Part 53, page 52

Transcript

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

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

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Bail set for two men in Cooper interview

By DEE NORTON

William John Lewis, 32, charged with carrying out a Clifford Irving - style fraud involving the "D. B. Coop- er," airplane hijacker, was ordered held for $50,000 bail yesterday by United States Magistrate Charles Schaaf.

Donald Sylvester Murphy, 49, accused of impersonating Cooper in a meeting with a former contributing editor for Newsweek magazine, was ordered held for $8,000 bail.

Schaaf said that he set the high bail for Lewis because $30,000 which the govern- ment says was paid by Karl Fleming for a bogus inter- view with Cooper has not been recovered.

Lewis, a former employe of the City of Bremerton, manages a dance hall there and also is involved in free- lance engineering work and land development. He lives in Sea-Vue Estates, near Seabeck.

Murphy told Schaaf he "lost everything two years ago" and has been slowly paying off a $3,500 federal tax lien. He lives in down- town Bremerton.

LEWIS was charged with a "similar event" several years ago in Port Angeles, Stan Pitkin, United States at- torney for Western Washing- ton, said during the hearing. Bruce Harrod, defense attor- ney, said that charge later was dismissed. Pitkin did not explain the nature of the earlier charge.

Lewis and Murphy are charged with using inter- state facilities to obtain money under false pretens- es, and with conspiracy. If convicted, they could be sen- tenced to up to 10 years in prison and fined $10,000 on the interstate-facilities count, and sentenced to five years and fined $10,000 on the conspiracy count.

Last week Lewis told The Times he had been [guess: inter-] viewed by federal agents and now wished the whole thing—"a publicity stunt" — never had happened. He did not give any details of the stunt.

IN THE COMPLAINT filed yesterday Lewis is ac- cused of telephoning Flem- ing in Los Angeles where he did work for Newsweek and telling him he knew Cooper and could arrange an inter- view. Fleming had placed an advertisement in The Times seeking information about "D. B. Cooper," who hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 November 24 and ransomed it and 36 pas- sengers for $200,000 by say- ing he had a bomb.

The hijacker parachuted from the airliner somewhere between Seattle and Reno. The hijacking is the only one in this country not yet solved by the Federal Bureau of In- vestigation.

The complaint said that Lewis introduced Murphy, posing as Cooper, to Fleming during a meeting February 16 at the Swept Wing Inn near the Seattle-Tacoma In- ternational Airport. Lewis told Fleming his name was "Seth Thomas," according to the complaint.

THE DEFENDANTS de- manded $45,000 from Flem- ing but later settled for $30,000 the government says. Platypus Productions, Inc., Los Angeles, provided Flem- ing with the money to buy the "confession" after News- week rejected the story.

Fleming filmed and tape- recorded an interview [guess: of] Murphy February 22 and 23 on a beach in King County, the complaint said.

Lewis and Murphy, it said, supported their statements by giving Fleming copies of three $20 bills purported to be part of the ransom mon- ey. The complaint said that serial numbers of ransom bills were superimposed on other bills by the defendants. The serial numbers of the ransom bills have been made public by the F. B. I.

FLEMING also received photographs of "Cooper." The complaint said the pho- tos were posed by Lewis, showing Murphy dressed as the hijacker and wearing a wig and glasses.

It also said Fleming has told federal authorities the bills were shown him by Lewis and that two receipts Lewis gave Fleming for the money were found to have Lewis' fingerprints.

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

p.E15 Seattle Times Seattle, Wash.

b6 b7C

Date: 5/3/72 Edition: Final Author: Dee Norton Editor: Henry McLeod Title: NORJAK,

Character: 164-81 or Classification: Submitting Office: Seattle

☐ Being Investigated

COPY SENT TO BUREAU

SEARCHED .............INDEXED ........ SERIALIZED ...........FILED ............

MAY 8 1972 FBI—SEATTLE

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DB Cooper-22390