I met, AKA D.B. Cooper, in the fall of 1969. Our meeting wasn't under the best of circumstances as I was being held in the county jail, waiting for my sentence for some very minor drug charges. For many weeks we talked before he opened up to me about his very sordid past. Our conversations were many and varied in subject matter over the many months we spent together. One day he asked, "Doug, will you stand in my line-up?" I looked at him doubtfully and said, "What, you can't do that." "Doug, any prisoner in here, if they OK it, has to be in the lineup, it's the law!' "Cooper if that's the case, I'll do it." With a sigh of relief, "I want to pick out the clothes I want you to wear, and comb your hair." Later that evening in a whisper barely audible, "Please act nervous, it'll throw the witness off." For days I kept telling Cooper I doubted I could act nervous, to shut him up I finally agreed to try to act nervous when lineup day rolled around."Doug I really need help on this one I have two more extraditions to go through, one in Utah and another in Colorado." Cooper stated to me after we were returned to the cell, "I'm definitely off those charges, thank you!" I asked, "What in the hell makes you think that, Cooper?" He stated, "Doug, I could tell from the pissed look the cops they gave us when we walked by!" Later that week Mr. Cooper whispered to me,........................ From our many conversations no doubt he'd packed survival gear for the jump, he was an extremely intelligent individual. It is listed as the 10th most famous crime in the world, from the last century He has never been apprehended for this crime and is still very wanted. The day before the statue of limitations was set to expire a smart DA filed a John Doe warrant in the event they ever figured out, whos name to fill in.The Federal authorities spend millions of dollars for the thousands of man-hours spent searching the area of the jump and their follow up investigations. Not even so much as a scrap of the parachute was ever found for all their efforts at that time.
Many people have braved the mountainous region, over the years, attempting to recover the money they think was lost and is sitting there waiting to be plucked up. Many years later $5,800.00 was recovered by a young man on the north side of the Columbia River in a sand bar. A government hydrologist, who studies water movement, stated that it had floated down the river and lodged there. I pondered this and decided it must have been an act of God for 6 bundles of twenty's to have traveled so far, in a raging river and end up at the same location. Possibly Mr. Cooper personally planted it there, to feed those who hold him in such high esteem for his daring act!
The Mr. Cooper I met related he'd robbed many banks and also mentioned a particular bank near the Oregon coast and the sum of $483,000.00. He said, "Its a little one horse town and they bring it in regularly, to pay the workers at the lumber mill." He whispered, "Man that's one job I plan on pulling some days!"
I am convinced he survived because shortly after the hi-jacking, the bank was nailed exactly as just as he'd indicated earlier. I contacted the FDIC in an attempt to get any information which would substantiate the robbery but they declined my request. I put America Find to work in the hopes they'd be able to locate anything current on AKA's real name and they came up empty. I finally asked, "How far back, do your electronic records go?" They stated, "The early eighties." This is another indicator to me that the Mr. Cooper I met, disappeared before the early 80's.From our many conversations I ascertained that he was an extremely intelligent individual. It's truly a shame he used his superior mental abilities for a life of crime. He related many of his past misdeeds to me in hushed whispers, which may be included in my book, given I am allowed to tell everything I know .
I ended up getting a two-year sentence for my very minor crime. Did I receive the sentence for the very foolish act in the lineup of a very hardened criminal? Possibly! Mr. Cooper told me, "Doug you should keep a diary and write a book." After I read about the two major crimes in the paper I thought, I haven't the faintest idea how to, and decided it was beyond my abilities.
