Oregon Journal page: '$1,000 For Hijacked $20 Bill Offer Stands'

DB Cooper-22966

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IN D.B. COOPER CAPER

$1,000 For Hijacked $20 Bill Offer Stands

By ROLLA J. CRICK Journal Staff Writer

"Identity and whereabouts unknown; money not re-covered."

Those seven words sum up what has so far been an exercise in futility: The combined efforts of law enforcement to mark finis to the so-called "D. B. Cooper caper," the aircraft hijack that changed commercial air travel for everyone.

They also account, in part, for The Journal's offer to pay $1,000 for $20, providing the twenty can be verified to be part of the $200,000 that the man known as Cooper extorted from Northwest Orient Airlines in an act of air piracy that began at Portland on Thanksgiving Eve, 1971.

The Journal will pay $1,000 to the first person who brings in one of the 10,000 $20 bills given to Cooper that rainy November night in ransom for the freedom of the passengers and some of the crew of the 727 jetliner.

percussions no one foresaw at the time. Because it was never really determined what happened to him and the money, a round of skyjackings was touched off in the U.S. and overseas, some resulting in loss of life, and now everyone boarding a commercial airliner is subject to some kind of screening process in a search for weapons.

The so-called "sterile concept" is in force at airports from Portland, Ore., to Portland, Me., and from Seattle to Miami whereby no one enters an aircraft boarding area without screening.

It has worked, for there have been no hijackings in the U.S. since August, 1972.

Meanwhile, only Cooper— he did not die in his leap from the jet with the money —was successful among the skyjackers and attempted hijackers of U.S. aircraft in the past 24 months.

The FBI has prepared a law enforcement bulletin on the "Futility of Aircraft Hijacking" which shows a long list of persons who have been killed, have been prosecuted, are awaiting prosecution or are identified and being sought as fugitives.

Five hijackers have been killed by FBI agents and six wounded. Passengers have killed one and wounded another. Crewmen have wounded one and three have committed suicide.

Although members of the public have thought of Coop-er as "the one who got away" with it," most authorities believe that he died, perhaps plunging into some glacial

Persons who believe they have one of the missing bills may telephone The Journal, 221-8370.

(See list of bills and story on page 4. There will be no list in the weekend edition of The Journal, but more of the serial numbers will be published Monday.)

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Bork Said On Job Illegally

WASHINGTON, (UPI) — Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wis., said Friday Robert H. Bork is holding office illegally because, as Proxmire sees it, the law limits the tenure of an acting attorney general to 30 days.

In a letter to President Nixon made public Friday, Proxmire expressed fear that any action Bork now takes as attorney general more than 30 days [illegible]

He cited a General Accounting Office opinion of Feb. 22, 1973, which held that L. Patrick Gray's tenure as acting director of the FBI had expired.

Proxmire cited a law providing that, "A vacancy caused by death or resignation may be filled temporarily . . . for no more than 30 days of the [illegible]

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Skylab Gyro Fails, Hampers Comet Study

HOUSTON (UPI) — Skylab 3 flight controllers said Friday that one of the space station's three controlling gyroscopes had failed and, while it did not endanger the three-man crew, it could cause some minor problems in a planned study of the earth and Comet Kohoutek.

Flight Director Philip C. Shaffer said evaluation of the malfunction is under way and it "is still too early to tell" what all the effects will be.

"We believe we can handle this problem," he said.

Skylab 3 astronauts Gerald P. Carr, Edward G. Gibson and William R. Pogue, who made a record-breaking Thanksgiving Day spacewalk to repair an earth-sensing antenna, were told of the problem when awakened.

Shaffer said the gyro cannot be repaired but that it will not cause problems in controlling the normal flight of the space lab during its 84-day mission.

He said, however, that if another gyro fails, then the flight probably would have to be curtailed within 20 days. He said there is little likelihood of that occurring.

Shaffer said maneuvering for earth resources or comet photography could be accomplished by use of a reserve system of thrusters on the side of the [illegible]

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Candidate

NEWEST CANDIDATE for governor is State Treasurer James A. Redden, who announced Friday he [illegible]