Posted on 01/01/2008 2:59:53 PM PST by DogByte6RER
D.B. COOPER REDUX
Help Us Solve the Enduring Mystery
12/31/07
On a cold November night 36 years ago, in the driving wind and rain, somewhere between southern Washington state and just north of Portland, Oregon, a man calling himself Dan Cooper parachuted out of a plane hed just hijacked clutching a bag filled with $200,000 in stolen cash.
Who was Cooper? Did he survive the jump? And what happened to the loot, only a small part of which has ever surfaced?
Its a mystery, frankly. Weve run down thousands of leads and considered all sorts of scenarios. And amateur sleuths have put forward plenty of their own theories. Yet the case remains unsolved.
Would we still like to get our man? Absolutely. And we have reignited the casethanks to a Seattle case agent named Larry Carr and new technologies like DNA testing.
You can help. Were providing here, for the first time, a series of pictures and information on the case. Please look it all over carefully to see if it triggers a memory or if you can provide any useful information.
A few things to keep in mind, according to Special Agent Carr:
* Cooper was no expert skydiver. We originally thought Cooper was an experienced jumper, perhaps even a paratrooper, says Special Agent Carr. We concluded after a few years this was simply not true. No experienced parachutist would have jumped in the pitch-black night, in the rain, with a 200-mile-an-hour wind in his face, wearing loafers and a trench coat. It was simply too risky. He also missed that his reserve chute was only for training and had been sewn shutsomething a skilled skydiver would have checked.
* The hijacker had no help on the ground, either. To have utilized an accomplice, Cooper wouldve needed to coordinate closely with the flight crew so he could jump at just the right moment and hit the right drop zone. But Cooper simply said, "Fly to Mexico," and he had no idea where he was when he jumped. There was also no visibility of the ground due to cloud cover at 5,000 feet.
* We have a solid physical description of Cooper. The two flight attendants who spent the most time with him on the plane were interviewed separately the same night in separate cities and gave nearly identical descriptions, says Carr. They both said he was about 5'10" to 6', 170 to 180 pounds, in his mid-40s, with brown eyes. People on the ground who came into contact with him also gave very similar descriptions.
And what of some of the names pegged as Cooper? None have panned out. Duane Weber, who claimed to be Cooper on his deathbed, was ruled out by DNA testing (we lifted a DNA sample from Coopers tie in 2001). Kenneth Christiansen, named in a recent magazine article, didnt match the physical description and was a skilled paratrooper. Richard McCoy, who died in 1974, also didnt match the description and was at home the day after the hijacking having Thanksgiving dinner with his family in Utah, an unlikely scenario unless he had help.
As many agents before him, Carr thinks it highly unlikely that Cooper survived the jump. Diving into the wilderness without a plan, without the right equipment, in such terrible conditions, he probably never even got his chute open.
Still, wed all like to know for sure, and Carr thinks you can help.
Maybe a hydrologist can use the latest technology to trace the $5,800 in ransom money found in 1980 to where Cooper landed upstream. Or maybe someone just remembers that odd uncle.
If you have any information: please e-mail our Seattle field office at fbise@leo.gov. And for more details on the case, see our story of November 24, 2006.
What I have read in the past is that Cooper ordered the pilots to fly at 170 knots (very slow speed for a passenger airplane) and the plane was kept at an altitude below 10,000 feet (a low altitude for a passenger plane.)
Cooper obviously knew he was about to jump out so the slow air speed and low altitude makes sense.
I am also assuming that the plane was flying south when he jumped since Cooper ordered the pilots to fly towards Mexico starting from the Pacific Northwest.
Anyways...you might also check out the FOIA released FBI files of D.B. Cooper. There is a lot to read, but you can access them in pdf format at:
http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/dbcooper.htm
How many of you remember the apology given by Rod Serling? Seems "D.B." may have watched an episode of the Twilight Zone.......
Who is Keyser Soze?
I am D.B. Cooper.
Bull. We all know you’re Jimmy Hoffa.
More here:
Mexico City, he said, and delivered more specific flight instructions: Keep the plane under 10,000 feet, with wing flaps at fifteen degrees, which would put the planes speed under 200 knots. He strapped the loads of cash to himself and slipped on two chutesone in front, one in backand moved deeper into the vessel, toward the aft stairs, which were used to let passengers disembark from the rear of the plane. The 727 was the only model equipped with such stairs. He lowered them. The seal of the cabin broke, and there was engine noise in his ears and the cold, black, wet windy night outside. He climbed down the stairs and hovered on a plank over southwest Washington. The plane was too high to see anything below. The cloud ceiling that night was 5,000 feet, and some of the most rugged terrain in this country was beneath it: forests of pine and hemlock and spruce, canyons with cougars and bears and lakes and white-water rapids, all spilling out into the Pacific. And then, as the ballad goes,
Out a little service doorway
In the rear of the plane
Cooper jumped into the darkness
Into the freezing rain
They say that with the windchill
It was 69 below
Not much chance that hed survive
But if he did where did he go?
From: http://nymag.com/news/features/39593/index1.html
I know Rod is dead.
He did apoligize for the episode of TTZ that showed, of all things, an air hijacking. Life follows art?
One thing that makes me doubt Weber is Cooper is the going to the library to read up on “himself.” That is more the mark of someone who wants to pretend to have been there rather than someone who was there.
One thing that makes me doubt Weber is Cooper is the going to the library to read up on “himself.” That is more the mark of someone who wants to pretend to have been there rather than someone who was there.
John Galt is Keyser Soze.
That looks like one of my neighbors. We call him “Bigfoot”!
I think he hit the ground at, pardon the phrase, terminal velocity.
The Mystery is over...DB Cooper’s brother was for years trying to contact a writer ( Female) in New York through her agent..She never would reply to letters That DB’s Brother sent through her agent. after many waqsted Years, the brother turned to the Agent and told Him the story. on DB Cooper’s death bed, ( His Name is not DB Cooper) that was just a mistaken name fo the Media. on His Death Bed He tried to confess but failed to, But His Brother put the pieces of the puzzle together.
His Brother (DB) was an Employee of the AirLine of the Plane He jumped out of. DB, was a maintenace man for the Airline and knew the Planes makeup, the Plane was one of only afew that could be jumped out of with a chance of Survival. Db was also an Army Ranger Paratrooper in the service. I read this whole story about 4 Months ago on an internet web site. It was very compelling, because of the
Brothers knowlege and the Facts Of His Brother, along with other links like a Purchase for Cash of about 35,000 for a small plot of land and a small house that the Brother knew That DB could not have afforded, also He lived alone the rest of his life, and He also Knew that Many People in that Airline were mad at the time over Poor Pay and working conditions...( Motive)
DB survived, and used the money to retire on, lived well but humbly in the Pacific northwest. untill the day He died.
We would have had the whole story if it wasn’t for the Arrogant stupid woman Writer from NY who was too stupid to talk to someone who had a Great story.
They do have their eye on the ball don't they?
Best link anybody’s posted here in a LONG time!
The FBI says that none of the Money’s sierial numbers have ever shown up...what a crock.
I didnt know that the FBI had a system for every one in America to watch for these numbers....
and If the money was in circulation in America...can yoyu immagine what kind of effort it would take to search for these numbers??
I dont think the FBI has the Brains for such an operation.
the FBI just cant let it go, because they cant stand that some “RUBE” pulled one off on them.
Yeah, he splattered.
And that was D.B. all over.
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