mrshutter45 21 #46076 January 15, 2014 Robert99 ***I think now after all of this back and forth. we can confirm you are now stating a Conspiracy anyway you look at it. Perhaps Blevins is not aware that parachute riggers keep a log book of their own about the emergency parachutes they pack. If Cossey had the parachute serial number by itself, he could easily check his packing log books. Blevins also does not seem to be aware of the unusual construction features of the 26 foot conical canopy that was used in NB-6 parachutes that were in use in 1971. By sheer coincidence, I personally owned an NB-6 until about the first of November 1971. If a canopy of that era was presented to me today, I could tell in less than 10 seconds if it was a POSSIBLE 26 foot conical canopy from an NB-6. Only a casual glance would be necessary to exclude it. Blevins, do you know what was unusual about the construction of the 26 foot conical canopies that were used in NB-6s? Robert99 he just doesn't get it I guess. I put my flak jacket on. I think he is FORMING a surgical strike of logic due to hit this perimeter within the hour. I'll be up in my simulator watching from 30,000 "It is surprising how aggressive people get, once they latch onto their suspect and say, 'Hey, he's our guy.' No matter what you tell them, they refuse to believe you" Agent Carr FBI Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GreyCopGC148 0 #46077 January 15, 2014 skyjack71 ********* *** How Many PM's have I ever sent you - now be very careful - I save them all Jo' PS or Corrections to post I SUPPOSEDLY made - MatthewCline inserted something into my post I did NOT say! I have removed it as I would NOT want anyone to think I said that! Nice conspiracy, but I made my comments in bold if they happened to be in a post you made, that I quoted your entire posts. I don't expect your apology, but would accept it. Matt GO BACK AND LOOK AT THE POST I HAD TO REMOVE "YOUR STATEMENT" FROM! NO APOLOGY AT ALL - I KNOW WHAT YOU DID! IT WAS JUST THE FIRST ONE I CORRECTED!*** Chapter 18 page 4 the cover page 0. And page 6 all 4 And you got your story in the dream part*** Jo DB Cooper into the Funnel of Darkness the movie starring Nicolas Cage, Jennifer Anniston and Woody Harrellson... a Jerry Bruckheimer film Written by Paul Geivett Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skyjack71 0 #46078 January 15, 2014 Robert99***I think now after all of this back and forth. we can confirm you are now stating a Conspiracy anyway you look at it. Perhaps Blevins is not aware that parachute riggers keep a log book of their own about the emergency parachutes they pack. If Cossey had the parachute serial number by itself, he could easily check his packing log books. Blevins also does not seem to be aware of the unusual construction features of the 26 foot conical canopy that was used in NB-6 parachutes that were in use in 1971. By sheer coincidence, I personally owned an NB-6 until about the first of November 1971. If a canopy of that era was presented to me today, I could tell in less than 10 seconds if it was a POSSIBLE 26 foot conical canopy from an NB-6. Only a casual glance would be necessary to exclude it. Blevins, do you know what was unusual about the construction of the 26 foot conical canopies that were used in NB-6s? Robert99 Explain something to me. If the 2 chutes packed for Hayden by Cossey were IDENTICAL other than the container - why has Cossey gone on record stating one was a 28 ft and the other a 26 ft ? Or was Cossey talking about the 2 chutes he sent over which I understand did NOT make it to the skyjacker or the plane. Another question - if Hayden owned the 2 chutes provided to the Skyjacker - WHY has it been publized Cossey provided the chutes? This is very confusing! Bare in mind WE are NOT discussing the 2 front pacs from Issaqua - they are out of the picture at least for this line of questioning. I need clarification on this. Also - Why would Cossey pack one of Hayden's chutes with a left hand pull unless Hayden requested it. NOW does anyone understand why the CHUTE thing is confusing? Does anyone find any of the above confusing - I do. This information seems to contradict Cossey completely. I believe I need to find all of my old information that Cossey himself sent to me. It would be on disks or in hard copies - and the things I had on the computer - between 2000 and 2004 - I lost everything on my first computer, but I did print ALL of the important ones out as I was going - I did NOT understand BACK-up...but,after 2004 - I learned to understand BACK-UP! BLEVINS STAY OUT OF THIS DISCUSSION - I WANT TO KNOW WHAT GEORGER AND THE OTHERS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS INFORMATION. I BELIEVE THE SOURCES I HAVE - BUT PERHAPS I AM NOT COMPREHENDING THE INFORMATION CORRECTLY. I JUST WANT THE CHUTE THING LAID OUT FACTUALLY FOR THE THREAD. NO MYTH MAKERS, PLEASE. I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE CONFUSED BY ALL OF THE SENARIOS LAID OUT IN THE THREAD. FACTS AND ONLY FACTS. I believe once this is settled then the thread can go forward and others like myself will shut up. . Perhaps it is just JO that gets it all wrong and I am willing to accept that...but, I want is for the thread to do lay this out concisely and move on then to the front pacs - but leave them out until the main chutes have provided for concisely and information supported by the FBI - not writers of books or news articles.Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GreyCopGC148 0 #46079 January 15, 2014 skyjack71******I think now after all of this back and forth. we can confirm you are now stating a Conspiracy anyway you look at it. Perhaps Blevins is not aware that parachute riggers keep a log book of their own about the emergency parachutes they pack. If Cossey had the parachute serial number by itself, he could easily check his packing log books. Blevins also does not seem to be aware of the unusual construction features of the 26 foot conical canopy that was used in NB-6 parachutes that were in use in 1971. By sheer coincidence, I personally owned an NB-6 until about the first of November 1971. If a canopy of that era was presented to me today, I could tell in less than 10 seconds if it was a POSSIBLE 26 foot conical canopy from an NB-6. Only a casual glance would be necessary to exclude it. Blevins, do you know what was unusual about the construction of the 26 foot conical canopies that were used in NB-6s? Robert99 Explain something to me. If the 2 chutes packed for Hayden by Cossey were IDENTICAL other than the container - why has Cossey gone on record stating one was a 28 ft and the other a 26 ft ? Or was Cossey talking about the 2 chutes he sent over which I understand did NOT make it to the skyjacker. Another question - if Hayden owned the 2 chutes provided to the Skyjacker - WHY has it been publicized Cossey provided the chutes? This is very confusing! Bare in mind WE are NOT discussing the 2 front pacs from Issaqua - they are out of the picture at least for this line of questioning. I need clarification on this. Also - Why would Cossey pack Hayden's chute with a left hand pull unless Hayden requested it. NOW does anyone understand why the CHUTE thing is confusing?Quote Yougot it all from HA HA HA. Jo DB Cooper into the Funnel of Darkness the movie starring Nicolas Cage, Jennifer Anniston and Woody Harrellson... a Jerry Bruckheimer film Written by Paul Geivett Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
georger 197 #46080 January 15, 2014 mrshutter45 what do you jumpers think about Roberts evaluation of Cossey? "It will take me a while sort all of this out. But I will tell you one thing right now. I don't believe Cossey ever had the capability, the proper information, or the knowledge to identify the chute...mainly because his claim of ownership is bogus. It's no surprise that he looked at it for only a few seconds and then wrote it off with a flimsy silk-not-nylon story." Cossey has been in the biz how long? There have been numerous photos of the parachute published. It continues to amaze me that all the experienced skydivers can't apparently just look at the chute, its loft, color, etc and hazard a guess whether its silk or nylon. Is silk really that difficult to distinguish from nylon in parachutes? Aamazed... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GreyCopGC148 0 #46081 January 15, 2014 georger ***what do you jumpers think about Roberts evaluation of Cossey? "It will take me a while sort all of this out. But I will tell you one thing right now. I don't believe Cossey ever had the capability, the proper information, or the knowledge to identify the chute...mainly because his claim of ownership is bogus. It's no surprise that he looked at it for only a few seconds and then wrote it off with a flimsy silk-not-nylon story." Cossey has been in the biz how long? There have been numerous photos of the parachute published. It continues to amaze me that all the experienced skydivers can't apparently just look at the chute, its loft, color, etc and hazard a guess whether its silk or nylon. Is silk really that difficult to distinguish from nylon in parachutes? Aamazed... [/quote *** I have silk sheets on my bed DB Cooper into the Funnel of Darkness the movie starring Nicolas Cage, Jennifer Anniston and Woody Harrellson... a Jerry Bruckheimer film Written by Paul Geivett Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
georger 197 #46082 January 15, 2014 RobertMBlevins ***carry on.... To quote a 60's reference, that's a cop-out. Here's what I say: You want to buy this whole scenario about the chute, the Seattle FBI, and Cossey? No problem. Meanwhile, can I interest you in some beachfront property in Kansas? Cheap, good rates. Hey Bob. People spoke with Bill Mitchell today. Your name came up. Mitchell apparently said: ""who's Robert Blevins?" I never received any email from this Blevins. Interviewed? Not me!" Mister Blevins. Would you care to revise your previous claims to having interviewed Bill Mitchell, and Mitchell said this, and Mitchell said that (to YOU!) .... Huh? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
georger 197 #46083 January 15, 2014 Robert99***I think now after all of this back and forth. we can confirm you are now stating a Conspiracy anyway you look at it. Perhaps Blevins is not aware that parachute riggers keep a log book of their own about the emergency parachutes they pack. If Cossey had the parachute serial number by itself, he could easily check his packing log books. Blevins also does not seem to be aware of the unusual construction features of the 26 foot conical canopy that was used in NB-6 parachutes that were in use in 1971. By sheer coincidence, I personally owned an NB-6 until about the first of November 1971. If a canopy of that era was presented to me today, I could tell in less than 10 seconds if it was a POSSIBLE 26 foot conical canopy from an NB-6. Only a casual glance would be necessary to exclude it. Blevins, do you know what was unusual about the construction of the 26 foot conical canopies that were used in NB-6s? Robert99 R99... how easy would it be to distinguish silk from nylon, just by looking at it? Would you have to feel it? Use a lens? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
georger 197 #46084 January 15, 2014 smokin99 I also read every article I could find about the chute and Blevins is either confused, misleading, or misreading. The FBI clearly says that Cossey was not the only expert. They have NEVER said that no one else was allowed to examine it - that is something that Blevins made up - see sentence above. They also reported to have based their conclusions on other evidence besides visual examination. No they didn't tell the general public what this was - just like they are not telling everything about other investigations. Blevins is unable to prove a negative so he streams a lot of articles together and is misleading on some of them because the time of the actual article might have nil to do with the actual timeframe that it occurred. Ego-stroking statements by a man (Cossey) who, just like the co-pilot, seems to have gained a greater role in the saga over the years with each re-telling, should not be confusing this issue. The scenario that Cossey is trying to save face or his reputation on a case that he would still be giving interviews about if alive is laughable. How clearly do I have to say that other than us diehards - and maybe a couple of hundred/thousand people with a little more than a passing interest in the case - and the occasional whatever happened to db cooper news report, no one else gives a damn. It's a fact that whether he owned the chutes or not, from all reports he was the packer and would still be the guy all the reporters call had he not been killed in his garage. It's silly to imagine otherwise. Blevins might need to keep digging for articles because this is not the first parachute that has ever been found in that area, and more than that, this is not the first buried parachute that has been found in the jump area and reported to having possibly belonged to Cooper. But reporting on the whole story is way too unbiased for some Cooper addicts. They'd much rather have you think that they are the smartest people in the room. And finally a bit of non-Cooper logic....From a comment by commenter Dick Thurston on an article at Bruce Smith's site - Mountain News: http://themountainnewswa.net/2012/05/14/the-hunt-for-db-cooper-looking-for-the-amboy-chute/#comments "Bruce, I worked at McChord AFB for over 20 years. One of my jobs was checking out reports of old plane crashes. I can tell you that finding an old parachute almost anywhere in Washington state means very little. the 62 MAW which is stationed at McChord has conducted cargo and personnel parachute drops all over the Pacfific Northwest for 50 years. It is not at all unusual to have a cargo chute separate from its cargo and drift for miles in an unexpected direction. And reports of old crashes are often inaccurate. I have investigated wreckage sightings and found aircraft several miles from their map positions. And when you factor in the number of skydiving clubs in the area, I am surprised that you can walk a mile in any rural area without tripping over an old parachute." great post! as usual ... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GreyCopGC148 0 #46085 January 15, 2014 Quote georger ******carry on.... To quote a 60's reference, that's a cop-out. Here's what I say: You want to buy this whole scenario about the chute, the Seattle FBI, and Cossey? No problem. Meanwhile, can I interest you in some beachfront property in Kansas? Cheap, good rates. Hey Bob. People spoke with Bill Mitchell today. Your name came up. Mitchell apparently said: ""who's Robert Blevins?" I never received any email from this Blevins. Interviewed? Not me!" Mister Blevins. Would you care to revise your previous claims to having interviewed Bill Mitchell, and Mitchell said this, and Mitchell said that (to YOU!) .... Huh? Quote I tryed to call him with no luck at all I think I got him once but he stated it was some other guy with the same name . Out of reaspect I left it at that GC 148 DB Cooper into the Funnel of Darkness the movie starring Nicolas Cage, Jennifer Anniston and Woody Harrellson... a Jerry Bruckheimer film Written by Paul Geivett Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GreyCopGC148 0 #46086 January 15, 2014 GreyCopGC148 Quote georger ******carry on.... To quote a 60's reference, that's a cop-out. Here's what I say: You want to buy this whole scenario about the chute, the Seattle FBI, and Cossey? No problem. Meanwhile, can I interest you in some beachfront property in Kansas? Cheap, good rates. Hey Bob. People spoke with Bill Mitchell today. Your name came up. Mitchell apparently said: ""who's Robert Blevins?" I never received any email from this Blevins. Interviewed? Not me!" Mister Blevins. Would you care to revise your previous claims to having interviewed Bill Mitchell, and Mitchell said this, and Mitchell said that (to YOU!) .... Huh? Quote I tryed to call him with no luck at all I think I got him once but he stated it was some other guy with the same name . Out of reaspect I left it at that GC 148 Quote If you read Ha Ha Ha by DB Cooper you will see JOs story from the dream part not the real part DB Cooper into the Funnel of Darkness the movie starring Nicolas Cage, Jennifer Anniston and Woody Harrellson... a Jerry Bruckheimer film Written by Paul Geivett Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GreyCopGC148 0 #46087 January 15, 2014 GreyCopGC148 *** Quote georger ******carry on.... To quote a 60's reference, that's a cop-out. Here's what I say: You want to buy this whole scenario about the chute, the Seattle FBI, and Cossey? No problem. Meanwhile, can I interest you in some beachfront property in Kansas? Cheap, good rates. Hey Bob. People spoke with Bill Mitchell today. Your name came up. Mitchell apparently said: ""who's Robert Blevins?" I never received any email from this Blevins. Interviewed? Not me!" Mister Blevins. Would you care to revise your previous claims to having interviewed Bill Mitchell, and Mitchell said this, and Mitchell said that (to YOU!) .... Huh? Quote I tryed to call him with no luck at all I think I got him once but he stated it was some other guy with the same name . Out of reaspect I left it at that GC 148 Quote If you read Ha Ha Ha by DB Cooper you will see JOs story from the dream part not the real part*** You dont now about the orange one DB Cooper into the Funnel of Darkness the movie starring Nicolas Cage, Jennifer Anniston and Woody Harrellson... a Jerry Bruckheimer film Written by Paul Geivett Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Robert99 37 #46088 January 15, 2014 georger******I think now after all of this back and forth. we can confirm you are now stating a Conspiracy anyway you look at it. Perhaps Blevins is not aware that parachute riggers keep a log book of their own about the emergency parachutes they pack. If Cossey had the parachute serial number by itself, he could easily check his packing log books. Blevins also does not seem to be aware of the unusual construction features of the 26 foot conical canopy that was used in NB-6 parachutes that were in use in 1971. By sheer coincidence, I personally owned an NB-6 until about the first of November 1971. If a canopy of that era was presented to me today, I could tell in less than 10 seconds if it was a POSSIBLE 26 foot conical canopy from an NB-6. Only a casual glance would be necessary to exclude it. Blevins, do you know what was unusual about the construction of the 26 foot conical canopies that were used in NB-6s? Robert99 R99... how easy would it be to distinguish silk from nylon, just by looking at it? Would you have to feel it? Use a lens? Georger, if it was silk versus ripstop nylon it would be evident by a single glance. Ripstop fabric has its own unique pattern characteristics. I personally can't state that plain nylon was ever used in parachutes. At one point in my very early days, I bought (for about 5 bucks) a 25+ year old retired seat pack just to practice ground handling of the thing in winds. The canopy was definitely not ripstop nylon and was probably silk since the parachute probably predated WW2. But I can't state for certain that I would be able to tell the difference between plain nylon and silk, even using my white silk scarf to help. Robert99 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mrshutter45 21 #46089 January 15, 2014 you never answered Georger's question about you Db Cooper thingy in August? you could put the word out to the public about your conspiracy theory?"It is surprising how aggressive people get, once they latch onto their suspect and say, 'Hey, he's our guy.' No matter what you tell them, they refuse to believe you" Agent Carr FBI Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
georger 197 #46090 January 15, 2014 Robert99 *********I think now after all of this back and forth. we can confirm you are now stating a Conspiracy anyway you look at it. Perhaps Blevins is not aware that parachute riggers keep a log book of their own about the emergency parachutes they pack. If Cossey had the parachute serial number by itself, he could easily check his packing log books. Blevins also does not seem to be aware of the unusual construction features of the 26 foot conical canopy that was used in NB-6 parachutes that were in use in 1971. By sheer coincidence, I personally owned an NB-6 until about the first of November 1971. If a canopy of that era was presented to me today, I could tell in less than 10 seconds if it was a POSSIBLE 26 foot conical canopy from an NB-6. Only a casual glance would be necessary to exclude it. Blevins, do you know what was unusual about the construction of the 26 foot conical canopies that were used in NB-6s? Robert99 R99... how easy would it be to distinguish silk from nylon, just by looking at it? Would you have to feel it? Use a lens? Georger, if it was silk versus ripstop nylon it would be evident by a single glance. Ripstop fabric has its own unique pattern characteristics. I personally can't state that plain nylon was ever used in parachutes. At one point in my very early days, I bought (for about 5 bucks) a 25+ year old retired seat pack just to practice ground handling of the thing in winds. The canopy was definitely not ripstop nylon and was probably silk since the parachute probably predated WW2. But I can't state for certain that I would be able to tell the difference between plain nylon and silk, even using my white silk scarf to help. Robert99 Stupid question: were silk and nylon ever mixed? Are there inherent differences in the engineering of silk vs nylon chutes, and silk vs nylon construction differences? Differences in how they are sown? One stronger than the other that results in construction differences? One uses one kind and weight of cords versus the other ??? Differences easily detectable you dont need a phD for! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Robert99 37 #46091 January 15, 2014 skyjack71 Explain something to me. If the 2 chutes packed for Hayden by Cossey were IDENTICAL other than the container - why has Cossey gone on record stating one was a 28 ft and the other a 26 ft ? Or was Cossey talking about the 2 chutes he sent over which I understand did NOT make it to the skyjacker or the plane. Another question - if Hayden owned the 2 chutes provided to the Skyjacker - WHY has it been publized Cossey provided the chutes? This is very confusing! Bare in mind WE are NOT discussing the 2 front pacs from Issaqua - they are out of the picture at least for this line of questioning. I need clarification on this. Also - Why would Cossey pack Hayden's chute with a left hand pull unless Hayden requested it. NOW does anyone understand why the CHUTE thing is confusing? Does anyone find any of the above confusing - I do. This information was recent sent to me, but for DUMB OLE WOMAN - is seems to contradict Cossey completely. I believe I need to find all of my old information that Cossey himself sent to me. It would be on disks or in hard copies - and the things I had on the computer - between 2000 and 2004 - I lost everything on my first computer, but I did print ALL of the important ones out as I was going - I did NOT understand BACK-up...but,after 2004 - I learned to understand BACK-UP! Jo, You need to mend some fences with Bruce Smith. He is the thread's expert on the subject of the hijacking parachutes. Surely you remember that he posted some lengthy articles with pictures of those parachutes some time back. I have no idea what Cossey would say about the parachutes, assuming he said anything in the first place. On the matter of the left-hand pull, Cossey would not make that change unless requested by Hayden, or whoever owned the parachute. And for an emergency parachute, the only reason for a left-hand pull is that the owner and normal wearer of the parachute is left handed. While I have seen skydivers with right-hand pull ripcords mounted on the right side of the body, that has now apparently gone the way of ripcords in general with respect to serious skydivers. Robert99 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
georger 197 #46092 January 15, 2014 smokin99 I also read every article I could find about the chute and Blevins is either confused, misleading, or misreading. The FBI clearly says that Cossey was not the only expert. They have NEVER said that no one else was allowed to examine it - that is something that Blevins made up - see sentence above. They also reported to have based their conclusions on other evidence besides visual examination. No they didn't tell the general public what this was - just like they are not telling everything about other investigations. Blevins is unable to prove a negative so he streams a lot of articles together and is misleading on some of them because the time of the actual article might have nil to do with the actual timeframe that it occurred. Ego-stroking statements by a man (Cossey) who, just like the co-pilot, seems to have gained a greater role in the saga over the years with each re-telling, should not be confusing this issue. The scenario that Cossey is trying to save face or his reputation on a case that he would still be giving interviews about if alive is laughable. How clearly do I have to say that other than us diehards - and maybe a couple of hundred/thousand people with a little more than a passing interest in the case - and the occasional whatever happened to db cooper news report, no one else gives a damn. It's a fact that whether he owned the chutes or not, from all reports he was the packer and would still be the guy all the reporters call had he not been killed in his garage. It's silly to imagine otherwise. Blevins might need to keep digging for articles because this is not the first parachute that has ever been found in that area, and more than that, this is not the first buried parachute that has been found in the jump area and reported to having possibly belonged to Cooper. But reporting on the whole story is way too unbiased for some Cooper addicts. They'd much rather have you think that they are the smartest people in the room. And finally a bit of non-Cooper logic....From a comment by commenter Dick Thurston on an article at Bruce Smith's site - Mountain News: http://themountainnewswa.net/2012/05/14/the-hunt-for-db-cooper-looking-for-the-amboy-chute/#comments "Bruce, I worked at McChord AFB for over 20 years. One of my jobs was checking out reports of old plane crashes. I can tell you that finding an old parachute almost anywhere in Washington state means very little. the 62 MAW which is stationed at McChord has conducted cargo and personnel parachute drops all over the Pacfific Northwest for 50 years. It is not at all unusual to have a cargo chute separate from its cargo and drift for miles in an unexpected direction. And reports of old crashes are often inaccurate. I have investigated wreckage sightings and found aircraft several miles from their map positions. And when you factor in the number of skydiving clubs in the area, I am surprised that you can walk a mile in any rural area without tripping over an old parachute." Early in this thread Snowmman asked about Cossey's competence. So far as I recall nobody has ever brought anything to light which 'impeached' Cossey's knowledge and competence working with (rigging, identifying, etc) people's parachutes? This versus Hayden and others ... who do not have the same 'certified' level of competence. I am sure Guru and others could speak to this issue.... If you were the FBI who would you go to for professional advice about the chutes supplied to Cooper which Cossey had had hands-on personal/professional experience. ??? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skyjack71 0 #46093 January 15, 2014 Jo Stated: Quote NOW does anyone understand why the CHUTE thing is confusing? Grey Cop Stated: QuoteYougot it all from HA HA HA. Jo ONE REQUEST GREY COP - SIT THIS ONE OUT! I AM TRYING TO DO GET EVERY ONE TO AGREE ON ONE THING... BY the way I found all of my notes and logs from 1996 - BEFORE I ever heard or read the book in question. The Cooper stuff is by hand and in the logs (I kept records in my planner) the one I used for work. The first 2 yrs I kept 2 spiral note books - they are worn and tattered. THose planners and spiral note books pretty much lays everything in the open. My phone conversations with the ex's & other people who knew Duane - the threath made by Tommy is there and my search for the old friends - my disappointments and the oh HA moments. Phone numbers - my communication with Petersen - yes way back then. The phone records - I spoke with Richard Peterson 3 times. I only remembered 2 discussion so the 3 connection was probably an anwering machine and my leaving a message. My calls to Himmelsbach are also there along with my calls to heaven only knows who.Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Robert99 37 #46094 January 15, 2014 RobertMBlevinsRobert99 says in part: Quote'Georger, if it was silk versus ripstop nylon it would be evident by a single glance. Ripstop fabric has its own unique pattern characteristics. I personally can't state that plain nylon was ever used in parachutes. At one point in my very early days, I bought (for about 5 bucks) a 25+ year old retired seat pack just to practice ground handling of the thing in winds. The canopy was definitely not ripstop nylon and was probably silk since the parachute probably predated WW2. But I can't state for certain that I would be able to tell the difference between plain nylon and silk, even using my white silk scarf to help...' Excuse me, but HOW exactly do you know it's silk? Have you seen it outside of pictures? Have you examined it? You don't know, and can't say. You say 'definitely not ripstop nylon'. Really? How did you come to that idea? You might be able to tell by looking for those little squares in blow-ups of the pictures...maybe. Then it would probably be made of ripstop nylon. It does not 'predate' WW2, either. Geez...did you even look at the DOM, which was released by the FBI? It's postwar, just barely. 377 has examined the pictures and says you can't tell a lot from them. And his experience with chutes is quite a bit more than yours. Here's a test for you, should you be allowed to examine it: Bring a Bic lighter. Or look for signs of rot. Silk, unlike nylon, is biodegradable. Blevins, I would suggest that you actually read my remarks that you quote above since they already answer your questions. To repeat, ripstop nylon had a special pattern in the fabric that was designed to - wait for it - stop rips. This pattern was plainly visible to the naked eye. I don't remember the exact history of nylon, but it was developed and manufactured (by Dupont?) and only came into widespread use during WW2. As I stated above, I don't know if plain nylon was ever used in parachute canopies. But ripstop nylon was definitely used but I don't know offhand the date it was introduced. So what fabric was used for parachute canopies pre-WW2? Does the name "Caterpillar Club", which required an emergency parachute jump for membership, suggest the fabric? Have you heard of the phrase "hit the silk"? Actually, prior to WW2 the Silkworms of America unionized and managed to snag major contracts with parachute manufacturers and underwear manufacturers. The result is history. This means that silk was almost exclusively used in the canopies of emergency parachutes. On the Bic lighter, I don't smoke. And I'll bet my experience with parachutes is quite a bit more than yours if you want to argue about. Robert99 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BruceSmith 3 #46095 January 15, 2014 Quote"...Jo, You need to mend some fences with Bruce Smith. He is the thread's expert on the subject of the hijacking parachutes. Surely you remember that he posted some lengthy articles with pictures of those parachutes some time back. I have no idea what Cossey would say about the parachutes, assuming he said anything in the first place..." Reply If we wait for Mrs Cooper to mend fences with anyone it might take another 42 years for us to get anywhere. So, let's move on. The on-going converation here has sharpened my focus on the subject and inspirred me to do another round of editing on the book, especially the chapters on the parachutes and Cossey. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BruceSmith 3 #46096 January 15, 2014 Chapter 6 The investigation begins: an analysis of the parchutes and the jump When DB Cooper hijacked his airplane it was considered bold and inventive, and he is still revered by many for “beating the system.” Besides being a cultural hero, many considered Cooper an astute and savvy criminal. Initially, some FBI agents openly shared their respect. Specifically, Cooper was viewed as a skilled parachutist, and the FBI extensively investigated the skydiving community. Recently released records and interviews with agents reveal that in the days immediately after the skyjacking the Bureau intensely interviewed commandos returning from Vietnam and closely examined the files of professional skydivers. Yet over time, and especially in the current era, the FBI has characterized Cooper as a bumbling fool who died in his jump. However, no concrete evidence exists to support that notion. The historical arc of the FBI’s investigation truly cuts a broad swath across the decades, and the variance may reflect the political pressures upon the FBI as much as it does any forensic analysis. Simply, the FBI’s current view may be a bureaucratic spin job concocted by an image-conscious agency. In the early days however, and certainly in the weeks just after the skyjacking, the FBI considered DB Cooper a master criminal, as did Walter Cronkite in his broadcasts following the skyjacking. To whit: the Cooper case agent in the Portland FBI office, Ralph Himmelsbach, readily acknowledges in NORJAK that the skyjacking was well-planned and executed. As mentioned previously, Cooper also impressed the pilots, as the skyjacker’s knowledge of the 727 surpassed their own. In addition, Himmelsbach has characterized Cooper’s bomb as a game changer. Cooper’s choice of weapon was also considered to be an improvement from an earlier skyjacking attempt two weeks prior in Montana, when a young man named Paul Cini attempted a skyjacking similar to Cooper’s and carried a gun. But Cini was overcome by airline personnel rushing him from different directions as he donned his parachute and dropped his weapon. One of the odd myths of Norjak is that DB Cooper is widely credited with initiating the idea of stealing an airplane for money and parachuting away to freedom – yet, he wasn’t the first to implement the idea. Paul Cini was. This begs the question if Cini and “Dan Cooper” had a relationship that fostered the development of such an unprecedented plan. Remember, at the time of the skyjacking diving out of the 727 was a classified secret and only known to a handful of Boeing officials and military personnel. The mainstream parachuting community had no idea that the jump was possible and the average sky diver had no knowledge whatsoever of the particular metrics the plane would have to fly in order to be successful. Cooper did though, and Cini may have, even if he hijacked a DC-8 that doesn’t have an aft stair system and only a rear escape hatch. Nevertheless, the essential question remains – how did they know it was possible and how did Cooper, at least, know the configuration for successfully slowing the plane? We’ll certainly explore those dynamics in later pages on the subject of a group effort and copy-cats. In the meantime, here’s how the investigation developed in the weeks and months after the skyjacking. Himmelsbach says that DB Cooper had the upper-hand in the early stages of the skyjacking and specifically acknowledges that Cooper’s bomb was a tactical upgrade from Cini’s shotgun. Further, Cooper’s hijacking plan was comprehensive and his execution was near-perfect. In the air, his control of the cabin was complete – he had little direct contact with the cockpit, recalled his note from Flo, and moved the passengers forward in the craft. These actions reduced the chance of being identified. Additionally, by closing the window shades and hiding in the lavatory when the passengers disembarked he had minimal exposure to sniper fire while on the ground. For the first few years, Cooper’s getaway by parachute was considered daring but not impossible, a perspective supported by the fact that at least four DB Cooper-esque skyjackers – the so-called “copy cats” - successfully parachuted with their loot in the year following the Cooper jump. In fact, many in the FBI considered that one of the imitators, Richard McCoy, the skyjacker who took $500,000 with him into the skies over Provo, Utah was actually Cooper doing a second and more lucrative skyjacking. Russ Calame, the FBI agent who captured Richard McCoy in April 1972, is still convinced that his man was DB Cooper. In fact, Calame told me in 2008 that many in the FBI held the same opinion, including the Cooper case agent in Seattle, Charlie Farrell. However, the current thinking in Seattle is that Mc Coy was not Cooper, but there are circumstantial links between these skyjackers that we will explore in the discussion of possible accomplices. Nevertheless, the FBI’s initial assessment of Cooper’s abilities shifted during the 1970s, particularly as the Bureau was unable to crack the case or even retrieve a single piece of hard evidence. Remember, prior to the money find in February 1980 the Bureau had nothing definitively from the Cooper hijacking. They also had little compelling soft evidence, such as family members coming forward saying they had a missing husband or brother who had suddenly vanished over the Thanksgiving Day weekend in 1971 and who looked like DB Cooper. Nonetheless, there were many leads that arrived, most of them linked to romantic quarrels and revenge, and most were considered bogus. Nevertheless, the Bureau invested huge amounts of time into digging through the pile of accusations, and at last count the Bureau has investigated over 1,100 suspects in the DB Cooper case. In addition, certain aspects of the case continue to perplex investigators: 1. If DB Cooper survived the jump how did he get away once he landed? And, 2. How did Cooper get to Portland Airport in the first place? Investigators have failed to produce any concrete evidence on these issues. Another troubling aspect is the question: what happened to all of DB Cooper’s stuff? Presumably, Cooper went out the door with everything not found inside the aircraft at Reno – the parachute he wore, the reserve chute with the “X” sown onto it, the briefcase and bomb, the paper sack, and the Seattle First National bank bag with the $200,000. By the late 1970s, the FBI strongly felt that Cooper had died in the jump and had taken all his gear with him, either by landing in a lake and drowning, or “cratering” into a remote hillside after spinning out of control due to hypothermia, extreme wind turbulence or some chute malfunction, such as a balky rip cord. The money find in 1980 only reinforced the notion that Cooper did not live to spend his money, as the Bureau speculated that the money became separated from Cooper either in the air or upon impact, and it floated its way down the Columbia for eight years before appearing at Tina Bar, four miles downstream from Vancouver, Washington. Variations of this theme are profuse, with numerous speculations on what body of water or remote mountain peak DB Cooper impacted, and they still dominate FBI thinking to this day. Key to interpreting these possibilities are the four parachutes the FBI delivered to DB Cooper and which ones he used. We’ll discuss the flight path and where Cooper may have jumped in a forthcoming chapter, but for now let’s focus on the parachutes. Analysis of the parachutes used by DB Cooper: Was DB Cooper an expert sky diver or was he a “whuffo,” as the skydiving community calls an inexperienced wannabe. In the current era the view from the FBI, notably championed by Larry Carr, is that Cooper had some amount of parachuting knowledge but was not an expert, such as held by someone who was a “cargo kicker” in the skies over Vietnam. Such a fellow would be wearing an emergency parachute as he shoved supplies out the rear of a cargo plane to troops on the ground, but he would never actually deploy his own chute. The notion that Cooper wasn’t very skilled is held as proof that he died in his jump, and conversely, the belief that the skyjacker was an expert is used to foster the idea that he survived. Additionally, the fact that a lot of stuff apparently went out the door is perplexing. Did Cooper fashion a hugely long and unwieldy kite tail of gear to take all of his evidence with him? How aerodynamic could that have been? Or did he toss his gear out the door, piece-meal, and have guys on the ground pick it up with high-tech detection equipment? Or is it still out in the woods somewhere and no one has ever found a stitch, despite the thousands of thrill-seekers and fortune hunters who have scoured the woods for a free twenty and souvenirs? Ironically, the same set of facts is used to promote both sides of the argument – the difference is how to evaluate the data. Since nothing has been found many feel that DB Cooper must have survived the jump, walking away with his gear and money. The alternative is also offered as proof that he died - that all of Cooper’s stuff buried itself with his body without a trace, but I find that hypothesis truly hard to accept. Except for one possibility - that Cooper and all of his gear plummeted into a big body of water, such as Merwin Lake, and everything sank to the bottom. But there is no evidence to support that possibility despite the extensive examination of the lake bottom by a private investigator in a pint-sized submarine, and Himmelsbach writes that this intrepid explorer found nothing linked to the skyjacking. Similarly, investigator Richard Tosaw combed the Columbia River bottom near Tina Bar for years without discovering anything directly tied to Norjak. Larry Carr’s Propeller Theory is a related theory, and it posits that Cooper and all of his stuff landed in the Lewis River near Ariel, and the skyjacker drowned due to frigid conditions. Cooper and his bundle then flowed down to the Columbia River and became snagged on the propeller of a freighter heading to Portland, fifteen miles upstream. Then finally, at Tina Bar the prop cut Cooper and his parachutes loose, chewed up the money bag, and some of the twenties floated onto the beach. Cooper’s body and the un-recovered stuff then floated out to sea. Nevertheless, Larry didn’t provide a stitch of evidence to support this hypothesis before he went public with it on National Geographic cable TV. Afterwards, he was widely ridiculed. So, let’s look more closely at the jump and the parachutes to learn more about DB Cooper. The skyjacker’s ransom deal with the FBI included “two back chutes and two front chutes,” meaning that Cooper demanded two main parachutes worn on one’s back, and two smaller reserve parachutes worn on the front. A reserve parachute typically lies atop a skydiver’s abdomen and is secured by metal “D” clips to the harness of the main chute. The first to arrive were two main, “back” chutes, either by taxi or private car depending on whose version of the Norjak narrative one believes – Norman Hayden and the official FBI documents, or Earl Cossey and his many ad hoc pronouncements. The two reserve “front” parachutes were the last to arrive at Sea-Tac airport in Seattle, Washington and when they did Cooper allowed his plane to land. As for the reserves, they came from the Issaquah Sky Sports skydiving facility, located about 25 miles east of Seattle, and were brought to Sea-Tac by troopers from the Washington State Patrol (WSP). Ironically, it is now known that one of the reserves was a dud – a “dummy” chute used in indoor training exercises - and its panels were sown shut, thus making it inoperable. This chute had a white “X” sown onto it and inexplicably was given to the WSP, who delivered it to the officials at Sea-Tac. Subsequently, Tina carried the chute on board 305 but it was not found on the plane in Reno, so presumably it went out the door with Cooper. As for the second reserve chute, the “good one,” Cooper opened it long before he jumped, cutting the shroud lines to use as rope. Tina Mucklow was reportedly on her way to the cockpit when she saw Cooper cinch his money bag with the cords and secure it around his waist, and that’s the last eye-witness account we have of Cooper’s actions. Also, despite Cooper’s request for “D” rings to attach the reserve chutes to the mains none were provided, rendering the front chutes nearly impossible to use. Conceivably, Cooper could have tied a front chute to the rear harness with rope somehow, but whether he did is unknown. Further, even Cooper’s choice of words, asking for “front” chutes instead of the proper skydiving term, “reserves,” and similarly calling his mains, “back” chutes, is offered by some to prove Cooper was a whuffo, whereas others say he was just a smart hijacker who knew to use common parlance so that his demands wouldn’t get screwed up in the transfer of messages from flight crew-to-cockpit-to-FBI-to-the sky diving supply house. However, the exact type of back chutes delivered and their capacities is not known definitively and is a source of enormous controversy. As of this writing everything about the two back chutes seems to be in question: what kind of parachutes they were, who owned them, and how they arrived at Sea-Tac. In particular, the whole issue has been thrown wide-open by revelations in Gray’s Skyjack Until the release of Gray’s book in August, 2011, the Common Understanding – long cited by FBI officials, journalists, and arm-chair sleuths – had been that Earl J. Cossey, a Woodinville, Washington skydiving rigger, owned the two main chutes and had them delivered to the FBI via a taxi cab and private car. Cossey, who prefers to be called “Coss,” told me in 2009 that Northwest Orient officials contacted him at home for two back chutes, and he has long claimed that he provided a Navy pilot’s emergency rig known as an NB-8, and a civilian sport chute called a Pioneer. But Gray states that the two back parachutes were owned by a Kent, Washington businessman named Norman George Hayden, and that Coss only inspected and packed the parachutes for Mr. Hayden. Gray cites a FBI document that specifically identifies Hayden as the owner of the back parachutes, but states that one was a military Pioneer with a 26-foot conical canopy and the other was a 28-foot military-type chute. Hayden refutes both claims. Although at quick glance this seems to be only a minor glitch in federal record-keeping, the variance leads to important questions about the nature of the FBI’s investigation, namely, how could they get it wrong for so long. More troubling, Hayden loudly disputes the FBI’s claims about the exact nature of the chutes he provided and offers his “not-used” chute as proof, which was returned to him by the FBI in the 1980s. Finally, the dispute calls into question the veracity of Cossey and casts doubt on his contributions to the federal investigation. It further casts a pall over the credibility of the FBI for relying on Cossey, especially their use of his analysis of Cooper to shape their perspective on important issues, such as, did Cooper survive? Specifically, Cossey consulted frequently with FBI officials on Cooper parachute issues, and was placed into the public domain as the Bureau’s spokesperson on parachuting questions, such as the Amboy chute find in 2009, which many thought might be Cooper’s getaway chute. At the very least, Coss’s assessment of DB Cooper’s skills based on his evaluation of the parachute chosen seems to have colored the FBI’s thinking on Cooper’s abilities. Cooper case agent Larry Carr has long extolled the idea that the skyjacker was woefully inexperienced, got hypothermia or panicked when he jumped, then became tangled in his chute lines and cratered. Cossey concurs with Carr’s belief – in fact he may be the source of them. Coss claims that Cooper was a whuffo who selected an inferior chute – the NB-8 - that had a difficult ripcord - and thus Cooper was a “no-pull.” Besides being presented by the FBI as the Norjak parachute expert, Cossey was widely sought for expert advice in the Cooper case by media, film crews, and documentarians – so the allure of Norjak was quite real and one wonders if the truth was trimmed in the pursuit of fame. At question is whether Coss was truthful when he said he owned the chutes. Then, secondly, his analysis of the chutes and his conclusion that Cooper chose an inferior parachute has to be examined closely. First, Cossey emphatically claimed that he owned the two back parachutes when I spoke with him in 2009. Further, Coss described the two chutes as being different as indicated in the FBI documents, specifically stating that the chute DB Cooper selected was a military, sage-green nylon, 28-foot round canopy that was placed inside a container known as an NB-8, which is a designation for a 28-foot diameter Navy Backpack pilot’s emergency rig. Apparently, navy pilots do not wear emergency reserves on their tummy, as “front” chutes are unwieldy to wear while flying an airplane, and as a result pilots relied solely on their main chute if they had to bail out. Continuing, Cossey said that the second chute - the one not chosen by Cooper - was known as a “Pioneer” because the container was manufactured by a firm named Pioneer, and had been designed to be used by acrobatic pilots. As such, it had padded shoulder and leg straps and also contained a “sleeve” over the canopy that would deploy first and slow the opening of the main chute, thereby lessening the shock when it did fully open. Coss has referred to the second parachute as a “sports chute,” explaining that he does so because the Pioneer container was one that often housed parachutes that could be steered in a modern fashion, whereas the NB-8 had no steering capacity. Cossey has changed his descriptions of the second chute a couple times, calling it a “Paradise” when I first spoke with him, but changing it to a “Pioneer” when I called for clarification in 2010. Since then he has repeatedly described it a “sports” chute, which I consider misleading as its exact steering capacities are unknown. This second chute has also been frequently called a “Paracommander” by others, which was a popular sport chute at the time and imminently steerable, but in 2011 Coss told me that the chute he delivered was “definitely not a Paracommander.” Regardless, Coss gave me the same characterization throughout our conversations: the second, “not-used” chute Pioneer/Paradise was the “Cadillac” and the NB-8 was the “VW Bug.” Coss also gave me an in-depth analysis of the NB-8. As a professional parachute rigger, Coss told me that he made modifications to the NB-8 for reasons he did not elaborate upon, simply saying that he made changes to the location of the rip chord. He also installed a pouch to hide the rip-cord so that it would not be snagged and deployed while getting on board a jump plane. Because of the modification and the nature of a NB-8 sleeveless design, Cossey said the NB-8 had a harder opening and was an inferior parachute to the one “not used.” But this begs the question of why an expert parachute rigger would modify a pilot’s emergency rig to make it harder to open, and thus making it more problematic when a pilot is trying to save their life. Nevertheless, since DB Cooper chose the NB-8 and not the Pioneer - the so-called superior parachute - Cossey feels that Cooper was not a highly skilled parachutist, an attitude long-embraced by the FBI. Also, Coss freely voiced his opinions about DB Cooper. “He didn’t make it,” Cossey told me in 2009. “By not choosing the sports chute, DB Cooper showed his limited knowledge of skydiving.” Cossey cites Cooper’s inexperience and the hard-pull on the rip chord as leading to Cooper becoming a “no-pull,” which concluded with Cooper cratering in the woods of southwestern Washington. “I don’t believe he pulled the rip chord,” Cossey said. “He augured into the ground somewhere.” Cossey’s assessment of these parachutes and Cooper’s skill level is strongly challenged by other skydivers, most notably a jumper named “377” on the DropZone. 377, also known as Mark Metzler, says that the NB-8 may have contained a C-9 canopy, which, as a military parachute is designed for high-speed jet openings and would have been an optimum choice for an exiting from a 727. Metzler calls C-9 canopies the “pit bull” of parachutes. Metzler gave his analysis of the NB-8 at the skyjacking’s 40th Anniversary Symposium in Portland, Oregon in 2011, and claimed that DB Cooper picked the best chute when he chose the NB-8. “Cooper made the right choice,” Metzler declared, and explained that Cooper’s 727 was estimated to be flying at slightly over 200 mph when he jumped, and most likely the Pioneer contained a civilian parachute, which was designed to open at speeds no higher than 150 mph. Metzler said the extra speed would put enormous strains on the civilian canopy, which could have torn to shreds if it were deployed at 200 mph. In addition, Metzler said that some reports claim that Tina Mucklow described Cooper as putting on the parachute with ease, indicating that the skyjacker had significant experience. As proof, Metzler had an audience member put on the NB-8 to demonstrate how difficult it is for the uninitiated to don. Most telling, though, according to Metzler, was the fact that DB Cooper knew the 727 could be jumped, a fact that few people knew including skydivers. “In 1971, even I didn’t know a 727 could be jumped,” exclaimed Metzler, “nor did the pilots, the flight engineer or anyone at Northwest Airlines operations center.” Further, Metzler’s touted Cooper’s skills, as he knew the aforementioned metrics necessary to safely exit from a 727: cabin unpressurized, gear down, wing flaps at 15º, and speeds not over 180 knots (about 205 mph) and at a height not to exceed 10,000 feet. The altitude limit insured that Cooper would not become hypnoxic, or prevent the opening of the doorway to the aft stairs. At the symposium Metzler also showed a film clip taken during the Vietnam War that showed commandos parachuting from a 727 by crawling halfway down the aft stairs and pulling their rip cord there, letting the chute slowly deploy by “squidding” out into the wind. This technique clearly refutes the many claims by doubters that hold Cooper would have been negatively impacted by the freezing temperatures and fierce slip stream winds he encountered leaving the jet, which might have caused him to spin out of control or be too cold to pull his rip cord. As for not selecting a steeerable, luxury sport chute and chosing a military rig, Metzler feels that Cooper again made the correct choice. “The lack of steerablity could actually be an advantage,” declared Metzler, adding that the safest way to enter an unknown area in the dark would be via the straight down descent of a C-9 canopy. Metzler said that the forward speeds of steerable chutes in 1971 reached 10-20 mph. “Why take a chance on flying into something?” he asked. Nevertheless, trying to determine what chute Cooper used is difficult. Cossey has declared that he has never heard of Norman Hayden, apparently not recalling when he signed the rigging card for Norman’s Pioneer chute in May, 1971. However, that transaction may have occurred with no direct contact between the two gentlemen. When I told Coss that Hayden is claiming ownership of the two back parachutes, Cossey replied, “He’s full of shit.” Further, when I informed Coss that FBI documents indicated that Mr. Hayden is the owner of the parachutes, the rigger retorted, “Well, Northwest Airlines paid me for the chutes so that should tell ya something!” My efforts to clarify this with both Coss and Norman have been largely unsuccessful. Coss hung up on me the last time I called, and Norman says he does not want any further involvement in this controversy. Regardless, the FBI’s parachute document - pages 226-227 of a larger Cooper case file - describe the chutes in the following manner: Civilian luxury type, tan soft cotton material outside, 26 foot white canopy inside. The parachute inside is a military parachute. The parachute has a foam pad cushion and a fray mark down the rib on the back from rubbing on metal. A military backpack parachute, standard olive drab green on outside, a 28 foot white canopy on inside. He (Norman Hayden) stated that this parachute also has a foam pad cushion. He (Hayden) stated that both parachutes bore lead seals which had not been broken and it is possible that he seals bear a confidential number, such as a rigger’s number. He (Hayden) stated that both of his parachutes were assembled for him by Mr. Earl Cossey, who works at Seattle Sky Sports in Issaquah, Washington. I’ve come to this file via a curious route – I stole them. But I pinched them from the person who stole them himself from the FBI, so I think that absolves me of any moral duplicity. The files were apparently first nabbed by Geoffrey Gray, who reportedly had wide access to the FBI files and evidence room, and was unsupervised in any direct manner. Thus, Geoffrey had the opportunity to copy these parachutes files and hide them in cyberspace in a kind of private file of his own. One of the sleuths on the DZ, “Snowmman,” discovered Gray’s secret cache and gave me – and the whole DZ - the access code, which I used and snatched the parachute files for use here. In my view, this affair casts strong suspicion on the relationship between the FBI and Gray. Did Geoffrey have to accept a quid pro quo to get official access? Did Geoffrey have to promise not to reveal the dirty little secrets of Norjak, such as where all the missing evidence is or why it vanished? Or worse, is Geoffrey now part of a refined Norjak spin job? I chased after Geoffrey half-way across Portland one night trying to get to the bottom of this, but to no avail, and we’ll explore the Gray-FBI dynamic in more detail in the chapter on the dramas surrounding Norjak suspect, LD Cooper. As for the parachutes, the FBI’s descriptions in their files are at variance with Hayden’s current recollection. In particular, Norman says the two chutes he provided were identical– both Pioneers with 26-foot conical canopies, with at least one identified specifically as a Steinthal. However, the FBI documents declare the chutes were different, as per Cossey’s statements. More confounding though, the FBI documents say that both canopies were military parachutes, which conflicts with both Cossey and Hayden perspectives. Seeking to clarify this issue, I traveled to Kent, Washington to visit Norman. Upon the advice of many in the skydiving world, I invited Bruce Thun to accompany me. Bruce is the manager of Pierce County Airport in Puyallup and has been around airplanes, pilots and skydivers all of his life. In addition, he is intrigued by the case, confessing to me that he puts himself to sleep at nights by thinking about DB Cooper. In October 2011, Bruce and I met with Hayden and inspected his “not used by Cooper” civilian parachute, now returned to his possession after a court battle with the FBI. However, in 2013 Hayden gave it to the Washington State Historical Museum, and it was a featured part of their COOPER exhibit. Mr. Hayden was very gracious when we arrived, and straightaway he showed us the Pioneer parachute that went aboard Flight 305. Without any fanfare Norman put it on a work table and said, “Here it is.” He also announced that NWO had paid him for the two chutes several years after the skyjacking. The parachute he showed us was small and very thin. In fact, I didn’t think it was a parachute when I first saw it, and assumed it was a harness system that would receive some kind of parachute bag to be fully operational. “No, that’s the parachute,” Norman said without a chuckle, which was supplied by Mr. Thun. The realization that I was looking at a parachute that had actually been a part of the skyjacking hit me when I picked it up. It was very heavy and I said to myself: This is only twenty pounds? It feels heavier. Putting it down, I tried to take notes and listen to Norman, but the notion that this parachute was once carried aboard Flight 305 by Tina Mucklow and inspected there by DB Cooper was too huge for me to accept. Wow, was all I could say quietly as Norman described his participation in the events of November 24, 1971. As for the journey the parachutes made that day, Norman’s account and the FBI documents provided by Geoffrey Gray describe the saga in similar terms: namely, that he had the two chutes at his manufacturing shop in Kent, placed them in a cab, and sent them off to Sea-Tac Airport. My understanding was solidified by Barry Halstad, who is an associate of Norman and was mentioned in the FBI file as a contact for Northwest Orient Airlines in their search for suitable parachutes. Barry and Norman are friends and professional colleagues, and Barry called me after my meeting with Norman and helped frame the following scenario: Arrangements for obtaining the parachutes were conducted by an official from Northwest Orient named George Harrison, who was stationed at Sea-Tac. Harrison apparently knew to call a skydiving outfit called Pacific Aviation at the nearby Boeing Field in Renton, Washington because they sold acrobatic airplanes and also gave acrobatic flying lessons. According to FAA regulations, acrobatic pilots and passengers had to wear parachutes, so Harrison knew that Pacific Aviation had a plethora of chutes. However, when he called Pacific Aviation and spoke with Barry, a sales manager there, Harrison learned that they had only conical “seat packs’ and not the “back pack parachutes” demanded by Cooper. Hence, Halstad recommended that Harrison contact one of Pacific Aviation’s recent customers –Hayden - who had two back parachutes and was located nearby in Kent. From that discussion, Norman then received a flurry of phone calls in mid afternoon. The first came from Harrison asking for the chutes, but Norman thought it was a prank call and hung up, so Harrison had to re-dial. Into the mix Barry also rang, and between the three individuals they strategized how to get Norman’s two parachutes to NWO operations at Sea-Tac. Norman says he was busy at the time with his manufacturing duties, so he placed the parachutes in a taxi, gave the cabbie the address for NWO operations at Sea-Tac, and also handed the driver a receipt book so that Harrison could sign a document acknowledging that NWO was “leasing” Norman’s two parachutes. Norman says the cabbie returned with the signed receipt, but Norman says he can’t find it presently. However, the FBI documents say that the parachutes went first to “Boeing Flight Service in Seattle,” but neither Norman nor Barry know where that facility is located. “I used to work for Boeing and I never heard of that place,” Barry told me. In addition, Norman says he never spoke directly to the FBI during the parachute delivery or subsequent investigation, yet, the Bureau’s parachute document claims that their detailed parachute information comes from Norman. However, the language in the FBI’s document sounds like it came from Cossey. Further, Norman says the return of the parachute was highly contentious, and he had to hire an attorney and sue in court to get it back from the FBI. “It took years, and it was a court in Washington, DC, too,” Norman told us. Norman’s difficulties with the FBI didn’t end in the court room and the actual transfer in Seattle was strained. “The FBI guy who gave it back to me was downright rude,” says Norman. “I asked him if he could write out a little note, you know, giving me something official, proving that it was, you know, part of the skyjacking. Well, he just said, ‘I’m not giving you nothin’,’ and turned away. So, I just called out, ‘Well, if you ever need any more help from me in the future, I’m not gonna give you nothin’,’ either!’” Norman has never used the parachute, either before the skyjacking or since. “Why should I leave a perfectly good airplane in flight,” he told me, cracking a smile. As for the parachute ownership debate, Norman is non-plussed. The most emotion he displayed was when he told me, “Earl Cossey is sometimes full of beans.” Barry was more dramatic, astonished to learn that there was any controversy about Norman’s ownership of the two back pack parachutes that went aboard Flight 305. Further, he has never heard of Earl Cossey or his claims. In addition, Barry supports Norman’s position that both back chutes were identical. Further, Norman was dismayed about the FBI’s inaccuracies when I read aloud the Bureau’s description of the two back pack parachutes and their many differences. Along those lines, Barry openly wonders if the FBI received four back pack parachutes that day – two from Norman that were identical commercial rigs, and two from Earl Cossey that were a mix of military and civilian. Supporting the notion of two sets of back pack parachutes getting delivered for a grand total of four main chutes is the possibility that Earl Cossey is telling the truth. Here is Cossey’s version of his role in the procurement of the parachutes. Coss told me that NWO’s chief of operations at Sea-Tac, Al Lee, contacted him at home asking for the two back and two front chutes. This is corroborated by author Richard Tosaw and the renowned Cooper researcher known as Sluggo. They write that Lee made the calls looking for parachutes and reached Cossey at home. The Common Understanding unfolds from there. Cossey told Lee that he only had back chutes, and placed two of them in a taxi that he directed inexplicably to Boeing Field in Renton before the parachutes worked their way via a private car to Sea Tac, about ten miles away. As for why Cossey sent the chutes to Boeing Field and not Sea-Tac, he did not explain when I spoke to him in 2009 and 2011, and he has refused all attempts since to clarify this issue. No other documentation that I have found explains this happenstance, either. Analysis of the jump: Besides the parachutes, another contentious issue in the analysis of DB Cooper’s jump is the clothing DB Cooper wore. Was he critically under-dressed for a nighttime sky dive in a November rain storm? “You bet!” most folks say, as DB Cooper was wearing loafers, a thin business suit and a lightweight overcoat. Some researchers, such as Jerry Thomas, adamantly claim that Cooper was a whuffo because he wasn’t wearing jump boots. Yet, some skydivers say that such concerns are overstated. Alan MacArthur, former president of the Boeing Employees Skydiving Club, says that he has jumped successfully in all kinds of weather including snow, and his gear has often been minimal. In fact, he even confessed to jumping in flip-flops during a youthful escapade. Other skydivers have posted on the DZ saying that they have parachuted naked, which certainly presents extreme levels of exposure. Further, a founding member of the Boeing skydivers, Sheridan Peterson, reportedly jumped in the 1960s wearing a thin, black business suit – just like DB Cooper did years later - which allegedly placed Petey near the top of the FBI’s suspect list in 1971. Further, many investigators concede that Cooper may have brought extra gear with him concealed in the briefcase or in his brown paper bag. Perhaps he had a roll of duct tape or ace bandages to bind his ankles, and gloves and goggles for protection. MacArthur confidently told me that such gear would be adequate for the terrain Cooper would face. Regardless, Cooper’s descent through the 10,000 feet would take about five minutes so his exposure to the cold was minimal. Further, jumping in a rain storm in the Pacific Northwest is not uncommon, and according to Metzler the best place to be during those conditions is under the “umbrella” of a parachute. Similarly, the conditions of the jump – nighttime rain with temperatures below freezing at his departure point of 10,000 feet and an uncertain landing zone - are used to prove that Cooper was inexperienced or desperate. But during the Vietnam War, HALO (High Altitude, Low Opening) commando troops parachuted from 14,000 feet in sub-freezing temperatures - conditions that exist even in the tropics - and they landed in unknown jungles with people waiting for them with guns. Continuing, Cooper’s decision to cut up his only good reserve chute and not the dummy is often cited as the action of an inexperienced jumper who could not recognize a bogus parachute and foolishly discarded a legitimate back-up chute. However, Cooper did not have any legitimate means of attaching either reserve to his main chute, which might have diminished his interest in using a reserve rig. The Amboy chute: Another bone of contention in the parachute arena is the discovery of a chute in the spring of 2009 in Amboy, Washington, the heart of DB Cooper’s purported jump zone. According to the FBI, a landowner near Amboy was grading a private road and the blade snagged an edge of the parachute and pulled it from its decades-old hiding place. At that time, the Bureau ruled-out the parachute as being part of the Cooper skyjacking based upon the analysis of their sky diving expert, Earl Cossey. I spoke with Coss shortly after the announcement and he told me that the parachute found in Amboy was not from Flight 305, as it was too large at 34-feet in diameter and that it was a cargo chute. Further, he said that the canopy was made with silk and not the nylon which comprised Cooper’s canopy. He also said the Amboy chute was a WWII vintage parachute. But Coss added to the confusion – purposefully - by telling a reporter from the Oregonian that the Amboy chute was DB Cooper’s rig, and the scoop made the wire service for a few hours. However, Cossey later recanted his statement and claimed his deception was “just an April Fool’s joke.” More disturbing though, Coss also told me that when he delivered his findings to the FBI the Bureau had asked him to “keep the information quiet for a few days.” Cossey told me that he thought the FBI wanted to “milk” some positive media attention from the discovery. Coss also characterized the FBI as being “stupid” in its Cooper investigation, a dismissive attitude that Coss often expresses towards others. However, neither Cossey nor the FBI revealed how a cargo chute arrived in a field in Amboy, Washington, and when I traveled to the area in 2012 to learn the truth of this chute, local residents were also hush-hush. One denizen at a local watering hole told me that the parachute’s owner had some private secrets to maintain. My contact was a young man named Brian. “It was found long before 2009 – long before they told the FBI,” he told me. Brian claimed that he and other kids from the neighborhood cut-off the nylon rope shrouds to use in making weights for their steelhead fishing rigs. “We’d burn the ends, melt ‘em, and attach weights. They worked great,” he said. Brian also said that they had tried to pull-up the parachute, but were unable to tug it out. “It was really buried,” he said, Brian said the chute was a “dirty white” color, which jives with pictures of the Amboy chute release by the FBI. Brian also said that the chute he knew was not too degraded, but he didn’t remember if it was silk or nylon. He did remember the FBI arriving in two “blue and grey” cars, along with several Sheriff’s Department vehicles. Analysis of DB Cooper’s skills: The best piece of evidence for DB Cooper’s skills as a skydiver may be his demeanor – he never broke a sweat. Despite sitting in an airplane for six hours with people that he had threatened to kill, skydiving into a cold Novmeber rain at night and landing in uncertain terain, it all seemed like another day at the office for DB Cooper. He calmly smoked cigaretes, buffered inquiries from Tina Mucklow, and orchestrated a unique major crime – all with aplomb. What kind of man does that? A whuffo? More questions: However, if he did land safely where is his gear? Did he lash everything together and track it with some unknown electronic device? If it was a privatized commando operation, did Cooper have a ground crew monitoring both his location and the LZ of his stuff? Or is it all waiting to be found in some rugged section of Cooper Country? The Citizen Sleuths have revealed that Cooper had cut a lot of cord from the reserve chute. Tina has confirmed that some of this rope was used to close his bank bag and form a kind of handle and/or cinch it to his waist. Further, the CS reveals additional inconsistencies from the official FBI documents. Records from the early days reveal that two or three lines were cut from the reserve chute, but currently five separate cords are missing from the chute in the evidence room. This discrepancy is difficult to resolve at this point, but the five lengths of rope would total nearly 80 feet. But even if the lower number of shroud lines is used, two or three, Cooper still had 30-45 feet of rope to use. That’s a lot of line to secure the bag and affix it to his body. Perhaps these additional lines were used to tie the extra gear into a huge bundle, which got tossed and has simply never been found. Or was the bundle set on fire with the flares or other incendiary equipment Cooper brought on board? Maybe Cooper’s bomb was not made of dynamite but was actually a faux set of road flares that could ignite the left-over equipment. But, why burn an unneeded and unused dummy reserve? As bizarre a notion as this may be, there is circumstantial evidence to suggest that something like this may have happened. In 2011 Galen Cook revealed that he had received some intriguing documents from the estate of Richard Tosaw, who died of cancer in 2009, which casts light on the possibility that Cooper incinerated his left-overs. Galen had been a friend and fellow-researcher with Tosaw, spending time at Tina Bar with him, researching and discussing the case. After Tosaw’s death, some of Richard’s associates contacted Galen and gave him copies of selected field notes. One mentioned a “fiery object” seen over Vancouver, Washington on the night of the skyjacking. The notes reveal that a woman from Vancouver had contacted Tosaw in the mid-1980s when Tosaw was on Portland TV discussing his Cooper book. The woman, known as “Janet,” sent a note to Tosaw describing what she had seen in the skies over Vancouver, and she later met with him. However, Tosaw had never told anyone about the woman or her claims. Tosaw recorded that Janet lived in the eastern suburbs of Vancouver in a development near Mill Plain Rd. She and her husband had seen TV coverage of the skyjacking at 6 pm, so they were familiar with what was on-going. Shortly after 8 pm, they left their house and saw a low-flying plane to the west, heading south. They immediately saw a brightly glowing red object in the sky directly underneath the plane. It was so bright it illuminated the aircraft. The object then burst into a glowing, fiery object and arced away to the west and then faded out. It was lit for about five or six seconds, eight tops, she told Tosaw. “That must be DB Cooper’s plane,” the wife shouted at the time. The next day the couple wrote the FBI and described what they had seen. Several days later Janet says she was visited by two men. One fellow stayed in the car and the other, who was wearing a suit and dark coat, approached the house. He identified himself as an FBI agent but he never showed his badge or any other identification. He asked for the couple who had written the letter, and the wife confirmed that she had contacted the FBI. Janet reported to Tosaw that the “FBI” guy then got real nasty and intimidating, and told her to never tell anyone about what she saw – shocking her with the crude outburst: “Keep your fucking mouth shut.” She did, and never told anyone until Richard Tosaw was on his book tour ten years later. However, Tosaw’s reasons for never revealing her purported testimony are unknown. Galen says that after he received Tosaw’s notes he was able to contact the wife and husband, who are now divorced but still living in the Vancouver area. Galen says the story they told him comports exactly to what he read in Tosaw’s account. Further, Galen says that he has received two more reports of folks witnessing a burning object over Vancouver and he has interviewed the other parties. All three witnesses were in different sections of Vancouver and intriguingly, Galen says that their placement of the aircraft and the glowing object’s subsequent trajectory position the plane and the object in the same place – the plane was just to the west of the I-5 bridge as it crosses into Portland and the fiery object was seen arcing westward over the Columbia River towards Tina Bar. Was Cooper burning incriminating evidence? Another theory on why none of Cooper’s extra stuff was ever recovered comes from Geoffrey’s book, which suggests that Cooper may have had help on the ground, ala a Special Forces extraction scenario. A fellow named “Jake” contacted Gray as he was writing Skyjack, and told Geoff that he had been a former special ops kind of guy and may have participated in the retrieval of DB Cooper on the night of the skyjacking. “Jake” says that he was part of a team of “transporters” stationed in the northern reaches of Clark County, in the Amboy area. Jake said the borders of his patrol sector were Cedar Creek Road in Amboy south to the Cowlitz River, and from Amboy east to Yacolt, Washington. Intriguingly, Jake told Geoffrey that his target was an unidentified male, and the expected extraction point was to be along the Buncombe Hollow Road, off of Cedar Creek Road in Amboy. Buncombe Hollow is the main road along the shore of Lake Merwin, on the opposite side of the lake from the Ariel Tavern, and presumably the bright lights atop the Merwin Dam would be beacons to the incoming skyjacker. Jake also told Geoffrey that prior to his transporter assignment he had been imprisoned in Walla Walla state penitentiary on fraud charges, and his transporter services would earn him his release. Geoff writes that he has not been able to prove Jake’s pick-up plan, but he does confirm that the individual that he knows as Jake was in Walla Walla on a fraud conviction and had been “furloughed” the day before the skyjacking, November 23, 1971. As for a ground team, we have a hint of it from the possible role of Richard McCoy in Cooper’s skyjacking, and a similar bit from Cooper confessee, Duane Weber, which we will discuss in an upcoming chapter. Nevertheless, the money find in February 1980 enforces the notion for many that Cooper crashed in the woods upstream due to incompetence, became separated from his loot and that the money bag floated its way to Tina Bar. With this scenario DB Cooper went from being a master criminal to an inept fool in less than ten years. Larry Carr held this latter view all through his tenure as case agent, 2007-2009, based upon his videos posted on the FBI’s DB Cooper web site. But outside the FBI this view is fading as a resurgent investigation brings more information to the surface, such as those pieces questioning Earl Cossey’s veracity. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Robert99 37 #46097 January 15, 2014 RobertMBlevinsGeorger asks: Quote'Stupid question: were silk and nylon ever mixed? Laugh Are there inherent differences in the engineering of silk vs nylon chutes, and silk vs nylon construction differences? Differences in how they are sown? One stronger than the other that results in construction differences? One uses one kind and weight of cords versus the other ??? Differences easily detectable you dont need a phD for!..' Before WW2 chutes were mostly made of silk. After Japan entered the war, no more silk was imported to the US. First test of a nylon chute was done in 1942. After that time, almost all American parachutes used in WW2 were made of nylon, since silk was almost non-existent. Dupont went to full production, making not only chutes, but stockings and tires for B-bombers. The chances that a military era chute with a Date of Manufacture of Feb 46 was actually made of silk (as Cossey claimed) are LESS THAN ZERO. You can tell the difference between 'straight' nylon chutes and ripstop ones by looking at the weave. Ripstop will have little squares, or a pattern other than a straight fabric weave. Georger also says: ***'Early in this thread Snowmman asked about Cossey's competence. So far as I recall nobody has ever brought anything to light which 'impeached' Cossey's knowledge and competence working with (rigging, identifying, etc) people's parachutes? This versus Hayden and others ... who do not have the same 'certified' level of competence. I am sure Guru and others could speak to this issue.... If you were the FBI who would you go to for professional advice about the chutes supplied to Cooper which Cossey had had hands-on personal/professional experience...' Cossey's competence is not the issue. He was perfectly competent. The issue is whether he lied for years about owning the chute Cooper jumped with. That question, I believe, has been answered. The other issue is whether Cossey would be motivated to try and identify any chute brought to him as Cooper's. And some questions have been raised on whether he would be motivated to be honest on that. I think the answer is no, and I have already stated several reasons for saying that. He was already discounting reasons the chute could be Cooper's even BEFORE he saw it, even though he knew it had been found in what the FBI considered a prime drop zone for Cooper. He also stated he doubted he could ID it without the harness and container. (Seattle PI article) This should be telling you something. Blevins, Congratulations! In just a matter of minutes, you became an "expert" on the use of silk and nylon in parachute canopies. Robert99 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GreyCopGC148 0 #46098 January 15, 2014 BruceSmithChapter 6 The investigation begins: an analysis of the parchutes and the jump When DB Cooper hijacked his airplane it was considered bold and inventive, and he is still revered by many for “beating the system.” Besides being a cultural hero, many considered Cooper an astute and savvy criminal. Initially, some FBI agents openly shared their respect. Specifically, Cooper was viewed as a skilled parachutist, and the FBI extensively investigated the skydiving community. Recently released records and interviews with agents reveal that in the days immediately after the skyjacking the Bureau intensely interviewed commandos returning from Vietnam and closely examined the files of professional skydivers. Yet over time, and especially in the current era, the FBI has characterized Cooper as a bumbling fool who died in his jump. However, no concrete evidence exists to support that notion. The historical arc of the FBI’s investigation truly cuts a broad swath across the decades, and the variance may reflect the political pressures upon the FBI as much as it does any forensic analysis. Simply, the FBI’s current view may be a bureaucratic spin job concocted by an image-conscious agency. In the early days however, and certainly in the weeks just after the skyjacking, the FBI considered DB Cooper a master criminal, as did Walter Cronkite in his broadcasts following the skyjacking. To whit: the Cooper case agent in the Portland FBI office, Ralph Himmelsbach, readily acknowledges in NORJAK that the skyjacking was well-planned and executed. As mentioned previously, Cooper also impressed the pilots, as the skyjacker’s knowledge of the 727 surpassed their own. In addition, Himmelsbach has characterized Cooper’s bomb as a game changer. Cooper’s choice of weapon was also considered to be an improvement from an earlier skyjacking attempt two weeks prior in Montana, when a young man named Paul Cini attempted a skyjacking similar to Cooper’s and carried a gun. But Cini was overcome by airline personnel rushing him from different directions as he donned his parachute and dropped his weapon. One of the odd myths of Norjak is that DB Cooper is widely credited with initiating the idea of stealing an airplane for money and parachuting away to freedom – yet, he wasn’t the first to implement the idea. Paul Cini was. This begs the question if Cini and “Dan Cooper” had a relationship that fostered the development of such an unprecedented plan. Remember, at the time of the skyjacking diving out of the 727 was a classified secret and only known to a handful of Boeing officials and military personnel. The mainstream parachuting community had no idea that the jump was possible and the average sky diver had no knowledge whatsoever of the particular metrics the plane would have to fly in order to be successful. Cooper did though, and Cini may have, even if he hijacked a DC-8 that doesn’t have an aft stair system and only a rear escape hatch. Nevertheless, the essential question remains – how did they know it was possible and how did Cooper, at least, know the configuration for successfully slowing the plane? We’ll certainly explore those dynamics in later pages on the subject of a group effort and copy-cats. In the meantime, here’s how the investigation developed in the weeks and months after the skyjacking. Himmelsbach says that DB Cooper had the upper-hand in the early stages of the skyjacking and specifically acknowledges that Cooper’s bomb was a tactical upgrade from Cini’s shotgun. Further, Cooper’s hijacking plan was comprehensive and his execution was near-perfect. In the air, his control of the cabin was complete – he had little direct contact with the cockpit, recalled his note from Flo, and moved the passengers forward in the craft. These actions reduced the chance of being identified. Additionally, by closing the window shades and hiding in the lavatory when the passengers disembarked he had minimal exposure to sniper fire while on the ground. For the first few years, Cooper’s getaway by parachute was considered daring but not impossible, a perspective supported by the fact that at least four DB Cooper-esque skyjackers – the so-called “copy cats” - successfully parachuted with their loot in the year following the Cooper jump. In fact, many in the FBI considered that one of the imitators, Richard McCoy, the skyjacker who took $500,000 with him into the skies over Provo, Utah was actually Cooper doing a second and more lucrative skyjacking. Russ Calame, the FBI agent who captured Richard McCoy in April 1972, is still convinced that his man was DB Cooper. In fact, Calame told me in 2008 that many in the FBI held the same opinion, including the Cooper case agent in Seattle, Charlie Farrell. However, the current thinking in Seattle is that Mc Coy was not Cooper, but there are circumstantial links between these skyjackers that we will explore in the discussion of possible accomplices. Nevertheless, the FBI’s initial assessment of Cooper’s abilities shifted during the 1970s, particularly as the Bureau was unable to crack the case or even retrieve a single piece of hard evidence. Remember, prior to the money find in February 1980 the Bureau had nothing definitively from the Cooper hijacking. They also had little compelling soft evidence, such as family members coming forward saying they had a missing husband or brother who had suddenly vanished over the Thanksgiving Day weekend in 1971 and who looked like DB Cooper. Nonetheless, there were many leads that arrived, most of them linked to romantic quarrels and revenge, and most were considered bogus. Nevertheless, the Bureau invested huge amounts of time into digging through the pile of accusations, and at last count the Bureau has investigated over 1,100 suspects in the DB Cooper case. In addition, certain aspects of the case continue to perplex investigators: 1. If DB Cooper survived the jump how did he get away once he landed? And, 2. How did Cooper get to Portland Airport in the first place? Investigators have failed to produce any concrete evidence on these issues. Another troubling aspect is the question: what happened to all of DB Cooper’s stuff? Presumably, Cooper went out the door with everything not found inside the aircraft at Reno – the parachute he wore, the reserve chute with the “X” sown onto it, the briefcase and bomb, the paper sack, and the Seattle First National bank bag with the $200,000. By the late 1970s, the FBI strongly felt that Cooper had died in the jump and had taken all his gear with him, either by landing in a lake and drowning, or “cratering” into a remote hillside after spinning out of control due to hypothermia, extreme wind turbulence or some chute malfunction, such as a balky rip cord. The money find in 1980 only reinforced the notion that Cooper did not live to spend his money, as the Bureau speculated that the money became separated from Cooper either in the air or upon impact, and it floated its way down the Columbia for eight years before appearing at Tina Bar, four miles downstream from Vancouver, Washington. Variations of this theme are profuse, with numerous speculations on what body of water or remote mountain peak DB Cooper impacted, and they still dominate FBI thinking to this day. Key to interpreting these possibilities are the four parachutes the FBI delivered to DB Cooper and which ones he used. We’ll discuss the flight path and where Cooper may have jumped in a forthcoming chapter, but for now let’s focus on the parachutes. Analysis of the parachutes used by DB Cooper: Was DB Cooper an expert sky diver or was he a “whuffo,” as the skydiving community calls an inexperienced wannabe. In the current era the view from the FBI, notably championed by Larry Carr, is that Cooper had some amount of parachuting knowledge but was not an expert, such as held by someone who was a “cargo kicker” in the skies over Vietnam. Such a fellow would be wearing an emergency parachute as he shoved supplies out the rear of a cargo plane to troops on the ground, but he would never actually deploy his own chute. The notion that Cooper wasn’t very skilled is held as proof that he died in his jump, and conversely, the belief that the skyjacker was an expert is used to foster the idea that he survived. Additionally, the fact that a lot of stuff apparently went out the door is perplexing. Did Cooper fashion a hugely long and unwieldy kite tail of gear to take all of his evidence with him? How aerodynamic could that have been? Or did he toss his gear out the door, piece-meal, and have guys on the ground pick it up with high-tech detection equipment? Or is it still out in the woods somewhere and no one has ever found a stitch, despite the thousands of thrill-seekers and fortune hunters who have scoured the woods for a free twenty and souvenirs? Ironically, the same set of facts is used to promote both sides of the argument – the difference is how to evaluate the data. Since nothing has been found many feel that DB Cooper must have survived the jump, walking away with his gear and money. The alternative is also offered as proof that he died - that all of Cooper’s stuff buried itself with his body without a trace, but I find that hypothesis truly hard to accept. Except for one possibility - that Cooper and all of his gear plummeted into a big body of water, such as Merwin Lake, and everything sank to the bottom. But there is no evidence to support that possibility despite the extensive examination of the lake bottom by a private investigator in a pint-sized submarine, and Himmelsbach writes that this intrepid explorer found nothing linked to the skyjacking. Similarly, investigator Richard Tosaw combed the Columbia River bottom near Tina Bar for years without discovering anything directly tied to Norjak. Larry Carr’s Propeller Theory is a related theory, and it posits that Cooper and all of his stuff landed in the Lewis River near Ariel, and the skyjacker drowned due to frigid conditions. Cooper and his bundle then flowed down to the Columbia River and became snagged on the propeller of a freighter heading to Portland, fifteen miles upstream. Then finally, at Tina Bar the prop cut Cooper and his parachutes loose, chewed up the money bag, and some of the twenties floated onto the beach. Cooper’s body and the un-recovered stuff then floated out to sea. Nevertheless, Larry didn’t provide a stitch of evidence to support this hypothesis before he went public with it on National Geographic cable TV. Afterwards, he was widely ridiculed. So, let’s look more closely at the jump and the parachutes to learn more about DB Cooper. The skyjacker’s ransom deal with the FBI included “two back chutes and two front chutes,” meaning that Cooper demanded two main parachutes worn on one’s back, and two smaller reserve parachutes worn on the front. A reserve parachute typically lies atop a skydiver’s abdomen and is secured by metal “D” clips to the harness of the main chute. The first to arrive were two main, “back” chutes, either by taxi or private car depending on whose version of the Norjak narrative one believes – Norman Hayden and the official FBI documents, or Earl Cossey and his many ad hoc pronouncements. The two reserve “front” parachutes were the last to arrive at Sea-Tac airport in Seattle, Washington and when they did Cooper allowed his plane to land. As for the reserves, they came from the Issaquah Sky Sports skydiving facility, located about 25 miles east of Seattle, and were brought to Sea-Tac by troopers from the Washington State Patrol (WSP). Ironically, it is now known that one of the reserves was a dud – a “dummy” chute used in indoor training exercises - and its panels were sown shut, thus making it inoperable. This chute had a white “X” sown onto it and inexplicably was given to the WSP, who delivered it to the officials at Sea-Tac. Subsequently, Tina carried the chute on board 305 but it was not found on the plane in Reno, so presumably it went out the door with Cooper. As for the second reserve chute, the “good one,” Cooper opened it long before he jumped, cutting the shroud lines to use as rope. Tina Mucklow was reportedly on her way to the cockpit when she saw Cooper cinch his money bag with the cords and secure it around his waist, and that’s the last eye-witness account we have of Cooper’s actions. Also, despite Cooper’s request for “D” rings to attach the reserve chutes to the mains none were provided, rendering the front chutes nearly impossible to use. Conceivably, Cooper could have tied a front chute to the rear harness with rope somehow, but whether he did is unknown. Further, even Cooper’s choice of words, asking for “front” chutes instead of the proper skydiving term, “reserves,” and similarly calling his mains, “back” chutes, is offered by some to prove Cooper was a whuffo, whereas others say he was just a smart hijacker who knew to use common parlance so that his demands wouldn’t get screwed up in the transfer of messages from flight crew-to-cockpit-to-FBI-to-the sky diving supply house. However, the exact type of back chutes delivered and their capacities is not known definitively and is a source of enormous controversy. As of this writing everything about the two back chutes seems to be in question: what kind of parachutes they were, who owned them, and how they arrived at Sea-Tac. In particular, the whole issue has been thrown wide-open by revelations in Gray’s Skyjack Until the release of Gray’s book in August, 2011, the Common Understanding – long cited by FBI officials, journalists, and arm-chair sleuths – had been that Earl J. Cossey, a Woodinville, Washington skydiving rigger, owned the two main chutes and had them delivered to the FBI via a taxi cab and private car. Cossey, who prefers to be called “Coss,” told me in 2009 that Northwest Orient officials contacted him at home for two back chutes, and he has long claimed that he provided a Navy pilot’s emergency rig known as an NB-8, and a civilian sport chute called a Pioneer. But Gray states that the two back parachutes were owned by a Kent, Washington businessman named Norman George Hayden, and that Coss only inspected and packed the parachutes for Mr. Hayden. Gray cites a FBI document that specifically identifies Hayden as the owner of the back parachutes, but states that one was a military Pioneer with a 26-foot conical canopy and the other was a 28-foot military-type chute. Hayden refutes both claims. Although at quick glance this seems to be only a minor glitch in federal record-keeping, the variance leads to important questions about the nature of the FBI’s investigation, namely, how could they get it wrong for so long. More troubling, Hayden loudly disputes the FBI’s claims about the exact nature of the chutes he provided and offers his “not-used” chute as proof, which was returned to him by the FBI in the 1980s. Finally, the dispute calls into question the veracity of Cossey and casts doubt on his contributions to the federal investigation. It further casts a pall over the credibility of the FBI for relying on Cossey, especially their use of his analysis of Cooper to shape their perspective on important issues, such as, did Cooper survive? Specifically, Cossey consulted frequently with FBI officials on Cooper parachute issues, and was placed into the public domain as the Bureau’s spokesperson on parachuting questions, such as the Amboy chute find in 2009, which many thought might be Cooper’s getaway chute. At the very least, Coss’s assessment of DB Cooper’s skills based on his evaluation of the parachute chosen seems to have colored the FBI’s thinking on Cooper’s abilities. Cooper case agent Larry Carr has long extolled the idea that the skyjacker was woefully inexperienced, got hypothermia or panicked when he jumped, then became tangled in his chute lines and cratered. Cossey concurs with Carr’s belief – in fact he may be the source of them. Coss claims that Cooper was a whuffo who selected an inferior chute – the NB-8 - that had a difficult ripcord - and thus Cooper was a “no-pull.” Besides being presented by the FBI as the Norjak parachute expert, Cossey was widely sought for expert advice in the Cooper case by media, film crews, and documentarians – so the allure of Norjak was quite real and one wonders if the truth was trimmed in the pursuit of fame. At question is whether Coss was truthful when he said he owned the chutes. Then, secondly, his analysis of the chutes and his conclusion that Cooper chose an inferior parachute has to be examined closely. First, Cossey emphatically claimed that he owned the two back parachutes when I spoke with him in 2009. Further, Coss described the two chutes as being different as indicated in the FBI documents, specifically stating that the chute DB Cooper selected was a military, sage-green nylon, 28-foot round canopy that was placed inside a container known as an NB-8, which is a designation for a 28-foot diameter Navy Backpack pilot’s emergency rig. Apparently, navy pilots do not wear emergency reserves on their tummy, as “front” chutes are unwieldy to wear while flying an airplane, and as a result pilots relied solely on their main chute if they had to bail out. Continuing, Cossey said that the second chute - the one not chosen by Cooper - was known as a “Pioneer” because the container was manufactured by a firm named Pioneer, and had been designed to be used by acrobatic pilots. As such, it had padded shoulder and leg straps and also contained a “sleeve” over the canopy that would deploy first and slow the opening of the main chute, thereby lessening the shock when it did fully open. Coss has referred to the second parachute as a “sports chute,” explaining that he does so because the Pioneer container was one that often housed parachutes that could be steered in a modern fashion, whereas the NB-8 had no steering capacity. Cossey has changed his descriptions of the second chute a couple times, calling it a “Paradise” when I first spoke with him, but changing it to a “Pioneer” when I called for clarification in 2010. Since then he has repeatedly described it a “sports” chute, which I consider misleading as its exact steering capacities are unknown. This second chute has also been frequently called a “Paracommander” by others, which was a popular sport chute at the time and imminently steerable, but in 2011 Coss told me that the chute he delivered was “definitely not a Paracommander.” Regardless, Coss gave me the same characterization throughout our conversations: the second, “not-used” chute Pioneer/Paradise was the “Cadillac” and the NB-8 was the “VW Bug.” Coss also gave me an in-depth analysis of the NB-8. As a professional parachute rigger, Coss told me that he made modifications to the NB-8 for reasons he did not elaborate upon, simply saying that he made changes to the location of the rip chord. He also installed a pouch to hide the rip-cord so that it would not be snagged and deployed while getting on board a jump plane. Because of the modification and the nature of a NB-8 sleeveless design, Cossey said the NB-8 had a harder opening and was an inferior parachute to the one “not used.” But this begs the question of why an expert parachute rigger would modify a pilot’s emergency rig to make it harder to open, and thus making it more problematic when a pilot is trying to save their life. Nevertheless, since DB Cooper chose the NB-8 and not the Pioneer - the so-called superior parachute - Cossey feels that Cooper was not a highly skilled parachutist, an attitude long-embraced by the FBI. Also, Coss freely voiced his opinions about DB Cooper. “He didn’t make it,” Cossey told me in 2009. “By not choosing the sports chute, DB Cooper showed his limited knowledge of skydiving.” Cossey cites Cooper’s inexperience and the hard-pull on the rip chord as leading to Cooper becoming a “no-pull,” which concluded with Cooper cratering in the woods of southwestern Washington. “I don’t believe he pulled the rip chord,” Cossey said. “He augured into the ground somewhere.” Cossey’s assessment of these parachutes and Cooper’s skill level is strongly challenged by other skydivers, most notably a jumper named “377” on the DropZone. 377, also known as Mark Metzler, says that the NB-8 may have contained a C-9 canopy, which, as a military parachute is designed for high-speed jet openings and would have been an optimum choice for an exiting from a 727. Metzler calls C-9 canopies the “pit bull” of parachutes. Metzler gave his analysis of the NB-8 at the skyjacking’s 40th Anniversary Symposium in Portland, Oregon in 2011, and claimed that DB Cooper picked the best chute when he chose the NB-8. “Cooper made the right choice,” Metzler declared, and explained that Cooper’s 727 was estimated to be flying at slightly over 200 mph when he jumped, and most likely the Pioneer contained a civilian parachute, which was designed to open at speeds no higher than 150 mph. Metzler said the extra speed would put enormous strains on the civilian canopy, which could have torn to shreds if it were deployed at 200 mph. In addition, Metzler said that some reports claim that Tina Mucklow described Cooper as putting on the parachute with ease, indicating that the skyjacker had significant experience. As proof, Metzler had an audience member put on the NB-8 to demonstrate how difficult it is for the uninitiated to don. Most telling, though, according to Metzler, was the fact that DB Cooper knew the 727 could be jumped, a fact that few people knew including skydivers. “In 1971, even I didn’t know a 727 could be jumped,” exclaimed Metzler, “nor did the pilots, the flight engineer or anyone at Northwest Airlines operations center.” Further, Metzler’s touted Cooper’s skills, as he knew the aforementioned metrics necessary to safely exit from a 727: cabin unpressurized, gear down, wing flaps at 15º, and speeds not over 180 knots (about 205 mph) and at a height not to exceed 10,000 feet. The altitude limit insured that Cooper would not become hypnoxic, or prevent the opening of the doorway to the aft stairs. At the symposium Metzler also showed a film clip taken during the Vietnam War that showed commandos parachuting from a 727 by crawling halfway down the aft stairs and pulling their rip cord there, letting the chute slowly deploy by “squidding” out into the wind. This technique clearly refutes the many claims by doubters that hold Cooper would have been negatively impacted by the freezing temperatures and fierce slip stream winds he encountered leaving the jet, which might have caused him to spin out of control or be too cold to pull his rip cord. As for not selecting a steeerable, luxury sport chute and chosing a military rig, Metzler feels that Cooper again made the correct choice. “The lack of steerablity could actually be an advantage,” declared Metzler, adding that the safest way to enter an unknown area in the dark would be via the straight down descent of a C-9 canopy. Metzler said that the forward speeds of steerable chutes in 1971 reached 10-20 mph. “Why take a chance on flying into something?” he asked. Nevertheless, trying to determine what chute Cooper used is difficult. Cossey has declared that he has never heard of Norman Hayden, apparently not recalling when he signed the rigging card for Norman’s Pioneer chute in May, 1971. However, that transaction may have occurred with no direct contact between the two gentlemen. When I told Coss that Hayden is claiming ownership of the two back parachutes, Cossey replied, “He’s full of shit.” Further, when I informed Coss that FBI documents indicated that Mr. Hayden is the owner of the parachutes, the rigger retorted, “Well, Northwest Airlines paid me for the chutes so that should tell ya something!” My efforts to clarify this with both Coss and Norman have been largely unsuccessful. Coss hung up on me the last time I called, and Norman says he does not want any further involvement in this controversy. Regardless, the FBI’s parachute document - pages 226-227 of a larger Cooper case file - describe the chutes in the following manner: Civilian luxury type, tan soft cotton material outside, 26 foot white canopy inside. The parachute inside is a military parachute. The parachute has a foam pad cushion and a fray mark down the rib on the back from rubbing on metal. A military backpack parachute, standard olive drab green on outside, a 28 foot white canopy on inside. He (Norman Hayden) stated that this parachute also has a foam pad cushion. He (Hayden) stated that both parachutes bore lead seals which had not been broken and it is possible that he seals bear a confidential number, such as a rigger’s number. He (Hayden) stated that both of his parachutes were assembled for him by Mr. Earl Cossey, who works at Seattle Sky Sports in Issaquah, Washington. I’ve come to this file via a curious route – I stole them. But I pinched them from the person who stole them himself from the FBI, so I think that absolves me of any moral duplicity. The files were apparently first nabbed by Geoffrey Gray, who reportedly had wide access to the FBI files and evidence room, and was unsupervised in any direct manner. Thus, Geoffrey had the opportunity to copy these parachutes files and hide them in cyberspace in a kind of private file of his own. One of the sleuths on the DZ, “Snowmman,” discovered Gray’s secret cache and gave me – and the whole DZ - the access code, which I used and snatched the parachute files for use here. In my view, this affair casts strong suspicion on the relationship between the FBI and Gray. Did Geoffrey have to accept a quid pro quo to get official access? Did Geoffrey have to promise not to reveal the dirty little secrets of Norjak, such as where all the missing evidence is or why it vanished? Or worse, is Geoffrey now part of a refined Norjak spin job? I chased after Geoffrey half-way across Portland one night trying to get to the bottom of this, but to no avail, and we’ll explore the Gray-FBI dynamic in more detail in the chapter on the dramas surrounding Norjak suspect, LD Cooper. As for the parachutes, the FBI’s descriptions in their files are at variance with Hayden’s current recollection. In particular, Norman says the two chutes he provided were identical– both Pioneers with 26-foot conical canopies, with at least one identified specifically as a Steinthal. However, the FBI documents declare the chutes were different, as per Cossey’s statements. More confounding though, the FBI documents say that both canopies were military parachutes, which conflicts with both Cossey and Hayden perspectives. Seeking to clarify this issue, I traveled to Kent, Washington to visit Norman. Upon the advice of many in the skydiving world, I invited Bruce Thun to accompany me. Bruce is the manager of Pierce County Airport in Puyallup and has been around airplanes, pilots and skydivers all of his life. In addition, he is intrigued by the case, confessing to me that he puts himself to sleep at nights by thinking about DB Cooper. In October 2011, Bruce and I met with Hayden and inspected his “not used by Cooper” civilian parachute, now returned to his possession after a court battle with the FBI. However, in 2013 Hayden gave it to the Washington State Historical Museum, and it was a featured part of their COOPER exhibit. Mr. Hayden was very gracious when we arrived, and straightaway he showed us the Pioneer parachute that went aboard Flight 305. Without any fanfare Norman put it on a work table and said, “Here it is.” He also announced that NWO had paid him for the two chutes several years after the skyjacking. The parachute he showed us was small and very thin. In fact, I didn’t think it was a parachute when I first saw it, and assumed it was a harness system that would receive some kind of parachute bag to be fully operational. “No, that’s the parachute,” Norman said without a chuckle, which was supplied by Mr. Thun. The realization that I was looking at a parachute that had actually been a part of the skyjacking hit me when I picked it up. It was very heavy and I said to myself: This is only twenty pounds? It feels heavier. Putting it down, I tried to take notes and listen to Norman, but the notion that this parachute was once carried aboard Flight 305 by Tina Mucklow and inspected there by DB Cooper was too huge for me to accept. Wow, was all I could say quietly as Norman described his participation in the events of November 24, 1971. As for the journey the parachutes made that day, Norman’s account and the FBI documents provided by Geoffrey Gray describe the saga in similar terms: namely, that he had the two chutes at his manufacturing shop in Kent, placed them in a cab, and sent them off to Sea-Tac Airport. My understanding was solidified by Barry Halstad, who is an associate of Norman and was mentioned in the FBI file as a contact for Northwest Orient Airlines in their search for suitable parachutes. Barry and Norman are friends and professional colleagues, and Barry called me after my meeting with Norman and helped frame the following scenario: Arrangements for obtaining the parachutes were conducted by an official from Northwest Orient named George Harrison, who was stationed at Sea-Tac. Harrison apparently knew to call a skydiving outfit called Pacific Aviation at the nearby Boeing Field in Renton, Washington because they sold acrobatic airplanes and also gave acrobatic flying lessons. According to FAA regulations, acrobatic pilots and passengers had to wear parachutes, so Harrison knew that Pacific Aviation had a plethora of chutes. However, when he called Pacific Aviation and spoke with Barry, a sales manager there, Harrison learned that they had only conical “seat packs’ and not the “back pack parachutes” demanded by Cooper. Hence, Halstad recommended that Harrison contact one of Pacific Aviation’s recent customers –Hayden - who had two back parachutes and was located nearby in Kent. From that discussion, Norman then received a flurry of phone calls in mid afternoon. The first came from Harrison asking for the chutes, but Norman thought it was a prank call and hung up, so Harrison had to re-dial. Into the mix Barry also rang, and between the three individuals they strategized how to get Norman’s two parachutes to NWO operations at Sea-Tac. Norman says he was busy at the time with his manufacturing duties, so he placed the parachutes in a taxi, gave the cabbie the address for NWO operations at Sea-Tac, and also handed the driver a receipt book so that Harrison could sign a document acknowledging that NWO was “leasing” Norman’s two parachutes. Norman says the cabbie returned with the signed receipt, but Norman says he can’t find it presently. However, the FBI documents say that the parachutes went first to “Boeing Flight Service in Seattle,” but neither Norman nor Barry know where that facility is located. “I used to work for Boeing and I never heard of that place,” Barry told me. In addition, Norman says he never spoke directly to the FBI during the parachute delivery or subsequent investigation, yet, the Bureau’s parachute document claims that their detailed parachute information comes from Norman. However, the language in the FBI’s document sounds like it came from Cossey. Further, Norman says the return of the parachute was highly contentious, and he had to hire an attorney and sue in court to get it back from the FBI. “It took years, and it was a court in Washington, DC, too,” Norman told us. Norman’s difficulties with the FBI didn’t end in the court room and the actual transfer in Seattle was strained. “The FBI guy who gave it back to me was downright rude,” says Norman. “I asked him if he could write out a little note, you know, giving me something official, proving that it was, you know, part of the skyjacking. Well, he just said, ‘I’m not giving you nothin’,’ and turned away. So, I just called out, ‘Well, if you ever need any more help from me in the future, I’m not gonna give you nothin’,’ either!’” Norman has never used the parachute, either before the skyjacking or since. “Why should I leave a perfectly good airplane in flight,” he told me, cracking a smile. As for the parachute ownership debate, Norman is non-plussed. The most emotion he displayed was when he told me, “Earl Cossey is sometimes full of beans.” Barry was more dramatic, astonished to learn that there was any controversy about Norman’s ownership of the two back pack parachutes that went aboard Flight 305. Further, he has never heard of Earl Cossey or his claims. In addition, Barry supports Norman’s position that both back chutes were identical. Further, Norman was dismayed about the FBI’s inaccuracies when I read aloud the Bureau’s description of the two back pack parachutes and their many differences. Along those lines, Barry openly wonders if the FBI received four back pack parachutes that day – two from Norman that were identical commercial rigs, and two from Earl Cossey that were a mix of military and civilian. Supporting the notion of two sets of back pack parachutes getting delivered for a grand total of four main chutes is the possibility that Earl Cossey is telling the truth. Here is Cossey’s version of his role in the procurement of the parachutes. Coss told me that NWO’s chief of operations at Sea-Tac, Al Lee, contacted him at home asking for the two back and two front chutes. This is corroborated by author Richard Tosaw and the renowned Cooper researcher known as Sluggo. They write that Lee made the calls looking for parachutes and reached Cossey at home. The Common Understanding unfolds from there. Cossey told Lee that he only had back chutes, and placed two of them in a taxi that he directed inexplicably to Boeing Field in Renton before the parachutes worked their way via a private car to Sea Tac, about ten miles away. As for why Cossey sent the chutes to Boeing Field and not Sea-Tac, he did not explain when I spoke to him in 2009 and 2011, and he has refused all attempts since to clarify this issue. No other documentation that I have found explains this happenstance, either. Analysis of the jump: Besides the parachutes, another contentious issue in the analysis of DB Cooper’s jump is the clothing DB Cooper wore. Was he critically under-dressed for a nighttime sky dive in a November rain storm? “You bet!” most folks say, as DB Cooper was wearing loafers, a thin business suit and a lightweight overcoat. Some researchers, such as Jerry Thomas, adamantly claim that Cooper was a whuffo because he wasn’t wearing jump boots. Yet, some skydivers say that such concerns are overstated. Alan MacArthur, former president of the Boeing Employees Skydiving Club, says that he has jumped successfully in all kinds of weather including snow, and his gear has often been minimal. In fact, he even confessed to jumping in flip-flops during a youthful escapade. Other skydivers have posted on the DZ saying that they have parachuted naked, which certainly presents extreme levels of exposure. Further, a founding member of the Boeing skydivers, Sheridan Peterson, reportedly jumped in the 1960s wearing a thin, black business suit – just like DB Cooper did years later - which allegedly placed Petey near the top of the FBI’s suspect list in 1971. Further, many investigators concede that Cooper may have brought extra gear with him concealed in the briefcase or in his brown paper bag. Perhaps he had a roll of duct tape or ace bandages to bind his ankles, and gloves and goggles for protection. MacArthur confidently told me that such gear would be adequate for the terrain Cooper would face. Regardless, Cooper’s descent through the 10,000 feet would take about five minutes so his exposure to the cold was minimal. Further, jumping in a rain storm in the Pacific Northwest is not uncommon, and according to Metzler the best place to be during those conditions is under the “umbrella” of a parachute. Similarly, the conditions of the jump – nighttime rain with temperatures below freezing at his departure point of 10,000 feet and an uncertain landing zone - are used to prove that Cooper was inexperienced or desperate. But during the Vietnam War, HALO (High Altitude, Low Opening) commando troops parachuted from 14,000 feet in sub-freezing temperatures - conditions that exist even in the tropics - and they landed in unknown jungles with people waiting for them with guns. Continuing, Cooper’s decision to cut up his only good reserve chute and not the dummy is often cited as the action of an inexperienced jumper who could not recognize a bogus parachute and foolishly discarded a legitimate back-up chute. However, Cooper did not have any legitimate means of attaching either reserve to his main chute, which might have diminished his interest in using a reserve rig. The Amboy chute: Another bone of contention in the parachute arena is the discovery of a chute in the spring of 2009 in Amboy, Washington, the heart of DB Cooper’s purported jump zone. According to the FBI, a landowner near Amboy was grading a private road and the blade snagged an edge of the parachute and pulled it from its decades-old hiding place. At that time, the Bureau ruled-out the parachute as being part of the Cooper skyjacking based upon the analysis of their sky diving expert, Earl Cossey. I spoke with Coss shortly after the announcement and he told me that the parachute found in Amboy was not from Flight 305, as it was too large at 34-feet in diameter and that it was a cargo chute. Further, he said that the canopy was made with silk and not the nylon which comprised Cooper’s canopy. He also said the Amboy chute was a WWII vintage parachute. But Coss added to the confusion – purposefully - by telling a reporter from the Oregonian that the Amboy chute was DB Cooper’s rig, and the scoop made the wire service for a few hours. However, Cossey later recanted his statement and claimed his deception was “just an April Fool’s joke.” More disturbing though, Coss also told me that when he delivered his findings to the FBI the Bureau had asked him to “keep the information quiet for a few days.” Cossey told me that he thought the FBI wanted to “milk” some positive media attention from the discovery. Coss also characterized the FBI as being “stupid” in its Cooper investigation, a dismissive attitude that Coss often expresses towards others. However, neither Cossey nor the FBI revealed how a cargo chute arrived in a field in Amboy, Washington, and when I traveled to the area in 2012 to learn the truth of this chute, local residents were also hush-hush. One denizen at a local watering hole told me that the parachute’s owner had some private secrets to maintain. My contact was a young man named Brian. “It was found long before 2009 – long before they told the FBI,” he told me. Brian claimed that he and other kids from the neighborhood cut-off the nylon rope shrouds to use in making weights for their steelhead fishing rigs. “We’d burn the ends, melt ‘em, and attach weights. They worked great,” he said. Brian also said that they had tried to pull-up the parachute, but were unable to tug it out. “It was really buried,” he said, Brian said the chute was a “dirty white” color, which jives with pictures of the Amboy chute release by the FBI. Brian also said that the chute he knew was not too degraded, but he didn’t remember if it was silk or nylon. He did remember the FBI arriving in two “blue and grey” cars, along with several Sheriff’s Department vehicles. Analysis of DB Cooper’s skills: The best piece of evidence for DB Cooper’s skills as a skydiver may be his demeanor – he never broke a sweat. Despite sitting in an airplane for six hours with people that he had threatened to kill, skydiving into a cold Novmeber rain at night and landing in uncertain terain, it all seemed like another day at the office for DB Cooper. He calmly smoked cigaretes, buffered inquiries from Tina Mucklow, and orchestrated a unique major crime – all with aplomb. What kind of man does that? A whuffo? More questions: However, if he did land safely where is his gear? Did he lash everything together and track it with some unknown electronic device? If it was a privatized commando operation, did Cooper have a ground crew monitoring both his location and the LZ of his stuff? Or is it all waiting to be found in some rugged section of Cooper Country? The Citizen Sleuths have revealed that Cooper had cut a lot of cord from the reserve chute. Tina has confirmed that some of this rope was used to close his bank bag and form a kind of handle and/or cinch it to his waist. Further, the CS reveals additional inconsistencies from the official FBI documents. Records from the early days reveal that two or three lines were cut from the reserve chute, but currently five separate cords are missing from the chute in the evidence room. This discrepancy is difficult to resolve at this point, but the five lengths of rope would total nearly 80 feet. But even if the lower number of shroud lines is used, two or three, Cooper still had 30-45 feet of rope to use. That’s a lot of line to secure the bag and affix it to his body. Perhaps these additional lines were used to tie the extra gear into a huge bundle, which got tossed and has simply never been found. Or was the bundle set on fire with the flares or other incendiary equipment Cooper brought on board? Maybe Cooper’s bomb was not made of dynamite but was actually a faux set of road flares that could ignite the left-over equipment. But, why burn an unneeded and unused dummy reserve? As bizarre a notion as this may be, there is circumstantial evidence to suggest that something like this may have happened. In 2011 Galen Cook revealed that he had received some intriguing documents from the estate of Richard Tosaw, who died of cancer in 2009, which casts light on the possibility that Cooper incinerated his left-overs. Galen had been a friend and fellow-researcher with Tosaw, spending time at Tina Bar with him, researching and discussing the case. After Tosaw’s death, some of Richard’s associates contacted Galen and gave him copies of selected field notes. One mentioned a “fiery object” seen over Vancouver, Washington on the night of the skyjacking. The notes reveal that a woman from Vancouver had contacted Tosaw in the mid-1980s when Tosaw was on Portland TV discussing his Cooper book. The woman, known as “Janet,” sent a note to Tosaw describing what she had seen in the skies over Vancouver, and she later met with him. However, Tosaw had never told anyone about the woman or her claims. Tosaw recorded that Janet lived in the eastern suburbs of Vancouver in a development near Mill Plain Rd. She and her husband had seen TV coverage of the skyjacking at 6 pm, so they were familiar with what was on-going. Shortly after 8 pm, they left their house and saw a low-flying plane to the west, heading south. They immediately saw a brightly glowing red object in the sky directly underneath the plane. It was so bright it illuminated the aircraft. The object then burst into a glowing, fiery object and arced away to the west and then faded out. It was lit for about five or six seconds, eight tops, she told Tosaw. “That must be DB Cooper’s plane,” the wife shouted at the time. The next day the couple wrote the FBI and described what they had seen. Several days later Janet says she was visited by two men. One fellow stayed in the car and the other, who was wearing a suit and dark coat, approached the house. He identified himself as an FBI agent but he never showed his badge or any other identification. He asked for the couple who had written the letter, and the wife confirmed that she had contacted the FBI. Janet reported to Tosaw that the “FBI” guy then got real nasty and intimidating, and told her to never tell anyone about what she saw – shocking her with the crude outburst: “Keep your fucking mouth shut.” She did, and never told anyone until Richard Tosaw was on his book tour ten years later. However, Tosaw’s reasons for never revealing her purported testimony are unknown. Galen says that after he received Tosaw’s notes he was able to contact the wife and husband, who are now divorced but still living in the Vancouver area. Galen says the story they told him comports exactly to what he read in Tosaw’s account. Further, Galen says that he has received two more reports of folks witnessing a burning object over Vancouver and he has interviewed the other parties. All three witnesses were in different sections of Vancouver and intriguingly, Galen says that their placement of the aircraft and the glowing object’s subsequent trajectory position the plane and the object in the same place – the plane was just to the west of the I-5 bridge as it crosses into Portland and the fiery object was seen arcing westward over the Columbia River towards Tina Bar. Was Cooper burning incriminating evidence? Another theory on why none of Cooper’s extra stuff was ever recovered comes from Geoffrey’s book, which suggests that Cooper may have had help on the ground, ala a Special Forces extraction scenario. A fellow named “Jake” contacted Gray as he was writing Skyjack, and told Geoff that he had been a former special ops kind of guy and may have participated in the retrieval of DB Cooper on the night of the skyjacking. “Jake” says that he was part of a team of “transporters” stationed in the northern reaches of Clark County, in the Amboy area. Jake said the borders of his patrol sector were Cedar Creek Road in Amboy south to the Cowlitz River, and from Amboy east to Yacolt, Washington. Intriguingly, Jake told Geoffrey that his target was an unidentified male, and the expected extraction point was to be along the Buncombe Hollow Road, off of Cedar Creek Road in Amboy. Buncombe Hollow is the main road along the shore of Lake Merwin, on the opposite side of the lake from the Ariel Tavern, and presumably the bright lights atop the Merwin Dam would be beacons to the incoming skyjacker. Jake also told Geoffrey that prior to his transporter assignment he had been imprisoned in Walla Walla state penitentiary on fraud charges, and his transporter services would earn him his release. Geoff writes that he has not been able to prove Jake’s pick-up plan, but he does confirm that the individual that he knows as Jake was in Walla Walla on a fraud conviction and had been “furloughed” the day before the skyjacking, November 23, 1971. As for a ground team, we have a hint of it from the possible role of Richard McCoy in Cooper’s skyjacking, and a similar bit from Cooper confessee, Duane Weber, which we will discuss in an upcoming chapter. Nevertheless, the money find in February 1980 enforces the notion for many that Cooper crashed in the woods upstream due to incompetence, became separated from his loot and that the money bag floated its way to Tina Bar. With this scenario DB Cooper went from being a master criminal to an inept fool in less than ten years. Larry Carr held this latter view all through his tenure as case agent, 2007-2009, based upon his videos posted on the FBI’s DB Cooper web site. But outside the FBI this view is fading as a resurgent investigation brings more information to the surface, such as those pieces questioning Earl Cossey’s veracity.Quote Bruce when you get 3 different versions do you want to know which one is right . I can tell you DB Cooper into the Funnel of Darkness the movie starring Nicolas Cage, Jennifer Anniston and Woody Harrellson... a Jerry Bruckheimer film Written by Paul Geivett Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skyjack71 0 #46099 January 15, 2014 GreyCopGC148 You got it all from HA HA HA. Jo Grey Cop I could add a few things to the last chapter - you know WHY that chapter interested me, but you do NOT understand that it was that chapter that put the icing on the cake. Duane told me about Pyramid on our way to Tahoe His story was different than the story in the book. He used to know a man who lived there (bare in mind I have told this story to JT and to Himmelsbach - but, decided to back away....but, I did discuss this with Himmelsbach and why I kept trying to find the man/or woman) who wrote the book. ALSO why I communicated with someone in Pyramid trying to find a man who used to live there. As we drove throught the area he told me about Pyramid Lake and a little town near there...go back to my very early posting here and at 101. I know I talked about Pyramid there. I have phone record from my trying to get information. Duane was NOT alone in Pyramid and the person he knew there was an old jumper. He provided NO name, but there was a woman with him in the story he told me and his LADY of the day told me they had gone to Pyramid in their travels - they were alway running from the law. The only thing Duane said - was I used to know a man who lived there - seems like he mentioned something about a lake - I cannot imagine a lake in the middle of the desert. That was Pyramid Lake and I have spoke of Pyramid Lake. He told me there used to large rock all over that part of the desert - I didn't understand ROCKS in a desert. He also talked about the GUYS in CA. He spoke fondly of the CASCADES and the GUYS. He did mentions some little towns in the Cascades. If you go back to the time of my posting about Placerville and the little town in CA. you will find my memory of the area from there to Tahoe and the little down he told me about in CA N.W. of Lake Tahoe - about 17th - it was a numbered street where the boys used to stay. He told me about Reno and only stated he could never go there agaain. He talked about CARSON, but that we were NOT going there. You do know that Duane encarcerated in CA at both Folsom and SanQuentin. You do know Duane has an extensive past in the area. You do know that a family by the name of BARTH lived there and in WA. You know that Duane's family live in Arcadia, Huntington Bch, and right now I can't remember the other names. His sister in 1971 - lived in MODESTO and Duane and his ex spent some time in OAKDALE at some apts when they were on the run (they were on the run a lot). Duane's sister after she found out in 2004 that I was NOT the woman with him in 1971 - was relieved. For some reason from 1986 until 2004 thought I was THAT woman. They had spent a few days with her during the time after the skyjacking. Duane was the baby and his sister was the only one he let know he was even alive from 1971 until 1986 or 1987. She told me he would call her every yr at Christmas, but she never knew were he was calling from...not until they placed the FISTULA in his arm to ready him for diaylsis - a fistual he would not use until 1990. SHe had a heart attack in 2004 because she thought I was that woman. We had been invited to visit with the brother in Moreno Valley and in 2004 his sister was also living in the area. The brother was going to have a private meeting with me after dinner, but during the dinner we got a phone call that Duane's sister had had a heart attack - John & I never got to have that meeting. John was going to share with me something had talked to Richard Tosaw about (John and Richard had know each other from another location in CA. Both John and his wife knew Tosaw and his sister...the both belonged to the same boat club in that other location). I do NOT know why I am repeating all of this CRAP - no one will ever believe me or even care, but me. All anyone inrCooper World wants is the LEGEND - no one really cares about the truth. I lost my map of the CA/NV area in 2010 on my trip to WA - and I also lost in 2004 on a trip to CA with my husband to Loma Linda for Cancer treatment the Osha map of 1/2 of the US Duane and I had in the car. They don't make maps anymore that you can actually see and read - now they are so light - and the print so small they are useless to me - so they haven't been replaced. I had all of the little towns Duane took me to marked and all of the places we stayed, but now that is gone - the routes we took - now it is all gone. Soon my memories with fade (as the trip faded) and then he will be a memory no more. He gave me his secret, but stupid me didn't understand and stupid me just got rid of all of those things....if I had only know that DAN COOPER was the name given by D.B.Cooper - the proof was still in the vehicle or in the house. All of that stuff I just loaded into the car and took to the missions and/or sold at garage sales. I didn't understand he handed to me his SECRET in 1995 when he said "I'm Dan Coooper". Remember when we went to WA was in 1979. We had married in March 1977....no man waits 15 yrs to tell his wife a secret unless that secret would have put him in a prison cell till he died. He started telling me in 1977, but it was NOT time to tell me the rest of the story. I was his shield - now I know that. On our first meeting he knew I was a Collins and even asked me where my father was from and what my grand fathers name was (it was JOHN). Then in 1990 I find out because to the driver license he was obtaining under that name and got caught that he had been encarcerated as John C. Collins - for 16 months 1966 to 1968 - but he was sick and on the machine - I just told him the past was the past and I did NOT ask any questions - I shoud have because he was trying to tell me for 5 yrs who he was - but, he KNEW me and that I would TURN him in! So he played this right down to the line, but he waited too long - he didn't know he would die during a storm just like the night he jumped out of that plane. It was not a WA storm this was a FL thunder and lighting storm - BOTH nights he begged - he said we had to go for a ride - but I couldn't get him to the car....And so Duane Weber died on a STORMY March 18 th in 1995 - That last NIGHT the storm pelted against the Hospital windows - there were large windows in his room. He kept telling me "Jo, Let's get this SHOW on the Road - come on lets get on down the ROAD!" The nurses sedated him and told me to go home and get some rest - this was the night he was sitting up in the bed naked cross legged and chanting the phrase I just told you. The next moring wheni got to the hospital they told me they had been trying to reach me. He knew I was there and that was when he started to talk about Take the Baby Down Stair, No brind the BABY back up - I can't go this the Baby get here" "I love YOU" and then the death gurgle. THE END ON March 18 1995 Duane WEBER aka JOHN C. Collins aka DAN Cooper aka D.B. Cooper died the morning after a big storm....how damn appropriate. Until this moment I didn't realize how appropriate!Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mrshutter45 21 #46100 January 15, 2014 how does a parachute marked 1946 get on flight 305. where does this 25 year old canopy fit into your conspiracy? can you prove it's not a cargo chute with your expert opinion? I thought it was already proven who's chutes were who's. so how did this canopy get on flight 305? you said Cooper never jumped with Cossey's chute, so why would he lie about a chute that wasn't his according to you? was it Hayden's? who's parachute was found in 2008 Robert?"It is surprising how aggressive people get, once they latch onto their suspect and say, 'Hey, he's our guy.' No matter what you tell them, they refuse to believe you" Agent Carr FBI Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
