FBI: Found parachute may be D.B. Cooper's

[Mrs. Overall]

Source: KOMO News

SEATTLE -- A parachute unearthed in Southwest Washington could explain whether D.B. Cooper survived his leap from a plane 36 years ago. The man calling himself Dan Cooper, also known as D.B. Cooper, boarded a Northwest flight in Portland for a flight to Seattle on the night of Nov, 24, 1971, and commandeered the plane, claiming he had dynamite.

In Seattle, he demanded and got $200,000 and four parachutes and demanded to be flown to Mexico. Somewhere over southwestern Washington, he jumped out of the plane's tail exit with two of the chutes and the money strapped to his body. He was never seen again, alive or dead.

Cooper's crime has kept investigators guessing over the decades. But the parachute, which was recently dug up by the children of a Clark County farmer in the area where the mysterious skyjacker likely landed, has raised new questions.

The FBI is now reevaluating the case and looking for people who had experience parachuting in the 1970s to help identify the chute. Those who wish to contact investigators can do so on the FBI's Web site.
Several people have claimed to be Cooper over the years but were dismissed on the basis of physical descriptions, parachuting experience and, later, by DNA evidence recovered in 2001 from the cheap tie the skyjacker left on the plane.



Read more: http://www.komotv.com/news/17000841.html

[mallard]

1. Another milestone quasi miracle ...

... for SW Wshington. Spirit of Spirit Lake not completely lost.

[bluestateguy]

2. The FBI is still wasting time over D.B. Cooper?

And then we wonder why the anthrax killer is still running free.

Does the FBI have a task force to find Eleanor Jarman too?

[Bobbieo]

6. How about Jimmy Hoffa?

[Swagman]

12. wasn't Jimmy Hoffa also DB Cooper ?

[underpants]

23. He's the only one who ever "got away with it"

The FBI don't like that too much

[devilgrrl]

3. Oh please with that idiot.

:boring:

[uppityperson]

4. Thanks for posting this, I hadn't seen it and find it interesting.

I don't think the FBI is wasting much time on it, but interesting that something more may have been found. Sort of like just clearing up an old mystery. Read the only book and find the last 5 pages are missing.

[AP]

5. So what's the statute of limitations for hijacking?

[bluestateguy]

7. Good question

He didn't kill anyone (muder has no SOL), so I wonder if he is free to come out of hiding now, if he is still alive.

[countryjake]

10. There is none on skyjacking...

according to what our local news just reported. They said the FBI still considers it an open case.

[dysfunctional press]

46. once you're charged, there is no statute of limitations.

they know who he was/is- he can be hunted til he dies. and then some, possibly.

[olddad56]

8. He was really the CEO of an investment bank. Lot of DB Coopers these days.

[Ganja Ninja]

15. Good analogy. n/t

[splat]

9. It's one of our culture's mysteries, like loch ness -- everybody will talk about it today

This stuff is common lore, good candy.

[Up2Late]

11. Seriously? What do they mean by "dug up"? Because if it has been outside all this time...

...it would probably have disintegrated or been eaten by bugs or worms by now. I would think most parachutes were still silk back then.

[Submariner]

13. It is likely DB buried it after landing like GI's did in WWII n/t

[Ganja Ninja]

14. $200,000 isn't even worth the effort today. n/t

[rasputin1952]

16. LOL...I have to agree...and when you figure the cash was ...

"marked" anyway, where would he spend it?

There was a story some time back of some kids finding old cash by a river they thought might have been part of the Cooper cash...:shrug:

I still have to wonder what would have gone through his head if the bag/case opened and all of that cash just floated away on the wind...I figure that would be an, "oh shit" moment...:D

[olddad56]

32. If you bailed out with $200,000 today, it would only be worth $175,000 when you hit the ground

[trof]

17. D.B. was responsible for small modification to 727.

The 'tail exit' referred to above is the aft airstairs.
And yes, they COULD be lowered in flight, but why would you do that?
We found out why.

The mod was to mount a springloaded swiveling wind vane to a metal bar.

At fairly low airspeeds the slipstream would move the bar so that it blocked opening the airstairs.
Some called it the 'Cooper switch'.
Part of the pre-flight is to reach up and flip it to make sure it was operational.

[LostinVA]

21. VERY interesting -- thanks for posting!

[hedgehog]

18. Following up on an old case isn't all bad, but bringing in the blood hounds to track his trail......

[soothsayer]

19. snore

[Mrs. Overall]

20. Sorry you are so easily bored....

Some of us devour political/societal issues and find other aspects of life fascinating as well--like reading about Jesse James' body being exhumed, the new insect found in Brazil, the local amputee who climbs a mountain.

Obviously this story is getting quite a few views--if you are so disinterested, why were you compelled to click (and give it a nice bump to the top)?

[LostinVA]

22. I love this stuff, too

[medeak]

24. thanks for this

for those old enough to remember...it's been an urban legend never resolved.

[Xithras]

25. I suspect that a careful examination of the chute area will turn up a skeleton.

The description in the article doesn't make it sound like the chute was rolled up and buried, but was extended and just below the surface. They also cut the ropes off and left some of it in the ground...including the harness. My guess is that a skeleton lays at the other end of those ropes.

The man jumped over unknown territory, in the dark, in a heavy rainstorm, over dense forest, with only a light parachute. The odds of a highly experienced jumper surviving that are small. The odds of an amateur? Nearly nil.

My theory has always been that he did die in the jump, and that his body was found by a local shortly thereafter. The person who found it probably decided to keep the money, so they kept their mouth shut about the discovery. We also know that the money found in the Columbia was placed there AFTER 1974, so it appears that someone had second thoughts and dumped the money in the river at some point (perhaps they were planning on spending it after the governments attention died down, and eventually feared prosecution when they discovered that it wouldn't).

My theory, of course, isn't worth any more than that of anyone elses. Just take a walk through a Washington forest sometime and try to picture yourself plunging into it from above, in the dark, in a heavy rainstorm though, and you'll see where I'm coming from. I think the FBI is correct in their guess that a jump like that wouldn't be survivable.

[eppur_se_muova]

29. Just a reminder to anyone who finds possible evidence -- criminal, historical, fossil, etc.--

MARK the spot well, with something weatherproof.

Take PICTURES if you can. Even a rough sketch is better than nothing. If you do have a camera, photograph the object from several angles. Preferably, take a series of pictures at various angles around the object. Software can then be used to reconstruct a 3D image. (Two pictures at ~5-10 degrees apart will give you a stereoview.)

MAP the spot as carefully as you can. Draw sightlines to several landmarks in the area. Better too many than too few. Be especially thorough if you do not know the area well.

Finallly, RECOVER only those small, loose items that can be removed without causing damage. With fossils, this usually means only teeth. If the find is fragile, it may be better to cover it with sand or dirt than to try to remove it.

LEAVE the rest to the experts. An enormous amount of evidence can be destroyed simply by moving and reorienting objects. Much of the evidence is in the environment, and the relationship between the objects found and their environment. Bodily removing them destroys that relationship, and it cannot be reconstructed in most cases.

[eppur_se_muova]

30. Sounds like a good theory to me. Surprising to read this ...

"If this is D.B. Cooper's chute, then that whole theory about the finding of the money is gone," said {FBI agent} Carr. "Where the money was recovered, there's no way (they were his). There are no tributaries that feed in that direction."

One would think that the FBI would be the first to suspect the involvement of a second ... oh, wait. Maybe not.

[Xithras]

41. The money WAS his, no question.

The serials were checked and matched. The big question has always been "How did it end up in the distant Columbia?"

There has always been the nagging possibility that the FBI simply got his jump time wrong and that he really did splash down and drown in the river. The jump location was simply a guess based on a bounce detected from the stairway, but there's no solid evidence that the bump was really him jumping. It might just have been turbulence.

If the chute is verified as his, it ends the wrong-location idea and pretty much leaves us with two possibilities. 1) He survived. 2) He died and someone else took the money. If a skeleton is found in the area, we'll know it's #2.

[gateley]

26. Coast to Coast AM has had some very interesting shows

with this guy:

Galen Cook is an attorney in Washington State and a former private investigator. He has been working independently on the D.B. Cooper mystery since 1982 and has a wealth of information about the case, as well as his own well-developed theory. Also, Galen sued the FBI in federal court in Seattle, WA in 2004, to get the FBI's Cooper case files opened to the public.

(I'm looking for a website for him)

He provided these photos:



Galen Cook has provided another photo of the D.B. Cooper suspect (middle top). For comparison, it is pictured next to FBI composite drawings (left and right, modified by C2C listener Kent B.) as well as a photo previously provided by Cook of the Cooper suspect (middle bottom).



Photo taken in 1973 during award ceremony at Fort Lewis, Washington. Suspect was a U.S. Army SFC. Note the medal located directly above the ribbons (over suspect's heart). This is the suspect's "Jump Wings," a medal depicting a deployed parachute with wings. There was no HALO (high-altitude, low-opening) uniform insignia in the 1960s or 1970s, however, the suspect's son distinctly remembers his father practicing military HALO jumps at night.

[InternalDialogue]

27. Can't help but post lyrics to one of my favorite songs

D.B. Cooper
by Todd Snider

D.B Cooper was 43 when we first heard his name
47 miles away from where he fell down to his fame
But he told me that the hardest part wasn't really jumping out of the plane
It was spending the night watching those lights
Shine through the pouring rain

They had a man hunt that next morning like nothing I had ever seen
I was only 8 years old at the time watching on a TV screen
They were saying he was never gonna make it now, now that daylight had set in
But later that night they were shining those lights
Down on the mountain again

Not far away from the City of Roses
They all watched those lights up through the rain
For D.B. Cooper

The cops blocked off all the exit roads and turned loose all of the hounds
They even dragged the river up a couple of times to see if he had drowned
With all those men working overtime they swore they would bring him down
But a parachute and a few hundred dollars
Was all that they ever found

Not far away from the City of Roses
They all watched those lights up through the rain

Now some people say that he died up there somewhere in the rain and the wind
Other people say that he got away but his girlfriend did him in
The law men say if he is out there someday they're gonna bring him in
As for me, I hope they never see
D.B. Cooper again

Not far away from the City of Roses
A light shined from a house out in the rain
It was D.B. Cooper
Drinking champagne

[superconnected]

28. All they had to do was give him 4 improperly folded parashoots

Can't see them not considering giving him bad ones.

so the most interesting thing I'm reading here is that he trusted the gov to give him parashoots when he would be a felon on the run. And then he used them.

scary.

Times must have been different then - for both the gov and the perp to trust each other like that.

[happyslug]

31. To give him a chute that would not open is called MURDER.

The Federal Government can use force to stop a theft, they can even shoot someone they think is armed, but the Government can not just kill a felon without some justification that it was necessary to protect someone's life. Leaving D.B. Cooper escaping by parachute is NOT preventing an felon from doing harm to another (Financial harm does NOT count).

Furthermore in mid-1960s the Supreme Court had to rule on the common law rule that it was legal to kill a felon to prevent him from escaping. The Court ruled that Common Law Rule was unconstitutional for it denied the accused his day in court (i.e. violated the felon's right to Due Process). The case used by the Supreme Court did NOT involve a felon who was a danger to anyone else, he was just a felon running away from the Police. The Court ruled, unless the felon is believed to be armed or otherwise is a danger to himself or others, the Police had no right to kill him just because he was an escaping felon (The case itself was a lawsuit so the Police had to pay, to my knowledge no charges were ever filed against the officer who did the shooting).

Thus by the time D.B. Cooper made his move, it was clear killing D.B. Cooper, unless you can show it was to prevent him from killing someone else, would make the law enforcement officers who did it liable for his death (At least being sued, just for the bad parachute, and maybe even charged with murder). No Law Enforcement Officer or airline was going to take that risk.

[olddad56]

33. yeah, our government would never commit murder, just ask the Iraqis

[happyslug]

36. My point was the FBI and the Airlines were NOT about to murder D.B. Copper

D.B. Cooper was clearly NOT a harm to anyone if he jumped. He might of had a bomb (At least he claimed he had one) and thus killing him on the ground or in the plane would have been legal, for the bomb was a danger to the crew of the Plane. The problem was once he jumped he was NO LONGER A THREAT TO ANYONE. That is when the Parachute would have operated and killed D.B. Copper by not opening. That is Murder.

In fact some soldiers have been tried for Murder in Iraq, the ones I have read were convicted of lesser charges, but they did commit some crime. In warfare death of Civilians happen, that is NOT murder unless it is a deliberate purpose of the Military to kill unarmed Civilians. Again the issue is what is the potential harm to US Soldiers or other Civilians? If no potential harm then to kill a Civilian is Murder, but if a potential harm exists (and this can exist only in the mind of of the Soldier, Marine, Sailor or Airmen who orders the Attack) then that is a valid military operation and the resulting dead civilians are not murder.

Thus the issue what is the potential harm of the person who is the target of the attack? If such potential harms exists, the resulting death is NOT murder, if the potential harm does NOT exist even in the mind of the person who ordered the attack that is Murder even In Iraq.

[olddad56]

38. you are scary

[happyslug]

44. Scary? I am just repeating the law.

The law can Scare people, and often does, but it is the rules of our Society.

[olddad56]

47. and you want to believe that the people in power play by the laws.

that is scary to me.

[superconnected]

35. Well actually that's good news. Thanks!

[Xithras]

37. FYI, one of the chutes, a chute he used, was NOT real.

Cooper requested 4 chutes. Two were back-worn primaries, and two were front-worn backups. Three were real, but one of the front-worn backups was a non-deployable training chute. According to the FBI, it was an inadvertent mixup discovered only during the investigation AFTER the fact.

Two of the chutes were found on the plane. One of the back worn chutes had been opened and checked, but was otherwise unused. The useable front-worn chute was also opened, and Cooper had cut several of the cords apparently to tie the money to himself. The other "real" main chute, and the nonfunctional reserve, were missing.

If Cooper ran into trouble with his main and needed that backup, he would have died with a soggy thump in the middle of a dark forest.

[happyslug]

43. If he had died, that error would have made someone liable

Given that it was accidental, no criminal liability would have kicked in, but his heirs could have sued whoever made the chute and put it in the plane liable. Given he either died on the Jump (and no one ever found his body so his relatives could not file a lawsuit for all their know he skipped to Cuba instead of Hi-Jacking this plane for money) OR he survived (No harm no liability). Either way the FBI is safe from a lawsuit (Unless they find his body and ID him and his family finds out WHY he has been missing these 35 years was a defective back up chute then the FBI can be liable for providing him a bad Chute).

[happyslug]

40. I read he was given TWO defective parachutes.

Can't find a cite right now, but he used one of the two GOOD parachutes. This was either by luck or after careful examination (The former is considered the case). The reason two defective parachutes were given (at least in the story I read) was he wanted a certain type of Chute and only two good ones of that type were in the area. Thus to please him they gave him four parachutes (The FBI thought he was bluffing with the chutes anyway), Two good ones and two defective ones.

I question the story, for to give him two bad chutes and if he had used one of them rather then a good one someone would have been liable, but it is story I read about the hi-jacking.

[Xithras]

42. My understanding is that only one was bad.

One of the reserve chutes, the one he jumped with, was a nonfunctional training chute. The other three were real.

[happyslug]

45. I just remember reading about the defective Chutes.

It has been years since I read about the Defective Chutes. I can NOT find a reference right now to confirm my re-collection and your statement sound correct. I just reported what I remember and that is all.

[sofa king]

34. If a dead guy and $200K in REAL money landed on my property....

...I'd consider burying the parachute, too.

Just pointing out that this is not conclusive evidence that the perpetrator survived.

But really, yeah, I'd probably try to keep the money. 'Cause I'm greedy, I guess.

[Xithras]

39. Yep. That was a lot of money, and a very poor area, back then.

Personally, that's what I think happened. The body was found, and instead of calling the authorities, someone took the money, covered the remains, and fled. $200,000 in 1970's dollars is the equivalent of a couple million today.