After bragging about his “foolproof” plan, Richard McCoy Jr. hijacked United Airlines Flight 855 in April 1972 — and was promptly arrested 48 hours later.
Public DomainRichard Floyd McCoy Jr.’s daring 1972 plane hijacking has fueled rumors that he may have also been the elusive D. B. Cooper.
Richard McCoy Jr. was an unlikely criminal. He was a decorated Vietnam veteran, helicopter pilot, devoted family man, and Sunday school teacher. He had studied law enforcement at Brigham Young University and dreamed of becoming an FBI agent.
But on April 7, 1972, McCoy boarded a United Airlines flight carrying a hand grenade and a pistol. Once the plane was in the air, he demanded $500,000 in cash and four parachutes in exchange for the safe release of his fellow passengers. Airline officials agreed to pay the ransom when the plane landed in San Francisco, and after receiving his loot, McCoy allowed everyone except a few crew members to deboard.
Then, McCoy asked the pilot to fly over Utah, where he parachuted out of the plane and vanished into the night. Despite his “foolproof” plot, the FBI captured Richard McCoy just two days later. But his story didn’t end there.
After escaping from federal prison in 1974 and dying in a shootout with police officers three months later, speculation grew that McCoy may have committed an even more infamous crime: the unsolved hijacking attributed to the mysterious D. B. Cooper.
How Richard McCoy Jr. Went From A War Hero To A Hijacker
Richard Floyd McCoy Jr. was born in North Carolina in 1942. After high school, he enrolled at Brigham Young University, but he left to enlist in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.
Find a GraveRichard McCoy Jr. completed two tours in Vietnam and earned the Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Army Commendation Medal.
He completed two tours of duty in Vietnam, where he piloted helicopters and earned a Purple Heart in 1964. After returning home, McCoy settled into civilian life. He continued his education at Brigham Young, married Karen Burns, started a family, and joined the Utah National Guard as a warrant officer.
But despite his seemingly ideal life, McCoy was reportedly struggling financially. In early 1972, he allegedly told an acquaintance that he had a “foolproof” way to make money: hijack a commercial plane and escape by parachute.
It may have seemed like a joke at the time, but the world would soon discover just how serious Richard McCoy Jr. really was.
The Hijacking Of United Airlines Flight 855
On April 7, 1972, United Airlines Flight 855 was traveling from Newark to Los Angeles with a stop in Denver, where McCoy boarded under the alias James Johnson. The Boeing 727 was carrying 85 passengers and six crew members.
McCoy had carefully planned his heist, and he brought a manila envelope containing his typed ransom notes. Once he was on the plane, he went directly to the bathroom to disguise himself with a wig and makeup. Then, he heard a flight attendant asking if anyone had left an envelope in the boarding area.
He hesitated, wary of incriminating himself if anyone had peeked at the letters inside. After a moment, however, he reached out to accept the packet. Nobody had looked into it. McCoy’s plot was still in motion. He took his seat — and prepared to hijack the aircraft.
According to the FBI, McCoy was spotted with a hand grenade roughly 20 minutes after takeoff. A flight attendant informed the captain, and an off-duty pilot on the plane walked by McCoy’s seat to confirm that he had a weapon. As he approached, the hijacker pulled out a pistol and handed over an envelope labeled “hijack instructions.”
FBIOne of the handwritten notes Richard McCoy Jr. used to hijack United Airlines Flight 855.
Inside were two typed pages of detailed demands, the pin from his grenade, and a bullet. The letter ordered the crew to fly to San Francisco and hand over $500,000 in cash and four parachutes while avoiding police interference.
Fearing for the safety of everyone on board, United Airlines complied with McCoy’s demands. After receiving the ransom money and parachutes in San Francisco, McCoy released the passengers and ordered the crew back into the air.
The hijacker then instructed the pilot to fly east toward Utah at a low altitude and reduced speed. Once the plane reached the designated area, McCoy donned a jumpsuit, helmet, and parachute before lowering the rear staircase of the Boeing 727.
Then, Richard McCoy Jr. vanished into the darkness with a duffel bag full of cash.
How The FBI Solved The Case In Just Two Days
Initially, it seemed as if the hijacking might go unsolved. The airline didn’t know McCoy’s real name, and while investigators were able to recover fingerprints, handwritten notes, and other evidence from inside the plane, they had nothing to compare them to.
As the authorities frantically searched for the mysterious suspect, McCoy was reportedly on National Guard duty — flying one of the helicopters that was trying to track down the hijacker.
FBI/Salt Lake TribuneThe $499,970 in cash found in Richard McCoy Jr.’s home after the hijacking.
Then, the FBI had a breakthrough. A concerned citizen contacted the authorities after reading the news and noticing similarities between the crime and the hijacking plot that his acquaintance, Richard McCoy Jr., had previously bragged about.
Investigators compared McCoy’s military handwriting samples with a handwritten note he’d accidentally left on the plane. The writing matched. They also discovered that a fingerprint found on a passenger magazine belonged to McCoy.
Other witnesses helped place him near the suspected landing area after the jump. A restaurant employee remembered serving him a milkshake that night, while a teenager said that someone who looked just like McCoy paid him five dollars for a ride.
The FBI had enough evidence for a warrant, so they raided McCoy’s Utah home — and found $499,970 in cash. Their search also revealed skydiving equipment and the typewriter used to create the ransom notes.
McCoy continued to claim he was innocent, but the evidence against him was overwhelming. He was convicted of hijacking the plane and sentenced to 45 years in federal prison.
FBIThe FBI issued this wanted poster after Richard Floyd McCoy Jr. escaped from federal prison in 1974.
But Richard McCoy Jr. wasn’t done yet. After two years behind bars, he staged a daring escape, stealing a garbage truck with a fake gun crafted from dental paste and crashing it through the prison gate. He managed to evade arrest for three months, but the FBI tracked him to Virginia Beach in November 1974.
When agents confronted 31-year-old McCoy, he opened fire and was killed in the ensuing gunfight. Even McCoy’s death couldn’t bring an end to his dramatic tale, though.
Was Richard McCoy Jr. Really D. B. Cooper?
Five months before McCoy hijacked United Airlines Flight 855, an unidentified man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305. The cases were eerily similar. Like McCoy, Cooper had demanded cash and parachutes before escaping through the rear staircase of a Boeing 727. Cooper had never been caught — so had he struck again?
In 1991, former FBI agent Russell Calame and probation officer Bernie Rhodes published D. B. Cooper: The Real McCoy. The book argued that Richard McCoy Jr. and D. B. Cooper were actually the same person. Not everyone agreed, though.
FBIA 1972 FBI sketch of D. B. Cooper.
Some investigators argued that McCoy did not match witness descriptions of Cooper. Others pointed out that McCoy was reportedly with his family in Utah when the 1971 hijacking occurred. Still, the speculation has continued for decades. FBI documents released in 2020 revealed that investigators were still trying to obtain DNA from McCoy’s family for years after his death.
Then, in 2024, McCoy’s own children added more fuel to the theory by openly stating that they believed their father was D. B. Cooper. As reported by The Guardian at the time, Chanté and Rick McCoy III found a parachute in their mother’s shed that matched descriptions of Cooper’s skydiving gear.
These claims have not been confirmed — at least not publicly — so, for now, Cooper’s true identity remains unknown. But one day, we may know whether or not Richard McCoy Jr. was one of history’s most infamous criminals.
After learning about Richard McCoy Jr. and his daring hijacking plot, read about Robert Rackstraw, another potential suspect in the D. B. Cooper case. Then, go inside the deadly 1986 hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73.