FD-350 clipping: Geologist Leonard Palmer says ransom money spent ~8 years in Columbia River, The Oregonian
Document date 15 February 1980
Part of: FD-350 clipping, The Oregonian: 'In geologist's opinion Cooper money spent 8 years in river'
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Id: Cooper-Part-63:010-010
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-63:010-010 Document: FD-350 clipping: Geologist Leonard Palmer says ransom money spent ~8 years in Columbia River, The Oregonian Id: Cooper-Part-63:010-010 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-63%3A010-010 What is wrong (title, date, type, which pages belong together, copies)? What does the scan show?
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FBI 164-81, Vault Part 63 p. 10, News clipping, dated 15 Feb 1980, serial 164-A-81 (as read from the transcript) — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-63%3A010-010
FD-350 (Rev. 10-19-77) (Mount Clipping in Space Below)
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In geologist's opinion 'Cooper' money spent 8 years in river
By LESLIE L. ZAITZ of The Oregonian staff
At least some of the cash from "Dan Cooper's" 1971 escapade has spent much of the past eight years under water and only recently was washed up on the Columbia River bank where it was found Sunday, according to a geologist assisting the FBI.
Leonard Palmer, a Portland State University geologist, reached that conclusion after examining the river bank nine miles northwest of Vancouver, Wash., where a family building a campfire found three packets of badly deteriorated $20 bills.
The FBI said the money, believed to be several thousand dollars, was part of the $200,000 ransom paid to a man known only as Dan Cooper. Cooper, popularly known as "D.B. Cooper" because of an erroneous news agency report at the time, received the money after hijacking a Northwest Airlines jetliner after it departed from Portland Nov. 24, 1971.
Palmer's research discounted an initial FBI theory that the cash had been deposited on the river bank during a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers channel-dredging operation in 1974. Palmer said there were two other distinct layers of sand and sediment on top of the material dredged from the river.
The money was found in a layer of coarse sand ranging from several inches to 4 feet thick, Palmer said. He said the top layer of sand probably was deposited by wave action caused by passing ships.
Palmer said he believed the money found its way into the water not long after the hijacking, because it would have deteriorated within weeks if left exposed on the surface.
Palmer offered a theory for what happened, based on what little evidence exists and on geological information. It
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b6 b7C
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Date: 2/15/80 Edition:
Title: Cooper money Spent 8 years in River
Character: AIR PIRACY or Classification: Submitting Office: Seattle SUB B 164-A-81-[guess: 2564]
XERED INDEXED SERIED FILED
FEB 16 [illegible]
[illegible signature] 01/005
Serials: 164-A-81