Lars Larson follow-up
Lars just hung up the phone on me after I listened to him harangue me for 30 minutes on Richard McCoy as DB Cooper based on Russ Calame work and Bernie Rhodes' writing.
Lars operates a talk radio show out of Portland, and every Thanksgiving he recounts the McCoy is Cooper scenario as described by Russ Calame and Bernie Rhodes in their book: DB Cooper-The Real McCoy.
But, here is what I got.
First, Lars hasn't spoken to Russ and Bernie together since their first interview in 1992-1993, and hasn't spoken to Bernie in over 20. As for Russ, he had other dealings with him, but not recently and doesn't know if Russ is still alive or where he might be residing. But back in the day, Lars took Russ and his wife out to diner in Salt Lake City.
Lars sees no problem with the fact that Calame and Rhodes were not able to collect any hard, concrete evidence from McCoy pertaining to the DB Cooper skyjacking, such as twenty. When I pushed his issue, Lars got belligerent, and the only way I could make a comment was to shout and talk over him. Lars also maintains his own set of facts, such as DB Cooper fashioning a money bag out of a parachute bag, wearing a jumpsuit, and pushing several bundles of money into pockets of the jumpsuit. Lars will not consider any other possibilities.
When I asked him why he thought the Seattle FBI refuted Calame's findings on McCoy - that he was in Las Vegas during the DB Cooper skyjacking period and had called him family in Provo on T-Day evening, and so was not at home - Lars seemed to chalk it up to "sloppy" police work. Lars did say that he followed-up with the Seattle FO on this issue and found them "disinterested."
Further, when I asked him "what it means to you" that Red Campbell and the others involved in evidence retrieval do not remember seeing the clip-on tie or collecting it, Lars simply, "I doesn't mean anything to me." He then launched a tirade of how important people forget important things all the time, and cited Nancy Pelosi's inability to remember some congressional briefing on something.
He also became fixated on what he said was my "claim" that the tie was inserted into the Cooper investigation as false evidence to mislead the investigators. I kept saying that I believed the reverse was true and the tie was legitimate evidence in the Cooper case, but that the memories of all those who had reason to see it or handle it, including Tina Mucklow, had their memories effected with the probable motive being to compromise the Cooper case. That led to the MKULTRA discussion and the termination of our phone call.
I never even had a chance to ask him about Rhodes' speculation that the Reno retrieval team was under the effects of "some strange post-hypnotic suggestion" when he talked to the agents in the mid-1980s while writing the book.
We were also not able to explore in-depth the claim by Calame and Rhodes that McCoy had $8-12,000 in cash in January 1972. All that is shown in the C-R book is that McCoy inexplicably bought $1,200 worth of plane tickets for his family that month on his credit card and then paid it off before the 30-day grace period had expired. Also, the book shares an unsupported comment from an investigator that says McCoy had carried $8-12,000 away from the Cooper skyjacking. Nevertheless, Lars touts the 8-12 grand as proof that McCoy-was-Cooper and had stuffed this money into his jumpsuit and it was all that survived the November 24th skyjacking.
