Lodge members recognized at ceremony featuring D.B. Cooper investigation

BEULAVILLE — Members and guests of Beulaville Masonic Lodge Number 618 gathered Saturday evening, Aug. 9, for a dinner program that featured three awards for longtime members and a presentation on the North Carolina connection to a man known as D.B. Cooper — the infamous airline hijacker who parachuted out of a plane in the Northwest carrying a large sum of money.

During the awards presentation, Eddie Ray Maready was given the Veteran’s Emblem in honor of his 50 years of membership and service to the Beulaville Lodge.

Two other lodge members, Terry Michael Williams and Arthur Edwards Jr., received 25-year service awards, presented by Deputy District Grand Marshal Doug Turner.

A special guest speaker, retired N.C. Highway Patrolman Johnny Surles delivered a captivating presentation on D.B. Cooper that contained compelling evidence on who Cooper really was, as well as his direct connection to North Carolina.

On Thanksgiving eve in 1971, a man who identified himself as Dan Cooper at the Northwest Orient Airline ticket counter at the Portland, Oregon airport, purchased a one-way ticket to Seattle. During the 30-minute flight in a Boeing 727, he handed a note to a flight attendant claiming to have a bomb on board. He demanded $200,000 in ransom, a large sum in 1971, and gave explicit instructions on what the crew was to do upon landing in Seattle. He also demanded four parachutes.

In Seattle, he allowed the passengers and their luggage to be removed, but he kept the flight crew, including two pilots and four flight attendants, hostage. He demanded the plane refuel and take off for Mexico City. He even gave explicit instructions about a refueling stop in Reno, Nevada.

Once back in the air, this time at night, Cooper used the rear door and steps that were prevalent on that model of 727 to parachute out of the plane near Vancouver, Washington.

Press coverage of Cooper’s exploits led to a cult following of him. There were two feature films and a few documentaries produced about him, as well as a song titled The Ballad of D.B. Cooper.

Fast forward to April of 1972, when a man by the name of Richard Floyd McCoy, originally from the Cove City, N.C. area, boarded the same model aircraft that Cooper had used. McCoy used the exact same playbook to demand four parachutes plus a $500,000 ransom. This attempt failed and McCoy was arrested and placed in federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. He attempted to escape and was recaptured.

McCoy made friends with three other prisoners. They began planning an escape, even creating a physical fitness system to get in better shape for their plan. On Aug. 10, 1974, they climbed a prison fence and commandeered a garbage truck, crashing it through the prison gate. They ditched the truck and escaped the area.

The FBI sent notices to law enforcement agencies across the east to be on the lookout for the escapees, according to Surles.

“The FBI assumed they were going to Tennessee, so no law enforcement in North Carolina were notified,” Surles said.

On Tuesday morning, Aug. 13, 1974, Surles was patrolling along NC Hwy 58 coming into Trenton, N.C., around 9:15 a.m., when highway patrol dispatch alerted troopers in the area of a bank robbery in Pollocksville. The call said to be on the lookout for four white males in a green Monte Carlo.

It was discovered that the robbers had switched cars. Eventually, putting local law enforcement and the highway patrol helicopter to work, the car the men were now using was spotted. Surles was able to track down two of the men and arrested them. The other two, including McCoy, escaped. McCoy was eventually located in a house out of state and was killed after firing at an FBI agent. His last words were: “You got me.”

Using photos of McCoy and his family, as well as composite sketches of Cooper from FBI wanted posters, and other compelling circumstantial evidence, Surles made the case that McCoy of Cove City was actually the famous hijacker D.B. Cooper, who the FBI was convinced did not survive his parachute jump in Washington state.

Beyond the dramatic pursuit of a fugitive, the events of 1974 led to a significant personal milestone in Surles’ life. During the Pollocksville bank robbery, McCoy placed a gun to the back of a bank employee. That woman would later become Surles’ wife.