Specialists on this case will disagree with me, even the FBI will disagree––yet I think that a man by the name of Will Smith (no, not that one) looks suspiciously similar to Dan “D.B.” Cooper, the as-of-yet unidentified criminal behind one of the most known cold cases of all time.
Here’s some context.
On November 24, 1971, a man who identified as Dan Cooper hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines flight to Seattle, Washington. You may know him as “D.B. Cooper,” which was just a mistake by the media in the aftermath of the incident. However, this wasn’t just a normal hijacking. Dan Cooper may have been the greatest criminal of all time. First, he passed a note to the flight attendant that demanded $200,000 in cash and four parachutes. The note also said that he had a bomb. He showed the flight attendant a briefcase which had objects that resembled sticks of dynamite inside of it. After the passengers were dropped off at Seattle and Cooper’s needs were met, Cooper demanded to start a new flight to Mexico City. Somewhere above southwest Washington, Cooper did the impossible. He took the parachutes and parachuted off the plane into rainy terrain, never to be seen again.
Every crime always has some sort of evidence. The Cooper Hijacking is not an exception. In 1980, nine years after the crime, part of the ransom money was found near the Columbia River close to Vancouver, Washington. The money didn’t really give us much information about Cooper, and the rest of the money was never found. A big plot twist in Cooper’s hijacking is that there is a big chance that he didn’t come out of it alive. The weather was horrendous for parachuting when he jumped out of the plane; it was extremely windy and rainy. Cooper also didn’t have proper skydiving equipment other than the parachutes, and he was parachuting into forested terrain. FBI agents discovered Cooper’s tie and two out of the four parachutes. From these they got Cooper’s DNA (which is how his DNA was later compared with the DNA of suspects). Finally, the FBI also found a hair sample of Cooper and some of his cigarette butts. However, these pieces of evidence were not useful, as they contained no fingerprints and were later lost.
Even more exasperating is the number of suspects of this case: over 700 in fact! Luckily, the FBI managed to narrow it down a decent amount. Now, before I go into the list of every suspect, let me explain my process of elimination. Many criminals are known for changing facial and body features as disguise. However, changing eye color is simply not possible. Several witnesses recalled Cooper having brown eyes, and colored contacts weren’t a thing back then. Many suspects were eliminated because they didn’t have brown eyes. In addition, there are many more suspects than what I list in this article. However, the following suspects are by far the most prominent, not just in my opinion but also the FBI and several other Cooper enthusiasts. Just keep in mind that these aren’t the only people who could be Cooper.
Duane Weber
Duane Weber committed crimes in the past, and on his deathbed, he claimed to his wife that he was Cooper. Other than this confession, nothing else ties him to the hijacker.
Eliminated because of DNA tests.
Sheridan Peterson
Sheridan Peterson was a veteran and an experienced smokejumper. He matched the description of Cooper and was about the same age as him.
Eliminated because of DNA tests.
Richard Floyd McCoy Jr.
Richard F. McCoy Jr. is the FBI’s favorite to be D.B. Cooper. He committed a copycat hijack 5 months after Cooper’s, and McCoy also confessed to being Cooper.
Eliminated because of eye color.
Jack Coffelt
Jack Coffelt was a con-man and had a criminal past. In 1972, one year after the hijacking, he claimed to have been D.B. Cooper. He said that he landed in Mount Hood, Washington.
Could potentially be Cooper.
Vincent Petersen
A very rare particle was found on D.B. Cooper’s tie. Vincent Petersen was working in a company that manufactured this type of particle, and therefore was considered a suspect.
Eliminated because of eye color and appearance.
William J. Smith
Smith resembled Cooper. He worked at the railroads, and he had a grudge against airlines. He could parachute, and one of his highschool friends was named Dan Cooper (which could be where he got that name).
Could potentially be Cooper.
William Gossett
William Gossett was an experienced skydiver, and was obsessed with the Cooper case. He claimed to have the long-lost ransom money.
Eliminated because nothing else linked him to Cooper.
Joseph Lakich
Joseph Lakich looked extremely like D.B. Cooper. He is a suspect because he could’ve been exposed to the rare particle on Cooper’s tie (he worked at a manufacturing environment). He also had a grudge on the FBI.
Could potentially be Cooper.
L.D. Cooper
L.D. Cooper’s niece overheard her planning something “very mischievous” with her uncle. The next day, Flight 305 was hijacked, and L.D. came home with a bloody shirt.
Eliminated because of DNA tests.
All together, there are three suspects that still could be Cooper––that means that there is nothing to eliminate them yet. Let’s take a deeper dive into each of them.
Jack Coffelt
As mentioned earlier, Coffelt was a con-man and an ex-convict. In 1972, one year after the hijacking, he started claiming he was D.B. Cooper. He said that he landed in Mount Hood, Washington. He claimed to have injured himself and lost the ransom money. In addition, Coffelt’s photos resembled the sketches of D.B. Cooper, despite being older than Cooper at the time. Coffelt attempted––through his former cellmate James Brown––to sell his story to Hollywood. After Coffelt died, James Brown continued to try to sell Coffelt’s story, but got rejected.
William J. Smith
William J. Smith sure makes for a compelling D.B. Cooper suspect. He looked like Cooper in many ways. He fit the description of the hijacker, and had a fold of skin on his neck that witnesses say Cooper had too. Smith was extremely familiar with parachutes and flying, so he would have been able to survive. In addition, he worked at the railroads and had a sudden need for money due to the Lehigh Valley Railroad bankruptcy that caused layoffs and loss of pensions. Smith had a grudge on airlines, as they were making railroads obsolete. When a flight attendant asked Cooper why he was hijacking the plane, Cooper said that he had a grudge. Smith had a high school friend named Ira Daniel Cooper who went by Dan Cooper. This possibly is where Smith got the idea to be identified as “Dan Cooper.” Furthermore, Smith had excellent handwriting. The note that was given to the flight attendant was in good handwriting too. These are just a few of the reasons why Smith could be Cooper.
Joseph Lakich
Joseph Lakich’s daughter was killed less than two months before the hijacking, which resulted in him being angry at the FBI for failing to rescue her (his daughter, Susan Giffe, died as a result of messed-up hostage negotiations by the FBI). This may have been the grudge that Cooper was talking about to the flight attendant. Earlier in this article, I mentioned a rare particle on Cooper’s tie. Lakich could have been exposed to that particle at the time, as he was working in Nashville as a production supervisor at an electronics capacitor factory.
Out of the three suspects we took a deeper dive into, I think one of them is the most prominent. Can you guess who I think was Cooper?
It was…
William J. Smith!
Here’s why.
There was plenty of evidence that Smith was Cooper, and there was little to no evidence that he wasn’t. Although the FBI might disagree with me, none of the other suspects were just compelling enough. Smith had a motive, the wits, some experience, and the appearance to be Cooper. Even Richard Floyd McCoy, the most commonly accused suspect by researchers and the FBI’s favorite, was easily eliminated by eye color. In my humble opinion, William J. Smith was by far the most likely to be the great criminal himself. No disrespect to the FBI, by the way.
Whatever the case may be, it most definitely captured hundreds of thousands of people over time. There are eleven thousand people on a subreddit dedicated to the case alone. There are escape rooms, tattoos, and even Halloween costumes all based on the Cooper hijacking. But the one I wanted to tell you about is a group of sports fans who decided to bring the Cooper case into Major League Soccer (MLS). The Portland Timbers, a team in the MLS, brought a banner that said “We Just Have a Grudge” to their game against the Seattle Sounders, that also included the sketch of Cooper and a drawing of a plane and a skyjacker. They were referencing Cooper’s words after the flight attendant asked him why he was hijacking the plane. His exact words to the flight attendant were: “I don’t have a grudge against your airline, miss. I just have a grudge.”
I’m sure Cooper didn’t expect his grudge to make history–as well as a great mystery.
Idan Barziv is a 12-year-old writer who loves a good mystery. He’s also a musician, coder, and professional couch potato.
