FD-350 clipping, Seattle Times, 'Part of D.B. Cooper money found'

FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)

(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) p.A1. Seattle Times Seattle, Wa.

Date: 2/12/80 Edition: Final

Title:

Character: or Classification: 164-81 Submitting Office: Seattle

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Part of D.B. Cooper money found

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Sub B; [illegible]; M

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Compiled from news services WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation has found about $4,000 of the money that the legendary hijacker, D.B. Cooper, carried with him when he parachuted from a commercial jet over Southwest Washington in 1971, a bureau spokesman said Tuesday.

The spokesman, who asked not to be named, said a family wandering along the banks of the Columbia River north of Portland, Ore., found a packet of money this week.

Held together by a rubber band, the packet of $20 bills was so badly deteriorated the F.B.I. could not make an exact count of the amount, the spokesman said.

Despite the deterioration, the spokesman said the F.B.I. was able to identify the money as part of the $200,000 ransom given to Cooper in Seattle nine years ago. When the money was given to the hijacker, the F.B.I. kept records of the serial numbers.

The packet was found 20 miles downstream from the point where Cooper is believed to have bailed out of the Northwest Airlines 727, the spokesman said.

He added that with floods along the river it was likely that in nine years the packet had been carried some distance.

The Portland and Seattle offices of the F.B.I. were conducting a search in the area, but the spokesman said it was unlikely that discovery of the money packet would aid in the search for Cooper, the only parachute-ransom hijacker in United States history who has not been apprehended.

Cooper boarded a Northwest flight in Portland on Thanksgiving Eve, 1971, using the name Dan Cooper. Before the plane reached Seattle, Cooper threatened to explode a "bomb" in his brief case if he were not given $200,000 in $20 bills and four parachutes and flown to Reno, Nev.

The plane circled Seattle for 2½ hours while authorities gathered the parachutes and money.

The passengers and two of the three stewardesses were allowed to leave the plane. The money and parachutes were loaded and the plane took off for Reno. The pilot was ordered to fly as slowly as possible.

Somewhere over Southwest Washington, the hijacker, the money and one of the parachutes disappeared out of the plane's rear exit, opened in flight. The approximate place of departure was guessed at from cabin-pressure readings on the flight recorder.

The flight recorder and crew testimony indicated Cooper had jumped near the little town of Ariel, Cowlitz County, about 30 miles north of Portland, a densely wooded area in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.

Despite intensive searches of the area, the only item connected with the hijacking ever found was a rear door from the 727.

Nothing ever was seen of Cooper or the $200,000.

The F.B.I. has said since shortly after the hijacking it believed Cooper probably was killed when he landed.

In 1977, just to make sure the hijacker didn't escape prosecution via the statute of limitations, he was indicted on federal charges in absentia.

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164-81-[illegible] SEARCHED SERIALIZED [illegible] FEB 20 1980 FBI - SEATTLE

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#5

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FBI/DOJ

DB Cooper-17348