Part 78, page 406
Document date 13 February 1980
FBI 164-81, Vault Part 78 p. 406 (DB Cooper-34284), News clipping, dated 13 Feb 1980 — cooper.theunsolved.net/parts/Cooper-Part-78/pages/406
Transcript
The scan is the source; the transcript is machine-generated from it.
Cooper: Boy finds part of 1971 hijack loot
Continued from Page 1
were weather-beaten and crumbling along the edges. Ralph Himmelsbach, agent in charge of the Cooper case since it happened, has speculated that Cooper died after he parachuted from the Northwest Airlines plane over a densely wooded area along the river. "I think we can only presume at this time that because the money was found clumped together tightly in what we believe was the manner in which it was originally packed lends credence to the theory that at least the money did not make it out" of the area where Cooper was believed to have dropped. "And from there, I would really leave it to conjecture," he added.
ANNOUNCEMENT of the discovery was made simultaneously in Portland, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
Serial numbers of the money were recorded before being given to the hijacker on the evening before Thanksgiving in 1971.
The commandeering of the Boeing 727 jetliner is the only known unsolved hijacking.
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The hijacker boarded the jet in Portland, then displayed what a flight attendant said looked like dynamite. He demanded four parachutes and $200,000 in $20 bills.
He ordered the pilot to fly to Seattle where the plane circled for 2½ hours while authorities gathered the parachutes and money.
AT SEATTLE, the passengers and two of the three stewardesses were allowed to leave the plane. The money and parachutes were loaded and the plane took off for Reno, Nev.
The pilot was ordered to fly as slowly as possible.
Somewhere over southwest Washington, the hijacker, the money and one of the parachutes disappeared out of the plane's rear exit. The door was opened, in flight.
In 1977, just to make sure the hijacker didn't escape prosecution via the statute of limitations, he was indicted on federal charges in absentia.
Cooper has become somewhat of a folk hero. T-shirts have been printed bearing the question: "D.B. Cooper, Where Are You?."
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DB Cooper-34284