News clippingFD-350 clipping, Los Angeles Times, 'Please Check Your $20 Bills, FBI Asks' by Daryl E. Lembke, with ransom serial numbers26 December 1971page 1 of 2
newspaper_clippingLegibility: medium

Part 55, page 238

DB Cooper-23383

Document date 26 December 1971

Open in FBI Vault (Part 55, page 238 of the PDF)

FBI 164-81, Vault Part 55 p. 238 (DB Cooper-23383), News clipping, dated 26 Dec 1971 — cooper.theunsolved.net/parts/Cooper-Part-55/pages/238

Transcript

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

(Rev. 7-16-63) (Mount Clipping in Space Below)

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CLUE TO HIJACKER

Please Check Your $20 Bills, FBI Asks

BY DARYL E. LEMBKE L.A. Times Staff Writer

SEATTLES - If you've got any $20 bills left from Christmas shopping, the FBI wishes you'd take a look at them.

There's an off chance they might provide a clue as to the whereabouts of "D.B. Cooper," the fellow who literally jumped at the opportunity to get away with $200,000.

That was the name a man gave when he pur- chased a ticket in Portland on a Seattle-bound North- west Orient airliner last Nov. 24.

He then hijacked the airliner en route to Seattle by showing a stewardess wires which he said were connected to a bomb in his briefcase. He forced the airline to give him $200,- 000 in $20 bills and four parachutes when the plane landed in Seattle. He then made the crew take off again and he ap- parently parachuted out of the 727 jet between Seattle and Reno, taking with him the loot.

Although he could have died in the jump, most people seem to think that "Cooper" got away with the money.

Some even hope that he did. He has become some- thing of a folk hero. A Seattle firm is even selling "D.B. Cooper" T-shirts showing a man floating to earth with the greenbacks.

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But a robbery is still a robbery to the FBI, which has the serial numbers of the stolen money and has published them in a 34- page booklet, circulated among financial institu- tions in the West.

To have come from the 20-pound package of $20 bills which the hijacker took, the bill must carry both the correct number and the date of the design series.

Twenties in the hijack package are dated 1950, 1963 A and 1969. The date of the series is found at the bottom of the bill and just to the right of the center.

The first letter with the serial number indicates in which of the 12 federal re- serve districts the bill is issued. The great majority of the bills taken by the hi- jacker came from the 12th Federal Reserve District, headquartered in San Francisco and lettered "L." [guess: on] the stolen bills, but the other 11 districts lettered A through K, are also rep- resented. Numbers on the list are in sequence but skip from smaller to much larger digits.

Random numbers from the list are as follows: "A00" 235 872A, dated 1969; A14 808 132A, dated 1969; B14 242 873A, dated 1969; D34 401 451A, dated 1969; B56 573 862A, dated 1969; B66 486 809A, 1969; C00 297 085A, 1969; C10 521 331A, 1963A; D01 595 [guess: 587A], 1969; D22 175 134A; 1969.

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D43 150 268A, 1963A; E00 [guess: 980] 629 1969; E13 397 308B 63A; E46 136 999A, 1969; E85 531 831A 63A; F00 653 024A, 1969; F18 613 993A, 1969; G00 061 029B, 1969; G02 520 743, 1969; G11 544 899B 63A; G29 690 309B 63A; G39 971 521B, 1963A; G44 492 946B, 1963A; G51 717 384A, 1969; G56 717 199B, 1963A; G67 396 010A, 1969; H00 050 268A, 1969; [guess: JH27] 531 664A, 1963A[illegible] 100 039 231A, 1969; J00 834 944A, 1969; [illegible]03 429 657A, 1969; 105 028 686A, 1969; J09 430 628A, 1963A; 100 031 381, 1963; J02 357 13C, 1963A; J06 927 138A, 1969; J10 008 744A, 1969; J15 062 146A, 1969; J26 190 173A, 1963A; J39 611 379A, 1963A; K00 061 294, 1969; K08 015 487A; 1969; K18 628 893A, 1963A. L00 000 004B 63A; L00 205 900, 1969; L00 625 540A, 1969; L00 982 844, 1969; L01 404 303A, 1969; L01 599 092A, 1969; L01 684 869A, 1969; L01 744 834A, 1969; L02 275 724A, 1969; L03 329 195B, 1963A, L05 070 890A, 1969; L06 514 394, 1963A; L07 483 214, 63A; L09 283 [guess: 128A], 1969; L09 971 454A, 1969; L11 670 051A, 1969; L13 219 [guess: 688A], 1969. L14 707 268A, 1969; L16 088 643A, 1969; L17 875 196B, 1963A; L19 016 203A, 1969; L19 303 624A, 1969; L19 [guess: 486] 860A, 1969; L19 590 455[guess: 3] 63A; L19 723 933A, 1969; L19 855 988A; 1969; L19 960 040A, 1969. L20 076 055A, 1969; L20 186 168A, 1969; L20 294 294A, 1969; L20 403 478A, 1969; L20 476 486A, 1969; L21 441 210A, 63A; L22 565 661A, 1969; L24 291 737A, 1969; L25 786 727B; 1963A; L27 [illegible] 900 [illegible] 538B, 1963A; L28 [illegible] 422 [illegible] 704A; L29 389 835A[illegible] 1969; J29 638 047A, 1969; L29 861 672A, 1969; L30 031 359B, 1963A; L30 [illegible] 804 860A, 1969; L31 781 102A, 1969; L32 346 096A, 1969; L32 428 331A, 196[illegible]

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

K-2 Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, Calif.

Date: 12/26/71 Edition: Sunday Final Author: Editor: Title:

Character: or Classification:

Submitting Office: Los Angeles

☐ Being Investigated

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SEARCHED _____ INDEXED _____ SERIALIZED ___ FILED ___ 1/3 JAN 4 1971 FBI — LES

b6 b7C

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DB Cooper-23383