Oregon Journal clipping: 'Skyjacked $20 Report May Be Secret' re Secret Witness plan
Document date 26 November 1973
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Id: Cooper-Part-54:039-039
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-54:039-039 Document: Oregon Journal clipping: 'Skyjacked $20 Report May Be Secret' re Secret Witness plan Id: Cooper-Part-54:039-039 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-54%3A039-039 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 54 p. 39 (DB Cooper-22965), News clipping, dated 26 Nov 1973 — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-54%3A039-039
Skyjacked 20 Report May Be Secret
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By ROLLA J. CRICK Journal Staff Writer
The Journal is making its "Secret Witness" plan avail- able for use in helping re- cover 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 news- paper'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 jet- liner he had commandeered. It can be used to return the money, enter into negotia- tions for its return or to pro- vide 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
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and letters. [guess: Tear] off one of the cor- [guess: ners, making] a jagged tear, the torn [guess: off] corner [guess: bearing] your code and mail [guess: the part] containing the du- [guess: plicate] code to "Secret Wit- [guess: ness,] The Journal, 1220 SW [guess: Cadway], Portland, Ore. [guess: 97201].
The Journal will forward your information to the FBI which will pick up the money and verify whether it is in- deed from the Cooper ran- som. 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 attor- ney or to your minister with instructions to take it direct-
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DO NOT SIGN YOUR NAME
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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 fol- lowed for supplying informa- tion about what has hap- pened to Cooper.
Julius Mattson, agent in charge of the Portland office of the FBI, says he can visu- alize 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 wel- come the 'Secret Witness' opportunity," Mattson add- ed.
There has long been specu- lation that the hijacker per- ished 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 be- tween Seattle and Reno. It is this possibility to which Mattson refers.
(See List of Missing Bills on Page 6)
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DB Cooper-22965