OKLAHOMA CITY, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- An Oklahoma woman says she is convinced her uncle was the notorious jetliner hijacker D.B. Cooper.
Marla Cooper says she is convinced her late uncle, Lynn Doyle Cooper who died in 1999, is the infamous 1971 airplane hijacker D.B. Cooper, ABC News reported Wednesday.
"I'm certain he was my uncle, Lynn Doyle Cooper. Who we called L.D. Cooper," the woman said, who gave a picture of her uncle and a leather guitar strap he made to the FBI.
Marla Cooper recollected with ABC that when she was 8 years old she overheard a conversation between two of her uncles, including L.D. Cooper, while at her grandmother's house in Sisters, Ore. She said they were plotting something "mischievous."
That was Nov. 24, 1971, the day D.B. Cooper hijacked a Boeing 727, demanded a $200,000 ransom and a parachute, and jumped off the plane somewhere over Washington state. He was never found and authorities think he died in the jump.
A day later, Marla Cooper uncle returned saying he had been hit by a car.
"My uncle L.D. was wearing a white T-shirt, and he was bloody and bruised and a mess, and I was horrified. I began to cry. My other uncle, who was with L.D., said 'Marla just shut up and go get your dad.' I heard my uncle say 'we did it, our money problems are over, we hijacked an airplane,'" Marla Cooler, who is writing a book on her version of those events, told ABC.
Former FBI profiler Brad Garrett said the FBI will likely look into the life of L.D. Cooper to decipher whether or not the man is the skyjacker.
"Does this guy's background actually fit someone that could have pulled this off because this guy did have a proficiency in a 727 plane, how low it would fly, how slow it would fly and that you could jump out the back of it," Garrett said.
The New York Times reported the Oklahoma City woman's efforts to publish a book has law enforcement officials leery.
The newspaper also said another writer who has a book on D.B. Cooper coming out, Geoffrey Gray, said her story fit a familiar pattern.
"This narrative of the old 'uncle' has been told many times," Gray said.
