November 25, 1971 was more than just the day before Thanksgiving. On this day, one of the most celebrated crimes in American history took place.

At the Portland, Oregon airport, shortly before 2 PM, a man calling himself Dan Cooper walked up to the Northwest Orient Airlines ticket counter. He asked for a seat on the next flight to Seattle, and paid the $20 fare in cash.

The man was middle-aged, about 6 feet in height. He had olive skin, dark brown eyes and short dark hair. He wore a lightweight black raincoat and loafers, a dark business suit, a crisp white shirt, a narrow black tie and a pearl stick-pin. He had no luggage, but carried on an attaché case. Remember, there was no X-ray screening at the time.

Flight 305, using a Boeing 727, left on time with 37 passengers and 6 crew.

Not 10 minutes into the flight, the man handed a note to flight attendant Flo Schaffner. Thinking it was some sort of indecent proposal, Schaffner brushed the note aside. The man leaned closer to her and said, "Miss, you'd better look at that note--I have a bomb."

The hijacker wouldn't let the plane land in Seattle until he was assured that the items he demanded--four civilian style parachutes and $200,000--would be waiting for him. Four parachutes signaled that he might jump with hostages, thus all the parachutes had to be legit. The "civilian" designation meant that they would not open automatically, allowing him to free fall, rendering a tailing aircraft useless.

The plane finally landed, the items were brought on board, and everyone except the hijacker and four crew members disembarked.

Upon refueling and take off, the hijacker said he wanted to go to Mexico City, with the flaps at 15 degrees, and the aft air-stairs down, staying below 10,000 feet in altitude (allowing sufficient oxygen). At about 8:12 PM, instruments indicated that the man had jumped.

Early in the investigation, a reporter for United Press International spotted FBI agents at the Portland police station and asked a clerk what they were doing. "They're looking for a guy named Cooper," the clerk replied. "D.B. Cooper."

The reporter phoned in his information. While it was true that agents were checking out a man named D.B. Cooper, they cleared him almost immediately. Still, Dan Cooper became D.B. Cooper.

Despite an extensive search, all that was ever located was $5800 of the loot, found on a Columbia River sandbar, in February of 1980.

The authorities concluded that Cooper did not survive the jump, or at best, perished in the woods. On the other hand, many saw him as a guy who beat the system. The case officially remains unsolved.

But, let's continue the story.

On April 7, 1972, Richard Floyd McCoy Jr. hijacked a United Airlines flight traveling from Denver to Los Angeles. His modus operandi was nearly identical to Cooper's, right down to the wording of the note passed to the flight attendant. These details were not made public at the time. The only difference was that McCoy demanded $500,000.

McCoy bailed out near his hometown of Provo, UT, and was captured a few days later. So, it IS possible to survive a parachute jump from a passenger aircraft after all!

McCoy was sentenced to 45 years, but escaped from the federal prison in Lewisburg, PA. He was killed in a gunfight with FBI agents, never confirming or denying that he was Cooper.

Former FBI agent Russell Calame, who headed the McCoy investigation, is convinced that Cooper and McCoy are one and the same. Besides a similarity in physical appearance and m.o., members of McCoy's family identified a certain secret object as McCoy's property, that was left behind by Cooper during the Northwest hijacking.

Moreover, the white shirt, dark suit and narrow black tie were stereotypical attire of students at Brigham Young University, where McCoy was studying to become a police officer. Both hijackings were even committed during vacation periods at BYU.

What can we make of this?

Certainly, law enforcement had every reason at the time to disavow any connection between the crimes. Far better to label something as successful but self-destructive than publicize that it was done twice by the same perp. And, with people loving folk heroes and mythology, far better that Cooper simply never be caught.

For me, though, the similarity of the crimes, and Calame's assertions once he left the bureau, give strong credence to McCoy being Cooper, and the mystery being solved. Just don't bother telling that to the true believers.