FD-350 clipping, San Diego Union, 'Skydiver Into Obscurity' D.B. Cooper five-year anniversary article

FD-350 (Rev. 11-11-75)

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C-8 THE SAN DIEGO UNION Sunday, November 14, 1976

If You Happen To See Dan, Tell Him To Call Home

There's almost no chance that Dan Cooper, who parachuted from an airliner with $200,000 strapped to his body, is still alive. But if he is, the statute of limitation for his skyjack runs out Thanksgiving eve.

By JOE FRAZIER Associated Press Writer

PORTLAND, Ore. — A miserably wet, windy, cold Thanksgiving eve in 1971. Passengers waited at the North- west Orient Airlines counter at Port- land International Airport to book space on Flight 105 to Seattle. Many thought ahead to family [article continues below, partially obscured by photograph]

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Skydiver Into Obscurity— This is an artist's composite drawing of the hijacker known as Dan Cooper, who leapt into history on Nov. 24, 1970. He parachuted from an airliner somewhere over southwest Washington State with over $200,000 in $20 bills. There's been no sign of him since.

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(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.)

__ Page C-8

__ The San Diego Union

__ San Diego, Ca.

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Date: 11/14/76 Edition: Home Author: Joe Frazier Editor: Title: NORJAK

Character: or Classification: SD 164-91 Submitting Office: San Diego [ ] Being Investigated

[Handwritten:] 164-91-116 [or similar]

SEARCHED INDEXED SERIALIZED FILED

NOV 15 1976 FBI—SAN DIEGO

[Bottom-right stamp/pagination:] DB Cooper-778

FD-350 (Rev. 11-11-75)

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reunions, turkey dinners, long relaxed conversations and perhaps a traditional game of bridge or Monopoly later. But one didn't. Dan Cooper paid cash for his ticket, then, clutching a paper sack, boarded the Boeing 727 for the 30-minute flight. A few minutes after the plane nosed into the storm, he made his move. He showed the stewardess what he said was a dynamite bomb, and demanded four parachutes, $200,000 in $20 bills, and "no funny stuff." All the passengers but Cooper got off at Seattle, unaware that anything was amiss.

The money and parachutes were put on board and the jet, with only the crew and Cooper aboard, headed for Reno on Cooper's orders. Then somewhere over southwest Washington, Cooper, with the 21 pounds of money strapped to him, bailed out. If he's [not] heard from since. If he's alive — and that's a big "if" — the five-year statute of limitations runs out this Thanksgiving eve, Nov. 24. Or does it? "We're going ahead on the assumption that the statute doesn't apply, because when he did what he did, capital punishment was a possibility. There's no statute on capital crimes," says FBI agent Ralph Himmelsbach. Himmelsbach, who has worked on the case from the start, concedes that recent court decisions have muddled the question of whether capital punishment would, in fact, have been applicable. "We're continuing to process suspects," he said. "Of course, it has slowed down a great deal." He says chances are good that Cooper is dead. "Not one of the 10,000 bills has shown up, and we know the serial number of every one of them," he said. And Cooper apparently knew nothing about skydiving. In a business suit and street shoes, he jumped from the rear door of a jet going 197 m.p.h. at 10,000 feet. At that elevation it was seven below zero that night, with a wind-chill factor of 69 below zero.

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"On top of that, he probably lost his shoes (from wind shock) as he jumped," Himmelsbach said. The plane was in clouds. "Up, looked like down to him. He had no visual reference. He couldn't have possibly known where he was." Himmelsbach wonders if he cared... "In another 30 minutes he could have been over the Willamette Valley, and almost any place he jumped would have been safe to land," he said. Instead, Cooper picked some of [illegible]

the roughest country in the Pacific Northwest. He took two of the four parachutes

with him when he jumped: One was a small emergency chute of the type used by stunt flyers. Under ideal conditions, someone who knew what he was doing might break an ankle or leg with it. The other was a training chute used for demonstrations. The panels had been sewn shut. It wouldn't have opened.

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The next night the FBI re-enacted the skyjacking using the same plane, crew, fuel load, speed and altitude. The test helped flight engineers and meteorologists to compute the probable drop zone to be a trapezoidal area covering about 25 square miles. It has been searched and researched in vain. In April, 1972, 200 Army troops from Ft. Lewis, Wash., spent 18 days in the area. All they found was "the victim of a homicide," a case unrelated to Cooper's.

What would it take to find Cooper's remains, assuming they are there? "I'd say it might take 5,000 men five years. I mean, how do you search a blackberry thicket higher than your head?" The area contains part of a reservoir, steep hills and dense forest, much of it far from roads or trails. Experienced hunters can and do get lost up there every year.

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FD-350 (Rev. 11-11-75)

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Loggers who work in the area agree that coyotes or wild dogs would make quick work of a body. After five years, they say you might find a scrap of bone or two, if that. Nevertheless, for a while Cooper was a folk hero of sorts: He was macho. He was daring. He didn't hurt anybody, but he ripped off a big corporation. And he beat the fuzz... There were Cooper T-shirts and Cooper bumper stickers. There were songs about Cooper. Two men were arrested for trying to bilk Newsweek magazine of $30,000 for an interview with "Cooper." And there were imitators. Around the world, there were more than a dozen skyjacking attempts patterned after Cooper's. Cooper is the only one not known to have failed. With increased airport security and modification of the Boeing 727 so the rear door wouldn't open in flight, the fad stopped.

The flow of clues, hints, and tips from the public about Dan Cooper has slowed to a trickle now. After checking out more than 1,000 suspects, the FBI says it knows little more about Cooper than it did on that stormy night when he leapt into history. What kind of a man would do what Cooper did? An ex-convict with no ties to people outside prison? A drifter who wouldn't be missed if he dropped from sight? A man with ties to family or friends who says, "I'm going to Libya to drill for oil, I won't write but you'll hear from me eventually?" An expatriate? A nut? All every possible, says Himmelsbach. "Our society is so open, with its rights to come and go. It's so uncontrolled that it is possible for somebody to leave or drop out and nobody would think anything about it."

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For a time it appeared a light plane may have been waiting for Cooper and whisked him from the drop zone that night. This assumes Cooper knew where he was jumping, an idea the FBI rules out.

A small plane did leave the area that night, but the pilot has been cleared.

A theory that the crew was part of the plot also has been scrapped. Himmelsbach said the whole thing probably was put together with minimal planning and that the bomb was a bundle of relatively harmless highway flares. The bomb was red. Dynamite, isn't it...If the crew members had realized that, they might have called his bluff at the time, Himmelsbach said: "He's lucky he got as far as he did with a plan like that."

Cooper's face, drawn by artists, is not a memorable one: It could be your neighbor or a fellow bus rider. "I'm sure a few dingalings will come along after the five years are up and say, 'Hey! I did it,'" Himmelsbach chuckled.

But even if the statute holds up, Cooper will have problems. The Internal Revenue Service computes his tax debt, including penalties and interest, at about $198,000. And the Globe Indemnity Co., which had to pay $180,000 to the airline, may want to talk to him. So now, what? "We have to accept the possibility that we may never know," Himmelsbach said. "I guess we can live with that if we have to."

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DB Cooper-780