Part 53, page 196

Transcript

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

FD-350 (Rev. 7-16-63)

(Mount Clipping in Space Below)

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

2 THE OREGON JOURNAL PORTLAND, OREGON

Date: November 27, 1973 Edition: Author: Rolla J. Crick Editor: Donald Sterling, J[r] Title: [illegible]JAK

Character: or Bufile Classification: 164-2111 Submitting Office: Portland

[X] Being Investigated

---

List Of $20 Numbers Spurs Hunt For D.B. Cooper

By ROLLA J. CRICK Journal Staff Writer

The search goes on.

For two years, the FBI has combed the woods for a clue to the location of the airline hijacker who called himself Dan Cooper and of the $200,000 he extorted from Northwest Orient Airlines.

"We've never stopped looking for the man or the money or both," J. Earl Milne, agent in charge of the Seattle office of the FBI, informed The Journal Tuesday in thanking the newspaper for publishing the serial numbers of the missing $20 bills.

The baffling Cooper case falls under the jurisdiction of the Seattle FBI office because the actual extortion of the money occurred in Seattle, although the crime had its beginning in Portland.

"Leads continually are being received and we check them out," Milne said.

"But I would like to add my continued plea for people to look for the missing bills. If we could recover just one of those $20 bills, it would put us far ahead of where we have been."

The Journal is offering $1,000 for the first of the missing bills to be turned in either to the newspaper or to any office of the FBI. Authenticity of the bill as a part of the Cooper ransom money will be verified by the FBI and then The Journal will pay the $1,000 to the person who had it.

The reward offer has attracted attention across the nation. Inquiries about it have been received by the newspaper from as far away as Virginia, New York, Los Angeles and Hawaii.

Reproduction of the FBI's official 34-page booklet of the 10,000 "Cooper cash" serial numbers was started in The Journal Thanksgiving Day and will be continued in installments. Persons who cannot easily obtain copies of the newspaper could inquire at the FBI office nearest their home cities as to whether they could obtain or inspect a copy of the FBI's list.

Since making the reward offer, The Journal has referred to the FBI informal tion coming to it on the finding of part of a parachute at the 6,700-foot level on the northeast slope of Mt. Hood.

The find was recent and may have no connection with the Cooper case, but Julius Mattson, agent in charge of the Portland office of the FBI, said a part of the find is being sent to Seattle for comparison with what is known about the four parachutes delivered to the hijacker. The parachutes and the money were delivered to "Cooper" as ransom for the passengers and some crew members of the jet he commandeered out of Portland.

Milne said the composite picture of the hijacker published on Page 1 of this edition of The Journal "is the best likeness we have ever had of the man."

The hijacker bought a ticket to Seattle, giving the name Dan Cooper, about an hour before he boarded NWA flight 305 at Portland International Airport on Thanksgiving Eve, 1971. He handed his demand note to a stewardess, displayed what appeared to be a dynamite bomb in the briefcase he carried, and warned, "No funny stuff."

The crew cautioned against intervention from law enforcement people for fear the hijacker would carry out his threat. The jet spent several hours on the ground at Seattle while the money was rounded up. Then the passengers and all but a skeleton crew were released and the 737 took off toward Reno.

The hijacker disappeared from the jetliner after the rear stairway was lowered in flight. So did the money.

Cooper spoke in a low voice and intelligently. There was no particular accent, according to the witnesses, although possibly he spoke as someone from the mid-West section of the United States.

He smoked Raleigh filter-tipped cigarets. He was dressed in a black or brown suit, narrow black tie, white shirt, black rain-type overcoat or topcoat and brown shoes. He carried a dark briefcase and a paper bag.

During part of the flight, he put on dark wrap-around sunglasses with dark frames.

He was thought to be in his mid-40s, 5 feet 10 to 6 feet, 170 to 180 pounds and had an olive or Latin appearance. He parted his dark hair on the left and combed it back.

---

INDEXED SEARCHED .... FILED .... DEC 2 1 1973 .. SEATTLE

---

/6 4- 8/ -Sub