At the age of 75, Robert Rackstraw passed away on July 9, 2019, from an underlying heart ailment.
Former Vietnam War combatant Rackstraw served in the US Army as a helicopter pilot. He has expertise in explosive and psychological operations.
In-depth information about Rackstraw, 75, and their efforts to prove their identity as the 1971 skyjacker who vanished after jumping off of a Northwest Orient airplane in Oregon with $200,000 in bribe money was revealed in The Arizona Republic.
Rackstraw has repeatedly stated that he is not the hijacker, although he has also made confusing statements about the claim on other occasions.
Robert Rackstraw
Robert Rackstraw Cause Of Death
A chronic cardiac ailment was Robert Rackstraw’s cause of death. On July 9, 2019, at the age of 75, he passed away.
Robert Rackstraw is the primary suspect and the subject of D.B. Cooper’s investigation. Netflix’s Where are You?
He was repeatedly asked who the actual DB Cooper was throughout his life, but he never came clean. Prior to the revolution, he worked as a hired pilot in Iran and was imprisoned for more than a year for stealing a plane and passing bogus checks.
He had significant paratrooper training as well. Robert was regarded by the investment group as being among the most admired pilots throughout his service in Vietnam. After a 15-month deployment in Vietnam in 1970, Rackstraw returned home with 50 awards, including 12 air medals.
Despite being identified as “most likely to be D.B. Cooper” by the general public, Rackstraw had established a prosperous life for himself since starting to commit crimes in 1980.
According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, he was selected as the lead inspector for the Riverside County building department as well as elected to the board of his homeowner’s organization. He also had a job teaching online for the University of California, Riverside.
DB Cooper Solved Mystery With Fighter Pilot
The true-crime documentary “D.B. Cooper: Where Are You?” has just been released on Netflix, and it raises a lot of interesting questions. It details the intriguing yet unsolved FBI case of the D.B. Cooper hijacking.
In the wake of the hijacking, the FBI conducted a thorough hunt for Cooper. Agents questioned thousands of people, including Rackstraw.
Rackstraw was first largely ignored as a suspect because to the belief that he was too young. Although Rackstraw was just 28 at the time, witnesses determined Cooper’s age to be between 35 and 45.
However, it wasn’t until many years later that a filmmaker by the name of Tom Colbert and his 40-person team of detectives, which included retired FBI agents, gathered enough proof to prove that Rackstraw was really responsible for the hijacking. In the 2016 History Channel miniseries D.B. Cooper: Case Closed?, Rackstraw received yet another look as a potential suspect.
To begin with, Rackstraw had the guile and bravery required to pull out a hijacking. He gained experience with explosives and parachutes while serving in the Army.
Is Robert Rackstraw D.B. Cooper?
According to Tom Colbert, Rackstraw was D.B. Cooper. Even though there is a ton of evidence that backs him up, there isn’t any concrete evidence that he was the infamous skyjacker.
Rackstraw certainly knew this and teased countless reporters and investigators over the years about the possibility but never actually revealed anything. The first thing that makes Rackstraw a potential suspect is his military background.
He had a lot of experience flying and jumping because he was an army pilot who briefly served in the Vietnam War. When the D.B. Cooper episode happened, he had only been out of the service for five months, and he purportedly said in the Netflix documentary that he might use his military skills to become a formidable adversary.
Later, he created a lengthy criminal record for himself that included accusations of aircraft theft and explosives possession. After being detained for check-kiting in 1978, he made an effort to fabricate his own death using a rented plane.
All of these things led to the Feds being interested in Cooper, but they were unable to build a strong case against him. Rackstraw initially refused to confirm or refute the allegations that he was D.B. Cooper. In his latter years, he was adamant that he had nothing to do with the skyjacking, nevertheless.
