Nothing "cute" about the extensive buried shard field residing directly below the currency stacks. No way those shards were deliberately planted. Nature put em there, not a person with a scheme.
I used to be a believer in the plant theory to explain the T Bar currency find, but the shard field (well documented in a TV news video) forced me to change my mind.
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I don't think Cooper planted the bills to fool anyone. Before I get smoked, though, lemme put my speculation banner up:
The things that niggle me about the money and Cooper are:
1) he was carrying a crapload of stuff, too much to be inconspicuous, including 20+ lbs of money in a bank bag. He'd have looked like one of the Beagle Boys making it to the nearest road with that much stuff on him.
2) the compression of the bills vs. the way Kaye found they fanned in water. T-Bar is where the bills ended up (but not all of them) and the shards show they were at T-Bar for some time undergoing natural burial and uncovering. I don't think they started there. I think they were compressed elsewhere and eventually dislodged by whatever natural force (wind, flood, nesting birds, etc), winding up on T-Bar.
McCoy had to ditch his loot as well - he got caught because someone was onto him, as far as I've read anyway, but the loot itself was hidden in a culvert. The authorities also found all the Honduran guy's cash in a lump sum but no details were ever released on it. Bottom line: unless Cooper had an accomplice/vehicle (and the requisite equipment/ESP to find them on the ground!) he HAD to temporarily ditch at least some of his stuff to make the getaway.
Some of the money could come with him. The briefcase (and mysterious white bag of his own) could have contained quite a bit. Plus with an overcoat, suit jacket, shirt and pants, he had at least 9 pockets, and all we know he had with him for sure is a knife and likely a wallet, though the ticket agent doesn't specifically remember one.
He couldn't have returned for the money right away unless pretending to be a volunteer in the ground search or a treasure hunter. By the time he got back to the loot, part or all of it may already have been damaged (the bills do seem to show two levels of damage) and he may simply have discarded it. If it got found, it makes his death look more likely, which can only work in his favour. (That's why I don't think he wrote the letters. He was better off dead in the feds' eyes. Most criminals are not Zodiac. Most don't dare the feds to catch them.)
The discarded money then had years to make it to T-Bar, by whatever means.
Equally possible: Cooper died, and part of the loot ended up at T-Bar. It just doesn't explain where the rest of the money and all that stuff went. Cooper himself could have been mauled and eaten. But he had a crapton of material on him as well that would have been of no interest to a wild animal. If he crashed into the earth, he also would likely have dropped stuff of no interest to animals. So where is it?
