FBI on D.B. Cooper Suspect Lynn Doyle Cooper: No DNA Match

August 3, 2011, Marla Cooper told ABC News that her uncle, Lynn Doyle Cooper, is the new suspect in the 1971 D.B. Cooper skyjacking case. Marla Cooper is a resident of Oklahoma City and told reporters that she took a five-and-a-half hour polygraph test given by the FBI. She claims "she passed," but the FBI will not release information about polygraph tests they administer.

Marla Cooper was eight-years-old when the skyjacking occurred. She claims that two of her uncles were conspirators in the case, and one uncle known to the family as "L.D.," was the man who jumped from the plane.

On August 5, 2011, Marla Cooper said that "the DNA that they were able to extract" from L.D.'s daughter, "did not match the the partial sample of DNA that they have in their files." However, the question of the reliability of the DNA that the FBI procured from a tie and tie clip left on the plane, is and has been in question for years.

FBI agent Fred Gutt admits that the sample "is not very good" and in fact may not be the skyjacker's at all.

Marla Cooper created a national stir about the case when she told ABC and CNN News that before Thanksgiving of 1971, "My two uncles, who I only saw at holiday time, were planning something very mischievous." She witnessed them before the skyjacking working with "expensive walkie talkies" and planning a hunting trip.

Ms. Cooper says she remembers that her two uncles showed up to a family house in Sisters, Oregon in the early morning on Thanksgiving, the day after the skyjacking. L.D. was bloodied and injured claiming he was in an accident. "My uncle L. D. was wearing a white T-shirt, and he was bloody and bruised and a mess, and I was horrified. I began to cry," she said.

"I heard my uncle Dewy say, 'We did it. Our money problems are over. We just have to go back and get the money. L.D. hijacked an airplane,' " Marla said.

Her uncles tried to convince Marla's father, Don Cooper, into joining them to hunt for the money, which her father refused to do. Her father was angry and screamed at his brothers claiming they had ruined their lives. Marla's father and the two brothers are deceased.

Questions remain legion in the case against L.D. Cooper as the legendary skyjacker. Did he have enough paratrooping experience to make a successful landing? How were the brothers able to link up after such a difficult night time jump? How were they able to return to Sisters, Oregon the next day when the recognized jump zone was approximately 150 miles northwest of Sisters as the crow flies? Did the Cooper brothers ever recover any of the money? How did the entire Cooper family stay silent for so long on such a famous incident in American crime? Of the $5,800 dollars found on the banks of the Columbia River at Tina Bar in 1980, where is the rest of the $194,200 in twenty dollar bills? None of the ransom money has ever been reported in circulation and no other trace of the skyjacker or any other ransom money has ever been found on the ground.

Marla Cooper has stated that she believed L. D. Cooper did not have paratrooping experience. He had an interest in the comic book Dan Cooper, which he kept a copy tacked to a wall. "Dan Cooper" is the name the skyjacker used when purchasing a twenty-dollar, one-way ticket from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington on November, 24, 1971. She produced a color photo of L.D. Cooper for ABC News, which she says was taken in 1972. Though the photo is not of great quality, the resemblance of L.D. to the FBI sketches of D.B. Cooper is similar. She did not see L.D. after 1972 and says only Dewy seemed to stay in communication with him.

It is believed L.D. lived in the Fruit Valley area of Vancouver, Washington in 1969-70 and had a wife named Phyllis. Vancouver is across the border of Oregon a few miles from the Portland, Oregon airport where the skyjacking began. L.D. had been employed as an engineering surveyor, and Dewy Max Cooper was employed at one time at Boeing. The men's occupations has led to speculation that Lynn was able to scout areas in Oregon and Washington in which he could land, and Dewy's work at Boeing would have provided knowledge concerning the jet's unique aft staircase used by the skyjacker to exit the plane.

L.D. Cooper died on April 30, 1999 and is buried in Bend, Oregon. He served in the Korean War with the U.S. Navy. Born in 1931, L.D. Cooper would have been forty-years old at the time of the hijacking.

Before her father's death, Marla's father told her that L.D. was involved in the skyjacking. He insisted that Marla not speak about the skyjacking.

Is Marla Cooper providing information that will solve the nearly forty-year-old case, or was she the butt of a joke by mischievous uncles? Did the brothers concoct the story to embellish an accident during a hunting trip that fooled not only Marla but her father? To date, there is no solid evidence linking either Lynn or Dewy Cooper to the skyjacking.

Marla does have her mother's corroboration concerning her fantastic story. Grace Hailey said that her memory is not strong about the Thanksgiving dinner in 1971 where the brothers met the rest of the family in Sisters, Oregon but still believes L.D. was involved. When the men arrived at the house, Grace was at another house baking pies and missed anything that was said by the men while she was gone.

Grace believes that L.D. was tough enough to execute the plan. She says he was a logger and outdoorsman. He lived in Oregon and grew up in Sisters. Marla stated that both uncles, L.D. and Dewy, were living with their mother in Sisters at the time of the hijacking.

"I've always had a gut feeling it was L.D.," Hailey said. "I think it was more what I didn't know is what made me suspicious than what I did know, because whenever the topic came up it immediately got cut off again."

The injuries L.D. suffered just before Thanksgiving in 1971 landed him in a V.A. hospital. Marla saw him the following Christmas in 1972. At that time, a picture was taken of L.D. holding two leather guitar straps. The picture was given to the FBI. She never saw L.D. again.

In 1971, the skyjacker was officially described by the FBI as white, male, mid-40's, 5' 10" to 6', 170-180 pounds, and possibly brown eyes. He was average to well built, olive complexion, dark hair parted on the left and combed back. He spoke with no discernable accent. The suspect smoked 8-10 Raleigh filtered cigarettes, wore a black suit, white shirt, black tie, black overcoat, brown shoes, and carried a dark briefcase and paper bag 4" x 12" x 14".

Physical evidence linked to L.D. Cooper is being examined in Quantico, Virginia by the FBI. Marla Cooper provided the FBI a guitar strap that was made by L.D. The FBI has said that the strap did not render any fingerprints.

During the investigation of the skyjacking, the FBI has investigated literally hundreds of suspects.

Long time D.B. Cooper investigator Galen Cook was told by the FBI in June of 2011 that they think the case is "unsolvable." This might have a lot to do with the limited evidence the FBI was able to accumulate from the skyjacked plane. Cook believes that the only reliable evidence might be the fingerprints on a magazine that the skyjacker touched during the flight. Curiously, Cook's prime suspect, William P. Gossett has been investigated by the FBI for years and no definitive elimination has been established for him by the FBI. Cook is investigating numerous aspects of the case and is working with the Canadian banking system in trying to locate a safety deposit box owned by Gossett, which could contain part of the skyjacker's ransom money. Cook has expressed his interest in providing information on this aspect of the case by the end of 2011.

With the 40th anniversary of the skyjacking coming up November 24, 2011, it appears that several books might be released on the subject of the only skyjacking never solved by the FBI. Marla Cooper has revealed that she is writing a memoir concerning the skyjacking and her knowledge of it.

Sources

ABC News video, Aug. 3, 2011 on L.D. Cooper

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/hijacker-jumps-plane-lives-14226736

New York Times, Aug. 3, 2011 on L.D. Cooper

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/us/04cooper.html

The Telegraph, July 30, 2011

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/8667855/The-40-year-mystery-of-Americas-greatest-skyjacking.html

Hannaford, Alex. The Telegraph. July 30, 2011.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/8667855/The-40-year-mystery-of-Americas-greatest-skyjacking.html

Seattle Times article on July 2011 Suspect http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/FBI-checking-our-most-promising-lead-in-D-B-1666409.php

1971 D.B. Cooper Letters Linked to Suspect William Gossett

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/6174770/1971_db_cooper_letters_linked_to_suspect.html

Beasley, Rick. "Investigator Claims Depoe Bay Man was D.B. Cooper," Depoe Bay Beacon, May 28, 2008.

"Letter to Gazette Checked in FBI Hunt for Skyjacker," Reno Evening Gazette, Nov. 29, 1971.

"Words in 'Skyjacker Note' to Gazette Clipped from Modesto Bee, FBI Told," Reno Evening Gazette, Nov, 30, 1971.

"Gazette Receives Hijacker 'Letter' -- Second in a Week," Reno Evening Gazette, Dec. 3, 1971.

Personal correspondence with Galen Cook.

Standard Examiner: http://www.standard.net/topics/crime/2009/11/24/38-years-later-db-cooper-remains-mystery

Schwebke, Scott. "D.B. Cooper mystery -- Did witness see hijacker's parachute?" Standard-Examiner, May 22, 2010. http://www.standard.net/topics/crime/2010/05/22/db-cooper-mystery-did-witness-see-hijackers-parachute

Tilkin, Dan. KATU video, Portland, Oregon. July 31, 2008.

FBI page:

http://www.fbi.gov/page2/dec07/dbcooper123107.html

Set of pictures and documents showing Cooper tie, boarding pass, ransom money found, parachutes left on plane, notes by flight crew, pictures of crew and aircraft, maps of area:

http://n467us.com/Photo%20Evidence.htm#Money_Sand

Coast to Coast link to a Gossett family 8 mm silent film of Gossett in 1973 and comparisons of Gossett photos with Cooper sketches:

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/shows/2008/03/29.html

Pertinent video material on Cooper case:

http://www.truveo.com/search.php?query=d.b.cooper+sort%3AmostRelevant

Additional information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper

Geoffrey Gray book on D.B. Cooper http://huntfordbcooper.com/

Links to Information Concerning Major Suspects

William P. Gossett

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/796139/db_cooper_suspect_named_william_pratt.html?cat=37

Richard McCoy and Duane Weber

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/mysteries/cooper.htm

http://www.masterliness.com/a/D.B.Cooper.htm

http://www.damninteresting.com/lames/the-legend-of-db-cooper

Kenneth Christiansen

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/337121_dbcooper27.html

http://nymag.com/news/features/39593/

http://blog.sherlockinvestigations.com/2010/04/into-blast-true-story-of-db-cooper.html

Overview of Suspects: List, McCoy, Mayfield, Christiansen, Gossett, Weber

http://n467us.com/I%20Am%20D%20B%20Cooper.html

D.B. Cooper on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/DB-Cooper/10001004301

The suspect was officially described by the FBI as white, male, mid-40's, 5' 10" to 6', 170-180 pounds, and possibly brown eyes. He was average to well built, olive complexion, dark hair parted on the left and combed back. He spoke with no discernable accent. The suspect smoked 8-10 Raleigh filtered cigarettes, wore a black suit, white shirt, black tie, black overcoat, brown shoes, and carried a dark briefcase and paper bag 4" x 12" x 14".