How to get your hands on D.B. Cooper (or at least some of his cash!)

When we look back on all the wonderful things from the 1970's, it's often easy to forget the downsides. For example, checking in at an airport in those halcyon days was a quick process, without metal detectors, baggage scanners, nitrate tests, strip searches, or any of the other wonderful security procedures that have become de rigeur in our day and age.

It's hard to imagine now, but, before the days of George Habash, Entebbe, and Lockerbie, and long before September 11, 2001, it was still possible for a hijacker to be a folk hero. In fact, only two weeks after Dan Cooper jumped out of a Boeing 727 with four parachutes and $200,000 in unmarked bills, Judy Sword released a ballad titled "D.B. Cooper, Where Are You?" In the ensuing decade, the tale became more well-known; by the time I was old enough to hear it, there were a slew of books about Cooper, as well as a movie, The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper. It starred Treat Williams and was in constant rotation on cable.