D.B. Cooper: Where Are You!? is the latest true-crime documentary series on Netflix, exploring the unsolved hijacking of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 in November 1971.
On November 24, 1971, a man who identified himself as Dan Cooper (later known in the media as D.B. Cooper due to typographical error in an early news report) at Portland International Airport boarded a flight from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington.
While in mid-air, Cooper passed flight attendant Florence Schaffner a note, stating he had a bomb. He also had a note for the captain, requesting $200,000 in ransom, four parachutes and for the aircraft to be refueled.
After a stop-off at Seattle-Tacoma, where the passengers disembarked the Boeing 727and Cooper's demands for cash and parachutes met, the plane took off again and headed for Mexico City.
However, when the plane landed at Reno–Tahoe International Airport, Cooper was nowhere to be seen. It is believed he jumped out of the back of the plane.
Following the hijacking, the FBI set up Operation NORJACK. More than 1000 suspects have been investigated to date but D.B. Cooper has never been found, with the FBI closing the case in 2016.
So, who were the D.B. Cooper suspects? Newsweek has taken a look at the most notable names below.
Who Were The D.B. Cooper Suspects?
Robert Rackstraw
Episode 2 of D.B. Cooper: Where Are You?! focuses on the case of Robert Rackstraw who was one of the main suspects in the D.B. Cooper case throughout the 1970s.
For some, Rackstraw remains a top suspect today.
Rackstraw was a former U.S. Army paratrooper and many suspected he could have used his top-tier military training to successfully parachute out of the plane.
Rackstraw was discharged from the U.S. Army after serving in Vietnam and, as heard in D.B. Cooper: Where Are You?!, his discharge may have given him the motivation to carry out the hijack.
Rackstraw had a lengthy criminal record, with arrests for bad checks, falsifying military records, and domestic violence. He was even charged with the murder of his stepfather before being acquitted by a jury.
Rackstraw also attempted to fake his own death in 1978 by crashing a rented airplane into Monterey Bay, California. However, he was found by investigators a few months later and charged with stealing an aircraft and passing bad checks. He spent two years in prison for his crimes.
The FBI began investigating Rackstraw about the Cooper case in 1979 but he was ultimately ruled out as a suspect.
In D.B. Cooper: Where Are You?! on Netflix, the theory that Rackstraw was a CIA black ops agent is explored by investigator Tom Colbert.
As a result of Rackstraw's potential involvement with the CIA, the organization made sure he would not be investigated by the FBI, suggests Colbert. However, there is no official evidence to suggest Rackstraw was an affiliate of the CIA.
During his lifetime, Rackstraw never admitted to being Cooper. He always denied being Cooper when asked or would avoid the question with a vague answer, according to witnesses who knew him and a team investigating him (not law enforcement) as a suspect in D.B. Cooper: Where Are You?!
Rackstraw died of heart disease on July 9, 2019.
Richard "Dick" Briggs
Richard Briggs was a cocaine supplier and criminal who claimed to be Cooper back in the 1970s.
In D.B. Cooper: Where Are You!?, a friend of Briggs, Ron Carlson, recalls how Briggs would often tell people he was D.B. Cooper. He also recalled how once at a party in Oregon, Briggs not only claimed to be Cooper but also predicted the ransom money Cooper had demanded would be found by a couple at the party.
Five days later, $5,800 of the $200,000 was found by the couple's eight-year-old son, Brian Ingram. The FBI officially declared the notes belonged to the sum given to Cooper as the serial numbers on the bills were identical.
Steven Colbert, a Cooper investigator, ruled out Briggs as a suspect as he did not fit the Cooper description nor did he have any pilot experience.
It was through his investigation into Briggs that he was led to Briggs's friend, Robert Rackstraw.
In 2016, Colbert and Tom Szollosi published the book The Last Master Outlaw: How He Outfoxed the FBI Six Times—but Not a Cold Case Team, detailing their five-year investigation into Rackstraw and the evidence against him.
Briggs died on December 12, 1980, at the age of 41 from a single-car accident.
William "Bill" Gossett
William Gossett was a Marine Corps, Army, and Army Air Forces veteran who had served in Korea and Vietnam. He was a skilled parachutist and had survival training, matching the skills of Cooper.
In 2008, Gossett's son Greg Gossett told The Standard-Examiner he believed his father was Cooper.
He recalled that in 1988 when he turned 21, his dad took out the FBI sketch of Cooper from a filing cabinet and asked his son who the man in the picture resembled.
William Gossett then told his son: "I just want you to know, in 1971, that I hijacked a plane."
Greg Gossett told The Standard-Examiner he asked his father what he did with the ransom money. William Gossett allegedly pulled out two keys he claimed were for a safety deposit box at a bank in Vancouver, British Columbia, where the money was stored.
Kirk Gossett, another son of William Gossett said his father told him multiple times he was responsible for the Cooper hijacking.
Greg Gossett shared his father said he could never tell anybody until after he died about Cooper. William Gossett died in 2003.
Ultimately, the FBI did not have evidence implicating Gossett and there is no way to place him in the Pacific Northwest at the time of the hijacking.
FBI Special Agent Larry Carr told ABC News in 2008: "There is not one link to the D.B. Cooper case other than the statements [Gossett] made to someone."
William J. Smith
William J. Smith is one of the more recent names to be linked with the D.B. Cooper case.
In November 2018, The Oregonian published an article naming Smith as a suspect based on research carried out by an anonymous army data analyst who wrote to the FBI.
"I am an analyst," he wrote to the bureau, "and in my professional opinion, there are too many connections to be simply a coincidence."
Smith was a World War II veteran with combat aircrew training. Following his discharge, he worked for the Lehigh Valley Railroad and was affected by the Penn Central Transportation Company's bankruptcy in 1970, the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history at that time.
It was known that D.B. Cooper had told air hostesses he had a grudge while on the airplane and his motive to carry out the high-jacking may have been against the corporate world and transportation industry. Smith may have also needed money as his pension was threatened by the collapse, hence the $200,000 ransom money.
According to the army data analyst, the aluminum spiral chips found on the clip-on tie left behind by Cooper could have come from a locomotive maintenance facility, where Smith worked.
Additionally, Smith's picture on the Lehigh Valley Railroad website showed a "remarkable resemblance" to Cooper's FBI sketches.
Smith died in January 2018 aged 89.
D.B. Cooper: Where Are You?! is streaming on Netflix now.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
");jQuery(this).remove()}) jQuery('.start-slider').owlCarousel({loop:!1,margin:10,nav:!0,items:1}).on('changed.owl.carousel',function(event){var currentItem=event.item.index;var totalItems=event.item.count;if(currentItem===0){jQuery('.owl-prev').addClass('disabled')}else{jQuery('.owl-prev').removeClass('disabled')} if(currentItem===totalItems-1){jQuery('.owl-next').addClass('disabled')}else{jQuery('.owl-next').removeClass('disabled')}})}})})
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7r7HWrK6enZtjsLC5jp2ZZpufpL2mvoysrKyolZjBtHnInZynrJmpxm60yKOYnKOZo7Ruvs6bZKuZk6DAtb7AsGSdoZOgeqO%2ByKCerGVhbH93f5Bs