1. “Legend of DB Cooper – Death by Natural Causes” is a book written by Ron and Pat Forman about their friend, Barb Dayton, who confessed to being DB Cooper in 1978. The Forman’s account reveals the life of an extraordinary being, who at the very least was the first person in Washington state to undergo a sex-change operation.
2. Geoffrey Gray’s book: “Skyjack – The Hunt for DB Cooper” is the most comprehensive treatise to date on the skyjacking. Gray had exclusive access to the FBI files, personnel and evidence, and his account of the actual events during the hijacking – and the dialogue between Cooper and the flight attendants – is gripping.
3. “Sluggo,” aka Wayne Walker, is the pre-eminent historian of the DB Cooper skyjacking. He has studied and collected data since the incident occurred, and his web site is the authoritative place to review FBI documents, transcripts of cockpit conversations, and see TV clips from the early days of the investigation. A must-see for any Cooper enthusiast.
Sluggo’s web site is officially titled: “Sluggo’s Northwest 305 Hijacking Research Site,” and its URL, n467us, utilizes the registration number for Cooper’s plane, which was the identification number painted on the fuselage.
4. “The DZ.” The most famous and most widely read blog site on the DB Cooper case is a forum that exists as part of a skydiving web site known as “The DropZone.” Called the “DZ,” it is the wild west of Cooper sharings, and is not for the timid or thin-skinned:
5. Lest we forget the FBI, here is their current Cooper site:
http://vault.fbi.gov/D%20B%20Cooper%20
6. Of course, the Mountain News:
The Mountain News - WA 
It doesn’t seem like an ‘unsolved hijacking’, they just don’t know who the guy was. He’s most likely dead now, if he didn’t die when he jumped. At any rate it made for good movies, stories and documentaries over the years.Thanks for the memories, D.B. Cooper.
My Husband thinks it was the Crew of the plane that set up the whole thing, and kept the money, but that doesn’t explain how some of the money was found on a river bank a few years later. Anything could be possible. From Michele, in Texas.
I personally believe that it is possible that Cooper and Tina Mucklow could have been working together. She brings her suitcase on board, loaded with jump gear. They stash the ransom bills in her suitcase. He jumps and escapes into the darkness. She takes the money and eventually they meet up a few days later.
Makes as much sense as anything else… if that much was invested in the growing home computer craze, they could have been sitting on hundreds of millions by now, maybe even more. Who knows?
Pingback: The Hunt for DB Cooper – The Resurgent Investigation into America’s only Unsolved Skyjacking; an overview, revised | The Mountain News – WA
Pingback: The resurgent investigation of DB Cooper – An interview with chief witness Tina Mucklow | The Mountain News – WA
Pingback: DB Cooper report: Interview with Ayn Dietrich, Seattle FBI spokesperson | The Mountain News – WA
HAS ANYONE SEEN THE LATEST DB.COOPER NEWS ? THERE IS A COUNTRY SINGER IN TEXAS CALLED “GERONIMO ” THAT IS CLAIMING HE SERVED IN THE MILITARY, CLANDESTINE OPERATIONS IN VIETNAM,WITH DAN COOPER. HE FURTHER CLAIMS THAT HE LOANED COOPER THE MONEY FOR THE FARE. IN ADDITION HE SAYS HE GOT THE MONEY BACK SOME TIME LATER, WITH THE ACTUAL NOTE COOPER PASSED TO THE STEWARDESS.HE HAS THE NOTE. HE HAS WRITTEN A SONG ABOUT IT AND HAD A BIG SHOW THERE IN TOMBALL TEXAS LAST WEEK TO PUSH THE CD.RUMOR HAS IT HE WAS ARRESTED DURING THE SHOW AND TAKEN AWAY IN CUFFS BY LOCAL POLICE AND THE FBI THE FOX NEWS CHANNEL 26 IN HOUSTON HAS AN INTERVIEW WITH “GERONIMO ” IN WAS ON JAN 26 BY REPORTER NED HIBBERD. HE ALSO HAS STATED CATEGORICALLY … “I AM NOT D.B.COPPER “
I’ve spoken with the singer, and I don’t feel his story is credible. Sure, he may have talked to a guy who told him this story, but as for the truth of it, I don’t see, it. But I now have “DB Cooper” guitar picks, sent courtesy of “Geronimo.”
DB Cooper/Robert Rackstraw according to Tom Colbert and Mark Zaid ( a Washington D.C. court officer sworn to tell the truth) and the History Channel claim this is his boat. http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/boa/6141651887.html
No way Rackstraw’s the guy. Way too young. Not even vaguely credible. He’s probably having a good laugh at it, though.
It’s still possible for there to be a D. B. Cooper “copycat”. An airline employee who somehow feels he has been wronged, has simmering grievances, and is intent on retribution, is the most likely person to ever be able to pull off a hijacking similar to Cooper’s. They have almost unlimited access to airplanes, and some have the knowledge to do it if the right aircraft is available. I have recently published a novel, “WEAVER’S NEEDLE” about such an employee and his story. If you are interested, it’s available on Amazon’s Kindle as an ebook or Lulu.com as a paperback. I hope you will take a look at it.
Bruce: The link to the FBI is a dead end now and leads nowhere. Do you know of a better address to current info from the FBI?
Bob Sailshaw
I’ll have to check on that, Bob.
United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Case No: 16-1790. This is the false filing by Colbert, claiming he is just a journalist and wants the information at taxpayers expense, and his fake news lawyer Zaid for a freedom of information demand through the judge who is a buddy of Zaid. Of special interest is Rackstraw’s Amicus Curiae that outlines criminal murder charges and civil charges of $1 billion (now $2.7 billion) against Colbert and Zaid and over 153 sponsors of the fake news History Channel dog and pony show. Great read.
And the boat in the show, now for sale.http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/boa/6141651887.html
Bruce: What is the link to your new wed site?
Bob Sailshaw
sailshaw@aol.com
That should read web site and not wed site
Bob Sailshaw
sailshaw@aol.com
In the 90s, a woman said her husband confessed to her on his deathbed, that he was D.B. Cooper
In the 90s,A woman said that her dying husband confessed on his deathbed that HE was D.B. Cooper, but he never had alot of money.I always heard that deathbead confessions are for real.What would they have to lose by lying?
922 people are reported to have confessed to being DB Cooper, including Duane Weber, who allegedly confessed to his widow nine days before he died of kidney failure. These issues are discussed in more detail in my book, DB Cooper and the FBI – A Report on America’s only Unsolved Skyjacking.”
You can read excerpts of the book on the Mountain News, or at “DB Cooper discussion site – Word Press” blog.
Yup. False confession is no new phenomenon. I remember this hilarious character on Barney Miller called the Confessor. He confessed to everything but the Lincoln assassination!
I am that Woman who s husband told me he was DAN COOPER. I had NOT one clue what he was talking about until 1 yr and 2 months later when a friend told me that D.B.Cooper used the name of Dan Cooper. I contacted the FBI in May of 1996 and told them about my strange life with this man.
I begged for his records, but few were forth coming and the last one I did not see until this past year in 2013. A file the FBI denied me access to. It included a picture of Weber as I had never seen him.
The head was tilted down which made the chin appear to be smaller, but the prior and after pictures showed a much larger chin. The fact Weber had missing lower teeth in the 1966 Jefferson intake picture – made since. Weber later was had a fixed lower and I had never seen him without it.
The pursing motion the FBI composite artist told one reporter about was the reason he could NOT make the mouth satisfy any of the witnesses.
Well, Weber had a temporary lower partial in 1971 – and retaining it in his mouth required he make that motion.
That’s interesting… and plausible. I have a relative in a similar boat and would agree with the positioning of the mouth.
What are theories why none of the money ever surfaced in circulation? (besides the $5800)
I’m not sure there are “theories,” but there are certainly reasoned speculations:
1. The money is lost – either buried in a mud pit somewhere, along with DB Cooper and the rest of his gear, or in some lake or river.
2. Similarly, the money entered a river and eventually washed out to sea, along with Cooper and all of his stuff, ie: Carr and kaye and their Propeller Theory.
3. The money got laundered in a casino – pick your favorite: Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Hong Kong, Macau, Monte Carlo…
4. The money entered the “dark economy,” which is estimated to be 40% of the global economy, and includes all the monies from drug trafficking, arms dealings, bribes, embezzlements, sex trafficking, black market trading in appliances and intellectual properties, etc.
5. The money never got spent because DB Cooper didn’t spend any, ie: Barb Dayton.
6. The reality of under-paid and over-worked clerks in banks actually finding a Cooper 20 was zilch.
7. The 20s were sold to the Mafia, which in turn striped the ink off the bills and then re-printed them as 100s. See Kim Jung-Il and the gang in N. Korea for more details…
8. The money was deposited in an “off-shore” bank and used as collateral for, um… real estate development by…oh, how about Donald Trump? Or his brother Dan….
I am currently reading Bruce Smith’s excellent book right now…
Thanks Trap!
By the way, the 2nd Edition of DB Cooper and the FBI – A Case Study of America’s Only Unsolved Skyjacking was just published in paper form by Amazon.
Thanks. I bought the e-book and will give a glowing review; I can tell already at 50% through. So which speculation do you lean toward? For myself, #’s 3, via Viva Las Vegas, and 6.
I would say a little here, a little there. With a bunch in certain bars in Saigon. I suspect a few dollars ended up in the Caymans. Maybe Geneva. Wherever SF troopers like to go with the buddies in the Company…I’d certainly look in the til at the Caravelle.
Personally, I think McCoy was indeed ole Dan Cooper. What’s the ‘proof’ against him? McCoy had blue eyes and his credit card was used in Vegas at the time?? Anyone smart enough to pull the whole thing off, certainly had the smarts to cover those things. They come out with soft contact lenses in 1971.
Plus his wife could have used his credit card in Vegas while Richard did his thing, just for the alibi. She DID seem knowledgeable about her husband’s 2nd heist of the half million, so why not the first?
Possible scenario, he dropped and lost the cash (thus the $5800 discovery in the Columbia River, the rest was just lost). So then a few months later he did it again, this time asking for 2.5 times as much, knowing he could do it and from the confidence of his earlier success.
McCoy was 29 at the time but Cooper was 40 something? If you look at photos of R. McCoy, he LOOKS like he’s in his early 40’s; out the aft window goes that so called proof.
So, Trapper, you’d like us to believe that DB Cooper and Richard McCoy are one and the same? Okay, but you’re suggesting that DBC/RM was smart enough to plan a bold skyjacking, displaying knowledge beyond what the pilots had – or even flight ops at NWO – but was not smart enough to either hold onto his money, or know what to do with it once he got home? That doesn’t sound too solid.
It begs the question – why are you so invested in Richard McCoy?
I think he WAS smarter than most or all involved and obviously had some flying experience. But the best laid plans of mice. . . In an endeavor like that, SOMEthing is going to go wrong. . . nothing goes perfectly. Once he got home as McCoy? Yep, bad planning there. Maybe he didn’t think he’d get that far and did not have a plan. Maybe after stashing it in his house, he planned to get it out the next morning. I don’t know.
I’m not invested in any way to anyone but I DO know why people clam up when YOU try to talk to them any more.
As for Richard McCoy’s age and how it might look to you or I in a picture, the real question is what age DBC/Richard McCoy looked to Bill Mitchell, Tina, and Flo. Remember, initial reports into the FBI at NWO flight ops at Sea-Tac pegged Cooper at 60!
Also, I’d like to recommend that you purchase the 2nd Edition book that is now available at Amazon. It discusses these kinds of dynamics more thoroughly than the 1st edition Kindle book that came out last year, which you apparently just purchased. I apologize for the confusion, but Amazon and I are figuring out how to make the 2nd Edition paperback the Kindle version, too, and remove the “old” edition from the market.
In regards to age in a picture… for whatever reason that I can’t explain at the moment, I’ve always thought that Cooper would have been in his mid to late 30s. I know that’s at odds with the rest of the “Cooper world.”
I just think that he would have been a bit younger, probably with some pressing reason for needing “big bucks” in a hurry.
I also am more convinced that he easily could have been either a Ranger or SEAL. The training would have been intense and would have also been exactly what was needed for the jump.
Okay, Trap, you say: “I’m not invested in any way to anyone but I DO know why people clam up when YOU try to talk to them any more.”
So, why DO people clam up when I try to talk to them?
With all respect, Bruce… I would definitely clam up if we were discussing the case.
However, it’s only because I am listening intently to the voice of an expert on the case. Take that for what it’s worth…
Good day
If you recall, the parachutes did NOT have the D rings…a possible deal killer…in a panic, as he knew he had to jump at a certain time, he tied the 22 lb bag on himself but did a shoddy job, thus it came off during the jump. Very plausible.
Kudos for trying alternate searches, but some may think you’ve gone around the bend.
Agreed. DB Cooper had no “D” rings with which to attach anything to his main parachute – neither a reserve or the money bag. Hence, it is plausible that it broke away from him in his decent. If so, the Big Question is: Where Is It?
Some theorize that the bag impacted as a singular unit near Tina Bar, and the three money bundles that were discovered in 1980 transported themselves via natural means to the discovery spot on the beach, leaving the rest of the bills where they cratered into the earth.
AS you suggest, many have thought that I have gone around the bend, but my question to you – and the rest of the world – has always been, how far around the bend? And are you peeking around the corner to see how far down the road I’ve gone???
In any regard, it’s unlikely that I will return from the bend. Somebody’s gotta keep lookin’ for DB!
By the way, Trap, you’re making a few characterizations without any substantive cause: “panic,” “knew he had to jump at a certain time,” “shoddy job,” Upon what do you base your speculations?
Bruce: As you know I have submitted the FLAW I found in Sheridan Peterson;s phony alibi to the Seattle FBI Office in Jan/Feb 3016 and Ayn Dietrich (Seattle FBI Office) has e-mailed back that she has passed it on to the Case Agent. I have heard nothing so far and expect they are on “stop work on the case”. The FLAW I found in the alibi was that he could not have been delivering one of his two children in Nepal at the time of Norjak (Nov 24, 1971) as per public records from persopo.com, his son was born the year before (1970) and the daughter the year after (1972) and both in Nepal. This FLAW exposes Sheridan in a lie to the FBI (A Fedral Crime with jail time possible). The FBI could offer to exchange jail time for the rest of the story from Sheridan Peterson. Simple was to solve the almost 45 year only unsolved skyjacking the FBI has on their books. I think the FLAW proves Sheridan is DB Cooper as why would anyone lie to the FBI unless they were the guy?
Bob Sailshaw
Why does anyone lie? Why does the FBI lie? Do they? There are 8 million souls in the Naked City, and 8 million stories….
Brand new podcast explores the mystery and legend of “DB” Cooper. Check it out!
Confluence of Events:
How did you find Klansnic? It’s hard to believe somebody that looks that much like Cooper and worked at Boeing went undetected. Especially being a prisoner of war and of German heritage.
Boeing directory…he hid in plane sight best place to hide imo… went back to work on Monday carried on with normal life which if you take into consideration no body/chute was found and no missing persons reported in the states with in 3 days of the hijacking it backs that up. Klansnic did the deed and went back to biz as usual.He wasnt a criminal and never in trouble with the law… I believe himmi was looking for a dirty rotten criminal to quote him. Klansnic didn’t need the money wasn’t about the mula it was about the government stopping funding on sst which he put in a great deal of work into the project on the break system and so many of his coworkers losing their jobs. My guess is fbi did look at Boeing people but focused on ones who were laid off and or had criminal backgrounds…FBI agent Williams was just as surprised as you when she learned the details of klansnic…when she typed his name in the computer and nothing came up her exact words were my goodness how did we miss this guy! Ive been going through klansnic with a fine comb and too many things add up for him not to be cooper. Every box I’ve looked to check he’s darn well checked it and I actually challenge anybody to find something that goes against klansnic you’ll be hard pressed.
I’m not familiar with Klansnic… would you mind sharing his name with me? I’m curious what information you have that makes you so sure…
I seriously think that the FBI has invested tons of $$$ trying to cover up the fact that they know more than anyone thinks. I honestly believe that the FBI may have been involved in the planning as well as execution of the Cooper jump. If nothing else, they know who it was and are actively covering up to keep the Bureau from looking bad.
Why? Maybe in order to force President (at the time) Nixon to put security check points all over the country. It makes as much sense as anything else…
By the way, Bruce, we had traded e-mails in the past, a few years ago… I’m going to be picking up your book soon. Look forward to reading it.
Thanks, Mark. Good readings.
As for the FBI, what makes you think the FBI was involved as you claim?
My belief that the FBI is/was covering up the actual identity is based on a simple thread, for better or worse… they might have had need for that person to do another job later on.
Cooper could easily have been an Army Ranger or Navy SEAL… therefore, leaping into the darkness would have been nothing new.
By the way, I finally picked up your book last Christmas. I believe it is one of the best out there.
Yes, made a few comments on Bruce’s sites now and after reading all will just add this;
Iv’e studied the psychological profile of Dan Cooper in depth and I would stake my life on the fact that Dan Cooper WAS NOT any special forces guy. By the same token Dan Cooper was NOT someone who worked for the company in any capacity.
Once you establish the type of person your dealing with then you’ve got a better chance. The problem with this mystery is everyone wants it to be a certain kind of person and that a certain kind of profile is required; not so.
Okay, so who is he?
Yes Giles I would be interested to here your profile on old DB?
Have we ever established that Robert Rackstraw was NOT D B?
Yes.
1. Too young
2. Dismissed by FBI
3. No twenty dollar bill
4. No parachute
5. Majority of circumstantial evidence is lame or incorrect, ie: money at T-Bar.
Bruce, with all due respect, just because the FBI dismissed him doesn’t necessarily mean much to me. They’ve dismissed about a thousand people… isn’t it at least possible that they’ve dismissed someone who seriously COULD HAVE BEEN Cooper?
I’ll give you every other point however…
I know the real.author of the book
Ha Ha Ha DB Cooper. He’s alive and well. Of course wanting to stay anonymous. If You have ever read this book it has countless detals Of the incident that one would think this author was there. No other book comes close to the details of the DB Cooper incident. This book is available now for $39.95. There is very few copies left of this book still available. All of them have the original signature of the author too
Email 360855home@gmail.com if You have qestions or want a book
Running along with the 8.13pm time established by the “pressure bump” on the 727… I wanted to ask a technical question.
Is it possible for someone to jump on the bottom of the stairs, climb back to the top and wait a little while, then jump further south along the flight path? What I’m asking is if Cooper could have jumped off the top of the aft stairs and not alerted the cockpit crew?
IF he was able to pull off this maneuver, he could jumped closer to Reno, where the scrub and relatively flat land would make jumping and then meeting his ground crew a lot easier.
To be honest, it also could, in theory, help explain why Richard McCoy was in Nevada that weekend. It’s been well established that McCoy did fuel up on or near The Strip on Thanksgiving. Was he part of Cooper’s ground crew? Who knows….?
Mark makes a good point. D B was smart enough to pull the whole thing off; certainly he was smart enough to do that trick, re: a fake jump, then jump later. The pilots could easily have dismissed a later ‘bump’, already believing the first bump was the real deal. D B would have thought about this in advance or on the spur of the moment to throw his location off. McCoy in or near Las Vegas the same weekend? Mighty big circumstantial evidence. His wife could have used his CC to fuel up, on the way to a pickup. Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire. Seems he lost the money the first time, ala cash found on a beach, so he made the jump months later to get cash again.
Part of this is based on Josh Gates skydiving north of Reno. The terrain would have been perfect; flat, scrub, little or nothing to accidentally hit on landing… and fairly easy to meet a ground crew.
Davy, is it possible that Cooper did this jump with McCoy as ground crew… then McCoy decided that it went so well that he tried it on his own later?
I don’t doubt that McCoy was in Vegas. I believe he was ground support for Cooper. McCoy was then inspired to make his own jump later on…
Food for thought. Thanks for the vote of confidence too
I tried to look at Sluggo’s most excellent N467us.com site, but found no Cooper info there.
Any idea if the site was taken down or moved??
Another interesting scenario, Mark – McCoy being part of the ground crew then making the jump himself. He could have known most of the details with DB’s jump, location and seating in the airplane, etc, mimicked them to make it look like it was the same person as the first time. Much more plausible than silly theories about women being DB.
It sure helps explain a lot of the similarities. Cooper could easily share the technical information and BLAM! Look, now McCoy has his info.
I bet there are some REALLY interesting aspects we don’t know about, like McCoy’s possible connections with DB, including all the extra little details; I still don’t think DB jumped with a mere pair of slippers on. He probably had some boots or the like hid away somewhere. The sneakers were to throw everyone off. Perhaps the drinking bourbon too? Maybe not. A little liquid courage might have been in order; but could have caused mistakes to lose the cash.
I wonder if they’ll ever come out with a serious movie about the whole thing. That Treat Williams attempt was just too, ehh, Keystone Cop’ish IMO.
I think Netflix or someone could put together a 4 episode feature about the whole thing. Planning, execution, the getaway and the aftermath…
I watched that Treat Williams film… bleck.. and I’m being polite.
Not dissing Mr. Williams, he would have done a great job in a serious movie of DB. They still ought to come out with a new one, on the 50th anniversary, to come out on Thanksgiving eve. Of course they’d probably have to make a stand, on who did it, how, etc. There’s your plot. McCoy was DB’s ground man and the real DB was someone we’d never heard of. DB laundered it all in Vegas at the Horseshoe and Golden Nugget, McCoy got 2% for his help. DB sends info on Rackshaw years later for a red herring… Wait a minute. I’m writing the movie. We gotta get Bruce Smith’s okay on this.
I’ll write the novelization, drawing from you and Bruce’s research and my own thoughts too.
BLAM!! Instant best-seller
By the way, I’ve maintained for years that casinos were the perfect place to turn the ransom bills into completely legal tender.
Is there any truth to an allegation that Rackstraw was offered a million dollars AND a movie deal to confess on TV??
I will have to look for the source, but it claimed that about Rackstraw as well as discrediting him plus The History Channel.
This is the first time I’m hearing about the the $1,000,000 dollars and a movie deal to confess on TV. But the stakes are high in this game, so…
By the way, Mark and Davy, most of the DB Cooper conversations have moved to the latest MN posting. See the Boat Tour article from June 23rd or so.
As for jumping in Reno, it’s unlikely. Yeah the terrain is flat and ideal for landing, but then tell me what happens next. It’s 11 pm, 33 degrees, light intermittent rain (I believe) – and 200 cop cars all over the place. What’s his plan, Stan?
One thing is for sure, whoever this person is did not do it alone. I hope all the hangers on and freeloaders that are making money out of DB Cooper are handing a bit of the money to a good cause, and thanking DB Cooper.
Bruce Smith What are your thoughts on William J Smith as a suspect? I have seen the photo and I have read the book from 1985. Its hard to come up with a better fitting theory
I was re-watching the D. B. Cooper episode of Brad Meltzer’s Decoded recently. Avoiding the fact that they rely partially on evidence from Blevin’s book… does anyone else think that maybe Brad’s team mangled a few facts?
1. Near the end, when they meet with Bernie, the lawyer of the team says that the statute of limitations has run out. I was 99% sure that a John Doe was filed the day before the limitations ran out.
2. What about the alleged money discovery near the house in Bonney Lake, WA? Anyone got anything else about this? I can’t remember hearing anything…
3. Brad Meltzer himself says that on the night of the Cooper jump, Richard McCoy was at home with his family. But other research has shown that McCoy was spotted in Cedar City, Utah… on his way to Vegas.
Any thoughts to any of these points?
1. McCoy – Russ Calame, the FBI SAC of the Salt Lake City Field Office, got gas receipts of McCoy filling up his VW Bug in Las Vegas on the Tuesday before the Cooper skyjacking, Nov 23, 1971, and a collect phone log that McCoy made on Thanksgiving night to his home in Provo from the Tropicana Hotel in LV. However, the Seattle FBI says McCoy was home in Provo. This discrepancy has never been explained nor resolved.
2. I don’t bother with anything in Bonney Lake.
3. The Sky Piracy charges were switched at the last minute in 1976 to an Interstate Extortion charge under the Hobbs Act, which is not subject to a statute of limitations. Sky Piracy is time-limited. Himmelsbach did the heavy lifting on this in a federal grand jury in Portland, Oregon, minutes before the statute of limitations was due to run out, and it made him a principal in the Norjak investigation. His reputation only expanded and deepened in 1980 when he visited Tina Bar during the Ingram discovery.
The DB Cooper forum is down for everyone ? Whats up?
I don’t know. When did it go down? Have you emailed Shutter?
Ive read a bit of the db cooper hysteria, what if he never actually left the plain? And just made it seemed like he left? Threw out a false trail and bribed the Stewart’s to shut up?