When a man in dark glasses and a crisp suit boarded a Northwest Orient flight on November 24, 1971, demanding $200,000 and four parachutes, the world was stunned. The daring criminal, later dubbed D.B. Cooper, vanished after leaping from the aft stairs, leaving behind a mystery that has endured for decades. In this roundup we explore the ten most intriguing people who could be the elusive hijacker, offering fresh angles on a case that still captivates investigators and armchair detectives alike.
10 People Who Could Be D.B. Cooper
10 Ted Mayfield
On the very day of the hijacking, six separate callers tipped off the FBI, pointing a finger at Ted Mayfield. This sky‑diving instructor carried a criminal résumé that featured armed robbery and even an aircraft theft, making him a prime suspect in the eyes of many. Though nobody could prove definitively that he was the mastermind, the accusations were loud and clear.
Mayfield’s name didn’t stay on the suspect list for long. In a twist that raised eyebrows, he himself rang the FBI just four hours after Cooper’s daring jump, offering a roster of local skydivers he believed could have been involved. The bureau interpreted this self‑initiated call as a clear exoneration.
Detractors, however, argued that a four‑hour window was ample time for Mayfield to fabricate a phone call as an alibi. The timing, they said, was suspiciously convenient for someone trying to clear his own name.
FBI investigators also reasoned that Cooper was likely an amateur parachutist rather than a seasoned pro. One of the four parachutes supplied to him was deliberately sewn shut, rendering it useless. Cooper’s decision to select that faulty chute as his reserve suggested he could not distinguish a functional parachute from a sabotaged one.
Ironically, in 1994 Mayfield faced his own tragedy when he was arrested for providing two skydiving students with defective parachutes, leading to their fatal descent. This later incident hinted that Mayfield truly struggled to spot a compromised chute, undermining the earlier FBI assessment of his innocence.
9 Richard Floyd McCoy Jr.
Within a year of Cooper’s infamous flight, fifteen copycats attempted similar hijackings, yet one of them—Richard McCoy—has long been suspected of being the original perpetrator himself. McCoy’s operation mirrored Cooper’s: he demanded a ransom, used a fake weapon, and escaped via the plane’s aft stairs.
Unlike Cooper, McCoy’s escape left enough forensic evidence—fingerprints—to secure his capture. He later escaped from prison using a counterfeit handgun fashioned from dental paste, only to be tracked down and killed in a Virginia shoot‑out after a three‑month manhunt.
One FBI agent who fired the fatal shot claimed a chilling certainty: “When I shot Richard McCoy, I shot D.B. Cooper at the same time.” The agent believed McCoy had incorporated details of Cooper’s plan that were never public, suggesting he might have been the true mastermind.
McCoy’s family vehemently disputes this theory, insisting he was in Nevada celebrating Thanksgiving with relatives when the original hijacking occurred. Critics argue the family’s alibi could be a protective cover, while others maintain that Cooper met his end in Virginia, not the Pacific Northwest.
8 Kenneth Christiansen
In 2003, Lyle Christiansen was watching a documentary on the D.B. Cooper case when a startling realization hit him: the mystery might revolve around his own brother, Kenneth. Kenneth had served as a paratrooper during World War II and later worked as a flight attendant for Northwest Orient.
Although Kenneth never amassed great wealth, a sudden influx of cash in 1972 enabled him to purchase a new home outright. When he succumbed to cancer in 1994, he called Lyle and cryptically said, “There is something you should know, but I cannot tell you.” Lyle respected the silence, but after Kenneth’s death he uncovered a bank account holding over $200,000 and a stash of gold coins.
Further intrigue emerged when Lyle discovered a folder of Northwest Orient newspaper clippings that stopped precisely on the day of the hijacking—no articles about the Cooper incident were present, despite being the airline’s biggest story at the time. Flight attendant Florence Schaffner, who had the most interaction with Cooper, recognized Kenneth’s photograph and declared him the best fit she’d seen, reinforcing the suspicion.
7 Barbara Dayton
The Forman family insists D.B. Cooper wasn’t a man at all, but a trans woman named Barbara Dayton. Born Robert, Barbara underwent gender‑affirming surgery in 1969 after a lifelong fascination with aviation. An eye condition barred her from joining the Air Force or commercial airlines, fueling frustration.
Facing financial hardship and emotional turmoil, Barbara allegedly plotted the hijacking, disguising herself in male attire while keeping a wig and blouse hidden beneath the suit. After the jump, she could quickly shed the suit and don the wig, rendering her almost unrecognizable.
Two weeks after the hijacking, a hospital worker noted Barbara’s unusually calm demeanor about money, despite recent unemployment. The Formans claim she confessed to being Cooper in 1977. If true, Barbara passed away in 2002, which would explain why the perpetrator has never been found.
6 William Gossett
Cooper instructed the pilots to descend to Seattle‑Tacoma Airport, a detail that hinted at intimate knowledge of the area. He also mentioned that McChord Air Force Base was a twenty‑minute drive away, suggesting a military background.
During the Vietnam era, the CIA employed Boeing 727s to drop agents and supplies behind enemy lines. FBI analysts speculated Cooper might have learned the parachuting technique from such operations. This theory aligns with William Gossett’s résumé: a veteran of both the Korean and Vietnam wars, trained in parachuting and wilderness survival.
Attorney Galen Cook publicized Gossett as a suspect, claiming the former soldier confessed to a friend that he had pulled off the hijacking. Though Cook’s story largely circulated in tabloids, Gossett’s own son corroborated the claim, noting his father’s compulsive gambling and a sudden windfall of cash in December 1971.
If Gossett were indeed Cooper, the money vanished quickly—his son recounted that he burned through the ransom in Las Vegas shortly after the heist.
5 Robert Rackstraw
Robert Rackstraw, a military man with parachuting expertise, was expelled from service in 1971 for falsifying his education, leaving him financially strained. He survived by floating $75,000 in fraudulent checks while living with his stepfather.
Shortly after Cooper’s jump, authorities issued a warrant for Rackstraw on the fake‑check charges. When police visited his home, they discovered his stepfather dead, shot in the head. By then, Rackstraw had already fled to Iran, where he remained until 1978 before returning to the United States.
Upon his return, Rackstraw faced questioning regarding both the murder and the hijacking. Although evidence was insufficient for conviction, his case lingered in the public imagination. The History Channel produced a documentary positioning him as Cooper, but leaked emails later revealed attempts to bribe him into a confession, promising lucrative book and movie deals.
Rackstraw declined the offer, and the network aired a program still asserting his guilt, keeping the speculation alive.
4 Richard Lepsy
Two years before the infamous hijacking, grocery‑store manager Richard Lepsy vanished, abandoning his family. He drove to the airport, left his car key in the ignition, boarded a plane, and never returned.For a year his family chased answers until November 25, 1971, when a police sketch of D.B. Cooper aired on television. The Lepsy family gasped, recognizing the likeness as their missing father.
They didn’t report it immediately. In 1993, Lepsy’s daughter Lisa experienced a bizarre encounter: two men claiming to represent John Hancock Insurance appeared at her door, asking if she had found her father. When she said no, they replied, “We just wanted to make sure you haven’t found your father.” The men’s identity remained unknown.
Lisa later supplied the FBI with a DNA sample, but the agency appears to have taken little action, offering no public comment and effectively closing the case.
3 Lynn Doyle Cooper
D.B. Cooper never used the initials “D.B.”—the name was a reporter’s typo. He actually called himself “Dan Cooper,” a nod to a French comic‑book hero who piloted a Royal Canadian Air Force plane and famously parachuted from the cockpit.
Lynn Doyle Cooper was a fervent fan of that comic, even keeping a copy thumbtacked to his wall. His niece, Marla, believes that Lynn and his brother Dewey orchestrated the hijacking. According to Marla, Lynn arrived home on the day of the heist with a blood‑stained shirt, claiming a car accident. When she pretended not to listen, she overheard him whisper to Dewey, “We did it, our money problems are over. We hijacked an airplane!”
The FBI compared Lynn’s DNA to a sample taken from the tie left behind by Cooper. No match was found, but the provenance of the tie sample remains uncertain, leaving room for speculation that Lynn could still be a contender.
2 Duane Weber
In 1980, eight‑year‑old Brian Ingram discovered a cache of charred cash along a Seattle riverbank. The money turned out to be the very ransom that Cooper had received, reigniting interest in the case.
Duane Weber had been at the exact spot four months earlier, claiming he wanted a solitary walk by the river—a convenient excuse for possibly depositing the money. His wife dismissed his story until three days before his death, when he confessed, “I am Dan Cooper.” She then found his margins filled with notes from a Cooper‑focused book.
Weber’s wife also uncovered his obsessive nightmares about leaving fingerprints on the aft stairs. Although a DNA test later ruled him out, the results were inconclusive, leaving a lingering doubt about his involvement.
1 A Boeing Employee
Cooper’s uncanny familiarity with the Boeing 727’s quirks set him apart from typical hijackers. He chose the safest aircraft for a jump and even corrected the pilots on technical details, leading many to suspect he had worked on the plane before.
Recent forensic analysis of the tie left behind revealed pure titanium particles, along with traces of cesium and strontium—elements rarely encountered outside a Boeing manufacturing environment in the early 1970s. Researchers argue these findings point to Cooper having been employed by Boeing or a subcontractor like Tektronix.
If the theory holds, the evidence could also implicate Lynn Doyle Cooper’s brother Dewey, who worked for Boeing and might have transferred the particles onto a tie that was later used by the hijacker. This tantalizing clue keeps the mystery alive and suggests a possible inside connection to the aircraft itself.