Posted on 03/25/2008 3:48:33 PM PDT by jazusamo
FBI agents in Seattle are examining a tattered parachute found recently in north Clark County, looking for evidence that it might have been used by legendary skyjacker D.B. Cooper.
The 'chute was found by children living near the center of the jump zone where the skyjacker bailed out of the 727 jetliner with $200,000 in cash in 1971, never to be heard from again.
Larry Carr, a special agent in the FBI's Seattle office, said the property owner was putting in a road on the site and his tractor blade uncovered some cloth. The children pulled out the canopy until the parachute's shroud lines appeared.
The owner of the property contacted the FBI, and Carr picked up the parachute earlier this month.
Now, after examining the parachute for about three weeks, the FBI could use more help, Carr said.
"We need to go back to the public. We need someone with knowledge of jumping equipment," Carr said by telephone from Seattle. Investigators hope to learn whether the parachute Cooper was given in 1971 matches the canopy in their possession.
People with information are asked to contact the FBI's Seattle office at fbise@leo.gov.
Oh come on! That’s not the real one. The dead giveaway is his about page. It doen’t say a dang thing about what he did with the money or how he got away!
What if someone on the ground caught/found him?
That much cash then might have been a temptation, and the body would not have been worth much reward if it had a couple of moldy bullet holes in it...
Any ransom, drug-buy, bank robbery money always is, one way or another. Nowadays it's often photocopied.
This is north Clark county and the bills were found in the south along the river.
About $6k was found along the banks of the Columbia river. I've never heard of any more being recovered but then I suspect it would be hard to track money by the serial number, especially back then with no OCR.
Where does the watershed run? If the bills were in plastic bags, they might have travelled a good way downstream.
If he got an 8% return and had never spent a nickle it would be >$2.1M today.
I just read about him (List) today on FR and for some reason I thought of him again reading this post. Now I know why, I heard that too a few years back.
The watershed goes to the Columbia as far as I know.
Bump for later reading.
I’ll bet that the average income in 1971 was about $8000 a year. $200k would have sounded like a huge amount.
I could be wrong but I doubt seriously that the type of person that would hijack an airplane for $200,000 is going to be investing that cash.
Yeah that DB’s chute alright!
Not impossible, but it is 37 years ago.
“If DB only knew how funny 200k sounds today.”
But if he’d invested it in Microsoft, it’d be say $200 million today.
You could be wrong but if I was betting, I’d put my money on you.
That's about all.
With their almost unlimited resources and access to sources of information we can't even imagine they can't find someone familiar with parachute equipment of that era.
"Now, after examining the parachute for about three weeks, the FBI could use more help, Carr said.
"We need to go back to the public. We need someone with knowledge of jumping equipment," Carr said by telephone from Seattle. Investigators hope to learn whether the parachute Cooper was given in 1971 matches the canopy in their possession."
I bet most Freepers could find a knowledgeable source within three weeks without FBI resources.
You’re right, it’s a stretch.
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