It was the day before Thanksgiving, 1971, when the last passenger boarded a short flight from Portland to Seattle. With no ID's required to fly at the time, he paid for his ticket with cash ($20) and signed in as 'Dan Cooper'. He then sat alone in the back row drinking bourbon and smoking cigarettes. Later that night, he would parachute out of that plane with $200,000 ransom and never be heard from again. His name was probably not 'Dan Cooper' - but it certainly wasn't 'DB Cooper', the alias almost everyone refers to him by today. His name, however, is only the beginning of what we do not know about the person who pulled off the only unsolved skyjacking in American History.
Dawn's special guest, Maile Flanagan, assigned her this subject because - like many others - she had a vague memory of hearing the general story and was eager for all the F-able details. In this episode, Dawn delivers. Not only a detailed play-by-play of what happened that fateful night, but a dive into some of the most interesting suspects to have emerged from the 50 year old investigation.
PART 1
00:02:15 - The History of my guest, Maile Flanagan: Voice of Naruto and Terry Perry on Lab Rats (among many other credits.)
00:05:05 - Today's HILF: DB Cooper. Who is he and what happened?
00:13:01 - The evidence and what we know.
00:14:50 - The Mystery creates an immediate Legend.
00:22:00 - Introduction to Florence Schaffner & Tina Mucklow - the flight attendants who interacted with Cooper.
00:32:00 - Dawn's Favorite Suspects! The FBI identified over 1,000 "viable" suspects - here are 4 of them:
00:33:08 - Suspect #1 - Richard McCoy: A copycat who almost got away with it.
00:36:47 - Suspect #2 - Duane Weber: A deathbed confession and an angry widow.
PART 2
00:42:55 - Suspect #3 - Walter Reca: His recorded confession to a best friend has a lot of people convinced.
00:47:12 - Suspect #4 - Barbara Dayton: Born 'Robert Dayton' she had a grudge and the expertise to pull it off.
00:52:22 - Some honorable mentions including Kenny Christiansen, LD Cooper and Robert Rackstraw.
00:58:58 - Ending credits, thank you's and announcement of next episode: President James K Polk with guest, Meryl Klemow.
SOURCES AND LINKS:
**NOTE: If you don't see links to the sources below, go to our page on Simplecast [https://hilf-history-id-like-to-f-k.simplecast.com]. You can also message us on Instagram with any questions or corrections. [@HILFPodcast, https://www.instagram.com/hilfpodcast] or [hilfpodcast@gmail.com]
Book: 'SKYJACK' The Hunt for DB Cooper by Geoffrey Gray
HBO Documentary: The Mystery of DB Cooper (2020) [Youtube Trailer]
DB Cooper Days at the Ariel Tavern (ended as of 2018)
Great resource regarding flight attendants of the 60's & 70's.
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HILF Podcast on Instagram -Go here to see lots of photos and updates on guests and research.
**We are a new podcast and still growing and learning. More resources and links will be available... as we get better at this. Thanks for listening and please reach out to let us know where you are and what you want us to F next.