Sheridan Peterson was among the prime suspects in the hijacking of a flight from Portland on 24 November 1971. A man known only by the name Dan “DB” Cooper claimed he had a bomb in his briefcase, and swindled $200,000 ransom money in twenty-dollar bills from authorities.
When the flight landed in Seattle, he let go of the passengers and stayed on the plane with several crew members to Mexico City. On the way there, he jumped out of the back of the plane with the cash and disappeared.
FBI took DNA samples from the plane but couldn’t narrow down the suspect. They screened 800 suspects and crossed off almost all of the suspects from their list. Federal authorities spent 45 years investigating the case and closed it in 2016. They maintained that the hijacker might’ve died after jumping out of the plane.
Sheridan once boasted that “the FBI had good reason to suspect me”.
Learn more about his second wife, children, career, and more in this article.
Meet Sheridan Peterson, One Of The DB Cooper Suspects
Sheridan Peterson told Smokejumper magazine in 2007, “At the time of the heist, I was 44 years old. That was the approximate age Cooper was assumed to have been, and I closely resembled sketches of the hijacker. But what was even more incriminating was the photo of me simulating a skydiving maneuver for Boeing’s news sheet. I was wearing a suit and tie — the same sort of garb Cooper had worn, right down to the Oxford loafers. It was noted that skydivers don’t ordinarily dress so formally.”
However, two discrepancies ruled Sheridan out as a suspect, the color of his eyes and DB Cooper smoking cigarettes. As reported the hijacker smoked eight cigarettes during the hijacking.
Nine years later in 1980 $6,000 of Cooper’s ransom money was found bound together by elastic bands along the Columbia River, northwest of Vancouver. The badly decomposed $20 dollar bills had the same serial numbers as the bills given to the hijacker.
HBO previously explored the story in 2020 with The Mystery of D.B. Cooper. Authorities pulled him as a suspect because he was a former marine, experienced smoke jumper, and a technical editor at Boeing.
He is one of the subjects of Netflix’s new show D.B. Cooper: Where Are You? The show doesn’t answer who D.B. Cooper is instead chronicles testimonies from different people who claimed that they either were D.B. Cooper or knew him.
Sheridan Peterson Age At The Time Of His Death
Sheridan Peterson was 94 years old at the time of his death. He passed away on 8 January 2021.
Sheridan Peterson Second Wife
Before his second wife, Sheridan Peterson was married to his ex-wife Claire Peterson. They married in the mid-1950s and divorced in 1962 right before Sheridan moved up to Seattle and got the job at Boeing. They shared three children together from their marriage that lasted for only 7 years.
In 1974, Claire was interviewed by the FBI. At that time she confirmed that it was something her ex-husband would do.
Claire shared that the relationship was bumpy. She talked about his triad of anger and she knew she had to say goodbye to him. Claire claimed that her husband was deceptive.
When Sheridan moved to Asia, they exchanged a couple of letters.
Claire also added in her interview with History’s Greatest Mysteries, she added that he led her to believe was a lie. She met Sheridan’s daughter from her second marriage in 2007 and she wanted to see her mother she wanted to see her that her mother got here to the States from the Phillippines.
Claire claimed that as of 2007, she was alive and living in the Philippines while Sheridan claimed that his wife died in 1977.
How Many Kids Did Sheridan Peterson Have?
Sheridan Peterson had five children in total. He had three children with his ex-wife Claire, and two children Sheridan Jr. Peterson and Ginger Peterson with his second wife. Born in 1972, Ginger is currently 49 years old. Son, Sheridan Jr. was born on 12 September 1970 and is now 51 years old.
Sheridan Peterson Parents
Sheridan Peterson was born to his parents Chauncey Weaver Peterson. A World War I battle-scarred hero, his father vanished when he was nine. Nothing is known about his mother.
Sheridan Peterson Career
Sheridan Peterson, a Marine Corps veteran of World War II, received his diploma from Santa Rosa Junior College. He and others were denied degrees despite completing two years at the esteemed Journalism School at the University of Missouri. His studies in English, Philosophy, and Journalism earned him a B.A., and he transferred his journalism credits to the university’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Sheridan attended graduate school at the University of Montana for a year before working as a smoke jumper for the US Forest Service in Montana the next year. He had instruction in both literary criticism and creative writing from Leslie Fielder, a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for literature.
He earned lifetime certifications to teach grades 1 through 12 in Washington state. After working as a newspaper reporter for a while and teaching secondary school for eleven years in Washington state, Sheridan took a vacation in 1965 and spent the next thirty years at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines.
Sheridan traveled to Vietnam the following year with the specific intent of creating a literary documentary on the war, staying there for seven years. He was shocked by the slaughter he saw while working as a refugee adviser for USAID in the Mekong Delta. It left a scar that made him bitterly angry.
The Japanese Ministry of Education gave him an Associate Professorship despite the fact that he just had a B.A. because of the extensive amount of curriculum he had created for multinational corporations. He spent four years as a professor at the University of Economics and Law and worked for Tesco Inc. in Tokyo, where he oversaw 18 English language schools around the nation. In China’s Beijing and Tianjin universities, Peterson lectured for four years.
At Muxidi, Sheridan saw the Tiananmen Massacre, in which over a thousand people were killed. Deputy Director of Voice of America Alan L. Heil, Jr.’s book Voice of America, and History has references to him on pages 24 and 25. The Plaza’s multilingual Japanese edition, “Bouquets and Bullets,” featured his piece.
Related FAQs
-
Where Was Sheridan Peterson Born?
Sheridan Peterson was born in Windsor, California.
-
Where Was Sheridan Peterson Living At The Time Of His Death?
Sheridan Peterson was living in Northern California.
-
Is There An Obituary For Sheridan Peterson?
Yes, click the link to find his obituary for Sheridan Peterson.
