MarkBennett

Robert, Ok, I'll bite. Fair question. I don't want to answer for Marla (and I'm not going to make a habit out of this), but I believe she's answered this before. -- None of her siblings were outside when her uncles drove up. -- Her father told her this was very serious and she should never tell anyone what she saw. -- Her uncles left soon after You don't have to believe Marla's story. But, if you had started with "Marla. I'm writing an article about your DB Cooper story. I must tell you I'm skeptical. These are the parts I'm having trouble with and I wanted you to respond to them before I published it.", I don't think you'd have had a problem from anyone in this forum -- including Marla.

well Im not totaly sure they did buy his alibi. It might have been a legal-tactical decision to persue the one for prosecution without opening the other - They had him dead-to-rights on the one count which was enough to clsoe the door on him forever - Later. Is there any place to go with McCoy? He was only 29, didn't match the description and they must have checked his fingerprints against the ones they had.

Robert and Jerry, I agree with 377 (and not just because he's a fellow Mark).

Send complete resume, family history, blood type, photo of yourself, photo of your dog. Just kidding. Sure, you can have a speaking slot if you wish. Sorry, but Marla Cooper (who probably wouldn't attend anyway) is UN-invited to speak, unless she can offer up basic evidence that she didn't just make the whole story up to get a book deal. Who knows? Maybe the FBI will match prints to LD and I will have to eat roast crow for dinner the rest of the year. But so far I have seen only evidence that she's simply saying what she must to obtain a book deal, and I object to these tactics. Same goes for BK. Anyone else is welcome. I want to hear from the Bobby Dayton people, especially. Before you hammer on me too hard about Marla, consider this: I have printed up and researched every single interview she's done that I can find. And I can prove easily that she modifies the details in her story when it's convenient, or when 'issues' arise that might make it impossible for LD and Dewey to have pulled off the hijacking. But all she is really doing is digging herself a bigger hole. Example: Now she claims the two men landed only seven miles from Sisters, OR. So how did the money end up at Tena Bar? She says he lost it in the jump. The wind drift must have been fierce that day... Just another example of 'modifications' in her story, which I can easily prove by quoting from her different interviews. Ok, Robert. Fair enough. If you think Marla's continually changing her story: Write your article (with your sources) of how her story has changed. Then, before publishing to your web site, send it to Marla and invite her to respond. If she does, publish both your article and her response. I've read too many written interviews where the writer either misquotes, over-simplifies or just plain gets it wrong.

Jo, I have to give your props for tenacity. I went back to the prior forum thread (now locked). You started it and in the early days, half of the messages were yours. Eventually, it grew to pull in lots of knowledgeable people -- including an FBI agent. You've found and talked to people nobody else been able to. I can't remember how large your files are, but they are huge. If you were to write a book, I don't think anyone would begrudge any money you made from that. Your story stands on it's own and it's truth will be judged based on the evidence. As does Robert's and as does Marla's.

Robert, for gosh sakes, take the money. That's not selling out or cashing in. That's earning a living.

Jo, Quick question for you. Not counting Geoff Gray and Bruce Smith who received basically "No, thank you" responses, are you the only one who has actually talked to Tina Mucklow?

Thanks, Robert, Marla's account (for the first time I think) severely restricts the timeline. And, I think you can raise reasonable questions: Getting from jump to finding his bearings, contacting his accomplice and driving 200 miles in about 12 hours. All of this at night and in the rain and on mountain roads. That's a fair question. On the other hand, I don't think talking about cashing in AFTER the FBI labels her story as "promising" has any correlation to whether it's true or not. If the FBI had said the same thing about Kenny Christianson after your book, wouldn't you have thought you might cash in? You might not have posted it on Facebook (or penciled in cleavage

Thanks, Robert. That was a very honest response. I appreciate it. I will say I don't throw out Marla's claim because 1) She didn't come right out to the press. She went to law enforcement first and it was over a year before she went public. She didn't come out to the press until after the FBI spokesperson said they had a promising lead. 2) The FBI does consider her lead promising. And, they must have corroborated some parts of it to still be spending time on it. Once again -- thanks for taking my question as it was intended and responding in kind.

As far as taking any of them seriously, I've done what I can. The rest I have to leave to the FBI, although since the Marla Fable danced onto the scene, my confidence in them has eroded a bit. Robert, You spent lots of time, energy and money investigating Kenny Christianson. I read your book -- KC's story is plausible, but circumstantial. I've read Marla's story. Also plausible, but also circumstantial. You seem very critical of her story and it seems to me your statement above gets to why: Why does the FBI spend so much time on LD Cooper and not on Kenny Christianson, when both appear to be similar in likelihood. Could you be redirecting your displeasure against the FBI toward Marla? I've edited this a couple of times -- I don't want it to sound snarky or negative. But, you skipped the symposium, at least partly, because Marla was there. I wish you'd come and asked her questions there.

Question for my jumping friends...Ok, I've never met most of you, but we're all friends here.... If you jumped out of flight 305 in those conditions -- dark, rainy, cold -- and you were trying to locate yourself as you were falling, what could you identify. If you jumped at Ariel, could you find I-5? (because of headlights and tail lights). I don't think you could see any mountains, lakes or rivers at night. If you did have an accomplice what could you tell him by walkie-talkie when you hit the ground?

I can think of some other reasons why the FBI is giving Robert not much information. When Larry Carr said more than he should have, he was reassigned. Don't embarrass the bureau! If agent Eng told Marla he was confident L.D. Cooper was the hijacker and was going to close the case (and whether you agree with Marla or not, I've found her to be forthright about answering questions even those about the skeletons this board dug out of her closet). When Marla repeated it -- THAT was embarrassing to the bureau. So, they're not going to give out much information. One more comment, which relates to Marla's story with the FBI but would apply to anyone talking to them. The FBI is still withholding some information like they always do to weed out false stories. For Marla to have made up a story, she would have had to avoid conflicting with both the public and non-public information. That would be very difficult. She must have matched some non-public information for agent Eng to say what he said. That would have been interesting to hear about. So, like 377 suggested, I hope she's reading and will post once in awhile.

That's great, Jerry. I talked to Gary at the symposium. He was sitting right across the aisle from me and was almost right behind Marla. He was very interesting. I'm looking forward to reading what he has to say.

Since you asked, I emailed Susan and she told me she's retiring tomorrow after 33 years at the Seattle Times. She says she knows you well and you call her often. I told her I'd pass on her retirement news to you. I haven't heard much from Marla -- not surprising since I really only know her from the symposium. I think she's busy writing.

I'm impressed, Vicki. I can see nobody is going to sneak anything past this board.

I do work at the Seattle Times, but I'm not a reporter. I'm in IT.

I've been reading this forum for a few weeks. There is a lot of knowledge and personal investment here. One of the things that makes it difficult is knowing who everyone is. It would be helpful if some bios were available. I've tried to figure out some of you. If I'm wrong, or I left you out, would you mind responding to this post? 1) RobertMBlevins - co-author of a book making the case that Kenny Christenson, experience jumper and Northwest employee, was DB Cooper. 2) Georger - don't know exactly. Had contacts with FBI and helped bring Tom Kaye into the investigation. 3) JerryThomas - former Army Ranger who has spend months searching the Washougal River area searching for signs of the demise of DB Cooper. 4) SkyJack71 - widow of Duane Weber, who confessed to her as he was dying that he was DB Cooper. 5) 377 - Experienced skydiver, who believes DB Cooper could have survived the jump. 6) Marla - as 8 year old, heard uncles discussing hijack and observed her uncle badly injured the day after the hijacking. 7) Snowmann - The "Deep Throat" of the board. Nobody knows who he is. 8) BobKnoss - heard of conspiracy in Minnesota involving Richard Floyd McCoy and Duane Weber in the hijacking. 9) Ckret1 - FBI agent Larry Carr, formerly assigned to the case 10) EVickiW - daughter of Melvin Wilson, counterfeiter who disappeared shortly before the hijacking and hasn't been seen since.