'Sketch Made Of Hijacker' by Dick Clever
Document date 28 November 1971
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Id: Cooper-Part-53:139-140
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-53:139-140 Document: Clipping 'Sketch Made Of Hijacker' by Dick Clever Id: Cooper-Part-53:139-140 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-53%3A139-140 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. 139–140 (DB Cooper-2247), News clipping, dated 28 Nov 1971 — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-53%3A139-140
FD-350 (Rev. 7-16-63)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
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Sketch Made Of Hijacker
BY DICK CLEVER
Who is the man who parachuted from a hijacked Northwest Airlines jetliner to commit one of the most daring acts of air piracy in aviation history?
As of last night, the hijacker's identity remained a mystery, as did the whereabouts of the $200,000 he took as ransom money for 36 passengers and two stewardesses.
The FBI has been characteristically tight-lipped. But the agency did release a composite sketch of a thin, dark, middle-aged man wearing dark glasses.
And FBI agents vowed to search the entire route between Seattle and Reno, Nev., flown by the hijacked Boeing 27.
Along with the FBI sketch, a personality pattern of the hijacker began to emerge yesterday.
He was obviously a meticulous planner, an intelligent individual who plotted his escapade carefully. A calm, conservatively dressed "straight-looking" type, he did not fit the so-called profile of a typical hijacker.
He knew the capabilities of the Boeing 727 and that it was probably the only commercial jetliner from which a parachutist could safely leap.
The amount of money — $200,000 — was a large amount, but still a sum that could be raised by an airline in a short period of time. The weight of the 10,000 twenty dollar bills, at about 24 pounds, would be light enough to handle in a parachute jump if the bills were properly packaged.
But twenty dollar bills are small enough not to cause a great deal of suspicion when being passed.
At 6-feet-1 and 175 pounds, the hijacker was probably in good physical condition for a man in his mid-forties.
The hijacker chose a "bomb" as his weapon rather than a firearm. Some law officers speculated that the man wanted to create the fear that a possible madman was at work who had no fear of losing his own life if his demands were not met.
Most authorities believe the hijacker was an experienced jumper. But they believe his experience was in military jumping, or combat jumping, rather than sport parachuting.
Earl Cossey, president of Sky Sports, Inc., and Seattle parachuting club, shares that theory.
"He knew about military chutes," Cossey said. "Because when he found out they were sending some chutes up from McChord Air Force Base, he turned them down."
Cossey explained that the military chutes were the type that open immediately after the jumper exits from airplane. This would not allow the chutist to fall free of the military observation planes that were following the hijacked liner.
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(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.)
D. Al Seattle Post- Intelligencer Seattle, Wash.
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Date: 11/28/71 Edition: Sunday Author: Dick Clever Editor: Dick Lyall Title: UNSUB;Northwest Airlines, Flight 305, Portland to Seattle Character: 11/24/71 oCAA-HIJACKING; EXT Classification: 164-81 Submitting Office: Seattle
☐ Being Investigated.
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COPY SENT TO BUREAU
[partially illegible stamps]
FBI — SEATTLE
DB Cooper-2247
As it turned out, the weather was such that the military jets would have been hard pressed to see a chutist jump.
Cossey said it appeared to him that the hijacker was unfamiliar with the various types of non-military para- chutes available. So were Northwest Airlines official. They obtained two back- pack chutes from Renton
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Aviation, chutes used by aerobatic flyers. The chutes do not accommodate chest- pack "reserve" chutes. Furthermore the aerobatic chutes open immediately after the rip cord is pulled, not in stages, as do the types used by skydivers to ease the shock.
Cossey believes that the hijacker "got quite a shock" when he leaped from the 727 at 200 miles per hour and opened the back- pack chute provided to him by Renton Aviation.
Cossey should know. He is an experienced chutist him- self and he personally packed three of the chutes the hijacker was given. The fourth was a "dummy" chestpack chute used by Sky Sports for ground train- ing.
Thus it is believed that the hijacker may be an ex- paratrooper or former Army Ranger, experienced in the hard realities of com- bat and survival.
The FBI refused to say whether it is investigating persons with criminal records who may have served as paratroopers or may have had military par- achuting experience.
"We're just not comment- ing on that kind of detail," an agent in Portland said.
The hijacker had to be re- sourceful. He had asked for the money in a knapsack.
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THE FBI in Portland, Ore., yesterday released this art- ist's conception of the sus- pected skyjacker who par- achuted Wednesday eve- ning from a Northwest Airlines 727 jetliner after collecting $200,000 in ran- som in Seattle. — (UPI Photo.)
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sure as hell won't leave the parachute around for us to find," said one deputy.
When he jumped, the hi- jacker leaped into history and into the imaginations of millions. Even some depu- ties engaged in the search have expressed admiration for their quarry.
The Little Man, the aver- age Joe who only lives such high adventure in day dreams, seems to have adopted the mysterious sky- diving hijacker as some sort of hero.
"Boy, he really pulled one off, didn't he?" is a typical comment.
Eyes gleam, a chuckle rises in the throat, and then average Joe dreams of what it would be like to make a clean getaway with $200,000 of the "system's" money with nobody getting hurt but the system.
But law officers and air- line officials are gravely troubled. They see a danger in the glorification of this kind of swashbuckling air pirate. This time nobody was physically hurt, they admit. But what about next time?
Authorities agree that, in- deed, it was a dashing, dar- ing crime. But, they point out, the man who did it is a criminal and must pay the penalty.
And pay he will, if they catch him.
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Instead he received it in a cloth sack that he would have to find a way to bind to him during the jump.
Law officers are continu- ing to search an area of Clark County where it is be- lieved the hijacker could have made his jump. But they are not optimistic about finding the hijacker, or his parachute.
"If he was smart enough to plan it out this far he
Serials: SE 164-81