Bob,
There's an attorney named Galen Cook who's looking into the latest best suspect. His radio interviews are available on coasttocoastam.com . The latest interview from February 23, 2008, is also currently available on youtube. Good stuff - talks about the possible McCoy connection. Check it out - I'm sure you'll find it most interesting.
I must admit I have not read that book and that I'm pretty new to a lot of this stuff myself - everything I've read or heard comes directly from things I've watched or FBI agents or people who have devoted much of their lives to researching this case and mostly stuff available on the internet. Cook, however, has said that he has talked with the book's author, and even the author - who believes McCoy was Cooper - can't answer some fundamental questions, in particular 1) the alibi (which, according to the FBI web site, says Provo, Utah, rather than California, but I've heard both) 2) the smoking of the cigarettes, and 3) how McCoy's physical appearance doesn't match the descriptions from the flight attendants. (And, obviously, the book is written with a slant and covers the details in a way that's meant to make anyone who reads it believe that McCoy was D.B. Cooper) To cover even some of that would have meant that he would have had to go all out with a masterful disguise - something McCoy apparently didn't do in the $500,000 hijacking. Furthermore, McCoy parachuted very close to home near Provo and yapped a lot, not to mention apparently got picked up by a driver while hitchhiking with a jumpsuit. These are all things that D.B. Cooper - if Cooper lived - didn't do.
I do understand the fascination with McCoy, though, and I know a lot of people will always think it was him, unless the FBI somehow proves undeniably that it was someone else (and maybe even that won't be good enough).
One of the things that I think is so interesting about this is that people seem to stick so adamantly to whatever they want to believe. The case tells as much about our humanity and social psychology as it does about any crazy skyjacker. The biggest thing right now is a suspect named Kenneth Christiansen, even though the FBI has effectively ruled him out as well. There are some amaeteur sleuths that absolutely insist it's a guy named Ted Mayfield, a 1974 world champion skydiver from that area who also has a serious criminal record and, if I recall correctly, robbed at least one bank. The FBI, on the other hand, seems almost sometimes willfully obtuse in trying to make the case that, "well, heck, we can't find the guy, so he must've died."
In defense of the FBI, though, they have searched over a thousand suspects (that's like, a lot, and stuff) and scores of serious suspects. I can't blame them if they roll their eyes every time they get a call from someone who says, "Yeah, it's my brother without a doubt!" or "It's a world champion skydiver" or, "Hey, have you guys ever thought about Richard McCoy?"
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bobsphotography2000
16 years ago
A lot to respond to but for now..
cooper left a neck tie supposedly with 60 sets of prints on it. to me, that could easily have been intentional and nothing more than a rental tie from some resturant, etc, that he carried on board in a bag with the intention of leaving it while he took his real clip on tie with him. in other words, to throw off the investigation. so, the fbi saying they have no matching prints of mccoy to cooper might have been an attempt to match mccoy to a scam tie left for that purpose.
mccoy made the mistake of talking ... but maybe cooper had done the same thing and yet the person hearing him didn't later connect the conversation to the well known hijacking. in other words, mccoy was tripped up when someone remembered the conversation.... while cooper's conversation simply went unremembered.
anyway.,,,, i realize different possibilities.
side note: the prime suspect in the zodiac killer case, arthur leigh allen, also spoke to a friend of his about a "hypothetical" crime that could happen which just happened to match the actual serial murders... and that person did report the issue ... but his report fell through the cracks entirely until he again approached police years later. interesting how criminals always think that their 'friends' (who are just like them and hence untrustworthy) will keep such information secret.
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Traianus
16 years ago
In my honest opinion, McCoy just wasn't as smart as Cooper.
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bodomfchildren
16 years ago
I would like to believe that Cooper survived the jump, left the substantive bit of money behind to fig leaf investigations, which would play to ostensibly corroborate his death and thwart extensive investigations. From there, he would find a town adjacent to the drop, garner his winnings, and make it out of the area by morning. Then, travel to Portland, or a city of adequate size. On arrival, he would accommodate himself, stay a few days at a residence, or hotel, wherein he would convalesce/rest (I would assume he attained damages as a consequence of the drop). Subsequently travel abroad by vehicle (I assume this because a plane wouldn't be particularly logical - at least from my point of view, and moreover I think he'd be a bit traumatized). Then travel down through central America, whereof ending in South America. - I would say Central America, but during the 70's especially, the US had copious CIA and military interventions there, and Cooper, with his intelligence, would take that admonition into account, then again there was substantial US presence in South America, too.
Regarding the money, he would convert it in small amounts at numerous monetary facilities, to evade suspicion.
Of course the latter is just me and my imagination.
The more pragmatic ending would probably be Cooper hitting the river mentioned a few times earlier, resulting in paralyization and consequently dying shortly after from an amalgam of injuries and hypothermia. All of his belongings and parachute(s) being encapsulated and preserved in the body of water, and himself. Then again, the water was dredged, and presumably his body and/or belongings would have been spotted some how or another. All that was was the aforementioned monies.
Or maybe not..
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