Besides being fascinated with Golden Gate Bridge jumpers, I’ve also been fascinated with D.B. Cooper. Hijacked a plane, demanded $200,000 and a parachute, jumped out of the plane into the night, and was never seen again. Oh sure, the FBI said that he was probably dead, but no body was ever found.

Personally, I want to believe, the man that caused a redesign of aircraft, got away.

I even love how the airplane he commandeered, became part of the Janet flights to Area 52 and Area 51. (Civilians didn’t know that 727s rear airstairs could be deployed in flight, while the CIA was using this feature to deploy operators into Vietnam, and now the plane gets used to ferry works into Area 51 and 52? Interesting. ;) )

So why am I spreading the love for old D.B.? The FBI says it has a lead. The suspect? A man who died 10 years ago. In other words, the FBI says D.B. Cooper might have gotten away with it.

Nice.

Updated: Tue Aug 9 10:17:45 PDT 2011

So the “lead” turned out to be a woman named Maria Cooper contacting the FBI after she suddenly remembered her uncle, Lynn Doyle Cooper, saying at Thanksgiving, “We did it, our money problems are over, we hijacked an airplane.”

Not exactly a hot lead.

Red flag #1: Recovered memory. She was 8 years old at the time, and now suddenly remembers everything.

Red flag #2: Why would someone provide a fake first name, but a real last name?

Shockingly, the DNA samples she provided the FBI didn’t match the DNA from the necktie left onboard the plane by the hijacker, but the FBI has said they have no proof that the DNA on the J.C. Penny’s clip on tie belongs to D.B. Cooper or not.

A clip on tie? D.B. Cooper just got a bit less cool.