Enthusiasts, Ep. 50: D.B. Cooper

D.B. Cooper, who committed the only unsolved hijacking in commercial airline history, has become something akin to a folk legend among citizen sleuths. “Cooperites” and other true-crime enthusiasts still pour over theories and potential suspects to this day, both in online forums and at in-person meet-ups like CooperCon. Part of the enduring fascination with D.B. Cooper’s story is the amount of unknowns: did he survive his jump off the airplane? Was his bomb real? Did he act alone? What suspects seem the most and least likely? Why do so many people suspect they know “the REAL D.B. Cooper”? And how is the emotional investment in his daring mission still prevalent nearly fifty years after he pulled it off? Hope talks with Darren Schaefer, host of The Cooper Vortex, to find out. 

CORRECTION: I misspoke during the opening of this episode. I said Cooper had requested the plane fly at a speed of less than 20 miles per hour. Cooper actually requested the plane fly at a speed of less than 20 knots, the equivalent of around 230 miles per hour. While requesting to make a daring escape at 20 miles per hour would be frankly hilarious, it is not what happened, and I do apologize for the error.