Brad Meltzer’s new book, History Decoded: The 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time, provides fascinating insight into 10 of the greatest conspiracies of all time. From D.B. Cooper to the fate of John Wilkes Booth to Area 51, Brad investigates the claims behind some of the most notorious conspiracies in American history. Brad joined Glenn on radio this morning to talk about some his favorite parts of the book and the most interesting things he learned while putting it together.
“Hey, a good friend, and a friend of the program, and a great writer, Brad Meltzer is with us. And he has written History Decoded, The 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time,” Glenn said. “And this is absolutely a Glenn Beck book because it is riddled with things for the ADD, and it has actual history in it. I was reading D.B. Cooper, I didn't know half of the stuff of D.B. Cooper.”
“It's actually my wife's favorite thing in the book, it's something she didn't know,” Brad explained. “And we wanted to count down the top conspiracies throughout the history, wanted to do Lincoln, JFK, the big ones. So D.B. Cooper gets on a plane and he says to the flight attendant, ‘I have a bomb. I want $200,000 in $20 bills and four parachutes or I'm glowing the plane up.’ So they land the plane. And they let everybody in the plane off. And D.B. Cooper takes off again… He gets the parachutes, and the money, and opens up the back door of the plane and disappears. The best part of the story, to this day, the only unsolved highjacking in U.S. history.”
“What I love in this chapter is we actually give you an answer. We found a guy named Kenny Christiansen. A few years ago he died. On his deathbed, he tells his brother right before he dies, ‘I have something I'm ashamed to tell you.’ And the brother doesn't know what it is. And the guy dies. So now the brother starts going through the stuff, and as he’s going through his stuff, he’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, I think my brother is D.B. Cooper.’ And he finds – his brother was a Northwest Airline pilot – D.B. Cooper was on a Northwest Airline plane. His brother was fired. He has an axe to grind. And then, his brother is digging ditches for a living – that's what he's doing, making no money. But right after D.B. Cooper jumps, his brother pays for his house in cash and opens a bank account with $180,000 in it. So he is either the best ditch digger of all time, right?”
Brad explained that they also took a thermal scanner to the house that revealed a secret hiding place in the bedroom ceiling that would have perfectly fit a briefcase Christiansen's brother was seen carrying in a photograph along with a sack of money. Furthermore $20 bills with the serial numbers that matched the money D.B. Cooper was given have turned up all around the town. As Brad explains, his purpose in writing the book was to provide people with new evidence and new factual information.
“It's a great conspiracy. And I hate that DB Cooper has become a folk hero. You know what he is? He's a criminal. We should not be celebrating criminals. What I want to do is tell the real story,” Brad explained. “So you get, as you said, we give you the evidence. So when we give you each chapter of the book, it's not just a chapter. There's a little flap, and you can pull out the F.B.I. report… we give you his actual ticket for the airline. And you get to examine the evidence and look at it yourself.”
Below is a sample of the extra materials that come with each chapter of the book:
In the case of the D.B. Cooper conspiracy, Brad walking away from the research for this book believing this was in fact the man. Not all the leads he received, however, turned out that way.
Glenn highly recommended the book to anyone who loves history.
The November issue of TheBlaze Magazine contains an exclusive excerpt from the book relating to the chapter about JFK's assassination that is truly fascinating. Get your issue of TheBlaze Magazine HERE and purchase your copy Brad’s book HERE.
Watch the entire interview below:
