Part 53, page 54

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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2 charged here with 'D.B. Cooper' hoax

By DEE NORTON

Two Kitsap County men were charged today with defrauding a former representative of a national news magazine of $30,000 by setting up a phony interview with "D. B. Cooper," airplane hijacker.

Arrested were William John Lewis, Bremerton dance-hall manager, and Donald Sylvester Murphy, Silverdale real-estate salesman.

They were accused of conspiring to use interstate commerce to obtain $30,000 from Platypus Publications, Inc., Los Angeles, by having Murphy pose as Cooper in meetings with Karl Fleming, who then was a contributing editor in Los Angeles for Newsweek magazine.

Lewis, who also works as a free-lance engineer and land developer, telephoned Fleming February 1 in response to an advertisement in The Times placed by Fleming seeking information about Cooper, the complaint said.

Lewis told Fleming he had talked with Cooper, knew his true identity and could arrange an interview, according to the government. A man using the name "D. B. Cooper," hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 and its 36 passengers and collected $200,000 ransom last November 24. The man parachuted from the plane.

Lewis and Murphy superimposed the serial numbers of $20 bills given Cooper on other bills and gave Fleming copies of them to convince him that Murphy was Cooper, the complaint said.

The complaint said Murphy dressed like an artist's sketch of Cooper, using a wig and glasses, to be photographed by Lewis. The photographs were given Fleming to support the fraud, the complaint said.

Lewis and Murphy met Fleming February 16 at the Swept Wing Inn near the Seattle-Tacoma Airport, the complaint added. It said Lewis used the name "Seth Thomas" and introduced Murphy to Fleming as Cooper and demanded $45,000.

The defendants agreed to settle for $30,000, however, according to the government. On February 22 and 23 Murphy posed as Cooper and submitted to an interview filmed on a beach in King County and confessed the hijacking, the complaint said.

Platypus Publications provided Fleming with the money after Newsweek rejected Lewis' story, the complaint said.

Lewis' fingerprints have been found on two receipts Lewis gave Fleming after getting the money, the complaint said.

An exhibit attached to the complaint said Lewis had agreed that the $30,000 was to be used only for legal defense for Cooper when he was apprehended or surrendered.

Stan Pitkin, United States attorney for Western Washington, would not comment when asked if the information Lewis gave Flemming also was the basis for a "D. B. Cooper" interview published yesterday by The Seattle Flag, a biweekly newspaper. The Flag said it paid $1,000 for an interview conducted by an unidentified person.

Lewis told last week how F. B. I. agents had questioned him extensively. Lewis said he had begun investigating the D. B. Cooper hijacking in hopes of collecting a $10,000 reward.

Lewis mentioned Cooper's name in an advertisement to sell some land. Response to the ad started him on "a better theory than what the F. B. I. has been doing," he said.

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

p.A1 Seattle Times Seattle, Wash.

b6 b7C

Date: 5/2/72 Edition: Final Author: Dee Norton Editor: Henry McLeod Title: NORJAK

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

☐ Being Investigated

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COPY SENT TO BUREAU

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

MAY 4 1972 FBI—SEATTLE

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DB Cooper-22392