Background details to the Gene Bland Story
Gene Bland first popped up on our radar screen about a year ago when 377 gave us a link to his DB Cooper posts on Facebook that got noticed by the skydiving community.
I followed up, and was able to determine that Gene is now in Texas, most likely living on a ranch in the northern part of the state and flying/woreking at Astroid Aviation in a suburb south of Dallas. He was unresponsive to phone messages and snail mail.
Out of the blue a few days ago he posted at the MN in the middle of the current shitstorm between Shutter and Blevins.
Everything that Shutter has posted this evening here far exceeds everything that I've known about the guy, or is an extension of everything he posted at the MN.
Is he legit? Hard to say. He speaks authoritatively, but cryptically. He seems pretty cranky, too. I imagine Georger in a parachute... just sayin'...(smile.) One thing we do know is that everything he has said so far is in direct conflict with the evidentiary facts as we have known them.
He sounds very influenced by Cossey. I would imagine they knew each other prior to Coop.
Lastly - and for those far from Cooper Country - the Willamette Valley is a great place to skydive into to escape a hijacking, imho. It is mostly flat, farming country. Large stretches of it are home to fruit and nut trees, which I would consider an excellent canopy to land upon. At worst one is only 30 feet off the ground, and well-hidden from the roads, etc. The Valley stretches from the Portland suburbs south to Tina's house in Eugene!
