Part 53, page 274

Transcript

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

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

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(Mount Clipping in Space Below)

'Dan Cooper' remembered, 4 years later Stories link local man to skyjacking

By JEB BLADINE and BARBARA PROPOTNIK

Four years ago, on Thanksgiving eve, a man boarded a Boeing 727 in Portland bound for Seattle, hijacked the plane for a $200,000 ransom and parachuted into oblivion. No trace of the man, or the money, has ever been found.

Could that most famous and most mysterious skyjacker have been living in McMinnville at the time he committed his innovative and as yet unsolved crime?

Not likely, says the Federal Bureau of Investigation upon preliminary analysis of information concerning the "suspect." But possible, and worth investigating, the FBI says, after having assigned a Salem agent to further explore any links between legendary skyjacker "Dan Cooper" and a former McMinnville resident.

On this fourth anniversary of the crime it is easy to understand why the FBI is less than excited about prospects of ever identifying the famous criminal. For one thing, prevailing theory is that the skyjacker did not survive his parachute escape jump. But the file remains open enough so interesting leads, such as that involving the former McMinnvillans, still are being followed through until a suspect is cleared.

Some officials believe Dan Cooper perished in his spectacular escape attempt for the simple reason that four years later, after spending countless man hours and dollars investigating the crime, the FBI has found no substantive clue to the criminal's identity.

"I can sum it up in a sentence," said Portland FBI public relations agent Bill Williams, as he held a three-inch thick book of Dan Cooper investigative data consisting of [illegible]

terviews conducted within hours of the crime. "We don't really know any more about this guy than we knew the morning after the skyjacking."

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

"THE NEWS REGISTER" McMinnville, Oregon

Date: 11/26/75 Edition: Author: JEB BLADINE & Editor: BARBARA Title: PROPOTNIK

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☐ Being Investigated

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