FBI ‘missed crucial DB Cooper clue’ left behind by mystery man who hijacked plane and parachuted out with cash bag

FEDERAL agents investigating the infamous DB Cooper case made a series of mistakes in the early stages of their probe that squandered their chances of ever catching the elusive skyjacker, a cold case investigator claims.

On November 24, 1971, a non-descript middle-aged man identifying himself as Dan Cooper boarded a Northwest Orient flight from Portland to Seattle.

Shortly after take-off, Cooper handed a note to a flight attendant sitting behind him, informing her he had a bomb.

In exchange for the lives of the 36 other passengers and six crew on board, the mild-mannered highjacker demanded $200,000 in stacks of $20 bills and four parachutes.

When the flight landed in Seattle, the cash and parachutes were exchanged for all of the passengers and some of the crew.

Following Cooper's instructions, the Boeing 727 was refueled and took off for a second time - this time in the direction of Mexico City.

But around 8 pm, somewhere over southwest Washington, a light flashed up on the instrument panel in the cockpit, indicating the rear exit door had been opened.

With that, Cooper was gone, parachuting out into the stormy night sky with his ransom in tow.

Virtually all traces of Cooper vanished therein.

He soon became known as DB Cooper after a journalist misprinted his name in an article and the typo stuck.

The only item left behind on Flight 305 by Cooper was a black, clip-on J.C. Penney tie with a gold pin.

Investigators later yielded a DNA sample from the tie and other items of evidentiary value, but they don't believe the DNA sample belonged to Cooper.

After forensically analyzing the tie in 2011, FBI Special Agent Fred Gutt told ABC News: "It's possible that the DNA sample taken off the tie was not from the hijacker. There are questions about the tie. It may have been borrowed or purchased used. The DNA may be from someone else.

"The tie had two small DNA samples, and one large sample lifted off in 2000-2001. It's difficult to draw firm conclusions from these samples."

The only other trace yielded of Cooper since came in 1980 when a young boy digging along the banks of the Columbia River in Tena bar unearthed $5,800 in $20 bills buried in the earth.

The serial numbers of the bills matched those issued to Cooper during the skyjacking but the discovery failed to yield any new leads.

But Eric Ulis, one of the authority voices on the DB Cooper investigation, believes the FBI may have overlooked a key component of the tie that may hold vital DNA evidence.

Earlier this year, he sued the Bureau to gain access to the tie to conduct his own DNA tests but the legal proceedings are yet to be ruled on and could last months or years still.

In the meantime, Ulis tracked down what he believes is an almost identical replica of the J.C. Penny tie, from what he believes to be the same production year as Cooper's: 1964.

Delving through US Patent and Trademark documents for the tie, Ulis said he made an interesting discovery.

"It's got this sort of metal apparatus built into the tie knot and I discovered something in the patent [...] there's this little spindle you can twist and it would actually open up and expand the knot, or you could twist it [the other way] and close it back to tighten it," explained Ulis.

"So depending on the person who's wearing the tie, they can either have the knot be more prominent or less prominent, and I didn't even realize that, even though I had the tie.

"I then tried opening mine, it was a little tight, but sure enough it eventually opened up.

"And, moreover, as I looked at the FBI pictures of the tie, every image I've ever seen showed the spindle in the closed position.

"That got me thinking, if it had ever been opened, at some point, DB Cooper would've touched the shaft part of the spindle, transferred DNA to it, and then closed it back up.

"That means DNA could still be encased in there, protected from contamination."

Ulis said he asked two former FBI investigators who worked the Cooper case if they were aware of the spindle apparatus at the time, to which they responded they were not.

He also consulted with a DNA specialist who told him DNA could "absolutely" be preserved in the spindle all these years on.

Ulis' lawsuit against the FBI has been slow-moving in the eight months since he filed.

While he eagerly awaits a judge's ruling, he said the prospect of this small discovery finally solving the DB Cooper mystery feels very probable, if indeed Cooper's DNA is found on the clasp.

"This possesses the ability to solve the case once and for all, if DB Cooper's DNA is on there," he said.

"And indeed, I think it's yet another example of the FBI not being as thorough as they should've been because apparently nobody was aware that spindle could open up.

"And DB Cooper's DNA may well have been underneath their noses this entire time, all they had to do was twist this little device."

'FBI MADE CRUCIAL MISTAKES'

Another crucial mistake Ulis believes the FBI made in their initial search for Cooper was miscalculating Flight 305's flight path during its journey toward Mexico City.

After meticulously analyzing wind speeds, "free fall" data, and other information, Ulis believes that the FBI misidentified Cooper's jump zone and instead accidentally mapped the flight path of one of the military jets scrambled to follow the plane.

The FBI had focused on an area of lower terrain around Lake Merwin near Ariel, Washington, as Cooper's likely landing zone.

Ulis has long contested he actually landed on Bachelor's Island along the Columbia River, north of where his stash of money was found in 1980.

When that money was discovered, Ulis accused the FBI of failing to properly search the surrounding area for other clues.

The FBI cordoned off the area and excavated the beach for nearly a week searching for other artifacts belonging to Cooper but found almost nothing.

Beyond the river bank, Ulis says the FBI failed to look much further afield - another potentially costly mistake.

"I believe DB Cooper landed in that area, within a mile, mile and a half from where the money was found.

"I think the first thing he did was scurry into the edge of the trees, take off his parachute, and hide it in a bush or something - because it was heavy, cumbersome, and there was no reason to keep it at that stage.

"And this would've been in an area that's never been searched before."

Ulis conducted his own search of the area last month and claimed to have found a tattered white sheet, which he believes was purchased from a KMart store between 1964 and 1967.

The sheet was discovered during the search of a "hazardous trench", roughly a half-mile from where the money was found, on the first day of the search.

This possesses the ability to solve the case once and for all, if DB Cooper's DNA is on there.

Eric Ulis

Ulis said he and his team managed to search roughly 15 percent of the trench and will return to scour the remaining 85 percent in the coming months.

He believes Cooper's parachute is buried in or near the trench somewhere.

He's also hopeful the sheet he recovered is somehow tied to the case.

To evidence his belief, Ulis pointed to a witness statement from one of the flight attendants aboard Flight 305 who reported seeing Cooper trying to wrap the ransom in a "white material."

Other witnesses said Cooper was carrying a brown paper bag with unknown contents. Ulis wonders whether the sheet may have been inside it.

"Given the flight attendant's account of seeing Cooper use a white material to wrap the $200,000 ransom, the mystery of the paper bag, the age of the white flat sheet, and the location of its discovery, the possibilities cannot be ignored," he said.

“This item is at least 56 years old and was transported to the difficult-to-reach spot, within ½ mile of the 1980 money find, somehow, for some reason, by someone.”

Ulis says an analysis of the sheet’s fibers will be conducted to determine whether they resemble fibers found on Cooper’s clip-on tie.

NEW SUSPECT: VINCE PETERSEN

Other evidence yielded from Cooper's tie led Ulis to a new potential suspect last year.

His newest suspect is a man named Vince Petersen, a former engineer at a titanium plant in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, that served as a Boeing subcontractor.

Petersen, who died in 2002, would've been 52 at the time of the skyjacking.

Ulis first identified Petersen as a potential suspect in late 2022 after analyzing a spreadsheet of microscopic evidence garnered from Cooper's tie.

Several particles identified on the tie were determined to be consistent with specialty metals from the aerospace sector, including titanium, high-grade stainless steel, aluminum, and some rare elements, Ulis says.

He painstakingly went through a spreadsheet of more than 100,000 particles yielded from the tie in search of anything that seemed out of the ordinary.

Ulis explained: "My thought was that perhaps I could find something tantamount to commercial DNA, that I could find something that pointed to a specific company, something rare or a unique particle, just as DNA points to a specific individual.

“And indeed, I find three particles of a very rare alloy of titanium and antimony that have a very specific balance, a very specific blend. 

“Why that’s important is because I paired that alloy up with a United States patent that was granted to a Boeing subcontractor based in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, which is no longer around.

“But I think that the science clearly suggests that DB Cooper came from this subcontractor, and that has enabled me to do a follow-up investigation and interviews and that type of thing to ultimately zero in on one particular person of interest who's no longer alive that perhaps was DB Cooper.”

Ulis believes Cooper’s tie was manufactured sometime around Christmas 1964. The believed production date of the tie was used to rule out Sheridan Peterson because he was living in the Philippines at the time, and the aerospace particles found on the tie would’ve had to have accumulated on it after that date.

Whereas Vince Petersen, the titanium engineer, would’ve been in exactly the right place to acquire those particles on the tie, in addition to providing a compelling match to the physical attributes described of Cooper,  Ulis says.

“This is what I’ll say about Vince Petersen: let me suppose it appears DB Cooper came from that titanium research lab, and the lab actually only had eight engineers working there, so a very small universe of men,” he said.

“The former supervisor, who was actually Vince Petersen’s supervisor, was still alive - at least as of last year - and I spoke with him on multiple occasions.

“And there’s a few reasons why the titanium research lab appears to be where DB Cooper worked.”

During his conversation with the lab supervisor, Ulis said he began describing Cooper’s physical attributes, telling him he was looking for a man between the ages of 45-50, clean-cut, conservative, with a high forehead and roughly six foot one, and the supervisor apparently responded immediately, “That sounds like Vince Petersen.”

“So, I started looking into Vince Petersen from there,” continued Ulis. “Vince Petersen would’ve been 52 at the time of the skyjacking, around the right age, and his height makes him an anomaly for the time - that’s pretty tall for a guy born around 1920.

“I also asked the supervisor about traveling to Seattle. He confirmed he would travel to Seattle, as well as to visit other contractors like Lockheed or General Dynamics, and there was one other person that he traveled with on these trips occasionally - and that was Vince Petersen.

“So now, we can place Vince Petersen in Seattle, at Boeing, with the supervisor during the 1960s, possibly into the '70s. But the '60s is most important because that’s when the 727 that Cooper hijacked was being developed.

“It obviously doesn’t prove that Vince Petersen was DB Cooper, but it’s certainly intriguing as far as everything else goes, as we know he had access to the titanium and antimony particles that were found on Cooper’s tie.”

Another trace of evidence on the tie that Ulis found intriguing was a trace of a commercial kind of salt.

According to Ulis’ research, Vince Petersen studied extensively about and even wrote an academic paper on the effects of salt on titanium.

He took his findings to Petersen’s son, who is now in his 60s, but he apparently didn’t believe his father was DB Cooper.

“And that’s fair enough,” said Ulis. “But it’s an intriguing thing all the way round. Vince Petersen was kind of an odd duck. I’ve talked with his former neighbor and been to the home he used to own, and I plan to conduct a search of that home in the near future. 

“I hesitate to put a percentage of the likelihood of Vince Petersen being Cooper, but I will say he’s a compelling person of interest.

“And, hopefully, through a combination of efforts, I can either ascertain 100 percent that he wasn't DB Cooper, or I can ascertain 100 percent that he was DB Cooper.

"Because at the end of the day, it really is a binary choice; It's either zero percent or 100. It's not 98 or anything in between.”

ANOTHER COMPELLING SUSPECT: ROBERT RACKSTRAW

Another crack team of investigators renowned for their work on the DB Cooper investigation is The Case Breakers, led by Thomas J. Colbert, who declined to be interviewed for this story, because, in their mind, they've "already solved" the mystery.

In 2018, Colbert and his team held a news conference outside of the FBI's headquarters and declared that Robert W. Rackstraw, a Vietnam veteran with a marky past riddled with murder accusations and con-artistry, was the man responsible for the hijacking.

Forty years earlier, the Californian had been "ruled out" as a suspect by the Bureau after a year-long inquiry, but that announcement was disputed by special agents in his home state, who said they were still gathering intelligence on Rackstraw and following up on tips.

Internal FBI documents from that period, released in 2019 under the Freedom of Information Act, show that he was in fact the bureau's prime suspect.

The 1978 dossiers say he was targeted because "he resembles the artist’s composite" in nine facial points and for "his military background, particularly his paratrooper training."

His career timeline also painted him a compelling suspect: The specialized High Altitude-Low Open (HALO) parachutist was forced to resign from the Army just months before the 1971 skyjacking and was described as "extremely bitter over his severance."

When federal agents questioned Rackstraw years later, "he admitted to the arresting agent he would be fully capable of successfully effecting the NORJAK hijacking [FBI’s code-name for the crime]," state the documents.

Another FBI record states he received a less-than-honorable discharge "because of unfitness or unacceptable conduct", which included lying about his medals, rank, and educational background.

Rackstraw then fumed in a letter to his commanders: "I can only hope that I will never use the training and education the Army gave me against the Army itself, as I would be a formidable advisary [sic]."

Little came of the FBI's suspicions, but Colbert officially pointed the finger of blame at him in June 2019, after decoding a letter purported to have been written by Cooper to the editor of the Portland Oregonian newspaper shortly after the heist.

"This letter is too [sic] let you know I am not dead but really alive and just back from the Bahamas, so your silly troopers up there can stop looking for me. That is just how dumb this government is. I like your articles about me but you can stop them now. D.B. Cooper is not real," the letter reads.

"I want out of the system and saw a way through good ole Unk. Now it is Uncle’s turn to weep and pay one of it’s [sic] own some cash for a change. (And please tell the lackey cops D.B. Cooper is not my real name)."

Colbert enlisted the help of Rick Sherwood, a former member of the Army Security Agency, to decode the letter.

Sherwood identified four phrases that were used multiple times – "D.B. Cooper is not real," "Uncle" or "Unk" which referred to Uncle Sam, "the system," and "lackey cops."

He used a system of letters and numbers to decode those phrases and after about two weeks, he translated "through good ole Unk" into "by skyjacking a jet plane" and "And please tell the lackey cops" into "I am 1st LT Robert Rackstraw."

A nine-digit number typed at the bottom of the letter was said to have only been able to come from Rackstraw because it referred to three covert military units he had ties to during the war.

Another member of the investigation team confirmed Sherwood's findings, and the group found other links to Rackstraw in other decoded letters.

However, the FBI has never validated the Case Breakers' work and lists the case as closed but unsolved.

There's no doubt about it, the case is not solved. This is not just Eric Ulis saying this, it's the FBI saying this.

Eric Ulis

Colbert alleges a federal coverup, but Ulis is unconvinced The Case Breakers have the right guy.

"There's absolutely no way Rackstraw was DB Cooper," he said. "Rackstraw was around 27 years old at the time of the skyjacking.

"In other words, he was just four years older than the flight attendant who put his age at around 50. So it doesn't make sense, and I don't think he particularly resembles the sketches or anything of that nature.

"There's no doubt about it, the case is not solved. This is not just Eric Ulis saying this, it's the FBI saying this.

"I think we're close but we don't have it as of today. And when that moment comes, I think it's going to either be Vince Petersen or someone who is completely unknown.

"None of the other suspects out there, in my mind, can explain the evidence, specifically the tie and some other things.

"And that's a very big problem - if you can't explain that evidence then you just shouldn't be viewed as a credible suspect."

BREAKTHROUGH 'NOT FAR OFF'

For the last 15 years, Ulis has been screening potential suspects, reexamining the evidence, conducting his own searches in the Washington wilderness, and has even founded CooperCon, an annual exhibition for fellow DB enthusiasts.

He has set himself the task of cracking the Cooper code once and for all by 2030.

What's so compelling about the story 52 years on is the fact it was real, Ulis said, and not some myth or scene from an action movie, though it reads like one.

"We're not talking Bigfoot, we're not talking the Loch Ness Monster; this is a real event and this really happened," he said.

"And also you have this James Bond-esque element to it all: the guy with the black suit, sunglasses, the bourbon and 7UP, smoking his cigarettes. The way the guy presented himself is also very alluring.

"And the early '70s was a fairly tumultuous time in US history, so I think the whole anti-hero thing resonated with a lot of people and has had an effect on how people view him still today."

Ulis said he often fantasizes about the moment he finally unmasks Cooper.

When that breakthrough comes, he says he'll enjoy a nice scotch and cigar at his desk, lean back in his chair, and smile as he says to himself, "We got him."