On February 10, 1980, young Brian Ingram was digging to make a campfire on Tina Bar, a beach on the Columbia River just north of Portland. Decayed wads of $20 dollar bills turned up in the soft sand. Family joined the search. Soon the FBI combed the beach. All in all, $5,800 dollars of the ransom, tattered and rotten, had been recovered. The serial numbers had matched.

     People still wanted to believe Cooper had survived. He somehow planted the money to throw the hounds off the trail. Or he lost the money satchel on the way down.

     Even though he was just in a thin business suit and light raincoat, fans were sure he had survived the cold, stormy night. Somehow he had an ace up his sleeve. He had prepared too well. He must have survived. In sort, he was too cool, too clever to have perished.

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