D. B. Cooper is a media epithet used to describe an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing 727 on November 24, 1971, extorted a US$200,000 ransom, and parachuted to an unknown fate. He was never seen again, and only $5,880 of the ransom money has been found. The incident continues to influence popular culture, and has inspired references in books, film, and music.
Literature
Novels
James M. Cain's 1975 novel Rainbow's End is a fictional account of what might have happened to Cooper after he parachuted from the plane.
J.D. Reed's 1980 novelFree Fall was used as a basis for the 1981 film The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper.
Elwood Reid's 2004 novel D. B.: a novel is a fictionalized account of what supposedly happened to the real Cooper in the years following the hijacking, as a pair of FBI agents attempt to pick up his trail and arrest him. In one edition, the book jacket cover featured artwork derived from the FBI composite sketch of the real Cooper.
The 1998 novel Sasquatch by Roland Smith features a character named Buckley Johnson, who eventually admits that he is D. B. Cooper to the novel's protagonist, a boy named Dylan Hickock. In this story, Johnson says he committed the hijacking to pay for cancer treatments for his son.
Greg Cox's 2008 novel The 4400: The Vesuvius Prophecy features Cooper.
Comics
The Dilbert strip for January 17, 1991 featured Dogbert showing visitors a museum exhibit purporting to include the remains of Cooper.
The webcomic xkcd has a strip titled "D. B. Cooper", in which it was theorized that director Tommy Wiseau was D. B. Cooper, and had financed his infamous film The Room with the funds from the robbery.
A 1989 strip from Gary Larson's The Far Side shows "Ben & Vera's Rottweiler Farm" and a bunch of dogs looking up at a man with a parachute with the slogan "The Untold Ending of D.B. Cooper".
In the movie Without a Paddle, a group of three old friends , go on a camping trip to search for the treasure of D. B. Cooper to honor their recently deceased friend.
Television
A 1988 episode of Unsolved Mysteries focused on the skyjacker, where Florence Shaffner was interviewed. The show hired a composite artist to recreate Cooper, where the stewardess described him with a skinnier head and more elongated nose than the usual popular profile. Also studied was an airplane exit sign found in the Washington backcountry by a hunter and the $5,880 in marked bills found by a family while camping. Combined with failure to find a body, this lent credence to the theory that Cooper did not die on impact if he landed on the earth, but could have possibly succumb to drowning or hypothermia if he landed in the water.
In the fourth season of the series In Search of... dedicated an episode to the D.B. Cooper hijacking.
The television series NewsRadio featured a story arc in which station owner Jimmy James is believed to be Cooper. James was arrested after a green duffel bag believed to have been Cooper's was found. At the trial, Adam West confesses he is Cooper and that James had covered up for him.
On August 26, 2012, in an episode of the Leverage , entitled "The D.B. Cooper Job", the case is solved.
On January 11, 2017, an episode of Expedition Unknown, entitled "Cracking the D.B. Cooper Case", host Josh Gates attempted to solve the case.
Muse Watson portrays D.B. Cooper in the television series Prison Break
In the series Blacklist, Raymond talks about D.B. Cooper in EPISODE 11 SEASON 5
Music
Singer-songwriter Chuck Brodsky has a song titled "The Ballad of D. B. Cooper" on his 2006 CD, Tulips for Lunch.
Ska/Punk band Victims of Circumstance's second album, Roll the Dice, features a track titled "The Final Flight of D. B. Cooper".
Bill Mallonee's "The Ghosts that I Run With" is sung from the point of view of D. B. Cooper after years of hiding in the hills. It appears on Mallonee's 2011 release, The Power and the Glory.
The Kid Rock song "Bawitdaba" contains a reference to Cooper's stolen money.
The Mountain Goats' song "Rain in Soho" references Cooper with the lyric "No one broke D. B. Cooper's fall".
New York hip-hop artist MF Doom's single "Hoe Cakes" references Cooper with the lyric "MF Doom, He's like D.B. Cooper."
Other
The community of Ariel, Washington, one of the possible landing areas for Cooper, commemorates the incident with a celebration, held annually on the Saturday following Thanksgiving Day, called "D. B. Cooper Days."
D. B. Tuber is the name given to Anthony Curcio, who was responsible for one of the most elaborately planned armored car heists in history.
Fan speculation surrounding the show Mad Men was that there were subtle clues that it would end with Don Draper exposing himself as D.B. Cooper. Producers frequently denied such a plot, and the skyjacking was never depicted in the series.
