olemisscub

Ich schatze das!

Yes, I really, really don't like that narrative for the hijacking. It's especially nonsensical because the government did NOT want to be paying for airline security. The government wanted it to be the responsibility of the individual airlines to pay for additional security measures. So, saying the deep state was involved is silly to me because they had no incentive. This was a clever bank robbery, that's all. That said, I think there is a very, very real possibility that Cooper was CIA adjacent at some point in his life, likely through Air America. He fits the mold very well of their middle aged renegade pilots who flew in Vietnam. As I said in the show, I came across a news article from 1972 where a guy said the average age of Air America pilots was 43 years old. These guys were mercenaries. They risked their lives for profit. So, Cooper would have been used to this sort of dangerous game. The fact that Air America dropped men and material out of 727's with 15 degree flaps and gear down is almost too coincidental to believe.

Skip is a solid suspect.

Latest Vault release might be the very first Vault release where there was literally nothing of value in it.

In case anyone is interested in watching tonight...

Looked into him. He did have an arrest in 1963 for assaulting a couple of Sheriff's deputies, but nothing else stood out. The main hesitation for me to consider anyone who was an actual recreational skydiver is that Cooper would have brought his own chute if he was one of them. I've not spoken to any skydivers on the topic who would have trusted random chutes given to them. We can see it play out with our two copycats who were actual skydivers, McCoy and Heady. Both of them brought their own chutes with them. Cooper may have had a few freefalls (I suspect he did), but I don't think he was into skydiving enough to own personal gear, otherwise he'd have smuggled it on board like McCoy and Heady did.

He was talking about people who did it recreationally for fun. My ears also perked up as soon as he said but then I realized he was referring to the skydiving fad of "pulling a Cooper". It was a thing for a while to jump out the back of a 727 at skydiving events.

Unless they were asking for some preposterous amount, the hijackers usually got what they asked for. LaPoint asked for a measly 50k and got it Hahneman wanted 303k and got it McNally asked for 502k and got it Heady asked for 200k and got it Francis Goodell asked for 450k and got it Holder and Kerkow asked for 500k and got it The only one who I'm aware of who was short changed (who wasn't asking for millions) was Melvin Fisher He was the copycat who had the money tied to him with stairs lowered but lost his nerve and didn't jump. He asked for 550k and got 200k

I want to say that she joined the convent sometime in the very early 80's, because I believe she worked for NWA for another 9 or 10 years after the hijacking. I think a lot of the Cooper witnesses and participants were somewhat media shy because of what happened in the late 70's with the Coffelt stuff. Flo, Tina, Rat, and others were talking pretty freely to this movie producer from Hollywood who was trying to make some production based on Coffelt's story. There's a 302 where the FBI admonishes all of them and basically says "we can't stop you from talking to whomever you wish, but you need to understand that if you provide anyone with any information that could hurt the investigation in any way, you can be prosecuted." So I think that shut them up for quite a while. Tina was always a very religious and empathetic person. I don't think her going to the convent had anything whatsoever to do with Cooper. My list of suspects is just compiled of names in the FBI Files and names that others have put forward. I'll PM it to you.

Sweet Jesus…

But Cooper wasn't wearing "aviators" and those glasses I posted aren't aviators. I wear aviators myself. They're the only sunglasses I've worn as an adult. These aren't aviators nor was Cooper wearing aviators. Aviators do not have thick plastic frames (Tina, Alice) nor do they have any hint of a horn rim (Alice, Gregory) I defy you to find a photograph from WWII of anyone wearing sunglasses like those I posted.

Chris Cunningham recently found these sunglasses on eBay. These appear to be the closest analog to Cooper's. They are called Solarama's and they were produced in the 60's. I believe he and I bought the only two pairs on eBay. The listing even said they have a green/brown tint to them, which is how several passengers described Cooper's shades as looking like. Bill called them a "honey brown" tint and said that the rims were "very dark." When you search for these types of glasses from that era you rarely see them. Most sunglasses for men back then were expensive Italian type sunglasses, aviators, or the ubiquitous "bluesman" sunglasses. So because there were so few of these "proto-Oakleys" around at the time, these may actually be Cooper's sunglasses.