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That's A Crime
A fascinating true crime podcast dissecting everything from a misdemeanor to a murder.
Hosts: Jason Connell, award-winning documentary producer & true crime junkie, & Sal Rodriguez, comedian & toy expert/collector.
That's A Crime
D.B. Cooper - Hijack Heist (1971) - Update
That's A Crime
Episode 29: D.B. Cooper - Hijack Heist (1971) - Update
Jason Connell and Sal Rodriguez revisit the true crime story of D.B. Cooper - Hijack Heist in 1971. On November 24, 1971, D.B. Cooper hijacked a commercial plane in Portland, OR, and later parachuted out of the aircraft with 200K of ransom money. On June 9, 2021, Loki, God of Mischief and Thor's adopted brother, revealed the true identity of D.B. Cooper.
Disney - Loki - S01E01 - Glorious Purpose (2021)
Original Episode: S01E29
Recorded: 02-11-22
Studio: Just Curious Media
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Welcome to Just curious media. This is that's a crime. I'm Jason Connell.
Sal Rodriguez:And I'm Sal Rodriguez.
Jason Connell:All right, so we are back to revisit a crime.
Sal Rodriguez:Yes, this is a first.
Jason Connell:This is a first on that's a crime. Because today we're revisiting the True Crime Story of the DB Cooper hijack heist in 1971. A classic style, a classic,
Sal Rodriguez:a classic crime and a classic first episode, or should I say a classic episode that happens to be our first episode?
Jason Connell:Absolutely. All of the above. But before we dive back into this tale, because this is an update episode, we have new news. Stay tuned. First, a word from our sponsor. Support for that to crime is brought to you by manscaped, who is the best and men's below the waist grooming and offers precision engineered tools for your family jewels. Join over 4 million men worldwide who trust manscaped. And with this exclusive offer, you'll get
Sal Rodriguez:20% off and free worldwide shipping with the code. That's a crime@manscape.com.
Jason Connell:Wonderful, great deal. manscape. Good deal. So why are we revisiting the cell? Has DB Cooper been caught? Has the real identity been found out? Well, here's what happened this week, while I was in the midst of traveling from Florida, to or I stopped first Georgia, to Virginia, to Pennsylvania, where I'm at now before I get home in Massachusetts, I get a Twitter message from Moose. I don't know move. So I'm assuming most of the fan of the show. Thank you most for your tweet. wanted to give you a shout out on this episode. And he goes on he or she goes on to inform me that the DB Cooper case was solved. What? And I was like, Hold on What? Just like you just like your reaction. And I go on to read. But before I tell you that let's go back in time and the that's a crime archives.
Sal Rodriguez:Yeah, yeah. What about for the new listener? who just knows listener? Yeah,
Jason Connell:we don't want to go any further. We're gonna stop right there at Moose reaching out to me. And let's give just that little list. Well, first of all, I highly recommend going back season one, episode one. That's a crime delve back in our first episode ever, and enjoy premiere episode. And enjoy DB Cooper hijack heist 1971. I was also born in 1971. It was always a case on my radar, always fascinated by this tale. I recommend listening to that. Beyond that, we're going to do just a brief little setup for DB Cooper, not the whole episode, just a couple paragraphs setting the stage for what's to come for this fun update. And basically we just cover the hijacking. And on Thanksgiving Eve, November 24 1971. a middle aged man. So what was his height and weight?
Sal Rodriguez:Five foot 10 180? I guess that would be approximate? Approximate. Yeah, sure.
Jason Connell:Carrying a black attache case approach the flight counter of
Sal Rodriguez:which airline, Northwest orient airlines
Jason Connell:not around anymore. So no, maybe they merged with someone else. They lost
Sal Rodriguez:the Orient and just became Northwest Airlines. or also called NWA
Jason Connell:there. Yeah. Also a good group in the 90s. So he's at Portland International Airport, and he identifies himself as Dan Cooper. And he used cash sale smart move for soon to be criminal cash to purchase a one way ticket to Seattle. one way ticket to Seattle baby What was his seat number and flight number.
Sal Rodriguez:This was seat 18 C on flight 305. Okay, which is only a 30 minute trip north to Seattle with 35 other passengers 35
Jason Connell:passengers so small plane and we talked about this on the episode so we're not going to cover all of that. You know, all that stuff right here right now. But it's Thanksgiving Eve and you pointed this out on that episode. People are throttling down, right. Crews are minimizing they're everyone's getting ready for the holiday. Here's this guy get ready to pull the crime of maybe you've all time right? But everyone's radar is down.
Sal Rodriguez:Sure. I mean, cuz think about it. You could walk up to a ticket counter use cash not to show any identification. That's how it used to be. Yeah, they
Jason Connell:call me Dan Cooper. You got in the room on this your flight level? 30 minute flight. Yeah, that's okay. Let's do it. One way. So Cooper was a quiet man who appeared to be in his mid 40s. He was wearing a business suit black tie white shirt sounds like a reservoir dog. I love this description. And Sal, he orders a drink and what drink was that?
Sal Rodriguez:He ordered a bourbon and soda.
Jason Connell:Just That alone reminds me of something out of a James Bond film. You know, it's just so cool. Like this guy is just cool, calm and collected. And while the flight was taking off, he gets his drink. And shortly after takeoff Cooper handed a note to a flight attendant. And the attendant assumed it was in some lonely business man's phone number and she just drops it in her purse didn't even really happens all the time, all the time on this flight, you know, in these days, and Cooper then leaned over because he saw her put it in her purse, and whispers what? Miss,
Sal Rodriguez:you'd better look at that note, I have a bomb.
Jason Connell:Hello. So that puts this thing in motion, right? That is the setup. This is true events cannot believe this. And so why don't you just to round out our recap of the past because we'll stop there. We delve into everything else and the crew and what happened and then the suspicions and money being found blah, blah, blah, blah, go listen to the episode. But what were Cooper's demands?
Sal Rodriguez:His demands were$200,000 in cash a lot of money back then. So yes, yes, that is a lot of money back then. I think it's over a million dollars in today's money for parachutes to or primary and to reserve and a fuel truck standing by in Seattle to refuel the aircraft upon arrival.
Jason Connell:This guy had
Sal Rodriguez:specific demands.
Jason Connell:Yeah, absolutely. So this guy has a plan. Having a drink. I think I haven't ready had another drink. Well, so we had to have those bourbon and sodas, and then pulls this it's hard to say crime of the century because that's been there's other crimes that we all know so well. You get the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. You have OJ Simpson. So I guess it was a trials. So maybe this is the crime. Those are trials
Sal Rodriguez:trials as such, well, all of us would have our own standards. What constitutes crime of the century for me, personally, for me, would be the largest take of money. Okay, so the largest take with minimal or no casualties and never caught
Unknown:data. b dB. Koufax
Sal Rodriguez:dB. Cool. Give me another case that has those. I think
Jason Connell:I was getting confused with trials. Yeah, those were the two famous trials. And so this crime of the century. Let's give the nod to dB Cooper. Yeah. So back to the tweet message, which I just got a couple days ago from Moose informing me that DB Cooper has been discovered. So not to be so. But this is more of a theory. Okay. And a very far fetched one, but a fun one. nonetheless. A very pop culture version of what happened.
Sal Rodriguez:You know what this is? This is dB Cooper going meta.
Jason Connell:That's exactly what this is. So, those of you out there who have heard of, well, there's the movie Thor. Okay. Sure. big blockbuster movie, you know, has the big lead. What's his name?
Sal Rodriguez:That's Liam Hemsworth. Or is that Chris Hemsworth. Chris Hemsworth Chris, Chris, the brothers
Jason Connell:and Kenneth Branagh. I know directed the first one. Maybe he did others. So I saw the first one. The theater. Yeah, a lot of fun. Really? Well,
Sal Rodriguez:I've seen it. I've seen one or two. They start to run together. Yeah. Then I
Jason Connell:saw the second one is like okay, not as good. But in the movie. I enjoyed all aspects of the great acting, but I really liked this character named
Sal Rodriguez:Loki. Oh, yeah. And he's gotten really big. Really big played
Jason Connell:by Tom Hiddleston. I always liked him. And all sudden he's Thor's brother, but he's always up to no good. So he was in Thor in 2011. He was in Thor The Dark World and 2013 He was in Thor Ragnarok in 2017. And then there's a new one coming out Thor love and thunder and 2022. I just saw that on IMDb. So I didn't know about but his character is fantastic. Love that, by the way. Well now news to me, because I don't watch the show. But he has his own show. He being Loki TV series on Disney plus. And it takes place after the events of Avengers end game. So that's where we are season one came out 2021 And there's an homage seem about dB Cooper and season one episode one glorious purpose came out June 9 2021. And basically the mystery of DB Cooper was never solved. But according to Loki. That's because there was no Dan Cooper. It was the god of mischief making good on a bet he lost with his adopted brother Thor. Okay, all right. All right. So then I watch this scene. I didn't watch the episode I watched this same. And so it's everything that was in my mind, as we talked about and read about dB Cooper. Because you know, we got the information but it's like you have to kind of piece it together as a different time. I always envision it like something like out of Catch Me If You Can because he's on airplanes a lot in that movie. Leonardo DiCaprio is a deadhead and he's fly with pan-am are something out of Ocean's 11. And it's got that madmen appeal set era. And then this scene which they recreate is fascinating. I love it's not very long. It's just over a minute. But why don't you set the scene up and I'll, I'll try my best at some of the dialogue is not very long at all, like I said, but it really just encapsulates what we just set up in the beginning.
Sal Rodriguez:Yes, and this scene can be accessed on YouTube and in the clip just about Yeah, about a minute and a half really quick. beautifully shot.
Jason Connell:It looks really they got some money over there, doesn't it?
Sal Rodriguez:It made me this minute and a half made me wish that they had actually made an entire film. Yeah, have
Jason Connell:him come up to the counter have been pay with$20 bills. Exactly. I agree. I just wanted more. Yeah,
Sal Rodriguez:I did. So the attendant says to the man, we don't know who he is, at first.
Jason Connell:No way. It was set up the whole scene like what are we looking at? Because we just come in? We're inside an
Sal Rodriguez:airplane. Yeah, we're inside an airplane and we see a man sitting. Right we don't know who he is. We see a man
Jason Connell:happily dressed man something out of madmen. So I
Sal Rodriguez:guess that shows us the era and then we have a lovely flight attendant walk over. And back in those days. They have been called a stewardess stewardess. So the stewardess walked over.
Jason Connell:She got the whole outfit on though sell. It's like it was a different era. She like hat on and the whole bit it was just, that's what I love. It's the nostalgia, they nail the nostalgia. They were more formal back very formal. Well, flying was a big deal. And they don't even show other customers. It's not like that typical airplane shot where like, we've seen it a million times. No, they just focus and we always see is her and him and this shot and this high quality, sensationalized version of being on an
Sal Rodriguez:airplane. Yeah, that's all we needed to see. We just needed to That's it. Yeah.
Jason Connell:And why don't you take the attendant and I'll be dB Cooper in this setup. The attendant
Sal Rodriguez:says bourbon and soda. Thank you. Absolutely. Is there anything else I can do for you, sir?
Unknown:I suppose we'll find out. Won't we? Miss? Yes, Mr. Cooper? You might want to take a look at that. No, I have a bomb.
Sal Rodriguez:That's a good accent. Yeah, because Thomas Hiddleston right. That's Tom. He doesn't Tom Hiddleston is British. But the original DB Cooper was not not but plays better if he's British. Yeah. Well, it goes with the look it he looks great. I've told you this before. I always when somebody has a British accent. It makes it a word like I believe them. I believe what they're saying more if they have to have a British accent. Yeah, we're all leaning in.
Jason Connell:You know, we're like, honestly, EF Hutton said, huh? Yeah, I totally agree. And so basically, that's the quick setup. And then we kind of cut back in time because this scene is intercut with it's kind of a flashback. He's sitting with Owen Wilson. And they're, they're kind of watching the scene, like an interrogation room Exactly. Like hey, you did this. What's this all about? And then we go into it. So now when we come back in dB Cooper now has this bag of money, his I'm assuming it's the $200,000 and the waitress waitress listened to me. The stewardess is giving I was gonna call it flight attendant, you made me switch my words. The stewardess is giving him the money, which I don't think that even happened, I don't think but artistic liberty and we've already met these two people. So stick with that. And so he says, See again someday. Now I wonder if Loki actually sees her again in the future. But that's we'll see. Maybe we have to watch the series now. And then he churns and he's got one of his four parachutes on her hell maybe he has all four on sale I don't even know or maybe no parachutes because Loki is not going to need a parachute. And he goes to the back of the plane and you mentioned this before we started recording this is the one thing that's not entirely accurate because why?
Sal Rodriguez:Well, because you and I at this point are fairly familiar with Yeah, DB Cooper case? Yes. So even though it's beautifully shot in this little clip here we see him jump out of the plane is a little bit of a freefall. Do we see the parachute deploy? No. Okay, we know so well. We seem to jump out and but the first thing I realized Yeah, it looks fantastic. But the actual DB Cooper in the actual case in 1971 did jump out at night. I ended the rain. Yeah, he jumped out under horrible circumstances. It wouldn't maybe have looked as pretty as this. jumps out. You don't know when Loki jumps out. It looks great. But actually DB Cooper did it under more dangerous circumstances. Yeah,
Jason Connell:I don't remember the rain but I know it was night and you wouldn't see them and that was the
Sal Rodriguez:whole point reign of am I Mandela affecting the DVD? I think
Jason Connell:you just think that part of the country's always raining poor
Sal Rodriguez:because of Washington. Yeah. And all that okay. So it was for sure night, but he did it
Jason Connell:at night. So he couldn't be seen because jets were up there, right plans are up there but they had no visual they can't see him. He's just gonna be monitored blip and then he also says brother Haim down, you better be ready, because he's gonna go and basically as he jumps out, and he just gets zapped I guess someone was gonna pull him away. But so money goes everywhere.
Sal Rodriguez:Yes, yes. Which sort of explains the urban legends about it. The money that has been found because there have been pieces of money found here and there. There was one case of a kid found a fair amount of money. Somewhere near the river. Got to keep it. Yeah, he got to keep some of it, which you and I found quite strange. Yeah. So what is this? The idea is to tell us that Loki just kind of did this as a prank. He didn't need the money. Obviously, he's
Jason Connell:the God of mischief. So he probably invented this thing to do some funny heist. We're still talking about it today. This is 50 years old, right? are talking about it today? Because it's that bizarre. And so who better to pull it off? Then this guy, so I love that they went here. I had no idea and watch the show. This happened in June. So thank you moose for putting this on my radar. I may have never found out. I've been waiting because it was a documentary that came out right when we recorded the episode, our first episode, which was in December of 2020. So and then the show didn't come out. That's a crime show didn't start until 2021. So I keep thinking, Oh, there'll be some forensic team that solves the DB Cooper case. So I was half thinking like, oh, they did it. But no, it's not to be it's pop culture. It's very meta, as you said. And if that's not enough, then I went on to read an article out of inverse by Darius Johnston. And the article was entitled, Mischief Managed DB Cooper reveals how Loki is reinventing a classic sci fi trope and I know you like that word. So I love and so here's what the article says. And I'm telling you this this was blowing me away just as much. Back in 2013, there was an article stating that what if the AMC series madmen, a show very dear to my heart, loved it, loved the whole show, was built into a shock reveal that suave ad man Don Draper played by Jon Hamm was none other than dB Cooper. After all, he worked for an ad agency called Sterling Cooper, an agency that was fighting to represent an aviation company.
Sal Rodriguez:And it's true that you so you knew about all this as a fan of the show. No,
Jason Connell:no, no, I didn't know this. I didn't read this, then I read this now. But I do know that they're trying to represent an airline. And Don Draper was like the ad Wizkid. So. And all of this was bolstered by plain imagery used and publicity for the series. And then there's the opening sequence of the show, which I do know very well, which is a man like Nene, and he's falling from the sky. And it all seemed truly convincing. But alas, Don Draper didn't jump out of an airplane, as dB Cooper, and the last seconds of the series. Instead, they have Don Draper create the world's greatest coke commercial, which is amazing. So he's somewhere in California, he's taken to like meditation and mindfulness. And then he comes up with that classic coke commercial with all the different races and religions and people and they sing the coke and we're like, Coke commercial.
Sal Rodriguez:Let me try it. I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. I'd like to buy the world.
Jason Connell:So good. So they let Don Draper go out with a bang that happened. They played the whole commercial after the end of the season, because he's in a state of calmness, clarity, and he's like, being light bulb goes off. And then we see that commercial so they let him go out with that. And it's fantastic. Right? That's how the season the series, I should say, ends. Yes. But Loki picks things up where madmen left off. So had they gone that route? I mean, they could have Sal maybe in the writers room. They're like, This is it. We have Don Draper go to the counter and watch airline again.
Sal Rodriguez:Northwest orient airlines.
Jason Connell:They should almost do like an outtake with Jon Hamm as well. And because he looks the part he could be the guy is very suave has the charm and has the looks. I could see it now.
Unknown:Hello, so you're looking quite dapper. And your suit and your little tie there? What can I get you to drink? I'll take a Berman and soda. Thank you. All right, Miss. Excuse me. I've got a bomb on this flight. What was that sir? I've got a bomb on this flight. A bomb. Oh my god. What are your demands? On a $200,000 for parachutes at a refueling station at Seattle Tacoma. All right, let's see what we can do about that. Here's your drink. Here y'all Miss Keep the change. Or Thank you. Quite nice gentleman that man is.
Jason Connell:But anyway, I love that this show did it. They did it. Great. You and I just want to see more.
Sal Rodriguez:Well, this opens up a whole can of worms because now I'm wondering where else DB Cooper appears in other media, Toad or other urban legends. Other folklore. I would love to know there's probably lots of stuff out there. We don't even know about.
Jason Connell:Yeah, yeah. Well, this was brilliantly done and executed. And I'm just glad to come back. So we may in the future have another dB Cooper hijack heist update, if there's more information, or someone else does something this cool. Yes, but I had to do it. It was a first kind of episode for us on this show. But if no other reason, but to come back and sing the praises of DB Cooper,
Sal Rodriguez:no, I think it's great. I love part of the idea of meta is you have things overlapping so you have the original original crime, then you have a recreation of it. And then you have us talking about it on our podcast. And now all we need is maybe like some guys to make a parody of us talking about dB Cooper, you know, that would be that would fulfill like the circle of meta.
Jason Connell:I liked that actually. While there was even the TV show with Leonard Nimoy back in the day right
Sal Rodriguez:search of is search of had had at least one episode in search of us to go look for Bigfoot and all that stuff. And yeah, they had at least one episode dedicated to the mystery of DB Cooper because again, a mystery unsolved to this day until Loki Of course,
Jason Connell:unbelievable, on believable and I know I kept this kind of a secret from you. So you're gonna love this crime? Little did you know, there's no way you had an idea that you revisit and
Sal Rodriguez:I was thinking how could you do yourself? Because our last episode was a talk a lot about toys and Toys R Us. Yeah. And I was saying how can you out do that? You know, what are you gonna do? It's going to impress me more than that. But I'll tell you this is this is huge.
Jason Connell:There was also the 1981 movie which I'd never seen. I saw the trailer the pursuit of DB Cooper treat Williams that might be worth visiting. That may be something to watch and bring it up on Let's Talk movies or Yeah, sounds interesting.
Sal Rodriguez:I'd like to see that. You know, you can find a lot of old movies on YouTube. You can watch them free. Yeah.
Jason Connell:Well, Robert Duvall is in that movie as well as treat William so great cast right there. But anyway, that's all I got. I had to come back and discuss this with you and encourage everyone to go back to our first episode ever. And listen to it. Enjoy it. Heck, watch Loki. Right. Yeah, so litter Nemo, I seek out the Leonard Nimoy TV series or the movie I just mentioned, but hell are even go hunt and join a team trying to solve the DB Cooper case because I know there's probably a big crew doing that now.
Sal Rodriguez:Yeah, yeah. Again, I think biggest heist no casualties unsolved. Name a crime better than that. I cannot sell. Yeah, and shout out to Tom Hiddleston. Yeah, he's absolutely Fanti did a fantastic job
Jason Connell:really good. So unlock your confidence and always use the right tools for the job with manscaped
Sal Rodriguez:and get 20% off and free shipping with the code. That's a crime@manscaped.com.
Jason Connell:So thank you so much for listening. And please be sure to subscribe to the that's a crime podcast as well as the that's a crime YouTube Live Channel. You can also really help us by giving the show a five star rating on Apple podcast.
Sal Rodriguez:And for all your listeners that enjoy sharing your thoughts. You can leave us a review on Apple podcasts, send us a direct message or post a comment on any that's a crime social media platform.
Jason Connell:We also highly recommend checking out our other podcast and visiting just curious media.com
