Berkeley Barb article 'Take the Money and Jump — How He Foiled FBI'

TAKE THE MONEY AND JUMP MAY 12-18 BERKELEY LARB PAGE 11

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HOW HE FOILED FBI

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Last November 24th, 'a man identifying himself as D.B. Cooper' parachuted from a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 jetliner between Seattle and Reno Nevada with a parcel containing 10,000 twenty dollar bills which as the ransom money that had been delivered to him while he held the planes crew hostage at the Seattle- Tacoma International airport. The F.B.I. and other state and local law enforcement guns assisted by companies of G.I.'s from Fort Lewis have futilely wasted many hours and thousands of tax- payers dollars looking for cooper. So far Cooper has successfully eluded his following in the same ingenious manner that he pulled off his quick caper, cooly staying a safe distance away from anger. The F.B.I. headquarters in Seattle has vowed to scru- tinize every foot of land between the Sea-Tac airport and Reno to turn up clues in the case. Despite rewards of 5,000 dollars by the Medias " bank on your Friends" program the public has generally painted Cooper adoration and somewhat a hero status. An anonymous interviewer from the twice weekly newspaper the 'Seattle Flag' has produced a story from taped interview with D.B. Cooper which is validated by the presentation of one of the recorded twenty dollar bills included in the ransom money. This story was run in the 'Flag' because the inter- viewer was unable to send it to the 'Post-Intelligencer' because they had the 5,000 dollar reward out for Coopers and also television stations would have requested a tape from which voice prints could possible be produced, therefore, running the story in the Flag was the only solution. Cooper said that the witnesses description were off about fifteen pounds and a couple of inches. Also that the artist's impression were very poor. When asked why he was still in Washington state he added that he felt it was safer to hide where no one would imagine him to be rather than to go to some place like Mexico or South America where the authorities would naturally expect him to go. He said he started actual work on his skyjacking plan in June. The idea had come to him while he was visiting T.V. He figured that skyiackers before him had been fools - with their hijacking planes to go to Cuba, there risking the death penalty when all they had to do is charter a boat or go to Mexico and take a plane from there. He stated that he did it for the money, realizing that a answer was not merely how to get it but rather how to get away with it. After making extensive preparations he destroyed hundreds of timetables, graphs, aircraft plans, weather reports, and pages of notes. He felt that he had done enough preparations to be worth 200,000 dollars. He described jumping from a jet going 200 miles an hour as being cold, dark, loud, windy and scarey, very scarey. He had prepared to some extent with long underwear and gloves but in order to remain unnoticed onboard the plane he had to sacrifice some elements of comfort. He activated the stairs and opened the back door and before he has over the touchdown area to confuse the F.B.I. Finally using Kleenex for earplugs he slid down to the tenth step and stepped off into the prey of the wind and gravity...in the darkness he heard the engines of the following planes. But he realized that

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THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

L 51279635A WASHINGTON, D.C. 12

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It was a calculated risk that's why he jumped in bad weather and at night, also he waited a little longer than usual before pulling his ripcord. Adding that his free fall was about 5,000 of the total 7,000 feet. Which was very risky doing at night. He came down about a hundred miles away from S.W. Washington contrary to the F.B.I. report that he touched down near Vancouver Washington. The first thing he did on landing was bury his chute, he was within five miles of where he had intended in an evergreen wooded terrain. He credited this accuracy to his projected calculations and his Japanese watch. He wouldn't say whether he had an accomplice on the ground. He said he had lived in Seattle and had once

worked at Boeing's on the construction of the first Boeing 727 in 1963 and got to know the 727 from the inside out. The reason he was attracted to the plan was the alignment of the three Pratt & Whitney engines two on the sides of the rear fuselage and the third at the base of the T-tail assembly. Also the door/stairshutting [guess: mechanism], one hundred and nine miles per hour which was risky but [guess: manageable]. Then also he took into account the small crew: Three on the flight deck and the three stewardesses. Two central galleys and the wardrobes with the two toilets in the rear, figuring that they might come in handy as a place to hold a stewardess hostage. THE ACTUAL JUMP First the briefcase bomb was only real in the sense that it worked. It was constructed of [guess: gilette] shaving cream cans, painted red and rigged up with prima-cord fuses. When he flashed them to the stewardesses they carried out his instructions because they were well indoctrinated and thoroughly trained. Also they obeyed instructions from Mr. Nyrop of the head of Northwest. Nyrop figured that it was easier to pay [guess: more] 200,000 than to risk four lives and a $5 million dollar airplane. Cooper could smell xerox fluid on the money and knew that the [guess: swindle] had been duplicated. He stayed close to his original plan, only having one nervous moment when he was still negotiating on the ground at Sea-Tac airport. The feeling was being stalled, and he was getting edgy, figuring someone was planning some kind of strategy in an effort to shoot him or some- thing. One of the pilots brought out the money and the

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two parachutes he had ordered. A stewardess came back with the money in a canvas bag to where Cooper was holding another stewardess as hostage in the rear of the passenger cabin. Cooper checked out the loot, first thing and noticed that they reeked of duplicating fluid. Then the stewardess made two more trips out on to the run way to bring in the chutes. Then one of his fuel trucks pulled up...then he ord- ered the passengers off the plane, and everyone else into the cockpit...a middle-aged, executive looking man started to push his way back through the line into the tourist cabin. Cooper tensed up expecting the guy to try something heroic - but he had just left his briefcase on his seat and was retrieving it.

He figured if the F.B.I. was going to make a move it would be at Sea-Tac. Everybody but the stewardess he was holding hostage and the three man crew was clear of the plane. Starting the cockpit he asked the captain what the hold-up was. Trouble with the vapor lock was the answer. And another truck was coming. Cooper told the Captain: "Not more than one fuel truck at a time" but eventually five fuel trucks came out, only three of which were able to deliver. Cooper almost blew his cool. He went forward to the cockpit and told the captain it was a waste of time, and to take the plane to Mexico. The plane was again airborne at 7:40 pm, four hours and forty-two minutes after leaving Portland. The parachutes were unacceptable so he decided to jump without a reserve chute, he cut the extra chute up and used the strips to tie the money to his waist. Next he took the stewardess forward and ordered the captain to lock the door from the inside. Then he returned aft, closing the first class and tourist compartments behind him. Then he got on the intercom and told the captain to hold the aircraft at 7,000 feet, and speed at 200 miles per hour. Last he ordered that nobody, under any circumstances, was to attempt to make any further contact with him. Shortly after he jumped. Cooper declared to the reporter that he was going to retire the night of the interview and head to an undis- closed destination. He said he would be back in Five years, thanks to "The Statute of Limitations!"

.....by Mike Noble

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DB Cooper-22382