FBI still wants its man: D.B. Cooper

[struggle4progress]

QUICK! LOOK OVER THERE!

FBI still wants its man: D.B. Cooper
by Matthew D. LaPlante
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 01/01/2008 03:19:49 PM MST

How's this for a New Year's resolution? After 36 years, hundreds of suspects and thousands of leads, the FBI still wants to solve the case of D.B. Cooper.


On Nov. 24, 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked a passenger plane, traded most of the passengers for $200,000 in cash and then - en route to Mexico - parachuted from the plane in the pitch-black night, in a driving rain, wearing loafers and a trench coat at 5,000 feet.

Many believe that Cooper was Richard McCoy, a Vietnam War veteran, experienced parachutist and BYU political science student who staged a similar hijacking several months later. But the FBI says McCoy - who was killed in a shoot-out with law enforcement officers after a prison break in 1974 - simply didn't fit the description of Cooper provided by two flight attendants.

"The case remains unsolved," the bureau announced in a posting on its Web page, www.fbi.gov, on Monday. "Would we still like to get our man? Absolutely. And we have reignited the case." ... http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_7857853

FBI makes new plea in D.B. Cooper case
By Don Hamilton
The Columbian

... Maybe, he said, some clever hydrologist armed with satellite technology can trace the Cooper cash found on the Columbia River in 1980 back to the very creek or stream where it fell from the sky on that fabled night in 1971. That might lead to the body of Cooper itself ...

The Monday news release included photos from the FBI files of Cooper's skinny black clip-on necktie, a parachute he left behind on the plane and a few of the decaying $20 bills found by 8-year-old Brian Ingram near Frenchman's Bar in Vancouver, Wash ...

"Diving into the wilderness without a plan, without the right equipment, in such terrible conditions," Carr said, "he probably never even got his chute open." ... http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004102307_dbcooper01m.html

Feds fire up search for D.B. Cooper again
The FBI has issued a new appeal for help in finding the mysterious man who parachuted from a Northwest jet with $200,00 in 1971.
By PAUL WALSH, Star Tribune
Last update: December 31, 2007 - 10:12 PM

... The material the FBI is releasing on its website includes photos of some of the recovered currency and of a necktie Cooper took off before jumping. The FBI says the tie has yielded DNA evidence.

"Please look it all over carefully to see if it triggers a memory or if you can provide any useful information," the FBI said ... http://www.startribune.com/local/12938741.html

[ingac70]

1. No statute of limitations on this crime? n/t.

[AZ Criminal JD]

2. Air piracy, along with murder, has no statute of limitations.

[ingac70]

8. Thanks....

Knew that about murder, but not air piracy!

[struggle4progress]

3. Good question. Short answer: dunno. Longer answer with links:

1409 Indictment for Aircraft Piracy
... While the preferred approach is to seek the return of an indictment within the normal five year statue of limitations period (assuming that no death resulted during the aircraft piracy), the defendant's hijacking of an aircraft in the United States and taking it to Cuba has been held to constitute an actual flight with intent to avoid prosecution under 18 U.S.C. § 3290 sufficient to toll the statute of limitations. See United States v. Fonseca-Machado, 53 F.3d 1242 (11th Cir. 1995) ...

USA v. Fonseca-Machado
Appellant .. appeals the .. refusal to dismiss his .. indictment, returned .. 1993, for .. aircraft piracy .. 1980 .. on the ground .. barred by the statute of limitations ... The Government contends that the statute was tolled .. because Fonseca-Machado was a fugitive from justice during the thirteen year ... This theory, known as the doctrine of constructive flight, has been used .. for .. tolling the
statute of limitations. For this reason, we affirm the district court's denial of .. motion to dismiss .. pursuant to the statute of limitations. http://www.altlaw.org/v1/cases/172175.txt

[mtnsnake]

4. Ya gotta love the DB Cooper story. Anyone read A Simple Plan?

Good book...about 3 guys who come across a downed plane with a ton of money stashed on it.

[Historic NY]

5. Meanwhile Osama bin Forgotten..

by now if Cooper was still alive he would be a senior citizen or dead. Maybe checking SS rolls, nursing home and cemeteries might yield the answers they want. Then again he could be a pile of bones in the woods.

[salin]

6. DB Cooper(s) has a whole different meaning to me, than to the FBI...

in the eighties it was the name of one of the main bars catering to college students in the town where I went to school. I could be wrong, but I seem to recall a mural like picture on one of the walls with a parachuter.

But to most of the clients - we had no idea who D.B. Cooper was (this was more than a decade later) - the name was just the local, weekend hangout.

Somehow I don't think any of us from my era at my college who might "know something about DB Cooper(s)" would be of any help to the FBI - as we would be telling tales about an old college "watering hole."

[H2O Man]

7. That brings back memories.

I remember all the news reports on D.B. Cooper.