FD-350 clipping: AP anniversary story, The Columbian, Clark County

FD-350 (Rev. 5-8-81)

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

Date: 11/23/2001 Edition: The Columbian Clark County Title: 164A-SE-81-LL Character: or Classification: Submitting Office:

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D.B. Cooper case still cold after 30 years

FBI keeps getting tips but most are filed away

SEATTLE (AP) — It was 30 years ago Saturday that D.B. Cooper jumped from a hijacked Seattle- bound jetliner with $200,000 in ran- som money strapped to his waist, nev- er to be heard from again.

His escapade remains the only uns- olved skyjacking in the United States. The FBI has received thou- sands of tips, but investigators have nothing to go on.

There's no suspect who leads [illegible] nothing to prove who Cooper was, [or] where he went.

"He's our Jesse James and Billy the Kid," said Jerry Thomas of Jefferson County. Thomas is a retired Army [man], [a] fantasyman who has searched the backwoods of Southwest Washington for any trace of Cooper.

Cooper apparently parachuted somewhere over Cowlitz or Clark counties. He's beaten the best crime fighters in the country, earning him folkhero status among some.

On Saturday, the tiny town of Ariel will throw a party for Cooper for the 22th straight year at the Ariel Store, the town's main bar.

Cooper's case inspired some copy- cat attempts and prompted new air- port security measures nationwide.

"It's with me," said Ralph Himmels- bach, the FBI agent who worked the case for eight years before retiring. "I don't lose any sleep over it, but if I had my druthers, it would be solved."

In a book he wrote about the case, Himmelsbach says, "Here's a little guy all by himself who reached up and tweaked Uncle Sam's nose and took $200,000 from a major corporation."

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Many who have studied Cooper's actions of Thanksgiving Eve 1971 are certain he died trying to escape. They have reason to believe that, too. The weather was bad with heavy rain. Cooper jumped over a dense forest of pine and Douglas fir; he was dressed in a suit and loafers, and one of the two parachutes he used was defective.

But his story is fascinating.

On Nov. 24, 1971, a thin man in his 40s calling himself Dan Cooper showed up at the Northwest Orient Airlines ticket counter at Portland In- ternational Airport. He paid $20 cash for a one-way flight to Seattle depart- ing at 4:35 pm. He then waited 50 min- utes to board the Boeing 727. He took a seat near the back of the plane, and had the row to himself.

Soon after takeoff, Cooper handed a note to a stewardess and said he had a bomb on board. He [illegible] into his briefcase at wires and red sticks that seemed to be explosives. He then demanded $200,000, four parachutes, and "no funny stuff." At 5:40 p.m., the plane landed at Seattle-Tacoma Inter- national Airport and authorities met his demands.

Then, he ordered the plane back into the air and to fly toward Mexico via Reno at no more than 10,000 feet.

He later jumped, and hasn't been seen or heard from since.

The fact that it's the only unsolved hijacking keeps it high profile," said [guess: FBI] agent Ralph Hope of Seattle, the latest agent in charge of the case. "It [will] remain that way until we know the individual could not be alive."

In 1971 and 1980, the FBI searched for Cooper, looking into countless leads with no luck. About six inquiries still come in to agents each month, but most are just filed away.

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DB Cooper-21651 FBI/DOJ