by Bruce A. Smith
Boeing seems to be pulling the curtains closed over Dewey Max Cooper’s employment record at the aircraft manufacturer.
Dewey Cooper is reportedly an accomplice in the 40-year old DB Cooper skyjacking case, as announced by his niece, Marla Cooper, the Oklahoma woman who also claims that another uncle, LD Cooper, was the infamous skyjacker.
Marla stated recently at the DB Cooper symposium in Portland, Oregon that her uncle Dewey was the skyjacker’s getaway driver and had once worked at Boeing on the 727 assembly line.
However, Dewey Cooper died on lung disease in 1985, and LD Cooper passed away in 1999.
Nevertheless, Marla suggests that Dewey’s experiences at Boeing could have been the manner in which the brothers knew the 727 could be parachuted and what the specifics would be to do so successfully in terms of flying the aircraft slow enough for a safe exit.
I spoke with Debbie Namaguchi from Boeing’s Commercial Airplane division’s media relations last Friday, Dec. 9, and she was profoundly pessimistic that she – or anyone at Boeing– could tell me anything about Dewey Max Cooper’s employment record at Boeing over forty years after the fact. She claimed the data would be too old to retrieve, and that the systems necessary for checking those records, if they still existed, would be too outdated and not compatible with current technology.
Nevertheless, last August someone at Boeing confirmed Dewey’s employment in the late 1960s to Dominic Gates, an aviation reporter for the Seattle Times, and the fact was published in that newspaper on August 4. I reached Mr. Gates on December 14 after backtracking through Times articles and contacting their DB Cooper reporters Steve Miletich and Hal Bernton.
I offered a swap with the Times, and gave them access to all my Cooper data. In return they shared their notes concerning Dewey, which included the following correspondence from Boeing:
“A search of Dewy (sic) Lewis Cooper did not turn up any results. However, we also ran the name mentioned in Steve Miletich’s story: Dewy (sic) Max Cooper. A person by that name worked briefly for Boeing in the late 60s. No other information available.”
I emailed the source of that Boeing note, asking for more information on how long Dewey worked for Boeing and in what capacity. I also asked him for his perspective on how widespread the knowledge was at Boeing that the 727 could be used as a skydiving platform and the metrics necessary to fly the plane slow enough to have a successful jump.
That individual did not respond to my email. However, Ms Namaguchi called me bright and early the next morning to tell me that she had just learned that a Boeing source had made the Dewey news available to media last August. Her message announced the following:
“I was able to get some information that we did provide to the media last August. I can confirm that Dewey Max Cooper did work for Boeing in the late 1960s. At least I was able to get you that information. So, anyway, good luck on your story.”
Although she sounded pretty chipper in her phone message, she turned icy cold when I called her back and asked if she could dig a little deeper and find information pertaining to how long Dewey worked at Boeing and if he had any connections to 727 production.
Her reply was terse:
“That’s all I can give you.”
When I pushed a little further the chill got stronger.
“That’s as far as I can take it.”
I thanked Ms Namaguchi and said goodbye.
Boeing’s reluctance to talk about Dewey is surprising and disturbing. Further, their claim that they can’t find employment records from the 1960s is difficult to accept or understand. Surely Boeing and its unions keep precise documentation on employment so that they pay the proper amount of pensions and health benefits to its retirees.
Plus, why the ice? Why can’t Debbie take the search any further? Why aren’t my entreaties for information viewed as just a simple media request in a major felony?
Along these lines, Bob Sailshaw, a retired electrical engineer from Boeing and an individual who worked on the stair systems on 737s in the 1960s and 1970s, told me that the capacities of the 727 to be a jump platform were fairly well known at Boeing in the late 1960s, but only in engineering design circles.
So, the metrics to fly a 727 in a skydiving configuration were somewhat known, but generally restricted. Remember, the pilots of Flight 305 didn’t know their aircraft could be flown with the aft stairs deployed until DB Cooper told them, and they needed confirmation from NWO, Boeing, and possibly the CIA before they consented to the flight. Plus, Bill Rataczak, the guy actually flying Flight 305, told me that when DB Cooper told him precisely how to position the wing flaps, he knew the skyjacker was very well informed since “the 727 is the only Boeing product with a wing flaps setting of fifteen degrees.”
In addition, I have asked Sailshaw to work the phones and call his old buddies at Boeing, particularly in HR and benefits. So far, no success.
© 2011 The Mountain News – WA
The Mountain News - WA 
More great investigative work. Thanks.
Hi Bruce,
Great investigative, if somewhat frustrating, reporting.
As you know, I am not one that goes for conspiracy theories; but this does sound odd. Are the FBI
telling Boeing not to issue any information to the media – and for what reason??
Having said all that, I still feel that this “LD” story is a backwater.
Take care,
David
How old was Dewey when passed away in 1985?
I don’t know Ron. Sounds like a question for Marla, and she is up for taking questions, apparently, at her facebook page and also on the dropzone.com web site. LD was younger than Dewey, I think, being born in 1931, so Dewey was at least 55.
This question is the basic kind of information that I would have expected from Marla since she has been reseraching her family for the past two years. Also, height, weight, eye color, distinguishing characteristics, etc.
he was 54, which brings me to another problem with this case! not a whole lot was found on Dewey but I did find a link with his birth which is a little confusing, Dewey Max Cooper Born 8/11/31 Lynn Doyle Cooper Born 9/17/31 how can this be? also shows he had 3 kids, not two, Dennis, dean and Leslie.
This might help…
Dewey married Doris Luckenbill from Sisters Oregon. Doris second marriage. Their marriage lasted at least through the early 1960’s. Maybe through the 1960’s. Don’t know exactly when they divorced. Doris might know more about Dewey work at Boeing.
Doris and Dewey had 3 kids – Dennis, Leslie and Dean
Doris married Robert Wilson Hargreaves in Nevada, 1983. (her 3rd husband)
Doris Hargreaves is 78 and currently lives in “Bend Oregon”. Where L.D. Cooper is buried. Small world.
Dewey Died in 1985, age 54, in either Brooks or Salem Oregon, Marion county. About 1 hour drive time from Portland and the Hijacking.
His wife at the time was Janet as you have noted in your article.
There is a Dewey M. Cooper who was in the military and died in 1985.
Not sure if it was the same Cooper. If so, maybe he was the one with parachuting experience and 727 experience. Just a thought.
Thanks, Ron. I’ll follow up.
Small Corrections: Doris Married Dewey first, then was married to Earl Thornton, and the married Ron Hargreaves.
Dewey died in Salem, Oregon. I visited two weeks before he passed.
Dewey was in the Air Force. First stationed somewhere in Texas and then at Mather AFB Near Sacramento.
Doris & Dewey both grew up in Sisters, Oregon.
They are my parents,
Regards,
Dennis M Cooper
If your Dad was Dewey Cooper and he was ex-Air Force and also worked at Boeing; then he’s one of a handful of people who could have had a tie that tested for unalloyed titanium. DB Cooper’s tie tested for unalloyed titanium, which was a particle in 1971 that was only found at a handful of Boeing factories. And if he was 41 at the time then he fits the age. And if Lynn Cooper(his brother) was a surveyor in the area then they would have made the perfect team. Dewey being ex-Air Force with lots of knowledge in the Boeing 727 as he worked for Boeing and Lynn being a surveyor who knew the perfect place to jump. So to me it makes sense that Dewey Cooper was DB Cooper and Lynn Cooper drove the getaway car
I’d be curious to hear what Marla would say about your hypothesis.
I would be curious also if Marla ever considered that it was Dewey who was DB Cooper. The tie having alloyed titanium on it is the one clue that greatly eliminates most of the suspects; if not almost all of them, as it was unique in 1971 to only a handful of Boeing plants. I think it’s a lot more likely that Dewey would wear his own tie than lend it to his brother. Being ex-Air Force would help if Dewey had done some paratrooping. And working at Boeing would give him knowledge in the 727. This combo makes him much more likely to be DB Cooper than his brother Lynn. Lynn would know the best place to jump as he was a surveyor in the area. So he could have told his brother the best spot and then they could calculate the speed and time to jump because I think DB Cooper instructed the pilot how fast to go and which direction.
From Marla’s comments one can conclude that the FBI is sure they have found their man. FBI probably wants to search for more evidence and the missing money. I think that search will get harder once they notify the public they are closing the case. Wouldn’t we all go out and try to backtrack the Cooper boy’s steps and hope to find the money?
C’mon boys! Thar’s gold in them thar hills!!!!
Or twenties. Or evidence.
Seriously, Philip, guys are heading into the mountains to look for Cooper money. One group claims they have found a 1970s-vintage twenty south of Mt Hood. Whew.
I don’t know if this is helpful. But please check out my grandfather’s deathbed story as I recounted in my blog “DB Cooper and the Aft Staircase” today.:
http://formersuburbanmom.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/d-b-cooper-and-the-aft-staircase/