November 24, 1971 - A man known to the F.B.I. as 'Dan Cooper' leaped from the aft stairway of a Boeing 727 after demanding four parachutes and $200,000 in cash. He was never seen again, and nearly forty years later, he has never been identified - until now. During the initial investigation, few in law enforcement suspected that the hijacker could actually be an employee of the airline, and that was their mistake. Kenneth Peter Christiansen, a former World War II paratrooper and later a purser for Northwest Airlines, was the man who pulled off the boldest unsolved crime in history. Skipp Porteous of Sherlock Investigations, New York, and Robert Blevins of Adventure Books of Seattle present the case that Christiansen and Cooper were one and the same. Into The Blast shows how Kenny Christiansen planned the hijacking of NWA Flight 305, what motivated him to do it, who helped him on the ground, and what he did with the money afterward. More than thirty pictures, as well as interviews with the witnesses, reveals the truth at last in this fascinating book.
Into The Blast - The True Story of D.B. Cooper - Revised...
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More About the Author
Robert M. Blevins is from Seattle, Washington, USA and the author of several works, including 'The 13th Day of Christmas' and 'Into The Blast - The True Story of D.B. Cooper,' which he co-wrote with Skipp Porteous of Sherlock Investigations, New York. When he is not writing, Robert serves as managing editor for Adventure Books of Seattle.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Misleading title, poor effort,
By
This review is from: Into The Blast - The True Story of D.B. Cooper (Kindle Edition)
Now that we have the 5 star reviews from the authors and their friends out of the way, here is an arms length evaluation of the book. (Note: In response to objections, the two authors have since removed their own 5 star reviews of their book).
Despite the fact that I am VERY opposed to insider reviews of any product, my review does not take that into account. If I had liked their book I would have said so despite the insider reviews. I have had an interest in this case for a long time, like many others. I wanted this book to astonish me with a convincing new theory of the crime. However, here is what I found: I downloaded the PDF from the publisher's web site and read it. The actual text of the book is about 100 pages out of 146. They mostly recount a series of interviews, none of which reveals anything more than the suspicion of the publisher that the interview subjects were not being truthful. However, the subjects he suspects were 83 and 80 years old at the time, and both sounded like they may have had some senior dementia/memory issues going on. I know octogenarians who are mentally quite sharp. My father-in-law, at 83, was starting to have trouble remembering life long friends and most details of his professional life. At 53, I can no longer tell you with any accuracy some keynote dates of my own professional and financial life. LOL The book pretty much ignores giving any good faith information about why the FBI was not interested in their suspect. The guy looks to have extra money after the hijacking. However, the authors of this book think a friend of his was an accomplice. They suggest strongly in the book that the friend was bilking a tugboat company out of double pay. I think it is more likely that their suspect was helping to launder the double pay money than he jumped out of an airplane with it. Strangely, that explanation never occurred to the authors. LOL That explanation for the extra money is not as glamorous. In subsequent conversation, the publisher stated that the amount of money stolen is not enough to account for this. However, they make a big deal in their book of missing an employment log book during the time the "accomplice" was bilking his company. So they do not in fact have a complete accounting of the payroll he bilked. At one point they receive a rumor of money found near a house their suspect once owned. They admit being unable, despite some effort, to verify this story. They stopped their investigation, and actually invite the readers to do it for themselves. LOL In subsequent conversation, the author stated that they meant this to mean that authorities would have to investigate this. In the book this is certainly not clear, and in fact no authorities are investigating this rumor, nor have any intention to do so. The book was not a page turner, by the way. This first half contains (1) a fictionalized account of the hijacking combined with some facts, (2) a mostly irrelevant and somewhat boring bio of their suspect, (3) an innocuous interview with the plane's co-pilot, who disagrees with the authors' premise, and (4) an innocuous interview with an FBI agent on the case, who also disagrees with the authors' premise. The last half of the book are the interviews conducted by the co-author/publisher, some of which is actually narrative about his drives to their places of residence. The publisher freely admits in the book to misleading an 80 year old woman about the statute of limitations on the crime in the hopes she would voluntarily implicate herself or someone else. I find this to be reprehensible. Since the crime involved multiple counts of kidnapping (taking hostages against their will under threat of harm) there is no statute of limitations for this crime. Three problems should have prevented the publication of this book in the first place. Number one: this is a pseudo-journalistic effort. A real journalist/investigator will prove his story before going to publication. This book smacks of a cheap cash in, with the authors having spent enough time in not actually proving anything that they didn't want to have wasted that time, so they published anyway. There are absolutely no evidentiary exhibits to back up their claims. The interviews with their witnesses are tainted by the interviewer directly asking if the witness thought their suspect did it. This immediately introduces a greater likelihood of witness bias, either for or against. Further, no certain evidence of any kind comes from these interviews, yet they dominate the content of the book. Number two, their evidence is lacking, The authors' supposed greatest arguments for the guilt of their suspect are in fact, in EVERY case, the lack of existence of evidence! * they don't know where their suspect was during the hijacking * they don't know where his friend was during the hijacking (except he told his wife he was camping) * they don't have the 1971 employment log book of the friend, which would possibly show he was not at work during the hijacking (which would be irrelevant anyway since no anecdote has him at work then in the first place) * they claim the absence of a scrapbook their suspect may or may not have kept is evidence * in subsequent conversation, the authors claim their suspect bought "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in a stamp and coin collection. This is barely mentioned in the book. Why not, if it is so important? By the way, Cooper only got away with $200,000. They provide ZERO documentation to back up their claim of the collections. * they claim that their suspect altered his appearance information on his driver's license after the hijacking. This is entirely anecdotal. Once again no proof is offered. * they have their suspect jumping from a plane on a dark night, and knowing with greater certainty his location than the pilots who flew that area of the country as their occupation, and the air traffic controllers monitoring the plane's location. Riiiiiighhhht. * they have their suspect communicating with his "accomplice" via walkie talkie shortly after he lands, in uneven terrain with a very limited range device. If you believe that one, let's talk bridges. * they have this as an inside job, yet there is no evidence that of all the exposure the artist's rendering of the hijacker had, inside and outside Northwest Airlines, that at the time ANY Northwest Airlines employee offered that it resembled a man they worked with. * they hang a lot on the claim that a stewardess on the flight thought a picture of their suspect looked like the hijacker, when shown the picture THIRTY SIX years later. Ludicrous. This is even though the same stewardess has identified several pictures over the years as looking like the hijacker, and in their OWN interview with an FBI agent originally on the case, he states that he never regarded her identifications as reliable. Number three: in a theory of this type, ALL other more rational explanations of the event must be proven to not apply, before you can advance a theory like this as a serious attempt to explain the events. The authors never came close to that. Not only did they miss the possible explanation for the extra cash noted above, they discuss the "friend" buying a travel trailer, placing it on a remote piece of property, and disappearing from the presence of his wife at various times without explanation. This is most often "girl on the side" behavior. Before they can make this "accessory to airliner hijacking behavior", they must completely eliminate the "girl on the side" explanation. Yet this is not even discussed. The entire book is a loaded question with no proof, at all. It never deals with why their explanation is more valid than other theories of the crime that have been advanced over the years. In fact, they only mention one other theory of the crime, and that very briefly. Believe it or not, other theories of the crime have involved other individuals who also knew how to use a parachute and had extra money after the crime. Their suspect is not unique in having such circumstantial evidence hanging about him. The whole book amounts to nothing more than gossip. It could be convincing around the kitchen table with a group of gullible friends. It is not a serious investigation of the Dan Cooper hijacking. In my opinion, it IS a serious attempt to cash in on interest in that case with a poorly conceived notion for which they accumulated no real evidence and made no intelligent conclusions. It consists of 100 double spaced pages of guesses and interviews which provide nothing substantial, along with 20 pages of intro and 26 pages of mostly irrelevant photos. I would assume that for some of their information they must have been in contact with their suspect's extended family. Yet none of that contact is documented. This is either just a lazy effort, or something fishy about the information and they cannot document it. We can't know which, because no explanation is offered in the book about why none of their "evidence" is EVER documented in the book. Still, their guy might have done it. They should have really done their homework to try to prove it, following rules of journalism, rather than going for this quick and cheap cash in. The publisher and author could get quite upset by this review, and I understand that. I would urge them to instead take it constructively, pull this book from publication, do the real work needed to advance this theory as more than a wild guess, add that information to this book if it exists, and then reissue it. Right now, their book needs to be titled: "Into the Blast: A Wild Guess about D. B. Cooper"
10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Poorly written poorly investigated mess,
This review is from: Into The Blast: The True Story of D. B. Cooper (Paperback)
Brent Butler's review is spot on, yet not critical enough. This is a poorly written poorly investigated mess.
Brent stepped through what it offers, and the only reason I completed it was to figure out the additional $2000 of found Cooper money that was stated early as fact and later completely back-peddled from. When I read it, I tried to google for confirmation, without luck, I read on. There is no first hand account of any $2000 being recovered by anyone, just folklore. There is no reason given why a man spending money like crazy would bury $2000 remotely on his land. The basic theory in this book is to "follow the money". Christensen seems to immediately transform from near homeless to independently wealthy, with no solid explanation on how money laundering could have occurred. Very late in the book the authors try to state that cautious actions and coin/stamp collections were the money laundering answer; where nearly all the preceding information throws caution to the wind. The most annoying part of this book is the extensive narrative about traveling to interview people, sleeping in cars (I see a shoe string budget, weak investigative firm, and no writer) and not allocating enough time to actually conduct an interview, forgetting to charge his camera for many pictures. Doesn't sound like an investigator who is searching for the truth but one that is trying to check off someone as advancing their theory. They seem to ignore one witness constantly telling them she is trying to contact the FBI, then concludes that she doesn't speak for fear of the FBI. (I am not making this up). I don't know who thinks that a description of their discomfort from sleeping in there car (without a pillow) because they forgot to pay for their motel reservation gives the reader any confidence in them as an investigator. (I am left wondering why the motels were so booked in this remote area of the world. But I am not looking to read another transcript to try to figure that out) In terms of writing, it fails to engross a reader and just simply relates Q&A of poorly conducted interviews. (Yes the first part is odd interpretation of how this could have occurred and some pin-point accuracy of landing within minutes of an accomplice), you hopefully will never find anything like this anywhere else, if you need that odd uniqueness you need this book. Mostly it is filled with interviews where they don't listen, and lead the subject. Waste of time. No value.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Ok book but facts stated lack something..,
By
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This review is from: Into The Blast - The True Story of D.B. Cooper - Revised Edition (Paperback)
I don't think anyone can say this is "The true story of DB Cooper." There are some good parts of the book, but the author(s) state very clearly in the book that some of what is written is based partly on fact and partly on what they think is true. If that's the case, then the cover should not state that it's the true story. If indeed what they claim is true, then it would be a heck of a book and a five star read. But, there's not enough real facts to back up their claims. I hate to state that because in itself just as a book to read, it's ok. And the story line is quite confusing too. Does not follow a logical path. That's a major no no in book publishing. It's ok to buy if you get a used copy cheap; I would not recommend paying full price for a new copy.
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