Richard McCoy Jnr - DB Cooper copycat hijacker

[Dan Cooper]

Richard Floyd McCoy, Jr. (December 7, 1942 – November 9, 1974) was an American aircraft hijacker.

McCoy hijacked a United Airlines passenger jet for ransom in 1972. Due to a similar modus operandi, law enforcement officials named McCoy as a suspect for the still-unidentified "DB Cooper"," who committed his unsolved crime four months before McCoy.

On April 7, 1972, McCoy boarded United Airlines Flight 855 under the alias "James Johnson" during a stopover in Denver Colorado. The aircraft was a Boeing 727 with aft stairs (the same equipment used in the DB Cooper incident), via which McCoy escaped in mid-flight by parachute after giving the crew similar instructions as Cooper had.

McCoy had obtained a $500,000 cash ransom, and carried a novelty hand-grenade and an empty pistol. Police began investigating McCoy following a tip from a motorist. The driver had picked up McCoy hitch-hiking at a fast-food restaurant, where McCoy was wearing a jumpsuit and carrying a duffel bag. McCoy had also described to an acquaintance how easy it would be to carry out such a hijacking.

Following fingerprint and handwriting matches, McCoy was arrested two days after the hijacking. Ironically, McCoy was on National Guard duty flying one of the helicopters involved in the search for the hijacker.

Inside his house, FBI agents found a jumpsuit and a duffel bag filled with cash totaling $499,970.

McCoy claimed innocence, but was convicted of the hijacking and received a 45-year sentence.Once incarcerated at the Federal penitentiary at Lewisburg Pennsylvania, McCoy used his access to the prison's dental office to fashion a fake handgun out of dental paste.

He and a crew of convicts escaped on August 10, 1974 by commandeering a garbage truck and crashing it through the prison's main gate.

Three months later the FBI located McCoy in Virginia Beach, Virginia. News reports stated that on November 9, 1974, McCoy walked into his home and was met by FBI agents;he fired at them, and an agent fired back with a shotgun, killing McCoy.

> Care of Wikipedia.

 

[Dan Cooper]

Richard McCoy appears to have been a copycat criminal. Having seen what DB Cooper did only 4 months previous, and appeared to have gotten away with, McCoy decided to roll the dice himself.

Not surprisingly many thought for a time that McCoy and DB Cooper were one and the same person. But history appears to suggest otherwise.

 

[Dan Cooper]

This is well worth watching. It is the story of the Richard McCoy Jnr hijack that occurred 4 months after the D.B. Cooper hijack.

It is NOT the story of the D.B. Cooper hijack as the misleading title suggests.

 

[Tiff]

So he's absolutely not DB Cooper?

I haven't read enough on this guy

 

[DrVanNostrand]

At least he got to have $30 worth of fun, nothing to sneeze at in those days

 

[LeverPuller]

I4gghhhrr

 

[Dan Cooper]

So he's absolutely not DB Cooper?

I haven't read enough on this guy

Somewhere towards 1000 men have been interviewed as possibles for being DB Cooper. Of those, the people who seem to have been of most interest were Richard McCoy Jnr, Duane Weber and Kenneth Christiansen. Although the FBI seem to have crossed off the name Richard McCoy Jnr very quickly even though he committed an almost replica crime only 4 short months after DB Cooper committed his.

According to the FBI Richard McCoy Jnr did not match the description of DB Cooper and was at home the day after the hijacking having Thanksgiving dinner with his family in Utah. "An unlikely scenario unless he had help," according to the FBI.

(To wit I say: So what if he did have help? Isn't it possible he could have had help?)

 

[Tiff]

Somewhere towards 1000 men have been interviewed as possibles for being DB Cooper. Of those, the people who seem to have been of most interest were Richard McCoy Jnr, Duane Weber and Kenneth Christiansen. Although the FBI seem to have crossed off the name Richard McCoy Jnr very quickly even though he committed an almost replica crime only 4 short months after DB Cooper committed his.

According to the FBI Richard McCoy Jnr did not match the description of DB Cooper and was at home the day after the hijacking having Thanksgiving dinner with his family in Utah. "An unlikely scenario unless he had help," according to the FBI.

(To wit I say: So what if he did have help? Isn't it possible he could have had help?)

True, but I mean, if McCoy is our man, and he had help and was chowing down on some delicious Turkey the very next day because he had help, you'd think the next time he did it, not four months later, he wouldn't use an escape method that involved sticking the thumb out to passers by at a fast food restaurant.

 

[Dan Cooper]

True, but I mean, if McCoy is our man, and he had help and was chowing down on some delicious Turkey the very next day because he had help, you'd think the next time he did it, not four months later, he wouldn't use an escape method that involved sticking the thumb out to passers by at a fast food restaurant.

McCoy did pull his skyjacking off though. He landed successfully and returned home. If it wasn't for his big mouth he may not have even been apprehended. Interestingly, it was revealed during court proceedings that McCoy's wife had been "deeply involved" in the hijacking.

This makes the FBI's statement regarding McCoy not being DB Cooper all the more interesting >

According to the FBI Richard McCoy Jnr did not match the description of DB Cooper and was at home the day after the hijacking having Thanksgiving dinner with his family in Utah. "An unlikely scenario unless he had help," according to the FBI.

> We'll probably never know who the man using the alias Dan (D.B.) Cooper was. Authors have written entire books around him being one or another of the suspects, including Richard McCoy Jnr and Kenneth Christiansen. The more you read the more confusing it becomes, and I haven't come to any conclusions.

 

[Dan Cooper]

Had assumed because Richard McCoy Jnr landed his jump and lived to tell the tale his plan had gone off almost without a hitch. Not so according to Bernie Rhodes whose book on McCoy I've recently started reading.

Unlike BD Cooper (assuming McCoy isn't the same person of course), McCoy, his family and friends, were around to tell the story, and though he managed to jump safely from the aeroplane with the $500,000 ransom money, there were a comedy of errors along the way.

 

[Dan Cooper]

Just some of the comedy of errors along the way for Richard McCoy while committing his skyjacking >

1/ McCoy's wife drops him off to commit the crime with his two kids in the car.

2/ He pre-arranges a time & place for his wife to pick him up following the jump, only for the plane departure time to be delayed, and the crowded airport not allow him time to call her and revise the pickup time.

3/ He boards the aeroplane and goes straight to the plane toilet to apply rather silly looking tan make-up and a wig to pull in his rather prominent ears.

3/ McCoy has inadvertently left behind a large folder containing typed hijack demands & instructions in the airport gate lounge. When he is on-board in the toilet doing his make-up there is an announcement asking who the envelope belongs to, and as he is unsure whether someone has opened it - in which case he would of course be arrested - McCoy is unsure whether to claim the envelope or not.

4/ McCoy sticks his head out the toilet door having decided to claim the envelope from the stewardess, but is still only half made-up and looks strange. Not long after there's a loud knock on the door and firm instructions for him to take his seat as they are about to take off.

5/ The flight McCoy is on - United Airlines Flight 855 - is intended to be a Denver to Los Angeles flight. However, only 20 minutes into the flight the Captain announces they will instead land at Grand Junction. Reason being, McCoy has caused such suspicion by his behaviour & appearance that the Captain has already been on his radio and organised the FBI to be at Grand Junction airport to pick him up. Soon after McCoy takes control of the plane and instructs the Captain to instead proceed to San Francisco.

6/ During the course of the flight McCoy relays a series of typed instruction letters from his envelope to the Captain - via one of the stewardesses - always being careful to ask for them to be returned to him. However, at one point he writes a handwritten letter and forgets to request its return. The stewardess hides the letter and it is a big part of what ultimately brings McCoy undone.

7/ When they land at San Francisco, the $500,000 ransom money, four parachutes and two large bags belonging to McCoy, are delivered to him on-board. One of his personal bags contains his own person parachute, which he intends to use because he suspects the chutes provided to him might be tampered with. Embarrassingly, McCoy own parachute self opens in the plane once they have achieved altitude, and try as he did he just couldn't get the chute back into its pack.

8/ By the time McCoy finally lands via a supplied parachute many hours have elapsed and his wife - who was to pick him up - is nowhere to be seen. McCoy instead hitches a ride and stops at a café on the way home for a coke.

9/ Meanwhile McCoy's sister in law - who is babysitting his two children while his wife has been waiting in the middle of nowhere to no avail to pick him up - has taken a phone call from one of Richard's friends, and they are already discussing whether it could be McCoy who has pulled the hijack. Before McCoy even makes it home. His sister in law and friend are already discussing the reward money, and McCoy's friend is already making others aware he thinks McCoy is the hijacker.

10/ When McCoy finally gets home he finds the $500,000 is too large to fit in the hole he has pre-prepared for it in his backyard. As the McCoy house is only tiny, the best place they can find for the money is the top section of his bedroom wardrobe, and it is later easily found by the authorities.

 

[PAdman]

McCoy looks an awful like DB Cooper from the sketch of him but I just can't believe that Cooper would make that many errors after pulling one of the greatest heists ever.

 

[Dan Cooper]

McCoy looks an awful like DB Cooper from the sketch of him but I just can't believe that Cooper would make that many errors after pulling one of the greatest heists ever.

There are many similarities both in physical appearance and the way the two crimes were committed. The question is of course whether it was because McCoy was a copy cat, or because he actually committed both crimes?

People were suspecting McCoy of the 2nd skyjacking from moment he committed it. Yet when the 1st skyjacking occurred McCoy was not even thought of as a suspect.

One theory is McCoy did commit the DB Cooper skyjacking and in the process of it lost all or most of the $200,000 ransom money when he jumped from the plane into the storm that was happening at the time. This may have led him back for a second bite at the cherry.

 

[PAdman]

There are many similarities both in physical appearance and the way the two crimes were committed. The question is of course whether it was because McCoy was a copy cat, or because he actually committed both crimes?

People were suspecting McCoy of the 2nd skyjacking from moment he committed it. Yet when the 1st skyjacking occurred McCoy was not even thought of as a suspect.

This is what makes me believe that he isn't DB Cooper. The first planejacking was an extraordinary case because it left the FBI chasing their tails for 30 years and is still unsolved along with where the money is. How could the same person pull off the same thing again but do everything literally so wrong if they got it right the first time? It was almost as if McCoy wanted to be caught. I don't buy that he "had help" during the first hijacking due to his alibi and how far apart the two states are.

Didn't Lynn Doyle Coopers niece recently come out and say that he was D. B Cooper?

 

[Dan Cooper]

This is what makes me believe that he isn't DB Cooper. The first planejacking was an extraordinary case because it left the FBI chasing their tails for 30 years and is still unsolved along with where the money is. How could the same person pull off the same thing again but do everything literally so wrong if they got it right the first time? It was almost as if McCoy wanted to be caught. I don't buy that he "had help" during the first hijacking due to his alibi and how far apart the two states are.

Though McCoy made some rather comical mistakes along the way, he did still manage to land safely and get himself and the money home. The thing I find interesting is when McCoy committed the 2nd skyjacking his own friends & relatives suspected him almost straight away. Yet when the 1st skyjacking occurred only 4 or 5 months earlier nobody seemed to suspect him. Perhaps they knew where he was at the time and thus had no need to suspect him?

 

[Dan Cooper]

Didn't Lynn Doyle Coopers niece recently come out and say that he was D. B Cooper?

Over the years a large number of people have either claimed to be DB Cooper or claimed they are related to him. The chances of the guy who committed the crime really being named Cooper are about zero. It appears almost certain he chose a comic character's name - Dan Cooper - as an alias, and the character he chose fits his crime like a glove.

When McCoy committed the 2nd skyjacking, on his ticket he used the alias James Johnson.

Part of the reason the FBI kept the tie & tiepin they found on DB Cooper's plane seat a secret for 20 years was so they could readily weed out phonies claiming to be him. Whenever they needed to put someone to the test they would simply ask them what they had left on the plane seat, and of course none of the knew.

 

[Dan Cooper]

An aside to Richard McCoy's trial - where he received the maximum permissible 45 year sentence - is that he went within a bee's dick of receiving the death sentence.

The US Supreme Court, on the final day of McCoy's case, ruled the death penalty "cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the 8th and 14th Amendments." What this meant in simple terms for McCoy was he was going to spend a long time in prison rather than face the possibility of being exterminated.

As history would have it he didn't spend a long time in prison, because he escaped, and he was in fact exterminated, by police gunshot wounds.