What a flurry of questions and comments. A few thoughts:
1. Bobby has been busy over at the Mountain News:
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LoginIn short, he has some intriguing information from a friend of a friend who was in the company of senior FBI staff recently, who said that the FBI thought Norjak was an inside job. Bobby, of course, jumps to the conclusion that this information means the FBI thinks Kenny is Cooper.
2. Let me dig into the Colbert pile of emails and notes to see what Tom is saying that Fuentes has said. Some of it was off-the-record...
OKAY: Got it:
Fuentes has since told a deputy chief (3 weeks ago at an academy gathering), friend of a CCT member, that "all the DNA the bureau has is corrupted" -- no one knew back then how to preserve it.
This was in response to my questions about examining the DNA samples the FBI actually has and expanding the analysis using hair samples from the headrest. Colbert also went on to say that the CCT and he were not allowed to view any of the evidence directly, even though the Citizen Sleuth, Geoffrey Gray, and others, had.
Also, it clearly does not address the issue of lost evidence and if anyone is looking for it.
(I hope this is the Fuentes/Colbert information you are looking for, Duckie)
3. I love the insight that Rackstraw's hair must have been cut for the skyjacking due to its short length in November, but shoulder length at Disney World in October. Imagine if it was the other way around?
4. Flight Path and jump precision. I believe that the skyjacker could have approximated his location via math and projected LZ calculations. But landing within walking distance of his airplane parked somewhere in the Amboy area, and then taking off shortly thereafter without assistance? Whew. Hard to believe. Even with 377-Approved electronic tracking gear!
5. "Coming up on the suburbs of Portland and Vancouver..." Frankly, I take everything that Rataczak says, or even alleged to Anderson at this point, with a grain of salt. Simply, I don't know where 305 was, where Cooper landed, or who among the crew is telling the truth as we commonly define truth telling. To me, telling the truth means no spin jobs, omissions or distortions. And certainly no lying, not even little "white" lies...
6. Florence. It's great that Georger champions her as a Rock of Resolute Obstinence. But others who have actually spoken with Florence say she is wildly deceitful, forgetful, and tangential. I think it is telling that the only film clips we ever see of Florence are those taken in the early 1970s.
7. How dark was it? Having lived in Cooper Country for the past 25 years, I can tell you that out in the boonies it can get pretty dark at night. Some nights when it's raining and replete with lots of mist and fog, you can't see your hand, almost, in front of your face. Other times, it can be surprisingly light. The moon was 3/4 full on November 24, 1971, if I recall Georger's data from a few years ago, and there is a phenomena called "cloud bounce," where light will reflect off the bottom of clouds and bounce off the wet ground and trees and give a degree of illumination. But I would suspect that in the Amboy area at 8:15 pm that night, it was pretty scary - dark like that video Shut posted a few weeks ago of a night-time jump. Basically, "you can't see shit."
Not everyone will agree with that assessment, though. Robb Heady told me that in clear night skies he saw the ground perfectly well, including details of the trees. He also said he didn't need an altimeter because he saw the ground coming up at him, and he knew from experience when to pull. He said he pulled at 1,000 feet above the ground to minimize detection. He also said he landed hard because his 26-foot reserve chute was pretty small for the load of his body, the money, and the air density of mountain terrain.
8. Dwayne/Harold Ingram and lie detectors. I don't see the point of giving Brian's father a lie detector test. "Poppy" strikes me as the kind of guy who is always lying a little, constantly spinning the story - any story - to get the best results, whatever he determines that to be in the moment. I would imagine that the Ingram Family tells stories about how he changes his stories all the time. Any question of a plant by Ingram is undermined by the shard field. How did anyone know that thousands of pieces of money were three feet down in the sand? To me, a bigger question is how the family decided to divvy up the money they received after Tosaw won a court judgment in their favor. How did Brian become the custodian of the bills? How come Harold/Dwayne or Crystal didn't get a fistful? Bottom Line: Colbert is incorrect in his view of T-Bar and the money find.
