An investigator who has been trying to determine the true identity of infamous plane hijacker D.B. Cooper believes he has found “a compelling person of interest.”
Eric Ulis, the star of “History’s Greatest Mysteries,” has dedicated thousands of hours to researching the legendary D.B. Cooper, who in 1971 threatened to blow up a commercial jet, demanded $200,000 in ransom, and then leaped from the plane with a parachute and was never seen again. Ulis now believes he has discovered a clue to Cooper’s real identity, Fox News reported.
Cooper actually identified himself as “Dan” during the hijacking, but a reporter with the Oregon Journal misheard the name and reported it as “D.B.,” leading to the legendary moniker. Authorities, however, have always assumed that Dan Cooper was a fake name.
Ulis now thinks he may know the real man behind the crime.
One of the few pieces of evidence left behind by Cooper was a clip-on tie, which Ulis told Fox News may have been purchased from JCPenney for $1.49. The tie has been analyzed before, but Ulis believes microscopic particles scraped from the tie may be the link to discovering who hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines flight 305.
“He applied these sticky stubs, they’re like little carbon circles that he could apply to portions of the tie and then when you pull them off, you’re pulling off some of the particles from the tie,” Ulis told Fox, referring to the scientists who found the particles. “You apply modern state-of-the-art technology to it, things they didn’t have back in 1971 when this occurred. It tells a story.”
Ulis used those particles and U.S. patents to trace three fragments to a steel plant in Pennsylvania, Crucible Steel.
“Headquartered in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, a significant subcontractor all throughout the 1960s,” Ulis told the outlet. “It supplied the lion’s share of titanium and stainless steel for Boeing’s aircraft.”
Ulis suggested that evidence indicated Cooper knew his way around a Boeing 727, the same type of aircraft he hijacked. Cooper also allegedly knew Seattle, Washington, well, which is where the plane was scheduled to land. Crucible Steel workers reportedly traveled to Seattle often to visit Boeing, which contracted the company.
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“This is also the time, 1971, when Boeing had this significant downturn, the big depression, with ‘The last person leaving Seattle, please turn out the lights‘ [billboard sign],” Ulis told Fox. “It’s reasonable to deduce that D.B. Cooper may well have been part of that downturn.”
Ulis admitted to the outlet that findings are not yet concrete, and named a titanium research engineer with Crucible Steel as a potential suspect for D.B. Cooper. The engineer died in 2002.
“I can put him in Seattle, I can put him at Boeing,” Ulis said of the man. “He’s a compelling person of interest. He’s definitely someone I’m going to continue to dig into.”
Ulis in the past has told media outlets he may have a lead on Cooper’s landing site, and has sued the FBI to gain access to evidence in the only unsolved hijacking in U.S. Aviation history.