Magazine/newspaper feature on D.B. Cooper suspect Jack Coffelt

[what] is a mystery story -- though [a] investigation has tutned-up-some evidence [that] the [that] [conferences] Cooper, including two [passengers] on the hijacked airplane who saw photos of Coffelt and identified him as the hijacker.

The story also has intriguing characters -- including alleged bungling, FBI agents, a rich right- wing recluse who is the last living relative of Abraham Lincoln and the convicted assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., James Earl Ray.

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Much of Jack Coffelt's life is shrouded in mystery, and that's undoubtedly the way he wanted it. This picture of his life was pieced together from interviews with various knowledgeable sources, including jour- nalists and lawmen.

Coffelt, who was born in 1916, spent the first 50 years of his life in and out of jails throughout the Midwest for a variety of minor crimes. In 1919, he hit the big time. He received a 10-year sentence for interstate transportation of a stolen automobile, and served time in Atlanta and Leavenworth federal prisons. Over the years, his cell mates reportedly included Col. Jack Barrent, who was convicted of signaling the [German] crown jewels during World War II; James Earl Ray, who is presently serving a life sentence for killing Martin Luther King Jr.; and James Brown, an Army officer convicted of [serving] [time] on an assault charge.

Sometime during these prison years, Coffelt and the FBI apparently made contact. A source, who requested anonymity, says there is a letter signed by J. Edgar Hoover asking the prison warden for [information] about Coffelt, as well as evidence that the agent in charge of the local FBI office in Atlanta was Coffelt's sole visitor for five years.

Some persons who have studied Coffelt's past suspect that he became an FBI informant in prison, perhaps secretly turning over information damaging to his cell mates. Certain sources add that Coffelt himself described his days in the pen as a "revolving door," claiming that he would be let out for a few days or weeks at a time to carry out "a job" for the government.

The FBI refused to comment on any of this or on any other aspect of Coffelt's life.

In 1935, after serving only 6½ years of his 10-year sentence, Coffelt was paroled from Leavenworth.

In the mid-60s, he began a mysterious association with short Todd Lincoln Beckwith, the last living di- relative of Abraham Lincoln.

Beckwith -- Lincoln's great-grandson -- is the scion of rich industrialist Warren Beckwith, and he lives on a sprawling 600-acre estate in Virginia. The land came from the Lincoln side of the family; Beckwith inherited it from his mother, who acquired the estate from her father, Lincoln's [grandson] [or] [son].

-- Beckwith had parlbean [idle] with his wealth, [six]- tip arrangements and income from a lifetime trust [set] by his father. He has reportedly financed several right-wing causes.

Coffelt became Beckwith's aide-de-camp and got control of more than one Beckwith-financed bank account. But little else is known about this mysterious relationship, which Beckwith himself declines to clarify.

Other bits and pieces have emerged about this period of Coffelt's life:

In 1974, Coffelt boasted to an old friend, former Atlanta city mate James Brown, that he had "helped kill a nigger" in Memphis, Tenn. Then, elaborating slightly, he said that he had been in "one of the white cars" that [carried] [a] [mission] around Memphis immedi- ately after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968.

In 1970, James Earl Ray was shown a picture of Coffelt by someone investigating the Coffelt-Cooper connection, and reportedly identified his old prison mate -- but only after being shown Coffelt's death certificate. Ray gave no further information, accord- ing to a source close to the investigation.

Coffelt allegedly carried a number of official credentials: FBI, Department of Agriculture, passes for the White House and Pentagon. A college professor reported that he was riding in an automobile with Coffelt in Washington, D.C., when Coffelt picked up Gen. Creighton Abrams, U.S. Army chief of staff (now deceased) and took him to the Pentagon. This professor has claimed that he saw Coffelt flash FBI credentials.

Sometime around 1970, Beckwith fired Coffelt. It was a bitter parting. In 1973, Beckwith settled a suit filed by Coffelt reportedly by giving his former aide a sum equal to $750 per month, retroactive to 1933. (The settlement papers are sealed by court order.)

Beckwith is still alive at about 60 years of age. But he lives in seclusion, and has declined repeatedly to be interviewed on his relationship with Coffelt.

After the break with Beckwith, Coffelt spent the next couple of years in Washington, D.C., and, for brief periods of time, in Lawrence, Kan. He held a string of odd jobs during this time and was described as being idle and drinking heavily during 1971.

Some who have investigated Coffelt theorize that his deteriorated financial situation after his break with Beckwith may have driven him to try the desperate [thing] of Flight 305.

Eleven days after the Cooper hijacking, Coffelt "—It's a strong piece of circumstantial evidence," because [guess: his] job is a surgical technician at [guess: a nearby] [guess: town] said Summers. "We had a lab report confirming that Virginia [guess: hospital]. His superior there, a woman, told (the) cording ... was from a parachute and several years [guess: notices] that Coffelt had difficulty [guess: walking] [guess: as if] [guess: at] [guess: that] age old. No one has ever [guess: asked] me, but I'll be happy to take [guess: joint] [guess: showed] her his "badly [guess: chafed] [guess: first]"—a lie-detector test about where we found it, and how injuries which some believe he sustained in the [guess: below] we dug it up. We were very careful uncovering it. I parachute jump. He worked at the hospital through took soil samples which I turned over to the lab so I most of 1972, then in June of 1973 he contacted his old would know something [guess: hadn't] just been buried there." cell mate, James Brown, for the first time in years.

"The area where we found this was very primitive," A year later, in May 1974, Coffelt told Brown for remote wilderness," Summers explained. "This was Big the first time that he was D.B. Cooper and disclosed Foot country. We had to lower ourselves down a cliff some details of the crime that, if true, presumably only to get to the site. There was a dead tree that Jack (told the hijacker could have known. For example, accord- Brown) said be hit. And this enormous, two-story high ing to Brown, Coffelt described changing into boots rock with markings on it. "Xs" and "Os" that Coffelt before jumping and boasted of flirting with one of the said he had scratched into the rock the night he landed stewardesses. Coffelt also said that he dropped the there. That was where we dug. You could even see the $200,000 ransom during the parachute jump and had narrow trenches, where his feet had hit the ground." never recovered it.

Summers [guess: became] a believer in the story, and he Coffelt told Brown that he wanted to go back into too, is still convinced that Jack Coffelt was D.B. the Cascades and look for the [guess: unrecovered] fortune, but he Cooper. needed help. Brown agreed to accompany him, and in

In addition, Summers believes that the FBI has July of that year, the two men and Brown's muscular, gone to great lengths to cover up and otherwise derail [guess: 6-foot]-plus, 17-year-old son, Tyron, made a weeklong the case. trek into the mountains.

Summers added be suspects that the FBI may have According to Brown, Coffelt was then [guess: so ill] that at one point he nearly collapsed on a steep grade. Known all along that Coffelt was the hijacker, but However, after a week to which they [guess: availed] themselves didn't [guess: go after] him because they knew he had stories as inconspicuous as possible, [guess: they] found no money and to tell about his earlier cooperation with the agency. quit.

Still, to this day, James Brown remains unshaken in his conviction that his old cell mate was D.B. Cooper.

After the Cascades trip, Coffelt moved to Hawaii and died there in June 1975. Brown, who did not learn about Coffelt's death for more than a year, had written down everything Coffelt told him, and [guess: began] writing a book manuscript. But he knew he needed help, preferably from a promoter familiar with Hollywood wheeling and dealing.

Brown found freelance producer Dick Summers, who was in Las Vegas while producing a Ken Norton heavyweight title fight for CBS Sports.

Summers said in an interview that he subse- quently had Brown and his son take lie-detector tests concerning the five weeks they spent with Coffelt. "They passed with flying colors," Summers said. "But all that meant was that Brown believed Coffelt's story. I kept thinking, if this story is true, it's the story of the century."

Summers began his own investigation, and he and Brown organized an expedition into the Cascades in 1977, back to where Coffelt had taken Brown three years earlier. This time, [guess: thanks] to a metal detector and energetic digging, the search party unearthed a solid piece of physical evidence: a 1½-inch piece of cording that appeared to be synthetic nylon of the type used in parachute shrouding — and it was 5 to 7 years old.

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