DBC suspect Jack Collins. Below is my review of his son's book: My Father Was DB Cooper.
We rarely talk about Jack Cooper but isn't he is a decent candidate? His son claims the FBI did interview Jack. Haven't seen any evidence of this in the Colbert or Gray FBI materials. He was an expert skydiver. He needed money badly. He looks a bit like the FBI sketches. His bro was a Northwest 727 Captain.
BOOK REVIEW BELOW
3.0 out of 5 stars LOTS of incorrect facts, but an entertaining read
Byboeing377on December 17, 2013
Format: Paperback|Verified Purchase
Bradley Collins obviously has a sincere belief that his late father Jack was DB Cooper. Jack isn't a bad suspect actually IF everything Bradley writes is true. Jack was a seasoned skydiver, knew the Pacific NW area, was a pilot and had a brother Bud who was a Northwest Airlines 727 captain. Jack had money problems and wasn't averse to a few scams to keep his cash flow coming, e.g. taking out disability insurance policies and then having a series of bone breaking minor skydiving landing accidents that got the insurance money coming in. Bradley also writes that his Dad disappeared for five days spanning the Nov 24 1971 DB Cooper skyjack date. It would be interesting to see if this absence can be independently verified.
According to the author, Jack was promptly questioned by the FBI after the skyjack but nothing further happened. It would be interesting to know why the FBI apparently ruled him out as a suspect.
BUT... the author publishes an alarming series of incorrect or twisted facts that even a cursory Google search would have caught, so it makes the reader question the accuracy of everything in the book. Much is made of Bradley's recollection of conversations with his Dad and overheard conversations involving his Dad. Are these recollections accurate? The reader is left to wonder...
Examples:
1. The author writes that Howard Hughes headed NWA and cites Hughes's death as a pivotal point for his Dad and his Uncle as it marked a loss of possible forgiveness for DB Cooper, whose caper Bradley imagines would have amused "Uncle Howard". Howard Hughes owned Air West, not NWA. Air West never became NWA. Hughes played major roles in TWA and Air West but had no ownership or control of NWA ever. The author even fantasizes about Hughes playing cards with his friends and chuckling about the skyjack caper.
2.The author publishes a vivid account of a conversation with his father just prior to the skyjack in which his father discusses an upcoming unusual night jump and demonstrates a wrist watch that with the press of a button becomes an illuminated altimeter. To the best of my knowledge, and I have researched this, no such watch existed in November of 1971, the date of the skyjack. Either the author imagined it or he misdescribed it.
3. The author writes about a WW 2 surplus AT6 aircraft flown by his father and brother and writes that it could fly nearly 400 mph and climb to 30,000 feet. Even with postwar engine upgrades and mods no T6 could match these specs or even come close. Nobody knows more about squeezing performance out of T6s than Reno air racers do and none of them have even come remotely close to 400 mph. The record is about 247 mph. Ceiling is roughly 21,000 ft.
4. The author recounts a skydive demonstration jump in bad weather where his father ended up caught in power lines above a body of water. He describes his father using a knife to cut all the lines and then drop into the water below. Bradley is confusing the term "cutaway", which describes a skydivers release of the main canopy by activating mechanical riser releases with an actual cutting of lines with a knife to accomplish the same purpose. It's probably an innocent mistake in which vague childhood memories and the passage of time have blurred the facts but it calls into question how accurate the author's recollection are.
The author speculates that his father Jack recruited Bud to be the ground man who would meet him on terra firma after parachuting from the skyjacked NWA 727. Its a long story but the author implies that Bud's later suicide was a direct result of his involvement in the crime. Why a well paid NWA airliner captain would risk a felony conviction and loss of his prestigious career for $100,000 (half the loot) is puzzling to say the least.
The author's account of how Jack would find Bud after jumping from the 727 at night is naively simplistic. Bud would simply blink his car headlights, Jack would see them, and they would meet up and drive away. Since Cooper had no direct control over the flight path and only a rough idea of his location from visual clues such a rendezvous would be highly improbable. Miracles do happen though, look at how close some other skydiving skyjackers landed to their intended destination, e.g. Richard McCoy and Rob Heady.
Sure I am nit picking, but accuracy is very important in non fiction. That said, the story is both interesting and entertaining. Jack was quite a character and it's fun to read about his life. In spite of all the book errors Jack Collins seemed to have the skills needed to be Cooper. Does the author present any probative evidence to support the title: My father Was DB Cooper? The answer is no. It's all circumstantial and speculative.
Bradley Collins needs to clean up the errors and republish the book if he expects his claim to be taken seriously. Can I rule out Jack Collins as DBC? No, I can't, but he joins a long list of fathers, husbands, brothers etc whose surviving relatives are convinced that DB Cooper was a family member.
