This is great, Paul. I filmed Cooper's departure from Willow River in 1971 for WDIO-TV. Even then there were rumbles of his not being on the up and up. I've always wondered what happened to him. If my memory is correct, Cooper's name was also somehow connected to the 1976 Willow River murders committed by Donald Larson, one of the Piper kidnapping suspects. Larson shot and killed five people including his estranged wife, her lover, and three kids. Larson was already serving several life sentences in prison when he was on trial for the Piper case.

Not to hijack, but did the Piper case inspire the story in "Fargo"?  Sounds like the Lundegard kidnapping!

Prowler needs a jump.

Here's an interesting side-note tidbit. At the invitation of one of KSTP's reporters, I attended a day of Larson's and Callahan's retrial in St. Paul. One of the witnesses on the stand that day recounted how, on the day of the kidnapping, she had seen two guys and a woman standing next to a car in a gravel pit near Moose Lake smoking cigarettes. It didn't appear to her that the woman was in any kind of danger. Later that day while watching the local news and seeing a photo of Virginia Piper the witness said she realized it was the same woman she had seen earlier at the gravel pit. She reported what she saw to the police and restated her claim while on the stand but it didn't seem like anything further was ever made of it after that. Virginia Piper told police the kidnappers never stopped the car until they got to Jay Cooke State Park where she was later found chained to a tree. 

This fits in well with a long-held conspiracy theory that the kidnapping was nothing but a sham to get money (the million dollar ransom) into the coffers of the Committee to Re-elect the President (Nixon). Kenneth Dahlberg, whose name appeared on a $25,000 check cashed by one of the Watergate burglers, was Piper's neighbor. He just passed away last month.

Donald Larson was my grandfather. My mom was his daughter, Deborah Anne Larson. I was born Jason Lynn Larson in 1975 and after the murders, because my mom and I were both juveniles, we were separated first for witness protection and then for foster care. I spent 9 years in 42 foster homes, never to be reunited with my mom after she escaped with me out the back door the day of the murders, saving both of our lives. When they found us 3 days later in the woods, they separated us My mom committed suicide after years of PTSD and depression. We are never mentioned. Even though we were the only survivors that day. Only my grandpa's violence is talked about. Not the bravery of a 16 year old new mother who's father just murdered everyone she knew in front of her. Not the heroic scene it was with her escaping being brutally murdered by her own father, saving her newborn son. Even though we lived, we are still very much victims of those killings. It cost me 9 years in foster care and my mom. My mom paid by being forgotten about, I just wished people knew the whole story when they talked about it and gave my mom the reverence she deserves. Thank you.