Erika!
erika1897.bsky.social
Erika!
@erika1897.bsky.social
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But it tracks considering how bad the rest of the article is, he confused celsius and fahrenheit! Good example of how one person's sloppy research can reverberate

Looking through the 46,000 pages of declassified FBI files, the FBI never once mention it as a concern in their internal communications
August 26, 2025 at 1:20 PM
There is nothing to Mount St Helens. I have no idea why that one AP journalist asserted that the FBI believe Cooper's body is buried under "tons" (!) of ashes. Because the FBI certainly never told him so. There was never even a tenth of inch of ash in the drop zone, down towards Orchards WA.
August 26, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Don't worry about it at all! CNN and other mainstream media news outlets picked it up, it really is no one's fault but them. They're the ones who dropped the ball
July 25, 2025 at 2:49 AM
Larry Carr, who led the investigation for multiple years, has talked about this. It's a grifter looking for his 15 minutes. He tried to pay him to come be part of his videos, Larry of course said no. McCoy was definitively ruled out 5 decades ago, it's farcical at this point.
July 24, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Because the FBI don't comment on false leads. That's why you haven't heard anything. If it had been true the FBI would have made a statement by now, and the youtuber who first came up with this whole spiel would be talking about it constantly and doing another media tour
July 24, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Even worse, it was actually $18.52! He just paid with a $20 bill. The 70s were a different time, man lol
July 24, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Unfortunately, she was basically penniless when she died in 2002 which is hard to reconcile with the ransom. There are other issues too, she doesn't really match the physical description. But it's a really cool story! Her friends have gone on a few podcasts to talk about it
July 24, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Yep, this is basically suspect Barbara Dayton! She had already transitioned in 71, but she claimed she got a haircut and faked her voice to do the hijacking. She told her friends and they came forward after she passed away. Always admired her, imagine the guts to be an out trans woman in the 60s
July 24, 2025 at 4:39 PM
The 3 stewardesses aren't the only witnesses. We also have ticket agent Dennis Lysne, gate agent Hal Williams, as well as passengers Bill Mitchell, Nancy House, Robert Gregory, George Labissoniere, Harms Spreckel, Richard Simmons, Jack Almstad, Michael Cooper, and Larry Feingold.
April 8, 2025 at 2:20 AM
Funny thing, there was a small airstrip almost exactly below where the FBI believe he jumped. Between Battle Ground and Orchards, slightly closer to Orchards. It's called Scholl's Airport & Sport Parachute Center.

You heard that last bit right!
There was a skydiving center in the drop zone!!!
April 5, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Bill Rataczak, the co-pilot, called it "the soup". Pretty much the most stereotypical boring PNW autumn weather.
As I said, he landed near Orchards, WA. Even in 1971 this land was flat and covered in farms and fields. Gifford Pinchot National Forest is many miles to the east.
April 5, 2025 at 11:13 AM
I mean, there really was a boat that he fell out of, and even though the police were contacted at 8.13 (Same time Cooper jumped) he had fallen in much earlier.
Like, if he had been a 45-year old man in a suit and parachute carrying a bunch of cash... Then I think they'd have arrested him
April 5, 2025 at 3:11 AM
Also Barb died, sadly, penniless. She spent her life savings on her transition and was completely broke. There is no explanation for the 200k in cash she supposedly had.
As I said, I adore Barb. Such an icon. Like the guts it must have taken to be out as trans in the 60s and 70s? Insane.
April 5, 2025 at 2:59 AM
I love Barb but she's not a very credible suspect. The FBI never even assigned her a suspect number.
Cooper had sideburns. Barb had already transitioned by this point
Barb says she jumped over Woodburn, Oregon. That's more than 50 miles from where we now know the hijacker jumped
April 5, 2025 at 2:59 AM
One of the funnier coincidences in this case is that a 62-year old man fell into the cold waters of Lake Merwin, where the FBI originally believed Cooper landed, at the same time. He treaded water for 10 hours (!) before being rescued. He lived!
So clearly the outlook isn't that bad.
April 5, 2025 at 2:42 AM
So this is a common misconception, but we have the original files from the FBI. The National Weather Service tells us the weather. Light rain, 42f
The FBI places the hijacker's drop zone between the towns of Orchards and Battle Ground, WA.
Here are 3 photos of the towns from the period.
April 5, 2025 at 2:42 AM
April 4, 2025 at 5:34 PM
There's another comic book that could also be a possible connection! The pulp action magazine "Air Trails" had a feature in its January 1937 edition about a crime-fighting airline pilot named Dan Cooper!
From the median age of 45, that'd have made Cooper 11 years old when this magazine came out
April 3, 2025 at 5:05 PM
During his hijacking he was freaking out. He had a panic attack basically the entire time, he was freaking out and sweating sinner in church.
Like, does any of this match to DB Cooper? The suave, calm businessman? McCoy would *never* have come up with something like this on his own.
March 27, 2025 at 10:20 PM
His wife and him were estranged, she was sick with a rare form of arthritis, and his kids were young. He wanted to make them some money so they wouldn't become homeless after he was gone. And if he died trying? Well, he was fine with that. He was deeply suicidal.
March 27, 2025 at 10:20 PM
McCoy fans usually claim he lost the money in his first hijacking
The thing is, McCoys story is really tragic. He had severe PTSD and chronic migraines, leading him to think he had brain cancer. He was convinced he was going to die soon. He was seen beating his head against the wall to stop the pain
March 27, 2025 at 10:20 PM
This was enough for Larry Carr, who was the final case agent of the case, to completely discard McCoy. As he's explained, it's not temporally possible for McCoy to be at school on the morning of the 24th, then hijack a plane in Portland in the afternoon, and then make it back home by next morning.
March 27, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah! 800 miles from Portland.
McCoy was a good guy. He invited a foreign exchange student over for thanksgiving. When that student showed up at 10 am, McCoy was right there. So we can place him in Utah both a few hours before, and a few hours after the hijacking.
March 27, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Yeah I can definitely see it too! So did the FBI, we can see in the original files them freaking out about it.
But then they showed it to the witnesses, and it seems that any similarity between McCoy and the sketch was an issue with the sketch.

None of the 10 witnesses thought they looked alike.
March 27, 2025 at 9:51 PM
I'm just a huge D.B. Cooper nerd haha!
McCoy was a Criminal Justice student at BYU. He wrote an essay on the Cooper hijacking in Spring 1972 and became obsessed with the case. That's the reason for the similarity!

Though McCoy did his hijacking *much* worse than Cooper
March 27, 2025 at 9:18 PM