Bookman Old Style

Thank you! I should not have relied on a transcribed version. Whoever did the transcription into a Word document in the "Vault" area of the other site missed one word and added another, transforming "not tie type shoes" to "not type shoes (loafers)." That's very misleading.

Flyjack, that's a fascinating letter. The 14 months to live, and the partial match (plus cipher) of the Cooper bill are both suggestive. What doesn't make sense to me though, is the boast about using a toupee and putty makeup. From the one picture I've seen of Hahneman, he naturally had hair fairly similar to the Cooper sketch (dark; high or receding hairline, but not bald). Putty makeup makes me think of a fake big nose or chin, or a prominent brow line. No one described Cooper as having any unusual facial features like that. Also, it seems hard to believe that Tina Mucklow would miss theatrical makeup when she sat right next to him for so long.

Could be. I would probably call those ankle boots with a wing tip toe, rather than ankle length shoes. I was thinking someone more like this 1959 Genesco steel toe work shoe, supposedly made for the US military. Either way, the point is that Cooper probably wore sturdy footwear, better suited to jumping out of a plane than loose, flimsy loafers.

Interesting post, Robert. Thank you. I've heard mention of the Amboy chute, but haven't read up on it yet. Regarding the shoe(s): in my original post on the other forum, I asked if any witnesses actually called Cooper's shoes "loafers." Everything I've read so far just says dark, brown or black "shoes," except for Tina Mucklow's 12/1-2 interview in her PA home. She apparently called them "brown ankle length pebble grain shoes, not type shoes (loafers)." The wording is odd, but that says low-cut boots, or high-top leather street shoes to me, as Flyjack mentioned above. Which undercuts a lot of the giggling and speculating about Cooper being under-prepared or dumb due to his wearing "loafers."

(responding to Flyjack) I'm determined to stay out of the personal conflicts between folks on both boards. I think we can find common ground in saying that the phrase "negotiable American currency" is notable, and may be significant. We can disagree on how it's significant. By the way, I'm not ruling out Cooper being non-American. I hadn't heard of Hahnman- I'll check him out. One more related thing that interests me is whether the crew or Northwest seriously thought that Cooper wanted to go to Cuba, before he gave his instructions about Mexico. Tina Mucklow joked with him about it (Cuban rum and cigars), and as the New York Times put it in their Cooper 20th anniversary article, "Back in 1971, every skyjacker was going to Cuba."

Thanks for your explanation, Flyjack. Since I'm so new to this, I don't know how widespread the idea is in Cooperland that the phrase "negotiable American currency," or just the qualifier "American" implies a non-American speaker. I do think it could imply a number of other things, if Cooper did say it. I'd put "trying to sound sophisticated" near the top of the list. After all, Cooper said a number of wacky things. One I haven't seen discussed is his warning that radio transmissions might set off his supposedly battery-powered dynamite bomb. I'm not an electrical engineer, but if Cooper was serious, he may have watched too many spy thrillers. Also near the top of my list as a reason for saying the phrase is his physical appearance. In a recent post, you enumerated the many, many witness statements describing him as "swarthy, olive complexion, possibly Mexican." Maybe he was used to people being confused about his ethnicity and/or nationality, and was trying to avoid getting a bag full of pesos, even if he had not yet declared that he wanted to the plane to fly to Mexico. I would put "foreign influence" near the bottom of the list. I've been to Canada. Before leaving, I might go to my bank and ask for "Canadian currency." At the border, I might declare that I'm bringing in "Canadian currency." But at a cafe, I wouldn't ask for my change to be in "Canadian currency." Come to think of it, though, did Northwest fly in and out of Canada a lot in 1971? If so, was the onboard petty cash (for in-flight drinks, etc) available in both US and Canadian currency? Maybe Cooper had flown practice dry runs on Northwest, and gotten Canadian money as change for a bourbon? Along the same lines, since the ransom stash is said to have been pre-prepared and photographed, did the airlines serving Canada keep a similar stash in Canadian dollars? Or did all skyjackers prefer American dollars?

Hi Flyjack. I appreciate you checking my examples. I was hoping someone would engage my examples this closely. I'm happy to be proven wrong, but in this case, I think we're just talking at cross purposes. My argument is very narrow. I'm saying that the use of the phrase "negotiable American currency," does not imply a non-native, or non-American, speaker. It is not a clumsy, incorrect, or foreign-sounding phrase to a speaker of American English. This is demonstrated in my examples by its appearance in the work of multiple American-born and American-raised writers. It IS a somewhat pedantic, technical phrase, no doubt, and context is always important. My argument was inspired by statements like the following, from the Citizen Sleuths website: "Since no American citizen would use those terms, it suggests that Cooper was not originally from this country." They don't seem to be referring to context at all, because lots of American citizens might use those terms, given the right circumstance. They seem to be saying that no American citizen would say that, period. To the extent that anyone thinks that, I'm disagreeing. If no one thinks that, well then I'm barking up the wrong tree. By the way, I think you cherry-picked my examples a little bit. The "Car Life" example from 1963 doesn't appear to have any international context, and seems to use the fussiness of the phrase for humor. It's entirely possible that IF Cooper said the exact phrase, he was also being humorous, or impatient, or sarcastic. We know that he used the phrase "no funny stuff," which strikes many people as an awkward attempt to sound like an old-fashioned gangster. Maybe he fancied himself a suave, James Bond-like figure, too, and thought that "negotiable American currency" sounded impressive and sophisticated. Who knows? Not me. Finally, I don't understand your thinking on someone, possibly military, with "recent international exposure/influence." Such as person, or almost any person, doesn't normally forget what country they are in. For instance, if an British soldier returning from years in Afghanistan were robbing a bank in London, they would not accidentally ask for a bag filled with "British currency." unless they were making some kind of joke, or were robbing the international currency exchange desk.