Part 96, page 241

Transcript

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

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

(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) 12 PIONEER PRESS St. Paul, MN Date: 5-2-79 Edition: Morning

(Mount Clipping in Space Below)

Title: Dead or alive, D.B. Cooper where are you?

Character: or Classification: 163-74 Submitting Office: MINNEAPOLIS

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Dead or alive, D.B. Cooper where are you?

"Never let the truth interfere with good publicity." In show business that advice is right up there with the Ten Commandments, but sometimes things get too far-fetched.

ENTER THE Cricket Theater, which last month opened a whim- sical musical based on the fic- tionalized life of an airplane hi- jacker named D.B. Cooper. In real life a man identified by that name commandeered a North- west Airline aircraft in 1971 and later parachuted from the plane somewhere over Washington- state.

He carried with him about 21 pounds in money, totaling $200,000. No one knows what happened to Cooper and none of the money, all of which was marked, has been recovered.

Until now, anyway. If you believe what follows, I have a bridge you might be interested in buying.

Earlier this year the Cricket, in a promotional gimmick, placed an ad in Time Magazine. "D.B. Cooper, wherever you are," the ad said. "Two free tickets are waiting for you at the Cricket Theater for 'The D.B. Cooper Project.'"

TWO REPLIES WERE received — both appar- ently written by the same person.

The first, postmarked from Chicago, thanked the Cricket for the invitation. "I won't say I will accept, and I won't say I won't," the writer said. The brief note was signed by Daniel B. Cooper.

The second letter, mailed in Los Angeles, was received late last month after the play opened. Written on the same type of green notepaper with apparently the same typewriter, it was longer and full of grammatical errors.

The writer claimed to have visited Minneapolis to see the play. "The actors and actresses were wonderful," the writer said. "I wish I had known them in my own actual life."

What do you do with two such letters? Copy them and put out a news release, of course.

Another question is whether anybody at the Cricket really believes the letters could be genuine literary products by D.B. Cooper. A spokesman for the theater said Producing Director Bill Semans "firmly believes" the letters are on the level.

PLAYWRIGHT JOHN Orlock doesn't buy any of it. "I think it was (written by) someone who couldn't resist the challenge," he said. "If perhaps one more letter comes in we'll have a competi- tion."

Where is D.B. Cooper? Dead, says Orlock. Dead, says the FBI.

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164-41-1753 SEARCHED [...] INDEXED SERIALIZED [...] b6 b7C MAY 4 1979 FBI - PORTLAND [initials] FBI/DoJ DB Cooper-43166