Despite recent FBI claims that it has evidence that could determine the real identity of legendary skyjacker D.B. Cooper, local author Robert Blevins remains convinced that Bonney Lake resident Ken Christiansen was Cooper.
Blevins will present three slideshows detailing the evidence that led to his recent book “Into the Blast – the True Story of D.B. Cooper,” published by Adventure Books of Seattle, at the Aug. 13-14 Good Ol’ Days at the Auburn Avenue Theater.
Blevins co-wrote the book with New York City private investigator Skipp Porteous. It alleges that Christiansen – a former employee of Northwest Orient Airlines and a U.S. Army paratrooper – was the famous fugitive who hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines Boeing 727-100 passenger jet and parachuted out of the plane over Southwest Washington with $200,000 in ransom.
The slideshow falls a few months shy of the 40th anniversary of D.B. Cooper’s hijacking on Nov. 24, 1971.
The Telegraph newspaper in London reported last weekend that the FBI is sifting forensic evidence to try to match the fingerprints to a suspect in the hijacking. The FBI did not name the suspect.
On Monday, seattlepi.com reported that the FBI could not obtain fingerprints from an item belonging to the suspect, so it could not make a match to fingerprints it had previously obtained from the hijacked plane.
“The nature of the material was not good for prints,” agent Fred Gutt told seattlepi.com.
Agent Gutt – who said the suspect has been dead for about 10 years – added that the FBI is investigating other leads.
“It’s a matter of vetting the information,” Gutt told the seattlepi.com. “Some of the vetting we have done, and it corroborated the initial lead.
“There are also other leads we’re pursuing,” Gutt continued. “Some of the other names have been out in the public, some of the names have not come out.”
Christiansen, the suspect named in Blevin’s book, died of cancer in 1994. Gutt told seattlepi.com that Christiansen was not a top suspect in the case.
Blevins however, remains convinced that Christiansen was Cooper. And he says he knows how to prove it.
“I’ve suggested that they should just compare Kenny’s Army induction papers with the 66 prints they pulled from the plane,” he said. “They haven’t checked Kenny’s prints yet.”
Blevins continued:
“The main excuse they use is that Kenny doesn’t quite resemble Cooper,” he said. “That ignores all the other evidence. They’re going entirely on eye witnesses, and they can be unreliable. Gutt first told the PI that Kenny was eliminated as a suspect and then a day later he said that he was not. That does not give me any confidence in them.”
Blevins has appeared on the Comcast Sports Net show “Adrenaline Hunter” with host Bethany Rossos to discuss the case, and the book was the subject of a recent episode on History Channel’s Brad Meltzer’s “Decoded.”
A giveaway of a limited number of free books, some on Cooper, and others for children or science-fiction fans from the Adventure Books catalog follows the slideshows.
Slideshow times are 11 a.m., Saturday, Aug. 13 and again at 3 p.m. Sunday’s slideshow is at noon.
Questions from the audience are welcome and cameras are allowed in the theatre.
More information on Adventrure Books is at www.adventurebooksofseattle.com.
