Part 62, page 217

Transcript

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

As recounted by Brown, Jack Coffelt's account of the hijacking is detailed and plausible: [illegible] feet and legs, he managed to get the chutes off. Then Coffelt said he had planned to steal a few million he sprayed them with an aerosol can of solvent until dollars, which he thought would be aboard the flight, they melted. He buried what was left of the chutes — headed for the Federal Reserve Bank in Seattle. mostly metal snaps and buckles — next to a large rock, But after watching the loading of the plane and on which he scratched large Xs and Os. Seeing that the bank money was not there, he carried He now considered his dilemma. He could hear out his alternate plan to demand the $200,000 ransom signals from the beepers in both the Jeep and the Coffelt said his bail-out point was not around Lake moneybag, but the latter was weak and beginning to Merwin in Washington, as stated by the FBI, but rather fade. He thought about going after the money, but 70 miles farther southeast in the Cascades range in quickly dismissed the plan when he realized he would Oregon, on the east side of Mount Hood. have a difficult enough time reaching the Jeep from Coffelt said he had an accomplice with a Jeep this steep, inaccessible area. So he mustered his waiting in the brush. He added that the four-wheel- remaining strength and began his trek though the drive vehicle was equipped with an electronic pitch-dark forest, homing in on the Jeep beeper. "beeper." When the sun came up, he was still miles away He also said he had stashed another vehicle, a from the Jeep. At one point, he crossed a road and was white Cadillac, close to a paved road. stunned to see a bulldozer at work nearby. He turned Standing at the open door, Coffelt said he soon his face so the driver couldn't identify him later. saw the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River and Around noontime, some 15 hours after his landing, he knew the plane was just east of Portland. reached the Jeep. He said he put the bag containing the $200,000 and He loaded it with an explosive charge, rolled it an electronic receiver he was carrying inside a green into a lake and blew it up. He then got into the back plastic bag he had in his briefcase. After throwing the seat of the Cadillac and his accomplice drove him to briefcase overboard, he tied a line around the Kansas City, where he got medical attention. moneybag and made a loop for his arm. The following spring, after the snow melted, he Spotting a beacon on Mount Hood, he was able to chartered a helicopter and pilot and returned to the see a triangle of three small runway lights located east area, but when the pilot became suspicious he gave up of Mount Hood, apparently set in place by his on his efforts to spot the moneybag. accomplice. He put his arm through the moneybag He tried again on foot with his cellmate Brown loop and waited. Soon he received a signal from the and Brown's son a few years later, but that trip was a Jeep beeper below. But as he waited to jump directly failure, too. over the beacon lights, he was suddenly swept off Coffelt died a year later, before he could try again. balance by the swirling wind and sucked down into the So, if believe Jack Coffelt was D.B. Cooper, you must darkness. also believe a bag of money is still in the Cascades, just At that altitude, he said, he figured a count of 50 waiting to be found by a lucky treasure-hunter. would be about right before opening the chute. But as That's part of the magic of the mysterious D.B. he fell farther into the black hole, he made it only to Cooper. about 30 before pulling on the chest-pack rip cord. Nothing happened. He desperately pulled at the D-ring on the seat- pack chute — and it opened with a jolt. At that moment, relieved that he wouldn't die by hitting the earth at nearly 200 miles per hour, he relaxed his grip on the moneybag, and it slipped off his arm and into the night. He would never see the moneybag again. The combination of a strong wind and the early chute opening caused him to drift far from the meadow he had selected, he said. He hit the ground hard at more than 30 mph, was dragged along and smacked into a dead tree.

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