FD-350 clipping: 'Dan Cooper still at large, may have written a page of historical folklore' (Criminal Justice Services Newsletter)

Document date February 1974

Part 9page 3401 pageDB Cooper-1055

Open in FBI Vault (Part 9, page 340 of the PDF)
Report a problem

Email this to [email protected]

Id: Cooper-Part-09:340-340

Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-09:340-340

Document: FD-350 clipping: 'Dan Cooper still at large, may have written a page of historical folklore' (Criminal Justice Services Newsletter)
Id: Cooper-Part-09:340-340
Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-09%3A340-340

What is wrong (title, date, type, which pages belong together, copies)?


What does the scan show?

Open in email app

A person reads every report. Corrections are made by hand, to the data — titles, dates, names, which pages belong together — never to the scans, and they can take a while to appear.

FBI 164-81, Vault Part 9 p. 340 (DB Cooper-1055), News clipping, dated Feb 1974 — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-09%3A340-340

FD-350 (Rev. 7-16-63)

(Mount Clipping in Space Below)

---

'DAN COOPER',— STILL AT LARGE, MAY HAVE WRITTEN A PAGE OF HISTORICAL FOLKLORE

It has now been three years since "Dan Cooper" parachuted from the Northwest Airlines jet he hijacked with $200,000 in ransom money, and, for good or ill, wrote himself into the folklore of the Pacific northwest. In two more years the federal statute of limitations on the crime will run out and Dan Cooper will be home free — if he's still alive.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Cooper is the only person to ever hijack a domestic airliner who has not been killed or brought to justice. "We know nothing more about him today than we did at 11 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 24, 1971," said Julius Mattson, special agent in charge of the Portland, Ore. FBI office. "I just wish we had something to go on. We don't have a thing. Just a big zero."

These are the events of that Thanksgiving Eve hijacking as authorities have reconstructed them:

A man who gave his name as Dan Cooper bought a one-way ticket at Portland International Airport to Seattle aboard Northwest Airlines flight 305 which originated in Washington, D.C. No antihijacking measures were in operation as the 36 passengers boarded the Boeing 727 for the 25-minute flight.

In the air, Cooper handed stewardess Tina Mucklow a note saying he had a bomb. Following Cooper's orders, Miss Mucklow sat beside him and wrote down instructions to the pilot. Cooper wanted 10,000 $20 bills to be delivered to him at Seattle in a laundry sack, along with two sets of parachutes. Otherwise, he said he would blow up the plane.

Airline officials and FBI agents complied and Cooper allowed the passengers and two of the three stewardesses to disembark at Seattle. Then he ordered the plane to fly south to Reno, Nev., at 200 miles per hour, at 10,000 feet, flaps down. The crew was to stay in the cockpit.

After takeoff from Seattle, a red light flashed in the cockpit indicating the plane's rear boarding ramp had been unlatched. Nothing was heard from Cooper for about 20 minutes. At 8:10 p.m. as the plane crossed the Lewis River in Southwestern Washington, Capt. William Scott thought the hijacker was having trouble with the ramp and called back over the plane's interphone:

"Anything we can do for you?"

There was no answer.

Then another light flashed to show the ramp was fully extended. A few seconds later Cooper came back on the interphone:

"No."

That was the last anyone ever heard of him. When the plane landed in Reno, the rear ramp was down and Cooper was gone. The 21-pound sack of money was gone. One set of parachutes was gone. The hijacker, who had carefully reclaimed his note to the stewardess, had left no fingerprints.

---

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

7 DIVISION CRIMINAL JUSTICE SERVICES NEWSLETTER

Date: FEB.-MARCH 1097 Edition: Author: Editor: Title:

Character: or Classification: Submitting Office:

□ Being Investigated

---

SEARCHED.... INDEXED...... SERIALIZED.... FILED.... JUN 17 1975 [redacted] b6 [redacted] b7C

DB Cooper-1055