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            I also hope that there are still people here to discuss the case. I prefer this site as well. I enjoy the discussions at the Dropzone forum. I haven't been on the FB site. ( not sure I would be welcome 😂 lol )

Why wouldn't you be welcome? We have over 3500 members there. All opinions and backgrounds welcome, including yours.

That said, I also wish this forum had more activity. Not sure why it has fallen off...

I confess this is my first visit in quite some time,  I think some people, myself included, find that this case is very close to being, unsolvable.  The final act that sealed it was the loss of the cigarette butts.  DNA is a very powerful tool in crime and forensics.  There can only be a few possible smoking guns to come about here.  And they are highly unlikely.  I see a new Zodiac video on YouTube.  That one likely is more solvable?  I saw your plane post. Nice.  The 727.

       I cursed myself when I said I would have time to post this past weekend! I apologize for the delay.  Soon, I promise.

Just eats me up that we still having living witnesses that aren’t able to at least let the FBI know when a suspect looks exactly like who they spoke to and observed. It’s spells coverup to me!

So when Tina said Rackstraw definitely wasn’t the guy, we need to forget about that? I mean she was sitting there with a former Assistant Director of The FBI.

I can’t tell you how I know this, but I promise you this is a fact. Mrs. Tina said LD Cooper is the closest looking person to the man she remembered. His olive skin, his square jaw, his receding hairline, etc.

In my opinion, Cooper will look a lot like LD Cooper.

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You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

            I also hope that there are still people here to discuss the case. I prefer this site as well. I enjoy the discussions at the Dropzone forum. I haven't been on the FB site. ( not sure I would be welcome 😂 lol )

Why wouldn't you be welcome? We have over 3500 members there. All opinions and backgrounds welcome, including yours.

That said, I also wish this forum had more activity. Not sure why it has fallen off...

I confess this is my first visit in quite some time,  I think some people, myself included, find that this case is very close to being, unsolvable.  The final act that sealed it was the loss of the cigarette butts.  DNA is a very powerful tool in crime and forensics.  There can only be a few possible smoking guns to come about here.  And they are highly unlikely.  I see a new Zodiac video on YouTube.  That one likely is more solvable?  I saw your plane post. Nice.  The 727.

I agree that the case is unsolvable. I do not think there is enough physical evidence to tie to a single suspect. The tie particles MAY limit the pool of people Cooper could be, but I simply do not think (in the absence of DNA) that we will ever get an answer beyond a reasonable doubt.

That said, I have busied myself with other aspects of the case. I have done a deep dive into the evolution of the dropzone along with the communications that night. I've also spent a lot of time speaking to experts in regards to Tena Bar in an effort to bust some of the commonly believed myths.

At this point, the Cooper case it more of a thought exercise rather than an effort to identify a particular suspect.

As far as not as many people posting here as in the past, I think the FB group has sucked a lot of the oxygen out of the room. Unlike the DZ, there isn't anywhere near the level of toxicity and unlike here, anyone is welcome to join and contribute.  I think the Vortex is evolving and expanding and I'm not sure some of the older generation of Cooper researchers can adapt. It's friendlier, less contentious, less competitive, and more collaborative than a decade ago.

This isn't my site, obviously. It's Shutter's. But I would like to see this forum evolve into a place where it's an "experts only" forum. Where the most experienced, knowledgeable, and respected Cooper researchers can come and discuss the case and collaborate. Just my two cents.

I agree to being able to have this site be "experts only."  The Facebook group has its uses, and it has allowed a lot more people to get involved, but it does get saturated with posts and replies.  I do think we have lost the participation of some of the regulars on Facebook due to that saturation.  The DZ has a couple people who don't post here, so to engage with them you really need to use that site, although Georger might want to come back here.

I'd like to see this forum get busier again.  I felt that we did not use it to talk suspects as much and focused on more technical aspects of the case.  I don't want it to be for the elite, but I feel Shutter had a good method for vetting new folks.  I see things like this:  Reddit is for the general public. DZ is to engage with those who don't want to be on here or FB, and FB is for a more general audience.  Well researched people seem to be able to hover back and forth between all of those, so bringing the tempo back here would not necessarily mean shutting down the good parts of the other sites.

I filed my very first FBI FOIA on Braden.
curious to see how the process works.

supposedly by law I'm supposed to get at least the first response within 20-30 days?

I filed my very first FBI FOIA on Braden.
curious to see how the process works.

supposedly by law I'm supposed to get at least the first response within 20-30 days?

This is what I sent them and what they responded with in March (next post)

I didn't explicitly all out the specific hijacking possibliity. I mentioned it, but sort of in passing
I wanted it to sound like I was more interested in the truck insurance fraud and the prison sentence (federal)

I used the FBI FOIA online request portal
I had to include some kind of proof of death. You can FOIA as third party if proof of death or >100 years old

I used a reference to the Social Security death index. Hopefully my screen shot was enough

here's what I wrote. I also said I'd pay extra over and above the "free" hours allotment they have.

Deceased Individual
Prefix
Mr.
First Name
Ted
Middle Name
Burdette
Last Name
Braden
Suffix
Jr.
ARN
SSN
366-32-4946
FBI Number
Date of Birth
1928/09/24
Place of Birth
Ohio, USA
Date of Death
2007/06/21
Additional Information
last residence" Stroudsburg, Monroe County, Pennsylvania

Joined US Army Jan 28, 1944 (gave incorrect age, only 16)
March 3rd, 1958 reenlisted in US Army
1960s deployed in Vietnam, Special Forces.

Married Rosalind Lauer in the late 1940s
April 1958 married Francis Patricia "Pat" Blizzard in Greenville,
Pennsylvania
April 1969 Divorced Pat Braden in Hardee County,Florida
August 1970 Married Catherine "Pauline" Pottios, Atlantic City, NJ

June 6, 1980 taken into federal custody in Massachusetts on theft charges
Mar. 3, 1982 Arrested in Ohio driving stolen car
Sept 4, 1990 Released from Loretto Federal Correctional Institution in
Lorretto, Pennysylvania
inmate number 26835-079. Unclear what the conviction was.

Feb 20, 2002 Arrested for DUI by Pocono Mountain Regional Police Dept.
Pennsylvania
Dec 17, 2002 Monroe County Pennsylvania probation, then parole
June 1, 2007 died in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania

Appears to have been investigated by FBI in early 1970's with respect to a
trucking insurance fraud case.

May have been investigated as suspect in U.S airplane hijacking.

Eye color: light gray or hazel
Supporting documentation
Screenshot from 2023-05-26 11-16-18.png