In 1995, Duane Weber said to his wife Jo, “I’m Dan Cooper,” as he lay dying. Not D.B., which was a misprint made by the media when the incident was originally reported, but this was the real name the hijacker provided the stewardess. It took Jo a few months to understand what her late husband was trying to tell her, but soon enough, details of his life started to line up, leading her to suspect that he was the notorious felon.
For instance, he claimed to have had a knee injury by jumping out of a plane, but no hard evidence linking Duane to the incident involving the plane could be found.
Meet Duane Weber, One Of The DB Cooper Suspects
On November 24th, 1971, a mysterious guy hijacked a plane and demanded $200,000 ($1.3M adjusted for inflation) in ransom money from the American government. He had boarded a Northwest Orient Airlines jet in Portland, Ore. carrying a note and a bomb.
This incident is known as the D.B. Cooper hijacking. It is still open to this day as the unsolved mystery of air hijacking in American history.
In the enormous area of rugged wilderness where Cooper fell, neither his corpse nor his parachute has been located. The tale became part of the mythology as time went on. For those who were familiar with the show, Cooper developed a reputation as a type of Robin Hood figure—an average Joe with the guts to attempt a daring stunt like that and the ability to pull it off.
In 1998, the FBI eliminated Weber as a suspect when DNA tests on his discarded necktie produced inconclusive results. The lack of a fingerprint match for Weber on any of the cigarette butts (which the documentary describes as “lost”) or the area around his seat on the plane, along with this, convinced the FBI that the Weber theory was false.
The obvious flight ticket, which would have made a strong connection to the crime, was also “lost.” Nevertheless, the movie omits several crucial details for the situation. Cooper on the airplane also smoked like a chain smoker and drank bourbon (in the middle of a bourbon business slump, no less).
Duane Weber Cause Of Death
The cause of Duane Weber’s death is a kidney disease that led to his admission to a hospital in Florida.
Duane Weber Age At The Time Of His Death
In 1995, at the time of his death, Duane Weber was 70 years old.
Who Was Duane Weber Wife?
On his deathbed, Jo Weber, wife of Duane Weber, overheard her husband say, “I am Dan Cooper,” before he passed away. They were married for 17 years at the time of his death. Jo and Duane met in the lounge at the Atlanta airport Holiday Inn six years after the skyjacking. It was her birthday. He bought her a bottle of champagne and wrapped a $100 bill around it. They married the following year in Colorado, where he was an insurance agent.
“He says, ‘Come here. Come closer.’ He wanted me about two feet from his face,” Jo Weber recalls. “He says, ‘I have a secret to tell you.’ I said, ‘What?’ He says, ‘I’m Dan Cooper.'”
The media had misidentified the name as “D.B” so many years prior, but she immediately recognized it as the notorious hijacker. She started to recall events and make connections, and with Tim Collins’ assistance, she spent the following 23 years of her life trying to verify a dying man’s claims.
Jo was many years younger than her spouse and had little knowledge of his prior life. She found bogus identification cards for a Mr. John Carson Collins in his wallet after he had passed away; possibly Duane was accustomed to using aliases. Tax returns served as persuasive proof that she and Tim discovered. The “sentimental trek” to the Columbia River in Washington State was the most thrilling of them, though.
Jo recalled the couple’s visit to the region in 1979, including the incident where Duane threw a bag of “garbage” into the river. Jo recalls his having a nightmare and discussing putting his prints on the back staircase while he was sleeping.
A few months later, money from the ransom that could be identified by its serial number was found on the bank of the Tina Bar river. He led her on a stroll through Tena Bar. The $5,800 in cash belonging to Cooper was found there two months later.
“I can’t walk away from it,” Jo told CBS. “Why would he have an old Northwest Airlines ticket? Why would he take me to a place where eventually the money was found and Why all of this? There are too many pieces of the puzzle that fit”.
Sadly Jo Weber died in October 2021. She entered a long-term healthcare facility in Pensacola, Florida in 2020.
How Many Kids Did Duane Weber Have?
Duane Weber has two children with his second wife Jo. He had at least one daughter with his ex-wife.
Duane Weber Job
Duane Weber was an army veteran with a long criminal history who had served in a Seattle prison and was well-versed in the Pacific Northwest. One of the passengers characterized his hair as being “marcelled,” which was an unusual look in the 1970s.
When Duane met his wife Jo, he was working as an insurance salesman.
Related FAQs
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Who Were Duane Weber Parents?
There is no information on Duane Weber’s parents.
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Where Was Duane Weber Born?
Duane Weber was likely from Florida, the place he was born.
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When Did Duane Weber Pass Away?
The online record shows that Duane Weber passed away on 28 March 1995.
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