# FBI May have Found D.B. Cooper **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 2, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203 "2011-08-02T18:21:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/1 "2011-08-02T18:21:12Z")
Link to SLATE article: [http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/08/01/d\_b\_cooper\_skyjacking\_case\_fbi\_says\_it\_has\_a\_new\_lead\_in\_famous\_.html](http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/08/01/d_b_cooper_skyjacking_case_fbi_says_it_has_a_new_lead_in_famous_.html) They are not yet confirming or revealing the name, but say the man has been dead for ten years now. I can’t wait, I have always wondered about that guy! ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/2 "2011-08-02T18:23:38Z")
Edited thread title (at the request of OP). ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/3 "2011-08-02T18:31:47Z")
I get D.B. Cooper and D.B. Sweeney mixed up, and when I read either name I get a moment of “Isn’t that the guy who jumped out of a hijacked plane and then got kidnapped by aliens?” ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/4 "2011-08-02T19:00:02Z")
LOL! This is the “Hi-Jacked plane and parachuted out” guy, in case anyone else is wondering. Thanks Idle! I’ve been practising my typing skills, and the sole result seems to be that my left hand is getting faster, and often gets ahead of the right one now. . . ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/5 "2011-08-02T19:06:41Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Thanks Idle! I’ve been practising my typing skills, and the sole result seems to be that my left hand is getting faster, and often gets ahead of the right one now. . . Please don’t tell us what you’re doing with your right hand. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/6 "2011-08-02T19:28:55Z")
The FBI has a _potential_ lead. The Telegraph of London, which broke the story, quotes former FBI analyst Ayn Dietrich: > [@](#): > > “The credible lead is somebody whose possible connection to the hijacker is strong,” she says. “And the suspect is not a name that’s come up before.” Dietrich says agents have sent an item that belongs to him for testing at the forensics lab in Quantico, Virginia. “We’re hoping there are fingerprints they can take off of it,” she says. “It would be a significant lead. And this is looking like our most promising one to date.” So they’re hoping to get fingerprints which they can compare to the partial prints that Cooper left behind. I’m an experienced skydiver; I’ve made over 1000 jumps. I’ve jumped from a 727, I’ve jumped in rain, snow and bitter cold. I’ve jumped at night. I don’t believe that Cooper could have survived. He probably never even managed to open his parachute. If he did, he was in the middle of incredibly cold freezing rain and couldn’t see the ground. Landing on a tree-covered mountainside without injury would be very difficult on a warm sunny day. In the conditions he faced, landing without spraining an ankle (at the very least) would be almost impossible. And a sprained ankle or broken leg would pretty much be a death sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/7 "2011-08-02T19:34:25Z")
Osama bin Laden, Whitey Bulger, and now maybe D.B. Cooper. You have to figure somewhere out there, a 68-year-old Jim Morrison is starting to get worried. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/8 "2011-08-02T19:44:23Z")
It would be great to finally put a real face to the name D.B. Cooper. I agree the chances of him surviving that jump were a million to 1. I always wondered why someone didn’t report a missing relative? Dad was an amateur skydiver and we haven’t seen him since that trip to Washington in late Nov. 1971. If he did survive then why wasn’t the money ever spent? The Feds have the serial numbers of those bills. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/9 "2011-08-02T19:48:40Z")
> [@Bumbershoot](#): > > I don’t believe that Cooper could have survived. He probably never even managed to open his parachute. If he did, he was in the middle of incredibly cold freezing rain and couldn’t see the ground. Landing on a tree-covered mountainside without injury would be very difficult on a warm sunny day. In the conditions he faced, landing without spraining an ankle (at the very least) would be almost impossible. And a sprained ankle or broken leg would pretty much be a death sentence. I totally agree with you. That said, this new suspect apparently did have some issues with his legs that he claimed came from a car accident. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/10 "2011-08-02T20:20:21Z")
> [@Bumbershoot](#): > > I’m an experienced skydiver; I’ve made over 1000 jumps. I’ve jumped from a 727… How did that opportunity come up? That’s hardly the typical jump plane. Unless _you’re_ D.B. Cooper. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/11 "2011-08-02T20:28:21Z")
I always thought DB Sweeney should play the lead in “The D.B. Cooper Story”. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/12 "2011-08-02T20:34:23Z")
How effective are ‘they’ at tracing serial numbers? Is it possible he could have spent the money early, and the money never went through any ‘catchpoint’ where they would have identified it? One of the suspects, it’s claimed, went straight to Vegas and gambled it all. If you did it fast, then cashed out chips the next day, that might work. I think he probably died on the jump, but I watch these DB Cooper stories - I guess I wouldn’t be surprised if he survived. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/13 "2011-08-02T20:43:25Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > How did that opportunity come up? That’s hardly the typical jump plane. > > Unless _you’re_ D.B. Cooper. [del]I’m[/del] He’s dead, I tell ya! Where’s the “innocent, whistling” smilie? At the World Freefall Convention in Quincy, Illinois they brought in a 727 cargo plane several years in a row in the mid-90s and set it up for jumping. [Here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0jUus74x9c) is a video from '92 that shows what it was like. I did a jet jump in '93, '94 and '95. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/14 "2011-08-02T20:54:10Z")
It doesn’t pass the smell test for me. I don’t see any way that Dan Cooper could have survived that jump. And if he did, he would have had some of the money (a little bit of it washed up on the Columbia after a while, so the hijacker was separated from some of his money). And then he didn’t spend it? Or anything? Dan Cooper is a scattering of bones in a forest in SW Washington. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/15 "2011-08-02T21:14:06Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > I get D.B. Cooper and D.B. Sweeney mixed up, and when I read either name I get a moment of “Isn’t that the guy who jumped out of a hijacked plane and then got kidnapped by aliens?” Well, my broker is E. F. Hutton, and he says… ---
**Author:** ![Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/16 "2011-08-02T21:30:30Z")
This story is several days old despite the thread starting today. I believe there’s already an existing thread from a few days ago. They announced today that there were no fingerprints on the item in question. Why would an FBI agent announce to foreign press that they may have a major lead because they have an item that they have not yet done a fingerprint test on but may match one of the many potential fingerprints they have from items in the vicinity of where the hijacker was. Oh, there’s a book coming out next week? What a coincidence! ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/17 "2011-08-02T21:35:36Z")
I’m anxious to hear more. > [@Little Nemo](#): > > Osama bin Laden, Whitey Bulger, and now maybe D.B. Cooper. > > You have to figure somewhere out there, a 68-year-old Jim Morrison is starting to get worried. Nah, the trifecta has already been completed. > [@Bumbershoot](#): > > I’m an experienced skydiver; I’ve made over 1000 jumps. I’ve jumped from a 727, I’ve jumped in rain, snow and bitter cold. I’ve jumped at night. I don’t believe that Cooper could have survived. I’m confused, you did all those things and survived but you’re saying he couldn’t? ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/18 "2011-08-02T21:37:45Z")
> [@PlainJain](#): > > I’m confused, you did all those things and survived but you’re saying he couldn’t? Cooper does not appear to have been an experienced jumper, primary evidence being that one of the chutes he jumped with was a sewn-shut practice chute. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/19 "2011-08-02T21:46:20Z")
> [@PlainJain](#): > > I’m anxious to hear more. > Nah, the trifecta has already been completed. > I’m confused, you did all those things and survived but you’re saying he couldn’t? \*\*Bumbershoot \*\*probably wasn’t wearing loafers and a trench coat over a business suit when he jumped. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203/20 "2011-08-02T21:49:50Z")
> [@bup](#): > > \*\*Bumbershoot \*\*probably wasn’t wearing loafers and a trench coat over a business suit when he jumped. …into the wilderness at night during a storm. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-may-have-found-d-b-cooper/591203.md?page=2)