Part 50, page 197

Transcript

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with Coffelt in Washington, D.C., when Coffelt picked up General Creighton Abrams—then U.S. Army Chief of Staff—and drove him to the Pentagon. The professor says he saw Coffelt flash FBI credentials.

Naturally, the FBI refuses to comment on these revelations or on any other aspect of Coffelt's life.

Records show that he was paroled from Leavenworth in 1955 after serving just six years of his ten-year sentence. Then, in the mid-1960s, he became the trusted aide of wealthy Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith—the great-grandson and last living relative of Abraham Lincoln. Beckwith has heavily financed several right-wing causes, such as the John Birch Society.

In 1974 Coffelt boasted to Brown that he had "helped kill a nigger" in Memphis, Tennessee. He mentioned being in "one of the white cars" that had deliberately caused traffic congestion immediately after Dr. King was assassinated.

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Where much of the preceding may seem rather sketchy, Coffelt's story of the Northwest Airlines skyjacking—as recounted by James Brown—is detailed and believable.

From the outset of the meetings that began in 1973, Brown played a determined devil's-advocate role with Coffelt—asking tough questions. At

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times Coffelt would be cooperative and come forward with more details. Other times Coffelt would shut off completely, saying he was tired of talking about it all. But inevitably, during the days they spent together searching for the missing money and at Brown's home in Oregon, they would come back to the skyjacking.

Coffelt said he had first planned to steal several million dollars, which he thought would be aboard Flight 305, headed for the Federal Reserve Bank in Seattle. But after watching the loading of the plane and realizing the bank money had failed to arrive, he carried out an alternate plan to demand the $200,000 ransom.

He told Brown he had called the airline numerous times to make phony reservations for Flight 305 so there would be fewer people on board. He saw no sense in creating unnecessary problems.

Before jumping from the plane's rear exit door, Coffelt said, he put the moneybag and an electronic receiver inside a green plastic bag he had carried aboard in his briefcase. After throwing the briefcase overboard, he tied a line around the moneybag and made a loop for his arm.

Coffelt said his bail-out point was not the Lake Merwin vicinity, as stated by the FBI. He claims to have landed 70 miles farther southeast, in the Cascade

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Mountains of Oregon—on almost a direct line from Seattle to Reno. An accomplice with a Jeep waited for him in the brush. The four-wheel-drive vehicle was equipped with an electronic "beeper." Another vehicle, a white Cadillac, was hidden close to a paved road.

Spotting a beacon on Mount Hood, Coffelt was able to sight a triangle of three small runway lights located east of the mountain, set in place by his accomplice. He put his arm through the moneybag and waited for a signal from the Jeep beeper. Preparing to jump directly over the beacon lights, he was suddenly swept off balance by swirling winds and sucked down into the darkness.

At the 10,000-foot altitude Coffelt figured it would be safe to count to 50 before opening the chute. But as he freefall into the black night, he counted only to 30 before instinctively pulling on his chest-pack rip cord. Nothing happened.

Desperately, he pulled at the D-ring on the seat-pack chute. It opened with a jolt. At that moment, relieved that he wouldn't hit the earth at more than 100 miles per hour and die, he made the mistake of relaxing his grip on the moneybag. It slipped off his arm and disappeared beneath him.

He would never see the $200,000 again.

The combination of a strong wind and the early chute opening caused him to drift far from the target meadow. Coffelt hit the ground hard at more than 30 mph, was dragged along by the parachute and smacked into a dead tree.

Despite the pain from injuries to his rib cage, genitals, feet and legs, he managed to remove the chutes. To avoid possible detection, he melted them with an aerosol can of solvent spray. Then he buried what was left of the chutes—mostly metal snaps and buckles—next to a large rock, on which he scratched large X's and O's.

Coffelt now considered his very real dilemma. He could hear the signals from the beepers in both the Jeep and the lost moneybag, but the latter was weak and beginning to fade. He thought about going after the money, but quickly dismissed the plan when he realized he would have a difficult enough time reaching the Jeep from this steep, inaccessible area. Resignedly, he mustered his remaining strength and began his trek through the pitch-dark forest, homing in on the Jeep beeper.

When the sun came up, Coffelt was still miles away from the Jeep. At one point he crossed a road and was astonished to see a bulldozer at work nearby. He turned his face so the driver couldn't (continued on page 124)

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WISHING WELL DWAINETINSLEY

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88 | AUGUST HUSTLER

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DB Cooper-20802