Spokane, Wash., lawyer and researcher Galen Cook said the man who commandeered a Boeing 727 on Nov. 21, 1971, with $200,000 ransom for releasing 36 passengers after it took off from Portland, Ore., was William Gossett, The Province newspaper in Vancouver, British Columbia, reported.

Cook said Gossett repeatedly told his family he was the hijacker who parachuted from the plane and vanished before his death at 73 in 2003.

His 51-year-old son Kirk Gossett told the newspaper from his Arizona home he recalls visiting Vancouver in 1973.

"In the morning, he told me he had some business to do and about three hours later he came back and said, 'I've got everything done, it's time to go back home.'"

However, FBI special agent Larry Carr told the newspaper investigators see no links between Gossett and Cooper.

"There is no evidence to put Mr. Gossett in the Pacific Northwest in November 1971," he said. "I believe Cooper paid for the jump with his life."