Part 78, page 401

Transcript

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Agent Retires Not Knowing Fate Of Hijacker That Altered His Life

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The case altered his life, but as Ralph Himmelsbach retires from the FBI Friday, he's unperturbed that he never was able to track down the phantom hijacker known to the world as D.B. Cooper.

"It's been an interesting case and I have enjoyed the investigation because of the things that have happened," Himmelsbach said. "It has altered my life because of all the attention I have received."

But he adds, "I think I'll walk away from it and it will never bother me."

Himmelsbach, 54, is the agent regarded as the FBI expert on the puzzling case that began when the still-unknown sky pirate leaped from a Northwest Airlines 727 with 10,000 $20 bills and two parachutes on Thanksgiving eve, 1971.

Nothing has ever been heard of Cooper. And for more than eight years, nothing was seen of the money either — until an 8-year-old boy found about $5,800 of it mixed in the sand along the Columbia River near Vancouver, Wash., Feb. 10.

Himmelsbach says he's not obsessed with tracking down Cooper, an impression he feels some reporters have created. He's tackled other cases, and he's the FBI's resident firearms expert, handling all shooting training for the Oregon Law Enforcement Academy and the State Police Academy.

But he's glad the bundle of weatherworn twenties showed up because he feels that supports his theory that the man who signed on the flight as Dan Cooper probably perished in the parachuting attempt.

"It makes me feel that probably I'm right," Himmelsbach said "His idea was to get the money to spend."

Strictly speaking, Himmelsbach has not been the agent in charge of the case because the hijacking investigation is technically under the aegis of the Seattle office.

But Himmelsbach, a tall, lean graduate in psychology from the University of Oregon, has been the man on the case in the Portland office.

The spot where the mystery skyjacker left the jetliner is less than 30 miles from Himmelsbach's office. An avid flyer since he was a 20-year-old fighter pilot in World War II, he's followed the route of the hijacked airliner in his own plane, a Beechcraft Bonanza.

Although the FBI shows its agents the door at age 55, Himmelsbach isn't ready to give up either flying or working.

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AP Laserphoto FBI AGENT Ralph Himmelsbach, regarded as the FBI expert on the phantom hijacker D.B. Cooper, sketched at right, was to retire Friday from the FBI.

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