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Speaker 1: Imagine your mom late in life, getting ready to meet

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Speaker 1: her maker, pulls you aside and says, honey, I have

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Speaker 1: a confession. Your long dead dad and I were infamous

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Speaker 1: skyjackers fifty years ago. All right. It's considered one of

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Speaker 1: the greatest aviation mysteries of all time. It's right up

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Speaker 1: there with Amelia Earhart's disappearance. We're talking about the nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy one hijacking of a Northwest Orient flight headed to Seattle,

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Speaker 1: during which a passenger referred to as dB Cooper collected

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Speaker 1: two hundred thousand dollars parachuted out of the plane, never

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Speaker 1: to be heard fromhim again. Well, it finally looks like

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Speaker 1: there's a viable, though long dead suspect. I'm Patty Steele

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Speaker 1: dB Cooper, possibly unmasked. That's next on the backstory. The

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Speaker 1: backstory is back. So this is the story of a

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Speaker 1: guy who hijacks a Boeing seven to twenty seven with

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Speaker 1: tons of people on board, demands two hundred thousand bucks

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Speaker 1: and four parachutes, then jumps into the bitter cold evening

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Speaker 1: over Washington State and he gets away with it. This

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Speaker 1: is the latest on the story of D. B. Cooper.

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Speaker 1: It happened over fifty two years ago, but other than

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Speaker 1: the nineteen eighty discovery of fifty eight hundred dollars from

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Speaker 1: the Ransom, which was lying along a remote Columbia River

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Speaker 1: bank in Washington, no other clues, however, turned up until recently.

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Speaker 1: It all started on Thanksgiving Eve, November twenty fourth, nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy one, the guy we call D. B. Cooper buys

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Speaker 1: a ticket for a flight from Portland, Oregon to Seattle

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Speaker 1: under the name Dan Cooper, although the press mistakenly calls

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Speaker 1: him dB Cooper, and that kind of sticks. That's how

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Speaker 1: we know him from then on. Cooper's wearing a sharp

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Speaker 1: looking suit, dark sunglasses, and carrying a briefcase. He settles

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Speaker 1: into seat eighteen C. He's calm, collected, and he casually

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Speaker 1: lights a cigarette. The stewardess is like him. He seems

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Speaker 1: charismatic and nice. Then about thirty minutes into the flight,

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Speaker 1: he makes his move. He signals to flight attendant Florence

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Speaker 1: Schaffner and hands her a note. She thinks he's flirting,

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Speaker 1: and she just slips the note into her pocket without

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Speaker 1: reading it. That's when Cooper leans forward. He looks her

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Speaker 1: in the eye coldly and says, miss you'd better look

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Speaker 1: at that note. I have a bomb. Yesh, can you

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Speaker 1: imagine that feeling? Florence looks at the note and it

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Speaker 1: is chilling. Cooper claims he has a bomb in his briefcase,

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Speaker 1: and he demands two hundred thousand dollars in negotiable American currency,

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Speaker 1: four parachutes, and a fuel truck standing by in Seattle

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Speaker 1: to refuel the aircraft for a getaway. She alerts the

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Speaker 1: cockpit and the captain radios the demands to airic traffic Control.

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Speaker 1: The FBI scrambles to meet those demands, and the plane

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Speaker 1: lands without the passengers knowing what's going on. They've just

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Speaker 1: been told it's a minor mechanical issue and they're gonna

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Speaker 1: have to switch planes. The exchange goes as planned, the

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Speaker 1: plane lane passengers get off while the plane is refueled. Meantime,

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Speaker 1: Cooper inspects the cash and the parachutes, and there's nothing

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Speaker 1: anybody can do because he's still holding the crew hostage.

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Speaker 1: Just before they take off again, one of the flight

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Speaker 1: attendants asks Cooper if the flight attendants can leave. His response,

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Speaker 1: whatever you girls like, but he forces one of them

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Speaker 1: to stay. Tina Mucklow who stayed with him to help

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Speaker 1: keep everything under control. He then orders the plane to

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Speaker 1: take off again, headed for Mexico City, but he tells

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Speaker 1: them the flight path they have to take and the

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Speaker 1: minimum flight speed. He tells them to keep the cabin

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Speaker 1: depressurized and keep the rear door open with the staircase deployed,

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Speaker 1: all while in the air. Northwest's ground control objects due

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Speaker 1: to safety concerns, but Cooper says it can be done.

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Speaker 1: Do it. Finally, they're back in the air and Cooper

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Speaker 1: orders Tina to head to the cockpit. She knows he's

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Speaker 1: about to jump, and she runs for the front of

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Speaker 1: the plane. Then, even though the FBI military jets and

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Speaker 1: a helicopter are trailing the Boeing seven twenty seven, Cooper,

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Speaker 1: somewhere over the dense forests of southwestern Washington, lowers the

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Speaker 1: rear stairs used to get off the plane and leaps

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Speaker 1: down into the stormy, dark sky, vanishing with the ransom,

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Speaker 1: never to be seen again. Despite a frenzy of searches,

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Speaker 1: both on the ground and also for those trying to

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Speaker 1: unravel Cooper's identity, but it's not over. A couple of

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Speaker 1: new developments within the past year or so are really

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Speaker 1: narrowing the search. In one case, a microscopic metal fragment

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Speaker 1: recently was discovered on the clip on tie that dB

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Speaker 1: Cooper bought for a buck forty nine at JC Penny

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Speaker 1: and then left on board the plane. Researcher and private

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Speaker 1: eye Eric Eulis says, I wouldn't be surprised at all

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Speaker 1: if twenty twenty four is the year we figure out

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Speaker 1: who this guy was? Now, why would a tiny piece

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Speaker 1: of metal help figure out who dB Cooper is? Well?

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Speaker 1: The particle, amazingly, one of one hundred thousand particles lifted

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Speaker 1: from that little tie, apparently can be traced to Crucible Steel,

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Speaker 1: a metal fabrication shop near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In those days,

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Speaker 1: that company supplied most of the titanium and stainless steel

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Speaker 1: for Boeing aircraft, and workers at that plant frequently visited

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Speaker 1: Boeing headquarters in the Seattle area. On top of that,

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Speaker 1: investigators say dB Cooper had in depth knowledge of the

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Speaker 1: Boeing seven twenty seven, so is it possible he worked

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Speaker 1: there and on that project? Well Ulis says he thinks

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Speaker 1: all roads lead to research engineer Vince Peterson from Pittsburgh

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Speaker 1: says ulis. I can put him in Seattle at that time,

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Speaker 1: I can put him at Boeing. He's a compelling person

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Speaker 1: of interest. He's definitely somebody I'm going to continue to

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Speaker 1: dig into. Now. The problem is Peterson died back in

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Speaker 1: two thousand and two, so there's certainly no confession coming there.

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Speaker 1: But here's the most likely new story. There's a man

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Speaker 1: who says he knows who D. B. Cooper really is

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Speaker 1: because he's got a confession from none other than his

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Speaker 1: own mother. Now, Richard McCoy the third isn't claiming his

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Speaker 1: mom was the skyjacker. He truly believes the mystery man

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Speaker 1: is his dad. Richard McCoy junior of Vietnam VET and

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Speaker 1: seasoned skydiver, Rick says his mother, Karen, was his dad's accomplice.

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Speaker 1: Near the end of her life, she finally told her

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Speaker 1: kids that not only was their dad D. B. Cooper,

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Speaker 1: but she admitted that she helped orchestrate not just the

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Speaker 1: most baffling skyjacking in history, but that she also helped

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Speaker 1: plan another of her husband's heists. The second one was

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Speaker 1: most definitely carried out by her husband, and in the

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Speaker 1: same fashion. Four parachutes, a five hundred thousand dollars ransom

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Speaker 1: this time and a bomb threat. He too parachuted out

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Speaker 1: of the rear of the jet and survived. But unlike

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Speaker 1: the D. B. Cooper case, Richard McCoy's skyjacking just over

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Speaker 1: four months later April seventh, nineteen seventy two, led to

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Speaker 1: his capture within three days. Photos of McCoy, by the way,

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Speaker 1: eerily match the suspect drawings of D. B. Cooper done

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Speaker 1: from descriptions of him by flight crew on the first

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Speaker 1: hijacked plane. So after his arrest, Richard was sentenced to

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Speaker 1: forty five years in prison, but he escaped after two years,

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Speaker 1: and just three months after that he was killed in

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Speaker 1: a nineteen seventy four shootout with cops in Virginia. Now,

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Speaker 1: his son has even provided DNA to the FBI in

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Speaker 1: hopes of finally resolving the mystery of D. B. Cooper's identity,

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Speaker 1: but he waited to share his parents' story until his

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Speaker 1: mother died just a few years ago. In addition, he's

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Speaker 1: given them a parachute that he found in a barn

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Speaker 1: on his grandmother's property that he thinks may be one

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Speaker 1: of the extra parachutes his father jumped with will we

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Speaker 1: ever know for sure who dB Cooper is or was?

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Speaker 1: Two hundred grands a lot of money, But the question

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Speaker 1: is what influences somebody to risk their life for that?

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Speaker 1: And if it's all about the thrill, what do you

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Speaker 1: do next? Hope you're enjoying the backstory. Please subscribe if

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Speaker 1: you would, And I want to thank backstory listener Carrie

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Speaker 1: Simpson Rap from Beautiful New Jersey for suggesting this update

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Speaker 1: on dB Cooper. If you have a story you'd like

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Speaker 1: me to dig into and share, please dm me on

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Speaker 1: Facebook at Patty Steele or on Instagram at Real Patty Steele.

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Speaker 1: I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,

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Speaker 1: the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer

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Speaker 1: is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new

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Speaker 1: episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out

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Speaker 1: to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram

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Speaker 1: at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The

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Speaker 1: pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know