Part 54, page 60

Transcript

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

(Mount Clipping in Space Below)

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Clear weather speeds search for skyjacker

ARIEL, Wash. — Clear skies Thursday morning per- mitted the FBI, with the Army's. aid, to expand its search of the Ariel district for traces of Dan Cooper, the skyjacker who bailed out of a Northwest Airlines trijet Nov. 24, 1971 with $200,000.

J. Earl Milnes, FBI agent in charge of the state of Washington, would not say whether the search had turned up any significant clues to date.

"If there are any devel- opments we will let you know," he said.

Nine helicopters, restricted by rain and low clouds Wed- nesday, were out early Thursday searching the tops of the hills obscured by Wed- nesday's weather.

About 200 troops of the First Squadron, 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment from Fort Lewis, Wash., were backing up the aerial search with ground search of selected areas. The Army contingent is based at Merwin Park on the shores of Lake Merwin, 12 miles east of Woodland on Pacific Power and Light Co. property.

The lake is on the eastern edge of the area searched in- tensively by the FBI and county deputies after a man who gave the name of Coop- er boarded Northwest Air- lines' flight 305 in Portland, later bailing out somewhere between Woodland and Reno, Nev., with $200,000 ransom money in $20 bills.

None of the money has turned up and there are no new developments, FBI sources told The Oregonian. The search is part of a sys- tematic tracing of the whole route planned for this spring, FBI sources indicated.

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

THE OREGON JOURNAL PORTLAND, GREGON

Page 23

Date: 3/24/72 Edition: Author: Editor: J. RICHARD NOKES Title:

Character: or Classification: Submitting Office: ☐ Being Investigated 164-41 Su[b] [illegible]

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DB Cooper-22986