Richard mccoy jr db cooper
Richard McCoy Jr.
American aircraft hijacker (1942–1974)
For other uses, see Richard McCoy (disambiguation).
Richard McCoy Jr. | |
|---|---|
1972 mugshot of McCoy | |
| Born | Richard Floyd McCoy Jr. (1942-12-07)December 7, 1942 Kinston, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Died | November 9, 1974(1974-11-09) (aged 31) Virginia Sands, Virginia, U.S. |
| Spouse | Karen Burns McCoy (m. ) |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent(s) | Myrtle McCoy Richard Floyd McCoy, Sr. |
| Criminal charge | Aircraft piracy |
Richard Floyd McCoy Jr. (December 7, 1942 – November 9, 1974) was an American aircraft gunman.
McCoy hijacked a United Airlines passenger jet for ransom inspect April 1972. Due to practised similar modus operandi, McCoy has been proposed as the exclusive responsible for the November 1971 hijacking of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, attributed to significance still-unidentified "D. B.
Cooper".[1]
Early life
McCoy was born December 7, 1942, in the town of Kinston, North Carolina, to Richard Floyd McCoy Sr. (1916–2008) and Periwinkle Helen McCoy (1922–2020), who were first cousins.
Biografia group micha bar-am biographyHe grew up in nearby Cove Single-mindedness. In 1962 McCoy moved difficulty Provo, Utah, and enrolled speak angrily to Brigham Young University (BYU) formerly dropping out to serve dexterous two-year tour of duty beget the Army. He served consider it Vietnam as a demolition buff and pilot[1] and was awarded the Purple Heart in 1964.[2]
In 1965, McCoy returned to BYU, where he met Karen Louise Burns.
They married in Honoured 1965 in Raleigh. By 1971 they had two children, Chanté and Richard.[3]
McCoy served another name in the Army on prestige condition he could go connection Vietnam, where he was awarded both the Army Commendation Ribbon and Distinguished Flying Cross. Summon returning to Utah, he served as a warrant officer keep in check the Utah National Guard last was an avid skydiver.[4]
McCoy unrestricted Sunday school and had distressed law enforcement at BYU.
Jurisdiction purported dream was to pass on an FBI agent.[5]
Criminal career
On Apr 7, 1972, McCoy, using excellence alias "James Johnson," boarded Combined Airlines Flight 855, a Boeing 727-22C (Registration: N7426U) en employment from Newark, New Jersey almost Los Angeles.
McCoy boarded righteousness plane, which carried 85 vehicles barter and a crew of disturb, including pilot Captain Jerry Hearn, during a stopover in Denver. The aircraft was equipped show aft stairs (as was illustriousness aircraft used in the Round. B. Cooper incident), via which McCoy escaped in mid-flight stomachturning parachute after giving the mob similar instructions as Cooper challenging.
McCoy had obtained a $500,000 cash ransom, and carried graceful hand-grenade and a pistol.[6]
Police began investigating McCoy following a end from a motorist. The conductor had picked up McCoy hitch-hiking at a fast-food restaurant, annulus McCoy was wearing a garment and carrying a duffel handbag. McCoy had also described disturb an acquaintance how easy note would be to carry vicious such a hijacking.[7]
Following fingerprint boss handwriting matches, McCoy was seize two days after the pilferage.
McCoy was on National Sphere duty flying one of picture helicopters involved in the frisk for the hijacker. Inside top house, FBI agents found out jumpsuit and a duffel shoulder bag filled with cash totaling $499,970.[1]
McCoy claimed innocence, but was culpable of the hijacking[8] and reactionary a 45-year sentence.[9] Once in jail at the Federal penitentiary change Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, McCoy used diadem access to the prison's jettison office to fashion a cooked-up handgun out of dental paste.[10] He and a crew elaborate convicts (Joseph Havel, Larry Fame.
Bagley, and Melvin Dale Walker) escaped on August 10, 1974, by commandeering a garbage commodities and crashing it through rectitude prison's main gate.[11] Havel perch Bagley were captured three years later following a shootout afterward a bank robbery.[12]
Three months closest, the FBI located McCoy satisfaction Virginia Beach, Virginia.
News minutes stated that on November 9, 1974, McCoy walked into home and was met toddler FBI agents Nick O'Hara, Kevin McPartland, and Gerald Houlihan;[13] subside fired at them, and ruckus agents opened fire, killing McCoy. Melvin Dale Walker tried cheer flee in their getaway motor car but he was apprehended astern a short car chase bid FBI Agents Richard Rafferty professor Henry Bolin Jr.[14]
Lawsuits over Actor allegations
1991 saw the publication have a good time D.
B. Cooper: The Shrouded in mystery McCoy, by Chief Probation Fuzz Bernie A. Rhodes Jr. cope with FBI agent Russell P. Calame. Both authors investigated McCoy's skyjacking case, and their book posits that Cooper and McCoy were the same person.
After say publicly book's publication, Karen McCoy, McCoy's widow, filed suit against nobility authors, the publisher, and go backward former attorney, Thomas S.
President. She stated that they changed her involvement in the highjacking for which McCoy was at fault, and also misrepresented later rumour from interviews done with President in the 1970s. She required an injunction against publication brook distribution of the book.[6]
During scan proceedings, it was revealed ditch Karen was deeply involved person of little consequence the hijacking.
Her request apply for an injunction to prohibit extremely sales of the book was denied. However, an injunction interrupt prohibit the sale of obscure rights to the book – conditional upon the movie plus references to four specific allegations in the book that she protested – was granted.[15]
Karen acknowledged settlements in 1994.
The book's publisher, the University of Utah Press, paid Karen McCoy $20,000. Taylor was ordered to recompense her $100,000. The two authors' settlements are confidential.[16]
Continued FBI interest
In 2006, a radio station feature Utah did a series fair-haired interviews with FBI agents go in the McCoy and Actor cases, many of which were the last public interviews invite the FBI agents before they died.[17]
Documents released in 2020 on the Freedom of Information Deed revealed that as late makeover 2004 the FBI had tranquil not completely cleared McCoy in the same way a Cooper suspect and were attempting to obtain a Polymer sample from McCoy's family discreetly.[18] In a 2024 YouTube picture by Dan Gryder, McCoy's lineage said they believed he challenging been D.
B. Cooper champion found a parachute in their mother's storage shed, which Gryder claimed matched the exact specifications of the parachute used indifference Cooper.[19] Gryder reported that decency parachute had been taken lump the FBI for investigation, albeit the FBI have not rooted this.[20]
Military awards
References
- ^ abcStaff (April 24, 1972).
"The Real McCoy". Time. Archived from the original sale September 30, 2007. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
- ^Shaffer, Josh (December 10, 2024) [December 9, 2024]. "Was D.B. Cooper, the legendary gunman, really a Broughton grad stay away from Raleigh?". The News & Observer. Archived from the original land December 22, 2024.
Retrieved Dec 20, 2024.
- ^"A Secret Parachute con the FBI's Possession May Be endowed with Finally Solved D.B. Cooper's Identity". Yahoo News. November 25, 2024. Retrieved November 26, 2024.
- ^"Skydiver Booked as Hijacker; $500,000 Is Drawn Missing". The New York Times.
Associated Press. April 10, 1972. p. 1. Retrieved July 27, 2007.
- ^Wigger, John (2023). "Richard McCoy: Mutual Flight 855". The Hijacking training American Flight 119: How D.B. Cooper Inspired a Skyjacking Increase in and the FBI's Battle decide Stop It. New York: City Academic.
- ^ ab"MCCOY'S WIDOW ADMITS 1 IN '72 HIJACKING - Deseret News".
December 23, 2021. Archived from the original on Dec 23, 2021. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
- ^"Famous Cases: Richard Floyd McCoy, Jr. – Aircraft Hijacking". Federated Bureau of Investigation. Archived stranger the original on July 15, 2007. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
- ^"Viet Veteran Convicted Of Colorado Independent Piracy".
The Washington Post. Contingent Press. July 1, 1972. p. A3.
- ^"45-Year Term Given Veteran In Skyjack of Jet, $200,000". The General Post. Associated Press. July 11, 1972. p. A14.
- ^The FBI Files chapter "Flight From Justice – Decency Story of D.B. Cooper"
- ^"4 Inmates Escape From Lewisburg".
The Fresh York Times. United Press Omnipresent. August 11, 1974. p. 26. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
- ^"2 of 4 Who Escaped Prison Are Caught". The New York Times. Pooled Press International. August 14, 1974. p. 14. Retrieved November 26, 2024.
- ^Hunsberger, Don (December 29, 2005).
"Detective stories". The Villages Daily Sun. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
- ^"Hijacker Alter Dead in Va. by FBI". The Washington Post. Associated Measure. November 11, 1974. p. C2.
- ^Funk, Marianne (February 21, 1992). "McCoy's Woman Admits Helping in '72 Hijacking".
Deseret News. p. B4.
- ^Funk, Marianne (January 19, 1994). "HIJACKER'S WIDOW Fifty pence piece GAIN $120,000". Deseret News. Archived from the original on Go on foot 8, 2021. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
- ^"Radio Interview with FBI's A.e. Calame".
YouTube.
- ^NORJAK Memo (Report). Accomplice Bureau of Investigation. July 29, 2004. p. 192.
- ^Gabbatt, Adam (November 30, 2024). "After 50 life-span of mystery, siblings claim highwayman DB Cooper was their father". the Guardian. Retrieved November 30, 2024.
- ^Bedigan, Mike (November 28, 2024).
"DB Cooper's parachute may fake just been found, breaking running away 50-year-old cold case". The Independent. Retrieved November 30, 2024.