50 year anniversary of the DB Cooper skyjacking is a couple weeks away. Big event in NW

[LedZeppfan1977]

On November 24, 1971, Thanksgiving Eve, a man who listed himself as Dan Cooper bought a $20 one way ticket from Portland to Seattle and pulled off the ONLY unsolved skyjacking in US History  There are tons of shows on YouTube on this subject and you can get all the  specifics there.  The two stewardess's who were involved and were the witness's for the sketch and such are still alive.  But they are not in the mood to cooperate.  One changed her name and is somewhere in S Carolina.  The Pilot, last name Smith like the Titanic, is no longer alive.  He suffered terrible tragedy later in life and denied all interviews until his death.  So CooperCon 21 as they are calling it, is taking place up in Oregon, outside of Portland in a couple weeks.  Its an entire weekend event.  I am a member of the website but I do not plan on going.  Its not on Thanksgiving.  But very close.  They could not get the stewardess Tina Mucklow to attend.  She is the one that spent the most time with Cooper.  Flo Shaffner was the one that changed her name, she was the one that got the note and had first contact with Cooper.  He demanded $200,000 in "negotiable American currency"  it was stated.  But he took back the note.  The only evidence left was a tie (traced to JP Penney's),  2 of the 4 parachutes he demanded ( a smart move to make them believe he may take hostages and they had to make sure the chutes were good) and the 8 cigarette butts that were lost by  the FBI.  They would have been gold because of DNA.  In the early 80's $5000 and change was found at Tina Bar, a small beach on the Columbia River by a then 8 year old boy.  He will be at the conference but offers nothing of substance.  This case has been officially dropped by the FBI and they opened the door to amateur sleuths to solve it if they could.  So far, they can not. But they sure have tried.  All kinds of scientific tests were done to try and solve how the small part of the money wound up far from where they believed he jumped.  Yes, DB Cooper jumped out of the rear of the plane in rain and windy conditions about 8:11 that evening somewhere between Seattle and Reno.  Reno is where plane landed to refuel.  Destination was Mexico City but nobody believed Cooper ever planned on the plane going that far.  Not a trace of him or the rest of the money have ever been found!  This one is right up there with the Alcatraz Escape, Jack the Ripper and those few crimes that just suck you in.  I am not sure it will ever be solved.  The few suspects that the FBI did not buy into are all deceased.  From all I have seen and read, I do not believe they have ever known his identity.  He could be alive.  If he is, he would be early to mid 90s.  They estimated early to mid 40's back in 1971 but they could have been wrong of course.  Two famous sketch's are out there that the FBI uses.  One he has sunglass's on as he put them on shortly after handing Flo the note  And the other is known as the "Bing Crosby" sketch.  It should be an interesting event but I do not think its going to solve anything.  They need the stewardess to cooperate more IMO. 

[BobDobbs]

As the bills were marked, and none have turned up in circulation, I think he died when he jumped or, he survived but lost the money during the jump. Either way, the guy either had serious balls or was plain looney to jump out of a 727 going 150mpg at 10k ft. under high winds and rain, over one of the most dense, most dangerous forested regions of the US, and at night to boot. My money is on very dead, impaled on some tree. Unless he had an accomplice. If a ground crew member smuggled proper jumping clothes to withstand the -7 degree f temps plus a few other goodies he could have easily survived the jump.

Edited November 8, 2021 by BobDobbs

[LedZeppfan1977]

6 hours ago, BobDobbs said:

As the bills were marked, and none have turned up in circulation, I think he died when he jumped or, he survived but lost the money during the jump. Either way, the guy either had serious balls or was plain looney to jump out of a 727 going 150mpg at 10k ft. under high winds and rain, over one of the most dense, most dangerous forested regions of the US, and at night to boot. My money is on very dead, impaled on some tree. Unless he had an accomplice. If a ground crew member smuggled proper jumping clothes to withstand the -7 degree f temps plus a few other goodies he could have easily survived the jump.

I am a firm believer he made it.  I have studied the case at nausea.  He made it out of the woods.  There was a search that was done with the use of dogs, military, cops from several jurisdictions, and armies of civilians who still search.  The Parachutes or the bomb kit, fake likely, would have shown up. Something would have shown up.  They even found another dead person from another case.  I have no idea if he is still alive.  I hope he is.

[BobDobbs]

6 hours ago, LedZeppfan1977 said:

I am a firm believer he made it.  I have studied the case at nausea.  He made it out of the woods.  There was a search that was done with the use of dogs, military, cops from several jurisdictions, and armies of civilians who still search.  The Parachutes or the bomb kit, fake likely, would have shown up. Something would have shown up.  They even found another dead person from another case.  I have no idea if he is still alive.  I hope he is.

Well if he did make it out he either never spent the loot and did it just to do it, or, he spent it over-seas. Many speculate he was Canadian as he asked for "negotiable American currency" which is not a term an American would likely use.

Of course I do find it a bit suspicious the two flight attendants still alive absolutely refuse to talk about the case and were never very forthcoming in the first place. I think old DB had inside help.

[Stryder1978]

A new clue has emerged in the infamous DB Cooper plane hijacking case after a scientist discovered that part of the criminal's $200,000 ransom money, which was buried on the riverbank near his drop zone, had been submerged in water several months after he landed.

In November 1971, a ‘non-descript man’ identifying himself as Dan ‘DB’ Cooper bought a $20 ticket for a Northwest Orient flight from Portland to Seattle. During the flight, he gave a note to a flight attendant, telling them he had a bomb, and demanded a $200,000 ransom and a parachute. 

After securing both, and freeing his hostages, he parachuted from the plane, never to be seen again.

The only clue to what happened happened to Cooper was discovered `nine years later in 1980. A young boy camping with his family on Tena Bar stretch of the Columbia River, northwest of Vancouver, discovered $6,000 of Cooper's ransom money bound-together by elastatic bands, while they dug a fire pit on the riverbank. 

The discovery led the FBI to believe that the money had washed down river, 18 miles from Cooper's drop zone, and been buried in the sand. The money is also one of the only clues to what happened to Cooper who disappeared after pulling of the middair heist.

But now scientist Tom Kaye, armed with an electron microscope, has thrown doubt on the theory after he discovered that seasonal specific ‘diatoms’ – or tiny deposits of algae - present on the money showed that the cash had been submerged in the water several months after the hijacking, before being buried. 

 

+8

•  

One of the few clues ever recovered in the case came in 1980, when a young boy camping with his family on Tena Bar stretch of the Columbia River, northwest of Vancouver, dug a fire pit and uncovered $6,000 bound together by elastic bands

The find suggests that the money was safely stored somewhere dry for months after the landing before it was moved. 

‘Suddenly, the light bulb came on and we wondered if we could use these different species of diatoms that we found on the Cooper bills a long time ago to determine when the money got wet and when the money landed on [Tena Bar]’, Kaye told King5.

The scientist, first examined the ransom cash 12 years ago at the request of the Seattle FBI, but he only recently turned his attention to ‘diatoms’, said the diatoms he found on the cash upon examination are a spring species.

‘They bloom in the spring. They do not bloom in November when Cooper jumped,’ Kaye said.

According to Kaye, the discovery is significant because it indicates that the money ended up in the river months after Cooper jumped from the rear door of a Boeing 727 over Ariel, Washington.   Electron microscope and a new theory, Tom Kaye believes he’s unearthed new evidence from the bills which may help to contradict a number of theories held by law enforcement in the Cooper case.

At the time the cash was discovered, geologist Leonard Palmer investigated the site and proposed the ‘Washougal Washdown Theory’, claiming the money likely fell into a stream near Ariel during the jump, and, over a period of time, washed into the Columbia River upstream of the Tena Bar location where it was eventually found.

But Kaye said his discovery has debunked Palmer’s analysis.

‘The money was not floating in the water for a year, otherwise we would have seen diatoms from the full range of the year. We only saw them from the spring … the springtime bloom. So, this puts a very narrow range on when the money got wet and was subsequently buried on Tena bar,’ Kaye told King5.

In his report, Kaye said the evidence suggests the money was actually submerged in the water sometime between May and June, before banking in Tena Bar.

Kaye said his discovery also discredited theories that Cooper – or one of his accomplices – attempted to bury some of the money near to the river at a later date to cause a distraction.

•  

The scientist said the diatoms he found on the cash upon examination are a spring species

 

+8

•  

FBI agents scour the sand of a beach of the Columbia River, searching for additional money or clues on February 13, 1980, nine years into the D.B. Cooper skyjacking case in Vancouver, Wash

 

+8

•  

According to Kaye, the discovery is significant because it indicates that the money ended up in the river months after Cooper jumped from the rear door of a Boeing 727 over Ariel, Washington (pictured: two exhibits showing the algae are depicted above)

The finding may debunk previous theories but also raises more questions; how the money came to be in the water months after Cooper’s daring jump and how it was able to escape from the Columbia River mostly intact, with rubber bands still holding together three stacks of $20 bills together.

When asked about the lingering questions, Kaye told King 5 with a wry smile that ‘Cooper is still messing with us.’

The mysterious cold case continues to baffle authorities almost half a century after DB Cooper first boarded Flight #305 pn November 24, 1971. 

Cooper – described as being a man in his mid-forties – told a stewardess shortly after take-off that he had a bomb in his briefcase and a note for the pilot.

Included in the letter was a demand from the quiet hijacker, ordering the pilot to communicate with authorities on the ground to bring him $200,000 in cash (equivalent of $1.2 million now) and four parachutes in exchange for the lives of the 36 passengers aboard the aircraft.

When the flight landed in Seattle, Cooper successfully traded the hostages for the cash with the FBI, ordering the Northwest pilot to take off once more in the direction of Mexico City.

Cooper instructed the pilot to fly the plane under 10,000 feet and at a speed lower than 200 knots.

Somewhere between Seattle and Reno just after 8pm, Cooper lowered the rear steps and jumped out the back of the plane using one of the parachutes swindled from authorities and the cash clasped in his grasp.

The pilots later landed safely, but the man the press would later dub DB Cooper disappeared without a trace in the night – leaving his identity and fate to become the subject of folklore and prompting ‘one of the longest and most exhaustive investigations in FBI history’. 

That extensive search for the hijacker ended in 2016, when the FBI closed the case unsolved, having investigated thousands of possible suspects and countless false leads.  Little came of the FBI’s suspicions of Rackstraw, but Thomas Colbert officially pointed the finger of blame at him in June last year, wielding a letter sent to the Portland Oregonian newspaper at the time, revealed him to be Cooper

Cooper would be around 90-years-old now if he survived the jump, which many FBI agents believe he did not.

Cold case expert and author Thomas J Colbert spoke to DailyMail.com last year when he claimed to have identified Cooper as Robert Rackshaw, military vet with a murky past riddled by murder accusations and con-artistry.

Rackstraw was a veteran with extensive military training, serving in the National Guard, the Reserve, the Army and served in one of the most decorated combat divisions in the US Army, the 1st Calvary Division, in Vietnam in 1969.

He was first considered as a suspect seven years after the hijacking in 1978, with investigators saying ‘so many things’ about him seemed to match the description of Cooper.

Rackstraw was interviewed about his link to the case in 1979, where he was asked explicitly to state whether he was or wasn’t DB Cooper.

With a wry smile visible across his face, he told the KNBC reporter, ‘Uh, I’m afraid of heights’.

The reported added that his parachute training in the military means he ‘could’ve been DB Cooper’.

‘Could have been, could have been,’ Rackstraw responded.

[LedZeppfan1977]

17 hours ago, BobDobbs said:

Well if he did make it out he either never spent the loot and did it just to do it, or, he spent it over-seas. Many speculate he was Canadian as he asked for "negotiable American currency" which is not a term an American would likely use.

Of course I do find it a bit suspicious the two flight attendants still alive absolutely refuse to talk about the case and were never very forthcoming in the first place. I think old DB had inside help.

No way were Tina or Flo involved.  Flo saw shrinks for years after because she was truanatized over it.  Tina has appeared on shows.  But she got sick of sleuths hounding her.  And they do not have anything of substance to add now.  I was for them listening to the voices of the suspects without knowing who they were listening to to see if that would ring a bell?  Maybe Tina, who spent the most time with him would recognize his voice?  But its not happening.  The only way they ever solve it is by finding the money or the bomb and suitcase?  Which most agree he would have buried in the woods.  Just cant see him going through the trouble of carrying it out.  It a mystery that may never be solved?  Many are still working on it.

There are so many strange things in this case.  The guy that packed the parachutes, Earl Cossey, was murdered at his shop in  robbery, years later.  Early 2000's.  Its just a crazy case.  Lots of info on YouTube.  Endless video's.  The one done last year is very good.  Shows him jumping out the rear stairs and into the woods with birds flying up.  It explains the case well.  He jumped at around 8:11 pm pst they believe.  Good evidence of it.  But the flight path is not a certainty.  Its very complicated. 

Edited November 9, 2021 by LedZeppfan1977

[LedZeppfan1977]

12 hours ago, Stryder1978 said:

A new clue has emerged in the infamous DB Cooper plane hijacking case after a scientist discovered that part of the criminal's $200,000 ransom money, which was buried on the riverbank near his drop zone, had been submerged in water several months after he landed.

In November 1971, a ‘non-descript man’ identifying himself as Dan ‘DB’ Cooper bought a $20 ticket for a Northwest Orient flight from Portland to Seattle. During the flight, he gave a note to a flight attendant, telling them he had a bomb, and demanded a $200,000 ransom and a parachute. 

After securing both, and freeing his hostages, he parachuted from the plane, never to be seen again.

The only clue to what happened happened to Cooper was discovered `nine years later in 1980. A young boy camping with his family on Tena Bar stretch of the Columbia River, northwest of Vancouver, discovered $6,000 of Cooper's ransom money bound-together by elastatic bands, while they dug a fire pit on the riverbank. 

The discovery led the FBI to believe that the money had washed down river, 18 miles from Cooper's drop zone, and been buried in the sand. The money is also one of the only clues to what happened to Cooper who disappeared after pulling of the middair heist.

But now scientist Tom Kaye, armed with an electron microscope, has thrown doubt on the theory after he discovered that seasonal specific ‘diatoms’ – or tiny deposits of algae - present on the money showed that the cash had been submerged in the water several months after the hijacking, before being buried. 

 

+8

•  

One of the few clues ever recovered in the case came in 1980, when a young boy camping with his family on Tena Bar stretch of the Columbia River, northwest of Vancouver, dug a fire pit and uncovered $6,000 bound together by elastic bands

The find suggests that the money was safely stored somewhere dry for months after the landing before it was moved. 

‘Suddenly, the light bulb came on and we wondered if we could use these different species of diatoms that we found on the Cooper bills a long time ago to determine when the money got wet and when the money landed on [Tena Bar]’, Kaye told King5.

The scientist, first examined the ransom cash 12 years ago at the request of the Seattle FBI, but he only recently turned his attention to ‘diatoms’, said the diatoms he found on the cash upon examination are a spring species.

‘They bloom in the spring. They do not bloom in November when Cooper jumped,’ Kaye said.

According to Kaye, the discovery is significant because it indicates that the money ended up in the river months after Cooper jumped from the rear door of a Boeing 727 over Ariel, Washington.   Electron microscope and a new theory, Tom Kaye believes he’s unearthed new evidence from the bills which may help to contradict a number of theories held by law enforcement in the Cooper case.

At the time the cash was discovered, geologist Leonard Palmer investigated the site and proposed the ‘Washougal Washdown Theory’, claiming the money likely fell into a stream near Ariel during the jump, and, over a period of time, washed into the Columbia River upstream of the Tena Bar location where it was eventually found.

But Kaye said his discovery has debunked Palmer’s analysis.

‘The money was not floating in the water for a year, otherwise we would have seen diatoms from the full range of the year. We only saw them from the spring … the springtime bloom. So, this puts a very narrow range on when the money got wet and was subsequently buried on Tena bar,’ Kaye told King5.

In his report, Kaye said the evidence suggests the money was actually submerged in the water sometime between May and June, before banking in Tena Bar.

Kaye said his discovery also discredited theories that Cooper – or one of his accomplices – attempted to bury some of the money near to the river at a later date to cause a distraction.

•  

The scientist said the diatoms he found on the cash upon examination are a spring species

 

+8

•  

FBI agents scour the sand of a beach of the Columbia River, searching for additional money or clues on February 13, 1980, nine years into the D.B. Cooper skyjacking case in Vancouver, Wash

 

+8

•  

According to Kaye, the discovery is significant because it indicates that the money ended up in the river months after Cooper jumped from the rear door of a Boeing 727 over Ariel, Washington (pictured: two exhibits showing the algae are depicted above)

The finding may debunk previous theories but also raises more questions; how the money came to be in the water months after Cooper’s daring jump and how it was able to escape from the Columbia River mostly intact, with rubber bands still holding together three stacks of $20 bills together.

When asked about the lingering questions, Kaye told King 5 with a wry smile that ‘Cooper is still messing with us.’

The mysterious cold case continues to baffle authorities almost half a century after DB Cooper first boarded Flight #305 pn November 24, 1971. 

Cooper – described as being a man in his mid-forties – told a stewardess shortly after take-off that he had a bomb in his briefcase and a note for the pilot.

Included in the letter was a demand from the quiet hijacker, ordering the pilot to communicate with authorities on the ground to bring him $200,000 in cash (equivalent of $1.2 million now) and four parachutes in exchange for the lives of the 36 passengers aboard the aircraft.

When the flight landed in Seattle, Cooper successfully traded the hostages for the cash with the FBI, ordering the Northwest pilot to take off once more in the direction of Mexico City.

Cooper instructed the pilot to fly the plane under 10,000 feet and at a speed lower than 200 knots.

Somewhere between Seattle and Reno just after 8pm, Cooper lowered the rear steps and jumped out the back of the plane using one of the parachutes swindled from authorities and the cash clasped in his grasp.

The pilots later landed safely, but the man the press would later dub DB Cooper disappeared without a trace in the night – leaving his identity and fate to become the subject of folklore and prompting ‘one of the longest and most exhaustive investigations in FBI history’. 

That extensive search for the hijacker ended in 2016, when the FBI closed the case unsolved, having investigated thousands of possible suspects and countless false leads.  Little came of the FBI’s suspicions of Rackstraw, but Thomas Colbert officially pointed the finger of blame at him in June last year, wielding a letter sent to the Portland Oregonian newspaper at the time, revealed him to be Cooper

Cooper would be around 90-years-old now if he survived the jump, which many FBI agents believe he did not.

Cold case expert and author Thomas J Colbert spoke to DailyMail.com last year when he claimed to have identified Cooper as Robert Rackshaw, military vet with a murky past riddled by murder accusations and con-artistry.

Rackstraw was a veteran with extensive military training, serving in the National Guard, the Reserve, the Army and served in one of the most decorated combat divisions in the US Army, the 1st Calvary Division, in Vietnam in 1969.

He was first considered as a suspect seven years after the hijacking in 1978, with investigators saying ‘so many things’ about him seemed to match the description of Cooper.

Rackstraw was interviewed about his link to the case in 1979, where he was asked explicitly to state whether he was or wasn’t DB Cooper.

With a wry smile visible across his face, he told the KNBC reporter, ‘Uh, I’m afraid of heights’.

The reported added that his parachute training in the military means he ‘could’ve been DB Cooper’.

‘Could have been, could have been,’ Rackstraw responded.

There have been so many false confessions they have lost count.  And as interesting as Rackstraw and Reca are, they were not Cooper.   Rackstraw was too young. They can shoot holes in all of the suspects.  Nice report you did above.  I did not know how much interest there would be here so I refrained from explaining in such detail.  McCoy was another suspect and an early one.  He did the same thing Cooper did, but he got half a million, this was months after Cooper did his famous jump, and he did it on a flight from LA to Denver.  Was caught 3 days later!!!!!  But he made it. The jump and all.  His big mouth got him busted.  I guess his girlfriend and the guy that picked him up hitchhiking helped bust him.  He spend $30 on a lunch.  He was a Vietnam vet. Parachuter.  McCoy escaped from prison using a soap gun, actually escaped twice.  But the last time he died in a gun fight with the FBI in Virginia after escaping Lewisburg.  3 months after the escape.  One cop thought he was Cooper but it was proven later beyond any doubt he was in Vegas at the time.  So the never ending Saga continues. Its like Jack the Ripper.  It never ends. Cooper never hurt anyone, and in fact he topped Tina $18 for a drink.  Bourbon and soda was his famous drink of choice.  His Raleigh cigarette butts were the one thing that could have really helped solve this with DNA.  Lost forever. Some dumb ass FBI agent.  They looked like the keystone cops in this one.

[Stryder1978]

Damn, that crime really made an impression on you!  Kudos on your knowledge of this case!

[BobDobbs]

5 hours ago, LedZeppfan1977 said:

There have been so many false confessions they have lost count.  And as interesting as Rackstraw and Reca are, they were not Cooper.   Rackstraw was too young. They can shoot holes in all of the suspects.  Nice report you did above.  I did not know how much interest there would be here so I refrained from explaining in such detail.  McCoy was another suspect and an early one.  He did the same thing Cooper did, but he got half a million, this was months after Cooper did his famous jump, and he did it on a flight from LA to Denver.  Was caught 3 days later!!!!!  But he made it. The jump and all.  His big mouth got him busted.  I guess his girlfriend and the guy that picked him up hitchhiking helped bust him.  He spend $30 on a lunch.  He was a Vietnam vet. Parachuter.  McCoy escaped from prison using a soap gun, actually escaped twice.  But the last time he died in a gun fight with the FBI in Virginia after escaping Lewisburg.  3 months after the escape.  One cop thought he was Cooper but it was proven later beyond any doubt he was in Vegas at the time.  So the never ending Saga continues. Its like Jack the Ripper.  It never ends. Cooper never hurt anyone, and in fact he topped Tina $18 for a drink.  Bourbon and soda was his famous drink of choice.  His Raleigh cigarette butts were the one thing that could have really helped solve this with DNA.  Lost forever. Some dumb ass FBI agent.  They looked like the keystone cops in this one.

Yep, I love this stuff, interesting as hell. Another one I am fascinated with is the Black Dahlia case. That one is simply too bizarre. 

[Strider]

Even if DB survived, it has been 50 years. Chances are he is dead now.

[BobDobbs]

3 hours ago, Strider said:

Even if DB survived, it has been 50 years. Chances are he is dead now.

My money is still on, impaled on a tree and became buzzard food. Why? Because none of the money has turned up in circulation. Why go through all of that and not spend the money? Guy could have been 'sticking it to the man" which was quite popular in the early-70's but highly doubtful a middle-aged white man would be down with the resistance in 1971. Anything is possible though.

[redrum]

[LedZeppfan1977]

16 hours ago, BobDobbs said:

Yep, I love this stuff, interesting as hell. Another one I am fascinated with is the Black Dahlia case. That one is simply too bizarre. 

Yes, I have seen special on it.  Murder of a Hollywood star of yesteryear.

[LedZeppfan1977]

On 11/8/2021 at 4:17 PM, Stryder1978 said:

A new clue has emerged in the infamous DB Cooper plane hijacking case after a scientist discovered that part of the criminal's $200,000 ransom money, which was buried on the riverbank near his drop zone, had been submerged in water several months after he landed.

In November 1971, a ‘non-descript man’ identifying himself as Dan ‘DB’ Cooper bought a $20 ticket for a Northwest Orient flight from Portland to Seattle. During the flight, he gave a note to a flight attendant, telling them he had a bomb, and demanded a $200,000 ransom and a parachute. 

After securing both, and freeing his hostages, he parachuted from the plane, never to be seen again.

The only clue to what happened happened to Cooper was discovered `nine years later in 1980. A young boy camping with his family on Tena Bar stretch of the Columbia River, northwest of Vancouver, discovered $6,000 of Cooper's ransom money bound-together by elastatic bands, while they dug a fire pit on the riverbank. 

The discovery led the FBI to believe that the money had washed down river, 18 miles from Cooper's drop zone, and been buried in the sand. The money is also one of the only clues to what happened to Cooper who disappeared after pulling of the middair heist.

But now scientist Tom Kaye, armed with an electron microscope, has thrown doubt on the theory after he discovered that seasonal specific ‘diatoms’ – or tiny deposits of algae - present on the money showed that the cash had been submerged in the water several months after the hijacking, before being buried. 

 

+8

•  

One of the few clues ever recovered in the case came in 1980, when a young boy camping with his family on Tena Bar stretch of the Columbia River, northwest of Vancouver, dug a fire pit and uncovered $6,000 bound together by elastic bands

The find suggests that the money was safely stored somewhere dry for months after the landing before it was moved. 

‘Suddenly, the light bulb came on and we wondered if we could use these different species of diatoms that we found on the Cooper bills a long time ago to determine when the money got wet and when the money landed on [Tena Bar]’, Kaye told King5.

The scientist, first examined the ransom cash 12 years ago at the request of the Seattle FBI, but he only recently turned his attention to ‘diatoms’, said the diatoms he found on the cash upon examination are a spring species.

‘They bloom in the spring. They do not bloom in November when Cooper jumped,’ Kaye said.

According to Kaye, the discovery is significant because it indicates that the money ended up in the river months after Cooper jumped from the rear door of a Boeing 727 over Ariel, Washington.   Electron microscope and a new theory, Tom Kaye believes he’s unearthed new evidence from the bills which may help to contradict a number of theories held by law enforcement in the Cooper case.

At the time the cash was discovered, geologist Leonard Palmer investigated the site and proposed the ‘Washougal Washdown Theory’, claiming the money likely fell into a stream near Ariel during the jump, and, over a period of time, washed into the Columbia River upstream of the Tena Bar location where it was eventually found.

But Kaye said his discovery has debunked Palmer’s analysis.

‘The money was not floating in the water for a year, otherwise we would have seen diatoms from the full range of the year. We only saw them from the spring … the springtime bloom. So, this puts a very narrow range on when the money got wet and was subsequently buried on Tena bar,’ Kaye told King5.

In his report, Kaye said the evidence suggests the money was actually submerged in the water sometime between May and June, before banking in Tena Bar.

Kaye said his discovery also discredited theories that Cooper – or one of his accomplices – attempted to bury some of the money near to the river at a later date to cause a distraction.

•  

The scientist said the diatoms he found on the cash upon examination are a spring species

 

+8

•  

FBI agents scour the sand of a beach of the Columbia River, searching for additional money or clues on February 13, 1980, nine years into the D.B. Cooper skyjacking case in Vancouver, Wash

 

+8

•  

According to Kaye, the discovery is significant because it indicates that the money ended up in the river months after Cooper jumped from the rear door of a Boeing 727 over Ariel, Washington (pictured: two exhibits showing the algae are depicted above)

The finding may debunk previous theories but also raises more questions; how the money came to be in the water months after Cooper’s daring jump and how it was able to escape from the Columbia River mostly intact, with rubber bands still holding together three stacks of $20 bills together.

When asked about the lingering questions, Kaye told King 5 with a wry smile that ‘Cooper is still messing with us.’

The mysterious cold case continues to baffle authorities almost half a century after DB Cooper first boarded Flight #305 pn November 24, 1971. 

Cooper – described as being a man in his mid-forties – told a stewardess shortly after take-off that he had a bomb in his briefcase and a note for the pilot.

Included in the letter was a demand from the quiet hijacker, ordering the pilot to communicate with authorities on the ground to bring him $200,000 in cash (equivalent of $1.2 million now) and four parachutes in exchange for the lives of the 36 passengers aboard the aircraft.

When the flight landed in Seattle, Cooper successfully traded the hostages for the cash with the FBI, ordering the Northwest pilot to take off once more in the direction of Mexico City.

Cooper instructed the pilot to fly the plane under 10,000 feet and at a speed lower than 200 knots.

Somewhere between Seattle and Reno just after 8pm, Cooper lowered the rear steps and jumped out the back of the plane using one of the parachutes swindled from authorities and the cash clasped in his grasp.

The pilots later landed safely, but the man the press would later dub DB Cooper disappeared without a trace in the night – leaving his identity and fate to become the subject of folklore and prompting ‘one of the longest and most exhaustive investigations in FBI history’. 

That extensive search for the hijacker ended in 2016, when the FBI closed the case unsolved, having investigated thousands of possible suspects and countless false leads.  Little came of the FBI’s suspicions of Rackstraw, but Thomas Colbert officially pointed the finger of blame at him in June last year, wielding a letter sent to the Portland Oregonian newspaper at the time, revealed him to be Cooper

Cooper would be around 90-years-old now if he survived the jump, which many FBI agents believe he did not.

Cold case expert and author Thomas J Colbert spoke to DailyMail.com last year when he claimed to have identified Cooper as Robert Rackshaw, military vet with a murky past riddled by murder accusations and con-artistry.

Rackstraw was a veteran with extensive military training, serving in the National Guard, the Reserve, the Army and served in one of the most decorated combat divisions in the US Army, the 1st Calvary Division, in Vietnam in 1969.

He was first considered as a suspect seven years after the hijacking in 1978, with investigators saying ‘so many things’ about him seemed to match the description of Cooper.

Rackstraw was interviewed about his link to the case in 1979, where he was asked explicitly to state whether he was or wasn’t DB Cooper.

With a wry smile visible across his face, he told the KNBC reporter, ‘Uh, I’m afraid of heights’.

The reported added that his parachute training in the military means he ‘could’ve been DB Cooper’.

‘Could have been, could have been,’ Rackstraw responded.

Very nice write up.  All of the top suspects are now gone.   None of them really passed the test of being the real DB Cooper and with so many confessions, all of them lies most likely, its really now more confusing as ever.  They need to find the money.   They have the serial numbers.  I really hope he is still out there alive.  Lets say early 90s.  My guess is if he made it he laundered the money out of the USA.  Would have been easy in 1971.  And the exchange was very good then.  The money find at Tena Bar, it is more confusing than anything.  It really throws off the original suspected drop zone.  When asked if he wante to file a flight path, Cooper told the pilot, "lets get the show on the road". Other famous things he said were "no funny stuff or I'll do the job".  He told them to give meals to all of the passengers (not sure if they ever really did that?).  As long as they held them up, for hours, I would imagine they must have.  It was not until they were on the bus taken from the plane that the other passengers were told of the skyjacking.  Now there were so many going on in those days, its hard to imagine that none of the passengers would not have suspected something was going on.  With all the attention being paid to the man sitting in the rear of the plane.  I am surprised nobody near him had a better description.  But he did put the sunglass's on right after Florence Shaffner returned to him after informing the pilots of his demands.  The big event is only two weeks away.  All of the details are on the website. You have to wait for permission to get into the forum though.  They were not able to get Tina or Flo , the stewardess's who are alive to come.  To me its alll bullshit without them.  Tina Mucklow is the one person that could possibly finger him if he were one of the deceased suspects.  Ir not, and that is the best bet here, then she likely offers nothing either.   The search continues.  If I lived in the Portland area, I would take a stroll myself into those woods.  Somewhere near the town of Ariel Washington actually is another hot spot where they thought the original drop zone was.  There is a bar in Ariel that has an anual event to celebrate DB Cooper.  A "rock star" to many.  A Robin Hood to many.  But to the FBI and the deceased lead investigator, he was just another criminal.  Ralph Himmelsbach was his name.  He passed away I believe in 2019 believing that Cooper died during the jump.  But the evidence says otherwise and so do most other investigators and sleuths.  I myself, believe he survived the jump.  But what happened to him after that?  Who knows.  And wo was he?  Who knows.  

Here is a good watch to give you a quick but thorough insight.

 

 

Edited November 10, 2021 by LedZeppfan1977

[BobDobbs]

7 hours ago, LedZeppfan1977 said:

Very nice write up.  All of the top suspects are now gone.   None of them really passed the test of being the real DB Cooper and with so many confessions, all of them lies most likely, its really now more confusing as ever.  They need to find the money.   They have the serial numbers.  I really hope he is still out there alive.  Lets say early 90s.  My guess is if he made it he laundered the money out of the USA.  Would have been easy in 1971.  And the exchange was very good then.  The money find at Tena Bar, it is more confusing than anything.  It really throws off the original suspected drop zone.  When asked if he wante to file a flight path, Cooper told the pilot, "lets get the show on the road". Other famous things he said were "no funny stuff or I'll do the job".  He told them to give meals to all of the passengers (not sure if they ever really did that?).  As long as they held them up, for hours, I would imagine they must have.  It was not until they were on the bus taken from the plane that the other passengers were told of the skyjacking.  Now there were so many going on in those days, its hard to imagine that none of the passengers would not have suspected something was going on.  With all the attention being paid to the man sitting in the rear of the plane.  I am surprised nobody near him had a better description.  But he did put the sunglass's on right after Florence Shaffner returned to him after informing the pilots of his demands.  The big event is only two weeks away.  All of the details are on the website. You have to wait for permission to get into the forum though.  They were not able to get Tina or Flo , the stewardess's who are alive to come.  To me its alll bullshit without them.  Tina Mucklow is the one person that could possibly finger him if he were one of the deceased suspects.  Ir not, and that is the best bet here, then she likely offers nothing either.   The search continues.  If I lived in the Portland area, I would take a stroll myself into those woods.  Somewhere near the town of Ariel Washington actually is another hot spot where they thought the original drop zone was.  There is a bar in Ariel that has an anual event to celebrate DB Cooper.  A "rock star" to many.  A Robin Hood to many.  But to the FBI and the deceased lead investigator, he was just another criminal.  Ralph Himmelsbach was his name.  He passed away I believe in 2019 believing that Cooper died during the jump.  But the evidence says otherwise and so do most other investigators and sleuths.  I myself, believe he survived the jump.  But what happened to him after that?  Who knows.  And wo was he?  Who knows.  

Here is a good watch to give you a quick but thorough insight.

 

 

Oh yeah, up until the late-80's even the cheap seats got meals served during flights (except for those puddle jumper flights) and smoking was allowed. All part of your ticket price. The big difference between 1st class and coach back then was 1st class had much nicer and larger seating, you had a menu to choose your meal which was much better than what they served in coach, and all drinks (cocktails) were free.

Man I miss those days of flying...the golden age, as long as an engine did not fall off during take-off.

[Strider]

14 hours ago, LedZeppfan1977 said:

Yes, I have seen special on it.  Murder of a Hollywood star of yesteryear.

"Hollywood star" is overstating it a bit. Elizabeth Short never quite made it in Hollywood.

[BobDobbs]

1 hour ago, Strider said:

"Hollywood star" is overstating it a bit. Elizabeth Short never quite made it in Hollywood.

Very true. She came to Hollywood to become a star, but wound up a call girl by all accounts. I do like the conspiracy theory that she acted in underground porno / S&M movies and was killed as a result of something she witnessed. Not saying I believe it but it sure makes for better reading than call girl killed by some psycho John.

[jabe]

With no  conclusive proof that parachutes found in the drop zone area were DBC's,
I submit he pulled this caper off and headed to Central or South America and fathered a bunch of little Coops.

On the other hand, why only 200K? Fuck. if you're going for the ass kicking fiesta, why not 1-2 million?
Which leads me to think this was a game he wanted to pull off, and when he succeeded, he trashed the cash because 
he didn't need it or want it.

The journey was more valuable than the find.

[BobDobbs]

14 hours ago, jabe said:

With no  conclusive proof that parachutes found in the drop zone area were DBC's,
I submit he pulled this caper off and headed to Central or South America and fathered a bunch of little Coops.

On the other hand, why only 200K? Fuck. if you're going for the ass kicking fiesta, why not 1-2 million?
Which leads me to think this was a game he wanted to pull off, and when he succeeded, he trashed the cash because 
he didn't need it or want it.

The journey was more valuable than the find.

Well 200k in 1971 equals about 1.7 million in today's dollars so not too bad a take but I agree. Even by 1971 standards I would think he would have asked for 500k minimum. Seems like it was either more about the thrill or, the money was possibly a distraction for something else entirely. What if he had inside help and there was something more valuable on the plane which was never reported and that was what he was after? IMO the crew acted weird as well. Regardless of what Cooper instructed he seemed very level headed and stayed in communication with the crew until he jumped of course. These were seasoned pilots and crew yet never left the cockpit after it was obvious Cooper jumped at around 8:13pm? I would think once the plane bucked due to his jumping they would have tried calling him on the cabin phone they were communicating with him through. With no response the logical thing would be to go back and check and if no Cooper, raise the damn stairway for obvious safety reasons. They actually landed the silly plane with the staircase down, sparks flying everywhere. Lucky they did not accidentally blow up the plane.

It just seems fishy to me the way the crew acted. Then again, never underestimate human incompetence. 

[LedZeppfan1977]

On 11/10/2021 at 11:58 AM, BobDobbs said:

Oh yeah, up until the late-80's even the cheap seats got meals served during flights (except for those puddle jumper flights) and smoking was allowed. All part of your ticket price. The big difference between 1st class and coach back then was 1st class had much nicer and larger seating, you had a menu to choose your meal which was much better than what they served in coach, and all drinks (cocktails) were free.

Man I miss those days of flying...the golden age, as long as an engine did not fall off during take-off.

Now the security measures are so bad many women are getting fondled, they put your luggage through an X ray machine, and imagine having a cigarette on a flight!  You would be in handcuffs.  The prices are off the charts.  It would probably be much better to drive from Portland to  Seattle.  Not sure of the exact distance.  Cant be much different than Rochester to Buffalo here.  But $20 one way!!  Wow.  Tax included too.  And let me tell you, Flo and Tina were hot at their then age.  Cooper had to be a tiny bit distracted sitting with them?  Of course Tina Mucklow spent the most time with him.  After getting the note and the initial correspondence it was Tina that took over.  She was the more senior attendant and she was the one that had more calm and smarts.  She is the one that also brought the money and the parachutes onto the plane, took a few trips.  The bag of twenties was a bit heavy.  A bit cumbersome to leap with. But Cooper knew what he was doing. His knowledge of the flight metrics proved that.  And spotting Tacoma in the air meant he knew the area well.  He did his homework. So why would one think he was not prepared for the jump?  So many conflicting opinions about the jump itself.  A recent who by Drew Beeson that leans toward Ted Braden being Cooper is a good one. But he admits, he "cant put him on the plane just like all of the other suspects".  Holes can be shot into the theory of all of the top suspects.  Its been proved  that McCoy was certainly not Cooper.   Though he was a copy cat.  His mistake was shooting his mouth off.  Done in by his girlfriend and a guy that picked him up hitchhiking.  This one is going to be very tough to be solved.  Not impossible but a huge break would have to happen.  In this show about Braden, the guy suggests the FBI has lied about losing the cigarette butts.  I doubt it.  They are not likely to admit any mistakes publically and take ridicule.  Those cigarette butts could have proved or disproved the known suspects being Cooper with a DNA swab.  But they are gone with the wind.  So now the money or finding something like maybe the brief case with the bomb (or fake bomb as most believe).  He may have really caught a break when the administrators of Northeast Airline decided to cooperate and give in to his demands.  The FBI was for storming the plane with guns drawn.  So many skyjackings in those years.  His demeanor made believers of them however.  This Coopercon 21 will be interesting perhaps. Ill see video of the speech's and such.  But without Mucklow being there, little hope of any break in this case.  Its a bunch of enthusiasts having their big social event and no more. Unless they got Tina to come and are keeping it quiet?  Only two weeks until the big event outside of Portland.

[LedZeppfan1977]

On 11/10/2021 at 6:33 PM, Strider said:

"Hollywood star" is overstating it a bit. Elizabeth Short never quite made it in Hollywood.

Did she come from a wealthy family or something?  I have seen stores televised about the Black Dahlia but I cannot remember the specifics?

[BobDobbs]

6 hours ago, LedZeppfan1977 said:

Did she come from a wealthy family or something?  I have seen stores televised about the Black Dahlia but I cannot remember the specifics?

No, she was from Medford, MA (just outside Boston) and raised by a single mother who was a bookkeeper (working class family). She later found out her supposedly dead father was alive and well living in Vallejo, CA. She had been arrested for minor stuff like underage drinking but in general a pretty normal, average girl.

Many people believe George Hodel the killer as he did somewhat admit to the crime on a police wiretap of his home. Hodel was also suspected in at least two other murders but people believe he was protected by the police as he was a very wealthy doctor who performed abortion services for the wealthy and Hollywood actresses. The guy was without a doubt a serious freak.

[LedZeppfan1977]

4 hours ago, BobDobbs said:

No, she was from Medford, MA (just outside Boston) and raised by a single mother who was a bookkeeper (working class family). She later found out her supposedly dead father was alive and well living in Vallejo, CA. She had been arrested for minor stuff like underage drinking but in general a pretty normal, average girl.

Many people believe George Hodel the killer as he did somewhat admit to the crime on a police wiretap of his home. Hodel was also suspected in at least two other murders but people believe he was protected by the police as he was a very wealthy doctor who performed abortion services for the wealthy and Hollywood actresses. The guy was without a doubt a serious freak.

So what made this so big if she was just an average woman?

[BobDobbs]

1 hour ago, LedZeppfan1977 said:

So what made this so big if she was just an average woman?

Well, it was how she was killed and where she was found. She was found naked, cut perfectly in half with surgical precision, the two parts posed, the body completely drained of blood and washed. On top of that the killer stuffed flowers (I think it was flowers, could have just been grass) inside her Hoo-Ha, cut her mouth into a jokers smile, and did "other horrible things" to her body as well. The body was found on a vacant lot in a quiet LA residential neighborhood by a young woman out on a walk. About a week later the killer mailed the contents of her purse to the police.

[LedZeppfan1977]

11 hours ago, BobDobbs said:

Well, it was how she was killed and where she was found. She was found naked, cut perfectly in half with surgical precision, the two parts posed, the body completely drained of blood and washed. On top of that the killer stuffed flowers (I think it was flowers, could have just been grass) inside her Hoo-Ha, cut her mouth into a jokers smile, and did "other horrible things" to her body as well. The body was found on a vacant lot in a quiet LA residential neighborhood by a young woman out on a walk. About a week later the killer mailed the contents of her purse to the police.

OK  this rings a bell.  Was it ever assumed it may have been the Zodiac killer or since it was not near SF they figured the MO was different?   That pesky Zodiac killer is another subject we  could delve into someday.  Another mystery.  But I think they have a better idea who the Zodiac was than who DB Cooper was.  Cooper was not a killer either.  That makes him more of a hero to some