olemisscub

Yes, John Banks was his name. He ran a company called Electronic Exploration. Claimed he spent over 5,000 hours on the Cooper case, which is a laughable number, of course.

To be clear, the 302 is what was new to me and also that Globe was keeping the FBI in the know about it. The salvage operation was written about pretty extensively in Himmy’s book.

This was new to me. Royal Globe apparently told the FBI in 1976 that they hired a salvage team to search Lake Merwin.

For the hell of it I decided to upload a bunch of the Cooper money photos to ChatGPT. I explained that it washed up on a beach originally in a bundle and asked what would be the cause of the edges looking that way. Soil Acidity & Microbial Activity: Paper currency buried underground is vulnerable to fungi, bacteria, and acidic soil. These eat away at the cellulose fibers, starting from exposed edges. That’s why the edges are more deteriorated—microbes attack from the outside in. Water Damage (Floodplain or Tidal Influence): Repeated wetting and drying cycles from a tidal area or seasonal flooding cause the paper to delaminate and rot unevenly. Saltwater or brackish water could accelerate this if found near a coast or estuary. Oxygen Deprivation (Partial Anaerobic Conditions): In deeper soil or under dense sediment, oxygen is limited, slowing decomposition in the core of the bundle. This can explain why some interior pieces might be more intact than the outer ones. Compression from the Rubber Band: The rubber band would have held the bundle together tightly for a time, protecting the inner bills slightly. However, over time, rubber decays, and the band either breaks or fuses with the outer bills, sometimes leaving distinct discoloration or causing distortion. Bills on the outside of the bundle would have taken the brunt of environmental damage. Sediment Abrasion: If the bundle was moved by floodwaters or a shifting riverbank, sand and silt could act like sandpaper, rounding and fraying the edges. I then asked it if rolling along the bottom of the river could cause that damage.... Yes—rolling submerged along the bottom of a river could absolutely cause the rounded, scalloped edges you see in the image. In fact, that kind of mechanical erosion is one of the most plausible explanations for the distinctive damage pattern. Here’s how that would work: Constant Abrasion: As the bundle tumbles or slides along the riverbed, it gets scraped by sand, gravel, and small rocks. This slowly wears away the outer edges of the bills—just like how rocks in a river become smooth and rounded over time. Edge-First Damage: Since bills are thin and flexible, the edges are most exposed during tumbling. Repeated folding, flapping, and scraping action causes the edges to fray, break, and wear away, creating those irregular, rounded contours. Bundle Dynamics: If the bills were still in a rubber band (even partially decayed), the bundle would roll and drag as a single unit, meaning the outer bills would absorb most of the damage. Interior bills might remain more intact—especially if compressed. Water Saturation and Fiber Breakdown: Prolonged submersion softens the paper (cotton/linen blend), weakening its fibers. This makes it more susceptible to tearing and abrasion, especially at the edges. Combined with mechanical motion, this would produce rounded and lace-like damage—exactly what we see. How Long Would It Take? It would likely take weeks to months of tumbling in a moderately strong river current to cause this degree of damage. A single storm event or spring flood could also loosen a buried bundle and send it rolling.

Bill Grinnell:

When Cunningham put his bundle in the tub to see if it would float or sink and how fast, the paper straps were already disintegrating within a few hours after removing the bundle from the tub.

This is what I've got in my book after working pretty extensively with Brian on the writing of my Tena Bar chapter.

This is completely incorrect. We know with 100% certainty that the numbers were pre-recorded by the bank. They had $250,000 in a "ransom pack" that were all pre-recorded in the event of a bank robbery. All of those bills were pre-recorded on microfilm. The bank handed this microfilm over to the FBI on Nov 25th.

Remember though, there is a difference in making something up and stating something that is erroneous that YOU believe to be true. I've no doubt he believed that to be true, but why? My reasons for dismissing him. 1) He's an ASAC. They are administrators. They are not investigators. They only know what the SA's under them tell them about a particular case. 2) Why would an ASAC in Portland be privy to unique information about what a bank in Seattle did yet isn't written in any FBI file? 3) The SA who handled Cooper in Portland was Himmy. This is likely where Baker got all of his Cooper info from unless he glanced through whatever files Portland had on Cooper at the time. We know this isn't in the files, so his info likely came from Himmy. 4) Himmy is often wrong. In his own book he repeats the bogus belief that the money came from multiple banks i.e. Himmy can't be trusted about the banks. So whatever he told Baker is suspect. 5) Agents aren't infallible when speaking to the media. There are many things that agents, even NORJAK agents themselves, have said to the media that are demonstrably false and contradict the actual evidence and the files. It's a balancing act when determining how much weight to put toward something. ONE statement from a single FBI agent in 1980 doesn't outweigh the testimony and memory of the actual bank employee who oversaw the packing of the bag. His single statement also doesn't outweigh the fact that what he's claiming is found nowhere else anywhere. I feel like he got this bogus information from Himmelsbach. He wasn't making anything up. He just got faulty information. That's all.

The man who oversaw the money being packed and who carried it in his lap to the airport says that the bank always bundled in packets of 5. A decade later an FBI agent claimed that the money was bundled in such a way that it was hastily gathered. Yet that is nowhere in any of the FBI Files from 1971 and this statement didn't come from an actual Cooper case agent. The FBI nor law enforcement had anything to do with the money except for an undercover cop actually driving the bank people to the airport. Had their been some order given to "mix up" the money bundles, I imagine that the man who oversaw the money being put in the bag would have remembered that. Yet he has never mentioned it. Also, as I said, such an order or directive would have likely only come from law enforcement and we have a pretty good understanding that law enforcement was really hands off when it came to the money. In fact, the only evidence whatsoever that the money MIGHT have been bundled in packets of three is this one agent's comment in 1980. One might think that the TB money itself is evidence that it was bundled in packets of three, but given that we don't know the chain of custody between Nov 24, 71 and when the money was found, it doesn't stand alone as evidence. It's a real shame they didn't photograph the money beforehand.

fwiw, I'd not trash you for your suggestion, for it's a reasonable theory. I just have trouble conceiving that so much damage could take place to the bills within the bundle and yet have the bundle washup with the three packets still (roughly) together. In my limited experience tossing money bundles around, and having to fool with creating 20 bundles for my money bag, packets can pretty easily shift around inside the bundle. As I said, rubber bands aren't exactly vice grips. You might suggest that being water logged would keep them all together...but yet Brian clearly found three separate packets. In other words, being waterlogged long enough for so much deterioration to occur doesn't seem to support them still being found in separate packets. Being waterlogged for any length of time should have just made all the packets smoosh together into a single brick. That leads me to think that they got water logged while already at rest and while they were already loosely separated from the bundle.

The FBI's interviews with the Corps of Engineers indicated that the dredge theory was impossible due to the condition of the money.

This is a thought I just had. Brian found 3 individual packets presumably from a single bundle. So this rolling along the bottom action is violent enough to sheer 75% or more of the money away yet not violent enough to separate the packets from the bundle. Rubber bands aren’t vice grips. Packets can shift easily within a bundle, especially when probably 75% or more of the bill has been removed. I’m still of the opinion that it got there by natural means, but I just can’t buy into the fact that this money disintegrated to this extent yet remained together BEFORE coming to rest. It makes so much more sense that they were already at rest when the disintegration began to occur. Any sort of violent action undertaken against a bundle can easily cause the packets to shift. If tumbling is violent enough to sheer off the edges to this extent then it would probably be violent enough to separate the packets from the bundle. I had totally forgotten that I did this several years ago already. I took a bundle of three packets, double rubber banded on each side, as their standard practice was, then I rolled it into a wall. The packets were shifting pretty easily. Seriously, look how much of the bill is left. Rubber bands aren’t gonna hold packets together when 1) violence is the cause of the disintegration, and 2) that’s all that is left of the bills BEFORE it comes to rest. I believe the bills were already at rest when whatever process caused them to disintegrate occurred, otherwise I just can't see the packets staying so close together throughout all of this supposed rolling violence. Video.mov

When it comes to Tena Bar, I'm usually Mr. "No Hablo Ingles", but I occasionally can get interested. Do you have any examples of tumbling in water having such an effect? Would like to see that. Also, I'd always assumed that the shards were the remnants of whatever flaked off the bills that hadn't disintegrated yet. If tumbling caused the removal of the edges, then shouldn't those edges be on the river bottom? That's my only concern with your theory. Explain the shards and provide an example of what tumbling on a river bottom does.