Unsolved D.B. Cooper

[Dan Cooper]

When he says that after the heist he lived a different life and his bank records etc But none of the notes ever appeared in circulation apparently.

Brad Meltzer’s “Decoded” show have run with the theory that Kenny Christiansen was DB Cooper. This is the same theory Skipp Porteous & Robert Blevins applied in their book "Into The Blast".

Extract from Unsolved Realm article >

Meltzer investigated Kenny Christiansen as D.B. Cooper. And here’s what they found. Lyle Christiansen, Kenny’s brother, is the one who brought Kenny to the attention of the FBI. He suspected Kenny of being D.B. Cooper for several reasons.

First, just weeks after the skyjacking, Kenny had a lot of money. He bought a house with cash. He bought another house for a friend, with cash. He was practically throwing money around. All from a man who was only making $512 a month. Where did he get this money?

Second, he definitely resembled the FBI sketch of D.B. Cooper. An overlay of Kenny’s picture and D.B. Cooper’s FBI sketch is so similar, it’s eerie. (see picture below of Kenny and FBI sketch)

Third, he had been in the military, was familiar with planes, and worked for Northwest Airlines as a flight attendant. He had anger and frustrations with Northwest Airlines due to strikes that occurred during the times. And he knew the area in which he leapt. So Motive.

Fourth, Lyle claims that Kenny confessed to him on his death bed.

So, that’s where Kenny Christiansen comes in to the picture. The FBI ruled Kenny out rather quickly.
Brad Meltzer’s team actually talked to Bernie Geasman, the supposedly close friend of Kenny Christiansen. Although he denied they were that close of friends, he also denied that he had anything to do with the skyjacking or was any kind of an accomplice to Kenny. The team believed him.

The team next went to see Kenny’s house in Bonney Lake, Washington. (see picture of house at right) There, they found a “cubby hole” in the attic, where money could have been hidden. But nothing was there now. The owner of the house, which is now a business, also stated that there had been $20 bills found in a bag on the property. So that peaked their interest even more. Really? Any evidence of this so called “bag of money”?

So Brad Meltzer and his team concluded that Kenny Christiansen was D.B. Cooper.

www.unsolvedrealm.com/2011/01/09/d-b-cooper-legendary-status-continues-reality-probably-dead/

 

[Dan Cooper]

The counter argument to Brad Meltzer’s “Decoded” show claiming Kenny Christiansen was DB Cooper >

Christiansen had hazel eyes D.B. Cooper had brown eyes as reported by the witnesses.
Christiansen was 5’8” in height and D.B. Cooper was reported as 5’10” to 6’ in height
Christiansen was 150 lbs and D.B. Cooper was reported as around 175-180 lbs
Christiansen had a normal white complexion and D.B. Cooper was reported as having dark or olive skin.

The FBI took DNA samples from the tie & pin the hijacker left behind on Flight 305 (the DB Cooper flight), and were able to compare them to Kenneth Christiansen's brother's DNA - and found no match.

However, Robert Blevins says that he contacted the FBI in January 2011 to get their position on Kenny being a suspect and the result of the DNA testing. He spoke with Frederick Gutt, the media liaison for the FBI Seattle office, and Blevins says he was told “that Kenny has not been eliminated as a suspect”.

 

[bkozican]

I just spend the last 20 mins searching this cooper fellow

From what I read, It is very clear that the FBI had no idea about this bloke. That alone rings bells. I wonder what the corruption in the FBI at the time was like ?? I wonder if he had friends in the aviation industry/army/police. 200,000 in the day was alot of money....... Bribes ??
The idea that the money he got was never in circulation, I believe that but there is alot of ways to turn dirty money into clean laundry.
Did he make the original jump, I think so....

The ideas/theories behind this is mind boggling. He could be still be alive now just laughing at us all.

 

[Dan Cooper]

I just spend the last 20 mins searching this cooper fellow

From what I read, It is very clear that the FBI had no idea about this bloke. That alone rings bells. I wonder what the corruption in the FBI at the time was like ?? I wonder if he had friends in the aviation industry/army/police. 200,000 in the day was alot of money....... Bribes ??
The idea that the money he got was never in circulation, I believe that but there is alot of ways to turn dirty money into clean laundry.
Did he make the original jump, I think so....

The ideas/theories behind this is mind boggling. He could be still be alive now just laughing at us all.

The FBI certainly appear not to have a clue who the guy calling himself Dan Cooper is, or was.

Whoever this guy was he pulled one of the biggest stunts in history, and from what I've read it remains the only unsolved skyjacking in history.

 

[Silent Alarm]

A story so cool it should never be known. Bit like the Glenelg Man. My favourite stories never had definitive answers.

 

[grizzlym]

A story so cool it should never be known. Bit like the Glenelg Man. My favourite stories never had definitive answers.

AH, the Glenelg Man, that's some weird case right there.

 

[Silent Alarm]

AH, the Glenelg Man, that's some weird case right there.

Though highly romantic if you're so sentimentally inclined.

 

[grizzlym]

Though highly romantic if you're so sentimentally inclined.

The world was a simpler but infinitely weirder place back then.

 

[Predator35]

Go to this site it has a lot of the F.B.I's files on D.B. Cooper. Also a lot of other files on other cases.

http://vault.fbi.gov/sitemap

 

[Dan Cooper]

A story so cool it should never be known. Bit like the Glenelg Man. My favourite stories never had definitive answers.

I don't think it is even possible to solve the case now after 42 years. Apart from the DNA on the tie the FBI appear to have virtually nothing of any substance.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

WTF is the Glenelg Man?

 

[Dan Cooper]

WTF is the Glenelg Man?

Was thinking exactly the same thing.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Was thinking exactly the same thing.

The Taman Shud case.

Personally, I don't think they're in the same class. As far as I can tell (and I'm not as well-read as others on the Glenelg case), there is an extremely likely scenario (I'd have to re-read but something about him meeting up with a woman to start a relationship, being rejected and promptly committing suicide) that has been suggested and there isn't really anything to poke holes in it. As there is with, say, the money in the Cooper case, regardless of what scenario you believe. If Cooper survived and turned out to be McCoy/Weber/Christiansen/someone else: well, what happened to the money? If Cooper didn't survive: well, what happened to the money?

 

[CAS79]

WTF is the Glenelg Man?

Was thinking exactly the same thing.

The Taman Shud case.

Personally, I don't think they're in the same class. As far as I can tell (and I'm not as well-read as others on the Glenelg case), there is an extremely likely scenario (I'd have to re-read but something about him meeting up with a woman to start a relationship, being rejected and promptly committing suicide) that has been suggested and there isn't really anything to poke holes in it. As there is with, say, the money in the Cooper case, regardless of what scenario you believe. If Cooper survived and turned out to be McCoy/Weber/Christiansen/someone else: well what happened to the money? If Cooper didn't survive: well, what happened to the money?

For those interested we have a discussion.

http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/taman-shud-case.983169/

Where good sir I would question you on if it was that simple a case why he was not identified and the woman lied to police or given a cover story for her supposed occupation, an occupation she did not have.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

For those interested we have a discussion.

http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/taman-shud-case.983169/

Where good sir I would question you on if it was that simple a case why he was not identified and the woman lied to police or given a cover story for her supposed occupation, an occupation she did not have.

As I said, I'd have to re-read the details, but off the top of my head, my responses would be:

1. He could practically be anyone. Lots of people who turn up at the morgue go unidentified. As far as I remember, no-one admitted to having any verbal contact with him, so it's a bit of a blank slate. Cooper, on the other hand, was with the flight staff for an extended period and had conversations with multiple people. He was also committing a serious crime at the time, whereas the unidentified man wasn't really doing much at all. It seems incredible that no-one can say definitively who Cooper was, whereas with the Glenelg man, I'm not especially surprised at all that no-one has publicly identified him, since he was clearly a foreigner.

2. Don't remember much about this, but going by memory, potentially to cover up a previous relationship/affair with the man?

 

[grizzlym]

Probably a really dumb question here but, presupposing DB survived, for DB to have profitted from his crime, surely that money would have had to turn up in circulation at some point. How does the whole marked bills thing work?

 

[Dan Cooper]

Probably a really dumb question here but, presupposing DB survived, for DB to have profitted from his crime, surely that money would have had to turn up in circulation at some point. How does the whole marked bills thing work?

I don't think you'll find the notes were actually marked. The serial numbers were however recorded.

At the time, several rewards were offered for returning any of the money, and the serial numbers of all the $20 bills were distributed to banks. In his 1985 book, "D.B. Cooper, What Really Happened," Max Gunther wrote:

"Bank people feel in general that their chances of participating in any meaningful way in such rewards are slim. If an alert teller or bookkeeping clerk spots a listed bill, that is typically the first minor step in an investigation. The bill may have changed hands many times since it was originally spent by the criminal being sought. Tracking the bill back to that criminal would involve a long chain of people, most of whom will feel they have a greater claim on the reward than the teller who first spotted the bill. In most cases the biggest share of the reward--if not all of it--goes to the detective or witness who makes the final connections leading to the arrest. The teller, if lucky, gets ten bucks and a letter of official gratitude. More often, the teller gets forgotten."

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Probably a really dumb question here but, presupposing DB survived, for DB to have profitted from his crime, surely that money would have had to turn up in circulation at some point. How does the whole marked bills thing work?

He still may not have been caught (as above it would have to be traced to him which is very difficult), however the fact that none of the bills have EVER shown up again makes it 99% certain that cash never left the spot where it landed.

The lifespan of a paper bill is said to be on average around 7 years. If a bank receives a badly damaged or worn bill, they simply exchange it (with whoever the appropriate authority is in the US) for a new one. The serial number of the old bill is recorded and the bill destroyed.

So in the decades that have passed, for that never to have happened to one of the bills, says they never left where the landed.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

(conspiracy theory alert)

Or, they just made up the official list of serial numbers. I just think it would have been much better for the FBI to be able to use this as 'evidence' that he died and that no-one (not even a passer by who stumbled across the 'splatter' scene) profited from the crime. Of course, one problem with that is that if a fake list of serial numbers was publicly released and Cooper did survive, he would realise that he had carte blanche to use the money. But maybe that's what the FBI wanted and they figured it might be a way to trap him...my head hurts.

I don't really believe that, but I think it's an interesting possibility to consider and I find it hard to comprehend how so much of the money was never recovered. Does anyone know if the list of numbers was released publicly before the bundle of bank notes was found several years later?

 

[Dan Cooper]

He still may not have been caught (as above it would have to be traced to him which is very difficult), however the fact that none of the bills have EVER shown up again makes it 99% certain that cash never left the spot where it landed.

The lifespan of a paper bill is said to be on average around 7 years. If a bank receives a badly damaged or worn bill, they simply exchange it (with whoever the appropriate authority is in the US) for a new one. The serial number of the old bill is recorded and the bill destroyed.

So in the decades that have passed, for that never to have happened to one of the bills, says they never left where the landed.

I tend to agree with you. Though not with the same degree of certainty.

Bank tellers would have gotten sick and tired of checking every $20 bill they handled pretty quickly, and who's to say how long he might have waited til he started circulating the notes?

It is true that other establishments were eventually supplied a list of the serial numbers and finally the public were informed as well.

 

[Kram]

Bank tellers would have gotten sick and tired of checking every $20 bill they handled pretty quickly, and who's to say how long he might have waited til he started circulating the notes?

Who knows for sure but people that commit these sort of ransom/extortion crimes are often desperate for an instant hit of money, I'd be surprised if he got a way that he would sit on the money for any substantial period of time.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

I tend to agree with you. Though not with the same degree of certainty.

Bank tellers would have gotten sick and tired of checking every $20 bill they handled pretty quickly, and who's to say how long he might have waited til he started circulating the notes?

It is true that other establishments were eventually supplied a list of the serial numbers and finally the public were informed as well.

Bank tellers don't check anything. When a bank receives a damaged note, it exchanges it with the federal reserve for a new one. The FR records the serial number and destroys the note.

The average life of a paper note is said to be 7 years.

This hasn't happened for even one of the DB Cooper notes (conspiracy theories aside).

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Bank tellers don't check anything. When a bank receives a damaged note, it exchanges it with the federal reserve for a new one. The FR records the serial number and destroys the note.

The average life of a paper note is said to be 7 years.

This hasn't happened for even one of the DB Cooper notes (conspiracy theories aside).

I wonder if they upped such security a level in the wake of Cooper, so that banks did do some sort of checking of the notes that came in. Otherwise, you'd be giving Cooper a pretty decent headstart of several years.

 

[grizzlym]

You wpuld have thought, that if he actually profited from the crime just one of those notes (excluding the ones found in the wilderness) would have shown up in circulation. I'm not en fait with money laundering but I would have thought something should have shown up.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

You wpuld have thought, that if he actually profited from the crime just one of those notes (excluding the ones found in the wilderness) would have shown up in circulation. I'm not en fait with money laundering but I would have thought something should have shown up.

Yep. All cash must eventually be circulated or it's worthless. Businesses bank regularly, many daily. All tender passes through a bank regularly.

That or it rots away (good tale about Pablo Escobar - at their peak they allowed a few % a year in shrinkage for cash that literally rotted - such was the volume they had and the storage they had to find for it).