Part 53, page 211

Transcript

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

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

(Mount Clipping in Space Below)

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IN 'D.B. COOPER CAPER' $1,000 For Hijacked $20 Bill Offer Stands

By ROLLA J. CRICK Journal Staff Writer

"Identity and whereabouts unknown; money not recovered."

Those seven words sum up what has so far been an exercise in futility: The combined efforts of law enforcement to mark 'finis to the so-called "D. B. Cooper caper," the aircraft hijack that changed commercial air travel for everyone.

They also account, in part, for The Journal's offer to pay $1,000 for $20, providing the twenty can be verified to be part of the $200,000 that the man known as Cooper extorted from Northwest Orient Airlines in an act of air piracy that began at Portland on Thanksgiving Eve, 1971.

The Journal will pay $1,000 to the first person who brings in one of the 10,000 $20 bills given to Cooper that rainy November night in ransom for the freedom of the passengers and some of the crew of the 727 jetliner

he commandeered with a threat to explode a bomb. The money may be brought either to The Journal or to any FBI field office in the nation or any law enforcement agency and The Journal will pay the $1,000 when the FBI verifies that the bill is one of those Cooper had in his possession when he parachuted from the jetliner somewhere between Seattle and Reno.

What Cooper did had re- percussions no one foresaw at the time. Because it was never really determined what happened to him and the money, a round of skyjackings was touched off in the U.S. and overseas, some resulting in loss of life, and now everyone boarding a commercial airliner is subject to some kind of screening process in a search for weapons.

The so-called "sterile concourse" concept is in force at airports from Portland, Ore., to Portland, Me., and from Seattle to Miami whereby no one enters an aircraft boarding area without screening.

It has worked, for there have been no hijackings in the U.S. since August, 1972.

Meanwhile, only Cooper—if he did not die in his leap from the jet with the money—was successful among the skyjackers and attempted hijackers of U.S. aircraft in the past 24 months.

The FBI has prepared a law enforcement bulletin on the "Futility of Aircraft Hijacking" which shows a long list of persons who have been killed, have been prosecuted, are awaiting prosecution or are identified and being sought as fugitives.

Five hijackers have been killed by FBI agents and six wounded. Passengers have killed one and wounded another. Crewmen have wounded one and three have committed suicide.

Although members of the public have thought of Cooper as "the one who got away with it," most authorities believe that he died, perhaps plunging into some glacial lake in the Pacific Northwest.

Persons who believe they have one of the missing bills may telephone The Journal, 221-8370.

(See list of bills and story on page 4. There will be no list in the weekend edition of The Journal, but more of the serial numbers will be published Monday.)

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

1 THE OREGON JOURNAL PORTLAND, OREGON

Date: November 23, 1973 Edition: Author: Rolla J. Crick Editor: Donald Sterling, Jr Title: NORJAK

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

[X] Being Investigated

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SEARCHED ......... INDEXED ........ SERIALIZED ... FILED ... DEC 21 1973 I - SEATTLE

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DB Cooper-22549

164- 81- Sub-B