Part 43, page 220

Transcript

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

Most agents believe he died in the jump, and their views are strengthened by the fact that the bills found Sunday were unseparated. In addition, none of the ransom money has ever turned up elsewhere in the more than eight years since the skyjacking.

Ralph Himmelsbach, an agent associated with the case from the beginning, is among those who believe the skyjacker died, and may never be found.

"I originally thought he had a 50-50 chance of survival. I later modified my own opinion, and believe he had substantially less chance than that.

Himmelsbach, who retires at the end of this month, is also a pilot. He flew over the suspected bailout area the day after the incident, and later was assigned to follow up leads received by the Portland office.

He said he is delighted by the discovery of the money, and hopes more evidence will be found.

While his retirement means an end to his involvement in the in- vestigation, Himmelsbach said he will always maintain a keen interest in the case.

"We've put an awful lot of work in- to it," he said.

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DB Cooper-17429