Why The FBI Should Re-Open The D.B. Cooper Case They Never Really Closed Anyway
Late last night, an official from the FBI announced that after forty-five years they were closing the D.B. Cooper case, one of the nation’s most spectacular unsolved crimes and the only unsolved case of sky piracy in the world.
The case has also emerged as a counter culture curiosity, inspiring folk music, films, and an incessant run of television shows that bank on the insatiable narrative of a man in suit and tie boarding a jet over the Pacific Northwest in the early 1970’s, ransoming the passengers for cash and parachutes, then jumping out the rear of the plane with the booty. He was never seen again.
After spending four years investigating the case for SKYJACK: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper, interviewing the major players at length and obtaining the extensive file of classified documents in the case, it’s clear there are strong reasons the FBI should keep the case open — reasons that could ultimately lead to the solving one of our great mysteries.
Here are five reasons.
1.) The Cooper case has always been closed.
Even though the FBI has claimed their case on Cooper has been open, the Bureau has devoted little if any resources to actually investigating new leads. The high-profile nature of the case has created a massive nuisance to the lone agent that is often assigned the case, as hundreds if not more Cooper sleuths continue to harangue the office with their leads. If anything, the most recent move to shutter the case is really an attempt by the Bureau to spare the office from irritating calls, wacky e-mails and more. As annoying as the case maybe though, annoyance has never been a legal reason to shutter a case.
2.) Legally, the case is still open.
Under federal law, the Cooper case had been initially deemed a case of air piracy, a felony that carried a statute of limitations of five years. However, after coming up short on clues, one of the case agents raced to receive a new indictment from a grand jury that charged the hijacker in absentia for violating the Hobbs Act, another federal statute aimed to prevent extortion that carried no statute of limitations. In theory, if Cooper were to walk out of the woods today, he could theoretically charged with a crime. It’s unlikely the FBI would waste the time to formally have the indictment against Cooper dismissed.
3.) New leads abound on Cooper’s origins.
While case agents haven’t devoted manpower to solving the case, a dedicated and passionate group of Cooper sleuths has huddled up on-line and generated a host of new leads. The first was the discovery of a French comic book by the name of Dan Cooper, the actual name the hijacker gave to airline officials before his hijacking, and a series that featured a swashbuckling Royal Canadian Air Force Pilot who jumped out of planes with parachutes. Has the FBI linked up with their Canadian counterparts to explore this promising lead?
4.) New details on the hijacker reveal a different description.
In the hours after the hijacking, FBI artists worked with the eyewitnesses to develop a sketch of the hijacker. The problem was that the eyewitnesses the agents used to develop the sketch were not only spooked after the incident — the primary eyewitnesses the artists used and re-interviewed did not have a chance to observe the hijacker all that well. The composite was so poor the first go around that agents developed a second sketch, highlighting different features, confusing the matter even more. Neither sketch, however, featured the description from Robert Gregory, a passenger who sat right in the row in front of Cooper on the plane, kitty-corner, and gave the most detailed description of the hijacker in the case, according to the files. Gregory remarked on the hijacker’s “marcelled” hair and “russet” colored suit, critical details that could be used to potentially rule out suspects.
5.) The FBI still has the best lead.
The problem with the Cooper case is that after forty-five years and thousands of suspects, there has not been physical or forensic evidence that can conclusively identify the hijacker through DNA or other means. Fingerprints identified on an in-flight magazine, for instance, have been deemed partial and could have come from anywhere. However, there still exists (or should still exist) evidence from the hijacked flight that could contain genetic matter. On the plane, forensic scientists discovered eight Raleigh filter-tipped cigarette butts, and forensic evidence that could contain saliva embedded in the contain fibers — saliva that could be used to identify the hijacker. But from my research in the case, the cigarette butts once bagged up by the FBI’s agents years ago have gone missing. Before they close the case for good, the FBI agents should find those cigarette butts!
