Part 38, page 206

Transcript

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

them is if you practically walk hand in hand."

THE SEARCH subsided, then flared up countless times, with Manning's agents checking out an endless supply of leads. At the be- ginning, tantalizing rumors began to unfold concerning several uni- dentified aircraft, landing and tak- ing off in the hijack area that day. The F. B. I. painstakingly checked out all the planes and pi- lots and cleared them all. Residents of the two nearby communities of Ariel and View were busy watching each other, sometimes with a smile, and any stranger in the area, especially spending $20 bills, was sure to be watched closely. Information sheets were distrib- uted to hunters and campers fre- quenting the area, detailing the items the F.B.I. was interested in finding. The word flashed to Seattle. A body had been found just outside Woodland. "Two sisters looking for antique bottles found it," J. Earl Milnes, then heading the case, said. The women, poking in an aban- doned cistern, uncovered what ap- peared to be a foot and human limb and deputies were called. Officials cut an opening in the bottom of the cistern with a chain saw and began to remove the body. When it was identified as a woman, Milnes returned the case to the local authorities. "I was just waiting for some smart alec to come back with: " 'How do you know D. B. Coop- er wasn't a woman?' "

WHERE HAD the elusive Coop- er gone? Seemingly, every place was searched. South of the Lewis Riv- er the stretches of flat, open land had been gone over meticulously. To the north, even the heavy blan- ket of trees had failed to diminish virtually a foot-by-foot search. The Federal Aviation Adminis- tration in Reno pointed out that the plane, on landing, had taxied slowly enough for someone to es- cape. This possibility was investi- gated, but finally was dropped. Letters, purportedly written by Cooper, turned up in various news- papers across the West. One "confession" said he, Coop- er, had committed the crime be- cause he was "in a rut." Another insisted that he was Cooper, and that he only had 14 months to live.

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In late 1972, two Kitsap County men were convicted by a federal grand jury of extorting $30,000 from a former Newsweek editor for a phony "interview" with the skyjacker. Northwest Airlines offered a $25,000 reward for all the money, or 15 per cent of any lesser amount recovered, and The Ore- gon Journal promised $1,000 for the first $20 bill from the loot. Back in Clark County, one psychic reportedly offered de- tailed theories to the F.B.I., and even a "water witch" joined the hunt with a forked stick. Through it all, the real D. B. Cooper never stood up. Then, last January 12, it seemed the big break had come. Two hunt- ers found a weathered skull 10 miles east of Estacata, Ore. What's more, clothing, human re- mains and a parachute were found with the skull. A medical examiner announced the deceased was a male, all right, but at least ten years younger than the suspect.

SO WHAT'S the answer? A grown man just doesn't vanish into nothingness. Or does he? The opinions of those who ought to know, the people who "knew him best," are as far-reaching as the boundaries of the search map. Here are some: A senior F.B.I. man: "I think he made it. I think he slept in his own bed that night. It was a clear night. A lot of the country is pretty flat. He was flying low and slow and all he had to do was walk out on those stairs, and jump. "He just could have walked out. Right down the road. Hell, they weren't even looking for him there at that time. They thought he was somewhere else. He could just walk down the road. There's noth- ing suspicious about that." Agreeing that no body was ever found, nor any parachute or shrouds, he explained simply, "he could have carried that with him."

Earl Cossey, veteran parachu- tist: "I have a hard time speculating. I have to divide it into he's either a very small hole in the ground, which means he didn't get the par- achute open, or he's laughing at us all. I can't decide which."

Dick Bohlig, forester: "It could very well have been

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possible for him to land south of the Lewis River. There's quite a bit of flat, open ground. He could have easily landed in that. And if he did, then he'd be home free."

Pilot William Scott: "Nothing's turned up so I don't have the slightest idea."

Tom Manning, the F.B.I.'s Long- view resident agent: "This is strictly a theory. I have no foundation that I can back it up with, but I feel that he's in the lake. Lake Merwin." Manning explained that prior to the skyjacking, two fishermen cap- sized their boat in the middle of the lake and their bodies were never recovered. One reason for this, he said, was that the bed of the two-mile-long lake was never clear-cut of heavy timber prior to the valley being flooded during construction of Ariel Dam at Lake Merwin. Area residents report that heavy windstorms frequently bring up a lot of floaters and snags from the fairly good-sized trees that were left in there. "My theory—strictly a theory, understand—is that he did hit the lake, and because of the weight of his body, the money, parachutes, and the force of the landing, he went down and is hung up on a snag." And the parachute's nylon fab- ric, being underwater, would not deteriorate, as it would under full sun. Moreover, Merwin is an "extremely cold lake," Manning said, which he felt would prevent the generation of body gases. "Body gas, as you know, is the thing that forces (the body) to the surface" because of the creation of buoyancy. But Lake Merwin, Manning said, "would be like put- ting a man into one of those deep freezes."

Stan Pitkin, United States attor- ney: "I don't think there's any rational conclusion but that the man is long dead. And both he and the money are probably decom- posed."

DOES THERE come a time, then, when you finally give it all up?

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DB Cooper-14878