Interview re Barbara (formerly Robert) Dayton claiming to be D.B. Cooper
Interviewed 15 August 2006Transcribed 16 August 2006
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Id: Cooper-Part-52:214-215
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-52:214-215 Document: FD-302 interview re Barbara (formerly Robert) Dayton claiming to be D.B. Cooper Id: Cooper-Part-52:214-215 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-52%3A214-215 What is wrong (title, date, type, which pages belong together, copies)? What does the scan show?
A person reads every report. Corrections are made by hand, to the data — titles, dates, names, which pages belong together — never to the scans, and they can take a while to appear.
FBI 164-81, Vault Part 52 pp. 214–215 (DB Cooper-21886), FD-302 interview, interviewed 15 Aug 2006, serial SE 164-81-9464 (as read from the transcript) — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-52%3A214-215
FD-302 (Rev. 10-6-95)
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FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
Date of transcription 08/16/2006
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[REDACTED], Puyallup, Washington, driver's license number [REDACTED], date of birth [REDACTED], was interviewed at the FBI office, 1145 Broadway, Suite 330, Tacoma, Washington. Also present were [REDACTED], Tacoma, Washington, date of birth [REDACTED] and [REDACTED], Puyallup, Washington, date of birth [REDACTED], provided the following information:
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[REDACTED] purchased a small plane in 1977, that was located at the Pierce County Airport. The plane was located near a different plane owned by BARBARA DAYTON (DAYTON). [REDACTED] and DAYTON became friends and DAYTON would visit the [REDACTED] residence frequently. After DAYTON became comfortable with the [REDACTED] she told them her secret. DAYTON had undergone sex reassignment surgery in 1969 at the University of Washington. Her given name was ROBERT DAYTON, date of birth 05/10/1926. DAYTON was born in Florida. Her parents moved her and [REDACTED] to Long Beach, California, when she was young. While she was still a male, she had been in the Army and the Merchant Marines and had traveled around the world. DAYTON was a proficient pilot and had learned how to parachute from taking a class.
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Throughout their friendship, DAYTON had told all kinds of "stories", that the [REDACTED] always thought were made up because of the unusual nature of them. The story of DB COOPER was a topic of many conversations around the airport. Whenever someone called COOPER an idiot or said that he was dead from the jump, DAYTON would become very defensive. Once in 1979, [REDACTED] joked that DAYTON was COOPER in front of other people. DAYTON became very angry and told [REDACTED] not to ever say that again. DAYTON then claimed to be COOPER. DAYTON would tell a lot of details about the hijacking, including wind speed, location of the jump, wing flap location and other very precise items. DAYTON told them that she had jumped south of Portland, Oregon, near Woodburn, Oregon. DAYTON stated that she had flown her plane over the route a number of times to check out the landing locations.
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Investigation on 08/15/2006 at Tacoma, Washington
File # SE 164A-81 - 9464 Date dictated ___________
by SA [REDACTED]
This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI. It is the property of the FBI and is loaned to your agency; it and its contents are not to be distributed outside your agency.
FD-302a (Rev. 10-6-95)
SE 164A-81
Continuation of FD-302 of [REDACTED] , On 08/15/2006 , Page 2
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DAYTON said that she did not do it for the money. DAYTON had a hard life because of her sexual identity issues, so it was her way of getting back at the world. DAYTON was also upset that she could not be a commercial pilot and thought the FAA was too harsh on private pilots. DAYTON stated that she planned the idea while spending time in the hospital bed after one of her many surgeries. DAYTON claimed that she had put the money in a cistern on a farm near Woodburn. DAYTON had hidden a change of clothes near the farm before the jump. After the jump, DAYTON put women's clothes on, walked to Woodburn, and took a bus to Portland where her car was located.
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DAYTON thought that the statute of limitations would be up around that time of her telling the story, so she felt comfortable talking about the story. However, once she found out that the statute of limitations were extended in around 1980, DAYTON told the [REDACTED] that she had made the story up, that it was all a "dream". They did not talk about the story much after that. The [REDACTED] stayed in touch with DAYTON, until around 1997, when she moved to Nevada. DAYTON had a relationship with a man, and the man had passed away. The [REDACTED] contacted her again after finding her address on the Internet in 2000. DAYTON passed away in 2002.
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The [REDACTED] began researching DAYTON's life after she died. The [REDACTED] are convinced that DAYTON had told them the truth regarding being COOPER. [REDACTED] had driven to the exact farm that DAYTON had described, and saw the cistern where the money had been hidden. [REDACTED] did not try and verify that the money was still there, because it was a private farm. The [REDACTED] put together a binder with their research. In addition, they claim to have a hair brush and some sealed envelopes from DAYTON that should contain her DNA. They will deliver those items to the FBI in the future.
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DB Cooper-21886
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b6 b7C
Serials: SE 164-81, SE 164-81-9464