D. B. Cooper is a media
epithet used to describe an unidentified man who
hijacked a
Boeing 727 on November 24, 1971, extorted a
US$200,000 ransom (equivalent to $1.51 million today[1]), and parachuted to an unknown fate.[2] He was never seen again, and only $5,880 of the ransom money has been found. The incident continues to influence popular culture, and has inspired references in books, film, and music.[3]
Literature
The cover of Elwood Reid's D. B.: a novel, which borrows from the 1972 FBI sketch (top)
Non-fiction books
General investigation
D.B. Cooper: Dead or Alive? by Richard T. Tosaw (1984).
Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper by Geoffrey Gray (2011).
DB Cooper and the FBI: A Case Study of America’s Only Unsolved Skyjacking by Bruce Smith (2015 1st Edition; 2016 2nd Edition; 2021 3rd Edition).
D.B. Cooper and Flight 305: Reexamining the Hijacking and Disappearance by Robert H. Edwards (2021).
Suspect/conspiracy theories
D.B. Cooper: What Really Happened by Max Gunther (1985).
Into the Blast by Skipp Porteous and Robert Blevins (2011).
D.B. Cooper: Examined, Identified, and Exposed by Nat Loufoque (2019).
The Last Master Outlaw: The Award-Winning Conclusion of the D.B. Cooper Mystery by Thomas J. Colbert (2021).
Novels
James M. Cain's 1975 novel Rainbow's End[4] is a fictional account of what might have happened to Cooper after he parachuted from the plane.[5]
Elwood Reid's 2004 novel D. B.: a novel[8] is a fictionalized account of what supposedly happened to the real Cooper in the years following the hijacking, as a pair of FBI agents attempt to pick up his trail and arrest him. In one edition, the book jacket cover featured artwork derived from the FBI composite sketch of the real Cooper.[9]
The 1998 novel Sasquatch by
Roland Smith features a character named Buckley Johnson, who eventually admits that he is D. B. Cooper to the novel's protagonist, a boy named Dylan Hickock. In this story, Johnson says he committed the hijacking to pay for cancer treatments for his son.[10]
D.L. Hynes' 2020 novel The Man in 18-E, the first of a trilogy of fantasy novels involving historical mysteries, features two accidental time-travelers who find themselves in 1971 and, unable to return, decide to travel to Portland to solve the D.B. Cooper case as it happens.[14][15][16]
Short stories
In the
SCP Foundation collaborative writing project, D.B. Cooper is featured in SCP-101 - Hungry Bag. In the short story, the body of Cooper was found in 1979 in the
Cascade Mountains alongside SCP-101, having died from blood loss due to the bag biting his arm off and consuming it. Cooper's fate was classified by the SCP Foundation as part of their recovery of SCP-101.[17] Another version of D.B. Cooper is featured in SCP-5017 - Hard Landing, in which Cooper is depicted as an immortal
Druid by the name of Cathbhadh who has been fighting against the Foundation for 2000 years.[18]
Comics
The Dilbert strip for January 17, 1991, featured Dogbert exhibiting Cooper's remains, with the punchline, "He learned that you should never get your parachutes from the same people you're robbing".[19]
The webcomic xkcd has a strip titled "D. B. Cooper",[20] in which it was theorized that actor/director
Tommy Wiseau was D. B. Cooper, and had financed his infamous film The Room with the funds from the robbery.[21] A later xkcd strip posited that Cooper had been stranded alive in a tree since his jump.[22]
A 1989 strip from Gary Larson's The Far Side shows "Ben & Vera's Rottweiler Farm" and a bunch of dogs looking up at a man with a parachute with the caption "The Untold Ending of D.B. Cooper".[23]
The Mystery of D.B. Cooper is a documentary about the case by John Dower.[26]
Series and television
In the fourth season (1979–1980) of the series
In Search of... dedicated an episode to the D.B. Cooper hijacking.[27]
A 1979 episode of
Quincy, M.E. features an episode about the body of a famous parachuting hijacker being found five years after the hijacking, hanging dead from a tree in a National Park.[28]
In
Journeyman's "The Legend of Dylan McCleen,"
Jeffrey Pierce plays Dylan McCleen/John Richie, an Army Ranger who highjacked an airplane, and parachuted out with the ransom money, whose identity was still unknown decades later.[30]
Muse Watson portrays
Charles Westmoreland, who is later revealed to be D.B. Cooper in the television series Prison Break who was caught and convicted in another case serving sentence in the same prison as the protagonists.[31]
The first episode of the
Disney+ series Loki, set in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe and titled "
Glorious Purpose", Cooper is revealed to be
Loki, who hijacked the plane after having lost a bet to
Thor and disappeared into the
Bifrost after jumping from the rear stairs.[32] Unlike the real Cooper, however, Loki's jump is seen to take place during daylight and in calm weather.[33]
On July 13, 2022
Netflix released a four-part documentary mini-series entitled D.B. Cooper: Where Are You?! exploring the hijacking incident and exploring the identity of D.B. Cooper.[34]
The eighth episode of the second season of
AMC's crime drama Breaking Bad, "
Better Call Saul", includes a scene in which lawyer
Saul Goodman jokingly refers to series protagonist
Walter White as Cooper due to his sunglasses and unusual attire.[35]
Music
The Mountain Goats' song "Rain in Soho" (from the album Goths) references Cooper with the lyric "No one broke D. B. Cooper's fall".[36]
Kid Rock's song, Bawitdaba, mentions him in the lyric "..and to D.B. Cooper and the money he took."
MF DOOM’s song, Hoe Cakes, mentions him in the lyric “MF DOOM, he’s like D.B. Cooper”
Glass Beach's song, "Rare Animal", mentions him by name in the pre-chorus, and describes the hijacking in the post-chorus.
Podcasts
"The Disappearance of D.B. Cooper," episode 14 of the podcast "History's Great Mysteries."[37]
"D.B. Cooper Pt.1" and "D.B. Cooper Pt. 2" episodes of the podcast "Unexplained Mysteries."[38]
Other
The community of
Ariel, Washington, one of the possible landing areas for Cooper, commemorates the incident with a celebration, held annually on the Saturday following
Thanksgiving Day, called "D. B. Cooper Days."[39]
D. B. Tuber is the name given to
Anthony Curcio, who was responsible for one of the most elaborately planned armored car heists in history.[40][41]
Fan speculation surrounding the show Mad Men was that there were subtle clues that it would end with
Don Draper exposing himself as D.B. Cooper. Producers frequently denied such a plot, and the skyjacking was never depicted in the series.[42]