Adele Ferguson - 8/18/11

Naysayer on D.B. Cooper countered by Goldsworthy

SO DNA TAKEN from the necktie D.B. Cooper left in the plane he jumped from with $200,000 in 1971 doesn’t match that of a dead man claimed by his niece to be the long sought skyjacker.

But the FBI isn’t quite ready to abandon the late Lynn Doyle Cooper as a suspect in the case, an FBI spokesman said. There were three different DNA samples on the tie and it was not clear where Cooper got it. He may have borrowed it. But if he was the skyjacker, how could he have put it on and removed it without leaving his own DNA unless he was wearing gloves?

I also remain skeptical of the story told by his niece of seeing him come to her grandmother’s home in Sisters, Ore., the day after the crime all bloody and bruised and overheard him tell his brother they now had plenty of money, thanks to a plane hijacking.

She was only eight years old at the time and that was 40 years ago, quite a long time to remember things. Would an 8-year-old even know what a hijacking was? She also is writing a book about the case so this certainly helps the possibility of marketing that.

Anyway, there’s been all kinds of speculation as to how Cooper survived the jump over the Columbia, if indeed he did. All we really know is that about $5,000 in $20 bills identified as part of the ransom was found on the banks of the river years after the event.

I WROTE about it in years past since Rep. Dan Dawson, R-Gig Harbor, told me how he was a major on duty and in charge that night at McChord Field and tasked with supplying the three parachutes demanded by the skyjacker. The chutes he readied, however, were rejected by NORAD, which got some from a private flying school instead. Of the two left behind, one was defective but not tagged as such so Dawson though the others could have been defective too. Dawson, dead now, was convinced Cooper went straight down into the river or was killed when he hit the ground or a tree.

Charles Warner of Bremerton, who was a paratrooper in World War II, disagreed. First off, he said, even if the chute Cooper used was okay, he could have inspected it and put it back in its cover. “You can pack a parachute in a laundry bag like dirty laundry so long as the risers (lines) are in there properly. That’s the really important thing. If they don’t come out evenly, you’re apt to get tangled in a knot and then the chute won’t open. You also have to fall face down or the chute will envelop you.”

As for the money found on the river bank, Cooper could have tossed a pack to make searchers think that was where he jumped, but guided his chute further on, said Warner. But if he exited okay, didn’t get caught on something on the plane or didn’t pull the ripcord too fast, he had about a 90 percent chance of survival.

I JOINED with the naysayers on Cooper’s chances of survival, but I got a letter from an old friend, former Rep. Bob Goldsworthy of Rosalia.

“You are wrong, Adele.

D.B. Cooper lives.

If you have ever bought a car from a used car salesman, D.B. Cooper lives.

If you have been informed by a snooty waiter that his minimum tip is 20 percent, D.B. Cooper lives.

If you have had it up to there with inflation, Iran, Jane Fonda, you know D.B. Cooper is alive and well.

How about the black hat punching the white and riding off with the willing heroine? It never happens but we do have D.B. Cooper.

Come now, Adele, you know that sometimes, in the dead of night, your thoughts go to a little café on the West Bank where you are sipping Pernod and lighting your companion’s cigarette with hundred dollar bills.

Believe me, D.B. Cooper lives.”

(Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville WA 98340)