You think about the time in
which the jump took place.

Poverty.

People, especially in
the Pacific Northwest,

were losing their jobs.

They're losing their
jobs to big machines.

They're losing their
jobs to corporations.

(clicking)

So along comes Cooper,
who sticks it to everybody,

and walks away
with the cash scot-free.

And so, I think
the Robin Hood element

represented
an act of defiance.

I think he's one of the slickest
cats that ever walked

on the face of
the Earth right now.

-Reporter: You think
he's sort of a hero?
-Oh, sure.

I just think that any time that
a fellow's got this much nerve,

and is successful this far that

everybody's kinda rooting
for him a little bit.

But, uh, the man's
beat the system
so to speak a little bit.

And I respect a man
who takes his time

to do a job well done.

(clicking)

Gray:
The cult of Cooper started

before the plane even landed.

Even though it was a crime,
there's a whole community

of people who are
obsessed with this story.

♪ ♪

(birds chirping)

Jerry Thomas:
I started walking
these woods

back in 1988.

That's about
31 years now total.

Dower:
How much area
have you covered?

Oh, more than
I care to remember.

(birds chirping)

Dower:
And how would you
describe the terrain?

Thomas:
Oh, man.

Gotta be some of the roughest
terrain on Earth.

You're not gonna be looking
for a body at this point.

At this point, you're gonna
be looking for a parachute.

That's what you're looking for.

Dower:
So you've spent
31 years looking,

not for DB Cooper,
but for his parachute.

Thomas:
Right.

He didn't make it
out alive that night.

That's an impossible
thing for him to do.
He died that night.

-Dower: You believe.
-I know.

I served in the military
for 20 years.

I enjoyed it. I miss it,

basically.

That's about it.

-Dower: Vietnam?
-Yeah.

-Dower: Special Forces?
-Thomas: Yeah.

♪ ♪

I got out of the military,
and I didn't really...

I just didn't fit in.

I withdrew. I lived off
the grid for 10 years.

I didn't really care that much
to be around a lot of people.

Dower:
And what do you think
about when you're,

you know, walking
the woods out here?

Thomas:
Actually, not really much of
anything. Just a blank mind

to keep my, um,
train of thought

as to what's beneath my feet.

Dower:
If he died out here,
would you not have found him?

Thomas:
No, not necessarily.

There was a man that crashed
his aircraft up here.

A hunter found his skull

and parts of the aircraft
60 years later.

Now, you tell me.

(chirping)

I just would like to
see this case solved.

I don't care who solves it.

But, um, oh, yeah,
I'll keep looking.

Dower:
How would it be possible for
him to land without any trace?

You know...

in that area of the country...

under good conditions,
or even under bad conditions

like the ones he jumped in,

if he were able to
hit an open space

and land and recover
the parachute,

get up and walk away,

it's very possible.

There were other episodes
that followed,
one in particular

involving a guy
named Richard McCoy

where he did a similar thing,
where he jumped

out of an airplane
and was able to survive.

♪ ♪

(traffic noise)

(thunder rumbling)

Dower:
How did you know
Richard Floyd McCoy?

Anjewierden:
We were in
the National Guard together.

I was in the Special Forces,

and he was in the engineers,
but quite often,

he'd come and fly with us.

And McCoy was a fun
one to fly with.

He was very adventurous.

He was a Mormon,
and he was...

a group leader in Vietnam.

Dower:
And he was a war hero
as well, wasn't he?

I understand that he had
received quite a few...

medals in Vietnam.

And McCoy ended up
being my roommate.

And he talked an awful
lot about hijacking.

(quiet chatter)

You've gotta remember

that I was
a Special Forces officer.

And in there,
we would plan raids,

and ambushes,

and in this case,
we just carried it

a little further.
"What would you do?"

♪ ♪

We did some brainstorming,

and we would discuss
things like...

that you come in disguise?

Things like that.

Dower:
So would you act out

scenarios of how
you would do it?

(chuckles)

I guess that's basically it.

Trust me.
I wasn't serious at all.

Dower:
So these conversations came up

after the DB Cooper hijacking.

Anjewierden:
Right. He would

appear to be fascinated with it

because DB Cooper had--

had already done
his thing then, see.

♪

Nick O'Hara:
McCoy, using the name
James Johnson,

boarded a flight to Colorado,

then to LA.
And in the process,

produced a note,

a handgun, a grenade,

and demanded
a half-million bucks.

♪ ♪

He basically
followed the instructions that

Dan Cooper had given in Seattle.

Not to say that they're
the same person and not that

McCoy didn't go to
school on Cooper,

but there is such

a remarkable, um...

pattern that's followed in

the McCoy that was used
in the Cooper case

that people say you could
almost overlay them.

Reporter:
The young man wanted $500,000

and requested four parachutes.

♪ ♪

O'Hara:
So once he gets airborne,

he is aware now how to
redeploy the rear airstairs.

Which the first
aircraft hijacking,

Cooper had to have
help doing that.

McCoy deploys
the airstairs, bails out,

lands near Provo.

Anjewierden:
I was right here,

and I discussed with the wife.

"I wonder if that's McCoy?"

And called the FBI.

Then they went to his house,

searched it,
and found

half a million dollars
up in the attic.

Minus $20.

He'd pulled a $20 bill off

for lunch.

Reporter:
He was arrested
here in his home

in Provo, Utah,
early this morning.

He was dressed for
a National Guard drill today.

And when the FBI men came,
he did not resist.

♪ ♪

Anjewierden:
I think he knew
the jig was up.

And he told me...

"You know, some of that
money was for you."

You know?

Well, shoot,
you shoulda told me!

And I'll be honest...

I felt like I'd betrayed him.

But I knew it was
the right thing to do.

This is the sketch of
DB Cooper

from witnesses
on the aircraft.

And this is
an arrest photograph

of Richard McCoy.

And...

people can look at that
and form their own conclusions.

You think McCoy
looks like Cooper?

-(engines roaring)
-(radio chatter)

(tires screech)

Dower:
And so you finally
land in Reno.

Yes, we do, John.

♪ ♪

We got off the airplane.
We hugged each other,

and there's
a great sigh of relief.

Mucklow:
It really wasn't until
I got in the FBI car

that I think
the aftermath hit me.

As I sat down and then
Bill got in the car,

I just burst into tears,

and just sobbed for
a couple minutes, you know.

That was kinda
the release of it all.

(inaudible)

-Dower: But it was over.
-Rataczak: Well,

um, it was what...

(clicks tongue)

Young Rataczak:
We felt, in this
specific situation,

that we had his confidence.
We felt he...

was assured that we were
honoring his requests...

and therefore, we made no
attempt to impede his...

the completion of his mission,
if you will.

He was not nervous.
He seemed rather nice.

He never tried to harm myself

and although he was
impatient a few times,

he was never cruel
or nasty or,

um, impolite to me
in any way.

Anderson:
They wanted to get
the airplane to Seattle

as soon as they could

because they still had
the passenger baggage onboard.

We boarded up the backstairs,

and came on,
and we hear cheers

and clapping. (laughs)

That makes me emotional.
I'm sorry.

♪ ♪

There's a huge manhunt on
in the state of Washington

for the middle-aged man
who hijacked a jetliner

and got $200,000
in ransom money,

then escaped by
parachuting into the night

from the hijacked plane.

Reporter 1:
They're looking around here
because the hijacked crew

felt a bump as they
flew over here.

Perhaps the hijacker
jumping out.

Reporter 2:
The morning after the skyjack,

the FBI launched NORJAK,

the codename for
the biggest manhunt

the Portland office
had ever seen.

The FBI had enlisted the aid

of an Army battalion,
the local police,

and even the Boy Scouts.

Reporter 3:
So, the searchers set
out to scour an area

about five miles long
and one mile wide,

where they felt they
had the best chances

of finding something.
They don't know his real name.

They probably wouldn't
know him if they saw him,

and he had a big head start.

♪

Smith:
Well, you're in
Cooper country, so welcome.

-Dower: Is this also
where you do your writing?
-Smith: Yes. Right here, baby.

This is action central.

We are sitting in
the center of my world.

Dower:
And this is where
you wrote your book...

-Yep.
-"DB Cooper & the FBI"?

Correct. Right here.

♪ ♪

(helicopter whirring)

Reporter:
An FBI spokesman in Portland,

who declined
an on-camera interview,

said his agents are
checking for clues

and circulating
a composite picture

in a 200-mile corridor south
to the California border.

(birds chirping)

Smith:
Where do we go
looking for DB Cooper?

They're asking
Northwest Orient,

"Where was your plane
when Cooper jumped?"

"Well, we don't know
where the plane was,

"but we know it was
8:13 in the evening.

It would've been
around here somewhere."

Well, around here is about

20 to 25 miles of woods.

So Cooper had 40 hours lead

before anybody was on
the ground looking for him.

♪ ♪

Fuhriman:
And they brought in
some military people,

as well as FBI agents.
There were a lot of people

searching the mountain
area for him,

or for any remains of
whatever might be there.

(helicopter whirring)

Trooper:
He either got away,
or else he sure made

a big hole in
the ground up there.

And if he made
a hole in the ground,

he's gonna be hard to find also.

Fuhriman:
I think there's a good chance

that he hit a tree or a rock

or fell in a body
of water and died.

I also think he might've known
enough about what he was doing

that he was able to steer
himself into an area

where he could land
and get out and go.

♪ ♪

Mitchell:
I had FBI over for
probably over a year,

two or three times

a week, with pictures.

I mean, they'd always come
with 10 pictures.

(clicking)

They were making
a composite drawing.

Fuhriman:
Well, from
the composite picture,

he had a slender
face and, and, uh...

a Caucasian, maybe
dark Caucasian features.

Gray:
It was very thin
hair to the sides,

almost a little balding.

There was a very thin nose.

There was sunglasses
over the eyes,

one without sunglasses,

but how would they know
what his eyes looked like?

Fuhriman:
Uh, no unusual...

identifying characteristics.

The picture on your left is

the artist's conception
of the hijacker.

The picture on the right
is a picture of me.

When I got a copy of the sketch,

I sent it to my mother without
saying anything about it.

Her comment back to me was,

"Who did that sketch of you?

Looks pretty accurate." (laughs)

And I go, whoa, whoa, whoa!
That's not me.

(water lapping)

Smith:
Well, I'm one of the few
people that put a harsh light,

or I like to think

a strong light, on the FBI.

In 1971, the FBI,

I think fairly,
was considered to be

the premier law enforcement
agency in the world.

But we now know that bigness
does not mean greatness.

And there were a lot of gaps,
and a lot of limitations.

Dower: They lost the most
valuable piece of evidence.

Oh, they've lost
a ton of stuff!

♪ ♪

They lost the cigarette butts.

The cigarette butts
are probably

the most salient piece
of evidence right now

because we now have DNA testing.

-Dower: So what happened
to the cigarette butt?
-Montoya: Good question.

A very, very good question.

Um, I don't know.
I can't answer that question

because I don't know
what happened to them.

Dower:
Some say they
might've been lost.

Montoya:
That's always a possibility.

-Dower: Is anyone
looking for them?
-You know, I,

I think there have
been multiple efforts

over the last four decades

to do so, um, but I don't...

I don't know what
the answer is to that.

They're-- They weren't
available to us, so.

Dower:
There were also issues with

the fingerprinting
on board the plane
after it landed in Reno.

Smith:
Oh! What a mess that is.

What a mess.
To this day, I don't know

how many fingerprints
were recovered.

That is total meshugas!

Dower:
I mean, do you think it was
fair to say that the FBI

made mistakes in this case?

(chuckles) I don't know
what you mean by mistakes.

The FBI worked with the best
information available

and used...

the best judgment
that they could

get together at the time
with the facts they had,

and perhaps there
were mistakes made,

which is not that unusual
in any investigation.

-(river flowing)
-(birds chirping)

Smith:
Eight and a half years
after the skyjacking,

the FBI had diddly squat.

There was no hard evidence
in the DB Cooper case.

No body, no parachute,

no bomb, no briefcase,

no Cooper, no money.

Then, in 1980...

(birds chirping)

a kid found three bundles

on a beach on
the Columbia River.

Oh my God.

Bob Schieffer:
A child has led the FBI
to the start of a trail

it hopes will help them solve

the eight-and-a-half-year-old
mystery of skyjacker

DB Cooper. The first break
in the only unsolved

airplane hijacking in
United States history

came on a Columbia River beach,

along the Oregon-
Washington border,

where an 8-year-old boy
dug up the shreds of

$3,000 on Sunday.

Reporter:
How do you feel right now?

Well, I feel pretty good.

I'll feel a lot better after
we get the money though.

You know, after it's all over.

Smith:
Now, the story gets
a little bit more complicated.

There's no question that
the three bundles of money

were Cooper's money
from the ransom

because the serial
numbers match up.

But, to this day,

nobody knows how
that money got there.

Or when.

How long was it at the beach?

Money was wet, soggy,

had holes in it.
It was very compressed.

As if it had been under weight,

and the paper, the bills,

were stuck together.
When you tried
to peel the bills off,

you'd get chunks.

Dower:
But also the thing
about Tina-Bar is

it's 45 miles south
of where DB Cooper

-supposedly landed.
-Yep.

So how'd the money get there?

♪ ♪

Reporter 1:
Finally, we close tonight
with a mystery story.

It has a villain
and a hero, but in this case,

they may be the same person.
A man in a dark suit

who bought a $20
one-way plane ticket

from Seattle to Portland...

Weber:
I'm gonna go smoke this,
or part of it anyway.

Reporter 2:
At age 60, Jo Weber admits

she fell in love and fell hard

for a slick-looking,
smooth-talking
insurance salesman.

And since her husband's
death in 1995,

she's pieced together clues
dropped over the years.

In fact, a forensic artist
who has worked with the FBI

says the physical
similarities between

this composite sketch of Cooper

and a younger
Duane Weber are striking.

What makes you so sure
that he's the guy?

There's too many pieces
of the puzzle that fit.

♪ ♪

Weber: Holy cow.

I don't know where
the albums are.

They are not where
they're supposed to be.

I'm starting to panic.

Collins:
This happens to me,
too, at home.

Dower:
Remind me how you
two know each other.

Collins:
I grew up about
five miles from where

DB Cooper jumped,
so I was curious about

what happened,
and contacted Jo,

and we've been
talking ever since.

-Weber: Okay. Yeah.
-Collins: Right there,
Sentimental journey.

-Collins: Right there.
-Weber: Yeah. We got it.

Well, he's like a son to me.

I mean, he has been...

been there when no one
else could give me answers.

He's brilliant.
He sees things

that other people
can't see like this.

This was the wallet
that we found

in the vehicle after he died.

-Dower: So that's
the driving license?
-Weber: This one is a fake one.

-Dower: John Carson Collins.
-Weber: I did not know

who that was, but that
was his picture on there.

Dower:
So was his real name

John Carson Collins
or Duane Weber?

Weber:
Duane Weber.

But he'd gone
and gotten fake IDs.

-Dower: That's all
the different IDs.
-Collins: Yes. Yeah.

What was all this about?

And then to find out
that he had actually been

in prison under
the name of John C. Collins.

These are in a very,
very old criminal file.

-Reporter: This is
your husband in prison?
-Weber: Yes.

Reporter:
A man who she now
knows lived a lie,

and may have kept a secret
of legendary proportions.

Collins:
This tax return really
meant something to me.

Right after the crime,
Duane purchased two cars.

Brand new, paid cash.

He made that year

little more than $1,000.
He didn't have that much money.

He buys two new cars
right after the crime.

I mean, it was like...

a great, big puzzle!

It bugged the hell out of me,

and it still bugs
the hell out of me.

He handed over his will
to her in the hospital,

with a safety deposit key
taped to the will.

The one that you were able
to open, you found this.

Dower:
Strange thing to leave in
a safety deposit box, isn't it?

Why would a guy who confessed
to DB Cooper have this magazine?

And my jaw drops.

"The Man Who Held the Secrets."

-That's Duane.
-(Weber laughs)

Collins:
What secrets...

did we miss?
What did we miss?

Weber:
That's Duane up there.

Dower:
It's a very pretty urn.

Well, I figured, you know,

we'll be together again one day.

So, when they bury me,
that gets buried same time.

Dower:
So you married Duane Weber.

He then tells you
on his death bed
that he's Dan Cooper,

and then a few months later,

you find a wallet in which

-a driving license
says he's John Collins.
-Mm-hmm.

You then started
having these memories,

strange things that
Duane told you,

places he took you.

The picture fell together.

♪ ♪

(insects chirping)

Weber:
We had a convention
in Seattle.

And he said,
"I want to go, uh...

a few days early."

He showed me
an awful lot of things

and I never did ask
a lot of questions.

One point he stopped at

was not too far
from Lake Merwin.

And he pointed about at a place,

and he said something about,
"That's where Cooper

walked out of the woods."
And I didn't know
who Cooper was.

Dower:
You basically went on a trip
to the DB Cooper drop zone.

Weber:
I labeled it
"the sentimental journey"

because of all the places
he wanted to go to,

the places he took me to,
the places he disappeared.

♪ ♪

Dower:
Not long after Duane's
deathbed confession,

she started having
these memories,

and even pointed
to the woods

and says, "That's where
Cooper walked out."

Collins:
Right. So, she
remembered the journey,

but she didn't know
its significance

until she later...

understood who
Dan Cooper was.

Dower:
That's kind of your
role with Jo, isn't it?

You sort of help
put her memories

into some sort of order or...

I would say so.

I would say even today
she doesn't--
she has these memories

but she doesn't
quite understand

all the significance of
different parts of them.

Whereas I can listen,
I'll filter out a lot of it,

but I can pick out pieces

that seem, um, relevant.

♪ ♪

Weber:
I remember when he stopped

at a place on the water.

There was a little
motel at that time

called the Red Lion.

What made it significant is

what happened at the location.

Weber:
The next morning,

he tells me he's got
some place he's gonna go.

He left 7:00 in the morning.

It's getting close
to checkout time.

Just about that time,
he walks in the door,

he has to go take a bath.

He'd been digging in something.

-And--
-Dower: What made you
think he'd been digging?

'Cause he was dirty!

He had on dress pants,
but his hands were dirty.

I don't know what
he went digging.
I don't know where he went.

While he was cleaning up
and I handed him a drink,

and I still have the picture

where when I went to take
the picture, he gets up,

and he jumps. "Geronimo!"

(shutter snaps)

Like he was jumping, okay?

I got the picture
to prove that

because I snapped
the daggum picture
at that time.

(slide projector clicking)

♪ ♪

And when he gets into the car,

I said, "What's in
that paper bag?"
He says,

"Oh, just some trash I'm gonna
get rid of at the next stop."

He spent an awful
lot of time there,

just looking out at the water.

It was odd. It was strange.

And I said,
"What you doing?" He says,

"Watching that bag go
down the river, flow down."

I hit the ceiling.

I said, "You littered?!
You put what?!

"You put a bag in the water?!

A bag of trash
in the water?!"

I was angry
because I had been raised,

you do not contaminate
your waterways.

You do not throw
things in there.

If I had done that,
I'd have got
the whipping of whippings.

Collins:
He buried the money someplace.

He left that morning,
drove all the way

to wherever it was
he had buried this.

Located it, dug it up.

So this is the night
when he says "Geronimo,"

and, and she took
the picture of him.

Sift through the money
and he's discovered that

almost all of it's
in great condition.

He's just elated,
but some of it's damaged.

Had he thrown the paper
sack into the trash,

which probably would've
been a wiser choice,

no one would've ever
looked inside it,

no one would ever
been the wiser.

But instead,
he threw it in the river,

which then
ultimately was found

about nine miles away
from here. Tina-Bar.

♪ ♪

Reporter 1:
The speculation is
endless. For instance,

is it possible that
DB Cooper lived

and buried some of the money
right here, next to the tree?

Reporter 2:
By analyzing the sand,

geologists hope to learn
how several thousand dollars

in Cooper ransom
money arrived here.

(waves washing ashore)

Collins:
So the FBI,

they thought,
"We don't have
the expertise to decide

when did this money get here."

They dug trenches
three feet down.

Now, the money was
found at the top,

but there's a dredge layer down
in the middle of the trench.

That dredge layer
was from October 1974.

The money's found above
that dredge layer.

♪ ♪

The crime happened in 1971.

So if the money got here
that night or whatever,

it should be under

that identifiable
strata in the sand.

But it wasn't.
It was found at the top.

Reporter:
The area where the money was
found has been dug and re-dug

and results of yesterday's
geologic survey are

that the money couldn't
have been on this beach

as long as nine years.

Dower:
So this is a map that
you've made, Tim.

Yeah. Basically, what I wanted
to see was the waterways

in all of the county,
where do they go.

So, if he lands
in this area here,

all the waterways here

go to the north this way.

Yet, the money's
found down here.

Well, if you listen to Jo,

he came back in 1979

and threw in a paper
sack right here.

And the money drifted
around this bend

and stopped here.

It explains everything.

♪ ♪

(rumbling)

Barbara Dayton used
to be Bobby Dayton,

until 1969,
or Robert Elmer Dayton.

That was my father.

(click)

(sniffles)

Picture of my dad
when he was younger,

with, I guess, his first car

or something. Doesn't say.

And this is a picture of
my dad at the ranch house.

He was like a cowboy,

and my mother thought
he looked really sexy.

But, according to my mother,

my dad kept dressing in
women's clothes.

He wanted to
come out and play cards

wearing the women's clothes.
He'd ask her,

"Do you mind if
I wear your clothes today?"

And she would say,
"Fine."

But, I think she began
looking at him as a friend

instead of a lover.

When I had left home,
my brother was in Vietnam.

♪ ♪

But, he died in 1975.

And I came out
to the funeral,

and my dad flew down
in his Cessna 140.

And I got to meet her

as a her for the first time.

And he told me about
the surgery and why

and that he was a freak.

And I felt bad.
I felt really bad

that he kept calling
himself that.

I was on my way
with my cousin.

We were going to
Catheys Valley
after the funeral.

As we were traveling,

my cousin Billie-Jan said, um,

"Did you know your dad
was DB Cooper?"

And I said,
"No. Who's DB Cooper?"

♪ ♪

Sharon Power:
When the composite
sketch came out,

and her dad saw it,
Bill saw it.

-He said, "That's my brother."
-And it scared him.
It scared my dad.

Dower:
This was at the actual
time of the hijacking?

Whenever that sketch came out
in Bakersfield, California,

because I remember exactly
where we were sitting
'cause it just--

We were sitting in a car
and it was pouring down rain.

He was reading the paper,
like he always did and he goes,

"That's Bobby."
And just like that.

And I could tell
he was afraid, you know?

And, uh, but he
never really, to me,

Dad never really talked
about it after that point.
It was like--

-No, he didn't.
-He didn't wanna...

-deal with that.
-He didn't approve of it at all.

Yeah, yeah, well,
and the sex change.

He didn't approve
of that either.

♪ ♪

Dower:
And those are--
these are the diaries?

Ruddell:
We don't really know where
he was that Thanksgiving.

When the DB Cooper
hijacking happened,

my grandmother kept
diaries of every year.

My dad would say

that he wasn't coming
to Thanksgiving

or where he was gonna
be on Thanksgiving.

That one particular
year in 1971,

he said nothing.

It just says,
"house cleaning, etc.

"Ruth brought the turkey.

Irene made pumpkin pies."

So nothing was even mentioned.

It was just nothing.
And I believe
my grandparents knew.

Dower:
And so, when it
comes to DB Cooper,

and your father,

-you're a believer.
-Ruddell: Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

I definitely believe.

I believe it's my dad.

♪ ♪

Gray:
You know, it's hard to pick

among these suspects
who's more fascinating.

You have Barbara Dayton,

who had the ability, the guts,

-to just do the job.
-(shutter flash)

I really saw Barb Dayton
with that kind of mind,

with that kind of
jump experience,
and with nothing to lose.

Dower:
What do you make of
the Floyd McCoy story?

Gray:
Yeah, McCoy was
somebody, to me, who,

who, mentally,
had the capacity

to be a skyjacker

and understand the skyjacker,

but was he the one?

-(street chatter)
-(shutters snapping)

Smith:
Uh, the full story
of Richard McCoy

has not been told.

A lot of it has been
told by Bernie Rhodes.

-(projector clicks)
-Bernie Rhodes was

a federal sentencing officer

in the McCoy copycat case.

But, um, Bernie
won't talk to me.

Bernie won't talk to anybody.

Dower:
I've been trying to get
hold of him for over a year.

I've been trying to get
a hold of him for 11 years!

-(insects chirping)
-(cars passing)

Dower:
Don't know...

Mr. Bernie Rhodes.

-Finally!
-Bernie Rhodes: Hello!

-Am I gonna sit back down?
-Yes, sir.

-(grunts)
-Awesome.

Smith:
Bernie has
a unique perspective

because, at the time,

the whole FBI office
in Salt Lake City

were absolutely
convinced that McCoy

did the copycat thing
as a second skyjacking

because he must've lost
the money on the way down.

Dower:
If Richard McCoy was DB Cooper,

why in the world
would he go back

five months later

and hijack Flight 855?

Because he lost
the money the first time.

The Bureau in Seattle
brought aboard

a duffel bag that had

no handles, no zippers,

so that it would be easily...

uh, fallen out of--
the money would've fallen out

of the bag on the way
when he jumped.

-(wind blowing)
-(engines roaring)

Dower:
Where did you interview
Richard McCoy?

Set the scene for me.

Rhodes:
It was in the old county jail.

Dower:
You asked him where was he

the Thanksgiving
the year before,

the day of
the DB Cooper hijacking.

He was adamant...

that he was home.

There was no question
in his mind.

And there was no question
in my mind that he was not.

♪ ♪

Dower:
You put the picture of
DB Cooper on the table.

How did he react to
the picture being there?

Rhodes:
At one point,

he reacted...

emotionally. And, uh...

I think turned his head
away. He avoided it,

until the end of that day,

when I had been
tough on him.

And then he became
very suspicious.

Did his mood change?

Did his personality change?

-Yes.
-Smith: He didn't deny...

that he was DB Cooper.

He didn't deny that
he had any part

in the Cooper case.
He just said,

"I ain't talkin' about that."

Rhodes:
Richard's eyes

rested on the Cooper drawing.

He was clearly curious,

but, uh, he never touched it

with his hands.

To me, that seemed
a little bit unnatural.

From where I sat that morning,

the face across
from me seemed identical

to the composite
drawing of DB Cooper.

♪ ♪

He knew that I was

close enough and I was
closing in on him.

(inaudible)

He just kept saying,
"I was home,"

when we knew he wasn't.

We had all of the evidence

from the Power Thrust
service station

in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Dower:
McCoy was in Las Vegas, Nevada,

the day after
the Cooper hijacking,

despite saying
that he was at home

-in Utah for Thanksgiving.
-Bingo.

Gas receipts,
telephone transcripts

from the phone company that
he made a phone call back home

the night of Thanksgiving Day,

that he wasn't home.
He was in Las Vegas.

There are, there are
multiple pieces of hard evidence

putting McCoy in Las Vegas.

Rhodes:
So there was no question that

McCoy was in Las Vegas,

and then went to
a casino, which we think

he laundered
the $8,000 or $10,000

that he had,
and had not lost.

And, uh,
called his wife in Provo,

and said,
"I'm on my way home."

Now, that's pretty compelling.

Is it circumstantial?

I think it's pretty close
to being hard evidence.

♪ ♪

-(reporters chattering)
-Smith: McCoy didn't
take that lying down.

He busted
out of jail the next day.

Got apprehended a second time.

Got sent to a little bit
higher security prison.

Busted out of there, too,

and was on the lam
for quite a while.

And then the FBI got really
serious about Richard McCoy.

Particularly
Agent Nick O'Hara,

who actually
apprehended McCoy

many months later.

And actually killed
him in a gun battle.

Dower:
What's it like to
shoot a man though?

Well, it's pretty easy
if they shoot first

because you get a lot
of second guessing

on police-involved shootings,

but ours was very clean

because he came in,
he could've given up,

he chose not to, and...

-(clicking)
-he just...

when it's,
when it's clean like that...

that's about it.

It doesn't...
I don't feel anything, honestly.

♪ ♪

Reporter 1:
The FBI has reignited
a cold case

that has haunted
the bureau for years.

And this morning,
we have the exclusive story

from the woman who
believes she knows

the infamous
hijacker DB Cooper,

and her name is Marla Cooper.

Reporter 2:
A woman who gave the FBI

one of its most important leads
in the mystery of DB Cooper

says she thinks the case
is all but solved.

-You're kidding me.
Cooper as in...
-(laughs)

DB Cooper.
No-- This is not an alias.

-No.
-You believe that your
uncle was DB Cooper.

Yes, I do.

(indistinct chatter)

Cooper:
Thanksgiving 2011,
I actually met

the FBI agent here in Seattle,

and he told me that
he was closing the case.

He said, "I'm satisfied that
you're telling the truth.

I think everybody
here is satisfied."

♪ ♪

Dower:
Was that the first time
the FBI had actually

nailed their colors
to a mast on a...

-Smith: Yeah.
-Dower: suspect?

I think they wanted
to bury the case.

I think it was the first effort

by the FBI to walk away.

Dower:
She did pass a polygraph test.

I think she believes it!

(stammers)
Marla's credible!

Marla believes her story!

Cooper:
The last time I saw Uncle LD

was Christmas a year
after the hijacking.

♪ ♪

It was that Christmas

that my parents took him

to the airport,

and I never saw him again.

(projector clicking)

And every year,
at Christmas and Thanksgiving,

I would say, "Where's LD?
Has anybody heard from LD?"

And nobody ever did.

(children laughing)

Dower:
So how did this
then all resurface

nearly 25 years later?

Cooper:
I remembered my father
telling me this...

story which was in
1995 at Christmas.

And I said, "Dad,

what do you think ever
happened to Uncle LD?"

(inaudible)

He, he goes,
"I really don't know, Marla.

I don't have any idea."
And I said,

"Do you think he's
still alive?" He said,

"Oh yeah. I'm sure
he's still alive."

He said, "But I think
he's still hiding."

And I said, "Hiding?
Who would he be hiding from?"

And he said,
"You know, the CIA

and the FBI."
And I said,

"Dad, why would
Uncle LD be hiding

from the FBI?" And he goes,

"Don't you remember?
He hijacked that airplane."

♪ ♪

So when Dad said this to me,

it was like

he unlocked

a secret box inside of my mind

that was--
that I'd forgotten.

My dad died one month after

I visited him at Christmas.

He had called me several times

and said,
"You know what happened.
You'll remember."

(indistinct chatter)

And I hadn't taken him
very seriously at the time.

But when my memories
did surface,

I remembered that
mandate from him.

(projector clicking)

Dower:
Do you believe your uncle was,

or is, DB Dan Cooper?

I know my uncle
was DB Dan Cooper.

Dower:
You think your husband
was DB Cooper?

I know he was DB Cooper.

I know it, with all my heart

and all my soul.

Do you think I would've
given up 23 years of my life

if I didn't believe it
with all my heart and soul?

Dower:
Do you believe that
Richard Floyd McCoy

was DB Cooper?

You know, I don't know
how you can just

dismiss all of the evidence.

Dower:
So do you believe
Barbara was DB Cooper?

Definitely.

-Hundred--
-Little by little,

just every little detail
that kept coming together,

and um...

-I just definitely
believe he was.
-I never had a doubt

from the minute
I saw that picture when

we combed the hair back,
and I'd flown with her.

I knew her, what
she was capable of doing.

(rumbling)

Let me grab the ashes, too.

This is Barb Dayton's
ashes, and I...

every now and then,
she kind of likes to go for
an airplane ride, you know?

-Dower: So, you seriously
take her ashes--
-I do seriously. Yes I do, yeah.

-(rumbling)
-Dower: Why do you think
they believe so much?

Smith:
Part of it is

it's a validation
of their friend.

This is what their
friend told them.

And there's enough
compelling evidence...

to...

make all the neurological
synapses fire

to put it into
the truth category.

(plane rumbling)

(roaring)

Dower:
Now, you're one of
the few people who

have access to the FBI files.

Yeah.

♪ ♪

I walked
into the basement
of the FBI archives

in a bureau field office,

and I just saw these
big closets of files,

and I thought,

"This is the Holy Land.

"Like, I'm in, man. I'm in.

"It's gotta be here somewhere.

The answer's gotta
be here somewhere."

No disrespect to the FBI,
but I thought,

"I can spend the time
and go through
40 years later,

and nail the sucker."

But what happens
in the Cooper case

is that the Cooper case files,
the majority of them,

they are hundreds,

if not thousands of letters,

poems, different pranks,

different suspicions
of people, who all

flooded the FBI
with their best tips,

thinking that their
neighbor was Cooper,

their ex-wives were Cooper.

Every complaint that people
seemed to have in America

seemed to be blamed on Cooper.

In the whole FBI file,
the vast majority of it

are just a sort of
depository of paranoia.

♪ ♪

Mitchell:
I've had people that

come up and tell me
that they've got

wife's cousin who,

on his deathbed,
said he was DB Cooper,

trying to get me to point to...

somebody-- that I would
recognize something.

Reporter:
Take the annual
DB Cooper festival

at the Ariel Washington
Tavern and Store.

There, enthusiasts
even reenact
Cooper's parachute jump.

(indistinct chatter)

Cooper is right here in this
place at this very minute.

I think he made it myself.

I do think so that
DB Cooper will live on.

Cooper:
The first thing that
kinda hit in my head was,

"That looks like my dad."

Woman 1: That is Bobby!
That looks just like Bobby!
That's Bobby!

Man 1:
And he called me

to his bedside, and he said,

"There's something
you should know."

Mr. DB Cooper.

Ruddell:
I definitely believe
that was my dad.

Pat:
I miss her a lot.

I even talk to her
sometimes. (laughs)

Woman 2:
Can't say that he came
home bloodied and bruised

'cause he just
never came home.

Man 2:
That's where the bomb was.
Right in this attaché case.

Mitchell:
And they would send
me a picture and say,

"Can you tell me if
this guy was DB Cooper?"

You know, 50 years ago.

And I... no, I can't.

I've quit answering them.

♪ ♪

(wind blowing)

Collins:
I realize that there are
thousands of people who say,

"I know who Cooper is.
He's my dad, he's my uncle,

"he's so-and-so.
I've done all this research,

I know it, I know it,
I know it."

And I realize I sound
exactly like those people.

So I look at myself
and go, okay.

Is there any difference between

what I'm seeing
and what they're seeing?

Am I just as delusional
or whatever?

-Dower: It's endless.
-Collins: Yeah.
It's like an endless loop.

It just sucks people in.

♪ ♪

Dower:
These people all have
a DB Cooper-shaped hole

-in their lives.
-Smith: Hm.

I hadn't realized that,
but I think you're right.

I think that's
an interesting perspective.

Dower:
What is your
DB Cooper-shaped hole?

-Why are you so engaged
with this story?
-(Smith sighs)

I don't have a full
understanding of it.

I don't have a complete
answer for you on that.

But I think Cooper speaks to
something bigger and deeper

in more people.

People who think,

"I'm just not tough enough,

"I'm just not rich enough,

"and I just don't have
enough opportunities.

"And if I had a little
bit more of something,

"I'd have a better life.

"But Cooper figured it out.

"He's a smart guy,
I'm a smart guy.

"He figured, okay.

"I'm gonna jump out
of this airplane, 200,000.

"I'm gonna be in the woods,

"and he got away with it.
I wanna be a Cooper.

"I wanna be tough enough
to jump out of an airplane,

"in November, at 8:00
at night, in the rain.

"Not give a shit.

"And be smart enough to make it.
I'll get down to the ground.

"I'm a tough guy.
I'll know how to survive.

Country boys
know how to survive."

♪ ♪

Like I said,
all Cooper all the time.

Gray:
It's really not
about him anyway.

It's about the people.

It's about believing
in the fantasy.

It's about believing
in something.

We're kinda designed to believe
in things, and right now,

like what do you have
to believe in?

You know, there's not really
that much out there

that you get to
believe in that has

a sense of mystery,
a sense of notoriety attached,

a treasure to find.

It gives people
a chance to believe.

Dower:
It's kind of overwhelming.

There's so many
different stories,

so much evidence.

It's so easy to get lost
down the rabbit hole.

Well, I'll tell you what.
I want you to walk

through that rabbit hole
right there.

Just walk out through there,
and then come back.

And that actually wasn't
planned. (chuckles)

♪ ♪

But he can see
where he's going now.

But he couldn't see it
at night, could he?

And look at how hard of
a time he's having now.

Crew Member:
I think he's lost.

(chuckles)

He's having some fun, isn't he?

Okay, just look for
any moving branch.

I lost track of him.

He'll be circling around on us.

Montoya:
There is the reputation
and the mystique

that the FBI always
gets its man.

They're kinda like
the Canadian Mounties, right?

But there are also
those instances

when we kinda have
to grin and bear it

and say, well, not in this case.

Reporter:
Agent Montoya,
why, why now?

Why the decision
to close this case now?

♪ ♪

Montoya:
We would love
to have solved this.

There's no question
about it.

I mean,
to see justice served,

and it doesn't feel good

to acknowledge that this is

the only unsolved skyjacking
in American history.

I think that what helps
is the fact that
it was 45 years old,

and realizing that there
just wasn't a lot to go on.

(stammers)
That it was time for us
to make that decision,

time for me to make
that decision to move on
to other things.

That's not to say
that it's, you know, dead
and over with forever.

If something were to arise,

those parachutes or that
money, we would gladly

take that
and run with it.

It's transpired, along
with my history so to speak.

I remember watching television

and seeing
the original reports.

Never did I think I'd
be in this position today,

saying to you that
we're closing the case
and it's not resolved.

♪ ♪

Whether we like it or not,
it's part of our
cultural history.

Whether it's Jesse James,
you know,

or Butch and Sundance,

or Bonnie and Clyde.

I mean, there are a lot
of mysteries out there.

There's no question about it,
and this is gonna be
one of those.

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