Crosscut Now
Dec. 15, 2021 - Was D.B. Cooper a folk hero or terrorist?
12/15/2021 | 1m 15sVideo has Closed Captions
Mossback’s Northwest: Was D.B. Cooper a folk hero or terrorist?
Fifty years ago, a skyjacker parachuted from a jet with a briefcase full of ransom money and disappeared into the Northwest wilds.
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Crosscut Now is a local public television program presented by Cascade PBS
Crosscut Now
Dec. 15, 2021 - Was D.B. Cooper a folk hero or terrorist?
12/15/2021 | 1m 15sVideo has Closed Captions
Fifty years ago, a skyjacker parachuted from a jet with a briefcase full of ransom money and disappeared into the Northwest wilds.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship(upbeat music) - I'm Starla Sampaco in the Crosscut KCTS 9 Newsroom.
One of the Northwest's greatest mysteries is about a Skyjacker called D.B.
Cooper.
50 years ago, he parachuted from a Boeing 727 over southwest Washington at night with $200,000 of ransom money, and hasn't been seen since.
On "Mossback's Northwest," host Knute Berger retraces the heist.
Berger says Cooper's outrageous crime is not the oddest thing about the story.
Today, hijacking an airliner would be considered terrorism, but Cooper was regarded by many to be a folk hero.
Why?
Berger says 1971 was like the sixties.
There were anti-war protests and bombings.
Seattle was racked with the Boeing recession.
Social tumult had become a norm.
D.B.
Cooper somehow embodied a cool anti-establishment rebel, who many folks could envy, still talked about 50 years later.
I'm Starla Sampaco.
Find a new season of "Mossback's Northwest" on crosscut.com.
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Crosscut Now is a local public television program presented by Cascade PBS