To take it a step further Bruce, he had the balls to say "I was wrong", regardless of his original intentions, whatever they may have been. I wish there were more out there in Cooperville that could do that.

Well, from what I seen in the video vs what he is stating now is different. perhaps it will be a good lesson for him regardless of what I, or anyone else may think. I'm sure he is off doing something else by now. I'll give him credit for coming forward, but still have doubts.

Though the case agents at the FBI have told me numerous times that Ken Christianson was not DB Cooper, and that they have ruled out KC for any further investigation or discussion, there is one more bit of info to consider in dismissing KC.  Bruce Smith forwarded to me a short article on Tina Mucklow that I had previously not see.  The article was written by a fellow in Eugene, Oregon.  In it, Tina states that she worked the flights from the West Coast to the Orient for a five-year period from about 1972 until 1977.  Northwest Airlines ran 747-100's and 747-200's from both Seattle and San Francisco to Tokyo as their primary routes back then.  The 100 and 200 models didn't much further range beyond that, short of refueling (Anchorage).  The 747-400's were the first model to extend range, but they didn't come out of production until the late 1980's.  That being said, this needs to be considered as further proof against Ken Christianson.  Blast author Robert Blevins states repeatedly that KC worked almost exclusively, the Asia routes for NWA in the 1970's.......as a purser.  That means he would have been the "boss" of all flight attendants on board.  Tina Mucklow worked the same flights as KC, as a junior stewardess.  Over a five year period, Tina would have certainly worked with KC on those flights from the West Coast to Asia.  And, she would have certainly recognized the hijacker, if he was the hijacker.   KC was not the hijacker.   Period.  Mr. Blevins can now go back to writing his other fictional works and grooming disabled kids, while Skipp Porteous keeps as far a distance from Mr. Blevins as humanly possible.

I, along with Smokin99, brought up this information about Tina's flight schedules at the DZ back when we first posted the article. This was approximately 5 - 6 months ago. Blevins did not respond. He usually doesn't when he doesn't have an answer. Or opinion.

Hey Georger, good chatting.  Agree with you on the blevins and jo snafu.  No relevancy to the case, and no facts to back up any assertions.  Complete hinderances and onstructionists to the case.  if you peered into jo's personal background (I have), and looked at blevin's record of accomplishments, one would quickly dismiss their presense, in any forum.  But I guess the DZ doesn't do background checks.  Too bad.  The slime tends to grow on the bottom of the boat, and in jo and blevin's case, the slim finally caused the boat to quit moving.  Best to ya, Georger!!!!

Apparently Sean Walsh has dropped the whole thing. I emailed him last nite. here is his response.

"releasing the info helped lead me to some determinations that allowed me to retrace some of my steps and rule out my suspect.

thanks, -sean"

I guess after a "six year" investigation he couldn't figure this out? I also found it strange that he didn't know anyone, or anything about these forums. I guess Washington writers have to be watched from now on! 2 out of 2.....not good.

We need more of him!  Very nice doing -

Ok, enough of that. neither one can reply to your post, so this only makes it hard on me because I have to battle it out with them on the other site. Blevins has been brought up here because of what was going on with the kid posting on DZ. everytime it cools down. these type of comments only fuel the fire. I'm tossing water on it now......

I talked with Ralph Hatley today.  He has an advanced perspective on Norjak, knowing Earl Cossey and Ralph Himmelsbach, and was well established in the skydiving community in 1971. Three-Seven-Seven recommended that I talk with Ralph and provided the contact information.  Ralph lives and works in Eagle Creek, Oregon, which is about 20 miles south of Gresham and about 50 miles southeast of Portland.

Ralph Hatley, interview, phone, 8. 25. 14

Ralph is a noted, long-time skydiver and owner of a DZ in Eagle Creek, Oregon. He is very familiar with the DB Cooper skyjacking and knows many of the principals in the case. Here are the highlights of the conversation.

“Yes, Earl Cossey and I were good friends,” he told me straightaway. “We made many jumps together.”

Ralph is a no-nonsense kind of guy so I got right to the point about Coss.

“What do you think about his murder?” I asked.

“I think he caught a guy burglarizing his house,” Ralph replied.

“Do you think his murder had anything to do with the DB Cooper case?”

“Absolutely not,” Ralph said, and he began a long soliloquy about Earl Cossey, who was the rigger of Cooper's chutes and a controversial technical expert for the FBI in the Norjak case.

Ralph said that he knew Cossey “quite well,” and they had many conversations about DB Cooper. Essentially, they both felt that Cooper made it to the ground successfully, so much so that he was able to truck out of the woods with all of his gear. Hatley said that he and Cooper never doubted that Cooper had made it, and he stated that all “real” skydivers felt the same.

“Cossey told me the FBI were just a bunch of idiots,” Ralph said, “But a few of them were decent, such as Ralph Himmelsbach, who is a personal friend of mine.

Ralph Hatley (RH-2) continued and said that he had told Ralph Himmelsbach (RH-1) that many of his Norjak theories were “far-fetched,” especially the notion that DB Cooper died in the jump because he was an inexperienced skydiver.

Hatley laughed loud and long when I asked him about DB Cooper, although I wasn’t sure why. Nevertheless, Hatley launched another commentary on the skyjacking, highlighted by the following:

“The night of the skyjacking I was contacted by the feds,” said Hatley. “’Ralph,’ they said, do you know a skydiver named Dan Cooper?’”

“’Sure,” I told them. He’s a guy from Moses Lake.’”

RH-2 said that the feds didn’t quite believe him and thought that Cooper died in his getaway, or was too afraid to leave his airplane.

“I was laughing my ass off when the aircraft landed in Reno, sparks flying, and they couldn’t find the skyjacker,” said Hatley.

At this point I challenged Ralph about the many statements Earl Cossey made to the media, including during several interviews with me that DB Cooper was an incompetent “no-pull” who cratered into the ground on his getaway jump.

“Bullshit!” Ralph roared. “We all knew the perpetrator made it.”

Throughout our discussion Hatley adamantly claimed that Cossey believed DB Cooper had made a successful jump.

Along those lines, Hatley said that DB Cooper “had some knowledge” regarding the chutes and skydiving. He also characterized the skyjacking as “well-planned”

“Cooper picked a parachute that was not a regular skydiving parachute. He picked an NB-8 or an NB-6, whatever, and that was smart because it had a rigging card and a rigging pin, so he knew the chute hadn’t been opened and tracking devices put inside.”

At this point, Ralph became very coy and challenged me to study the flight path and call him after I had a precise understanding of the details. After much prodding, Ralph relented and told me that he felt DB Cooper jumped over Battleground WA, and this location was very fortuitous because it contained a DZ that was owned by Ralph.

“I knew the area very well. I’d made a couple thousand jumps in that area, and I could do it under the same conditions and they’d never find me either.”

Ralph also said that he volunteered to simulate the exact jump – weather, clothing and gear, for a “substantial fee” - but the FBI declined his offer.

Ralph also said that DB Cooper was not alone.

“How do you know that, Ralph?” I asked.

“Well, that’s a long story, and I might tell you if we’re face-to-face and I feel like I’m in a good mood,” he replied, laughing. “But I told Ralph Himmelsbach. My story is impossible to verify, though.”

Ralph also said that the money found at Tina Bar in 1980 was “tossed into the Columbia at the Washougal Bridge.”

At this point I promised to meet with Ralph in the near future to continue our conversations, which seemed to be tip-toeing into delicate areas.


©  2014  Bruce A. Smith

OK, sorry guys.  We can get back on track now.  There actually is some new stuff on DB Cooper, but I'm just not willing to share with the guy who was not yet out of diapers when I began my investigation.