Part 96, page 155

Transcript

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

[redacted], OR [redacted] May 20, 1978

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Chairman of the Board Northwest Airlines, Inc. 616 SW Broadway Portland, Oregon

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Dear Sir,

I have a suggestion which might help you in looking for the man, D. B. Cooper, who hijacked your passenger plane in 1971. Re- cently [redacted] gave us some weekly newspapers and the story of the hijacking and ransoming was in one of them [redacted].

There is a clue in the story, in fact two, First: the story says there were three jet fighters following your airliner, yet they did not see Cooper jump. Now the reason is this: he did not jump. He was too smart for that. He had a crate (or big trunk, box, or something similar) in the freight compartment. This box or trunk probably had straps around it and it was nailed down tight, except for one end which appeared to be nailed down, also but this end could be opened by Cooper by simply turning a key in a hidden lock. Also the hinges and lock parts were hidden inside the box and Cooper could close and lock the box end from inside. [illegible strikethrough] In the box was a weight (it could of been a big block of wood so one man could roll it or could have been something else, possibly a container of sand or water--something when dumped could not be suspicious from the ground. Cooper opened the crate, rolled the block or pushed the sand or water out into space--it weighed about as much as he and the parachutes and money weighed.

Cooper put the chutes, the money in the box, then he crawled in and fastened the lid from the inside. The next day you delivered him to his address.

He probably shipped a few boxes first, to make sure which flight they got on. The boxes probably said fragile on them--so he wouldn't be handled rough, and found out. Check all large shipments that day. Also check for false addresses.

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SEARCHED SERIALIZED MAY 2 3 1978 FBI [illegible] DB Cooper-43073 164 41-1699

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