The DB Cooper mystery continues...

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Winston

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DB Cooper Was Former Military Paratrooper From Michigan, Publisher Claims
17 May 2018

https://www.military.com/off-duty/2...ry-paratrooper-michigan-publisher-claims.html

The mysterious plane hijacker known as "D.B. Cooper," who has eluded authorities for more than 45 years, was an ex-military paratrooper from Michigan who boasted about the daring heist to a friend, a publisher plans to reveal Thursday.

Michigan publisher Principa Media says Cooper was former military paratrooper and intelligence operative Walter R. Reca, and Principa worked with Reca's best friend, Carl Laurin, in compiling the evidence. While the publisher did not disclose if Reca was still alive, an obituary online lists Reca, of Oscada, Mich., as having died in 2014 at the age of 80.

"Evidence, including almost-daily discussions over a 14-year period and 3+ hours of audio recordings featuring the skyjacker, was compiled by Reca’s best friend. It was then analyzed by a Certified Fraud Examiner and forensic linguist," the publisher said in a news release. "The audio recordings, created in 2008, include Reca discussing skyjacking details that were not known to the public prior to the FBI’s information release in 2015."

The publishing company worked with Laurin for the memoir "D.B. Cooper & Me: A Criminal, A Spy, My Best Friend," and plans to present evidence at a press conference on Thursday in Grand Rapids linking the crime to Reca. Evidence includes:

Witness testimony from an individual who spoke with Reca within an hour of his jump
Documentation concerning how the $200,000 in stolen cash was spent
Confessions from Reca to two individuals at two different times
An article of clothing Reca wore during the jump

In 1971, on the night before Thanksgiving, a man calling himself Dan Cooper, wearing a black tie and a suit, boarded a Seattle-bound Boeing 727 in Oregon and told a flight attendant he had a bomb in a briefcase. He gave her a note demanding ransom. After the plane landed he released the 36 passengers in exchange for $200,000 in ransom money and parachutes. The ransom was paid in $20 bills.


D. B. Cooper

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper

He extorted $200,000 in ransom (equivalent to $1,210,000 in 2017).

Evidence suggested that Cooper was knowledgeable about technique, aircraft, and the terrain. He demanded four parachutes to force the assumption that he might compel one or more hostages to jump with him, thus ensuring he would not be deliberately supplied with sabotaged equipment.[99] He chose a 727-100 aircraft because it was ideal for a bail-out escape, due not only to its aft airstair but also the high, aftward placement of all three engines, which allowed a reasonably safe jump without risk of immediate incineration by jet exhaust. It had "single-point fueling" capability, a recent innovation that allowed all tanks to be refueled rapidly through a single fuel port. It also had the ability (unusual for a commercial jet airliner) to remain in slow, low-altitude flight without stalling; and Cooper knew how to control its airspeed and altitude without entering the cockpit, where he could have been overpowered by the three pilots.[100] In addition, Cooper was familiar with important details, such as the appropriate flap setting of 15 degrees (which was unique to that aircraft), and the typical refueling time. He knew that the aft airstair could be lowered during flight—a fact never disclosed to civilian flight crews, since there was no situation on a passenger flight that would make it necessary—and that its operation, by a single switch in the rear of the cabin, could not be overridden from the cockpit.[101] Some of this knowledge was virtually unique to CIA paramilitary units.[102] [102 = Himmelsbach, Ralph P.; Worcester, Thomas K. (1986). "Norjak: The Investigation of D. B. Cooper." West Linn, Oregon: Norjak Project. ISBN 978-0-9617415-0-1. (Himmelsbach was the FBI's chief investigator on the case until his retirement in 1980; "Norjak" is FBI shorthand for the Cooper hijacking.)]
 
Been a number of interesting investigative TV shows recently...

"No experienced parachutist would have jumped in the pitch-black night, in the rain, with a 200-mile-an-hour wind in his face, wearing loafers and a trench coat. It was simply too risky. He also missed that his reserve 'chute was only for training, and had been sewn shut—something a skilled skydiver would have checked. "He also failed to bring or request a helmet, chose to jump with the older and technically inferior of the two primary parachutes supplied to him,and jumped into a −70 °F (−57 °C) wind chill without proper protection against the extreme cold."

If he was an experienced parachutist, you would think he would've brought aboard a better parachute, or demanded one.....something that had better control....the paracommander was available back in 1962.

db-cooper2.jpg
 
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Been a number of interesting investigative TV shows recently...

"No experienced parachutist would have jumped in the pitch-black night, in the rain, with a 200-mile-an-hour wind in his face, wearing loafers and a trench coat. It was simply too risky. He also missed that his reserve 'chute was only for training, and had been sewn shut—something a skilled skydiver would have checked. "He also failed to bring or request a helmet, chose to jump with the older and technically inferior of the two primary parachutes supplied to him,and jumped into a −70 °F (−57 °C) wind chill without proper protection against the extreme cold."

If he was an experienced parachutist, you would think he would've brought aboard a better parachute, or demanded one.....something that had better control....the paracommander was available back in 1962.

Also, his choice of the Washington-Oregon border area to jump on the way to his supposedly desired Mexico destination was pretty stupid. There would have been MUCH better/safer areas to jump over.

Also, since the serial numbers of the cash given to him were, of course, recorded, did he just manage to drop $20s from two strapped stacks of 100 $20 bills, fragments of which were found much later, or is it a sign of a much worse end for him?

Money_stolen_by_D._B._Cooper.jpg


Also, in the story above, he claims he deposited the money in a bank. Although I'm sure he must have done that gradually if he did and while I can imagine that banks can't necessarily be that vigilant about looking for particular serial numbers, that would still be a pretty stupid thing to do AND the fact that NONE of the bills were ever found in circulation makes me think the banking claim is dubious.
 
Also, his choice of the Washington-Oregon border area to jump on the way to his supposedly desired Mexico destination was pretty stupid. There would have been MUCH better/safer areas to jump over.

Also, since the serial numbers of the cash given to him were, of course, recorded, did he just manage to drop $20s from two strapped stacks of 100 $20 bills, fragments of which were found much later, or is it a sign of a much worse end for him?

Money_stolen_by_D._B._Cooper.jpg


Also, in the story above, he claims he deposited the money in a bank. Although I'm sure he must have done that gradually if he did and while I can imagine that banks can't necessarily be that vigilant about looking for particular serial numbers, that would still be a pretty stupid thing to do AND the fact that NONE of the bills were ever found in circulation makes me think the banking claim is dubious.

IIRC the recent shows posited theories to explain the serial correct bills found in the shoreline river banks...far from the jump/exit location:

- he landed in the water, drowned in his parachute gear and a ship in the river dragged the chute and money sack on its prop for a distance.
- he survived the jump...came back and buried some of the money to throw people off his trail.

Still, most of the bills have not been found in circulation - why - is strange...
 
"Also, his choice of the Washington-Oregon border area to jump on the way to his supposedly desired Mexico destination was pretty stupid. There would have been MUCH better/safer areas to jump over."

Not if you are purposely trying to disappear. Downtown Portland would not be optimal for a landing zone. Rather if he planned this whole routine in such detail, he would know approximately where he was based on aircraft heading and ground velocity when he made his exit.

"Also, in the story above, he claims he deposited the money in a bank. "

This can mean several things. 'Deposited' could be via a teller with the money going into their local reserve and circulated currency. Or, it could mean into a safe deposit box. If the latter, it could be withdrawn at his leisure and time of choosing.
 
the national enquirer reported some time ago that hes alive and well and a groundkeeper at graceland along with elvis.:eyeroll:
Joke I've pulled several times - "Wanna' see my Elvis impression?" "OK."

One then does their best impression of a dead person.
 
"Also, his choice of the Washington-Oregon border area to jump on the way to his supposedly desired Mexico destination was pretty stupid. There would have been MUCH better/safer areas to jump over."

Not if you are purposely trying to disappear. Downtown Portland would not be optimal for a landing zone. Rather if he planned this whole routine in such detail, he would know approximately where he was based on aircraft heading and ground velocity when he made his exit.

"Also, in the story above, he claims he deposited the money in a bank. "

This can mean several things. 'Deposited' could be via a teller with the money going into their local reserve and circulated currency. Or, it could mean into a safe deposit box. If the latter, it could be withdrawn at his leisure and time of choosing.
None of the money was ever found in circulation. Also, there are many areas with huge tracts of much safer terrain than the Oregon/Washington border, especially on a moonless night long before GPS could have told him his exact location.

I'd love to hear the testimony from the aircraft crew on specifics, but have never read any books about this. Lots of details here which I've only quickly scanned over:

https://martinandrade.wordpress.com/category/crime/d-b-cooper/
 
A crucial piece of evidence to unraveling DB Cooper's identity is a chemical analysis, performed within the past decade, on his clip-on necktie. Cooper likely had frequent exposure to exotic chemicals from working in the tech industry. (Or he obtained the tie from somebody who did!) Also working against Walter Reca's ID as DB Cooper is that Reca does not seem to have spent extensive time in the Pacific Northwest.

I like Martin Andrade's theory that Cooper was "Dan LeClerc," but LeClerc is just as elusive as DB Cooper!
 
DB Cooper was involved in MACV SOG and that's why he's never been caught. CIA sandbagged the case.

Sport parachuting was relatively unknown at the time, and no sport parachutist was going to possess the know how to drop the rear stairwell let alone have the gumption to jump. Regular army airborne troops wouldn't have that knowledge or practical experience in freefall techniques etc.

My brother was an army paratrooper and possesses absolutely no freefall skills as they are all static line jumps. I have 1000 skydives and 350 base jumps and he is in disbelief at the things I have done.
 
DB Cooper was involved in MACV SOG and that's why he's never been caught. CIA sandbagged the case.

Sport parachuting was relatively unknown at the time, and no sport parachutist was going to possess the know how to drop the rear stairwell let alone have the gumption to jump. Regular army airborne troops wouldn't have that knowledge or practical experience in freefall techniques etc.
My brother was an army paratrooper and possesses absolutely no freefall skills as they are all static line jumps. I have 1000 skydives and 350 base jumps and he is in disbelief at the things I have done.

Yeah, pretty much, I was in sport parachuting, after '71...'74 until about '83 - we were still doing static lines and progressively longer freefalls as part of sport parachute training…..the square was new (Steve Snyders StratoStar, Paraplane Cloud), and there were no tandems or AFF to advance as quickly as they do today.
Maybe the guy could've been a more active sport parachutist at one of the commercial centers back then, but if he was...….I don't think he would've jumped that lousy gear he was given.
The air stair, well, maybe he had insider info that a regular sport parachutist didn't have....who knows?


You base jump?....You Crazy ! :headbang:
My two favorite vids.....(I 'd say Blueskies...but I don't know what base jumpers say. LOL
https://youtu.be/xC13iTJ11nU
[video=youtube;xC13iTJ11nU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC13iTJ11nU[/video]
https://youtu.be/3ycBGkLkEkg
[video=youtube;3ycBGkLkEkg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ycBGkLkEkg[/video]
 
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Yeah, pretty much, I was in sport parachuting, after '71...'74 until about '83 - we were still doing static lines and progressively longer freefalls as part of sport parachute training…..the square was new (Steve Snyders StratoStar, Paraplane Cloud), and there were no tandems or AFF to advance as quickly as they do today.
Maybe the guy could've been a more active sport parachutist at one of the commercial centers back then, but if he was...….I don't think he would've jumped that lousy gear he was given.
The air stair, well, maybe he had insider info that a regular sport parachutist didn't have....who knows?


You base jump?....You Crazy ! :headbang:
My two favorite vids.....(I 'd say Blueskies...but I don't know what base jumpers say. LOL

The first guy Douggs I know well. I also knew his Aussie buddies Slim (RIP) and Coombsey (RIP)

The girl wingsuiting Baffin is Melissa Andrzejewski. Know her well. She's a professional acrobatic pilot. Youtube those videos, she's sick. Pretty sure Jimmy Hall died on that particular Baffin trip though.

Ted Strong invented the tandem in the mid 80's to let SF teams bring non-SF specialists into missions. The FAA FARs didn't allow him to test the tandem from planes originally, so the first deployments were actually BASE jumps in West Virginia. I met Ted a couple times. He's dead now from a skydiving incident.

I've jumped 140' freeway overcrossings (San Diego, CA) , 160' cliff (Riverside, CA), 160' cranes (Santa Ana, CA), 180' buildings (Irvine, CA) up to 2000' antennas (aerials in BASE speak) and 5000' cliffs. El Capitan, Half Dome, Tombstone, the Grand Canyon, Coney Island Parachute Ride, the Eiger, the Mushroom, Troll Wall and the balloon at the Irvine Great Park (statute of limitations is over FTW). Every tall bridge in the country, bunch of short ones too. Broke my leg 8 years ago or so. Was too busy to get canopy current again to get back to BASE jumping proficiency and now I'm a father so that's off the table.

As a novice rocket afficiendo, I do have ideas that stem from my BASE and rigging experience to transfer over to this hobby specifically in canopy/parachute design. Like the way rockets oscillate under the parachute...it's totally unnecessary with a properly designed parachute.

Here's Slim's memorial video

https://youtu.be/RNdRUQ_eUF8
 
The first guy Douggs I know well. I also knew his Aussie buddies Slim (RIP) and Coombsey (RIP)
The girl wingsuiting Baffin is Melissa Andrzejewski. Know her well. She's a professional acrobatic pilot. Youtube those videos, she's sick. Pretty sure Jimmy Hall died on that particular Baffin trip though.
Ted Strong invented the tandem in the mid 80's to let SF teams bring non-SF specialists into missions. The FAA FARs didn't allow him to test the tandem from planes originally, so the first deployments were actually BASE jumps in West Virginia. I met Ted a couple times. He's dead now from a skydiving incident.
I've jumped 140' freeway overcrossings (San Diego, CA) , 160' cliff (Riverside, CA), 160' cranes (Santa Ana, CA), 180' buildings (Irvine, CA) up to 2000' antennas (aerials in BASE speak) and 5000' cliffs. El Capitan, Half Dome, Tombstone, the Grand Canyon, Coney Island Parachute Ride, the Eiger, the Mushroom, Troll Wall and the balloon at the Irvine Great Park (statute of limitations is over FTW). Every tall bridge in the country, bunch of short ones too. Broke my leg 8 years ago or so. Was too busy to get canopy current again to get back to BASE jumping proficiency and now I'm a father so that's off the table.
As a novice rocket afficiendo, I do have ideas that stem from my BASE and rigging experience to transfer over to this hobby specifically in canopy/parachute design. Like the way rockets oscillate under the parachute...it's totally unnecessary with a properly designed parachute. Here's Slim's memorial video
https://youtu.be/RNdRUQ_eUF8

Pleasure to make your acquaintance.

I wasn't in the sport long enough to meet these folks...I jumped with a small club made up of locals and VaTech students at an airfield in Dublin VA.
One hot summer day after VA Tech closed for the year, I did go out to the drop zone and waited around in the early morning heat for a load to form up.
Waited, and waited, and waited - thinking everyone had left school for the summer, I was about to leave..and then along comes this older country couple in their custom color coordinated Pioneer jumpsuits...husband and wife team.
They were looking to do a jump that day, so we had a load.
On the way up, he proceeds to tell me about his first jump, the one where he tried to do a "John Wayne" stand up on landing …....under a cheapo.
Broke both his legs on that jump. His wife hurt her back.
Despite a long spot that put us all on the far end of the runways in some really hot, thin summer air, we all did goof PLFs and did just fine.
Turns out it was Burton Ervin and his wife...he eventually did the first BASE that was done off of New River Gorge Bridge.
The guy who packed his rig for that bridge jump, Tinker Hillman, jumped at our club too, along with a number of other really cool guys, Buzz Conner, Larry Riddle, and a young guy Mike French who went on to be a Tandem Instructor at Skydive Orange.

Also jumping there at the time was Terry Queijo; she put together a all girl 4 way RW team, went on to make history in the first all women flight crew on a commercial flight (American Airlines) and more recently as alternate pilot for the commemorative (as seen on PBS TV) 100 year anniversary Wright flyer recreation with one Scott Crossfield (Mr. Right Stuff/X-15 jockey advising).

Sorry to hear of these losses, great folks from the sound of it. I seem to recall one famous skydive camera man of this era also lost his life doing what he loved...Carl Boenish.
Did the aerial work for one of my favorite films Gypsy Moths....was also a pioneer base jumper at El Cap IIRC.

Parachutes for rockets, we have a guy that posts here that I fly with.... sewed his own chute for his L3...beautiful workmanship,...his brother is a rigger for the USA IIRC.
He was working on a RC controlled square for a rocket project...to bring it home closer....the Jolly Logic Chute Release may have taken out some of the need for that - but it would be fun.
 
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The first guy Douggs I know well. I also knew his Aussie buddies Slim (RIP) and Coombsey (RIP)
The girl wingsuiting Baffin is Melissa Andrzejewski. Know her well. She's a professional acrobatic pilot. Youtube those videos, she's sick. Pretty sure Jimmy Hall died on that particular Baffin trip though.
Ted Strong invented the tandem in the mid 80's to let SF teams bring non-SF specialists into missions. The FAA FARs didn't allow him to test the tandem from planes originally, so the first deployments were actually BASE jumps in West Virginia. I met Ted a couple times. He's dead now from a skydiving incident.
Here's Slim's memorial video
https://youtu.be/RNdRUQ_eUF8

Well, we can unfortunately add anther name to the list...
I was watching the news this evening and just learned of the death of one of the best, well known skydivers in the USA......began in the very early days of the sport. Jumped at West Point VA.
Carol Clay...had over 16,000 jumps, think she also had a 24hour in freefall badge. Still active at age 68 - Died after a hard opening at a skydive festival yesterday in S. Carolina
RIP - a great lady.
https://www.skydivethepoint.com/dropzone-history/carol-the-queen-clay/
https://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/article212323394.html
https://parachutistonline.com/p/Article/profiles-carolyn-clay

Carols-early-jumps1 (2).jpg

Gear-Check1-209x300 (2).jpg

Queen-+-31-400x300.jpg
 
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Well, we can unfortunately add anther name to the list...
I was watching the news this evening and just learned of the death on one of the best, well known skydivers in the USA......began in the very early days of the sport. Jumped at West Point VA.
Carol Clay...had over 16,000 jumps, think she also had a 24hour in freefall badge. Still active at age 68 - Died after a hard opening at a skydive festival yesterday in S. Carolina
RIP - a great lady.
https://www.skydivethepoint.com/dropzone-history/carol-the-queen-clay/
https://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/article212323394.html
https://parachutistonline.com/p/Article/profiles-carolyn-clay

Sorry to hear.

When you said hard opening I assumed she didn't set her slider properly. But her husband said she had a good canopy and then "diver error". Sounds like a low turn.
 
Also, his choice of the Washington-Oregon border area to jump on the way to his supposedly desired Mexico destination was pretty stupid.

Also, in the story above, he claims he deposited the money in a bank. Although I'm sure he must have done that gradually if he did and while I can imagine that banks can't necessarily be that vigilant about looking for particular serial numbers, that would still be a pretty stupid thing to do AND the fact that NONE of the bills were ever found in circulation makes me think the banking claim is dubious.
If he actually headed for Mexico, it would have been pretty easy to divert through Las Vegas. In the "pre-electronics era", it would have been fairly simple for Cooper to "launder" the money in the Casino's, perhaps over a period of time. Since the Mafia was also doing their own money laundering, they would certainly have not called the "authorities", if the serial numbers of the bills in question showed up, from time to time.

Dave F.
 
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