will post this under the money find :::::
Talked to SA Schreuder again so will give a brief update. Dorwin is firm that there were many-many fragments of money agents were seeing as they conducted their excavation at Tena Bar. He says agents were chattering back and forth about it, comparing notes as they worked the beach raking and turning over sand at the scene. He says most of these pieces were the size of a dime, a nickel, a quarter, and so forth. By the end of the excavation we decided not to be so open about this with reporters ...
We discussed the new book on Dorwin's career and the other hijackings Dorwin was involved with. This lead to a discussion about the categories of suspects the FBI considered primary suspects at the time, and locations that were examined as possible sources for Cooper evidence. Dorwin confirmed that the Eugene OR area was one of those locations examined closely. I won't go into the reasons why (we can get into that at another time), but in fact witnesses were shown a number of suspects from the Eugene area. None of the witnesses ID'd any photo as matching Mr. Cooper.
Dorwin says that McCoy was a top suspect. A number of agents felt that McCoy had had something to do with the Cooper hijacking and had knowledge about the case. He says McCoy network of people were investigated at length, in this regard.
I asked Dorwin how firm the FBI was, in the idea that Cooper had died in the jump. Dorwin said "not that firm - we really didn't know". Dorwin went on to explain that no tangible evidence had ever been found to decide the matter, many people thought he died, some people felt it was almost a dead-certainty that he died, but others contradicted that notion and "we really didn't know." Dorwin says that 'throughout this whole case we were always considering lots of options, all the options we could think of, nothing was ruled out unless there was evidence to rule something out, and we discussed every option anyone came up with'.
Dorwin says that by 1980 when the money was found at Tena Bar, the case wasn't cold but it was not a high priority, "kind of sitting on the shelf, we had so many other things to do." He says the dominant theory at the time was that the money had arrived on Tena Bar hydrologically, but 'we immediately hit a roadblock since there was no obvious tributary from the first dropzone near Ariel'. He says that's when the Washougal theory came into play due mainly to a change in Rataczak's testimony and because Palmer and a hydrologist identified the Washougal as the best hyrdrological source. He says the dredging theory was being discussed too.
He says 'yes, somebody suggested that the money discovery meant that Cooper had survived and traveled to the area where the money was being found'. Dorwin says 'that got discussed but there was no easy way to test the idea'. He says that by 1980 memories had faded, there was an attempt to go back and look at old hospital admission and body reports, but since nothing of Cooper himself turned up at Tena Bar except for his money, the idea got shelved because there was no easy way to explore the idea.
Since Dorwin lived so many years at Portland-Vancouver he is very well acquainted with the area. Dorwin confirmed the hobo camps and itinerates which populated both sides of the river at Portland-Vancouver in 1971-72, especially south-west of Vancouver proper, between the Columbia and the rail line north of this area. This rail line loops down just above Vancouyver from the Ariel-Amboy area north, flanks River Road, then loops back up north toward Seattle. Dorwin agrees that if Cooper had wandered into this area with money, at night, looking for a way to get back across the river to Portland, Cooper almost inevitably would have been encountered by unsavory types who would have relieved him of his money and possibly his life also. That is why old body reports were searched (again) following the discovery of the Cooper money in 1980.
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