A letter newly released from the FBI’s archives may prove that DB Cooper – the 1971 hijacker last seen leaping out of a plane with a fortune in cash – survived his apparent death.
The letter, which was sent a month after the robbery appears to contain information about the hijacking that was not released into the public domain until 10 years later.
If that’s the case it might reveal not only that Cooper lived to tell the tale of his extraordinary heist, but that the FBI covered it up to hide their embarrassment at his escape, the leader of a team of private investigators told DailyMail.com.
A man fitting this description and calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked a plane in November 1971 then parachuted out over Washington woods with the money dressed in just a suit
It’s been claimed that he died, but this letter – newly released after a Freedom of Information suit filed with the FBI – was sent soon after the hijacking and appears to reveal that Cooper survived the fall as it contains details – like the lack of fingerprints – kept from the public
The hijacking occurred on November 24, 1971, when a man calling himself Dan Cooper boarded a Boeing 727 at Portland Airport and announced shortly after takeoff that he was holding a bomb.
The plane was grounded at Seattle-Tacoma airport until authorities produced $200,000 in cash – the equivalent of $1,213,226 today – and Cooper released the passengers.
But he kept some of the crew on board and forced them to take off before opening up the back of the plane and parachuting out over the forests of Washington, clutching the money and clad only in a suit.
The FBI ultimately concluded that Cooper – whose real name is unknown – died of exposure, and last year they closed the case.
But a team of around 40 private investigators led by TV and film executive Thomas Colbert and his wife Dawna believe that Cooper is alive – and told DailyMail.com they have the evidence to prove it.
They successfully sued the FBI and have obtained reams of previously undisclosed information about the case, including a series of five letters purportedly written by Cooper to the authorities.
Four of those letters were already known to the public, but now a fifth letter has been produced. And Colbert says it proves the existence of an FBI cover-up.
A memo that was released last month referring to the letter had Cooper’s name redacted – proof, independent investigator Tom Colbert claims, that they’re embarrassed about Cooper evading their grasp and want to hide the evidence
Cooper hijacked the plane (pictured) while in the air, exchanged the money for passengers at Tacoma airport then had crew fly it up so that he could parachute away
The typewritten letter was sent to The Seattle Times, The New York Times, The LA Times and The Washington Post.
It begins ‘I knew from the start that I wouldn’t be caught,’ and apparently sees Cooper explaining exactly why the police will never catch him.
Among those reasons is that ‘I left no fingerprints.’
For Colbert, who obtained the letter in his most recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) package, that admission was an eye-opener.
‘This was the biggest secret of the whole investigation, not revealed until two FBI agents wrote books in 1984 and 1991 and discreetly mentioned it,’ Colbert explains.
‘”No fingerprints of value” were recovered anywhere Cooper was in the aircraft, including on his drinking cup. The only man outside the Bureau to know that would be Cooper.
‘And, I might add, none were found on this fifth DBC letter or the earlier four. Highly unlikely we have two separate Coopers with the same meticulous habit.’
The letter also ends ‘Thank you for your attention’ – a phrase similar to the ‘Thank you’ message that conclude the first two letters.
Four other letters had been sent previously; this is the first. The ‘Thanks for hospitality’ message is similar to the ‘Thank you’ message in the newly released letter
This second letter – the only handwritten one – also has a ‘thanks’ sign-off. Handwriting experts say the writing matches ‘Cooper’s’ flight card, but the FBI discounted all of the letters
That constituted a ‘thought pattern’ indicating that the letters were likely all written by the same man, according to retired FBI Special Agent Dorwin ‘Dory’ Schreuder, who worked the Cooper case in the 1980s and is now on Colbert’s team.
Were these clues? The FBI seemed to think so, Colbert said, as it went to all four of the papers the letter was sent to and retrieved their copies before burying them in their files.
The scan of the letter provided to Colbert by the FBI also has an ‘EVIDENCE’ stamp – unlike its predecessors, which suggests that it was being taken more seriously by the authorities.
The FBI also began to look for a bald man for the first time after the letter was sent, matching its claim that Cooper ‘wore a toupee’.
Descriptions of Cooper by those who saw him in the plane also suggest that he may have indeed been wearing a wig and putty – or at least makeup – as a disguise.
And yet, said Colbert, the letter was never made public knowledge beyond a couple of brief reports in the newspapers that played it off as a prank.
In fact, he said the FBI continued to try to hide the letter to the extent that an FBI memo about the letter given to the team in a previous FOIA dump had a reference to Cooper redacted from it.
Colbert added that the other letters, though ‘discounted’ by the FBI, were taken seriously at the time.
So much so that J Edgar Hoover himself was keeping tabs on the search for the letter’s author, and even had the only letter that was handwritten compared with those of the Zodiac Killer (who, thankfully, was not a match).
Colbert added that two forensics experts – one a past president of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, the other an ex-FBI agent – have examined the one handwritten note.
That handwriting is so similar to the writing on Cooper’s boarding card, the two men said, that it was ‘likely’ that they were written by the same man.
Colbert also feels that the FBI has been too hasty to wrap up the investigation, and has been unduly reluctant to reopen it.
In August, his team found what they believe to be a parachute strap in the forests near Cooper’s jump – but said the FBI had not accepted the evidence, or their offer to let them access the dig site.
Colbert’s team is now resuming digging in the area without federal help.
When contacted, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Seattle Office, Ayn S Dietrich-Williams, said: ‘In July 2016, the FBI redirected resources allocated to the DB Cooper (NORJAK) case in order to focus on other investigative priorities.
‘However, we asked that individuals contact the FBI if physical evidence emerges related specifically to the parachutes or the money taken by the hijacker.
‘It would be inappropriate to comment on any specific tips provided to us in this case, however our continued posture is to review any physical items provided and pursue follow-up actions, as appropriate.’
Dietrich-Williams declined to answer any further questions about the suspected strap or dig site.
But if Cooper is alive, how did he escape exposure in the wild – and where is he now?
Colbert has dug up contemporary newspaper reports and eyewitness accounts that suggest other men were seen in a small plane in another airfield around the time of the hijacking.
He believes they picked up Cooper after he landed and flew under the radar to drop him off safely so that he could make his getaway.
That story, he says, matches a claim made by a man at a pilot’s club in Evergreen Field, Washington, who said in 1997 that he had participated in the getaway flight.
And what of Cooper himself? Colbert believes he was a Vietnam veteran called Robert Rackstraw, now 73.
Rackstraw had an illustrious military career, being a pilot in the 1st Cavalry Division, one of the first major American air assault divisions.
It was there that Rackstraw learned to parachute, and was given two Distinguished Flying Crosses for his performance while in the air – but he was kicked out of the army after they discovered he’d lied about dropping out of school.
Colbert believes that gave him the skills necessary to pull off the extraordinary heist.
He alos notes that the first and fourth letters sent by ‘Cooper’ were sent from Sacramento and Oakdale, California, both close to Rackstraw’s family home.
In 1972, a year after the robbery, Rackstraw was caught kiting checks for $75,000 and fled to Iran to teach the Shah’s men how to fly helicopters.
Meanwhile, back at home, police raided his storage units and found 14 rifles and 150lbs of dynamite.
He lost his Iran job and was arrested for fraud and the murder of his stepfather, who was found in the grounds of his parents’ home with a bullet in his head.
Rackstraw was acquitted of murder and made bail on the fraud charge, then faked his death, pretending to crash his plane in a lake.
He was found and taken in by the FBI, who believed he might be Cooper, but a lack of evidence and the sudden discovery of some of the stolen money in Washington -planted, Colbert says, by an accomplice – led to his release.
Rackstraw made a plea deal and after serving a year in prison for his Stockton convictions, he moved to Riverside, California.
There he taught a law course in mediation before retiring to his yacht, ‘Poverty sucks’.
Is Rackstraw the greatest air criminal in American history? His lawyer has previously called the claims ‘the stupidest thing I ever heard.’
Attempts to reach out to the lawyer again for this story were unsuccessful.
