The D. B. Cooper Mystery On November 27, 1971, in Portland, Oregon, a man claiming to be “Dan Cooper” bought a ticket for Northwest-Orient Airlines Flight 305 to Seattle, Washington. Dressed in a sharp dark suit with a pearl tiepin, this forty-five year-old man was about six feet tall with black hair (Abacha and Gilmore 233). No one would suspect him of going down in American history as the only man to ever escape capture after hijacking a U.S. plane (Warchol 1). Soon after takeoff, after having his cigarette, bourbon, and a soda, Cooper handed a note to one of the two stewardesses on the plane (Warchol 1; “D.B. Cooper” 1). The stewardess, Florence Schaffner, planned to read it later until one of the other passengers urged her to take
Marla Cooper may remember her uncle’s claims and her father’s declarations, but Duane Weber has the most plausible story of all. In their book, Sani Abacha and Gary Gilmore present strong evidence as to the likelihood of Weber being D. B. Cooper. After his wife compared the pictures of him to the drawing of Dan Cooper, the resemblance was so striking the FBI could do nothing but investigate. Weber, who was black-haired, 185 pounds, 6’1”, and a chain-smoking bourbon drinker, matched the description of D. B. Cooper, who was estimated at 170 pounds and six feet tall. Weber had asked his wife to let his secret die with him, but her curiosity got the better of her (Abacha and Gilmore 234). More evidence surfaced as Jo realized her husband had owned a white canvas bag similar to the one the ransom had been stored in. Also, there was a mysterious ticket stub for Northwest Orient Airlines from Portland to Seattle. When confronted about it, Weber brushed it off and later it disappeared. Another deathbed comment revealed that Duane had $173,000 buried in a bucket somewhere (Abacha and Gilmore 234). The most curious of these findings though was the trip Jo and Duane had taken in 1979 to the Columbia River near Portland. Duane had wandered down the riverside by himself. They were near the same site a boy would find $5,800 in ransom money just a few months later (Abacha and Gilmore 234). Even though all this evidence was considered circumstantial, it was stronger than the