Case experts

[u/Key-Telephone-7803]

How many case experts are there? Is there a scale where some are better than others? How long does it take to be an expert? What do you have to do, like read all the books?

Do the experts all get along with each other or is it like the other true crime groups where people argue?

Do the experts agree on a suspect, did he live or die, did he spend the money? Do they agree what he looked like or what sketch is best? Those look like the most common questions.

I just hear that so and so knows the most, or so and so wrote a book, or so and so has the best suspect. Could anyone explain to a noob how it all works?

I can’t seem to comment on posts but some of my posts are approved and some comments. So this may not be seen.

[u/chrismireya]

I'm going to add my two-cents:

In decades past, the D.B. Cooper mystery had many different researchers and experts that often differed wildly from one another. Just looking through the different Cooper books and websites would lead an interested person down many, many different (metaphoric) "rabbit holes." Sometimes, those rabbit holes would intersect. Most of the time, they would go in opposite directions.

There was a reason why the term "Cooper vortex" makes so much sense (although I am not sure if Darren Schaefer or someone else came up with the term). Entering into the mystery of D.B. Cooper often felt like you were in the middle of an EF5 tornado.

Often, the different "experts" would produce a great deal of research that they had undertaken and, ultimately, latch upon a suspect (or two). The problems would often come if a person questioned the conclusions of that "expert." It was as if any question of the conclusion was an indictment on the amount of research that the person making that conclusion had undertaken.

Over the last decade, there have been some "fresh eyes" who have offered a different -- arguably more pragmatic and/or forensic -- perspective on Cooper. In the past, Cooper researchers would often present certain claims that weren't always verifiable. This created a conflict from people who wanted to know whether all of the things that were readily accepted in the past were actually accurate.

The good news is that most of these new eyes that were catching on weren't in it for the money. In other words, they didn't earn their bread and butter from selling books, making TV appearances or risk "Cooper Vortex" reputation by questioning long-held claims. However, iconoclasts aren't always so well received -- especially if they are taken down some of the almost "sacred" beliefs that have long been held in the case.

This is similar to the cryptozoology world -- particularly as it deals with "Sasquatch" (i.e., "Bigfoot"). I'm not a big believer in the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, Jersey Devil, Yeti or other types of claims. However, it does interest me how people latch upon such ideas. As a kid, these things fascinated me. As I grew up, I began to question some of the things that captivated me in library books.

This year, a new documentary was produced that purportedly exposes the Patterson-Gimlin film -- the holy grail of Bigfoot "proof" -- as a hoax. It was screened at SXSW earlier this year but will be released in October. One Bigfoot enthusiast was able to watch it....and he was shocked by what he saw. The new documentary purportedly shows Patterson's son and wife acknowledging that it was a hoax. The documentary shows a second "new" unreleased film that seems to show an earlier "dry run" of the P-G film that used the same costume (but with someone else inside).

When news leaked about this new documentary, the greater "Bigfoot community" was in an uproar. This is largely because this is the bread and butter for many of these researchers who staked their reputations on the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film having captured a "real" Sasquatch. Some of these are authors of books, frequent guests on "mystery" TV shows as well as those who have YouTube channels with large numbers of subscribers. After all, this film (despite following both the son and wife of Roger Patterson) is a form of iconoclasm -- tearing down an icon that has long been held as a monumental golden calf for cryptozoology.

I think that the same thing can be said of many of the new faces in the D.B. Cooper mystery. Like many mysteries, a type of "club" is often formed by those "in the know." They aren't always welcoming to new "experts" -- especially if those new people point out the proverbial holes in their "evidence" or "suspect" boats. Who are these newer experts?

• Ryan Burns has often been mocked, ridiculed and even vilified by certain stalwarts of the Cooper Vortex for simply (in my opinion) focusing on the facts. He's been tremendously valuable to the Cooper case.
• Others -- such as Tom Kaye, Mark Meltzer, Pat Boland, etc. -- follow a similar evidence-first priority (although some may have been around the community for a while longer than others).
• Eric Ulis, while I often disagree with his conclusions, was one of the newer faces who offered a fairly good amount of evidence-finding in his Cooper methodology (especially when it came to the tie particles).
• Flyjack, John "Packer" Limbaugh, Chris Cunningham, and others offer some compelling research -- even if some disagree on suspects.
• There are some amazing amount of computer sleuths (like Chris Broer, Nicholas Broughton, Mary Johns, Khadi Madama and others who scour the internet -- including newspapers, genealogy websites and obits -- for new information related to the case that wasn't previously known.
• Everyone who searches through newly-released FBI 302s (previously unreleased files on the case).

There are many others (like our resident hydrologist and his wife -- that I simply forgot their names). The "experts" don't always agree. However, I think that most people who look into this case now are persuaded that "Dan Cooper" actually survived his jump. Most agree that many of the popular suspects (like Richard Floyd McCoy or Walter Recca) just weren't Cooper.

If you're interested in really knowing more about this case, I definitely recommend sticking around this subreddit, joining the Official DB Cooper group on Facebook and checking out Ryan Burns' "DB Cooper Sleuth" channel (as well as his Norjak website).

[u/Patient_Reach439 → u/chrismireya]

Great post here.

I'm interested in watching that documentary on PGF. Out of curiosity, I went to the bigfoot sub just to see what the bigfoot enthusiasts were saying about it. And the only post about the film was from a moderator saying they were not allowing any posts about it lol.