Part 54, page 108
DB Cooper-23034Serials SE 164-81
Document date 29 November 1976
FBI 164-81, Vault Part 54 p. 108 (DB Cooper-23034), News clipping, dated 29 Nov 1976 — cooper.theunsolved.net/parts/Cooper-Part-54/pages/108
Transcript
The scan is the source; the transcript is machine-generated from it.
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
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Sky divers help celebrate hijacking
ARIEL, Wash. (AP) – Sky divers plummeted into an empty campground and souvenir sweatshirts sold briskly as the people of Ariel celebrated the fifth anniversary of sky-pirate Dan Cooper's mysterious parachute jump. The "Cooper Caper," as the weekend festivity was dubbed, commemorated the skyjacking that gave this town of 400 persons its biggest claim to fame. It was a stormy night – Nov. 24, 1971 – when the skyjacker who called himself Dan Cooper hijacked a Northwest Airlines 727, collected $200,000 and bailed out somewhere between Seattle and Reno. Cooper never was found. Neither was the money. Of such stuff legends are made. One man in the Ariel bar, where Cooper af- ficionados congregated Saturday, swore he heard the airplane door slam shut that night. The FBI reportedly has followed that lead, like dozens of others, into a dead end. Authorities theorized that Cooper jumped out around Ariel or Merwin Dam in southwestern Washington, about 30 miles north of Portland, Ore. That was excuse enough for Ariel to throw the Cooper bash this weekend. As part of the festivities, six sky divers parachuted to earth outside Ariel Saturday. Their landing target, a big white cross marked on the ground, prompted one little girl to ask: "Daddy, Daddy, is that where D.B. Cooper landed?" Sweatshirts bearing Cooper's name sold briskly at a stand in Ariel. Passersby thumbed through a book about the skyjack. A goat, whose real name is Fred, was tethered to a tree beneath a sign which read "Cooper Reincarnated?" A dummy hung from a parachute slung over the roof of the Ariel general store. Signs about town asked, "Will the real D.B. Cooper step forward?"
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(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.)
p.1 Spokesman Review Spokane, Wash.
Date: 11/29/76 Edition: #199 Author: Editor: Title: NORJAC Character: or Classification: 164-81 Submitting Office: Seattle ☐ Being Investigated
164-81 Sub B SEARCHED......... INDEXED........ SERIALIZED... FILED... DEC 6 1976
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DB Cooper-23034