FBI's nightmare - D. B. Cooper

The FBI is still searching for D. B. Cooper, the protagonist of the only unsolved airline hijacking in American aviation history. In 1971, this man jumped from Boeing 727, carrying $ 200,000 of ransom money in his bag - and simply disappeared. 

The good guys from the FBI absolutly hate it when someone commits a very serious and very well-known criminal offense and then just – disappears. Then they have to scan the available evidence hundreds of times, year after year, and sometimes they are waiting for several decades only to start the investigation from scratch. Their working motto can be summed up in just one sentence: the suspect cannot be allowed to disappear so that no one can find him. 

Well, one man has done just that. And no one – how about that, FBI guys? –hasn’t found him. Neither him nor his money.

On the eve of Thanksgiving in 1971, a certain Dan Cooper – probably a false name – arrived at the international airport in Portland, Oregon. When he approached the flight counter of "Northwest Orient Airlines", he had with him just a black attaché case. He bought a one way ticket on Flight 305 - a 30-minute trip to Seattle, Washington. With the purchased ticket, Cooper entered the "Boeing 727-100" and took seat 18-C, which was near the tail. He lit a cigarette - then, in those happy times, you were allowed to do that - and ordered a bourbon and soda.

According to witnesses, he looked quite relaxed. The witnesses also said that he seemed to be in mid-forties, and about 180 centimeters tall. He was wearing a raincoat under which was a nice dark suit and nicely ironed white shirt.

When the plane took off – around 2:50 pm, local time – Cooper approached the flight attendant Florence Schaffner and thrust a piece of paper into her hand. Beautiful Florence, who was often approached by lonely businessmen, thought that he was just giving her his phone number. Without looking at it, she put the paper into her bag.

“Miss, you'd better look at that note.” - Cooper leaned towards her and began to whisper. Decisively, not at all erotic.

On the piece of paper, written in capital letters, it said: “I have a bomb in my briefcase. I will use it if necessary. I want you to sit next to me. You are being hijacked.”

Schaffner did what he asked of her, and then quietly asked to see the bomb. Cooper opened his black bag just enough for Florence to see a red infernal machine.

“I want $200,000 in unmarked 20-dollar bills. I want two back parachutes and two front parachutes. When we land, I want a fuel truck ready to refuel. No funny stuff or I’ll do the job.” – he said quietly. 

Flight 305's pilot, William Scott contacted Seattle-Tacoma Airport air traffic control, and they alarmed the local police and the Feds. Dan Cooper wasn’t nervous and behaved very politely. He ordered another bourbon and soda, paid the bill (while insisting that Schaffner keeps the change) and ordered a good lunch for the crew when they land in Seattle.

At exactly 4:39 pm, Cooper was informed that his demands are accepted. Six minutes later the plane landed. The kidnapper got what he wanted, and allowed all passengers, Schaffner, and another flight attendant, Alice Hancock, to leave the aircraft. He then went to cockpit and agreed details with the pilot and co-pilot:

“We’ll fly southeast, toward Mexico City, with a speed below 190 kilometers per hour and altitude below 3,000 meters” – said Cooper. “We’ll land in Reno, Nevada to refuel, so that we can get to Mexico.”

At 7:30 pm, “Boeing 727” took off again. Two F-106 fighter jets followed him at a safe distance. At 8:00 pm red light flashed in the cockpit – the sign that the pressure in the passenger compartment has suddenly changed. They offered help to Cooper through the intercom, but there was no response from him. Neither at that point nor in the next two hours.

At 10:15 pm, the plane landed in Reno. It was immediately surrounded with FBI agents, the sheriff, local police officers… After long deliberation, they decided to enter the plane. The crew was all right, but there was no sign of Cooper. 

He jumped from a plane with $ 200,000 in his bag, right into the vastness of the State of Washington. His body was never found. Nor money, of course. The weather was terrible that night, so everyone assumed that he died. No man couldn’t survive that. Especially if no one is waiting on the ground to provide him with assistance, drive him where he needs to…. But, what if he indeed survived?

The story of D. B. Cooper – how he would be called later – is the only unsolved airline hijacking in American aviation history. It is also the only one where no one doesn’t know the identity of the kidnaper, nor his motives. Thanks to that, Cooper became part of American folklore, some kind of Billy the Kid and Jesse James. He is the hero in movies, series, and he is also the guy according to which the main character of the legendary “Twin Peaks” is named. He is a daring thief for whom everyone who has ever heard of him is cheering.

Even those Americans, who have no problem with their state or the law, love such outsiders.

“Here is a little guy who all by himself hijacked an airliner and got away with $200,000 of a big corporation's money, tweaked Uncle Sam's nose and has gotten away with it” - Ralph Himmelsbach evaluates today, a retired FBI agent, and one of many who, having given up looking for Cooper, wrote a book about his unsuccessful mission.

This case is probably still open because Cooper managed to embarrass one entire organization. The sum he took as ransom is not huge, even for standards at the time of the hijacking.  No one died, and no one was even hurt in his campaign - except FBI’s pride, something that this organization never publicly admitted.

In 2008, the Feds once again began to dig through the memory of Dan Cooper. 

“Would we still like to get our man? Absolutely.  And we have reignited the case.” - said a senior FBI official, and invited general public to visit the official website of the Bureau, where are, for the first time, uploaded sketches of Dan Cooper as he looked on that day, and how he would look today, 40 years later. There are also several 20-dollar bills that one boy found in 1980.

In these forty years, FBI has investigated more than 1,000 people and had, at one point, a list of ten suspects. Eventually, none of them completely fit Cooper’s description, or had a very good alibi. The case is now in the hands of agent Larry Carr, who is born in Seattle and was only four years old when  Cooper went on his mission, from which he emerged as a winner or a dead man, or maybe both.

The choice is yours, and there are plenty of versions. If you believe to a taxi driver who collects his customers from San Diego airport, D. B. Cooper was a gambler who died from cocaine overdose in California 15 years ago. If you believe to a persistent real estate agent, D. B. Cooper was her late husband, a heavy smoker and a former prisoner, who told her his most kept secret as he lay dying in Pensacola hospital. If you believe the FBI, D. B. Cooper died on that very night.

The best “lead” the Feds ever had was a Vietnam veteran named Richard McCoy. Just a few months after the famous November of 1971, he tried to imitate Cooper, but this time over Utah. Everything went according to plan - a bit gluttonously, he demanded $ 500,000 instead of "modest" 200,000 that D.B. Cooper took.  But when he jumped from the plane, he was caught and arrested. He was convicted, but he didn’t served his sentence for very long, because, in 1974, he was killed by prison guards for allegedly trying to escape.

In 1991, former FBI agent Russell Calame wrote a book in which he brought “strong evidence” that Cooper and McCoy were the same person. His former colleagues were not so convinced in his story, mainly because the descriptions given by both aircraft flight attendants did not match.

Then there is the Lyle Christiansen, Minnesota resident who spent years trying to convince the FBI that Cooper was, in fact, his deceased brother, Kenneth Christiansen, a former paratrooper. From 2003 and onwards, he regularly sent letters to the Feds, bringing new evidence that would substantiate his thesis. FBI never believed him. Just like they eliminated Duane Weber, who said on his deathbed that he is, in fact, Cooper. However, DNA tests showed that he was lying.

Mr. Carr, who is now in charge of the investigation, will say that a lot of things happened on that November, but that only a fraction from what was later told is actually the truth. In the first place, he actually doesn’t believe that Cooper was still alive when he fell on the ground.

“We originally thought Cooper was an experienced jumper, perhaps even a paratrooper” – says agent Carr. “We concluded after a few years this was simply not true. No experienced parachutist would have jumped in the pitch-black night, in the rain, with a 200-mile-an-hour wind in his face, wearing loafers and a trench coat. It was simply too risky. He also missed that his reserve 'chute was only for training, and had been sewn shut—something a skilled skydiver would have checked.”

If everything went according to his plan, Cooper would have landed somewhere in the Cascade Mountains, a mountain range of western North America  and southern west of Canada, where the highest peak is  about 4,300 meters above sea level. That part of America is far away from civilization, but not that much far that it is necessary more than 40 years for someone’s body to be found.

What is interesting is that, in 1980, near the Columbia River, a boy found a bundle of 20-dollar bills - the same ones that Cooper received on that November afternoon at the Seattle-Tacoma airport. But there was only $5.800 - What about the rest?

“Maybe a hydrologist can use the latest technology to trace the $5,800 in ransom money found in 1980 to where Cooper landed upstream. Or maybe someone just remembers that odd uncle.” – said Carr.

If investigators find just a bone that belongs to Dan Cooper, that will be enough for them to close the case with DNA analysis. But, as long as there is no body, the thought that he is still alive somewhere – or that he was alive for many years after 1971 – and that he is enjoying the Caribbean sun and drinks cocktails while watching movies and reading books about himself, will not disappear. And even agent Carr doesn’t want to write off this possibility.

“If he's alive today, he'd be about 85 years old. Maybe one day I'll be sitting at my desk and I'll get a call from an old man who says, 'You're not going to believe this story'”.

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Vacation in Italy – Lana Turner

During one of her visits to Italy, American actress Lana Turner (1921-1995) was staying in a small town of  Positano believing that there she would be safe and that the fans will not be disturb her.

For two days she enjoyed exploring the city, but on the third day she was arrested in the middle of the street and taken to a police station.

Although they were very kind to her, the police officers behaved strangely. When they wrote down her data into their registry, they asked from Lana to take of her shoes and stand on a piece of paper. When she asked them why must she do that and why did they arrest her, they refused to reply. When she put her feet on a piece of paper, they carefully marked them with a pencil.

After that, they told her not to leave town in the next 24 hours, and returned her to her hotel.

The next day a package arrived for her in her hotel room. In it was a very beautiful pair of sandals – a gift from her fan, the Mayor of Positano.

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How old are you? – Zsa Zsa Gabor

Zsa Zsa Gabor (1919), American actress of Hungarian origin (also known for being crowned as Miss Hungary in 1936 and for having nine husbands) was convicted in 1989 for slapping the face of a police officer named Paul Kramer when he stopped her for a traffic violation in Beverly Hills.

What did the court ruled for this former beauty and sex symbol?

To spend three days in jail and to enter her real date of birth in her identity documents.

The later was because, in her documents,  Zsa Zsa Gabor listed that she was born a quarter-century later that she really was. 

 

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French ride – Juan Pablo Montoya

In May 2003, the French police confiscated Juan Pablo Montoya’s driving license. The famous former Formula 1 driver was stopped by the French police on his return to Nice. He was driving his BMW 5.

What did he done to have his driving license confiscated?

He was driving his BMW at the speed of 204 km/h on the section of the road where the speed limit was 130 km/h.

To be honest, as soon as the local police realized who he was, they immediately returned him his license. Montoya paid just a small fine for speeding.

Just a few days later, he finished second on the French Grand Prix and drove the fastest lap during the race.

His “practice” outside of the racing track apparently paid of.

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Brazil's crusade for Olympics

When Brazil won the organization of Football World Cup and Rio the 2016 Olympic Games, the Brazilian statesmen were thankful to FIFA and IOC. These two organizations closed their eyes to the fact that Rio is the city with the highest murder rate in the world, and the authorities have no control over favelas, which are run by local gangs and almost represent a country in the country.

In efforts to change that, the Brazilians have hired Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York, as a consultant. Known for being able to calm things even in Harlem, Giuliani’s job is to use his know-how in Brazil.  Giuliani is known for his strategy of "zero tolerance", according to which everyone who breaks the system must be punished, from the Mafia to the sellers of hot dogs on the street.

There is just one catch – New York is not Rio and Harlem is not Brazilian favelas. Police actions there are not just fight against crime, they are literally war against crime. Police entry into favelas is referred in local media as "liberation of territory".

The operation of the police and the army against gangs in November 2010, on the territory of Complexo do Alemão, the complex of 15 favelas, was the biggest operation in the history of liberation of favelas. Unfortunately, this operation showed that even Giuliani’s "zero tolerance" will not that easily set things right in the favelas . This historic operation was named “reconquista”(reconquest), because the Brazilians are doing exactly that, reconquesting their occupied territory. 

Complexo do Alemão is one of the most famous favelas. Until the operation in November 2010, it was controlled by the Red Command, a gang of over a thousand drug dealers and arms merchants. However, Giuliani’s "zero tolerance" is now only functioning if the military and the police constantly keep favelas under siege. But even that is not easy to do because of the "philosophy of favelas”. Favelas are not just some hovels framed in the squatter settlements – they have become a way of life.

After five day of heavy fire, the Governor of Rio triumphantly announced the liberation of Complexo do Alemão territory. What remained in the shadow of that triumph was the fact that more than 40 people, some of whom were civilians, were accidentally caught in the crossfire, and were killed. The Brazilian media were fascinated with the fact that the police and army, for the first time, acted as one.

This attack forced the opposing gangs to unite, for the first time in history. This means that real fights are yet to come. The bandits have already started to burn cars and city buses.  The criminals are using this tried recipe for years.  Whenever the police tries to enter one of their favela, they start with the riots.

The Mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, says that, in this way, they are trying to create a picture for the public that will suggest that the authorities have no control.  "We do not want peace with criminals and terrorists. This time we will not retreat”, harshly says Paes.

A large number of criminals fled to the favelas on the hills above Rio, carrying heavy weapons. The picture of them fleeing was like a withdrawal of an army. Heavily armed police forces are now patrolling the streets of liberated favelas . On the other hand, heavily armed drug traffickers and their troops are now patrolling gang-controlled favelas, in expectation of more attacks.

The Brazilian police have trained a special unit, just for fights in the favelas. The operation from November 2010 is considered their best performance so far.  However, there are very few of those who believe that this country can keep fighting these criminals to the end.

Antonio Carlos Costa, director of Rio de Paz, anti-violence NGO, said that Rio needs more police officers that are better trained and better paid. "There is no way they can pacify all the communities. If you push the traffickers out of one area, they naturally just flow to another" – he said.

A growing number of people believe that Brazil needs to try a strategy of total isolation of favelas before the Olympic Games, rather than bring them in line. For example, in Alemao favela about 120,000 people live in ramshackle hovels, often with no electricity and no water, and they do not know of a different kind of life. Kids who are growing up there know that they have only two choices in life - to play football or to be criminals. If they don’t start playing for Barcelona, they will be playing with cocaine. And this cannot be corrected in 5 or less years.

In 2009, just two weeks after the announcement that Rio won the organization of Olympic Games, gangs knocked down a police helicopter. This caused a series of police raids in which about thirty people were killed. In August 2010, thirty-five people were imprisoned in a hotel with five stars – criminals from favela did this, while fleeing from the police. About sixty "to the teeth" armed criminals were returning from some party in the early hours. They were headed towards their ”base”, Rocinha, which is the biggest favela in Rio. The police spotted them and intercepted. Fifty of them managed to escape, but ten couldn’t so they rushed into an exclusive hotel and took hostages.

Jenson Button, famous Formula 1 driver experienced the spirit of favela on his own skin. When he was in Brazil for a race at Interlagos, he was attacked on the streets by armed bandits. He barely escaped alive.

Elza Santiago, a member of women’s cooperative that sells handcrafted goods to raise funds for education programs offered to women and children, thinks that everything will return the way it was when the Olympic Games are over. “Our people don’t have water. We’re walking up the hill to our favelas with water because we don’t have any. No one is talking about the Olympics, that is our Olympics.”

City of God

Favelas emerged in the late 19th century when the first black slaves were winning their freedom. Later, the favelas spread in several waves, especially as people from rural areas came to the city in search of a better life, and found only the misery of favelas. And once you enter a favela, it is hard to leave. Today, only in Rio there are more than a thousand favelas. There are mostly along the perimeter of the city, and in the case of Rio, that means surrounding hills.

Brazilian authorities have several times tried to implement some kind of slum urbanization (that is why some of favelas have stronger walls), but the spirit of favelas has proven to be indestructible. Drugs, crime and life on the street is the only thing the people who live there know. Some studies show that only 15 percent of the population in Rio’s favelas has expressed a desire to leave them.

Favelas, though not in a construction sense, follow the trends, so today 97 percent of homes have a television, 94 percent a refrigerator, and about 48 percent have a washing machine. About half of the people there have a mobile phone and 12 percent of homes have a computer.

Most accurate impression of favela is shown in the famous Brazilian film "City of God", about life in the favela of the same name - "Cidade de Deus". That film was often compared to Scorsese’s “GoodFellas”, but Scorsese’s movie begins with “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster" and characters from the "City of God" had no choice.

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In James Bond Style – Mark and Anne Fox

The police followed them from Melbourne to Victoria, state in the south of Australia.  Since they were not caught, the hunt continued moving north, toward New South Wales and then all the way back to Melbourne. 

Someone would though that the law enforcement chased dangerous criminals, since they were chasing them for two thousand kilometers. But, in fact, they were unsuccessfully trying to catch an older couple, husband and wife, in late eighties, that managed for full two weeks to outwit the police.

When the pursuit was too close on them, Mark and Anne Fox would leave their vehicles, with keys in the ignition, and jumped on the first bus. As soon as they felt that the pursuit is far away behind them, they would buy used car and continue to run.

When they were finally caught, Mark and Anne Fox explained to gathered reporters why, as they said, fled the police "in James Bond style."

When the authorities in Melbourne refused to extend Anne’s driving license, saying that she was too old, she agreed with her husband to show them what she is still able to do.

Anne and Mark Fox have been married for forty years.  Although it was against their will, their son put them in a nursing home a year before this chase. The only thing of a "normal life" they had after that, as they said, was to, occasionally, sit in the car and drive off in an “unknown direction.”

When Mark was not allowed to extend his driver's license, it seemed to them that it is not so bad because Anne could still drive. But when her "right to freedom", was also denied, they decided to rebel. And they told reporters that they never felt better when they were running from the police.

Under public pressure, the authorities in Melbourne, eventually extended Anne’s license. They even returned them the vehicle they seized from them.

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Woof! Woof! = Help!

After persistent knocking and ringing, Sylvia D'Antonio managed to awaken and open the door. What are the police doing at the door of her house at five o'clock in the morning?

Apparently, someone from her house consistently dialed their number and all they could hear was breathing. With the help of tracer, they managed to discover from which address the calls were coming.

Sylvia was unable to reassure the guardians of law and order that she did not called them.  

If this forty-six-year old woman from New Jersey has not dialed the phone number of the police, who from her house could have done it, police officers asked themselves.

As if he understood that him they are looking, from the room rushed German shepherd and began happily wagging his tail and barking. Only then, Sylvia D'Antonio realized who dialed three times in a row 911, and in front of her door brought three police patrols.

Sylvia then explained that she lives alone and that she is frequently ill, so she taught her faithful dog how to knock the phone down on the floor and with his paw press certain numbers on the dial and call for help.

The story certainly is - unbelievable.

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