D. B. Cooper

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D. B. Cooper : biography

Gossett was widely known to be obsessed with the Cooper hijacking. He amassed a voluminous collection of Cooper-related news articles, and told one of his wives that he knew enough about the case to "write the epitaph for D.B. Cooper." Late in his life he reportedly told three of his sons, a retired Utah judge, and a friend in the Salt Lake City public defender’s office that he had committed the hijacking.Yet Another D. B. Cooper Suspect: William Pratt "Wolfgang" Gossett. Retrieved February 1, 2011. Photos of Gossett taken circa 1971 bear a close resemblance to the most widely circulated Cooper composite drawing. Retrieved February 2, 2011.

According to Galen Cook, a lawyer who has collected information related to Gossett for years, Gossett once showed his sons a key to a Vancouver, British Columbia safe deposit box which, he claimed, contained the long-missing ransom money. Gossett’s eldest son, Greg, said that his father, a compulsive gambler who was always "strapped for cash", showed him "wads of cash" just before Christmas 1971, weeks after the Cooper hijacking. He speculated that Gossett gambled the money away in Las Vegas.

In 1988 Gossett changed his name to "Wolfgang" and became a Catholic priest, which Cook and others interpreted as an effort to disguise his identity. Other circumstantial evidence includes testimony which Cook claims to have obtained from William Mitchell, a passenger on the hijacked aircraft, regarding a mysterious "physical detail" (which he will not divulge) common to the hijacker and Gossett.Craig, John S. "1971 D.B. Cooper Letters Linked to Suspect William Gossett," associatedcontent.com. Cook also claims to have found "possible links" to Gossett in each of four letters signed by "D.B. Cooper" and mailed to three newspapers within days after the hijacking, although there is no evidence that the actual hijacker created or mailed any of the letters."Letter to Gazette Checked in FBI Hunt for Skyjacker," Reno Evening Gazette, Nov. 29, 1971; "Words in ‘Skyjacker Note’ to Gazette Clipped from Modesto Bee, FBI Told," Reno Evening Gazette, Nov. 30, 1971; "Gazette Receives Hijacker ‘Letter’ – Second in a Week," Reno Evening Gazette, Dec. 3, 1971. For detailed analysis of letters see "1971 D.B. Cooper Letters Linked to Suspect William Gossett," associatedcontent.com.

The FBI has no direct evidence implicating Gossett, and cannot even reliably place him in the Pacific Northwest at the time of the hijacking.Spencer, Kent (November 21, 2011): Skyjacker D.B. Cooper ‘enjoyed the Grey Cup game,’ according to 1971 letter attributed to him. Retrieved December 1, 2011 "There is not one link to the D.B. Cooper case," said Special Agent Carr, "other than the statements [Gossett] made to someone."Was D.B. Cooper an Ogden Resident? (Jul 28, 2008) Retrieved February 1, 2011.

Richard Floyd McCoy, Jr.

McCoy 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, he said, of becoming a Utah State Trooper.

On April 7, 1972 McCoy staged the best-known of the so-called "copycat" hijackings (see above). He boarded United Airlines’ Flight 855 (a Boeing 727 with aft stairs) in Denver, and brandishing what later proved to be a paperweight resembling a hand grenade and an unloaded handgun, he demanded four parachutes and $500,000. After delivery of the money and parachutes at San Francisco International Airport, McCoy ordered the aircraft back into the sky and bailed out over Provo, Utah, leaving behind his handwritten hijacking instructions and his fingerprints on a magazine he had been reading.Famous Cases & Criminals. Retrieved May 29, 2013 He was arrested on April 9 with the ransom cash in his possession, and after trial and conviction, 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.Funk, Marianne (February 21, 1992). McCoy’s Widow Admits Helping in ’72 Hijacking. Retrieved February 21, 2011.