Also Coming...Local Legend

A date I failed to mention on the monthly planner is 11/24. On 11/24/1971 a man calling himself Dan Cooper boarded Northwest Orient Flight 305 from Portland to Seattle carrying only a briefcase. Once in the air Cooper handed a note to a stewardess saying he had a bomb in his briefcase and that he planned on setting it off unless he received $200,000 (not worth it by today's standards!) cash and parachutes upon landing in Seattle. I have to wonder at this point why nothing was done to thwart Cooper in Seattle? After his demands were met he redirected the plane to Mexico with specific instructions on speed (less than 150 knots) and altitude of less than 10,000 feet. With cash in hand and a parachute on his back he jumped out of the plane somewhere over the Oregon Washington border,never to be seen again...or not?
Though a criminal most people were compelled to root for him. Authorities maintain he probably died from the jump,but no body was found and there's evidence to suggest otherwise. In 1978 hikers near the area Cooper jumped found instructions for descending the rear stairwell of a Boeing 727. In 1981,an 8 year old boy found $5,880 that turned out to be part of Cooper's ransom money. In 1997 Duane Weber made a deathbed confession that he was Dan Cooper. In 1999 the FBI tested DNA belonging to a man named Lynn Doyle Cooper against a tie left behind on the plane...it didn't match.
Everyone loves a mystery and this one is a local favorite.