Part 53, page 272

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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Dan Cooper has one year to go before statute of limitations runs out

By JOE FRAZIER

ARIEL, Wash. (AP) — If he's alive, and that's a big "if," skyjacker Dan Cooper started his final year of lying low Monday.

On Nov. 24, 1971, a man using that named parachuted from a Northwest Orient 727 over Southwest Washington with $200,000 in ransom money.

He and the money were never seen again, and on Nov. 24, 1976, the statute of limitations expires.

The deed spawned several similar attempts, and two air pirates later made similar jumps over Indiana and Utah. Both were captured.

But Cooper's apparent success made him a folk hero of sorts. There were Cooper tee-shirts, bumper stickers and at least one song.

The case has been a festering thorn in the side of the FBI, which admits it knows little more about him than it did in the stormy Thanksgiving eve when Cooper grabbed the bag containing 10,000 $20 bills, and leaped into history.

The case remains active, however, and FBI agent Ralph Himmelsbach, who has worked on it off and on for four years, says leads still dribble in.

The man using the name of Cooper boarded Northwest's Flight 105 in Portland. Once in the air, he threatened to blow up the plane unless $200,000 in $20 bills and four parachutes were given him in Seattle.

He got what he wanted.

"My personal guess is that there is no better than a 50 per cent chance that he's still alive, and that's being very generous," Himmelsbach said. "In fact, the chances are very slim indeed."

He said Cooper apparently knew little or nothing about skydiving.

In addition, Himmelsbach said, Cooper was in clouds when he jumped and couldn't have known where he would land. "Up looked like down," he said. "He could have had no visual reference."

The FBI has pinpointed a 24-square-mile area it feels is the drop zone, and some of it is pretty rough country.

There is the chance he came down in Lake Merwin, a large reservoir within the zone.

In the zone is the community of Ariel. The only business is a combination store-tavern with a gas pump that doesn't work. Within, Cooper lives, or at least his memory does.

The records on the elderly juke box are old because the proprietress, Germaine Tricola, likes them that way.

"Yes, they still call it 'Cooper country' up here," she said.

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

THE OREGONIAN PORTLAND, OREGON

Date: 11-25-75 Edition: Author: Editor: Title:

Character:

[illegible]

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INDEXED FILED 1975 [illegible]

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DB Cooper-22610