FD-350 clipping, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, on Ingram family's discovery of Cooper ransom money

FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78) (Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) A-1 HERALD EXAMINER LOS ANGELES, CA Date: 2/13/80 Edition: Wednesday. Latest

Title: D.B. AND THE MONEY

Character: or DAMV Classified 164-497 Submitting Office: Los Angeles

b6 b7c

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D.B. and the money

VANCOUVER, Wash. — Twelve packets of $20 bills, used eight years ago as part of the $200,000 paid to airline hijacker "D.B. that Cooper died in the hijacking Cooper," have been found on a attempt. Columbia River beach near here, Cooper's extortion effort was the the FBI announced yesterday. first time a jet had been hijacked Harold D. Ingram, 27, his wife, for ransom. A number of hijack- Patricia, 26, and their two sons, ings for cash have been carried out were picnicking on what is known since the Cooper escapade. as Tena's Bar last Sunday when Baker said the FBI could not be their older son discovered the certain how much money was in money. the packets, but said it amounted Eight-year-old Brian Ingram was to "several thousand dollars." helping his father gather firewood The money has been sent to the and had scooped out sand for a FBI laboratory in Washington, fire. As his father was about to D.C., and Baker hopes the lab will drop an armload of wood, young be able to pick fingerprints off the Ingram said, "Wait a minute, bills, which could lead to the Daddy." suspect. Recalling his find yesterday, "That would be a hell of a Brian said, "I seen that money, I break," he said. thought, wow." But his parents remained calm, the son recalled. They thought it was counterfeit. The tattered and worn bills young Ingram found were the first to be recovered by law enforcement agencies since Nov. 24, 1971, when a passenger hijacked a Northwest Airlines Boeing 727. The man, identified on the flight list as Dan Cooper, parachuted out of the airliner somewhere over southwestern Washington. The serial numbers on the bills discovered by young Ingram matched those on the money given Cooper by the FBI in 1971.

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SEARCHED INDEXED SERIALIZED [illegible] FEB 1 3 1980 FBI — LOS ANGELES

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DB Cooper-25895

ORIGINAL TO THE BUREAU

FBI/DOJ

The Ingrams had gone for an after- noon picnic on a 25-yard stretch of beach three miles west of Vancouver on the Columbia River, the state line be- tween Washington and Oregon. The beach, which is popular with fishermen, is owned by a dairy and truck farming company.

Ingram, a painter, said in a news conference yesterday that the bills bound in three packets and wrapped in worn rubberbands were about six inches beneath the surface. Despite the find, the family continued with its picnic.

"It didn't look like I could spend it," the older Ingram said.

The family, which moved last year from Oklahoma to Vancouver, a town of about 40,000 across the Columbia from Portland, wasn't aware of the D.B. Cooper legend. Baker said the family contacted the FBI Monday afternoon only after learning about the hijacking from friends, who suggested the money might have been part of the missing loot.

After the Ingrams reported their discovery, the FBI immediately cor- doned off a section of beach behind the truck and dairy farm operated by the New Columbia Gardens Co.

Fifteen to 20 FBI agents dressed in blue jeans and using shovels and rakes they had brought from their homes sifted through sand and driftwood along a 150-yard stretch around where the Ingrams found the cash.

Working from 10 a.m. until dusk yesterday, they found a few bits of bills buried from a half-foot to 3 feet beneath the surface near where the campfire had been. The FBI expected to use a backhoe today to dig even deeper.

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DB Cooper-25896

Baker said one of the first chores for the agency will be to attempt to find how the money got to the beach. He said the FBI believes the money was washed up on the shoreline at a time when the Columbia was running high. He said experts in hydrology and topography would be consulted to determine how the money got to the beach. The FBI has meticulously reconstructed flight conditions that existed at the time Cooper is believed to have jumped. The FBI believes Cooper jumped out over the small Washington town of La Center, about 20 miles north of Vancouver. In nearby Ariel, Wash., a tiny town that has adopted Cooper as a folk hero, city fathers hold "Cooper Caper Days" each year [guess: on] the

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DB Cooper-25897

anniversary of his jump. Despite extensive searches employ- ing the FBI, sheriff's departments from two counties in southwest Washington and the Washington National Guard, no trace of Cooper has been found. "He's probably not alive today," said Dorwyn Schreuder, FBI agent supervis- ing the continuing beach search. "If he were, I think he'd be with his money." Ralph Himmelsbach, FBI agent lead- ing the Cooper investigation for the past eight years, said the conditions under which Cooper parachuted underscored the fact that he died in the jump. Himmelsbach said the FBI believes Cooper was wearing only a business suit and street shoes when he jumped at night into sub-freezing temperatures and winds of up to 200 miles an hour. Even if Cooper should somehow have survived and is watching recent devel- opments on television, he still isn't clear of the law. A federal grand jury in 1977 handed down an indictment against Cooper charging him with air piracy. "Just in case ...," said Baker.

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DB Cooper-25898

Brian Ingram, 8, and his parents, Harold and Patricia, talk about their discovery from their Vancouver home.

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DB Cooper-25899

Part of the ransom paid to skyjacker D.B. Cooper in 1971, discovered yesterday on a beach in Washington State.

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DB Cooper-25900