SAC Seattle to Director re CBS 60 Minutes contact, observations and recommendations on NORJAK media handling

FD-36 (Rev. 2-14-74)

FBI

Date: 5/15/78

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Via AIRTEL AIRMAIL (Precedence)

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TO : DIRECTOR, FBI (164-2111) (ATTN: PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE, GENERAL INVESTIGATIVE DIVISION)

FROM : SAC, SEATTLE (164-81) b6 [REDACTED] b7C SUBJECT: NORJAK b7D MEDIA MATTERS

ReBUtel to all Field Offices, 5/5/78 cap- tioned "NORJAK"; Portland airtel to Bureau, 5/8/78; Seattle tel calls to Bureau, 5/12;15/78; SAC, Seattle tel call to SAC, Portland, 5/15/78.

Instant matter pertains to the most recent queries by the producers of the CBS show, "60 Minutes", who are apparently considering the "NORJAK" investiga- tion for one of its shows. For record purposes, on 5/4/78, SAC, Seattle, received a call from [REDACTED] b6 whose business card shows him as "Producer, CBS News, b7C A Division of CBS Inc., 524 West 57 Street, New York, New York, 10019", who indicated he was then in Portland, Oregon doing background on the "NORJAK" investigation. [REDACTED] indicated he had permission from FBIHQ [REDACTED] [REDACTED] to interview SA [REDACTED] Portland Division, concerning this matter, and that he was intending to thereafter come to Seattle and inter- view me. I indicated my surprise that permission had been granted by Bureau headquarters, inasmuch as the last time

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2-Bureau 1-Portland (Personal Attention) 1-Seattle

JMR:ldk (4)

164-81-7893

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Approved: ________ ___ Sent __________ M Per ________ Special Agent in Charge GPO: 1975 O - 590-902 DB Cooper-16548

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this matter had been discussed with FBIHQ, cooperation with CBS had not been authorized. I personally spoke with [REDACTED] who indicated that [REDACTED] had called him on a number of occasions regarding the possibility of a show and that the Bureau had approved Portland and later Seattle, as Office of Origin, being contacted by [REDACTED] I returned [REDACTED] call and informed him of the above and it was agreed to meet on 5/5/78 at my office.

[REDACTED] came to my office at the appointed hour and for approximately the next 1½ to 2 hours, he spoke with myself, SA [REDACTED] who is the Case Agent in this investigation, and SA [REDACTED] who is the Media Repre- sentative for the Seattle Office.

[REDACTED] indicated he had spoken at length with SA [REDACTED] whom he described as being the "Case Agent", concerning background information about captioned matter. I first informed [REDACTED] of the administrative breakdown of an investigation as to Office of Origin, Case Agent, Lead Agent, etc., and that in this investigation, the Case Agent was SA [REDACTED] and that the Lead Agent in the Portland Division was SA [REDACTED] I then made available to [REDACTED] a copy of the case summary contained in ReBUtel dated 5/5/78 and explained to him the necessity of keeping a certain amount of "identifiers" confidential as this was a pending investigation. [REDACTED] asked a multitude of questions deal- ing with: specific comments of the Unsub; the denomina- tions of money that he wanted; type(s) of parachutes asked for and received; any comments he made to stewardesses; etc. In a number of these areas, it was necessary, for the reasons stated above, to merely reply "no comment", and again refer to the fact that this was a pending investigation and we needed certain information kept confidential to either prove or disprove that a particular individual is or is not the Unsub.

Being perfectly candid, it was obvious that [REDACTED] was not entirely pleased with his trip to Seattle and referred to information that he had received from SA [REDACTED] of the Portland Office and the fact that he had been so fre- quently quoted in the news media. I informed [REDACTED] that

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probably too much information had already been released but this was a most unusual case. I also suggested that per- haps "60 Minutes" could do a positive story about all of the other hijacking cases which we had solved rather than a negative story about one which is still being investi- gated. I pointed out that this is an on-going investigation which has gone into the background of almost 950 suspects with approximately 910 of them being cleared and that this information is contained in almost 100 volumes of files.

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He implied that we had fully cooperated with other news media representatives in this matter to which I replied that insofar as I was concerned, we had given all of the representatives about the same information. I also brought to his attention the fact that the last time the FBI had cooperated with "60 Minutes", one of the narrators had in- sisted on an interview with CLARENCE M. KELLEY, the then Director of the FBI, immediately after he had suffered a great personal tragedy. I commented that this interview was supposed to summarize Mr. KELLEY's thoughts on the Bureau, the changes which he had instituted, morale, etc., and that after granting the interview, which covered a period of about 2½ hours (actual time believed to be closer to 4½ hours), not one second of the interview was contained in the show. I told [REDACTED] that in my opinion, his program lost a lot of credibility among Bureau personnel because of such action. At that point, he jokingly held his hands up as if in surrender and indicated that he had nothing to do with that particular program.

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I further pointed out to [REDACTED] that no matter how much "60 minutes" wished to theorize, take things out of context, "voice over-ride" my statements or any other Bureau representative, it was in their power to either make us look good or bad on this investigation and that we had no recourse or platform to publicly rebutt any misquotes, incorrect in- ferences, etc. I noted, however, that the bottom line, inso- far as this or any other investigation in which the Bureau is involved, is to be able to prove or disprove either a suspect is or is not identical with the Unsub and that if we release all of our "Identifiers" to the general public through the news media, it becomes virtually impossible to prove the case in a court of law.

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In summary, [REDACTED] I am sure, expected to virtually be given a free hand in this matter but I feel certain that he understands our position. In all honesty, we cooperated with him as much as we could and gave him no more but no less than we have given any other media representative. He was furnished the name of the author of a locally written book about the case ("The Ballad of D.B. Cooper - Skyjacker" by EMMETT WATSON), and furnished the identity of [REDACTED] [REDACTED] of Malibu, California, who had pre- viously done a discreet inquiry for Warner Brothers about the person, JAMES BRYANT COFFELT, who has been alleged to be the Unsub in this case.

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For the information of the Bureau, JAMES BRYANT COFFELT has previously served time in a number of prisons and while [REDACTED] During their prison association and subsequent to their re- lease, COFFELT, who is now deceased, apparently [REDACTED] to believe that he was actually D.B. COOPER. Extensive in- vestigation by the Bureau has virtually eliminated COFFELT as being the Unsub; however, [REDACTED] have worked with [REDACTED] (who was des- cribed as a freelance writer, formerly associated with CBS in Los Angeles, California), in preparing a script/story based on [REDACTED] interpretation of what COFFELT told him. Apparently considerable money has changed hands in the obtaining of the story and preparation of the script with COFFELT try- ing to [REDACTED] in turn, got money from [REDACTED] As recently as last month, United Press International reported a story raising the question that D.B. COOPER was involved in the assassination of Rev. Dr. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. It is felt that such sensational allegations will continue to emanate from [REDACTED] and his associates in order to try to get the NORJAK case on "60 Minutes" or some other TV Show. For the information of the Bureau, NBC also considered using the COFFELT story but declined it unofficially because it did not believe COFFELT was the Unsub.

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OBSERVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

With regard to Portland Airtel, it is not felt that there is any point in disecting that communication and rehash- ing its inferences. Suffice it to say that this matter has personally been discussed by me with the SAC in Portland, who

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agrees that this case, as in all other cases, should have the Office of Origin as the spokesman. Therefore, and in order to avoid any further conflicts and mis-statements, it is recommended that: 1) Portland Office, if it has not al- ready been done by the SAC, specifically advise SA [REDACTED] b6 [REDACTED] that he should refer all inquiries regarding b7C this investigation to Seattle; 2) that if Portland feels that this will have a detrimental effect on their credibility with the Media as noted in Portland Airtel of 5/8/78, Bureau should consider designating Portland as Office of Origin, noting that an indictment was obtained in that Division; 3) that serious consideration be given to discouraging CBS from pursuing this investigation for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which is that this is a pending case, where there are a limited number of "identifiers" left which have not been released to the public and to show how we have eliminated some of the suspects (specifically COFFELT), could jeopardize the investigation. In addition we should keep in mind the manner in which "60 Minutes" treated the FBI the last time we cooperated with that program. Also, we should recognize that CBS is a "past master" of utilizing innuendoes, flashbacks, conflicting testimony, etc. to sensationalize any story.

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Seattle will continue to act as spokesman for the Bureau in this important investigation, UACB.

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