Ckret

The chutes were secured through NWA's Seattle flight operations. The flight ops manager called an individual from Pacific Aviation who in turn called an individual he knew who had two back packs. This person put the two back packs in a cab and the cab driver delivered them to Boeing Field and then onto SeaTac by private car. The chest chutes were picked up in Issaquah at Seattle Sky Sports and transported to SeaTac by the State Patrol. I don't know why the D rings had been removed.

In Cossey's statement to the FBI on 11/26/1971, 4th paragraph "...he described the missing back pack parachute as having a sage green nylon container, model NB6 with sage green nylon harness, which harness has no "D" rings to mount a chest pack."

Cooper made an inspection of the chutes when Tina was present. As well as the money and the bag the money came in. He made his concerns clear to Tina about the money bag. He checked the money and made statements about that. He stated several times, "no funny stuff," providing nonfunctioning equipment would be funy stuff. Reason dictates that if he new the reserve was a dummy he would have said something about that as well. I doubt that Cooper would have been able to gain any information about the wind conditions by throwing a chute off the air stairs. It was dark, the chute would have instantly disappeared from his sight the moment he let go of it. Of course almost anything is possible, but the evidence points to him jumping with it, not that he did, it just points in that direction.

The rigger removed the D rings from the back packs, there was nothing for Cooper to clip the reserve to.

No one from the cockpit ever left it until they reached Reno. We may never know whether he jumped with the dummy chute or not. But if he went through the bother of throwing out the dummy, why not the second back chute and the one he took apart. The statements made by the witnesses indicate he tied the money to his waist.

Yes there were mutiple male donors on the tie. One pressure bump caused when the airstairs pushed back up into the aircraft. No mention of whether he was right or left handed.

In order to reach the conclusions you have you must have evidence and or documentation to suport them. The reason to go public with all of the information the FBI has collected in regard to this case, is to boast individual investigative efforts by those like you and in return for those like you to assist by sharing your information with the FBI. The information you have could be of value, however, you must provide supporting documentation and or evidence. How do you come to the conclusion that your husband changed his fingerprints? May I have documents or evidence that reveals this. What documents do you have that point to corruption at Jefferson Correctional? May I have them. The research that you and the journalist conducted that points to your husband's criminal history being different then what is on record, do you have that for review? Thanks for any help.

When Tina brought the money to Cooper, Cooper started talking excitedly about it (Flo's assessment about him being child like). He talked about how heavy it was and had Flo hold the bag so she could feel the weight. Tina then joked with Cooper about it being a lot of money and could she have some. Cooper reached into the bag and gave her a bundle of money. Tina then said to him she was just joking and that she could not accept gratuities and handed the bundle back to Cooper.

The clasp was on the tie when it was recovered. The tie and clasp were stored in evidence as separate items. The tie clasp is basically an alligator clip with the same tension as a normal alligator clip. There are shoeshiners in every airport, I just have not found any interviews of shoeshiners in the Cooper case files. Jo, can you be a bit more specific?

"Folly of physical description." I don't recall who brought this up but I do recall the post. The work that has been conducted on eye witness identification has focused from the traditional aspect of violent crime. A fleeting encounter with a subject who is committing a crime that last less than a minute. For example, a typical bank robbery (my area of focus) lasts 20 seconds or less. The robber approaches, passes his demand note to the teller, the teller reads, complies and the robber runs out of the bank. In this situation the tellers get the description wrong most of the time. Not absolutely wrong, but wrong enough that sometimes I can't find on the video the person they described. The Cooper case was nothing like this. Every person who had contact with Cooper described him consistently. The two individuals who had the most contact with him were separated for the flight, so they had little chance to get together and discuss Cooper. Schaffner got off the plane in Seattle, Mucklow in Reno, both were interviewed that night and gave consistent descriptions. They described the situation as calm and Cooper as calm, quiet and polite. In fact, Tina described joking with Cooper towards the end of the flight and Schaffner described him as child like. In other words no trauma that would taint the description. Nothing in this investigation points to dismissing the witnesses descriptions to the point that males who don't fall within their description should be considered. Thats not to say that they aren't documented.

No idea why he called me Bob. Flybounce, why did you call me Bob? I have not seen any interviews with regard to a shoeshine at the airport. The agent completed the ticket.

There is a small permanent indentation on the tie where one would place the clasp. From that I would imagine Cooper never took the clasp off of the tie. When he was done with it for the day he took it off, clasp in place and threw it in a drawer until the next time he used. The witnesses stated he had a dark suit with an overcoat, I would think that means he had on a suit jacket under the overcoat. Since they stated he had on a tie and described the clasp I would assume he wore it open.

Still looking for the cigarettes, after they were processed in the lab they were sent back to the field. So they are somewhere between Washington DC and Seattle or disposed of. Every spot on the plane possibly touched by Cooper was processed for prints. The seats he was sitting in were actually removed and sent to DC. The DNA is male, the lab report stated the sample came from a combination of male doners.

The clasp is to small to obtain prints. Christiansen was dismissed because the only part of his physical description that matches Coopers is that he is male. There were other items as well, one of them was that he was a Northwest flight attendant. It does not fit (for me) that a NW stew would hijack a flight associated in his area of operation. The chance someone would recognize him immediately would be too great. On top of that the chance someone that works for Northwest would have said, "Cooper looks like that guy I work with, you know Kenny?" Which never happened. Getting DNA tested is not a matter of me sending a request and Quantico jumping on it. They have much more important matters at hand and Cooper requests are at the end of the line. For me to make a request it would have to be someone who first and foremost matches the description of Cooper and has the background of who we think Cooper might be.

It was a small paper sack he brought on the plane with him, unknown contents.

There were multiple bundles recovered under 3 to 6 inches of sand, just at the waters edge (according to the Ingrams) no bricks of money. I found reference to four bundles, of which the rubber bands were still around them, there were 290 20's. I can't imagine the bundles broke from the bag and entered the river at some other location and then multiple bundles land at the same beach several miles down stream. Once in the flow of the river there would be nothing to keep the bundles together to allow several of them to land at the same beach. What I think that means is the bag had to have landed at the beach with all of the money inside. While on the beach or just at the waters edge the bag finally snagged something that broke it open. Once open, several bundles fell from the bag and stayed on the beach. Due to the flow of water, the bag, along with the rest of the money drifted off in the Columbia.

I found the cover sheets to the lab reports which summarize the findings. I also found the interviews of the Ingram family with regard to the recovery. I found the following: The money was not stuck together with muck. The money was found under just a few inches of sand. They were still bundled with rubber bands, however, the bands crumbled to the touch when they picked them up. The Ingrams took the money to their house and laid it out to dry. The only thing in the lab report was that the money was consistent with being submerged in water and that sand recovered off the money was consistent with silt from the Columbia. From what I have read in the files the best theory I can come up with is that Cooper tied the money bag into a tight enough bundle that it stayed sealed for several years. As time passed the bag was pushed by the elements into a creek or feeder stream, finally into a high velocity creek that eventually pushed it into a tributary that feeds into the Columbia. Once in the Columbia the bag bounces along the bottom, snaging every now and then. Sometime in late 78 or early 79 the bag breaks open near Tina's Bar and a few bundles wash up and are covered buy the sand.

The money was packaged in varying amounts, so one bundle would have $500.00 another $1,000.00, there was no uniformity to it. I have been searching for the evidence report from the lab but have not found it yet, lots of files to go through. When I get it you'll be the second to know.

I can only relate to you what is in the case file. The individuals who gave their opinion did so after excavating the scene of recovery, reviewing the condition of the money and information of the day as it relates to the topography of the area. If you have evidence that refutes the work they did i would like to have it.

The money was provided by Seafirst bank which is now Bank of America. The money came from a fund that had been developed for situations like the Cooper hijacking. Seafirst security packaged the money (all of the serial numbers on the bills had been prerecorded by Seafirst) into a white cloth bag with no zipper or draw string. The pressure bump occurred at 8:11PM, this put the fight in the area of Highland, Wa or grid 18 of a Clark County. No other dredging occurred.

Here's the scoop on the money. It was found in a area known as Tena's Bar which is just northwest Vancouver. The money was found 6 to 8 inches below the surface along the northern shore of the Columbia. This area was owned by the Fazio Brother's Farms. The money was found with the rubber bands around the bundles. The rubber was described as very fragile. The river in the area where the money was located had been dredged August 19 through the 25th, 1974. The dredge material was deposited on the banks of the Fazio Brothers farms and spread by front loaders. A geology professor from Portland state studied the sediment from the location where the money was recovered. He determined the money could not have been deposited prior to the 1974 dredging operation. There was a clear delineation between the 2 sediment layers, pre 1974 and post 1974. Had Cooper buried the money the night he jumped it would have been several feet below the 1974 dredged material and found in a different type of sediment then what it was discovered in. The most likely scenario provided was that the 1977 Washougal River flood started the package of money on its journey from where it landed in 1971 towards the Columbia. Over time the bag and cords holding it together broke apart releasing the bundles of money. Because it had been in the bag, the money had not began to disintegrate. Once out of the bag the money began it's slow rot, eventually making it into the Columbia sometime around late 1978 early 1979. Once in the Columbia, the bundles began drifting down stream. It would have taken 14.7 hours for the bundles (if unobstructed) to make it to Tena's Bar, where 3 bundles washed up. Once on shore the money was covered over by sand, which acted as a natural preservative, leaving what was left intact until it's discovery four to 12 months later.

Why would Cooper bury the money? Some have said to throw the investigation off. Why would that throw the investigaton and how? If you were going to throw the investigation why would you do it with buried money that may never be discovered. In this case the only way for the rouse to work is by discovery, to leave it to chance if it is part of your escape plan makes little sense. Good points nonetheless.

who is the most logical suspect?

Your right, I believe the reason DB Cooper never specified a flight path is because it did not matter, he was going to jump just a few minutes out of Seatac, so the flight path was of no concern. When plan A failed there was no plan B, plan B became as soon as he could get the air stairs down. Not long after takeoff Cooper tried to get the stairs to lower. After several minutes he called up to the captain saying he could not get the stairs down. The captain leveled the flight and slowed the planes speed. The crew called back a few minutes later and Cooper said everything was ok. Not long after that communication, out into the night. The money still had bands around the bundles.

Cooper never asked for any type of denomination. the reserve chute he jumped with was for classroom demo, it was not a functioning chute (Cossey did not provide the chute, he discovered the mistake the next day. The chute was provided by someone else at Sky Sports) The backback Cooper jumped with was an NB6 manufactured in 1959. The money was not found in a bag, the bundles were stuck together by the muck and time. Jo, you have my number.