Part 46, page 149

Transcript

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Living with a Legend by SA Billy Bob Williams

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Webster's New World Dictionary includes, among its thousands of word definitions, many words which are of opposite meaning. The dictionary defines immortality as "lasting fame." It defines anonymity as "the quality or state of being anonymous (as through absence or lack of identity)." Through- out history, numerous criminal person- alities have been described by one or the other of these words, but few, such as "Jack the Ripper," qualified for both titles.

One such individual stepped through the door of a Boeing 727 on a stormy Thanksgiving eve in 1971. At the time the plane was 10,000 feet over southern Washington state, and the middle-aged man took with him $200,000 in cash. Possibly the first successful parachute hijacking of an American airliner had occurred, and the name D. B. Cooper would become a household word in the Pacific Northwest and known through- out the world.

The hijack took place shortly after Northwest Airlines Flight 305 departed the Portland, Oregon, International Airport en route to the Seattle-Tacoma Airport. A man, later found listed on the manifest as Dan Cooper, threatened a stewardess with what he claimed was a bomb. The plane landed at "Sea- Tac" where his demand for $200,000 and four parachutes was complied with. The passengers and several mem- bers of the crew were allowed to leave the plane, and at 7:46 p.m. the plane left "Sea-Tac" and flew toward Reno, Nevada. A short time later the hijacker, left alone in the cabin, is believed to have jumped, without boots, helmet, or protective clothing, into some of the roughest terrain on the North American Continent. On the night of his jump,

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SEATTLE RENTON TACOMA PUYALLUP WASHINGTON CENTRALIA CHEHALIS FLIGHT PATH PROBABLE BAILOUT POINT, 11/24/71 RANSOM BILLS FOUND, 2/10/80 VANCOUVER PORTLAND OREGON

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DB Cooper-18942