FD-350 clipping 'New Mystery Unfolds in D. B. Cooper Trial' (Los Angeles Times)

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

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New Mystery Unfolds in 'D. B. Cooper' Trial

Journalist Karl Fleming Testifies Public's Fascination With Case Lured Him to Hoax

BY DARYL LEMBKE

SEATTLE — The pub- They are expected to lic's fascination with "D. testify in their own de- B. Cooper," the vani-had fense this week. The ir at- hijacker who is either torney's cross-examina- dead or holed up some- tion of Fleming indicated where with $200,000 that that the defense will claim he cannot spend, led two he knowingly participated Los Angeles men into the in the scheme. mystery.

Karl Fleming, 45, a jour- this morning before a jury nalist, thought he had lo- of three women and nine cated the missing hijacker, men in federal court here. He testified in court here Fleming, who was on the that he got Max Palevsky, witness stand most of the 48, a wealthy Los Angeles time last week as the businessman and former prosecution presented its chairman of the Xerox case against Murphy and Corp. executive commit- Lewis, conceded under tee, to pay $30,000 in cash cross-examination: "There to obtain all publication is a strong possibility I rights to "Cooper's" first- was had." person account of the hi- From tape recordings of jacking. Palevsky also put his preliminary negotia- up $5,000 more for Flem- tions with Lewis, it ing's expenses. seemed apparent that

Fleming and Palevsky Fleming let his eagerness were to share equally in to get what he thought the profits from selling the was the story of the centu- story for book publication, ry dull his reporter's skep- television and a motion ticism. picture.

Fraud Charge

The U.S. government contends that all that the two bought was a hoax. Details of the case are coming out at a trial of two Bremerton, Wash., men, Donald Sylvester Murphy, 50, and William J. Lewis, 29, on two charges of fraud. The pair are accused of hoodwink- ing Fleming out of the $30,000, Murphy by posing as "Cooper" for interviews and Lewis by acting as the go-between.

The trial will resume

For example, when Le- wis told him on the phone that "Cooper" was moti- vated to hijack the plane by bitterness toward soci- ety because of losing his job at the Boeing Co. after 14 years there, Fleming fairly jumped in excite- ment.

"You know, the cold chills are rising on my arms," Fleming said on the tape recording. "This is an incredible God- damned story. My in- stincts were so good, I ju- knew."

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

I-12 Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, Calif.

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Date: 12/18/72 Edition: Monday final Author: Daryl Lembke Editor: William F. Thomas Title: Norjak

Character: or Classification: 164-497 Submitting Office: Los Angeles

☐ Being Investigated

SEARCHED......INDEXED...... SERIALIZED......FILED......

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DB Cooper-24849

Fleming said Newsweek Fleming testified that L. magazine, for whom he did an ad in Seattle news- then worked in Los An- papers on Dec. 23, 1,171, geles as a contributing edi- addressed to "D. B. Coop- tor, refused to pay anver,' after reading a letter money for "Cooper's" that someone claiming to story but "suggested I get be the hijacker wrote to a all the story I could for Reno newspaper. The free." He said he then took writer claimed he had a the tape of the telephone terminal illness. conversation with Lewis Fleming's ad urged the to Palevsky, with whom hijacker to phone him if he was discussing the he was interested in tell- founding with Palevsky's ing his story "to an abso- money of the weekly lutely discreet and trust- newspaper, LA. worthy writer for a re- "I played the tape and he sponsible national maga- (Palevsky) was as struck zine, without jeopardizing by it as I was," Fleming your safety in any way." said. "We were impressed A month passed and, more by the social aspects then he was contacted by than the cops and robbers. phone by a man who said This seemed the quintes- he was acting as the agent sential case history of a for "D. B. Cooper." Flem- man working for a big ing identified Lewis and company, working as a Murphy in court as the faithful employe and be- men to whom he eventual- ing summarily chopped ly paid Palevsky's $30,000 off when the company for the interviews with didn't need him anymore." Murphy.

Hijacked in 1971

The name "D. B. Cooper" In the preliminary con- was given by a man who versations with Fleming hijacked a Northwest Or- both on the phone and at a ient Airlines 727 jet be- meeting in Los Angeles, tween Portland and Seat- the man who Fleming tle on Thanksgiving Eve, identified as Lewis gave a Nov. 23, 1971. convincing description of Holding what he claimed "Cooper." was a bomb, the man The go-between de- forced authorities to give scribed the hijacker as a him $200,000 in $20 bills at family man, faithful to his Seattle and then parachut- wife, an admirer of Pres- ed into the stormy dark- ident Nixon, a hater of ness on a flight from Seat- people on welfare, a man tle to Reno. living in a three-level He has never turned up. home on Seattle's Lake The Army deployed Washington and a dedicat- hundreds of soldiers to ed Boeing employe. comb the area in south- The negotiator said on west Washington over the tape that "Cooper" be- which he supposedly came completely disillu- jumped, but found no sioned with the system trace of him. when he was let out at The possibility that Boeing with only two "Cooper" might have got- weeks' notice, while a ten away with the money younger man working seemed to titillate the fan- with him was retained. cy of a lot of people, not- Discussing his own mo- withstanding its criminal tive in attempting to ped- aspects. A Portland, Ore., dle the hijacker's account, man sold D. B. Cooper T- the go-between said on the shirts and a Portland tape: nightclub singer recorded "Dishonesty is a state of a song, "D. B. Cooper, mind. If you think you're Where Are You?" dishonest, then you are. I'm just liquidating some of the assets from D. B. Cooper and taking a per- centage."

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DB Cooper-24850

An FBI expert, in com- paring documents, testi- fied that photocopies of three $20 bills, supposedly from the hijack loot, that Lewis and Murphy showed to Flemin to prove that he was really interviewing "Cooper" were bogus.

In interviews with Fleming, filmed on a Pu- get Sound beach and taped in a motel room, Murphy said he had planned the hijacking for 14 months. He said his problem was that "I couldn't spend the money after I got it." The film was shown to the jury last Wednesday.

Fleming testified that, after the interviews, he, Murphy and Lewis drove to a rural area near the hamlet of La Center in southwest Washington. Murphy pointed out where he supposedly land- ed after parachuting from the 727 and where he got in his car and drove home. He said he was guided to his car by radio transmit- ters that he had placed in the vehicle and at two nearby locations and which he monitored with a walkie-talkie during and after the jump.

Fleming said that News- week had a cover story written and a sketch drawn to illustrate it, based on his interviews with "Cooper." He said a week before the article was to run, an attorney for a book publishing compa- ny threatened to tell the FBI about the interviews. He had been discussing publication of the story with the book firm, Har- per & Row.

Fleming said he then in- structed an attorney friend to give all the infor- mation about the contacts with Murphy and Lewis to the FBI. An investigation turned up many discre- pancies in what the tw-

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men had told Fleming, in- cluding the fact that Mur- phy had never been em- ployed by Boeing. The two men were arrested on June 3.

Palevsky described his occupation in his testimo- ny as "an entrepreneur."

He said he had trusted Fleming's judgment enough to put up the $35,- 000, knowing him to be a "very reputable journa- list."

"I wasn't totally con- vinced but certainly thought there was a prob- ability that he had access to D. B. Cooper," Palevsky said.

He added: "I wanted to have nothing to do with the entire transaction. It was Karl's project. I want- ed to avoid as far as possi- ble any involvement."

On the witness stand last Thursday, Fleming dis- closed that the weekly newspaper LA, which he and Palevsky started six months ago with Palev- sky's support, had sus- pended publication. In making the disclosure, Fleming was overcome with emotion. U.S. Dist. Judge Walter McGovern called a recess to enable him to regain his compo- sure.

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DB Cooper-24851