Attorney Philip M. Cullen to Director Kelley re D.B. Cooper information
Document date 26 August 1976
Report a problem
Email this to [email protected]
Id: Cooper-Part-120:249-250
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-120:249-250 Document: Letter attorney Philip M. Cullen to Director Kelley re D.B. Cooper information Id: Cooper-Part-120:249-250 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-120%3A249-250 What is wrong (title, date, type, which pages belong together, copies)? What does the scan show?
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 120 pp. 249–250 (DB Cooper-55265–55266), Letter, dated 26 Aug 1976, serial SE 164-81-2078 (as read from the transcript) — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-120%3A249-250
PHILIP M. CULLEN ATTORNEY AT LAW
136 EAST KING STREET P. O. BOX 1078 LANCASTER, PA [illegible]
August 26, 1976
Clarence M. Kelley, Director Federal Bureau of Investigation United States Department of Justice Washington, D. C. 20535
Re: Unknown Subject, aka D. B. Cooper Aircraft Piracy--Northwest Airlines November, 1971
Dear Mr. Kelley:
Reference is made to the apparently unsolved incident in November, 1971 in which an unknown male individual using the name D. B. Cooper extorted $200,000 cash from Northwest Airlines in the state of Washington and disappeared from the pirated aircraft enroute to Reno, Nevada.
[REDACTED] Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, telephone [REDACTED] furnished the following information when contacted on an unrelated personal matter.
[REDACTED] stressed that he has no direct, specific information that the information he furnished concerning Robert E. Cooper, below, may or may not relate to the D. B. Cooper air piracy incident.
[REDACTED] a retired fuel oil dealer and businessman who has lived all his life in the general [REDACTED] area, advised that he had known a Robert E. Cooper, aka "Trooper", "Clarence", white, male, who would now be in his late 50s or early 60s, muscular, originally from the Lancaster County area, who possibly could be the unknown individual using the name D. B. Cooper.
In brief, according to [REDACTED] Robert E. Cooper, a member of an old family in the Leola, Lancaster County area, stole money from his father when he was younger; was a member of the Pennsylvania State Police who resigned from the force; was an aviator and parachutist; was an active hunter, fisherman, and outdoor camper; was a Justice of the Peace in the Leola area; and then about 10-15 years ago, after having been arrested by the Pennsylvania State Police on charges involving fraudulent automobile registrations, was imprisoned and disappea[red] [text cut off at page edge]
cc: SAC, Philadelphia (Information) [REDACTED], Pa.
---
Sub 841 Sub 2
---
164-81-2078 [handwritten] SEARCHED............INDEXED............ SERIALIZED............FILED............ SEP 7 1976 FBI SEATTLE CORRESPONDENCE DB COOPER-55265
[illegible]
---
page 2
---
[REDACTED] said that the knowledge, physical ability, and personality of Robert E. Cooper were such that he would have been knowledgeable enough about flying and parachuting to have been able to plan the scheme used by D. B. Cooper in the air piracy incident; physically capable of surviving in the wilderness; and clever and conceited enough to have used his true surname to out-wit law enforcement, audacious enough to have carried the air piracy out, and self-disciplined enough to avoid spending the extorted money until all chance of prosecution had passed.
[REDACTED] said he has no information as to the possible current whereabouts of Robert E. Cooper.
---
A cursory check of records in the Office of the Clerk of Common Pleas Court-Criminal, Lancaster County Court House, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, reflects that Robert E. Cooper was arrested in July, 1962 by Cpl. Frank W. Spickler Pennsylvania State Police (Spickler died some years ago) on charges of Unlawful Sale of a Motor Vehicle with Defaced Numbers, #304 June 1962, with numerous similar counts.
Robert E. Cooper entered a plea of guilty in Lancaster County Court on September 14, 1962 and was sentenced to a fine of $5,000 plus costs and 1½ to 3 years imprisonment. A notation in the Court record shows that under date of April 18, 1963, Cooper was transferred to the State Correctional Institution, Philadelphia, Pa. and on August 21, 1963 to the State Correctional Institution, Pittsburgh, Pa.
---
In the course of making this preliminary check in the Office of the Clerk of Common Pleas Court-Criminal, Deputy [REDACTED] advise[d] that some years ago his office had requested assistance from the Pennsylvania State Police to locate Robert E. Cooper in an effort to collect the unpaid fine. [REDACTED] said it is his recollection that the Pennsylvania State Police eventually advised his office that it had solicited the aid of the FBI in locating Robert E. Cooper with negative results other than that Cooper had last been heard from in the Las Vegas, Nevada area. Wagner said he could not date when his office had received this information nor did he know of the extent of any FBI efforts to locate Robert E. Cooper at that time.
---
The writer, who was FBI Resident Agent in Lancaster County during the Robert E. Cooper arrest period, has no specific recollection of having known Robert E. Cooper personally and has no information as to the possibility that Robert E. Cooper, formerly of Leola, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, might or might not be the unknown D. B. Cooper of captioned matter.
This information is being brought to the attention of the Bureau for any action it may deem proper.
---
Sincerely yours, [handwritten signature: Philip M. Cullen] Philip M. Cullen
---
DB COOPER-55266
Serials: SE 164-81-2078