INSIDE LIVING
![3D"Complete](3D"Florida_woman's_search_files/image005.jpg")
<= o:p>
Florida woman's search for D.B. Cooper
isn't business, it's personal
Wednesday, Au=
gust
3, 2000
![](3D"Florida_woman's_search_files/image007.gif")
It was March =
1995,
and Duane Weber was dying in a
The name meant
nothing to Jo Weber, who had met her husband in
![](3D"Florida_woman's_search_files/image009.jpg")
Above: FBI composite drawings of D.B. Cooper
Below: Duane Weber
P=
hoto
located by Doug Pasternak, U.S. News and World Report
![](3D"Florida_woman's_search_files/image011.jpg")
She put the
information out of her mind. Her husband was likable and friendly, she says.
And as he lay dying in 1995, her thoughts were only on his condition. But w=
hen
she didn't respond to his whisper, Duane became upset and shouted so loudly=
the
nurses heard his words: "Oh, let it die with
me!" Moments later Duane was sedated; he died soon after.
It was only w=
eeks
later, after she learned the infamous hijacker D.B. Cooper had actually cal=
led
himself "Dan Cooper," that Jo Weber began to understand what she =
now
believes her husband was trying to tell her in a deathbed confession: that =
he
was D.B. Cooper, the only man in America who ever hijacked a commercial
airliner and got away with it.
![](3D"Florida_woman's_search_files/image013.gif")
There are lot=
s of reasons
somebody might claim to know the identity of a famous wanted criminal. Some
people crave the media spotlight. Others might be interested in reward mone=
y.
Jo Weber does=
not
appear to fit those categories. "She has never seemed to me to be
interested in personal publicity or enriching herself in any way from
this," says Ralph Himmelsbach, who lives in Woodburn. From 1971 to his
retirement in 1980, Ralph headed the FBI's investigation of the D.B. Cooper
skyjacking. He estimates he's had "over 100 phone conversations" =
with
Jo Weber. Far from seeking personal exposure, Ralph points out,
Jo has conducted an extensive private investigation for five years. She wor=
ked
with the FBI; she sought witnesses; she dug up relatives of her late husban=
d.
![](3D"Florida_woman's_search_files/image015.jpg")
Duane Weber
C=
ourtesy
of Jo Weber
And there is =
no
reward for information leading to the identification of D.B. Cooper.
"There is nothing to be gained," says Ralph, "and in fact sh=
e's
gone to an awful lot of expense. She's been very persistent and very
tenacious." In her hometown near
Ralph is not =
just
being kind. Although he always has believed D.B. Cooper most likely did not
survive his jump from the rear stairs of Northwest Airlines Flight 305 on
Thanksgiving Eve, 1971, Ralph says "If he did make it, it would have b=
een
someone that fits the profile of Duane Weber. He appeared to me to be a
credible suspect, and when she first contacted me (five years ago) I told h=
er I
thought it should be brought to the attention of the FBI right away. She
granted me permission to contact the FBI, and they did initiate an
investigation." However, Ralph says, the case "does not have the
urgency it had 29 years ago. Their resources are thin." All the FBI wi=
ll
say is it needs "more conclusive evidence."
Jo Weber has =
done
her best to provide it. When an FBI investigator came to her home in 1997, =
she
says, "After four hours he still didn't want to leave." Jo had po=
ssible
pieces of evidence on tables, countertops, floors. "He couldn't believe
what he was seeing."
There were ph=
otos
of Duane that bore such a resemblance to the FBI composite of Cooper that a
forensic expert who has worked with the FBI told US News & World Report
recently, "It's about as close a match as you can get."
Jo had Weber =
family
records that indicated Duane had served time at the federal
There were re=
ceipts
and photographs of a vacation Duane and Jo took to the Northwest in 1979. On
it, Duane took Jo on a side trip along the
On the way ba=
ck, Jo
says, Duane stopped the car along the Columbia River, five miles from
Months later,=
a
Then there we=
re the
intangible pieces of evidence that never before had made sense to Jo. Short=
ly
before his last trip to the hospital, Duane told Jo his chronic knee injury=
had
been caused "by jumping out of an airplane." He once had told her=
it
was possible to make flares resemble a bomb.
In 1994 she h=
ad
discovered an old plane ticket from
After Duane's=
death
Jo never found the bag or the ticket. But when she went to the
Jo Weber is
disappointed that the FBI has chosen not to pursue its investigation of her
late husband. But she is determined to continue her own. There are other pi=
eces
of evidence she won't reveal, things that led Ralph Himmelsbach to say,
"She has a lot of points that would stretch your imagination at the
possibility of coincidence."
Jo would very=
much
like to speak to any passengers who may have been on Flight 305, back in 19=
71.
She particularly would like to find the stewardess who spoke to Dan Cooper,=
and
a college student who sat across the aisle from him.
"Finding=
them
is my main objective," she says. "I just want to sit down and talk
with them, and show them photos I have of Duane around that time. There are
little things the FBI would never have asked, because they wouldn't know to
ask. Things like little motions he might have made, how he held his
cigarette." D.B. Cooper was a chain smoker who drank bourbon; Duane We=
ber
was, too.
"I was t=
old
Tina Mucklow, the stewardess, became a nun. I have sent letters and made ca=
lls
to The Grotto in
"The oth=
er guy
was a college student named William Mitchell. He stayed in the cabin studyi=
ng
when they moved everybody else forward. I have called every William Mitchel=
l I
could find in
Jo also plans=
to
travel to
If
it was Duane.
"All I w=
ant is
the truth," says Jo. "I want it over. I have a very curious mind =
and
I've never been able to put anything down until I've completed it. I'm not
obsessed by this, I'm not crazy, I'm not making =
this
up. But it is a passion, to get to the truth.
"I held =
that
plane ticket in my hand," she says. "And Duane must have told me =
this
for a reason. Evidently he wanted the story told."
![](3D"Florida_woman's_search_files/image016.gif")
![](3D"Florida_woman's_search_files/image017.gif")
Reach Margie
Boulé at 503-221-8450, 1320 S.W. Broadway,
. =
![](3D"Florida_woman's_search_files/image018.gif")
|
Portions of this website contain articles that are reprinted (and sometimes edited to fit the standards of this website) und= er the Fair Use Doctrine of International Copyright Law as educational mater= ial without benefit of financial gain. See: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html This proviso is applicable throughout the entire we= bsite. |
This page was last r=
evised:
November 07, 2008