New Forum & News Updates

[Parrotheadvol]

BTW: A Mountain News update: Not one reader posted a single Cooper comment today! It's the first quiet 24-hours I've had since Christmas.

But I did notice who had to get the last word in....

[Bruce A. Smith]

BTW: A Mountain News update: Not one reader posted a single Cooper comment today! It's the first quiet 24-hours I've had since Christmas.

But I did notice who had to get the last word in....

Parrot, you are SO sharp...

[Bruce A. Smith]

Bruce wrote: "BTW: A Mountain News update: Not one reader posted a single Cooper comment today! It's the first quiet 24-hours I've had since Christmas."

Another marker of diminishing interest. Gotta stir things up again. Where is Marla when we need her? Maybe Rackstraw will get a Hollywood agent and hold a full confession press conference.

377

377 - you try getting 20 emails a day from RMB and see how you like it!

[377]

I get about one email from Robert every couple of months. They are never combative or disrespectful. We disagree on KC but that causes zero strife.

I hope everybody who publishes about DBC, including Robert Blevins, prospers. Marla gets trashed a lot but she fanned the Cooper fires big time when the embers were cooling off. Colbert has brought new national attention to the case. If a KC movie actually gets made and released I’m just fine with that even though I disagree with the premise.

Picking up my parachute rigs from my rigger today. Fresh reserve repacks and thorough inspections of every part of the canopies, harnesses, containers and emergency systems. Old gear, old jumper but still airworthy. 😉

377

[Lynn]

I get about one email from Robert every couple of months. They are never combative or disrespectful. We disagree on KC but that causes zero strife.

I hope everybody who publishes about DBC, including Robert Blevins, prospers. Marla gets trashed a lot but she fanned the Cooper fires big time when the embers were cooling off. Colbert has brought new national attention to the case. If a KC movie actually gets made and released I’m just fine with that even though I disagree with the premise.

Picking up my parachute rigs from my rigger today. Fresh reserve repacks and thorough inspections of every part of the canopies, harnesses, containers and emergency systems. Old gear, old jumper but still airworthy. 😉

377

The voice of reason as ever is 377! Yes, and apart from sustaining interest in the mystery, I do think there's something to be gained in looking at everyone's stuff, even where it helps you delineate your own biases and assumptions, logical or otherwise. It never hurts to look at all angles. I've been dealing with some stuff at work and in between trying to write and bouncing all over in what I read, but ALL of the latter inhabits the vortex. The vortex still beats reading the news.

I got GG's book for my birthday and have been working through Bruce's and a few others as well. I keep getting struck by the parallels in some ways between 1971 and now in the overall zeitgeist. We've had radicals - neo-cons and vandals posing as anarchists - up here recently. It's all very weird. Reading the GG account of the actual event last night, for all the poetic license, decently sums up what we know of the crime. I've pretty much discounted the suspects he's honed in on so far but been reminded of how fascinating they all were.

Friends are indulgent but keep asking why the fascination with this case. I can never give a complete answer, except that it was an elegantly crafted crime, no one got physically injured or killed so there's less guilt in the fascination with the criminal, and seriously who else has parachuted in and out of history in the same moment? Like I told someone else on here, even his alias got twisted, conspired to make him simultaneously famous and anonymous.

For all the disagreement, we share the vortex, and I do think GG gives a good first-hand account of how it feels to fall into it. Looking at photos of suspects (some of you lucky duckies have even handled the evidence), trying to "feel" Cooper, see the crime in our heads is probably universal in Cooperland. I haven't dreamt of the skyjack yet, but I'm sure it'll happen. Someone needs to do a drawing of that parachute opening up into a question mark. It's like investigating the bloody Riddler.

[377]

Lynn,

Good description of the Vortex, its lure and its effect on those who enter it. I think Sluggo holds the record for the deepest immersion and most complete exit from the Vortex. Sluggo got off the needle and never looked back. Maybe he could start a 12 step program for Vortex dwellers wishing to quit. 

The Vortex even affected FBI agents who worked on the case. Two retired SAs told me off the record that they hoped Cooper had survived the jump. Wishing the best for a perp is a rare sentiment among law enforcement officers.

Perry Stevens (D-51) died last Saturday. Perry taught me how to skydive in 1968. He was the rigger who packed military 240.0 MHz tracking beacons into the rigs the FBI provided to McCoy. McCoy specifically requested that Perry Stevens be contacted to provide the chutes he demanded. Perry invented the RSL (reserve static line) over 40 years ago which saved hundreds of lives and survives even today in a modified form. He sought no patent and made it available to anyone without licensing royalty obligations. Skydiving and skydivers owe a lot to Perry Stevens, I sure do.

377

[Robert99]

Lynn,

Good description of the Vortex, its lure and its effect on those who enter it. I think Sluggo holds the record for the deepest immersion and most complete exit from the Vortex. Sluggo got off the needle and never looked back. Maybe he could start a 12 step program for Vortex dwellers wishing to quit. 

The Vortex even affected FBI agents who worked on the case. Two retired SAs told me off the record that they hoped Cooper had survived the jump. Wishing the best for a perp is a rare sentiment among law enforcement officers.

Perry Stevens (D-51) died last Saturday. Perry taught me how to skydive in 1968. He was the rigger who packed military 240.0 MHz tracking beacons into the rigs the FBI provided to McCoy. McCoy specifically requested that Perry Stevens be contacted to provide the chutes he demanded. Perry invented the RSL (reserve static line) over 40 years ago which saved hundreds of lives and survives even today in a modified form. He sought no patent and made it available to anyone without licensing royalty obligations. Skydiving and skydivers owe a lot to Perry Stevens, I sure do.

377

That's 243.0 MHZ (which is paired with 121.5 MHZ).

[georger]

I get about one email from Robert every couple of months. They are never combative or disrespectful. We disagree on KC but that causes zero strife.

I hope everybody who publishes about DBC, including Robert Blevins, prospers. Marla gets trashed a lot but she fanned the Cooper fires big time when the embers were cooling off. Colbert has brought new national attention to the case. If a KC movie actually gets made and released I’m just fine with that even though I disagree with the premise.

Picking up my parachute rigs from my rigger today. Fresh reserve repacks and thorough inspections of every part of the canopies, harnesses, containers and emergency systems. Old gear, old jumper but still airworthy. 😉

377

The voice of reason as ever is 377! Yes, and apart from sustaining interest in the mystery, I do think there's something to be gained in looking at everyone's stuff, even where it helps you delineate your own biases and assumptions, logical or otherwise. It never hurts to look at all angles. I've been dealing with some stuff at work and in between trying to write and bouncing all over in what I read, but ALL of the latter inhabits the vortex. The vortex still beats reading the news.

I got GG's book for my birthday and have been working through Bruce's and a few others as well. I keep getting struck by the parallels in some ways between 1971 and now in the overall zeitgeist. We've had radicals - neo-cons and vandals posing as anarchists - up here recently. It's all very weird. Reading the GG account of the actual event last night, for all the poetic license, decently sums up what we know of the crime. I've pretty much discounted the suspects he's honed in on so far but been reminded of how fascinating they all were.

Friends are indulgent but keep asking why the fascination with this case. I can never give a complete answer, except that it was an elegantly crafted crime, no one got physically injured or killed so there's less guilt in the fascination with the criminal, and seriously who else has parachuted in and out of history in the same moment? Like I told someone else on here, even his alias got twisted, conspired to make him simultaneously famous and anonymous.

For all the disagreement, we share the vortex, and I do think GG gives a good first-hand account of how it feels to fall into it. Looking at photos of suspects (some of you lucky duckies have even handled the evidence), trying to "feel" Cooper, see the crime in our heads is probably universal in Cooperland. I haven't dreamt of the skyjack yet, but I'm sure it'll happen. Someone needs to do a drawing of that parachute opening up into a question mark. It's like investigating the bloody Riddler.

Hate to burst your bubble, but it was not so clean-and-tidy as the report. GG's entry into Cooperland is well known and began with a writing opportunity which crossed his screen .... got a call from Skip Porteous relating the Lyle Christiansen weirdness. GG was a struggling writer in NYC looking for opportunities to further his career. The Kenny story crossed his desk .... he wrote the first article on Kenny for the New Yorker Magazine .... the rest is history. G Gray himself help start the Cooper Vortex in material ways; well documented including threats of a lawsuit! 

Unmasking D.B. Cooper By Geoffrey Gray  Published Oct 21, 2007  New York Magazine News & Politics

Feelings involved were about career promotion after he had already completed research and done several expose's of political figures ... he was looking for fresh new 'sensational?' material (News & Politics at the New Yorker) ?

It was an easy 'Two fer $5 still at Arby's'! 

Mr. Gray has never participated in any Cooper forum. Calls them "viper pits". (ref 2008-9 re-Dropzone.com) So Geoff may write about how it feels to be in the Cooper vortex, when he himself is stirring the pot. Dont believe everything you read?  Ask a rabbit how it feels to be hunted. Or stick with the Goldylocks version.    

[377]

R99 wrote: “That's 243.0 MHZ (which is paired with 121.5 MHZ).�

Correct. 240 was a typo. 243 is the second harmonic of 121.5.

377

[Bruce A. Smith]

Hate to burst your bubble, but it was not so clean-and-tidy as the report. GG's entry into Cooperland is well known and began with a writing opportunity which crossed his screen .... got a call from Skip Porteous relating the Lyle Christiansen weirdness. GG was a struggling writer in NYC looking for opportunities to further his career. The Kenny story crossed his desk .... he wrote the first article on Kenny for the New Yorker Magazine .... the rest is history. G Gray himself help start the Cooper Vortex in material ways; well documented including threats of a lawsuit! 

Unmasking D.B. Cooper By Geoffrey Gray  Published Oct 21, 2007  New York Magazine News & Politics
 

Just to set the record straight to prevent wildly mushrooming rumors from spreading throughout the Vortex. GG writes for New York Magazine. The New Yorker is another famous literary publication in NYC best known for its witty and edgy cartoons.

Also, I am not so sure that GG was a struggling writer, at least not in the usual sense of the word. He has a hefty body of work at New York Mag. Plus, he lives in Manhattan, so he's got bucks. In addition, his research for SKYJACK was tremendous. He had a huge travel budget - Jo in FLA, Flo in SC, BK in Minnesota, Barb's people in Cali, the Forman's in Tacoma - and all the Ariel shows, which is where I first met him in 2008. Then back for the Citizen Sleuths on the Columbia, and 2nd Ave in Seattle. Don't forget the two symposia, too.

[georger]

Hate to burst your bubble, but it was not so clean-and-tidy as the report. GG's entry into Cooperland is well known and began with a writing opportunity which crossed his screen .... got a call from Skip Porteous relating the Lyle Christiansen weirdness. GG was a struggling writer in NYC looking for opportunities to further his career. The Kenny story crossed his desk .... he wrote the first article on Kenny for the New Yorker Magazine .... the rest is history. G Gray himself help start the Cooper Vortex in material ways; well documented including threats of a lawsuit! 

Unmasking D.B. Cooper By Geoffrey Gray  Published Oct 21, 2007  New York Magazine News & Politics
 

Just to set the record straight to prevent wildly mushrooming rumors from spreading throughout the Vortex. GG writes for New York Magazine. The New Yorker is another famous literary publication in NYC best known for its witty and edgy cartoons.

Also, I am not so sure that GG was a struggling writer, at least not in the usual sense of the word. He has a hefty body of work at New York Mag. Plus, he lives in Manhattan, so he's got bucks. In addition, his research for SKYJACK was tremendous. He had a huge travel budget - Jo in FLA, Flo in SC, BK in Minnesota, Barb's people in Cali, the Forman's in Tacoma - and all the Ariel shows, which is where I first met him in 2008. Then back for the Citizen Sleuths on the Columbia, and 2nd Ave in Seattle. Don't forget the two symposia, too.

As I said, his entry into DB Cooper came with Unmasking D.B. Cooper By Geoffrey Gray  Published Oct 21, 2007  New York Magazine News & Politics He told me it started with a tip from his friend the detective: Skip Porteous. He also told me neither he or Porteous believed KC had been DB Cooper. But the idea was 'catching' as Lyle said: a good idea for a movie.

Gray's vita and writing prior to that 2007 article for the New York Magazine/News & Politics is public record.

[georger]

Central casting has seen fit to throw a number of Playboys and Playgirls into the Cooper mix - or people who fancy themselves to be Special. Bon Vivants who know more than you or me, and can do more than you or me. People with means or the pretense of means and accomplishment. It's actually a very simple formula and a requisite for catching the Greatest Hijacker in the World who 'beat the system' alive or dead, and can write about it, true or false. All you have to be is a good actor, and smug, and swiftly accurate in trivia, and conduct a good disheartening act when needed. Always stay in touch with your press agent and nourish a relationship with the FBI. Oh, and always throw your sources under the bus - that is required - and complain that doors have been shut. Nothing is ever a Playboy's fault! Playboys and Playgirls are divine; celestial. 

 

[Bruce A. Smith]

Ah, Georger, we are all divine.

Good yontif, by the way.

[Bruce A. Smith]

Following GG's spin through the Vortex is one of my delights. In 2008, we had beers at the Ariel party and he told me that he didn't think that Kenny was Cooper. In 2011, particularly at the Portland Symposium, he was a HUGE supporter of Marla but her never said directly that he thought LD was DB. In 2013, at the Tacoma symposium he publicly stated that he thought KC, Duane, and Barb were prime suspects. In the course of discussions I think that he said that Petey was on the list, too, because Sail was in the audience and you know how he could get worked-up when his guy got dissed.

[georger]

Ah, Georger, we are all divine.

Good yontif, by the way.

Hag sameah