(FD-350): 'Church Hijacker With $200,000 Loot Hunted in 3 States'

FD-350 (Rev. 7-16-63)

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Church Hijacker With $200,000 Loot Hunted in 3 States

RENO (UPI) -- FBI agents searched rugged wilderness areas in three states Thursday in an attempt to track down a swarthy master cri- minal who parachuted from a hi- jacked jetliner with $200,000 in ran- som.

The carefully planned and incre- dibly bold hijacking was one of the most bizarre crimes in history. It was the first time a hijacker has pa- rachuted from a plane. And the ran- som was the biggest ever paid in a U.S. hijacking, the FBI said.

The FBI began its search for the hijacker around the Lake Merwin Reservoir on the Lewis River in southern Washington. It was there that the pilot last talked with the hi- jacker, who was alone in the tail of the plane on a low-level flight from Seattle to Reno.

"In Plane's Path"

An alert was put along the corridor the jetliner flew when the mystery lous parachutist disappeared. Ini- tially the search was around Amboy, Wash., about 30 miles north of Port- land, Ore.

The hijacker, a middle-aged man identified by the FBI as D.B. Cooper, [guess: er], disappeared without a trace somewhere in the vast wilderness between Seattle and Reno late Wed- nesday night.

The FBI said it had established that definitely jumped from a Northwest Airlines 727 after hijacking it with what he said was a bomb on a flight out of Portland Wednesday after- noon.

The hijacker was described as dark-complexioned, with dark black hair, wearing dark glasses, very re- laxed, and very courteous.

Flashing a device with red cylinders and wires, he forced the airliner to land at Seattle-Tacoma airport, where Northwest delivered at his demand $200,000 collected from several Seattle banks and four parachutes from nearby McChord Air Force Base and an Issa- quah, Wash., parachute club.

He then allowed 36 pas- sengers and stewardesses [guess: Alice] Ha[guess: nco]c[guess: kia]n and Florence Schaffner to dis- embark, and ordered the plane to fly to Mexico with Capt. William Scott, flight officers W. (Bob) Rataczak and H. E. Ander- son and stewardess Tina Mucklow.

When the plane arrived at Reno for a refueling stop, 3½ hours later, the hijacker, the money, one parachute and the bomb were gone. The four crew members were safe and unharmed.

FBI agent Harold Cam- bell said it was believed the hijacker parachuted at least an hour before the [guess: IT] p.m. arrival at Reno, prob- ably in Oregon.

Reports from FBI and police indicated the hi- jacking had been carefully and minutely planned by a man who was not only well-informed about air- liners but also probably an experienced parachutist.

The officers said: --He knew enough about airliners to know, as a spokesman for the Boeing Co. put it, that it would be "a very safe drop" to bail out of a 727, one of the few commercial aircraft where this is pos- sible because of its rear exit and retractable stairs.

--He ordered the pilot to fly low, with full flaps down--at only 200 m.p.h. --with the exit door open and the steps lowered. In the lowered position the steps were below the bot- tom of the plane and a pa- rachutist would have no

difficulty clearing the fuselage.

--He routed the plane over the Willamette Val- ley, with its broad, flat farmlands where a para- chutist could land even at night, rather than over Oregon's rugged Cascade Mountains, where temper- atures were below free- zing and snow warnings were posted Thursday.

Such a carefully rea- soned plan, it was further speculated, also might in- clude an accomplice wait- ing on the ground to pick up the hijacker when he landed and made good his escape.

Heightening the mys- tery was a nearly com- plete blackout on informa- tion by Northwest em- ployees, from crew mem- bers to president.

Walter Hellman, public relations vice president, attributed it to the FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA, Hellman said at Northwest headquar- ters in St. Paul, had in- structed the crew "to make no further state- ments until a debriefing session can be held."

The search in Washing- ton, Oregon and Nevada was mainly by air.

Police with dogs searched the darkened runways of the Reno air- port, a residential section and desert area nearby af- ter the plane landed Wed- nesday night. But Camp- bell said Thursday there was "no way" the hijacker could have escaped after it landed.

The plane, Northwest's Flight 305, originated Wednesday at Washington, [guess: ton], D.C., and stopped at Minneapolis, Great Falls, and Missoula, Mont., Spo- kane and Portland.

"Cooper got on at Port- land, Northwest officials said, and a few minutes la- ter, while chatting amia- bly with a stewardess, handed her a note de- manding the $200,000 and

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I-1 Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, Calif.

Date: 11/26/71 Edition: Friday Final Author: Editor: Title:

Character: or Classification:

Submitting Office: Los Angeles

[ ] Being Investigated

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SEARCHED___INDEXED___ SERIALIZED___FILED___ NOV 6 1971 FBI -- LOS ANGELES

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DB Cooper-22205

the parachutes, while showing her the device of red cylinders and wires. Northwest quickly an- nounced it would "accede to the demands," and rounded up the money, which was delivered to the hijacker in a leather bag. A few minutes later, Air Force officials dispatched the four parachutes. At one point, an FAA of- ficial boarded the plane and tried to talk the hi- jacker into surrendering. But he growled impatient- ly, "Let's get this show on the road." The plane, flying at a low altitude and at what was virtually a crawl for a jetliner, took 3½ hours to reach Reno.

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DB Cooper-22206