BruceSmith

Countdown to A-Burn days: August 1, 2014: So, Bobby, you gonna sign this cease and desist thingy? To Everyone Else: I'm excited - imagine Bobby keeping his mouth shut for five years! Wow, now that's cause for celebration. That beer is gonna taste mighty fine come August 9. Maybe Galen has achieved what no one else has been able to accomplish.

Wow, Shut, you beat me to it by 4 minutes!

Good night, Jo. XOXOXO

Update on A-Burn Days- Wow, I didn't know we were storming the beaches up at A-Burn. I thought we were going out for a beer with Bernie. Too bad Skippy's not gonna be there. What happened with that? Oh, well. But Sail and I can plan our trip later in the month to Oregon and RH to talk about Cossey and Petey. Oops. There are two RHs in Oregon. I guess we should call this one RH II and the other RH, the one with the moat and forty acres, RH I. Galen says that Alice may be in A-Burn, too, and that I still have a shot at getting a date with her. Could be a big weekend. Bobby, if the A-Brun cops need more head shots of me, just let me know and I'll send more up to them. You sound busy....

Mrs. Cooper, I am very confused. I thought you were Mrs. Cooper. Now you're saying that DB Cooper was actually a guy who RH's friend knew?! So, who's the real Mrs. Cooper? Or, was the real skyjacker single? Or gay? Does RH know this? Whew. Our interview could get wild with questions like this and I'm not sure Sail is up for it, let alone some right-wing, gun totin' wing-nut who likes telling stories. Things could get totally intimated, if you know what I mean. Like a cluster intimation, so to speak. Just sayin'.

RH Update! Sail just got in touch and says he wants to do a road trip to RH and talk about Cossey, Petey, et all. Now, that sounds like a good angle. Sail also has volunteered to drive his Prius down, so it won't have Obama stickers, etc. on it. No guns, either. Speaking of which, the sweetest one I had was was a 50 cal Hawkins black powder rifle. Sold it to finance a trip to Nashville... Besides, RH sounds like the kind of guy to keep us supplied in case we need to blow anything up.

Hey, Jo, now that I'm getting worked up, have you softened up the beachhead at RH's? I can't wait FOREVER for you to warn him.

Me, too. Check-in time at the Reality Hotel. Your interview method is nothing like Woodward and Bernstein's. (Mine only aspires to it) I like it that you read the book though. Really? I understand that Bernstein was a real son-of-a-bitch. Woodward was the suck up who made nice. He still is, and even had the stomach to be nice to W. Can you imagine me one-on-one with Georgie? Whew! He'd be running out of the room and screaming, "I don't want to ever, ever hear the words 'WMD' ever again! Mommy!!!!!!! Cousin Brucie doesn't like me and isn't playing fair." How about me and Bernie? Wanna watch???????? Set it up, dude.

Is this another of those homosexual stories? Oops. A typo. The uncle was intimidated by Bradley's father. Bradley's account of the suicide sounded to me like their dealings were sinister, as if Jumping Jack Flash manipulated Bud into some slimy felony. This is the point. Brad could straighten this all out if he just told a complete story. Maybe someday he'll be up for the task.

Me, too.

Yes, I do believe that they owe me something. And I owe them something in return. They owe me the story, told fairly and completely. I owe them the respect to listen, and then to write the piece in a timely fashion. I also owe the readers something - the time and effort to verify the story. Being nice or making friends with interviewees is all icing on the cake. Yes, LTRs are cool, but they're hard to come by. That kind of respect is usually earned in the writing. The Bottom Line is always what I write - how I place them in the public's eye.

Bradley Collins was an interesting character. He showed up the day before the DB Cooper symposium in Tacoma last year. When talking to him, he gave what sounded like a scripted story -- include poems like the ones at the end of the article. Then, he did said he could not stay for the symposium, which struck me as very odd because having a large group of people knowledgeable about the case would have been a great way to publicize his book. Finally, Bruce showed up and didn't let him give his canned speech and prodded him with questions. He left upset and his wife (who also claimed to be his agent) had to come back in and talk to Bruce. I'd have to say Bruce wasn't exactly challenging him with hard questions, either. And, his second book is coming out because he couldn't fit all of the information in his first book? Even though it only ran 66 pages? I thought 377 might have ordered his book. Good for him, as I speak as possibly the only person to have bought GreyCop's book (which I'm happy to send to anyone who wants to read it. ), My opening line with Bradley was, "So, you got a twenty?" He didn't laugh, so I began explaining. "Do you have any gear or physical stuff from the skyjacking, like the parachute, Bradley?" He looked at me quizzically and I explained further. "Listen Bradley, you're telling me your father was DB Cooper, so I'm asking how you can prove it." Oh, I can prove it," he replied. "Good, so what do you have? "You'll have to read my book." "What the hell are you talking about,?" I replied. "You don't have any proof - all you have is a coy come-back?" After a pause, I realized Bradley was a delicate boy, so I reframed questions so I might get something of value out of him. "Do you have a copy of your book that I can read? Can I buy one so I can read it?" "Soon, it'll be coming out shortly, " Bradley said. "Well, in the meantime can we talk DB Cooper? Can you at least tell me why you say your father was DB Cooper?" At that point Bradley sat down with me on the bench. Mark and the gang were standing off to the side, about fifteen feet away. My conversation lasted about ten minutes with Mr. Collins. It was basically along the lines of "My gut instincts tell me that my dad was Cooper." I probed and tried to find out more about his life as a kid, but the conversation basically went nowhere and I told him so. He got upset that I didn't accept his statements at face value. When his wife came back and spoke with me, I told her point blank, "Look, Rebecca, if your husband is going to be parading around the world telling everyone that his father is DB Cooper he better be ready for some tough questions. This is the Big Leagues, so get ready. When you have definitive proof, let me know." Note: I think her name is Rebecca. Later, Bradley's publisher got a hold of me and sent me a complimentary copy of the book. I read it. It's more satisfying then my conversation with the author. He's got a ton of circumstantial information on his father and Cooper, such as the fact that his father's brother was a hot shot 727 pilot with NWO. In the book, what struck me most was that his father was a kind of wheeler-dealer-flim-flam kind of guy and the pilot-brother was intimated by him. Over time there got to be some real sticky business between them, and eventually the brother came over to Bradley's family home and moved in for a few days. He then killed himself with a hand gun shot to the head. Now, that's a story. Again, it's not DB Cooper, but it's real. The Vortex is full of this stuff. Clearly, we seeing that a lot of men in this world lead very secret lives - EVick's dad, Bradley's, Gossett, Duane, Kenny, Barb/Bobby, Ted B, Don Burnworth, Lynne Doyle...

Funny that you should be asking about my relationship with the NRA, as my therapist was just asking me questions along those lines, too. "Do you have any guns in the house," she asked a couple of sessions ago. Her supervisor was encouraging her to develop a crisis plan with me. Fortunately, I got rid of my guns years ago. I may be crazy but I ain't stupid. Well, I'm not crazy, technically, either, but I do have a diagnosis, if you catch my drift.

A very handsome creature, Three-Seven-Seven. Unfortunate name for a beautiful bird, though. By the way, T-S-S, Bobby suggests that I ask RH safe, non-threatening questions. What do you suggest along those lines? Here's what I'm thinking: 1. Seen any good movies lately? 2. Do you like fried chicken? 3. Do you think Duane ever lied to his wife? 4. Why do people think you (RH) know anything about DB Cooper? 5. Do you (RH) think Curtis Eng had sex with Marla? I figure that should get the conversation going. Plus, Jo promised to call him first, so that should put him the proper frame of mind for a jolly good chin-wag, I say!

I'll give him a call. Maybe Jo should call first and warn him - you know, kind of get him prepared for the Bull and Weasel Show....

Okay, so now we know that Duane lied to you at least once. The Big Question is: 1. Was it in 1979 in Washington? Or 2. Was it in 1995 in Florida? Or both? Or none of the above and you are lying to us. Just trying to get it straight. Love and Kisses- The Weasel

Well, folks, you can decide for yourself - tongue in cheek, LIES, one man's story, THE TRUTH? - you make the call: Chapter 17 The Death-bed confession of Duane Weber The death bed confession of Duane Weber in 1995 can be considered the dawning of an invigorated Norjak investigation. While lying in a hospital bed eleven days before he died of kidney disease, Duane told his wife, Jo Weber, that he was “Dan Cooper,” with the first syllable of the last name being drawn out, as in “Coooooper.” The soon-to-be-widowed Jo says she didn’t know what Duane was talking about, and looked quizzical. Frustrated, Duane burst out: “Oh, fuck it, let it die with me.” Duane’s pronouncement soon came to be, but afterwards Jo Weber became a fierce investigator of the DB Cooper case, impassioned to learn the truth of her husband. Her obsessive dedication is so singular that Jo Weber can arguably be considered the godmother of the Norjak resurgence. After Duane’s outburst in the hospital a nurse rushed in, but the two women heard nothing more about Dan Cooper. Certainly, the nurse did not hear any confession, and apparently Jo is the only one who did. Distilling all of her years’ worth of research, perhaps the most intriguing bit of information that Jo has shared is her tale of a road trip she and Duane made through Cooper County in the early autumn of 1979. Jo describes the adventure as “The Sentimental Journey,” and she feels that Duane’s behaviors during the trip and the places they visited indicate that Duane was DB Cooper. Jo says the car trip began in late September or early October in 1979, and the itinerary took them from their home in Fort Collins, Colorado to a professional insurance conference in Seattle. What made the journey so remarkable were a number of side trips that Duane made in southwest Washington and the Columbia River gorge. Jo describes them as a special time for her husband, re-visiting familiar landscapes from his younger days. But, she also says that Duane left unannounced for up to six hours at a time, never telling her where he had gone when he returned. Once, in The Dalles of Oregon she says Duane returned to their motel room with his clothes dirtied, as if he had been digging. Duane also displayed odd behaviors on the trip, such as surreptitiously throwing a small paper sack into the Columbia River from the riverfront promenade of the Red Lion Inn in Vancouver, Washington. Later, he drove to a dead end street along the river, told Jo to stay in the car, retrieved something from the trunk and headed towards the Columbia, returning in a few minutes. But the most memorable moment occurred in Camas, Washington, where Duane pointed to a spot in the woods along the north shore of Lake Camas, and according to Jo said, “That’s where Cooper came out of the woods.” Jo said she replied, “How would you know?” and Duane supposedly said, “Maybe I was his ground man.” Even more incredibly, such an exchange refutes Jo’s initial claim to me – which she has reiterated many times on the DZ - that she had never heard of DB Cooper, or even “Dan Cooper,” until Duane made his confession in 1995. But both of these two declarations can not be true, which begs the question: is Jo Weber lying? Or is she simply a distraught widow lost in her grief and acting nutty? I confronted Jo on this discrepancy and she artfully back-tracked from her claim that she had never heard about DB Cooper until her husband’s death-bed confession. I am unsatisfied by her explanations, and frankly I feel deceived. However, after years of mutual investigations Jo and I are almost Cooper kin. I even toured Cooper Country with her on one memorable day in 2010, and she feels more like a family member who tells tall tales at Thanksgiving Day dinner than a conniving Cooperite. Jo Weber is certainly an odd case. She is cranky and whiney; needy and lonely. She obfuscates much of what she writes on the DZ, cloaking details in gibberish or uses impassioned entreaties to beg for the protection of her mysterious sources. It is easy to dismiss her as a BS-artist. But she is no dummy. She is profoundly knowledgeable of the case, and she seems to have plenty of juicy contacts – to whit, she converses with all the principals in the case. In fact, she may be somebody else’s eyes and ears to monitor what cyber sleuths are discovering about Norjak. Further, she is a skilled investigator – or appears to be one – and was the first sleuth to find Tina Mucklow prior to the time when Galen, Geoffrey Gray and I came to learn Tina’s whereabouts - all separately by the way. But, is Jo being fed information from somebody? Is she the beneficiary of a Norjak puppet master? Or does she just weasel it out of folks by her constant needling? Looking more closely at her discovery of Tina’s whereabouts, Jo says a critical piece of information came to her in an email from an anonymous source called “Robbie Clampett.” Jo says this individual told her the county and state where Tina had received a divorce in the mid 1970s, and from that, Jo says she was able to determine Tina’s current address using many of the skills she learned as a real estate agent perusing public records. Later, Jo says that she has called Tina several times and has spoken with her once, briefly, in September 2003. Recounting that conversation, all Jo will say is that Tina announced: “He (Cooper) was a very sad man.” Since then, Jo has become very protective of Tina and has harshly criticized my efforts to speak with Ms. Mucklow and her family. In addition, Jo seems to have unparalleled access to Tina’s sister, Jane. Lee Dormuth, Jane’s husband, told me that Jo had a lengthy phone chat with his wife the night before I arrived on their doorstep in 2010. Nevertheless, Jo says that she called the Dormuths to warn them of my pending visit the next day. Similarly, Jo says that Ralph Himmelsback has invited her to dinner at his home in Oregon, which I consider to be a coup since the renowned G-man won’t talk to me or anyone else without cash up front. Further, Himmelsbach is quoted by journalist Douglas Pasternak in a US News and World Report piece that Duane Weber “is one of the best suspects he’s come across.” Complicating the issue, Jo is hardly the “dumb blonde” that she says she is. Rather, she is a skilled seductress, attracting assistance on the DZ at will whenever she needs to resolve some technological glitch or investigatory impediment. Jo’s mysterious behaviors cast her in a suspicious light, which are intensified by her frequent phone calls to me that are veiled fishing expeditions. Is she keeping tabs on pesky investigators like Galen and me? Why? Nevertheless, Jo Weber has pumped a lot of time and energy into the Norjak case but has yet to prove that her husband was DB Cooper. Certainly Duane Weber had criminal credibility, as he was reportedly arrested 26 times and spent at least 16 years in prison, including one stretch when he was incarcerated under a second identity, John C Collins. Despite many years of research, Jo has yet to put her husband on Flight 305 or show conclusively that he had any parachuting experience. Further, Jo says the FBI told her in 1998 that their fingerprint analysis ruled out Duane as a suspect, and again in 2007 the feds declared that Duane was not Cooper – this time based on DNA testing. Nevertheless, Jo steadfastly holds out for Duane and her arguments have some merit – at the very least Duane was very familiar with the topography of Cooper Country. Plus, he did confess to being “Dan Cooper,” not DB Cooper. Also, we know that the FBI’s DNA samples are flawed and at least one FBI agent says the fingerprints retrieval was botched. In a later chapter we will explore the intriguing possibility that Duane was part of a ground team and Norjak was a group effort. After all, if DB Cooper made it how did he get away with his loot? Besides the supposed confession of Jo’s husband there are other important Cooper confessees, in particular Barb Dayton and Wolfgang Gossett, along with the near-confession of Kenny Christiansen, and these subjects will receive their own treatment in separate chapters. An excerpt from my book: DB Cooper and the FBI - The Investigation into America's only Unsolved Skyjacking

Things sound pretty rough for you, Dannie Ten-Ten. What does your mother say about all of the crap you've had to go through? Does she understand it?

Don Burnworth told me that he had no parachute training, no combat experience, and had never gone skydiving. He's one of those pilots that can't see the sense in leaving a plane when it's in sound mechanical, flying condition. But DB sure looks like DBC, though. Don was a strange interview. Clear-minded in one moment and swept into the ethers of the Vortex in the next. Plus, the family could be on Dr. Phil in a heart-beat. Don is a lot like Kenny - he's got a real story to tell if one has the time to really dig into it. But it ain't skyjackin' Seven-Two-Sevens. But Don may be the only guy to spend time in prison for Norjak. He spent 8 days in the San Mateo hooch and DB says that the FBI was trying to sweat-out a confession from him. But, in fact, he was there because of contempt of court citation for refusing to tell a family court judge where he had hidden his three kids. Wifey wanted to know and she was pissed. DB finally relented and got sprung. He had the kids stashed in Germany and they came home to SF in August '72. The above Grey Goose account of DB is also weirder than bat shit crazy. GG has a wild story to tell and most of it didn't jive with DB's. Again, if I had a lot of time and money I could check it out.

Hi Everybody, This just in from the folks who are looking for Earl Cossey's murderer. As you will see, they are busy on other fronts, too. King County Sheriff’s Deputy Fired Seattle: Jailed King County Sheriff’s deputy Darrion Holiwell was fired by Sheriff John Urquhart today. Holiwell was arrested June 19, 2014 and subsequently charged with three felonies, including Promoting Prostitution, Theft, and drug dealing. He remains in the King County Jail in lieu of $150,000 bail. “Darrion Holiwell violated his oath, the trust of his fellow deputies, and the trust of the citizens of King County”, said Sheriff Urquhart. “He does not deserve to be a police officer,” Urquhart added. Holiwell has been on Administrative Leave since the investigation into his activities began in late April. According to Sheriff Urquhart, the criminal investigation is continuing, both inside and outside the Sheriff's Office. Additional charges are possible, both for Holiwell and others. A parallel administrative investigation is on-going and involves several members of the Sheriff's Office. _________________________________________________ By The Way: The new PIO for the KCSO is named DB Gates. You just can't make this stuff up.

Yo, people, could we have an emoticon-free day at the DZ? How about today!

Some parts were good, other parts are unsupported opinions devoid of research. And even if I deleted the post...it wouldn't do any good. Georger already reposted the whole thing. If he deletes it in time, I will take mine down too. He'd better hurry. It's 12:30 am here and I have to be in bed by 1:00. Here's some ON-topic stuff for you. Bernie Geestman's extended family is very large. And they've all seen Decoded, the original KC report, and the book. I have done some in-person interviews with many of them and provided them with the updated PDF in print. Another interview, this time on video, is scheduled for August. I only found out recently they've been following the whole thing since the first time the Decoded episode aired in January 2011. This is also how I found out that some of them were also in attendance at the Jones' place on Cooper Thanksgiving...when Geestman failed to show and disappeared for a week with Kenny. Until now, I thought the only witnesses on that were Helen Jones, her daughter, and Margie Geestman. Boy, was I wrong. They've studied the updated PDF on Christiansen. They know some of the people mentioned in the document, and have been speaking to them on their own. Some of them knew Kenny Christiansen personally and Bernie is family, of course. They've even been talking to their friends and neighbors (some of them said) who think they should go public. They don't want to do that until they can confront Bernie with the evidence. More about that below. Recent quote from an interview: "We knew he (Bernie) was lying on Decoded." When I asked why, they pointed out the same thing I noticed...that Bernie told Decoded that Kenny (a guy they KNOW) could be the hijacker, even though everyone knew Bernie was WITH Kenny that whole week. What they plan to do is to invite Bernie to drive down and show him the PDF and ask him about its contents. They know he lied on TV, they know he lied about Foss Tugs, they know he called up his sister and told her to take back everything she said in her interview, and they're going to speak to Margie Geestman on the missing logbook and other things. I just don't see how Geestman can weasel his way out of questions by his own family. Like I said, they are a BIG family. Bigger than I knew. And they know Helen Jones, too. They just didn't know where she currently lived or her contact info. I pointed this information out for them in the new PDF. She's only a couple of miles away from where some of them live. I couldn't figure out where Margie ran off to after she sold her ranch. They found out in five minutes on a phone call to Margie's best friend. These folks are doing better than I'm doing, really...and they know Bernie and Margie a lot better than I do. Try to remember something here. They've seen everything YOU'VE seen about all this, and more. They first contacted me last summer, and then again about four months ago. It's become a sort of Family Affair to find out the truth about what happened on Cooper Week when Bernie disappeared, and when they saw the testimony from Jones where she says Kenny told her six weeks after the hijacking that he was with Bernie that week, they knew Jones wasn't lying. Because they know Jones and her family, too. They're going to call up Bernie and have him come down and meet them. They don't know for sure if he was involved in the hijacking, but after meeting with me, following KC stuff since 2011, and seeing that PDF in print, they're starting to wonder. And unlike me, one of them believes she can easily get Margie Geestman to give them all the details, the ones she kept dodging with me in her seven interviews. Quote from recent interview: "Margie will tell me everything..." Just bring in the family and get them involved. That's the quickest way to get to the truth. I should have thought of it myself. They thought of it first, which is why they contacted me in the first place. Hell, some of them even view the posts on this thread. We had a laugh about all the 'Blevins' attack stuff. They have no sympathy for this at all, because they knew all along that many of the things I said were true. None of them want to talk to you, I can guarantee that. I have to admit I was downright floored by this whole situation, but looking back on it I should have expected it. This is good stuff. Now, we're getting somewhere.

In what sense is the Cooper hijacking 'the greatest unsolved ... whatever' ? It was a money crime. No bodies/deaths/national security issues/ issues of national sovereignty/national financial issue/ etc etc etc . . . No glaring local or State issues. It was a Federal issue for the air line industry and the FAA with those issues addressed promptly. Sure people wanted Cooper caught. Sure the FBI wants their man. But there were and are larger issues. Would it surprise you to learn that some officials never did see NORJAK as warranting the attention it got? Today the case would be a very low to non-existent priority. I wonder if you actually know what the FBI does day to day, in any field office? I am sure you could not keep up with the daily demands/requirements ..... Glamour should not supplant fact. If you think Federal authorities are NOT camped out on Wall Street - you would be wrong! You would be WAAAAAAAAAY wrong. What makes you ask these questions, Georger? Look around - you're at a computer screen reading about DB Cooper, 42 years after the fact. What does that say about this crime? The bigger question is why do you defend the FBI so vigorously despite their Big Mistake of losing the ciggies right after their got their DNA read on Coop. Oh, where is that file, now, eh?

Chapter 1 An Introduction to DB Cooper and the FBI’s investigation The DB Cooper skyjacking and his escape by parachute into the wilds of the Pacific Northwest is a stunning true-crime mystery. We don’t know who Cooper was or if he survived, and nothing has ever been found of the hijacking – no parachutes, body or clothes, nor the money except for $5,800 in twenties that a kid found eight years later buried on a Columbia River beach. Adding to the complexity, no one knows how the money got there or when. The Cooper case remains the only unsolved hijacking in the history of the United States despite the hundreds of FBI agents who worked the case along with scores of local police. Yet, the Cooper case, called “Norjak” by the FBI – an acronym of Northwest Orient Airlines hijacking – also gives us a keen view into the workings of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and of law enforcement in general. Simply, the DB Cooper case is a closed shop – the cops only tell us what they want us to know, and only when they want us to know it. Thus, determining the facts beyond the headlines and cursory press releases has been difficult, and the FBI has essentially clammed-up on Norjak. This dynamic is troubling since it is increasingly evident that the FBI’s investigation of Norjak has been flawed. Arguably, it has been compromised or even corrupted, and possibly subjected to political pressures. Most damning is the fact that the FBI has lost its most valuable piece of evidence - the eight cigarette butts DB Cooper smoked and left aboard the plane – and these butts were the ideal substances to reveal Cooper’s DNA. Worse, the butts were not secured in the evidence room at the FBI’s Seattle office, which is the Office of Origin for Norjak and should have been the repository of such important artifacts. Rather, they were stored in Las Vegas due to a bureaucratic turf battle. Worst, though, the cigarette butts went missing only after their true value was realized. Additionally, a Norjak FBI agent, Jeremy Blauser, vanished shortly after his placement into the case in 2008. Most disturbing, though, is the murder of parachute rigger Earl Cossey in 2013. Cossey was the FBI’s de facto technical expert on the case, and over the years he told plenty of lies and half-truths to the media and public, so now many wonder if his loose lips sunk his ship. Regardless, digging into the FBI’s investigation reveals numerous examples of inconsistency, sloppy police work, and hints of a cover-up in even resolving simple issues of the case, such as the FBI’s inability to pinpoint the plane’s flight path and their inexplicable delay of nearly five months in mounting an extensive ground search. Yet, to accurately assess the actions of the FBI it is necessary to fully understand the details of Norjak. Cooper’s skyjacking was straightforward. In November 1971, he commandeered a Northwest Orient jetliner in Portland, Oregon, bound for Seattle, Washington, using a bomb in a briefcase for persuasion. At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport he released his 36 passengers in exchange for the $200,000 and four parachutes. After refueling, Cooper ordered the flight crew to head to Mexico and he jumped into the rainy skies of south of Seattle with the money sack tied around his waist. As mentioned, nothing of the incident has ever been found - no body, no parachutes, no bomb, and no money - except for the curious bundles of twenties discovered on the Columbia. Plus, the skyjacker’s identity is still unknown. In fact, it is as if DB Cooper came from nowhere and returned there when he jumped. Thousands of journalists and arm-chair sleuths have looked for Cooper, seeking at least a shred of evidence or an inkling of who he was. Our quest is truly a hunt because it is primal, visceral and impassioned. One researcher told me that he puts himself to sleep at night thinking about the skyjacking, and I have frequently written about the case in the wee hours myself. Whenever my fellow investigators and I gather spittle flies across the room as arguments about Cooper become raucous. Culturally, millions champion DB Cooper as a man who beat the system – a master criminal who perpetrated a daring and innovative crime, completely outsmarting “the man.” As for the FBI, the Bureau has investigated over 1,100 credible suspects. Officially, the case is still open, although “inactive” according to the Public Information Officer in Seattle, Ayn Dietrich. Although the Norjak investigation is troubled, many FBI agents have worked diligently on the case. The night Cooper skyjacked his plane, every G-man in the Seattle field office, over thirty agents, were deployed on the case – either securing the perimeter of Sea-Tac Airport, interviewing the passengers and flight crew, or managing the actual hijacking via radio through the Seattle Center FAA tower. Several hours later over two-hundred FBI agents and local police awaited Cooper’s plane in Reno as it landed for a second refueling. In April 1972, hundreds of soldiers and local law enforcement, plus dozens of FBI agents scoured the fields and woodlands around Ariel, WA, the area Northwest Orient Airlines officials declared was the most likely landing zone for DB Cooper. Nevertheless, over the years Cooper has been cheered by many, including some of the cops looking for him. His exploits are a modern-day Call of the Wild, awaking both the inner sleuth within us and our longing to be Robin Hood by striking a blow against the Powers That Be. Yet, even though as a youth I’d been aware of Cooper’s iconic status in American folklore, I’d never paid him much attention. When Cooper hijacked his plane I was living in New York and attending college. Over time, I forgot about DB Cooper. However, after re-locating to Washington I became reacquainted with the story when I covered an air-show for the Pierce County (WA) Dispatch newspaper. On a hot day in August 2008, I perused dozens of vintage aircraft gathered at Thun Field in Puyallup, Washington. Halfway through the show I was elated to see a beautifully restored Fairchild 24, a single-winged plane from the 1930s, the “Rolls-Royce” of private airplanes for its day. I loved building model airplanes as a kid and the first balsa wood job I made was a Fairchild. Now, for the first time, I was seeing one for real. Sensing my appreciation the owner, Ron Forman, came over and we started chatting. But after a few minutes in the broiling sun Ron suggested we retreat to the shade under the starboard wing, where we camped in his lawn chairs and drank ice-cold cokes. Relaxing, I saw a book on the ground next to his chair that was titled, “DB Cooper...something…Legend…something…Death…,” and I said, “Are you into DB Cooper, Ron?” “Heck, yeah!” he replied. “My wife and I just wrote that book!” For the rest of the afternoon, Ron regaled me with his story. “Besides the Fairchild, my wife and I have a Cessna 140, and for years on the weekends we'd fly with a few other Cessna 140 pilots here at Thun Field. One of them, Barb Dayton, confessed to being DB Cooper during one of our coffee breaks in some airport when we were arguing about an aspect of the DB Cooper skyjacking. Our book is about her life and how she did the skyjacking.” “Barb? I thought DB Cooper was a guy!” I answered. “Yeah, he was, and Barb also told us that she was the first person in Washington State to get a sex-change operation. She used to be Bobby Dayton before 1969.” So right at the beginning I knew the DB Cooper story was going to be a wild ride. As Ron continued, I learned that Barb/Bobby was a sky diver and an exceptionally skilled pilot. In addition, she was also an explosive expert and dare devil – working aboard ammunition ships before her sex-change operation and sailed between San Francisco and Saigon where he killed a VC sapper with his bare hands during a late night sneak attack. Bobby had also fought in WW II with head hunters in the jungles of Borneo against the Japanese. He was even chased by a grizzly in the Yukon while panning for gold. Wow, what a story, I thought. Ron and I spent the rest of the day talking Cooper. From what I gleaned about Barb, it seems she did the skyjacking to prove to herself that she still had cajones. “Barb would tell us all these incredible stories that we only half-believed, but when she died in 2002 my wife and I started checking everything out and it all proved true – except the DB Cooper confession, which we haven’t confirmed yet, and for that we need a DNA analysis from the FBI, but they won’t even return our phone calls or emails – not a single one!” I found such resistance very troubling. Doesn’t the FBI want to hear about a confession from DB Cooper? It didn’t seem right. So, I decided to launch my own investigation and see what was wrong with the FBI. Plus, I wanted to know the truth of the remarkable Ms. Dayton. Ron educated me on the basics of Norjak, arming me with the contact information for many of the individuals associated with the case. Sadly, once I started contacting Norjak principals I encountered more obstruction. Former FBI investigator, Ralph Himmelsbach, the Cooper case agent in Portland, Oregon and now retired, refused to discuss the case with me unless I paid him $600 per interview. Additionally, Himmelsbach’s counterpart in Seattle, Ron Nichols, has thoroughly stonewalled me on all phone calls and letters. The one official I did speak with about the case, Larry Carr, the FBI’s Cooper case agent from 2007-2009, was adversarial – bullying me throughout our twenty-minute phone call. Organizationally, I have also been rebuffed. The current case agent as I write this, Curtis Eng, declines to discuss the case with me in any form, nor has any representative from the FBI attended any of the professional gatherings focused on the skyjacking, such as the DB Cooper Symposium in Portland in 2011, or a similar event held in 2013 at the Washington State Historical Museum in Tacoma. As a reporter for the Dispatch, I have covered dozens of murders and major crimes that range from city jurisdictions to country sheriffs, and several cases have involved federal agencies, such as the DEA. From that I have long known that law enforcement is leery of the media. Their public information officers routinely tell us only what they want us to know, when they want us to know it. In effect, the police simply view us as a way to distribute their side of the story, and they rarely discuss complex aspects of a case with reporters. From those dealings I have learned that the central mission of law enforcement is not to catch criminals or fight crime – if that was the case then half of our country’s cops would be camped on Wall Street. Rather, the primary purpose of the police is to protect the interests of the powerful, and the Cooper case is one of the most egregious examples of public disregard by law enforcement I’ve witnessed. Further, not only has the FBI withheld information from the media, it has withheld evidence among its own agents and between field offices. Agents are competitive and the Bureau isn’t very skilled in solving complex cases that involve multiple jurisdictions, as we saw in the 9-11 attacks when the FBI had trouble “connecting the dots.” In Norjak, three main field offices of the FBI shared the case: Portland, where the skyjacking began; Seattle, where the ransom exchange took place and the on-going skyjacking was managed; and Las Vegas, where the retrieved evidence was stored presumably because the lead agents in Reno were based in Vegas. Later, as the dozen or so of Cooper copycats began hijacking airplanes, other field offices got involved in the Cooper investigation, particularly the Salt Lake City office. So a fourth, major FBI field office landed solidly into the Norjak mix. In addition, the case is huge – generating rooms-full of documents – so it is understandable that the records are not properly organized. But the information on Cooper is so disorganized, contradictory or confusing that Cooper case agents appear befuddled when they speak publicly. At times agents, such as Larry Carr, have presented a haphazard view of the investigation, particularly when it comes to parsing details such on the role of parachute expert Earl Cossey and his assessment on the type of parachute Cooper selected for his getaway. In fact, it seems that Norjak investigators have not read much of their documents in the case file, and rely mostly on anecdotal narratives passed from agent to agent. Additionally, Cooper case agents are rotated every two years on average, further eroding investigatory consistency. As a result, the Norjak case appears to be in disarray. The mess is so complete that these days the FBI has to ask journalists for the phone numbers of witnesses to the skyjacking. In addition, young agents don’t have any personal knowledge of Norjak and they stumble in their efforts to identify the principals of the case. With such a muddle it is not surprising there are rumors of an extensive cover-up within the Bureau, hinting at a deeper involvement with Big Money and Big Power. Welcome to one of the greatest American crime mysteries. Has there been a cover-up? Has the FBI’s investigation has been squashed by powerful sources claiming “national security” concerns? Or is the FBI just sloppy, overwhelmed, or unlucky? Perhaps Cooper outsmarted the FBI and the feds don’t want the public to know? Or Mother Nature stuffed Cooper into a tiny hole somewhere in the wilds of Washington along with his parachutes, the money, and a bomb in a briefcase? Even though this book is about the FBI investigation as much as it is DB Cooper, I don’t solve the case or prove a conspiracy. I just offer my findings – who said what, and as far as I can determine, why. It’s also my effort through truth-telling to deliver a measure of justice to the incompetent, the hubristic, and the power-hungry. So, follow me through the details of this astounding crime and come to your own conclusions. Copyright 2014 BA Smith

Since the Great Auburn Rendezvous and DB Cooper Road Trip seems to be having trouble getting off the ground, I think this may be a propitious time to post my latest opening chapter on my Cooper book and get all you FBI lovers into a tizzy! Yes, despite the clamor to do so many moons ago, despite my two vacations, and despite Miss Amazona's proposed skydiving tutorial, I have persevered and continued to dig, polish and pitch my book. It has a new title, too: DB Cooper and the FBI - An Investigation into America's only Unsolved Skyjacking I'll post it below so it's nice and fresh. Enjoy, Cooper sleuths!!!