A detective has named a new suspect in the DB Cooper case – the hijacker who escaped with a $200,000 ransom 52 years ago by parachuting out of a plane and was never seen again.
Eric Ulis, a citizen investigator who sued the FBI for access to the case’s files and evidence, claims the man behind the Nov. 24, 1971, mystery is engineer Vince Petersen of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
Petersen worked as a Boeing subcontractor at a titanium factory and matches the evidence left behind by the notorious hijacker, the DB enthusiast told The US Sun. He would have been 52 years old at the time of the crime and had been dead for a long time.
Ulis – who was five years old at the time of the plane theft – first landed on Petersen’s name after analyzing microscopic marks left on the pin-on black tie left by DB before he parachuted out of the plane .
Several of the particles found corresponded to specialty metals used in the aerospace sector, such as titanium, high-grade stainless steel and aluminum, Ulis explained.
Ulis suspects that a man named Vince Peterson (pictured) is Cooper after a chemical trace was found on the tie in November that leads to a lab in Pittsburgh where Peterson worked
A man who investigated the DB Cooper case is suing the FBI because he believes part of the hijacker’s tie can solve the case
Eric Ulis (pictured), who describes himself as “one of the world’s leading DB Cooper experts”, says he discovered an adjustable spindle in a tie that matches the tie Cooper wore
The detective claims he found “three particles of a very rare alloy of titanium and antimony that have a very particular balance, a very particular mixture.” Ulis then combined the alloy with a US patent issued to the Boeing subcontractor in Pittsburg.
The company no longer exists, but Ulis managed to interview a man who worked there as a supervisor and pointed out Peterson.
Peterson also fits DB’s physical description, which Ulis described as “aged between 45 and 50, well-groomed, conservative, with a high forehead and about 6 feet tall.”
After hearing the description, the supervisor reportedly immediately replied, “That sounds like Vince Petersen.”
Ulis then began looking into Peterson and discovered that he regularly traveled to Seattle to work on aviation projects with Boeing.
As many know, the Emerald City was the destination of the fateful flight from Portland, hijacked by the man the media erroneously dubbed DB Cooper on the afternoon of November 24, 1971.
Dressed in a sharp suit and wearing sunglasses, he actually bought the Northwest Orient Airline ticket under the pseudonym Dan Cooper, but due to a misunderstanding in the media, he was branded with the name that many know today.
“It obviously doesn’t prove Vince Petersen was DB Cooper, but as far as everything else goes, it’s certainly intriguing since we know he had access to the titanium and antimony particles found on Cooper’s tie,” said Ulis told The US Sun.
In November 1971, a “non-descript man” who identified himself as Dan “DB” Cooper boarded a Northwest Orient flight from Portland to Seattle. He then told the pilot he had a bomb and demanded $200,000. The picture shows the plane he hijacked
“I hesitate to give a percentage probability that Vince Petersen is Cooper, but I would say he is a compelling person of interest.”
In comments to CNN, Ulis, 57, explained that his lawsuit, which is still pending in federal courts, could prove pivotal in the coming months because the tie knot contains a metal spindle that could contain undetected DNA.
He added: “That’s all I want to achieve – access to the spindle to open it. “Let the DNA expert do a swab and let’s see what comes up.”
But the FBI – which closed the case unsolved six years ago – refused to play along, forcing him to continue combing the stretch of river in Washington state where the money was found.
The mid-air robbery, one of the great unsolved mysteries in FBI history, began when Cooper ordered a bourbon and a soda from his seat in 18E – and then handed a flight attendant a handwritten note saying he had a bomb.
An otherwise quiet man who appeared to be in his mid-40s, he opened a carry-on bag to reveal a jumble of wire and red sticks resembling dynamite and demanded four parachutes and tons of cash.
After the plane landed in Seattle as part of a ransom demand, he traded three dozen passengers for money and parachutes and ordered the pilot to fly to a new destination in Mexico City.
But while he was still in the skies over the Pacific Northwest, the future fugitive managed one of the most audacious escape attempts in American history: Shortly after takeoff, he parachuted out of the plane into the night with the money on his hip and was killed never found again.
The only clue to what happened to Cooper was discovered nine years later, in 1980. A young boy camping with his family on the Columbia River northwest of Vancouver discovered $6,000 of Cooper’s ransom in a riverbank (see picture).
In the years that followed, no trace of the criminal was found, giving the stunt an air of mystery and even romance.
Among those intrigued by the case is Ulis, who told CNN he believes the parachute Cooper used that night is still out there and he plans another excavation there next month.
“I firmly believe that DB Cooper’s parachute is somewhere in this area.” “It’s hidden somewhere under some brambles or a thicket of trees or something,” he says. “It’s been there for 52 years.”
One of the few concrete clues to what happened to Cooper was discovered nine years after the incident in 1980.
A young boy camping with his family on the Tena Bar stretch of the Columbia River, northwest of Vancouver, came across $6,000 of Cooper’s ransom tied with rubber bands while digging a fire pit on the riverbank.
The discovery, confirmed by the serial number on the cash, led the FBI to believe that the money had been washed downstream 18 miles from Cooper’s drop zone and had been buried in the sand ever since.
But the theory was later called into question after scientists analyzed tiny algae particles that had clung to the banknotes and suspected that the money had ended up in the river months after Cooper’s escape – leading many to believe he had managed the fall after all had survived.
The rest of Cooper’s ransom money was never found, although the FBI released the serial numbers to the public and offered a reward to anyone who submitted an invoice.
Throughout the 45-year investigation, officers have had a number of ideas about Cooper’s true identity, some of which are featured in the new Netflix show.
Robert Rackstraw (pictured), a military veteran with a dark past filled with deceit and con artists, is one of the people believed to be the real DB Cooper. However, there have been numerous suspects over the years. He died in 2019
Perhaps the most convincing was Robert Rackshaw, a retired pilot and military veteran with a dark past filled with murder allegations and fraud.
Rackstraw had extensive military training and served in the National Guard, Reserves and one of the U.S. Army’s most decorated combat divisions – the 1st Calvary Division – in Vietnam in 1969. Rumor has it that he was granted immunity for his crimes after flying black ops missions for the CIA.
Rackstraw was first considered a suspect seven years after the 1978 hijacking. Investigators said “so many things” about him seemed to match Cooper’s description.
Law enforcement was suspicious of Rackshaw, who died in 2019, because of his resemblance to the Cooper sketch, his military training and his criminal record, but were unable to find any direct evidence linking him to the case.
Cooper would be in his 90s now – if he had even survived the fall from the plane and was still alive today.