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The 40-year Mystery of America’s Greatest Skyjacking [The FBI Hunt for DB Cooper]
Telegraph.co.uk ^ | Sunday 31 July 2011 | By Alex Hannaford

Posted on 07/30/2011 7:31:04 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay

After hijacking an aeroplane and extorting $200,000 from the FBI, DB Cooper coolly made his escape via parachute. Forty years on, is America’s most elusive fugitive finally in sight?

The night before Thanksgiving, 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper, wearing a suit and raincoat, walked up to the Northwest Orient desk at Portland airport in the United State’s Pacific Northwest and spent $20 on a one-way ticket to Seattle.

On the plane, he donned a pair of dark sunglasses, ordered a whiskey, lit up a cigarette and coolly handed the stewardess a note. In capital letters, it read: I HAVE A BOMB IN MY BRIEFCASE. I WILL USE IT IF NECESSARY. I WANT YOU TO SIT NEXT TO ME. YOU ARE BEING HIJACKED.

What happened next would ensure Cooper a place in the pantheon of American folk heroes.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Extended News; Government; US: Oregon; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: 1971; 197111; 19711126; alexhannaford; curtiseng; dancooper; dbcooper; dropzone; faziobrothers; galencook; northwestorient; phonecall4dbcooper; robertblevins; seattlefbi; skydiving; tinabar
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To: CodeToad
I know you were only trying to help...but stop it. You’re depressing me.

I can understand that. According to the numbers we were a hell of a lot better off in many ways 40 years ago.

Median income 1971 - $9,000

Median income 2011 - $45,000 to $50,000
(hard to find an exact number that hasn't been "adjusted" by the government)

So individual median income has increased by a factor of 5 while most consumer goods have increased by a factor of 10 or more.

And a huge part of that is because of big increases in the tax burden on individual items, on manufacturers and on businesses.


41 posted on 07/30/2011 9:34:02 PM PDT by Iron Munro (The more effeminate & debauched the people, the more they are fitted for a tyrannical government.)
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To: Bernard Marx

The FBI provided the shutes, and he used them?

Talk about faith....


42 posted on 07/30/2011 9:38:04 PM PDT by onedoug (If)
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To: bornred

Aw shucks, I was enjoying the fantasy. Oh well. On a heavier note, Cooper probably injured himself in his jump and was eaten by wild things. Some of the money in $20’s was found in the woods where he would have landed, by some kids IIRC. His parachute was also found, I think.


43 posted on 07/30/2011 9:39:29 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Some, believing they can't be deceived, it's nigh impossible to convince them when they're deceived.)
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To: JRandomFreeper

“Validate your inner curmudgeon.”

It’s getting to be my daily habit.


44 posted on 07/30/2011 9:51:10 PM PDT by pingman (Durn tootin'; I like Glock shootin'!)
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To: Iron Munro
In the 1960s Gasoline varied from 18.9 to 21.9 cents per gallon, unless there was a gas war going on.

They pumped your gas, checked your oil and everything else under the hood, checked the tire pressures and you never got out of your car.

45 posted on 07/30/2011 9:54:52 PM PDT by TYVets (Pure-Gas.org ..... ethanol free gasoline by state and city)
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To: Sundog

During the 76-77 drought when lake levels were really low, a family on an outing found a bunch of the money buried in the silt. The low lake level made it easy to find. The family was filmed for the news report, and ironically, the father had outstanding warrants in another state.


46 posted on 07/30/2011 10:28:43 PM PDT by gracie1 (Look, just because you have to tolerate something doesnÂ’t mean you have to approve of it.)
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To: JRandomFreeper

Not that I’d want to with tsa serving it up....

Stay safe....


47 posted on 07/30/2011 10:42:43 PM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet)
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To: fight_truth_decay

$20 for a one way ticket.

You can’t check a damn bag for $20. Ticket taxes are more than $20 now.


48 posted on 07/30/2011 10:59:12 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: Steely Tom
The kind of folk who write for newspapers think he's a folk hero.

Yeah, well, they were always suckers for the redistributionist types.

49 posted on 07/31/2011 3:10:00 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: TYVets
They pumped your gas, checked your oil and everything else under the hood, checked the tire pressures and you never got out of your car.

Sure you did!--use the (clean!) restroom, splurge and spend a quarter on a coke and a bag of chips...

50 posted on 07/31/2011 3:13:56 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: fight_truth_decay

I flew a 727 charter from Lajes Field, Azores to Philadelphia back in the mid 80’s.

As part of the preflight briefing we were informed we were flying on the 727 that Cooper hijacked.

Trivia cool.


51 posted on 07/31/2011 3:17:51 AM PDT by hattend (As always... FUJM.)
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To: onedoug
The FBI provided the shutes, and he used them?
Talk about faith....

He asked for two chutes because he as going to make a stewardess jump with him, as insurance that they didn't give him a faulty chute.

52 posted on 07/31/2011 3:33:11 AM PDT by Dan Cooper
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To: Enchante

Amen. I enjoyed the movie ‘Godfather” til I thought about all the damage these people have done to the country. And the arrogance they displayed for the legal system.
Now it is impossible to watch shows like the “Sopranos” without wishing they would disappear.


53 posted on 07/31/2011 5:01:55 AM PDT by Yorlik803 (better to die on your feet than live on your knees.)
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To: Waverunner

My first flight was a DC-3. My dad took me from Daytona Beach to Jacksonville. The aisle was so slanted that I had a hard time walking to my seat. We flew low the entire way and went over an airfield that had thousands of fighter planes in mothballs...maybe it was Green Cove Springs. My mother, brother, and sister picked us up at the JAX field and we drove to visit Silver Springs before going back home. It must have been about 1947 and we had our first new tires on the car since the war.


54 posted on 07/31/2011 5:36:12 AM PDT by ryderann
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To: Grizzled Bear

In 1971 you would have expected to live large for at least ten years on that. In the fifties you could have deposited that much and lived well on the interest.


55 posted on 07/31/2011 6:39:36 AM PDT by RipSawyer (Trying to reason with a liberal is like teaching algebra to a tomcat.)
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To: TYVets
In the 1960s Gasoline varied from 18.9 to 21.9 cents per gallon, unless there was a gas war going on. They pumped your gas, checked your oil and everything else under the hood, checked the tire pressures and you never got out of your car.

And they scrubbed and washed your windshield.


56 posted on 07/31/2011 7:04:09 AM PDT by Iron Munro (The more effeminate & debauched the people, the more they are fitted for a tyrannical government.)
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To: Iron Munro

When I look at ratios of income there is no doubt higher taxes come into play. Home values went from 2.5 times income to 5 times. Total taxes paid today, no matter who you are, is about 55%, as the federal, State and local government spend 55% of GDP.


57 posted on 07/31/2011 7:16:39 AM PDT by CodeToad (Islam needs to be banned in the US and treated as a criminal enterprise.)
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To: JRandomFreeper

I liked flying into Oakland. SanFran was usually fogged in so we had to land in Oakland anyway.


58 posted on 07/31/2011 7:30:14 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Eh ?)
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To: CodeToad
When I look at ratios of income there is no doubt higher taxes come into play.

Higher taxes, new taxes, new and higher fees, more and more government regulations that drive up the cost of construction, manufacturing, tranporting goods, operating a business.

Yet the "experts" are at a loss when it comes to explaining why more jobs aren't being created.


59 posted on 07/31/2011 7:32:08 AM PDT by Iron Munro (The more effeminate & debauched the people, the more they are fitted for a tyrannical government.)
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To: Iron Munro

I work for a Fortune 100 company, and even they are stepping back from hiring, capital improvements, R&D, etc. We are no doubt cash rich but the company bean counters are not expecting it to stay that way. Just to keep our hides intact we had to rename our department from Advanced Research to Product Development.


60 posted on 07/31/2011 7:38:15 AM PDT by CodeToad (Islam needs to be banned in the US and treated as a criminal enterprise.)
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