Part 97, page 268

Transcript

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FD-350 (Rev. 5-8-81)

(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) The Oregonian Portland, Oregon

Date: September 13, 1989 Edition:

Title: NORJAK OO:SE

Character: 164-SE-81 or 80-715 Classification: Submitting Office:

Indexing:

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Alas, it wasn't the legendary D.B. Cooper after all

By ROBERTA ULRICH of The Oregonian staff

A New Jersey man facing trial in the 1971 slaying of his family is not the legendary airline hijacker known as D.B. Cooper, a New Jersey investigator said Monday. The FBI long ago concluded that Cooper most likely died when he jumped from a Northwest Airlines 727 over Southwest Washington with $200,000 on Nov. 24, 1971. However, the agency has continued to investigate tips it receives about Cooper's true identity. Since June, agents have been trying to determine whether John List, now 64, could be Cooper. List vanished Nov. 9, 1971, the day authorities think his mother, wife and three teen-age children were shot to death in the family's home at Westfield, N.J. After investigators found the five bodies Dec. 9, 1971, they considered the possibility that List could be Cooper.

"There are no new developments." — John Eyer, FBI agent

The New Jersey man was not found until this year. His arrest June 1 at Midlothian, Va., reactivated the FBI's interest in him. However, Capt. Frank Marranca of the Union County, N.J., prosecutor's office, said Monday in a telephone interview, "The best we can determine, John List was in Denver" at the time of the hijacking. "As far as we can tell he's not D.B. Cooper." Marranca said he could not discuss what led authorities to conclude that List had been in Colorado at the time of the hijacking because

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List has not been tried on the murder charges. John Eyer, assistant agent in charge of the FBI office in Seattle, said he could not comment on Marranca's statement because the investigation was pending. He said only, "There are no new developments." Ralph Himmelsbach, the retired FBI agent who investigated the hijacking for nine years, said Marranca's statement was "very consistent with my belief" that Cooper perished in the 1971 jump. If Cooper had survived, he said, a number of coincidences made the New Jersey man one of the best suspects he had encountered. List, meanwhile, has pleaded innocent to the murder charges and remained in the Union County Jail at Elizabeth, N.J., with bail set at $5 million. Marranca said List's trial had been tentatively set for December, but no firm date had been selected. List, an accountant, lived and worked in the Denver area most of the time he was a fugitive.

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164-SE-81-28 b6 b7C

DB Cooper-43806 FBI/DOJ