Summer’s are busy with my day job so I don’t know when I can post anything substantive. I’m working on several Cooper-related pieces and some larger projects. However, if you have any questions you want me to address regarding the DB Cooper case, I’m opening this thread for that reason. Thank you.
Filed under: Crime, D.B. Cooper, Misc |
Marty Andrade 
Hey Marty,
Over the years I’ve seen at least a couple of Cooper investigators make claims in regard to the writing on the ticket receipt. Not ever seen any reference to that by the FBI. I have always assumed it was the ticket agent’s writing on it and not Cooper’s. Am I correct in that assumption?
This is generally assumed to be the writing of the ticket agent, Dennis Lysne. I don’t know if it was ever seriously addressed in the FBI files since everyone would have known it was the ticket agent writing in this box, and not Cooper himself. Anyone who flew regularly during this time would know that.
We do know a little about Cooper’s handwriting. The note he gave Flo Schaffner was written in what was described as “neat cursive” which I always found interesting, though other researchers don’t think of it as a useful clue. The fact Cooper felt comfortable using cursive to communicate tells me we need to find suspects who, at the very least, normally wrote in cursive. The one prominent suspect who is eliminated on this basis is Barb/Bob Dayton, who wrote in print and whose handwriting is available in the Forman’s book on her.
I would like to see more handwriting samples from other prominent suspects, especially Sheridan Peterson.
Marty
Actually recent evidence suggests that in a shocking turn of events that seem almost unbelievable Bradley Cooper and DB Cooper are in fact the same person. The evidence all supports the theory that it wasn’t money DB escaped with, it was the secret to immortality.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk
Marty,
In a search for late night masturbation material DP Cooper was auto corrected into DB Cooper and instead of selective gay fetish porn I’m now enthralled with an American conspiracy theory. 10/10. Will let auto correct change not only my porn search, but also the way I look at life and it’s many mysteries. great read.
Thank you for this opportunity! I would like a clarification about the Tena Bar money.
I know you believe that this money was deposited by the Columbia river dredging operation in 1974. Tom Kaye has previously indicated that this dredging operation stopped just short of the Tena Bar location. Was Mr. Kaye incorrect or has he changed his mind? Also, if you are correct, how do you explain how the 3 stacks of money found were buried just inches from the surface and stacked one on top of the other? Brian Ingram (too lazy to look up the correct spelling) claims to have found the money this way. I don’t see how how this could occur based strictly on natural causes. I have always thought that some human manipulation was involved here.
One more thing. If Dan LaClare landed near the Ariel location and lost some of the money, how do you explain how the $5,800 made to the Columbia River? The logistics of the money traveling from Ariel to the Columbia is contentious to say the least.
“Was Mr. Kaye incorrect or has he changed his mind?”
He hasn’t changed his mind, as far as I know. I believe Mr. Kaye is (partially) incorrect. I also believe the Palmer report was incorrect. Tom is very experienced in identifying geologic strata as he has a background in paleontology. He connected Palmer’s clay layer to a clay layer now visible along Tena bar that can’t be from the dredge. The money was found above this clay layer. Tom did his analysis before news footage surfaced showing FBI agents pulling money shards two or three feet down in the cross-bedded layer. The only things that explains this debris field would be the action of a dredge. Unfortunately, this video has been taken down from YouTube.
“how do you explain how the 3 stacks of money found were buried just inches from the surface and stacked one on top of the other?”
We have this mental image of the money being three bundles of normal cash, each bill individual and each packet independent. In fact, this was a solidified clump of rag paper Brian found. The money was, I believe, held together in the bank bag and it solidified into a soggy mass before the dredge hit it. The dredge action destroyed most of the bills but left the clump and a telltale debris field. We can’t be certain without running an experiment that could take four years and cost thousands of dollars.
“If Dan LaClare landed near the Ariel location and lost some of the money, how do you explain how the $5,800 made to the Columbia River? The logistics of the money traveling from Ariel to the Columbia is contentious to say the least.”
How the money, or at least part of the money, became entombed in the river bottom is a head scratcher. I have suggested before that the money could have come down with the spring floods in ’72 or ’73. I have seen some video of floods in this area carrying large debris. I don’t know whether a bag of money could make it down the Washougal or not. I do know Tom did his experiment the wrong way at the wrong time and I think it deserves another look. The most obvious way for the money to get into the Columbia with the fewest encumbrances would be for Cooper to have jumped over the Columbia and to have lost the money during canopy deployal. This involves changing the timing of the jump well past witness testimony and the transcript record. We’re still waiting for some piece of evidence that could clear up the timing of the jump.
So then where do we post questions about your career status, mysterious love life, or next book?
You’re still using hotmail?
But to you questions: LinkedIn; Facebook; El Dos de Mayo 2020, respectively.
All kinds of fellers are coming out of the woodpile (or mom’s basement) to ask questions now.
BTW- I ain’t on Facebooks. And your LinkedBooks- didn’t know you got paid by the pound for stacking bullshit.
Drove behind a brown Z-car this morning, reminding me to ask if all is good and well enough for you.
Marty, you have my phone number, you can insult me there if you want.
One thing I can tell you, Marty, is I’m re-publishing the original Burger Tour. But keep that on the DL, I don’t want Hank losing his shit over it.
Sorry for the delay; trolling motor got tangled up. Yes, I will not tell Henry.
Great idea on the Burger Tour book. Popular item and more burger offerings in the last ten years. Some places have closed. Like smog warnings or a pollen index , you can add a hipster index to each restaurant.
In a post you wrote—The Gunther hypotheses has a few simple criteria: Cooper must be living on the East Coast in the 1940s. He HAD to work in Industrial Chemicals. He HAD to be a paratrooper. He HAD to be at the Elsinore Paracenter in August of 1971.
How do you know that any of that book is true? And if there is some slim chance of truth then why those parts? Thank you. An AMA is a great idea.
Rob–
These are aspects of the story that have corroborating evidence. The FBI investigated the conversation at the Elsinore Paracenter regarding someone who looked like DB Cooper asking about jumping out of an Airliner in Aug of ’71. That person wore distinctive Corcoran boots which paratroopers wore. The conversation the FBI investigated and LeClair’s pride in his special boots are in the Gunther book. Gunther would not have known about the FBI investigation as these files weren’t released until this year.
Gunther said LeClair worked in Industrial Chemicals as a salesman, manager and executive. The particles Tom Kaye found on the tie match that particular career and there are a few companies on the East Coast where this material could have been picked up. More corroborating evidence. Finally, other researchers I’ve talked to who were familiar with Max Gunther have told me the parts of the backstory I’ve mentioned here were true, as far as Gunther knew; that this was actual testimony from Clara.
The fact we have so much corroborating evidence, to the point where we can basically pin down the companies “LeClair” was working for are enough to tell the the Gunther book is the best lead in this case.
Very cool Marty.
Sheridan Peterson’s handwriting:
I have seen both his printed writing and cursive. The printed version of his writing is from his 1962 Boeing application. I consider it relatively sloppy.
His cursive, which can be seen on a chalk board while teaching, is exceptionally neat.
Tena Bar money find:
I’ve heard claims of finding pieces of money three feet down. I must say I have seen or heard nothing to substantiate this.
1) Richard Fazio, and his brother, both of whom were there the entire time–after Day 1– digging the trenches for Dr. Palmer stated absolutely nothing was found after Day 1. I visited with Richard on Friday and he repeated this fact again.
2) There is a lot of TV footage and several still pictures from the digging on Day 1 and beyond. There are no 3 foot holes anywhere on that beach. (NOTE: Palmer’s two trenches were about three feet deep but not used to find money).
3) If there was a large shard field, where are these shards? The FBI does not have them in their possession. Tom Kaye photographed the totality of what the FBI possessed in terms of money.
4) The dredge spoil spreading stopped 400 feet from the money find spot. We have irrefutable photographic proof of this.
5) Tom Kaye proved that rubber bands–which were still intact–do not survive longer than 6 months in the elements. The dredging and bulldozer spreading, which was quite violent, occurred 2 years and 10 months after the skyjacking. Unless these were some special CIA rubber bands they would not have remained intact.
I see know plausible explanation for the money find at Tena Bar other then DB Cooper buried it there himself.
Hey Eric, good luck on your boat tour!
Okay, some reactions:
1) I know the Fazios were there and their testimony doesn’t agree with Dorwin Schroeder (sp?). I don’t have an answer to that, I’m sure the Fazio’s are earnest in their statements. I refused to come to any conclusions about Tina Bar until I saw the KATU video, which I believe is definitive.
2) Unfortunately, we don’t have the KATU video nor do we have other evidence, nor was the excavation done under controlled conditions. The videos and pictures I’ve seen seem to show holes one or two shovel heads deep. Say 18 inches. This is below the Palmer “Upper Active Layer” and that suggests to me the money was mixed into the sand in a way only a dredge could accomplish.
3) I don’t know. Tom didn’t see any of the evidence envelopes the FBI was using on the Tina bar (based on the KATU video). I have never seen the quarter-sized money shard the FBI held for the camera for the KATU video any other place. I have no idea what happened to that evidence, and any comment on my part would be speculation.
4) Those two 50-yard radius “bumps” we see in those aerial photographs aren’t large enough to contain the 45,000 cubic yards of material that would have been permanently deposited on Tina Bar in that ’74 operation. That’s a lot of material, it’s a rectangular box of dredge spoils 150 feet wide, ten feet deep, and 810 feet long. More than enough to account for material along the length of the Fazio beach.
5) Tom didn’t put ten thousand dollars into a bank bag and let that material sit at the bottom of a river, compressed under silt, for four years. I’m not saying his experiments were wrong, he just didn’t test the conditions the money would have been in had the bank bag been buried in the bottom of the river. Georger believes the key is the glassification process of the rubber bands. I don’t know, over my head, do the experiment. Do it right.
Hey Marty,
What TV station is the now-removed-from-youtube footage of the Tina Bar money find coverage from?
I wish I could remember what site it is at, but a few months ago I found an excerpt of that footage in the middle of an approximately hour long video piece on Cooper from one of the more active Cooper sites!
KATU, and yeah, getting that footage back somehow would be a great thing. If I had known it would be taken down so soon I would have tried to save it somehow.
Marty,
What happened to “Sluggo’s” site? When I click on your link to it I get to a page that says the domain is for sale!
The domain expired. An attempt was made to save it, but Sluggo must have decided to let it go. You can still access it on the WayBack Machine.
First of all: WTH! how do you let the domain of such an important site expire!? Secondly, is Sluggo still active as a Cooper researcher? And why doesn’t he put the site back up under a new URL?
Sluggo is not an active researcher, and has no interest in the case anymore. I and several others contacted him and tried to save the site. He never returned my call.
Marty,
I currently do not have my PC set up that may have that video with the KATU footage in the middle bookmarked. I should have it set back up in a couple weeks or so. If I find the link I will send it to you. So long as KATU has not sent a “cease and desist” order to that site!
Has anyone approached KATU about the footage?
Kirk
I’ve only heard rumors as to why the video was taken down. According to the stories, the video was originally uploaded to YouTube by the cameraman who worked for KATU and had tons of footage in his possession from a career in journalism. Not long after the Cooper footage started to circulate, it was taken down. The scuttlebutt was the footage was being saved in order to be sold to a documentary. Or that KATU made an IP claim. Or that Tom Colbert and his team paid to have it taken down. Nothing can be corroborated.
I don’t know if anyone has approached KATU publicly about getting the footage back online.
Marty,
Perhaps I will give KATU a call.
Also I have heard that if you have the original URL of the YouTube footage you might be able to access the video via the Wayback Machine.
Kirk
Good luck.
I believe I have the KATU footage you’re discussing. It’s 11 minutes in length and features Bill Van Amburg. The footage is accessible only via a private link and is not supposed to be shared.
This is the footage that I have reviewed at length and can say with certainty there is nothing on it that shows shards being dug up 3 feet down. It does show one agent finding a piece about 18 inches down. The spot he finds the piece is very near where the larger bundle was unearthed.
Martin-What are your future plans for the investigating the case and do you think it will be solved someday?
I have to wait for the next census to be released and digitized (sometime around 2022). My focus will be on the 3,300 names from the 1940 census that match parts of the background Max Gunther gives in his book. I’m also hoping Tom Kaye’s research narrows down the search criteria so we can nail down where Cooper was working and when.
We know from Tom that the Cooper case materials from the FBI are destined for the Smithsonian, which is a good thing, We’ll likely be able to get more evidence off of the tie, including another chance at pulling DNA. From there, I believe forensic genealogy will solve the case for sure at that point.
Without a DNA match, we’ll never be 100% certain. I have stated in interviews that we’ll likely know who DB Cooper was in the next few years, but we’ll be unable to prove it definitively. I still believe that’s the case. The worst case scenario for me is waiting for the 1970 Census, which will be released in 2052. By that time, I should be able to map out the lives of everyone on my watch list and figure out if anyone matches Gunther’s description.
I don’t believe Cooper is any of the named suspects with a single caveat: if Sheridan Peterson produced a Cooper twenty tomorrow I would be surprised but not shocked.
I agree with you that Cooper is likely not any suspect that’s been discussed with the possible exception of Sheridan. I have a few questions regarding him
I believe the FBI first interviewed him in 2003 or so. Did it take them that long to track him down or was there another reason?
His alibi has him living in Nepal at the time. Is there any proof that is true? I find it hard to believe he flew in from Nepal, sky jacked a jet then disappeared but that is the only thing leading me to believe he is not Cooper
As I understand it, the FBI showed interest in Sheridan right away, but because he was out of the country they either didn’t think he could have done it, or didn’t want to expense a trip to Nepal. As the case continued, I’m sure they had other leads to follow and Sheridan was forgotten about. After the money was found, the investigation appears to have shifted focus from living suspects to missing persons. We’ll know more as the FBI files are released. From what I’ve seen, the investigation went passive and only leads brought to the FBI were investigated.
I’m not sure what the story was behind Sheridan’s 2003 interview. This would have been after Jo Weber went public with Duane, and it was after the 30th anniversary of the case, so there might have been some extra energy and interest in solving the case. Sheridan, as a living and un-eliminated suspect, was a reasonable target for a quick investigation. That’s my guess for how the timing worked.
As for why the FBI didn’t pursue Sheridan, I think the reason is clear: He provided a DNA sample (guilty people tend not to do this so willingly), he talked openly and at length about himself and the case, and he probably showed the FBI his passport or other documents that confirmed he was in Nepal at the time of the hijacking.
Hey Marty,
First of all thank you for all of your quick responses on this thread, especially since you are in the midst of a very busy summer!
Are all the files that were released by the FBI to Mr. Colbert Also accessible to the general public?
Thanks,
Kirk
As far as I know, yes. The DB Cooper Forum maintains a website with many documents relating to the case:
http://website.thedbcooperforum.com/Cooper-Vault/
The FBI has their own website with all the FOIA files available for download:
https://vault.fbi.gov/D-B-Cooper%20
We get new files every month or so. According to some, it will take a decade to release all the files relating to the Cooper case.
Marty,
Thanks for the information and the links!
Kirk
Thanks Marty,
I will try to keep these brief, which is easier said than done, but here are five questions:
1. What do you think of some of the more unsubstantiated theories put forth by Cooper enthusiasts? I am not a conspiracy theorist myself (very analytical, scientific mindset), but I’ve heard some theories from some of the guests on the Cooper Vortex podcast which would be very disturbing if true (namely, MKULTRA involvement, speculations that Cooper assaulted or mistreated one of the stewardesses but that this was not publicly reported, or assertions that the FBI agents in Reno appeared to be under the influence of hypnotic suggestion).
2. What do you make of the disparity in opinions on Cooper’s character and appearance? The general story I’ve heard is that Cooper was classy and polite. However, Himmelsbach (whom I have no personal reasons to doubt) strongly asserted that Cooper was essentially a sleazy lowlife and used a lot of profanity when talking to the stewardesses. I figure there must be reasons why he’d say something like this. Also, the first composite (which I understood was mostly based on the crew and stewardesses’ recollections) has a European appearance with a round face. The second composite (was this the one influenced mostly by Bill Mitchell’s recollections?) looks older and has a more Middle Eastern or Northern African appearance IMO. What do you make of these disparities, and which perspective(s) do you believe to be closest to the truth?
3. I have no personal reasons to distrust the FBI and I don’t believe there is some sort of sinister cover-up as some in Cooper world assert. However, I consider it possible they know details of the case that are still being withheld from the public, and maybe have sown a little strategic misinformation as well. Do you think it’s possible they may have known that Cooper survived, or perhaps known other facts that would surprise us to find out, but didn’t want to reveal them for investigative reasons? Even before I came across your work regarding the survival rates of WWII parachuters, I found it strange when I read one FBI agent publicly said Cooper likely was a no-pull fatality in Lake Merwin and the money travelled downstream from there to the Columbia and Tena Bar. It does not take an expert to trace the route and see that would entail traveling upstream.
4. Tom Kaye has done a lot of excellent research on Cooper’s tie and Ingram’s money find. One of the things he said on the Cooper vortex podcast was that the black twenty dollar bills likely got that way from exposure to silver, possibly the kind used for taking fingerprints. I had never heard this before, and was disappointed he didn’t elaborate on that, but he did say beyond that, studying the money turned out to be a bit of a dead end for them. I was wondering if you had heard this, and what you thought about it? When I heard this, I was quite surprised it wasn’t a bigger deal in Cooper world as contamination from silver would at least possibly tell us where the money had been before it reached Tena Bar.
5. Finally, could you please tell us a bit more about your methods of eliminating suspects, and how you use the census data to do this? What factors do you look for to tell you a person of interest can be eliminated? What are you looking for (besides something really obvious, such as a picture with the clip on tie) that would cause you to settle on a suspect as being the real life Dan LeClair / Dan Cooper?
Thanks and best of luck,
Jon S.
Hi Jon, There’s quite a bit there, so I’ll have to tackle things in chunks.
1) I don’t believe in any of the conspiracy theories. Cooper wasn’t a secret agent trying to change airport security, and he certainly wasn’t under mind control. He was just a guy who came up with an inventive way to rob an insurance company, and it appears he got away with it. As for the allegations of sexual misconduct, those are rubbish too. There’s no evidence of it anywhere before a few years ago, and the FBI would have loved to disabuse the American people of Cooper’s Robin Hood status. It wasn’t until after Geof Gray published Skyjack, where he spent a great deal of time talking about the socio-sexual situation of the sixties and seventies combined with Flo Schaffner’s fear of being sexually assaulted (her fears, as is clear in the book, were unfounded and Cooper isn’t known to have even touched any of the stews). Only after this do we get this rape stuff. Utter garbage.
— were the FBI agents in Reno under hypnotic suggestion? Or was it just really late, everyone was really tired, and the adrenaline had faded away hours ago?
More to come.
Thanks for answering my question; I did not know where that rumor originated and it was interesting to learn people extrapolated it from Gray’s work. As for the agents being tired, I also agree with you there. I read that a lot of times when something out of the ordinary happens, and the person gets away, people imagine very outlandish theories to explain the details (i.e. Cooper was James Bond and the CIA was involved — that’s how he got away). Often the solution is much more simple.
As for your vetting methods, it occurred to me after I typed my questions out that you probably explain this in your book (I’ve ordered it but it hasn’t arrived yet). If this is the case, feel free to disregard #5.
2.
>>> What do you make of the disparity in opinions on Cooper’s >>>character and appearance? The general story I’ve heard is that >>>Cooper was classy and polite. However, Himmelsbach (whom I >>>have no personal reasons to doubt) strongly asserted that Cooper >>>was essentially a sleazy lowlife and used a lot of profanity when >>>talking to the stewardesses.
Himmelsbach is, in my opinion, playing a PR game. It didn’t take long for Cooper to become a bit of a folk hero, and Himmelsbach was trying to arrest the guy for, to be hyperbolic, terrorism. When H calls Cooper a “lowlife scumbag”, it’s because H believes any criminal who would commit such a crime *must* be a dirty sleazy lowlife
scoundrel.
>>>Also, the first composite (which I understood was mostly based on >>>the crew and stewardesses’ recollections) has a European >>>appearance with a round face. The second composite (was this the >>>one influenced mostly by Bill Mitchell’s recollections?) looks older >>>and has a more Middle Eastern or Northern African appearance >>>IMO. What do you make of these disparities, and which >>>perspective(s) do you believe to be closest to the truth?
Hair from the seat Cooper was sitting in was recovered and analyzed by the FBI, and was brown and “congruent with Caucasian ancestry” or some such. Basically, Cooper was a white guy. Unfortunately, the hair has been lost, so it can’t be re-examined (new forensic techniques would be able to tell us a lot about Cooper, including his diet and where he lived before the hijacking.) As for the Sketches themselves, I’m not a forensic expert and would be loathe to speculate as to how “ethnic” Cooper looked. In Gunther’s book, LeClair is described as looking more like “Ben Gazzara” than Bing Crosby. Honestly, I don’t think the sketches will ever be a useful tool in IDing Cooper.
I had never heard this info about the hair being tested. Where did you find this? FBI files? Very interesting since some descriptions described him as Latin or American Indian.
The info on the hair was in some of the earliest FOIA documents released thanks to Tom Colbert. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to dig through the Cooper Forum looking for it, but hopefully someone has it.
Click to access TJC-FOIA-FBI-Section-08-Part-2-91-Pages-12-13-71-to-12-14-71.pdf
Page 66 or 67. States clearly hair was Caucasian in origin.
3.
>>>> Do you think it’s possible they may have known that Cooper survived, or perhaps known other facts that would surprise us to find out, but didn’t want to reveal them for investigative reasons?
I think the FBI was convinced Cooper died after the money was found on Tena Bar. That’s what H says, that’s what (I’ve heard) Dorwin Schrueder (SP?) says. That was the assumption Dr. Palmer and the Hydrologist (forget the name) were working from when they came up with the wash down theory. It wasn’t until later that they started taking living suspects seriously again. And it’s understandable, they failed to find a dead suspect in the 20 years after the Tena Bar find, so they became open to other suspects, and ended up testing DNA from Duane Weber, Sheridan Peterson, and LD Cooper. Did they know Cooper lived? No, and in fact the 302s and other FOIA docs reveal they worked both hypotheses (dead/alive) from the start.
As for other information still being withheld, that ship has sailed.They have yet to release the partial DNA sample from the tie, and that’s about it.
4.
>>>> I had never heard this before, and was disappointed he didn’t elaborate on that, but he did say beyond that, studying the money turned out to be a bit of a dead end for them. I was wondering if you had heard this, and what you thought about it?
TK, when given access to the FBI Cooper money, noticed the obvious dis-colorization on some of the bills, and came to believe he had a”clock” with the time the money had spent in the sand at Tena bar. If he could compare the amount of silver found in Tena Bar sand with the density found in the bills, and estimate a rate of absorption, he could find out how long the money was in the sand. Unfortunately, it turned out his clock was broken, as the bills were treated with silver nitrates in order to attempt to get fingerprints off them by the FBI in the 80’s (LOL, what idiot thought that up?).
TK has since done other tests and has yet to find a definitive way to analyze the money.
Another Cooper research believes there might still be several “clocks” on the bills, and is currently attempting research using some of the bills now held in private hands. According to this researcher, there is no evidence on the bills that they’ve been exposed to anything other than the sand it was found in.
5.
>>>>>>5. Finally, could you please tell us a bit more about your methods of eliminating suspects, and how you use the census data to do this? What factors do you look for to tell you a person of interest can be eliminated? What are you looking for (besides something really obvious, such as a picture with the clip on tie) that would cause you to settle on a suspect as being the real life Dan LeClair / Dan Cooper?
It’s going to be a lot of work. I have the WWII Army enlistments from New Jersey and NYC (gosh, I hope that’s right). Now I’m just hoping the 1950 Census will show some college students among those names. Then, in ten years, I hope the census lists some chemical salesmen among those that I found in college. Basically, this will involve tracking hundreds of lives through the census looking for matches in region, profession and military service. That’s starting from beginning of life to the Hijacking. Working backwards, I’m hoping we can use obituaries to eliminate people who are not in the right industries nor have the right life histories. That’s working backwards. Between the two, I’m hoping to get a few good suspects. What I really want is one national TV show to cover the new evidence and talk about Cooper the industrial chemical man.
Thanks for buying the book, I really appreciate it.
Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions!
Looking forward to reading the book.
Have a great summer!
I’ll add some context and provide some answers concerning Sheridan Peterson.
Sheridan became a suspect within one week of the skyjacking. Indeed, he may well have been the very first suspect. His name was turned in to the FBI by a Boeing employee (unknown). Also, I believe Linn Emerick put the FBI onto him as well–Linn discusses this in a December 2, 1971 article in The Issaquah Press.
The FBI did not know where Sheridan was given that he had left The States six years earlier for Asia. Moreover, McCoy jumped in April 1972 which diverted a lot of the FBI’s attention from Sheridan and other suspects.
The FBI picked up Sheridan’s trail again in January 1974.
They reached out to him in 2003 because he was finally back in The States and they had a partial DNA profile procured in 2001–remember September 11th happened during this time which also diverted a lot of bureau resources.
In fact, Sheridan is the only suspect that the FBI actively sought a DNA sample from and the only suspect that they haven’t publicly cleared themselves by virtue of the DNA comparisons.
Importantly, the only FBI special agent to interview Sheridan was Mary Jean Fryar–and her junior partner. She interviewed him twice in 2003. She also got a DNA sample and fingerprints. Notably, she wrote the 302 on Sheridan. I can tell you that Mary Jean is not at all certain that Sheridan was not DB Cooper. I know this because I have talked with her several times about Sheridan.
Regarding why Sheridan gave up a sample of his DNA? I asked him this during a phone conversation a couple of years ago. He told me that initially he resisted. However, he thought he would be arrested and taken in on the spot if he didn’t consent. That is straight from Sheridan himself.
Nepal? Sheridan did live in Nepal from August 1970 to March 1973. He has two children born there. The problem is that not only can he not provide an alibi for the time in question, but he also stated that he didn’t travel from Nepal during the 2 1/2 years he lived there. This has been proven false because he confided in a friend that he opened a secret (numbered) bank account in 1971 in another country. He would have been required to leave Nepal in 1971 to open this account. That fact alone disproves his “didn’t leave Nepal” alibi.
I can assure you, these things just scratch the surface when discussing Sheridan Peterson as DB Cooper. That said, there is no smoking gun as of yet. This, in part, explains why Sheridan has not been pursued. Simply put, there was never enough evidence to meet the appropriate legal threshold to prosecute. Not mention, at this late hour–Sheridan being 93 years old–the FBI/AUSA is no longer interested in prosecuting the man.