D B Cooper Unsolved Skyjacking

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After getting out of prison he is working menial jobs, nor being able to get on his feet and support his family - in 1970 he finds he has a kidney disease that is going to kill him (in those days you did not live long on the machines).

This man is defeated, but he has the information and plans with two yrs in prison to plan this. He had been involved since the 60's in covert and mob activities...from Las Vegas to Chicago to New Orlean to Miami to Texas and Tenn. In 1971 he is desperate - broke and his wife has left him. He has a disease that at that time was a death sentence.

I don't follow the part where he has a short life expectancy in 1971, yet lives to 1995?
Did he really have kidney disease?
Did dialysis work better than you say?
Did he get a transplant?

I have copies of old Parachutist magazines and can see if his name or aliases are listed in the Wings-n-Things section. It also lists the state the jumper was from at the time. I do know that USPA did go through their records at the time to look for this person. They did not find anything.

Personally, I think DB Cooper went in on that jump and no one has been able to find his remains.
Several years ago there was a BASE jumper that made a successful jump, but his canopy landed in a swiftly flowing river. He was swept away. S&R could not find his body - and they knew where to look. Something similar probably happened to DB Cooper.

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Why in the Photo, do some of these men have their faces covered up?

Mrs Weber, I have been wondering about this comment for a few days. In looking at the photo, it doesn't appear to me that any of the men have their faces covered up. I am intigued by this thread as well, but just confused about a couple of your posts. Am I missing something?

Thus my question to Mrs. Weber.

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Neutral third party viewpoint here. This will help explain the argument. This will help explain why we need to stay polite and continue to do benefit-of-doubt.

...

Yes, there is emotional reaction, but remember Jo is the one who had the dying husband, not you -- even if you don't think he's real, you need to give understanding of that. Hear, hear!

I continue to watch this story. It is one of the most interesting threads on dropzone.com lately.

Wow! Damned if I do and damned if I don't. It was my intent to stay out of this increasingly emotional thread but this post of yours and, more so, having a moderator lock a thread I started to address the facts of this issue has caused me to defend myself.

I started another thread having to do with this issue because, IMHO, Mrs. Weber is failing to look at the facts regarding DB Cooper.

You will note that in the fourth paragraph of the post which starts this thread she wrote: I don't want to debate theories about how the crime was done and who else may have done it.

For those of you new to the thread and DB Cooper particularly, I was under scrutiny 35 years ago because of an advertisement I placed in a Philadelphia newspaper in which I advertised "Parachute lessons for hijacking and other fun." Click on the link in my sig below to see the ad.

I purposely created another subject because I did not want to hijack the hijacking thread. The moderator of the locked thread told me a new thread wasn't needed and to post here.

This response addresses other facts regarding DB Cooper.

In the other thread I have a link to an essay I wrote dealing with facts Mrs. Weber doesn't want to entertain. And, as you can see from her posts up-thread of this she wrote to me: I am really sorry you started that thread.

What she doesn't want the DZ.com community to be aware of is that two or three FBI agents have gone public about this whole issue. One agent co-wrote a book about the whole episode and another agent shot and killed a man who hijacked a plane for $500,000 not long after the DB Cooper hijack.

That $500,000 hijacker was ex-Special Forces and a seasoned skydiver. Speculation at the time was that he did the DB Cooper hijack. My money is on him; Mrs. Weber's money seems to be on her ex-husband.

The FBI agent O'Hara who did the shooting is quoted in the book written by the FBI agent as saying: "When I shot Richard McCoy, I shot D.B. Cooper at the same time."

You can read more about this in the essay I wrote by clicking here:
http://berniesayers.com/An_Internet_Search_for_DB_Cooper.htm

As I write, above, I purposely did not want to attack or defame Mrs. Weber in her own thread but she and I have a differing opinion regarding finding facts and dealing with them. I have defended her against very personal attacks but disagree with her current attitude in regard to the publicly available issues.

I did not want to hijack the hijacking thread by writing a post like this but I'm following the moderator's guidance.

You decide. Read the other information available. See my essay above for links.

Here's a 1999 article concerning the 727 co-pilot . . .

Also - Has it ever been revealed exactly what kind of rigs they gave him? I remember reading (somewhere years ago) they came from a local parachute loft. I always assumed they were four pilot's rigs and not sport gut gear.

NickD
BASE 194

>>Ken Eisinger / Star Tribune

Capt. William Rataczak will tell you that he has two families -- his relatives and his professional colleagues -- and he doesn't like people messing with either.

In 1971, airline hijacker D.B. Cooper messed with both. Rataczak, who retired Monday after a 34-year career with Northwest Airlines, was the co-pilot during the legendary D.B. Cooper skyjacking. Cooper captivated the nation when he ransomed a jetliner for $200,000 and then parachuted out the back of the plane over southwestern Washington state.

He was never seen again, but $5,800 of the ransom money was discovered along the Columbia River in 1980. His feat -- or his folly -- has inspired books, a movie, annual festivals and a play by local laywright John Orlock.

Rataczak, who lives in South Haven, Minn., took a break from the cheers and applause of his friends and family at his retirement reception Monday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to reflect on his experience.

He had been flying commercially only six years when a man calling himself Dan Cooper -- the "D.B." came from a reporter's mistake and remains today -- boarded Rataczak's Boeing 727 in Portland, Ore., with 36 other passengers.

Cooper gave a flight attendant a note, which she ignored, thinking he was trying to come on to her. Soon after takeoff she read it and relayed the message to Capt. William Scott and Rataczak that the plane was being hijacked by a man with a bomb.

"He wanted $200,000 and four parachutes," Rataczak said. "And no funny stuff."

Upon his arrival Monday at the airport from Oslo, Norway, retiring Capt. William Rataczak shared a laugh with fellow Capt. Pete Johnson.

The plane circled above the Seattle airport while police below raced to get the ransom money and find the parachutes. When the plane landed, Cooper freed the passengers and two flight attendants in return for the ransom.

Rataczak recalled that he, the other pilot, a flight engineer and the remaining two attendants could have left the plane as well because they were out of Cooper's sight. But Rataczak said he couldn't get the flight attendants' attention.

Cooper then ordered Rataczak and Scott to fly to Mexico, agreeing to a refueling stop in Reno.

Although Cooper's identity remains a mystery, Rataczak said he was able to discern some of the criminal's qualities. Cooper's comments indicated he was familiar with the Seattle area, and had an dvanced knowledge of aviation, Rataczak said.

Just after takeoff, Cooper ordered the remaining attendant to go to the cockpit and close the curtain behind her. When she looked back, he was tying the money to his waist. In the cockpit, the pilots saw the stair signal light flash and felt a sudden dip and then ascension in the plane's flight.

The dip was caused when Cooper jumped from the rear stairs at 10,000 feet, going 196 miles per hour, about 20 miles north of Portland. He wore only a business suit with loafers, and he plummeted into stormy weather with a windchill of 70 below.

An ensuing FBI manhunt found no trace of Cooper. His myth gained momentum. His legend is one part mystery, and one part folk tale; a combination of Bigfoot and Robin Hood. Hundreds of people who annually attend festivals in Ariel, Wash., think Cooper escaped with his money and is alive and well today. When an 8-year-old boy found about $5,800 of the marked ransom money on a riverbank in 1980, the stories began again.

Rataczak doesn't believe the hype.

"My mind tells me he's dead," he said. "And my heart tells me I hope he is because he caused a great number of people a great deal of grief.

"Many people didn't realize that there were 36 other passengers and a crew of six on that aircraft whose lives were in jeopardy. . . . It's an open book today, if he's ever caught, he will go to prison."<<

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Also - Has it ever been revealed exactly what kind of rigs they gave him? I remember reading (somewhere years ago) they came from a local parachute loft. I always assumed they were four pilot's rigs and not sport gut gear.

Article found on the web
"The parachute types specified by D.B. Cooper, according to author Gunther, were acquired from a sport parachute center in Issaquah, Washington-two standard emergency back-type and two chest-type auxiliary parachutes (the latter generally termed reserve chutes, for back-up emergency use if the main chute should malfunction when a sport parachutist was making a jump). The parachute center in Issaquah provided the two chest packs and Earl Cossey, a parachuting instructor at the Issaquah drop zone as well as an FAA Master Parachute Rigger, contacted at his nearby home, brought two back-type rigs from his parachute workshop there and delivered them to the parachute school. (The types and number of parachutes asked for by D.B. Cooper led to early speculation that the skyjacker might have freefall parachuting experience and that he might have an accomplice.)"

Also, were there any confirmation that anyone from the crew checked whether Cooper was indeed gone prior to landing in Reno? Could he have jumped further South than everyone thinks?

And...one of the 'reserves' from the DZ was of the old "Training Aid" types...Cossey realized it when he put his 'personal' main containers with them, told the FBI...but it was to late to retrieve another belly wart.

From what I understand, DB opened the 'non' "Training Aid"
canopy and cut some 550 with which to secure the satchel of greenbacks.

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Why did the FBI ask for Duane Weber's DNA in March of 2003.

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Well I can probably answer that one Jo~
There are no doubt many of his cigarette butts gathered up and in some evidence locker somewhere, they wanted Duane's DNA to compare against DNA likely on those butts left behind by the hijacker.

Okay Guys,

The asking of the question about why they picked up Duane's DNA was to emphasize that even in 2003 they (the FBI) had NOT excluded Duane in so much as the articles of 1998 stated and a letter sent to me in 1998 from the FBI.

This same agent is interviewed in 2001 on a TV program and he only recited what our research had shown - they had not disqualify him even then. Their statements of 1998 were hasty and meant to just get rid of me. ONLY, I didn't scare easily. I kept calling and calling and writing and providing new evidence that I had acquired from 2000 until the present. If they didn't get that DNA and I went public again - it would not look good for them.

I can prove that the agent of record I was dealing with in 1998 told me they (the FBI) lost the cigarrette butts . I have been told since, he was in error. What is it - do they have the butts or not....if they have them why haven't they made the comparisons and if they loose things why don't they return the multiply items that I gave them? I was told they would return them in 6 months????? Duh it has been over 3 yrs going on 4.

Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber

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Quote "I don't follow the part where he has a short life expectancy in 1971, yet lives to 1995?
Did he really have kidney disease?
Did dialysis work better than you say?
Did he get a transplant?"

Dear Make It Happen:

In 1971 we knew little about kidney disease - the machines also were inadequate. They told him he might have 5 good yrs.

In 1971 they had just started the reseach into the different kinds of kidney disease. Duane's disease was later classified as Polysistic Kidney Disease - a disease that will moves forward in stages depending on how you live your life. In 1977 when I met him he was still looking good, but he had an extend abdomen due to the over-load on the kidney that was functioning.

He started to take better care of himself and I made sure he had a proper diet for this disease. Medications had been developed that help extend his inevitable ending. He also stopped drinking - and I think that was the most important thing that happened.

I would like to think he changed for me - he walked away from a life of crime because he knew how I had been raised and what my standards were. If I had known during his life time that he had committed this crime, I would have been bound by my own code of ethics to turn him in. He knew me like a book.

He once told me that he had never know a family like mine - Golden Wedding Anniversarys, Christmas Gatherings, Family Reunions. Obviously this is something he had wanted all of his life. I know I was captivated by him and I believe he would have given his life for me.

In 1990 the disease had progressed to the point that dialysis was a must. He fought a long and hard battle and in 1995 he decided to cease diaylsis. When he did this death was eminent within a few days. The diaylsis had depleted his body to skin and bones ( very fragil bones).

During that last yr. he suffered a fractured leg in Feb of 1994, a fractured shoulder and ribs in August and then he took the fall that defeated him - in Jan of 1995. This fall broke his left arm and several fingers (he was left handed)....I lost my job only 3 or 4 wks before he went into the hospital and I was our sole support. He had a small SS check, but i was the main bread winner those last yrs.

This shell of the man I once knew decided the day I took him to the hospital that last time that he wanted to stop diaylsis and that he would die. He turned around as we left the house and said "By House"...I tried to tell him everything would be ok.

After serveral days in the hospital he kept refusing diaylsis - he asked me if I would be all right with this.
He had made his decision to cease diaylsis before we left the house.

"He made this decision as fearlessly as he had made another decision on that night in 1971 - he was never one to back down." Only then did he tell he his secret."

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Also - Has it ever been revealed exactly what kind of rigs they gave him? I remember reading (somewhere years ago) they came from a local parachute loft. I always assumed they were four pilot's rigs and not sport gut gear.

I have read many different reports on types of parachutes that Cooper asked for but the only reliable information is in a book NORJAX by Ralph Himmelsback the agent in charge in 1971.

There are many other books - such as the one that another FBI agent wrote claiming that when he killed McCoy that he killed Cooper. McCoy's widow sued that author and retired FBI agent and won - wonder why? - McCoy was no were near WA or OR at the time of the Cooper hijacking.

If you read and reseach all of the articles and books out there and actually talk to people who were on that plane and involved in the search - as I have done you can then start to TRY to decipher the FICTION from the TRUTH.

Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber

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BELOW - Quotes from the basis of the thread:

I am the widow of a man who claimed that he was Cooper 11 days before he died in 1995. I have been researching his past for 11 yrs now and I need the help of this forum to uncover his jump history.

So far I have done everything for the FBI except put him in a parachute. The help of those who read this forum will be appreciated.

I don't want to debate theories about how the crime was done and who else may have done it. All I want is to find information about sky jumping and any information I might be able to find about Duane Lorin Weber and any of his AKA's.

If anyone is interested I will post photos of him on the forum from different areas of his life in hopes that someone knows an old timer who might recognize him. The old timers usually don't use computers so it will help me immensely if you guys would print the photos and take them to your meetings or anyplace that these old timers might be found. Perhaps there is a magazine for jumpers that might run some of the photos.

Please help me in my search and once and for all to bury Cooper.

Respectfully, Jo Weber



ABOVE: My reason for coming to this site and starting this thread. In the beginning I recieved an immense amount of help regarding how to reach the old timers of skydiving.

There is an enormous amount of information out there regarding fictional characters, actual suspects, debates over the hows and wherefores, books written by FBI agents on this subject.

I have done my research - into the background of one Duane L. Weber and the probablility that he was Dan Cooper. I have also studied and research the other suspects and in many incidents I have spoke with the individual making the claim or their representative (such as a lawyer).

I and others on my behalf have interviewed many of those involved with the actual facts of the crime itself and the ensueing investigation and search for Cooper.

All I NEED now is to ACTUALLY put him in a parachute and that is WHY I am posting to this site.

The purpose of my being here has become lost to the reader and I am ever so QUILTY of straying off track. My reason for getting the pictures posted seems to be lost in all of this.

PS.
I was also looking for the jumpers views of how he managed to survive this jump and their perspectives.

Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber

I was also looking for the jumpers views of how he managed to survive this jump and their perspectives.

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Jo~

There is an annual skydiving convention held in the Midwest for well over 20 years now. One of the main attractions to jumpers worldwide is the opportunity to get to do a "D.B. Cooper" jump, in which skydivers exit that rear air stair of a Boeing 727. It's done often and by many, usually exiting almost 'en-mass'. I've jumped the jet myself and am obviously living proof that the parachute part of the 1971 skyjacking event is survivable and possible.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

Quote: from airtwardo

"I've jumped the jet myself and am obviously living proof that the parachute part of the 1971 skyjacking event is survivable and possible."

Dear airtwardo,

I am aware the jump has been done many times since and by service personnel, but what I am talking about is the weather. The books and some authorities claim that the weather conditions would have created a peril - yet, when the search planes were in the air at day break the next morning ---the weather was 43 on the ground and children were playing and adults fishing under a canopy by the lake.

I have a copy of the weather report for the area for the time of the jump and I can't see were it would have been so bad. At the time of the jump- some clouding and rain, but ground visibility was good. Yet you will read reports from others claiming terrible winds.

I will have to find that copy in my 8ft plus of research, but have not had a reason to use it until this conversation.

It is also important that the public realize that the plane was NOT in the location they believed it to be. Because of the wind they had drifted off course SE putting the drop (the thud) right into the area Duane took me to in 1979.

Another thing is his apparel. The FBI said he had on a suit and Mitchell, a college student sitting across from Cooper said he had something sticking out from under his pant (maybe thermal wear or a jump suit). Although not many of the accounts mention the black rain (top) coat - I assure you that he had that with him.

Also the accounts by the press and "the FBI files" have never mentioned other pieces of apparel I know he always traveled with. This is the first time I believe I have stated this publically. Remember the old rubbers that snapped at the ankle worn to protect street shoes in rain and snow?

If he was indeed wearing loafers as the authorities claim, would the rubbers have kept his shoes on. Frankly I believe that he stashed something on the plane in a prior flight he made on that same plane (this is only a theory). He spoke of working with a company cleaning planes at an airport althought with all of his aka's and SS's I have not been able to verify this.

Thank you, Jo Weber

Call Ralph 503-630-5867.

blues

jerry

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Call Ralph 503-630-5867.

blues

jerry

I was just thinking the same thing ...

Jo, Ralph Hatley has been involved with skydiving for a long time, I gotta believe he's got an opinion about this subject, like everything else . He owns a big skydiving gear store 30 miles SE of Portland.

Quote from French

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"The parachute types specified by D.B. Cooper, according to author Gunther, were acquired from a sport parachute center in Issaquah, Washington-two standard emergency back-type and two chest-type auxiliary parachutes (the latter generally termed reserve chutes, for back-up emergency use if the main chute should malfunction when a sport parachutist was making a jump). The parachute center in Issaquah provided the two chest packs and Earl Cossey, a parachuting instructor at the Issaquah drop zone as well as an FAA Master Parachute Rigger, contacted at his nearby home, brought two back-type rigs from his parachute workshop there and delivered them to the parachute school. (The types and number of parachutes asked for by D.B. Cooper led to early speculation that the skyjacker might have freefall parachuting experience and that he might have an accomplice.)"

Also, were there any confirmation that anyone from the crew checked whether Cooper was indeed gone prior to landing in Reno? Could he have jumped further South than everyone thinks?

Dear Frenchy:

Max Gunther wrote a fictional story - I spent many hours communicating with him by mail and by phone. We discussed many facets of his book. He used a lot of the information from the crime itself with a few mistakes. All and All it was a good book - from the factual stand point and the fictional stand point.

From NorJax a book by Ralph Himmelsbach FBI agent:
"when the hijacker learned that military models were being supplied, he demanded civilian chutes instead. (Apparenty the hijacker knew that military chutes of the type suggested open automatically after about 200 feet, where the models use by skydiver and acrobatic pilots allowed free fall as long as the jumper wante to wait before pulling the ripcord)."

It was noted that Boeing Aircraft Company official conceded that the 727 had performed an air drop demonstration using boxes and that it worked quite well --- this was prior to the hijacking. ?????

As I have said before that the FBI would later concede that the jump may have occured further SE due to the Vector of the plane. This would have made him landing somewhat below the area search around Lake Merwin. It would put him over an area from above Battleground to somewhere between Washougal and Vancouver. Take and make a triangle with those three locations ---??????

Hope this helps with your question.

Jo Weber

Looks like the thread got moved to something called Speakers Corner. I would never look for it in this location, but that is my opinion. Hope all of you, I doubt it.

Really hated to see this - Just not a good category. History and Trivia would have been a more likely place.

I would have hoped it would fall under a category that people would visit such as Skyjumping Trivia or at least a category that people would see it when coming to the site. Who would look in Speakers Corner NOT ME. But then again I guess that is my fault. Sorry

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This is an excellent thread!

Makes you wonder though, while the FBI are reading this if they are actually reading other threads in the forums.

Ever met a Lawyer or an Accountant that COULD READ ?!


Much less one on the Federal Teat???

~ I N C O M I N G ! ! ! ~

No. O U T G O I N G !!!...I'm done...

This thread has lost its interest for me.

It is beyond my understanding why the person who started it steadfastly refuses to file FOIA requests...and then bitches about the information that is not provided.

Good luck, Jo, I have better things to do with my life.

I think I'm going to rake leaves.