Free Republic

PORTLAND, Ore. - One of the Northwest's most notorious unsolved crimes may have a comic book connection and while it may sound kooky, the FBI agent in charge of the case says the new clue is no laughing matter. In November 1971, a man identifying himself as Dan Cooper, later mistakenly called D.B. Cooper, hijacked a Northwest Orient flight from Portland to Seattle, claiming he had a bomb. At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, he released the passengers in exchange for $200,000 and four parachutes and asked to be flown to Mexico. He jumped from the plane somewhere near the Oregon state...

<p>Special Agent Larry Carr of the Seattle office of the FBI has developed some interesting theories in the case of the iconic skyjacker known as D.B. Cooper. Carr, who took over the case two years ago, believes it's possible Cooper took his name from the French-Canadian comic book character Dan Cooper. Carr says that's important because the books were never translated into English, and could mean he spent time overseas. This fits with Carr's theory that Cooper had been in the Air Force.</p>

SEATTLE - The FBI says a parachute found buried in southwestern Washington is not connected to famed plane hijacker D.B. Cooper. FBI agent Laura Laughlin said Tuesday that the agency came to its conclusion after speaking with parachute experts. It also dug where children found the parachute early last month. Cooper bailed out of a Northwest Orient passenger jet with $200,000 in ransom in November 1971. Some of the cash has been found but his fate is unknown.

The enduring mystery of D.B. Cooper may have moved a step closer to a resolution of the 36-year-old aircraft hijacking case. The FBI Seattle field office has recovered a parachute canopy that children discovered in a heavily wooded area near Amboy in southwest Washington. Larry Carr, the special agent in charge of the case, said Tuesday that the location is in the center of an area that has been identified as the most probable landing zone of Cooper, the name given to the unidentified man who hijacked a Northwest Airlines 727 in 1971. The hijacker bailed out somewhere over southwest...

SEATTLE - The FBI says it's analyzing a torn, tangled parachute found by children in Washington state to see whether it was used by plane hijacker D.B. Cooper. Officials said Tuesday that children playing outside their home near Amboy, in southwest Washington, found the chute sticking up from the ground this month. FBI agent Larry Carr says they pulled on the fabric as much as they could, then cut the ropes. They had seen recent media coverage of the Cooper case and urged their father to call the FBI. Cooper hijacked a plane from Portland, Ore., to Seattle in 1971,...

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...