Special to the Mountain News, from Eric Ulis.
DB Cooper: The Definitive Investigation
Report to be published July 10 will point to 92-year old suspect
PHOENIX, ARIZONA, June 11, 2018.
After a decade of detailed investigative research that led to significant new findings in the DB Cooper case, an extensive 100+ page report detailing the fact-based findings will be released on July 10, 2018.
The report titled DB Cooper: The Definitive Investigation is the culmination of exhaustive research headed by self-described “Cooper buff” and businessman Eric Ulis. The investigation reviewed thousands of pages of FOIA released FBI documents along with other documents of a significant nature. Moreover, the investigation included interviews with FBI agents who worked on the case, principal figures involved with the case, experts who have studied the case and scientists who have analyzed critical pieces of evidence using state-of-the-art technology. These interviews also include phone and email communication with 92-year old Sheridan Peterson whom the report identifies as the likely skyjacker. The report may be pre-ordered at TheCooperCase.com.
The report asserts that the FBI continues to view Peterson with exceptional interest. It further asserts that the US Attorney’s Office weighed in on closing the case because there was little admissible evidence in addition to problems related to lost evidence—specifically, misplaced Cooper cigarette butts—that have made the case virtually impossible to prosecute.
Noteworthy facts regarding Sheridan Peterson:
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He is one of only three people known to have had their DNA compared with the partial DNA profile extracted from Cooper’s tie—this among a field of approximately 1500 suspects. The other two are Duane Weber and Lynn Doyle Cooper.
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He is the only one of the three DNA compared suspects who has not been publicly cleared by the FBI.
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He was formerly employed by Boeing as a technical editor with access to the Boeing Aerospace Division and Super Sonic Transport project.
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He was an expert skydiver with smoke jumping experience and described as a maverick in skydiving circles.
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He was living in Nepal during the skyjacking, not employed at the time (2 ½ years), and provided no alibi during the skyjacking timeframe.
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He opened a confidential numbered bank account in Singapore in 1971.
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DB Cooper’s tie clip was sold as a set that also included a tie tack and cuff links—the manufacturer was a Rhode Island based company called Anson. Sheridan owned a pair of the cuff links that were included in these Anson sets.
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He has been reticent to discuss DB Cooper, however, when pressured he denies being Cooper.
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He resembled the physical description given by witnesses.
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He first came to the attention of the FBI and became a suspect nine days after the Thanksgiving Eve hijacking that occurred on Wednesday, November 24, 1971.
Sheridan Peterson. Pix provided by Bob Sailshaw.
The Mountain News - WA 
So interested in seeing Eric’s work on this. Have wondered about this suspect for a very long time.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/the-search-for-db-cooper-investigators-say-theyve-confirmed-skyjackers-identity-by-decoding-long-lost-confession/ar-AAziI0l?li=AAggNb9&ocid=mailsignout
Sadly, more crapola from Tom Colbert.
News on Tom Colbert “cracking” the Cooper Code is certainly making the rounds. I have a close friend in Hollywood that produces reality shows,who reached out to me saying he heard that Cooper was caught in San Diego, because of a Newsweek article. I had to burst that bubble! This kind of reporting is very misleading and in my opinion causes more harm than good.
I agree with you Rob. I find it amazing how much media attention Tom Colbert is able to muster despite the ludicrous nature of the claims.
Agreed. I saw another brief clip on a Netflix show the other day and AGAIN they screwed up the facts, stating ALL the money had been found at Tena Bar. Amazing the amount of misinformation comes up in almost EVERY article since the night itself.
Clear me up on something. If Sheridan Peterson was “living in Nepal during the skyjacking” [Evid. Point No. 5], then doesn’t one need evidence of his travelling to the U.S. near the time of the skyjacking to consider him a bona fide suspect?
Yup.
To prove it, it would definitely help. However, the mere fact that we don’t have his passport from that time, the fact that at that time it was a LOT easier to fly with a fake passport, and the fact that I crossed the US border in the middle of Butt-f**k Canada into Butt-F**k US as a teen sight unseen makes this a non-issue for me. Central computers were rare and fairly useless back then. Sheridan’s still my man.
Cooper could be anybody, but it’s doubtful Sheridan was the guy. He once provided his entire life story for voters in California when he ran for a school board position in Santa Rosa. He’s a real peacenik, a guy who believes in freedom and civil rights. A guy who would most likely abhor any idea of threatening peoples’ lives just for money. I think he would find it beneath him somehow. http://www.smartvoter.org/2006/11/07/ca/sn/vote/peterson_s/
His own online writings – he has written a lot – reveal a radical nature at times – he himself uses the word “radicalized” in one anecdote. At the very least, he’s FAR more credible than any other suspect. Frankly, most of those that have been proposed thus far are easily dismissed. This man isn’t.
The bright blue eyes on Sheridan might be a problem.
And if it was a ‘confidential’ bank account in Singapore, how was it discovered, and is there any indication of deposits or withdrawals? Or even proof that Sheridan actually opened such an account? And even if you knew that he did open an account in Singapore, this is not only a long way from Seattle/Portland, people open bank accounts every day. You would…at the least…need opening statement, closing statement, and deposits/withdrawals for it to mean much.
Where is the proof he owned a set of cuff links that allegedly went with the tie clip?
If he was living in Nepal at the time of the hijacking as you say…he doesn’t really have to offer an alibi. Your location at the time of the crime is a pretty good alibi.
‘He was formerly employed by Boeing as…’ (So were over 100,000 other people at that time)
I am not convinced it was Sheridan, not by any means. Doesn’t mean I’m shoving off Kenny Christiansen on you, but we have a lot more on Kenny (and his pal Bernie Geestman) than you realize, and the argument for Sheridan Petersen is weak.
The eye color is not an issue because the FBI isn’t certain of the eye color…”possibly brown”…their description not mine.
Sheridan himself confided in a friend that he opened a numbered bank account in Singapore in 1971. This confirmation was sent via text communication, I have the text.
I am not the AUSA or the FBI trying to meet the legal definition of “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Therefore, I do not need to obtain actual deposit records to prove anything. The mere fact that he opened a numbered bank account, and given the requirements needed to open the account (be there in person, have a large deposit) is sufficient to raise serious red flags. After all, he was unemployed for the entire 2 1/2 years in Nepal, and he earned little more than $5,000 a year before that time during his best years.
Where is the proof that Sheridan owned a pair of cufflinks that go with the Cooper tie clip? Sheridan himself told me via text communication, with a picture, that I have.
The alibi. Sheridan’s stated he was in Nepal from August 1970 to March 1973. The implication, of course, is that he didn’t leave the country during that period of time. That said, this cannot be true because at a minimum he needed to actually be in Singapore to open the numbered bank account in 1971.
Being a Boeing employee is critical. After all, he needed to know specifics about the 727, and he needed to come into contact with pure titanium, aluminum, stainless steel and rare earth elements. Furthermore, he needed to have special access, granted via DOD approval, to get access to certain 727 test data…the universe of Boeing employees meeting this standard is a very few, not 100,000.
By the way, he needed to somehow know that the “dummy reserve” was daisy-chained inside…something he recklessly stated to the FBI in 2003. That alone is the smoking gun because it actually puts him on the jet, peering into the dummy reserve.
To be sure, I also have a significant amount of information that has not been published. That said, in due time I’m certain it will.
Cheers!
I have no doubts whatsoever, Eric. Everything about him screams Cooper. Most of the other suspects are so easily dismissed, it’s laughable.
Eye colour – irrelevant. Flo wasn’t sure, or the FBI description wouldn’t have been modified to indicate doubt. Dim cabin light, stress – even the available brown contact lenses would not have been necessary. Not one of the stronger descriptive markers.
One more thing – the Banking Act of Singapore was passed Sept 1970, so if he had such an account, he had to have left Nepal to open it.
You say Sheridan became a suspect soon after the hijacking. People who did had their pictures shown to witnesses. That soon after the hijacking, had his picture been shown to the stews, the ticket agent, etc…and any of them ID’d him as the hijacker, the FBI would have come down on Sheridan like a load of bricks. Obviously, no one did.
Singapore is a long way from Seattle and Portland. Do you have any proof of this numbered bank account beyond your alleged secondhand text communication. Those can be forged, faked, or your second hand source might simply be pulling your chain.
The tie is garbage for evidence. No one knows the chain of evidence on it, how many people at the FBI handled it, HOW it was handled and by whom BEFORE it was put into evidence, and there is no way to prove it wasn’t borrowed, or picked up at a Goodwill store prior to the hijacking.
Ask yourself sometime why Cooper was careful to retrieve the notes he wrote, the matchbook he used, leave nothing else he brought behind…and then just casually throw the tie over a seat. It points to someone who knew it couldn’t be traced to him. 🙂
I want to add one more observation that certainly puts the lie to Sheridan Petersen as Cooper, and it’s a simple observation:
Petersen, being a pro jumper, would never in his wildest dreams ever come to the party dressed in loafers and a cheap business suit. Especially if you have him flying halfway around the world to attempt such a crime. He was the veteran of hundreds of jumps, and would have boarded slightly more prepared.
“Minnesota is nice country…” Cooper said. Petersen, as far as can be determined, has never been there. (Again, not to push off Christiansen on readers, but KC was born and raised in Minnesota.)
“I know where it is. If I need it, I will get it,” said Cooper to Tina Mucklow regarding the O2 bottles carried in storage by NWA, which by the way were stored in DIFFERENT places depending on the airline. You would have to KNOW that specific airline’s O2 storage location policy to make that statement. As far as anyone knows, Petersen never worked for NWA.
Let us know when you get Petersen, a very nice person as far as his history can determine, to confess to the crime. Stew Flo Schaffner did ID Cooper’s eyes as brown, by the way. She was the only one to see him with his sunglasses off. It is unlikely that she would mistake Petersen’s more-than-obvious baby blues for brown.
Let me break down the logic of Blevins with regard to his assertion: “Petersen, being a pro jumper, would never in his wildest dreams ever come to the party dressed in loafers and a cheap business suit. Especially if you have him flying halfway around the world to attempt such a crime. He was the veteran of hundreds of jumps, and would have boarded slightly more prepared.”
For instance, Blevins assailed my assertion that the UNSUB probably used a fake bomb assembly made from paper props, and burned that same assembly up in the commode while waiting for the money and chutes to be brought onboard. Blevins stole this same idea and now uses it on his own web site. Blevins wants to downplay the idea that the UNSUB was a sophisticated criminal. However, the total sum of the evidence clearly shows otherwise. The media in those days described Cooper as a “master criminal,” which I agree with. The loafers and the “cheap” business suit is the perfect cover, had the FBI stormed the commode. Furthermore, the strong crosswinds the evening of the caper would have translated into a much softer landing, as most parachute experts can attest to. Additionally, this same logic came be applied to his pet Kenny C suspect. I have asserted over and over that the evidence shows that Cooper made a targeted drop near LeCenter. Certain specialized particles found on that clip-on tie are infrared detection particles. Coat them on the inside of a pair of dark sunglasses and you have the perfect visible light filter infrared detector. Infrared gas powered lanterns already on the ground and you’ve got the perfect equipment needed to pull off this crime. Steal that idea Bobby Baby. BTW, I don’t think that Peterson was the culprit, and certainly not Kenny C as well.
Minnesota is nice country – it’s also one state away from Montana, where SP was a smokejumper. But any suspect could have been in Minnesota at some time and we wouldn’t necessarily know and they wouldn’t necessarily tell us. And the stuff DBC didn’t have on him is a non-issue -there’s a boot-box sized sack, contents unknown, and the contents of his pockets are also unknown apart from some smokes, matches and a knife, For all we know, he had everything for a jump. But it’s irrelevant as similar jumps have been pulled off by expert jumpers without any of that stuff. Sorry, but KC will remain one of my LEAST likely candidates for this crime. For starters, there was always a chance someone from NWO would recognize him if so. On the other hand, SP is, by his own admission, the idea suspect. I see nothing preventing him from being Cooper. The FBI description of “possibly brown” eyes shows no degree of certainty. Simple as.
*ideal* suspect, sorry
Ahem, Lynn. The Dakotas lie between Minnesota and Montana….
Right, that’s what I meant by one state over. It’s still the same area of the world. And just because someone hasn’t lived in Minnesota doesn’t mean they’re from there.
Sorry, I thought I responded to this. By one state over I meant separated by one state – the Dakotas are stacked so you wouldn’t have to go through both of them to get from Montana to Minnesota. And they’re all the Great Plains/Northern region, so similar in areas and easy to access. Any of the suspects could have been to Minnesota. Cooper never said he lived there.
Whoops, I mean, just because they haven’t lived there doesn’t mean they haven’t BEEN there.