FD-350 clipping: 'Daring Deeds of NWA Hijacker Live On' with continuation and photo

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

(Mount Clipping in Space Below)

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IN SONG, T-SHIRT, SEARCH

Daring Deeds of NWA Hijacker Live On

By MARY PAT MURPHY SEATTLE (P)—The deeds of D. B. Cooper, the mysterious hijacker who parachuted into the night with $200,000, live on in song and T-shirt—and in the minds of searchers who hope to recover the loot.

D. B. Cooper, a name authorities doubt is his own, bailed out of a Northwest Airlines 727 jetliner somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Nev., on Thanksgiving eve. With him went the $200,000 he had extorted from the airline by threatening to blow up the plane.

After about four days, the official search around Woodland, Wash., the area where Cooper was believed to have landed, was canceled. But an unofficial treasure hunt began in earnest.

COWLITZ COUNTY Sheriff Charles Gill says information released by the FBI indicates that if the hijacker bailed out in the Woodland area, the odds are he didn't make land safely. "Definitely the people in this area feel that if what we hear is true—that he jumped near Pigeon Springs—he's still up there," Gill said.

On the chance that D. B. Cooper may be dangling from a tree somewhere in the Washington forest with the $200,000 buried in a nearby snowbank, a number of local people have been combing the areas on trail bikes, Gill said.

WOODLAND POLICE Chief Joe May, a private pilot, says he has logged 20 hours in his own plane looking for the missing hijacker.

"Just about all the fliers in Oregon and Washington are searching, but in my opinion some hunter will probably find him," May said.

If the searchers do find the $200,000, U.S. Atty. Stan Pitkin says, the money must be returned to the airline. Pitkin says he knows of no reward offered for recovery of the money, which was given to Cooper in $20 bills—their serial numbers recorded by authorities.

To the delight of promoters and the displeasure of law and airline officials, the saga of D. B. Cooper is being popularized in a twangy ballad that's sold 1,500 copies and depicted on a T-shirt that shows a parachute floating downward with a case of money.

The title of the song and the caption of the T-shirt illustration are the same: "D. B. Cooper, Where Are You?"

THE SHIRT is the creation of Dick Kaiser, a 29-year-old restaurant em-

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

13 St. Paul Dispatch St. Paul, Minn.

Date: Jan. 12, 1972 Edition: Evening Author: Mary Pat Murphy Editor: H.G. Burnham Jr. Title:

Character: or Classification: Submitting Office: Minneapolis

☐ Being investigated

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164-73-231 SEARCHED _____ INDEXED _____ SERIALIZED _____ FILED _____ JAN 14 1972

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DB Cooper-33959

DICK KAISER MODELS T-SHIRT HE CREATED Hijacking has also been captured in song

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ploye who said he present- ed his first one as a joke to a deputy sheriff who predicted D. B. Cooper would be caught before Christmas Eve.

Kaiser says he's since sold about 2,400 of the T- shirts at $1.50 each, wholesale, and reports or- ders from Texas, Arkan- sas, California and Ne- vada.

Kaiser sold some shirts to the gift shop at Seattle- Tacoma International Airport. A spokesman for Host International, which operates the gift shop, said the shirts were not resold and because North- west felt they were in bad taste.

"I don't believe we con- trol what the gift shop sells," an airline spokes- man said. "However, I don't think they are in the best of taste."

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THE SONG "D. B. Cooper, Where Are You?" has received a similarly cool reception from law enforcement officers, al- though several Seattle ra- dio stations report hundreds of requests for the record, sung by local nightclub singer Tom Bresh on the Thunder Tummy label.

"Was D. B. Cooper, a Robin Hood, or just anoth- er thief in the night?" the song asks. "He took from the rich and gave it all to himself. Now was that wrong or right?"

"D. B. Cooper was a ro- mantic-type figure who caught people's imagina- tions," said the song's publisher, M. K. Bakker. "It's just this idea. Here's this guy who takes this airplane and jumps out of it — who jumps out of a jet."

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U. S. MARSHAL Charles Robinson of Seat- tle disapproves of the im- age of Cooper as folk hero.

"Cooper is neither a hero of sorts nor a Robin Hood by any definition," he says. "He endangered the lives of innocent peo- ple and his actions en- courage similar behavior by others who might also have aberrent inclina- tions.

"Kidnaping and threats of murder hardly deserve glorification," Robinson said.

Sheriff Gill agrees. "I am a little bit disturbed that even the general publ- ic thinks he's some kind of a Robin Hood. He isn't. Think of all the fear he put the crew through."

Nonetheless, the inter- est continues in the mys- terious Mr. Cooper. In Montana, the Helena In- dependent Record signed its post-Christmas editori- als, "Merry Christmas D. B. Cooper, wherever you are."

The paper has received no reply to its message.

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DB Cooper-33960