FBI放弃45年悬案 传奇劫机者下落依然是谜

Where Is D.B. Cooper? F.B.I. Ends 45-Year Hunt

FBI放弃45年悬案，传奇劫机者下落依然是谜

It remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in the United States, a startling crime that captured the American imagination, inspiring songs, movies, TV shows and books.

它是美国悬而未决的最大谜团之一，这桩惊人的犯罪事件激发了美国人的想像力，为歌曲、电影、电视节目与书籍带来了创作灵感。

In 1971, a man who called himself Dan Cooper hijacked a passenger plane from Oregon to Seattle where he freed the 36 passengers in exchange for $200,000 in cash. As the nearly empty flight took off again, flying south, he parachuted out of the airplane with the ransom, and was never seen again.

1971年，一个自称丹·库珀(Dan Cooper)的男人劫持了一架自俄勒冈飞往西雅图的民航班机。他在拿到20万美元现金后，释放了机上36名乘客。这架几乎清空的飞机再度升空、向南飞去的时候，库珀带着赎金跳伞离机，从此不见踪影。

But after 45 years in which hundreds of leads were probed and discarded, the F.B.I. said this week it was no longer actively pursuing what it called one of the longest and most exhaustive investigations in its history.

45年来，美国联邦调查局(FBI)对无数线索加以排查又放弃之后，于本周宣布，不会再主动推进这件他们自称该局历史上时间跨度最长也最巨细无遗的调查。

Who was D.B. Cooper?

D·B·库珀是何许人也？

No one knows. Or someone does, but is not telling. The F.B.I. has described him as a “nondescript” man. He appeared to be in his mid-40s, which if true would make him about 90 years old by now. As the caper became widely known, he was referred to as “D.B. Cooper” in media reports.

没人知道。又或许有人心里有数，却不愿意说。FBI曾经把他描绘成一个“毫无特征”之人。他犯案时的年纪似乎是四十五六的样子，果真如此的话，如今他就有90岁左右了。随着这桩案子变得广为人知，媒体在报导中称他为“D·B·库珀”。

How did he pull it off?

他是怎么作案的？

On Nov. 24, 1971, the man calling himself “Dan Cooper” approached the counter of Northwest Orient Airlines in Portland, Ore., dressed in a business suit and carrying a briefcase. He paid cash for a one-way ticket on Flight 305 to Seattle.

1971年11月24日，这个自称丹·库珀的人来到西北东方航空(Northwest Orient Airlines)在俄勒冈州波特兰机场的柜台。他身穿西装，带着一个公文包，用现金购买了一张飞往西雅图的305航班的单程票。

“Thus began one of the great unsolved mysteries in F.B.I. history,” the F.B.I. said.

“然后，FBI史上悬而未决的最大谜团之一就此发生了。”FBI表示。

A “quiet” man, he ordered a bourbon and soda while waiting for takeoff. In midair just after 3 p.m., from seat 18C, he handed the flight attendant a note saying he had a bomb in his briefcase and showed her a glimpse of wires and red sticks. She wrote down his demands — four parachutes and $200,000 in twenty-dollar bills — and passed them to the captain.

这名“镇静”的男子在等待飞机起飞的时候，点了一份波本威士忌加苏打水。下午3点刚过，飞机正在半空中，他从18C的座位上递了张纸条给一名空乘，上面写着他的公文包里有炸弹，还让空服员很快瞥了一眼导线和红色炸弹。空服员记下他的要求——四副降落伞还有用20元面值的钞票给付的20万美元——然后转给机长。

In Seattle, the passengers were exchanged for the money and parachutes. The flight resumed with “Mr. Cooper” and the crew en route for Mexico City, with the plane flying no higher than 10,000 feet, as he demanded.

在西雅图，这些钱与降落伞换来了乘客的自由。班机载着“库珀先生”与机组人员再次升空飞往墨西哥城，同时在他的要求下，飞行高度未超过1万英尺（约合3048米）。

After 8 p.m., somewhere between Seattle and Reno, he jumped out of the back of the plane into a wooded area with a parachute and the ransom, and disappeared.

晚间8点过后，在西雅图与内华达州里诺市之间的某处，他带着赎金自机身后方跳伞离开，落入一片林地便消失了。

How did the story affect American culture?

这起事件如何影响了美国文化？

The high-flying exploit of the man known as D.B. Cooper infused American popular culture. The parts of his story that were known were dramatic enough to inspire writers, directors and musicians, but the unanswered questions had to be patched up with guesswork.

这位以D·B·库珀留名的仁兄在高空作下的奇案，对美国的流行文化产生了很大的影响。故事中为人所知的部分已经够戏剧化了，足以为作家、导演、音乐家带来灵感，而那些无解之处就得靠众人自行脑补。

The 2004 movie “Without a Paddle” was about three friends who headed into the wilderness in search of the lost ransom money and ended up finding his skeleton.

2004年上映的电影《寻宝假期》(Without a Paddle)描述了三名友人深入林野搜寻失落的赎金，最终他们找到了库珀的遗骸。

In 1981, the movie “The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper” opened with Treat Williams in the lead role as a former Green Beret named J.R. Meade. The movie was based on J.D. Reed’s 1980 book, “Free Fall.” Other fictional books included “D.B.” by Elwood Reid in which “Cooper” is actually a Vietnam vet named Phil Fitch, and James M. Cain’s “Rainbow’s End” in the 1970s, which had similarities.

1981年，电影《D·B·库柏的冒险旅程》(The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper)问世，由崔特·威廉姆斯(Treat Williams)领衔饰演一位名叫J.R.米德(J.R. Meade)的前美军特种部队成员。这部电影改编自J.D.理德(J.D. Reeds)于1980年出版的《自由落体》(Free Fall)。其他小说还有艾伍德·瑞德(Elwood Reid)撰写的《D·B·》，在本书中，库珀化身名叫菲尔·费奇(Phil Fitch)的越战退伍军人。至于詹姆斯·凯恩(James M. Cain)在1970年代所写的《彩虹那端》(Rainbow's End)也有类似情节。

Artists from Todd Snider to Chuck Brodsky have written and performed songs about him.

从托德·史奈德(Todd Snider)到恰克·布罗斯基(Chuck Brodsky)等诸多艺人都谱写、演唱过关于库珀的歌曲。

“They say that with the wind chill, it was 69 below,” Mr. Brodsky sings. “Not much chance that he’d survive, but if he did where did he go?”

“他们说根据风寒指数，温度为负69度（约合零下56摄氏度），”布罗斯基唱着。“他的存活几率不大，可要他活下来了，人又在哪儿？”

The Ariel General Store and Tavern, an archive of Coopermania in the Washington State town of Ariel, where he is believed to have landed, has kept the story alive with an annual get-together that toasts Mr. Cooper as a hero. Its next annual D.B. Cooper festival is planned for Nov. 26, including a look-a-like contest.

据信库珀是在华盛顿州艾瑞尔镇(Ariel)落地的，而这里的艾里尔杂货店─酒馆(Ariel General Store and Tavern)是库珀迷的集散中心，每年都举办集会向库珀致上英雄般的敬意，让这个故事一直保持热度。这里的下一届年度D·B·库珀节预计在11月26号举行，到时还会有模仿大赛。

What happened to the money?

那些钱去哪儿了？

In 1980, a boy found a rotting package of twenty-dollar bills along the Columbia River worth $5,800 that matched the ransom money serial numbers. Using an inflation calculator, the ransom of $200,000 in 1971 would be equivalent to demanding about $1.2 million today. It is unclear what happened to the rest of the money.

1980年，一个男孩在哥伦比亚河(Columbia River)河畔发现一袋腐烂的20美元钞票，总额5800美元，与赎金上的序列号相符。把通胀计算在内，1971年的20万美元大致相当于现在的120万美元。其他的钱则去向不明。

Who were some of the suspects?

有哪些嫌疑人？

The F.B.I. has said it interviewed hundreds of people, tracked leads across the nation, and scoured the aircraft for evidence. By the fifth anniversary of the hijacking, it had looked into 800 suspects. As The New York Times reported in 2011, the F.B.I. file on the case, available in an online vault, measures 40 feet long, cataloging more than 1,000 suspects, some supplied by psychics, some turned in by people suspicious of a family member, some coming in deathbed confessions.

FBI曾说已审讯了成百上千人，在全国各地追踪线索，彻底搜查飞机寻找证据。劫持发生后五年内，FBI调查了800名嫌疑犯。2011年《纽约时报》就报道过，FBI关于此案的资料（在一个在线资料库中能够看到）长达40英尺，记载了1000多名嫌疑人的情况，有些是通灵者提供的，有些是怀疑家庭成员的人上报的，有些来自临终忏悔。

One of the suspects interviewed was a man named Richard Floyd McCoy. He carried out a similar hijacking and escape by parachute less than five months after the Cooper flight, the F.B.I. said. But Mr. McCoy was ruled out because he did not match descriptions provided by flight attendants, and for other undisclosed reasons, the F.B.I said.

其中一名接受审讯的嫌疑犯名叫理查德·弗洛伊德·麦科伊(Richard Floyd McCoy)。FBI称，他在库珀劫机案发生不到五个月后，进行了一次类似的劫持，并跳伞逃跑。不过麦科伊的嫌疑被排除了，FBI表示，他不符合乘务员们描述的外貌特征，此外还有其他一些不便透露的因素。

The agency was not sure, even by 1972, that he was alive.

该机构无法确定他是否还活着，甚至到1972年都无法确定。

Q: Did the case influence the way the government handled hijackings?

问：此案是否影响了政府处理劫持的方式？

A: Hijackings during the Cold War were often desperate attempts at escape from the Iron Curtain, but during the 1970s criminals used them as leverage in ransom negotiations. The D.B. Cooper case became a storied example of an era of hijacking. By the mid-1970s, at least 150 planes had been “skyjacked” in the United States alone.

答：“冷战”期间的劫机往往是逃脱铁幕的疯狂尝试，不过在20世纪70年代，犯罪分子把劫机用作换取赎金的砝码。库珀案成为那个劫机时代的著名案例。到20世纪70年代中期，单在美国就至少有150架飞机遭到劫持。

Geoffrey Gray, a journalist who has contributed to The Times and who wrote the 2011 book on the investigation, “Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper,” said in an article published after the FBI announcement this week that the case was legally still open.

时报的特约记者杰弗里·格雷(Geoffrey Gray)2011年出版了一本关于此案调查的书，名叫《劫机：追捕D·B·库珀》(Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper)。本周，在FBI发表声明之后，他在一篇文章中写道，此案从法律上讲依然没有封案。

He said it had initially been deemed a case of air piracy, a felony that carried a statute of limitations of five years. However, a grand jury indicted the hijacker in absentia for violating the Hobbs Act, another federal statute aimed to prevent extortion that carried no statute of limitations.

他说，此案最初被认定为劫机案，这项重罪的诉讼时效是五年。不过，一个大陪审团指控缺席的劫机者违反了霍布斯法案(Hobbs Act)。霍布斯法案是另一项旨在防范勒索的联邦法令——勒索案没有诉讼时效。

“In theory, if Cooper were to walk out of the woods today, he could theoretically be charged with a crime,” he wrote.

“从理论上讲，如果库珀今天走出那片树林，他依然可以被判罪，”他写道。

Q: Why did the FBI decide to shelve the investigation?

问：FBI为什么决定搁置调查？

A: The agency said it was redirecting resources because “every time the FBI assesses additional tips for the Norjak case,” referring to the name it gave the D.B. Cooper probe, “investigative resources and manpower are diverted from programs that more urgently need attention.”

答：FBI称，它是为了把资源用在其他事情上，因为“每次FBI评估Norjak案（这是FBI对库珀案的代号）的新线索，调查资源和人手都不得不从其他更急需注意力的项目上转到此案中”。

The FBI said that the “countless items” it has examined over the years would be preserved for historical purposes at its headquarters. The agency did say people could still contact the bureau if they had specific leads.

FBI称，这些年它研究过的“无数物品”将为历史目的保存在总部。该机构表示，人们如果发现具体线索，依然可以联系该机构。

Gray said, “Hundreds if not more Cooper sleuths continue to harangue the office with their leads.”

格雷称，“至少有数百名业余侦探继续拿着自己的线索向该机构慷慨陈词。”

Reassigning the lone agent on the case, he said, “is really an attempt by the bureau to spare the office from irritating calls, wacky emails and more.”

他表示，只给此案分配一名探员“真的是该机构为了免受烦人电话和奇怪邮件等等的骚扰”。