Thread by @oregon_history

Sometime before 2:00pm, 11/24/1971, a man appeared @flyPDX. Seemingly out of nowhere. He just… appeared among the 2,500 passengers already in the terminal. From the mist, ethereal; all that shit.
#DBCooper
🧵: ✈️ 🥃 🚬 🕶 📝 💣 🪂 💰

[In this video I lay out my 5 sources for this here #DBCooper aTwitterin. Cause if you don’t care about sources… I don’t think that we roll in the same crew. ]

We know NOTHING about this man, before 2:00pm PST. How did he get to the airport? Did he take a taxi, a bus, get dropped off by a co-conspirator? A connecting flight? Did he have bourbon&7 at the Zodiac Room at like 1:30 to calm his nerves? No fucking idea…

Bought the ticket up to an hour before he boarded. He purchased a one-way coach ticket to Seattle. No luggage to check. He gave his name as, “Cooper. Dan Cooper.” Paid with a $20 bill. “No nervousness or fidgeting noted.”

#DBCooper to NWA ticket agent: “That’s a 727, isn’t it?” (RH, GG)
Dennis Lysne: “Yes Sir, it is. Will you be needing a return reservation?”
DB: “No.”

This is a Boeing 727. 126-person capacity. It had a very unique feature; at the rear of the airplane a staircase can be lowered to accommodate passengers or cargo.

Dan Cooper looked to be in his mid 40s-50s. He was wearing a lightweight, black raincoat and a black or dark business suit with narrow lapels. Brown slip-on loafers. Carried a dark briefcase and a paper bag. Bag measured 4 X 12 X 14 inches.

While in the PDX terminal, he slipped on his “wrap-around dark glasses, the type sometimes worn by skiers and aviators.” (RH)

Cooper was wearing a tie. A clip-on tie and a small pearl stick-pin. Penny’s Towncraft brand that had not been sold for several years. Retail was $1.50, popular with “waiters, busboys and bartenders.” Not a fancy dresser. Not flashy or modern; maybe even a little shabby.

You've seen the tear sheet for #DBCooper.

The suspect was described as “white,” but having an “olive complexion.” “Olive or Latin appearance.” A “swarthy complexion.” Stewardess Flo Schaffner said he looked of “Latin descent.”

I think this is a component that gets overlooked in popular culture. We see “boring middle aged white man” as #DBCooper. We get Treat Williams, like the whitest white guy there ever was.

But the Feds didn’t see it like that. They describe #DBCOOPER as maybe Indian, Latin, Mexican, Mexican American or Cuban.

His hair should be marcelled “Like President NIXON!”

In the terminal, Cooper was observed chain-smoking cigarettes and checking his watch frequently.

He was also, reportedly, “Very cool.”

Flight 305 was delayed due to the weather. “This individual did not mix with other passengers and seemed unconcerned about bad weather.”

Flight 305 was scheduled as be a 25-minute flight from Portland to Seattle.
(FBI: “Normally a 36 minute flight.” Nimoy says 36, GG 28.)
[FBI photos from Reno, I think morning of 11/25]

Boarding began from Gate 52, lower level, Concourse L.
("11x20 ft abstract mural, typifying the modern conception of flight, is seen at the entrance of the spacious, colorful lobby.")

It was raining hard. The automatic boarding ramps were not utilized, and passengers had to run from the terminal to the plane; many were drenched. They boarded through the lowered ramp at the rear section of the 727. The aft stair.
[FBI photos]

Dan Cooper was the second to the last of the 37 passengers to board the plane. He sat in row 18, last row of the plane, starboard side. 18E, the middle seat of the row of three.

Oxygen mask usage and escape route demonstration. “The nearest exit may be behind you,” right bitches?

NWO 305 was scheduled to leave Portland 2:45pm.
(2:58 in NWA Timeline, and Lenord Nimoy. FBI says 2:53 & also 2:58. All over the fucking place.)

When the cocktail service started, the plane was still on the tarmac. Dan Cooper was the first passenger served. Bourbon and 7Up. Cooper paid with a $20 bill.

GODDAMN GOOD IDEA RN

So where were we…

As the plane was taxing to the runway, Cooper turned around and handed a note to the stewardess (Flo Schaffner), who had been seated about 30 seconds at her station behind him. She pocketed in, but the man in the dark suit kept looking back at her.

While the plane was still taxiing, she read the note. The note was written in BLACK felt-tip pen, with “neat, legible handwriting.”

“Miss, I have a bomb here and I would like you to sit by me.”

She did, 18D.

She asked if he was kidding, he said, “’No Miss, this is for real,’ in a serious but calm voice.”

Cooper picked up his briefcase, which had been in the window seat, and put it on his lap. He showed her the contents.

Inside the case was a bundle of 6 or 8 red sticks, 6” to 8” in length, like dynamite, with no writing on the outside. Strapped together with red electrician’s tape. Wires. One wire led from the sticks to the hijacker’s hand. Also contained a cylindrical battery about 8” long.

Stewardess Schaffner sat next to the hijacker, and she wrote down his demands. DB asked her to take it up to the flight crew. The plane was still taking off from Portland.

Cooper then says “No fuss. After this, we’ll take a little trip.”

[Anyone else think he talks a little weird? I mean... who the fuck says shit like that? It's just goofy and over-the-top. Just a historian's thought...]

Schaffner goes forward to the cockpit with his demands. Cooper didn’t want her to leave, so Stewardess Tina Mucklow sits in 18D, the aisle seat, next to the hijacker. Tina was 21 y/o. She will be with him the next few hours.

Mucklow uses the interphone system to tell the cockpit that the hijacker wants both of his notes to be brought back to him.

#DBCooper don't want to leave them traces!
[Flo said his handwriting was "almost pretty."]

Both stewardesses saw the “bomb.” The hijacker requested that the aircraft radio be used as little as possible, implying that the bomb might go off from said activity.

As the FBI summary states: “The hijacker indicated his willingness to exchange the safety of the 36 passengers and crew for $200,000 in cash and four parachutes.” #DBCooper sat back in his seat and Tina lit his cigarettes for him from a blue SkyChef matchbook.

Federal Aviation Administration officials receive word that Flight 305 has been hijacked, with an explosive device onboard. The plane is placed in a holding pattern, circling. Cause, like, bombs... a bomb.

Cooper initially said he wanted two parachutes. As the FBI record states, “He later changed his instructions and asked for four parachutes, two back chutes and two chest chutes, plus the $200,000.”

The FBI summary of the hijacking notes: “No specification as to denomination, age or sequence of bills.”

This part seems important:
Himmelsbach writes Flight 305 radioed:
“Requests $200,000 and a knapsack by 5:00pm in Seattle. Wants two backpack chutes. Wants money in negotiable American currency. Denominations of bills not important.”

(One account from a stewardess says “He later told [REDACTED] that he wanted $200,000 in circulated U.S. currency…”)
If Cooper asked specifically for “American” money… that’s kinda weird! I mean, who says that?

You go into the liquor store to but your fifth of Wild Turkey 101 bourbon. The dude says "That's twenty-five dollars." Do you ask, "In American money, like US currency?" Shit no!

But remember... this exchange is EXTREME Telephone Game.
#DBCooper whispers to Flo/Tina
Flo/Tina writes it down or uses the interphone
Flight Crew gets info and radios to NW Operations or SEATAC Tower.
I can see how details get garbled.

Or maybe the flight crew is concerned that tower/ops will not understand completely on a staticy radio. Maybe they want to be super, extra careful in conveying the demands. Maybe THEY specified "$200,000 in American currency."

I mean that's speculation; I'm making that shit up. But that "American currency" deal has bothered me for years.

Flight 305 radios, “As soon as his demands are met he will release the passengers. He also requests meals for the crew. Our future destination not yet advised.”

At no time did he voyage to the cockpit. Instructions to the flight crew were relayed through the stewardess. Most of the time, Cooper whispered his instructions in her ear; thus, she didn’t get many views of his full face, an issue later when drawing the suspect’s composite.

Tina Mucklow, who sat with Cooper, said, “he was not nervous. He seemed rather nice and he was never cruel or nasty.”

Mucklow asked him if he had a grudge against NW Airlines.
In what has become his *famous quote* and indication of motivation, #DBCooper said,
“I don’t have a grudge against your airline, Miss. I just have a grudge.”

Now on the face of it, that oft-shared quote is pretty telling.
But there is a second sentence that follows that famous line...
Let's look at it again.

Mucklow asked him if he had a grudge against NW Airlines.
#DBCooper said,
“I don’t have a grudge against your airline, Miss. I just have a grudge.
Your airplane happened to be in the right place at the right time."”

Now THAT's fucking interesting, man...

So DB Cooper has a grudge against (the War, Boeing, Systemic Racism, Capitalism, Society, fill in the blank...), but this sentence implies the hijacking of Flight 305 was almost a target of opportunity.

It is a means to an end, but there is a level of spontaneity in that statement.
Right place; right time, and I have a grudge.

#DBCooper ordered another bourbon & 7. (RH) He smoked more filter-tipped Raleigh cigarettes. RH says Cooper smoked so much that his fingers were stained yellow.

“Very polite at all times.” “Good natured during the flight.”
And #DBCooper is not a Mormon...

#DBCooper was careful to clean up his fingerprints. He reclaimed his note from Mucklow. Leonard Nimoy calls him “coldly calculated.”

And here's that BITCHIN In Search of #DBCooper program I told you bout in the SOURCES video. Well worth a watch!

One of the stewardesses reported that the hijacker “was very concerned throughout the flight about sky marshals being on board the aircraft.” Mucklow tells #DBCooper there are no marshals on 305. (GG)

#DBCooper does NOT want to go to the nearest police station….

During the flight, DB sat in the middle seat with the briefcase on the window seat. His right hand was inside the briefcase “at all times.”

At one point, Cooper looked out the window and said to Mucklow, “That looks like Tacoma down there.” And it was. The suspect had at least some familiarity with the region.

Flight 305 continued to circle the Seattle area. The pilot announced to passengers that there were mechanical problems and they were burning off fuel.
Parachutes and money were being gathered on the ground.

@NW_Airlines Control to Pilot: “Impress on this man that we are not trying to stall. The money is on its way. It was picked up at more than one bank.”

#DBCooper asks Mucklow what time it is. “After 5:00” That’s past his deadline!!
She “sees panic on his face.” (GG).
Cooper tells her “They aren’t going to take me alive.” She calls the cockpit and says he’s starting to lose control.

Northwest Control: “The money is at the airport. Now all we lack are two parachutes.”

There was a delay in getting the chutes. #DBCooper became irritated at the delay.
“McChord [AFB] is only 20 minutes from Tacoma; it doesn’t take that long!”
Again, indicating some real specific knowledge of the region.

[We hear a lot about how "#DBCooper thought of everything! He pulled the perfect crime!" But things are NOT going to Dan Cooper's plan. He's already 15 mins behind schedule! He's supposed to be well on the ground by now!!]

Flt. 305's Capt. Scott radios: “He’s getting very impatient for those chutes. We are going to have to come up with them pretty quick. He’s beginning not to accept the fact that they are coming from another area.”

Parachutes *finally* arrive at SEATAC. Taken to @NW_Airlines Air Freight Building. They came from the Issaquah Skyport.

Other passenger airplanes waiting on the tarmac at SEATAC play the *tower to 305 radio transmissions* to their passengers. (GG) Cause real-time, IRL hijackings are calming; soothing.
This was before the internet, kids… #DBCooper

Seattle Center radios NWO 305: “Everything is ready for your arrival.” (RH)
Chutes n the Loot.

NW Flt 305 lands at SEATAC.
(FBI and Nimoy, 5:46pm)
The 727 is directed to a remote section of tarmac, runway 16R, a third of a mile from the terminal

The 727 is at a full stop.

Pilot Scott 305 radios Seattle tower: “We ask you to stay there until we can coordinate with our friend in back.”

Pilot 305 radios Seattle tower: “He says to get the stuff out here right now.” (RH)

[WHO FUCKING TALKS LIKE THAT??]

Air stairs were placed at the airplane’s forward door (NOT the aftstair at the rear). Mucklow leaves to get the money from a waiting unmarked police car.

When she left the plane to get the money, Cooper went into the aft lavatory. He was holding the attaché case in a horizontal fashion with his left hand; his right was inside the case. When she came back with the money, a little over a minute later, Cooper was back in seat 18E.

One of the passengers saw him exit the lavatory. He was holding the attaché case on its side, with a 12” x 16” x4’ light-coloured package on top of the case.
Another report says he was in there 3-4 mins.

What did he do in there? Just pee, or more?

Northwest Orient obtained $200,000 in cash from First National Bank. The loot weighed 19 pounds, with 11” x 12” x 6.5”. All of the serial numbers were recorded. All 10,000 serial numbers.

Money is brought on board by Mucklow. The bag weighs enough that she drags it down the aisle behind her like some dirty laundry. She places it on the seat of 18D.

DB examines the money, “packed in small packages with bank-type bands around each package.” After a cursory inspection, DB stated “it looked OK.”

Cooper became “childish” with the money.

King Co Sheriff Timeline says, “Commenced deplaning passengers.”

All 36 passengers were interviewed, but only four saw the hijacker.

Passenger Robert Gregory of Puyallup turned back, and saw the hijacker. “No, he didn’t look calm. He was very wary, watching everybody that moved very intently.”

“One passenger scuffled briefly with the hijacker. Second passenger pulled first passenger away from the hijacker.” Later, the FBI report stated “the word scuffle was incorrect. The word scuffle should have been ‘hassle.’”

#DBCooper allowed Stewardess Alice Hancock to get her purse from the back of the airplane. Cooper smiled when she asked and said “Sure, I’m not going to bite you.” Flo says he was “giddy, almost boyish, clutching the money bag.” (GG)

Tina leaves the airplane and gathers a parachute, takes it back onboard.

The hijacker orders her to lower all window shades in this section of the airplane.

Fueling begins.
#DBCooper is almost one hour behind schedule. And all the parachutes aren't even on the plane yet...

Then she comes on with the two chest chutes. “Prior to departing from passenger cabin, hijacker told stewardess the money bag was not in accordance with instructions and cut up one of the parachutes to rewrap the money.”

She makes one more trip and brings on the last back chute. #DBCooper seen looking over each of the parachutes. DB Cooper knows parachutes.

Things are NOT going according to plan!!
Cooper is cutting shrouds off the parachute. He is improvising and attempting to secure the money bag.

Stewardess Alice Hancock said that she saw one of the parachutes had been “unpacked.” She asked DB if he had taken the chute apart; he replied that he had.

2nd fuel truck is on its way.

Bus *finally* shows up to pick up the passengers. They had been standing on the rainy tarmac for the last bit.

FBI is on board, and starts going through the manifest. “Dan Cooper?” is the 2nd name read.

Passenger bus goes to VIP Room B-2 for interviews.

Mucklow: What’s our future destination?
#DBCooper: Don’t worry; the plane isn’t going to Havana. But we will go to a pleasant place.

So now #DBCooper drops some very fucking specific instructions for the pilot.
Very interesting.

Obvious but interesting detail here… FBI REPORT: “Other than setting the maximum altitude at 10,000 feet and that the plane fly south and then to Reno, the hijacker did not set the precise route of the aircraft.”

Mucklow told #DBCooper that the @NW_Airlines crew had been on duty for some time, and might get tired on the trip south. DB told her he had some Benzedrine they could take if they needed it.

That's speed. Tweak. Rocket fuel.
Bennies, bourbon and smokes.
It's like a fucking Burroughs story.

With the drag from the aftstair deployed and flaps at 15, landing gear down, it was decided the 727 wouldn't have enough fuel to reach Mexico. After discussions of Yuma AZ and others, Reno NV was decided as the next fueling stop.

3rd fuel truck to the aircraft.

4th fuel truck standing by.

#DBCooper releases stewardesses Flo Schaffner & Alice Hancock. They get in the cab of the fuel truck. He keeps Tina Mucklow back in coach with him. He doesn’t know how to lower the aftstairs, and he needs her.

3rd fuel truck malfunctions and is unable to pump fuel. 4th fuel truck moves up.

#DBCooper “beginning to show irritation because of the delays.”

Of course he is! He’s almost TWO HOURS behind schedule!

“Just prior to take-off, he became very excited because they had been on the ground over an hour…”

This seems like some important shit, too...
“The hijacker displayed an extensive knowledge of the aircraft and seemed specifically well informed in refueling procedures.”
Some very technical information there.

Ground Control to 305 Pilot:
Did you hear the message? FFA from Wash DC, FFA Chief Psychiatrist, he believes the second parachute is for the stewardess to use with him to go out, and after he leaves the airplane will be blown up.

Doors on 727 Flt. #305 closed.

#DBCooper is almost two and a half hours behind schedule.

He stands up in the aisle. He's almost losing his grasp on the situation. #DBCooper lets loose loudly, “Let’s get this show on the road!”

Pilot: We’re about ready to crank if we can get some, he says “Let’s get the show on the road” so we’re ready to crank up here and we want to.

Pilot: We appreciate your assistance in this thing, and we’re going to crank the engines so you’ve probably heard me say he’s indicated that he want the show on the road so we’re going to get her cranked up here…

Ground Control: Or maybe you can get him into down towards Portland he might get homesick and want to land there again, I don’t know…

Navigation lights on. Prepared for taxi and take-off.

Seattle Tower to 305, “You are cleared to taxi whenever you are ready. You will have people following you all the way down to Reno.”

Flight 305 is taxing.

Seattle Tower: You are cleared for take-off whenever you are ready. Good luck on ‘er.
305: Any restrictions on climbing?
SEA: No restrictions at all. You climb any way you can.
305: Sorry for the trouble.
SEA: That’s alright, Captain. No problem.

As the plane was taxiing, Mucklow said to #DBCooper, “You know we have oxygen.”
DB replied, “Yes, I know where it is. If I need it, I will get it.”

Take-off from SEATAC.

Cabin lights were shut off on orders from the hijacker.

“Almost immediately after take-off, hijacker instructed hostess to show him how to open rear door and depress stairs.”

“Under the surveillance of 2 planes from McChord Air Force Base.” 2 F-106 fighters, from the 318th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron. The pilots had trouble keeping their speed down enough to stay with the Northwest plane. The planes had “very little visual contact” with the 727.

“Hostess and Crew stated Hijacker obviously acquainted with seven twenty seven type aircraft and had good basic knowledge of flying principles.”

#DBCooper ordered the stewardess to the cockpit. “Go to the cabin, pull the curtain, and don’t come back.”

“Before she finished securing the curtain, she pleaded with him to take the bomb with him and he said he would take it with him or disarm it before he leaves.”

She did as instructed, stealing a final glance as she closed the curtain on Cooper. He was “tying something around his waist with what looked like rope.” (RH) Likely the parachute shrouds.

In the cockpit, the aftstair light came on, indication the hijacker was doing something with said stair.

Himmelsbach: “It was only five minutes from Seattle, but nearly five hours since Dan Cooper had handed the note to Flo Schaffner as the aircraft taxied for takeoff from Portland.”

“the hijacker advised by inter-phone that he was having difficulty getting steps down.”
Pilot levels the aircraft and reduces speed.

Mucklow, now in the cockpit, “recalls that a short time after that [approximately five minutes after the first call], she observed the red indicator light go on the second officer’s panel indicating that the stairs had been lowered.”

Last contact with hijacker via intercom.
“Anything we can do for you?”
“No!” – the last known words from #DBCooper.

“In summary, crew described hijacking as obviously well planned by an individual knowledgeable re this aircraft and flying generally and by an individual who was at all times cool and calculating.”

But things had NOT gone according to #DBCooper’s plans.
We have already discussed specific incidents, his frustration.
But largely, he just fucking rolled with it: calm, competent.

Crew experienced a pressure bump of oscillations from aftstair. The Cabin Pressure Rate of Change Gauge also reacted violently.
(Distance Traveled from 7:42 – 8:15pm is about 87 miles).
The crew felt the pressure bump in their ears.

Other sources state 8:12, 8:13. Even the FBI timelines differ. THIS IS A BIG DEAL!
[1971 Highway map]

#DBCooper parachuted into the blackness of a raging thunderstorm, into a 200 m.p.h. wind and an air temperature of minus 7 degrees. His loafers would have been blown off his feet. The 727 was flying at 170 knots.

FBI Agent Himmelsbach: “It was a stormy night, with freezing rain at the high altitude and wind gusting up to 40 mph at PDX, maybe stronger along the Lewis River where he bailed out.”

Tina Mucklow’s “recollection of the flight from the Seattle International Airport was that the weather was extremely murky and that the ground could not be seen.”

But also, the crew said, “that they could see the lights of Portland* and other distinctive lights in the area… the hijacker could very easily have made a jump to a specific location.”
*Likely The Couve

So what did #DBCoopr jump with? How prepared was he for the elements in SW Washington/ Columbia River?
(Don't forget, he had [likely] 8 highway flares, wire, tape [for his ankles?] and a big ass battery.)

What was in the paper bag? Or in his briefcase, under the "bomb?" Wrist altimeter, balaklava, goggles? A radio? What did he do in the bathroom, for up to four minutes? Change into silk long johns? Tape his ankles? Just a long piss?

And it's tiiiimmmmeee...
50 years ago today, 50 years rn... #DBCooper IS on the ground. One way or another.

So how did it play out? Lived or Died?

*SPLAT!!! includes; impaled on tree, drown in Lake Merwin, eaten by bears, broke leg(s) and died from hypothermia, kidnapped and held in captivity by vegan Sasquatches, those kinda things.

Well that about wraps up tonight's Twatterin.
BUT WE'RE NOT DONE!

TOMORROW, Thanksgiving, Ima drop a few more bits about the investigation, and some weirdness that still lingers in the case. So maybe you can sneak in some peeks between your Holiday Festival Loaf and your gf pumpkin pie.

PS... I like the loaf with the extra nuts!
See you tomorrow! #DBCooper
[FBI Files]

One last plug... My #DBCooper feature in @PoMoMagazine pdxmonthly.com/news-and-city-…

And the #DBCooper feature in @portlandmercury portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2021/…

Flight 305 lands in Reno, NV. #DBCooper

#DBCooper, ever so careful to collect his notes to the crew, careful to wipe his fingerprints, inexplicably left his clip-on tie on his seat in row 18.

Thankful for all your RTs, likes comments and reading of the #DBCooper tweets yesterday, folks! I do appreciate it!

All the tweets ⬆️ were timestamped (to the best of my historian’s skill set, using five main sources that were admittedly at times contradictory) as the #DBCooper skyjacking unfolded. The real deal chronology.

Those six hours represent almost all of what we know about Dan Cooper! That’s about it!

All the tweets ⬇️ are NOT time specific. These are some ideas, some weirdness that I have come across. Some things to think about as you go about your holiday. So check in here and there, and I’ll have some “new” shit for you.

I think the first thing we need to address is "was the jump survivable?" And I think for years, maybe decades, the Feds felt the answer to this was "likely NO." #DBCooper

"Looking for a body," "instant death." Phrases like these are common. LEO was looking for dead #DBCooper. (2nd article is quoting Himmelsbach.)

(Also the clipping is inaccurate. He did NOT leave behind the bomb or the attache case. A few tweets up is the FBI inventory of the plane when it landed at Reno. No case, no bomb.)

But when you dig deep into those 22,000+ pages of FBI files, you find plenty of experts telling the Feds, "YES. He could have survived this jump!"

The BLM smoke jumper dude, tho...
FBI: #DBCooper died
BLM dude: Total HOGWASH!

In fact, the FBI had several parachutists offer, "same plane, same conditions, same chute; dress me up like #DBCooper, I'll take that fuckin' jump!"

And even for the "8:11 [?] oscillation simulation flight," an IRL parachutist was considered by @NW_Airlines (they opted for a 150lb sled). The FBI seems to be wearing blinders around this first of the "What happened??" considerations.

Another popular image we have is this dense, mountainous landscape. Landing in the forest??
But that area of SW Washington (if that is indeed where #DBCooper landed, and that is an "IF") is real mixed with second growth and agricultural land.

We'll talk about the Spring 1972. FBI/Army ground search in a min. Army helicopter pilot Cpt Markham had this to say about the terrain.

So did #DBCooper survive the jump? I'm gonna cash in my "historian's hedge" and lean strongly YES.
But we have more to consider!

There's two ways to go here.
1) #DBCooper wanted to land in that Amboy/Yacolt/Woodland area.
2) DBC was waaaayyyy behind schedule (as we know he was), and wanted to get off that airplane as soon as it left SEATAC. His behavior suggests this is so.

But let's go with #1, for the sake of discussion.

#DBCooper gets on the ground. He’s cold. Maybe he’s scratched up a bit. How will he stay warm?
If only he had 28’ of survival material at hand…

Cooper had the highway flares from the "bomb." He had a knife, a parachute. Lots of paper. Maybe some speed. What else was in his bag? Or the attache case? Jump boots? A radio?

Among the weird shit in the area that night...
Someone broke into a store at 11:30pm and took smokes, jerky, gloves and other items.
[They wore boots. No record of Cooper in boots.]

There was a lot of small airplane activity around Yacolt that night. You know... that dark and stormy night before Thanksgiving...

Nimoy says the plane flew for a week before the heist, sometimes rendezvousing with a car.
Startin' to get a little fucking weird here, huh?

And there's the account of these cars, too.
FBI records have some residents seeing a car parked by the airstrip for 2 to 3 hours at a time, on the 3 days before the caper. A man sitting, writing something down.

So in this conspiracy dripping version, maybe #DBCooper connects with a car or an airplane that he signals (flare? radio?) and gets away with the loot. But for that to happen, Cooper has to WANT to jump at 8:11 [?], and I dunno dude...

My historian-sense (yes, that is a thing) tells me he acts like he wants to get off that airplane much, much sooner.
"Let's get this show on the road!" all that shit. #DBCooper is behind schedule.

March of 1972, 300 soldiers from Ft. Lewis and about 20 FBI agents searched the suspected jump area for 18 days. The came back for a bit in April as well.
No trace of #DBCooper, but they DID find another body they weren’t looking for.

They found another body in November 1972, too.
Also not #DBCooper.

So in this suspected jump spot, they are FINDING dead bodies! It's just the dead bodies they are finding are NOT DEAD #DBCoopers!

And there's the money, right? The not quite $6,000 that Brian Ingram found in 1980.

“N. bank of the Columbia River, approximately 5 miles down river from the I-5 bridge crossing between Portland and Vancouver. The packaging and the numbered sequence indicate that the bills have not been separated and are in much the same order as when given to the hijacker.”

So how the fuck does the money get there??

You see... this is a very complicated case.
A lotta ins, a lotta outs, a lotta what-have-yous
A lotta strands to keep in my head, man.
Lotta strands in old Duder's head.
#DBCooper

Accomplice or not, the whole thing seems like too much risk/reward! I’m no robber, but it seems like there would be a shit-ton of easier ways to grab $200Gs.

But maybe his grudge is the motive and the 💰 is ancillary?

https://twitter.com/segdeha/status/1463974109621075979

Woah! Gettin all Burroughs again!
I’ll reign it in.

Valid descriptors, D. I'd think Veteran (@82ndABNDiv?), Latino. What's his grudge?

FBI did some pretty extensive missing persons invs., so I'd say "No" to that. I think they started with 5,000+, ended up with 21 possibles. None match.

https://twitter.com/DQuinn1575/status/1464047915794673666?s=20

My favorite is this dude.
FBI says "He's a missing person, fits the profile... might be #DBCooper!"
But he actually he faked his own death & then skedaddled to LA & opened a pornstore. Like you do.

As far as specific suspects @DQuinn1575 ? I don't get into that game. I will spend that brain-time playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons instead.

Every suspect has attributes to DBC. Each has weaknesses. No REAL matches yet.

None of those suspects has a $20 bill that matches. Not one of them. Real #DBCooper had panache & bravado. He left that clip-on tie like a calling card. A big Fuck You!!

Unless he lost the dough on the way down, Real DBCooper has a bill stashed away.

The FBI really fucked this one up, somehow.
And they knew it right off the bat.
Nine months after the heist; no suspect and no dough.
Acting Director: "What. The. Actual. Fuck?
We are the FBI. We do not NOT SOLVE skyjackings!!"

Now 50 years and one day later...
Lol

Now the Feds DID have a hair, or hairs, that they were pretty sure came from #DBCooper.

Buuuutt... it looks like @FBILasVegas lost em at some point... or maybe that was @FBILosAngeles

Some FBI lost #DBCooper's hair before 2002.
[LIKE PRESIDENT NIXON!!] lol

oh snap

Seems like lots of #DBCooper evidence was lost over the years (1997).

That's why, as a historian looking in on this case, I have a hard time buying into the sanctity of the physical evidence. I think there's been some pisspoor past procedures.

Supposedly the eight Raleigh cigarette butts obtained from the ashtray of 18E, dripping with #DBCooper DNA... are nowhere to be found. That evidence was also

Lost, or
Destroyed (Eric Ulis).

Here's another one I liked. In 1976, FBI agents gathered in Frisco to reexamine the #DBCooper case. They had no solid suspects and very little good physical evidence.

They wanted to give the case a fresh look, and see what they could find.

They felt that even if Cooper surrendered then, unless he was extremely cooperative, it would be very difficult to make the case against him.

So less than five yers after the crime, Cooper had left so little physical evidence, that he could have gotten away with it.

[Also interesting that the PDX/SEA agents said they had yet to read a faithful telling of the crime in the media, FIVE YEARS AFTER.
A little glimpse into how hard it is to really put this case together into a "This Is How It Really Happened!" 50 years on.]

And why the fuck the FBI never gave CLYDE KING $25Gs???

Is it really any wonder why they never solved this case?
Volcanic tuft, bitches. It's all in the volcanic tuft...

We were SO CLOSE!!

Well that's what I have for you! Thanks for following along these past two days of Tweetering! I really do appreciate it!!!!!

If you have any Qs, just drop them in the chat. I'll try to answer them best I can from a historian's perspective, or DBC nerd. Both hats fit.