The main problem I see with the known suspects is they have been on television, newspapers, websites, all over the place for witnesses to see them. not one has come forward to say it's him or really close.

I believe once they actually see a photo of Cooper it would trigger the memory. I remember seeing my old middle school year book I found on classmates.com..I had memory of a lot of them but it came flooding back once I seen there photo's again. you can forget a lot of details until it is presented right in front of you. a lot were already shot down in the first year after the crime by the crew.

Blevins loves to play the memory game to keep his suspect alive on the internet. I'm sure all three of the stews have come across something related to Kenny. Tina shot down Rackstraw and it appears to mean nothing?

I don't believe Cooper has surfaced in any of the suspects...

Really good points Shutter, it's not like the only time the key witnesses saw all of these suspects was when the FBI showed them a picture once.  Especially with the rise of the internet in the last 25 to 30 years, they would have had access to these images and maybe even searched them up on their own.  We can't know for sure, but I tend to agree, at least for some of the higher profile and longer tenured suspects.

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Every witness said it wasn't McCoy.

Flo, Tina, Alice, Mitchell

Every. Single. One.

During his hijacking, McCoy attempted to disguise himself, but every witness was later able to ID him.

That alone is a huge hurdle, and that's ignoring the detailed and thorough investigation of McCoy that cleared him of the Cooper hijacking.

Yet their composite drawing looked like McCoy.  And the FBI office in Reno made tons of mistakes.  Did not collect many items that could have been used for prints. FBI agent McCallum is a pretty smart cookie.  He is very convinced it was McCoy.  And one agent said that McCoy said something at his trial only  the real Cooper could have known, about the money  being lost.  The money lost was not found until years later. McCoy had the smarts to pull it off, was tough enough to pull it off regardless of being dressed wrong.  Former green beret.  Flo Shaffner is a horrible witness.  She has proven that. He was likely disguised before he got on the plane. How could they know?  And what about his relatives saying the tie and clip were Richards?  Just as damning as your stewardess testimony is non damning.

Obviously, similarity is in the eye of the beholder, to me the sketches look nothing like McCoy, especially regarding his ears, hairline, and posture. Let's not forget McCoy had a North Carolina (southern) accent and a lisp from his surgically repaired cleft pallet. It's more than just looks, McCoy couldn't even pretend to be Cooper.

Re: the fingerprints; The FBI literally removed the seat Cooper was sitting in, and had what they believed was a good palmprint from Cooper. McCoy's prints did not match any of the fingerprints collected.

SA Calume's book is actually talked about in the FBI files, and it's implied he wrote the book for money, as he should have been aware of all the evidence that effectively cleared McCoy of being Cooper.

I want to re-iterate that McCoy attempted to disguise himself during his hijacking, yet every witness was able to ID him. Cooper did not disguise himself, (unless his disguise was done by an Academy Award winning Hollywood makeup team), and every witness from 305 said McCoy was not Cooper.

As for McCoy saying Cooper lost the money, you'll have to give a source on that, I just paged through the interview chapters in the Calume/Rhodes book and didn't see that statement. Not that I trust that book... I've said this before, but there are some outright fabrications in the Calame/Rhodes book, and it can no longer be taken seriously as a source. We know this because the FBI documents are now available.

As for the tie, the FBI investigated McCoy's connection. They located two pictures of McCoy wearing his dark tie. We know this from the FBI releases. Most importantly, thanks to Tom Kaye, we know there are pin holes on Cooper's tie from the tie clip and a missing tie tack. The pictures showed that McCoy's tie did not have any clips or tacks.

And of course, we need to mention the exotic particles Tom found on the tie, particles that McCoy would not have been exposed to, and for which there is no source in Utah.
Forensically, McCoy's connection to the tie has been thoroughly debunked. It could not have come from McCoy.

Didn't he also complain that he couldn't really remember?

From Colbert's website:

“I believe it is no coincidence that the witness mistakenly identified this man as another hijacker who had been captured and shown in the media, when in fact he had pointed to the picture of [Rackstraw]. It seems likely the current prime suspect was encoded in the witness’s memory accurately as the hijacker during events so many years before, and he subconsciously made his choice upon that basis. He reacted as if he had seen him before, and with the accompanying label of hijacker.�

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From Colbert's website:

“I believe it is no coincidence that the witness mistakenly identified this man as another hijacker who had been captured and shown in the media, when in fact he had pointed to the picture of [Rackstraw]. It seems likely the current prime suspect was encoded in the witness’s memory accurately as the hijacker during events so many years before, and he subconsciously made his choice upon that basis. He reacted as if he had seen him before, and with the accompanying label of hijacker.�




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Thanks Parrot, I missed that on the web site, that is certainly a bit of a stretch that he is making.  I came across the attached pic on his other site You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Doesn't matter, you'll never convince anyone with logic or facts.

Rackstraw was a full two decades younger than Cooper's estimated age. He was just a few years older than the stewardesses. Wouldn't it be a bit insane if all three thought the guy was 20 years older than he really was? Does that make any sense whatsoever. So they interact with a guy for four hours, he's just a few years older than them, but they believe he's two decades older than them? Has that ever happened to anyone? Anyone in their life ever meet someone 25 and believe that they're actually 45? It's asinine. That's to say nothing of the fact that Bob Rackstraw was a GINGER. Reddish hair, reddish beard, pale white skin, greenish hazel eyes (or blue). Could a man with that description pass for Latin American? Would anyone ever see Bob Wesley Rackstraw and think "wow, where in Latin America does that guy come from?" Give me a freaking break, man.

Use the damned eyewitness descriptions. If they were completely invalid and never lead to suspects being arrested, why bother even take them down at all? Why would they take the time to do a half dozen sketches and hours of interviews to figure out what the guy looked like?

It's just ridiculous. We are decades removed from the incident, but go back and read what was written that night/the next days.

"Tall, thin, dark hair, dark brown eyes, Latin appearing, swarthy, dark complexion."

Sounds a lot like pale white Bob Rackstraw to me, with his five strands of sandy blonde hair swept over his bald ass head. Give me a break.

It is very interesting indeed. I feel like Cooper likely was some kind of laborer, as two individuals described him that way, notably Tina Mucklow (in later interviews, source being a 26 November 1988 Bellingham Herald article).

Prevailing media wisdom has always been to repeat the long held belief that Dan Cooper was some kind of technical wizard, classy business exec who pulled off a flawless caper and probably got away. The first time I read through the FBI files I specifically remember feeling like it was a different portrait entirely.

He made several mistakes. He fumbled around with the aft stairs. He was dressed in the way a laborer may imagine a business person would dress, clip-on tie and all. Pure speculation on my part, but what else is there to do with DB Cooper in 2022.

People have a natural inclination to give Cooper the benefit of the doubt on every detail, and I find it to be kind of maddening and counter productive. Him choosing the worse parachute and one that was seen shut suddenly becomes "no he chose the more rugged parachute and plfft, who the hell is Earl Cossey, anyway?" Rather than looking at it objectively and seeing that his parachute choice indicated a guy with limited parachuting experience.

Speculation here, but I now tend to believe that Cooper was not entirely unlike all the other hijackers of the day.  Desperate, against the ropes, a failure elsewhere in life, attention-seeking, vengeful, a bit narcissistic, thought he was the smartest guy in the room even when he wasn't, etcetera. Cooper went out of his way to make sure people thought he had things totally under control, because I think having that power was very important to him.

Cooper was definitely a cut above the average 1960s-70s hijackers, perhaps two cuts, even. However, he was not much more than that. What kind of guy threatens to murder people if he doesn't receive a bunch of stolen money? Would a "business exec" or successful career military man/intelligence operative really think 200k was worth all the trouble?

Really, he specified all that information on what chutes to bring aboard the plane? I could be misinformed/have forgot what is in the 302s. If it's not in the 302s or from a verified source, I haven't much interest.

Or is that just pure speculation? I've always read that he wanted "two front packs and two backpacks." Nothing more was specified. I've heard speculation about D rings and all that before. If they're (his demands about chutes and what he specifically said) in the 302s, please link them so I can refresh my memory. These days I only focus on what is black and white, printed in the 302s.