FD-350 clipping: 'Skydiving Cooper looks like Portland skyjacker' (The Oregonian)

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

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But FBI has doubts Skydiving Cooper looks like Portland skyjacker

By BILL KELLER of The Oregonian staff

WASHINGTON — The FBI is discounting the possibility that a Northern Virginia man named Jerry A. Cooper may be the Dan Cooper who parachuted from a 727 jet over southwestern Washington four years ago and disappeared with a $200,000 ransom.

The Virginia man, an experienced skydiver who bears a striking physical resemblance to the police artist's conception of the hijacker, voluntarily approached the FBI Monday for questioning after he learned of the investigation.

Later, he told The Oregonian he had never been in the Pacific Northwest, and urged the real hijacker to "come out of hiding and get me out of this."

Michael A. Morrow, the assistant special FBI agent in charge of the Alexandria, Va., office, said, "We feel very certain that he is not D.B. Cooper, but until we're 100 per cent sure we'll keep checking."

(The hijacker signed a flight manifest "Dan Cooper" but the FBI at first released the name "D.B. Cooper," which has survived in press accounts.)

Morrow said the FBI is investigating Jerry Cooper's whereabouts at the time of the 1971 Thanksgiving eve incident, and added the issue is "almost resolved."

The FBI began its investigation after an anonymous caller told Fairfax County, Va. police he had seen $15,000 cash in Jerry Cooper's apartment and suspected him of being the elusive hijacker.

The caller directed police to Cooper's sister-in-law, Carol Wood. After she was questioned by an FBI agent she told her brother-in-law who "voluntarily came into our office and was most cooperative," Morrow said.

Cooper said, "If I had $15,000, I'd be out fishing somewhere."

"I'd seen the picture (of the hijacker) before, but I never really noticed it," Jerry Cooper said Tuesday. "You come right down to it, the guy is almost the same as me. The same weight, same height, same complexion."

The skyjacker was described by witnesses as about 6 feet tall, 180 pounds, with dark hair and complexion.

"You put glasses on that man and look at me four years ago and you're pretty close," Cooper said. "My hair was shorter then. The ears are the same. It's scary."

To make matters worse for Cooper — a 30-year-old heavy equipment operator — he had been a sport skydiver for about eight years until he gave it up five years ago.

Moreover, in 1967 he worked as a fueler at Washington National Airport, where the hijacked Northwest Orient flight originated four years ago, and is familiar with commercial aircraft.

The man who used the name Dan Cooper commandeered the jet after boarding it during a Portland stop. He collected a bag full of $20 bills from the airline, released 36 passengers and two stewardesses, and ordered the pilot to fly at 200 miles per hour, 10,000 feet over Oregon and Western Washington.

When the plane landed for fuel in Reno, Nev., the man was gone.

Jerry Cooper said he believes the hijacker is still alive.

"There's no reason a man can't make it jumping out of a 727 jet that's going 200 miles per hour at 10,000 feet. It was probably a little cold that time of the year, but I imagine he was dressed for it."

Cooper said he couldn't recall exactly where he was at the time of the hijacking, but suspects he was hunting with friends or family in Augusta County, Va., as he usually does near Thanksgiving.

"Can you remember where you were on Nov. 24 four years ago?" he asked.

Cooper's sister-in-law said she was almost certain he had joined the family for Thanksgiving dinner at her house the day after Dan Cooper leapt from a plane on the other side of the country.

SENT TO BUREAU 9/15/75

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

C1 THE OREGONIAN PORTLAND, OREGON

Date: 9-10-75 Edition: Author: Editor: J. RICHARD NOKES Title: NORJAK

Character: or Classification: Submitting Office: PORTLAND [X] Being Investigated

164-41:-1473 SEARCHED .......... INDEXED ......... SERIALIZED ......... FILED .......... SEP 15 1975

DB Cooper-1086 b6 b7c

JERRY COOPER DAN COOPER

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"It's funny, but it's sick," Mrs. Wood said. "My brother-in-law wouldn't do something like that. It's super-crazy." Cooper said he has already begun to get jibes from "friends and nonfriends," asking where he hid the $200,000, and he expects them to get worse. "I'm tired, and I'm scared of the reprisals . . .he said. "I hope you'll print this: Will the real D.B. Cooper please stand up?".