A quarter-century has passed since he took that big step out the tail of a 727, but the tips on D.B. Cooper still trickle in.
The most daring - or dumbest - criminal in Northwest history is still at large, having either flouted the laws of society or been foiled by the laws of physics."It's still a pending investigation," says Ray Lauer, an FBI special agent in Seattle, adding that the case will remain open "probably forever."
The FBI here still stores 60 volumes of interviews and other documents telling how the enigmatic Cooper hijacked a jetliner, demanded and received $200,000 in ransom and then jumped from the plane over southwest Washington and into legend.
He hasn't been heard from since, although $5,880 of his loot was found by a boy playing on the banks of the Columbia River in 1980. Possible suspects have been suggested over the years, but none has played out.
Today, just a few taverns and restaurants mark the anniversary of the nation's only unsolved skyjacking case, though now and then someone calls the FBI with an idea, a tip or suggestion.
"Surprisingly, yeah, we still get quite a few of them," Lauer says. "They tend to come in spurts, when they might get two to four in a week, then might not get any more tips for several months."
The FBI dutifully checks them out, but, "the warrant has not been served yet," Lauer notes. "That's a good way to put it."
Wherever Cooper is, it's a safe bet his skydiving days are over: Even if he survived his nighttime tumble into the Cascade Mountains, he'd be 70 or older now.
On Nov. 24, 1971, the night before Thanksgiving, a man in his mid-40s wearing dark glasses boarded a Northwest Orient Airlines Boeing 727 at Portland International Airport. He bought a ticket under the name Dan Cooper - a law enforcement official later erroneously referred to him as "D.B." and the initials stuck - and took seat 18F in the coach section of the tri-jet. He ordered a bourbon and water. Just before takeoff, he handed flight attendant Flo Schaffner a note.
He apparently lacked a strong criminal presence. According to an account published in Northwest's 1986 corporate history, "Flight to the Top," the busy Schaffner stuck the paper in her pocket, thinking it was a mash note.
Not until take-off did she bother to read the message: "Miss, I've got a bomb, come sit next to me - you're being hijacked."
Fellow cabin attendant Tina Mucklow Larson recounted how she and Schaffner relayed dozens of messages from Cooper to the cockpit over the next few hours, including his demands for $200,000 in used $20 bills and four para-chutes.
He had no unusual characteristics, Larson recalled, describing him as just plain and businesslike. He chain-smoked and wore a dark suit, dark tie, white shirt and the sunglasses, which he kept on the whole time.
He also had a black briefcase, which he opened for Larson, showing her a couple of red cylinders, wires and a battery.
He collected the money - provided by the airline - during a stop at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where the 36 passengers, Schaffner and another flight attendant were released. Larson, Capt. William Scott and First Officer Bill Rataczak remained on board.
Before leaving Sea-Tac, Cooper offered the flight attendants a small stack of 20s from his loot - perhaps $200. They refused, Larson said, telling him company policy forbid them to accept tips.
Cooper initially demanded the plane be flown to Mexico, with its landing gear and flaps down, and at an altitude of 10,000 feet. Scott persuaded him that was impractical, and Cooper agreed to a refueling stop at Reno.
Just after takeoff, Larson said, Cooper asked her to show him how to lower the rear stairs in the tail of the 727, the only jetliner equipped with that feature. He then told her to go to the front of the plane and to pull the curtain between first class and coach.
About 40 minutes after takeoff, the stair signal light in the cockpit flashed on. When the jet landed in Reno, the stairs were down and two of the parachutes, the money and Cooper were missing.
Cooper dove into a freezing rainstorm at 10,000 feet, wearing only a business suit and loafers. The temperature was 7 below zero, not counting a wind chill factor estimated at minus 70 because of the plane's speed of 200 mph.
Ralph Himmelsbach, the FBI agent assigned to the case before his retirement in 1980, long has maintained Cooper was a bumbler and a fool.
If the cold didn't kill him, if he withstood the powerful turbulence from the jet, Cooper still was parachuting into the dense, rugged forests of southwest Washington's mountains at night, at the onset of winter, with little or no food or survival gear.
"It was a bad place to land, and it is doubtful we would ever find the body," Himmelsbach said in a 1991 interview.
"This was a desperate act you wouldn't expect from a normal man in his mid-40s. This was something you would expect from somebody who had nothing to lose."
Himmelsbach believes Cooper either landed in the Columbia and drowned, or died in the mountains and the money was washed out.
An extensive search turned up no trace of Cooper. Much of the area was blanketed by ash when Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980.
Each year, celebrations are held at restaurants named D.B. Cooper in Salt Lake City and San Jose, and at a little bar in Ariel in southwest Washington where, legend has it, Cooper paid an anonymous visit.
The Ariel shindig will be held Nov. 30. The annual "Jump Night" at the Utah establishment will be Wednesday.
At D.B. Cooper's in Salt Lake City, owner Basil Chelemes says there will be live music, free hors d'oeuvres and a trivia contest. He'll decide on the contest prize - either a trip for two to Seattle or free skydiving lessons - after checking with his insurance agent.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Trivia questions
Associated Press
For the die-hard D.B. Cooper fan, some trivia questions:
Q. Who starred in the 1981 feature film, "The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper?"
A. Treat Williams.
Q. What was Cooper's lasting contribution to aircraft design?
A. The "Cooper Vane." It's a latching device on Boeing 727s that prevents the tail stairway - the one Cooper used - from being lowered in flight.
Q. How much did Cooper get away with?
A. At most, $194,080. Of the $200,000 he asked for, $5,880 later was found on a Columbia River bank. And Northwest Airlines says it discovered afterward that in the rush to count and list the serial numbers of the 10,000 $20 bills for the ransom, bank clerks had accidentally shorted the bundles by two bills, or $40.