I think it was just a failure to follow up on the question. it might of threw her off when he said it had nothing to do with NWO. I just don't see a hijacking with a puzzle involved. crimes are made of puzzles, but not typical of someone hijacking a plane. serial killers like the puzzle game......

I mentioned this to Bill. he acted out of character when the money showed up. if it didn't mean anything to him he would of acted in the same manor when the chutes arrived. no big smile, nothing. 

every crime has a reason, or a grudge. most are for personal gain, some are deeper than money such as murder. I still can't rule out some normal type of a guy not to happy about his life, or something happened in his life to cause him to do this. people do stupid things, for stupid reasons.

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How would Cooper's hypothetical ambushers have missed getting all the money?

The way to deal with robbers is to give them your money not toss it in a river.

Think he might have dropped it seeing trouble ahead, intending to return, and the robbers didn't notice the drop?

Sure Cooper would have been accosted but if he had little or no money whats the point in dealing with him further after that is taken from him?

Taking what was in his wallet is unlikely to have spurred a killing.

Why would they kill Cooper if they hadn't robbed him of a very substantial sum?

377

Quote Tom Kaye:

After 40 years, no body or other evidence has ever been found, suggesting that the idea Cooper died in the jump may be in error. A mechanical explanation has additional obstacles, so the processes that transported the money out of the woods and then twenty miles to the sand bar remains a mystery.

The money find on Tena Bar is complicated. The rubber band experiments allow less than a year for the money to become entombed in the sand.

The money continues to resist all natural explanations for how it arrived on Tena Bar. The story behind the money may be as big as the Cooper story itself. There is no hard evidence that Cooper died in the jump so it remains a primary debate. If Cooper walked out of the woods, there would certainly be easier ways to explain the money if human intervention was involved.


We tend to want to believe Cooper had full control, full clarity, a flawless plan, and 100% luck at all times in the full execution of his plan (whatever that was). The money ending up at Tina Bar seems to be an anomaly. Cooper could very easily have been trying to make his way back to where the crime started at Portland, for any number of reasons. The fact of money at Tina Bar suggests something went awry which could even include Cooper tossing the money off the railroad bridge at Vancouver himself. Maybe Bill Rollins is right and Cooper's primary goal was an exorcism of his grudge and the money was only a token of his revenge and not important to him in the grand scheme of things? You would have to have been there to know - or know Cooper personally.

I like what you said there about Cooper possibly trying to make it back to Portland. After all, he boarded the plane in Portland, so it wouldn't be far-fetched to think that's where he lived (or had a car stashed).

Now consider the fact that the drop zone and Portland are separated by the Columbia. So if he were trying to make it back to Portland, he would have to somehow get across the Columbia. Perhaps he was hoping to jump south of the Columbia but jumped too early? Either by miscalculation or was just experiencing a lot of anxiety and felt he needed to get off that plane.

So now he's on the wrong side of the Columbia. There are some bridges, but where? He doesn't have time to continue to travel so far out of his way to get to a bridge. It's cold, he may be injured, he fears the authorities are hot on his trail. The clock is ticking.

Is it possible he tried to cross the Columbia somewhere south of Tena Bar, went into shock and hypothermia and drowned? The money bag was swept downstream (north) to Tena Bar where a few bundles toppled out (remember that Cooper was pissed about the type of bag they gave him because there was no good way for him to close it shut) and then the rest of the bag continued on, maybe being launched out into the ocean? Cooper's body may also have been spit out into the ocean.

Now obviously attempting to cross the Columbia River (especially in the cold of winter) is idiotic. And while this was certainly not part of his original plan, crimes don't always go according to plan. It was a bold, risky, daring, crazy and DESPERATE move ..... a lot like hijacking an airplane and parachuting out.

Another possibility is that he was following the Columbia while trying to find a bridge so he could cross. He tucked himself under some brush for some warmth and rest and died of hypothermia (wouldn't be hard to catch hypothermia in that region considering how wet it is). The money was no longer tied to him at this point and the bag was swept away by a high tide in the spring from snow melt (and perhaps Cooper's body as well). He was south of Tena Bar at this time so the money floated downstream, made a cameo appearance at Tena Bar to topple out a few bills from the top before continuing on its way. 

I think the fact that he boarded the plane in Portland and the money was found south of the drop zone (the direction of Portland) while also upstream of the drop zone is interesting and may suggest he headed south after landing.   

Of course, this is all just pure speculation.

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How would Cooper's hypothetical ambushers have missed getting all the money?

The way to deal with robbers is to give them your money not toss it in a river.

Think he might have dropped it seeing trouble ahead, intending to return, and the robbers didn't notice the drop?

Sure Cooper would have been accosted but if he had little or no money whats the point in dealing with him further after that is taken from him?

Taking what was in his wallet is unlikely to have spurred a killing.

Why would they kill Cooper if they hadn't robbed him of a very substantial sum?

377

Quote Tom Kaye:

After 40 years, no body or other evidence has ever been found, suggesting that the idea Cooper died in the jump may be in error. A mechanical explanation has additional obstacles, so the processes that transported the money out of the woods and then twenty miles to the sand bar remains a mystery.

The money find on Tena Bar is complicated. The rubber band experiments allow less than a year for the money to become entombed in the sand.

The money continues to resist all natural explanations for how it arrived on Tena Bar. The story behind the money may be as big as the Cooper story itself. There is no hard evidence that Cooper died in the jump so it remains a primary debate. If Cooper walked out of the woods, there would certainly be easier ways to explain the money if human intervention was involved.


We tend to want to believe Cooper had full control, full clarity, a flawless plan, and 100% luck at all times in the full execution of his plan (whatever that was). The money ending up at Tina Bar seems to be an anomaly. Cooper could very easily have been trying to make his way back to where the crime started at Portland, for any number of reasons. The fact of money at Tina Bar suggests something went awry which could even include Cooper tossing the money off the railroad bridge at Vancouver himself. Maybe Bill Rollins is right and Cooper's primary goal was an exorcism of his grudge and the money was only a token of his revenge and not important to him in the grand scheme of things? You would have to have been there to know - or know Cooper personally.

I like what you said there about Cooper possibly trying to make it back to Portland. After all, he boarded the plane in Portland, so it wouldn't be far-fetched to think that's where he lived (or had a car stashed).

Now consider the fact that the drop zone and Portland are separated by the Columbia. So if he were trying to make it back to Portland, he would have to somehow get across the Columbia. Perhaps he was hoping to jump south of the Columbia but jumped too early? Either by miscalculation or was just experiencing a lot of anxiety and felt he needed to get off that plane.

So now he's on the wrong side of the Columbia. There are some bridges, but where? He doesn't have time to continue to travel so far out of his way to get to a bridge. It's cold, he may be injured, he fears the authorities are hot on his trail. The clock is ticking.

Is it possible he tried to cross the Columbia somewhere south of Tena Bar, went into shock and hypothermia and drowned? The money bag was swept downstream (north) to Tena Bar where a few bundles toppled out (remember that Cooper was pissed about the type of bag they gave him because there was no good way for him to close it shut) and then the rest of the bag continued on, maybe being launched out into the ocean? Cooper's body may also have been spit out into the ocean.

Now obviously attempting to cross the Columbia River (especially in the cold of winter) is idiotic. And while this was certainly not part of his original plan, crimes don't always go according to plan. It was a bold, risky, daring, crazy and DESPERATE move ..... a lot like hijacking an airplane and parachuting out.

Another possibility is that he was following the Columbia while trying to find a bridge so he could cross. He tucked himself under some brush for some warmth and rest and died of hypothermia (wouldn't be hard to catch hypothermia in that region considering how wet it is). The money was no longer tied to him at this point and the bag was swept away by a high tide in the spring from snow melt (and perhaps Cooper's body as well). He was south of Tena Bar at this time so the money floated downstream, made a cameo appearance at Tena Bar to topple out a few bills from the top before continuing on its way. 

I think the fact that he boarded the plane in Portland and the money was found south of the drop zone (the direction of Portland) while also upstream of the drop zone is interesting and may suggest he headed south after landing.   

Of course, this is all just pure speculation.

A lot depends on how well Cooper knew the Vancouver-Portland area if he really knew it at all. He had id'ed Tacoma from the air and described McChord's location relative to Tacoma but beyond that I dont know how well he actually knew these places, on the ground. There are only two bridges that cross at Vancouver: the I5 bridge and the railroad bridge? At those locations he's going to be exposed to people. Then money is found a few miles downstream of these bridges. Does that mean Cooper was somewhere in the vicinity of these bridges when he was parted with some of the money? If any money had been found in the Vancouver-Portland area post 11-24-71 that would have 'instantly' moved the area of interest from the dropzone to the Vancouver-Portland area and the massive search for Cooper near Ariel might never have happened? Likewise, what kind of ground search was conducted for Cooper in the Vancouver-Portland area after the hijacking? (we have few detail about that).         

The evidence

To date so far as I know, there is nothing that connects the money find with Cooper's landing zone.

To date, there is literally nothing about the money or the money find that requires Cooper had to have landed in the same area as the money find or even in the hydrological basin of the Columbia River. One FBI lab report states that the money was exposed to Columbia river water sediment (sand), but that could have happened 'on the beach' at Tina Bar, independent of the money ever being 'in' the Columbia itself.

Tom Kaye is essentially correct. Until something can connect the money being at Tina Bar with Cooper's landing place, and since we know Cooper had the money tied to his person, the strongest logical option is that Cooper survived and transported the money south to the Columbia area near Vancouver-Portland and 'somehow' some of his money wound up on Tina Bar. Then, the only absolute fact is dredging on the Columbia River deposited material at Tina Bar - this connects the Columbia River with Tina Bar. And not far from those deposits Cooper money was in fact found. Those are the only possible connections of the dots known to date. 

 

Good summary of the facts Georger.

Evidence is boring and so very limiting.

Now let's resume the usual wild unsupported speculation

It's so much more liberating than evidence based Cooper sleuthing.

377

 

The Dredge Theory

We know the river in front of Tbar was dredged in 1974, and the money was found in 1980...
what we don't know is how it got there...

The FBI admits Cooper's body would of clogged up the dredge, but Cooper's not the issue here. they also claim the money could of got through (if in a bag, or sachel)

The flight path has been in question for some time now. the only trouble I have with the path is the time frame around the Columbia. these turns don't make sense, and can't be seen on the map in order to understand. you need to fly the path vs looking at a map.

Now, we have Palmer digging a trench and identifying the layers. I find it odd that the dredge layer is rather low in his layers. this is just my opinion.

now, when I found documents about the Fazio's dredging the river, I found a clue. this was a sample taken in front of Tbar off the bottom of the river which consists of the following.

the samples found to consist of clean medium to course grained sand, and some gravel, with less than 1% fines.

Now, looking at a post dredge layer it consists of the following...

"circa 1974 - 1979 cross bedded reworked coarse & medium sand" 8 -24 inches below.

The money was found 6 inches below...that was a guess in my opinion.

Tom Kaye has also questioned these layers. he concluded that the entire beach consisted of a clay layer much like Palmer identified the dredge layer to be.

Then we have the issue of how much sand was pushed around. a shit load of sand was placed on the beach, and it appears a large portion remained, or slid back down into the Columbia. evidence of the spoils remained for several years.

The dredge pipes flowed with liquid material probably making a mess of the beach during the process allowing thing to flow all over the place. even back into the river. evidence could of simply washed away during the process.

The theory screams of guilt, but is just as hard to prove IMHO.