DB Cooper

[377 22]

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377I just do NOT believe for one moment you do NOT know the answer to that WHY. Someone who commits a crime such as this usually keep souveniers.

Jo,

How do you reconcile the cavalier souvenir retention with Duane's imediate panic and extreme moves (quit a great job etc) when a TV show about DBC aired?

Maybe Duane was a compulsive collector of incriminating evidence. That might explain why so many prisons left the welcome light on for him.

Your account of Duane's library book perusal and notation seems to at least partially focus on the door placard find. Could it be that Duane peeled it off but lost the souvenir? Farflung raised doubts about the airflow being responsible for the placard's detachment.

You can't put Duane in a chute just by claiming he knew aviators, aircraft parts suppliers or jumpers. That is too much of a stretch.

I am just prodding your biases Jo. Nothing I or anyone else does will shake your firm conviction that an incompetent often convicted
petty criminal named Duane Weber successfully pulled off one of the most innovative crimes of the 20th century. Your tenacity and conviction are without parallel. Your certainty about Duane far exceeds anything Blevins or Cook believe about their suspects. They both say maybe. You don't think Duane is a maybe.

You write as if you are on the final approach to life's last airport. I hope things improve Jo, I really do.

377

2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

[georger 244]

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The only things I would really ask in the Weber scenario:

1) Any additional motive to hijack NWA besides the desire for money. (That particular motive is obvious, and could apply to almost any property crime)

2) One bit of documentary evidence that shows a large cash expenditure within a year of the hijacking.

3) One verifiable piece of evidence that places Duane Weber in either Oregon or Washington State at the time of the hijacking.

4) At least two witnesses who will come forward now and offer evidence that Weber and Cooper could be the same person.

5) Anything at all that can prove Weber knew how to use a parachute, particularly a military-type chute.

Is that too much to ask?

Kenny Christiansen met ALL the above criteria, and evidence has been provided on all those points. But even I don't say he was the guy for sure. I have strong suspicions that he was, but some of that comes from being there during the interviews and listening to these people. You almost had to be there, as they say.

I think I will take this further. Over the last year and a half, it's been tough for me to explain to people my feelings about the witnesses. People like Helen Jones, Margie and Bernie, and Bernie's sister Dawn. Or Dan Rattenbury, the owner of the print shop that was once Kenny's house. There were others who didn't make the book, but were a part of it. Brian MacWilliams ex-wife, whom I interviewed in Puyallup, and Carolyn Tyner (nee Powell) who I interviewed by phone. (She only made the Revised Edition.) Out of all those witnesses, I consider the testimonies of Dawn, Helen Jones, and Carolyn Tyner to be absolutely rock-solid. I consider Margie's answers to be reasonably solid, except for her efforts to name others besides KC as the actual hijacker. As far as Bernie, his track record speaks for itself.

Here's something I held back until now:

All during her interviews, one of the things Margie Miller did consistently was to point to Bernie as being involved in the hijacking. But at the same time she was always throwing out names to me as the possible hijacker. She would always try to direct me away from Kenny somehow. One of the names she gave me was Dick Blume, a former paratrooper who had served in WW2 and Korea. He lived in Oakville, and was a friend of Bernie's.

Blume died in 1977 after getting into a fight down on the Chehalis River. He was known for having a temper, she said, and drank a lot. It had to be
Blume, Margie said. Not Kenny, oh no. Couldn't be Kenny.

In addition, she testified that within a couple of days of Blume's death, she caught Bernie with several boxes of Blume's personal items in a shop at their house in Oakville. (at the time, they had a house both in Bonney Lake and Oakville. Later, they sold both and moved to Twisp, where they later divorced)

Blume lived alone, although he did have family. He was divorced. When Margie confronted Bernie on why he was going through boxes of Blume's stuff, he told her to mind her own business. The next day the boxes were gone. She says he was obviously looking for something.

Well, I did check out Blume and found out he had blond hair and was even shorter than Kenny Christiansen, so that pretty much ruled him out as the hijacker. I had some suspicion that perhaps Blume accompanied both Kenny and Bernie for the ride to Portland, but there was no way to prove it. In the end, I figured it was just another attempt by Margie to lay blame on someone besides her good friend Kenny Christiansen. As some of you know, she sent me a personal letter later saying that even if Kenny were aboard Flight 305 on the day of the crime, he was only there doing his job as purser and not hijacking the plane. (I still have the letter)
That was a good one.

But this whole thing about Dick Blume and the boxes reminded me of the week after Kenny died, when Bernie drove up to Twisp and took photo albums, personal papers, and the famous 1971 Foss Tugs logbook from his ex-wife's house. I mean, what the hell is he doing? And why does he do these things?

Another witness not mentioned in the book is Fay Hanson from Brewster, WA. She's now the head cook at the Brewster Senior Center and sees Margie pretty regularly. (Brewster is not far from Twisp) Fay did not know Kenny at the actual time of the hijacking, but met him a couple of years later. She gave the same story as everyone else who knew Kenny: He told people he made a lot of money at the airline and he went from poor to doing well in a quick hurry somehow. I had taken along the picture displays with text (you can see them all at our Photos page at the AB site) and she read them thoroughly and said they made sense, after she got over some initial shock.

With a lack of hard evidence, then the case against Christiansen comes down to circumstantial stuff and witness testimony. What you look for in witness testimony is consistency, and I definitely got that from many of the people I interviewed, most of whom had not seen each other or heard from each other in many years. Kenny had already been dead sixteen years when I did these interviews.

The only thing really missing from the KC case is the 'aha' factor. A few bills from the ransom in his attic, for example. Or an ID by Tina Mucklow from the pictures of Kenny, which to my knowledge she has never seen. Or a match between Kenny's thumbprint from his Army discharge papers and a print from the plane. And that's why I can't say KC is the guy for sure. Maybe the Bureau will figure it out, or prove it's just a bunch of coincidences. I don't know. I think I've done all I can.

The key person in all of this is Bernie, because he's the guy I caught in several 'discrepencies' and he's the guy who was caught trying to lie to the History Channel and HE'S the guy who drove almost 200 miles to meet with Decoded for three hours in a motel and refused to answer the important questions.

And you have to ask yourself WHY he would do all that. Why? He saw the original edition of the book. You'd think he would have sued. No...instead he goes into defensive mode and runs around like a chicken with his head cut off trying to get people to change their stories and do damage control. It doesn't make sense....unless you have something to hide.

I never got Margie to fess up on everything, but she did provide a lot of information on where certain people were over the weekend of the hijacking. (Helen Jones pretty much filled in the rest) My personal belief is that Margaret knows perfectly well what happened, but she's afraid to turn loose on the whole story. One good reason could be because what finally led her to living on her little ranch in Twisp could have been assisted by a share of the ransom money. Her finger-pointing, and the finger-pointing done previously by her ex, almost instantly when the hijacking was brought up, told me THEY KNEW SOMETHING. There was no other answer in my mind. I've always thought that Margie did not find out what happened until after-the-fact. This makes sense, because Bernie would have a difficult time trying to hide his share of the money from her. He probably had to tell her what happened at some point.

Was Ken the hijacker? How the hell should I know. (*laughs*)
You figure it out.

The illusion of central position -

Play it ag'in Sam.

[georger 244]

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Skyjack 71 asks a question:

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'HOW CAN you or you company own the COPYRIGHT to a photo I have in my possession of Kenny?'

We own all the originals and we have a signed contract from Lyle giving us the rights to all the photographs. Even the History Channel had to get permission from us to use the ones they did on Decoded.

There is one picture of Kenny we don't have the exclusive rights to. It is his 1970 passport photo, the one used for the comparison pic in Geoff Gray's article. (See attachment)

Nobody 'screwed' Lyle. It's the way he wanted it. He's refused money and told us he only wants to know the truth about his brother.

There is nothing wrong with you copying those other photographs for your own viewing pleasure or personal use. You can find them easily anyway. If you start posting them up on the internet without asking, (and I will want to know exactly HOW you plan to use them) you would be in violation.

Come on, Jo. It isn't like we made up those rules. They've been going internationally for a while now. Why don't you try copying sections out of Gray's book onto this site after it comes out and see how Crown Books reacts...geez. Fair Use says you can use a paragraph or two, and that's pretty much it.

Look: If folks are sensible in how they plan to use them, it's just polite to ask first. This is why publishing companies have permission links at their websites. Ours is abpermissionsATgmail.com. I would probably allow usage of the photos as long as they weren't being manipulated, or used to trash Adventure Books of Seattle.

Example: If someone called me and said they were writing an article on the Cooper case, I would probably say yes. This is traditional, and accepted practice. Alex Hannaford asked and we said yes. Those photos are our intellectual property, and every publisher on the planet guards their intellectual property the best they can.

That doesn't mean we can't be reasonable about Fair Use and all that. We're not hard-asses here, you know.

Plat it again Sam.

[georger 244]

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Orange 1 says in part:

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'Blevins, well as you can see he has a vested interest in Christiansen...'

It would be useless for me to deny this. Sure, I would love to be vindicated and find out later that the FBI finally names KC as the guy and presents proof that he WAS the guy.

I do try and look at the bigger picture, though. Bear with me while I give some examples:

Money? Not a chance. It cost us thousands of dollars to take time off and run around the countryside hunting down details and witnesses for the Cooper book. At the end of it all, Gayla Prociv was so frickin' angry at me about the whole thing that we actually had a fight about it. And she was RIGHT.

Before the Cooper thing came along, everything was great for AB of Seattle. We had signed our wholesale distribution contracts with Lightning Source, and we were releasing maybe two or three books a year. We all have regular jobs, AB is not our main source of income. It was just something we all enjoyed doing in our spare time. Oh sure, we had hope that eventually it would blossom into something bigger, something for the future.

But then...Cooper dropped into our laps. And because of that, it ended up costing us every cent we had to spare and then some. All of the thousands of dollars I made editing other peoples' books on the side. Gone. Our meager income from the royalties from the previous books. Gone to expenses. Everything was spent just to do Cooper.

In addition, we no longer had the funds to release any new books, which means this hurt AB even further. Here we are now six months after the release of the Revised Edition, and Blast isn't even our biggest seller. That would be 'Pilot Down, Presumed Dead,' by Marjorie Phleger. This Cooper thing turned out to be a big fat mess that almost brought AB to bankruptcy. It has only been in the last sixty days where we finally got AB back on its feet.

Even so, if you check our website, you'll see I've still got submissions closed until September at least, and I will probably extend that further. I have accepted one book privately, 'When The Bullet Hits the Funny Bone,' which is the true account of a Master Chief in the Navy Seals. I hope to have it out before Christmas. But that will be the only new release for AB this year. That means almost two years between new releases (except for Cooper) and this is really hard to swallow.

Cooper? The heck with him. Since we're already out there with our theories on KC, I have to let it continue. But it may happen that KC will finally be proven NOT to be the hijacker, and then I will have to pull the book, take the losses, and move on. And that means everything I did, everything the AB staff did, will all be for nothing.

If I had it to do over again, I would NOT have accepted this book. I would have advised Porteous to find another publisher, maybe a bigger one. We were not big enough to do this, although I think we did the best we could.

I told a few people: 'I don't care anymore. I just hope the truth comes out on KC one way or another...' I once compared the whole thing to that scene from the film Armageddon, where the astronomer calls NASA on the phone and describes his wife, (substitute for the Cooper book here) as that 'life-sucking b%$#ch from hell from which there is no escape...'

Truer words were never spoken.

I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, obviously. One thing I discovered about the Cooper case, and for some of you this might be hard to swallow: The market for his story is actually becoming quite limited. There is some interest, but in the last forty years it has begun to fade. I made the mistake of believing there was a huge market for it. I went around one time on a little marketing survey and discovered that most people I talked to under the age of 30 had to be reminded who he was, even people from Washington State. That was a big surprise.

I think the most fun I'm ever going to get out of this whole project is kicking back this year at Ariel with my good friend Greg, our volunteer IT advisor from Microsoft. We're going to rent a nice motel room and hang out there with our ladies at night, and attend the shindig during the day on Saturday.

After that, I'm moving on from this Cooper stuff. Finally, the editing jobs are starting to come in again. Ha....I get more money from doing a private edit than the Cooper book makes in four months. That's no joke. So you can figure it out. I have to look at the bigger picture on AB of Seattle, and although the Cooper book is part of our legacy (which might have to be pulled later anyway) I am already thinking about a future that doesn't include Cooper.

That SEAL book is three times the better book than Blast. And I'm looking forward to releasing it, and then a lot more in 2012...NONE of them on the Cooper case.

Plat it again Sam.

[georger 244]

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One thing I never did, even in the book, was to lay out in simple terms key items in the Christiansen story.

To save time, I'm going to leave off a lot of details about the jump. (What we think (theory on jump) is that Kenny exited somewhere south of Merwin Lake Dam, made his way out of the woods somehow, and met up with Bernie Geestman the next day at Paradise Point State Park. We also think they either stayed there for a couple of days after the crime, or went immediately up to Bernie's property in Oakville and waited there until the following Monday before returning to the Sumner/Bonney Lake area.)

I'm using a timeline list, and anything on that list that Skipp and I know to be fact through the evidence or verified witness testimony, I will put a '*' in front of that item. Anything that is an educated guess, or just straight theory will not have this and will say Theory. I will run this timeline right up to the hijacking, and on to the present day.

I'm leaving out the motive, because that part has been covered already in detail, i.e. Kenny's unhappiness with the airline and his lack of money, etc.

* 1) 1949: Kenny and Bernie meet for the first time on Shemya Island in the Aleutians, working for NWA. They are both from Minnesota. Bernie is a mechanic. Kenny is a laborer working under him. Previously, Kenny had served in the US Army as a paratrooper and was assigned to the Occupation Force in Japan. He writes home about jumping 'into the blast,' from the side door of a C-47. After his discharge, he takes a few odd jobs, such as selling books door to door, but has little success. When NWA runs an ad in a Minneapolis newspaper with jobs, Kenny applies.

* 2) 1950: Bernie leaves Shemya and moves to the Seattle area. He continues his work for NWA as a mechanic. Kenny remains on Shemya for almost another four years. He finally takes a job as a communications specialist (civilian contract job) with US forces and is based somewhere near Bikini Island. A short time later, the place where he was stationed in Micronesia is abandoned due to residual radiation from the Bravo tests. No one knows for sure on which island he spent time, but he wasn't there long anyway. There was a lot of confusion at that time due to moving the natives around, trying to feed them, and other problems related to all the nuclear testing. Theory: Kenny's early death from cancer may have been a result of radiation exposure while he was working in Micronesia.

* 3) 1956: Kenny moves to Seattle, re-applies for work with Northwest Airlines, and is accepted. Later, he takes training to become a purser and is assigned to the overseas routes. Occasionally, these flights make stops on Shemya, because it is easier to reach Japan in those days by flying north from Seattle first, and then crossing a shorter distance. (Source: Shemya archives) During the investigation on Kenny, a flight plan is discovered that uses this route and has his name on it.

* 4) 1958: Bernie quits his job at NWA and goes to work at Boeing in Seattle on the 727 development program.

* 5) 1959: Bernie meets Margaret Miller and they become 'an item'. He and Kenny have kept in touch since Kenny's return to Seattle, so Bernie introduces him to Margaret. They become good friends, and remain friends right up until Kenny's death.

* 6) 1960-1967: Due to occasional strikes or temporary layoffs, Kenny is forced to take odd jobs. He does digging for a construction company working on the Seattle World's Fair, picks apples, works as a hotel clerk in Renton, WA, and takes side work for Margaret and Bernie digging ditches for a septic tank, and other work.

* 7) 1968: Bernie and Margaret Miller are married. Kenny attends the wedding. The best man is Helen Jones' husband. Jones later becomes a key witness in the Christiansen investigation.

* 8) 1969: Kenny moves from Renton to Sumner, Washington into apartment J-3 at the Rainier View Apartments. It is a low-end apartment and the rent is about $90 a month. Bernie is laid off (or quits, we are not sure) during the huge layoffs Boeing did that year. He finds a job working as a mechanic for Foss Tugs in Seattle. This ends up being the place he works until he retires.

* 9) 1970: Bernie's sister Dawn, who lives in Minnesota, gets a divorce and moves her four children to Bonney Lake, WA. She moves in with Bernie and Margaret. She is introduced to Kenny and he sometimes drops by to play cards with the three of them, or with Margaret and some of her friends. Dawn testifies later that Kenny sometimes wore a toupee, and that he told people the airline paid him very well, even though everyone knew this was not true.

10) Theory - Summer, 1971: At some point, Kenny decides he has had enough from NWA. All through the year, and the one previous, assignments overseas have been spotty. Sometimes he is only being called up twice a month and is making roughly $500 a month. His good friend Bernie is well-known for his occasional shady deals, (wife's testimony, friends' testimony) and he recruits Bernie to help him hijack an NWA flight.

Theory: Bernie suggests a flight that Kenny does not work on: Domestic 727's, and advises him that Boeing tested the airstairs in flight and that the plane will remain stable if those stairs are opened in flight.

Theory: Because of her strong insistence that her ex-husband was involved in the hijacking, and that Kenny was NOT involved, the authors believe she either helped plan the crime, or found out about it soon afterward from her husband. Theory: Because of the immediate finger-pointing regarding involvement in the hijacking by both Bernie and his ex-wife, Robert Blevins found this extremely suspicious. He regarded it as strange behavior from people who should have laughed in his face or thrown him off their property if they knew nothing about the crime. Dawn J's testimony that she thought Christiansen might be Cooper from the beginning and that her former sister-in-law probably knew something about the hijacking, only served to reinforce this opinion.

* 11) About six weeks before the hijacking, Bernie purchases an Airstream trailer at a bank repo sale. He then buys a used station wagon at a car lot in Elma, Washington. He parks both vehicles on some property he owns in Oakville, WA where he and Margaret are planning to build a house. Margaret questions the wisdom of leaving the vehicles there alone, rather than parking them at their house in Bonney Lake, where there is plenty of room. She cites possible vandalism. Bernie tells her not to worry about it. (Margaret testimony)

* 12) Two weeks before Thanksgiving in 1971, Helen Jones asks Bernie, Margaret, and Kenny if they will be coming to Thanksgiving dinner again at her house, as they did the previous year. All three say yes.

* 13) Two days before the hijacking, Bernie leaves his house in Bonney Lake in his car and tells Margaret he is going camping in the trailer with some unnamed friends. She becomes very angry, but he leaves anyway.

* 14) On the day of the hijacking, Margaret hears about the hijacking on the radio, but does not associate it with her missing husband. Her TV is on the fritz, but she listens to coverage. Helen Jones sees it on TV, but does not associate it with anyone she knows.

* 15) Thanksgiving Day, 1971: Margaret shows up at the Jones house for dinner alone. Helen Jones testifies later that Margaret is 'absolutely livid' that her husband has gone camping. Kenny fails to show for dinner as well, but everyone thinks he just decided to take a flight back to Minnesota to visit his family at the last minute. Testimony later from Kenny's family say he was not there for Thanksgiving.

* 15) On Monday, November 29, Bernie returns home alone. He has the trailer and wagon with him. He parked the other vehicle on his property in Oakville. He refuses to tell Margaret who he was with. (Note: at first it was thought that Bernie sold the trailer and wagon soon afterward, but he actually sold it in April of 1973 to a buyer who came up from Arizona.)

* 16) About two weeks after the hijacking, Helen Jones sees Kenny in Sumner. He is evasive when she asks where he was for Thanksgiving, but she does not associate it with the hijacking. On the following Thanksgiving in 1972, Kenny, Bernie, and Margaret show up for dinner. Helen Jones testifies later that Kenny was now doing quite well and had bought a house and some additional property. She also says that when Kenny and Bernie were questioned casually during dinner about their whereabouts the previous year, they changed the subject.

* 17) April, 1972: Kenny loans Bernie's sister Dawn $5,000 in cash to put a down payment on a house in Buckley, WA. Bernie is the one who actually delivers the money. Although Kenny gives her five years to pay it back, she repays it in two years.

* 18) Summer, 1972: Margaret buys two quarterhorses and a piece of property near Pipeline Road in Sumner. The following year, Kenny buys an adjoining property.

* 19) July, 1972: Kenny pays $14,000 in cash for a house in Bonney Lake to Joe and Ann Grimes, known friends of Bernie Geestman. Three months later, Kenny pays the Grimes' $10 for the extra lot out back to the east, and assumes a $1,500 mortgage from American Federal Savings and Loan for an additional 800' of property to the north side of the home. At this point, documents show that Christiansen has now spent more than three times his yearly income within 11 months of the hijacking. From this time on, he never lacks for money.

* 20) Fact: Kenny obtains a PO box back down in Sumner. Theory: He takes deliveries of gold coin and other collectibles through this address.

* 21) Kenny continues to work for NWA until he retires. People who worked with him were interviewed later. They all said the same things about him: He stopped coming to union meetings, was hardly known by anyone at the airline, and continued only working a couple of times a month on routes.

* 22) 1991: Kenny allows Robin Powell (a man) to move into the house at Bonney Lake.

* 23) 1992: Robin Powell meets a woman named Carolyn and she moves in with him at Kenny's house.

* 24) 1993: Kenny finds out he has cancer. Brian MacWilliams becomes his caretaker later.

* 25) April, 1994: Kenny makes a trip up to Twisp, Washington to see Margaret. He doesn't tell her how sick he is, just that he isn't feeling well lately. They take a picture of the two of them standing together.

* 26) July 30, 1994: Kenny dies. In attendance are at least two people, his brother Lyle and Bernie Geestman, although they did not visit Kenny at the same time. Kenny makes a deathbed statement to his brother about 'there's something you should know, but I can't tell you...' After his death, the house goes to Robin and Carolyn Powell, and the adjoining lot to Brian MacWilliams. Mac immediately sells off the trees to a logging company and then sells the property itself and moves to the Yakima area. The following year, the Powells sell the house and move to Nevada. They divorce soon afterward and the former Mrs. Powell eventually marries a Boulder, Colorado police officer and takes the name Carolyn Tyner. In late 2010, she verifies that approximately $2,000 in twenty-dollar bills was found in some stumps on the hill out back of the house, but since the property had already been sold by MacWilliams, she did not give it much thought.

27) (Testimony only from ex-wife) On or about August 20, 1994, Bernie drives to Twisp. He is in the final stage of a divorce with Margaret. He allegedly breaks into her house and steals some photos, personal papers, and his Foss Tugs logbook from 1971. She gets a dog and puts padlocks on some of the interior doors where she keeps her valuables. Theory: Blevins and Porteous believe the purpose of Bernie stealing the log from 1971 was to destroy evidence that could show he was not at work for Foss Tugs at the actual time of the hijacking. Blevins checks the box with the Foss Tugs logbooks and verifies that only the one from 1971 is missing.

* 28) March 19, 2007: Lyle Christiansen contacts Skipp Porteous about his brother for the first time. When the story on Kenny begins to emerge, Lyle shows Porteous several strange items. These include a picture showing Kenny walking into his Sumner apartment three weeks after the hijacking carrying a briefcase, a paper bag, and dressed similarly to the hijacker, and a collection of clippings about NWA that start in 1949 and stop just a couple of months before the hijacking. There are no clippings at all about the hijacking. In October 2007, after his own investigation, writer Geoff Gray first proposes Christiansen as a suspect in his article for New York Magazine.

* 29) January 2010 - December 2010: Robert Blevins interviews many of Kenny's known friends, associates, and some co-workers from NWA. Bernie's sister identifies the tie tac from the tie supposedly left on board Flight 305 as one she had seen Kenny wear many times. She confirms Lyle's story that Kenny owned a toupee, and admitted that she secretly believed Kenny could be the hijacker right from the start.

Bernie is interviewed by Blevins and claims that in 1971 he was gone ten or eleven months out of the year on his tugboat job. A senior executive at Foss said this was not possible.

* 30) August, 2010: Representatives from Go Go Luckey Productions and the History Channel contact Bernie about appearing on the TV show Brad Meltzer's Decoded. He says he hardly knew Kenny and thought he was a dishwasher. History Channel presents him with photos from his wedding, photos from Shemya Island working with Kenny, and other things. He retracts his denial and admits he and Kenny were good friends, but that his ex-wife was even closer to Kenny. He says he does not want to go on the program.

* 31) September, 2010: When the History Channel contacts Bernie's sister Dawn, she admits that Bernie had called her in the previous week and instructed her to retract everything she had said for the book Into The Blast. History Channel confronts Bernie on this and he agrees to appear on the show. His sister refuses.

* 32) October, 2010: Filming begins in Bonney Lake, WA for segments of the Decoded show. Bernie is questioned for three hours in a motel in Sumner, but refuses to answer questions on where he was the weekend of the hijacking, or anything else. He denies being involved and calls Blevins a liar.

* 33) During a break in filming, Blevins interviews Helen Jones in Sumner. She confirms that both Bernie and Kenny did not come to Thanksgiving dinner the week of the hijacking, along with a few other things, including her fear of Bernie, calling him 'a liar and a crook'. She identified the brand of cigarettes smoked by Kenny as Raleighs, and verified previous testimony that Kenny owned a toupee but never wore it again after 1971.

34) October, 2010: During filming, the Decoded crew uses infrared tech and finds a hollow spot in the insulation above Kenny's old bedroom. The only access to the attic is through a screwed-down attic vent on the side of the house, about twelve feet off the ground. There is a board cut to fit and two smaller side pieces installed to make a sort of covered box. Later, it is discovered that the cover panel was made from a piece of Formica countertop on chipboard. It is known that Christiansen replaced the countertops soon after he purchased the house. Theory: Kenny may have constructed this box himself from leftovers of his replaced countertops and hidden the ransom money in this location.

Additional - Approximate value of Kenny's estate at the time of his death: At the West One Bank in Sumner, $180,000 plus in savings, and about $21,500 in checking. Coin and stamp collection valued at approximately $400,000 in 1994 dollars. One house, one additional lot out back. An additional property near Bernie and Margaret's on Pipeline road had already been sold at the time of his death. Tax returns show nothing filed above $20,000 a year after 1971, and an average of $6,000 a year for several years prior to 1971.

Play it again Sam.

[georger 244]

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Skyjack 71 says in part:

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'you really believe that KC was that gutsy - you gotta be kidding!'

Oh, yes I do. He had already spent five years servicing planes on a frozen rock in Alaska, and that was AFTER he went through some of the toughest paratroop training ever done (at the tail end of WW2, when everyone thought we were invading Japan) and completed that training when many others failed.

Yeah. I think he had the nerve. He may have had someone else pushing him from behind during the planning. But I think after twenty-two years of NWA junk (interspaced with a few other jobs) he simply had enough and was open to such a crazy idea.

Bernie is a liar. You can send him this post and see if he gets a lawyer because I accused him publicly of being an accomplice in the sixth-biggest unsolved crime of the 20th century.

I'm not losing any sleep over it. Trust me. You said a couple of months ago that I would, that maybe you had contacted him. I can give you his address if you wish. He doesn't answer the phone, though. He's told more lies than Pinocchio, but lies can be broken and statements checked. He kind of forgot about that.

These people, these witnesses, have had every chance to pick up the phone and call attorneys or dispute what Skipp Porteous and I have said.

Think about it for a moment. Wouldn't YOU? It's easy money. All you have to do is call an attorney, any attorney, and file a lawsuit for defamation or whatever and I would lose everything. Yet...eighteen months after the original edition of the book came out, there is NOTHING from these people. Not a damn thing except silence and lies on the History Channel. The only reason Bernie agreed to drive a hundred miles from Port Angeles to Sumner for the Decoded interview was to do damage control. They caught him denying he even knew Christiansen, and trying to get his own sister to retract her statements. This did not work out well for him.

And no one believed him. Not really. 'He's lying...' is all Bernie offered in response. The History Channel interviewed him for almost three hours. Less than three minutes appeared on air. He knows EXACTLY what went down on November 24, 1971. And so does his sister and his ex-wife, and some of his friends.

Play it again Sam.

[georger 244]

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To Georger: That's IT?

You go to all the trouble of hunting down and re-posting those big posts...and that's ALL you have to say about it?

A line (supposedly) from Casablanca?

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'Play it again, Sam'

Really, Georger. If you don't think KC is a good suspect, then why in the heck do you keep re-presenting his case for me? You even ran them together so people don't have to search. (*laughs*)

What's even MORE funny is you didn't even address any of the points I made in those posts. But that's typical, isn't it?

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'Play it again, Sam'.

I think you should apply this moniker to yourself.

I'll give you this much. You do make me chuckle sometimes, same as Farflung. Only his posts have a bit more substance and the pictures are better.

Duh?

Play it again, Sam.

Anything new?

Play it again, Sam.

Anything new?

Play it again, Sam.

This isn't Newsvine, Mr. Blevins. Rather than
boring people to death and attacking me (again)
for my response, why not change your tiresome
redundant modus operendus and move on to
something new?

Is there anyone in there?

Is there ANYTHING! new?

Play it again Sam.

[A line (supposedly) from Casablanca?]
Duhhhh. I saw it before you were hatched?

[georger 244]

Then WHY did you repost them all?

To do you a favor ... so you wouldn't have to
post them yourself 50 more times, stretched out over the next two months.

Just think of the savings! Now you have time to
post them yourself + what I have posted. Two for
the price of one. Hey! Im your fan.

[skyjack71 0]

Quote

You write as if you are on the final approach to life's last airport. I hope things improve Jo, I really do.

377

I suppose I do- because the quality of my life is not too good right now . They want me to have a surgery that is iffy and I have chose a different route.

Know anyone who can make a bladder that works like a normal one. Sure could use one.

The other surgery took care of all of the abdominal pain, but the 8 yrs I spent with that problem created one they may not be able to remedy. At my age the complications and failure are very very high and I do not think I have to spell out the consequences of that one.

Not only is there a high chance of failure - the other complications might be worse to live with than the current problem.

They are trying something new this week and see how I handle it - I will do what ever it takes to stay away from radical surgery. That Surgery mean 6 wks not driving and then limited life afterward if it fails The failure rate is very high for women over 70. Right now I am NOT healthy enough for the surgery.

The first surgery should have been done 8 yrs ago but NO one found it or recommended it - but with what they found - Medicare did pay for it. No MRI, CT or Pet Would have shown the problem we hope is fixed.

The next surgery has to be done by someone who does the surgeries on older women on a regular basis and we do not have one in our area. Blush because it is something that make a woman blush. .and makes her cry and makes her feel like her life is over.

So YES it is bad. But there is alway hope I will be one of those it works on. I don't want to give up....trying to find a way to live with this. Right NOW my lungs are NOT healthy enough for a second surgery.

Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber

[skyjack71 0]

Did you show these women pictures of Duane as a young man and Bernie - I susject you try and see what their reactions are - remember he was a ladies man and he participated in some activies in those day - they might be embarrassed of at this stage of their lives.

Ask Faye Hanson if she had a relative name Harvey and if Harvey had an Aunt name Mattie Findley who was married to a Farghur. They live in the Bigg and Rufus area of OR and frequented Goldendale and a bar in The Dalles.

Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber

[georger 244]

Kenny Christiansen may or may not be Cooper, but he is a suspect. You might want to accept that he is, or you could challenge it. Either choice is better than what you're doing now.

[Robert99 50]

Blevins writes:

Kenny Christiansen may or may not be Cooper, but he is a suspect.

[skyjack71 0]

Quote

Blevins writes:

Kenny Christiansen may or may not be Cooper, but he is a suspect.

Who says KC is a suspect? Authors pushing books don't. It would take someone with a badge to do so.

Robert Nicholson


You might even say that about Weber, but the FBI did consider him a suspect or they would never have investigated him (or what they call - investigated).

Sorry, but my feelings about the FBI and any law enforcement or investigative authority at this time is very negative, but I cannot recall any articles that stated the FBI actually went to see the individuals who claimed Kenny was Cooper. The calls Blevins makes to the FBI go thru a funnel, but he hasn't figured that out yet...I call them mouthpieces, but I guess I should say Desk Agents.

Bad attitude today - so watch what you say to me I might BITE!.

Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber

[skyjack71 0]

Quote

Play it again, Sam.

Anything new?

Play it again, Sam.

Anything new?

Play it again, Sam.

This isn't Newsvine, Mr. Blevins. Rather than
boring people to death and attacking me (again)
for my response, why not change your tiresome
redundant modus operendus and move on to
something new?

Is there anyone in there?

Is there ANYTHING! new?

Play it again Sam.

[A line (supposedly) from Casablanca?]
Duhhhh. I saw it before you were hatched?

From the Little Wooden Box comes a Knock Knock Knock.
A voice from is shouting inside of the Box

"Is there anyone Out there"

"Would someone Please get me OUT of here!" I would always laugh.

That is what "Play it again Sam" reminds me of because everytime I passed that box on Katy's desk - I would touch the box just to hear the voice from within Shouting his plea.

I don't need the box now - all I have to do is come to the forum and read Belvin's long repetitive posts to sell his book (the voice in the box) - over and over and then your saying "Play It Again Sam". Everytime - I think about why I touched that box and the smile it put on my face.
That is what Blevins wants - for us to push his buttons so he can repeat the dialogue on his book and his suspect - over and over. Well, Sam - duh, I mean, Georger or who ever started the "Play it Again Sam" thing - isn't there something unlawful about selling or promoting a book in the DZ rules and regulations?

Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber

[skyjack71 0]

Everyone here needs to go order Grey's book - I can't wait to read it. Regardless of if it is bad or good regarding Weber.

I think I will buy 3 copies - one for each of the 3 libraries within driving distance of my home. Support freedom of the Press.


Blevin's "book" has NO appeal to me nor to any intelligent person who has spent time exploring the incident of November 24, 1971. When the FBI interviews his "subjects of accusation" then it might warrant some credibilities.


I am coming down hard right now, because of something I just learned and Blevin's need to beware.

Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber

[skyjack71 0]

All of these writers duking it out on the thread and in books. Wonder who the winner will be?

Blevins and Porteous will stop nothing short of flaming remarks in the DZ and keeps right on striking the flint to get a fire started. We have to include Porteous with Blevins one would not exist in the Cooper Story without the other.

Nuttall - well, he is writing his buddy's story, but he might be playing with fire when one attacks the administration of the day and the Mafia...beware!

Cook - maybe he is onto something, but proceeds cautiously careful not to leave the camp fire buring or let anyone know where the matches are because he lives in the Northwest.

Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber

[skyjack71 0]

How many books or articles have been written or in the process since Weber was "Publicly" addressed as a suspect? The FBI claimed to have dismissed him in 1998 although erroneously since they had to re-address him as a suspect in 2000 and 2001. Still couldn't make Weber go away so in 2003 they decide to retrive his DNA.

In 2008 the FBI makes a claim Weber's DNA was not a match to whatever DNA they retrieved from the 1971 evidence.

The FBI still could NOT contain the Cooper fire Jo Weber ignited when she went public regarding the story she was trying to tell.

Now with the 40's Anniversary coming upon them with this old unsolved crime - one has to wonder - how the the System Failed and what do they do next to stop the spontaneous combustion regarding the Cooper Story since 2000.

Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber

[skyjack71 0]

I don't know the yr., but I was told early in my search about a young man who had been working on the Cooper Story. He mysteriously died in an auto accident after contacting someone that he had Cooper.

This was back when the only communications I had regarding Cooper was a telephone...and his death was Pre-Weber (prior to 1996). Perhaps Sluggo has knowledge of this young man (I don't know if he was young or old). His name maybe written down in some of my old handwritten notes.

Seems to be a lot of accidents happening when someone enters the Ring of Fire surrounding Cooper.

Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber

[skyjack71 0]

Quote

Skyjack 71 says in part:

Quote

'Blevin's "book" has NO appeal to me nor to any intelligent person who has spent time exploring the incident of November 24, 1971. When the FBI interviews his "subjects of accusation" then it might warrant some credibilities.

I am coming down hard right now, because of something I just learned and Blevin's need to beware.'

Since you've already admitted several times you haven't read the book, then how can you judge it?

Obviously you didn't read the posts correctly. What I am saying is I don't want to read your book, as it has no appeal to me.

How can I judge your book? Because I know the truth and I know Kenny C was never a suspect in the eyes of the FBI.
You have done nothing on this DZ except TRY to SELL your BOOK. You had NOT done the 1st piece of real research on the crime prior to coming to this thread. The DZ walked you through this and yet you remain arrogant and focused only on your book and not the details of the crime.

Finding you did NOT seem to be aware of the U.S. News and World Reports Article and then the subsequent article the following yr. nor about the 3 forensic artist shows you did little to no research. You set out to write a book about KC being Cooper and you cared less who the REAL Cooper was.

You also missed the complete point of the last few posts I made - perhaps you need to go back and re-read them before they self-destruct from internal combustion.

Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber

[skyjack71 0]

Quote

Quote

'Robert, a call came in yesterday about you from a crazy person. We can discuss this at the next meeting.'

If you think I am that CRAZY person then you need to have your head examined. Number one you do your own self more damage than anyone else could ever do.

I think this is just another one of your STORIES to get attention for yourself and your book. I don't believe the story at all about some crazy person contacting you - unless it was one of your "witnesses" who may have read the thread or your book and be on fire with Rage.

What you are saying is paranoid behaviour because you know KC was not Cooper - or maybe you do have a conscience and it is trying to tell you something. This sound like You and Your publishing company are trying to promote a "threat" of some kind to increase your book sales!

It is my opinion NO one really cares about your book here at the DZ. I expect you might need to address "your witnesses" as suspects before you come to the DZ and making accusations.
Phone calls are traceable - why didn't you TRACE the "threat". To me it sounds like another one of your pitches for you book.

Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber

[skyjack71 0]

Quote

Reminder: I was not the person who first brought Kenny into the public eye as a possible suspect. That would be Geoff Gray, a man you obviously respect because you just asked everyone to buy his new book.

The only thing I did was interview witnesses and publish the results.

I didn't say I respected him - I do NOT know what he put in his book - and you missed the intent of the post all together. Later you will understand exactly what I am talking about otherwise you might need to find yourself a Fire Hydrant.

P.S. I think Skipp Porteous USED Geoffrey Grey and I have suspected this since I read the article, but then that is ONLY my opinion. Skipp also is using you.

Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber

[skyjack71 0]

Quote

Jo: Notice Connie says 'he' when referring to the caller. No, not you. At this point, it doesn't matter. I will run the phone numbers this week and I will find out who made the call.

Whomever it was, 'he' upset a lot of people today and caused changes in the Adventures in Literature event to a certain degree. I think I will play a recording of the call for the audience to begin the show. No kidding. I think it's appropriate here. It will more than demonstrate the controversy surrounding the Cooper case and make a great opener.

As far as verification, if anyone's interested they could call the Auburn Good Ol' Days office themselves and ask about the call. I would be polite, though, otherwise they'll probably just hang up on you.

NOTE YOU CANNOT SEEM TO STOP USING THIS THREAD TO Promote YOUR BOOK. Now I am the one who is burning.

Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber

[Robert99 50]

Blevins writes:

I think it's time to take another break from the DZ.

Mr. Blevins, You'll be back tomorrow (which is probably today). At least that is what happened the last three times you quit this list.

Robert Nicholson

[Orange1 0]

...how some people scream blue murder about the way they are spoken to/treated (in their perception) here and then turn around and do exactly the same thing to someone else?

Then again, some people really do seem to think they deserve special treatment that others are not entitled to.

Just an observation. Holds within and outside this thread.

--
So on another tack nobody liked my photo idea? Or was it misinterpreted as "image enhancing" by everyone? Or do the purist scientists think of it as simply data mining rather than a proper hypothesis test?

Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

[georger 244]

Quote

...how some people scream blue murder about the way they are spoken to/treated (in their perception) here and then turn around and do exactly the same thing to someone else?

Then again, some people really do seem to think they deserve special treatment that others are not entitled to.

Just an observation. Holds within and outside this thread.

--
So on another tack nobody liked my photo idea? Or was it misinterpreted as "image enhancing" by everyone? Or do the purist scientists think of it as simply data mining rather than a proper hypothesis test?

Here are a few links. I read your post with interest
Orange but decided not to get into it given the
Great Consuming Light shinning on everything here
these days. But the links are... Its interesting
reading -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facial_recognition_
system

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-
dimensional_face_recognition


As for 'He Whose Name Shall Not Be Spoken':
I agree with you. What total B.S. There is probably
some very simple explanation vs the Apocalypse
suggested. His original post used the "C-word" but
then he deleted it, for some reason?

How is the Burning Bush business there?