olemisscub

It's different. I was contacted by the producers for a phone interview a while back. I feel like they're going to be focusing on a bunch of different suspects in the episode.

Several are involved. Two DZ posters are in it. That's not for me to say who they are though. But it has some good folks in it.

The Cooper hijacking is NOT why she went to the Nunnery. Good grief. There's more to her life than just a five hour stretch in November 1971. I really am curious about your thought process here. You think the FBI gathered up all the eyewitnesses immediately after the hijacking (mere moments after they got off the plane) and were like "look, we realize that there have been 150 hijackings in the past 4 years in American skies, but THIS one is special. It's so super special in fact that we need all of you to lie. You're all telling us that he had a square head and a wide flat bulbous nose, but we need you to tell the media who are waiting out those doors that he was a tall swarthy man with jet black hair and a narrow face. Then whenever we come back to you in the next few years to show you pics of suspects, we need you to maintain this lie for us. OK, you all have your story straight? Forgot about the blockheaded man with the huge nose....this guy was swarthy and narrow faced with a small to normal looking nose. Got it?" Wouldn't it be less of a headache to either 1) not have a suspect, or 2) have a suspect who actually matches the descriptions and who doesn't require you to believe that literally EVERYTHING about the case is incorrect and that all 75,000 FBI documents about the case are false because...reasons.

this honestly isn't worth the energy anymore. You're right. Cooper was a man with a square head, blue eyes, giant bulbous nose, who jumped 150 miles away from where the people actually on the plane said they were, and he originally intended to jump out of the side door despite the fact that we have transcripts and original audio in existence of everyone discussing Cooper's desire to jump from the rear of the plane.

It was used to make his friends think he was cooler than he really was. “Lemme show you something, but you can’t tell anyone….” You must not know any of these types of individuals. If you did you’d know that Reca fits a specific personality type. You just have to throw “stolen value” into YouTube and you’ll see scores of Walter Reca. This entire Reca as Cooper thing is a fraud. Reca was a bullshitter. He was a stolen valor meathead.

This is real life, not an Expendables script. CIA doesn't use goons like Reca. Reca's "special agent" credentials are forgeries, and dumb forgeries to boot. You think an actual double agent working for the KGB is going to use their REAL NAME? Reca wasn't even clever enough to use an alias for his phony KGB card.

Well, Reca WANTED that following him around. He was full of shit and a liar his entire life, self aggrandizing his boring life with lies about being a super secret agent, a CIA assassin, a mafia hitman, a special forces commando, oh, and also D.B. Cooper. Rackstraw is the one who got hounded until his death by Colbert. But about Reca, if he had ANY resemblance to ANY of the descriptions and hadn't "confessed", he'd actually be a good suspect simply due to his background. Despite his lies, he legitimately was a very good skydiver and had a felony record for robbery. He'd make sense as Cooper if he actually had a thin face, had a darker complexion, and didn't have a gorilla nose.

You were responding to a comment about Tina, thus my confusion.

I think this is a highly unfair attack on Tina. Wondering what her IQ is? That giant book that she has in her hands leaving the plane that night wasn't a bible, it was a big ass biography of Mary, Queen of Scots. I don't think Tina was stupid. I do think she's a bit quirky, but I've never questioned her intelligence. And are we really suggesting that Tina was a liability in a crisis??? I'd say she was the complete opposite of a liability that night. I take her at her word that she never got a really good look at him. She was sitting next to him during much of her time near him and she was probably facing forward for the most part. She said that whenever he spoke to her he was whispering in her ear. It's not like they were sitting across the table from each other. Plus, she did the wise thing and avoided looking at him. She didn't want to provoke him in any way. If you're being mugged the worst thing you can do is stare down the perp. Also, the lights were off in the cabin during much of their later interactions. Flo, on the other hand, stared right at Cooper on multiple occasions. She looked him in his eyes. By my count they had as many as six separate interactions with each other before he even put his shades on.

This changes everything.

Just found this sketch in the Vault. It's uncanny.

Don’t know who that is. One of the passengers. Not sure it helps you much because he’s saying Cooper had a broader face and a broader nose than those of a suspect, not of a sketch. You will come across some witness statements saying he had a broader nose than the sketch, but that’s generally a reference to the Bing sketch with his Michael Jackson nose. I do believe there is one passenger witness who said Cooper had a broader nose than Comp B sketch. But let’s be real. Reca’s nose was unique. It’s like Weber’s ears. It’s a disqualifying feature IMO. No witness ever said anything about Cooper’s nose being unique.

They didn't release it because the person who probably got the best looks at Cooper, Florence, threw a fit and said the sketch was terrible and looked nothing like him. That's right, Florence likely had the best look at Cooper, not Tina. Throughout the FBI files, Tina repeatedly indicates that she did not get a good look at Cooper. She claims that she never saw him head on and only saw him briefly a few times from his side profile. It’s possible that she failed to get a good look at Cooper on purpose. Just as it might be wise to avoid staring down a bank robber, it's likely that she intentionally avoided looking directly at him. This is why the FBI appeared to put so much stock into Florence Schaffner’s opinion on the sketches. She was, after all, the only stewardess to see him without his sunglasses on and the only stewardess to interact with him as a passenger, and not just as a hijacker. She had multiple different interactions with Cooper before the hijacking started and all before he put his shades on. Aside from Reca's square shaped head not being a match to the sketches and also not matching the photos that the stews thought bore a resemblance to Cooper, Reca's nose is quite bulbous. Alice described Cooper's nose as "small". She said that Comp B's nose was too "rough and lumpy looking". Florence said that Cooper's nose was somewhere in between the nose the comp A and comp B sketches.

Ever given any thought as to why they never released that sketch?

Older pic of Al Cooper on left. I feel confident in saying that Cooper almost certainly had this same head/face shape. Should effectively rule out blockheads like Reca (not that he needed to be ruled out visually)

He's a bit older, not as friendly looking, eyebrows don't look manicured, and has Comp B's nose.

All of it was public knowledge at that point. The first copycat attempts employing all the elements of the “Cooper heist” were happening as soon as a month later. In fact, the first copycat was exactly a month later on Dec 24, 71. Also involved an NWO 727. Hijacking took place in Chicago. Everett Holt was the name of the skyjacker. 24 years old. I’m writing a book on the copycats so I tried to figure out how to contact him to interview him. He’s sadly STILL institutionalized as best I can tell.

Given that the Stews and Bill had such strong reactions to Don Murphy and Al Cooper, I feel it’s safe to say that Cooper very likely had a face/head shape like theirs: long thin face, high cheek bones, pointed chin.

No, there isn't a way to improve that. I may file a FOIA for a few of these, specifically the ones that the witnesses picked out (which wasn't many). The only ones I've ever seen get picked out are Catalano, Al Cooper, Newsweek hoaxer Donald Murphy, and an unidentified suspect from Ottawa whose photo unnerved Tina a bit because it was such a good resemblance. The guy from Ottawa isn't unknown because of a redaction, but it literally says on the 302 "unidentified". Weird they would even show that to her if that was the case. I've tried to make Catalano's mugshot from his late 60's look a little younger. Didn't work so well.

Yeah you've got those. I can't make out the last word either. I think it might end with "stew", so maybe it's an abbreviation for "request of stew" or something like that. I think the helmet thing might be "suit ty helmet"

Our first African-American suspect :-)

A letter found at a redacted address in Seattle in March 1972. No further info to give. They haven't yet started scanning the numbered suspect files (this is No. 260). So I assume we'll know more about this letter and it's provenance at some point in the future. Also, the numbered suspect files aren't all relating to actual named suspects. Often times leads such as this one were given a "suspect file". We might not ever know the outcome of this letter. It's almost certainly not to do with Cooper, but you never know I guess. It's hard to make out some of it, but I've got: "Points to remember when skyjacking.... A plane for money [redacted] Ask for - the money (important - 2 person worth of parachute Remember - let passenger off but keep crew - keep cool - bring bomb fake or real - jump only at night - Don't ask for too ??? ??? - ??? - put crew in cab before jumping Optional - ??? Helmet - Name [redacted]