SeventyWonderful

So it looks like Mizzou has Sky Diving v. 14 (1972). I'm not sure if they'll lend it as the title is kind of scarce, but I can put in a request for it if it's of interest to the group.

Thank you for the explanation. That makes sense, and it helps when sifting through the conflicting reports about the parachutes.

I don't think he would take a chance with a live bomb setting off accidentally when he could persuade twentysomething year old stewardesses that what he had was a real bomb. His smoking next to it reinforces that. That's not to say he wasn't dangerous. He would have to have had a gun in case things went south in the air either with the passengers or the crew, but especially on the ground if he were injured in the jump and needed to get away. A gun would make stealing a car afterwards that much easier, for example.

It would be interesting to check either the news or the arrest records in the weeks following the hijacking to see if anyone was charged with the break-ins occurring the night in question.

Thinking Cooper's parachute choice is what ultimately strikes Ted Braden as a suspect. Braden certainly would have gone with the more reliable option, yes?

Actually there are a number of things we can deduce from Cooper's drink order. On a practical level he needed to have ordered a drink to engage with Schaffner, to size her up to determine whether or not to continue with the plan, and provide an opportunity to hand her the note. Him spilling his drink attests to his nervousness despite his quiet and calm exterior. This speaks to him being a novice as far as the hijacking goes. Him sitting in the back of the plane with an alias cribbed from a comic book aviator, wearing dark glasses and sipping bourbon while committing a massive and well-planned heist just like Thomas Crown, speaks to an element of fantasy. Remember in the movie the fabulously wealthy Thomas Crown was also a pilot, a master manipulator, had a grudge against the system, and pulled the final heist to prove himself against the system (and outfox those in pursuit). Compare Cooper's giddiness when getting the ransom to the laughter at the end of the clip. (On a similar note, I wonder if by providing the ransom money in a canvas bag, just like the ones seen in the Thomas Crown Affair, the bank authorities were also deliberately and sardonically referencing the movie.) His perhaps middle class choice of drink on the flight would be in line with his clip-on tie from Penney's and cheap attache case, which was noted to be new, I believe. His drink choice also lines up with him smoking Raleigh's on the flight. It could be he was older or more conservative in his outlook or maybe smoking a less palatable brand of cigarettes was a stratagem to keep from smoking too much during the hijacking. He may not have minded the way they tasted, but he certainly wasn't smoking Raleigh's because of their taste. His offering to tip the stewardesses during the hijacking also speaks to his working or middle class origin. Offering to tip when tipping is not permitted is gauche. You can also say that his lack of awareness of Northwest Orient's no tipping policy could mean that he was not employed by Northwest or was otherwise unfamiliar with their day to day operations. This is dashed off because I'm in a hurry, but musing about Cooper's drink choice helps with looking at the case facts through a novel lens. It's always fun to speculate and provides a few minutes respite from current affairs.

Oooh this is great! What a truly compelling and thought provoking post. This most definitely brings to mind the final scene from the Thomas Crown Affair, because you just know that's what he was evoking. I'm in a bit of a hurry now, so more later, but you've provided much food (and drink) for thought. Cool.

Yep, I'm a librarian and requested the microfilm via interlibrary loan.

Lol, I'm actually a lady (dudette?) but you're welcome. Seriously, researching is always fun and I'm happy to help.

The Nortern Kittitas County Tribune microfilm arrived. There is nothing about a plane crash or the hijacking for November to December 1971.

That is a great online resource for vintage catalogues (and for the way we were). I've already gone through those and hadn't turned up anything, but it's really fun to browse through them. Originally I was curious to see what Cooper's suit looked like when I started looking last year. It was truly surprising that brown suits with black pinstriping was apparently uncommon. My next step is to look through the textile industry journals as time allows and see if anything interesting turns up.

You know, it sure has been a fun past couple of weeks for speculation. My purpose for taking another look at what Cooper wore is to perhaps tell us more about the man himself. We can demonstrate that he wasn't someone who jumped ill prepared in freezing weather over the uncharted wilderness. We can also say that he wasn't a schlub who simply wore old clothes during the hijacking (although it's not like you're going to wear your Sunday best when planning to jump out of a plane). Assuming the clothes he wore were drip dry it would demonstrate that he came thoroughly prepared. Haspel's Sir Perior had a blend of 75% Dacron polyester & 25% cotton according to a 1957 ad. By 1964 that blend had changed to a more breathable mixture of 65% Dacron & 35% cotton. The jacket on eBay was made during that period. The breathable cotton/polyester material would be the ideal choice for someone wearing thermals underneath during the hijacking and then for the getaway on the ground. An older suit would also be an ideal choice in disposing of it after the hijacking, because Cooper certainly destroyed anything linking himself to the crime after he got to safety. It may also tell us more about his background. Haspel is still in business in French speaking New Orleans. New Orleans is of course on the Gulf of Mexico and home to a significant Italian community and various Indian tribes from throughout the region. Then there is French speaking Vietnam and equally hot French speaking countries in North Africa where wearing a breathable drip dry suit would be an asset. Going back to the scene of the crime, might having a drip-dry suit be an asset in the rainy Pacific Northwest as well? I also stuck my toes in the pool of government documents and the textile industry over the weekend, and realized I was waaaay in over my head. Government regulations and industry standards probably didn't dictate or limit the patterns for textiles (at least I don't think so). Now what we can do is continue to research in other ways. Over the past year I've gone through the catalogues for major retailers of the period, magazines, advertisements, and online listings, but so far no other brown suits with a distinct black pinstripe has surfaced (with one exception). It may be that cheap suits from over half a century ago just aren't around any more to be found, or it could be that his suit/jacket looked something like this instead. Botany 500 provided the wardrobe for many a tv game show host from coast to coast. This jacket has a much finer black pinstripe, although it could be more distinct in real life than in the photo, and Tina was able to note the pebble grained leather in his shoes after all. Regardless, I could be reading way too much into what Tina said about Cooper's suit, but I just can't shake the feeling that feeling that he wanted to be James Bond on a budget.

Well maybe our Mr. Cooper was one too, seeing as he hijacked a plane while literally traveling North by Northwest. "Some of them crop duster pilots get rich if they live long enough".

Oh that is all kinds of awesome! This has seriously made my afternoon. Cary Grant wears a Haspel drip dry suit in Charade. Here's an article about it and here's the scene from the movie where he demonstrates it while taking a shower. The full movie is on Youtube here. It takes place in Paris and the plot is about how a gang of criminals, along with the US Treasury Department, is after the $250,000 that Audrey Hepburn's deceased husband stole during the War. In the movie Cary Grant also wears a brown tweed sport coat, which looks like it has some black in it here. If that's what Tina meant by dark brown with possibly a thin black stripe, then it's (probably) a common material. However, the Haspel drip dry jacket from the eBay listing is the only example of (or part of) a suit made from dark brown material with thin black pinstripes that I've come across in well over 100 hours of searching (Vintage/antique clothing and design is a passion).

I have used up my like reactions for the day, but this definitely gets a like. (I'll have to do it tomorrow.) Notice how they all have the Goodyear welt construction, too.