FD-350 clipping: "D.B.'s card? Feds think not", 1/19/79, with continuation on skyjacker psychiatry

FD-350 (Rev. 10-19-77)

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D.B.'s card? Feds think not

A heavy plastic placard found in a heavily forested area of southwest Washington could have dropped off any passing Boeing 727, not necessarily the plane skyjacked by the legendary D. B. Cooper, officials acknowledge.

The FBI says the placard could have dropped from a plane during a re-enactment of the incident six weeks after the 1971 hijacking.

Ray Mathis, FBI spokesman in Seattle, told The Associated Press yesterday the hijacked plane was used in a simulation of the hijacking, and, "we noticed the decal was missing after that, but not before."

"Those placards have been known to fall off on the runway," added a Boeing spokesman.

It was disclosed Wednesday that an elk hunter found the notice last November about 12 miles east of Kelso. The discovery was kept quiet while FBI and Cowlitz County sheriff's detectives tried to verify the placard's origin.

A person identifying himself as D. B. Cooper hijacked a Northwest Orient plane Thanksgiving eve on a flight between Portland and Seattle. He received $200,000 and jumped from the plane. Neither Cooper nor the money has been seen since.

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Sub A

(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.)

p.A14 News Tribune Tacoma, Wa.

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Date: 1/19/79 Edition: Final

Title:

Character: or 164-81 Classification: Submitting Office: Seattle

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164-81-Sub B FEB 23 [19]79 b6 b7C FBI/DOJ

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DB Cooper-23077

[...] to the store. Last year, a professional parachutist from Portland and two of his students came right down. think that's what Cooper did.

"He was a man who liked a chal- lenge..A loner. I don't think he need- ed the money. Maybe he didn't have anything to do on Thanksgiving."

If this is where D. B. Cooper landed with the $200,000 ransom, then he fell in with good company. A long time ago, before reforestation pro- grams, the loggers had a slogan.

Simply put, it read: "Get yours and get out."

The psychiatrist [illegible] David Hubbard cursed the idea of a musical about D. B. Cooper when he learned of it.

"I'm of the opinion that this type of thing doesn't need to be perpetuated. Cooper represented no ideals and no values. He's not a folk hero. He was a man acting selfishly. The number of people who can be harmed by men who think they'll be immortal- ized is innumerable."

In 1971, Hubbard wrote a book called "The Skyjacker." It's the only psychiatric study of the "skyjacking personality," and it's based on doz- ens of interviews with men who com- mitted the crime.

Hubbard's premise is that we are bound together by twofold gravity. One part is physical--which holds us to earth. Another is emotional-- which holds us to each other. Sky- jacking, he concludes, is a defiance of both realities.

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Hubbard also believes in "muta- tions." One man commits the crime; another emulates it. Cooper--he points out--was not the first to get to- gether parachutes, bombs and dis- guises. A Canadian tried the same trick in Calgary three weeks before. Hubbard assumes Cooper read about it and tried to go the Canadian one better. He did--the Canadian was caught and Cooper was not.

"Cooper created nothing," says Hub- bard. "He was an imitative creature." [illegible] the rest who followed." There certainly were plenty to fol- low--though none succeeded. Even- tually, the back stairs on 727 jets were modified to lock in flight. And that was the end of that.

"I took the notorious and made it commonplace," says Hubbard. "You want to take the commonplace--and D. B. Cooper was commonplace-- and make it notorious. I don't buy that."

Psychiatrist David Hubbard does all his work at the Aberrant Behavior Center in Dallas. He lives nearby. Back in 1971, Hubbard--like Coo- per--received $200,000.

But Hubbard's money came from a private benefactor. It was given to fi- nance a study on skyjacking.

John Kerans is a free-lance writer.

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DB Cooper-23078