FD-350 clipping: AP story on Jiri Fencl detained at Sacramento Airport, with UPI 'Only 14 Months To Live' letter story
Document date 15 December 1971
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Id: Cooper-Part-53:101-102
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-53:101-102 Document: FD-350 clipping: AP story on Jiri Fencl detained at Sacramento Airport, with UPI 'Only 14 Months To Live' letter story Id: Cooper-Part-53:101-102 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-53%3A101-102 What is wrong (title, date, type, which pages belong together, copies)? What does the scan show?
A person reads every report. Corrections are made by hand, to the data — titles, dates, names, which pages belong together — never to the scans, and they can take a while to appear.
FBI 164-81, Vault Part 53 pp. 101–102 (DB Cooper-22439–22440), News clipping, dated 15 Dec 1971 — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-53%3A101-102
FD-350 (Rev. 7-16-63)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
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The Hijacker Is Everywhere
Another 'Look-alike' Has Problems With Police
LOS ANGELES — (AP) — A suburban West Covina man says he was detained by police three hours because he resembles the Northwest Orient Airlines plane hi- jacker who parachuted to freedom after receiving $200,000.
Jiri Fencl, 38, said Monday that he was picked up by police at Sacramento Airport four days after the Nov. 24 hijacking and questioned and photographed by officers.
"I went through it calmly because I knew I was innocent," Fencl said.
Authorities are still looking for a middle-aged man identified as "D. B. Cooper" who bailed out of a Boeing 727 jet last month between Seattle and Reno, Nev., after extorting the $200,000 with a bomb threat.
The FBI has reported no leads in the case — and has not said whether other middle-aged men with parachut- ing experience have been questioned.
Fencl said when he was arrested he had $800 in his wallet to pay a moving van company for transporting his property from Rocklin, near Sacramento, to West Covina.
He said a card in his wallet indicated he had been an Army parachutist, and a check of his driver's license further disclosed he once had lived in Seattle.
Fencl is the new manager of the Pomona National Country Club.
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(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.)
A7 Seattle Post-Intelligencer Seattle, Wash.
Date: 12-15-71 Edition: Final Author: Editor: Dick Lyall Title: NORJACK CAA-HIJACKING; Character: EXT or Classification: 164-81-Sub.B Submitting Office: Seattle ☐ Being Investigated COPY SENT TO BUREAU
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SEARCHED ......... INDEXED ........ SERIALIZED .........FILED ............ DEC 2 1 1971 FBI—SEATTLE
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DB Cooper-22439
'Only 14 Months To Live'
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LOS ANGELES -- (UPI) -- A letter purportedly written by fugitive hijacker "D. B. Cooper" claims he parachuted into the night with $200,000 to buy peace of mind because he has only 14 months to live, the Los Angeles Times said yesterday.
The letter-writer said he lived a life of hate and is not a hero.
A number of letters, supposedly from "Cooper," have been received by newspapers throughout the West in recent weeks. It is not known if any are genuinely from the man who hijacked a Northwest Orient 727 Nov. 24, claiming to have a bomb.
He collected the ransom and parachuted out the rear door with it between Seattle and Reno, Nev.
The letter was mailed to the Los Angeles Times from Seattle Saturday and has been turned over to the FBI, the paper said. It quoted the letter:
"I didn't rob Northwest Orient because I thought it would be romantic, heroic or any of the other euphemisms that seem to attach themselves to situations of high risks.
"I am no modern-day Robinhood. "Unfortunately (I) do have only 14 months to live.
"My life has been one of hate, turmoil, hunger and more hate. This seemed to be the fastest and most profitable way to gain a few grains of peace of mind.
"I don't blame people for hating me for what I've done, nor do I blame anybody for wanting me to be caught and punished, though this can never happen."
The letter writer said he would never be caught because he left no fingerprints, wore a disguise, and employed other unspecified means to cover his trail.
He was wearing a toupee and putty makeup at the time of the hijacking and would be impossible to recognize from the composite picture drawn up by FBI artists from the descriptions of witnesses, according to the letter.
"I've come and gone on several airline flights and am not holed up in some obscure backwoods town," the letter says.
"Neither am I a psychopathic killer. As a matter of fact, I've never even received a speeding ticket."
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DB Cooper-22440
Serials: 164-81-Sub.B