D.B. Cooper skyjacking legend started at PDX

D.B. Cooper skyjacking legend started at PDX

Author: www.offbeatoregon.com (finn @ offbeatoregon.com) August 18, 2025 Duration: 8:54
Offbeat Oregon History podcast
HistoryCulturePlacesSocietySociety & CultureTravel
History's only unsolved hijacking drama started at Portland International Airport when a nondescript man calling himself 'Dan Cooper' stepped aboard a Boeing 727 bound for Seattle. (Part 1 of a 4-part series) (Portland, Multnomah County; 1970s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1306a-db-cooper-part-1-the-skyjacking.html)

The Offbeat Oregon History Podcast is a daily service from the Offbeat Oregon History newspaper column. Each weekday morning, a strange-but-true story from Oregon's history from the archives of the column is uploaded. An exploding whale, a few shockingly scary cults, a 19th-century serial killer, several very naughty ladies, a handful of solid-brass con artists and some of the dumbest bad guys in the history of the universe. Source citations are included with the text version on the Web site at https://offbeatoregon.com.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 184

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Worst natural flash flood in U.S. history struck here (Part 1 of 2) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 7:42
ON JUNE 15, 1903, a strange little article appeared in the Portland Morning Oregonian. “It is reported that a tremendous cloudburst occurred at Heppner late in the afternoon,” the article states. “All communication with…
Mount Angel Abbey owes grandeur to colorful monk [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:04
Jovial and gregarious, Adelhelm Odermatt locked his sights on a vision of a hilltop monastery — and then deployed himself like a jovial, glad-handing, never-sleeping bombshell to make it happen. It was a near thing, but…
‘Unwritten Law’ no help for man who murdered his wife's brother [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:22
“Amsterdam Jack” Murray claimed it was all a misunderstanding, but the jury obviously suspected he'd intended to murder his wife's brother all along; then the appeals court learned he was a bigamist to boot. (Portland, M…
Frontier murder was even darker than it appeared [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:33
When first reported, it looked like a simple murder-suicide. But it quickly became clear that it was something far more sinister — and the motives of the killer were uglier and more sordid than anyone had thought possibl…
Pixieland and Oregon's midcentury culture [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 11:37
Jerry and Lu Parks envisioned a “fairy-tale history of Oregon” in the form of an amusement park. What they created was a rich cultural artifact, and a treasured childhood memory for a generation of Oregonians. (Otis and…
‘Daredevil Al’ Fossett was Evel Knievel of the ’20s [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 10:40
The former logger tried to cash in on his knack for boat design and total lack of normal fear by paddling over waterfalls: Willamette Falls, Celilo Falls, South Silver Falls. But although he got famous, he never managed…
West’s first female lawyer: A legal Mother Teresa? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 10:39
The real Mary Leonard was probably someone who had given up “the good life” after realizing, during her time in jail, that the powerless women of her time were getting a raw deal — and determined to do something about it…
Pioneering “lady lawyer” deserved a better legacy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:27
Had Mary Leonard died in 1890, she'd be remembered as she really was — a brilliant orator and an inspiration to future Oregon women and attorneys. But fate let her live another 20 years, during which she devolved into a…
Acquitted murder suspect became first ‘lady lawyer’ [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 7:35
Many historians, eager to see in her the caricature of the nagging, garrulous fishwife and gold-digging black widow, have missed the real story of Mary Leonard — and done both her, and the historical record, a disservice…

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