Karl Puschmann: D.B Cooper: Where are You?! leaps into the coolest crime ever committed

Police impression of the mysterious hijacker D.B. Cooper, subject of new Netflix documentary D.B Cooper: Where Are You?!

Back in 1971, a thin man in a sharp suit and jet-black sunglasses finished his bourbon, stubbed out his cigarette, got up from his seat and strapped on a parachute. Calmly walking into position, he hugged a bag that contained $200,000 in $20 bills close to his chest and jumped out of the American passenger plane he'd hijacked a few hours earlier.

The man's name was Dan Cooper, but a journalist at the time misheard the initial police statement so we all know him as the far more enigmatic-sounding D.B. Cooper. Only we don't know him, because neither Dan or D.B. was actually his real name. We don't have a clue who he was. Neither does the FBI who investigated all the clues they could find for almost five decades before finally admitting defeat in 2016.

Despite public interest, there just wasn't much incentive to keep investigating. Cooper's was a victimless crime. He'd let all the passengers and most of the cabin crew disembark when the plane briefly landed so he could collect the ransom money, before taking off again. Shortly after he leapt away from the scene of the crime and into the history books and the public's imagination.

Stylised picture of D.B. Cooper's jump from the plane in the true crime series D.B Cooper: Where Are You?!

Cooper's audacious and, let's face it, spectacularly cool crime instantly attracted an army of amateur sleuths all determined to crack this unsolvable case. Over the years they've scoured the evidence and "followed the facts," and ... well, they've come up with some interesting theories.

The best of which are presented in Netflix's hugely engrossing new True Crime documentary mini-series D.B. Cooper: Where Are You?! The mini-series examines the crime, the theories and the hobby detectives themselves over four stylish and entertaining episodes.

The first episode sets things up and explains the crime with excellent use of archival footage before we're introduced to the main players.

A police drawing of the D.B Cooper.

There are assorted FBI investigators, a defeated journalist whose dream of winning the Pulitzer by solving the case became a nightmare as he fell victim to what he calls "The Curse of D.B. Cooper", there's an armchair detective who just can't let it go and finally, and most central to the series, an author and former TV executive who's devoted his life - and more than $200,000 of his own money - attempting to solve the crime.

Thomas Colbert is, frankly, obsessed. It's hard to fight the impression that any noble reason he had for trying to solve the crime has long been replaced by ego and a desire to sell to Hollywood the rights to the best-selling book he hopes to write.

Amateur detective Thomas Colbert works the phones as he attempts to solve the case.

His is a dogged determination and his extensive investigations lead him to discount a number of popular suspects: the braggadocious drug dealer who died in mysterious circumstances, a former marine who later transitioned ("the ultimate disguise") or a man who led a double life as an upstanding citizen and a career criminal. All of whom confessed to being Cooper.

All of these theories, and more, are convincingly presented by their respective champions, but the leading suspect is brought forward by Colbert. His own gathering of evidence led him to believe a chap named Robert Rackstraw committed the crime. Rackstraw was also a former criminal and CIA special operative who in his younger years bore a resemblance to the identikit picture of Cooper. He was an early suspect and appeared to enjoy the notoriety his steadfast refusal to either confirm or deny that he was - or wasn't - Cooper brought him.

Robert Rackstraw, the man some believe to be the mysterious D.B Cooper.

Colbert is so invested in this theory that he hires a crew and starts making his own doco, which in some sensational footage leads him to essentially ambush and confront Rackstraw with his allegations. Colbert's actions veer dangerously close to harassment and indeed, Rackstraw is quickly in touch with his lawyer.

Unfortunately for all these hobby detectives, most of their persuasive theories are debunked, while others simply strain credibility so much as to actually be bunk. This includes Colbert, whose Rackstraw theory is dealt a savage blow by the FBI while he's in the middle of production on a quickly cancelled documentary for The History Channel.

An amateur sleuth explaining his D.B Cooper theory with the use of a whiteboard.

The setback only serves to see Colbert double down as he starts to embrace some truly wild and fanciful connections, all of which are detailed in the rollicking third episode, and have him being accused of confirmation bias by the cottage industry that has sprung up around Cooper.

Not only is D.B. Cooper's crime the only unsolved hijacking case in commercial airline history, it's also one of the coolest crimes ever committed. The suave way he handled himself by relaxing into his bourbon and keeping his cool. The fact that no one got hurt, the passengers only learned they'd been hijacked after they'd left the plane.

And, most importantly, the incredible and daring getaway that saw a man become a legend by quite literally disappearing into thin air.