Part 47, page 161

Transcript

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FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)

(Mount Clipping in Space Below)

(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state) A-16 SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER Seattle, Washington Date: 11/18/83 Edition: AM

Title:

Character: or Classification: 164-81 Submitting Office: Seattle

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I knew hijacker D.B. Cooper, a writer claims

By Robert Macy Associated Press

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A dozen years ago this Thanksgiving, D.B. Cooper — laden with parachutes and $10,000 $20 bills — inched his way down the rear stairway of a 727 jet and plunged into the turbulent Oregon skies, the history books and oblivion.

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

Byron Brown says he and his father, James Brown, a cellmate of Coffelt's 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.

Brown says the FBI is ignoring Coffelt as the mystery skyjacker, despite two eyewitness accounts, because Coffelt spent half his adult life in prison the other half in gray areas working as a government agent.

FBI agents who have worked the case since the chilly night of Nov. 24, 1971 discount Brown's story. But they admit Coffelt ranks "in the top 20" of 933 Cooper candidates.

The twilight hours

Cooper has been an enigma to law officers, something of a romantic hero to the public, since he tied the sack of money around his waist, strapped parachutes to his chest and back, and plunged from the rear stairway of Northwest Airlines Flight 305. It remains America's only unsolved hijacking.

The incident 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.

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

Seattle attorney George LeBissoniere, who sat three rows from Cooper and at one time stood next to the hijacker and the stewardess, also saw Coffelt's pictures and described them as "the closest thing I'd ever

seen" to the mystery man.

In Seattle, Cooper let the passengers and two stewardesses disembark. Three crewmen and stewardess Tina Mucklow remained. Once the money and parachutes were on board, the plane headed south for a refueling stop in Reno before continuing to Cooper's announced destination — Mexico.

Retired FBI agent Ralph Himmelsbach, of Portland, who spent thousands of hours in pursuit of Cooper, recounted the incident in a recent telephone interview.

"He had trouble getting the stairway open. Then he was looking out in the dark, the wind blowing like Billy Hell. It took a lot of time to work up his guts."

"Faulty parachute"

Coffelt told Brown that as he descended the rear staircase in blinding cold rain, turbulence jolted the plane and pitched him into the boiling clouds before he could sight a beacon marking a spot where a partner was waiting for him.

Coffelt talked of tumbling through the stormy sky, trying frantically to open a faulty parachute on his back, then dropping the money as he grabbed for a chute on his chest.

Coffelt told Brown he crashed to the ground in a canyon miles from his planned landing spot, severely injuring his legs. He was later able to rendezvous with his unidentified partner, but neither he, his partner, the Browns or an army of authorities ever found the loot.

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SEARCHED _____ INDEXED _____ SERIALIZED _____ FILED _____

JAN 26 1984

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b6 b7C

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DB Cooper-19466