Part 97, page 94

Transcript

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

Every year about this time it happens and West Linn resident Ralph Himmelsbach is getting accustomed to the phone calls and the tips that often are dead ends for investigators. But this year it was different. The certified letter that arrived at his Marylhurst-area home three weeks ago and the phone call the next day from the letter writer all had the markings of something more interesting than a routine dead end. After years of chasing the notorious sky- jacker known to law enforcement agencies only as "Dan Cooper," Himmelsbach might have a real suspect in the case. Although some of the information about the latest in what seemed like thousands of Dan Cooper suspects was a bit sketchy, Him- melsbach was obviously interested. A former criminal investigator not given to false hopes or empty encouragement, Himmelsbach said last week that the most recent suspect had some "very compelling" features that seemed to match a profile of the skyjacking suspect. "I don't know who D.B. Cooper was, but I have had several very attractive suspects in the past few years," Himmelsbach said. In mid-November, almost 14 years to the day of the skyjacking, a registered letter arrived at Himmelsbach's home outlining a suspect who, he said, seemed to fit many parts of the description of D.B. Cooper.

---

'I don't know who D.B. Cooper was, but I have had some suspects in the past few years'

---

The letter was followed by a telephone call from the same person, saying that he or she had a close relative who fit the D.B. Cooper description, Himmelsbach said. The suspect lives in the Portland area, but Himmelsbach declined to identify either the suspect or the person who brought the suspect to his attention. Himmelsbach said he turned the information over to the local FBI office, which investigates each new lead to the case. "It does look pretty good," Himmelsbach said. "The person fits some very compelling parts of the person we think was D.B. Cooper." The tip was one of about 100 Himmelsbach and the local FBI office receive every November when the area media focus on the infamous event. Nearly all the tips are in- vestigated, and people pointed to as suspects usually are cleared by the FBI, Himmelsbach said.

---

Dan Cooper dropped into criminal folklore Nov. 24, 1971, when he hijacked a Nor- thwest Airlines' jet on a routine flight between Portland and Seattle. Cooper said he had a bomb in a briefcase that he would detonate if he was not paid $200,000 in ransom. (Himmelsbach speculated that the bomb was actually highway flares wired to a 1.5-volt bat- tery. The bomb was never found.) Cooper demanded that the ransom be paid in $20 bills. A hundred bundles of the bills -- 10,000 in all -- were paid through a Seattle bank that kept up to $240,000 on hand as a humanitarian fund to pay kidnappers and other extortionists. After a quick 30-minute flight to Seattle, Cooper allowed three dozen passengers to get off the plane and asked that it be refueled to fly to Mexico City. Cooper also asked for four parachutes and that the pilot leave a rear "airstairs" door open during the plane's takeoff from Seattle-Tacoma Airport. The pilot, Capt. William A. Scott, convinced

---

RALPH HIMMELSBACH

---

Cooper that the plane would not be able to take off with the door open, so Cooper agreed to open it after the plane was in flight. He ordered Scott to fly the plane at 10,000 feet, no faster than 170 knots (195 miles per hour) and with the plane's flaps lowered by 15 degrees. After takeoff at about 7:45 p.m. from Seattle, the plane flew for about 28 minutes when Cooper apparently parachuted into the cold and rainy night over Washington with the bank bag of $20 bills strapped to his waist. No trace of Cooper was ever found and he has never been identified.

---

According to Himmelsbach's profile, Dan Cooper was a man of medium build, described by airline employees as being in his "mid-40s (probably 48)," with slick black hair and "sparkling, piercing, and very dark eyes. He also was a man with a criminal background who probably suffered a severe leg or lower- body injury when he landed in the mountains of southwestern Washington. Because of the type of parachute he used, and because Cooper did not have adequate equipment to make a jump at night in minus-7 degree weather against winds of up to 200 miles per hour, Himmelsbach said Cooper probably hit the ground "going about 55 miles per hour."

---

DB Cooper-43523