Coopericane

Tektronix or Teledyne?

I am really looking forward to your book too and your upcoming Cooper Vortex episode!

A lot about the parachute discoveries in this release. It amazes me just how many they found, probably more than half a dozen but I haven't finished reading the release yet. And it's troubling how they rely on Cossey to rule most of them out... do any of these parachutes seem worth looking into more besides the East Fork Lewis one?

Anyone else listen to the last Cooper Vortex episode? It's a long one, I haven't completely finished it myself. The guy interviewed talks about a cabin break-in and boat theft in (or near?) the drop zone but the details are sketchy/vague. I wonder if it'd be possible to verify or follow up on these stories, doesn't sound promising to me from what he said but you never know.

Are you going to have the author on the show?

New FBI file release https://vault.fbi.gov/D-B-Cooper /d.b.-cooper-part-63-of-63/view

I found this fascinating realistic portrait of Cooper someone did on Reddit today...

Wow this one is kind of all over the place. A lot of different suspects. I didn't see anything that interesting after a quick skim but I'm curious to know what others find...

Oh huh, I am surprised it has been around that long. I was under the impression it was relatively new information. It hasn't seemed to be discussed very often until somewhat recently, at least. Actually Jo Weber was talking about it earlier... 2014 I think? maybe she just saw something in the 302s that other people missed/ignored.

The information about the Heisson break-in first emerged in the 302s a year or two ago right? Perhaps there are further 302s to be released on the topic, at least we can hope so... I'm almost sold on it definitely being Cooper. In the dropzone on the night of the hijacking is just a little too perfect... and it sounds exactly like the kind of items someone in his situation might steal. We have to be prepared for the possibility that it could have been a random hobo though (or worse, that we'll never know the truth). My biggest problem is with the reported footprints... I'm no expert on such topics, but I could buy the above being mistaken for military. I feel like they should leave a deeper imprint in the ground or something if they were true boots, but who knows how closely those footprints were actually examined. Cooper could have had his own pair of boots too... can't forget the Corcoran boots the man from Elsinore had. Perhaps he brought them on board and put them on before jumping in the window of time he had alone to himself back there.

If I am understanding Flyjack's theory correctly, there is a chance that Cooper intentionally swapped the packing cards to confuse the authorities, right? Or the cards somehow got mixed up before that in the scramble to get them to the airport. Either way it sounds like the FBI could have been looking for the wrong parachute all these years which would be huge. I wonder if any of the chutes found in the dropzone could fit this new description...

You're talking about the first two guys here right? https://martinandrade.wordpress.com/2020/11/24/db-cooper-the-fbis-unresolved-suspects/ They're both very intriguing suspects IMO, and need more attention. Some people have been making efforts to identify them but no conclusions have been reached, as far as I know.

That makes me wonder how many Cooper suspects we have clear profile pictures of to look at for the lips. There's Duane Weber of course, but his lips don't really fit the bill IMO. Not thin either. There's also Don Burnworth who I'd say qualifies, not a very good suspect otherwise though. I'm pretty sure I remember seeing a McCoy profile shot out there before too, but I can't find it again.

A big takeaway for me from the show was that Tom Kaye's research showed that the diatoms did not penetrate through the sand. Like on the show I am still struggling to come up with a scenario for what happened to the money, nothing fits all the pieces...

Not to assume the recent discovery is legitimate, but If I were Cooper I would have tossed the briefcase out individually before jumping (especially if it was a fake bomb). Maybe some money came loose from the force of his throw and made its way down to the ground in the same area?

I heard a rumor about a new suspect in the Expedition Unknown episode. I'm going to watch it soon but is there any truth to that?

Great stuff, I never heard about the bodies found during the search before - were they ever identified?

My thoughts on his appearance... (disregarding everything else since I know little about him as a suspect) he does look the right age and does look "geeky" to me. You can kind of see a "turkey gobble" in some pictures of him but it is not very prominent. The more I look at him actually the more he looks like the second sketch. I am split on the hair though. Cooper had more hair and it was parted to the side, wasn't it? But I suppose that's something very easy to disguise or modify with a wig or a haircut, especially if you are changing your appearance for a crime.

Oh yeah... so this woman is claiming that Cooper is alive and well and living in Skagit County, WA. 9 years ago Cooper and his friend (nicknamed "Dan" and "Jesse" respectively) came into her and her husband's lives, the two men were gold miners apparently. They spend a good amount of time getting to know each other, apparently "Dan" likes bourbon and soda just like Cooper did, he also says "no funny stuff" all the time like Cooper wrote in his note to Florence. "Dan" has ties to Canada, Mexico and California and a slight Canadian accent. Both men are very polite and call others "sir" and/or "sirs" frequently. Eventually this woman's husband shows her a photo of Dan (younger presumably?) and a sketch of Cooper and the resemblance is chilling. There's supposedly a note from Dan on the back taking responsibility for the hijacking. Her husband also says that "Dan" confessed to him. The woman later takes the photograph to the local police department to see what they think. A detective agrees with her that he is Cooper and she gives up his real name to him so he can go to the FBI with this information. A few months later "Dan" and "Jesse" come back to the family's home with some interesting rocks from mining. They're "titanium" rocks and at this time the woman's daughter lets her know that titanium was found on Cooper's tie! Finally the FBI returns the photograph to the police department and closes the case with no resolution. But when it is returned to the woman, it's instead a generic photograph of McCoy. The original has gone missing or is still in possession of the FBI, and they are not willing to return it. The last time she saw Dan and Jesse was two years ago. They had a cow on their property called Alice, and when she inquired about the name Dan said that she was named after a flight attendant. Hmm...

Anyone else read that new D. B. Cooper story on the forum? It's interesting but to me it seems to be trying a little too hard to check every box. Sounds fabricated or at the very least overly indulgent with some of the details to me. I think if any of the story can be verified though it might be worth a closer look.

Another new release of FBI files https://vault.fbi.gov/D-B-Cooper /d.b.-cooper-part-60-of-60/view

Didn't Rataczak actually state during the flight when he thought Cooper jumped? I recall a report of him saying something along the lines of "our friend may have just left us" or something like that. Not sure what jump time that was associated with though.

Fascinating... I think this is the incident I was talking about. Not sure it was Cooper but definitely suspicious in my eyes. Are there any other files about this report?

Hey, I remember reading somewhere (I think the D. B. Cooper forum) about an incident where someone saw someone carrying something walking along the side of a road on the night of the Cooper hijacking... anyone know what I am talking about or if it (or anything similar) is mentioned in the FBI files at all? I would really appreciate any insight.

New release of FBI files, it's a big one. https://vault.fbi.gov/D-B-Cooper /d.b.-cooper-part-59-of-59/view