Part 54, page 193

Transcript

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

[Large illustration of a woman with long hair, appearing contemplative, and a smaller inset illustration of two men in conversation. Artist signature: MCCAUSLAND]

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siders the question, his head cocked to one side. He isn't looking at me. Is he about to lie? "No." He says slowly, "I've never heard of that one." I look quickly at the Other Agent. He shrugs and shakes his head slightly. "And you saying that you don't have nor ever had two air traffic controllers from the Midwestern city) as suspects?" I am more aggressive now. I can't let them just shrug off my hot information What about my ar- ticle? My book? The movie sale? "I don't remember all of the suspects!" the Case Agent says. "Look, there have been a lot of sus- pects," the other Agent interjects. "It's hard to say, but I don't remember anything like that." "Are you saying," I press, that you don't have any theories?" "Well, I have lots of theories," the Case Agent says with a small smile and then turns solemn again. "But as far as it affects the investigation, I have an open mind. I have to have an open mind. I have to be able to check out information without any judg- ments about it," He says earnestly. [The] Other Agent helps him out. "There are a lot of guys in the office who have theories. Some say he's dead. Some say he's alive. But I've talked to [the Case Agent] here many times and, he says he has no theories. He just doesn't. He doesn't know." It's convincing, but my suspicions are up. They seem too anxious to quash the air controller theory. "You wouldn't be trying to mislead me?" I ask the Case Agent with my warmest, peanut farmer smile. "No," he replies, and his smile looks more sincere than mine feels. I need some new information. So no one else has. Desperate, I try or

looking for one man or more than one? "We are looking for at least one man," the Case Agent says. "Does that mean 'more than one'?" I'm shameless now, begging for a tidbit, anything. "At least one man," the Case Agent says, smiling at how easy it is to parry my thrusts. I leave with handshakes, not entirely disconsolate. At least I've learned that possibly, no confirmation, but a hint of a shadow of a clue that the FBI has evidence that Cooper did, or did not, survive the jump! In the D.B. Cooper case, people are happy if they maybe learn something. I also have the possibility that they are lying to me about the air traffic controllers. We've been spinning in one spot on that tip for weeks. Time for a last try. I talk to a guy. He tells me to talk to another guy. I talk to the other guy. He directs me to call another guy, John H. Shaffer, director of the Federal Aviation Administration at the time of the skyjacking and now in the freight-forwarding business in Hyattsville, Md. It was the FAA, not the Justice Department, I learn, that told the federal official about the air traffic con- troller. "I remember that theory," Shaffer says. over the phone. "I don't remember all the details, but the evidence against these guys was circumstantial, not physical; it was early in the investigation, it was a hot trail at one time, but it just petered, out, went flat, deflated. It wasn't them." "Personally," Shaffer says, "I think he's dangling from one of those high pine trees out there."

DB Cooper-23122

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"Both," the Other Agent says. "Both," the Case Agent says. "A cross section of suspects and of people who call in." "Is there any geographic concen- tration?" "Most of the calls are from the Pacific Northwest," the Case Agent says. That's enough of this. I've got to get back to the idea that they may have evidence Cooper survived the jump. Maybe they found some of the money? "Was the money marked?" "We have the serial numbers," the Case Agent says. "Has any of it ever been found?" "No," the Case Agent says, but then makes his answer precise. "At least, we, the FBI, know of no money ever having been found." I turn to the Other Agent. "While you were on the phone we were talking about whether you have evidence that Cooper sur- vived the jump." "Well, now," he says rather too quickly, "there are certain things about the case that have never been published. Look, what if some guy walks in here some day and says, 'I'm D. B. Cooper. I spent the money and had a wonderful time but now it's all

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gone and I want to give myself up and write a book and make a million dollars.' Well, there are certain things about the case that only we and Cooper know, and we will want to use those things to identify him." Certain things that only the FBI and Cooper know. That means physical evi- dence, doesn't it? Anything else, since the FBI wasn't on the plane, would have to come from a third party. Or is the other Agent exaggerating? If it is physical evidence, where was it found? On the plane? On the ground? There's something here, if only I could get it. But the FBI is no small town constabulary. I can't trap these guys. The questions change, does the FBI have evidence that Cooper survived the jump? Or evidence that he didn't? Further questions along this line will only antagonize them before I reveal my hot information. It's time to do that now. "If I understand that the Justice Depart- ment, oh, maybe four years ago, told a federal official that there was an 'official' theory, in the case and that this involved two air traffic controllers from [a Midwestern city] who were gone from their jobs when this happened and were known to have been in this area and visited some of the airports involved. Is this, or was this, an 'official' theory?" Will they blink? The Case Agent con-

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Seattle Post-Intelligencer NORTHWEST Sun., Oct. 10, 1976 13