BruceSmith

Come on, Bruce. It hasn't 'run rampant,' although it's been mentioned occasionally. I made a comment about it saying there ARE 'Cooper Nuts' out there and the cops should check Cossey's phone records, just in case. But that's a pretty remote possibility. Most of the comments I've seen on media are sympathy messages from people who knew Cossey when he was teaching middle school, or knew him when he was parachute-active. Let's not go overboard here. Chances are much greater it was something else. There have also been a rash of burglaries in the area. I was thinking maybe Cossey would like this song. I don't know why exactly. Just a thought. I hope the cops get to the bottom of this soon, and my sincerest sympathies to the family. As far as Georger and some of his comments on Cossey and his family, I think he might relate to this song instead... My cat Hobo and I agree. You should offer an apology. Quote I have received two phone calls from people associated with Norjak who are afraid for thier lives in the wake of Cossey's apparent murder.

I have also done some significant editing on my DBC parachuting story that I admit was filled with gobbilygook. It offers a more concise analysis of Coss' contributions to Norjak. The link to the revised story is below: http://themountainnewswa.net/2011/10/25/db-cooper-case-heats-up-again-with-controversy-over-parachutes/

Greetings All, I have updated my piece at the Mountain News on Coss, adding pictures. http://themountainnewswa.net/2013/04/27/the-hunt-for-db-cooper-earl-cossey-feared-dead-in-woodinville-homicide/

Greetings Everyone. Today, I went to Earl Cossey's home in Woodinville, WA, about 25 miles northeast of Seattle. Here is my report. Tomorrow or the next day I will be posting pictures at the Mountain News, and I'll share the link at that time. In the meantime, here is what I know: The Hunt for DB Cooper – Earl Cossey feared dead in Woodinville homicide April 27, 2013 Earl Cossey, the controversial rigger and long-time consultant to the FBI on the parachutes used in the DB Cooper skyjacking, may be dead in an apparent homicide at his home in Woodinville. Sergeant Katie Larson of the King County Sheriff’s Department announced Saturday that the finding of a deceased man at the home owned by Cossey had been elevated from a “suspicious death” to a homicide, but she declined to specify why the change was made. Larson also said that the identification of the deceased and the cause of death would have to wait until the Medical Examiner released its findings. Larson indicated that the public may have to wait until Monday morning to learn the fate of Mr. Cossey. In addition, no forensic information was released to the public, such as the actual location of the murder or if the police have any suspects or leads. Nevertheless, various Seattle news broadcasts announced that the body of a 71 year-old male was found in the garage at Cossey’s home and that the individual had suffered a head injury. In addition, speculation has run rampant over the possibility that this homicide might be linked to the DB Cooper investigation. Cossey has come under increasing attacks in recent years for his inconsistencies in describing his role in the skyjacking saga. To whit: Cossey has maintained for four decades that he furnished the two back parachutes delivered to Sea-Tac airport on the night of November 24, 1971 as part of Cooper ransom package, but recently released FBI documents indicate that another person owned and delivered the parachutes, a Kent, WA pilot named Norman Hayden. This discrepancy now calls into question Cossey’s truthfulness and reliability. In addition, Cossey had long argued that DB Cooper chose an inferior parachute when he purportedly selected a modified NB-8 that Cossey had provided. Cossey has claimed that this choice proves Cooper was an inexperienced skydiver and most likely died in the jump as a “no-pull” and augured into the ground with all of his gear. This later scenario was embraced by the FBI, who reversed their initial position that DB Cooper was a master criminal and had accomplished a near-perfect crime. Thus, Cossey provided the FBI with the means to tell a new narrative about Cooper, and blunt the cultural impact of Cooper’s iconic status as a man who beat the system. Hence, as Cossey’s credibility waned so too did the image of the FBI who had touted Mr. Cossey’s analysis. Further, the FBI used him as a technical consultant in the case, most recently in the finding of the “Amboy” chute in 2009. With media clamoring to know if this parachute was the one used by DB Cooper to make his getaway, the FBI directed journalists to Mr. Cossey, who told them the Amboy chute was not Cooper’s – but not before he told the Oregonian newspaper that the parachute was Cooper’s - thus sparking a five-minute round of hysteria before Cossey retracted what he labeled latter as an “April Fool’s joke.” Similarly, when I questioned Cossey about the ownership issue, he became angry, cursed me, and hung up. Additionally, Cossey had told me conflicting pieces of information over several phone interviews since 2009, such as whether he had provided an NB-8 or an NB-6 parachute, and the exact name of the second chute. In one instance Cossey called it a “Paradise” and on another he said it was a Pioneer. Further, Cossey has never explained - as he has long-claimed – why he sent the two back chutes to Boeing Field first and not Sea-Tac where the skyjacker awaited. In the midst of this Cooper uncertainty, the KCSD has a tricky murder to solve, and neighbors are anxious and scared. Some openly wondered if a crazy maniac was loose in the nearby woods and what precautions they should take. The KCSD’s official declaration of a homicide triggered an intensification of the police work launched on Friday when the body was found, reportedly by the grown daughter of the deceased, but it also ignited many fears in the residents. Over twenty volunteers of the King County Search and Rescue Department, along with several Sheriff’s deputies, descended upon the Cossey home and neighborhood, in particular to search a thick wildlife preserve that is directly opposite Cossey’s residence. Nevertheless, Sgt Larson said that such a large-scale grounds search was SOP in a homicide investigation But the lpresence of vehicles and volunteers parading up and down their streets brought the neighbors out is force, and they lingered with each other and reporters to discuss the unfolding drama. During these conversations, neighbors told reporters that over 40 home robberies had occurred within the past year, and the recollection of a murder of a Woodinville real estate agent ten years ago in a home for sale is still fresh in people’s memories. However, police said that they had not found any evidence that would suggest a similar tragedy had occurred again, and they advised community members to use “due diligence and common sense.” “If you see something that doesn’t look right, give us a call right away,” Sgt Larson reassured neighbors. The neighbors also said that Earl Cossey has lived at his home in the 15000 block of 192nd St in Woodville for at least 35 years with his wife, Debbie and their two children. However, Cossey and his wife divorced about a year ago, and the neighbors seemed genuinely shocked by this development in the Cossey marriage. Since the break-up, Cossey had lived alone. Earl and his family were well-liked by their neighbors, and many remembered him fondly as being a teacher at the local Middle School that the “kids really liked.” Some remembered that Cossey was a championship sky diver and they recalled how he would parachute into the playground at the Middle School on the last day of school every year. Cossey’s wife was also described as an asset to the community, as she fixed the trails through the woodland preserve and was also a skilled counselor at the local high school. One of the two children was a noted basketball star at her high school, and her brother appeared to be on site today, but declined to talk with reporters. At least one other family member seemed to be in attendance; however, Debbie Cossey was not observed and neighbors said she had left the Woodinville area when the Cossey’s divorced. Ms. Cossey declined to talk to me when I called her on her cell phone, saying simply, “No thanks. We’re not talking to the news.” Also, the family did not release the details of any funerary arrangements. As for the police, they seemed disinterested in the connection between Earl Cossey and DB Cooper. However, I spoke with Sgt Cindi West, another PIO, for several minutes on the phone about Cossey’s relationship with the FBI and Norjak, and she said she was interested in this aspect of Earl’s life.

KIRO TV is reporting that the owner of the home where the victim was found is Earl J Cossey. http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/local/police-woodinville-mans-death-suspicious/nXZLK/ Their headline also mentions the tie to the DB Cooper case.

Update on Cossey: 9 am, Saturday, April 27. 2013 1. Coss' cell phone still works. Left message. 2. Called his ex's cell phone. She hung up on me, but not before saying, "I'm sorry. We're not talking to the news." 3. Sgt Cindi West, PIO of the King County Sheriff's Dept would not release any names or confirm if the victim is Coss. She said she would have to wait for the Medical Examiner to release their report. Nevertheless, she was very eager to hear of the connection between Cossey and the FBI regarding Norjak, namely, that Coss was a principal architect of the FBI's perspective that DBC was an idiot who had only minimal sky diving skills and died in the jump. 4. I'm off to Woodinville in a borrowed vehicle. TG for generous friends with a spare car.

All that is being reported currently on KING TV and the Seattle Times is that a death occurred in the 15000 block of 192nd St in Woodinville, which is the neighborhood that Cossey lived in. The incident is being ruled "suspicious," and that's all the reporters will confirm at this date. I spoke to the guy covering the news desk at KING TV tonight and he is a youngin'. Doesn't know the case or Coss' role in the investigation. He thinks the story will be updated by morning. (Saturday 4. 27).

Does anyone know the current health and status of Earl J Cossey? I have received an unsubstantiated email tonight in the wee hours that claims that Coss is dead under mysterious circumstances. The source is generally reliable, meaning they don't ever visit the DZ. ( smile). I have Googled the heck out of Cossey in the past few minutes but nothing has shown up. Anybody know anything?

You could say the same thing about 160 meters OM. Maybe some ETs like a challenging frequency. I loved your Drake story. Does anybody know what happened to Farflung? I hope he is OK. I've been going over the Ted Braden materials. He sure had a motive and all the right stuff. Don Burnam is pretty interesting too. His photo is a decent match the the FBI sketches. He had been a 727 pilot and had VERY detailed knowledge of its systems, as evidenced by a US patent he obtained for an improvment to 727 electrical systems. He apparently figured out how to do something better and safer than Boeing did in their original design. 377 ________________________________________________ I believe you mean Don Burnworth, 377. His pix is so uncanny. Plus, he's the only guy who spent time in jail, re: the case.

"Brian" at Nick's Tavern in Amboy told Meyer and me that he and his buddies had cut plenty of shroud lines off of the chute when it as still buried. They used them to make fishing sinkers, which I don't understand, but that is what I heard him say.

Greetings All, I have completed a draft chapter on the subject of Cooper copycats and have a list of ten guys who did the Cooper jump. Here's an excerpt from the chapter; Chapter 21 Copycats and the possibility of a group effort At the risk of becoming lost in the fog of conspiracy, we need to look more closely at the possibility of a group job in the Norjak case and examine the copycats, if for no other reason than some in the FBI, such as Ralph Himmelsbach, consider DB Cooper to be one. “You have to remember that Cooper was a copycat,” he told me when I visited him at his home in Oregon. Once Ralph launched into his subject he re-iterated numerous details of the early extortive skyjackings, with the first being conducted by a fellow he called “Gaylord.” However, the skyjacker’s name was actually Paul Cini and he skyjacked an Air Canada flight out of Calgary, Alberta two weeks before Cooper’s caper. “With each new skyjacking, the skyjackers improved their techniques,” Ralph said, echoing fellow FBI agent Russ Calame’s evaluation of McCoy’s effort. When Ralph began discussing McCoy I was surprised to hear him confirm Calame’s conclusion that McCoy was not home in Provo during the Cooper skyjacking. However, what I found most interesting was that Ralph was willing to hold an opinion wholly in opposition to the current view held by the FBI. “We did look at McCoy in the Cooper case, but he was in Las Vegas when the Cooper skyjacking took place,” Ralph declared. "But what did McCoy do in Las Vegas during the Cooper hijacking? Was he just passing through?" I mused but was unable to pursue because Ralph’s dinner company arrived. To date, I have not been able to follow-up on this lead with him. I’d also like Ralph to amplify his perspective on the copycats, as he is the only one I know to have stated that there were twenty Cooper-esque skyjackers in the months following Norjak. Other published accounts say a dozen or fifteen, such as Wikipedia. But exactly what are the details of these hijackings? At least what are their names? I have not been able to find a list and Himmelsbach does not provide a complete rendition of the copycats in his book. Nor does anyone else, but most authors talk about the four primary copycats: McCoy, Robb Heady, Martin McNally, and Frederick Hahneman. All made it to the ground safely - even McNally even though he had never parachuted before – proving false the proposition that the Cooper jump was too dangerous to be successful. But the essential question remains: are they a group? Did any of them know DB Cooper, or Paul Cini? Were they coached, or orchestrated in any manner? How did these skyjackings evolve, as Himmelsbach has observed. Was it an organic process and achieved by skyjackers merely reading newspaper accounts of previous hijackings? Frankly, there is not enough information available to the public to make any determination, and that shows some of the limitations of a non-law enforcement investigation – we just don’t have enough muscle to dig out that kind of data. Nevertheless, let’s look at what we have, starting with a list of the known copycats – and the proviso that to be a copycat a hijacker has to ask for a ransom and at least one parachute. Thus, the known copycats are: 1. Paul Cini, 11. 13. 71 2. DB Cooper, 11. 24. 71 3. Everett Holt, 12. 24. 71 4. Billy Hurst, Jr., 1. 12. 72 5. Richard LaPoint, 1. 20. 72 6. Richard McCoy, 4. 7. 72 7. Stanley Spreck, 4. 9 72 8. Frederick Hahneman, 5. 5. 72 9. Robb Heady, 6. 2. 72 10. Martin McNally, 6. 23. 72 There are plenty of other skyjackers, and many of them are fascinating, such as Robert Sibley, who commandeered an airplane in Reno a few months after Robb Heady and ended up being arrested at Sea-Tac by some of the FBI agents who were on the Norjak case. But these other skyjackers didn’t ask for a parachute, and their getaway plan was of a more traditional form - either flying to a foreign destination like Algeria, or storming away in a car, which usually resulted in a fatal shoot-out.

You are incorrect, Meyer. I am not a dodger of anything. I certainly don't dodge killing. I simply pick and chose who I want to kill, why, and when. I never ask anyone to do my killing for me. I didn't ask the millions of guys who went to Vietnam to kill any commies for me. Never. In fact, I asked them not to go. They chose not to listen to me. I loved them and let them go. When they returned I healed those that I could at the Northport VA for two years. I never asked for a thing from them, other than a pay check from their government every two weeks. As for the guys who are in wheel chairs, would you feel more comfortable if I joned them? Why? If you would like to know who I have killed and why, I'm happy to tell you, but it's gonna cost you a couple of beers. It's the price of truth these days.

Greetings All, I've had two converstaions this week with a copycat, Robb Dolin Heady. The interview is posted at the Mountain News: http://themountainnewswa.net/2013/03/28/the-hunt-for-db-cooper-an-interview-with-a-so-called-cooper-copycat-skyjacker-robb-dolin-heady/ Thanks to Snowmman for helping set it up. I'm trying to talk wiith Martin McNally as well. He got out of prison in 2010.

Does anyone know how to parachute out of a DC-8 or a DC-9? Paul Cini reportedly was planning on exiting out of a DC-8. How would he do that? What size is the hatch? Does it have stairs? Somebody else went out a DC-9. Are they different than a 727? I'm wriitng about the copycats this week. Thanks, all.

_________________________________________________ I believe I remember seeing him, because he was at the store when I dropped in to buy a snack, but I did not talk to him. I will remember to do so next time. Thanks. MeyerLouie Quote No, we did not talk with Mr. Ford - at least I didn't. He wasn't at his Espresso shop if I remember correctly, which is across the street from the tavern, which we were in twice when we were cruising Amboy for the chute. We did speak with the gal who was dishing out ice cream, if I remember. Air conditioning was out, too, if I recall. I even thought it was hot. Can only imagine what Meyer thought of it..... BTW: What we did and who we spoke with is posted in my report that is up at the Mountain News. Select "DB Cooper stories" and scroll to about August 2012

Georger: Like Bruce said earlier, signing up for JT's search and hanging out with other Cooper sleuths is our idea of a good time. It'll be great to get into the woods again, we'll make new friends, and it'll be good exercise. Why not? That's my only motivation. I didn't necessarily believe the Amboy chute was Cooper's. There was a lot of discussion about the topic back then, so I thought it'd be just fun to drive down to Amboy and check things out. It was a good time. If you read Bruce's DZ post right before we left for Amboy, he asked if anyone knew the exact location of the Amboy chute -- he didn't know. So, I'm thinking he probably didn't have the maps either, since he didn't know the location. Right Bruce? MeyerLoue Correct, Meyer. I didn't have the maps, and after our day-long trek through Amboy chasing after leads to the chute, I doubt any of them are accurate. The Amboy chute and its location is one of those little side alley mysteries. But it might lead someplace more substantive, too, so I'm ready to go back and keep asking. Besides, now I'm curious to learn what the folks in Amboy are hiding. It feels like a community secret.

Count me in, Jerry! Romping in the woods with Cooper sleuths is my idea of a good time. Let me know where and when.

All the best Amazon. Healing heart energies to you.

For those who wish the information, here is what I have gatehred so far on the coipycats. Thanks, Smokin99, I'll add your contributions to the list in a moment: Yes, by copycat I mean Cooper-esque - ransom, hijacking a 727 or a DC 9, parachute exit. Copycats: The copycats, so far, (3. 17. 13): 1. Paul Cini 2. Richard McCoy 3. Frederick Hahneman 4. Robb Dolin Heady 5. Martin McNally 6. Arthur Gates Barkley 7. James Edwin Bennett, Jr 8. Gregory Lamar White 9. Robert Lee Jackson, and Ligia Lucrecia Sanchez Archila 10. Richard LaPoint 11. Billy Eugene Hurst And from Smokin99, 3. 17. 13: 12. Garrett Trapnell 13. Heinrich Von George 14. Thomas Michael Hannon 15. ETA - Robert Wilson 16. Frank Sibley - not sure if he requested parachutes but his hijacking was interesting, to say the least. LOL...Bicycles and naked agents. 17. Glen Kurt Tripp - From 1980, but I include him b/c article said he originally asked for parachute intending to mimic DB.) Details: 1. Paul Cini (from Farflung): The first extortive skyjacking: Cini claimed to be an IRA member but wasn't. He brought aboard a 12-gauge shotgun under his black overcoat, a 40lb box full of dynamite, and another package containing a parachute! Maybe the tip-off was his ski hat with holes poked through it for eye holes, he declined to take off upon entering. 40 miles out from Calgary he pulled down the ski hat to make a crude mask, pulled the 12-gauge from under his coat and announced he was hijacking the plane, and to make things perfectly clear he fired a blast from the 12-gauge into a cabin partition, he disclosed his box contained dynamite, and he asked for 1.5 million dollars and wanted to go to Ireland. The flight was diverted to Great Falls, MT where he was given $50,000 in cash but he ordered the plane airborne again refusing to let anyone off. They headed for Regina but Cini changed his mind again ordering the plane back to Great Falls where he let everyone but 6 crew members off. They took on approx 7000 gallons of fuel and Cini ordered the plane aloft again. The pilot convinced Cini they needed more fuel so they set a coarse for Regina. About 15 minutes out Capt Ehmann got out of his seat and called back telling Cini he was coming back to talk. Cini allowed it. Cini said he wanted to get his parachute on so Ehmann told him he wouldn’t interfere. Cini set his shotgun down to pick up his chute and Ehmann grabbed him and they wrestled. A purser ran back with a fire axe and hit Cini over the head. They tied Cini up and headed back for Great Falls Cini had previously ordered the "DC-8" to be flown at 3000 ft and the emergency door/window opened - he intended to bail through that. Cini: 5'7", black curly hair, swarthy olive skin complexion. Cini was 27 years old, a delivery truck driver who had previously lived in the USA but had gone up to live with his parents at Calgary five years earlier. All of this on Nov 13th 1971, 11 days before the Cooper hijacking. The whole thing a six hour ordeal - 2. In April 1972, former Army Green Beret Richard McCoy hijacked a United Airlines 727-100 after it left Denver, Colorado, diverted it to San Francisco, then bailed out over Utah with $500,000 in ransom money. He landed safely, but was arrested two days later. (From Wiki). 3. In May, Frederick Hahneman used a handgun to hijack an Eastern Airlines 727 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, demanded $303,000, and eventually parachuted into Honduras, his country of birth. A month later, with the FBI in pursuit and a $25,000 bounty on his head, he surrendered to the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa. (From Wiki). 4. In early June, paratrooper and Vietnam veteran Robb Dolin Heady stormed a United Airlines 727 in Reno, extorted $200,000 and two parachutes, and jumped into darkness near Lake Washoe, about 25 miles (40 km) south of Reno. Police found Heady's car (sporting a U.S. Parachute Association bumper sticker) parked near the lake and arrested him as he returned to it the next morning. (From Wiki). Here is a report on Heady from Snowmman: Robb Dolin Heady. Student at Western Nevada Community College. Part time employee of a parking lot at a Reno casino. Former member of the University of Nevada's Parachute Club. Friday, June 2, 1972. United Airlines. Jumped over Washoe Lake, about 20 miles south of the Reno airport. So the DZ was local, as was how he got on. The plane was NY to San Francisco, UAL 239. It had landed at Reno, and 24 passengers had just deplaned. The hijack started then. It was sunset. Heady, wearing a pillow case with slits for eyes, charged aboard the plane. Had a .357 Magnum. Two pilots + three stews as hostages. 4 hour hijack. (edit) He asked for and received two parachutes. Ransom was $200,000. (edit) supposedly fired a shot when he got impatient while they were getting money and "fixing" the engine. Money supposedly gotten from casinos? He shifted to a second UAL 727 after being told the first plane was low on fuel and had a bad engine. He jumped into darkness apparently from 14,000 ft. into remote sagebrush-covered hills near Lake Washoe, about 25 miles south of Reno. Arrested on east side of lake about 5:30 AM. They staked out a white Triumph sedan parked off the dirt road that runs off of Eastshore Rd in Washoe City. On the back was a sticker reading: "Member of U.S. Parachute Association" After a while, the officers observed Heady walk up the road toward the car and remove the car keys from under a rock. As he began to open the door, they arrested him. They found the parachute, gun and clothing nearby. He said he spent the night on the beach. He had injured his left elbow. Chest injury also. He had just gotten back from Vietnam in December and had been a paratrooper in Vietnam. Was a sport chutist according to his dad. 150 police were combing the area till he was found. Slim, blond-haired. Held gun to head of stew. Used two hostages as shields when moving between planes. Pilot didn't know he had jumped till stewardess told him. (I guess she saw?) Supposedly lost the bag of money when he pulled the rip. The bag had $155,000. He left $45,000 on the plane. FBI found the money on June 4, 1972. He may have cached it. Note: he had some jumping experience, but apparently not enough to realize he needed to tie the bag on? They made it sound like he was just holding the bag. Unclear. Pleaded guilty 8/25/72. He got 30 year sentence. Recommendation for parole after 10. So maybe he's out already. At trial, lawyer argued he had malaria/high fever overseas. Psych exam was ordered. 5. About three weeks later an unemployed service station attendant named Martin McNally used a submachine gun to commandeer an American Airlines 727 en route from St. Louis to Tulsa, then diverted it eastward to Indiana and bailed out with $500,000 in ransom.[96] McNally lost the ransom money as he exited the aircraft, but landed safely near Peru, Indiana and was apprehended a few days later in a Detroit suburb. (From Wiki). The following account of the McNally hijacking comes from journalist Gene Curtis, former Tulsa (Oklahoma) World Managing Editor: An American Airlines plane headed from St. Louis to Tulsa was commandeered by an armed skyjacker who parachuted from the plane with $502,000 in ransom but never got a chance to spend the money. The skyjacker, who was armed with a .45-caliber submachine gun, took charge of the Boeing 727 as it neared Tulsa on June 23, 1972. The drama had all the earmarks of a Keystone Kops movie—an indecisive and inept hijacker, a car that crashed into the taxiing hijacked plane and the loss of the money and his weapon while the gunman was parachuting from the plane. Officials at first believed the skyjacker might have been killed during his jump but later arrested Martin McNally, 28, of Wyandotte, Mich. He was convicted and sentenced to two life prison terms. When he took charge of the flight, the gunman at first ordered the pilot to return to St. Louis but changed his mind and directed the flight to Fort Worth. He changed his mind again as the plane neared Fort Worth and ordered a return to St. Louis, where he released all but one of the 92 passengers. Passengers were informed of the hijacking as the plane began its descent to the Tulsa airport, according to Dean A. McGee, chairman of the Kerr-McGee Corp. who was one of the passengers. The pirate, sitting at the front of the coach section, had produced his submachine gun from a trombone case and then made his demand. The hijacker ordered all the men to move to the coach section, the women to move to the front and announced that the women would be released but the men would be kept as hostages. But he changed his mind again when the plane landed at St. Louis and the captain reported all the men seated on the right side of the plane could leave with the women and children. “I’m happy I was sitting on the right side,” McGee told a reporter later. The passengers who were released were forced to slide down an emergency chute from the plane—including a woman in a wheelchair. But no one was injured. The gunman asked for the money, a parachute and instructions on its use. Two FBI agents posing as airline officials boarded the plane. One showed him how to use the parachute and how to jump from the airplane. Airline attendants later said he had difficulty understanding how to use the parachute. The agents said they could not stop the skyjacking because the gunman kept his submachine gun aimed at an attendant. The pilot reported the hijacker was satisfied with the money and parachute and the plane began taxiing down a runway when a 1972 Cadillac driven by St. Louis businessman David Hanley, 30, crashed through a wire mesh fence, chased the jet along the runway and caromed off the plane’s nose gear and into its landing gear in what appeared to be an attempt to stop the hijacking. The car, which had been a Mothers’ Day present to Hanley’s wife, was demolished and Hanley was critically injured in the crash. He had been sitting in a motel bar near the airport when he told a friend “turn on the radio in a few minutes and you’ll hear something that will rock the world” and left. A few minutes later, Hanley began his chase of the taxiing jet at speeds up to 90 miles per hour. Then his car went to the end of the runway, turned around and headed straight toward the plane. The hijacker switched to another plane and it took off with three male flight crew members, two female attendants and a male passenger aboard as hostages. The hijacker instructed the pilot to head for Toronto, make a low pass to assure him of the location and then to head for John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City. But he plunged from the plane near Peru, Ind. The bags containing the money were found in a soybean field on a farm near Peru by farmer Lowell Elliott. “I thought it was a groundhog in the field,” Elliott said. “It didn’t move so I took a closer look.” Meanwhile, the gun was found five miles away by another farmer, Ronald Miller, who at first thought the commando-type weapon was a toy when it was turned up by the blades of a liquid fertilizer distributor. McNally, an unemployed service station attendant, was arrested at his home. He had been questioned and released by Peru police the night after the skyjacking. His partner, Walter J. Petlikowsky, 31, of nearby Detroit, confessed his role and identified McNally for the FBI. Himmelsbach’s List (from his book) Himms says that there were about 20 other skyjacking in the months after Cooper, p.119. Besides McNally, McCoy, Hahneman, and Heady, (p. 81-83) he lists the four below (p. 52). However, one hijacking occurred in 1970 and I don’t know if any of these four involved Cooper-esque techniques, such as parachuting out of a 727. (6) 1. (Prior to Cooper) Barkley, Arthur Gates, June 4, 1970: TWA. Asked for $100 million. Wounded by FBI and arrested. Mental Institution. No other details, (7) 2. Bennett, Jr, James Edwin, May 29, 1971, Eastern, $500,000. Overpowered by airlines officials. Tried, but found not guilty by reason of insanity. No further details. (8) 3. White, Gregory Lamar, TWA, $75,000. Wounded by FBI. Taken into custody. No further details. (9) 4. Jackson, Robert Lee and Archila, Ligia Lucrecia Sanchez, Braniff, $100,000. Taken in to custody in Buenos Aires. No further details. Farflung adds: (10) Charles LaPoint, prior criminal history? YES!!!!! (boner time!) He was a car thief with a well known background among the police and sheriff from where he previously lived. His vocation (during the crime) was selling magazine subscriptions over the phone. Farf adds the following, DZ post June 6, 2011: Richard LaPoint did a similar hijacking less than 2 months after Cooper. He demanded a couple chutes, helmet and $50,000 before he jumped out of a Hughes Airwest - DC-9. Yep, the DC-9 had aft stairs and was in service since the mid 60’s. How did he know a DC-9 was jumpable? No CIA or Black Ops just another plane with an aft exit. He was a former Paratrooper but that skill did not help him identify the SAR transceiver that activated when the chute deployed. A pair of F-111s tracked the signal and the police captured him within a couple hours. I’m sure he was a Cooper copy cat but he did not need years of working at Douglas to understand how to open or have the Stewardess open these stairs. I get the feeling that everyone thinks this is some sort of complex operation with alert horns and flashing lights with a control panel bristling with levers and knobs. It really is very simple and ordinary. There is one lever which has OPEN, CLOSE and Neutral (perhaps) along with a toggle (momentary) switch that may run a small motor to seat the cams to the fuselage posts. Then a handle to turn the cams (90 or 180 degrees) and lock the door with the lever placed in the neutral position. Is this really worthy of so much angst, study and loathing? I simply don’t see the complexity being assigned to operating a door. The only thing Cooper didn’t get was the door down for takeoff and that became an issue for him that the hijackers to follow simply didn’t suffer from. Why is Cooper the one with all this aft stair experience and flight experience yet he becomes frazzled over the door and needs an intermediate level off and butchers a chute for line and jumps with one sewn shut. I’m not a jumper but I know that force of habit (after years in the Air Force) would have me digging out the data card and checking repack dates even if I was hijacking a plane. I know how to use an Interphone system also, mainly because it impresses chicks and is wicked easy to operate. Cooper using the PA function is a sign of someone that has not used such a device before. The PA function is limited to the cargo/PAX compartment and oddly the lavatories but not the cockpit. Was Cooper all confused about this also? It gets hard for me to believe all these elements as indicative of anyone with more than the most casual association with aviation. Again, I don’t know jack about skydiving so I believe (perhaps foolishly) those who are experienced and seem to think Cooper was some sort of expert. It’s the same with this endless speculation about where the Co-pilot said they were. If he was asked an aviation based question he may give a response in kind. I can’t imagine that he didn’t glance at the HSI and note the bearing and DME to PDX VORTAC rather than this endless talk about being over the suburbs of Portland or wherever. Pilots staring out the cockpit then with bug eyed glee announcing while pointing “There it is!” belongs in Hollywood productions and not in instrument flying. Yet this stuff refuses to not only die, it won’t betray its origin. Strange. (11) Billy Eugene Hurst, prior criminal history? Unless you consider multiple stints in a laughing academy a crime, then Billy Boy was not a super tanker of malfeasance, but he was a little dinghy.

Does anyone have a list of all the DB Cooper copycats? Himmelsbach says that about 20 guys did it in the eight months after Cooper, plus Cini two weeks prior. I know I've asked this before, but I'm really digging into this now. I have about ten names. Thanks.

I keep getting asked if I'm sure that DB Cooper jumped from the plane. I'm not sure, but I addressed the issue this evening. Here's what I've come up with: ******************* Is it possible that DB Cooper didn’t jump? Did he simply crawl into a space above the lavatory or burrow his way into the cargo hold, wrap himself in a parachute and re-appear after all the commotion, or as part of the commotion dressed as a worker or FBI agent? Maybe. But let's walk through the scenario. First, there is no concrete evidence to support this hypothesis, but let's not stop because of that. Two, exactly where did he stash himself? How big was the spot? How did he get there? How did he pull the panels back into place and re-secure them? Three: His getaway would still be problematic. At Reno, the place was filled with cops and FBI - at least two hundred LE - and then a ton o' media, so the chaos was great, lending some credence to the notion that Cooper could have blended into the mix and slithered away. But: It was 11 pm when the plane landed at Reno and presumably the airport was pretty quiet in terms of regular passengers, and one would hope that effective crowd control measures for the LE-media throng were in place. Were there effective screenings of all the police from different jurisdictions? The FBI agents who were first on the plane and conducted the primary evidence retrieval were from Las Vegas and landed at the Reno airport just minutes before 305 touched down. Further, did cops check press passes in and out? How about maintenance workers and other airport support personnel? Then, if DBC sneaked out, then how did he get away from the airport? It's unlikely that he rented a car. Take a bus? Was he picked up by an accomplice? Where was the accomplice hiding until Cooper appeared? Or: Did Cooper stay on the plane until it went to its next destination, which is unclear and no definitive statement about the immediate disposition of the airplane is publicly known that I am aware of, but it thought to be either Boeing Field for repairs, or Quantico, VA and FBI HQ for more forensics. How did he deal with the cold and de-pressurization issues? Now the walk-away scenario gets more dicey the longer he stays with the plane. And: If Cooper walked away somewhere did he take any money with him? In what? How about the rest of the evidence? Did Cooper take that, too? If not, did he leave it on the plane in his hidey-hole? Was it ever discovered? If not, why not? How big is the cover-up, then? How come the bomb-sniffing dogs never discovered Cooper or the bombs? Was it because the bombs were road flares and thus there wasn’t any explosive chemical to detect? Or Cooper lay-weighed their nostrils by filling the Styrofoam containers that he left on the front seats for the pilots' dinners with tacos and hot sauce that the canines ate when they got on the plane and afterwards couldn't smell anything? Etc..... Plus, where did Cooper stash his coveralls (and work coat as it was 30 degrees F and rainy in Reno) when he first got on the plane? Did Cooper also disguise himself? Wig? Moustache? But there is an Out-of-the-Box idea. It’s the same concept, only reversed: Did DB Cooper start his day in Washington, DC and front-load the skyjacking on the East Coast? Did he board Flight 305 in one of the first stops, bring a ton of gear on board and stash it in the over-head compartments? Then he got off at its next stop, Pittsburg or Chicago I think, and take a direct flight to Portland, arriving well before 305 as it had to make several stops and get a new crew in Minneapolis. Then, in PDX Cooper re-boarded 305 knowing that all the stuff he needed was already in place, and even better, his arrival at Portland had been undetected. So, as a result, Cooper had lots of warm clothes, the exact parachute and reserve he wanted free of detection devices and sabotage, radio gear for his ground crew and a thermos of hot coffee. Skyjack anyone?

Yes, I’m part of the resurgent investigation for DB Cooper, caught up in the swell like a giddy newbie. That’s not to say I had never heard of DB Cooper before, for I have, but I was 22 years-old at the time Cooper skyjacked his airplane. I had just returned to college at Hofstra University after a couple of years ski-bumming and hitch-hiking, so I had other things on my mind other than paying attention to a hijacker snatching a plane, even if DB was the first guy asking for something other than a free pass to Cuba. In fact, I didn’t realize that DB Cooper was the first to extort an airline for money until I joined the Hunt in 2008. My entry was quite simple: I stumbled into it while writing an unrelated story for a newspaper. At the time, I was a full-time reporter for a small weekly in southern Pierce County, Washington called The Dispatch, and while I covered a local air show in the summer of 2008 I met a pilot and his wife who had just written a book about DB Cooper. In that hot August sun they were quite eager to talk about their story: a biography of a fellow pilot named Barb Dayton, who had confessed to being DB Cooper. We spent an afternoon discussing it, sitting in the shade provided by the starboard wing of their restored 1934 Fairchild airplane. The authors are Ron and Pat Forman, and they tell in their book: The Legend of DB Cooper – Death by Natural Causes, the wildest Cooper tale ever imagined – that DB Cooper was a woman who had the first sex change operation in Washington, in 1969, and then reverted to her male persona to do the job. I have learned it is also the most compelling of all the Cooper confessional stories for it delivers the most detailed description of how DB Cooper did the caper, including his/her motive. But what fascinated me the most as I listened to the Formans, was how many red flags of inconsistency popped up regarding the FBI’s investigation, starting with the fact that no one in the Bureau would talk to the Formans even though they offered the detailed confession of their friend. I was also disappointed to learn that my editors had no interest in this intriguing DB Cooper story, and only relented to my urgings when I promised to cover the story from the angle of "local authors write about DB Cooper." As a result, I could cover their book signings and public presentations, but nothing about the actual skyjacking. However, I continued to learn more about the case even though I didn’t write about it, gathering the Cooper literature – first Himmelsbach’s book, then Calame’s and Rhodes’, and then Tosaw’s work. Then I scoured the Internet and found the DZ and Jo Weber. By November 2008, the Formans told me that they were going to Ariel, Washington for the annual celebration of DB Cooper Daze, held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving at the Ariel Tavern. The Formans said they were attending because they had just been contacted by Edge West Productions for a National Geographic documentary on the skyjacking, and the outfit would film them in Ariel as part of a larger shoot on the whole Cooper story. I was ecstatic, and decided to attend. My editors also began to get enthused – "local authors get filmed for a National Geographic special" – Holy Cow! So, as long as I didn’t get too woo-woo about the sex change thing they were good for copy, and I headed down to Ariel. The Edge West production was quite professional and very exciting to witness. In a nearby Ariel home they filmed Ron and Pat, Barb Dayton’s daughter Rena Ruddell, and a couple of fellow-pilots who knew Barb. Later, they all came down to the Tavern, which has a side room that is ideal for quiet chats and beer. As a reporter I interviewed Phil Day, the executive producer of Edge West, and some of his crew. Further, I had a lengthy conversation with Phil’s teen-aged daughter, who was tagging along with Daddy and had plenty of time to listen to me spiel about the FBI and their canard that DB Cooper was too stupid to have survived the jump. The young girl must have talked later to her dad because in the midst of buying me a beer Phil turned the camera in my direction and began asking questions. Thus, I became part of the documentary, being the bright-faced guy loudly proclaiming that “DB Cooper was one tough-assed dude.” I said a few more things, but they must have fallen to the editing floor, as did all of the film about Barb Dayton at the last minute for the following reasons 1. The sex change topic was too spicy for nationwide consumption and was too long to tell easily in a one hour broadcast. 2. The Formans had no concrete evidence. 3. The FBI did not support the theory But I was hooked on the inconsistencies. This was also the time that I first met Geoffrey Gray, along with his exceptionally cute friend from Seattle. I asked Geoff point-blank if he thought Kenny Christianson – the guy he had written about in New York Magazine – was DB Cooper. Geoff stated that he didn’t believe Kenny was DB, a position he seemed to be a bit less definitive about in his 2011 book, Skyjack. Nevertheless, a journalistic bond was formed with Geoffrey that exists to this day. Geoffrey also reassured me that he did not feel threatened by my research, and that “The Cooper story is big enough for all of us to write about.” I was very thankful for that note of acceptance. Over the next few months I wrote four pieces on the Formans and their initiation into the ways of Hollywood. On a fiercely cold day in January, Edge West came up to Tacoma and conducted several days of filming at Thun Field, the air strip in Puyallup where the Formans had first met Barb. I covered the shoot, and also learned that the manager of the airport, Bruce Thun, was an avid DB Cooper aficionado. In fact, Bruce had many pertinent pieces of information about the early days of the FBI’s investigation. Bruce revealed that the Bureau’s agents swarmed over Thun Field in the days of the holiday weekend. In particular, they were asking about one young skydiver in particular who had a girl friend in Oregon. Apparently the skydiver was not at home in Puyallup nor at his girl friend’s as planned. Did Bruce – or anyone at Thun Field - know where he was? Bruce didn’t know what had happened to the skydiver, and he was perturbed at the FBI as well. “How did they know that kind of stuff?” he asked me. “How did they know that some kid who skydived at a small field in Pierce County has a girl friend in Oregon and that he didn’t make it for Thanksgiving? How do they know this much stuff about people?” Bruce seemed disappointed that I didn’t have any satisfactory answers for him, and I just speculated that Thun Field may have attracted both “tree-top flyers” and anti-drug scrutiny from the feds. Through his life-long association with aviation and aviators, Bruce has many contacts with people connected to the case. Besides Barb and the Formans, Bruce has met Earl Cossey, the rigger, and important Boeing engineers involved in the development of the 727 aft stairs and the secret protocols for parachuting. Yet, even Bruce didn’t know that a 727 could be jumped. “The day after DB Cooper jumped, everybody around here (Thun Field) was saying, ‘Why didn’t I think of that!’” he told me laughing. After two years of following the Norjak story at a bit of a distance, my tenure at The Dispatch came to an end as my editors sold the newspaper to a corporate entity who didn’t desire my services after their leaving. After a short hiatus from journalism, I formed the online news magazine, The Mountain News-WA, in 2010 and pursued the DB Cooper story rigorously. A heart attack in February 2012 distracted me slightly, but by the end of the year I was back in the saddle. However, as I healed money became very tight and I had to live exclusively upon my social security. In addition, I needed food stamps. Under these conditions I was no longer able to keep a vehicle running, so my Hunt depended upon buses, phones, and the Internet. But here I am; and here is your story, dear readers. - An excerpt from my forthcoming book: The Hunt for DB Cooper - The Resurgent Investigation into America's only Unsolved Skyjacking c. 2013 BA Smith

Thanks, guys.

In the interest of self-preservation, maybe I should point out that the only thing I did to the above was correct an error so the clicky would work. Bruce and Jo did the rest. Robert99 Thanks, Robert. As my father also used to say, "Discretion is the better part of valor." Thanks for the clicky fix. Perhaps you can tell me what do I need to do differently - I have been typing: 1. Bracket with "u," followed by an "r" followed by "l" and then another bracket. 2. Then, mymountainnews-wa URL 3. Then, [url/] I can't even write the bracket-url-bracket and have it post here. It just disappears.