NortonPete sent me a link about this from the San Francisco Chronicle and today it showed up in the New York Times as well. It seems the FBI has reopened the investigation into the 1971 hijacking by someone calling himself DB Cooper, or sometimes Dan Cooper. The only unsolved aircraft hijacking in American history is getting a fresh look by an agent who was all of four years old when it happened.
CHICAGO — It is considered one of the great unsolved mysteries of American crime: how a seemingly quiet man in his mid-40s hijacked an airliner somewhere between Seattle and Reno in November 1971, then parachuted in his loafers and trench coat, making off with $200,000 in cash.
Who was he? Did he survive? After all these years, federal authorities say they still do not know, and the case lingers and vexes and fascinates as the only unsolved airplane hijacking in United States history. “It’s a mystery, frankly,” agency officials said in a December news release issued periodically to update old cases.
But now, with the advantage of technologies that were not available decades ago and with newfound attention from an agent on the West Coast, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has announced that the cold case is officially hot again — and the search is on for the parachuter who called himself Dan, and sometimes, D. B. Cooper.
And, for the first time, the F.B.I. is providing pictures and information on the Cooper case to the public on its Web site, fbi.gov. The agency hopes that pictures like the one of Mr. Cooper’s black tie, which he removed before jumping, will prompt a memory, or that someone will offer fresh insight into what happened to all that cash, some of which was scattered in the wilderness and found by a young boy in 1980. (Already, a DNA sample taken from the tie has ruled out several men who claimed to be the parachuting hijacker.)
Here is the FBI news release on the reopened case. Basically, Agent Larry Carr is treating the case exactly the same way the FBI treats bank robberies. They release everything they have to the public and wait for someone to step forward with the information needed to break the case. If DB Cooper were still alive today he would be 85 years old. The crime can't be prosecuted now, too many years have passed. For the FBI and Agent Carr, it is more about just being able to finally close the books on one of the most enduring crime mysteries in American history.
And this is an itelligent way to spend taxpayer money because…? Time must be heavy on the hands of the FBI.
After we presented a very viable subject as “DB Cooper,” the FBI was forced to reopen the case. Although the FBI thinks our suspect, Kenneth Christianson, doesn’t match the description of the hi-jacker, one of the flight attendants said that Christianson looks more like the hi-jacker than any photo she’s ever seen.
We also have Christianson’s driver’s license, and the physical description matches the hi-jacker.
The FBI asked us for DNA, which we supplied, but I doubt if the FBI has any viable DNA from the hi-jacker. What they claim to have has been handled by many people over the years.
See the blog on our site for more info.
Where was Bush in 1971?
Perhaps Dan Rather and Mary Mapes could be called upon to make the link by “uncovering” the incriminating memos.