Posted by Whistle Berries at 11/24/07 9:17 a.m.

Dan Cooper, where are you?

36 years ago today, November 24th, you accomplished an extraordinary feat.

Reviled as a criminal by many, to many more you are a folk hero, for your actions in the ‘skyjacking' of Northwest Orient Airlines flight 305.

Over the years, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have spent mountains of money, and thousands of man–hours trying to solve your case.

All of their efforts have met with failure, and no one has heard from you, or seen hide or hair of you, since that Thanksgiving eve in 1971. And, that's exactly the way you planned it, right?

Except, of course, for the $5,800 in 20–dollar bills found by an 8–year–old boy out on a family picnic, who was digging in the sand along the Columbia River, on February 10, 1980; but, you planned that too, right?

More than likely, you wonder what happened to the other $4,200 that was part of that pack of 20s, right?

There are dozens if not hundreds of theories about you, and why you did what you did. However, after all this time, even though your case still is an active case with authorities, isn't it time to tell your side of the story? I'm not suggesting that you surrender.

What I am suggesting is that you are getting on a tad in age, and you should anonymously tell your story through the Seattle Post–Intelligencer newspaper. After all, you can authenticate certain details, known only to law enforcement, and unknown to any others. When you tell your story, you should provide some of those details.

Although your actions spawned "copy cat" skyjackings for a while, you did get the attention of the FBI, and other law enforcement agencies, toward tightening security at our nation's airports.

Other nations followed the lead to improve security as well. So, there was some good to your actions. Unfortunately, you scared so many people, and that was the bad part. Did you really do the skyjacking to prove a point about lax airport security?

You are very clever in how you approached the situation. As an ‘actor' you played your part very well; especially the part where you opened your briefcase just enough to let the stewardess see wires and two red cylinders that looked like dynamite.

Did you really use road flares because they would look like dynamite, especially with the wires, to anyone who had some anxiety about what was happening?

You are smart enough to know that demanding extra sets of parachutes might infer having a hostage jump with you. Therefore, the parachutes would have to be in good working order.

Although you posed as a smoker, was the Raleigh brand a smoke screen, as part of your act?

You impressed everyone with your knowledge of the aircraft's engineering and capabilities. The part about you wanting to fly to Mexico City, well, you had no intention of going to Mexico because that was part of the act, right?

The route selected by you would have the plane's pilot flying directly over your intended drop zone, right?

You removed your shoes and put them in your briefcase, otherwise, they would have come off during your descent, right? You had a signal from the ground from two friends - your chase crew, who were waiting for you, right?

What you did not plan on, was thumping onto and scraping the roof of a small house when you landed, and that got the dogs started barking because of all the commotion, right? You quickly and quietly made your way to the road where your friends found you about five minutes later, right?

As you glanced back to the small house, you could see a man standing on his porch, checking the yard, shotgun or rifle in hand, looking for what was making the dogs bark, right?

On the way out of the area, you decided to stop and leave a "calling card," if you will, a $10,000 pack of 20 dollar bills; at a picnic spot used by locals and tourists, at a turnout area alongside the river, right?

As the three of you rode home, it was quiet, except for the laughter and a tiny bit of giddiness about pulling off such a stunt, right?

When you arrived home, the three of you Vietnam veterans, had a couple of beers and a joint or two, to celebrate, right? You sat around the fireplace, thinking about and discussing making history, right?

You showed "the man" exactly how easy it was to do what you did - in the hopes the FBI and airlines would take action to stop others from doing it, right?

You knew the money would be useless because of some type of marking. That's why it took so long for the authorities to deliver it, right?

So, it was you Dan Cooper, who decided to burn the rest of the money, against the protests of your friends, right? It took a while to convince them all of it was marked or recorded to track spending locations.

Eventually it became a game to wad up each bill into a ball and toss it into the fireplace and watch it burn. Why, you actually had money to burn for the first time in your life!, and commented about that, right? That is why none of the money has ever come into the banking system, right?

You came up with the name of Dan Cooper, from a combination of Dan Blocker and Gary Cooper, two of your favorite actors at that time, right? You used the name of Dan Cooper that became a typo of DB Cooper, but you still want it corrected to Dan Cooper, right?

You know the cigarette butts could have your DNA, but you are not worried about that, because you are a law abiding citizen and would never do anything that would result in your arrest, or a conviction requiring a DNA swab, right?

So, Dan Cooper, whoever you are, wherever you are, please tell your side of the story. You know of ways to do that anonymously – before it is too late, right?

Posted by unregistered user at 11/24/07 11:15 a.m.

Yawn. Tell me the FBI doesn't have more relevant work to do than pursue this semi-forgotten cold case hoping for some favorable publicity.

Why not more coverage from the P-I about the illegal wiretapping the FBI is involved in?

Posted by no body at 11/24/07 3:03 p.m.

Just to let people know ,FBI Agent Larry Carr will be sopeaking at The Seattle Museum of The Mysteries Saturday December 8th at 7:00 PM. Its located at 623 Broadway E,Seattle,WA -between Mercer and Roy

call 206-328-6499 for more information

www.seattlechatclub.org

Posted by unregistered user at 11/26/07 8:07 p.m.

People used to dress up to go on an airplane back then. DB actually wore a JC Penny clip on tie. I am so impressed by this information. Not that a clip-on tie is all that - but at least the man was making an effort to be presentable.

Today, you're lucky if the guy next to you isn't propping his toe-jammed tiva sandal-clad feet on the back of his tray table looking like a walking advertisement for oral nizoral.

Today's terrorists have absolutely no fashion sense.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/12/07 8:08 p.m.

www.dbcoopermoney.com