COAST TO COAST Radio News Interview;
February 2, 2018;
A seven-year cold case team trying to solve the infamous D.B. Cooper mystery believes it has deciphered a secret code contained in one of the notorious skyjacker’s taunting letters.
Through the team’s federal court order, the missive in question was released to the public in November by the FBI. It is thought to be a genuine note from the fugitive, which was sent to four newspapers following his daring November 24, 1971 caper. The Bureau immediately confiscated all the copies, labeled them as “evidence,” and filed them away for 46 years.
Tenacious investigator (and former C2C guest) Thomas J. Colbert, who assembled the 40-member task force led by former FBI agents, studied the new FOIA evidence and spotted a rather curious detail: At the bottom of the typed note are a series of numbers and alphabet letters which have seemingly no explanation or purpose.
To a former Vietnam Army code-breaker working with Colbert’s team, however, this gibberish piqued his interest. After studying it for two weeks, he recognized it as identifiers for three Army units – two of them classified at the time.
What makes this code-breaking particularly intriguing is that the three all coincide with the 1969-70 Army career of Colbert’s prime suspect in the case, Robert W. Rackstraw Sr.!
To the organizer, who has already amassed an astounding amount of evidence which he says proves Rackstraw is Cooper, the find only serves to strengthen his conviction that he and the team have the case almost solved. Several military and criminal-justice experts, quoted in new articles, agree.
The official closing of the case, of course, remains dependent upon the FBI. But Colbert contends it is unwilling to pursue Rackstraw for fear of being embarrassed by a private team made up of retired law enforcement and civilians.
And so the case remains at an impasse until or unless the agency decides to act on Colbert’s information – or he produces yet another bombshell that finally forces its hand.
Note: More C2C background on Colbert at