Meet Dick Briggs, one of the D.B. Cooper suspects.
A man in a suit and sunglasses leaped out of a plane with $200,000 in cash on a rainy night in November 1971, and he vanished in the Pacific Northwest. In a local sports book forty years later, a former cocaine dealer was enjoying a drink with a friend when he recalled meeting a man who claimed to be the infamous “skyjacker,” D.B. Cooper, in 1980.
About 40 volunteers did an investigation into the real D.B. Cooper as a result of his narrative over the past five years. About 45 years ago on November 24, D.B. boarded a plane headed for Seattle and informed the crew that he had a bomb. He requested $200,000 and many parachutes when the jet touched down in Seattle and was evacuated, and he told the crew to fly him to Mexico.
Meet Dick Briggs, One Of The DB Cooper Suspects
Dick Briggs, was a drug trafficker who was one of the suspects and who moved around claiming to be D.B. Cooper. When Richard Kashanski learned about Ron Carlson’s intriguing tale in 2011, he introduced Ron to Tom Colbert. In the past, Ron had been a drug dealer, and sometime in February 1980, he had been to Portland with a partner to purchase some drugs.
They then made the decision to travel to a party that was being held on Hayden Island in Oregon. A drug courier named Jon Richard “Dick” Briggs was present when Ron found him.
At the gathering, a “hippie-looking” pair was pointed out by Dick, according to Ron. Then, Dick informed him that they would find some of Cooper’s ransom money in Washington, on the north bank of the Columbia River. Ron ignored the prediction because it seemed absurd at the time until he saw the news a few days later.
About $5800 of the ransom money was discovered by the same couple and their son while on vacation outside of Vancouver, Washington. Ron and his partner at the moment made the decision to never bring up their meeting with Dick again. Ron didn’t mention it until several years later, which prompted Tom and his crew to investigate Dick’s accusations.
Dick Briggs Cause Of Death
Dick Briggs died on 12 December 1980. His cause of death was the injuries he suffered in a car accident on Taylors Ferry Road.
Dick Briggs Age At The Time Of His Death
Born on 12 August 1939, Dick Briggs was 41 years old at the time of his death.
Who Was Dick Briggs Wife?
There is no information on Dick Brigg’s wife. But, he was survived by two sons named John and Jimmy.
Dick Briggs Family
Dick Briggs was born to his parents John P. and Ruth N. Briggs of Portland. Not much is known about his parents. Moreover, he also has a sister named Phyllis Meyers of Portland.
Dick Briggs Job
Dick Briggs owned an automobile shop in Portland. He claimed to be a special forces soldier in Vietnam and, as per the show, stated he was an accomplished parachutist. But there was no evidence of him ever going to Vietnam. As per the show, Dick was a part-timer with the Air Force and could not parachute.
Dick attended the University of Oregon. He was also a drug dealer by profession. Bob “Pudgy” Hunt, one of his friends from UO said that people of afraid of Dick who was referred to as Bugsy. He had an explosive temper and could be viciously violent, especially when drunk.
In the late 1970s, Dick was involved in the cocaine trade. He tried to impress his drug runners by telling them he was D.B. Cooper, the name attached to the unknown man who, in 1971, hijacked a Northwest Orient flight out of Portland and parachuted into myth with $200,000 in ransom.
However, Bob did introduce Dick to the man his old college pal would come to believe was the real skyjacker, the man after whom Bugsy would model his criminal persona. Together with his younger brother Dan, Bobb installed tennis courts and gym floors across Oregon and beyond in the early 1970s while working as a flooring contractor. Robert Rackstraw, a Vietnam War veteran from California who worked in the same industry as Bob and Dan, joined forces with them to complete certain projects in the Los Angeles region.
Dick needing to get out of Portland for a while, joined the flooring project.
Robert had a criminal mind which Bob had figured out by then. Bob told that Robert was the worst possible influence on Dick. “Rackstraw would do things when he was sober that Briggs could only do when he was drunk,” Bob told journalist and documentary filmmaker Tom Colbert, author of the 2016 book The Last Master Outlaw, which makes the case for Rackstraw being D.B. Cooper.
One time, Robert and Dick went together where Robert stole a cache of weapons by smashing a stolen truck through a gun shop’s front doors.
“I still don’t think Rackstraw is D.B. Cooper,” he says. “My brother Danny does. He spent a lot more time with him. He believes it.”
But as years passed, Bob stopped spending time with Dick. Dick was out of control. One night, Pudgy recalls, Briggs brutally beat the estranged husband of one of Pudgy’s bartenders – and then threatened to rap* the barmaid. He spent the night in jail. Soon enough, the crime-and-cocaine life caught up to Briggs.
Bob lamented that Briggs never could get himself straightened out. He believes his friend’s problems stemmed from deep-seated insecurity. That’s what the literal glass-eating and various other outlandish behaviors were all about. “He was real smart,” Bob said about Dick Briggs. Bob added, “He got really good grades at Oregon. He taught in Portland Public Schools for a while”.
Related FAQs
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Is There An Obituary For Dick Briggs?
There is no obituary for Dick Briggs. But you can discover him on FindAGrave.
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Where Was Dick Briggs Born?
Dick Briggs was likely born in Oregon.
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Where Did Dick Briggs Live At The Time Of His Death?
Dick Briggs was living in Portland, Oregon at the time of his death.
