Things to ponder:

The FBI was originally looking for someone from the Midwest because the Cooper suspect had no discernible accent.

-Dick Lepsy grew up in Chicago and lived in Michigan.


The Cooper suspect was described as “swarthy” or having an “olive complexion”.

-Dick Lepsy was allegedly living in Mexico for two years before the hijacking and would have been very tan.



The Cooper suspect demanded “negotiable American currency”, a term thought to be used by someone living in a foreign country.

-Dick Lepsy was allegedly living in Mexico for two years before the hijacking.



The FBI and many experts believe that the Cooper suspect did not survive the jump, so they are looking for a missing person fitting the Cooper suspect’s description.

-Dick Lepsy has not been seen or heard from since the skyjacking and fits the FBI description of the Cooper suspect nearly perfectly.


If you’d like to compare photos of Dick Lepsy to the FBI composite sketches of the Cooper suspect, please go to my website:
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If the Cooper suspect landed in a body of water and did not survive, and was someone like Dick Lepsy, there would be zero evidence to connect the skyjacking to the perpetrator.  A few people, family and friends, would see a resemblance between this person and the FBI sketches, but wouldn't give the event which happened over 2000 miles away another thought.  That's only if they saw the sketches, which could be unlikely considering how archaic the news media of the early 1970s was.

Thanks,

And I'd like to mention that, of the named suspects for DB Cooper, Lepsy is the closest fit we have to the physical description given by eyewitnesses (something I didn't emphasize in the post).

My takeaway from looking at Lepsy is simply the need to "back engineer" how someone without any skydiving or aviation knowledge could commit this crime. What reference materials, what research, who would they need to talk to, etc. If Himmelsbach is right, and DB Cooper was a copycat, he had two weeks to put everything together. (BTW, I don't think RH is right about that.)

Thanks,

And I'd like to mention that, of the named suspects for DB Cooper, Lepsy is the closest fit we have to the physical description given by eyewitnesses (something I didn't emphasize in the post).

My takeaway from looking at Lepsy is simply the need to "back engineer" how someone without any skydiving or aviation knowledge could commit this crime. What reference materials, what research, who would they need to talk to, etc. If Himmelsbach is right, and DB Cooper was a copycat, he had two weeks to put everything together. (BTW, I don't think RH is right about that.)

I don't agree on the likeness of Lepsy, but I agree on the latter.

It's hard to imagine how any of the copycats could learn how to do the Cooper jack in two weeks. Robb Heady had 160 jumps prior and a friend with a 357; and another who told him the radio frequencies to relay to the pilots to get them headed towards SFO.

McCoy had plenty of time, and he used it well - skydiving lessons and practice jumps in the fall of 1971, combat experience, and flying ability. What remains unclear to me is how he learned so much of the finer details about DB Cooper - so much so that McCoy's jump seemed to be an improvement over Cooper.  Such as where to place the fuel trucks, note-taking and recall, crowd control, where to sit on the plane for maximum surveillance, etc. When you look at all the copycats, only McCoy, and possibly Hahnemann, really evolved past Cooper, taking lessons learned and applying them.

So, the Big Question for me is: Where did McCoy learn how to be a highly skilled skyjacker? Newspaper accounts of Norjak??? I've never seen them. What I've read from those days are just general pieces of information, not a detailed handbook on how best to do a hijacking successfully.

Bruce wrote: "So, the Big Question for me is: Where did McCoy learn how to be a highly skilled skyjacker?"

That's a really good question Bruce. It would be interesting to see what he could have learned from news accounts. He clearly studied the Cooper skyjack, but was it just from public accounts? Or might he have obtained a first person account? Doubtful but an intriguing possibility. Sumthin just smells fishy about that Vegas trip.

McCoy really nailed it. Tossed the trackable radio beacons, landed near home, escaped immediate capture, retrieved the loot. It was an amazingly effective mission execution. His big mouth got him busted. Kinda dumb to have kept the loot at home too. If they hadn't found the loot was there enough evidence for a conviction? Your thoughts Bruce?

Burnworth looks sooo much like the composite, at least to me. He also had intimate knowledge of 727 systems and was a 727 rated airline captain. But nothing ties him directly to the crime.

So many Cooper possibilities.

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McCoy was a pilot, and he was an experienced jumper. I believe he jumped from a higher altitude as well. these factors gave him the edge. he practically flew the plane from the back. big difference in what Cooper did...

Bruce wrote: "So, the Big Question for me is: Where did McCoy learn how to be a highly skilled skyjacker?"

That's a really good question Bruce. It would be interesting to see what he could have learned from news accounts. He clearly studied the Cooper skyjack, but was it just from public accounts? Or might he have obtained a first person account? Doubtful but an intriguing possibility. Sumthin just smells fishy about that Vegas trip.

McCoy really nailed it. Tossed the trackable radio beacons, landed near home, escaped immediate capture, retrieved the loot. It was an amazingly effective mission execution. His big mouth got him busted. Kinda dumb to have kept the loot at home too. If they hadn't found the loot was there enough evidence for a conviction? Your thoughts Bruce?

Burnworth looks sooo much like the composite, at least to me. He also had intimate knowledge of 727 systems and was a 727 rated airline captain. But nothing ties him directly to the crime.

So many Cooper possibilities.

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Could McCoy have been convicted if the loot wasn't found? Hmm - you're the attorney, Three-Seven-Seven - what do you think?

I would say, yes. LE would have to explore all of the commentaries coming from Van Ieperen, the sister-in-law, and Gawd knows what the wifey was doing and saying....keep him under surveillance, get evidence from the plane, eye witnesses - y'know the whole Law and Order/NCIS package.

BTW: according to Rhodes, the feds were digging in the backyard looking for the loot while the McCoys were stashing it in a cardboard box and the stove pipe, sooooooo the loose lips were sinking the ship pretty quickly.

For the record, I don't think McCoy, Burnworth, Barb, Kenny, Ted, Lepsy or any of the popular suspects is DB Cooper.  We have to look more deeply. I think Larry Carr was naĂŻve when he thought the public would present a "father, brother, uncle, husband" who fits the profile and was missing on Thanksgiving Day. I think the real DB Cooper is a much more secretive and creative individual. I doubt that DB was a white, middle-class suburbanite like us.

I just saw the Bourne Identity on Netflix last night - NOW, that's the kind of guy we should be looking for - deep cover, covert ops, never talks, cool as a cucumber, a well-trained gentleman with very unusual skills. Member of an elite team - a super-SOG. A special team from Delta Force? A guy that Billy Waugh drank beers with in Saigon and wasn't mentioned in his book? That kind of guy. A guy who is not part of our world, so far off our radar screen that he is never considered for Cooper. Like a guy who stares at goats at Ft Bragg.

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I look at Burnworth and think "man with busted face." When I spend some time and look beyond the crooked nose, I can see the resemblance to the sketch. But, people remember faces as caricatures, and the defining feature of Mr. Burnworth is that nose. I can't imagine any eyewitness not mentioning it.

I agree Andrade. I don't think Burnworth is DB Cooper, either. But his is an interesting story. I talked to one guy in Kansas City, off-the-record, who told me he wouldn't be surprised if the family of Don's ex was involved. Apparently, the slime runs pretty deep, along with their cover story.

Several DB Cooper suspects sure have had "interesting" female partners. Burnworth's ex and McCoy's wife for sure. I guess you could include Jo too. 

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