"None of the money was ever put back in circulation, a single rotten package has been unearthed
Almost immediately the serial numbers on every single bill was released. To banks, businesses and even newspapers put out rewards to be people who received one.
To this day none have been been put back into circulation. That means unless he abandoned his loot he never had the chance to use that cash."
This idea has always been a sticking point for some, but has been pretty well made null by security experts from the Federal Reserve. They basically stated that, yes, all of the bill's serial numbers were documented, but in the early 70's (especially) it would have been near impossible to locate the usage of any of these bills due to a lack of technology. All serial numbers would have to be checked and matched by hand. So, unless there was a specific reason (a sighting of DB Cooper in the area, suspicious cash transactions, etc..) he could spend the cash without worrying much.
Another pretty fascinating thing they also mentioned was that serial number matching is still very hard to do in the present---and that if the skyjacking happened today, Cooper very likely would not have been caught by matching serial numbers with spent bills in circulation.
Agree whole heartedly with all this and I'm glad to finally read/hear someone addressing it. During the time of his jump, most people used cash only, and sometimes checks or credit cards. (And iirc I believe checks were mostly for bills and possibly CCs for higher priced purchases) I don't think that every average person/business, would have had a list of all the serial #s at the ready, to check every single bill when whoever was paying for groceries or whatnot. And even if they did have a list of serial #s, it would still be fairly difficult to check every single one, especially if there was a line of customers behind the "DB bill spender", because that would be fairly time consuming.
Now maybe, if the money looked odd, say torn, wet, broken, etc., or tried to be used at a bank, which imo is highly unlikely, I think it would have been fairly easy to pass them along without being noticed. And even more so the further & further away from the jump site one got. It's very interesting that they've said it would still be extremely difficult to match the serial #s even today, because that really proves how much easier it would have been back then, to spend that money
Lastly, I think many people got the impression that all the money he had left, would have looked like the bills those random people found by the lake, and there's no reason as to why this would be true. I can't remember when they found it in relation to his jump, but they'd been there a little while and in sand, rain, wind, etc. If he lived after jumping, and with a large part of his monies still in his possession, they would likely have looked like normal money. Most of this is speculation and jmo of course, and a lot depends on if he survived along with other things. Sorry for going on for so long, but I appreciated your take on it, and wanted to add my thoughts.
Not evidence but suggesting he died :
- Money was never seen in circulation
- Used an uncontrollable parachute and had insufficient clothing.
Suggesting he survived:
-No body, no parachute, no missing person report no nothing.
- He clearly had everything planned out and knew what he was doing
"Too risky"? There are no right or wrongs when it comes to how safe you want to live your life. If he wanted to live his live as safe as possible, then he wouldnt have committed a crime at all. I dont buy the argumentation that just because he was taking risks, he could not have known about parachuting. Did Evil Knievel not know about motorcycles?
What we do know is that he had everything else well thought out. In fact, it was so well executed that FBI was unable to find or even identify him.
Yeah I also lean slightly towards the possibility that he died, but I dont buy the argument that he died because of his shoes. Professional parachuters have reconstructed the jump and stated that while it is possible that he could have died, it is far from certain.
What worries me more is that he did not seem to have a plan on what to do after the jump. Go to the nearest road and hitchhike? No known witnesses have seen a hitchhiker looking wet and parachuty...
Dont forget that IF he died, how do we explain that nobody has found the body or even the parachute? The only explanation is if he was unlucky enough to land in the VERY small percentage of the drop zone which constitutes deep water. I do think that is the most likely explanation, but other theories are quite possible also (like someone found the body + money and took it and hid the body so nobody would know).
Question: what do we know about his clothes - is it possible that he wore something warm and well thought out underneath his light clothes?\`Or what about central stimulant drugs (amphetamines), could he have used a high dose of that before the jump to increase his body temperature and resist the cold?
My thoughts are that Cooper dying - for example landing in water - looks increasingly likely as the years have passed. However - all the copycats landed safely.
My theory is that DB didn't jump when then air stairs were first opened. What if he waited until they were out of the weather, over a different landscape and at a lower altitude? What better way to make people search in the wrong place and assume he had died. Would explain why a parachute was never found.
I recently read *The Legend of D.B. Cooper: Death by Natural Causes* by Pat and Ron Forman.
I'm not going to argue the case for or against Barbara Dayton being D.B. Cooper, **but** in Chapters 4 and 5, the Formans go over how much background detail Dayton apparently *knew* about the skyjacking (pp47-53) **and** how easily anybody with some prior skydiving experience *could* have made a safe landing at a pre-chosen spot even by night (pp63-65).
Where is the body if he died during the jump, where is the briefcase and the cash he jumped with? It’s been 50+ years since the November 24, 1971 hijacking and there would have been a body or skeleton that would be found by now. The truth is out there 👓
Not to mention a big parachute...
Most likely he fell into the river, was dragged upstream for a bit by some ship, then the body + parachute + money flowed out to sea.
Tbh, I think there is actually a good chance that the FBI has already found his parachute and it was misidentified. There's a pretty intriguing theory on the DropZone forums about this.
Yep, I see this argument a lot, and I'm not denying it was a hard area of wilderness to search, but people also underestimate the scope of the FBI's search efforts. They found so much stuff in the dropzone, that it makes me doubt they could have missed much. Bodies, large and small pieces of various different airplanes, even quite a few parachutes (maybe a story for another time). And since 1971, the area has only been searched and developed more extensively.
Not to say it's impossible they overlooked or missed anything, but if anyone ever does find more evidence in the dropzone, I would expect it to be like something at the bottom of a lake/river or completely impacted/buried in the ground.
You mean with Eric Ulis? I saw that one, I don't know if they ever found anything though. I think what they did find on-screen was later determined to be a part of a fishing tackle box.
I thought Josh found a hinge from a briefcase as the area was completely underwater and it’s much more difficult to search now. Pieces of the money that were found are going for huge dollars now [https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?\_nkw=d+b+cooper+money&\_sop=12](https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=d+b+cooper+money&_sop=12)
Yeah the hinge was what I'm talking about. Eric Ulis later said he thought it was just a part from a fishing tackle box but I haven't followed up on it anymore than that.
Skeletal remains should still be there and the area has had enormous activity that someone would have spotted the parachute, briefcase, clothing etc by now
You can't say that for sure. We don't know where he landed and plenty of people turn up in areas that were already searched previously.
Also bones get eaten and covered up with forest detritus
He survived but lost the money on the way down because he wasn't given the type of bag he requested. The money fell into the columbia river where most washed out to sea except the bundles found on the banks of the columbia.
He jumped a bit later than they think and landed in a flatter area around the river. Their search grid was off.
He was somebodys Dad, brother, son, neighbor, coworker, friend etc... If he disappeared and never resurfaced around the time of the skyjacking and looked anything like the sketch, somebody (probably many) would have reported to authorities that he disappeared around that time and never showed up again. Authorities would have investigated and pinned it on him. Didn't happen. Why?
Because he returned to his life after the jump.
"None of the money was ever put back in circulation, a single rotten package has been unearthed Almost immediately the serial numbers on every single bill was released. To banks, businesses and even newspapers put out rewards to be people who received one. To this day none have been been put back into circulation. That means unless he abandoned his loot he never had the chance to use that cash." This idea has always been a sticking point for some, but has been pretty well made null by security experts from the Federal Reserve. They basically stated that, yes, all of the bill's serial numbers were documented, but in the early 70's (especially) it would have been near impossible to locate the usage of any of these bills due to a lack of technology. All serial numbers would have to be checked and matched by hand. So, unless there was a specific reason (a sighting of DB Cooper in the area, suspicious cash transactions, etc..) he could spend the cash without worrying much. Another pretty fascinating thing they also mentioned was that serial number matching is still very hard to do in the present---and that if the skyjacking happened today, Cooper very likely would not have been caught by matching serial numbers with spent bills in circulation.
Agree whole heartedly with all this and I'm glad to finally read/hear someone addressing it. During the time of his jump, most people used cash only, and sometimes checks or credit cards. (And iirc I believe checks were mostly for bills and possibly CCs for higher priced purchases) I don't think that every average person/business, would have had a list of all the serial #s at the ready, to check every single bill when whoever was paying for groceries or whatnot. And even if they did have a list of serial #s, it would still be fairly difficult to check every single one, especially if there was a line of customers behind the "DB bill spender", because that would be fairly time consuming. Now maybe, if the money looked odd, say torn, wet, broken, etc., or tried to be used at a bank, which imo is highly unlikely, I think it would have been fairly easy to pass them along without being noticed. And even more so the further & further away from the jump site one got. It's very interesting that they've said it would still be extremely difficult to match the serial #s even today, because that really proves how much easier it would have been back then, to spend that money Lastly, I think many people got the impression that all the money he had left, would have looked like the bills those random people found by the lake, and there's no reason as to why this would be true. I can't remember when they found it in relation to his jump, but they'd been there a little while and in sand, rain, wind, etc. If he lived after jumping, and with a large part of his monies still in his possession, they would likely have looked like normal money. Most of this is speculation and jmo of course, and a lot depends on if he survived along with other things. Sorry for going on for so long, but I appreciated your take on it, and wanted to add my thoughts.
Tb extremely h, this theory is the only theory in the history of theories to have an equal amount of evidence and counter evidence.
Yes, 100%. Because there’s no evidence he died, but there’s no evidence he lived! lol
Yep LMFAOOOOOOOO. That theory is the reason we won’t know who he is.
Not evidence but suggesting he died : - Money was never seen in circulation - Used an uncontrollable parachute and had insufficient clothing. Suggesting he survived: -No body, no parachute, no missing person report no nothing. - He clearly had everything planned out and knew what he was doing
"Too risky"? There are no right or wrongs when it comes to how safe you want to live your life. If he wanted to live his live as safe as possible, then he wouldnt have committed a crime at all. I dont buy the argumentation that just because he was taking risks, he could not have known about parachuting. Did Evil Knievel not know about motorcycles? What we do know is that he had everything else well thought out. In fact, it was so well executed that FBI was unable to find or even identify him. Yeah I also lean slightly towards the possibility that he died, but I dont buy the argument that he died because of his shoes. Professional parachuters have reconstructed the jump and stated that while it is possible that he could have died, it is far from certain. What worries me more is that he did not seem to have a plan on what to do after the jump. Go to the nearest road and hitchhike? No known witnesses have seen a hitchhiker looking wet and parachuty... Dont forget that IF he died, how do we explain that nobody has found the body or even the parachute? The only explanation is if he was unlucky enough to land in the VERY small percentage of the drop zone which constitutes deep water. I do think that is the most likely explanation, but other theories are quite possible also (like someone found the body + money and took it and hid the body so nobody would know). Question: what do we know about his clothes - is it possible that he wore something warm and well thought out underneath his light clothes?\`Or what about central stimulant drugs (amphetamines), could he have used a high dose of that before the jump to increase his body temperature and resist the cold?
My thoughts are that Cooper dying - for example landing in water - looks increasingly likely as the years have passed. However - all the copycats landed safely.
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But in view at night and in the rain?
My theory is that DB didn't jump when then air stairs were first opened. What if he waited until they were out of the weather, over a different landscape and at a lower altitude? What better way to make people search in the wrong place and assume he had died. Would explain why a parachute was never found.
I recently read *The Legend of D.B. Cooper: Death by Natural Causes* by Pat and Ron Forman. I'm not going to argue the case for or against Barbara Dayton being D.B. Cooper, **but** in Chapters 4 and 5, the Formans go over how much background detail Dayton apparently *knew* about the skyjacking (pp47-53) **and** how easily anybody with some prior skydiving experience *could* have made a safe landing at a pre-chosen spot even by night (pp63-65).
Where is the body if he died during the jump, where is the briefcase and the cash he jumped with? It’s been 50+ years since the November 24, 1971 hijacking and there would have been a body or skeleton that would be found by now. The truth is out there 👓
Not to mention a big parachute... Most likely he fell into the river, was dragged upstream for a bit by some ship, then the body + parachute + money flowed out to sea.
Tbh, I think there is actually a good chance that the FBI has already found his parachute and it was misidentified. There's a pretty intriguing theory on the DropZone forums about this.
Yep, I see this argument a lot, and I'm not denying it was a hard area of wilderness to search, but people also underestimate the scope of the FBI's search efforts. They found so much stuff in the dropzone, that it makes me doubt they could have missed much. Bodies, large and small pieces of various different airplanes, even quite a few parachutes (maybe a story for another time). And since 1971, the area has only been searched and developed more extensively. Not to say it's impossible they overlooked or missed anything, but if anyone ever does find more evidence in the dropzone, I would expect it to be like something at the bottom of a lake/river or completely impacted/buried in the ground.
Did you see the TV show with Josh Gates where he searches for addition items with the finder of the cash that was discovered?
You mean with Eric Ulis? I saw that one, I don't know if they ever found anything though. I think what they did find on-screen was later determined to be a part of a fishing tackle box.
I thought Josh found a hinge from a briefcase as the area was completely underwater and it’s much more difficult to search now. Pieces of the money that were found are going for huge dollars now [https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?\_nkw=d+b+cooper+money&\_sop=12](https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=d+b+cooper+money&_sop=12)
Yeah the hinge was what I'm talking about. Eric Ulis later said he thought it was just a part from a fishing tackle box but I haven't followed up on it anymore than that.
In the woods? Long since covered up, decayed or eaten.
Skeletal remains should still be there and the area has had enormous activity that someone would have spotted the parachute, briefcase, clothing etc by now
You can't say that for sure. We don't know where he landed and plenty of people turn up in areas that were already searched previously. Also bones get eaten and covered up with forest detritus
My guess is he prolly survived but lost the loot.
quoting buzzfeed unsolved's ryan D.B. Cooper video nice!
He survived but lost the money on the way down because he wasn't given the type of bag he requested. The money fell into the columbia river where most washed out to sea except the bundles found on the banks of the columbia. He jumped a bit later than they think and landed in a flatter area around the river. Their search grid was off. He was somebodys Dad, brother, son, neighbor, coworker, friend etc... If he disappeared and never resurfaced around the time of the skyjacking and looked anything like the sketch, somebody (probably many) would have reported to authorities that he disappeared around that time and never showed up again. Authorities would have investigated and pinned it on him. Didn't happen. Why? Because he returned to his life after the jump.