D. B. Cooper

[Napoleon]

For some of the older members who may remember who D. B. Cooper is there is an interesting new story out that will appear in tomorrows New York Magazine on who may have been DB Cooper.

http://nymag.com/news/features/39593/

For those who do not know who DB Cooper is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper

[Gnam]

Jimmy James is D.B. Cooper. I read it in his autobiography Macho Business Donkey Wrestler.

http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/7793/introstephen01fg8.jpg

[Stu]

wrong, this is DB Cooper

http://www.canoe.com/divertissement/tele-medias/galeries/2006/12/18/PB_01_11_westmoreland.jpg

[Dave99]

Jimmy James is D.B. Cooper. I read it in his autobiography Macho Business Donkey Wrestler.

http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/7793/introstephen01fg8.jpg
An excellent, excellent read, if I may say so. Although I do prefer the book's title under its original Japanese translation, "Jimmy James, Capitalist Lion Tamer", before being translated back into Engrish.

:D

[emjaya]

How far would you have got in 1971 with $200,000 in your pocket?

Today 200k would pay off what I owe on my house and put a new V8 Falcon in the driveway, but I'd still have to work for a living.

What would it have bought "Dan" in 1971? :\

[datachicane]

Pretty interesting.

I have a good friend who's father was a career reporter for UPI. In 1971 he wrote the first wire service story and fatfingered 'Dan' to 'DB', and thus D.B. Cooper was born... kinda shows the importance of referencing primary sources.

[Napoleon]

How far would you have got in 1971 with $200,000 in your pocket?

Today 200k would pay off what I owe on my house and put a new V8 Falcon in the driveway, but I'd still have to work for a living.

What would it have bought "Dan" in 1971? :\

A visit to the CPI statistics says that $200k in 71 dollars would be about $1,047,000 today.

[SteveH]

A visit to the CPI statistics says that $200k in 71 dollars would be about $1,047,000 today.

Of course, had I been given $200K in '71, it would be worth nothing today and I would have spent it all within a month of getting the money. :D

[Insomniac]

Of course, had I been given $200K in '71, it would be worth nothing today and I would have spent it all within a month of getting the money. :D

He wasn't saying the $200k would be $1M today, but $200k back then is the equivalent to $1M now. You should figure out what you'd do with $1M today to see what you probably could've done with $200k then.

[SteveH]

I know exactly what I would have done with that much back then. It wouldn't have been pretty. :D

[IlliniRacer]

I know exactly what I would have done with that much back then. It wouldn't have been pretty. :D

I remember someone asking Tug McGraw how he was going to spend his World Series money. He said he was going to spend 90% on booze and hookers and probably just waste the other 10% ;)

[Andrew Longman]

A visit to the CPI statistics says that $200k in 71 dollars would be about $1,047,000 today.

The thing is you probably couldn't lift $1,047,000 worth of $20 bills. And it probably would take multiple duffle bags to carry it. It would be hard to pull off Cooper feat today based on that alone.

[Napoleon]

The thing is you probably couldn't lift $1,047,000 worth of $20 bills. And it probably would take multiple duffle bags to carry it. It would be hard to pull off Cooper feat today based on that alone.

True, and it actually gets to what impressed me about the guy who the story claims may have did it being such a good prospective suspect. In the service he jumped with up to a 90 lbs pack, and 25 years after he served the hijacker, who was around his age, asked for an amount of money that weighed 21 lbs, plus he had a bunch of other specific request dealing with the plane and what he wanted provided to him when the plane landed. It seems to suggest someone who had available to him or was familiar with both the plane and jumping. The guy they suggest could have easily been in such a position (I know he wasn’t a pilot but you would think the airline had some kind of flight book for the plane he could have easily looked at). The only thing about the whole capper, which seems “unplanned” or insane, is where he jumped at, in that it was in a place with a significantly increased chance of injury or death. But maybe that was no accident and he made a conscience decision that it was too risky from a capture standpoint to parachute into a more populated area and he figured he could make it.

In the past I always figured he was killed in the jump, but who knows.

By the way I have read in the past few days the FBI is reactivating the case. I took it that it was for no other reason that it was getting some PR and who knows maybe someone would come out of the woodwork with new info.

[JohnHKart]

I read the great book about Richard Mccoy, (DB Cooper, the real McCoy) about ten years ago and I'm convinced it was him. He committed the identical crime a few months after the DB case and looked exactly like the sketch as well. Family members identified a tie clasp left on the Cooper plane as Mccoy's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_McCoy,_Jr.

John

[TravelGal]

I read the first part. It may be that this guy has all the proper credentials but "he's the wrong height, the wrong weight, and has the wrong color eyes" sorta stopped me.

Besides, if he had been a purser for NW for some time, the chances of his being known by at least one of the cabin crew would be extremely high.

[Andrew Longman]

The only thing about the whole capper, which seems “unplanned” or insane, is where he jumped at, in that it was in a place with a significantly increased chance of injury or death. But maybe that was no accident and he made a conscience decision that it was too risky from a capture standpoint to parachute into a more populated area and he figured he could make it.

I've long thought the same thing. Wasn't the area he jumped over isolated and mountainous PNW woods... at night?

Maybe I have it wrong, but it seems he would almost certainly be killed or injured by landing in a tree. How could he avoid one jumping into a forest? Even if managed to avoid that fate, he couldn't possibly know where he landed or where the nearest road was. He jumped with no shelter, survival gear and at best little food or water. He could walk for days and not bump into a sign of civilization. And the heavy bag of $200,000 won't buy him anything he needs and in fact will likely bring him more harm.

If I had been him I would have jumped out over a mesa somewhere moderately populated like the edge of Tuscon. Land. Dump the chute. Walk to the nearest motel. Rent a car in the morning and be off.

[Sean Malone]

I've long thought the same thing. Wasn't the area he jumped over isolated and mountainous PNW woods... at night?

Maybe I have it wrong, but it seems he would almost certainly be killed or injured by landing in a tree. How could he avoid one jumping into a forest? Even if managed to avoid that fate, he couldn't possibly know where he landed or where the nearest road was. He jumped with no shelter, survival gear and at best little food or water. He could walk for days and not bump into a sign of civilization. And the heavy bag of $200,000 won't buy him anything he needs and in fact will likely bring him more harm.

If I had been him I would have jumped out over a mesa somewhere moderately populated like the edge of Tuscon. Land. Dump the chute. Walk to the nearest motel. Rent a car in the morning and be off.

I was thinking the same. Not knowing what parachute technology was like in the early '70's, today's jumpers would have no problem coming down on a river bank without so much as falling to a knee. One of the links above mentioned it was 69 below at the altitude he jumped. there have been cases where airline stow-aways survive extreme temps but the chances are highly unlikely.
So they found some of the money buried along the Columbia river bank. I'd like to know more about the details of that. Was it found buried in an organized manner or more like it was washed down the river and over time was consumed by silt?

I'm guessing that since he planned the hijacking in such detail that he would have done the same for the 'post jump'. Land along a river bank, retrieve pre-placed survival gear, sacrifice a few grand by dispersing it by the river to throw off the feds, hike out of forest to hidden vehicle... and disappear.
They found some money and the hijack note but no parachute, no lost shoe, no lost clothing, no body and no remaining $198K? Hmm.

[JohnHKart]

Here's a new suspect. According to the FBI, McCoy and others are now eliminated via DNA testing of the famous tie. Things are heating up on the DB Cooper scene. Listened to Galen Cook several times in the past few weeks including last night on Coast to Coast , very interesting new facts are coming to light.

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/shows/2008/01/05.html#db


John

[G.]

Here's a new suspect. According to the FBI, McCoy and others are now eliminated via DNA testing of the famous tie. Things are heating up on the DB Cooper scene. Listened to Galen Cook several times in the past few weeks including last night on Coast to Coast , very interesting new facts are coming to light.

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/shows/2008/01/05.html#db


John
You listen to Coast To Coast??

Am I missing something?

I LOVE the info, but the source is, well, notf***ing credible, in any way, shape, nor form. WeeklyWorldNews is more reliable. Hell, they broke the Batboy story!

[Napoleon]

Well maybe they have found the chute.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-DB-Cooper.html?scp=1&sq=cooper&st=nyt

[KaBoom21]

Less D.B Cooper, more D.B. Sweeney: :rofl: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MG9HZX3GL._AA280_.jpg