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Greetings, Detectives!

Here at The Murder Mystery Company HQ, we are always interested in cracking a case! One mystery that has left us scratching our heads is that of DB Cooper and the only remaining unsolved air piracy crime in American history.

The Crime

On November 24, 1971, a man identifying himself as Dan Cooper bought a ticket on Flight 305 to Seattle, Washington from Portland, Oregon. After the plane took off, Cooper calmly indicated to a flight attendant that he was carrying a bomb and requested $200,000.

The flight attendant relayed his demands, which, after a few hours, were met, and Cooper released the rest of the passengers. He asked that the plane take off again to Mexico City, using a very specific flight plan.

One of Cooper’s demands was for four parachutes. Once the plane was in motion toward Mexico City, though unseen by any of the few crew members Cooper allowed to remain on board, Cooper jumped from the plane using, strangely, a dummy parachute (one that would not work like a real parachute should, accidentally obtained by the FBI from a skydiving school).

The Mystery

Cooper should not have been able to survive jumping from the plane using the practice parachute he used. However, after searching all surrounding areas, and even areas that he logically would not have landed, no body was found. Investigators scoured rivers, lakes, mountains, fields, and even people’s farms and homes.

Authorities also began looking into people who shared the suspect’s name but quickly came to the conclusion that the man had used an alias. It also turns out that the name DB Cooper itself had been misreported in the media, as the plane ticket had been bought under the name Dan Cooper, and the misnomer stuck. The DB Cooper everyone was looking for had vanished.

Also unrecovered was his parachute or any of the belongings he would have had on his person. It would take seven years for any physical evidence to surface. Among the eventually recovered items were three packets of money that were positively identified as being part of the $200,000 Cooper demanded, and instructions for how to lower the aft stairs of a 727, something that Cooper had indeed done when he jumped from the aircraft. It has been theorized that other evidence may have been destroyed in the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

There have been several suspects throughout the decades, though none have ever been formally charged or even substantially linked to the case. The FBI announced on July 8, 2016, that it would suspend the active investigation of the case.

So what do you think, detectives? Did the suspect survive the fall and assume another identity to quietly live out his life with the stolen money? Or did his body somehow disappear after perishing during the leap from the plane, and any of the stolen money that logically should have gone into circulation once he began using it was just destroyed in the eruption?

Want to check out other bind-boggling mysteries? Our Clue-style shows are perfect for brushing up on your sleuthing skills, and they’re guaranteed to thrill.

We’ve discussed a few of the serious players in the world of mystery and detective fiction, so I thought we’d take a look at a fun take on our favorite detective, Sherlock, in the form of a determined little furball bent on solving crime like his human counterpart: Basil of Baker Street.

Basil is written by Eve Titus, a children’s book author with a penchant for anthropomorphizing animals and casting them out into the world for adventures that have captured the hearts and minds of children everywhere. I myself was an avid Basil fan as a child, and would often play pretend that Basil and his trusty sidekick Dawson were solving crimes behind the baseboards and between the walls of my childhood home.

Titus was skilled at meshing the human and mouse world, melding them together in a fantastical mashup that was as entertaining for children as it was for the adults who shared her stories at bedtime. Basil scampers off on adventures from the wild west all the way down to Mexico, solving crimes and outmaneuvering his arch nemesis, Ratigan, at every turn.

Basil is like Sherlock in many ways. He smokes a pipe and is prone to fits of melodrama and moodiness. Like Sherlock, he plays a musical instrument, but unlike Sherlock, it is a flute, not a violin! They keep the company of a doctor who chronicles their adventures and finds themselves invariably warring against their professor type enemies, Moriarty and Ratigan, respectively.

If you’re looking for a lighthearted read with a mystery that leaves you with the warm fuzzies, pick up Basil of Baker Street. However, if you’re looking for a criminally fun time that can’t be found in a children’s book, you might consider trying a murder mystery with The Murder Mystery Company at a crime scene near you!

Today we’re going to step away from some of the old classic detectives and shine some light on one of the coolest contemporary private eyes to be written on paper! The character of supernatural private investigator and professional wizard, Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, is written by author Jim Butcher in his currently ongoing series “The Dresden Files.”

Jim Butcher has made a groundbreaking bridge in the gap between old school detective fiction and fantasy. He effortlessly melds the two worlds of the seedy criminal underbelly of Chicago with the fantastical yet dangerous world of magic and the supernatural. Butcher writes Harry Dresden’s character as a wisecracking and cynical, yet dangerously powerful, private investigator. His cases take him anywhere and everywhere, from the mansions of vampiric crime lords to encounters with his not so kindly fairy godmother – and her pack of flesh-eating hellhounds!

Harry Dresden combines his wizarding talents with classic detective skills for a myriad of tasks, helping those who need it most while also trying to save his own hide. His clientele range from your average run of the mill humans, to all manner of fairy tale creatures, many of which you would not expect to see in the same story!

Using his eclectic assortment of wizarding powers, Harry saves himself, his friends, and the world many times over, evolving his powers and gaining an odd assortment of allies in the process. His attempts to come off as a gruff and hardened cynic are constantly undermined by his biggest weakness – to protect anyone who is vulnerable and in need of assistance or protection.

Butcher has made a wonderful contribution to the hard-boiled detective novel genre and continues to leave readers waiting with bated breath for the next book in his smash hit series. If you love a good mystery, but can’t wait till his next book to solve one, join The Murder Mystery Company for an evening of mystery, intrigue, and murder to take your mind off it. We promise you’ll have a killer time!

There are many unsolved mysteries that exist across the globe, some of which strike fear into the heart of the masses, but not all mysteries are scary. Some of them are just downright bizarre and baffling, making us stop and wonder what was actually going on. The Dancing Plague of 1518 is one of those mysteries, which has puzzled historians and physicians everywhere since that fateful year.

The story is told that it all began with one woman, named Frau Troffea, in a small village in France close to the border of Germany. According to all historical records, she simply walked out into the streets of Strasbourg one day in mid-July and began to dance without the accompaniment of any kind. She was the only one, but not for long. After only a couple days Madame Troffea was joined by other dancers, and in a week’s time, over a hundred other members of the community were dancing with her!

This might seem like an odd but silly thing for people to do, but what truly makes it a mystery is that all of these people were dancing against their will. By the end of August, over 400 people had joined in the involuntary dance party in the streets. Local authorities were unwittingly making things worse by encouraging the dancing, thinking that the only way to cure the dancers was to dance out the “hot blood” they thought to suffer from.

When people started dying from exhaustion and weak hearts, those same authorities started rethinking their decision, and eventually decided that they were cursed by a locally revered saint, Saint Vitus, who was reputed to cast dancing curses. The afflicted citizens were loaded up onto wagons and sent up to a temple in the mountains to be “healed.”

There are several other noted occasions of “dancing plague” that happened in previous centuries, but none were as large or as well documented as the Strasbourg plage, which was also the last one to strike in Europe. Extensive research has been done on what started and perpetuated this bizarre event in history, but nobody can actually pin down what really happened despite excellent records from various sources.

Was it ergot poisoning from rye bread sold at the community bakery? Mass hysteria due to the psychological stress of poverty, illness, and natural disasters that was pandemic in the country at the time? Religious trance states that roped in the susceptible minds of those who were particularly devout? Most experts are on board with mass hysteria and religious trances, but nobody will ever really be able to say with 100% certainty.

You can look over the evidence and try to solve the mystery yourself, but if you are really in the mood for a mystery, look no further! Come join The Murder Mystery Company for an evening of mystery, intrigue, and murder, and solve a Clue-style mystery with our mystery experts near a crime scene near you!