Jay Ritchie

3 hours ago, Andrade1812 said:

Was it the biggest influence tho? There are only a few copies of this book available. No way the book created much of an impact on the public when only a few hundred people read the thing. 

I'd presumed that the book was reasonably well known? There seem to be plenty of copies at impressively high prices floating around.

I recall a story that the original publication was subject to legal action and the books pulped. Was there any truth in this?

7 hours ago, FLYJACK said:

I have lots of Dan Cooper comics and studied them carefully for any Cooper connections but today another came in the mail...  a very unique Dan Cooper comic that I had recently discovered its existence... 

Which one? I think Les Paras is overlooked as it isn't included in the main compilations (with the apparent exception of the German books).

19 minutes ago, FLYJACK said:

 

Wherever Cooper landed he may have had a limited supply of cigarettes..

Assuming he was a regular smoker he would have taken spare packets - but might these have got soaked in the fall? If he was cold and tense he might have taken some real risks for a cigarette.

On 4/3/2023 at 8:38 PM, SeventyWonderful said:

Could he perhaps have had a burn mark instead from an earlier injury?  Perhaps it tied in with with mixture of the particles on his tie...if such a scar existed in the first place.  I've read somewhere online that he may have had a scar on one of his hands, but don't have the slightest idea if that's true or why it wasn't included in the FBI reports.

 

I believe that the reference to a scar on one of his hands came from the Gunther book. I don't think anything to suggest an identifying feature has been mentioned elsewhere.

5 hours ago, Slim King said:

As a mentalist I have a leg up on detecting deception. 

 

What do you mean by 'mentalist'? Does it mean something different in the US to the UK?

Just now, FLYJACK said:

Gregory said 1/4 Mexican or possibly Native American blood..

I presumed when he said '1/4 Mexican' he was indicating native American background? 

15 minutes ago, olemisscub said:

We know precisely what Gregory was seeing in Cooper that made him think NA ancestry. It was high cheekbones and broad forehead. In the 302's we have him cutting pictures out of National Geographic magazine and sending them into the FBI highlighting those characteristics. 

Are there features which would be pretty firm indicators of a NA ancestry (say - one grandparent) as opposed to some Siberian/ Mongolian/ Japanese ancestry?

24 minutes ago, CooperNWO305 said:

Right. It’s very difficult for Americans to learn the Asian or Arabic languages, and actually the Slavic/Eastern European  languages too unless they have the ancestry. Much more common to see an American proficient in a Romance or Germanic language. Not all of the above like Reca claims. Also, wouldn’t you think someone with those skills might look for a white collar job as an interpreter or linguist and not one in welding or construction? Maybe he just didn’t want an office job. 
 

Hopefully the Reca team can release his official military files so we can corroborate some info. But I bet because he was CIA that most of what he did won’t be in the files. Like the assassination in The Netherlands. 

I think the list of Reca languages just reinforces the impression that he was making things up, and didn't even have enough knowledge of the subject matter to know his claims were outrageous.

Still, his listing of Polish, Russian and Ukrainian plus possibly German is a long way from impossible. Thinking of people who might have provoked the descriptions given of Cooper perhaps men such as Charles Bronson (the actor, not the criminal) or Yul Brynner might have had an appearance which could have led some to think of native American ancestry?

3 minutes ago, CooperNWO305 said:

He spoke all those languages? Any proof? Any recordings? I come from a family of linguists. I’ve studied some languages but not to the extent real linguists have. So many people claim proficiency in a language, even today. Just look at LinkedIn. The same people claim to be CEOs of companies, but these companies have three people. It’s very easy to fake these things, especially when they have friends telling them how good they are. 
 

Do Reca’s military files show language proficiency? These files should. Any other examples of him using those languages? Maybe his parents spoke some, but that does not make him proficient. His whole story is too good to be true. I read this book many years ago and was very surprised to see how many famous people had faked their backgrounds. It seemed that most of them had military service, but they embellished things and added to their story. I’m not sure who is worse, Reca for lying, or the Reca group for believing him.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Valor

 

Its clearly not true. No way does he speak Philipino (I'm assuming this means Tagalog), Thai and Arabic, and I'm highly sceptical about Persian assuming he grew up in the US. Few people have professional competency in more than one of these as a second language.

Just now, FLYJACK said:

Is it his blue eyes and ability to drift a chute 100 miles (Vern Jones) that makes him native..

Haha!! I was thinking more that he has an appearance that could be perceived in slightly different ways by different people depending on the populations they are used to seeing. I would have guessed a Russian or Hungarian background - possibly Baltic - and wouldn't be surprised by some Siberian ancestry.

11 hours ago, Slim King said:

Walter Peca passed as a Native American. He looks a lot more Latin than any of those cool cats.

Interesting photo - do you know what Peca's ancestry was?

I have wondered about the different backgrounds of people who may be seen as a standard/ swarthy white guy by some, and as having some native American ancestry by others. For the last couple of months each time I've been into a cafe (many of which are Turkish or Kurdish in my area, plus some Bulgarian) I've wondered about how some of the staff might have been described by people from different areas.

24 minutes ago, FLYJACK said:

Serious note,, I have information that I can't share publicly, I have been instructed, sounds like a dodge but it is hard to argue something when you can't reveal it.. 

 

Is the information you have related to the RemCru connections, or another Cooper candidate?

6 hours ago, georger said:

A 30+ year veteran of Aloha Airlines asks:  Did the FBI search for Cooper in Hawaii ? Are there any 302s that document Hawaii being searched for Cooper suspects? 

I recall that yes - there was a fair amount of information about tracking a man seen boarding a plane to Alaska.

Edit to correct - Oops - should have said Hawaii not Alaska.

On 10/14/2022 at 3:09 AM, FLYJACK said:

This is interesting, there was an airplane extortion for $25,000 claiming a bomb would go off if a plane dropped below 10,000 ft. The plane was Seattle bound and the extortion in $20's was paid in Anchorage. The guy got caught in Portland when a bill showed up in a bank. That bill was tracked back to a German mechanic in Portland.. I had researched this case before and know that the rest of the money was not recovered.

I find the date (August 1970) really interesting. Have you come across any similar crimes in the years prior to Cooper?

I have wondered what started to give him the idea. Paul Cini mentioned hearing of someone hijacking a plane and demanding money which inspired him to think of parachuting. Apparently he saw this on a tv show in September 1970.

The likeliest crime I could see to link with the one which inspired Cini was Arthur Barkley in June 1970. James Bennett (May 1971) was the only other skyjacking for money I could find pre-Cooper which might have provoked the thought. Interestingly both were reported to have hijacked 727s.

I'd be interested to learn of any extortion events. If nothing else they establish that airlines would pay ransom demands, and that Cooper could have learned this readily easily.

On 10/11/2022 at 9:42 PM, Math of Insects said:

In that very long middle paragraph--the one that gushes over Gunther and speaks informedly about his work, including correctly identifying the date and exact title and punctuation of a 9-year-old magazine article, down to correctly placing the comma within in the quotation marks. But he can't spell "extraordinary" correctly?

Can anyone on this board correctly relay the title, year, and author of a magazine article they read a decade ago, without Googling?

I am finding this far-fetched.

Many thanks - I can see it now! Would be interesting to see a copy of the women's magazine. There would be a big difference between Cooper reading an article by Gunther which was mentioned on the front page with him happening to open the right section.

1 hour ago, Math of Insects said:

Wait a minute. Why would Cooper have read a woman's magazine, or know the first thing about an article, let alone the author of it, that appeared in one? Pre-internet age that would seem unheard of. 

 

I couldn't spot the reference to a womens magazine - would you be able to point me to where you noticed this?

2 hours ago, georger said:

As if things cant get any stranger ...  read this exchange over at Shutter's forum today:

R99: First, I can also state that (Georger) told me around 2009/2010 that he was the one who recommended that the FBI set up the Citizens Sleuths and contact Tom Kaye.  Carr obviously disagrees with Georger's claim.

Bruce Smith: R99, thanks for corroborating what Georger told me about the Citizen Sleuths.

R99's point of course is Georger's credibility. Never mind R99's credibility!  Hey guys! Why not ask Tom Kaye - duhhhhhhhhhhh.  Before jumping to your mendacity ?

You can read Smith's amazing interview of Carr here: https://themountainnewswa.net/2022/07/23/db-cooper-an-interview-with-former-case-agent-larry-carr/

This is priceless - hilarious! What goes around comes around? All I can say is: Thank you Larry Carr !   Please return to scheduled programming. Thank you.

I was surprised that Larry Carr didn't recognise your name given that he posted on DZ and appeared to read it.

Of all the things Clara or Gunther may have changed even if they didn't make the whole thing up wouldn't the names (Paul Cotton/ Dan LeClair) be the most likely?

From my recollection of the book I think LeClair wore clothing underneath the suit so buying a second hand one would have made sense and also explained the suit looking dated. I've also wondered whether buying a suit from a thrift store would have made sense in any case even if he had old suits he didn't mind losing. Far harder to trace the background of a suit bought that way.

22 hours ago, Andrade1812 said:

Gunther was quite the time traveler then, using the results from Tom Kaye's analysis on the tie to come up with a Cooper who worked in industrial chemicals.

Having read your book I bought a copy of the Gunther book - both great reads. I must re-read yours to check but was wondering if anyone has any support to indicate that Gunther's book was not just a work of fiction?

He refers to placing an add in a newspaper in around 1972 - is there a way to check that the ad was made as stated? He also references other people getting letters from 'DB Cooper', and the letter being passed to the FBI. Are these statement verifiable?