Well, I finally picked up the Gunther book and read it. It was a very good read. I can see how the book fills that empty void to the story that us Cooperites are hungry for. While I didn't like the fact that the story had him abandoning his family, I still found myself rooting for him. In some ways, it feels like it is a little bit of a tease, coming just close enough, but not far enough to completely convince you.
Here are some quick hits that caught my attention:
Gunther has Cooper in the incorrect row, 15 instead of row 18. Was this information not available at the time that the book was written ? I can understand Clara getting this wrong after 10 years.
Page 33,34: Captain Scott leaves the cockpit and goes back to talk to Cooper. According to canon, this did not happen. This is a huge discrepancy that raises credibility concerns.
Page 36, (very bottom): "No, I don't want military chutes. They've got to be civilian type. With a rip chord". I believe this is unique to Gunther right i.e. it isn't in any of the 302s or other sources ? Did Gunther get this from Clara ? Or from Himmlesbach ?
Page 42, (middle): "Use the aft stairs" Cooper telling the crew to have the passengers exit the plan via the aft stairs. My understanding is that the only time the aft stairs were opened after 305 left Portland was when Cooper opened them to jump. So this would be another one of those discrepancies in the story that leave you scratching your head a little bit.
Page 47, (top) Cooper tells the crew that he has an altimeter stop watch on his wrist. So this must have come from Clara. If this was true, I would think that once the FBI read Gunther's account, they would have had their eye brows raised and convinced that the person who contacted Gunther was legit. So this bothers me a bit.
Page 137, the bomb was made of red painted tin cans. This is another discrepancy. Tina said that the bomb looked like it had sticks. When we hear the word "sticks", we think thinner in diameter and longer in length. Where as with "tin cans", I think of standard soup cans like Campbells or something. They are larger in diameter and shorted in length. Unless they could have been confused by Tina, which I find hard to believe.
Page 143, he talks about a canvas pack here and I believe in another earlier section of the book which I forgot to note. It was a little confusing as to whether this is simply the bank bag that the money was delivered in or if this could be that mysterious bag that the hijacker reportedly had, do you guys have a read on this ?
Page 143, He reportedly asks the crew "Where are we now?" Another huge discrepancy in the official story. To me, another example that if it was true, the FBI would be all over this being the real hijacker.
The scar on the hand, (I lost the page number), is this the origin of the scar or is there another independent source that states the hijacker had a scar on his hand ?
One part that I find difficult to believe is how he was able to just walk away from his kids. I can kind of understand the wife part of it . I know he connects with his daughter, but still...what about your son ? You could just walk away from him for the rest of your life ? Man that is tough to buy. In addition, the idea that the daughter could completely keep this secret from her mother and brother ?
And then, as far as we know, once the book was published, the person(s) never reached out to Gunther ever again--well this is my assumption as I don't know this for sure. It's just so bizarre, it doesn't add up.
All in all, I enjoyed the book. It's fresh in my mind right now, I am still processing it in terms of where I stand. Is it just the product of a hoaxer with a very good writer or is there some merit to it ? There's a hell of a lot of detail for someone to go this far out of their way, and the curious fact where it spanned a period of 10 years of silence from first contact followed by new contact and what appears to be hours and hours of phone calls telling the story...for no money ever paid out.