Flew the Coop

D.B. Cooper (hoo hoo hoo) took the money and jumped.

Indisputable facts: On Thanksgiving eve 1971, a man bought a plane ticket from PDX to SEA under the name "Dan Cooper." He smoked a ciggie, drank a bourbon and soda, and passed the stewardess a note explaining he had a bomb. He asked for 200 large and four parachutes. He insisted there be "no funny stuff." When his demands were met in Seattle, he released the passengers and told the crew to stay in the cockpit as they flew slow and low toward Mexico City. He exited the plane somewhere before Reno. A few bundles of bills and a placard explaining how to lower the stairs of a Boeing 727 were found on the ground; he hasn't been caught, despite a massive search. The story has inspired novels, songs, films and been referenced everywhere from Dilbert to Kid Rock's "Bawitdaba."

Now for the conjecture...

Scenario 1: Cooper died on the jump, his body shredded like mozzarella by the trees below, his carcass scavenged by coyotes.

Scenario 2: Cooper is living happily in a yurt on the side of Mount Hood.

Scenario 3: It doesn't much matter what happened to Cooper and his measly $200,000—just admire the cultural impact of the legend he spawned.

Put Doug Kenck-Crispin, founder of orhistory.com and organizer of the D.B. Cooper 40th Anniversary Spectacular at Mississippi Studios, down for No. 3. "As a historian, I don't know what happened to him," he says. "As the lover of a good story, I like to picture him twisting down through the wind and landing safely."

Theories on Cooper will be bandied about as Matt Love reads from HA-HA-HA, a 1983 book purportedly written by the hijacker, and Dr. Katy Barber speaks about Pacific Northwest themes sewn into the D.B. Cooper saga. Jarad Miles and Oh Darling play their music in between.

Just hope there's no breakthrough in the case in the meantime. "It's better not knowing," Kenck-Crispin said. "If we found a decaying skeleton with a bunch of money around it, wouldn't that be kind of anticlimactic?"


SEE: The D.B. Cooper 40th Anniversary Spectacular is Sunday, Nov. 20, at Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 7:30 pm. $5.



Headout Picks

THURSDAY NOV. 17

Back Fence PDX
Mission Theater, 1624 NW Glisan St., backfencepdxnov17.eventbrite.com. 6:30 pm. $12-$15. 21+.


FRIDAY NOV. 18

Captain Picard Day
[NERDS] A day in celebration of the captain of the Enterprise on Star Trek: The Next Generation? Make it so, Worf. Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St., 241-0227,
floatingworldcomics.com. Art contest starts at 6 pm.
Organ Grinders: Faust
[MOVIES] Percussion duo 1939 Ensemble performs its live soundtrack to F.W. Murnau’s 1926 Expressionist flick, with skeletons on flying horses coming for your soul. Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 281-4215. 8 pm. $12.

SATURDAY NOV. 19

C
appella Romana
[MUSIC] The Portland choir has earned international acclaim for its touring program of rare, medieval music—luckily preserved in Egypt—from ancient Byzantine monasteries and cathedrals. This concert presents Byzantium’s only liturgical drama, The Service of the Three Children in the Fiery Furnace. St. Mary’s Cathedral, 1716 NW Davis St., 236-8202. 8 pm. $18-$36.
How Does The River Work?
[TOURS] A few weeks back, the Dill Pickle Club taught us where our nasty-ass trash goes once we part with it. Now they show us how a river works (water plus gravity, right?), with stops including the Port of Portland and the Port of Vancouver. 10 am-4 pm. $25. dillpickleclub.org.
How the Fire Fell
[MOVIES] Joe Haege (31Knots frontman and part-time Menomena member) stars as preacher Edmund Creffield in Edward Davee’s ambitious debut feature about the turn-of-the-20th-century Corvallis-based cult Bride of Christ Church. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium, 1219 SW Park Ave., 221-1156. 7 pm. $6-$9.

MONDAY NOV. 21

Politics and Crime in Portland: Drug Enforcement in the 1980s
[HISTORY] The Oregon Encyclopedia tells how Portland cops brought down ’80s cocaine boss Jose “Pepe” Chavez. Like Scarface minus Michelle Pfeiffer. Mission Theater, 1624 NW Glisan St.. 223-4527. 7 pm. Free.

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