Part 53, page 40

Transcript

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

CRIME OF THE MONTH SKYJACK: THE PLANE STORY OF D.B. COOPER

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It's the crime with the Everyone hates the airli[ne] loves a hijacker. If the th[eft is] considered anti-social has a life of crime, consider the wings on!

Before 1960 there we[re no air-] craft hijackings. In the [next decade] there have been 150. Mo[st of] these have been in the U[S] [and most] of line hijacking is as Ame[rican as] [apple] pie.

The beginnings of thi[s] sport were Cuban but [it started as] Castro. After the revolut[ion] of Cubans, unhappy wit[h the] ernment, finding exit visa[s] [new] gov- [ernment], began hijacking Cuban planes, lots to fly to Miami. D[uring] the pi- such flight, the crew of a[n] [the first] na airliner asking for as[ylum] [tire] Cuba- sweet news to Uncle S[am] [and it] came as was not returned. Cast[ro] The plane Washington did not answ[er] asked but of 1960, it happened ag[ain]. In October the Cuban pilot wasn't a [fool]. This time off and as a result, he w[as shot] [the tip-] guard was killed, and th[e] wounded, a into Key West, Florida[.] plane limped were hailed as Freedom F[light]. The gunmen [were hailed].

Then on July 24, 1[961], the worm turned.

An American plane, a[n] lines Electra with 38 Eastern Air- board, was forced to fly [passengers] on U.S. Air Force noti[fied] to Cuba. The tion when the plane was [notified] of the ac- sent up a F-102 which [flew the] route. They alongside the Electra [and] helplessly neared Cuba. It had only [watched] the plane since the Bay of Pigs [been] 3 months looking for more trouble[.] [America] wasn't

The Electra made a sa[fe] landing. The passengers and crew--o[nly] 3 months after a Bay of Pigs inva[sion]--were sent back to Miami.

Not the Electra. Wh[y] sent back? Uncle Sam ha[d] should it be kept the last [age] of Adven- [ture and] we have pi- Errol Flynns it out in the Havillands in

[un]der rules the [ar]ab countries, of the same [regulati]ons. They in- [lo]sses. How can

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The new American hero, right up there with Jesse James and Sergeant York: super- skyjacker D.B. Cooper, complete with wig and putty makeup.

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there be a war when each side has to pay the other for losses? When Israel destroyed several planes in Lebanon it was among the countries which had to pay the fee to the central insurance fund for their replacement.

But if the nations of this world do not love hijackers, the people do. The hijackers caught the front pages and soon the race was on. It was so easy! All you had to do was hold up an object, declare to the stewardess it was a gun or a bomb, and tell them where you want- ed to go.

Romance! The sky, the night, the ex- citement, the fainting pregnant women, the FBI clumsily disguised as repairmen surrounding the plane when it stopped to refuel. Many flocked to the new Thing: the patriotic, the young, the ro- mantic, the demented. Cuba, a false em- blem of Freedom, was the favorite tar- get. The reality was harsh. The hijackers were treated with suspicion. Several re- turned home.

There were metal-detecting devices put around the airlines, but these have proven ineffectual. Everyone has metal somewhere on them, and lots of bombs are non-metallic.

The game was good. The question was--the goal: One hijacker, Raphael Minichiello, a Vietnam vet, took his cap- tive airplane to Italy and was greeted

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[I'M] ALIVE AND doing well in

HoMe toWn R.I.D. The system that beats the system.

D.B. cooper

Editor - Oregonian 1320 S.[W.] Broad[way] [97201]

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DB Cooper-22378 NORTHWEST

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