Unsolved D.B. Cooper

[lemon chicken]

The thing I find weird with the bank notes is how did they manage to get that amount of notes with serial numbers in some type of order? There was maybe 2 hours from the time he told the flight attendant he had a bomb to the time his demands had been met yet they somehow managed to get a great stack of $20 bills all beginning in the same letter. From the notes that were found 10 bills were missing from one stack which were secured with rubber bands and all the notes were in the exact order as which they were given. So they photographed every note, recorded the exact order, or had numerical order notes. And then consider that this is around a million dollars worth of cash in todays value, what kind of banks nowadays could even get that done in that timeframe? I subscribe to the theory that the bank notes thing was a red herring from the cops to perturbe him from spending it if he got away. To me that ties in with the geology evidence that the notes found were planted years later.

My theory is he survived it, was smart enough to realise a small portion of the banknotes had similar serial numbers and never bothered spending any of them, went back a few years later and planted them on the river bank hoping that someday, somebody would find them.

 

[Dan Cooper]

The thing I find weird with the bank notes is how did they manage to get that amount of notes with serial numbers in some type of order? There was maybe 2 hours from the time he told the flight attendant he had a bomb to the time his demands had been met yet they somehow managed to get a great stack of $20 bills all beginning in the same letter. From the notes that were found 10 bills were missing from one stack which were secured with rubber bands and all the notes were in the exact order as which they were given. So they photographed every note, recorded the exact order, or had numerical order notes. And then consider that this is around a million dollars worth of cash in todays value, what kind of banks nowadays could even get that done in that timeframe? I subscribe to the theory that the bank notes thing was a red herring from the cops to perturbe him from spending it if he got away. To me that ties in with the geology evidence that the notes found were planted years later.

My theory is he survived it, was smart enough to realise a small portion of the banknotes had similar serial numbers and never bothered spending any of them, went back a few years later and planted them on the river bank hoping that someday, somebody would find them.

When a hijacker has an aircraft full of passengers & crew hostage, and a bomb, he is in a very strong negotiating position - particular back in 1971 when the authorities had had little experience in dealing with such situations. With full co-operation big wheels can be made to turn almost instantaneously.

 

[Dan Cooper]

The thing I find weird with the bank notes is how did they manage to get that amount of notes with serial numbers in some type of order?...

From an article I just read >

10) Easy Money - A lot of people have asked how come the ransom money hasn't turned up except for the $5,800 found in 1980 on the banks of the Columbia River near Tena Bar. Easy answer: No one was actually looking for it. In a radio interview from 2008, Special Agent Larry Carr admitted that most banks found it overwhelming to compare their incoming twenties from the 34-page list of 10,000 non-sequential numbers. The majority of them abandoned this effort within three-to-six months after the hijacking. This means the money was more-or-less cold, and would be easy to launder after that time.

http://adventurebooks.newsvine.com/...nny-christiansen-could-be-skyjacker-db-cooper

 

[Dan Cooper]

Hey, I like it. I'll re-read the Crime Library story over with this in mind, put it that way.

A few initial issues:

• It makes sense for the physical descriptions to come from the flight attendants. They spent time talking to him and observed him. Doesn't really prove or disprove your theory I guess, but surely the FBI and the airline would have been interested in hearing other accounts, rather than just the crew's, to eliminate the 'inside job' theory.
• He seemed to understand some nuances of the 727 and planned the hijack specifically because it would allow this type of jump from the aft stairs. (As the story goes) he needed one of the flight attendants to give him a sign demonstrating how to open the stairs (apparently, this just involved pulling a lever). Cooper wanted them to take off with the aft stairs open, but was talked into manually opening them in flight. The sign was one of the only pieces of evidence ever recovered. Of course, going by the inside job theory, this could have been staged.
• I don't think it's fair to say that he knew nothing about skydiving, just that he wasn't like a paratrooper or anything. Not that I know anything about skdiving, but I reckon a guy who made, say, five jumps in his life could have made the same mistake.
• The list of successful jumps depends on what you consider successful. With regards to jumping out of the plane and hitting terra firma, he wasn't the only one to manage that. Others were unsuccessful for other reasons: they couldn't keep their mouths shut; one left his own car at a designated drop point where FBI agents were waiting for him when he made the hike to pick it up, one was tipped off by a taxi driver, who picked him up still in his jumpsuit and carrying a duffel bag (he also had told a friend how easily it could be done), one who was a native of Honduras, surrended there because bounty hunters were after him etc.
• Don't know enough about the odds of surviving the jump and getting to a safe location to really comment one way or the other. It doesn't seem that implausible to me.
• But probably the biggest one...I'm almost positive that airline crews are always selected randomly for their flights; that they've got no idea whom they're working with from flight to flight. It would have made it impossible to plan.

This article answers many of your questions, though admittedly in a manner supporting their theory that Kenny Christiansen was Cooper >

http://adventurebooks.newsvine.com/...nny-christiansen-could-be-skyjacker-db-cooper

An extract regarding the 1st point you raised above regarding Cooper's appearance >

The FBI dismissed Kenny Christiansen as not quite fitting the description of the hijacker. The F.B.I. questioned everyone on the flight and people who had seen the hijacker said he was anywhere from thirty-five to fifty. He had a square jaw. Others said he had a sagging chin. Stewardesses Tina Mucklow and Flo Schaffner agreed he had brown eyes, although only Schaffner saw him without his sunglasses. Flo said he was six feet tall, Tina said maybe five-ten to six feet. Robert Gregory, a passenger on the flight, said no...he was shorter, no taller than five foot nine. None of them agree on the exact color of the hijacker's suit, or the hairstyle he wore, although they did agree he had very dark hair. Gregory thought it might have been dyed. He had an olive complexion, or was well-tanned. Eventually a few different sketches were created from the witness descriptions. Those sketches have taken on a life of their own, to the point where some Cooper investigators consider them photographs, when of course they are not.

 

[Kim Hagdorn]

You would have to say it's very likely that he just went 'splat' but it's intriguing to think that there's a small chance that the man got away with such an audacious scheme.

 

[Dan Cooper]

You would have to say it's very likely that he just went 'splat' but it's intriguing to think that there's a small chance that the man got away with such an audacious scheme.

I thought for a long time Cooper probably just when splat. But the fact Richard McCoy was able to pull exactly the same stunt a few months later and 'land it' safely makes you wonder.

 

[Ghostwriter]

Just wondering whether the eruption of Mt St Helens in 1980 has destroyed any other evidence e.g body, parachute or other cash, considering the only cash was found in 1980.

 

[Dan Cooper]

Have been reading the book Into The Blast - The True Story of D.B.Cooper by Skipp Porteous & Robert Blevins and in it there is comment on the checking by banks for the $20 notes from the hijacking >

The FBI had different special agents running the Cooper case over the years. In 2008, it was Larry Carr. He admitted in a radio interview that most banks gave up trying to check their incoming $20 notes against the ransom list they had been provided with within 6 months or less. The job was just more than bank tellers could handle, due to the sheer volume of different serial numbers involved. The US Treasury Dept also assisted in keeping an eye out, but they were already receiving tens of thousands of bills each week for normal damaged currency replacement. They were also unable to continu this effort for very long. Although the FBI once claimed the Treasury kept looking for years, a Treasury official contacted by the authors of the book in 2010 contradicted this claim.

 

[Dan Cooper]

Completed reading Into The Blast - The True Story of D.B.Cooper by Skipp Porteous & Robert Blevins.

Did the book convince me that Kenny Christiansen, a former paratrooper and employee of the hijacked airline, was D.B. Cooper? Perhaps not.

Did it offer many very plausible reasons why Kenny Christiansen might have been D.B. Cooper? Yes. It most definitely did. In fact much of the information provided made Christiansen a very good fit for Cooper.

Am I more confused about D.B. Cooper than before I read this book? Probably, and I have two more books coming that I've ordered on-line. Happy times!

 

[Dan Cooper]

I found this interesting:

The picture below shows the rear of a Boeing 727 aircraft, the same type of plane D.B. Cooper jumped from carrying the $200,000 ransom.

In order to prevent similar crimes, the airline installed the external white paddle-like device seen in the picture below (look to the left of the stairway opening) that prevented the stairs from being lowered whist in flight.

The device came to be known as the "Cooper Vane."

 

[Dan Cooper]

3 of the 4 crew were still on-board Northwest Flight 305 when the skyjacker 'Dan Cooper' jumped :

from left First Officer Bill Rataczak, Captain William Scott and Stewardess Tina Mucklow. The 4th member still on-board was Flight Engineer H.E. Anderson (not seen in picture).

Tina Mucklow was the last person on-board to lay eyes on Cooper. She was entrusted by Cooper to deliver the parachutes and the $200,000 cash to him, and was present at the rear of the plane while Cooper prepared for his jump. Once she explained to him how to go about lowering the rear stairs Cooper sent her to the front of the plane, out of view, with the other crew members. Not long after Cooper was gone - never to be seen again - or was he???

 

[RobertMBlevins]

Hi, I decided to register and make a comment (or answer questions) on this thread. Yes, I'm the same Robert who co-wrote the book on Christiansen. There are many misconceptions in the Cooper case, or like the guy said in the film Apocalypse Now:

'There was so much BS in Cooperland (Vietnam), you needed wings to stay above it...'

Recently, we prepared a twenty-nine page PDF containing all the current evidence against Kenny Christiansen. It includes many images and captions. If you want to know The Real Deal on Kenny, it's a good place to start. The book itself does have small inaccuracies, but some of that is because we discovered much more about Christiansen AFTER the book came out. This more current report was sent to the Seattle FBI on Christmas Eve, 2012. There was no response except a confirmation that they received it. This is the public version, which contains the true names of all witnesses, but leaves out their personal information. (The OTHER version, the non-public version, went to the FBI and some reporters, and can be had on request under certain conditions.) Otherwise they are identical.

Note: Downloads are always heavy at that website. If it takes too long to view, just right-click on the link below and select 'Save Target As' and send it to your My Documents. Adobe Reader required to view.

http://www.adventurebooksofseattle.com/Documents only/FBIreportChristiansenWithMediaFINAL.pdf

 

[Dan Cooper]

Welcome aboard Robert

As per my comments above, I read your book only recently, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I hope posters here take the opportunity to put questions to you regarding the DB Cooper case, and in particular why you are so convinced Kenny Christiansen was that man.

 

[RobertMBlevins]

I'm not certain Christiansen was Cooper. I only suspect he was.

 

[grizzlym]

I'm not certain Christiansen was Cooper. I only suspect he was.

I've downloaded the file from the link and will read. Many thanks.

As our resident "DB Cooper" posted: welcome aboard.

It's certainly one of the more enduring and captivating crimes unsolved crimes.

 

[Dan Cooper]

I'm not certain Christiansen was Cooper. I only suspect he was.

My apologies, it was your co-author of 'Into The Blast' Skipp Porteous who said he "was 90% certain Kenny and DB Cooper were one and the same".

Is it a fair question to ask you what % certain (or convinced) you are that Kenny Christiansen was DB Cooper?

I know you didn't come and post here merely to plug your book. But having read it, I'm more than happy to suggest DB Cooper enthusiasts get hold of a copy and read it. It's one of the most fascinating mysteries of our time and your book offers a wealth of information.

 

[RobertMBlevins]

Ha...anyone who believes they will ever get rich from DB Cooper is imagining things. We spent roughly $13,000 investigating Christiansen and have gotten back maybe 70% of that. Plus, I do book edits on the side and I suspended that work for over a year and lost money there, too. No big deal. I was curious on the whole thing regarding Christiansen. Forget the money. The only thing that matters forty-two years later is the truth. The rest is BS.

One thing is for sure. If you propose a suspect in the Cooper case, you're going to 'get it' from people on the internet. This is because unlike other unsolved cases like Jack the Ripper, Jimmy Hoffa, the Black Dahlia murder...there are Cooper Nuts and Cooperland.

What is Cooperland? You can read about it here:

http://adventurebooks.newsvine.com/...r-db-cooper-part-1-of-3-welcome-to-cooperland

 

[Dan Cooper]

Hope you stick around a while Robert, because like many places there is interest here regarding DB Cooper. As evidenced by the 150 odd posts here so far.

I must admit I get more confused with every article I read, and I'm sure once I've read the ones you have provided a link to I'll be even more confused - perhaps it's a mild dose of the Cooper curse

Do you think the case will ever be solved conclusively, and to the satisfaction of the FBI? I get the distinct impression it won't?

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Cheers for visiting Robert, appreciated.

In your research, have you seen much time given to theories of an inside job by employees of the airline?

 

[Dan Cooper]

The more you read about the DB Cooper skyjacking the more the line between fact and theory seems to become blurred. The following would seem to me to be facts >

1. An individual with the appearance of a man bought a ticket using the name Dan Cooper and boarded Northwest Airlines flight 305 on November 24th 1971.

2. The man referring to himself as Dan Cooper handed the stewardess a note stating he had a bomb and showed her something that looked like a bomb inside his briefcase.

3. Dan Cooper demanded four parachutes - two front chutes and two back chutes - as well as a ransom of $US200,000.

4. Dan Cooper released all the passengers on-board and one of the flight crew.

5. Dan Cooper received the four parachutes he had demanded - one of which was not fit for use - and a bag containing $US200,000.

6. After delays caused by refuelling, Dan Cooper demanded the plane take off prior to a destination being provided to air traffic control - which it did at 7.34pm.

7. A destination was negotiated between Cooper and the flight crew after take-off, and it is believed to have been Reno, Nevada.

8. Dan Cooper enquired of one of the stewardesses the process required to lower the rear stairs.

9. Dan Cooper appeared to be preparing for a jump. Including attaching the bag of money to his body using strings he had cut from one of the two parachute he chose not to use for the jump.

10. Everything points to Dan Cooper having jumped from the plane via the rear stairs - which had been lowered - at between 8.11pm and 8.15pm. Therefore between 37 and 41 minutes after take-off.

11. The plane continued on to Reno with the rear stairs still in the lowered position and landed successfully.

12. The landing was watched carefully to ensure Dan Cooper did not attempt to leave the plane upon landing, and after an extensive search Cooper was found not to be on-board the aircraft.

13. In 1980, three separate packs of $20 dollar notes were found on the banks of the Columbia River The total amount of the money found was $5,800.


Okay, there's also the tie pin and cigarette butts that remained on the aircraft, and a sketch of the man who called himself DB Cooper. But after that I think most other things that have gone into print have fallen short of being facts. Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Grockadoc]

I have a theory guys, and it could be totally wrong, but what the hell.

He never jumped at the time the FBI thought, rather dumping a few bundles of cash and all but one of the parachutes out of the aft doors as they flew over the suspected landing zone, leaving a false trail, knowing he would end up hundreds of miles away from where the FBI would look for him. Remember, Mucklow was the last person to see Cooper, and that was to hand him the money and parachutes. They had no way of definitively telling where and when Cooper jumped. He had knowledge of the layout and geography of the terrain, so, after pulling of a hijack of this magnitude shows plenty of meticulous planning, and intelligence. So why would he risk jumping into densely vegetated areas that he had a slim chance of surviving. Cooper knew they would have to stop at Reno, and would have been given an ETA for it from the flight crew. So it would have been easy for Cooper to judge his jump, landing in the sandy areas outside Reno just before the plane landed at Reno, for the sake of this argument, say 10-15 minutes. Cooper could have then made his way to Las Vegas and exchanged his cash for chips at various casinos in split amounts, as cashing in $200,000 at once would be suspicious. If he had of done it in say, 10 lots, it would have been a lot more inconspicuous. Remember, the serial numbers for the bills were released in late 1971, which would have left Cooper plenty of time to cash the bills in before the casinos received the serial numbers. He could have then feigned interest in the casino for a while, before cashing his chips in for a higher denomination note, which would be lighter and a lot easier for him to use as he saw fit. This would guarantee him his slightly less than $200,000 in anonymity, giving him free reign to use it.

The one problem with this, is the money, had it been passed through the casino's would have been picked up eventually by the banks and FBI if it was in circulation, indicating that Cooper had indeed survived, and had already disposed of the money.

 

[Dan Cooper]

...Remember, Mucklow was the last person to see Cooper, and that was to hand him the money and parachutes. They had no way of definitively telling where and when Cooper jumped. He had knowledge of the layout and geography of the terrain, so, after pulling of a hijack of this magnitude shows plenty of meticulous planning, and intelligence. So why would he risk jumping into densely vegetated areas that he had a slim chance of surviving. Cooper knew they would have to stop at Reno, and would have been given an ETA for it from the flight crew. So it would have been easy for Cooper to judge his jump, landing in the sandy areas outside Reno just before the plane landed at Reno, for the sake of this argument, say 10-15 minutes...

Interesting and worthwhile theory. Consider this though >

Nobody knew exactly when Cooper jumped from the 727 on Nov 24th 1971. Because by the time he had jumped everybody, including Tina Mucklow the last person to see him, were up the front of the aircraft behind pulled curtains. However, at approximately 8.12pm - after the rear stairs had already been heard and felt to have lowered - a "pressure dump" occurred in the cabin - and it was felt by the crew that was the point in time when Cooper jumped from the rear stairs.

On January 6th 1972 a test flight was conducted in another 727 aircraft with the aim of replicating Cooper's jump, and specifically to see if the crew up front - including 1st Officer H.E. Anderson from the DB Cooper fight - could tell when a parachutist jumped from the rear stairs. It was considered too dangerous to have a "live" parachutist perform the jump. So they instead had someone at the rear of the plane drop "dummy sleds" that simulated a parachutist jumping from the stairs.

The effect of these dummies being released recorded a cabin pressure change and, according to 1st Officer H.E. Anderson who was on the DB Cooper fight, the reaction felt was identical to the one experienced by the crew on the DB Cooper flight.

In conclusion, everything points to DB Cooper having jumped at approx. 8.12pm.

(remember also that there was a hell of a storm raging the night Cooper jumped and visibility was reported to have been very poor)

 

[Grockadoc]

Interesting and worthwhile theory. Consider this though >

Nobody knew exactly when Cooper jumped from the 727 on Nov 24th 1971. Because by the time he had jumped everybody, including Tina Mucklow the last person to see him, were up the front of the aircraft behind pulled curtains. However, at approximately 8.12pm - after the rear stairs had already been heard and felt to have lowered - a "pressure dump" occurred in the cabin - and it was felt by the crew that was the point in time when Cooper jumped from the rear stairs.

On January 6th 1972 a test flight was conducted in another 727 aircraft with the aim of replicating Cooper's jump, and specifically to see if the crew up front - including 1st Officer H.E. Anderson from the DB Cooper fight - could tell when a parachutist jumped from the rear stairs. It was considered too dangerous to have a "live" parachutist perform the jump. So they instead had someone at the rear of the plane drop "dummy sleds" that simulated a parachutist jumping from the stairs.

The effect of these dummies being released recorded a cabin pressure change and, according to 1st Officer H.E. Anderson who was on the DB Cooper fight, the reaction felt was identical to the one experienced by the crew on the DB Cooper flight.

In conclusion, everything points to DB Cooper having jumped at approx. 8.12pm.

(remember also that there was a hell of a storm raging the night Cooper jumped and visibility was reported to have been very poor)

I agree, but there could be an explanation for that, too. It's all hypothetical, of course, but couldn't he have dumped something heavy, such as the food trolleys out of the plane? They are quiet heavy, and if there were a couple of them, it would be a similar weight, if full, to what they projected Cooper to be? Also the pressure felt at a higher altitude would be far greater than what they would feel if they were in descent to land. At 2,000 feet, the effects would be miniscule, and might not have been felt, if there was a change in pressure.

If f the above did happen, and the FBI found the trolleys, perhaps they just assumed that they fell when Cooper supposedly jumped?

All hypothetical, of course, and a theory that has been with me for a while, that I have yet to see anyone discuss.

 

[Dan Cooper]

I agree, but there could be an explanation for that, too. It's all hypothetical, of course, but couldn't he have dumped something heavy, such as the food trolleys out of the plane? They are quiet heavy, and if there were a couple of them, it would be a similar weight, if full, to what they projected Cooper to be? Also the pressure felt at a higher altitude would be far greater than what they would feel if they were in descent to land. At 2,000 feet, the effects would be miniscule, and might not have been felt, if there was a change in pressure.

If f the above did happen, and the FBI found the trolleys, perhaps they just assumed that they fell when Cooper supposedly jumped?

All hypothetical, of course, and a theory that has been with me for a while, that I have yet to see anyone discuss.

Good to hear someone thinking outside of the square. Your trolley theory is interesting. But surely even if they weren't found in the ground search they would have been noticed as having been missing from the plane?

A trolley being missing has never been mentioned in any books or articles on the skyjack. Yet after 20 years the FBI finally relented and made public the tie and tie-pin DB Cooper left behind on-board. The ace they had kept up their sleeve for all that time.

 

[Grockadoc]

Good to hear someone thinking outside of the square. Your trolley theory is interesting. But surely even if they weren't found in the ground search they would have been noticed as having been missing from the plane?

A trolley being missing has never been mentioned in any books or articles on the skyjack. Yet after 20 years the FBI finally relented and made public the tie and tie-pin DB Cooper left behind on-board. The ace they had kept up their sleeve for all that time.

IF, and this is all hypothetical of course, a trolley was missing, it could have been assumed it just fell out as the aft door was opened. And if it was assumed as such, it could have been deemed inconsequential by the FBI, and as a result, not released to the media/public, or even reported.