D.B. Cooper: the Morris connection?


I knew of D.B. Cooper, the famous mystery man who jumped out of a plane with a few hundred thousand dollars ransom money, and was never seen again — I grew up in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s, so of course I was familiar with the story. Now here’s a weird little twist: there’s a new suspect in the crime, and he’s the brother of a fellow here in Morris, Minnesota.

Not me, I didn’t do it. I was only 14 when D.B. Cooper made his jump.

(Hat tip to Jeffrey Shallit)

Comments

  1. says

    Hey, I just heard that Minnesota is a hotbed of activity in human trafficking. Let me see, missing guy with money, missing humans, suspect with fascination for laser-armed death squids. Coincidence? Must be.

  2. Brian English says

    Totally off topic but PZ can you use your influence to get the plight of the Tassy Devil into people’s consciousness? Maybe ring up the PM of Australia, open up a can of whoop arse on him so that he puts some real funding into saving this unique animal? Tell him he’ll loose the election if he doesn’t.
    He’d listen to a godless liberal who can’t vote for him, after all, he does whatever the god bothering President of your fine country says, and he can’t vote here. He can bomb the bejebus out of us though….

    http://www.theage.com.au/news/in-depth/devil-of-a-problem/2007/10/20/1192301096591.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2

  3. Steve Murphy says

    Must ask my colleague Dr. Shallitt (same campus as me) where he finds times for these gems – always been fasicinated by DB Cooper so I like the story and the Morris connection.

    Off-topic a bit regarding comment #3 (likely to be deleted by PZ): Trolls are expected but spam on the blog is kinda odd :)

  4. Steve Murphy says

    …On the other hand at least the spam bots don’t screw up grammar and spelling like in my comment 4 I just did as I hit post instead of preview, sigh….

    :)

  5. Protobiochemist says

    Speaking of Jeff Shallit, if any of you are in Ontario (Canada), and happen to be bored Wed. night:

    http://www.theconflict.ca/Event_Science_McMaster.html

    Sadly, even Canadian universities have the CC4C, or in this case, the somewhat strange offshoot “Campus 4 Christ”. I guess they decided bad grammar was a good trade for ridding themselves of the “crusade” reference. Pretty much every fall they get on their horses and flood the Canadian University campuses with some nonsense…usually an excuse to recruit + fundraise.

    This promises to be a frustrating talk, but I’m hoping Jeffery can properly smite the apologists. I think curiousity will force me to attend, though i hate to give $2 to that organization (admission).

  6. Umlud says

    This sounds interestingly like something related to the script of this week’s NBC show of “Journeyman”…

  7. Tabitha says

    Amazing. After all these years they have a likely suspect. I remember hearing about it as a child. It seems like all the kids were rooting for him to survive and elude capture.

  8. Larry Craig says

    I am not D.B. Cooper. I have not ever been D.B. Cooper. A wide stance in the crapper is for gay hook-ups and not to fit a suitcase full of money between one’s legs…

  9. Frac says

    Hmm. That’s suspicious. What better cover than to be 14-years-old at the time of the robbery…

  10. Stogoe says

    This sounds interestingly like something related to the script of this week’s NBC show of “Journeyman”…

    I actually thought they used the real story (as a jumping off point) until I saw PZ talking about DB Cooper here. Makes sense that they wouldn’t use the same name/location, though.

  11. Dustin says

    Hmm. That’s suspicious. What better cover than to be 14-years-old at the time of the robbery…

    Yeah, my cover was better. I was like, “Shit, I’m not even born yet, they’ll never suspect me.” So, Gamete Dustin constructed a fake bomb, wrote a note, and the rest is history.

  12. says

    Here is a piece of the history…check out the page of the boy who found some of the evidence in the sand when he was eight years.