Part 60, page 172

Transcript

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

Fleming said Newsweek Fleming testified that L. magazine, for whom he did an ad in Seattle news- then worked in Los An- papers on Dec. 23, 1,171, geles as a contributing edi- addressed to "D. B. Coop- tor, refused to pay anver,' after reading a letter money for "Cooper's" that someone claiming to story but "suggested I get be the hijacker wrote to a all the story I could for Reno newspaper. The free." He said he then took writer claimed he had a the tape of the telephone terminal illness. conversation with Lewis Fleming's ad urged the to Palevsky, with whom hijacker to phone him if he was discussing the he was interested in tell- founding with Palevsky's ing his story "to an abso- money of the weekly lutely discreet and trust- newspaper, LA. worthy writer for a re- "I played the tape and he sponsible national maga- (Palevsky) was as struck zine, without jeopardizing by it as I was," Fleming your safety in any way." said. "We were impressed A month passed and, more by the social aspects then he was contacted by than the cops and robbers. phone by a man who said This seemed the quintes- he was acting as the agent sential case history of a for "D. B. Cooper." Flem- man working for a big ing identified Lewis and company, working as a Murphy in court as the faithful employe and be- men to whom he eventual- ing summarily chopped ly paid Palevsky's $30,000 off when the company for the interviews with didn't need him anymore." Murphy.

Hijacked in 1971

The name "D. B. Cooper" In the preliminary con- was given by a man who versations with Fleming hijacked a Northwest Or- both on the phone and at a ient Airlines 727 jet be- meeting in Los Angeles, tween Portland and Seat- the man who Fleming tle on Thanksgiving Eve, identified as Lewis gave a Nov. 23, 1971. convincing description of Holding what he claimed "Cooper." was a bomb, the man The go-between de- forced authorities to give scribed the hijacker as a him $200,000 in $20 bills at family man, faithful to his Seattle and then parachut- wife, an admirer of Pres- ed into the stormy dark- ident Nixon, a hater of ness on a flight from Seat- people on welfare, a man tle to Reno. living in a three-level He has never turned up. home on Seattle's Lake The Army deployed Washington and a dedicat- hundreds of soldiers to ed Boeing employe. comb the area in south- The negotiator said on west Washington over the tape that "Cooper" be- which he supposedly came completely disillu- jumped, but found no sioned with the system trace of him. when he was let out at The possibility that Boeing with only two "Cooper" might have got- weeks' notice, while a ten away with the money younger man working seemed to titillate the fan- with him was retained. cy of a lot of people, not- Discussing his own mo- withstanding its criminal tive in attempting to ped- aspects. A Portland, Ore., dle the hijacker's account, man sold D. B. Cooper T- the go-between said on the shirts and a Portland tape: nightclub singer recorded "Dishonesty is a state of a song, "D. B. Cooper, mind. If you think you're Where Are You?" dishonest, then you are. I'm just liquidating some of the assets from D. B. Cooper and taking a per- centage."

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DB Cooper-24850