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- Episode 6
D.B. Cooper: One Jump. $200,000. Gone.Episode 61:35
The File the FBI Withheld in Full
The paper trail reaches an active FBI file protected from public view—and then points toward another file that no longer exists.
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Transcript
Dan Cooper hijacked a plane, received a ransom payment, and jumped from it by parachute.
November 24th, 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper bought a one-way ticket.
Flight attendant Florence Schaffner received the note shortly after takeoff. Schaffner initially assumed it was a telephone number.
The note indicated an explosive device, and ordered Schaffner to sit beside him.
Another attendant, Tina Mucklow, described Cooper as nice, not cruel or nasty.
Cooper demanded $200,000 for every passenger's safe return.
Some surviving records sit at Seattle's National Archives, within Record Group 118.
When the Archives page was published, many collection records had not yet been digitized.
The FBI kept an active investigation for 45 years before suspending it in 2016.
November 2023, Archivist Colleen Shogan examined FBI case files in Seattle.
Miss, you'd better look at that note. I have a bomb.
A search for Cooper documents located one active file. The bureau withheld the entire file under FOIA Exemption seven(A).
A 2005 Washington federal court ruling upheld that exemption's continued use for Cooper documents.
The FBI said the second record was disposed of under its retention plan and schedules.
Where it leaves off
The search found an entry for another potentially responsive Cooper file—but the file itself had been destroyed.
Sources
- D.B. Cooper. U.S. Attorney’s Case File for the skyjacking case involving the alias “D.B. Cooper,” dated 1971. | National Archivesarchives.govprimary
- Society for American Archivists' article "Highlights from the National Archives’ Nationwide Holdings" | National Archivesarchives.govsecondary
- D. B. Cooper - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.orgsecondary
- Dr. Shogan’s Social Media Report: November 6–9, 2023 – This is the retired blog of the 11th Archivist of the United States Dr. Colleen Shogan. Comments are closed.aotus11.blogs.archives.govprimary
- of GOVERNMENTarchives.govprimary
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