As reported on CNN.com – The FBI says the parachute found by children, buried in a wooded area of southwestern Washington is not connected to famed plane hijacker D.B. Cooper. FBI agent Laura Laughlin said that the agency came to its conclusion after speaking with parachute experts. The experts said that the make of the parachute recently found in Washington, placed it’s manufacture in the 1940s, and not in the period when D.B. would have had access to it during the hijacking.
The man who packed the four chutes given to the mysterious skyjacker had said earlier that the newly found chute could not be Cooper’s.
Earl Cossey, who sold parachutes at a skydiving operation in Issaquah in the 1970s, had provided the chutes that the FBI gave Cooper. He told The Columbian of Vancouver that the newly found chute “absolutely, for sure” could not have been one of the four that he provided.
“The D.B. Cooper parachute was made of nylon,” he said. “This 1945 parachute was made of silk.”
And another trail goes cold.
But here’s an interesting side story:
In March of 1995, a woman named Jo Weber received a phone call from her dying husband, Florida antique dealer, Duane Weber. He whispered “I’m Dan Cooper” to his puzzled wife. Since Jo had no idea what the name Dan Cooper might mean to the legend of D.B. Cooper, she didn’t react the way Duane apparently wanted her to. He blurted out in frustration, “Oh, let it die with me.”
In 1996, Jo discussed a lot of the past with her mysterious husband with a friend, relating that not long before he dies, Duane had revealed that the case of his existing knee injury was “jumping out of a plane.”
In March 1997, Jo convinced Ralph Himmelsbach of the FBI to open a case file on Duane Weber. This file allowed the FBI to access and perform matching on unknown fingerprints found in the plane of the hijacking. However Weber’s prints matched none of the prints on file. The curious part, is that no one knows that Cooper left any of the prints that Weber’s were matched against either. The case was closed in July of 1998, saying they needed more conclusive evidence to keep it open.
I have a feeling that they may have just made a mistake… Read the rest of the story here:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/mysteries/cooper.htm
For all of you Alyson Hannigan fans, (like me), here’s a funny clip from The Onion, first posted on April 1:
<embed src=”http://www.theonion.com/content/themes/common/assets/videoplayer/flvplayer.swf” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowScriptAccess=”always” wmode=”transparent” width=”400″ height=”355″ flashvars=”file=http://www.theonion.com/content/xml/75143/video&autostart=false&image=http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/ALYSON_HANNIGAN_article.jpg&bufferlength=3&embedded=true&title=FCC%20Okays%20Nudity%20On%20TV%20If%20It%E2%80%99s%20Alyson%20Hannigan”></embed><br/><a href=”http://www.theonion.com/content/video/fcc_okays_nudity_on_tv_if_it_s?utm_source=embedded_video”>FCC Okays Nudity On TV: If it is Alyson Hannigan</a>
