Berkeley Barb clipping 'Take the Money and Jump - How He Foiled FBI'

TAKE THE MONEY AND JUMP HOW HE FOILED FBI MAY 12-18 BERKELEY BARB PAGE 11

---

Last November 24th, a man identifying himself as Cooper parachuted from a Northwest Orient Lines .727 jetliner between Seattle and Reno Nevada with a parcel containing 10,000 twenty dollar bills which was the ransom money that had been delivered to him while he held the planes crew hostage at the Seattle- Tacoma International airport.

The F.B.I. and other state and local law enforcement agents assisted by companies of G.I.'s from Fort Lewis have futilly wasted many hours and thousands of tax- payers dollars looking for cooper.

So far Cooper has successfully eluded his following in the same ingenious manner that he pulled off his skyjack caper, cooly staying a safe distance away from danger.

The F.B.I. headquaters in Seattle has vowed to scr- utinize every foot of land between the Sea-Tac airport and Reno to turn up clues in the case.

Despite rewards of 5,000 dollars - by the Medias " Fink on your Friends" programe the public has generally granted Cooper adoration and somewhat a hero status.

anonymous interviewer from the twice weekly newspaper the 'Seattle Flag' has produced a story from a taped interview with D.B. Cooper which is validated by the presentation of one of the recorded twenty dollar bills included in the ransom money.

This story was run in the 'Flag' because the inter- viewer was unable to send it to the 'Post-Intelligener' because they had the 5,000 dollar reward out for Coopers head also television stations would have requested a tape from which voice prints could possible be produced. Therefore, running the story in the Flag was the only solution.

Cooper said that the witnesses description were off by about fifteen pounds and a couple of inches. Also that the artist's impression were very poor. When asked why we was still in Washington state he added that he felt it was safer to hide where no one would imagine him to be rather then to go to some place like Mexico or South America where the authorities would naturally expect him to go.

He said he started act..al work on his skyjacking plan last June. The idea [had] come to him while he was

---

it was a calculated risk that's why he jumped in bad weather and at night, also he waited a little longer than usual before pulling his ripcord. Adding that his free fall was about 5,000 of the total 7,000 feet. Which was very risky doing at night.

He came down about a hundred miles away from S.W., Washington contrary to the F.B.I. report that he touched down near Vancouver Washington.

The first thing he did on landing was bury his chute, he was within five miles of where he had intended in an evergreen wooded terrain. He credited this accuracy to his projected calculations and his japanese watch. He wouldn't say whether he had an accomplice on the ground. He said he had lived in Seattle and had once

---

EXHIBIT THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE L 51279635 A WASHINGTON, D.C. 12

---

two parachutes he had ordered. A stewardess came back with the money in a canvas bag to where co[oper] was holding another stewardess as hostage in the rear of the passenger cabin.

Cooper checked out the loot, first thing and noticed that they reeked of duplicating fluid. Then the stewardess made two more trips out on to the run way to bring in the chutes.

Then one of the fuel trucks pulled up...then he ord- ered the passengers off the plane, and everyone else into the cockpit...a middle-aged, executive looking man started to push his way back through the line into the tourist cabin. Cooper tensed up expecting the guy to try something heroic - but he had just left his briefcase on his seat and was retrieving it..

---

worked at Boeing's on the construction of the first Boeing 727 in 1963 and got to know the 727 from the inside out.

The reason he was attracted to the plan was the alignment of the three Pratt & Whitney engines two on the sides of the rear fuselage and the third at the base of the T-tail assembly. Also the down-flaps stalling speed. One hundred [illegible]

He figured if the F.B.I. was going to make a move it would be at Sea-Tac. Everybody but the stewardess he was holding hostage and the three man crew was clear of the plane. Buzzing the cockpit he asked the captain what the hold-up was. Trouble with the vapor lock[s]. was the answer. And another truck was coming. Cooper told the Captain: "Not more than one fuel truck at a [illegible]

DB Cooper 3139