The script for “Mortal Mysteries” provides a detailed narrative of the infamous D.B. Cooper case, an unresolved 1971 airplane hijacking. Here’s a summary:
Mortal Mysteries: Crime Throughout Time
The Grisly Murder of Carrie Brown
- 49 Minutes
On March 31, 1922, six people were brutally murdered on a rural German farm. Four of the bodies were found stacked in the barn, where the killer had apparently lured them one by one. He then lived in the victims’ house for 3 days, cooking in their kitchen, feeding their animals, and sleeping in their beds. No one was ever caught.
Mortal Mysteries: Crime Throughout Time
The Cold Killings at Hinterkaifeck
- 49 Minutes
On April 24, 1891, the butchered body of a prostitute was found in a New York City lodging house. The woman had been strangled; her entrails cut out with a knife. The mutilation made front page news due to its similarity to Jack the Ripper’s recent murders in London. Had the Ripper escaped England and landed in America?
Picture This
It’s the early 1920s. Nosferatu premieres on the silver screen. Vitamin D is discovered. And Europe begins to rebuild after the devastation of World War I. On a remote farm in Bavaria, a family maid reports hearing footsteps in the attic.
Scene of the Crime
The farmstead of Hinterkaifeck is located about 40 miles north of Munich in Bavaria, a province in southeast Germany. “Hinter” means “behind” in German, and Kaifeck is a small village nearby. So the small farm simply translates to “behind Kaifeck.”
So They Say
“There’s no real reason to believe it’s not him.” In his 2017 book The Man from the Train, Bill James connects the Hinterkaifeck murders to a German migrant who made his way to America and is suspected of killing dozens in an eerily similar way.
The Legacy
While the Hinterkaifeck killings are little known in the U.S., they are one of the most infamous unsolved cases in Germany. Books, documentaries and films have kept it in the public eye, with the 2006 novel Tannöd selling over one million copies.
Legacy
The case remains a source of fascination, spawning theories, books, and even a convention (CooperCon).