A picture from the Ariel DB Cooper Party in 2011. People sometimes show up for the lookalike contest. The one on the left is supposed to be Captain Scott from the famous flight. The other one is dressed like Cooper, of course.
The place where Cooper fans hang out. It can get pretty nasty sometimes.
Bill Rattie, a US Army vet who was involved in the original search on the ground for Cooper. When he first posted to Dropzone about his experiences, I didn't recognize the name. Later, I realized I had met him back in 2002 when he was the manager of a hardware store. Small world.
These no-nonsense people were allowed access to the physical evidence in the Cooper case.
Picture of a parachute container known as the Navy Backpack Six. This is the type of parachute that the hijacker used to jump from the jet. Because Cooper selected the military backpack, rather than the newer sport model Pioneer, some speculate Cooper may have had military jump experience.
FBI Special Agent Larry Carr. He was once the case agent on Cooper, one of many who have taken that job over the last forty-plus years. He tried using Dropzone users for research purposes by posting up under the name 'Ckret'.
In Part One, this writer gave a general overview of the main suspects in the unsolved Cooper hijacking, the types of people who inhabit Cooperland, and links to information and research done on the case. Part Two is about the people who spend time trying to be first to solve the case for the FBI, or to assist them in doing it.
And the place where many of these people promote their suspects, offer opinions, or sometimes go crazy is over at Dropzone.com.
Dropzone is the biggest website in the world dedicated to skydivers. And although they receive heavy traffic year-round, the most visited thread on that forum is under Skydiving History and Trivia - D.B Cooper. (To simplify, I'll refer to the thread as 'DZ') The thread is moderated by Paul Quade, a skydiver with the patience of Job. Cooper fans and Cooper nuts can get carried away. Occasionally, he sends someone 'on vacation,' which means a temporary ban to cool them off. Other times, he's forced to ban them completely. It's a thankless job and very difficult. I have no bad feelings toward Mr Quade, even though I was temporarily banned not once, but twice. Both times I deserved it.
DZ is the Cooper Internet Bar and Grill, as it were. Discussions abound on every possible facet of the Cooper case. Although they don't serve alcohol, you can tell from some of the late-night posts that it's self-service all the way and no one ever gets cut off by the bartender. Some of the most famous people involved in the case have either never posted there, or extremely few times. The kitchen is hot, and many folks can't take the heat. One of the Never-Post folks is Geoffrey Gray, the author of Skyjack - The Hunt for D.B. Cooper. He reads the thread sometimes, but due to the craziness on that thread, he stays out of it. Another is Ralph Himmelsbach, the FBI agent who was the first one assigned to the Cooper case. The few-and-far-between visitors include Galen Cook (he posts up by sending material to a proxy person, so he doesn't have to answer questions directly) and lately, Wayne Walker - the guy with the no-BS website on the case. He was probably tired of the arguing. Sometimes a newbie comes aboard with innocent questions, but they don't usually stay long. Others point to the thread as nothing more than a game of one-upsmanship and using whatever means necessary to discredit anyone else. However, a core group of folks still hang out there and they will work together occasionally without tearing at each other like rabid dogs. 'Occasionally' is the key word here.
One interesting poster was a Seattle FBI agent named Larry Carr who went undercover on the site as 'Ckret,' and after his identity was revealed, he made important contributions to the discussion. But after a while, the rabid dogs came out. He finally quit posting and never returned. He is no longer the
Agent of Record for the Cooper case. The NKOTB is Special Agent Curtis Eng, and he hasn't posted as far as anyone knows. Some folks suspect he lurks on the sidelines, trying to weed out the BS from anything helpful in solving the case. The more likely possibility is that no one at the Seattle FBI cares about Dropzone unless they are in need of a chuckle. No one really knows if Big Brother is watching or not.
Cooperland isn't all backbiting and craziness. If Cooper fans appear in public, they are generally polite and very nice. There are two main venues for them. The Holy of Holies is the yearly gathering at the Ariel General Store and Tavern, hosted by owner Dona Elliot. The other is when organizations like KickAss Oregon History set up a symposium, such as the one scheduled for August 2013 at the Museum of Washington State History in Tacoma. There are displays, speakers presenting evidence on this suspect or that one, and other things. It's okay to look like an idiot on the internet in Cooperland, as long as you don't do it in person.
That was a joke, of course.
The main motivator at Cooperland DZ is competition. Who did it? Will I be the one to discover the truth? How can I discredit everyone else's claims? Can I find OTHER articles on Cooper to trash, ones not monitored by Paul Quade? (Answer: It happens) Will I run out of beer before I finish posting? That last part I mention because it's obvious some DZ posters' typing skills deteriorate substantially after nightfall. This writer has made nearly 3,000 posts to DZ, although that's not even close to a few others who were there long before I dropped by. For example, 'Georger,' the man mentioned in the book Skyjack by Geoffrey Gray, has nearly twice that many and has been a solid contributor. There is also Jo Weber, the lady from Florida who still believes her husband Duane was Cooper. She was the one who created the original thread years ago, which can still be viewed. The two of them are the most prolific posters by far. Jo Weber discusses a lot of points that have little to do with the case, and sometimes goes off on minute tangents. You have to give it to her for dedication, though.
There is a Big Rule for anyone posting at Dropzone:
If you've written a book about a suspect in the case (guilty) you are going to get abuse from other posters. You should expect this as a matter of normal business. They view you as a Threat to the Discussion, because you might actually solve the case and that would be counterproductive to the discussion.
Sometimes things make sense even when it seems like they don't, and this is one of them.
My best advice to anyone interested in the case is to make the trip to Ariel and just have fun at Dona Elliot's yearly party. I sympathize with those people at Ariel, and I can identify with their desire NOT to have the case solved. What fun would it be if Cooper were actually revealed? I suppose they could dedicate a shrine to him somewhere in the bar, where people could leave offerings of twenty-dollar bills in tribute. But there would be nothing to discuss anymore at the party, the mystery of it, the wondering. And that would be boring indeed.
Part Three: My Contributions to Cooperland and the Results
