Investigator Eric Ulis said he traced pieces from DB Cooper’s tie to a Pennsylvania steel company that worked with Boeing
Investigators are one step closer to discovering the identity of notorious plane hijacker DB Cooper after new evidence came to light.
The greatest historical mysteries star Eric Ulis, who is an expert in investigating crimes that happened in the past, shared with Fox News that a microscopic metal fragment found on Cooper’s tie led him to a theory about who the famous hijacker might be.
Cooper is famous for threatening to blow up a commercial jetliner flying from Portland, Ore., to Seattle, Wash., in 1971 before jumping into the night with a parachute and the $200,000 he had extorted as ransom. Although his identity was never revealed, he left behind a tie clip in his seat on the plane, which several investigators used as an initial clue.
The investigator told Fox News that the scientists “applied these sticky bits” to the tie — which was likely purchased at JC Penny around the 1964 Christmas season for $1.49, according to Ulis — removing “some of the particles” from it. So far, scientists have extracted more than 100,000 particles from the garment, he told Fox News.
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“Apply modern cutting-edge technology to it, things they didn’t have in 1971 when this happened. It tells a story,” Ulis told the news outlet.
He said he was able to track down the three fragments — made up in part of stainless steel and titanium — found on the tie using U.S. patents, which led him to a Pennsylvania plant called Crucible Steel. Ulis described the company as a “significant subcontractor during the 1960s” that “supplied the lion’s share of titanium and stainless steel for Boeing aircraft.”
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Ulis told Fox News that if Cooper had worked at Crucible Steel, he would have had extensive knowledge of the hijacked plane, a Boeing 727, along with knowledge of the location in Seattle, where Crucible Steel workers often traveled for work because Boeing was their contractor.
He also noted that Boeing had a “significant decline” in 1971, when the hijacking occurred, and that “it is reasonable to conclude that DB Cooper may have been part of that decline.”
The researcher and researcher told the publication that he believes the findings point to the company’s titanium research engineer, Vince Peterson, who died in 2002, as Cooper’s identity.
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“I can put it in Seattle, I can put it in Boeing,” Ulis said. “He’s a plausible person of interest.”
However, he also added that he is not deleting any suspects from the list until he has fully confirmed his findings. For now, he said he will “keep digging” into Peterson’s history.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education