Oregon Journal 11/22/73: 'JOURNAL ASKS: D.B. COOPER, WHERE ARE YOU? $1,000 Offered For First $20 Bill'

JOURNAL ASKS: D.B. COOPER, WHERE ARE YOU? $1,000 Offered For First $20 Bill

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By ROLLA J. CRICK Journal Staff Writer

The Journal will pay $1,000 for the first $20 bill turned in to the newspaper upon verifi- cation by the Federal Bu- reau of Investigation that the bill is a bona fide part of the

$200,009 extorted from North- west Orient Airlines in the "D.B. Cooper skyjack" of Nov. 24, 1971. The offer is made with the concurrence of the FBI that obtaining any of the missing money would be a substan-

tial aid to the two-year investigation of the [guess: era's] hi- most celebrated air- jacking. It is also made [guess: in] the be- lief that if any of that money is in circulation [guess: and] by alert can be establish[ed] the serial readers who c[heck]

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numbers on $20 bills in their possession. The man known as Cooper d e m a n d e d and obtained $200,000 in $20 bills, plus four parachutes, and disappeared into the rain-spattered night somewhere between Seattle and Reno from the 727 he had commandeered at Port- land International Airport. Neither he nor the money have appeared since, but there is a chance that almost anyone by now may have come into possession of one of the bills. To assist in the search for the money, The Journal is publishing on page 31 the serial numbers of some of the missing twenties and will publish more of the list on succeeding days. Serial num- bers of the bills that were delivered to Cooper were re- corded before the delivery was made. This is the first time that the list of numbers has been made public. Banks and oth- er financial institutions have had a 98-page booklet of the numbers since its prepara-

tion by the FBI shortly after the hijacking. Journal readers who keep each of the partial lists pub- lished by the newspaper will be able to put together their own copies of the complete official list. The Journal invites other news media to aid in the dis- tribution of serial numbers. Northwest Airlines initially offered a reward of 15 per cent of the extortion money recovered up to a maximum of $25,000, but the reward has been discontinued, the airline informed the newspa- per. The Journal's $1,000 for $20 will be paid even if the first bill to be turned in is surren- dered directly to the FBI at any of its field offices, once it is established that the bill surfaced because of the newspaper's publication of the list of serial numbers. "D. B. Cooper" or "Dan Cooper" is the name as- signed to the middle-aged, dark-haired man who board- ed NWA flight 305 at Port- land Thanksgiving Eve, 1971,

and presented a note to a stewardess. The note de- manded money and para- chutes and was backed up by display of what the man claimed was a bomb. After negotiations on the ground in Seattle the demand was met and the plane took off for Reno. The plane reached Reno, but Cooper was not to be found. A flight recorder indicated that the rear door of the 727 was opened shortly after takeoff and it was assumed that Cooper had parachuted about then. There has been a wide- spread belief that the hijack- er perished in the nocturnal jump. Speculation has ranged from the possibility that his body someday would be found hanging in the shrouds of parachutes caught in a tree to the chance that he and the mon- ey are at the bottom of Lake Merwin near Cougar, Wash., location of an intensive search in 1972. (See Numbers on Page 31)

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regon Journal orthland, Oregon 1/22/73

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16 V-8 1- Sub B

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SEARCHED _____ INDEXED _____ SERIALIZED _[checked]_ FILED _[checked]_ JAN 7 1973 FBI – SEATTLE

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DB Cooper-22553