Part 53, page 216

Transcript

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

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

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JOURNAL ASKS: D.B. COOPER, WHERE ARE YOU? $1,000 Offered For First $20 Bill

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By ROLLA J. CRICK Journal Staff Writer

The Journal will pay $1,000 for the first $20 bill turned in to the newspaper upon verification by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that the bill is a bona fide part of the $200,000 extorted from Northwest Orient Airlines in the "D.B. Cooper" skyjack" of Nov. 24, 1971.

The offer is made with the concurrence of the FBI that obtaining any of the missing money would be a substantial aid to the two-year long investigation of the nation's most celebrated airline hijacking.

It is also made in the belief that if any of the money is in circulation, that fact can be established by alert readers who check the serial numbers on $20 bills in their possession.

The man known as Cooper demanded and obtained $200,000 in $20 bills, plus four parachutes, and disappeared into the rain-spattered night somewhere between Seattle and Reno from the 727 he had commandeered at Portland International Airport. Neither he nor the money have appeared since, but there is a chance that almost anyone by now may have come into possession of one of the bills.

To assist in the search for the money, The Journal is publishing on page 31 the serial numbers of some of the missing twenties and will publish more of the list on succeeding days. Serial numbers of the bills that were delivered to Cooper were recorded before the delivery was made.

This is the first time that the list of numbers has been made public. Banks and other financial institutions have had a 35-page booklet of the numbers since its preparation by the FBI shortly after the hijacking.

Journal readers who keep each of the partial lists published by the newspaper will be able to put together their own copies of the complete official list.

The Journal invites other news media to aid in the distribution of serial numbers.

Northwest Airlines initially offered a reward of 15 per cent of the extortion money recovered up to a maximum of $25,000, but the reward has been discontinued, the airline informed the newspaper.

The Journal's $1,000 for $20 will be paid even if the first bill to be turned in is surrendered directly to the FBI at any of its field offices, once it is established that the bill surfaced because of the newspaper's publication of the list of serial numbers.

"D. B. Cooper" or "Dan Cooper" is the name assigned to the middle-aged, dark-haired man who boarded NWA flight 305 at Portland Thanksgiving Eve, 1971,

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and presented a note to a stewardess. The note demanded money and parachutes and was backed up by display of what the man claimed was a bomb. After negotiations on the ground in Seattle the demand was met and the plane took off for Reno.

The plane reached Reno, but Cooper was not to be found.

A flight recorder indicated that the rear door of the 727 was opened shortly after takeoff and it was assumed that Cooper had parachuted about then.

There has been a widespread belief that the hijacker perished in the nocturnal jump. Speculation has ranged from the possibility that his body someday would be found hanging in the shrouds of parachutes caught in a tree to the chance that he and the money are at the bottom of Lake Merwin near Cougar, Wash., location of an intensive search in 1972.

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

1 THE OREGON JOURNAL PORTLAND, OREGON

Date: November 22, 1973 Edition: Author: Rolla J. Crick Editor: Donald Sterling, Jr Title: NORJAK

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

[X] Being Investigated

164-81- [illegible] SEARCHED......... INDEXED...... SERIALIZED... [illegible] FILED [illegible] DEC 21 1973 FOI - SEATTLE

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DB Cooper-22554