New Suspect Found in D.B. Cooper Skyjacking Mystery

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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New Suspect Found in D.B. Cooper Skyjacking Mystery


The FBI says it has a new suspect in the D.B. Cooper skyjacking mystery, a daring, decades-old heist that has become a piece of American folklore.

In November 1971, a man using the name Dan Cooper boarded Northwest Orient Airlines flight 305, taking a seat near the rear of the Boeing 727 passenger cabin. He ordered a bourbon and water, and lit a cigarette. He then told a flight attendant that he had a bomb, forcing the plane to land at Seattle-Tacoma, where he was given a $200,000 ransom and four parachutes. He released the other passengers; the plane refueled and took off. A little over a half-hour into the second flight, with the flight crew confined to the cockpit, Cooper strapped on his parachutes and jumped - and was never seen again.

In the years following the heist, small pieces of potential evidence have turned up in the forests of Washington, in or around the area where it's estimated that he took the plunge, including three packets of the ransom cash and the instructions for lowering the rear stairs of a 727. But of the man who would come to be known as D.B. Cooper, there was not a trace to be found, and now, four decades later, his legend is secure.

But the FBI revealed yesterday that it may yet be able to put a name and a face to the country's best-loved skyjacker. "We actually do have a new suspect we're looking at. And it comes from a credible lead who came to our attention recently via a law enforcement colleague," FBI spokeswoman Ayn Sandolo Dietrich told The Telegraph [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/8667855/The-40-year-mystery-of-Americas-greatest-skyjacking.html]. "The credible lead is somebody whose possible connection to the hijacker is strong, and the suspect is not a name that's come up before."

Agents have sent an item belonging to the new suspect to the boys in the lab at Quantico, where they'll hopefully be able to pick up a fingerprint or some other bit of evidence. "It would be a significant lead," Dietrich said. "And this is looking like our most promising one to date."

One thing Dietrich wouldn't comment on is whether or not the suspect is still alive, although she did point out that "the large majority of suspects we look into now are already deceased." Special Agent Larry Carr, who spent several years on the case, believes that Cooper died soon after deplaning, because the business suit he was wearing offered no protection against the elements. But Agent Curtis Eng, who's currently assigned to the case, thinks that if Cooper had died while trying to get away, some meaningful evidence, like clothing, money or bones, would have been found by now. And it hasn't.

Either way, according to Geoffrey Gray, the author of Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper, any new evidence won't be of much value because the evidence taken from the hijacked plane "has proven inconclusive for conclusive testing."

"During the three years that I reported on the Cooper case and was given exclusive access to FBI files... I learned through then case agent Larry Carr that the fingerprints uncovered on the plane that night were virtually useless," Gray wrote on his website at huntfordbcooper.com [http://huntfordbcooper.com/]. "There were so many prints for agents to dust on the plane it was impossible to tell which were the hijackers and which were passengers."

"Furthermore, the most crucial physical evidence in the case itself - 8 Raleigh filter tipped cigarette butts - had gone missing," he continued. "Carr didn't know where they were, and suspected they might have been tossed because DNA evidence had yet to come in vogue."

Despite what the TV teaches us, it actually takes a long time to process evidence and run lab tests, and Dietrich said it could be "some time" before the results come back. And it could turn out to be another dead end, or Gray could be right and there may simply be nothing viable to test against. But maybe - just maybe - one of the greatest crime mysteries of the century is on the verge of being solved.

To learn more about the infamous D.B. Cooper case, have a look at the FBI's 2007 case summary D.B. Cooper Redux: Help Us Solve the Enduring Mystery [http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2007/december/dbcooper_123107].

via: NPR [http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/08/01/138889690/fbi-says-it-has-a-new-suspect-in-d-b-cooper-skyjacking]


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Lionsfan

I miss my old avatar
Jan 29, 2010
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Well it's kinda cool, but it's also kinda pointless. I mean they admit themselves most of their suspects are of the deceased type, so why not just let it go? Let the legend live on. Oh well, guess we'll see whether it works out or not
 
May 5, 2010
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We already know where DB Cooper ended up. He got arrested under the fake name "Charles Westmoreland" and has been in Fox River Penitentiary ever since.
 

RedEyesBlackGamer

The Killjoy Detective returns!
Jan 23, 2011
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I personally hope they don't find out who he is. It is silly, I know, but I love this case and the legend that D.B. has become. I'd love to see it never solved.
 

redisforever

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Oct 5, 2009
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Well, it is an interesting case, but the chances of actually finding him are so slim, they may as well say screw it, and focus on actual problems now. It's not a problem anymore, but is a fascinating case.
 

BreakfastMan

Scandinavian Jawbreaker
Jul 22, 2010
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Fah, we already know where D. B. Cooper is. He was transformed into a baby by the fountain of youth in the Bermuda triangle, and is currently partying on some beach on Easter Island. Gosh, some people just don't pay attention...
 

the spud

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May 2, 2011
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His actualalias is Dan Couper, but one of the newspapers got the name wrong, and it stuck.

Besides, we all know that Rupert Murdoc is really Dan Couper...
 

Kargathia

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Jul 16, 2009
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So much for those screaming that crime is going up - it seems like at least the FBI ran out of current cases to solve.
 

Treblaine

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Jul 25, 2008
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Aren't the statute of limitations surely over by now?

I mean he didn't kill anyone. He could turn himself in and they couldn't even charge him.

TL:DR

Turns out that rule doesn't work as he has been charged in absentia:

http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/NWA305-DBCooper.htm

And charges stand indefinitely. Mind you, it's a bit cheeky charging someone when you don't even know their name. Probably won't hold up in court.
 

Treblaine

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Jul 25, 2008
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Other interesting tidbit:

"The May 18, 1980 eruption of Mt. Saint Helens covered much of the area with ash, making the search for Cooper's trail, and his loot, much more difficult."

This man has the luck of the devil.
 

Gerhardt

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May 21, 2010
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You'd think that with the imminent government shut-down/debt mess about to hit the fan that maybe, just maybe, we could throw these 40 year old cases on the back burner...?

Judging by the sketch, the man looks to be in his what, early to mid 30s? IF he's still alive, he's got to be in his seventies. Time to let it go, guys (feds)
 

orangeapples

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Aug 1, 2009
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Is this what our tax dollars are going towards? a case that no one even cares about anymore? Those trying to find DB Cooper and Jimmy Hoffa are just fame seekers that expect people to give them money and expect no results.
 

Continuity

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May 20, 2010
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Well, you've got to admit... the guy had style. Skydiving out of a 747 with bundles of cash isn't the first plan that would spring to my mind :)
 

Eiv

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Oct 17, 2008
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Not a yank, but still an amazing story about a truly awesome man :)
 

nexekho

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Jan 12, 2011
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Continuity said:
Well, you've got to admit... the guy had style. Skydiving out of a 747 with bundles of cash isn't the first plan that would spring to my mind :)
727. The 747 is far larger and has no rear exit like the 727. In response to the event, most 727s had their rear doors either modified to not open in flight or were sealed up completely.
 

Arkvoodle

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Dec 4, 2008
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So long as they don't make another terrible movie with Seth Green about finding his money...
 

Hawk of Battle

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Feb 28, 2009
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Frozen Donkey Wheel2 said:
We already know where DB Cooper ended up. He got arrested under the fake name "Charles Westmoreland" and has been in Fox River Penitentiary ever since.
God damnit, ninja'd in the second post! But yeah, I prefer that explaination to anything the FBI comes up with. Because Charles Westmoreland was a fucking badass.
 

Verdilian

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Jan 8, 2011
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Hmm... The suspect may or may not be D. B. Cooper (I feel sorry for that suspect's name). It may or may not lead to the true suspect - it may just end in a dead end. We just need to wait and see.