Better Dead Than Poor: Stories and Letters from Uncle D.B. Cooper

Was her uncle a hitman for the U.S. government or was he the infamous skyjacker D.B. Cooper? That's the mystery Lisa Story had to unravel after a family trip when Walt Reca threw a file on the table and said, "I did that." Story and her mother found a yellowed newspaper article about an assassination attempt on a violent Middle Eastern terrorist. Over time, Story learned about her uncle's criminal past and his covert assignments while working for private paramilitary companies. Months before he died, Walt insisted his niece take his personal files and an envelope with identification cards that tied him to intelligence work.

But, it was his confession that he hijacked Northwest Airlines Flight 305 in 1971 that most intrigued Story. The media dubbed the legendary hijacker "D.B. Cooper," who parachuted out the back of the commercial airliner with $200,000 never to be seen again. Story asked her uncle how it felt to have gotten away with the crime of the century. He angrily insisted, "I didn't get away with nothing." Walt said he was identified and enlisted to use his ex-Special Forces skills for paramilitary operations that made him fear for his soul.

Better Dead Than Poor is an entertaining investigation into Walt Reca's most outrageous activities. Story creates a convincing, well-researched narrative tying her uncle to the D.B. Cooper hijacking and outlining his other crimes. And just when Story decides her uncle's life was too unbelievable to be true, evidence quite literally falls out of the files he entrusted to her care.