Geoffrey Gray's Blog, page 9

First reading…Tonight.

Morning Cooper fans. So tonight is my first reading, at the elegant Corner Bookstore on the corner of Madison Avenue and 93rd Street. The starting time is 6:00 p.m., and for information on where it is and how to get there click here.

Cooper weekend roundup: Books are in!

I passed a bookstore yesterday afternoon. Curious to see if they had any books in stock, I went inside and snooped around. And behind the counter, resting in cardboard boxes, there they were.

While the book itself can be pre-ordered in cyberspace (and cheaper this way), the actual books themselves are actually in stores, which means if you go to the right place, you can take one (or why not two?) home today. Worth a Sunday stroll…

Other news:

Yesterday, I wrote a piece for The Wall Street Journal about the Cooper Curse itself, and the legendary way in which Cooper has evaded generations of agents and soldiers looking for him.

You can read it here.

Today, there's a story in the Times about the reasons why we need the hijacker to keep getting away all these years.

In the annals of the case, we have arrived at a unique moment, fellow Cooper hunters, truly a frenzy of interest as we approach the fortieth anniversary of the hijacking in Ariel this November. For those unfamiliar with the case, here is a short and fine short about the Cooper case by filmmaker Jesse Moss that captures some of the spirit of the case.

Was 'Uncle L.D.' vetted by FBI? "Not fully," agent says.

There's an avalanche of reports out this morning about Marla Cooper outing her uncle Lynn Doyle Cooper ("Uncle L.D.") as the skyjacker, and what's curious about many is the suggestion the FBI actually investigated her uncle's story.

"It was not fully vetted," Special Agent Fred Gutt of the Seattle's Bureau field office told me the night before Marla Cooper went public. Gutt described the Bureau's interest in Uncle L.D. not as an official investigation, but just "taking a look," and because the original source who approached them was a cop, they decided to pass along the guitar strap to Quantico for testing.

The Bureau finds itself in a funny p.r. jam when it comes to Mr. Cooper. On the one hand, they don't want to appear lazy in not investing such a high profile case. On the other, they don't want to be perceived as spending such valuable resources in tough times chasing down an illusive legend. What tends to happen is a lot of misinformation, which is where this story began.

The news break of the recent "credible" and "most promising" lead came via the sleuthing of the British Telegraph's Alex Hannaford, who was able to squeeze out of Bureau rep Ayn Dietrich that the Bureau had passed along some evidence to Quantico for testing. "This is looking like our most promising one to date," Dietrich told Hannaford, a quote other outlets pounced on.

As news of a major Cooper case break burned up the wires, Dietrich downplayed her comments. Because there have been so many lousy leads in the Cooper case, Dietrich told me what she was trying to get across was that the Bureau's most recent tip about Uncle L.D. was the "most promising" in comparison to so many of the stinkers that have come in before.

Alas, it was too late. The stories were out, and soon so was Marla Cooper.

Cooper mania upon us! Introducing Uncle "L.D." Which suspect will be next?

Finally we have a name: Lynn Doyle Cooper. Or, as his niece Marla Cooper called him, "L.D.," for short, kind of like ol' D.B. The release of this hyped up suspect's name, coming on the heels of a disclosure earlier this week that the Bureau had their "most promising" suspect to date, and in response had sent over physical evidence (a guitar strap) to the Bureau's lab in Quantico for fingerprint testing. Yesterday, that lead flamed out Bureau scientists failed to find any fingerprints in the case, though it was a moot issue to begin with because the FBI is not even certain it has Cooper's fingerprints to test, and even if they did the samples are partial ones, and likely a dead end.

Late yesterday, I was talking with an FBI source out of the Seattle field office about the burned out lead and frenzy, and he mentioned that agents wouldn't be surprised if the source started talking to reporters. Voila! Here comes the Lynn Doyle Cooper story, given to ABC news as an exclusive this morning on Good Morning America, where I was a guest and talked a about the reason to take this claim lightly.

It would help to know more about this suspect's background, but from what we know so far here is 1 reason to like Uncle L.D. and five quick reasons to doubt it.

What to like: The photo. It's impossible to conclude anything from only one photo (suspect's look different from different angles) but the dark tan skin of Uncle L.D., which all witnesses on the hijacked flight reported. Moreover, his facial features to my eyes bear a resemblance not to the first Cooper sketch (the so-called Bing Crosby sketch) or the second, but almost a combination of the two. I also like his wavy hair. In other words, not terrible. Actually, pretty good.

Now, here's where the Uncle LD story get's funky.

1.) Source issues. Initially, the FBI said the credibility of their lead was based on it's source, namely a law enforcement official. I've recently learned that this law enforcement official was a retired police officer, who knew a "witness" who knew the hijacker's story. Presumably, this "witness" is Marla Cooper. At the time of the hijacking, Marla Cooper, who claims she heard her long lost uncle confess to the hijacking, was eight years old.

2.) The Confession. In her interview with ABC this morning, Marla claimed that days after the hijacking she saw Uncle LD wearing a bloody white shirt, presumably injuries from his incredible jump. Then she overheard him talking about pulling off an airplane hijacking and their money problems were over. But if Uncle LD was bloody after the jump, wouldn't he wash up first and not wait until a few days before cleaning up?

3.) Suspect's age and experience. While we don't know much if anything about the Uncle LD's background, ABC reported that he was in his late 30's and was a Korean war veteran. While some witnesses thought the hijacker was younger, most witnesses believed he was older, and in his mid-forties.

4.) One detail that wasn't reported on the ABC news segment was where Marla claims her Uncle LD's parachute came down. I learned the location she was claiming was Sisters Oregon, near Bend, which is WAY far off from the suspected Cooper drop zone near Ariel, in southwest Washington. I just Google mapped it, and the distance is almost 200 miles!

5.) Cooper mania. Every time there's a flurry of news around the Cooper case, especially following the hijacking and wind up to the annual anniversary in the fall, suspects have a way of coming forward. When I looked into the case file, I found leads submitted about hundreds of Uncle LD's, brothers, fathers, neighbors, jealous lovers. Each motive was different, but what remains consistent is the leads keep coming in. There's a reason why there's been over a thousand suspects and persons of interest in the case. I found several with similar names: Merlin Gene Cooper, Daniel Louis Cooper, Russell Lee Cooper, Marvin John Dooper, and on.

It could be that Uncle LD is our guy. But proving it conclusively, especialluy considering the weak forensic evidence in the case, will be a burden that I'm not so sure Marla Cooper can overcome.

Cooper mania is upon us. As we approach the fortieth anniversary of the case, I expect only to see more D.B.'s and Uncle L.D.'s.

More from me to come later.

Bust? Already!

Has the "most promising" D.B. Cooper suspect turned out to be a dud?

Early today, the reports out of Seattle was that a guitar strap the FBI wanted to use to identify finger prints on a deceased Cooper suspect yielded no suitable finger print samples to analyze. Now the Bureau has to go back to the dead suspect's family to search for more prints, forensic evidence that would have the potential to likely yield only more in-conclusions.

And there are more problems with the suspect the Bureau has deemed credible. Today, the Times report's that the lead to the suspect came from a retired law enforcement officer who has come forward, claiming he knew somebody who knew the suspect.

This narrative is a fairly common one in Cooperland, and what tends to make them so unreliable is that the premise of the lead itself is based on second-hand sourcing. It almost sounds like a bar tale. I know a guy who knew a guy who died ten years ago….

Credible? Possibly, but a dime a dozen in the Cooper case.

Even if the Bureau were able to get a perfect print together for the Bureau lab to test, it is unlikely they have a good print of Cooper's to test against. When agents dusted the plane for prints, they found many prints. Too many! Especially in the in-flight magazine resting in the seat pocket in row 18, where Cooper hijacked the plane from. These prints themselves are partial ones, and thus inconclusive for now.

 

The best evidence to test in the case, the eight Raleigh filter tipped cigarette butts, have gone missing. During the three years I reported on the case, I learned that agents were not able to locate where the cigarette butts were and thus impossible to determine a get a genetic code for the hijacker.

 

At least for now, Cooper, once again, seems to have gotten away.

Not so fast

Just hold on now.

Today, there's a news break out of the Pacific Northwest about a "new suspect" in the legendary D.B. Cooper case. On the surface it sounds promising. Through the sleuthing efforts of The Telegraph's Alex Hannaford, we've learned the FBI has sent evidence to the lab in Quantico for fingerprinting and DNA testing. The lead on the suspect is a good one, the Bureau says, because the tip itself came from law enforcement, and not from the thousands of suspicious citizens over the years like you and me.

Here are the problems. First, the evidence the FBI uncovered on the plane, from my sources at least, has proven inconclusive for conclusive testing. During the three years that I reported on the Cooper case and was given exclusive access to FBI files to write SKYJACK: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper, which comes out next month, I learned through then case agent Larry Carr that the fingerprints uncovered on the plane that night were virtually useless. There were so many prints for agents to dust on the plane it was impossible to tell which were the hijackers and which were passengers.

Furthermore, the most crucial physical evidence in the case itself—8 Raleigh filter tipped cigarette butts—had gone missing. Carr didn't know where they were, and suspected they might have been tossed because DNA evidence had yet to come in vogue.

So, is the news here really the FBI finally found the missing cigarette butts to test against their new "most promising" suspect? Or will the Bureau's lab agents in Quantico come up with the same results that Carr did, namely that the physical evidence in the case is good but not good enough to make a declarative forensic conclusion on the identity of the hijacker?

The Bureau itself might be onto something promising indeed, but with so many promising leads that have come in on the case, what's looked good before has often come up short. In recent years, the last discovery to make international news and stir up a frenzy was the discovery of a white parachute in Amboy in southwest Washington, near where Cooper is believed to have landed. News of the discovery got out, a media whirlwind followed, and the parachute itself turned out to be the wrong one.

The question within this recent reveal is not whether the Bureau has a new suspect—thousands of names have come in before for testing, and names from law enforcement sources too. The real question is the condition of the physical evidence. From an investigative perspective, the cold case has not been a priority for agents to probe. So, given the let's-see-what-happens-posture, have they somehow managed to relocate evidence that has better forensic integrity than what Carr found over the past three years? Or, more likely, is this "most promising" suspect another shot in the dark?

Readings

Monday, August 8th.

The Corner Bookstore

New York, New York.

1313 Madison Avenue, at 93rd street.

Time: 6:00 pm.

Thursday, August 11th.

KGB Bar

New York, New York.

85 East 4th Street.

Time: 7:00 pm.

Tuesday, August 16th.

Third Place Books

Seattle, Washington,

17171 Bothell Way, Suite A101, Northeast Lake Forest Park, 98155

Time: 7:00 pm.

Thursday, August 18th.

Powell's Books.

Portland, Oregon.

1005 West Burnside, 97209.

Time: 7:30 pm.

Monday, August 22nd.

Books Inc.

Berkeley, California.

1760 4th street, 94710.

Time: 7:00 pm.

Wednesday, August 24th.

A.C. Vroman

Los Angeles, California.

695 East Colorado Boulevard. Pasadena, 91101.

Time: 7:00 pm.

Alas…the video is in.

So, after some tinkering and tuning, the video trailer to accompany the book is finished.

Readings

Monday, August 8th.

The Corner Bookstore

New York, New York.

1313 Madison Avenue, at 93rd street.

Time: 6:00 pm.

Tuesday, August 16th.

Third Place Books

Seattle, Washington,

17171 Bothell Way, Suite A101, Northeast Lake Forest Park, 98155

Time: 7:00 pm.

Thursday, August 18th.

Powell's Books.

Portland, Oregon.

1005 West Burnside, 97209.

Time: 7:30 pm.

Monday, August 22nd.

Books Inc.

Berkeley, California.

1760 4th street, 94710.

Time: 7:00 pm.

Wednesday, August 24th.

A.C. Vroman

Los Angeles, California.

695 East Colorado Boulevard. Pasadena, 91101.

Time: 7:00 pm.

Good Guys and Bad Guys

The power of the Cooper case not only lies in the fact that the mystery has remained unsolved for so long, but that the courage and perceived cleverness of the hijacker was able to tweak the moral fabric of American culture and law enforcement.

In one jump, one free fall, a man falling out of a plane was able to make the good guys (namely the cops, agents and soldiers looking for him) root for the bad guys (namely him.) Now there are those who can argue (and somewhat persuasively) that the reason Cooper became an outlaw hero in popular culture is because society in the fragmented and paranoid early 1970's had a collective need to turn outlaws into heroes.

Whatever the reason, Cooper's illusive escape turned the hijacker into what I call a "schizo-transcendentalist," somebody who, regardless of motives, did something so extraordinary he shifted the way people think about basic things like law and order. One place where this phenomenon seems to be on display is in the below photo, where FBI agents and soldiers gathered for a group photo before going out to conduct an aerial test to determine where the hijacker landed in the forests of the Pacific Northwest.

The motive for this posse-like photo could be to document the famous manhunt. Then again, it could also be to relish in the collective awe of the hijacker's daring and transcendental escape. As one local sheriff said after the jump: "If he took the trouble to plan this thing out so thoroughly, well, good luck to him."