Before Microsoft, Starbucks, and Amazon, the Pacific Northwest got very little attention nationwide. However, in 1971, a man named DB Cooper hijacked a plane headed from Portland to Seattle and was able to extort 200 thousand dollars. The sum would be worth 1.3 million in today's dollars.
He received the money and four parachutes in exchange for freeing passengers and most of the crew in Seattle. He then ordered the plane to take off to a destination unknown. With just the pilots aboard, Cooper lowered the rear door and jumped from the plane, he was never seen again. In later years, some of the money was recovered near the banks of the Columbia River.
In spite of the terror that this caused for all involved, Cooper became something of a folk hero like Bonnie and Clyde, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and in today's lexicon, Thelma And Louise, and the Barefoot Bandit.
Later in life he won the dancing with the stars competition using an alias.
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