(UPI) re treasure hunters searching for ransom near Woodland
Document date 27 November 1971
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Id: Cooper-Part-53:142-143
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-53:142-143 Document: Clipping (UPI) re treasure hunters searching for ransom near Woodland Id: Cooper-Part-53:142-143 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-53%3A142-143 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. 142–143 (DB Cooper-22480–22481), News clipping, dated 27 Nov 1971 — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-53%3A142-143
FD-350 (Rev. 7-16-63)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
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Amateurs hunt dollars, not hijacker
WOODLAND, Clark County — (UPI) — A parade of autos, pickup trucks and motorcycles wound through the rolling foothills of the Cascade Mountains yesterday, carrying people seeking a fortune that might never be found.
No one readily admitted he was looking for some or all of the $200,000 ransom a hijacker collected Thanksgiving Eve before he bailed out somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Nev.
In fact, although the Federal Bureau Investigation was using the Southwest Washington foothills as their operations base in searching for the hijacker, they were merely working on a hunch—no solid evidence—that he had bailed out in the area.
BUT THEY came anyway, 1971-style gold rushers tempted by the lure of easy money and undaunted by the long odds against their success.
In a gas station, three Portland-area girls home from college for the Thanksgiving holiday admitted they entertained fantasies of finding the hijacker's loot.
One girl identified herself only as Anita. She and her two companions had driven to this area "just to have a look around." That was the initial reason.
"You start thinking about it," Anita said, "and you realize maybe he didn't live through the fall and there's $200,000 sitting all alone in the woods."
Would she turn it in? Anita smiled.
"It would be tempting to keep it," she said, "even if they offered a reward for its return."
A YOUNG farmer in a battered pickup truck stopped at a combination gas station-general store at one of the many crossroads in the search area.
As he manned the gas pump himself, his two children smiled and waved from the cab of the pickup. At first his story was that he was "headed into Battle Ground for a few things at the grocery."
But as the conversation covered the hijacking and the unusually heavy traffic on the North Clark County roads, his talk turned to "what a man could do with that kind of money."
He removed an old rag from the cab, carefully wiped some spilled gas from the side of the truck and commented how "even a good Christian man" would be tempted to keep the money.
"A lot of people in Clark County are having to go on welfare because they lost jobs," he said, "and a man could buy himself a pretty nice farm with that kind of money... even if he had to go to Australia."
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(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.)
p. A1 Seattle Times Seattle, Wash.
Date: 11/27/71 Edition: Sunset Final Author: Editor: Henry McLeod Title: UNSUB;Northwest Airlines, Flight 305, Portland to Seattle, Character: 11/24/71 or CAA-HIJACKING; EXT Classification: 164-81 Submitting Office: Seattle [✓] Being Investigated
COPY SENT TO BUREAU
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SEARCHED ......... [illegible] ......... SERIALIZED ......... FILED .........
[illegible] 1971 FBI—SEATTLE
DB Cooper-22480
SOME OF THOSE who weren't driving the rural roads looking-for-money, are rooting for the hijacker. "That guy is smart," a waitress said. "He's probably in Mexico laughing about all these federal agents looking all over Washington for him." Even a deputy sheriff taking part in the search said, "You can't help but admire the guy."
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Special Agent Tom Manning of the Federal Bu- reau of Investigation mapped out search sectors in the hunt for the hijacker of a Northwest Orient Air- lines jet. — A.P. wirephoto.
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DB Cooper-22481
Serials: SE 164-81