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Do you remember that odd uncle? - FBI seeks leads in D.B. Cooper case
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http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/promos/wirepicks/story/242749.html
FBI seeks leads in D.B. Cooper case
Agency renews plea for help solving mystery that began with 1971 jump
DON HAMILTON; The Columbian
Published: January 1st, 2008 07:26 AM
VANCOUVER – FBI agent Larry Carr has this special theory of how to solve the D.B. Cooper mystery.
Maybe, he said, some clever hydrologist armed with satellite technology can trace the Cooper cash found on the Columbia River in 1980 back to the very creek or stream where it fell from the sky on that fabled night in 1971. That might lead to the Cooper corpse itself.
On Monday, the FBI renewed its plea for help from the public in solving the case in a news release that took the top spot Monday on the FBI Web site.
Carr, a special agent in the Seattle office – and an avowed D.B. Cooper buff – took over the Cooper case file last year and has been ratcheting up its profile.
“It’s a mystery, frankly,” the FBI said Monday. “We’ve 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.”
On Nov. 24, 1971, Thanksgiving eve, the man who bought a ticket as Dan Cooper hijacked a Northwest Orient flight from Portland to Seattle. He collected four parachutes and $200,000 in ransom money in Seattle and then leapt out the back stairwell as the plane flew south somewhere over Ariel, Cowlitz County.
He hasn’t been heard from since – a mystery that has fueled 36 years of conspiracy theories and crazed speculation.
The Monday news release included evidence photos from the FBI files, including photos of Cooper’s skinny black clip-on necktie, a parachute he left behind on the plane and a few of the decaying $20 bills found near Frenchman’s Bar.
In the account Monday, Carr discussed a few of his working theories on Cooper and his leap into infamy.
• He was no expert skydiver. At first, the FBI saw him as some brave and brilliant jumper. After a few years, they realized this scenario was all wrong. “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,” Carr said. “It was simply too risky.”
• He had no help on the ground. If he was meeting someone, why didn’t he give the flight crew explicit directions on a route? His instructions were vague: Fly to Mexico, although they later settled on Reno. He also chose a lousy place to jump — over the high Cascades and not over jump-friendly flatlands, and couldn’t see the ground when he jumped because of a cloud cover at 5,000 feet.
• Descriptions of Cooper are reliable. The two flight attendants who spent the most time with him on the plane were interviewed separately, on the same night and in separate cities and gave nearly identical descriptions, Carr said. “They both said he was 5-foot 10 to 6-foot, 170 to 180 pounds, in his mid-40s and had brown eyes,” Carr said. “People on the ground who came into contact with him also gave very similar descriptions.”
• His identity remains unknown.
Duane Weber, who claimed on his deathbed to be Cooper, was ruled out by DNA testing. Kenneth Christiansen of Bonney Lake, named in a magazine article this fall, didn’t match the physical description. Richard McCoy, who died in 1974, also didn’t match the description and had Thanksgiving dinner the next afternoon with his family in Utah, unlikely for someone who’d jumped into a roaring storm only hours before.
Carr inherits a portfolio handled by many agents before him. And they agree that Cooper never survived the jump.
Still, anyone with information is asked to e-mail the FBI at fbise@leo.gov.
Carr thinks the public 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,” he said.
“Or maybe someone just remembers that odd uncle.”
FBI seeks leads in D.B. Cooper case
Agency renews plea for help solving mystery that began with 1971 jump
DON HAMILTON; The Columbian
Published: January 1st, 2008 07:26 AM
VANCOUVER – FBI agent Larry Carr has this special theory of how to solve the D.B. Cooper mystery.
Maybe, he said, some clever hydrologist armed with satellite technology can trace the Cooper cash found on the Columbia River in 1980 back to the very creek or stream where it fell from the sky on that fabled night in 1971. That might lead to the Cooper corpse itself.
On Monday, the FBI renewed its plea for help from the public in solving the case in a news release that took the top spot Monday on the FBI Web site.
Carr, a special agent in the Seattle office – and an avowed D.B. Cooper buff – took over the Cooper case file last year and has been ratcheting up its profile.
“It’s a mystery, frankly,” the FBI said Monday. “We’ve 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.”
On Nov. 24, 1971, Thanksgiving eve, the man who bought a ticket as Dan Cooper hijacked a Northwest Orient flight from Portland to Seattle. He collected four parachutes and $200,000 in ransom money in Seattle and then leapt out the back stairwell as the plane flew south somewhere over Ariel, Cowlitz County.
He hasn’t been heard from since – a mystery that has fueled 36 years of conspiracy theories and crazed speculation.
The Monday news release included evidence photos from the FBI files, including photos of Cooper’s skinny black clip-on necktie, a parachute he left behind on the plane and a few of the decaying $20 bills found near Frenchman’s Bar.
In the account Monday, Carr discussed a few of his working theories on Cooper and his leap into infamy.
• He was no expert skydiver. At first, the FBI saw him as some brave and brilliant jumper. After a few years, they realized this scenario was all wrong. “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,” Carr said. “It was simply too risky.”
• He had no help on the ground. If he was meeting someone, why didn’t he give the flight crew explicit directions on a route? His instructions were vague: Fly to Mexico, although they later settled on Reno. He also chose a lousy place to jump — over the high Cascades and not over jump-friendly flatlands, and couldn’t see the ground when he jumped because of a cloud cover at 5,000 feet.
• Descriptions of Cooper are reliable. The two flight attendants who spent the most time with him on the plane were interviewed separately, on the same night and in separate cities and gave nearly identical descriptions, Carr said. “They both said he was 5-foot 10 to 6-foot, 170 to 180 pounds, in his mid-40s and had brown eyes,” Carr said. “People on the ground who came into contact with him also gave very similar descriptions.”
• His identity remains unknown.
Duane Weber, who claimed on his deathbed to be Cooper, was ruled out by DNA testing. Kenneth Christiansen of Bonney Lake, named in a magazine article this fall, didn’t match the physical description. Richard McCoy, who died in 1974, also didn’t match the description and had Thanksgiving dinner the next afternoon with his family in Utah, unlikely for someone who’d jumped into a roaring storm only hours before.
Carr inherits a portfolio handled by many agents before him. And they agree that Cooper never survived the jump.
Still, anyone with information is asked to e-mail the FBI at fbise@leo.gov.
Carr thinks the public 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,” he said.
“Or maybe someone just remembers that odd uncle.”
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Comments
47 miles away from where he fell down to his fame
But he told me that the hardest part wasn't really jumping out of the plane
It was spending the night watching those lights
Shine through the pouring rain
They had a man hunt that next morning like nothing I had ever seen
I was only 8 years old at the time watching on a TV screen
They were saying he was never gonna make it now, now that daylight had set in
But later that night they were shining those lights
Down on the mountain again
Not far away from the City of Roses
They all watched those lights up through the rain
For D.B. Cooper
The cops blocked off all the exit roads and turned loose all of the hounds
They even dragged the river up a couple of times to see if he had drowned
With all those men working overtime they swore they would brin him down
But a parachute and a few hundred dollars
Was all that they ever found
Not far away from the City of Roses
They all watched those lights up through the rain
Now some people say that he died up there somewhere in the rain and the wind
Other people say that he got away but his girlfriend did him in
The law men say if he is out there someday they're gonna bring him in
As for me, I hope they never see
D.B. Cooper again
Not far away from the City of Roses
A light shined from a house out in the rain
It was D.B. Cooper
Drinking champagne
BTW, I am D.B. Cooper.
where abouts in Tacoma are you?
Another habit says its long overdue
Another habit like an unwanted friend
I'm so happy with my righteous self
Ah fun stuff!!
Yeah, they have bigger fish to fry - but they still want their man in this case.
Living here in the PNW, this has been like folk lore my entire life. I am personally fascinated by the case.