| Thomas J. Colbert | |
| Occupation: | Founder, TJC Consulting |
| Known For: | Consultant, Writer, Producer |
| Notable Works: | The Last Master Outlaw |
| Website: | Thomas Colbert website |
Thomas J. Colbert is an American consultant, writer, producer and former media executive. He is the co-author of The Last Master Outlaw, a book that documents his five-year cold case investigation of D. B. Cooper suspect Robert Rackstraw.[1] The book became the subject of a documentary on the History Channel which Colbert exec-produced.[2] He currently operates TJC Consulting, a consulting firm in Los Angeles. Prior to his work as a consultant, he was a story researcher for CBS and Paramount Pictures and founder of media service Industry R&D.<ref name="Cpost25">News: How Those Bizarre Stories Make It To The Screen. https://web.archive.org/web/20181121002033/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-72821643.html. dead. 21 November 2018. 15 December 2016. The Cincinnati Post. 25 November 1996.
Colbert spent his early career as a story researcher for KCBS-TV in Los Angeles and then with Hard Copy.[3] After 12 years in the business, he founded the true-story tip service Industry R&D, Inc. (IRD).[3] Colbert used his national network of contacts to collect high-profile stories from local media and then sell them to television and motion picture production companies.[4] Tips generated by Colbert became books and films,[3] including The Vow, Baby Brokers, Fly Away Home, and Boys Don't Cry.[5] Colbert sold the company in 2009.[5]
Colbert is the co-author of The Last Master Outlaw: How He Outfoxed the FBI Six Times--but Not a Cold Case Team. The book details an investigation organized by Colbert into the identity of a possible suspect in the D.B. Cooper hijacking. The investigation took place over five years and included 40 retired investigators, including a dozen FBI agents.[1] Colbert identified Robert W. Rackstraw Sr. as the main suspect of the crime.[1] The week before Colbert’s team was to turn in all of its circumstantial evidence to the Cooper FBI case agent, the Seattle Division canceled a long-planned meeting and later announced the FBI considered the case of D.B. Cooper "administratively closed."[6] The investigation also became the subject of the History Channel documentary D.B. Cooper: Case Closed, which aired in 2016 and was exec-produced by Colbert.[2] [7]
Colbert currently operates TJC Consulting.[8]