I think media attention is the only hope for reviving FBI interest in the case.
377
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Two Cooper related news bites. First a news blogger reported the following about Lepsy. However, the article that caught my eye revolves around the second story on his page regarding a James (Jim) Hugh Macdonald, You are not allowed to view links.
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In other news: Tina Mucklow's brother-in-law, Lee Dormuth, passed away January 2016. You are not allowed to view links.
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This MacDonald guy is interesting...although, he disappeared after the hijacking and nowhere does it say anything about him being gone two weeks prior to his disappearance.
I was thinking about this guy and remembered a few years ago Tom Kaye brought up a pilot from Canada who disappeared shortly after the hijacking. I went back and looked and it was indeed MacDonald he brought up.
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Get yourself a map of Manitoba, Canada and take a look at what lies between Thompson and Winnipeg. Remember that the temperature was 30 degrees Centigrade below zero (about 22 degrees Fahrenheit below zero) for the flight.
MacDonald is probably at the bottom of Lake Winnipeg or one of those smaller lakes between Thompson and Winnipeg.
Yep...I read the posts after Tom's, and that's exactly what you (Robert99) said after the initial post. Not sure why the guy who wrote the blog Vicki found (or Tom Kaye) thought they might be a suspect. It's his whereabouts at the time of the hijacking, not two weeks after, that would seem to be relevant.
Some of Tom's ideas are "hair brained". Some plain stupid and myopic. Like particles of makeup on a tie mean the wearer was a "womanizer"? Why not a womanizing sailor machinist on board a Russian submarine? 
It never would occur to Tom that the makeup was on the tie because the makeup was on the guy wearing the tie, and the only woman it came from was the woman at Penny's that sold the makeup to the guy now wearing the tie ... which could have to do with camouflage and survival! now that the guy is hijacking a plane intending to parachute from a plane at night in cold wet weather? and has nothing to do with secular pronouncements about Cooper's morality and sex life?! Give us a break!! Oh well. Common sense is hard to find these daze! Its our stressful modern isolation at work! 
Interesting observation, Georger, although I personally wouldn't have used the term "hare brained", I see your point. I would phrase it more that he is willing to jump to conclusions.
I saw Tom speak at a couple of the symposiums. In 2013, in Tacoma, he was talking about the Amboy chute. He implied if it were him, he would have dug deeper below the chute to see if anything (a body, a brief case) was under it. That struck me as odd because I had never heard the FBI didn't do that.
In the 2011 symposium, he speculated the Cooper might be Canadian because of the term "negotiable American currency" was used. That also struck me as odd because that was some else's notes, not his -- and that sounds like something you'd ask if you watch a lot of crime movies, not necessarily foreign.
So, I see your point, Georger.
That said, Tom is a very good speaker and his use of Google Earth images of the suspected drop zone (at the 2011 symposium) which showed just how much of it is wide open farmland, not the dense woods we'd all heard was very enlightening and really eye-opening.
I sometimes 'revert to type' as we say it in academic circles, and am too harsh or critical. Make no mistake about it: Tom's contributions to the Cooper case are singular and unparalleled, to date. Im glad Tom came on board. Without Tom there would not exist the data that now exists. And it is because of "that" that I am critical when anyone jumps to conclusions that I feel are unwarranted or unjustifiable/premature. So its a personal thing with me and I freely admit it. I am just frustrated that we could have done a lot more, and so little has been done with what Tom accomplished. I would have liked to have seen a closer deeper forensic relationship between Tom and the FBI, but I gather the FBI was not willing or able to supply files and information and a working relationship that might have proved crucial to Tom, and others. I find myself in the peculiar position of defending Tom "to the hilt" and then being critical at the same time. That's not a comfortable position to be in. I knew the minute the world found out about this work there would be problems and distractions. It's not a comfortable position for any serious researcher to be in... at the end of the day Tom has produced valuable data that did not exist prior to this joint effort (between Carr and Tom).
To answer Toms's question: yes, there were other facilities and people always at my disposal. Tom was not chosen blindly without very substantial backup. Without that the offer to Agent Carr to help, would not have been made. Those bonafides were given right at the outset before Tom even came into the picture.
Specifically, I have no idea what the FBI did, or did not do at the Amboy chute site. How deep they dug or anything related to that. Like you, I am just a spectator in that whole matter. I do know determining the material the chute was made from would be an extremely easy test ... as we discussed at DZ at the time. I do remember several exchanges 377 and I had at the time, and Im still laughing about that. But the type of material does seem crucial to knowing if it was a Cooper chute or not.
I thought the Canadian connection was Carol's work, not Tom's. Tom may agree with what Coral thought, but I have no idea what the current status of that is.
I have always thought Flo's remark that the hijacker was of Latin descent (and was wearing makeup?) could be crucial observations. If Flo was correct then possibly the Cooper hijacking fits into the scenario of Cuban inspired hijackings that were happening during the same era? Other testimony wondered if there was a Eugene connection.
But again, all of this is in the hands of the FBI and related agencies. There is only so much a private citizen can, or should, do. I think the best any of us can do is make educated guesses, and leave it at that.
