November 24th (2021) is the 50th anniversary of the only unsolved skyjacking in United States history… perpetrated by a person we know as DB Cooper. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is going to be 🧨🧨🧨🧨🧨🧨🧨🧨 this year!
On that day, the Resident Historian will “live tweet in real time” the caper; just as it played out in real life. Doug Kenck-Crispin has recently reviewed all of the released FBI investigative files on the crime; 62 pdfs of 21,583 redacted documents found on the FBI dot gov’s website. As the Bureau states, “This release consists of FBI’s investigative files from its search for “Cooper” between November 1971 and May 1992″ And the Resident Historian’s human eyes have viewed every. Fucking. Page. He will use the documents to create an accurate chronology and accounting of one of the most famous crimes in the Pacific Northwest, and YOU will get a chance to watch how it all played out – in Real Time (or “real time,” PLUS 50 years). You can follow along on his twitter RIGHT HERE.
And if that isn’t enough DB STUFF, he has also written a few articles to commemorate the anniversary. The first is a longer read, a kind of “DB Cooper 101” that presents all the facts of the caper. It also lays out a little ink on the importance of the DB Cooper Legend to the real fabric of The Pacific Northwest; how DB Cooper is really a part of all of us. How we own this story. This article is in Portland Monthly magazine; the Fall 2021 edition that is on the newsstands right now.
As of this writing, they haven’t posted a link on the PoMo website yet, so you should head out to any Seasons and get a copy, or you can steal one from any doctor’s office waiting room or any Portland-ish Airbnb. Once the article IS live on the inter webs, we’ll post a link RIGHT HERE. Additionally, the art work for the article is truly kick ass, so do your eyes a favor and nab yourself a crisp copy.
The second article is a piece for The Portland Mercury. In this selection, DKC will briefly lay out the basics of the heist, and then he will examine his favorite documents from the aformentioned FBI files, and you’ll get a chance to look at them yourself! The actual, real live documents. And like the PoMo piece, once that read is live, we’ll post a link RIGHT HERE.
We hope you’ll join us for some DB Cooper Stuff on November 24th, 2021. Bring the bourbon & 7, the smokes, and a big ol’ stack of twenties.
“Let’s get the show on the road!!”
(Lots of “tweaky” references in there, me thinks…)
And below is Leonard Nimoy’s classic “In Search Of…,” where they take on this very caper. It is actually a pretty good telling of the crime, that still stands up over time. Additionally, you get a set of brief interviews with some of the original witnesses, which is pretty rare, as so many of them are dead now. Give it a view; 27 minutes well spent!
