The Ballad Of D.B. Cooper

He was carrying a briefcase
When he stepped aboard the plane
Northwest 305 from Portland
On the tarmac in the rain
Dressed in loafers & a dark suit
Underneath an overcoat
A white shirt & a black tie
That was loose around the throat

It was Thanksgiving eve
Back in 1971
He had on a pair of sunglasses
There wasn’t any sun
He used the name Dan Cooper
When he paid for the flight
That was going to Seattle
On that cold and nasty night

They taxied to the runway
And then took to the sky
Cooper let a little
Bit of time go by
Before he called the flight attendant
And told her to stay calm
But that inside his briefcase
He said he had a bomb

Two hundred thousand dollars
In 20 dollar bills
A plane, a crew, some parachutes
& No one would get killed
They landed in Seattle
The authorities complied
All the passengers were let off
The crew remained inside

The plane took off for Portland
Just Cooper & the crew
It wasn’t quite an hour
When he bid them all adieu
But first he tipped each one of them
Two thousand bucks apiece
He was such a nice man
They later told the police

Out a little service doorway
In the rear of the plane
Cooper jumped into the darkness
Into the freezing rain
They say that with the windchill
It was 69 below
Not much chance that he’d survive
But if he did where did he go?

Some guy who lived in Oregon
By the name of DB Cooper
Was arrested and interrogated
By a couple of state troopers
It wasn’t him who did it
The lawmen had no luck
But the papers ran the story
The name DB Cooper stuck

It was on a family picnic
8 or 9 years later
Six thousand muddy dollars
Found by a 2nd grader
On the banks of the Columbia
Which would’ve been on his route
Authorities confirmed
That it was part of Cooper’s loot

Whoever DB Cooper was
Today is still a mystery
The only unsolved skyjacking
In aviation history
No one’s ever tried to claim
The very large reward
No one’s ever seen him since
He bailed out the door

Divers search the river
Every summer still
For an article of clothing
Or a twenty dollar bill
A briefcase or a wallet
With some kind of ID
To determine who this DB Cooper
Might actually be