Editing D. B. Cooper (section)

==={{anchor|Richard McCoy Jr.}}Richard McCoy===
{{Main|Richard McCoy Jr.}}
[[File:Richard McCoy, Jr..jpg|thumb|right|Richard McCoy Jr.]]
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.<ref name="timemag">{{cite news | title = The Real McCoy | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,943370-1,00.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070930122007/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,943370-1,00.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = September 30, 2007 | magazine = [[Time (magazine)|Time]] | date = April 24, 1972 | access-date = July 26, 2007 }}</ref> 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.<ref name="SkydiverHeld">{{cite news | agency = Associated Press | title = Skydiver Held as Hijacker; $500,000 Is Still Missing | work = [[The New York Times]] | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/10/archives/skydiver-held-as-hijacker-500000-is-still-missing-skydiver-held-as.html | page = 1 | date = April 10, 1972 | access-date = August 4, 2018 | archive-date = August 5, 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180805021810/https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/10/archives/skydiver-held-as-hijacker-500000-is-still-missing-skydiver-held-as.html | url-status = live }}</ref>{{sfn|Gray|2011b|pp=60–64}}

On April 7, 1972, McCoy staged the best-known of the copycat hijackings.<ref name="CrimeLibrary9">{{cite web | title = The D.B. Cooper Story: The Copycats | last = Krajicek | first = David | url = http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/scams/DB_Cooper/9.html | work = [[Crime Library]] | access-date = January 3, 2008 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080102145952/http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/scams/DB_Cooper/9.html | archive-date = January 2, 2008}}</ref> He boarded [[United Airlines]]' {{nowrap|Flight 855}} (a {{nowrap|Boeing 727}} 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.<ref name="nymagtimeline" /> 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.<ref>Famous Cases & Criminals. [https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/richard-floyd-mccoy FBI.gov] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160516043944/https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/richard-floyd-mccoy |date=May 16, 2016 }} Retrieved May 29, 2013</ref>

He was arrested on April 9 with the ransom cash in his possession and, after trial and conviction, received a 45-year sentence.<ref name="SkydiverHeld"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Motaher |first1=Maria |title=Richard Floyd McCoy, Jr. |url=https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/richard-floyd-mccoy-jr |website=Federal Bureau of Investigation |access-date=December 7, 2018 |language=en-us |archive-date=December 7, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181207102753/https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/richard-floyd-mccoy-jr |url-status=live }}</ref> Two years later, he escaped from [[Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary]] with several accomplices by crashing a garbage truck through the main gate.<ref>{{cite news | title = Widow of Man Linked in Book to Skyjacker D.B. Cooper Sues Authors, Provo Attorney |agency=Associated Press | page = B5 | date = January 18, 1992}}</ref> Tracked down three months later in [[Virginia Beach, Virginia|Virginia Beach]], McCoy was killed in a shootout with FBI agents.<ref name="CrimeLibrary9" /><ref>Funk, Marianne (February 21, 1992). McCoy's Widow Admits Helping in '72 Hijacking. [http://www.deseretnews.com/article/211317/MCCOYS-WIDOW-ADMITS-HELPING-IN-72-HIJACKING.html Deseret News Archive] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022172156/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/211317/MCCOYS-WIDOW-ADMITS-HELPING-IN-72-HIJACKING.html |date=October 22, 2012 }} Retrieved February 21, 2011.</ref>

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.<ref name="rhodes-calame">{{cite book |last1=Rhodes |first1=Bernie |last2=Calame |first2=Russell |date=1991 |title=D.B. Cooper: The Real McCoy |publisher=University of Utah Press |page= |isbn=0874803772}}{{page needed|date=July 2021}}</ref> 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.<ref name="CrimeLibrary9" /><ref name="SLT">{{cite news | last = Schindler | first = Harold| title = 25 Years Later, 'D.B' Remains Tied to Utah; Skyjacker Took Story To His Grave | work = [[The Salt Lake Tribune]] | date = November 24, 1996 }}</ref> A proponent of their claim was the FBI agent who killed McCoy. "When I shot Richard McCoy," he said, "I shot D. B. Cooper at the same time."<ref name="CrimeLibrary9" />

Although there is no reasonable doubt that McCoy committed the Denver hijacking, the FBI does not consider him a suspect in the Cooper case because of mismatches in age and description (e.g., McCoy was 29 years old, with projecting ears),{{sfn|Himmelsbach|Worcester|1986|p=82}}{{r|vault_52|page= 192}}<ref>Some notable examples, cited by Rhodes and Calame: Cooper's age was estimated by all witnesses as mid-40s, McCoy was 29 years old; most witnesses, including all three flight attendants, said Cooper had "dark brown, piercing" eyes, McCoy's eyes were light blue; Cooper's ears had no distinguishing characteristics, McCoy's ears stuck out so prominently that his nickname was "[[Dumbo]]", and he wore a scarf to conceal them during the Denver hijacking; Cooper drank bourbon and chain-smoked cigarettes, McCoy was an observant [[Mormonism|Mormon]] who did not smoke or drink alcohol; Cooper was described as having a raspy voice with no particular accent, McCoy had a noticeable southern accent, and a marked lisp due to surgical correction of a [[cleft palate]] in childhood. Rhodes & Calame (1991), pp. 86, 94, 96, 134, 145.</ref> skydiving skill much greater than thought to be possessed by the hijacker,<ref name=HelpSolve/> and credible evidence that McCoy was in Las Vegas on the day of the Portland hijacking,<ref name=nymagtimeline/> and at home in Utah the day after, having Thanksgiving dinner with his family.<ref name="CNN2011-08-01" /><ref name="ST2">{{cite news |last=Hamilton |first=Don |title=F.B.I. makes new plea in D.B. Cooper case |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/fbi-makes-new-plea-in-db-cooper-case/ |newspaper=[[The Seattle Times]] |date=January 1, 2008 |access-date=February 9, 2024 |archive-date=April 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412003136/https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/fbi-makes-new-plea-in-db-cooper-case/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In addition, all three of the stewardesses 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 wasn't 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.{{r|vault_24|page= 306 }} 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.{{r|vault_24|page= 317 }}

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.<ref>{{cite web | last=Gabbatt | first=Adam | title=After 50 years of mystery, siblings claim hijacker DB Cooper was their father | website=the Guardian | date=2024-11-30 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/30/db-cooper-plane-hijacking | access-date=2024-11-30}}</ref> Gryder claims to have handed this parachute over to the FBI, though the FBI have not confirmed this.<ref>{{cite web | last=Bedigan | first=Mike | title=DB Cooper's parachute may have just been found, breaking open 50-year-old cold case | website=The Independent | date=2024-11-28 | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/db-cooper-richard-mccoy-identity-fbi-parachute-evidence-b2655071.html | access-date=2024-11-30}}</ref>