FBI pulls the plug on the D.B. “Geronimoooooo…” Cooper case.
The press release says, “Following one of the longest and most exhaustive investigations in our history, on July 8, 2016, the FBI redirected resources allocated to the D.B. Cooper case in order to focus on other investigative priorities.”
I wonder how much resources they really were allocating to this case over the past decade or two? Was anyone working on the case, even part time?
I’d like to think that at least Mulder and Scully were keeping an eye on it.
Seriously though, the take was only 200,000 (although worth a lot more back then) and I wonder how much has been spent trying to solve the case. In any case, a fascinating unsolved mystery.
A while back, I listened to the audio version of Skyjacked by Geoffrey Grey (https://www.amazon.com/Skyjack-Hunt-D-B-Cooper/dp/0307451305). It’s a sort of gonzo account of the writer’s immersion in what he calls Cooperland. It’s an interesting trip through a world of Cooper suspects, conspiracy theories, and off-kilter amateur detectives. The writer winds up recording his own descent into paranoia and conspiracism, as he ends the book holed up in a remote cabin, poring over a random handwritten recipe from the kitchen of one of the flight attendants, looking for hidden clues to Cooper’s identity.
IIRC, the book is less interested in advancing new theories on the identity of Cooper than on exploring the obsession and mania of the strange inhabitants of Cooperland. I remember liking it a lot.
An aside: I used to get blind drunk at a bar called DB Cooper’s on 39th Street in Kansas City. They had a great mural of a guy in a raincoat and parachute. I wonder if it’s still there.
This place? Take your pick!
That’s it! I had many nights there I’ll never remember.
Is the painting still there?
This one? Yep
Awesome. I thought I remembered him being in a rain coat instead of just the suit. But, either way, seeing those pictures made me smile! A buddy of mine and I used to go get drunk at Jimmy’s Jigger, then stumble down the street and get drunker at DB Cooper’s.
Do you live in that area? Go play “Rain Dogs” on the juke box at Jimmy’s for me!!
I live in Topeka. Haven’t actually been to that bar, but I have heard of it, so I looked it up. I can’t remember who, but someone I was in college with talked about it.
I will, however, raise a pint in your honor at the Celtic Fox. When I do drink out, that’s where I go.
A little surfing just reminded me of Gilhouly’s, another place I remember through alcohol-hazed eyes. Man, I hadn’t thought about that place in eons. I remember chatting up a woman there one night and being really interested until she told me her name, which was the same (uncommon) name as my mom. I was too weirded out to try for a number after that.
Anyway, sorry for the hijack (hah!). It’s too bad if Cooper’s identity is never revealed. I imagine he died in the jump. But surely someone must have missed the guy when he didn’t turn up for dinner or work or something…
D.B. can finally come out of hiding now. It’s not safe for Hoffa yet.
I knew I’d get away with it.
…and now that we have a winner, the mods can close the thread at their leisure. 
“Cooper” went into the Columbia, drowned and was washed out to sea. End of story. It is, however, kind of like a Twilight Zone/Night Gallery story.
“Submitted, for your approval, Mister John Doe, who would be remembered by a name he never used, and planned and executed a nearly perfect crime… forgetting only that getting the final exit right is both essential, and impossible… in the Twilight Zone.”
I always thought it unlikely the police gave Cooper fully functioning parachutes. They probably sabotaged them in some subtle way.
Cooper was dressed incorrectly for the harsh conditions waiting in the thick forest. He didn’t even have hiking boots or a coat.
There are so many factors that indicates he died that night.
I agree. I could never quite get why people think he made it.
But that bit of money that did turn up - that complicates things.
I hated that Leverage wasted a whole episode “solving” the case. But they were running out of ideas, and that whole season was pretty bad.
Whenever this story pops up again I’m always reminded of the movie “The Pursuit of DB Cooper”…especially the end scene with Treat Williams and Kathryn Harrold “riding” off into the sunset, so to speak.
They have convincingly claimed they did not. However, it was belatedly discovered that one unit was a training chute.
Had he come down anywhere on land, he or remants would have been discovered by now. Even Steve Fossett only remained lost in rugged territory for about a year. SOMETHING would have been found - and if it was money, that was taken and spent, it would have been detected in circulation. It was a lot of bills, and not a one ever showed up, anywhere. (Except the one found packet, below.)
Starting with the fact that he was never seen again, and none of the money ever turned up. The Occam’s Razor conclusion based on the known evidence is that he was successful in every way, except that he managed to hit the Columbia River and drown. That’s almost the only possible explanation for the (water-fused) block of cash that was found, still banded, in then-recent river dredgings.
Toe Pick…! 
Oh wait, that’s D. B. Sweeney. Nm…
Here’s CNN’s coverage of the FBI’s decision - looks like at least one agent has recently worked on the case from time to time: http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/12/world/d-b-cooper-fbi-closes-case/?iid=ob_lockedrail_topeditorial
Wiki has an extensive article on the case: D. B. Cooper - Wikipedia