The hijacking of American Flight 119: how D.B. Cooper inspired a skyjacking craze and the FBI's battle to stop it
"The man walked across the tarmac toward the Boeing 727 carrying a briefcase containing the $30 wig, a pair of rubber gloves, a smoke grenade, and two guns-a Spitfire machine gun with the stock and front grip removed and eleven inches cut off the barrel, making it compact enough to fit in the briefcase, and a small-caliber pistol. It was Friday, June 23, 1972, just after 2 p.m. and about 80 degrees, but not particularly humid for St. Louis, with a light breeze. He had paid $70 for the roundtrip ticket to Tulsa and back, under the name "Robert Wilson." As was almost always the case in the era before metal detectors and heightened security, he had walked through the terminal and directly to his gate without stopping. No one asked to see what he was carrying"--