Ep 189B: D. B. Cooper Part 3

Above GIF from Wikimedia Commons: “An animation of the 727's rear airstair, deploying in flight. The animation also shows Cooper jumping off the airstair. The gravity-operated apparatus remained open until the aircraft landed.” Use by CC BY 2.5

 

 

“I think this is gonna have to go to three parts. I don’t see how everything we’ve got right now can be just Part 2. It would be like five hours.”

– Scott Philbrook, Blanket Forteana East, as we sat down to record Part 2 of our series on D. B. Cooper

 

Description:

In Part Three, the commercial-free final "mega-sode" of our D. B. Cooper series, we continue with the FBI's profiling of the infamous skyjacker and learn of their Lead Agents' conclusions, Ralph P. Himmelsbach and Larry Carr. While the FBI investigation would practically come to a dead-end stalemate with their inability to "prove culpability beyond a reasonable doubt," that hasn't stopped scores of amateur and some professional sleuths from continuing the chase, with scientific evidence surfacing as recently as August 2020. One factor that has kept curiosity alive is that several likely suspects have emerged in the years since his disappearance, some having an uncanny number of bizarre coincidences to the case. As we close out our coverage with an in-depth look at these candidates for Cooper's legacy, perhaps doubts about their suitability should remain. One of the enduring aspects of his story for many is that a seemingly average guy may have gotten away with a mischievous and lucrative daydream. For the sake of our fondness for legends, especially more modern ones, perhaps some mysteries are best left unsolved.

 
 

Reference Links:

 
 

Location:

Tena Bar, or “Tina” Bar, a beachhead on the Washington State side of the Columbia River, where 8-year-old Brian Ingram was camping with his family on Sunday, February 10, 1980, when he found three packets of the ransom money. As Brian swept away the sand to make way for a campfire, he uncovered two stacks of 100 $20 dollar bills and a third packet of 90 $20 bills, totaling $5800 in all. This deteriorated stash of cash and an instruction placard for the aft Airstairs for a 727 are the only two confirmed pieces of evidence outside of the plane found to date.

 
 

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CREDITS:

Episode 189B: D. B. Cooper Part 3.  Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess; Audio Editing by Sarah Vorhees Wendel. Sound Design by Ryan McCullough; Tess Pfeifle, Producer, and Lead Researcher; Research Support from the astonishing League of Astonishing Researchers, a.k.a. The Astonishing Research Corps, or "A.R.C." for short. Copyright 2020 Astonishing Legends Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.