Part 62, page 215

Transcript

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FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)

(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) A-1 HERALD EXAMINER LOS ANGELES, CA Date: 12/17/79 Edition: Monday Latest

Title: HIJACKER COOPER

Character: or CAA Classi b6 Submitting Office: An [illegible] b7C

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Hijacker Cooper's $200,000 — is it still near Mount Hood?

Was Byron "Jack" Cof- In July 1977, Wheeler was shown felt the mysterious hi- photographs of Coffelt by Holly- jacker D.B. Cooper? wood producer Dirk Summers, Although the case is who was investigating the case. far from proven, there are two Summers said in an interview that areas of evidence to suggest that she positively identified Coffelt as Coffelt, an ex-convict with alleged the man who hijacked the plane ties to the Federal Bureau of and signed a statement attesting to Investigation, was indeed the man the fact. She has since repeated her who parachuted from Northwest positive indentification of Coffelt Flight 305 in 1971 with $200,000 on a number of occasions to ransom. various people, including a pro- First, two people who were ducer for CBS-TV's "60 Minutes" aboard Flight 305 were shown a program. photo­graph of Coffelt and identi- Wheeler now lives in Columbia, fied him as the hijacker. Mo., and is a stewardess for Fron- Second, Coffelt apparently told a tier Airlines. Her husband, a col- former cell mate, Jim Brown, im- lege football coach, represents her portant details of the crime that in all negotiations, and she will have never been released by law- reportedly share in any book or men or published by newsmen. movie profits Summers makes on Florence Schaffner Wheeler, a the Coffelt-Cooper story. Despite stewardess aboard Northwest repeated requests, she refused to Flight 305, told investigators that be interviewed for this story. she saw the man who boarded as George LaBissoniere, a govern- D.B. Cooper without his hat and ment maritime attorney who lives dark glasses. Before the plane took in Seattle, was a passenger on off at Portland International Air- port, she said she had to go down the ramp to get Cooper, who was standing with a drink in his hand watching the plane being loaded with provisions. He boarded the plane only after the storage doors were closed. Shortly after takeoff, she saw him writing a note, which he soon passed to her. The note claimed that he had a bomb in his briefcase and that she should sit next to him. Then he opened his briefcase and showed her what looked like sticks of dynamite and a battery. Cooper told her he wanted $200,- 000 in $20 bills and four parachutes when the plane landed in Seattle, its scheduled destination. She wrote down his demands, and relayed them to the pilot, Captain William Scott, and co-pilot, William Rataczak. (Scott is still with North- west Airlines and commands 747 jumbo jets. Rataczak is a captain, too, for another airline.)

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164-497-1011 SEARCHED INDEXED SERIALIZED [illegible] FILED [illegible]

DEC 2 0 1979 FBI — LOS ANGELES

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ORIGINAL TO THE BUREAU DB Cooper-25922