Part 8, page 145

Transcript

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

FD-350 (Rev. 5-8-81)

(Mount Clipping in Space Below)

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

Date: 11/24/83 Edition: Arizona Republic K1

Character: 80-307A or Classification: 164-571-5 Submitting Office: Phoenix

Indexing:

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Late con man may have been 'D.B. Cooper'

Government informer, skyjacker same person, magazine claims

By Robert Macy Associated Press

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LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A dozen years ago today, "D.B. Cooper," laden with two parachutes and 10,000 $20 bills, inched his way down the rear stairway of a Boeing 727 jetliner and plunged into stormy Oregon skies, history books and oblivion.

Now a Las Vegas magazine writer says Cooper actually was a Missouri con man and purported government informer named Jack Coffelt who took the secrets of that chill November night to his grave four years later.

The writer, Byron Brown, says he and his father, James Brown, a cell mate of Coffelt at the federal penitentiary in Atlanta in the 1950s, accompanied the self-proclaimed hijacker to Oregon in 1974 in a futile search for the $200,000.

FBI agents discount Brown's story, although they admit Coffelt ranks "in the top 20" among 933 Cooper candidates they have developed over the years.

Brown contends the FBI has ignored the Coffelt theory because Coffelt spent half of his adult life in prison and the other half in gray areas working for the government.

Cooper has been something of a romantic hero to the public since he tied a sack of money around his waist, strapped parachutes to his chest and back and plunged off the rear stairway of Northwest Airlines Flight 305 on Nov. 24, 1971.

The incident remains America's only unsolved hijacking.

It began in the twilight hours at Portland International Airport when a man listed on the manifest as Dan Cooper boarded the Boeing 727 with 36 other passengers and a crew of six.

Brown, writing in this month's issue of the Las Vegan magazine, said the craft was only one-third full on the busy holiday eve because Coffelt had made numerous reservations, knowing the no-shows would leave the back of the plane empty for him.

As 305 began its 30-minute hop to Seattle, Cooper gave stewardess Florence Schaffner a note saying he had a bomb in his attache case. He demanded $200,000 and four parachutes. She rode next to the hijacker on the brief flight and has said 1954 prison photos of Coffelt, plus later photos taken by Brown, bear a striking resemblance to the man.

Seattle lawyer George LeBissoniere sat three rows from Cooper. He said Coffelt's pictures are "the closest thing I'd ever seen" to the mystery man on Flight 305.

Both had viewed scores of FBI photos in the weeks after the hijacking.

In Seattle, Cooper let the 36 passengers and two stewardesses disembark. Three crewmen and stewardess Tina Mucklow were told to stay. Once the money and parachutes were on board, Cooper demanded the plane take off with the rear stairway down. The captain said that could not be done. The plane lifted off, stairway up, heading south toward Cooper's announced destination — Mexico.

Retired FBI agent Ralph Himmelsbach of Portland, who spent thousands of hours in pursuit of Cooper,

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164-571-11 SEARCHED INKED SERIALIZED [handwritten: circle] DEC 8 1983

DB Cooper-184[illegible superscript]