PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY

Close Notification

Your cart does not contain any items

Skyjack

The Hunt for D. B. Cooper

Geoffrey Gray

$50

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

QTY:

English
Random House Inc
15 August 2012
"Called the Robin Hood of the Sky, Cooper hijacked and threatened to blow up a domestic airliner in the fall of 1971, extorted $200,000 and parachutes from its owner Northwest Orient, then leaped from the airborne jet with more than 20 pounds of cash strapped to his body. He was never seen again--dead or alive. Four decades later, Cooper is the Bigfoot of law enforcement, evading one of the most extensive and costly American manhunts of the 20th century. Over the years he (or was it she?) has developed an obsessive cult following. Countless lives have been destroyed in pursuit of the hijacker's identity, and those who get too close to the case claim it is cursed.

Now on the 41st anniversary of Cooper's daring jump, Skyjack separates myth from fact, and this definitive work and journey attempts to answer the question, once and for all- Who was D. B. Cooper?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . The true, unsolved story of D. B. Cooper's 1971 airplane hijacking, one of the greatest cold cases of the twentieth century, byan authorfeatured in D.B. Cooper- Where Are You?!, now streaming on Netflix

""Here is writing and storytelling that is vivid and fresh-a delectable adventure.""-Gay Talese

""I have a bomb here and I would like you to sit by me.""

That was the note handed to flight attendant Florence Schaffner by a mild-mannered passenger now known as D. B. Cooperon a Northwest Orient flight in 1971.

It was alsothe start of one of the most astonishing aviation whodunits in the history of American true crime- how one man extorted $200,000 from an airline before parachuting into the wilds of the Pacific Northwest, never to be seen again.

The case of D. B. Cooper is a modern legend that has obsessed and cursed his pursuers for generations with everything from bankruptcy to suicidal despair. Now, with Skyjack, Geoffrey Gray obtains a first-ever look at the FBI's confidential Cooper file, uncovering new leads in the infamous case.

Starting with a crack tip from a private investigator, Gray plunges into the murky depths of the decades-old mystery to chase down new clues and explore secrets of the case's most prominent suspects, including Ralph Himmelsbach, the most dogged of FBI agents, who watched with horror as a criminal became a counter-culture folk hero; Karl Fleming, a respected reporter whose career was destroyed by a D. B. Cooper scoop that was a scam; and Barbara Dayton, a transgender pilot who insisted she was Cooper herself. With explosive new information, Skyjack reopens one of the great cold cases of the twentieth century."

By:  
Imprint:   Random House Inc
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 202mm,  Width: 132mm,  Spine: 19mm
Weight:   278g
ISBN:   9780307451309
ISBN 10:   0307451305
Pages:   320
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

GEOFFREY GRAY writes about crime, politics, sports, travel and food. He is a contributing editor at New York Magazine, covered boxing for The New York Times and for programs like This American Life, writes for other newspapers and magazines, and once drove an ice-cream truck. SKYJACK is his first book. i>From the Hardcover edition.

Reviews for Skyjack: The Hunt for D. B. Cooper

<p> Out of the wild blue yonder comes this pleasing tale of obsession and mystery. Geoffrey Gray has essentially parachuted into the early 1970s and found a nearly forgotten episode that elucidates a swath of our cultural history. The result is a clean, smart whodunit full of quirky characters, imaginative sleuthing, and thrilling surprises. <br> -- Hampton Sides, author of Hellhound on His Trail <br> Here is writing and storytelling that is vivid and fresh--a delectable adventure from a talented new author. <br> --Gay Talese <br> With verve and assurance worthy of his protagonist, Geoffrey Gray pulls readers along on a kaleidoscopic chase through the cult of Cooper. Both a masterful re-creation of the paranoid 1970s, and an exhilarating firsthand account of an erosive obsession, Skyjack takes us down the rabbit hole with Gray--and what a journey it is. <br> --James Swanson, author of Manhunt and Bloody Crimes <br> Who was D.B. Cooper? In SKYJACK, Geoffrey Gray lures in the reader with this iconic unsolved mystery, and for the next 290 pages explores a story as attention-grabbing as a bag of hot money. D.B. Cooper emerges as the great McGuffin of 1970s America, a prism through which Gray exploits to the fullest with his propulsive writing style, mad commitment to detail, and explores everything from the early years of gender reassignment surgery to the birth of airline security culture to the ghostly legends of the Pacific Northwest's Dark Divide. <br> --Evan Wright, New York Times bestselling author of Generation Kill<br> <br> SKYJACK tells the legendary story of D.B. Cooper in a way that's as inventive and as engaging as the subject itself. Only a writer as talented as Geoffrey Gray could knit together the many strands of this mystery and the extraordinary characters who have dedicated, and in some cases destroyed, their lives in pursuit of the truth. Just as Gray finds himself sucked into the tale, readers will leap into the void alongsidee


See Inside

See Also