Nobody falls off the face of the earth? I disagree with that statement.
Vicki, all your efforts here trying hard to find your missing dad, actually illustrates my point. Loved ones would be looking for him. Your dad didnt disappear without kin looking for him. The person may disappear but the ties would not. Thats what was my implication...
However, Mel was already gone a few months prior to the hi-jacking. "Kin" (my mother, myself at age 7, my brother at age 5) WERE NOT looking for him. He was already gone and not coming home. I did not start perusing the internet until I was contacted by the US Marshal's in January 1996 and we appeared in Unsolved Mysteries. In 1996 the internet did not have the information it does today.
I could see your point in this scenario: Say Gregory (a 6'0 tall, swarthy man with dark/black hair weighing about 180 lbs) was a family man working hard to support a family. He had a mother, father, wife and children and co-workers/friends. Bob had a "grudge" and hijacked the airplane and is now known as DB Cooper. He did make it home for Thanksgiving. Maybe he disappeared entirely. Those people he left behind would be looking and calling authorities after the hi-jacking.
all of this belongs in the Suspect Thread. This is the Tina Bar Money thread?
There's a basic contradiction about Mel being Cooper. Mel was a forger. His whole modus operendum required cover - impersonation - operating in a false pose as a cover for conducting criminal activity. Then running and disappearing when exposed. I dont see him suddenly giving that up that cover in order to conduct one of the most conspicuous public crimes in history! It violates Mel's whole identity and modus operendum.
Looking for Mel Wilson in the DB Cooper hijacking case strikes me as looking for ice cream in the desert.
<edit> US Treasury etal were already looking for Mel. Every forger has a style - his forged money has a style. When the forger's money turns up somewhere the forger cannot be far behind in the same area. That can result in an easy trace. Being easily traceable is the last thing Cooper wanted. Mel and Cooper were completely different people.
Georger,
I see your point on counterfeiting. It's a very stealth crime. Not only does the perpetrator wish to stay hidden, if all goes to plan the crime itself would never be discovered. Conversely, the hijacker gave a name, showed his face, talked to the flight attendants and made his crime clear for all to see.
On the other hand, you're only looking at only a small part of Mel Wilson's criminal history. He had served time in San Quentin and consorted with career criminals. He also had already vanished previously -- his family prior to Vicki's and even his mother never heard from him again after 1963. A person who was confident is his ability to disappear completely is exactly the kind of person who might attempt a hijack with an evacuation.
If you were trying to profile a career criminal as Cooper, would you be looking at someone more like, say, an armed bank robber?
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