BruceSmith

Greetings All, I have begun posting chapters from my book on DB Cooper. I invite you to visit the Mountain News-WA to read them, and please feel free to comment. I welcome all suggestions for improvements. Thanks. -BAS http://themountainnewswa.net/2012/06/09/the-hunt-for-db-cooper-the-resurgent-investigation-into-americas-only-unsolved-skyjacking-preface-and-introduction-chapter-1/

--------------------------------------------- Is Gray looking at Peety? BTW: Gray was allowed access to suspect files at Seattle, which no one else was - that is my understanding. GG called me in January, asking for The Eagle-Eyed One's address. I haven't heard anyting back. As soon as I get some extra moolah I'll be heading back to Santa Rosa. I've got a lead on where Petey likes to dine. Maybe we can click chop sticks together and talk about the smell of American Foreign Policy in the morning....

Quote Whoa - a Cooper-look-alike jacking a plane in Australia? With FBI follow-up. Very cool. I've never heard of this. We need to follow up. Thanks Mr. Shutter!

didn't Peterson retract the statement of being Cooper at one point? Quote As far as I know, Sheridan Peterson has never admitted to being DB Cooper. However, he has written extensively about his qualificatiosn to be the skyjacker and how the FBI has investigated him twice in the case. Surprisingly, it is from these writings that I have learned most of what I know about Sheridan, along with copious amounts of assistence from Snowmman, who has retrieved most of the Peterson writing on Cooper via the Internet. Further, Mr. Peterson has steadfastly refused to meet with me to discuss these issues, and we have had an uneven email correspondence over the past three years. Currently, he is unresponsive to my entreaties despite all of my efforts to be the charming lad my mother knows me to be.

QuoteBruce, did you ever hear anything more from Marla about the birth issues? I was just on You Tube and someone responded to a old post I made about the birth issues. Quote Marla? Marla Who? Oh, yeah, that Marla...I haven't heard a word from the woman, nor anything about her story. Zip.

When I talked with Tom Kayne at the Burke Museum, he told me the Titaniun he found on the tie was probably from match heads as DB was a smoker and would have used matches. However, he also found a curlyque of aluminum (about 1/16 inch long) which would have come from a machining process like a lathe. Sounds like DB might have worked in the Boeing labs and around the scrap tub skids. A good source of aluminum (and Titanium) for home projects. When looking in the tub skid, your tie hangs into the tub skid too and could pick-up dust of both Titanium and aluminum curlyques. Bob Sailshaw Bob, when I spoke with Tom Kaye in Portland at the Symposium, he told me the Titanium found was similar to an aircarft alloy, and that Cooper was possibly involved with the SST development at Boeing. This was a reversal of his initital speculations that the titanium found on the tie was a non-aircraft alloy form of titanium called titanium sponge because of the presence of tell-tale chemical markers, most notably the chlorine and sulfur particles he also found on the tie. However, Tom and the CST later determined that the choline and sulfur most likely came from matchhead residues and not the natural form of titanium sponge. I need to write about this angle, as it gives strong inference that DB Cooper was a Boeing employee - picking up Ti particles on his clothing and learning about the jump capabilities of the 727. I like the scenario of Cooper leaning into the scrap tubs and having a tie dangle onto the goodies. I think Tom has discussed these findings here, but the situation is a bit murky so greater clarification is welcome in my view.

Can you please post a link so we can check it out. Thanks.

Greetings All, Meyer and I have returned from our foray to Amboy. My report is posted at the Mountain News: http://themountainnewswa.net/2012/05/14/the-hunt-for-db-cooper-looking-for-the-amboy-chute/ As far as I can tell, the Cooper Vortex has sucked in the chute and most of the townspeople. The Vortex is strong....

Not releasing information to the public? Sounds like my kind of people. I'll have to remember to take my charm pills this week! Galen also wrote me saying that Dona Elliott at the Ariel Tavern probably knows the individuals involved. Ariel will probably be our first stop.

As one of the few people here who have actually seen Jo Weber's ass, I feel compelled to tell y'all that it is defintely not fat. In fact, the woman needs to gain a bit o' weight. Now, if she had relented and let me take a picture of her, I could prove my point. Perhaps when she comes west next time...

Does anyone know exactly where the Amboy chute was found? I'm heading down there soon with Meyer Louie and I'd like to talke with the folks who found it. Any street addresses, names, etc? Thanks so much. If you do, perhaps it might be best to contct me directly: brucesmith@rainierconnect.com or (360) 832-6248 or PM me.

The short answer is I don't know. The longer answer is that Jayme and her family seem to think that it was close enough in time to the Cooper skyjacking for the grandfather, Stan Gilliam, to make a connection between the phone call and the hijacking. Jayme is saying maybe months before the skyjacking, which would make it still 1971 and not 1968. However, family discussions on the subject are now proceeding more robustly, and Jayme will have more to say on the subject in the near furture, I am sure. She made a video interview of her grandfather just before he passed away, and when that is reviewed I suspect more pertinent information will be forthcoming. One interesting note to come forth so far is from a brother who remembers the grandfather recounting how the Mysterious Caller was very concerned about impacts on the passengers when the aft stairs were opened in flight.

Some more information on the aft stairs. The skydiving and aviation expert who accompnaied me to Norman Hayden's place to inspect his parachute has emailed me to say that he knew Stan Gilliam very well. "Knew him all my life," was his quote. He also said that Gilliam knew more about the 727 than anyone else he ever met. Small World Item: Stan Gilliam met his wife while working at Thun Field, in South Hill, WA. This is the same field where Ron and Pat Forman met Barb Dayton. It is also the airfield where I was introduced to the Cooper story in August 2008.

Greetings Everyone, I received a hot lead from out of the blue last evening. A local author, Jayme Nimick, sent me a reminesce about her gradnfather, Stanley O Gilliam. Mr. Gilliam was a test pilot for Beoing for many years and apparently was involved in the Boeing Company's tests of the aft stairs for parachute drops. He told his family, and Jayme, that he believes he had been contacted by DB Cooper just before the skyjacking, asking Gilliam about the stairs. Here is her account: "My paternal grandfather Stanley O. Gilliam was a flight engineer for Boeing at the advent of commercial flight. He wrote portions of manuals still in use today. He served on test crews for the 707, 727, 737, and 747. When planes were purchased his crew would deliver the planes and stay to train foreign pilots. He met Moammar Gadhafi, who often tipped the Boeing crews with large amounts of cash, with which Grandpa paid off the mortgage on his downtown Puyallup home. He rented a house in Tokyo from Isoroku Yamamoto’s widow. Yamamoto was commander-in-chief and responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor, the fabled source of the quote, “I fear that all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant.” "Because of Grandma Eunice’s hoarding we have documentation of these implausible stories – flight logs, expense reports, even the rental agreement with Mrs. Yamamoto. Grandpa Stan gave us no reason to doubt him. He also taught each one of us to drive and always begin with a “pre-flight” check of the mirror positions. I loved my Grandpa. A mere two weeks before his death I filmed him telling a story that he had kept in his vault of secrets. "My memory is not sharp like my grandfather’s. This is why I write fiction. Here is my best recount: In 1971 Grandpa Stan was part of a test in which the aft staircase of a 727 was opened in flight to allow for the emergency release of cargo. The data and test were to show that the door could safely be opened to allow for items of about 18″ to pass through. "One day he was handed a phone by a man in his department, “Stan, he needs information from the aft staircase test…” "For the next several minutes Grandpa answered specific questions relating to the test. The conversation struck him as odd from beginning to end. Placing the phone back in its cradle he turned to the man who had given him the phone – who was responsible for checking clearance – and asked to whom he had been speaking. The man turned white - he had been too distracted to clear the caller. Grandpa turned white and swore at the man because he hadn’t asked for clearance either. "Not long after, D.B. Cooper famously hijacked Flight 305 – a Boeing 727 – from our local airport and allegedly escaped through the aft staircase. 18″ is a reasonable width measurement of a man wearing a parachute. As well as easily wide enough for, say, a huge bag of money. "My grandfather spent his life convinced that he was not only one of the few people to have carried on an extensive conversation with D.B. Cooper, he may have actually given him the knowledge necessary to complete his crime. "Deeply ashamed, he kept the story from Boeing and the F.B.I. Saving it instead for a deathbed confession." Ms. Nimick writes a blog, and this account can be found there: http://formersuburbanmom.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/d-b-cooper-and-the-aft-staircase/ This dove-tails very nicely with the information 377 gave the DBC symposium last November, when he revealed that leaders of a natioanl skydiving organization were able to wrangle thousands of pages of documents out of Boeing concerning their test program on the aft stairs, including the metrics to fly the 727 as a jump platform.

Cold down here in Florida (for us) dipping down into the 50's probably warm for your side of town

If you are under age 18, your parent or guardian must sign your application authorizing the Selective Service to register you when you turn age 18, why would you do this at such a young age being a C.O. You keep referring to current practices. I am now 69. Things were done differently back then. 15 was the age to register, not 18. *** This statement seems quite odd. Why was 15 the age to register? In New York, we had to register on our 18th birthday, and I've never heard of a variation anywhere else until your declaration, Bob. I was 18 in Septemeber 1967 - I remember the Vietnam era very well. I applied for my CO after my 2-S was canceled when dropped out of college in September 1969.

Has there been any consideration for the world's recent climate change? The weather I knew of back in the 80's is not the same as it is now. Could that be affecting the way rivers flow? I would appreciate just straight forward answers to my questions and not insults or snarkiness please. The short answer is "Yes," Global Climate Change has altered rain patterns in the Pacific Northwest, and thus, river flows. The more complete answer, though, is more difficult to convey; especially in teasing out how it may have impacted the transport of Cooper money to Tina's Bar from a point in the east. In general, the climate effects are mostly localized, such as flooding in individual river valleys, which has greatly increased. To whit: the Director of the Department of Emergency Managament of Pierce County told me that costs from flood damage have increased about 20% on average per year over the past 4-5 years. I have written about the governmental response to this dynamic when I was a newspaper reporter for the Eatonville (WA) Dispatch. Other journalists have covered this story as well, and the local joke is that we have a 1-in-a-100 year storm every couple of years or so. In fact, the Pierce County Council just voted to form a flood zone district with its own taxing power even though the council is 5-2 Republican, and folks on high ground are screaming. That said, the most logical river to deliver money to Tina's Bar is the Washougal, but I do not know of its flood history circa 1971-1980. However, others here do, and I hope they share the specifics. But that requires the money to get into the Washougal watershed before its wash-down, and that has a multitude of problems, not the least of which is the truthfulness of Bill Rataczak in his description of the flight path. Ralph Himmelsbach is on record as saying that Rataczak told him that 305 flew over the Washougal and not Victor 23. However, when I asked Bill to confirm, he was evasive and said he couldn't remember where he was that night. That kind of waffling on basic information drives much of what is written here, and lays the foundation for Bob Knoss' audience. As for gathering the facts of the case in a comprehensive fashion - that is my goal in my upcoming book: The Hunt for DB Cooper - The Resurgent Investigation into America's Only Unsolved Skyjacking, although many here desire that I find a title with a bit more punch, such as "Denuded DB Cooper - The Facts of the FBI's Bungling of America's Only Unsolved Skyjacking Stripped Totally Naked!" Pant....ahem.... Time Fighter, you clearly have a cognitive octane rating well in the 100s, so I hope you read Sluggo's account of the skyjacking, and mine, in the near future. I would think we could then take this conversation to the next level.

Greetings Time Warrior, and welcome to the DB Cooper case. One of the best collections of information on the Cooper skyjacking is "Sluggo's" website: http://n467us.com/index.htm Of course, I invite you to peruse my online news magazine, The Mountain News - WA, which specializes in the Cooper skyjacking since we're based in the heart of Cooper Country. http://themountainnewswa.net/category/db-cooper/ You can also use the search function at the DZ to hunt around for money facts, etc. It's not too easy, but it does give ya goodies eventually. By the way, your handle is quite intriguing. You fight time? If you'd care to explain, I'm all ears, or eyes as the case may be.

Retired FBI Nick O'Hara has been bandied about these pages a bit, so I took the opportunity provided by Vicki and others to contact Mr. O'Hara. I had a substantive interview with him, and I've posted it on the Mountain News-WA. http://themountainnewswa.net/2012/04/10/the-hunt-for-db-cooper-interview-with-nick-ohara-the-fbi-agent-who-shot-skyjacker-richard-mccoy/ I know it doesn't address all of the issues that have been subscribed to him over the past few weeks, but it is a worthy start in the exploration for answers.

... I'm asking if you enjoy being part of NORJAK. NO. I detest it. I was used. Unfairly, unwillingly, illegally. Nice guys, rotten tactics. Mean to Tina. Unforgivable. Answer your question? The whole thing stinks. Cover-up makes me puke. Happy? Why are you so sarcastic and hostile to me? I asked the only question I knew to ask, since you seemed to be enjoying the banter here and delight in being the center of attention.

Then you need to search your mind, Bruce. You are not blind, although you act like it sometimes. I thought you might be a voice of reason, but it appears your well-being is in the control of this mob. Shouldn't be confused, buddy. I have a grudge. I also respect my friends, even if they no longer call me friend. I detest lies with every ounce in my body. I have ZERO tolerance for lies. ZERO! This forum it would appear is a den of pure fabricators and nay sayers. I would liken it to a LIAR'S CLUB of specific topic. A Cover-Up Cooper Forum designed to combat the TRUTH that Jo Weber seeks. A KANGAROO COURT in the truest sense of the word, They even posted it!! That is the conclusion I see and the opinion I have formed over the time spent exchanging information and thoughts here in this Cauldron. If that is not apparent to you, Bruce, then I can't save you. Don't ever seek the truth here, as it will never be forthcoming. And you can take THAT to the bank. But don't accept a check from these guys. I'm not asking to be saved, Bob, nor asking for an analysis of the literary value of the DZ. Rather, I'm asking if you enjoy being part of NORJAK.

Bob, I'm still confused. Are you happy to be part of NORJAK?

A bit off topic, but a delightful montage video of the making of a Boeing 737. http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=zKnsyYbfC60&feature=popular

Who is TOG? ________________________ The Other Guy. The one we never mention because he is above ever having done anything. The guy with children. A pillar in the community. A really nice guy, who we can't name or Blevins will sue us for him. He is a name that has been changed to protect his character. I can live with that if it allows the whole story to be released. So, TOG is "The Other Guy." But what does that mean, exactly; the "other guy" of what? Is he a member of the flight crew? Or how is he connected to the skyjacking? What story are you trying to tell for him that he is not able to tell for himself? Further, I'm not sure how you feel about NORJAK Bob, and its players. You seem to be pleased that you are part of it, even though you were profoundly assaulted by them via the Bluebird activity. So, can you please tell us how you feel about these guys. Thanks.

I'm a little confused, Robert. Are you saying that Cooper took the Amboy chute out of its harness on the plane and threw the canopy out the door so that he could put the money in its container - or some similar kind of scenario? Is that how the Amboy chute gets to the ground without its harness and container? Also, I see no mention of the chute's dimensions or of Cossey's commentary, especially his view that the chute is a 30-foot cargo chute, which might explain the absence of a container and harness, but then begs the questions what the military was doing dropping cargo over Amboy, WA, circa 1946-1971.