Part 2, page 22

Transcript

The scan is the source; the transcript is machine-generated from it.

[largely illegible — heavily garbled OCR artifact] [partial] ...position in[illegible] Cooper del[illegible] /[illegible]... [partial] ...FBI [illegible] identify [illegible]... [partial] ...concluded [illegible] about the whole [illegible] affair, and was [illegible] trying to [illegible] off the hook by establishing impossible conditions. Finally, in fact, [illegible] Thomas said they were not interested [illegible]... [partial] ...said [illegible] without [illegible] blinking an eye, that there were new [terms]... [partial] ...or plead guilty [illegible] I told [them] [illegible] would have to be convicted [illegible]... [partial] ...he said whether he had a duty as a citizen to call the FBI. It was not one of the bet[ter days]...

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[LEFT COLUMN — first-person Cooper/Harper's narrative] involvement in Southeast Asian drug traffic to the self-same CIA for pre-pub- lication approval...

Not knowing Thomas at that time, I assumed his role would be to keep Har- pers' position in 'Affaire Cooper' deli- cately committed — but ignorant and thus not legally culpable. But no. After some dallying around, Thomas said, without blinking an eye, that there were new terms before Harpers would commit itself. Cooper would not only have to turn in the money, he would have to sur- render, and would have to be convicted on/or plead guilty. That I told them, ob- viously was impossible. I concluded that Harpers had become increasingly ner- vous about the whole affair, and was trying to get off the hook by establishing impossible conditions. Finally, in fact, Thomas said they were not interested under any conditions.

Aside from the obvious, this present- ed another problem: McCauley had ap- proached the Harpers' people confi- dentially; Harpers said it was interested; McCauley delivered a manuscript; Har- pers read it and made an offer, but now was saying it wasn't interested. At least four, and possibly more, Harpers execu- tives now knew the whole story. I asked Thomas for a collective promise of ab- solute secrecy. He said he didn't know if that was possible. He was uncertain, he said whether he had a duty as a citizen to call the FBI. It was not one of the bet- ter days.

McCauley later wrote me that Thomas is 'the kind of person we all remember in grade school — the type who trudges into the cloakroom, hangs up his macki- naw, and then all the other kids rush in and stuff snowballs into his mackinaw hood and pockets.'

One of the nagging problems about the story was the difficulty and near-im- possibility of verifying any of Cooper's statements. To go to anyone, the airline, to Boeing, and certainly to the FBI to verify the story would not be intelligent. That would be blowing my story, and causing Cooper's arrest even before anything could be published.

If there was now a chance Thomas or someone else there might talk as seemed likely, then I would have to do something...

[CENTER COLUMN — Nicholas von Hoffman opinion column] Nicholas von Hoffman Is It Fat City or Rat City?

[Washington]

THEY PUT A PICTURE IN THE papers the other day of a fine, sleek-coated, long-tailed rat taking in the sun near two old ladies in a park a few blocks from the White House. The sound of scratchings and scrabblings are audible in this capital of the world. Claws and fingernails on sheets of glassy [illegible]... no comments... and Washington's rats.

In the first days of the Nixon Adminis- tration the rats were like those of any other city, visible only by night, and then just in the alleys. About the time of the Cambodian invasion they grew more populous and emboldened enough to appear by day scuttling under cars and running across the streets. Now at the end of the term, with John Connally heading up the Democrats for Republi- cans Committee, they're in parks, not running but standing still contesting with the pigeons for dry bread crumbs.

In this city of predators the rats have no natural enemies. Yes, there's a rat abatement program, but like so much under the Nixon Administration it doesn't work. People don't realize that. They think these Republicans are effi- cient because they don't make big, dreamy, Democratic promises and then fail to carry them out.

You can break modest promises too, but that hasn't sunk in any more than the Watergate Scandal or the Milk Scan- dal or the Wheat Scandal or the [illegible — possible: 'Blank Scandal']. Nor does [illegible continues]...

[RIGHT-CENTER COLUMN — Cooper/Lompoc/Ziegler] ...a large Nixon campaign contributor, and a business associate of C.F. Arnholt Smith, a San Diego buddy-buddy of the President.

Last year John and Arnholt [Smith's brother] pleaded guilty, to income tax [evasion] and were sentenced to the Federal [prison] at Lompoc, Calif. Unlike the crooks in Rat City they didn't need to escape be- cause the 'New Republic' (October 31st) reports, '...the Alessios had things much their own way at Lompoc. Fine food, liquor and women were enjoyed by them behind bars...they made regu- lar unauthorized trips from the insti- tution, often staying overnight. Mean- while, the prison officials who made all this possible were being entertained royally and treated favorably in busi- ness deals by members of the Alessio family not in prison...'

Do they have a rodent problem at Lom- poc too? The media mice might like to ask that question also, but they're kept on a starvation diet by Ron Ziegler, the humanoid — keeper press secretary the President has set over them to feed them occasional pellets of information and grains of news. With presidential press conferences abolished for all practical purposes, the mice must live off Ziegler briefings, and they only have half enough of them because he has [cut] the daily briefings from two to one...

With their rations reduced to the level of pernicious anemia last week, they squeaked at their keeper as he stood in front of the blue curtain in the White [House]...

[FAR RIGHT COLUMN — Murphy/Bremerton/Cooper investigation] ...and Lewis often were seen together at the Melody Lane Bar and Restaurant at [illegible] Fourth St. in Bremerton...

...Murphy, people told my investigator, had been on the wagon for a year and only drank coffee. Then he hung around the Melody Lane Restaurant, was paying alimony and child support, and had little visible means of income. Nevertheless, a private investigator in Bremerton who has known Murphy for five years would not rule out the possibility Murphy... in fact...asked [about] the plane. 'He is smart enough,' the man said. Not only that, Murphy was notably absent from Bremerton and the Melody Lane during the period of the skyjacking. His erst- while drinking crony...didn't see him around the Melody Lane for two weeks...

Lewis and Murphy...skyjacking trial Nov. 22...Larry Finegold, they...will prosecute for the government... D.B. Cooper hijacked...Like the other passengers, he didn't see much, but he doesn't think William Sylvester Murphy is D.B. Cooper. Nor does the FBI. Last week, military troops were dispatched again, to search for Cooper's body. There was also a rumor that the brother of Cooper had been located, and he said Cooper did it because he was dying of an incurable disease.

The fraud case was yet to be tried but strong evidence seemed to be accu- mulating that Donald Sylvester Murphy, my Cooper, is not the real Cooper.

A private investigator checked again last week and says that Murphy had n[ot] been employed at Boeing, and had [a] military record of as a jumper. Neither fact, of course, is proof that Murphy did or did not hijack the airplane. In theory anybody smart enough to pull it off would be smart enough to concoct an elab- orately fictitious background for himself. Or; anybody smart enough to do it and tell a story for money, but tell it in such a way that it appeared to be a hoax.

But in the end, or to this point, it seems appropriate to conclude that Murphy is not Cooper, which means I jumped h[astily to conclusions]...