DB Cooper

[JAGdb 69]

On the letter, option 2 makes the most sense to me.

Regarding the knapsack, I think he realized that the longer he stayed on the ground, the better the chance he would never get up in the air.  If you give law enforcement more time or an excuse to stall, they will come up with some type of attempt to neutralize him.  So he just decided to "get the show on the road" and make do with a work around.

[CooperNWO305 146]

7 hours ago, olemisscub said:

One thing I’ve come to realize lately is just how different Cooper is once he gets his money. He becomes a different dude almost.

A good example is how stupid he is when he doesn’t demand to receive the knapsack. He spends an hour and a half wasting time playing with nylon cords when all he needed to do was say “Hey, get my damn knapsack” and they’d have grabbed it off some kid in the airport and given it to Cooper in five minutes.

Cooper kind of becomes a passive actor in many ways once he gets the money. 

Right. He’s in Seattle. There must have been knapsacks available. He didn’t even grab someone’s luggage. Anything might have been better than that bank bag. Georger makes an interesting observation though too. 

[FLYJACK 654]

The knapsack,, Why didn't he demand one after he received the money..

He was confident in his skills for securing up the money bag.. that tells us something about Cooper.

His confidence in securing the money overcame the riskier option of waiting for and receiving a knapsack.

He wasn't some average guy, he had some skills. Those rope tying and survival skills are learned in the military.

[olemisscub 466]

1 hour ago, FLYJACK said:

The knapsack,, Why didn't he demand one after he received the money..

He was confident in his skills for securing up the money bag.. that tells us something about Cooper.

His confidence in securing the money overcame the riskier option of waiting for and receiving a knapsack.

He wasn't some average guy, he had some skills. Those rope tying and survival skills are learned in the military.

Cooper clearly had some skills with knots and stuff. What I’m really suggesting is that he has some sort of ADHD or spectrum type behavior. It’s like he became laser focused on this dumb bag. Some weird OCD thing. I just don’t think there was any real risk at all in demanding a knapsack. Would have taken mere minutes. They had already given him 200k. I don’t think there would have been a risk of shennanigans taking place over a knapsack.

Edited July 16, 2023 by olemisscub

[Robert99 37]

2 hours ago, FLYJACK said:

The knapsack,, Why didn't he demand one after he received the money..

He was confident in his skills for securing up the money bag.. that tells us something about Cooper.

His confidence in securing the money overcame the riskier option of waiting for and receiving a knapsack.

He wasn't some average guy, he had some skills. Those rope tying and survival skills are learned in the military.

Many of these skills could have also been learned in the Boy Scouts stating at the age of 12 years.

[FLYJACK 654]

6 minutes ago, Robert99 said:

Many of these skills could have also been learned in the Boy Scouts stating at the age of 12 years.

Boy Scouts were trained in parachuting... I did not know that.

[FLYJACK 654]

Is somebody going to present the updated parachute info at CooperCon??

I hope so..

[CooperNWO305 146]

1 hour ago, Robert99 said:

Many of these skills could have also been learned in the Boy Scouts stating at the age of 12 years.

The knots yes. 

[olemisscub 466]

2 hours ago, FLYJACK said:

Is somebody going to present the updated parachute info at CooperCon??

I hope so..

Yes. It’ll be Cooper canon soon.

[olemisscub 466]

I'm curious about this statement from Gregory. Makes me wonder if Gregory passed Cooper during the drink ordering process before Coop put the shades on or if this was actually at some point during the hijacking. 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2023 by olemisscub

[FLYJACK 654]

Gregory went to the lav 10 minutes before the announcement that there would be a landing delay for Seattle..

[olemisscub 466]

1 hour ago, FLYJACK said:

Gregory went to the lav 10 minutes before the announcement that there would be a landing delay for Seattle..

He was 71. We sure he only went to the bathroom once in three hours?

And yes, I’m aware of what his 302 says. Just saying…guy was pretty old.

Edited July 17, 2023 by olemisscub

[Coopericane 44]

Does anyone know what ages Dennis Lysne and Hal Williams were in 1971?

Edited July 17, 2023 by Coopericane

[olemisscub 466]

1 minute ago, Coopericane said:

Does anyone know what ages Dennis Lysne and Hal Williams were in 1971?

Lysne was 48 and I was never able to find Hal’s bio, but there is a photo of him in a 1981 news story and he looks 50ish, so I guess he was roughly 40 in 1971. 

[Robert99 37]

11 hours ago, FLYJACK said:

Boy Scouts were trained in parachuting... I did not know that.

No one has claimed that the Boy Scouts were involved in parachuting.  But as very young Boy Scouts, my friends and I were trained in and passed tests in knot tying and surviving in the Cascade Mountains in Washington State. 

[georger 197]

4 hours ago, Robert99 said:

No one has claimed that the Boy Scouts were involved in parachuting.  But as very young Boy Scouts, my friends and I were trained in and passed tests in knot tying and surviving in the Cascade Mountains in Washington State. 

Is there any evidence Cooper tied any special kind of knot - which would require training of any kind ?

Anything left on the plane which Cooper tied or knotted and left behind  as evidence of his cord tying skill . . ? 

I dont recall Tina or anyone else saying anything about Cooper's cord tying skills! ???

Edited July 17, 2023 by georger

[FLYJACK 654]

3 hours ago, georger said:

Is there any evidence Cooper tied any special kind of knot - which would require training of any kind ?

Anything left on the plane which Cooper tied or knotted and left behind  as evidence of his cord tying skill . . ? 

I dont recall Tina or anyone else saying anything about Cooper's cord tying skills! ???

[olemisscub 466]

OK, throwing a theory out there....

I believe that people have conflated the role of "the cowboy" and "the drunk." There's no evidence to suggest that they are the same individual. Of course we now know that Robert Cummings was almost certainly the cowboy because he was the only guy wearing a cowboy hat sitting in coach (Daniel Rice was in first class) and plus he looks less than pleased in the video footage. Also, he was traveling with his wife and teenage son, so I'm not sure if he'd have gotten shitfaced in that scenario. Anyways, I believe that "the drunk" was George Labissoniere. Some reasons I'm thinking this is true:

- When I was researching the passengers I found out that he had a couple of DUI related incidents in the 1950s and 60s. 

- He had gone to Portland that morning along with his client, and fellow passenger, Lester Pollart, for a deposition and they were flying back home to Seattle. I can picture him and Pollart tying back a few at the airport bar or on the plane. Been there and done that myself with a client, although not to that degree. But post-deposition drinks isn't uncommon. 

- In the video footage of the passengers he's the only one who looks noticeably disheveled. 

- Admitted he went to the bathroom several times. To that end, when I was talking to Bill Mitchell last year I asked him if he remembered a drunk on the plane. He said he did and he hadn't thought about it in all those years. He said that when they got on the bus and the FBI agents came aboard, that before the FBI could even call the roll that the drunk told the agents "hey! I really need to take a piss!"

- His 302 in some ways reads like a drunk man's memory of something. I'm not suggesting that he was still drunk when he gave the statement to the FBI, otherwise they probably would not have even taken his statement, but rather that his memory of it is through drunk lenses. For example, I don't like that his claim to have seen Cooper multiple times yet he didn't see any "suitcase or baggage" in Cooper's possession. Also, his claim that he convinced the Cowboy to go back to his seat sounds like the drunken memory where you overinflate your role in something that occurred. 

- Lastly, his description of Cooper as wearing a blazer with a sporty vest underneath...what the hell is that? 

Just a theory. Someone knock it down if you'd like. I'm not married to it. 

[FLYJACK 654]

who was seated next to Kloepfer

[olemisscub 466]

1 hour ago, FLYJACK said:

who was seated next to Kloepfer

No idea, but Kloepfer was in first class. 

[georger 197]

5 hours ago, FLYJACK said:

Does not require a class in knot tying from the Coast Guard or the Army! Any kid could do that!

Edited July 17, 2023 by georger

[FLYJACK 654]

8 minutes ago, georger said:

Does not require a class in knot tying from the Coast Guard or the Army! Any kid could do that!

Doubt it.

He had to have a high level of confidence in his knots...  or he would have demanded that knapsack..

[FLYJACK 654]

Grey said the guy next to Kloepfer was drunk,, he could have been making it up so I wondered who it was..

[georger 197]

31 minutes ago, FLYJACK said:

Doubt it.

He had to have a high level of confidence in his knots...  or he would have demanded that knapsack..

Well, you are speaking for yourself, not Cooper.

Cooper could have demanded the knapsack again but he didnt. It appears he is trying to simplify things and speed things up. Normal turn-around time should have been 20-30 minutes (documented by Sluggo). But they stalled Cooper with refueling. In the meantime Cooper wants as few people as possible getting on/off the plane. He designates Tina to be the point person but that doesnt work out either. .

Get the show on the road. Tina also says he tried dumping the money into a chute container but rejected that for some reason. By bypassing the knapsack he has put himself in a corner ... he finally decides on an ad-hoc solution to "get the show on the road" ... his first priority is getting the plane back in the air and getting out of Dodge asap where he is less vulnerable!  The money is optional. Escape is the primary mission ...

You guys are making more of this than there is!    

Edited July 17, 2023 by georger

[JAGdb 69]

Was there anything in the 302s that explain why a knapsack wasn't provided ?  Was it just over looked in the race to get the money and parachutes to SEATAC ?