The FBI recently released a letter from D.B. Cooper, or perhaps somebody claiming to be the infamous hijacker, deepening the mystery surrounding the unsolved crime, Fox News reported.
In November 1971, a man identified as D.B. Cooper hijacked a passenger plane from Portland to Seattle. He released the passengers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in exchange for $200,000 and four parachutes, and asked to be flown to Mexico.
A letter written by a person claiming to be Cooper was sent out to several prominent newspapers 17 days after the incident, Newsweek reported.
Four other letters had previously been submitted to newspapers along the West Coast but this is the only known letter to be publicly released after author and filmmaker Tom Colbert and a team pursuing the case brought forth a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
The letter begins with the writer stating, "I knew from the start that I wouldn't be caught," according to Fox News.
"I didn't rob Northwest Orient because I thought it would be romantic, heroic or any of the other euphemisms that seem to attach themselves to situations of high risk," said the person purporting to be Cooper. "I'm no modern-day Robin Hood. Unfortunately (I) do have only 14 months to live."
The FBI closed the case last year and never established the authenticity of the letter, but Colbert told SeattlePI.com that it reinforces his previous notion that authorities had covered up the case and were burying information.
Ron Hilley, an FBI member on Colbert's team said that the letter and other actions may not be a cover-up but more inaction stemming from the bureau's reluctance to divert any additional resources on a case that is already four decades old.
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