georger 197
quade 3
Quote“It’s the reputation thing,” she said. “We’re hoping that he’s DB Cooper. It would be so cool.”
This says everything you need to know.
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver
The World's Most Boring Skydiver
377 21
Quote“It’s the reputation thing,” she said. “We’re hoping that he’s DB Cooper. It would be so cool.”
This says everything you need to know.
It reminds me of the buzz in west coast jump circles right after Norjack. It was just so damned cool. Lots of jumpers wanted to be a suspect. Lots of jumpers hinted that they KNEW FOR SURE who Cooper was.
The Cooper "flame" attracted a certain kind of moth in 1971 and has continued to do so for nearly four decades.
377
2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
Just thought you guys might be interested in this. The information came to me from Galen Cook. I waited till tonight to post this, because I did NOT want there to be any problems.
May 22, 2010 (tonight) Northwest Airlines ( now Delta) is having a HUGE party for retired pilots and flight attendants.
Supposedly Andy Anderson (flight engineer) and Bill Rataczak (the co-pilot) usually attend. Maybe "Cooper" will make an appearance (Joke). I was given this information by Galen Cooper sorry I meant to say Cook.
The composite used in an article about Gossett was altered to resemble Gossett, but Cook had nothing to do with this. I predicted this composite would be picked up as the real thing - and it is now circlulating in other countries including the US as the REAL thing. Journalist who do this kind of thing should be held accountable, but that is like asking BP to be accountable for the damage they have done. Galen has assured me he had NOTHING to do with that alteration...and I believe him.
The least the journalist could have done was state it had been altered and removed the officlal FBI caption numbers from the picture. Counterfeit pictures and conterfeit money...In God We Trust? Bull.
Sluggo: Facts and Myths - #8
It is a given that the Palmer Report regarding the money find in 1980 - stated the money had been in a protected state for a period of time.
The possible LZ even makes this more evident and therefore you know my opinion....if it even matters.
May 22, 2010 (tonight) Northwest Airlines ( now Delta) is having a HUGE party for retired pilots and flight attendants.
Supposedly Andy Anderson (flight engineer) and Bill Rataczak (the co-pilot) usually attend. Maybe "Cooper" will make an appearance (Joke). I was given this information by Galen Cooper sorry I meant to say Cook.
The composite used in an article about Gossett was altered to resemble Gossett, but Cook had nothing to do with this. I predicted this composite would be picked up as the real thing - and it is now circlulating in other countries including the US as the REAL thing. Journalist who do this kind of thing should be held accountable, but that is like asking BP to be accountable for the damage they have done. Galen has assured me he had NOTHING to do with that alteration...and I believe him.
The least the journalist could have done was state it had been altered and removed the officlal FBI caption numbers from the picture. Counterfeit pictures and conterfeit money...In God We Trust? Bull.
Sluggo: Facts and Myths - #8
It is a given that the Palmer Report regarding the money find in 1980 - stated the money had been in a protected state for a period of time.
The possible LZ even makes this more evident and therefore you know my opinion....if it even matters.
Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber
georger 197
It is a given that the Palmer Report regarding the money find in 1980 - stated the money had been in a protected state for a period of time.
The fairies told you ?
georger 197
QuoteQuote“It’s the reputation thing,” she said. “We’re hoping that he’s DB Cooper. It would be so cool.”
This says everything you need to know.
It reminds me of the buzz in west coast jump circles right after Norjack. It was just so damned cool. Lots of jumpers wanted to be a suspect. Lots of jumpers hinted that they KNEW FOR SURE who Cooper was.
The Cooper "flame" attracted a certain kind of moth in 1971 and has continued to do so for nearly four decades.
377
It would be interesting to know the kinds of
people the FBI sought out, if one or multiple
profiles were used. We probably will never know.
I do think there are "cultural-class goggles' working
here however. You engineer types always seem to
focus on your own kind, which is interesting?
It is also possible to be so focused on "fact vs
myth" that minor factoids become new myth.
The myth of the perfect fact, the missing link
fact, and the Oracle of Facts vs. Myths.
You can pass a lot of lies through a fact vs. myth bunghole!
For example, you guys unanimously bypass
any info about candidate's eye colour. You (plural)
must have decided eye colour can be bypassed because the FBI and witnesses got it wrong. BROWN
EYES IS A MYTH! Maybe the Oracle of Fact vs. Myth
proclaimed that in private emails? Then what!?
What color are Burnworth's eyes?
In hours of interview has anyone asked?
How closely did the FBI stick to the initial
description? That would be interesting to know.
Maybe I missed that part. I'm getting old ...
waiting.
Quote
Excellent point, G. I'll be asking eye color right out of the chute from now on.
All,
Speaking of “The Cooper "flame," here is an article from yesterday’s (Ogden, UT) Standard-Examiner. It is old stuff but a little more detailed than before.
D.B. Cooper mystery -- Did witness see hijacker's parachute?
By Scott Schwebke (Standard-Examiner staff)
May 22 2010 - 10:20pm
OGDEN -- A report of a fireball in the sky and a veiled threat from a mysterious man in a dark suit could aid a lawyer's dogged quest to prove a former Weber State ROTC instructor was infamous skyjacker D.B. Cooper.
Galen Cook, a Spokane, Wash., attorney says he's found perhaps the only eyewitness to Cooper's daring parachute escape from a Boeing 727 more than 38 years ago into the dark abyss of the Pacific Northwest.
Cook, who has been pursuing the Cooper case for more than two decades and is writing a book about his investigation, believes a woman named Janet may have seen the hijacker as he jumped from the plane carrying road flares and a $200,000 ransom.
"Janet has no reason whatsoever to lie, so I believe her story," Cook said in an e-mail to the Standard-Examiner. "I have a suspect (William "Wolfgang" Gossett) who worked for the military, was a trained military parachuter, had special knowledge of aircraft and CIA operations in Southeast Asia, was obsessed with road flares, and retired from the Army at Fort Lewis, Wash. (near where the D.B. Cooper incident took place)."
The Cooper case is perhaps the most baffling unsolved crime in FBI history.
On Nov. 24,1971, Cooper commandeered a Boeing 727 en route from Portland, Ore., to Seattle. After receiving a $200,000 ransom, walked down the plane's rear stairs and parachuted into the stormy night.
Cook maintains Gossett, a former ROTC instructor at Weber State who was 73 when he died in 2003 in Oregon, is the elusive hijacker.
He described Gossett as the consummate chameleon who eluded authorities despite a string of highly visible jobs that included private investigator, radio talk show host and priest in the Old Roman Catholic Church.
Cook contends Gossett managed to keep his involvement in the Cooper caper under the radar of law enforcement, but confessed the crime to several people, including a son, Gregg Gossett, who lives in Ogden, Maurice Richards, an attorney from South Ogden, now deceased, and Jim Bjornsen, a close friend and lawyer in Newport, Ore.
Cook also believes Janet may be the only person to have seen the hijacker jump from the Boeing 727 after it took off from Seattle International Airport en route to Mexico City.
Friend's death
He learned of Janet's eyewitness account in 2009 following the death of his long-time friend and fellow Cooper hunter Richard Tosaw.
Tosaw, a former FBI agent and attorney from California, wrote a 1984 book entitled, "D.B. Cooper: Dead or Alive?, and kept extensive files on his investigation.
After Tosaw died, his staff gave Cook some of those files, including one that contained a 1985 interview with Janet.
Cook was stunned and excited when he read Janet's account.
"To say the least, I was ecstatic as both an investigator and an attorney," he said. "Her report could change the course and the scope of the case, and in part, answer some of the more intriguing questions. Nowhere, in any records that I have found, is there any reference to an eye-witness to the Cooper jump. Yet there she was. There is something very credible and compelling about her story."
Janet, who is 65 and requested that her last name be withheld to protect her privacy, told the Standard-Examiner in her first public interview she's certain she saw Cooper jump from the hijacked jet.
Eyewitness?
Janet recalled that late in the afternoon on Nov. 24, 1971 she had just gotten off work from her job as a billing clerk at Wilhelm Trucking Co. in northwest Portland and was heading to a beauty shop appointment.
Suddenly a news bulletin came on her car radio regarding the Cooper hijacking.
Janet had her hair done at the salon and didn't give much thought to the news as she drove to her home in nearby Vancouver, Wash.
After reaching the house, she and her husband loaded their two children into the family's Datsun to take them to a babysitter so they could go to dinner at the nearby upscale Key Hotel.
Janet, who was in the passenger seat, looked up just as the car was backing out of the driveway and saw a light pass overhead. A platform or ladder below a plane caught her eye.
"What I saw was flames and thought I saw something on the platform which could have been a person," Janet said.
Immediately, the fireball arched away from the platform, split into two and then disappeared in the direction of the Columbia River.
Cook believes the fireball Janet saw was Gossett tossing some road flares made to look like a dynamite bomb to judge wind direction to safely guide him to the ground.
Cook said his research has shown winds were blowing from the southeast at more than 60 knots in the Portland area around the time of the hijacking. "This kind of wind speed would likely cause a falling flarepack to appear fiery, as reported by Janet," he said.
Janet's sighting of the fireball fits with William Gossett's penchant for road flares, said his son, Gregg Gossett.
"My father had an obsession with road flares," he said. "He used to light them off for me when I was a kid. There were tons of them around our house growing up."
Man in black
Janet said that a few days later, after deciding that the fiery object had something to do with the Cooper case, she sent a letter to the FBI field office in Portland.
She wasn't prepared for what happened next.
Several days later a mysterious, intimidating man in a dark business suit knocked on her door and asked for her by name. Janet said the man, who did not identify himself as an FBI agent or police officer, told her the letter had been received and ordered her to "shut the fxxx up" about it.
"I was scared to death," she said.
Cook believes the mysterious man was an FBI agent warning Janet not to go to the press because the FBI and other law enforcement agencies were expending considerable resources looking for Cooper near Lake Merwin, 35 miles north of Vancouver.
"This would have splintered the FBI's progress and maybe prevented them from capturing D.B. Cooper," he said.
FBI Special Agent Larry Carr, who has been overseeing the Cooper investigation, could not be reached for comment.
1985 meeting
Janet didn't mention the possible Cooper sighting again publicly until 1985 when she met with Tosaw who was in Portland to promote his book on the hijacking.
"When I told Richard...you could see by the look on his face that he absolutely believed it was him (Cooper)," she said.
Cook believes he knows why Tosaw didn't follow up on Janet's tip or tell him about it.
"Tosaw did not share his info about Janet's eyewitnessing because he thought he had special information that would help him solve the case," said Cook.
"The problem is that Tosaw also believed Cooper died during the jump. Any extraneous info indicating Cooper survived would not have fit nicely into Tosaw's version of events. I, on the other hand, believe that Cooper survived the jump and went back to the Salt Lake City area where he lived a relatively quiet life on the run."
Cook believes William Gossett planned the hijacking to coincide with Thanksgiving week vacation at Weber State so that he wouldn't be missed.
Cook maintains William Gossett probably landed on the Oregon side of the Columbia River, somewhere west of Portland.
After spending the night in the woods, he probably made his way to Portland International Airport, took a plane to San Francisco and then traveled to Utah, he said.
Battle Ground site
The FBI now maintains that Cooper didn't exit near Lake Merwin but near Battle Ground, Wash., about seven miles north of the Columbia River, but didn't survive the jump because the parachute he used couldn't be steered and his clothing and footwear weren't suitable for a rough landing.
In 1980, 8-year-old Brian Ingram found on the banks of the Columbia River a rotting package of $20 bills totaling $5,800 that matched serial numbers of the Cooper ransom money, further bolstering the claim that the hijacker was killed, according to the FBI.
However, the money could have been planted by William Gossett to throw off authorities, Cook said.
Cook maintains that while William Gossett may have needed the ransom money to pay off gambling debts, there was possibly a "higher moral mission" for the hijacking.
He claims to have uncovered information indicating William Gossett may have committed the crime because he was upset about a clandestine government operation during the Vietnam conflict.
Recent visit
Meanwhile, Cook recently visited Janet's former home in Vancouver.
Using a radar map, Cook has determined the hijacked jet passed directly over Janet's house and the direction of the fireball she saw drifting away from the plane is in alignment with the river bank where some of the ransom money was found.
Cook said Janet's eyewitness account backed up by physical data has convinced him he's closer than ever to solving the Cooper case.
"When that happened, it urged me on to pick up the pace and the cold trail of the skyjacker."
I have attached a photo of “Janet.” If you want to see the article go HERE
Web Page
Blog
NORJAK Forum
Speaking of “The Cooper "flame," here is an article from yesterday’s (Ogden, UT) Standard-Examiner. It is old stuff but a little more detailed than before.
D.B. Cooper mystery -- Did witness see hijacker's parachute?
By Scott Schwebke (Standard-Examiner staff)
May 22 2010 - 10:20pm
OGDEN -- A report of a fireball in the sky and a veiled threat from a mysterious man in a dark suit could aid a lawyer's dogged quest to prove a former Weber State ROTC instructor was infamous skyjacker D.B. Cooper.
Galen Cook, a Spokane, Wash., attorney says he's found perhaps the only eyewitness to Cooper's daring parachute escape from a Boeing 727 more than 38 years ago into the dark abyss of the Pacific Northwest.
Cook, who has been pursuing the Cooper case for more than two decades and is writing a book about his investigation, believes a woman named Janet may have seen the hijacker as he jumped from the plane carrying road flares and a $200,000 ransom.
"Janet has no reason whatsoever to lie, so I believe her story," Cook said in an e-mail to the Standard-Examiner. "I have a suspect (William "Wolfgang" Gossett) who worked for the military, was a trained military parachuter, had special knowledge of aircraft and CIA operations in Southeast Asia, was obsessed with road flares, and retired from the Army at Fort Lewis, Wash. (near where the D.B. Cooper incident took place)."
The Cooper case is perhaps the most baffling unsolved crime in FBI history.
On Nov. 24,1971, Cooper commandeered a Boeing 727 en route from Portland, Ore., to Seattle. After receiving a $200,000 ransom, walked down the plane's rear stairs and parachuted into the stormy night.
Cook maintains Gossett, a former ROTC instructor at Weber State who was 73 when he died in 2003 in Oregon, is the elusive hijacker.
He described Gossett as the consummate chameleon who eluded authorities despite a string of highly visible jobs that included private investigator, radio talk show host and priest in the Old Roman Catholic Church.
Cook contends Gossett managed to keep his involvement in the Cooper caper under the radar of law enforcement, but confessed the crime to several people, including a son, Gregg Gossett, who lives in Ogden, Maurice Richards, an attorney from South Ogden, now deceased, and Jim Bjornsen, a close friend and lawyer in Newport, Ore.
Cook also believes Janet may be the only person to have seen the hijacker jump from the Boeing 727 after it took off from Seattle International Airport en route to Mexico City.
Friend's death
He learned of Janet's eyewitness account in 2009 following the death of his long-time friend and fellow Cooper hunter Richard Tosaw.
Tosaw, a former FBI agent and attorney from California, wrote a 1984 book entitled, "D.B. Cooper: Dead or Alive?, and kept extensive files on his investigation.
After Tosaw died, his staff gave Cook some of those files, including one that contained a 1985 interview with Janet.
Cook was stunned and excited when he read Janet's account.
"To say the least, I was ecstatic as both an investigator and an attorney," he said. "Her report could change the course and the scope of the case, and in part, answer some of the more intriguing questions. Nowhere, in any records that I have found, is there any reference to an eye-witness to the Cooper jump. Yet there she was. There is something very credible and compelling about her story."
Janet, who is 65 and requested that her last name be withheld to protect her privacy, told the Standard-Examiner in her first public interview she's certain she saw Cooper jump from the hijacked jet.
Eyewitness?
Janet recalled that late in the afternoon on Nov. 24, 1971 she had just gotten off work from her job as a billing clerk at Wilhelm Trucking Co. in northwest Portland and was heading to a beauty shop appointment.
Suddenly a news bulletin came on her car radio regarding the Cooper hijacking.
Janet had her hair done at the salon and didn't give much thought to the news as she drove to her home in nearby Vancouver, Wash.
After reaching the house, she and her husband loaded their two children into the family's Datsun to take them to a babysitter so they could go to dinner at the nearby upscale Key Hotel.
Janet, who was in the passenger seat, looked up just as the car was backing out of the driveway and saw a light pass overhead. A platform or ladder below a plane caught her eye.
"What I saw was flames and thought I saw something on the platform which could have been a person," Janet said.
Immediately, the fireball arched away from the platform, split into two and then disappeared in the direction of the Columbia River.
Cook believes the fireball Janet saw was Gossett tossing some road flares made to look like a dynamite bomb to judge wind direction to safely guide him to the ground.
Cook said his research has shown winds were blowing from the southeast at more than 60 knots in the Portland area around the time of the hijacking. "This kind of wind speed would likely cause a falling flarepack to appear fiery, as reported by Janet," he said.
Janet's sighting of the fireball fits with William Gossett's penchant for road flares, said his son, Gregg Gossett.
"My father had an obsession with road flares," he said. "He used to light them off for me when I was a kid. There were tons of them around our house growing up."
Man in black
Janet said that a few days later, after deciding that the fiery object had something to do with the Cooper case, she sent a letter to the FBI field office in Portland.
She wasn't prepared for what happened next.
Several days later a mysterious, intimidating man in a dark business suit knocked on her door and asked for her by name. Janet said the man, who did not identify himself as an FBI agent or police officer, told her the letter had been received and ordered her to "shut the fxxx up" about it.
"I was scared to death," she said.
Cook believes the mysterious man was an FBI agent warning Janet not to go to the press because the FBI and other law enforcement agencies were expending considerable resources looking for Cooper near Lake Merwin, 35 miles north of Vancouver.
"This would have splintered the FBI's progress and maybe prevented them from capturing D.B. Cooper," he said.
FBI Special Agent Larry Carr, who has been overseeing the Cooper investigation, could not be reached for comment.
1985 meeting
Janet didn't mention the possible Cooper sighting again publicly until 1985 when she met with Tosaw who was in Portland to promote his book on the hijacking.
"When I told Richard...you could see by the look on his face that he absolutely believed it was him (Cooper)," she said.
Cook believes he knows why Tosaw didn't follow up on Janet's tip or tell him about it.
"Tosaw did not share his info about Janet's eyewitnessing because he thought he had special information that would help him solve the case," said Cook.
"The problem is that Tosaw also believed Cooper died during the jump. Any extraneous info indicating Cooper survived would not have fit nicely into Tosaw's version of events. I, on the other hand, believe that Cooper survived the jump and went back to the Salt Lake City area where he lived a relatively quiet life on the run."
Cook believes William Gossett planned the hijacking to coincide with Thanksgiving week vacation at Weber State so that he wouldn't be missed.
Cook maintains William Gossett probably landed on the Oregon side of the Columbia River, somewhere west of Portland.
After spending the night in the woods, he probably made his way to Portland International Airport, took a plane to San Francisco and then traveled to Utah, he said.
Battle Ground site
The FBI now maintains that Cooper didn't exit near Lake Merwin but near Battle Ground, Wash., about seven miles north of the Columbia River, but didn't survive the jump because the parachute he used couldn't be steered and his clothing and footwear weren't suitable for a rough landing.
In 1980, 8-year-old Brian Ingram found on the banks of the Columbia River a rotting package of $20 bills totaling $5,800 that matched serial numbers of the Cooper ransom money, further bolstering the claim that the hijacker was killed, according to the FBI.
However, the money could have been planted by William Gossett to throw off authorities, Cook said.
Cook maintains that while William Gossett may have needed the ransom money to pay off gambling debts, there was possibly a "higher moral mission" for the hijacking.
He claims to have uncovered information indicating William Gossett may have committed the crime because he was upset about a clandestine government operation during the Vietnam conflict.
Recent visit
Meanwhile, Cook recently visited Janet's former home in Vancouver.
Using a radar map, Cook has determined the hijacked jet passed directly over Janet's house and the direction of the fireball she saw drifting away from the plane is in alignment with the river bank where some of the ransom money was found.
Cook said Janet's eyewitness account backed up by physical data has convinced him he's closer than ever to solving the Cooper case.
"When that happened, it urged me on to pick up the pace and the cold trail of the skyjacker."
I have attached a photo of “Janet.” If you want to see the article go HERE
Web Page
Blog
NORJAK Forum
Farflung 0
Please pass the piano.
The food at the restaurant was horrible and the portions were too small.
"I have a suspect who... was obsessed with road flares"
Of the 300,000 words in the English language..... they all fail me now.
The food at the restaurant was horrible and the portions were too small.
"I have a suspect who... was obsessed with road flares"
Of the 300,000 words in the English language..... they all fail me now.
georger 197
QuoteQuote
Excellent point, G. I'll be asking eye color right out of the chute from now on.
I wouldnt even hazard a guess about how closely
various FBi agents followed the original Cooper
profile (physical) when pursuing leads. It's just
something Ive always wondered about, but that
basic profile does seem a good place to start
with just for openers ?
Janet, who was in the passenger seat, looked up just as the car was backing out of the driveway and saw a light pass overhead. A platform or ladder below a plane caught her eye.
WE CAN'T have it both ways! Which is it. Reports say the weather was shitty, clouds and Cooper could not see the ground except for breaks in the clouds here and there. Now this lady stated she could see the steps at 10-12K at night while setting in a Datson and see the flares leave the plane. I throw the BS flag, but the problem is which is truth and which is fiction???? HHHMMMM!!!??!?!?!? anyone concour????
WE CAN'T have it both ways! Which is it. Reports say the weather was shitty, clouds and Cooper could not see the ground except for breaks in the clouds here and there. Now this lady stated she could see the steps at 10-12K at night while setting in a Datson and see the flares leave the plane. I throw the BS flag, but the problem is which is truth and which is fiction???? HHHMMMM!!!??!?!?!? anyone concour????
QuoteQuoteQuote
Excellent point, G. I'll be asking eye color right out of the chute from now on.
I wouldnt even hazard a guess about how closely
various FBi agents followed the original Cooper
profile (physical) when pursuing leads. It's just
something Ive always wondered about, but that
basic profile does seem a good place to start
with just for openers ?
Yes, it's an interesting, and very worthy line of questioning to pursue with the feds.
georger 197
Quote
All,
Speaking of “The Cooper "flame," here is an article from yesterday’s (Ogden, UT) Standard-Examiner. It is old stuff but a little more detailed than before.
D.B. Cooper mystery -- Did witness see hijacker's parachute?
By Scott Schwebke (Standard-Examiner staff)
May 22 2010 - 10:20pm
OGDEN -- A report of a fireball in the sky and a veiled threat from a mysterious man in a dark suit could aid a lawyer's dogged quest to prove a former Weber State ROTC instructor was infamous skyjacker D.B. Cooper.
Galen Cook, a Spokane, Wash., attorney says he's found perhaps the only eyewitness to Cooper's daring parachute escape from a Boeing 727 more than 38 years ago into the dark abyss of the Pacific Northwest.
Cook, who has been pursuing the Cooper case for more than two decades and is writing a book about his investigation, believes a woman named Janet may have seen the hijacker as he jumped from the plane carrying road flares and a $200,000 ransom.
"Janet has no reason whatsoever to lie, so I believe her story," Cook said in an e-mail to the Standard-Examiner. "I have a suspect (William "Wolfgang" Gossett) who worked for the military, was a trained military parachuter, had special knowledge of aircraft and CIA operations in Southeast Asia, was obsessed with road flares, and retired from the Army at Fort Lewis, Wash. (near where the D.B. Cooper incident took place)."
The Cooper case is perhaps the most baffling unsolved crime in FBI history.
On Nov. 24,1971, Cooper commandeered a Boeing 727 en route from Portland, Ore., to Seattle. After receiving a $200,000 ransom, walked down the plane's rear stairs and parachuted into the stormy night.
Cook maintains Gossett, a former ROTC instructor at Weber State who was 73 when he died in 2003 in Oregon, is the elusive hijacker.
He described Gossett as the consummate chameleon who eluded authorities despite a string of highly visible jobs that included private investigator, radio talk show host and priest in the Old Roman Catholic Church.
Cook contends Gossett managed to keep his involvement in the Cooper caper under the radar of law enforcement, but confessed the crime to several people, including a son, Gregg Gossett, who lives in Ogden, Maurice Richards, an attorney from South Ogden, now deceased, and Jim Bjornsen, a close friend and lawyer in Newport, Ore.
Cook also believes Janet may be the only person to have seen the hijacker jump from the Boeing 727 after it took off from Seattle International Airport en route to Mexico City.
Friend's death
He learned of Janet's eyewitness account in 2009 following the death of his long-time friend and fellow Cooper hunter Richard Tosaw.
Tosaw, a former FBI agent and attorney from California, wrote a 1984 book entitled, "D.B. Cooper: Dead or Alive?, and kept extensive files on his investigation.
After Tosaw died, his staff gave Cook some of those files, including one that contained a 1985 interview with Janet.
Cook was stunned and excited when he read Janet's account.
"To say the least, I was ecstatic as both an investigator and an attorney," he said. "Her report could change the course and the scope of the case, and in part, answer some of the more intriguing questions. Nowhere, in any records that I have found, is there any reference to an eye-witness to the Cooper jump. Yet there she was. There is something very credible and compelling about her story."
Janet, who is 65 and requested that her last name be withheld to protect her privacy, told the Standard-Examiner in her first public interview she's certain she saw Cooper jump from the hijacked jet.
Eyewitness?
Janet recalled that late in the afternoon on Nov. 24, 1971 she had just gotten off work from her job as a billing clerk at Wilhelm Trucking Co. in northwest Portland and was heading to a beauty shop appointment.
Suddenly a news bulletin came on her car radio regarding the Cooper hijacking.
Janet had her hair done at the salon and didn't give much thought to the news as she drove to her home in nearby Vancouver, Wash.
After reaching the house, she and her husband loaded their two children into the family's Datsun to take them to a babysitter so they could go to dinner at the nearby upscale Key Hotel.
Janet, who was in the passenger seat, looked up just as the car was backing out of the driveway and saw a light pass overhead. A platform or ladder below a plane caught her eye.
"What I saw was flames and thought I saw something on the platform which could have been a person," Janet said.
Immediately, the fireball arched away from the platform, split into two and then disappeared in the direction of the Columbia River.
Cook believes the fireball Janet saw was Gossett tossing some road flares made to look like a dynamite bomb to judge wind direction to safely guide him to the ground.
Cook said his research has shown winds were blowing from the southeast at more than 60 knots in the Portland area around the time of the hijacking. "This kind of wind speed would likely cause a falling flarepack to appear fiery, as reported by Janet," he said.
Janet's sighting of the fireball fits with William Gossett's penchant for road flares, said his son, Gregg Gossett.
"My father had an obsession with road flares," he said. "He used to light them off for me when I was a kid. There were tons of them around our house growing up."
Man in black
Janet said that a few days later, after deciding that the fiery object had something to do with the Cooper case, she sent a letter to the FBI field office in Portland.
She wasn't prepared for what happened next.
Several days later a mysterious, intimidating man in a dark business suit knocked on her door and asked for her by name. Janet said the man, who did not identify himself as an FBI agent or police officer, told her the letter had been received and ordered her to "shut the fxxx up" about it.
"I was scared to death," she said.
Cook believes the mysterious man was an FBI agent warning Janet not to go to the press because the FBI and other law enforcement agencies were expending considerable resources looking for Cooper near Lake Merwin, 35 miles north of Vancouver.
"This would have splintered the FBI's progress and maybe prevented them from capturing D.B. Cooper," he said.
FBI Special Agent Larry Carr, who has been overseeing the Cooper investigation, could not be reached for comment.
1985 meeting
Janet didn't mention the possible Cooper sighting again publicly until 1985 when she met with Tosaw who was in Portland to promote his book on the hijacking.
"When I told Richard...you could see by the look on his face that he absolutely believed it was him (Cooper)," she said.
Cook believes he knows why Tosaw didn't follow up on Janet's tip or tell him about it.
"Tosaw did not share his info about Janet's eyewitnessing because he thought he had special information that would help him solve the case," said Cook.
"The problem is that Tosaw also believed Cooper died during the jump. Any extraneous info indicating Cooper survived would not have fit nicely into Tosaw's version of events. I, on the other hand, believe that Cooper survived the jump and went back to the Salt Lake City area where he lived a relatively quiet life on the run."
Cook believes William Gossett planned the hijacking to coincide with Thanksgiving week vacation at Weber State so that he wouldn't be missed.
Cook maintains William Gossett probably landed on the Oregon side of the Columbia River, somewhere west of Portland.
After spending the night in the woods, he probably made his way to Portland International Airport, took a plane to San Francisco and then traveled to Utah, he said.
Battle Ground site
The FBI now maintains that Cooper didn't exit near Lake Merwin but near Battle Ground, Wash., about seven miles north of the Columbia River, but didn't survive the jump because the parachute he used couldn't be steered and his clothing and footwear weren't suitable for a rough landing.
In 1980, 8-year-old Brian Ingram found on the banks of the Columbia River a rotting package of $20 bills totaling $5,800 that matched serial numbers of the Cooper ransom money, further bolstering the claim that the hijacker was killed, according to the FBI.
However, the money could have been planted by William Gossett to throw off authorities, Cook said.
Cook maintains that while William Gossett may have needed the ransom money to pay off gambling debts, there was possibly a "higher moral mission" for the hijacking.
He claims to have uncovered information indicating William Gossett may have committed the crime because he was upset about a clandestine government operation during the Vietnam conflict.
Recent visit
Meanwhile, Cook recently visited Janet's former home in Vancouver.
Using a radar map, Cook has determined the hijacked jet passed directly over Janet's house and the direction of the fireball she saw drifting away from the plane is in alignment with the river bank where some of the ransom money was found.
Cook said Janet's eyewitness account backed up by physical data has convinced him he's closer than ever to solving the Cooper case.
"When that happened, it urged me on to pick up the pace and the cold trail of the skyjacker."
I have attached a photo of “Janet.” If you want to see the article go HERE
Burton M. Wink of Portland, OR, passed away on April 19, 2010. He was born in Sioux City, IA on Jan. 3, 1939. Burton worked for Wilhelm Trucking for 38 years and retired from the Coast Guard Reserve after 37 years. Burton is survived by his wife, Janet (Hjelmaa) Wink; two daughters, Laura McDaniel and Renee Uren; and two grandsons, Matt and Marshall McDaniel.
georger 197
Eyewitness?
After reaching the house, she and her husband loaded their two children into the family's Datsun to take them to a babysitter so they could go to dinner at the nearby upscale Key Hotel.
Janet, who was in the passenger seat, looked up just as the car was backing out of the driveway and saw a light pass overhead. A platform or ladder below a plane caught her eye.
"What I saw was flames and thought I saw something on the platform which could have been a person," Janet said.
Immediately, the fireball arched away from the platform, split into two and then disappeared in the direction of the Columbia River.
Cook believes the fireball Janet saw was Gossett tossing some road flares made to look like a dynamite bomb to judge wind direction to safely guide him to the ground.
Cook said his research has shown winds were blowing from the southeast at more than 60 knots in the Portland area around the time of the hijacking. "This kind of wind speed would likely cause a falling flarepack to appear fiery, as reported by Janet," he said.
Using a radar map, Cook has determined the hijacked jet passed directly over Janet's house and the direction of the fireball she saw drifting away from the plane is in alignment with the river bank where some of the ransom money was found.
Cook said Janet's eyewitness account backed up by physical data has convinced him he's closer than ever to solving the Cooper case.
After reaching the house, she and her husband loaded their two children into the family's Datsun to take them to a babysitter so they could go to dinner at the nearby upscale Key Hotel.
Janet, who was in the passenger seat, looked up just as the car was backing out of the driveway and saw a light pass overhead. A platform or ladder below a plane caught her eye.
"What I saw was flames and thought I saw something on the platform which could have been a person," Janet said.
Immediately, the fireball arched away from the platform, split into two and then disappeared in the direction of the Columbia River.
Cook believes the fireball Janet saw was Gossett tossing some road flares made to look like a dynamite bomb to judge wind direction to safely guide him to the ground.
Cook said his research has shown winds were blowing from the southeast at more than 60 knots in the Portland area around the time of the hijacking. "This kind of wind speed would likely cause a falling flarepack to appear fiery, as reported by Janet," he said.
Using a radar map, Cook has determined the hijacked jet passed directly over Janet's house and the direction of the fireball she saw drifting away from the plane is in alignment with the river bank where some of the ransom money was found.
Cook said Janet's eyewitness account backed up by physical data has convinced him he's closer than ever to solving the Cooper case.
The first version of this report I heard (was given)
was that Janet's eye witness was an oblique
sighting, at some distance; not something directly occurring over her house! I have no idea when this most recent element has been added or by who.
The person who told me this story claimed Janet
saw these events 'possibly occuring as far away as
Orchard'. I argued with the teller at the time
that the detail being described was a physical impossibility given the distance involved. "Cook
has determined the hijacked jet passed directly
over Janet's house" has been added to the story since I was first told of this story.
The physical facts of human vision remain the
same, regardless of anyone's story: * Angular resolution: about 0.02°-0.03°), which corresponds
to 30–60 cm at a 1 km distance = 0.625mi = 3300ft.
Translated this means that people with normal vision
can usually resolve objects no closer apart than
30-60cm (1-2 feet) at a distance of 3300 feet or
1 km. (see Wiki Vision Acuity; other sources
convey the same standard data on human vision).
To illustrate the above attached is a photo of an
airport taken from precisely 10,000 feet above
an airport (in the Google archive). Try to see
details on the aircraft parked at the airport.
I am not sure Janet could have even seen a
"platform" extended from the rear of #n467us
at 10,000 feet even directly over her house.
A report of the kind Janet has given coupled with
the usual parameters for human vision, almost
requires n467us had to be lower than 10,000 feet (perhaps even low enough to hear) or Janet's
observation could not have been made.
I am also concerned about the time elements
involved. What Janet describes requires time to
happen. Did her husband stop the car and they
got and watched? What Janet describes could not have ll happened instantaneously -
I am concerned that out of almost ~800,000
potenetial witnesses only Janet saw this event?
The probability of that happening is almost zero -
The wind data Galen Cook is supplying comes
directly from the Bohan report.
So why not just say the money find at Tina Bar
ties directly to what Janet saw - why is it required
that Gosset snuk in later and hand buried the
money at Tina Bar? Why the complication of a
story with unique symmetry to begin with?
Why would Janet see this event and nobody
else did and reported it?
Georger
Don't forget to add in the cloud cover that was suposed to be present during the time cooper jumped. I think its improbable of this report, or at least parts of it being true.
Don't forget to add in the cloud cover that was suposed to be present during the time cooper jumped. I think its improbable of this report, or at least parts of it being true.
georger 197
QuoteGeorger
Don't forget to add in the cloud cover that was suposed to be present during the time cooper jumped. I think its improbable of this report, or at least parts of it being true.
Years ago there was a report of someone seeing the plane go over their house, near Heison. I dont recall
the claim mentioning a platform or stairs extended.
The report did stress 'the engines were straining
and very loud' ... that reported was finally
discounted. Sluggo probably knows which report
Im referring to -
We need a term to describe these “Eyewitness Reports” that lie dormant for many years and then suddenly the “eyewitness” wants to tell everybody about it. It reminds me of the Roswell, NM eyewitnesses that crawled out of the woodwork 40-years post the (supposed) incident and then only after authors were publishing the results of their “research.”
So, unless someone objects, I will refer to this type of latent incident description as a “Roswell Account.”
My wife (Sugar), who isn’t a scientist, isn’t in Law Enforcement, doesn’t have a background in psychology, but is endowed with a shit-pot full of common sense made this statement yesterday when I was discussing Joe Kittinger: “Sometimes the worse witness, is an “eye witness”.”
All I could say, was: “How true, baby… how true.”
So I guess you can tell how I feel about Janet’s (and Galen’s) story.
Web Page
Blog
NORJAK Forum
So, unless someone objects, I will refer to this type of latent incident description as a “Roswell Account.”
My wife (Sugar), who isn’t a scientist, isn’t in Law Enforcement, doesn’t have a background in psychology, but is endowed with a shit-pot full of common sense made this statement yesterday when I was discussing Joe Kittinger: “Sometimes the worse witness, is an “eye witness”.”
All I could say, was: “How true, baby… how true.”
So I guess you can tell how I feel about Janet’s (and Galen’s) story.
Web Page
Blog
NORJAK Forum
377 21
Quote"What I saw was flames and thought I saw something on the platform which could have been a person," Janet said.
I say NO WAY on the accuracy Janet's alleged sighting of a "platform, ladder, person" or any other structural detail on the 727 that night.
The flare sighting however intrigues me and the arcing trajectory is exactly the path you would see. Most non aviation people would not describe such a trajectory unless then had seen it.
A couple of other details dont ring true. She MAILED the FBI? How about a phone call on something so urgent?
As for the MIB who allegedly visited her and told her to STFU, that sounds like baloney. I just dont see the FBI doing that, makes no sense. I've seen the FBI be really rude to arrestees and suspects, but they are usually very polite to witnesses even wacky ones. If they wanted to neutralize Janet the easier path would be to thank her for the info and say they are investigating the matter... PERIOD.
I have a lot of experience with eye witnesses in criminal cases. In my expereience they are notoriously unreliable with a few exceptions, but there is usually no way to spot those exceptions. Sometimes the most convincing witnesses are the ones with the least accurate account of what they saw and timid equivocal ones are sometimes highly accurate, but the convesrse is sometimes true so you can't predict by personality or presentation.
University research bears out my observations about the unreliability of eyewitness testimony.. What I noticed is that they fill in their "eyewitness" story with facts learned by the AFTER their initial observation.
377
2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.
georger 197
I have the same reservations for theQuoteI say NO WAY on the accuracy Janet's alleged sighting of a "platform, ladder, person" or any other structural detail on the 727 that night.
The flare sighting however intrigues me and the arcing trajectory is the path you would see. Most non aviation people would not describe such a trajectory unless then had seen it.
A couple of other details dont ring true. She MAILED the FBI? How about a phone call on something so urgent?
As for the MIB who allegedly visited her and told her to STFU, that sounds like baloney. I just dont see the FBI doing that, makes no sense. I've seen the FBI be really rude to arrestees and suspects, but they are usually very polite to witnesses even wacky ones. If they wanted to neutralize janet the easier path would be to thank her for the info and say they are invetsigating the matter... PERIOD.
377
same reasons and more, however I am not willing
to 'label' her claim as a "Roswell ...."? That's
reactive. Why not test the claim and wait until
more evidence is in?
She could have seen exactly what she says and be
a sole witness in spite of the odds.
I am waiting for more evidence.
I think I have been rather specific about the
questions I have.
The physics is clear. Janet's claim almost requires
that n467 was below 10k feet - the photo I posted
illustrates that point. But witnesses near Heison
also stated the plane was well below 10k feet.
This forum is full of people with firsthand
aviation experience and people with a good
general knowledge of physics et cetera. I would
tend to pay attention to that ...
what does disturb me a little is the altering of the original story I was given, from an oblique sighting
at some distance to now being something which occurred directly over Janet's house. That bother's me a little.
You bring up witness psychology. It is also true
that people witness things and just dont report
it. Events that later turn out to have been real
often wind up with witnesses surfacing late ...
and often very late. How many credible witnesses
to some piece of the Cooper case have never surfaced publically at all? Hundreds!
I am willing to wait a bit longer ...
[edit]: One part of the story that intrigues me
is the splitting off into two pieces. I have played
with flares too as a kid. I have seen a lot of flares
burning. I have never seen a flare split apart into
two burning pieces. Janet's account sounds like
two flares were dropped - appeared as one in the
beginning then separated as the flares drifted apart.
That intrigues me because it sounds like a willful
act on somebody's part. Would a trained jumper
drop two flares for a specific reason, as a part of
prior experience-training vs. just one flare?
Orange1 0
QuoteQuoteI say NO WAY on the accuracy Janet's alleged sighting of a "platform, ladder, person" or any other structural detail on the 727 that night.
The flare sighting however intrigues me and the arcing trajectory is the path you would see. Most non aviation people would not describe such a trajectory unless then had seen it.
Agree on both these counts - I doubt she could even have seen the steps during the day. The point you make about the flare trajectory is a good one though. So is it some part truth and some "filling in", or did she see something else entirely? (no idea what though)
reQuoteBut witnesses near Heison
also stated the plane was well below 10k feet.
G, forgive me if I have forgotten, but - who were these witnesses? Would they reliably be able to gauge the altitude of a plane?Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.
georger 197
[
G, forgive me if I have forgotten, but - who were these witnesses? Would they reliably be able to gauge the altitude of a plane?
G, forgive me if I have forgotten, but - who were these witnesses? Would they reliably be able to gauge the altitude of a plane?
The Heison report was in a newspaper clipping.
I know it has been mentioned in this thread (several
years ago). I will have to dig the clipping out. But
Sluggo should remember this and be able to
speak to it .........
*** I wish Janet would establish herself as an
Independent Witess. I am not criticising Galen
Cook or anyone else but I think Janet's credibility
rests with her story and herself, and there are
many credible reputable people of record who
would help Janet establish herself as an
independent witness ...
377 what do you think if you care to comment?
There are many credible, reliable, and honest
people here at Dropzone and at Portland-Vancouver who might help if Janet wanted help establishing herself as a witness ...
I just thought I would express the idea -
FACT VRS. MYTH:
The answer is: Yes. 2nd, 3rd, and 4th opinions ....
Palmer had associates who worked with him in
the project. This is common knowledge. There were outside advisors, consultants, and people who gave opinions based on their expertise .... as one
of these advisors put it to me: "Why! would anyone think it was otherwise? Sounds fishy to me, like somebody is trying to control the facts. It's common knowledge... this excavation wasn't some big secret ... there were plenty of reporters allowed
on the site after the money was found ... in all the
years I have been working on the Columbia this event fits into similar events which have been conducted here .... there were lots of people
involved."
Fact check: Jerry Thomas can confirm this interview occured -