Point at a single credible, validated piece of evidence that indicates DBC survived more than ten minutes after leaving the aircraft.
Once you realize you can’t, the evidence there is suggests that both he and the money went somewhere no one including the FBI and a large contingent of amateur searchers was able to find the slightest trace in over 40 years.
The appearance of one block of money, showing evidence of rumbling around the riverbed, and absolutely nothing else except some questionable parachute shreds, pretty much closes the book on where he went.
But you’re going to post no more than three words equating to “Nuh-huh” anyway.
No, the corpse would have disintegrated by now (or been eaten by animals/birds). His skeleton might still be there, but the bones would have fallen out of the parachute harness and be scattered on the forest floor. Or even decomposed inti dust by now. It’s been 45 years, you know.
Im of the opinion that someone reported missing in the weeks or months after the hijacking is probably the culprit. Many of these missing people were investigated but no real evidence against them was found. His name is probably amongst these reported missing persons. I assume none of these missing persons had skydiving/special forces experience as this would be a huge red flag to investigators. This leads me to suspect Cooper had little or no skydiving experience either. This makes his jump all the more ballsy.
I’m also of the opinion the he landed in the river. The thing that always puzzled me was why no one missed him. He wore a suit and drank cocktails so presumably people knew him. It seems like someone would have said, “I wonder what ever happened to old so and so?”
I’m living in Thailand and get all my movies and TV via the internet. The Cooper program came up just a couple of days ago when I watched it but have no idea when it was actually aired.
"I saw the same doc mentioned in the OP. Basically, they said that the FBI had already checked him out, and they never found enough worthwhile info to pursue Rackstraw as credible ‘Cooper.’ "
Yes but nowhere was there any mention of fingerprints, did the FBI check Rackstraw’s prints to positively eliminate him as a suspect, would have been simple enough.
The producers had the info. They secured an interview with the FBI who informed them that the case was about to be closed, and we saw footage of the evidence in the case being inventoried and packed for removal to FBI archives in Washington from the Seattle office.
A - you say this like a suit and cocktails weren’t extremely common for businessmen in that era. There were probably a million people that fit the description of “wore a suit and drank cocktails”.
B - The other assumption is that this was normal behavior, and not “well, I’m about to rob a plane, might as well go out in style and try these cocktails I’ve never been able to afford”.
Some concluded he was with the Air Force, maybe a cargo loader. They are familiar with aircraft (which the highjacker was) and receive basic jump training. However “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.” (Special Agent Larry Carr).
Agreed. For all of his evident meticulous planning, he seems to have made a great many very serious errors.
Just off the top of my head from my reading of the case, this includes jumping out of an airliner at night in a storm into the wilderness with inadequate clothing and footwear, no survival gear, no helmet, and a non-functional reserve chute. :dubious:
It was a 727. A search would have taken about forty seconds. (A Two is so small they have one hanging in the Chicago science museum, and while it’s neat, and I fondly recall flying on them, it’s astoundingly little for a major airliner.)
The lack of anyone ever putting in a missing persons claim that could be matched to “Cooper” is one of the great mysteries of the case.
Either he was a true loner, or had such distant connections to family and friends that no one really missed him in a meaningful timeframe, or his spouse/partner/friend was a knowing accomplice who did not dare speak up.
It’s possible a deathbed confession could still lead to the truth. If DBC was about 35, and thus born about 1940, anyone of the same age would be into the dyin’ years. I would not be surprised if some kind of verifiable claim, with evidence, comes to light in the next ten years. (And not another “my dad was out of town that week” sort of claim.)
Fair enough. I wonder if it was a recently fired businessman, so he had no work connections (and presumably no family connections either). I’m sure there were plenty of those.
