For forty-six years the FBI spun a fairy tale that D. B. Cooper was a common criminal who died jumping out of a Boeing 727, yet Cooper managed to take thirty-six passengers hostage without their knowing it, leave no fingerprints behind that led back to him, and elude state, local, and federal law authorities. Cooper was not a common criminal. He had CIA and military training, as well as experience performing covert operations. He survived the jump. He made off with the money. He threatened the key witnesses. And he lived to be an old man. Now, over a decade since his death, the truth can finally be told.