Was Hijacker D.B. Cooper a Comic Book fan?
About 50 years ago, right before Thanksgiving, 1971, a man who gave his name as Dan Cooper successfully skyjacked a plane, bailing out with $200,000 - never to be seen again.
If you are an American and have never heard of the comic Dan Cooper, that is to be expected. It is a Franco-Belgian comic book, begun in 1954,mabout a Canadian fighter jock. I think it was in French and German, but not English.
Dan Cooper was likely sold in Canada as well as Europe. There is some thought that D.B Cooper encountered this comic book as inspiration for the nom de guerre.
Was he a US serviceman who served in Europe, or just went to Canada, or was he a Canadian? (The American crew did not notice an accent).
Some say he asked for 'American money'? Is that a clue he was Canadian,mor just an American familiar with other currencies?
The story of D.B. Cooper is a fascinating one from the 1970s. It was never solved. Some money was found on the Columbia River in 1980, but was it buried or washed up? What happened to to the $200,000? Did D.B. Cooper survive the frigid jump from 10,000 feet?
Cooper was only wearing business attire (not even a helmet) when he jumped out an aft stairway, probably much later than he planned to in the flight. Many think he never even pulled his chute, but there are also many people suspected over the years.
So, if you want to do some digging, go read about D.B. Cooper and the comic book, Dan Cooper.
Many think D.B. Cooper had some, but not much, skydiving experience. Some details are slowly being released under FOIA requests, I believe.
@DanSchwent says there is an Unsolved Mysteries episode on D.B. Cooper from the 1980s. The Nimoy hosted In Search Of did a D.B. Cooper episode in 1979. The case was quite famous at the time, inspired a near folk hero status on the hijacker.
You can dig into newspaper articles, History Channel shows, books, magazines, etc. That the case is unsolved is what lends it most of its mystique, but even if they caught him, that was one gutsy stunt.
The only solid evidence was the find of money in 1980. Its is assumed (by flight crew evidence) about when Cooper jumped out.
That the story could be linked in some way to a comic book just makes it that much more interesting.
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