Oregon Journal 11/26/73: 'Skyjacked $20 Report May Be Secret' (duplicate copy)
Document date 26 November 1973
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Id: Cooper-Part-53:207-207
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-53:207-207 Document: Clipping, Oregon Journal 11/26/73: 'Skyjacked $20 Report May Be Secret' (duplicate copy) Id: Cooper-Part-53:207-207 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-53%3A207-207 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 p. 207, News clipping, dated 26 Nov 1973 — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-53%3A207-207
Skyjacked $20 Report May Be Secret
By ROLLA J. CRICK Journal Staff Writer
The Journal is making its "Secret Witness" plan available for use in helping recover the "Cooper cash," the $200,000 that disappeared the night of Nov. 24, 1971, with the parachuting hijacker popularly known as D. B. Cooper.
The plan can be used with or separate from the newspaper's offer to pay $1,000 for the first $20 bill to be turned in that can be verified by the FBI to be part of the money Cooper obtained from Northwest Orient Airlines prior to jumping from a jetliner he had commandeered. It can be used to return the money, enter into negotiations for its return or to provide information on the whereabouts of the elusive hijacker.
The "Secret Witness" plan will enable someone with one or more of the missing bills to surrender the money and still keep his or her identity secret.
Here is how to use the plan:
1. Place the money in a place of your choosing and write down instructions for locating it.
2. Do not sign your name, but on both lower corners of the first page write a code, using any combination of
numbers and letters.
3. Tear off one of the corners, making a jagged tear. Keep the torn off corner bearing your code and mail the report containing the duplicate code to "Secret Witness," The Journal, 1320 SW Broadway, Portland, Ore. 97201.
The Journal will forward
your information to the FBI which will pick up the money and verify whether it is indeed from the Cooper ransom. If it is, that fact will be published in the newspaper.
After that, give the torn-off corner you have kept to a trusted friend or to an attorney or to your minister with instructions to take it direct-
ly to the Secret Witness plan coordinator at The Journal. If the codes and torn edges match, your agent will be given the $1,000 for the first $20 of the "Cooper cash" to be turned in.
The procedure listed in points 1, 2 and 3 can be followed for supplying information about what has happened to Cooper.
Julius Mattson, agent in charge of the Portland office of the FBI, says he can visualize situations where people with the money might be willing to turn it in, but do not wish it to become known that they have the money.
"Suppose someone had found the money and has been holding onto it afraid to turn it in, or has even spent some of it and then become afraid of the consequences; such a person might welcome the 'Secret Witness' opportunity," Mattson added.
There has long been speculation that the hijacker perished in his nocturnal leap from the jetliner and that some day a hunter or hiker would find his body or the money somewhere along the flight path of the aircraft between Seattle and Reno. It is this possibility to which Mattson refers.
(See List of Missing Bills on Page 6)
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[Illustration of a torn paper corner with handwritten-style text]
DO NOT SIGN YOUR NAME
X/23 X/23
CHOOSE YOUR OWN CODE
SAVE THIS
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Oregon Journal Portland, Oregon 11/26/73
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SEARCHED ___INDEXED___ SERIALIZED___FILED___ JAN 7 1973 FBI — SEATTLE
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DB Cooper-[illegible]5