WA WA - D.B. Cooper Hijacking Mystery, 24 Nov 1971 #4

[Hatfield]

Personally, I’m not convinced by this news at all.
Either way, I don’t think we’ll ever know if Rackstraw is DB Cooper because there’s no physical evidence linking him to DB Cooper, nor will the FBI investigate any leads unless physical evidence is found, I.e. the parachute and the rest of the money.

Part of me feels like this case isn’t meant to be solved.

I feel the same way that this case will never get officially solved.

Unless a big pile of that money ends up being found I dont think LE wants to put any more time or effort into it.

One of the common theories may be the answer but we will likely never know which one for sure.

For my best guess.
I kind of like the one theory about the guy that had a military background and knew how to jump. Ive been leaning towards that theory. Mainly because of jumping out of an airplane seems like something someone would have to have past experience in doing it. I cant see someone who never had training to be the one to use that method to escape the plane. So I will probably always favor that theory the most.

 

[Hatfield]

Ooh! Subscribing to this thread - I'm really intrigued by this case and will have to go back and read the previous threads.

You will enjoy it because its one case where there is a ton of information all over the net. So you can spend lots of time getting to learn about the case and the primary suspects and draw your own conclusions. Its a fun case to research. I never spent near enough time on it and I too hope to someday spend more time going back through everything.

 

[gregjrichards]

“It was the incongruous string of numbers in a 1971 letter that first attracted Rick Sherwood.

717171684*

"The numbers," he explained, "just didn't belong."

And he couldn’t let it go.

So, for hour after hour last winter, Sherwood, 70, sat in his man cave trying to puzzle out a solution to one of America’s most enduring pop culture mysteries: Who was the brazen skyjacker that parachuted from a jet with $200,000 in 1971, the fabled outlaw known to the world as D.B. Cooper?

Hoosier says he helped crack the code to identify skyjacker D.B. Cooper

The story is in the news again today.

 

[Dan Cooper]

It seems he's still alive, so it'll be interesting to see what information is released on Wednesday.

 

[ColyH]

I am no code breaker but I have no idea how this guy came to the conclusion that Robert Rackstraw is D.B. Cooper from that.

 

[gregjrichards]

A team of cold case sleuths who believe they know the real identity of the mysterious plane hijacker DB Cooper have revealed how they broke a series of codes hidden in six letters to come up with the answer.

Thomas J and Dawna Colbert, from Los Angeles, successfully sued the FBI in 2016 to have the documents released under public information laws, and since then have poured over them to uncover their secrets.

How a cold case team cracked series of codes to 'identify DB Cooper' | Daily Mail Online

 

[Dan Cooper]

So is it him?

 

[PaulR]

I am no code breaker but I have no idea how this guy came to the conclusion that Robert Rackstraw is D.B. Cooper from that.

I have taken cryptography classes. I don't think he makes much if any sense with his "logic" on how he cracked it. The problem is that Sherwood seemed set out to think Rackstraw was the guy, and it's very easy to make any cipher fit whatever you want it to say if you have enough time.

Example: How does he turn "ccccccc" into "Army Security Agency"? Seven C's, right? C is the third letter, so maybe it's 7/3 - the perp's birthday? Maybe DB Cooper was Gloria Allred, she was born on 7/3. Or Dave Barry! Of course this is silly, but so is Sherwood's story.

 

[snowleopard]

There was a guy, Christopher Farmer of a 'company' called Opord Analytical, who claimed to have solved an Id'ed the Zodiac. Little on the web about it now, but the 'logic' used was similar, eg 'the 'w' in the word 'world' clearly represents 'walrus' etc, a few unfounded leaps with some logic in between. I think it's about book sales.

 

[Cliff Hardy]

Personally, I’m not convinced by this news at all.
Either way, I don’t think we’ll ever know if Rackstraw is DB Cooper because there’s no physical evidence linking him to DB Cooper, nor will the FBI investigate any leads unless physical evidence is found, I.e. the parachute and the rest of the money.

Part of me feels like this case isn’t meant to be solved.

I'm with you on that.

Truly fascinating case. I have read 3 books on it and a whole lot more and the more you read the more confused you get.

The most likely explanation is the 'real' DB Cooper is someone who has never even been on anyone's suspect list.

 

[KaaBoom]

I'm with you on that.

Truly fascinating case. I have read 3 books on it and a whole lot more and the more you read the more confused you get.

The most likely explanation is the 'real' DB Cooper is someone who has never even been on anyone's suspect list.

If you really want to understand the case, go back and read the FBI report and the original news articles on the case, and disregard everything after that. Because everything about it since then is 99% fiction, from people looking for publicity, for book, and movie deals.

 

[Cliff Hardy]

If you really want to understand the case, go back and read the FBI report and the original news articles on the case, and disregard everything after that. Because everything about it since then is 99% fiction, from people looking for publicity, for book, and movie deals.

Yeah, l don't see it too much different.

 

[Lilibet]

This seems to be a new theory (quoting the link):

He didn't want to get involved.

But the crime and his suspicions were too big to pass up. So, fueled by an unlikely lead and a hunch, the data analyst started digging early this year.

Soon enough, he found a man with a plethora of potential links to D.B. Cooper, possibly breaking wide open the only unsolved skyjacking case in U.S. history.

Over the summer, he organized all of his research and sent it off to the FBI. "I am an analyst," he wrote to the bureau, "and in my professional opinion, there are too many connections to be simply a coincidence."

As he waited for a response, he kept digging -- and slowly pieced together a fascinating tale of lives turned upside down by hard times, an unusual workplace friendship, and a daring plan to make a big statement.
————-

Much more fascinating info at the link. To make a long story short, the anonymous analyst believes that D.B. Cooper was a man by the name of William J. Smith who died in January 2018 at 89. He may be onto something...or not. The FBI won’t say.
New suspect in D.B. Cooper skyjacking case unearthed by Army data analyst; FBI stays mum

 

[flute4peace]

This seems to be a new theory (quoting the link):

He didn't want to get involved.

But the crime and his suspicions were too big to pass up. So, fueled by an unlikely lead and a hunch, the data analyst started digging early this year.

Soon enough, he found a man with a plethora of potential links to D.B. Cooper, possibly breaking wide open the only unsolved skyjacking case in U.S. history.

Over the summer, he organized all of his research and sent it off to the FBI. "I am an analyst," he wrote to the bureau, "and in my professional opinion, there are too many connections to be simply a coincidence."

As he waited for a response, he kept digging -- and slowly pieced together a fascinating tale of lives turned upside down by hard times, an unusual workplace friendship, and a daring plan to make a big statement.
————-

Much more fascinating info at the link. To make a long story short, the anonymous analyst believes that D.B. Cooper was a man by the name of William J. Smith who died in January 2018 at 89. He may be onto something...or not. The FBI won’t say.
New suspect in D.B. Cooper skyjacking case unearthed by Army data analyst; FBI stays mum

That’s quite a compelling case. Certainly plausible. The picture is uncanny.

 

[Lilibet]

That’s quite a compelling case. Certainly plausible. The picture is uncanny.

I agree. The parallels he uncovered are too many to be coincidental and the picture, both as an older man and in the high school yearbook, are remarkably similar to the sketch. I’m glad he went public, even if anonymously, since we may never hear what the FBI concludes.

 

[dub]

Wow this is pretty wild, the parallels seem to be there and while I don't think the sketch is totally dead-on it does look like a reasonable midpoint between the younger and older pictures of this Smith.

The other interesting thing about this suspect is his age actually fits.

Cooper was thought to be in his mid 40s, but Rackstraw I believe was in his late 20s in 1971 and several other "suspects" I've read about were of similar age. But this Smith would have been right in range, something like 42 years old.

 

[KaaBoom]

This seems to be a new theory (quoting the link):

He didn't want to get involved.

But the crime and his suspicions were too big to pass up. So, fueled by an unlikely lead and a hunch, the data analyst started digging early this year.

Soon enough, he found a man with a plethora of potential links to D.B. Cooper, possibly breaking wide open the only unsolved skyjacking case in U.S. history.

Over the summer, he organized all of his research and sent it off to the FBI. "I am an analyst," he wrote to the bureau, "and in my professional opinion, there are too many connections to be simply a coincidence."

As he waited for a response, he kept digging -- and slowly pieced together a fascinating tale of lives turned upside down by hard times, an unusual workplace friendship, and a daring plan to make a big statement.
————-

Much more fascinating info at the link. To make a long story short, the anonymous analyst believes that D.B. Cooper was a man by the name of William J. Smith who died in January 2018 at 89. He may be onto something...or not. The FBI won’t say.
New suspect in D.B. Cooper skyjacking case unearthed by Army data analyst; FBI stays mum

Several good comments on the comments section.

The only sure clue is that some of the money was found along the banks of the Columbia River. Given that none of the other money has ever been found, it's likely that his aim point was the river or banks of the river. In any case, the money made it to the river and was lost.
Seems pretty simple from that point that either one counts up the missing men at that point in time and you rule them out, OR he survived minus the money and remained silent.

Since the money has never surfaced, it's obvious that Cooper didn't make it. This is just like the story of the guys who escaped from Alcatraz. They didn't make it either. They have all the serial numbers from the bills, and none of them have ever come back into the system. Anyone who believes this nonsense has no idea how our system actually works. Of course, if you want to believe he survived, but somehow he lost the money in the jump, that's up to you.

 

[KaaBoom]

That’s quite a compelling case. Certainly plausible. The picture is uncanny.

The only similarities I see are his hair style, and maybe his ears. His face looks nothing the same IMHO.

 

[Lilibet]

Several good comments on the comments section.

And then there’s this comment about the money:

“A smart man would have washed the $20's and reprinted them as $100's. Way before any security features. Turn $200,000 in to a million in untraceable counterfeit bills, then your serial numbers wouldn't matter. Makes planting a few thousand in $20's for some kid to find seem like nothing then. Many people wouldn't have been able to tell a counterfeit back then anyway, especially if it was on the right paper.”

The only similarities I see are his hair style, and maybe his ears. His face looks nothing the same IMHO.

The nose is certainly narrower in the sketch, but we’ve all seen sketches that ended up looking quite different from the actual person. There’s even variation in these sketches.






I don’t really have an opinion about what happened to Cooper. It would seem impossible that he could have survived the jump. But there’s always someone who beats the odds. It’s an interesting theory IMO.

 

[snowleopard]

Someone has a 'new' suspect, worth a read:
D.B. Cooper search leads to Bachelor Island; ex-FBI agent says suspect will get away with it ‘unless he confesses’