MeyerLouie

As I posted above lots did survive.. and if your airplane is disintegrating around you.. you can be one SERIOUSLY motivated airman.. so motivated in fact that it is enough to overcome a deeply ingrained desire to try just one more thing to regain control.. so much so that you can pull yourself to a hole big enough to get out of at VERY high speed while pulling a couple G's. And WHERE did they learn to do these things? Oh, I don't know. Maybe some tough training at a US Army paratrooper school or something.

Or, he could have been a pissed-off, dirt-poor employee of the airline who used to be a US Army paratrooper...

I could swear Blevins I've seen this post before, more than once. Do you just copy and paste your old posts or do you have the posts so well memorized that you can just rattle them off verbatim? Same old, same old -- how about something new and original on the case? A new angle, even a different way of looking at old things would be better than the broken record -- same thing over and over, day in and day out. I'm getting so I don't even have to read your posts anymore because I already know what you're going to say before you say it. It's old, and I bet I'm not the only one who is so tired of it. Some of us read your book, so you don't have to keep repeating the same things over and over. MeyerLouie

__________________________________________________ I saw this post earlier and meant to comment on it. I hear this all the time -- that Cooper somehow had below average to average intelligence, that he was a maniacal, desperate working stiff on a suicide mission. Here's a thought for you: One of the biggest fallacies might very well be the assumption that somehow all of us here are at least as smart as Cooper. I'm thinking there might be a remote possibility that Cooper is smarter than all of us, including the FBI. And there may be evidence to verify this -- he is just as much of a mystery and just as free and unknown as he was 41 years ago. Experts in forensic science and law enforcement are still baffled. Moreover, it is possible that Cooper out-witted and out-maneuvered the supposed greatest investigative unit in the world, the FBI. If he lived to tell about it, then I say he's several cuts above average intelligence. Here's a corollary to that thought: jumping in a suit, dress shoes, overcoat, at night, in cloud cover, with an undetermined target drop (I don't believe this one, by the way) might very well be clues to his genius, rather than clues to his lack of smarts. And he was one cool customer -- with nerves of steel. MeyerLouie

You did a good job, Blevins. You captured the essence of that fun day in Ariel last Saturday. Thanks for sharing. MeyerLouie

__________________________________________________ Bruce, I did not name you specifically here, I think the deceiving part goes primarily to Galen Cook, not you. He tricked Tina in more ways than one. And, as I understand it, Blevins is the one who divulged Tina's exact whereabouts. My apologies. I didn't mean to imply it was you who deceived Tina or divulged her exact whereabouts. However, I don't agree with the part you played, eventhough it was quite minimal. As for your last point, sorry Bruce, I have to disagree with you on that one. I don't think Tina owes us shit. If someone(s) deceived me and disrespected me and my privacy, would I feel obligated to help those individuals with what I know? Not on your life. That's why I say the best witness we ever had in the DBC case is probably lost forever. It's about basic courtesy and respect -- plain and simple. Tina's mental or emotional state or social responsibility has little relevance at this point. MeyerLouie

Not overly smart, (jumping in suit, dress shoes, overcoat, at night, in cloud cover, undetermined target drop) How am I doing...missing anything? __________________________________________________ Not overly smart? Careful with that now.... did you happen to think that all those reasons you listed between the commas, in parentheses, may be the reasons why he just may be real smart? MeyerLouie

My responses here are in italics (MeyerLouie):

That's a big IF. Everyone assumes that the sketch was an accurate depiction of DBC. I worked on cases where composite sketches were prepared, witnesses all agreed that the sketch closely resembled the perpetrator, then a guy is arrested, tied to the crime by solid evidence... and he looks VERY different from the sketch. Go figure. I've seen witnesses get height and weight waaaay off too. Sometimes they even got eye color wrong. I too wonder why Cooper appeared to take no significant disguise measures. But I've represented defendants who stuck up places they KNEW had cameras and yet they didn't put on a mask. I think Cooper was way smarter than they were. If Ted Braden was DBC he might have figured he'd spend his life in non extraditable exhile and didn't care if he was eventually identified. Because of my experience with police sketches, I don't assume that the FBI drawings closely resemble Cooper. I've seen too many cases where the drawings were highly inaccurate. 377 __________________________________________________ However, 377, I would be interested in what Tina came up with. Tina spent 5 hours with this guy. She was a trained "people" person -- trained to notice, observe, and recall her surroundings. She had to have noticed Cooper's particular features -- she had hours to study them. I'm saying, even if her re-creation of DBC's composite was somewhat close, it should have been enough for someone, somewhere, to recognize him. This may not be the case though -- I hear what you're saying. Tina Mucklow was probably our best witness, she's the only one who significant time with Cooper. And now she's probably lost forever, thanks to Galen Cook, Roberts Blevins, and Bruce Smith -- who deceived her, surveilled her without her knowledge, disrespected her privacy, and then divulged her exact whereabouts. MeyerLouie

Q4: What about the dropzone? What should it have looked like? How could he have known when to jump in order to hit his dropzone? Q4: Cooper specified that the money be ready at a time that was well past sunset. Adding in the cloudy day, Cooper knew that it would be absolutely dark when he jumped. If Cooper had a jump point in mind, it was probably very close to Seattle and maybe in the Fort Lewis/McChord AFB area. The aircraft was above an overcast before Cooper managed to get the aft stairs unlocked. That means he could not see a jump point in the first place and did not have a means to determine his location with any accuracy. So he had to jump "blind". I agree on the first part, DBC absolutely planned on jumping after dark. However, I don't think for a minute that the jump was blind. Nor do I think Cooper ever planned to jump close to Seattle or Ft. Lewis or Olympia. How so? Cooper started in Portland, he extorts the money, gets it in Seattle, then demands that the plane fly back toward Portland. Might this indicate he had intentions of getting back closer to Portland, from whence he came? I checked out the simulation of the flight, and I've talked to a couple of folks. From what I've gathered, it seems that even on a cloudy, rainy, stormy night, you can still make out the city lights -- Vancouver, Battleground, even Camas. Might it be possible then that, in preparation for the jump, Cooper surveilled the area, from the air, several times prior, under similar weather conditions, to get his bearings, establish his landmarks (city lights), and get the lay of the land? Is it possible that DBC knew exactly what he was doing and knew exactly when he was going to jump? Frank Heyl, in Mr. H's book, says it's not that hard to hit your target wi Why do I say this? Because he was cool as a cucumber -- nerves of steel. He didn't get rattled -- about anything -- at this time. In addition, he didn't seem stressed, even in the least, about the upcoming jump nor about the aft stairs problem. The pilot said the plane could not take off with the aft stairs down. No problem, he calmly instructed the pilots to go ahead and take off with the aft stairs up -- like it was no big deal. Moreover, Cooper didn't seem hurried -- about anything. Why? Maybe he was calm, cool and not in much of a hurry because he was not planning to jump for a while -- he knew then he was going to gauge his jump from the lights of Vancouver and Portland. In addition, maybe from his past experiences and/or training, he knew it was going to be possible, in due time, to get the aft stairs down, during flight, without much cause for concern. He just didn't seem stressed or rattled when he asked Tina for assistance with the aft stairs. Maybe his questions to Tina about how to lower the aft stairs in flight were just an act. In short, it seems plausible that Cooper knew exactly what he wanted to do, and he knew exactly when he wanted to do it. The planning and execution were so meticulous up to this point, why wouldn't the rest of the skyjacking be planned and executed with the same precision? Bind jump? Maybe not. MeyerLouie

I asked a question earlier -- Why wasn't Cooper afraid of being recognized? You have to remember, in terms of dress, the early 70s were just an extension of the crazy 60s. No such thing as a wardrobe malfunction back then. Nobody really cared how anybody dressed back then. We were just starting to recover from the withdrawals caused by free love, sit-ins, love-ins, psychedic shirts, and Woodstock. I'm betting DBC's outdated apparel didn't even get a second look. But I still keep thinking why he didn't try to cover his face or make an attempt to disguise himself in some way. He just didn't seem to even be concerned about it. Why? Maybe the disguise was already in place -- a complete makeover or facelift before he got there, maybe? Or maybe he wasn't from here, he lived far, far away, from some remote location and figured the chances of someone recognizing him were slim to none. But you ask, how then did he know where Tacoma was? He must be from here then. Maybe not. Maybe he could have come around weeks or months earlier (disguised), cased the joint, then flown over the area several times to get the lay of the land -- all the while planning every detail of his sordid deed. If he had worked for Boeing or Northwest in the past, don't you think someone(s) somewhere along the way would have recognized him? He had to fill out a job application, he had to go to the job interview, he had to pick up his paycheck, he had to drop by Human Resourcers, he had to go to work. Then the DBC composites were on every newspaper and TV screen around the world. If the composite sketches were anywhere close, don't you think someone, somewhere in the Boeing or Northwest Airline ranks would have recognized him? Blevins, please do not respond to this post. Nobody wants your 20 paragraphs of regurgitated, broken- record, singing-the-praises of "KC and the Sunshine Band." MeyerLouie

__________________________________________________ Hey 18E, If you want people to quit griping and complaining, you should not reply with a post that is nothing but griping and complaining. Practice what you preach, dude. Sooooo, what have you got to offer to the discussion that is substantive, anti-whining, and anti-complaining? MeyerLouie

------------------------------------------------------------ Bruce, I enjoyed your writeup about our fun, fun day at DB Cooper Days in Ariel. It was a blast! It just kind of evolved as the day went on, and we met some really interesting people. And to top it off, I got to get up and sing a couple of songs with the band and have beautiful Christie join in with some great backup harmonies. She's good. I also discovered Robert Blevins is a pretty good guy. He says he's laid back. Actually he is, in real life (as opposed to how he can be here). We had some good conversation and we ended up shaking hands at the end of the day. Dona is a character, I sure enjoy talking to her, she's somethin' else. I talked with about the possibility of allowing us to have a little DBC Symposium right there in the bar. We (Bruce, Robert Blevins, and I) discovered that the festivities (drinking, eating, music, and the like) don't really gear up until after 5 or 6 pm. There's available space and time (like 3-5 or 6pm, or 2 - 5 pm) to have a symposium at the Ariel bar during the DB Cooper Days celebration. I asked Dona for permission in our first conversation, confirmed it in a later conversation. Incidentally, in the third conversation I asked Dona to help me get up to sing with band (and she did, thank you). I'll be happy to help organize a symposium at Ariel. But first thing first: 1. Do you want a symposium in the afternoon of Saturday DBC Days at Ariel?. 2. How many would attend? We'd need enough folks to make it worth our while and effort. 3. If so, what would you like to have presented on the agenda? Dona said we could hook up our computers, Powerpoint, projectors, anything as needed. Best of all, she won't charge us a dime. So, I think a good way to say thank you would be to patronize her business -- she has food, drink, books, t-shirts, souvenirs, and the like. I'm pretty sure she'd be happy if we just patronized her business as best we could. No dues, fees, or charges will be required. What do you all think? Wanna do it? I'll be happy to work with Dona over the next several months to help put things together. Tell me what you need, I'll try to get it for you -- it's your symposium. Some suggestions for an agenda so far have been: 1. Q & A panel comprised of "DB Cooper Royalty"; 2. Overview of the facts and history of the case, 3. Presentation of any new developments or findings in the past year; 4. Keynote presenter and other presentations -- as time allows. 5. Dona should give a presentation of the history of the DB Cooper Days celebration at Ariel. Some have suggested an Ariel symposium should be casual and informal. Please provide some response to the questions above. Remember, it's what you want that counts. Tell me, and I'll try to get it for you. If there's enough interest and attendance, I will work to make it happen -- that's a promise. MeyerLouie

Point taken, I'll try to be nicer to Jo. I do like her. Her insistence that Duane had a special CB that could operate on aviation freqs and CB just got my goat. I'll let it go. 377 You're a good man 377. I enjoy your informative, insightful posts. You make complex technical things understandable -- you'd be a great professor for sure. MeyerLouie

I have never had a 10 hour conversation with ANYONE. Galen Cooks remark - I have ALREADY stated I have copies of all of them and on disk! I think this is the MOST CRUEL AND MEANEST thing anyone of you have ever done to me or anyone else. Galen would do what he could to discredit me - and I do not understand what Dona's motive is. The record is 3 hr or almost 3 hrs and there is someone on this thread that can attest to this. _________________________________________________ 377, I used to like to read your posts, but lately you have been a bit narly. I get the feeling you're going through a hard time, it's not like you to be aggressive and disrespectful. I think your post to Jo was unkind. You made your point about what you think of Jo's theory, leave it there. You don't need a baseball bat to kill a fly. Jo, Bruce's intention about the length of your telephone calls was not meant in the way you took it. That conversation lasted about 30 seconds, no one was ridiculing you. It was respectful and endearing, not disrespectful or ridiculing. Bruce apparently misstated a couple of things, Blevins has never talked to you and Dona never talked to you for 10 hours. That's unfortunate. I'm sorry for my part in hurting your feelings, it was not intentional. I will go on record -- I was the guy Jo talked to for 3 hours. You got a problem with that? If so, take it up with me. Anytime Jo wants to talk, or I want to talk with Jo, then we'll talk for as long as we damn well please, thank you very much. MeyerLouie

----------------------------------------------------------- Jo, I can do that for you. MeyerLouie -----------------------------------------------------------

_________________________________________________ Jo, I'm betting there will be several of us there, because several of us are within driving distance from Ariel -- and several fly in too. If there's anything you want checked out, like asking Dona about the pic of the 5 boys, let me know -- I'll do what I can to find out whatever it is you want found out. I'm sure there are others here who would be willing to do the same for you. Just ask. I can ask Dona about the pic of the 5 boys if you like. MeyerLouie__________________________________________________

It wasnt a single question. It has been two years of anti Galen Cook posts by you here at DZ. If not one thing then another. A whole campaign! Just oneof numerous campaigns of yours. A long long list of accusations - Legitimate? Maybe if readers were blind and deaf. _________________________________________________ Hey Blevins, I thought you were supposed to be gone down the road to DB Cooper Days in Ariel tomorrow. Instead of leaving, you have posted more per day than regular. Do you ever follow through and actually do what you say you're going to do? Another point: I get the feeling you are threatened by Cook -- it's the only time I really see your venom, the one time you really go on the offensive. What are you afraid of? That someone else will come along and write a book better than yours? That someone will come along and really tank your KC = DBC theory? Your venom toward Cook indicates you are threatened by him. It has just occurred to me that you really really, with all your heart and soul, believe KC is DBC. You try to say you're open to other ideas -- that KC may or may not be DBC, but you're not kidding me, I know that's just not true. KC is your guy and always will be. MeyerLouie

whats the 'motivation' for anyone posting here? __________________________________________________ That's very true, Georger, good question. MeyerLouie

Bruce, I like you. At first I wasn't sure, like after you posted that interview with me here at DZ, without even having the courtesy to put it on your mag. That was not nice. For a while I even thought you were a nut, although I see now that is not the case. But I do have a suggestion. How about stepping up to the frickin' plate with a little journalistic integrity? You post here for Galen Cook, you don't question his claims and ask for proof, or at least evidence. What is up with that? Why does Cook need you to post everything he wants to say at DZ and leave you to face the questions? Are you a shill? True journalists never shill for anyone. Period. This is how they get to the truth, no matter what road they use to get to that truth. You must be impartial, you must not favor. You must avoid becoming a shill for someone in your reporting. Otherwise, your credibility will suffer. I don't enjoy going public with this, because I do support your mag. Do what is right. Step up. Level the field and never be a shill. Edit: It's a World War 2 USAAF pilot chute. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Blevins, you might actually have a point, I was thinking the same thing myself. Why is Bruce being Cook's mouthpiece on the forum? It's strange -- what's the real motivation? MeyerLouie

Fair enough. Although I do try to present reasonable evidence occasionally. Consider this: When I make a mistake, people point it out to me so many times it becomes redundant. I can understand that, and I can 'take it'. However...fair is fair. And what is good for the goose is good for the gander. This means I should not be the only one pointing out the deceptions and flaws in Cook's story. Do you know what would happen to me if I posted up (without naming names or giving details) that some boys found shards a month before Brian did (corners only, no serial numbers sorry)...and offered ZERO evidence? And then tried to connect this to an old article by using deceptive information to promote it? Ha. You think Farflung and Georger are hard on me now? They would have a field day with this one. I don't blame the content of that article on Bruce Smith. He simply reports what Galen Cook tells him. And I'm saying that Cook misrepresented the information in his statements for the article. I believe he dipped into that 'patch' story in an effort to support his OTHER allegation about the 'corner-only money shards'. Then he dressed up the patch story to make the whole package look better. I'm not necesarily the arrogant type. I'm a pretty laid-back guy, generally. This article, these claims, have nothing to do with whether or not Ken Christiansen was the skyjacker. This goes to credibility. And if Mr Cook misrepresents the information about Tosaw's nylon, and tries to pass off this 'long-buried discovery' as something new, then you have to ask what would motivate him to do that. I believe his motivation is simple. He's trying to link these stories together, and the whole thing is thinner than a sheet of Saran Wrap. No names, many claims (hired-scientist studies) and more general BS and unnecessary mystery than I can list. It may sound like I am angry, but I am not. Disappointed in Cook? Yes. When I come to Ariel this year I am doing a video. You want to tell your side, your suspect, your story, hey...I will shoot your stuff as long as the harddrive holds out. But remember it all goes to YouTube later. See you there. Maybe I will buy you a beer if you're polite. We may disagree on the case, but that doesn't mean I don't respect your viewpoint. Even Cook, yes. Um, BK...maybe not. Besides, everyone knows I can't say for sure it was KC. If I knew that, I'd be on Letterman next week.

Galen G. Cook Attorney at Law As to the shard discovery by the kids: they were young teens, and their parents had no reason to get involved. These are fishermen, not scientists or sleuths. They prefer to be left alone and fish. I doubt any of them read the DZ, or sit around and try to establish the latest preferred theory. Most of the fishermen I talked to could care less about D.B. Cooper. __________________________________________________ I find this hard to believe, but as Georger says, it's too early to draw conclusions. MeyerLouie

Meyer: I saw your post above. If you didn't want a response to your questions, then you shouldn't have inserted my name or the title of the book into your post. I'm not a mind-reader, you know. Now I understand. I'll just ignore your questions or comments from now on. Thanks for setting me straight on that. _________________________________________________ Blevins, read my response to you responding to my top 10 list. Do you really promise to ignore my questions and comments from now on. Really? I think I like the sound of that. MeyerLouie__________________________________________________

Very unlikely. No GPS back then. Best you could do is use a radio direction finder to get a bearing on a signal, but that doesn't work well over irregular terrain. Just gives you an approximate bearing, no range info. McCoy's rigs had govt supplied beacons implanted by Perry Stevens, a rigger in Oakland CA. Most likely they were military bailout beacons on 243.0 MHz. Some USAF planes (eg HC 130H) were equipped with UHF ADFs that could get a bearing on that frequency. The problems of reflecting signals off terrain is minimized when the bearings are taken from aloft. 377 __________________________________________________ That answers that question -- two more questions for you 377: could DBC have brought on board 305, either in the briefcase or in the paperbag, a bailout type beacon (the flares maybe)? If so, could a land vehicle be equipped and capable of getting a bearing on that bailout beacon frequency? Thanks. MeyerLouie

---------------------------------------------------------- Blevins: you were the last person I wanted to respond to my top 10 list. If you had some credibility, scruples, tact, scholarship, or professionalism, then I might value your opinion, but I don't. My top 10 list was fodder for the forum, I was not expecting a response to every question, from you -- of all people. I haven't even read your replies to the 10 questions -- I don't have to an I don't want to -- because I already know what you're going to say before you say it. You've repeated yourself so many times here, you've picked the low hanging fruit so often here, you're a broken record. MeyerLouie Actually Blevins, I just read some (only a couple) of your answers to my 10 questions -- and I am already regretting it. You really are a broken record. How do I put it -- nobody cares what you think, Blevins. MeyerLouie -----------------------------------------------------------