General Category > DB Cooper
Suspects And Confessions
Lynn:
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Register or LoginI never asked him, but it always bothered me how Sheridan managed to have a visa for the amount of time he was in Nepal
Visa has recently been relaxed for Nepal. But back in 70s it was still pretty constrained?
He wasn't working, so I would think he had a tourist visa
They were doing a bunch of stuff to encourage tourism starting in the late 60s and tourism started to increase (it was really small in the 60s)
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that url has this paragraph
In no case does the Royal Nepalese Embassy (U.S., India, or other
countries) issue more than two-week visas for entering Nepal. All extensions must be obtained after arrival. However, prior clearance from the Institute (a procedure which may soon be required) us a strong guarantee of a visa extension.
I had a very quick look at Sheridan's passport from that era, and I believe I saw just one Nepal entry and one Nepal exit stamp at the expected times.
But they were years apart if I remember right. My understanding is that back then passports got stamped on all entry/exit between countries? Not sure.
So it's odd that he never got nailed for staying past his visa. Or what he did. Maybe things were looser then.
If he was working, I could see getting some kind of work visa.
But I would think all he would have been able to get was a tourist visa? which back then would have been much shorter than the length of time he spent there.
I was musing about whether he could have had multiple passports. I think not..
Just another random confusing thing.
In his book he talks about one of his characters have $20k in saigon in savings, and using that to fund the time writing the documentary in Nepal. Maybe he showed that he had money, and they let him live there. Maybe saying he was a writer?
--- End quote ---
It may just have been more lax, or he may have had to pay off someone a bit of money to overlook it. I don't know much about the Nepalese economy of the time, but you could live pretty splendidly on $10 a day in Thailand in the Nineties, so I don't imagine you needed much to be considered reasonably well-off in 1971 Nepal. Passports were a lot easier to fake back then, too, and with little or no computer tracking, he could even have applied for a replacement passport for one that wasn't missing without setting off any bells going through Customs anywhere. Hard call.
If he was there the whole time legitimately, I suppose it's possible the US ambassador wanted him out of Vietnam quickly enough to be willing to arrange it. Or, as you say, he could have shown he had enough money to stay a spell without working. Or if his wife had gotten Vietnamese citizenship and was stating she was the sole wage-earner; but in some parts of Asia I visited, you couldn't really become a citizen so much as a permanent resident, in some cases even if you were born in the country but your parents weren't. Can't say re: Nepal, though.
That's part of why SP is so hard to eliminate. He was already roaming, not missing on US Thanksgiving and could easily have told his wife he was going home to see ailing family. Kids would have been too young to ever remember. Unknown source of income for several years, inexplicable visa status in Nepal thus far. Of course, there were those who thought he was in too many world hot-spots in his life, with too little known journalistic output, to explain it beyond bad luck, a thirst for action, or some kind of intelligence position. But given his later stances in life, it's also hard to imagine SP working for the CIA or other such agency.
snowmman:
I also wondered why he left Nepal after a couple years and went back to Vietnam and went back to work.
That smells like "out of money" ...surely there could have been better places to travel if tired of Nepal.
it's unclear if he really had $20k of savings at point. He might have saved that much from his time in Vietnam.
EDIT: Sheridan most definitely did not work for the CIA.
read his book and you'll understand him more. You'll be surprised that an old man would want a book published that really made him seem like an ass. (like his perception of women).
You'll read the word "cock" more than you expect, in unpleasant ways.
I was also wondering about his Filipino wife. What she thought about living in a hut in Nepal (and having two kids there). Wondered if she pushed him to move on.
snowmman:
I had the accidental opportunity to look at Sheridan's passports at one time.
I immediately felt like an ass, since I hadn't asked permission.
But it's one thing I wish I could have closely examined.
He had the whole stack of his passports on a table next to a desk I was working at.
I've recently mused whether it was a setup, and he might have expected me to look :)
cooper nut thinking :)
Lynn:
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or LoginI also wondered why he left Nepal after a couple years and went back to Vietnam and went back to work.
That smells like "out of money" ...surely there could have been better places to travel if tired of Nepal.
it's unclear if he really had $20k of savings at point. He might have saved that much from his time in Vietnam.
I was also wondering about his Filipino wife. What she thought about living in a hut in Nepal (and having two kids there). Wondered if she pushed him to move on.
--- End quote ---
It's possible he was a good saver, and/or that his wife may have wished to leave Nepal. I don't know her background. I can say, though, that I've been to the Philippines and poverty there had to be at least as bad as it was in Nepal. I saw children playing on garbage dumps, people serving tourists steak while eating only rice themselves, and overheard a rich woman who had "made it out" loudly insisting that the poor should be treated badly for their own good. Don't know her family history/financial situation (I don't even know her name) or how she herself ended up in Nepal, so it's hard to say how comfortable she was with hut life, or whether she hope her husband would bring her a more comfortable life. Would love to know more about her.
Lynn:
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or LoginI had the accidental opportunity to look at Sheridan's passports at one time.
I immediately felt like an ass, since I hadn't asked permission.
But it's one thing I wish I could have closely examined.
He had the whole stack of his passports on a table next to a desk I was working at.
I've recently mused whether it was a setup, and he might have expected me to look :)
cooper nut thinking :)
--- End quote ---
Haha you're in good company. I'd have had a hard time not looking myself.
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