Agree, georger. Like I said, nothing illuminating.

I was going to post some interesting photos, but with the site seemingly on the way out, I don't see the point.

agree. who can know! 

There is uncertainty on these issues, Herder, but here's what I know:

1. The FBI found multiple shards in the sand after they started digging in and around where Brian found his three bundolas. Those shards, estimated to be about 10 or so, were placed into Plasticine evidence envelopes by FBI agents. We have video confirmation of this from the KATU cameraman who posted his copy on the Internet a few years ago. KATU subsequently forced him to take down the video. These shards and their placement in the beach sand were confirmed by SA Dorwin Schreuder when I spoke with him a few years back. It is my understanding that he has shared similar perspectives with other Cooperites, such as Georger. Whether these shards were found down to a depth of three feet is up for debate. There are bootleg copies of the KATU video floating around.

2. Continuing, Dorwin, who was the PIO for the dig and then later took over the Cooper case from Himmelsbach, told me that they did indeed find money fragments to a depth of three feet and within a radius of about 20 feet from the spot where Brian found his bundolas.

3. SA Ralph Himmelsbach wrote in his book that they found money to a depth of three feet. Al Fazio, however, says that is bullshit. Ironically, Al may have not been on the beach when the money was found at depth, presumably via shovel work, because the FBI had detained him on Lower River Road and was denying him entrance to his property. The timeline for this sequence of events is a bit hazy, though. But when he did arrive, Al and his brother, Richard, were asked to join the dig with their backhoes and then the FBI began digging at depth in a large scale manner.

4. The deep stuff, along with surface shoveling, was sifted through grated boxes, and thousands of teeny money particles were recovered. Those made it to the FBI evidence depository in Seattle and were filmed by the Citizen Sleuths in 2009/2010.

5. Once those 10 shards in envelopes left the beach, they disappeared. No one I have spoken with has ever seen them.

Thanks Bruce and JAG,

I’ve read a couple hundred pages of this forum and maybe 20 of this thread. But things change over time, so it’s hard to know if what I’ve read is the latest info, has been disproven, etc. I thought I knew enough to ask a couple questions that weren’t too dumb… (I hope…)

Also there’s a lot of bickering here, which gets tiring for new people trying to wade through all the threads here…. Sorry, but I’ve heard others say that too. 

Anyway -
It sounds like the shards were real, and plentiful, and 3 feet deep.

Then the question is whether they were distributed by the dredge, one of the previous floods, or by washing up from the river.  The latter seems unlikely.

Also, from what I’ve read, they were distributed at different depths - not just in one layer at, say, 3 feet.

Doesn’t that suggest the dredge? On the other hand I’ve read that the dredge spoils weren’t dumped this far up the beach, but are records of that really reliable?

So much conflicting information out there…. That’s why I’m asking what the latest and most reliable info is.

The bickering is at an end. We can disagree without being disagreeable - myself included. The hope is the future of this forum is informative, constructive, and collaborative.

Posts that do not meet this new standard will be edited or deleted. Users who do not meet this new standard will be suspended or banned.

That said, please ask questions! There are those here who have researched the case for over a decade or even longer. Learn about the case from them before drawing conclusions. No one knows all the answers, but asking questions is the only way to spur discussion and invigorate the case.

Thanks Chaucer

On the Citizen Sleuths website, it says that the money could not have come from the dredge, because the money find was too far north of where the spoils were dumped on the beach.

Is this still the current thinking?

Depends on who you ask. Eric Ulis has a different location for the money find than Tom Kaye does. Not sure if they ever came to a mutual conclusion about that. I also have some evidence that the money find location was within the dredge spoils dump. I'll post it here in a bit.

Georger,

Do you think the money was part of the dredge spoils taken from the river bottom? Or was the money already on the beach and simply came in contact with the dredge spoils after they were deposited?

These are two photographs taken in September, 1974. They come directly from the US Army Corps of Engineers. They show the area of the Columbia River known as "Willow Bar" which includes Tena Bar. There is a dredge deposit area known as "96.6". This number also coincides with the river mile.

The 96.6 dredge deposit area also appears to include the Tena Bar money find spot which I indicated on one of the pictures.

If this picture is accurate, then it would seem to show that dredge spoils were, in fact, deposited on top of the money find spot in 1974.

I have the same map which is a large file taken from Vancouver website.