Citizen letter to Chairman of the Board, Northwest Airlines, theorizing Cooper hid aboard the aircraft
Document date 20 May 1978
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Id: Cooper-Part-96:155-156
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-96:155-156 Document: Citizen letter to Chairman of the Board, Northwest Airlines, theorizing Cooper hid aboard the aircraft Id: Cooper-Part-96:155-156 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-96%3A155-156 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 96 pp. 155–156 (DB Cooper-43073–43074), Letter, dated 20 May 1978 — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-96%3A155-156
[redacted], OR [redacted] May 20, 1978
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Chairman of the Board Northwest Airlines, Inc. 616 SW Broadway Portland, Oregon
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Dear Sir,
I have a suggestion which might help you in looking for the man, D. B. Cooper, who hijacked your passenger plane in 1971. Re- cently [redacted] gave us some weekly newspapers and the story of the hijacking and ransoming was in one of them [redacted].
There is a clue in the story, in fact two, First: the story says there were three jet fighters following your airliner, yet they did not see Cooper jump. Now the reason is this: he did not jump. He was too smart for that. He had a crate (or big trunk, box, or something similar) in the freight compartment. This box or trunk probably had straps around it and it was nailed down tight, except for one end which appeared to be nailed down, also but this end could be opened by Cooper by simply turning a key in a hidden lock. Also the hinges and lock parts were hidden inside the box and Cooper could close and lock the box end from inside. [illegible strikethrough] In the box was a weight (it could of been a big block of wood so one man could roll it or could have been something else, possibly a container of sand or water--something when dumped could not be suspicious from the ground. Cooper opened the crate, rolled the block or pushed the sand or water out into space--it weighed about as much as he and the parachutes and money weighed.
Cooper put the chutes, the money in the box, then he crawled in and fastened the lid from the inside. The next day you delivered him to his address.
He probably shipped a few boxes first, to make sure which flight they got on. The boxes probably said fragile on them--so he wouldn't be handled rough, and found out. Check all large shipments that day. Also check for false addresses.
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SEARCHED SERIALIZED MAY 2 3 1978 FBI [illegible] DB Cooper-43073 164 41-1699
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The other clue is this: Cooper knew an awful lot about airplanes: how to fold parachutes, that there was a phone in back, that the pilot could open back door from cabin; now since this is so he also knew the extreme danger of jumping over rugged country at 8:00 o'clock November 24, 1971 since it was stormy that night. It would've been suicide, and he knew it. [illegible/struck-through] So he did not jump. He was snug in his box, until you delivered him. If you check my idea and find him, do I get the reward? We are
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b6 b7C
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Sincerely
[REDACTED]
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P.S. I've got more ideas if there were no big boxes.
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DB Cooper-43074
Serials: 164 41-1699