About a week ago (May 2026) an anonymous poster made a post on the DB Cooper Mystery Group on Facebook (see below). This post got a lot of responses, mainly from two groups. One group is the usual suspects who don’t really discuss the case, but rather like to preach . The other responses were from people who do know the case, but who I feel left out information. Pat Rinaldi Boland outed the anonymous poster after she was given their name by one of the Admins of the group. The current admins are Nicky, Nicole, Chris, and Eric. I’m not sure which one gave Pat the information. It is certainly a breach of confidence, and one more reason to be very careful who you trust in the Cooper Vortex.
First Group: Members of the Facebook HOA. Psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert would say this about them “this allows people to feel belonging and community…Sharing grievances with like minded people feels good, but it doesn’t necessarily change anything…they’re surrounded by others who validate how they feel, and that validation can be addictive.”
Below are a few screenshots of the responses.
Let’s start with Jamie Beets (occupation: truck driver). Jamie has issues with suspects that get media attention. His favorite line is to tell people that “so and so” is the worst suspect ever. His usual three targets are Kenny Christiansen, Walter Reca, and William J. Smith. Kenny was proposed by Robert Blevins, who Jamie seems to have had issues with for years. When Recca came along, Jamie added him to his list, probably because of all the media attention. Then when Smith came along, Jamie added him to his list. Somehow Jamie thinks these three suspects are at the bottom of the list, below Barb Dayton, John List, and Vince Petersen. Jamie is a broken record. We can always count on him claiming someone is “the worst suspect ever.”
Jamie is also an expert on what women in their early 20’s thought about Cooper, claiming that Smith was not homely based off a picture of him from 1985. Smith may have been good looking in his 60’s, but in his early years one could see how attractive flight attendants may have used a term like homely. Smith was in the band in high school, he collected stamps, he was not voted most popular or best looking. Find a few 20-something women today and ask them what they think of an average 45 year old man, would they say handsome, or would they use a less flattering term like homely. Again, Jamie will make sure to surface when it comes to discounting Smith.
Next we have Augie Perazzini (occupation: financial planner). Augie is a a pseudo social justice warrior. I rarely see him discuss the case, but he does like to preach. Below you’ll see one of his comments essentially demanding that Eric Ulis apologize to the Vince Petersen family. Eric is a grown man, he can chose who he wants to apologize to or not. It is not Augie’s place to preach and tell people what to do. But, it makes him feel good. As for William J. Smith, one of his favorite comments is to say something along the lines that no one serious believes Smith is DB Cooper. Well who do serious people believe Cooper is? Braden, McCoy, Rackstraw, Mayfield, etc? The fact is that very few people agree on a suspect, so saying that no one thinks it’s “so and so” is a ridiculous comment, only said to try and curry favor with Cynthia McMahon, William Smith’s daughter. Hopefully he asks more questions for his clients than he does of Smith’s daughter who was six years old in 1971. You can also see how these posts on Smith end up devolving into conversations and not case discussion. Lisa Birkinshaw is another one of the group who does not discuss the case, but likes to preach. She is never far behind when it comes to getting involved in personal affairs.
Next we have Lisa Birkinshaw (occupation: clerical work). Lisa is part of a group that has befriended William Smith’s daughter Cynthia. Instead of asking her questions, they take everything she says as gospel. Lisa does not know Cynthia, they met on Facebook. They did not grow up together. She did not know her in 1971 when Cynthia was six years old. Yet, Lisa never misses a chance to comment on William J. Smith, but never with any facts. She will claim there is information that exonerates him, but no one seems to ask her how she knows this. The answer is she heard it from Smith’s daughter and just repeats it. Pretty low level thinking. Somehow she knows that Smith could not travel 100 miles in 1971. Also, she uses a comment that is common when someone presents a suspect, that they were never a suspect of the FBI. No kidding Lisa. If the FBI had a legitimate suspect back then, the case would have been solved. That’s why we present suspects now. If Smith had been presented to the FBI in 1971, he would have been investigated.
Lisa also likes to post about how the family of Smith is not responible for clearing his name or providing information on him, yet when someone like myself looks for information, she has no qualms about getting with her friends Pat Rinaldi Boland, Mary Johns, and Cynthia McMahon and judging me. I find that group to be a bunch of angry housewives who personify the term “Karen”, they love being in everyone else’s business, yet they don’t ask any hard questions because they don’t want the answers, they want to complain and judge and feel like they are part of the group.
Second Group: Good researchers, sometimes biased and prone to leaving information out. Their response might be “well you’re biased too.” Possible, but that does not change things. Question to ask them when they post: “Are you telling me both sides of the story?” and “What do all the 302s say?, not just some”
Chris Broer: (Analyst), claims that whoever made the wider nose comments was male and made the comments 10 months after the hijacking. Was he saying only one person made those comments? We have at least three men who made those comments. Chris is also using the latest line that we should take comments closer to the date of the hijacking, yet he does not bring up comments about how some people liked the Initial Sketch, and that Flo actually picked out KK51 before Composite A was done. If you go to the Files tab on this site and click on Various-Witness-Descriptions-2 and scroll to page 25, you’ll see a number of comments from passengers about the sketches. Words like these were used: Broader nose, the nose around the nostrils should be broadened, wider nose. Chris was one of the presenters for the suspect Milton Vordahl, in which the team used Composite B to sell their suspect. That was just a couple of years ago, after that entire team had been studying the case for years. How after all his years of research did he picke Composite B to push Vordahl, but now has changed to Composite A?
How does Flo go from liking KK51 to then thinking that Composite A is better? She doesn’t. Just look at the nose on KK51.
I’d love to see Chris ask Cynthia McMahon questions. I doubt she’d be able to hide much from him. They do call him “the bloodhound.”
On this Facebook post, Chris highlights positive comments about the A Sketch, but fails to mention negative comments, or any comments about the B Sketch, or the Initial Sketch. He is using a logical fallacy called Cherry Picking. I’m sure Chris or Ryan will respond buy saying I cherry pick, but that does not change that Chris is only highlighting information he wants us to see. For more info see the witness descriptions on Norjak.org.
Ryan (Attorney): asks about how William Smith was found. Answer: He was found in a book about DB Cooper, not a book about The Zodiac, not a book about The Golden State Killer, a book about DB Cooper. Not to mention that recent DNA evidence puts Smith’s wife right in the middle of that story. That is one of Ryan’s favorite responses when Smith is brought up. He never discusses Smith’s actual background in aviation or any other connections, to include an uncanny resemblance to the sketch. Ryan is a criminal defense attorney, and a good one. I’d want him defending me in court, but when it comes to DB Cooper he is a pro at presenting certain information and leaving out the rest. Ryan likes to use the “how Smith was found” angle, focusing on that and not his background. How a suspect is found is pretty much irrelevant if they fit the look and background of Cooper. If we had searchable databases back in 1971 and asked for a man who was around 45 in 1971, 5’10”, olive skin, aviation experience, parachute experience, was a gentleman, had a mental illness, etc., then Smith would have come up and been a suspect. Don’t fall for the “how was he found” line. Ryan and I have a certain understanding, but that does not make him immune from me calling out the inconsitnencies in his arguments. It seems only Flyjack and I are the ones willing to do that. Someone contacted Max Gunther, so why not William J. Smith? I agree that contacting Gunther does not make him Cooper.
Ryan also comments that Smith does not look Latin. The term Latin is just one of the words used to describe Cooper. We have other terms used more often, those are: slightly darker/olive, olive-type, medium, medium to dark, olive complexion, dark, swarthy. Ask Ryan why he is focusing on the term Latin. Are we only looking at suspects with Latin backgrounds? Note: This photo of Smith was taken in the late fall-early winter in New Jersey, yet he still looks dark, olive, swarthy, etc. I’m not sure exactly what “Latin” looks like, or what Flo meant. Did she mean color, facial structure, hair, facial hair? I don’t know. So if Ryan is so hooked on Flo’s description, why does he not say that she picked out KK51 before saying Composite A was “Good”, not “Excellent” Good. Her four choices were Poor, Good Very Good, and Excellent.
Ryan has a good webpage Norjak.org. It has a lot of info on the sketches. I recommend checking it out. It does not have this below document though.
Third Group (unaffiliated with the other two groups, except through friendships.) Finally we have Tim. If you don’t know ‘Tim, he’s a great guy. I recommend getting to know him. It was his belief in William J. Smith being DB Cooper that really opened up the case against him. Tim makes a few comments on another post about the same time. He says “I can’t reconcile Gunther miraculously coming up with a name that is so close to Mr. Smith’s real life associate”. I agree with Tim, it is not something we can reconcile. My best guess is that the name came up in conversation, and Gunther purposely did not put it in his notes to keep that information to himself. Max did not trust the FBI, especially Ralph Himmelsbach. I personally think Smith used Clair’s name and life because he was that type of guy who liked to play games with people, a smart guy. I also know that Gunther’s notes do not include his final conversation with Clara, so we do not know how long that conversation was or what was said. It is very possible that Gunther was trying to prod Clara for as much information as possible and got a new name. For more background on Gunther, I recommend Martin Andrade’s book called Finding DB Cooper. Martin was a big proponent of looking for Gunther’s LeClair. You can also see info on my site about Gunther.
Tim asks if Smith could have jumped from that plane. Of course he could, he was in naval aviation in 1946, he flew off aircraft carriers in open cockpits, he had parachute training. Of course he could have done the jump. And of course he could have stayed calm the whole time, that’s who Smith was, a calm guy. Would he have done it? Well, we don’t know what Cooper was thinking at the time. He had a plan that would result in no injuries to passengers or crew, so in his mind maybe he was doing something that terrible. Smith’s doctors had diagnosed him as having schizophrenia and later changed it to schizoid personality disorder. Cooper fits that mold pretty well.
Tim cites a medical issue with William Smith in 1971. How does he know about this medical issue? Has he or anyone seen the medical documents from 1971 or are we going off what his six year old daughter said 50 years later? Having a medical condition and being afraid of heights sounds like a good cover story if you are trying to hide that you were DB Cooper. I still think if Smith told anyone, it would have been his wife and his oldest daughter Cynthia. Cynthia is under no obligation to tell the truth. In fact, if she knows her father was the one who contacted Gunther and/or was DB Cooper, then she is better off not telling anyone, and fighting to the death to clear his name. I’ve suggested she take a lie detector test, or put herself in a position to swear under oath in court that she knows nothing of her father’s potential past. She won’t do it.
The fact Smith’s daughter won’t open herself up to questions. 99 percent of us could take both of our grandfathers and rule them out immediately on height, weight, age, experience, hair color, eyes, military experience. Why not Smith? I’m sure Lisa Birkinshaw or Pat Boland will post and say it’s not their job to defend him. Then why continue to allow him to be researched by people if you can exonerate him? It’s not like you’ll be able to tell us anything too revealing about him that his military records have not already shown.
I’m ok with Tim’s post. He is sincere. However, he is basing a lot of what he says on the word of Smith’s daughter who was six years old in 1971 and has already proven that she does not know everything about her father that she thought she did. Tim also is a fan of Ted Braden, and if you think a special operations guy like Braden was Cooper, then certainly an average guy like Smith certainly can’t be Cooper.
Ted Braden was not a family man, and if you believe Cooper was not a family man, then Smith is not your guy either. However, plenty of criminals were family men, one that comes to mind is Dennis Rader of BTK killer fame or infamy. If Smith was Cooper, then maybe he was just trying to find an escape from a hectic life, and in his mind this was it. Two toddlers, one with behavioral issues, a sickly wife, a permanent houseguest (Valeria), a hard job on the railroad, in-laws who felt their daughter/sister could have done better, money issues, etc. I don’t blame the guy for wanting to escape. If he was Cooper, I think he’d have ended up in a psych ward and not a prison and eventually been released. He certainly was nice to everyone and made sure to release the passengers.
This was a long post, and I realize it does not flow perfectly. But here are some final points for anyone who truly wants to be neutral and get answers to questions.
Why do Ryan and Chris B. not mention KK51? Or that there was commentary on the initial sketch being liked?
Why do Ryan and Chris not discuss the commentary on Cooper’s face and nose being possibly bigger?
Why did they float Milton Vordahl using Composite B, after all their years of researching, and now are using Composite A? They knew years ago that A was closer to the hijacking.
If the FBI says B is better, then what do Ryan and Chris know that the FBI didn’t?
How does everyone take Cynthia McMahon’s word as gospel when they don’t even know her? Why don’t they ever mention that she was six years old in 1971? How can they be sure that William Smith had medical issues, or that he could not leave the general area of his house (Note: he worked extra jobs, so he was gone a lot). and, his Navy records do not mention anything about his supposed “medical issue” that would kill him his he jumped from a plane. I have zero respect for the research of the following individuals if they are so willing to take the word of someone who was six in 1971, who does not want her father to be DB Cooper, who they don’t know, and having not seen any documents from 1971.
I guess if you want to take a six year old’s word for something that happened 50 years ago, then you’re in a different world than the rest of us.
The main Facebook group wants to maintain their shared identity. It makes them feel part of a group. That is a common theme on many Facebook groups. Group 1, the preachers/social justice warriors/HOA make me think of a line from the TV show The Wire when Detective Bunk Moreland says: “There you go, giving a fuck when it ain’t your turn to give a fuck.” That group and others have decided to insert themselves into my life and claim that it’s because I inserted myself in William Smith’s life. That insertion has fueled the fire, to include pushing his daughter to contact my job, and me receiving threats of violence. To think I take this as a joke, or just some fun banter on Facebook is far from reality. They inserted themselves in my life, so now I have no problem doing the same to them. Hopefully it was worth it for the main offenders. Sorry, it was not your turn to give a fuck.
Note: I need to work on the formatting. I’ll try to run it through AI at some point to clean it up, but you get the general idea.