Between 1971 and 2016, the FBI processed more than a thousand "serious suspects", including assorted publicity seekers and
deathbed confessors.
Ted Braden Theodore Burdette Braden Jr. (1928–2007) was a
U.S. Special Forces commando during the Vietnam War, master skydiver and convicted
felon. He was believed by many within the Special Forces community, both at the time of the hijacking and during subsequent years, to have been Cooper. Born in
Ohio, Braden first joined the military in 1944 at the age of 16, serving with the
101st Airborne during
World War II. He eventually became one of the military's best parachutists, often representing the
U.S. Army Air Force in international skydiving tournaments, and his military records list him as having made 911 jumps. During the 1960s, Braden was a team leader within the
Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MACVSOG), a classified commando unit of
Green Berets which performed unconventional warfare operations in Vietnam. He also served as a military skydiving instructor, teaching
high-altitude military parachuting (HALO) jumping techniques to members of
Project DELTA. Braden spent 23 months in Vietnam, conducting classified operations within both
North and
South Vietnam, as well as Laos and Cambodia. In December 1966, Braden
deserted his unit in Vietnam and made his way to the
Congo to serve as a
mercenary, but only stayed there a brief time before being arrested by CIA agents and taken back to the U.S. for a
court-martial. Despite having committed a
capital offense by deserting in wartime, Braden was given an honorable discharge and prohibited from re-enlisting in the military in exchange for his continued secrecy about the MACVSOG program. Braden was profiled in the October 1967 issue of
Ramparts magazine, wherein he was described by fellow Special Forces veteran and journalist
Donald W. Duncan as being someone with a "secret death wish" who "continually places himself in unnecessary danger but always seems to get away with it", specifically referring to Braden's disregard for military skydiving safety regulations. Duncan also claimed that during Braden's time in Vietnam, he was "continuously involved in shady deals to make money". Little is known of Braden's life after his 1967 discharge; at the time of the hijacking he was a truck driver for
Consolidated Freightways, which was headquartered in Vancouver, Washington, just across the Columbia River from Portland and not far from Cooper's suspected drop zone in Ariel, Washington. It is also known that he was investigated but never charged by the FBI in the early 1970s for stealing $250,000 in a trucking scam he had allegedly devised. In 1980, Braden was indicted by a federal grand jury for driving an 18-wheeler full of stolen goods from
Arizona to
Massachusetts; it is unknown whether there was a conviction in that case. Braden was arrested in Pennsylvania two years later for driving a stolen vehicle with fictitious plates and for having no driver's license. Braden was eventually sent to federal prison during the late 1980s, serving time in Pennsylvania, although the precise crime is unknown. Despite his ability as a soldier, Braden was not well liked personally and was described by a family member as "the perfect combination of high intelligence and criminality". From his time working covert operations in Vietnam, he likely would have possessed the then-classified knowledge about the ability and proper specifications for jumping from a Boeing 727, perhaps actually having done it on MACVSOG missions. Physically, Braden's military records list him at , which is shorter than the height description of at least given by the two flight attendants, but this military measurement would have been taken in his stocking feet and he may have appeared somewhat taller in shoes. Braden possessed a dark complexion from years of outdoor military service, had short dark hair, a medium athletic build and was 43 years of age at the time of the hijacking, which are features all in line with the descriptions of Cooper.
Kenneth Christiansen In 2003, Minnesota resident Lyle Christiansen watched a television documentary about the Cooper hijacking and became convinced that his late brother Kenneth (1926–1994) was Cooper. The next year, an episode of the
History series ''
Brad Meltzer's Decoded'' summarized the circumstantial evidence linking Kenneth Christiansen to the Cooper case. Christiansen enlisted in the
U.S. Army in 1944 and was trained as a paratrooper. World War II had ended by the time he was deployed in 1945, but he made occasional training jumps while stationed in
Allied-occupied Japan during the late 1940s. After leaving the army, he joined Northwest Orient Airlines in 1954 as a laborer stationed at the company's Far East stopover on
Shemya Island in the
Aleutians. He subsequently became a flight attendant, and then a
purser, based in Seattle.
Jack Coffelt Bryant "Jack" Coffelt (1917–1975) was a
con man, ex-convict and purported government informant who claimed to have been the chauffeur and confidant of
Abraham Lincoln's last undisputed descendant, great-grandson
Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith. In 1972, Coffelt began claiming he was Cooper and attempted through an intermediary – a former cellmate named James Brown – to sell his story to a
Hollywood production company. Coffelt claimed he had landed near
Mount Hood, about southeast of Ariel, injuring himself and losing the ransom money in the process. Photos of Coffelt bear a resemblance to the composite drawings, although he was in his mid-50s in 1971. He was reportedly in Portland on the day of the hijacking and sustained leg injuries around that time which were consistent with a skydiving mishap. Coffelt's account was reviewed by the FBI, which concluded that it differed in several details from information that had not been made public and was therefore a fabrication. Brown continued peddling the story long after Coffelt died in 1975. Multiple media venues, including the
CBS News program
60 Minutes, considered and rejected the story.
Lynn Cooper Lynn Doyle "L. D." Cooper (1931–1999), a leather worker and
Korean War veteran, was proposed as a suspect in July 2011 by his niece, Marla Cooper. As an eight-year-old, she recalled Cooper and another uncle planning something "very mischievous", involving the use of "expensive
walkie-talkies", at her grandmother's house in
Sisters, Oregon, southeast of Portland. The next day, Flight 305 was hijacked; and though the uncles ostensibly were turkey hunting, L. D. Cooper came home wearing a bloody shirt—he said it was the result of an auto accident. In August 2011,
New York magazine published an alternative witness sketch, reportedly based on a description by Flight 305 eyewitness Robert Gregory, depicting horn-rimmed sunglasses, a "russet"-colored suit jacket with wide lapels and
marcelled hair. The article observed that L. D. Cooper had wavy hair that looked marcelled (as did Duane Weber). The FBI announced that no fingerprints had been found on a guitar strap made by L. D. Cooper. One week later, they added that his DNA did not match the partial DNA profile obtained from the hijacker's tie, but acknowledged that there is no certainty that the hijacker was the source of the organic material obtained from the tie. After discharge, Dayton worked with explosives for construction work and aspired to a professional airline career, but could not obtain a commercial pilot's license. Dayton had
gender reassignment surgery in 1969, and changed her name to Barbara; she is believed to be the first person to have had this type of surgery in Washington. Dayton claimed to have staged the hijacking two years later, presenting as a man, in order to "get back" at the airline industry and the FAA, whose insurmountable rules and conditions had prevented her from becoming an airline pilot. Dayton said that the ransom money was hidden in a
cistern near
Woodburn, Oregon, a suburban area south of Portland. She eventually recanted the entire story, ostensibly after learning that hijacking charges could still be brought. She also did not match the physical description particularly closely.
William Gossett William Pratt Gossett (1930–2003) was a
Marine Corps, Army and Army Air Force veteran who had military service in Korea and Vietnam. His military experience included jump training and wilderness survival. Gossett was known to be obsessed with the Cooper hijacking. According to Galen Cook, a lawyer who has collected information related to Gossett for years, he once showed his sons a key to a
safe deposit box in
Vancouver, British Columbia, which he claimed contained the long-missing ransom money. The FBI has no direct evidence implicating Gossett and cannot reliably place him in the
Pacific Northwest at the time of the hijacking. Special Agent Carr said: "There is not one link to the D. B. Cooper case, other than the statements [Gossett] made to someone."
Joe Lakich Joe Lakich (1921–2017) was a retired U.S. Army Major and Korean War veteran whose daughter Susan Giffe was killed less than two months before the hijacking, as a consequence of a botched hostage negotiation conducted by the FBI. The events culminating in the death of Lakich's daughter would be studied by hostage negotiators for decades as an example of what not to do during a hostage situation. He and his wife later sued the FBI, and ultimately an appeals court ruled in their favor, holding that the FBI acted negligently during the hostage negotiation. It is speculated that few people during that era would have contact with such materials, and that Cooper may have worked in a manufacturing environment working on electronics as engineer or manager. When the hijacking occurred, Lakich was working in Nashville as a production supervisor at an electronics capacitor factory and would have likely been exposed to the materials found on the tie. When Cooper was asked by Tina Mucklow why he was committing the hijacking, he replied: "It's not because I have a grudge against your airlines, it's just because I have a grudge." It is believed by some that this "grudge" was Lakich's anger toward the FBI for their failed efforts at rescuing his daughter less than two months earlier.
John List John Emil List (1925–2008) was an accountant and war veteran who murdered his wife, three teenage children and 85-year-old mother in
Westfield, New Jersey, 15 days before the Cooper hijacking, withdrew $200,000 from his mother's bank account and disappeared. He came to the attention of the Cooper task force due to the timing of his disappearance, multiple matches to the hijacker's description, and the reasoning that "a fugitive accused of
mass murder has nothing to lose". After his capture in 1989, List denied any involvement in the Cooper hijacking: no substantial evidence implicates him, and the FBI no longer considers him a suspect. List died in prison in 2008.
Ted Mayfield Theodore Ernest Mayfield (1935–2015) was a U.S. Special Forces veteran, pilot, competitive skydiver, and skydiving instructor. He served prison time in 1994 for
negligent homicide after two of his students died when their parachutes failed to open, and was later found indirectly responsible for 13 additional skydiving deaths due to faulty equipment and training. In 2010, he was sentenced to three years'
probation for piloting an airplane 26 years after losing his pilot's license and rigging certificates. He was suggested repeatedly as a suspect early in the investigation, according to FBI Agent Ralph Himmelsbach, who knew Mayfield from a prior dispute at a local airport. He was ruled out, based partly on the fact that he telephoned Himmelsbach less than two hours after Flight 305 landed in Reno to volunteer advice on standard skydiving practices and possible landing zones, as well as information on local skydivers.
Richard McCoy Richard McCoy Jr. (1942–1974) was an Army veteran who served two tours of duty in Vietnam, first as a demolition expert and later with the
Green Berets as a helicopter pilot. After his military service, he became a
warrant officer in the
Utah National Guard and an avid recreational skydiver, with aspirations of becoming a Utah State Trooper. On April 7, 1972, McCoy staged the best-known of the copycat hijackings. He boarded
United Airlines' (a with aft stairs) in
Denver, Colorado, and brandishing what later proved to be a paperweight resembling a hand grenade and an unloaded pistol, he demanded four parachutes and $500,000. McCoy was arrested on April 9 with the ransom cash in his possession. After trial and conviction, he received a 45-year sentence. Two years later, he escaped from
Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary with several accomplices by crashing a garbage truck through the main gate. Tracked down three months later in
Virginia Beach, McCoy was killed in a shootout with FBI agents. In their 1991 book,
D.B. Cooper: The Real McCoy, parole officer Bernie Rhodes and former FBI agent Russell Calame asserted that they had identified McCoy as Cooper. They cited obvious similarities in the two hijackings, claims by McCoy's family that the tie and mother-of-pearl tie clip left on the airplane belonged to McCoy, and McCoy's own refusal to admit or deny that he was Cooper. A proponent of their claim was the FBI agent who killed McCoy and said, "When I shot Richard McCoy, I shot D. B. Cooper at the same time." skydiving skill much greater than thought to be possessed by the hijacker, In addition, all three of the cabin crew from the Cooper hijacking were shown photographs of McCoy and agreed that he was not their hijacker. They were even able to point to specific differences in the two men, specifically that Cooper's nose was not as broad as McCoy's, that Cooper had more hair than McCoy, and that Cooper's ears did not protrude as much as McCoy's. McCoy's photo was also shown to the ticket agent who sold Cooper his ticket, the gate agent, and the passenger seated closest to Cooper (Bill Mitchell), and they too concluded that McCoy and Cooper were not the same. In 2024, McCoy's two children publicly stated that their father had been D. B. Cooper after a parachute was found by YouTuber Dan Gryder on the property formerly owned by McCoy's mother. Gryder claims to have handed this parachute over to the FBI, though the FBI has not confirmed this.
Sheridan Peterson Sheridan Peterson (1926–2021) served with the Marine Corps during World War II and was employed later as a technical editor at Boeing, based in Seattle. Investigators became interested in Peterson as a suspect soon after the skyjacking because of his experience as a
smokejumper and love of taking physical risks, as well as his similar appearance and age (44) to the Cooper description. His involvement in the
civil rights movement and assisting refugees in Vietnam during the Vietnam War could have potentially radicalized him to pursue hijacking. Peterson often teased the media about whether he was really Cooper. Entrepreneur Eric Ulis, who spent years investigating the crime, said he was "98% convinced" that Peterson was Cooper; when pressed by FBI agents, Peterson insisted he was in Nepal at the time of the hijacking. He died in 2021. Ulis has since withdrawn his allegation that Peterson could have been Cooper.
Robert Rackstraw Robert Wesley Rackstraw (1943–2019) was a retired pilot and ex-convict who served on an army helicopter crew and other units during the Vietnam War. He came to the attention of the Cooper task force in February 1978, after he was arrested in Iran and
deported to the U.S. to face explosives possession and
check kiting charges. Several months later, while released on bail, Rackstraw attempted to fake his own death by radioing a false
mayday call and telling controllers that he was bailing out of a rented airplane over
Monterey Bay. Police later arrested him in
Fullerton, California, on an additional charge of
forging federal pilot certificates; the airplane he claimed to have ditched was found, repainted, in a nearby hangar. Cooper investigators observed his physical resemblance to Cooper composite sketches even though he was only 28 in 1971, In 2016, Rackstraw was featured as a suspect by a History channel program, along with a book. On September 8, 2016,
Thomas J. Colbert, the author of the book, and attorney
Mark Zaid filed a lawsuit to compel the FBI to release its Cooper case file by the
Freedom of Information Act. In 2017, Colbert and a group of volunteer investigators uncovered what they believed to be "a decades-old parachute strap" at an undisclosed location in the
Pacific Northwest. This was followed later in 2017 with a piece of foam, which they suspected was part of Cooper's parachute backpack. In January 2018, Tom and Dawna Colbert reported that they had obtained a confession letter originally written in December 1971 containing codes that matched three units Rackstraw was a part of while in the Army. One of the Flight 305 flight attendants reportedly "did not find any similarities" between photos of Rackstraw from the 1970s and her recollection of Cooper's appearance. Rackstraw's attorney termed the renewed allegations "the stupidest thing I've ever heard", and Rackstraw himself told
People magazine, "It's a lot of [expletive], and they know it is." Rackstraw said to Colbert, "I told everybody I was [the hijacker]", before explaining the admission was a stunt. He died in 2019.
Walter Reca Walter R. Reca (1933–2014) was a former military paratrooper and intelligence operative. He was proposed as a suspect by his friend Carl Laurin in 2018. In 2008, Reca told Laurin via a recorded telephone call that he was the hijacker. Reca gave Laurin permission in a notarized letter to share his story after his death. He also allowed Laurin to tape their telephone conversations about the crime during a six-week period in late 2008. In over three hours of recordings, Reca shared details about his version of the hijacking. He also confessed to his niece, Lisa Story. From Reca's description of the terrain on his way to the drop zone, Laurin concluded that he landed near
Cle Elum, Washington. After Reca described an encounter with a dump truck driver at a roadside cafe after he landed, Laurin located Jeff Osiadacz, who was driving his dump truck near Cle Elum the night of the hijacking and met a stranger at the Teanaway Junction Café just outside of town. The man asked Osiadacz to give his friend directions to the café by telephone, presumably to be picked up, and he complied. Laurin convinced Joe Koenig, a former member of the
Michigan State Police, of Reca's guilt. Koenig later published a book on Cooper, titled
Getting The Truth: I Am D.B. Cooper. These claims have aroused skepticism. Cle Elum is well north and east of Flight 305's known flight path, more than north of the drop zone assumed by most analysts, and even further from Tina Bar, where a portion of the ransom money was found. Reca was a military paratrooper and private skydiver with hundreds of jumps to his credit, in contradiction to the FBI's publicized profile of an amateur skydiver at best. Reca also did not resemble the composite portrait the FBI assembled, which Laurin and Osiadacz used to explain why Osiadacz's suspicions were not aroused at the time.
William Smith In November 2018,
The Oregonian published an article proposing William J. Smith (1928–2018) of
Bloomfield, New Jersey, as a suspect. The article was based on research conducted by an army data analyst who sent his findings to the FBI in mid-2018. Smith, a New Jersey native, was a World War II veteran. After high school, he enlisted with the
U.S. Navy and volunteered for combat air crew training. After his discharge, he worked for the
Lehigh Valley Railroad and was affected by the
Penn Central Transportation Company's bankruptcy in 1970, the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history at that time. The article proposed that the loss of his pension created a grudge against the corporate establishment and transportation field, as well as a sudden need for money. Smith was 43 at the time of the hijacking. In his high school yearbook, a list of alumni killed in World War II lists an Ira Daniel Cooper, possibly the source for the hijacker's pseudonym. According to the analyst, aluminum spiral chips found on the clip-on tie could have come from a locomotive maintenance facility. Smith's information about the Seattle area may have come from his close friend Dan Clair, who was stationed at Fort Lewis during the war. The analyst observed that the man who claimed to be Cooper in
Max Gunther's 1985 book identified himself as "Dan LeClair". The FBI said that it would be inappropriate to comment on tips related to Smith. The FBI eliminated Weber as an active suspect in July 1998 when his fingerprints did not match any of those processed in the hijacked plane, and no other direct evidence could be found to implicate him. Later, his DNA also failed to match the samples recovered from Cooper's tie. ==Similar hijackings==