Into The Blast - The True Story of D.B. Cooper - Revised Edition

by Skipp Porteous

November 24, 1971 - 'Dan Cooper' leaps from the aft stairs of a Northwest Airlines Boeing 727 after demanding four parachutes and $200,000 in cash. He was never seen again, and forty years later, he has never been identified - until now. (BOOK On June 12, 2015 the author filmed an extensive video in the Olympic Mountains of Washington State that presents the most updated information on Cooper suspect Kenny Christiansen to date. This video can be seen at YouTube Another video with a fast-moving slideshow can be seen Kenneth Christiansen was probably the man who pulled off the boldest unsolved crime in history. A former World War 2 paratrooper who also worked for Northwest Airlines as a purser, Christiansen benefited from a key mistake by the F.B. I. - They never considered airline employees as suspects. 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. The authors show 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 afterwards. More than forty pictures, a wealth of circumstantial evidence, and interviews with living witnesses reveal the truth at last. A complete set of public files created by the staff of Adventure Books concerning Christiansen, as well as his alleged accomplice Bernie Geestman can be downloaded in PDF at the DB Cooper Info Page at Into The Blast was the subject of an episode on the History Channel show Brad Meltzer's Decoded. Much more has been discovered since that show first aired in January 2011. A final report running 74 pages on Christiansen will be sent to the Seattle FBI in 2015 that includes Christiansen's prints, his brother's DNA for comparison to the partial DNA sample from the hijacker's tie, as well as testimony from the alleged accomplice's own family. He is referred to as 'Mike Watson' in the book. In reality, he is Bernie Geestman from Port Angeles, WA. He was the last person to appear on the Decoded episode for an interview. He told the cast that yes, Kenny could be the hijacker. But mulitple witnesses, some from his own family, now say he went missing with Kenny the entire week of the hijacking. Maybe Geestman should have offered an alibi for Kenny instead. More recently, his own niece has claimed she saw Kenny Christiansen working with materials related to creating the phony bomb used by the hijacker, shortly before the date of the hijacking. And although some Cooper armchair investigators have tried to discount Christiansen as the hijacker based on the 'official' descriptions of Cooper, the evidence against both Christiansen and Geestman is almost too great to ignore.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, Biography, Crime

Audible Audio

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Jerry Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Writing a book about DB Cooper is a difficult task. Unsolved cases always are.The facts of this case are well known and well documented and don't take long to tell. After that it's all conjecture - who was he?

Personally I didn't like the style of telling this story, mixing different techniques such as narrative, a telling of the story with supposition put it, interview transcipts etc.

Not a bad guess at the identity of this man but in the end I am not sure I buy that he even made it. This is perhaps a good candidate but I guess we will never know for sure. Strangely unengaging.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having known one of the co-authors through the late, great social site Newsvine, I knew that Robert Blevins would write and has written a solid, no-nonsense account of his work interviewing key subjects in the Pacific Northwest area.
He and his trusty Subaru worked very hard tracking down the people who knew Kenny C. best for interviews, several of them more than once. It was disappointing how the ex-wife of Kenny's best friend refused to be more forthcoming, but that's how it goes sometimes.
It's a wonderful book that spares us mere speculation and gives us hard facts about the prime suspect, all of which point out key skills and background that show us how he could conceivably have pulled off the heist of the decade.
Have been quite annoyed by recent questions asked about whether the suspect survived the jump from the plane, with answers based on nothing but speculation. And questions about the suspect, again based on nothing but speculation.
But this book is NOT mere speculation, and that's the value of it. I cannot think of any other source of hard facts that is out there and readily available to the public.

[Mark Einselen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The format of the book changes from narrative retelling, to speculative fiction, to first person investigative ride-along, to interview transcripts. I wished the authors had picked a story telling method and committed to it.

[Amrita · Rating 5 out of 5]

An engaging one with fewer speculations and more evidence.

[Aubrey Hankinson]

I really enjoyed this book. It really broadened my horizons and gave me different evidence to who D.B. Cooper might have been.

[John Custer]

A quick read. They build a pretty convincing case against their suspect.

[SUSAN SKOGLUND · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating!
I think the mystery is finally truly solved. Interestingly written & carefully documented, I found this very interesting!

[Turtelina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is Kenneth Christiansen the hijacker who parachuted out of an airplane never to be found? This book makes a good case. For all I know, he very well good have been the guy.

[Edward C · Rating 5 out of 5]

it’s all circumstantial but makes a great case for who was D. B. Cooper.

All the evidence appears to be circumstantial but I think these guys put it all together correctly. Great read in one half a day

[RONALD PEYTON · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was living in Eastern Washington during this time and found the facts and research done by author very interesting. He presents a very convincing case.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good story, believable. More so than the last book I read on Cooper years ago. The crime happend on my 21st birthday in my home state and remains an unsolved mystery short of 40 years later. There are a few editorial errors, which is one of my pet peeves, but other than that a story worth the read.

[Telisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

well laid out. I too came to the same conclusion a the author.