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FBI releases 1971 letter that D.B. Cooper sleuth says could be from notorious hijacker
Newly released FBI documents pertaining to the D.B. Cooper hijacking case include a letter that may only deepen the mystery surrounding the notorious unsolved crime which marks its 46th anniversary this week. "I knew from the start that I wouldn't be caught," says the undated, typewritten letter from a person claiming to be the man who said he had a bomb and commandeered a Northwest Airlines flight from Portland to Seattle on Nov. 24, 1971. After releasing passengers and crew members, the man then ordered the pilots to fly to Mexico, only to parachute out the back door somewhere over Washington's rugged wooded terrain with $200,000.
"I didn't rob Northwest Orient because I thought it would be romantic, heroic or any of the other euphemisms that seem to attach themselves to situations of high risk," he said. "I'm no modern-day Robin Hood. Unfortunately (I) do have only 14 months to live."
The carbon-copy letter was turned over to the FBI three weeks after the hijacking by The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and the Seattle Times, which were each mailed a copy and published stories about its contents. The letter was in an envelope with a greater Seattle area postmark.
Last month, the FBI released a copy of the letter that was sent to The Post in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by acclaimed D.B. Cooper sleuth Tom Colbert, a Los Angeles TV and film producer. He believes the letter is real. "We have no doubt it's from Cooper and the reason is that he cites he left no fingerprints on the plane," he said. "The reason that's critical is because it's absolutely true. There were no prints found in the back of plane," Colbert said. "They found 11 partial prints that's all, sides, fingers, tips and palm. But no prints of value were found."
More about D.B. Cooper. Also at Newsweek and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Previously: D.B. Cooper: Case Closed
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 25 2017, @03:34AM (7 children)
The Wikipedia page on him [wikipedia.org] says he was smart--though probably not smart enough.
OTOH
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 25 2017, @03:38AM
"Cooper vane" [wikipedia.org]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by frojack on Saturday November 25 2017, @05:11AM (3 children)
It should be pointed out that nobody knows what headgear he wore during the jump. A helmet is not actually needed for skydiving. Thousands of jumps have been made with nothing but a close fitting leather hat with no padding.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 25 2017, @05:29AM (2 children)
There was a -70°F wind chill, it was raining, and he jumped ito a forest.
He was wearing a business suit, a trenchcoat, and loafers.
I suspect that he was a peoplesicle before he touched the ground.
The parachute wasn't steerable and any parachute training he had seems minimal.
Chances of him not impacting a tree seem small.
If he wasn't already frozen solid after a 10,000 foot drop in subzero conditions, it seems likely that he died by being impaled on a tree branch or smacked into something even more substantial.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by sjames on Saturday November 25 2017, @08:15AM (1 child)
The jump would be physically demanding and risky to say the least, but keep in mind he would quickly fall into warmer conditions. Notably, a woman survived falling from even higher [guinnessworldrecords.com] without a parachute, suggesting that if he died, it wasn't the cold that killed him.
That said, landing blind into a forest with no help at hand isn't a great way to survive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 25 2017, @12:46PM
Yeah. 33,000 feet. That's pretty dramatic.
27 days in a coma and 16 months convalescence. Yow!
...and, of course, there was someone around to pick up the pieces.
landing blind into a forest
...and we haven't mentioned yet that this was at 8:13PM, well after dark.
...otherwise, one of the two F-106s trailing the 727 would likely have spotted his landing place.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 25 2017, @05:43AM
I remembered the Cooper vane thing from a previous investigation I had made.
In looking for an image of that, I found this page [grasshoppair.com] which was taken from an earlier version of the Wikipedia page.
It says that indications are he might have been a USAF cargo specialist, even having experience specifically with 727s.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 25 2017, @04:34PM
"He also failed to bring or request a helmet, chose to jump {animation] [blogspot.com] with the older and technically inferior of the two primary parachutes supplied to him, and jumped into a -70 °F (-57 °C) wind chill without proper protection against the extreme cold."
maybe he was just an OG?