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Remember that he was dressed in a pair of slacks, wearing a light jacket over a sports shirt, and wore loafers on his feet.
Does anybody know the temperature the night of November 24th, 1971 in that area? I presume it was pretty cold? Could he have been numb by the time that he hit the tree tops?
By the way, with modern technology and 1000 trained searchers; it took 48 days to capture Eric Frein in my area. Our police were supposedly within 75 to 100 yards of him at one time and he still got away. Our altitude is not as high as out West; but we still have some good obstacles to overcome. He was a trained 'survivalist'. We have no idea of D.B.'s background.
Does anybody know the temperature the night of November 24th, 1971 in that area? I presume it was pretty cold? Could he have been numb by the time that he hit the tree tops?
It was raining, and the temperature at 10,000 feet was approximately -7F (That's the temp reading from the plane after the aft door was opened)
So.. Figuring the terminal velocity of a human body being 120mph.. The wind chill for that jump would have been about -51 degrees F
There's alot of incorrect assumptions there. If it was -7 at 10k feet, it takes time for him to get to terminal velocity, by the time he gets there, it's no longer -7..
So, -51F is worst-case scenario.. Likely didn't get too close to that.. But, you know.. It was dang cold and wet.
At 10,000 feet you hit the earth in 60 seconds. With the temperature, shock, and disorientation he blacked out soon after leaving the plane, chute never opened, splat in a remote area (maybe the river). His remains soon scattered by wild animals, and his bones, clothes and other material (most of the material - syntethic fabrics may have survived this long), including the money, have long since disintegrated with the effects of weather and time.
It's a nice fantasy, but the dude died that night.
I have worked in 20 below temperatures and you have to have the right clothing to survive. Of course; that is for 8 hours.
Was there any possibility that he anticipated the cold and changed when he was alone in the tail? Since nobody ever identified him; we have no idea of his skills/abilities.
Chances are that both of you are right and he did not make it - but we don't know until we see the evidence.
He probably died soon after the jump. In that wilderness his body would be hard to find. Later eaten by wolves? But the strangest thing is that some of the money was found.
The money is... Interesting to say the least.. For those unfamiliar with the details..
In February 1980, which was 9 years after the hijacking.. An 8 year old named Brian Ingram found 3 bundles of money from the hijacking.. Verified through serial numbers. Still wrapped in rubber bands, along the banks of the Columbia river.. Buried, but he was raking the beach for a campfire and turned them up.
Now, the problem here. If the bills floated there on their own.. Why did these three packets stay together? These three packets represented a small fraction of the money. $5800 of $200000.. (10 bills were missing from one packet).. Where's the rest? For the rubber bands to remain intact, they had to have been in the water less than 3 years. Plus, there was a dredging operation on that beach in 1974.. So.. They would have been buried even further down by that.
So, there's alot of contradiction with this.. My guess.. Those three bundles were lost when packing the money into the silk of one of the 2 parachutes Cooper didn't use, and fell out of the plane, or were dropped while he was parachuting down.
Or.. An equally valid theory.. They didn't get enough time to look at that area of the beach. These bills were discovered in February 1980.. That entire area of the Columbia River was buried by mudflows of Mount St Helens on May 18, 1980.
Just for thoroughness.. The money was split between the insurance company and Ingram. He sold 15 of the bills in 2008 for about $37k
And.. Note that the 'bills' were really pieces of bills.. They were badly deteriorated..
So, that does open up the theory as well that these three packets of bills washed up and were therefore the only ones preserved.. The rest, with running water in the river, were just ripped apart and there's pieces of them all along the Columbia River.. But none large enough to identify as money.
He probably died soon after the jump. In that wilderness his body would be hard to find. Later eaten by wolves? But the strangest thing is that some of the money was found.
Not so strange. The money was in a sturdy duffel bag, which was more protection from the elements than what DB wore himself.
According to the witnesses, he wore nothing but a light jacket or coat, and was wearing smooth soled loafers or street shoes. Nothing warm or appropriate for hiking out of the wilderness.
I think the guy was either so cocksure that he was crazy, or was suicidal and wanted to get attention, like jumpers off bridges are. Either way, I have no doubt he never made it out to civilization alive. I hope he died quickly- breaking a leg and slowly starving to death is not a pleasant way to check out at all, especially if a person is dangling from a tree.
It is very unlikely that the identity of the man known to history as D.B. Cooper will ever be discovered.
For one, too much time has passed - if it wasn't discovered in the first four decades post-crime, it's not likely to ever be discovered. For another, the nature of his jump suggests that he did not survive; it would be more likely that his identity would come to light if he had survived the jump and told someone(s), been caught passing money. Third, the fact that none of the marked bills was ever passed indicates that he never made his way out of the wilderness alive. Fourth, the fact that the recovered portion of the ransom was found in a river strongly implies not only that the hijacker died in the jump but that he died in a stream, which after decades has resulted in his remains and the evidence on his person being mostly destroyed, and the hard pieces that remain - bone, metal, etc. - are widely scattered as well as hidden below water and mud/sand. Even were such bits of evidence ever stumbled across, there would almost certainly be no linking them to this hijacking, much less identifying the man.
This is a mystery whose solution is almost certainly forever lost to the ages.
One of the great mysteries of the Northwest. Fascinating story, only because his body has never been found. But some of the stolen money did wash up along the Columbia. Very bizzarre! Is he alive or dead? One of the greatest "unsolved mysteries" of all time!
I thought the stolen money was as missing as Cooper himself. Where did that information come from?
I thought the stolen money was as missing as Cooper himself. Where did that information come from?
A bunch of the money turned up on a river bank, over 20 years ago. The bills were very weather-worn, but there were many that had identifiable serial numbers. All the cash that was handed over had their numbers recorded by the FBI.
No one knows where the money's original location was. It could have been washed down the river for miles, or for a few yards. No trace of human remains were ever found in the location.
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