D.B. Cooper’s Clip On Tie

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Judge Cobb) denied a FOIA request. holding that D.B. Cooper’s removed tie is not an “agency record”

as Defendants point out in their motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, Mr. Ulis is not seeking anything that could even arguably be considered an “agency record.” ECF 3 at 2–3; see Fed. R. Civ. Pro. 12(b)(6). Instead, he seeks a clip-on necktie. ECF 1 ¶¶ 33–34.

Of course, Mr. Ulis does not seek any old tie, but specifically the tie of the infamous “D.B. Cooper,” the man who, in late 1971, hijacked a commercial airliner, exchanged passengers for a ransom upon landing, ordered the plane to take off again, and then jumped out of the plane at 10,000 feet altitude while strapped with a parachute and $200,000 in cash. ECF 1 ¶¶ 13–17; D.B Cooper Hijacking, FBI (Dec. 11, 2023), https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous cases/dbcooperhijacking. The crime remains unsolved, but the “skinny black JC Penney Towncraft #3 clip-on tie” that Mr. Cooper removed before his mid-flight farewell represents one of the key (and only) pieces of physical evidence recovered by investigators. ECF 1 ¶¶ 18–19. Mr. Ulis believes there may be untested DNA in the tie’s “spindle apparatus”—a belief that led him to file a FOIA request “seeking limited access to Mr. Cooper’s tie” so that he could, at his own expense, “attempt[] to secure a complete DNA sequence for any DNA found upon the spindle.” Id. ¶¶ 28–29, 34–38. The FBI denied his request, which prompted this suit. Id. ¶ 39y.

Holding

For this case, however, it suffices to say that to call a clip-on necktie an “agency record” is not reasonable.