24 November 1971: An unidentified air pirate calling himself "Dan Cooper" hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 with a bomb threat; Cooper received his demanded ransom of $200,000, then escaped by parachuting from the Boeing 727's aft airstair over southern Washington; $5,880 of the ransom was recovered in 1980, but neither Cooper nor the rest of the money has ever been located.
Lies, Damned Lies, & the News
The air pirate who hijacked Flight 305 used the alias "Dan Cooper." Indefensibly shoddy journalism resulted in the incorrect alias "D. B. Cooper" receiving widespread circulation & thus widespread currency. One minor example of how the public trust has been systematically betrayed by our supposed betters in the Fourth Estate for longer than I've been alive. I'm not cynical about journalists & journalism, I've simply been paying attention.
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