Part 54, page 128
Document date 17 January 1979
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FBI 164-81, Vault Part 54 p. 128 (DB Cooper-23054), News clipping, dated 17 Jan 1979 — cooper.theunsolved.net/parts/Cooper-Part-54/pages/128
Transcript
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FD-350 (Rev. 10-19-77)
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Possible D.B. Cooper clue found
KELSO — (AP) — A heavy plastic placard from a Boeing 727, found by a hunter in a thickly wooded area, could be a link to the unsolved November 24, 1971, D.B. Cooper skyjacking, authorities said today.
Cooper is thought to have parachuted from a Northwest Airlines jet near Woodland, about 10 miles south of here, with $200,000 in $20 bills.
The placard is described as an emergency-warning notice of the type posted next to the rear exit of 727s.
"There isn't any way that it could have come off a plane without the (rear) door being opened," said the Cowlitz County sheriff, Les Nelson. "We know that two days after Cooper jumped that the placard was missing off the plane.
"This is the first probable, tangible piece of evidence that has surfaced in the D.B. Cooper case," he added. "It's inconceivable, it's one in a million, that any other plane could have lost it in the area in which D.B. Cooper jumped."
The placard was found about "six flying minutes" from where Cooper is believed to have jumped, said Nelson. It was found last November by an elk hunter, Carroll Hicks, of Kelso, near a Weyerhaeuser Co. logging road north of Ariel, said Nelson.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and sheriff's detectives withheld information about the find while trying to verify the placard's origin, he said.
The jet was en route to Seattle from Portland when Cooper handed a stewardess a note saying he had a bomb. After picking up the ransom and two parachutes in Seattle, and allowing the passengers and two of three stewardesses to disembark, Cooper ordered the plane to Reno. When the plane landed in Reno, the rear ramp was down, and the money, one parachute and Cooper were gone.
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(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.)
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p.A1 Seattle Times Seattle, Wa.
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Date: 1/17/79 Edition: Final
Title:
Character: or Classification: [illegible] Submitting Office: Seattle
[stamp partially illegible]
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COPY SENT TO BUREAU [illegible markings] b6 b7C
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DB Cooper-23054