In 2006 we were near the completion of the book and began to get nervous about coming forward with our theory on D. B. Cooper. Even though we had not been convinced that Barb was the infamous skyjacker until we were researching for our book, we had hints since 1978 and Barb had made a full confession to us in 1979. Over the years she had given us details that had not been in the news until years later. What if the FBI thought we had known all along that Barb was D. B. Cooper? Was there anything we could be charged with? We decided to discuss our predicament with an attorney.
We made an appointment with Edward Hudson, an attorney in downtown Tacoma. As we began telling our story we got the usual reaction. I could tell that Ed was wondering about the sanity of his new clients. However, as we continued telling the details we could see that he was slowly becoming a believer and was falling victem to Ron's contagious excitement.
Ed thought that we should go to the FBI before we published our book. He checked with colleagues and advised that we should be ok given the statute of limitations. Still, we should be cautious. Due to the notoriety and the serious nature of Cooper's crime, there might be an attempt to charge us with something. Ed would set up an appointment with the FBI in Tacoma and we should put together a chronology of events and a booklet of items collected to prove our theory. We were to be careful not to sound totally convinced that Barb was Cooper. We were to present our theory by bringing out the facts in an outline of when and how our proof was gathered.
Our appointment was made for August and we set about the task of peparing our booklet and working on our presentation. Then, a few weeks before the appointment, we got news that threw us for a loop. Ron developed pneumonia and was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL). He was horribly ill for about two weeks, then slowly started getting his strength back. We didn't feel he was strong enough to be put through the stress of an FBI interview. Rather than put if off, we decided that I would have to handle it. Our daughter, Tammy, agreed to go with me for moral support.
On the day of the interview, Tammy and I met Ed at his office, and we made the short walk to a building across the street and at the opposite end of the block. The whole walk seemed surreal. There was no reference to the FBI on the outside of the building. We got on an elevator and exited into a rather dimly lit hallway. At the end of the hall there was a windowless door with what appeared to be a doorbell to the side. Once again, I noticed no markings that would identify this as an FBI office. The whole scene reminded me of the old Get Smart television series.
Ed pushed the button and a voice came from out of nowhere asking who we were. Ed announced our names and purpose. "Just a moment", said the voice. We could then hear doors opening and closing and finally the door in front of us opened. There stood a young man, probably in his mid thirties to early forties. He simply said, "Follow me" and he escorted us passed a couple of women typing away at their desks to a small conference room. The three of us took seats on one side of the table and the agent sat across from us. He introduced himself as Jeremy Blauser, a special agent on loan from Los Angeles, and handed each of us a card. He started out by saying, "I should warn you that there have been over 1000 people who have come to us with stories about people they suspected to be the hijacker and all had been proven wrong. This will most likely be the same." His demeanor showed that he was completely bored with this whole thing.
I handed Jeremy a copy of the booklet I had prepared, and nervously opened my copy and turned to the first page, the chronology of our friendship with Barb. I was determined to follow the outline as we had decided, and I kept reminding myself to preface incriminating details with "I later decided..." or " I don't know for sure but...".
The first section of our booklet was an effort to introduce the agent to Barbara's complex personality. On the one hand she was loner who seemed to want to be invisible, yet she seemed to also enjoy being the center of attention. We included an article that had been published in the University of Washington's news letter. The title was " After she shelves her job, she opens her wings". The article started with Barbara's favorite poem, "High Flight" by John Gillepsie Magee Jr.
I've chased the shouting wind along,
and flung,
My eager craft through
Spotless halls of air.
Up, up the long delerious
burning blue.
I've topped the wind-
Swept heights with
easy grace,
Where never lark, or
even eagle flew.
In the article, she expressed her love of flying and as always downplayed the dangerous aspects of her sport. She also mentioned that she felt it odd that flying was still considered to be a "man's sport". The following quote from the article adds dimension to her character.
"...Her only accident was a very small, humerous incident.
She once hit a lilac bush with her wing while pretending to be a fighter plane, zooming down over a bridge. She performed the antic for some friends who were filming a home movie. The wing was only slightly injured and she glided to safety. 'The movie turned out great too', she added."
This article was written in the mid 70's. The story of the lilac bush had occurred prior to her surgery.
Timeline of our friendship with Barbara Dayton
Is D.B. Cooper the last American hero?
Barbara Dayton passed away February 20, 2002 of natural causes in a hospital in Carson City, Nevada. She had driven herself there from her small trailer in the desert near Wellington because she was having trouble breathing. Shortly after arriving, she began going in and out of consiousness. The attending physicians realized that she was dying and contacted the local authorities for assistance in trying to find her next of kin.
The authorities later reported that the stark appearance of the trailer made it seem as though no one lived there. They were able to find a rolodex with a few phone numbers and telephoned Barb's daughter, Rena in California. She and Rena's cousin Billie, quickly left for the hospital in Carson City.
When they arrived, Barb couldn't communicate because of the tubes down her throat and she was very weak. Billie recalls that right before she passed, Barb tried to communicate something to her. Later, Billie would tell everyone that she was sure that Barbara was trying to tell her something to prove what the family already suspected, that Barb was the skyjacker.
Up in Washington, we tried to call Barb a few times but got no answer. On our last call the phone had been disconnected. We feared that Barb had passed away. In August of 2004, we heard from a friend of Bob Birch that our fears were true. Barbara Dayton, our dear friend was gone.
The promise that I made to Barb to write her story was weighing on me now, but how could we write the story without Barb's help? We had kept some notes, but would our memories be reliable enough to do her story justice? Neither Ron or I are writers, so how would we ever be able to keep our promise. We decided to give it a shot. I would do the actual writing and the internet searches. Ron's memory is better than mine so he would assist with the stories and conduct any interviews we could set up.
The second secton of the booklet prepared for the FBI contained the proof we had gathered that all of the crazy stories Barb had told us about Barb's past were indeed true and that Barb had all the talents necessary to pull off the skyjacking. Once again, it started with a timeline to keep my presentation in order.
1930 Census Page
Through the years Barb had told us many stories about her past, many of which were hard to believe. No job or task was too dangerous. Since she was trapped in a man's body, she tried to be the "meanest man I could be". Still, her compassionate, caring side could be seen by her family. Bobby loved to write poetry and couldn't kill a fly, preferring to capture it and set it free outside. Yet he was constantly fighting as he moved through over 150 jobs. As a merchant marine, Bobby tried everything he could to fit in as a man, including visiting prostitutes. In port, he would spit on the shoes of a sailor just to start a fight. He could take on more than one at a time with his 17 inch arms and his black belt. Yet Barb told us the most dangerous thing Bobby did was to sneak up to a dark place on the deck at night and put on his women's clothes. Even though he knew the other marines would kill him if caught, "The urge was so strong he couldn't live if he didn't give in to it." Bobby had taken skydiving lesson at Snohomish Airport, giving it up because "it was boring". He was a private pilot who had always wanted to fly for the airlines but couldn't due to lack of college degree and a bad eye. He enjoyed using dynamite to reroute water on the Dayton Ranch.
When we knew Barbara she still had strength unusual for a mid-fifties female. She showed us her one-arm pushups, picking up a match stick held between her fingers in her mouth. She was still a daredevil, occasionally taking chances in her Cessna 140 that would make our hearts stop. Ron once asked her to talk like a man, and she was still able to show us what Bobby had sounded like.
As we poured through the letters, the psychological evaluations, and the diaries we were able to find proof of most of the wild stories we had been told. This proved to us that Barb had all the talents necessary to accomplish the skyjacking. Coupling that with all the details she had told us about the jump, we became convinced that Barbara was Dan Cooper.
Up to this point, Jeremy sat there quietly looking bored as I followed my timelines, making what I considered to be a good presentation considering the turmoil inside me at the time. Jeremy interrupted my monologue with a question.
"That's all well and good, but what makes you think anyone could survive a jump from a 727 that was traveling 200 mph?"
"Well, in our research we spoke with jumpers who do exactly that every year as sport. 100 jumpers can leave the back of the airplane with all of them maneuvering back to the airport designated as the target landing area. Of course, they are using a more maneuverable chute, but the jumpers verified that Barb's story was very plausible. Barb had said Cooper was able determine when the plane was over Portland by the lights of the city that were visible through the broken clouds. She could then begin her timing to the jump site. The jumpers and the pilots we interviewed said the position of a big city can be seen determined through an overcast sky. The city lights filter through to lighten the color of the clouds." (Note: Later we found that Cooper himself had proven this when he asked the flight attendant, "Is that Tacoma down there?" The flight attendant was able to confirm it was.)
From this point on the interview was more like an FBI interigation as Jeremy asked his questions and I feverishly found the places in my booklet where the proof was located. We were no longer following my timetables.
As we were researching our book and as more details about the skyjacking were published, we began to realize that Barbara had continued to drop clues to prove she was the skyjacker throughout our friendship. I think she enjoyed this little game with us, waiting for us to piece together the entire puzzle. We didn't even come close until after she was gone. To this day we continue to have the "ah - ha" moments as more details are made public.
With hindsight, much from the past made sense: