And now a new lead from Forensic <Magazine:
https://goo.gl/oUB5G2
Colbert says he has put together 40 volunteers, many of them former FBI agents, who reviewed six letters potentially connected to the Cooper case.
Colbert recruited Rick Sherwood, a Vietnam veteran who was a senior codebreaker for the Army Security Agency. Sherwood had been Rackstraw’s superior officer.
His conclusion: a series of strangely-worded phrases in the D.B. Cooper letters actually spell out Rackstraw’s name. The FBI agents would have not known what they were looking for in the 1970s, Sherwood concluded.
“It would have made no sense to them,” Sherwood said, in a statement from the team. “For the agents to do it, they’d have to know a lot about the individual and our units.”
The ciphers in the letters allegedly identify the military units that Rackstraw served in: the 371st Radio Research Unit, and the 11th General Support Company—as well as the Army Security Agency.
But the sixth letter, from March 28, 1972, and sent to the Oregonian newspaper, contained even more information.
“I want out of the system and saw a way through good ole Unk,” it reads. “(And please tell the lackey cops D.B. Cooper is not my real name).”
Translated, using a 1950 Army cryptography, it is decoded to a startling message, according to Colbert and his team:
“I want out of the system and saw a way by sky-jacking a jet plane,” it reads. “I am 1st LT Robert Rackstraw, D.B. Cooper is not my real name.”
Could the messages be a coincidence that was identified only once they had focused in on Rackstraw? Sherwood says potentially—but not likely.
“It’s not impossible,” Sherwood told The Oregonian newspaper earlier this year. “But what are the odds these digits would add up to these three Rackstraw units? Astronomical. A million to one. Rackstraw didn’t think anyone would be able to break it.”
Rackstraw, for his part, dismissed Colbert—“he’s costing the taxpayers a lot of money”—and also his former Army colleague Sherwood.
“The other guy—it’s kind of interesting that he said that,” he said.
But he does have respect for how good investigators were in the 1970s, he said.
"The old FBI was very, very thorough,” he said. “Way back when—full faith and credit in an agency like that. They were very, very, very good. I would say that they still are ... probably a lot of them are gritting their teeth at what’s going on currently with their top end—their upper management.”
As for the coming defamation court battles, the outcome will remain to be seen, Rackstraw added.
“All off that stuff is up in the air,” he said.