FD-350 clipping: 'Cooper Swindle Charged Here' with photo of Murphy and Lewis
Document date 3 May 1972
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Id: Cooper-Part-53:050-051
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-53:050-051 Document: FD-350 clipping: 'Cooper Swindle Charged Here' with photo of Murphy and Lewis Id: Cooper-Part-53:050-051 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-53%3A050-051 What is wrong (title, date, type, which pages belong together, copies)? What does the scan show?
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FBI 164-81, Vault Part 53 pp. 50–51 (DB Cooper-22388–22389), News clipping, dated 3 May 1972 — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-53%3A050-051
FD-350 (Rev. 7-16-63)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
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'Cooper' Swindle Charged Here
BY CRAIG SMITH
Two Kitsap County men were arrested yesterday and charged in federal court with scheming to swindle a former Newsweek contributing editor out of $45,000 in return for an "exclusive interview" with airline skyjacker "D. B. Cooper."
Arrested and held in King County Jail following a bail hearing were William John Lewis, 32, of Seavue Estates, Seabeck, also known as Jack Lewis, and Donald Sylvester Murphy, 49, of 540-4th Ave., Bremerton.
U.S. Attorney Stan Pitkin said during the bail hearing he believes the two men have $30,300 obtained from Karl Payne Fleming, the former Newsweek editor, who got the money from Platypus Publications, Inc., of Los Angeles. An affidavit by FBI Agent Charles E. Farrell said $15,000 was to be paid when Fleming was convinced he was talking to the hijacker, $15,000 to be paid after the inverviews and a final $15,000 after publication of the story.
The complaint said Fleming gave Lewis $300 for expenses.
The complaint said Fleming conducted interviews with Murphy, who was disguised as "Cooper," on Feb. 22 and 23. According to the complaint, the sound man and cameraman recording the interview Feb. 23 at a Seattle-area beach had to work from "an extreme distance while wearing earplugs" to give "added credibility to the fraudulent scheme."
"D. B. Cooper" is the name used by a skyjacker who extorted $200,000 from Northwest Airlines, then apparently bailed out with his money after the plane left Seattle en route to Reno last Thanksgiving eve. "Cooper" has not been arrested.
Pitkin said Newsweek was not a party to the interview agreement and that Fleming is no longer employed by the magazine.
Bail for Lewis has been set at $50,000, $5,000 of which must be posted in a cashier's check and the remainder in a property-bond agreement to be signed by his wife and parents. Murphy, who told U.S. Magistrate Charles Schaaf that he went bankrupt two years ago, is required to post an $8,000 cashier's check or "sufficient sureties."
The complaint said the scheme started after Fleming placed a classified advertisement Feb. 1 seeking a confidential interview with "Cooper."
The complaint says Fleming flew to Seattle, and on Feb. 16 met Murphy who was disguised as "Cooper" at an airport motel.
On Feb. 21 according to the government, copies of three $20 bills said to have been taken in the hijacking were shown to Fleming. In the complaint, the government said the bills in the copy were phonies because serial numbers of hijack money had been superimposed.
The government claims that on the same day Fleming paid $30,000 to Lewis, who was acting as the go-between using the name "Seth Thomas," and that on the next day the interviews began.
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(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.)
p.A1 Seattle Post- Intelligencer Seattle, Wash.
b6 b7C
Date: 5/3/72 Edition: Final Author: Craig Smith Editor: Dick Lyall Title: NORJAK
Character: or Classification: 164-81 Submitting Office: Seattle
☐ Being Investigated
COPY SENT TO BUREAU
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SEARCHED .........INDEXED ........ SERIALIZED .........FILED ........ MAY 4 1972 FBI—SEATTLE
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DB Cooper-22388
A written agreement stipulated that the money would be held in a defense fund for "Cooper" if he was apprehended. The gov- ernment said in the complaint that finger- prints lifted from the receipts for the $30,000 "have been identified as belonging to William John Lewis."
The film, tape and copy of the three bills are in custody of the FBI, Pitkin said.
Lewis, a land developer and dance hall operator, was arrested by FBI agents at his home. Murphy, a real estate develop- er, was arrested outside Jack's Cafe at Gorst. Each man is the father of three children.
The men are charged with two counts — conspiring to defraud Fleming and in- ducing him to travel to Seattle for the execution of the scheme. The maximum sentence on the two counts combined is 15 years in jail, $15,000 fine, or both.
Pitkin described the purported plan of Lewis and Murphy as "a very curious scheme that had trappings of credibility."
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—P-I Photo by Tom Barlet. DONALD MURPHY, LEFT, AND WILLIAM LEWIS LEAVING COURTHOUSE ——The Kitsap County men are accused of a hoax to swindle $45,000
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DB Cooper-22389
Serials: SE 164-81