Its 10 years since 2008, and I'm musing about things I did that basically led to Sheridan becoming a standard fixture in Cooper stories now.
In 2008, you got to visualize, Sheridan was not part of any storytelling. He had published the Smokejumper article in 2007, but no one really talked it up. I wasn't aware of it. Other smokejumpers wrote articles talking about being suspected of being DB Cooper. So it was sort of no big thing.
Bruce did his interviews, which added good info. 377 and I discussed things on DZ.com. That attracted Sailshaw, which was the first real life person that could validate some of the crazy-seeming stories around Sheridan.
377 convinces Sheridan to post on DZ.com a little. 377 meets and chats up Sheridan in real life. So does Bruce.
Then someone picked up the story from DZ.com for Parachutist? and added Sheridan as a credible suspect.
Sheridan himself kept the game going whenever he got interviewed...He played the perfect suspect
Then the History Channel video/show built on that.
And then EU comes along with his opinions and interviews.
I can't help but wonder what would have happened if we hadn't thrown out Sheridan's name on DZ.com
I remember being nervous at the time, since he was alive, and possibly just a normal citizen. It seemed unfair to throw him into the Vortex.
But now, it just seems natural that Sheridan is part of the Vortex. Back in 2008, it wasn't like that...for all intents and purposes, he was just a guy with a interesting life, that wrote this book that appeared and disappeared, all while he was ranting it couldn't get published, and it was a documentary (fictionalized) about the Vietnam War. And it had crazy chapters that had nothing to do with the war, seemingly.
And with the recent FOIA from FBI, we see someone tipped FBI to Sheridan very early on, and then they did relatively extensive background checking of him (Boeing application/resume/employment record)
While we knew of the Boeing airdrop tests from the transcripts, there were no pictures and no FBI memos confirming back then. And Ckret hardly told us anything. It's like he loved keeping secrets.
It's been a long, strange trip.
Maybe Sheridan is a far better writer than I give him credit for.
I really wonder what would have happened if I didn't decide it was worth $25 to see what his book on Lulu was about.
And, was it really true that it was uploaded by Sheridan accidently?
If those two incidents hadn't occurred, would Sheridan being doing something different today? For instance would he have released his book?
The recent FBI memos also remove some of the concern about blue eyes in my mind.
And in 2008, there wasn't the Kaye information about the tie. I'm not sure what that all means but:
What a long strange trip it's been.
Hey did you know Vietnam is I think the world leader in rare earth mineral deposits? I think biggest exporter now too in dollars. Bigger than China? Funny.
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