Part 59, page 122

Transcript

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

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION May 2, 1972 Los Angeles, California

In Reply, Please Refer to File No.

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FBI Agents today arrested two men in the State of Washington on charges involving an alleged scheme to dupe a national news magazine representative into buying a firsthand account of an aircraft hijacking, according to Acting Attorney General Richard G. Kleindienst.

The FBI identified the arrested men as Donald Sylvester Murphy, aged 49, of Bremerton, Washington, and William John Lewis, aged 33, of Silverdale, Washington. Both Murphy and Lewis are real estate promoters.

An authorized complaint charging the arrested men with violations of the Interstate Transportation of Stolen Property and conspiracy to violate this statute, was filed at Seattle, Washington on May 2, 1972.

According to the complaint, Lewis, on February 16, 1972, was in contact with Karl Fleming, at that time a contributing editor of Newsweek magazine who was stationed at Los Angeles. Lewis allegedly introduced Fleming to Murphy, claiming Murphy was the "D. B. Cooper" who hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines plane on November 24, 1971, and parachuted from the aircraft with $200,000.

Fleming then allegedly paid the men $30,000 for an exclusive story, pointing out to them that Newsweek would not support the undertaking but that a partner of Fleming in Platypus Publications, Incorporated would put up the money.

The FBI advised that both of the arrested men would appear before a United States Magistrate as soon as possible.

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[partially illegible handwritten notations] Distributed [guess: by] [guess: courier] 5/2/72 1:15 [guess: 506] 12:31 [guess: released] [guess: 0K to] [guess: release] [illegible]

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164-497-4[illegible] SEARCHED _____ INDEXED SERIALIZED _____ FILED MAY 9 1972 FBI - LOS ANGELES

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b6 b7C

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DB Cooper-24266