Unsolved Case Files

February 1, 2021

Gr 4-6-Kicking off the "Unsolved Case Files" series, this terse, clipped account of the only still-unsolved skyjacking in U.S. history offers a minute-by-minute recap of the crime, then a tally of the forensic evidence, a general overview of the ensuing (fruitless) investigation, and an assessment of theories about what might have happened. In late 1971, a time when, Sullivan writes, "virtually anybody could walk into any airport in the country and bring anything they wanted onto a plane," a hijacker styling himself "Dan Cooper" (a false name later garbled by press reports) jumped from the rear stairs of a Boeing 727 in midair over Washington State with $200,000 in marked bills...and was never seen again. Nor was the money-aside from three bundles of shabby bills discovered near a stream in 1980 by an eight-year-old vacationer. The blocky art, which ranges from full spreads to pages of two or three unbordered but discrete panels, reflects the matter-of-fact tone with flat, simply drawn diagrams, aerial maps, news items, faux dossier pages, reconstructed events, and portraits of the crew and the mysterious perp, all rounded off with a set of period photos. Short lists of print and web resources offer young would-be sleuths further details to ponder. VERDICT Elementary and middle school fans of the true crime genre will enjoy this puzzler.-John Peters, Children's Literature Consultant, New York

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January 1, 2021
A middle-grade graphic novel chronicling the only unsolved commercial hijacking in aviation history. On Nov. 24, 1971, a suit-clad White man strolled into Portland (Oregon) International Airport, black briefcase in hand. He purchased a one-way ticket aboard Northwest Orient Airlines' Flight 305 to Seattle under the name "Dan Cooper," seated himself behind three dozen Boeing 727 passengers, and slipped a note to a flight attendant just before takeoff. Unless he received $200,000 in cash, two front parachutes, and two back parachutes upon landing, Cooper promised to detonate the makeshift bomb in his briefcase. In Seattle, Cooper released his unwitting hostages alongside a new set of demands: Now, the plane would travel to Mexico City at the lowest possible speed, flying no higher than 10,000 feet with the landing gear deployed and a rear staircase lowered. Cooper never made it to Mexico: Instead, he leapt into the cold, rainy night above the forests of Washington. Though the hijacker vanished without a trace, his alias--misreported as "D.B. Cooper"--lives on. This stranger-than-fiction saga thrives thanks to spectacular design choices: "Dick Tracy"-esque, hard-boiled cartooning; rugged, mechanical typefaces; and a bevy of files, folders, and miscellaneous paperwork come together to form a fabulous criminal collage. Sidebars impart such important particulars as the precise weight of a dollar bill and Cooper's conceptual-but-decidedly-amateur familiarity with parachutes. A compulsively readable series debut. (photos, afterword, sources) (Graphic nonfiction. 8-14)

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