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D.B. Cooper allegedly slain Provoan
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Two ex-lawmen claim slain Utah skyjacker Richard Floyd McCoy Jr. was the man who, under the alias D.B. Cooper, skyjacked a North- west Orient 727 on Thanksgiving 1971, extorted $200,000 from the airline and parachuted into the night.
No trace of Cooper was found after he parachuted from the jetlin- er near Portland, but some of the cash
No trace of Cooper was found after he parachuted from the jetlin- er near Portland, but some of the cash surfaced along the Columbia River in 1980. Most ' investigators believe the man perished.
McCoy was convicted of skyjack- ing a Denver-to-Los Angeles flight on April 7, 1972, and bailing out over his hometown of Provo, Utah, with $500,000. McCoy was sentenced to 45 years in prison and was shot to death Nov. 9, 1974, by FBI agents in Virginia Beach, Va., after escaping with three others from a federal prison at Lewisburg, Pa.
In the recently completed manu- script, "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (D.B. Cooper - No Longer a Mystery)," Bernie A. Rhodes, form- er FBI division chief in Salt Lake City, and Russell P. Calame, form- er chief U.S. probation and parole agent, contend McCoy was Cooper. .They cite parallels in the hijack- ings, such as both men getting four parachutes, both using the phrase . "no funny stuff" in their ransom notes and both showing knowledge «of pilot terminology.
At the time of the McCoy hijack- 'ing, it was thought to be a rather inept copy of the earlier, greatly
At the time of the McCoy hijack- 'ing, it was thought to be a rather inept copy of the earlier, greatly ·publicized skyjacking.
Both hijackings were during va- cation time at Brigham Young Uni-
Richard McCoy Jr.
Drawing of D.B. Cooper
versity, where McCoy was. a stu- dent.
In both cases, the hijacker sat in the coach section on the right side of the aisle, the authors said.
They also said they have found evidence disputing family accounts that McCoy had been at home in Provo on Thanksgiving 1971.
They said they had determined that McCoy purchased gasoline in Las Vegas at Thanksgiving time and that a collect call was made to the McCoy residence at 10:41 p.m. on Nov. 25, 1971.
They theorize that McCoy drove from Provo to Las Vegas on or before Thanksgiving eve, flew to Portland, bought a ticket on North- west Orient to Seattle, hijacked the plane, parachuted, walked back to Portland, caught a flight to Las
Vegas and drove home to Provo.
Calame said there is a piece of evidence, an object Cooper left on the airplane, that has always been used to eliminate fraudulent claims by people who
Calame said there is a piece of evidence, an object Cooper left on the airplane, that has always been used to eliminate fraudulent claims by people who said they were Coop- er.
He said that item has been identi- fied by McCoy's relatives as having belonged to him.
Rhodes said that in a pre-sen- tence interview with him in 1972. McCoy neither admitted nor denied6 guilt in the Cooper hijacking. b7c
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AVOIR
DB.Cooper-26281
164A - 81-SUB B164/A-81-SUB
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pect infamous D.B. Cooper?
D.B. Cooper co Center checked patur
former youn
believes John E. List should be investigated.
"I would say he's a major suspect or, at least, I would consider him a major suspect;" Himmelsbach said.
As a fugitive after the killings of five members of his family, List was considered a suspect in the skyjacking from the beginning, Himmelsbach said.
Descriptions of List and Cooper are similar. Both are accused of bizarre crimes, and a fugitive from a mass murder has nothing to lose, Himmelsbach said.
A man police said is List was ¿ arrested June 1 in Richmond, Va.
Both are accused of bizarre crimes, and a fugitive from a mass murder has nothing to lose, Himmelsbach said.
A man police said is List was ¿ arrested June 1 in Richmond, Va., after the television show "America's Most Wanted" ran a program on the "ballroom murders" in November 197]: List's wife, his 87-year-old mother and his three children were shot to death in their Westfield, N.J., mansion.
The man, who goes by the name Robert P. Clark
Associated Press
Two 1971 drawings (left and center) are believed to show mystery man D.B Cooper, the first American skyjacker. At right is murder suspect John E. List. The FBI is checking into similarities between the two men.
and was described by friends as a quiet, church- going accountant, was extradited to New Jersey on Thursday and in jail.
Although the man known as Clark denies he is List, authorities said fingerprints and a scar prove Clark and List are the same man.
Authorities said List fled to Colorado and then
Virginia and had built a new life.
FBI spokesman John Eyer in Seattle said Thursday that List was being investigated in the skyjacking, but said it was routine.
FBI spokesman John Eyer in Seattle said Thursday that List was being investigated in the skyjacking, but said it was routine.
David Baugh, List's lawyer in Richmond before he was returned to New Jersey, compared the alleged connection to reported sightings of Elvis Presley.
'DB Cooper-26282FD-350 (Rev. 5-8-81)
(Mount Clipping In Space Below)
John List Mass-murder suspect
D.B. Cooper Disappearing hijacker,:
(Indicate page, name of B1 & B2 newspaper, city and state.) THE SEATTLE TIMES b6
Seattle, Washington b7C

Date:	6/30/89
Edition:	Friday

Title: HAVE THEY FOUND D. B. COOPE
Character; or Classification: 88A
Submitting Office: SEATTLE
Indexing:
Have they found D.B. Cooper.
FBI probing whether 1971 murder suspect is the elusive hijacker
by Joshua Cooper Ramo: Times staff reporter
The FBI is investigating the possibility that a man recently arrested in the 1971 slayings of his family in New Jersey is the famed hijacker known as. D.B.
FBI probing whether 1971 murder suspect is the elusive hijacker
by Joshua Cooper Ramo: Times staff reporter
The FBI is investigating the possibility that a man recently arrested in the 1971 slayings of his family in New Jersey is the famed hijacker known as. D.B. Cooper .:
John List, who was arrested in Richmond, Va., earlier this month, "may be a. suspect;and we are investigating that now,"
found at last?
COOPER continued from B 1
a television show that features unsolved crimes, aired' a pro- gram on List on May 21. .....
List allegedly murdered" his family on Nov. 9, 1971. Accord- ing to police, he then fled' New Jersey and resurfaced six years later in-Denver as Clark. There, he worked as an accountant for a
said FBI spokesman Jon Eyer in | from " Portland to Seattle on Seattle. However, the prosecutor Thanksgiving Day, 1971 - 15 dals after List allegedly mur- deled his mother, wife and three children. handling the List case in New Jersey said he doubts any conec- tion.
"The D.B. Cooper link? Aw, come on'" said assistant Union County > prosecutor Robert O'Leary, "There is absolutely no. evidence: now to suggest that there is. any link between the two.
Aw, come on'" said assistant Union County > prosecutor Robert O'Leary, "There is absolutely no. evidence: now to suggest that there is. any link between the two.
Cooper hijacked a plane flying
box-manufacturing company and married again. In 1988, List and' his new wife moved to Virginia, where he took a job at a local accounting firm.
. Eyer said the recent tip in the Cooper case is only the latest in a series that the FBI has investi- gated.
List's lawyer in Richmond, Va., told The Associated Press he also doubts a List-D.B: Cooper
""" "I have' heard that," said David Baugh. "But I also heard that Elvis is living in Detroit now. I.put those two together."
DB Cooper-26283
Cooper wrote a note'to a "Ist wardess saying he" had a bimb. When the plane landed in Seattle, Cooper asked for $200,000 and four parachutes. Office ingthe air and bound for Maxico, Cooper donneda para- chute and jumped from the plane
somewhere near Mount St lens.
The only trace found $5,800 of the money that wash ashore on a sand bar on it Columbia River in February 198 When he was arrested June List was living under the alias Robert Clark.
The only trace found $5,800 of the money that wash ashore on a sand bar on it Columbia River in February 198 When he was arrested June List was living under the alias Robert Clark. The : arrest car after "America's Most Wanted
Please see COOPER on B 2
smart
16YA-81-SUBB CHA-81
CHED INDEXEO FILED
w.ALIZEO.
OCT 1 6 1989
b6 b7C
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ceengh
FBI/DOJ(v. 12.5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
Cooper mystery
clue: Sarsaparilla
te page, name of per, city and state.) p. B1 Daily News Longview, Wa.
Date:
2/15/80
Edition:
Final
main File + Sub B
Title:
Character:
or
Classification:164-81
Submitting Office: Seattle
By Jay McIntosh The Dally News
Sloux City Sarsparilla, a potent root beerlike beverage in a can with a cowboy on it, is the latest clue in the muddled story of skyjacker D. B. Cooper.
Leonard Palmer, a Portland State University geologist, said today that two cans of the soft drink - along with a Nesbitt's Orange can - were found in the same sandy soil where a boy unearthed part of Cooper's loot last Sunday.
The clue may not mean much to FBI agents, who on Thursday called off their search there for more evidence.
The clue may not mean much to FBI agents, who on Thursday called off their search there for more evidence. But it adds a Maltese Falcon air to the already mysterious story of America's only unsolved skyjacking.
Theories of what happened abound, and Palmer has constructed his own. He thinks Cooper surviv- ed his sky jump and was injured. Palmer winds a detective story around what he sees as geologic evidence of how the '$3,000 or so came to be . deposited on a Columbia River beach in Washington, three miles northwest of Vancouver.
A "Dan Cooper" parachuted from a 727 jet over Southwest Washington on Thanksgiving Eve 1971. But Palmer said the money was found in soil deposited on the beach after a 1974 dredging. If may have been deposited within the last year, hej aid.
"Sioux City Sarsparilla was lodged in the same) el that the money was found," Palmer said. If FBI can trace when the pop cans were qufactured, it could provide more evidence of o the money was deposited. .
e cash, part of the $200,000 in $20 bills that was ped to Cooper's waist, was found bundled in a
op cans and most of the
e cash, part of the $200,000 in $20 bills that was ped to Cooper's waist, was found bundled in a
op cans and most of the money were found eight inches below the surface, but Its of the money reportedly were as far three feet.
could not explain how the money might buried that deep. He said there was "no e evidence" that money was in fact e feet down, and surmised that it may deposited there in digging actions.
aid the money was worn the same way worn. And the bills had not decayed as would have if they had been exposed
leads us to believe is that the money! water all the time since it has been,
searchers, Palmer dismisses the he money may have washed the Lewis River. Authorities had : landed in or near Lake Merwin; a
Lewis River reservoir, out were rethinking that assumption after the discovery of the money.
Palmer said it looks like Cooper landed in the Washougal River drainage area.' But after com- puting stream surface area, he said it was a 1,000! 'to 1 shot that the hijacker landed in water.
"It's likely that the guy survived (but was in- jured), got to a stream and dropped some of the money because
"It's likely that the guy survived (but was in- jured), got to a stream and dropped some of the money because he was hurt and couldn't hold onto it. So that leaves him injured and somewhere in the Washougal drainage area nine years ago."
Only educated guesswork is behind the theory, of course. The FBI may or may not search for more evidence, said Jack Pringle, assistant agent in charge of the bureau's Seattle office.
"We'll have to talk to the searchers who were down there and then we'll decide if any further searches will be undertaken," Pringle said this morning.
He didn't mention the Nesbitt's Orange or the Sioux City Sarsparilla. The Daily News managed to trace the sarsparilla to White Rock Products? Inc., a soft drink manufacturer in Brooklyn, N.Y. Company spokesman John Cloney said he didn't think the beverage had ever been distributed on! the West Coast north of California.
A woman at the Portland bottler of White Rock beverages said she had "never heard of it."
+5€
sceny
PM
sub B 164-81-8566
SEARCHED
INDEXED SERIALIZED FILED
FEB 2 2 1980
b6 b7C
FOI/DOJ
DB Cooper-26284 .
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+5€
sceny
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sub B 164-81-8566
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INDEXED SERIALIZED FILED
FEB 2 2 1980
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DB Cooper-26284 . ED-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
Found by Family on Outing Part of 'D. B. Cooper Loot
WASHINGTON-A young Van- Law enforcement authorities long couver, Wash., family on an outing have believed that Cooper died in his plunge from the Boeing 727 because
along the Columbia River last Sunday suddenly stumbled across 12 stacks of he was wearing only a business suit moldering money -- part of the $200,- and street shoes when he jumped into 000 that the notorious airline hijacker "D. B. Cooper" made off with more than eight years ago, the FBI said Tuesday.
a howling wind and freezing rain in an unreliable parachute. It has been estimated that he hit the ground at a speed of 50 to 70 m.p.h.
With the bills now having been! traced definitely to the Cooper loot, 30 agents from the Portland and Seattle FBI offices have begun an ex- tensive search of the area for more of the money-and possibly for some sign of Cooper or, more likely, his re- mains.
traced definitely to the Cooper loot, 30 agents from the Portland and Seattle FBI offices have begun an ex- tensive search of the area for more of the money-and possibly for some sign of Cooper or, more likely, his re- mains.
The money-"several thousand dollars," according to one official -- was found in Washington about five miles northwest of the Interstate 5 bridge that spans the Columbia and separates Washington from Oregon, FBI agent William Mf. Baker told a news conference in Portland.
Discovery of the money by Harold Dwayne Ingram, 27, his wife, Patricia, 26, and their sons, 8 and 3, marked the latest twist in the bizarre saga of the now-legendary Cooper, who pa- rachuted from a Northwest Airlines jetliner on Thanksgiving Eve, 1971, never to be seen or heard from again. When found by the Ingrams, the stacks of $20 bills were bound by de- composing rubber bands, the FBI gaid. But there was "no trace of D. B. chute. Cooper," according to the agency.
"Shortly after the hijacking, a cuit sprang up around D. B. Cooper, a name that never has been traced to its origins.
A private club was named in his honor, D.
Cooper, a name that never has been traced to its origins.
A private club was named in his honor, D. B. Cooper T-shirts were manufactured, bumper stickers were run off and anniversary parties were held.
Baker said in Portland that wheth- er Cooper got away with the rest of the money was an open question.
The saga began when "Cooper" boarded the jetliner in Portland for an evening flight to Seattle. Once air- borne, he demanded that the airline have $200,000 in $20 bills and three parachutes on hand when the plane landed in Seattle. He threatened to blow up the plane if his demands were not met.
.The airline complied, providing the parachutes and money. However, the FBI said Tuesday that the serial numbers of the bills had been record- ed.
Cooper permitted the airliner's 36 passengers to leave the plane in Seat- tle. He then ordered the crew to take the plane to Reno and told the.pilot to fly at a relatively low altitude and to open the plane's rear stairway.
Crew members last heard his voice on the plane's Intercom when they .
pilot to fly at a relatively low altitude and to open the plane's rear stairway.
Crew members last heard his voice on the plane's Intercom when they . were over the Washington-Oregon iborder. They said they believe .he jumped, using the least reliable para-
The decomposed money was found 17 to 20 miles from the jump site by the Ingrams' older son, Brian. The bills were partly buried in sand that the Ingrams were scooping out to build a fire.
"Here's some more wood for the fire, Daddy " the father recalled his son as saying.
(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) I-1 LOS ANGELES TIMES
LOS ARODJES, CA
Date:
2/13/80
Edition:
Wednesday Final
Title:
PART OF D. B.
COOPER LOOT FOUND
Character: or Class Submi wos-in-106 ---- b6 b7C
SUBS: B;
G;E; M
b6 b7C
SubB 164-81-8716
SEARCHED
SERIALIZE 4 4 FEB 1 9 1980 OS

SEARCHED. INDEXED SERIALIZED. FILED
FEB1/3 1980 FBI - LOS ANGELES

F81/DOJ
ORIGINAL TO THE BUREAU DB Cooper-26285'FD-350 (Rev.
FILED
FEB1/3 1980 FBI - LOS ANGELES

F81/DOJ
ORIGINAL TO THE BUREAU DB Cooper-26285'FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
D.B. and the
money
V ANCOUVER, Wash. - [William M. Baker, assistant agent Twelve packets of $20 in charge of the Portland FBI bills, used eight years office, said discovery of the money ago as part of the $200,- lends credence to the FBI theory 000 paid to airline hijacker "D.B. that Cooper died in the hijacking Cooper," have been found on a attempt.
Columbia River beach near here, Cooper's extortion effort was the the FBI announced yesterday.
first time a jet had been hijacked Harold D. Ingram, 27, his wife, for ransom. A number of hijack. Patricia, 26, and their two sons, ings for cash have been carried out were picnicking on what is known since the Cooper escapade.
as'Tena's Bar last Sunday . when Baker said the FBI could not be their older son. discovered , the certain how much money was in money. the packets, but said it amounted
Eight-year-old Brian Ingram was to "several thousand dollars.
discovered , the certain how much money was in money. the packets, but said it amounted
Eight-year-old Brian Ingram was to "several thousand dollars." helping his father gather firewood The money has been sent to the and had scooped out sand for a FBI laboratory in Washington, fire. As his father was about to D.C., and Baker hopes the lab will drop an armload of wood, young be able to pick fingerprints off the Ingrem said, T'Wait a minute, bills, which could lead to the Daddy." suspect.
"That would be a - hell of a
Recalling his find yesterday, Brian said, "I seen that money, I break." He said .... thought, wow."
But his parents remained calm, the son recalled. "They thought it was counterfeit.".
; The `tattered and worn bills young Ingram found were the first to be recovered by law enforce- ment agencies since Nov. 24, 1971, when a passenger hijacked a Northwest Airlines Boeing 727.
The man, Identified on the flight ist as Dan Cooper, parachuted out of the airliner somewhere over southwestern Washington.
The serial numbers on the bills discovered by young Ingram matched those on the money given Cooper by the FBI in 1971.
The serial numbers on the bills discovered by young Ingram matched those on the money given Cooper by the FBI in 1971.
(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) A-1 ' HERALD LIAMINER LOS ANGELES, CA

Date:	2/13/80
Edition:	Wednesday. Latest
Title:	D.B. AND THE KUND

Character: or DASV Classif
Submitt LOS Angeles b6 -
b7C
SUBS B;
G; E; M b6 b7C
Sub B 16-1-81-2215

SEARCHED,
INDEXED
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SERIAL:24 men
FEE)1	9 1980

SEARCHED FIREXCP
SENALECO FEB 1 3 1980 FBI - LOS ANGELES
FBI/DOJ
ORIGINAL' TO THE BUREAU
DB Cooper-26288FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
HP
Part of D.B. ET Cooper SUB B;G,M money found
(niente page, name of newspaper, city and stated p . A] .. Seattle Times Seattle, Wa.
Date: 2/12/80
Edition: Final
Title:
Character: or Classification: 164-81
Submitting Office: Seattle
Compiled from news services WASHINGTON - The Federal Bureau of Investigation has
Date: 2/12/80
Edition: Final
Title:
Character: or Classification: 164-81
Submitting Office: Seattle
Compiled from news services WASHINGTON - The Federal Bureau of Investigation has found "about $4,000 of the money that they' legendary hijacker, D.B. Cooper, carried with him when he para- chuted from a commercial . jet over Southwest Washington in .1971, a bureau spokesman said Tuesday.
The spokesman, who asked not to be named, said a family wan- dering along the banks of the Co- lumbia River north of Portland, Ore., found a packet of money this week.
Held together by a rubber band, the packet of $20 bills was so bad- ly deteriorated the F.B.I. could not make an exact count of the amount, the spokesman said.
Despite the deterioration, the spokesman said the F.B.I. was able to identify the money as part of the $200,000 ransom given to Cooper in Seattle nine years ago. When the money was given to the thijacker, the F.B.I. kept records 'lof the serial numbers.
The packet was found 20 miles Sdownstream from the point where" Cooper is believed to have bailed
out of the Northwest Airlines 727, the spokesman said.
The packet was found 20 miles Sdownstream from the point where" Cooper is believed to have bailed
out of the Northwest Airlines 727, the spokesman said.
He added that with floods along the river it was likely that in nine : `years the packet had been carried some distance.
· The Portland and Seattle offices of the F.B.I. were conducting a search in the area, but the spokes- man said it was unlikely that dis- covery of the money packet would aid in the search for Cooper, the only parachute-ransom hijacker in United States history who has not been apprehended.
Cooper boarded a Northwest
flight in Portland on Thanksgiving Eve, 1971, using the name Dan Cooper. Before the plane reached Seattle, Cooper threatened to ex- plode a "bomb" in his brief case if he were not.given $200,000 in $20 bills and four parachutes and flown to Reno, Nev.
The plane circled Seattle for 21/2 hours while authorities gathered the parachutes and money.
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.
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. The pilot
#5
was ordered to fly as slowly asf possible.
Somewhere over Southwest: Washington, the hijacker, thet ·money and one of the parachutes · disappeared out of the plane's rear exit, opened in flight. The ap- proximate place of departure was guessed at from cabin-pressure readings on the flight recorder.
The flight recorder and crew testimony indicated Cooper had jumped near the little town of Ari- cl, Cowlitz County, about 30 miles north of Portland, a densely wood .. ed area in the foothills of the Cas-
cade Mountains.
Despite intensive searches of the area, the only item connected with the hijacking ever found was a rear door from the 727.
Nothing ever was seen'of Coo- per or the $200,000.
The F.B.I. has said since shortly after the hijacking it believed Coo- per probably was killed when he landed.
In 1977, just to make sure the hi- jacker didn't escape prosecution via the statute of limitations, he was indicted on federal charges in' absentia.
In 1977, just to make sure the hi- jacker didn't escape prosecution via the statute of limitations, he was indicted on federal charges in' absentia.
Sub B 164-81-8341
SEARCHED SERIALICEU
FCB 10 1980 FBI - DEATTL ..
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FDI/DOJ
DB Cooper-26294FD-350 (Rev. 10-19-77)
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2main/Files
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In geologist's opinion Cooper' money spent 8
By LESLIE L. ZAITZ of The Oregonian staff
At least some of the cash from "Dan Cooper's" 1971 escapade has spent much of the past eight years under wa- ter and only recently was washed up on the Columbia River bank where it was found Sunday, according to a geologist assisting the FBI.
Leonard Palmer, a Portland State University geologist, reached that con- clusion after examining the river bank nine miles northwest of Vancouver, Wash., where a family building a camp- fire found three packets of badly deteri- orated $20 bills. .
The FBI said the money, believed to be several thousand dollars, was part of the $200,000 ransom paid to a man known only as Dan Cooper, Cooper, popularly known as "D.
The FBI said the money, believed to be several thousand dollars, was part of the $200,000 ransom paid to a man known only as Dan Cooper, Cooper, popularly known as "D.B. Cooper" be- cause of an erroneous news agency re- port at the time, received.the money after hijacking a Northwest Airlines jet- liner after it departed from -Portland Nov. 24, 1971.
Palmer's research discounted an ini- tial FBI theory that the cash had been deposited on the river bank during a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers channel - dredging operation in 1974. Palmer said there were two other distinct layers of - sand and sediment on top of the materi -; al dredged from the river.
The money was found in a layer of coarse sand ranging from several inches to 4 feet thick, Palmer said. He said the top layer of sand probably was deposit- ed by wave action caused by passing ships.
Palmer sald he believed the money $ found its way into the water not long r after the hijacking, because it would have deteriorated within weeks if left exposed on the surface.
Palmer offered a theory for what happened, based on what little evidence exists and on geological information.
Palmer offered a theory for what happened, based on what little evidence exists and on geological information. It
Che Oregonian
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1980
years in river
(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.)
Date:
2/15/80
Edition:
Title: Camper Money Spent 8 years in france
Character: AIR PIRACY or
Classification: Submitting Office: Seattle SUB B 164-1-81-8564
SP SCHED
HASTACO
F !: D
FED 1 6 :3: 1
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01/.00J
DB Cooper-26295FBI ending hunt for Cooper cash
VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) - The search along a Columbia River beach for more money from the D.B. Cooper hijacking eight years ago probably will be suspended after today, FBI officials said Thursday.
Meanwhile, a geologist concluded that several thou- sand dollars found Sunday by an 8-year-old boy on a family picnic was deposited on the beach in the past year or two.
FBI agents continued to dig for more of the $200,000 that Cooper took with him when he bailed out of a plane on Thanksgiving Eve in 1971.
The search began Tuesday along the river's north shore, about three miles southwest of downtown Vancou- ver.
The search began Tuesday along the river's north shore, about three miles southwest of downtown Vancou- ver. Additional scraps of money were found on Wednes- day.
A man whose passenger list was signed "Dan Cooper" left a Northwest Airlines plane that was bound for Reno, Nev., from Seattle after he displayed what appeared to be a bomb and obtained a package of $20 bills and three parachutes.
FBI agents believed he left the plane, during a storm, about 20 miles northeast of: where the crumbled and weathered bills were found.
It is the nation's only unsolved hijacking.
"We'll work today and tomorrow and probably knock it off and bring my troops back up here and reassess the situation," said Jack Pringle, assistant agent In charge of the Seattle office which took over the search operations.
"Some of the area is inaccessible and there's no way we can search the whole river," Pringle said.
s. - He said geologist Leonard Palmer of Portland State University concluded that the dredging operation in 1974 did not put the money onto the beach, because the bills were found above clay deposits put on the
- He said geologist Leonard Palmer of Portland State University concluded that the dredging operation in 1974 did not put the money onto the beach, because the bills were found above clay deposits put on the banks by the dredge.
Brian Ingram, when scooping out a place for a campfire, found the money, tied together by rubber bands in three clumps, under a thin layer of sand.
The bills were matched to the Cooper loot by serial numbers.
Seite-Ca. Union Near paper- Friday JV 150/50
SUB B 164-81-8244 DB Cooper-26297SUB 386, B-
PHOTOGRAPH OF MOCOY IN ARMY SHIRT.
DB Cooper-26306
SUB B. 1621-81-8462;SUB. 386, B
THIS NEWSPAPER PHOTO OF MCCOY RETOUCHED 4/11/72 TO SHOW SUNGLASSES WORN BY
DIE COOPER 8 POLMAIO COPIES TO SeHurz)
DB Cooper-26307
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(Mount Clipping in Space Below) "
Skyjacker Killed at Beach
SUB 386, B
Assoc. Dir. Dep .- A.D .- Adm. Dry .. A.D .- Ing, Asst. Dir .; Admin. Comp. Syst Ext. falls I ax Com C
Inspection In :. 1 !.
L. Usratory Pian. & EveLyc. Spec. Jav. Training Leyal Coun. Telephone Rm. Director Sed'y
: BY DAVE RILEY
VIRGINIA BEACH (AP) -- Richard Floyd McCoy and Melvin Dale.
Telephone Rm. Director Sed'y
: BY DAVE RILEY
VIRGINIA BEACH (AP) -- Richard Floyd McCoy and Melvin Dale. Walker kept to themselves when they were. staying in the ranch-style house they rented in a peaceful sub- division here.
Neighbors had little contact with the two, except for an oc .. casional passing greeting or a friendly wave as McCoy jogged through the neighborhood. One of the men once offered to help fix a neighbor's car.
Then late Saturday night, FBI agents swooped down on the rented house after three days of. surveillance. Shots were fired. McCoy was killed and Walker arrested.
'THEY SEEMED SO NICE'
"I just can't believe it. They seemed so nice," said one neighbor after discovering that McCoy was a convicted sky- jacker who once bailed out of a jetliner with $500,000 ransom and that Walker was a bank rob- [ ber on the FBI's 10-mostwanted list.
MELVIN WALKER . In Custody
Federal agents say the men were using the house in the quiet middle class neighborhood a few miles from the oceanfront as an occasional hideout.
In Custody
Federal agents say the men were using the house in the quiet middle class neighborhood a few miles from the oceanfront as an occasional hideout.
, Both had been the objects of a
AP Wirephetor
RICHARD F. MCCOY . Deod in Incident
nationwide manhunt since they fled from a federal prison In a rain of gunfire three months ago.
FBI agents were staked out inside the rented house and
(Indicate page, name of newspaper, cily and stato.)
PAGE
4
RICHMOND NEWS LEADER RICHMOND, VA.
Date: 11-11-74 Edition:EVENING
Author: DAVE RILEY
Editor: JOHN E. LEARD Title: RICHARD MC COY
b6
ter: b7C
HOT RECORDER
Classification:
Submitting Office: RICHMOND
185 ULU 23 1574 Being Investigated
FILE
91
51 DECOF 1974
6790
DB Cooper-26308
SUB B 16-1-81-8460 WINTER HAVEN
new miracles
Page 9A
Vol. 69 -- No. 99
A Multimedia Newspaper
1179 AP file photo
Janssen dies
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (UPI) - Screan actor-TV star David ‹ Janssen died of a massive heart attack at his Malibu Beach home today. He was 40 ::
I' A family spokesman said the dark-haired star of the TV series, "The Fugitive" and, more 'recently, "Harry O,'% suffered
He was 40 ::
I' A family spokesman said the dark-haired star of the TV series, "The Fugitive" and, more 'recently, "Harry O,'% suffered a coronary attack about 4 a.m. and was taken to Santa Monica porgopcy hospital wherecho pronounced dead:
His long-time friend and fellow actor, Stuart Whitman; was among the first to know of his death this morning when he .' drove past the Janssen's beach- home at 4:30 a.m. to find paramodic and fire trucks parked nt thị hôtes
Hey, D.B. Cooper.
Weround your
Youth digs now in trying to locate D.B. Cooper or any remains that might be in the area," he said.
Harold told report preparing a up and said He raked a I there it was.
rotting bills
The money was discovered Sunday by young Brian- Ingram beneath a layer of sand . as' his family picnicked along the Columbia, five miles northwest of Vancouver, Wash.
'See C(
out of sand
By BOB BAUM Associated Press Writer
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- An & year-old boy has uncovered part of a ransom missing since the only unsolved bijacking in U.S. history - but officials say the whereabouts of the legendary sky pirate D.
(AP) -- An & year-old boy has uncovered part of a ransom missing since the only unsolved bijacking in U.S. history - but officials say the whereabouts of the legendary sky pirate D.B. Cooper are still a matter of conjecture.
The three bundles of westhered $20 bills found along the Columbia River . are . thoi.first evidence uncovered since- Thanksgiving eve 1971, when Cooper bailed out of a jet over southwestern Washington with $200,000 tied to his waist;
It was the first case of a hijacking for money.
The FBI on Tuesday identified the cash through serisi numbers. Bill Baker, special agent In charge of the Portland FBI office, sald the
=
SUB B-
16-1-81-8358
1
INDEXED
2 SEARCHED SERIALIZED ._ FILED
APR2 0 1380
FBI . SEATTLE
b6 b7C
SUB B, M,
DB Cooper-26311ev. 12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
Curse of D. B. ® CooperSiBs BC E.G.M
HQ
(Indiente page, name of 'spaper, city and state.) p. A3 Post-Intelligencer Seattle, Wa.
Date:
3/20/80
Edition:
Final
Title:
Character:
or
b6
Classification:
b7C
Submitting Office: Seattle
Misfortune Dogs the Family That Found Part of Skyjacker's Money
By Michael Sweeney
Harold Dwayne_Ingram, 28, father of the &year-old boy who
Title:
Character:
or
b6
Classification:
b7C
Submitting Office: Seattle
Misfortune Dogs the Family That Found Part of Skyjacker's Money
By Michael Sweeney
Harold Dwayne_Ingram, 28, father of the &year-old boy who found part of skyjacker D.B. Cooper's ransom money last month, has been arrested in Vancouver, Wash., on a fugitive warrant from Oklahoma.
The warrant charges Ingram with unlawfully remov. ing mortgaged property from the state of Oklahoma - a felony charge that carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison.
Clari: County sheriff's deputies arrested Ingram at his rented home in Vancouver Monday afternoon. He was released Tuesday night after a local bail bondsman posted Ingram's $500 bail, sheriff's deputies said.
Kathy Kelly, a legal assistant in the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney's office, said Ingram is scheduled to appear in county district court April 17 for an identification hearing to determine if he is, in fact, the seme Harold Ingram sought in Oklahoma.
If he is, Kelly said, Oklahoma authorities will have 60
W
HAROLD INGRAM: "This is no big thing. At least I hope it's not."
days to file extradition papers to force Ingram's return to Oklahoma for trial.
At least I hope it's not."
days to file extradition papers to force Ingram's return to Oklahoma for trial.
Kelly said court documents filed by authorities in .; Pittsburg County, Okla,, last April charge that Ingram "owed 3618 then en a used car purchased a month earlier in NeAlester .. Olla.
1
The warrant for Ingram's arrest was filed last montis. after Pittsburg County District Attorney Don Roberts recognized newspaper photos of Ingram that circulated nationwide in the wake of his family's discovery of a portion of D.B. Cooper's foot.
Cooper parachuted into a freezing rainstorm over, Southwest Washington with $200,000 after hijacking a Seattle-bound Northwest Airlines plane Nov. 24, 1971.
Ingram's son, Brian, unearthed several thousand do !- lars of the ransom money Feb. 10, as he dug a fire pit in the sand along the banks of the Columbia River down- stream from Vancouver.
The next day, Ingram turned the money over to the FBI, which announced the find with great fanfare at a press conference featuring the Ingram family.
The next day, Ingram turned the money over to the FBI, which announced the find with great fanfare at a press conference featuring the Ingram family.
"Several of us read the paper and recognized bim,' Roberts told The Associated Press. "We had a warrant sworn out to have him brought back."
Ingram's arrest is the latest in a string .of reversals that have followed bis family's brief glow in the lime-y light.
. Two weeks after the money was discovered, Ingram's: wife, Patricia, reported that her husband was forced to give up 1'% days of pay -- about $100 - in order to
return the money and attend the FBI's press conference. "We live from paycheck to paycheck, and we could sure use that $100," she told The Post-Intelligencer at the time.
. 'Mrs. Ingram told The P-I that recovery of the skyjack loot also resulted in family strife that arose when a relative tried to take credit for finding the money.
Late Saturday night. about 35 hours before Ingram' was arrested, a fire broke out in an upstairs bedroom of the Ingram home and caused $1.000 damage before : Vancouver firefighters could put it out.
about 35 hours before Ingram' was arrested, a fire broke out in an upstairs bedroom of the Ingram home and caused $1.000 damage before : Vancouver firefighters could put it out.
Vancouver Fire Marshal Gordon Gage said the blaze was caused by a short in an extension cord.
. And as of yesterday, Ingram had missed three days of ; work this week at the U-Cart Concrete Manufacturing Co. in Vancouver. : "We're trying to reach him, because we really want to help him," U.Cart owner Joe Tanner said yesterday. Tanner said his firm intends to advance Ingram the money "to get this thing in Oklahoma squared away.
"We think he's getting a bum rap," Tanner said. "I'm from Texas, and I've got a little knowlege about" these Southern redneck laws that let a D.A. help busi -; nessmen collect their debts," he said.
"I've been'told be (Ingram) has been making pay- ments on this car loan, and he's only a couple_oft payments behind," Tanner said.
$57
DB Cooper-26312
SUB B 164-81-8326 SEARCHED DATE SERIALIZED " FILO 2 193 FBI - SEATTLE Toner
COPY SENT TO BUREAUFD-350
12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
Worst may be over
(Ir "cate page, name of paper, city and state.
SEARCHED DATE SERIALIZED " FILO 2 193 FBI - SEATTLE Toner
COPY SENT TO BUREAUFD-350
12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
Worst may be over
(Ir "cate page, name of paper, city and state.) Columbian Vancouver, Wa.
p.AL
Date:
3/21/80
Edition:
Final
Title! -Morjak
Character: or Classification: Submitting Office: Seattle
By CYNTHIA TANK Columbian Staff Writer
"I hate to think the thoughts people will be thinking about me all over the United States," said Harold Dwayne Ingram as he sat in his boss's office Thursday afternoon.
The 28-year-old Vancouver resident said he now regrets his 8-year-old son. Brian's finding of D.B. Cooper's hijack ransom money last month.
"I regret it for myself, but not for Brian," who, he said, has enjoyed all the attention.
Brian and his family made national headlines after a family outing on a Columbia River beach near Vancouver Feb. 10 turned into a major media and FBI event. Brian was preparing a campfire when he scooped out about $5,000 of the $200,000 Cooper had demanded and received before jumping out of an airliner in 1971.
Since last month Ingram has:
O Lost 11/2 days pay - about $100 - in ; order to return the money and attend an FBI
Since last month Ingram has:
O Lost 11/2 days pay - about $100 - in ; order to return the money and attend an FBI press conference.
&: @ Watched as a fire caused about $1,000 damage to the upper floor of his home at 1500 Markle St. Saturday.
Been arrested Monday on an Oklahoma warrant alleging he left that state unlawfully
with mortgaged property ~ a car.
Officials in Oklahoma said they recognized Ingram from newspaper photographs that appeared after the famous find. Ingram had been wanted for about six months before the story first appeared in the paper, they said.
The warrant was issued because Ingram allegedly is behind in payments for his car.
"I have every receipt," Ingram said Thursday. "I don't have a payment due on that car until the 20th of next month."
"I feel confused, really confused," Ingram said Thursday. "And I feel pretty unlucky. I'm not angry; I'm kind of hurt. I really care what people think about me."
Ingram said he bought his car from a new car salesman, paid $200 or $300 down, and arranged for financing.
"
Ingram said he bought his car from a new car salesman, paid $200 or $300 down, and arranged for financing. He said he notified the finance company when he and his family moved here from Oklahoma last winter.
His arrest Monday was an unhappy surprise, he said.
"I had no idea I had a warrant on me," he said. "That's obvious, or I wouldn't be flashing my face all over the world."
He might have been late with a payment or two, he said, "but rich people do that, too, don't they?"
But things were looking up for Ingram
today. His boss and attorney, Joe Tanner, said this morning he has been told by the' Pittsburg County, Okla., district attorney that; that office now has verification of Ingram's car payments. Ingram, in fact, is paid ahead . to July on the car, Tanner said.
Tanner said a few details need to be worked out, but when they are the district attorney has told him the charges will be dropped. That will not occur until Monday, Tanner said he was told. The district attorney . was unavailable for comment this morning.
That will not occur until Monday, Tanner said he was told. The district attorney . was unavailable for comment this morning.
As for Ingram's other bad fortune, just before midnight Saturday, two bedrooms, on the upper floor burned, and his landlord - who bailed him out of jail Tuesday - started remodeling the next day. .
Tanner, vice president of U-Cart Concrete Systems Inc. of Vancouver, where Ingram is employed, said the company is behind him. Tanner, a lawyer, said he will represent Ingram without charge.
Until the charges against him are dropped, Ingram faces an April 17 identification? hearing in Clark County District Court.
"These people are great here," Ingram said of his fellow employees. "They want to. back me 100 percent."
"He's been treated unfairly," Tanner said. .
b6 b7C
SUBS: B, C , E.G.M
SUB B 16-1-81-8375
SEARCHED 11
INDEXED SERIALIZED 21 FILED
MAR 2 4 1980 FBI - SEATTLE
8
DB Cooper-26314
FBI/00JFD-36 dev, 5-22-78)
FBI
CLASSIFICATION: Teletype
TRANSMIT VIA: PRECEDENCE: Immediate TOP SECRET Facsimile Priority
11
INDEXED SERIALIZED 21 FILED
MAR 2 4 1980 FBI - SEATTLE
8
DB Cooper-26314
FBI/00JFD-36 dev, 5-22-78)
FBI
CLASSIFICATION: Teletype
TRANSMIT VIA: PRECEDENCE: Immediate TOP SECRET Facsimile Priority Routine SECRET AIRTEL CONFIDENTIAL UNCLAS E F TO UNCLAS
Date
3/17/80
TO:
SAC, SEATTLE
FROM:
WAS62
SAC, SAN FRANCISCO (164-220) (Sq.10) (P)
SUBJECT :
NORJAK
00: SEATTLE
SUBS: B; C, G, J, M.R
Re San Francisco telephone call to Seattle, dated
3/5/80.
Being forwarded to the Seattle Office is one copy each of the following:
A letter dated 2/20/80 from
showing a xerox copy of a twenty dollar bill marked exhibit "A".
xerox copy of a letter dated 3/6/80 to the FBI
from and a copy of an article captioned"Take the money and jump-how he foiled FBI" dated May 12-18-Berkeley Barb.
As mentioned in referenced telephone call the San Francisco Office contacted after the receipt of his first letter of 2/20/80. stated that he had obtained the plate of the twenty dollar bill which was published in the Berkeley Barb sometime in November, 1972.
2) -Seattle (Enc.
stated that he had obtained the plate of the twenty dollar bill which was published in the Berkeley Barb sometime in November, 1972.
2) -Seattle (Enc. 2) 2 -San Francisco DJB/ jab
SUBB
164-81-8321 SEARCHED INDEKED SERIALIZED 7
MAR 2 0 1980
Approved:
Transmitted
(Numbor) (Time)
Per 7
DB Cooper-26316
b6 b7C
b6 b7C
b6 b7C% ACADEMIC PUBLISHING, INC. Box 27 Berkeley, California 94701 A NON-PROFIT ACADEMIC SERVICE
20 February 1980
Federal Bureau of Investigation . 450 Golden Gate Avenue San Francisco California .
The following purports to be a copy of one of the twenty dollar bills taken by skyjacker "D.B. Cooper" when he jumped from a 727 on 24 November 1971.
I wonder whether the serial numbers correspond to any of the stolen currency.
. Se. F-164-220 EAUCHED / LANDEXED
Kanninnate
FED & £ 1390 b6
b7C
SCO
2
EXHIBIT "A"
ADD STATES
THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDCA FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBUC AND PRIVATE
L 51279635 A WASHINGTON, D.C.
12
12
L
Dx
L 51279635 A
12 Agences
12
3
SUBB 164-81-8320 164,220-1-15
DB Cooper-26318
OF AMERICAACADEMIC PUBLISHING, INC. Box 27 Berkeley, California 94701 A NON-PROFIT ACADEMIC SERVICE
6 March 1980
FBI Seattle Operations
Box 27 Berkeley, California 94701 A NON-PROFIT ACADEMIC SERVICE
6 March 1980
FBI Seattle Operations Office c/o SF/FBI
b6 b7C
Here is a copy of page 11 of the May 12, 1972 alledged interview with D.B. Cooper.
Confirmation of the serial number on the reproduced bill will form the basis of a short item in a magazine article I have submitted.
I would like to know of any further confirmation or disputation of the details in the enclosed article.
I may be reached c/o the above address, b6 b7C
trstru ly.
DB Cooper-26319
SUBB 16-1-81-8319TAKE THE MONEY AND JUMP
MAY 12-18 BERKELEY BARB PAGE 11
HOW HE FOILED FBI
SUBB 64-81-8318
DB Cooper-26320
0
Last November24th, a man identifying himself as 'D.B. Cooper' parachutedfrom a Northwest Orient slines. 727 jetliner between Seattle and Reno Nevada ith a parcel containing 10,000 twenty dollar bills which was the ransom money that had been delivered to him while he held the planes crew hostage at the Seattle- Tacoma international airport.
The F.B.I. and other state and local law enforcement agents assisted by companies of G.
that had been delivered to him while he held the planes crew hostage at the Seattle- Tacoma international airport.
The F.B.I. and other state and local law enforcement agents assisted by companies of G.L.'s from Fort Lewis have futilly wasted many hours and thousands of tax- payers dollars looking for cooper.
So far Cooper has successfully eluded his following in the same ingenious manner that he pulled off his skyjack caper, cooly staying a safe distance away from danger.
The F.B.L. headquaters'in Seattle has vowed to ser- .. utinize every foot of land between the Sea-Tac airport . and Reno to turn up clues in the case.
Despite rewards of 5,000 dollars-by the Medias " Fink on your Friends" programe the public has generally granted Cooper adoration and somewhat a hero status.
An anonymous interviewer from the twice weekly spaper the 'Seattle Flag' has produced a story from Laped interview with D.B. Cooper which is validated by the, presentation of one of the recorded twenty dollar " bills Included in the ransom money. .
This story was run in the 'Flag' because the inter- . viewer was unable to send It to the 'Post-Intellingener' because they had the 5,000 dollar reward out for
viewer was unable to send It to the 'Post-Intellingener' because they had the 5,000 dollar reward out for Coopers head also television stations would have requested a tape from which voice prints could possible be produced." Therefore, running the story in the Flag was the only . solution. '
Cooper 'said that the witnesses description were off by @bout fifteen pounds and a couple of inches. Also that the artist's impression were very poor. When asked why we was stil in Washington state he added that he felt It was safer to hide where no one would imagine him to bo rather then to go to some place like Mexico or South America where the authoritieswould naturally expect him to go.
He said he started ach.al work on his skyjacking plan last June . The Sina + I come to him while he was
It was a calculated risk that's why he jumped in bad weather and at night, also he waited a little longer than usual before pulling his ripcord. Adding that his free fall was about 5,000 of the total 7,000 feet. Which was very risky doing at night.
Adding that his free fall was about 5,000 of the total 7,000 feet. Which was very risky doing at night.
He came down about a hundred miles away from S. W .. Washington contrary to the F.B.L. report that he touched down near Vancouver. Washington.
The first thing he did ou landing was bury his chute,. : he was within five miles of where he had intended in an evergreen wooded terrain. He credited this .accuracy to his projected calculations and his japanese watch. He wouldn't say whether he had an accomplice on the. ground. He said he had lived in Seattle and had once.
two parachutes he had ordered. A stewardess came back with the money in a canvas bag to where couler was holding another stewardess as hostage in the rear of the passenger cabin.
Cooper checked out the loot, first thing and noticed that they reeked of duplicating flud. Then the stewardess made two more trips out on to the run way to bring in the chutes.
. Then one of the fuel trucks pulled up ... then he ord- ered the passengers off the plane, and everyone else into the cockpit .
Then one of the fuel trucks pulled up ... then he ord- ered the passengers off the plane, and everyone else into the cockpit ... a middle-aged, executive looking man
started to push his way back through the Line into the tourist cabin. Cooper tensed up expecting the guy to try something heroic - but he had just left his briefcase on his seat and was retrieving It .. .
20
EXHIBIT
OF AMERICAC
20
&D STATES
THIS HOME IS REGAL TEXDER FOR ALL OUSTS, PUBUC AND PRIVATE
L 51279635 A
12
WASHINGTON, D.C.
L
12
L 51279635 A 12 Ascanner
QUENUL DOLLARS
worked at Beoing's on the construction of the first Boeing 727 in 1963 and got to know the 727 from the . inside out.
The reason he was attracted to the plan was the alignment of the three Pratt & Whitney engines two on the sides of the rear fuselage and the third at the base of the T-tall. assembly. Also the down-flaps stalling speed. One hundred .. . .. .. ... . . ... ..... ......... .. ...
He figured if the F.B.L. was going to make a move it would be at Sea-Tac. Everybody but the stewardess he was holding "hostage and the three man crew was clear of the plane.
Everybody but the stewardess he was holding "hostage and the three man crew was clear of the plane. Buzzing the cockpit he asked the captain whotite hold-up was. Trouble with the vapor lock was the answer. And another truck was coming. Cooper told the Captain: "Not more than one fuel truck at a F1 350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
¡FBI geologist favors Washougal River
(Indica!', "ge, name of newspaper, city and state.)
De. 15, The Columbian Vancouver, "a. Date: 2/16/20 Edition:
Title:
Character: 1.64-81
or
Classification:
Submitting Office:
SE
landing for D.B. /SUBS: B, E, G, M,
By MYRON STRUCK States News Service WASHINGTON - Did D.B. Cooper land in, or near, the Washougal River rather than the Lewis River?
In the personal opinion of the chief FBI. geologist who worked on the case, D.B. Cooper may have landed in the Washougal River, not near the Lewis River where it had been. presumed that he came to earth -
, before about $5,800 in compressed, wet and eroded money was found along the banks of the Columbia River in February upstream from the Lewis.
presumed that he came to earth -
, before about $5,800 in compressed, wet and eroded money was found along the banks of the Columbia River in February upstream from the Lewis.
The Washougal River scenario is the private view of geologist Chris Fiedler, who handled the soil analysis on the money, and not part of the agency's official report to the Seattle field office coordinating the
investigation.
Still, it seems to be the only clue -- that might help the investigation the FBI was able to glean from a recert analysis of the bills in its Washington, D.C., research area known as The Laboratory.
The official report says little was found on the wad of money. The basis for the new information is Fielder's research of the sand particles found
among the bills and his discussions with federal geologists in the field.
Hle has concluded that the range of sind particles found among the bills ill similar to sedinient along the Columbia River and a number of its tributaries.
Fiedler's opinion has been disavowed firmly by his mineralogy division section chief.
"He could have landed in the
Columbia River," Fiedler said.
Fiedler's opinion has been disavowed firmly by his mineralogy division section chief.
"He could have landed in the
Columbia River," Fiedler said. "Or he could have come down in the Washougal. The latter is where my; training, and instincts, tell me isj more likely, based on the data I have available."
The sand tests involve little in the way of complicated equipment - only a simple microscope and some geological reference material that discuses the characteristics of sand
w
#5€
SUB B
164-81-8315
b7C
SEARCHED ..... . JINCEXSD b6 SERIALIZED ....... .. FILED 4 :112 19 1900 FBI , SEATTLE 1
COPY SENT TO BUREAU FDI/ DOJ
DB Cooper-26322PD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
HQ (Mount Clipping in Space Below)
Discovered 'Cooper' bills only
$5,800, says F.B.I.
VANCOUVER, Wash, - (AP) - The crumbling remains of $20 bills unearthed by a Vancouver family more than two weeks ago - "represents about $5,800 of the $200,000 taken in the 1971 D.B. Cooper skyjacking, the Federal Bureau of Investigation says. Ray Mathis, senior agent, said officials
counted the decaying greenbacks during F.
Cooper skyjacking, the Federal Bureau of Investigation says. Ray Mathis, senior agent, said officials
counted the decaying greenbacks during F.B.I. laboratory tests in Washington, D.C. Otis Cox of the bureau's Washington, D.C., office said little else has been revealed about the money. Lab technicians continue to study sthe loot, particularly for evidence of where it jinight have been before it washed up on the banks of the Columbia River, Otis said. The lumpy wads of money were found buried In shallow sand west of here.
The fate of Cooper, America's first sky- jacker-for-money, has never been learned, al -! though the F.B.I. maintains he is probably long dead.
(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) Settle Times Seattle, Wa.
p.B7
Date:
2/29/80
Edition:
AM
Title: .
Character:
or
Classification:
Submitting Office: Seattle
JUSSIBIE, G.M.
#5€
SUB Bass b7C
164-81-8379
SEARCHED .FILED u1 SERIALIZED D NCEXED.
MAR 3 1980 EBI . SEATTLE
COPY SENT TO BUREAU
FBI/DOJ
DB Cooper-26324 WASHINGTON
Columbia River
Longview
Suspected Bailout.
SEATTLE
COPY SENT TO BUREAU
FBI/DOJ
DB Cooper-26324 WASHINGTON
Columbia River
Longview
Suspected Bailout. Site
Kelso
OREGON
Kalama
Woodland,
Lako Menvin
CANADA
Money Found Here
WASHINGTON
Vancouver Lake Vancouver
Vancouver
Portland
Portland
FBI agents comb Columbia River bank near Vancouver for additional money or clues to the fate of airline hijacker D.B. Cooper.
AP Photo Newsday Map-
7
Ą
Y
184
(In ne
by 80
Rotting Cash a Clue To 1971 Hijacking
The Los Angeles Times
Washington-A young Vancouver, Wash., family on an outing along the Columbia Riv- er Sunday suddenly stumbled across 12 stacks of moldering money-part of $200,000 that notorious airline hijacker D.B. Cooper had made off with more than eight years ago, the FBI said yesterday.
With the bills traced to the Cooper loot, 30 agents from the Portland and Seattle FBI of- fices have begun a search of the area for more of the money-and possibly some sign of Cooper or, more likely, his remains.
The family found the money-"several thousand dollars," according to one official- about five miles northwest of the Interstate 5 bridge that
The family found the money-"several thousand dollars," according to one official- about five miles northwest of the Interstate 5 bridge that spans the Columbia and sepa- rates Washington from Oregon, FBI agent William M. Baker said in Portland. The bills were partly buried in sand that the family was scooping out to build a fire.
The discovery, by Harold Dwayne Ingram, 27, his wife, Patricia, 26, and their 8- and 3- year-old sons, marked the latest twist in the bizarre saga of the now-legendary .Cooper, who parachuted from a Northwest Airlines etliner on Thanksgiving Eve, 1971, never to be seen or heard from again.
Law enforcement authorites long have be-
lieved that Cooper died in his plunge from the Boeing 727, because he was wearing only a business suit and street shoes when he jumped into a howling wind and freezing . rain with an unreliable parachute,
The saga began when Cooper boarded the jetliner in Portland for a flight to Seattle. Once airborne, he demanded that the airline have $200,000 in $20 bills and three para- chutes on hand when the plane landed in Se- attle.
Once airborne, he demanded that the airline have $200,000 in $20 bills and three para- chutes on hand when the plane landed in Se- attle. He threatened to blow up the plane if . his demands were not met. The airline com- plied, providing the parachutes and money. The FBI said yesterday that the serial num- bers of the bills had been recorded.
Cooper permitted the airliner's 36 passen- gers to leave the plane in Seattle. He then ordered the crew to head for Reno and told the pilot to fly at a relatively low altitude and open the plane's rear stairway.
Crew members said they believed he " jumped, using the least reliable parachute, . over southwest Washington. Law enforce- ment officials have theorized that his body is in Lake Merwin, 30 miles north of Port- land, or entangled in thick bushes. The de- composed money was found 17 to 20 miles from what is believed to have been the" jump site.
DB Cooper-26325
AP Photo
Stacks of rotting $20 bills
found near the Oregon-
identified as part of the loot Washington border were paid to a vanished hijacker known only as D.
DB Cooper-26325
AP Photo
Stacks of rotting $20 bills
found near the Oregon-
identified as part of the loot Washington border were paid to a vanished hijacker known only as D.B. Cooper.
A Clue to a 71 Crime
Newsday Front Pass 2/13/80 Page 1
Newsday 2-13-80 Pp 1 $4
NY file Date: Edition: AuMl
764-6.27 Title:
Character: of
Classification:
Submitting Office: Being Investigated
SABB
164-81-8277FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
HQ
(Indicate page, name of Ispaper, city and state.) Seattle Times Seattle, Wa.
p.A8
Date:
3/2/80
Edition:
Sunday
Agent in D.B. Cooper case retires
Title:
Character:
or
Classification:
Submitting Office:
Seattle
PORTLAND - For more than; -eight years, Ralph Himmelsbach,į i , an agent with the Federal Bureau] of Investigation, followed a nar-f; row trail of clues and tips in his . quest of a legendary hijacker called D.B. Cooper. But the first real break in the case didn't come. until Himmelsbach's F.B.I. career was drawing to a close.
After 29 years with the bureau, Himmelsbach retired as of Fri- day, a few months before he reaches the mandatory-retirement age of 55.
After 29 years with the bureau, Himmelsbach retired as of Fri- day, a few months before he reaches the mandatory-retirement age of 55.
Himmelsbach was the agent re- garded as the bureau's expert on the puzzling case that started , when the still unknown sky pirate - leaped from a Northwest Airlines 727 with 10,000 $20 bills and two parachutes on Thanksgiving Eve, 1971.
Nothing has been heard of Coo- per; and nothing was seen of the money until an 8-year-old boy found about $5,800 of it mixed in the sand along the Columbia River near Vancouver, Wash., February 10.
"It's been an interesting case and I have enjoyed the investiga-
tion because of the things that have happened," Himmelsbach said. "It altered my life because. of all the attention I have i received."
But, he added, "I think I'll walk away from it and it will never ¿ bother me."
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# 5 €
SUB-B- 164-81-8275
SEARCHED RECED. SERIALIZED FILED 0
FEB 2 9 1980 FBI - SEATTLE
COPY SENT TO BUREAU
DB Cooper-26326FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
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8€
Cooper book could blend fact, fantasy
L OOK FOR a book or two on D.
12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
8€
Cooper book could blend fact, fantasy
L OOK FOR a book or two on D.B. Cooper to show up in the next few weeks or months.
A news source claims a writer has secured documents on the case from the FBI through the Freedom of In- formation Act and hopes to weave a tale out of the sky- jacking that has kept people wondering for 81/2 years.
It wouldn't be surprising to see more than one author try to cash in on the recently rekindled publicity about the incident. Cashing in like that seems to be more in vogue these days than it was in 1971, when Cooper disap- peared.
Authors of those kinds of books often report theory and : supposition as well as fact. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between what the writers know and what they think or assume.
· Some authors make no bones about mixing fact and fantasy. Take .44, the semifiction book about the Son of Sam murders in New York by Jimmy Breslin and Diek Schaap. Breslin and Schaap admit in the foreword to the book that they changed the names of the characters and the sequence of events, and embellished
Breslin and Schaap admit in the foreword to the book that they changed the names of the characters and the sequence of events, and embellished on the story.
They graphically detailed what their deranged killer was thinking about, for example, but it was obviously what the authors thought the killer was thinking. Of course, it added greatly to the drama of the book.
Breslin and Schaap said the embellishmont was legitimate because they wanted to recreate the at- mosphere of the murders, to portray in fiction the gut- level realism of the crimes.
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(I-dicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) Do. At The Daily News Longvios, Va.
Date:
2/27/80
Edition:
'Title:
Character: 164-81 or Classification: Submitting Office: SE
Although the skyjacking was hardly as heinous a prime as a New York murder spree, that mixture of fact and fantasy might be what you'll see in the D.B. Cooper book, assunting there indeed is one in the making. The Cooper author would have an easy time cooking up a tale of where the hijacker came from and what happened to him, and the story could be quite readable.
The Cooper author would have an easy time cooking up a tale of where the hijacker came from and what happened to him, and the story could be quite readable.
If he has any trouble making up a story about who Cooper was or what happened to him, he could look piles of newspaper clippings that report on different people's theories on the subject. But with all the leads the FBI says it has tracked down, there can hardly be a lack of ideas about Cooper's fate.
As far as distinguishing fact from fantasy, we hope the newspapers have done their duty in labeling theories as what they are. It would be nice if any books on the matter did the same.
We probably can't take the word of anybody but Cooper himself on what actually took place. But although the FBI, which must track down every lead, might disagree. it sure is fun to guess about what happened to the old boy.
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F.B.I. says remains aren't D.
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F.B.I. says remains aren't D.B. Cooper's
VANCOUVER, Wash. - Human skeletal remains found in a rough : section of Southwest Washington are those of a teenage girl and not the bones of D.B. Cooper, the airline hijacker, said Federal Bureau of Investigation officials yesterday.
Special Agent John Pringle said Dr. Arch Hamilton, Clark County coroner, determined the skull found near the western boundary of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest belonged to a young girl.
Pringle said the girl's age or identity has not been determined.
The skull and other bones were found Sunday by Jack Bannister, of Yacolt, Clark County, and his son, Jack, as they were panning for gold about five miles from Yacolt, according to the Clark County sheriff's office.
While the sheriff's office said it didn't think the bones belonged to the famed hijacker, speculation had run high that the skull was Coo- per's because it was found in the general area where Cooper bailed out of a plane with $200,000.
While the sheriff's office said it didn't think the bones belonged to the famed hijacker, speculation had run high that the skull was Coo- per's because it was found in the general area where Cooper bailed out of a plane with $200,000.
' Cooper hijacked the plane in Seattle in November, 1971, after pick- ing up $200,000 and bailed out somewhere over Southwestern Washington.
No trace of Cooper had been found until a 8-year-old boy found some . of the $20 bills along the Columbia River two weeks ago. 3
(1 ite page, name of paper, city and state.) p. Cl Seattle Times Seattle, Wa.
Date:
2/27/80
Edition:
A. M.
Title:
Character:
or
Classification:
164-81
Submitting Office: Seattle
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No money, no fish Treasure hunters fail to find more Cooper loot
VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) When the fellas gather at Tena Bar, fish stories abound. Hardly anyone wants to talk about the D.B. Cooper money that got away.
Tena Bar isn't a local watering hote. It's a local fishing hole - and the sand bar on the Columbia River on which the D.
Tena Bar isn't a local watering hote. It's a local fishing hole - and the sand bar on the Columbia River on which the D.B. Cooper loct was found recently.
For awhile, all sorts of people gathered at the bar to search for some of the $200.000 ranson money taken by Cooper in the nation's first hijacking-for-profit nine years ago, after a toy found weathered packets of $20 bills in the sand.
On Wednesday, however, the only evidence of last week's frantic search of the beach by FBI agents were mounds of sand turned up by the searchers.
"We haven't seen anybody," said Bill Holcomb, a Vancouver resident and frequenter of Tena Bar.
Holcomb was fishing there with Virgil Nichols and Ken Troupe, both of Vancouver. The trio made up the entire fishing population of Tena Bar on Wednesday.
"We drag junk out of this river every day. Plastic, old shoes, things like that." said Nichols. "But never any money."
"There may be money here, but there's no fish," Holcomb sald.
: A long trench on the beach dug for use by river experts studying the layers of sand has been refilled, as has the large hole around the spot where
: A long trench on the beach dug for use by river experts studying the layers of sand has been refilled, as has the large hole around the spot where 8-year-old Brian Ingram found the Cooper money. Cooper hi- jacked a Northwest Airlines plane in 1971.and jumped from the back of. the jet with $200,000.
The Fazio Brothers, who own the beach next to their farming opera-
tion, seem glad it's over.
""As soon as the FBI left Friday, said Richard Fazio, "Two people came, got stuck in the sand, ai'd wanted me to pull them out. I dal, and then I went up to close the gate.".
Meanwhile, local FBI agents assigned to the case are awaiting the results of tests of the money by the bureau's crime lab in Washington, D.C., and checking all the leads that invariably crop up when anything to. do with the Cooper case is publiciz- ed.
"Every time you have anything yn the Cooper case that gets any publicity, the fallout is a great number of leads -- look-a-like leads,
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(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.)
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"Every time you have anything yn the Cooper case that gets any publicity, the fallout is a great number of leads -- look-a-like leads,
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(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.)
Page Bl The Daily News Longview, "a.
Date: 2/92/80 Edition:
Title:
Character: 164-81 or
Classification: Submitting Office: SE SUB B-
164-81-8369

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Punk or Paradox, the Legend Lives On
By Darrell Bob Houston
I walked into the airport book- store, vowing that this would be my, last D. B. Cooper gimmick.
I waited until the clerk was busy. Then -- at eye level - I placed three copies of my skyjack novel on a dis- play rack. D. B.'s face, masked as al-
ways by the world's most famous sun- glasses, stared back from the covers.
My heart was pounding. They ar- rest people for ripping books off. But what about ripping them on? D. B. Cooper's picture at a Northwest airport!
They ar- rest people for ripping books off. But what about ripping them on? D. B. Cooper's picture at a Northwest airport! That's like Jimmy Carter bumper stickers in Tebran !.
I left the store, then made a new
entrance. I wanted to view the books with fresh eyes, see. them as a be- tween-planes passenger might.
I stared into those Victor Mature goggles. I felt, again, that there was nothing behind them; no eyebrows, no cynical gleam, no madman's wink. As always I was struck by the beauti- ful blandness of D. B.'s face. No, you
would not buy a used car from such a man. He'd give it to you, free.
His suitcoat was equally intriguing. A dark meshed knit, it bad a profes- sorial quality to it. I suspect it had leather elbow patches.
The knot of Cooper's tie is about the size of a prune. The tie is meage! and black. It is somewhat faded, as i
it had sunned for a long time in al pawnshop window.
Then I noticed something that had escaped me. There is a faint smile on D. B.'s lips. A quirk of the artist's pen, of course.
Then I noticed something that had escaped me. There is a faint smile on D. B.'s lips. A quirk of the artist's pen, of course. The likeness is only a fac- simile after all. Stil .
A shrill female voice shattered my reverie.
"Sex and skyjacking! And a mon- ster like that awful D. B. Cooper! You should be ashamed."
The woman had confronted the clerk. She had a copy of my book in her hand. I noticed that in her anger she was flecking D. B.'s face with spit- tie.
: She slammed the book down. She! passed me on the way out. I was still admiring my literary efforts. 1
Pointing, the woman asked if I was going to buy "one of those."
"The Marquis de Sade," I said. "I'm looking for his complete works.".
CUR: B-
Anticipating her gasp, I added: ` "And a good clean family cook- ibook, of course.' She was not amused. "Do you mean you actually con- done that Cooper trash?"
"Of course not, madame," I re- plied. "All I did was write it."
The woman scurried off. I think she went after a security guard. I grabbed my skyjack books and ran.
"
The woman scurried off. I think she went after a security guard. I grabbed my skyjack books and ran.
When Buffalo Bill Cody fought his duel with Chief Yellow Hand, his combat outfit consisted of a Mexican suit of crushed black velvet. It was slashed with scarlet and trimmed with silver buttons and lace. Cody had so completely blended. the real and the theatrical that nobody - least of all' Bill himself - could tell where the actual ended and the dime novel be- gan.
The same thing happened during my quest for D. B. The facts that I had in my burgeoning Cooper file were not enough. I began to fantasize in the stories I wrote; but the more I fabri- cated the truer they sounded.
All I had to do was tap a type- writer key and the skyjacker would jump - any way I wanted him to. Many of the "facts" I propagated were repeated by other writers, and some- itimes by the authorities.
Even the intellectual readers were?
not immune to D. B.'s magic. Report: ing in a high-brow California magad zine, I told bow a lot of people up in Washington still think the hijacker was captured by the Sasquatch.
Report: ing in a high-brow California magad zine, I told bow a lot of people up in Washington still think the hijacker was captured by the Sasquatch.
The story was illustrated with a full-page color drawing of Bigfoot, looking somewhat bereft without Fay Wray, scattering ransom money to the wind. Behind him the visage of D. B., Cooper - a rocky outcropping formed his nose - was superimposed on the heights of Mount St. Helens. A string of sky-written clouds spelled out -$200,000.
My province was of the imagina- tion. But it was by no means an exclu- ¡sive domain.
Larry Feingold, a Seattle attorney and former FBI agent, bad his own Jantasy problem. To assuage it, he; planned to hold a reunion of the 36 passengers who were aboard Flight 305 with Cooper. Feingold was one off them .. .. .. ....
(Indhente page, name of per, city and state.) p. Al Post-Intelligencer Seattle, Wa.
Date:
2/16/80
Edition:
Final
Title:
NORJAK
Character:
or 164-81
Classification:
Submitting Office: Seattle
He wanted to find out how the experience had affected all those lives Personally, he felt haunted by the memory.
Date:
2/16/80
Edition:
Final
Title:
NORJAK
Character:
or 164-81
Classification:
Submitting Office: Seattle
He wanted to find out how the experience had affected all those lives Personally, he felt haunted by the memory.
"it's difficult now to separate fact from fantasy," Feingold said. "I'm no longer sure what I saw - and I was trained by the FBI. I think I got a : good, solid look at Cooper's face. Now I don't know.
"It was so quiet on the plane. Peo- ple were sleeping. It was like a subma- rine. Eerie, ghost-like. The whole thing is like some kind of flying dream from which none of us has yet .. awakened."
. For the past couple of years the D.B. front has been rather quiet. Peo- ple have occasionally asked me where I .; stashed all those unmarked twenties. I- have still registered at hotels as D.B. Cooper and every Thanksgiving Eve I have lifted a glass to my wraith-like benefactor.
Then, last Tuesday, came a phone . call from a friend.
"Take a deep breath, sit down in your chair - and hold onto the edges," be said. "Some kid down in .: Vancouver just found part of D. B.'s Ioot."
My first thought was: And some diver looking for abalone will find" Atlantis.
: Vancouver just found part of D. B.'s Ioot."
My first thought was: And some diver looking for abalone will find" Atlantis.
"What did the kid look like?"
"Imagine Huckleberry Finn in a bair of run-over Adidas," my friend said.
I hardly had to look at Brian In- gram's picture in the papers the next morning. I already knew him. In the movie script I had written, but never sold. he was D. B. Cooper as a lad. . Right down to the unruly hair and the gap in his front teeth.
One scone still comes through.
The boy has been left alone in a . boxcar with a band of hobos. His fa- ther misses the train as it pulls out of a bleak wintertime siding somewhery in Oklahoma.
The young D. B. sobs. He thinks Lie will never see his dad again. Sud? denly Old Man Cooper swings through , the boxcar doorway.
"How'd you do it, Pa?" the boy
YSE
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FBI agents wield rakes, shovels in 'treasure hunt'
(Indicate page, name of paper, city and stale.
12-5-78)
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FBI agents wield rakes, shovels in 'treasure hunt'
(Indicate page, name of paper, city and stale.> p.C1
Oregonian
Portland, Ore.
Date:
2/13/80
Edition:
Final
Title:
Character: or
Classification: Submitting Office: Seattle
Story on Page One also
By LESLIE L. ZAITZ of The Oregonian otaff
VANCOUVER, Wash. - Guernsey cattle and puzzled fishermen watched with curiosity Tuesday as 20 casually attired FBI agents combed the Columbia 'River shoreline near here, looking for . more of a hijacker's treasure.
The agerk's, working with garden .rakes and shovels, carefully sifted through the sand on what is known locally as Tena's Bar, a sloping beach about nine miles northwest of Vancou- ver. The beach is owned by New Co. lumbia Gardens Co., which operates a truck and dairy farm behind the beach.
What attracted the searchers was the find Sunday afternoon of a dozen bundles of worn $20 bills, part of the ransom paid more than eight years ago , to the legendary "Dan Cooper." A man using that name hijacked a Northwest Airlines jetliner in November 1971 and?
What attracted the searchers was the find Sunday afternoon of a dozen bundles of worn $20 bills, part of the ransom paid more than eight years ago , to the legendary "Dan Cooper." A man using that name hijacked a Northwest Airlines jetliner in November 1971 and? parachuted out of the aircraft with 211 pounds of cash totaling $200,000. .
The bundles on the beach were! found by 8-year-old Brian Ingram, who was helping his parents, Harold Dwayne and Patricia Ingram, build a fire for a picnic. The family, which moved to Vancouver recently from Oklahoma, had never heard of the man who was widely known at the time of his crime as D.B. Cooper.
Dorwyn Schreuder, the FBI agent `supervising the beach search, said the Ingrams put the money aside after dis. covering it. and continued with their 'picnic. They reported their discovery to the FBI on Monday.
The site, a popular fishing spot for. Vancouver residents, was guarded by agents Monday night and the search started about noon Tuesday.
Agents roped off a section of beach measuring roughly 150 yards long and 30 yards wide. All driftwood was re -. moved, and then began the laborious task of raking through sand at least 6 inches deep.
All driftwood was re -. moved, and then began the laborious task of raking through sand at least 6 inches deep.
The Ingrams' find had been about 6 inches. beneath the surface, Schreuder vsaid. FBI agents Tuesday afternoon found fragments of at least two other $20 bills. By late Tuesday, several more fragments had been found as deep as 3! feet below the surface.
"We'll be taking some heavy equip- ment, probably backhoes, in there Wednesday to dig deeper," said Bill Baker, assistant special agent in charge of the Portland FBI office.
Schreuder and other agents at the site said they still supported the long- held FBI theory that Cooper died in his parachuting attempt.
"He's probably not alive today," Schreuder said. "If he were, I think he'd be with his money."
The FBI initially was cautious about disclosing the precise location of the discovery. Operators of the farm said they knew something was unusual when several cars streamed along a road leading through the farmyard to the beach.
"We didn't know what it was about until we heard it on the radio," said one farm employee.
Operators of the farm said they knew something was unusual when several cars streamed along a road leading through the farmyard to the beach.
"We didn't know what it was about until we heard it on the radio," said one farm employee.
And three fishermen who routinely spend every day but Sundays fishing on the beach initially were confused and. then angry. ,
"These guys wouldn't tell us what "was going on," said Ken Davenport of Vancouver. "They asked us to move, but wouldn't tell us who they were or
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why.
Another fisherman, Mike Haddican of Vancouver, said they knew some. thing was up "because everybody was getting out of cars with shovels instead] of fishing poles."
The Guernsey . cows watched the beach show from their pens on a small bluff, scattering occasionally when hell -. copters chartered by news organiza- tions flew overhead.
Within an hour after the FBI an. . nounced where the money had been , found, private automobiles streamed : down Northwest Lower River Road, a narrow two-lane road leading to thel. farm. A Clark County sheriff's deputy, guarded the entrance, preventing thel public from getting to the beach.
A Clark County sheriff's deputy, guarded the entrance, preventing thel public from getting to the beach.
FBI agents were to remain on the scene overnight to keep out would-be treasure hunters.
The FBI said how much of the beach would be searched would be determined after the agency consulted with hy- drologists and others who could provide) expert advice about from where the money may have come.
Only half-joking, Schreuder said the agents "could search all the beach from here to Astoria."
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FBI calls off search for more hijack money
The FBI has, at least temporarily, called off its search along the Columbia River for more of the money obtained eight years ago by the airplane hijacker who used the name Dan Cooper.
Jack Pringle, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Seattle office, said, the search was called off late Thursday night after several days of sand-sifting produced no new evidence.
Jack Pringle, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Seattle office, said, the search was called off late Thursday night after several days of sand-sifting produced no new evidence. The; Seattle office has coordinated
search efforts in the Cooper caper, the only unresolved hijacking on record since it occurred in 1971. -
Pringle said search efforts might be. renewed next week, after the results of laboratory tests are received on the sev- eral thousand dollars in badly decayed $20 bill fragments found by a picnick- ing family Sunday about nine miles downstream from Vancouver.
He said there was a chance the tests "could find additional debris that might give us an idea where (the money) may have been" before it washed onto the river bank.
A geologist serving as consultant to . the FBI has said he believes the money had spent most of the past eight years underwater and was deposited on the sandy beach only within the past year. .
The Northwest Airlines plane was hijacked between Portland and Seattle by a man who said he had a bomb. The- -hijacker obtained $200,000 in $20 bills when the plane landed in Seattle and · then parachuted with the money over Southwest
The- -hijacker obtained $200,000 in $20 bills when the plane landed in Seattle and · then parachuted with the money over Southwest Washington.
The bills found Sunday represented the first trace of the hijacker or money since the Thanksgiving Eve hijack oc- curred. : :
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(Indicate page, name of
newspaper, city and state.)
Page A8 The Oregonian Portland, Or.
Date: 2/16/80
Edition:
Title:
Character:
164481
or
Classification:
Submitting Office:
SUB- B
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1 Cooper a hero or crook?
1
By Bud May The Daily News
If they ever create a hall of fame for lawbreakers, D.B. Cooper will certainly have an honored spot as the perpetrator of America's only unsolved skyjacking.
But does that make him a hero, or just a criminal pic- tured by some as a Robin Hood character who stymied the establishment?
The legendary man had few admirers among people whose opinions were solicited by The, Daily News today.
The legendary man had few admirers among people whose opinions were solicited by The, Daily News today.
An exception is Dave; Fisher, who operates the Ariel, Store and Tavern along with his wife, Laurel.
"I'll admit he's a crook, but like most of the people up here, I hope he got away and is on the loose. People here feel he put Ariel on the map, and we're kind of rooting for him." Fisher said.
Gordon Connell, a Kelso hardware store owner, disagrees.
"I think D.B. Cooper is a long way from being a hero. He is or was a common crook who stole someone else's money; and if he's found alive, he should be punished fully.
"I also think it's asinine that people form D.B. Cooper clubs, hold D.B. Cooper par- ties, print D.B. Cooper T- shirts and find other ways to glorify him," Connell said.
Conrad Bankson, principal at the Mint Valley School in Longview, has similar views.
"What he did was sensa- tional, but keep in mind that kidnapping and demanding ransom are serious crimes. If he's ever found alive, which I doubt, he should get the full penalty of the law.
"What he did was sensa- tional, but keep in mind that kidnapping and demanding ransom are serious crimes. If he's ever found alive, which I doubt, he should get the full penalty of the law."
Pausing, Bankson added, "If he's dead, perhaps nature provided the ultimate penal- ty."
John Hayes, operator of a service station in Kelso, had ¿nothing good to say about the man sought since bailing out! of a Northwest Orient Airlines: jet over the Lewis River areal, on Nov. 24, 1971.
"D.B. Cooper broke the law, and he sure doesn't deserve sympathy. I give him credit for being smart, but I still think he's a damn crook, and I hope he's brought to justice,' Hayes commented.
A Castle Rock housewife, Margaret Kotera, considers Cooper a man who risked the lives of innocent persons for personal gain.
"I don't admire him. When you take the law into your own . hands and endanger other peo- ple's lives you are no hero," she said.
Some citizens polled con- cede Cooper was a lawbreaker, but credit him with being a one-of-a-kind crook who made a lot of people, scratch their heads.
Norma Sewell of Kelso, a deputy clerk at the County Clerk's Office, characterized the skyjacker in that manner.
Norma Sewell of Kelso, a deputy clerk at the County Clerk's Office, characterized the skyjacker in that manner.
"He's an out and out crook, but he carried out his crime spectacularly, and he's baffI- sed some very good police 'minds for nearly nine years,' she said.
: Dick Wilson, plant manager at Longview Ice and Cold Storage, sees Cooper as a criminal whose crime brought . him endless publicity. .
"There's no doubt he was a crook, but he sure got a lot of advertising. Not everyone has a name on T-shirts," Wilson said.
Whatever his detractors isay, Cooper still has some fans.
1
i Minutes after Tuesday's an- nouncement that some of the ransom money had been found, a Portland parking garage attendant told this reporter, "I sure hope this doesn't mean he's dead. I've aways hoped he got away."
DE
SUB:B.
cate page, name of paper, city and state.) Daily News Longview, Wa.
p.BL
Date:
2/14/80
Edition:
Final
Title:
Character: or Classification: Submitting Office: Seattle
#5
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Date:
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Finder of Cooper loot gets frayed $20 bill
VANCOUVER, Wash. - Eight- year-old Brian Ingram, who found bun- dies of $20 bills last week but had to turn them over to authorities, has been given one by the FBI.
The boy jumped into the national spotlight Feb. 10 when he discovered several thousand dollars of the $200,000 ransom paid to skyjacker Dan Cooper in' 1971. The money, frayed around the edges, was identified by FBI agents who have been looking for Cooper since : he jumped from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane over Southwest Wash- ington.
The $20 was given to the boy by. Mike Heywood, Hough Elementary School PTA president.
around the edges, was identified by FBI agents who have been looking for Cooper since : he jumped from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane over Southwest Wash- ington.
The $20 was given to the boy by. Mike Heywood, Hough Elementary School PTA president. Accompanying the bill was a certificate praising the boy for his find.
Since finding the money, Brian and. his parents, H. Dwayne and Patricia, have been the subject of network televi -: sion newscasts and newspaper articles. Saturday night, the three were satirized on the "Weekend Update" segment of the weekly television show "Saturday. Night Live."
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(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.)
Page C2 The Oregonian Portland, Or.
Date: 2/19/80
Edition:
Title:
Character: 164-81
or
Classification: Submitting Office SUE B b6 b7C
164-51-8257
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FBI/ DOJ
DB Cooper-26336FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
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Geologist's finding contradicts theory
By Bud May The Dally News
A thorough search of a Columbia River beach where part of D.B. Cooper's ransom money was found Sunday has turned up no new clues as to the fate of the legendary skyjacker.
Cooper's ransom money was found Sunday has turned up no new clues as to the fate of the legendary skyjacker.
The FBI said today that the search will continue today and Fri; day, then probably be suspended temporarily.
Brought to the beach to aid in Wednesday's search were a" backhoe and a geologist.
The FBI said the backhoe was used to dig a trench near the discovery site, making possible a study of the layers to sand.
An associate professor of geology at Portland State University, Leonard Palmer, was retained to inspect the sand and to assist in- vestigators in determining when the bundled money may have been: , deposited there.
Palmer, to the surprise of some authorities, concluded that the money was deposited on the beach in the past year or two because it Was above clay deposits put on the beach in a 1974 channel dredging operation.
According to the FBI, a coarse layer of sand sloped from a height of about six inches at the river's edge to two feet or more some distance up the river bank.
Earlier, Ralph Himmelsbach, a Portland FBI agent who has had charge of following new leads in the
Earlier, Ralph Himmelsbach, a Portland FBI agent who has had charge of following new leads in the Cooper case for a number of tyears, said he believed the money must have been deposited within a couple of years after the skyjacking.
He says discovery of the money provided a major break in the case, but puts authorities no closer to locating Cooper, whom Him- melsbach believes is dead.
Agents say the money was tied to Cooper when he bailed out of the plane, but was no longer with him when it was deposited on the. beach.
If it had still been attached to his body at the bottom of the river when the channel was dredged in 1974, the body would have clogged up the dredge and have been found, agents believe.
Jack Pringle, assistant agent in charge of the Seattle FBI Office, told The Daily News this morning that small bits and pieces of $20 bills were located Wednesday when agents continued digging in sand surrounding the spot where a Vancouver family discovered money Sunday.
The Harold Dwayne Ingram family was on an outing north and west of Vancouver when their 8-year-old son, Brian,
The Harold Dwayne Ingram family was on an outing north and west of Vancouver when their 8-year-old son, Brian, uncovered several thousand dollars in decomposed bills.
Ingram contacted the Portland FBI Office, and a check of serial numbers conclusively established that the money was part of $200,000 in $20 bills Cooper had when he bailed out of a Northwest Orient Airlines jet over the Lewis River area on Nov. 24, 1971.
Pringle said the area was still being searched today, but no news evidence had been located as of this forenoon.
"Some of the area is inaccessible, and there's no way. we can search the whole area," Pringle said in Seattle this morning.
(Indicate page, name of 'spaper, city and state.) p. BL . Daily News Longview, Wa.
Date:
2/14/80
Edition:
Final
Title:
Character: or
Classification:
Submitting Office: Seattle
b6 b7C
SUBS.B,E,G,M SUB B 164-81-8356

SEARCHED ........ INDEXEDA PD V. FILED I SERIALIZED . FEB 2 5 1980 1 4
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B,E,G,M SUB B 164-81-8356

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FBI/DOJ
DB Cooper-26337FD-350 (Rev. 10-19-77)
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This catch wasn't the big one
Fishing for D.B. @
Cooper's loot
1
By PAT MOSER Columbian Staff Writer WASHOUGAL - Bob Devaney watched the ducks peck away at something floating in the Washou- gal River near the Riverside Bowl.
It was 'March 22, 1977, and Devaney of 4221 F Circle, Washou- gal, was fishing for steelhead. The muddy runoff waters had cleared, and the river was in shape for , catching the ocean-going trout.
"I watched the ducks nibbling away," Devaney said. "I waded out to see. That's when I saw the money. At first, I thought it was play money."
But Devaney picked up a bill and examined it. It was a real $20 bill, and there were six others to be grabbed from atop the water.
"
But Devaney picked up a bill and examined it. It was a real $20 bill, and there were six others to be grabbed from atop the water. .
Devaney's story became more
significant last week when part of the D.B. Cooper hijacking money was found washed up on a Colimm- bia River beach nine miles dolyn- stream from Vancouver. One theo- ry contends the money could have washed out of the Washougal River watershed during the nearly 81/2 years since Cooper parachuted from an airliner over Southwest Washington.
A check with the Federal Bureau of Investigation list, of serial num- bers on the $200,000 given Cooper didn't match those found by Deva- ney. Davaney still has his $140 tucked away in cellophane bags.
The D.B. Cooper money find also brought significance to a green . bank bag found by Jack Smith who lives up the Washougal River; in Skamania County.
Smith was driving down the river
#5 €
SUBS: BiE.G.M
(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.)
Page 1 East: County News The Columbian Vancouver, Wa.
Date: 2/27/80 Edition:
Title:
Character: 164-81 or Classification: Submitting Office: SE SUB-B 1641-81-8355
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Date: 2/27/80 Edition:
Title:
Character: 164-81 or Classification: Submitting Office: SE SUB-B 1641-81-8355
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DB Cooper-26339 FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
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Cooper expert' to close out career
The finding of some of the "Dans "Cooper" hijacking money Sunday came is a dramatic climax to the career of ean Ralph Himmelsbach, the FBI'sJ Cooper expert.
Himmelsbach, himself a veteran pi- lot, has lived, breathed and slept the Dan Cooper case ever since a man using that name hijacked a Northwest Air- . lines jet from Portland on Thanksgiving Eve, 1971.
Himmelsbach, who has logged thou- sands of hours of flying time in his own 1952 model single-engine Beechcraft, (Bonanza, was aloft in an Oregon Air|
National Guard helicopter ready to in- tercept the hijacked plane within a few' minutes after the airliner took off from . Seattle, where Cooper obtained. .$200,000 and four parachutes. But the air turbulence that night was so severe that the helicopter was ordered back to Portland Airbase.
But the air turbulence that night was so severe that the helicopter was ordered back to Portland Airbase.
Next morning Himmelsbach started the first of a series of flights which took him the length of the hijack route many times, between investigating other clues, all of which proved to be false.
"I was over the target area near fake Merwin Sunday again," he said
Tuesday. "I saw they had logged a lot! of prime search area, and thought some- thing would turn up now."
But he never guessed the news that would confront him when he reported; for. work Monday.
"I'll admit to a certain sense of satis- faction," Himmelsbach said Tuesday, flashing a broad smile. "The case isn't solved, but this is certainly a major, milestone."
Himmelsbach will retire March 1; ifter 27 years with the FBI - climaxed by his work on the Cooper case, one; that will go down in FBI history. ...
ate page, name of paper, city and state.) Oregonian Portland, Va.
p.CL

Date:	2/13/80
Edition:	Final

Title:
Character:
or
Classification:
CL

Date:	2/13/80
Edition:	Final

Title:
Character:
or
Classification:
Submitting Office: Seattle
SUB B 621-81-8350

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SUBS: B,E,G,M
DB Cooper-26341
FBI/OOJFD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
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Bills 1st solid clue in hijack mystery
By LEVERETT RICHARDS of Tha Oregonlen staff
The weathered bundles of $20 bills found on the Washington bank of the Columbia River nine miles northwest of Vancouver on Sunday were the first solid clues to the mystery of the "Dan Cooper" aircraft hijacking, FBI agents said Tuesday.
One of the more intensive searches in the FBI's history had failed to turn up any clue to the fate of the mysterious hijacker or his loot during the eight years since he bailed out of a Northwest Orient Airlines Boeing 727 flying at 7,000 feet over La Center, Wash.
One of the more intensive searches in the FBI's history had failed to turn up any clue to the fate of the mysterious hijacker or his loot during the eight years since he bailed out of a Northwest Orient Airlines Boeing 727 flying at 7,000 feet over La Center, Wash., on ·Nov. 24, 1971, FBI spokesmen said. .
Cooper's was the first hijacking of a commercial airliner for money, and ¿started a chain of similar attempts, . which was responsible in part for the rigid security system now enforced at all United States airports and most ma- jor airports abroad.
Because of an erroneous report of the name used by the hijacker, he be- came known nationally as D.B. Cooper, although the airline manifest showed he had used the name "Dan."
The man who called himself Cooper paid cash for a ticket and boarded Northwest's Flight 305 at Portland In- ternational Airport just before it depart- ed. He sat in a rear seat in the cabin and waited until the plane was airborne. Then he handed stewardess Florence Schaffner a note saying he had a bomb in the satchel he was carrying and de- · manding $200,000 in unmarked $20 bills.
By the time the plane landed at ¡Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at 5:45 p.
Then he handed stewardess Florence Schaffner a note saying he had a bomb in the satchel he was carrying and de- · manding $200,000 in unmarked $20 bills.
By the time the plane landed at ¡Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at 5:45 p.m., airline officials were gather- {ing the money and the four parachutes he had demanded. The hijacker released the 36 passengers on board, along with all crew members except one steward- ess and two pilots. The plane then took off and headed south at 7,000 feet in stormy weather.
At 8:10 p.m. the pilots felt a fluctua. . tion in cabin pressure which indicated the rear door had been opened. Later . tests showed this was when the hijack- ; er had bailed out, taking with him the money and the device that he claimed was a bomb.
Computer calculations and a later reconstruction of the flight persuaded" the FBI that Cooper had bailed out near Woodland, Wash., and would have: landed somewhere west of Lake Mer ;. win.
William Rataczak, first officer (co- pilot) on the hijacked plane who flew the later reconstructions of the hijack flight, said the pilots received no an- swer when they called on the inter: phone to their passenger and were not !
(co- pilot) on the hijacked plane who flew the later reconstructions of the hijack flight, said the pilots received no an- swer when they called on the inter: phone to their passenger and were not !! certain he was gone until they landed in Reno, Nev., at 11 p.m.
A
The "target area" was searched ref peatedly by the FBI, other law enforce -; ment officers and soldiers from Fort . Lewis, Wash., but no trace of man or money was found. Northwest Airlines offered a reward, since expired, and hunters and woodsmen continued the search for years without success.
Before Sunday, the only item that had been found from the hijacking was a placard believed to have blown off the bulkhead of the 727 when the door was opened in flight.
It was found 13 miles east of Castle Rock, Wash., in January 1979. The placard, if indeed it came from the hii- jacked plane, "helped to confirm that the plane was on course all the way, but didn't shed any light on what happened to Cooper," said FBI agent Ralph Him- melsbach, who headed the investiga; tion.
After eight years of investigation Himmelsbach has said he still believes Cooper could not have survived the pa- rachute jump at 7 degrees below zero,
After eight years of investigation Himmelsbach has said he still believes Cooper could not have survived the pa- rachute jump at 7 degrees below zero, dressed as he was in a light' business suit and street shoes.
#52
SUBS: BEG,M
(I tte page, name of aper, city and state.) Oregonian Portland, Wa.
p.CI
Date:
2/13/80
Edition:
Final
Title:
Character:
or
Classification:
Submitting Office: Seattle
SUB B 64-81-8253
SEARCHED ... \\ INDEXED SERIALIZED_1/1 FILED
FEB 2 5 1980 14 FBI - SEATTLE ZOU
DB Cooper-26342
FBI/DOJFD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
ate page, name of aner, city and state.) 1) . AL .Oregonian Portland, Wa.
Date:
2/13/80
Edition:
Final
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
Part of
Cooper
Title:
SEARCHED ......... INDEXED.
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Character:
FBI - SEATTLE Zelor (i) Classification: 164/81
Submitting Office: Seattle
cash uncovered
By LEVERETT RICHARDS jof The Oregonianetoff
"Several thousand dollars" of the $200,000 obtained eight years ago by. the celebrated airline hijacker who used the name Dan Cooper was found Sun- day along the Columbia River down- stream from Vancouver, Wash.
the celebrated airline hijacker who used the name Dan Cooper was found Sun- day along the Columbia River down- stream from Vancouver, Wash., the FBI reported Tuesday.
Three bundles containing 12 packets of weatherbeaten $20 bills were found in river sand by a picnicking Vancouver family, about nine miles northwest ofa the city.
FBI agents searching the beach Tuesday afternoon found several more, fragments of $20 bills, some of them under three feet of sand.
Harold Dwayne Ingram, his wife, Patricia, and their son, Brian, 8, were ypreparing to build a fire on the beach when Brian brushed the sand aside and turned up some of the bills, Ingram sald.
"We dug around and found three bundles of bills tied with rubber bands," Ingram said.
The bills were wet and badly worn, but the serial numbers were legible. The FBI identified the serial numbers and confirmed that they were part of the loot given Cooper when he hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines Boeing 727 jetliner between Portland and Seattle on Nov. 24, 1971.
William M. Baker, assistant special agent in charge of the Portland FBI of-) fice, said the Ingrams were relatively
Baker, assistant special agent in charge of the Portland FBI of-) fice, said the Ingrams were relatively new to the Vancouver area, moving, there recently from Oklahoma. They had never heard of Cooper, Baker said.
"They took it (the money) home and were talking to some friends about it," Baker said. "The friends pointed out that It might be the money from the Cooper thing. That's when they called FBI."
the Ful ...
Ralph Himmelsbach, the FBI agent . In charge of the case since the hijack-, ang, said it was the first solld clue to the Cooper mystery since the hijacker bailed out near La Center, Wash., into a winter storm at 8:10 p.m. that Thanks. giving Eve. The first hijacking for money, the Cooper case became a na- tional sensation.
Baker said it was possible the FBI laboratory in Washington, D.C., could. discern fingerprints on the money.
"That would be a hell of a break, he said.
Baker said the money the Ingrams found had not been counted. At first the amount recovered was estimated at about $4,000, but "we have revised our estimate to several thousand dollars," he said.
At first the amount recovered was estimated at about $4,000, but "we have revised our estimate to several thousand dollars," he said.
Baker said the money was bundled Into packages of several sizes at the time of the hijacking, "to make It ap- pear that it was randomly done, as if it was done in a hurry." Because of that, the actual amount could not be estimat- ed, he said.
FBI agents Tuesday were carefully combing the site of the Sunday discov- ery for further clues. The beach, open to the public, is owned by the New Columbia Gardens Co., a truck and dai- ry farm.
Cooper was seen on the plane tying "a nylon cord around his waist, presum- ably to tie the money into a parachute ibag. The Ingrams said they did not see any sign of a cloth bag, but Himmels- bach said it would be hard to under- stand how the bundles of bilis could have stayed together all these years if they were not in some kind of contain- er.
Baker said the search for Cooper's remains or other clues would be re- sumed in a new area.
FBI spokesmen concluded that the bills could have been washed down some tributary of the Columbia.
FBI spokesmen concluded that the bills could have been washed down some tributary of the Columbia.
1 George Holmes, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hydrologist, said he would review information about where Coop.
KELSO-
YLONGVIEW
CARROLLS
KALAMA,Tx. LINE POWER
A
L. MERWIN
WOODLAND
LEWİŞR.
5
PUBLIC YACOLT
V-23->
** AIRFIELD
BATTLEGROUND
X
-- CIVIL
NIRFIELD
. ORCHARDS
VANCOUVER
SPORTLAND
Columbia R.
DB Cooper-26343
MONEY FOUND - X shows approxi- mate location where part of Dan Cooper aircraft hijacking money was found Sunday. Vancouver, Wash. family found loot while picnicking! FBI is searching area.
b6
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SUBS, BEG,MI
SUB B 164-81-8252 FUI/POJFD-350 (Rev. 10-19-77)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
Dan Cooper bill not given to boy
Brian Ingram, the 8-year-old Van- couver, Wash., boy who discovered some of the Dan Cooper skyjacking ran- som last week, was not given one of the deteriorated bills, as was reported Tues- day in some editions of The Oregonian. The boy actually was given = $20 bill made to look like one of the tattered bills, in addition to a certificate praising him for his
The boy actually was given = $20 bill made to look like one of the tattered bills, in addition to a certificate praising him for his find, Both items came from . the Hough Elementary School PTA. Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., FBI laboratory technicians have been unable to determine how much money was in the three bundles of Cooper's recovered as a result of young Ingram's find.
"The $20 bills were so badly deteri -. orated that we have been unable to count it," said FBI spokesman Olis Cox. He said no fingerprints were found on the bills.
. The bills were identified as part of Cooper's $200,000 by their serial num- bers.
SUBS: B, G, M
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(Indicate page, name of
newspaper, city and state.)
Pare D2 The Oregonian Portland, Or.
Date: 2/20/80 Edition:
Title:
Character: 144-81 or Classification:
Submitting Office: SE SUBB 164-81-8248 SEARCHED ...... SINCEMED. 2 44 SERIALIZED_ FILED ........ FEB 2 2 1980 FBI . SEATTLE F
F01/DOJ
DB Cooper-26346 FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Bclow)
The Loot Reveals New Clues to the Fate of D.
SEATTLE F
F01/DOJ
DB Cooper-26346 FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Bclow)
The Loot Reveals New Clues to the Fate of D.B.
(Indicate page, naine of newspaper, city and state.) A10, Post Intelligencer Seattle, Wa.
Date:
2/15/80
Edition:
Final
Title: :
NORJAK
Character:
or
Classification:
164-81
Submitting Office:
Seattle
By.John O'Ryan
VANCOUVER. Wash. - Eight FBI agents digging on a Columbia River beach in a snowstorm found no more' of D.B. Cooper's hijack ransom yester- day, but they revealed new clues to the fate of the legendary parachutist.
Special agent Ken Moore of Seat- tle, in charge of the digging, said a geologist's report indicates that the money which has been found drifted up on this beach within the past two years.
Furthermore, Moore said as be Marmed himself by a campfire during
respite from the frigid digging. the money came downstream, and proba- bly reached the Columbia from the Washougal River, or one of several smaller streams which enter the big river above here.
It isn't likely. he said, that the · money came upstream.
the money came downstream, and proba- bly reached the Columbia from the Washougal River, or one of several smaller streams which enter the big river above here.
It isn't likely. he said, that the · money came upstream. with tidal cur- rents. from the Lewis River - which drains Lake Merwin, where Cooper has long been thought to have per- ished.
Moore thought for a few moments, then said:
"Tourists who want to look for more Cooper money probably susuld
: look on the Washougal River."
All of which indicates that Cooper, with $200.000 in a canvas suitcase strapped to his body, jumped from a Northwest Airlines Boeing 727 a little southeast of the point originally esti- mated by the FBI.
He apparently landed southeast of Lake Merwin which is just off 1-5 near Woodland, in the drainage of the Washougal River, or nearby streams, in hilly, wooded country.
"There is nothing infallible about our original estimate of where he landed." said John Pringle, assistant . special agent in charge of the Seattle
nymi $
office.
."Because of strong wind currents, and other variables, we could have been a little off in our original cod mates.
"Because of strong wind currents, and other variables, we could have been a little off in our original cod mates."
According to Pringle, only one money bundle from the $200,000 hi- jack ransom was found on this beach nine miles downstream from the bridge over the Columbia River at Vancouver.
But since Cooper had all of his money in one canvas container. ac- cording to Moore, if any of the money is scattered - ali of it is likely to be scattered.
Cooper, whose real identity bas never been learned, literally dropped out of sight the night he plunged from the airliner. He had collected his bijack e loot in Seattle - bundles of money wrapped in a package six inches high, one foot across, and about IS inches long - later stuffed into a bag tied to his waist.
No trace was found of Cooper or his money until a family picnicking on this north bank of the Columbia, on property owned by the Fazio Brothers Sand Co. and dairy cow farm, found tattered bills three to six inches deep in the sand.
s' It was "Seattle day" at the FBI dig.
and dairy cow farm, found tattered bills three to six inches deep in the sand.
s' It was "Seattle day" at the FBI dig. gings on the Columbia River yester- day. The previous day. 10 FBI agents from the Portland bureau carried out the digging.
Yesterday, eight agents from the
Seattle bureau were hard at work. The beach is roped off. and a Clark County sheriff's car was parked at the entrance to the Fazio property to keep the public out.
Sand was piled around the original money discovery area, because the . FB! had been using a backhoe to ex- cavate there. Agents were working . yesterday with shovels and takes.
Moore said a Portland State Un- iversity Geologist is the one who do- termined that the money had floated? onto the beach within the last two !. years.
This, Moore said, was based on a determination that there is only about six to eight inches of sand on this beach. and beneath it is a clay that , was placed here by a channel dredg- ing project carried out in 1974.
The clay, he said, appears "undis- turbed," but the sand contains.
and beneath it is a clay that , was placed here by a channel dredg- ing project carried out in 1974.
The clay, he said, appears "undis- turbed," but the sand contains.soft - drink containers and other debris
front pienickers. It appears to be of recept origin, and the money was found only about three to six inches deep in it.
Moore said the Army Corps of En- gineers had seuttled the theory that the money had drifted upstream with tidal currents from the mouth of the Lewis River, which enters the Colun :-. bia downstream from here.
"I talked to the engineers, and "they said that it is most unlikely that anything drifted upstream against the current," Moore sant.
If no more money is found, the . FBI's digging on the beach will end today, Moore said.
SUB B But he expressed the belief that "the departure of the FBI will not end the sifting through this strip of sand. "After we leave, probably 2.500 people will digging bere the next day," he said. 1
164-81-8243
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DB Cooper-26347
FOI/DO'Fbago (Rev.
1
164-81-8243
SEARCHED ___ INDEXED. 1 1
SERIALIZED .... FILED FEB 2 1 1980 FBI - SEATTLE
€
DB Cooper-26347
FOI/DO'Fbago (Rev. 12-5-78)
Biente page, name of spaper, city and state.) p . 1
Daily News Longview, Wa.
Date: 2/13/80 Edition: Final
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
Boy beats
Title: NORJAK
Character: or Classification: 164-81
Submitting Office: Seattle
FBI to
SUBS: BEGM
b6
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Cooper loot
FBI agents digging in search of more clues
By Bud May The Daily News
PORTLAND -- An 8-year-old boy , accomplished with a sweep of his hand Sunday something the FBI has been trying to do for more than eight years.
Brian Ingram, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Dwayne Ingram of Van- couver, provided the first major breakthrough in the D.B. Cooper skyjacking case when he accidental- ly uncovered part of the $200.000 ran- som Cooper had when he bailed out of a Northwest Airlines jet in the Lewis River area on Thanksgiving Eve, Nov. 24, 1971.
The FBI said Tuesday the discovery of more than $3,000 in bad- ly deteriorated $20 bills was made Sunday while the Ingram family was on an outing on a Columbia River beach about five miles
The FBI said Tuesday the discovery of more than $3,000 in bad- ly deteriorated $20 bills was made Sunday while the Ingram family was on an outing on a Columbia River beach about five miles northwest of Vancouver on the Washington side.
Meantime, the FBI is conducting an intensive grid search of the beach area where the money was found. Agents reported finding bits and pieces of money Tuesday afternoon, some of it as deep as three feet in sand.
------
A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hydrologist, George Holmes, said he would review information about where the hijacker jumped in rela- tion to where the money was found.
He said the Washougal River was' the only Columbia tributary that might have carried the cash, and: even that is a remote possibility.
Not everyone shares that opinion. Some experts feel that because of the Columbia's currents, the money , could have come from the Lewis River and washed upstream.
i
5.
The FBI has also contacted the Ar- 1. my Engineers, which continuously dredges sand in that area, on the , chance that dredging brought the money up from the bottom of the river.
my Engineers, which continuously dredges sand in that area, on the , chance that dredging brought the money up from the bottom of the river. A spokesman for the Army Engineers said today that it is a definite possibility, While they con- stantly dredge in that area, the last time they deposited the dredged sand on that beach was in October 1974.
Agents said the money, in bundles. without question is part of that given the man known as Cooper.
"The packaging and numbered se- quence indicate the bills have not been separated and are in much the same order as when given to the hi- jacker." explained Bill Baker, assis- tant agent in charge at the Portland office.
Baker could not say whether the Ingram family will get a reward, since the FBI can not offer one, but he indicated there is a good possibili- ty that the airline or another source; would provide one.
' The elder Ingram and his wife. Patricia, told dozens of news media, people at a press conference in the Portland FBI Office Tuesday how
the money was found.
"I was about to build a fire on the!
Patricia, told dozens of news media, people at a press conference in the Portland FBI Office Tuesday how
the money was found.
"I was about to build a fire on the!" beach," said Ingram, "and had myl. arms full, but before I could set itj. down, my son said, "Wait a minute daddy.' He scooped off some sand, and this money rolled to the top."
A UPI reporter who talked with the family Tuesday said Brian and his 5-year-old cousin, Denise In- gram, shouted, "Look! It's money that we found!"
The Ingrams said they didn't con- - neet the money to the Cooper case at the time, but realized it must be im- portant to someone, so they notified . the Portland FBI Office of the find.
Asked by a reporter why he con- tacted the FBI instead of local . authorities, Ingram responded, "Because I figured if I turned it over to police, I would never see it again."
He didn't elaborate on that remark, but continued to answer questions from newspaper, televi- sion and radio reporters.
Asked if he considered keeping the money, Ingram laughingly replied, "No, it looked in such bad shape I didn't think I could spend it.
Asked if he considered keeping the money, Ingram laughingly replied, "No, it looked in such bad shape I didn't think I could spend it."
Ingram said the money, which was displayed for reporters on a table at the press conference, was about 20 yards from the edge of the river, but was very wet.
Because of the poor condition of the bills, thej .exact. amount of recovered money is unknown pentire ding laboratory FBI said.
8
While FBI agents:seem ecstatic), about the discovery; they-are quicki to point out that approximately; $197.000 is still missing, and what happened to Cooper himself is just
'as much a mystery as before the
find. . 164-81-8242
DB Cooper-26348
However, the pieces were so small it was not possible to determine the amount of money.
SUB B-
FBI/DOJFD-356 (Rev. 12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
Cooper in lake,
ex-agent says
dicate page, name of gpaper, city and state.) p.B1
Daily News
Longview, Wa.
Date:
2/13/80
Edition:
Final
Title:
NORJAK
Character:
or
Classification: 164-81
Submitting Office: Seattle
By Bud May.
Date:
2/13/80
Edition:
Final
Title:
NORJAK
Character:
or
Classification: 164-81
Submitting Office: Seattle
By Bud May. The Daily News
The body of , skyjacker D.B. Cooper lies on the bottom of Lake Merwin, most likely hung up on a snag.
Retired FBI Agent Tom Manning of Longview has held that theory for several years, and still does.
The fact that some of the ransom money Cooper got from Northwest Airlines was found Sunday on a Col- umbia River beach north and west of Vancouver has not changed his con- viction in the least.
Manning, now manager of ,the Longview Chamber of Commerce, had charge of the massive searches conducted in the Lewis River area after the infamous skyjacking of a Northwest Airlines jet on Thanksgiving Eve in 1971.
Because he worked so long on a case that has never been solved, the former resident agent has taken a lot of ribbing from friends and ac- quaintances.
"Some still call me D.B. Cooper," he said with a chuckle Tuesday night.
Manning never believed the sky- jacker - survived the jump with $200,000 in ransom money, and was among the first to say so.
Manning never believed the sky- jacker - survived the jump with $200,000 in ransom money, and was among the first to say so.
"I said several years ago that I' think he may be hung up on a snag at the bottom of Lake Merwin, and I still think so," Manning said after learning Tuesday that some of the ransom money had been found.
Manning said the fact that the money was found upstream, rather than downstream from the mouth of the Lewis River, doesn't disprove his theory.
He said it could have been moved upstream by tides and currents.
George Holmes, a hydrologist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, says that would not have been im- possible, but he considers it unlikely that currents would have moved the `cash that far upstream.
! "However." Holmes, emphasized, "I'm not taking issue in any way ¿with the theory of where the hijacker may have come down after leaving the plane, or where the rest of the money might be."
Manning recalls vividly the inten-
sive search conducted east of Woodland in the Lewis River area.
"
Manning recalls vividly the inten-
sive search conducted east of Woodland in the Lewis River area.
He says Charles Farrell of Seattle was the FBI agent in charge of the case, while Manning coordinated the . searches. Other agents from the Seattle and Portland FBI offices were also involved. In addition, about 200 soldiers from Fort Lewis were used in an inch by inch grid - search conducted in March of 1972 after the winter snows melted.
Despite the fact that no trace of Cooper was found, Manning and other agents remained convinced he had jumped somewhere in the Lewis River-Lake Merwin arca, .where crewmen of the Boeing 727 noted al fluctuation in the cabin rate of pressure indicator about 8:10 p.m.
Minutes earlier lights came on in. the cockpit indicating the rear airstair of the aircraft had been lowered.
"Using the same aircraft, we made some tests three days after the hijacking, and the results gave credence to the theory that he - jumped in the area the crew told us about," Manning said.
"Using the same aircraft, we made some tests three days after the hijacking, and the results gave credence to the theory that he - jumped in the area the crew told us about," Manning said.
Manning was aboard the plane, flown by the chief pilot of the airline, when it was taken over the Pacific Ocean off the Hoquiam bombing . range for the tests. Also present was the same flight engineer who was on duty the night of the incident.
"We took along some wooden sleds with sandbags to approximate the . weight of Cooper, the parachutes : given him and the ransom money; and dropped them from the plane when the flying conditions were the same as they were at the time he bailed out," Manning recalled.
The airstair was lowered, and the sleds dropped.
"The engineer said the plane reacted the same as it had before : when the weight was released," Manning said Tuesday.
According to Manning, the FBI, and the airline were convinced then i that the man calling himself D.B. Cooper bailed out of the jet in thej; Lewis River area, and nothing has happened to shake that belief.
Where he landed has never been determined, but Manning still thinks I skalforsin is a unout but.
Cooper bailed out of the jet in thej; Lewis River area, and nothing has happened to shake that belief.
Where he landed has never been determined, but Manning still thinks I skalforsin is a unout but.
SUBB
164-81-8221
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Je Banen
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Julio pu
DB Cooper-26350
rs-SUBS: BE,G,M FOI/OQJFD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
(Indi nte page, name of "jper, city and state .? ' p. 1 Daily News Longview, Wa.
Date:
2/13/80
Edition:
Final
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
Beach residents groan
Title:
NORJAK
Character:
or
Classification: 164-81
Submitting Office: Seattle
By Donna duBeth The Daily News
1 The handful of residents who live along the beach where part of D.B. Cooper's loot was found Sunday are kicking themselves for not building more sand castles.
They also wonder whether they should have paid more attention to the sand dredging operations along the beach.
Tina Bar is a stretch of sandy beach on the Washington side of the Columbia River northwest of Vancouver. The lonely country road that winds along the beach, Lower River Road, dead-ends about three miles from where a Vancouver family found about $3,000 beneath the sand Sunday while on
The lonely country road that winds along the beach, Lower River Road, dead-ends about three miles from where a Vancouver family found about $3,000 beneath the sand Sunday while on a picnic. Rabbits bounce on the side of the road at night, start !- · ed by occasional passing cars.
Less than 10 houses are along the 12-mile stretch of beach road. Most of the land belongs to large dairy farms. The Fazio Bros. Sand Co. also fronts the river. A road leading through the Fazio gate is a popular path to the beach. It is the same path used by the family the day they found the money. On the east side of Fazio Bros. is Leeward Isle Marina, with a public fishing boat launch and one or two house boats.
------
During fishing season, the beach is packed from end to end, say local residents Clarence and Barbara Ellis. They have lived in their mobile home just down the road from Fazio Bros. for the past 30 years.
Every day Clarence takes his outboard skiff along Tina Bar patrolling the river and the beach for renegade logs that could damage other boats.
Ellis says that the Army Corps of Engineers con- tinuously dredges sand directly off the shore from where the money was found.
Ellis says that the Army Corps of Engineers con- tinuously dredges sand directly off the shore from where the money was found.
"I betcha that dredging brought that money up and
most of it's been destroyed by the dredging," he said. . "Even the FBI is going to be able to figure that one out."
Today a spokesman for the Army Engineers said they were working closely with the FBI, checking out that lead. The sand sucked up from the bottom of the river and spewed onto the beach could have contain- ed some or all of the long-sought money. While the dredging is continuous, the last time sand was deposited in that spot was in October 1074.
Another resident of the area said that the money was found too far from the water to have washed up. "It had to be the dredging. Maybe I'll go get me a shovel," said Mrs. J.W. Freeman.
The FBI dug all day Tuesday, finding bits and pieces of $20 bills. An agent guarding the site Tuesday evening said the amount they found during. the day was less than the $3.000 orginally dug up.
Tuesday night the Ellis family sat in their home .
the day was less than the $3.000 orginally dug up.
Tuesday night the Ellis family sat in their home . decorated with fishing gear and large plants, amazed that some the D.B. Cooper money was showing up on the same beach their children grew up on.
"To think I worked like a slave all my life and here this money was right in my front yard," said Ellis. "When I think of the times my kids took the four- . wheel drive right over that spot. I mean that's our. beach. It belongs to the people we lease from and that's the beach we use."
His wife, Barbara, said she felt "kinda sick" not finding it. But she added that she would have turned it in. "Somebody could have lost it," she said.
The beach property actually belongs to the Hans. Egger family of Vancouver. A baby sitter at the home said the Eggers were on vacation in California. They learned the money had been found on their property; when they listened to a television newscast Tuesday night.
"They were shocked," said the baby sitter.
SUBB 1641-81-8240-
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INDEXED.
They learned the money had been found on their property; when they listened to a television newscast Tuesday night.
"They were shocked," said the baby sitter.
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(Mount Clipping, in Space Below)
How it all started
On Nov. 24, 1971, a calm, middle-age man calling himself Dan Cooper bought a ticket for a Northwest Airlines flight to Seattle.
Shortly after takeoff, he handed a note to stewardess Florence Schaffner.
Thinking the man was try- ing to "hustle" her, she stuff- ed the note in her purse, but he motioned for her to read it.
The note said he had a bomb, and wanted to go to Mexico.
While the jet circled Seattle before landing, the skyjacker also ordered that $200,000 cash and four parachutes be brought to the plane.
The airline agreed, 36 passengers and part of the crew were allowed to leave, and the plane took off with the man and his ransom.
As it flew south, the rear airstair was lowered, and minutes later the plane 'reacted in a manner that con- vinced the crew that the sky- jacker had
As it flew south, the rear airstair was lowered, and minutes later the plane 'reacted in a manner that con- vinced the crew that the sky- jacker had bailed out somewhere in the Lewis River-Lake Merwin area east of Woodland.
Thus began the legend of D.B. Cooper (the name Dan Cooper somehow got lost in news media accounts of the in- cident.)
Cooper has never been found, but interest in the case is still strong, and flared Tues- day when the FBI announced a Vancouver family had found several thousand dollars of the?) ransom money on a Columbia : River beach northwest of Van- couver. '
Several stories about the case appear in today's issue of The Daily News.
SEARCHED .....!... ) INDEXED SERIALIZED ........ FILED
FEB 2/1 1980 FBI - SEATTLE
(Indicate page, name of paper, city and state.) Daily News Longview, Wa.
p.BI

Date:	2/13/80
Edition:	Final
Title:	NORJAK

Character: or Classification: 164-81 Submitting Office: Seattle
Longview
Cowlitz River
Kelso
Columbia
River
503
Kalama
Merwin
5
Dam
Lake Merwin
Lewis River
Woodland
D.
NORJAK

Character: or Classification: 164-81 Submitting Office: Seattle
Longview
Cowlitz River
Kelso
Columbia
River
503
Kalama
Merwin
5
Dam
Lake Merwin
Lewis River
Woodland
D.B. Cooper Flight Path
Vancouver
X Lake
Vancouver
Camas
Willamette
River
Portland Airport
Portland
SUB B-
16-1-81-8939
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The 'X' marks the area where D.B.Cooper loot was found Sunday
SUBSBIE,GIM
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(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
FBI Halts Search For Cooper Clues & Loot
HQ
(Indicate page, name of "spaper, city and state.) p. ALO Post-Intelligencer Seattle, Wa.

Date:	2/16/80
Edition:	Final

Title:
NORJAK
Character:
or
Classification:
164-81
Submitting Office: Seattle
FBI agents yesterday called off their search on a sandy beach of the Columbia River west of Van- couver for more evidence of D.B. Cooper and the $200.000.he carried when he parachuted from a skyjacked airliner in November 1971.
"When the agents get back here next .week, we'll discuss what direc- tion to take next," said Jack Pringle, an FBI agent in Seattle.
"When the agents get back here next .week, we'll discuss what direc- tion to take next," said Jack Pringle, an FBI agent in Seattle.
One partly decomposed bundle of marked $20 bills from the Cooper foot was found Sunday by a family pic- nicking beside the river nine miles below Vancouver.
It probably will be at least a week' before the FBI laboratory in Washing- ton, D.C., will report on how. much money was found, said Bill Williams, of the FBI office in Portland, Ore., whose agents dug and sifted the sand carlier this week.
Cooper is believed to have para- chuted over Lake Merwin in Cowlitz County. No trace of him or the money
is known to have been found until the discovery Sunday.
Williams said yesterday that Leon- ard Palmer, a geologist at Portland State University, concluded that the money drifted onto the river bank sometime after August 1974. The money lay in sand on top of spoil from a dredging operation that was conducted that month, Palmer told the FBI.
Pringle said that sooner or later the recovered money will be returned to its owner.
The money lay in sand on top of spoil from a dredging operation that was conducted that month, Palmer told the FBI.
Pringle said that sooner or later the recovered money will be returned to its owner.
"We don't know who that is and it's not up to us to determine," he said. "It might be that a court will have to decide."
The $200,000 was delivered to. Cooper aboard a Northwest Airline plane in Seattle after he skyjacked it.
Brent Baskfield, a Northwest pub-, lic relations officer in St. Paul, Mion., }: said Northwest paid the money but i. · has been reimbursed for most of it by Is. The Globe Insurance Co. in New York City:
Mit à Bureau 2/21/20
$5-
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DB Cooper-26355
FOI/DOJFD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
(In te page, name of aper, city and state.) p. BL Seattle Times Seattle, Wa.

Date:	2/14/80
Edition:	Final

(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
Pickings are slim in Cooper treasure hunt
Title:
NORSAR
Character:
or
164-81
Classification:
Submitting Office:
Seattle
by Richard Zahler and Steve Johnston Times
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
Pickings are slim in Cooper treasure hunt
Title:
NORSAR
Character:
or
164-81
Classification:
Submitting Office:
Seattle
by Richard Zahler and Steve Johnston Times staff reporters
Federal Bureau of Investigation treasure hunters re- turned to a cold and sandy Columbia River beach down- stream from Vancouver, Wash., today seeking more clues to the eight-year-old D.B. Cooper skyjacking mystery.
The F.B.I. mixed a little science and technology with a lot of old-fashioned elbow grease yesterday in continued digging at the beach. Agents continued to find scraps of $20 bills in the area where a picnicking Vancouver family found three bundles of money Sunday.
Through serial numbers, those decomposed bundles of bills have been identified as "several thousand dollars" of the $200,000 given to the man who hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines 727. in November, 1971, then parachuted from the jet with.his loot. The F.B.I. believes he jumped somewhere in the vicinity of LaCenter, about 25 miles northeast of the beach where the money was found.
Yesterday's search, aided by a backhoe and advice from a Portland State University geologist, provided no' clues how
Yesterday's search, aided by a backhoe and advice from a Portland State University geologist, provided no' clues how the money got to the beach or where it has been since the hijacking.
F.B.I. agents said the money still was packaged in ! the same order as it was given to the hijacker. The geolo- gist said the money probably had been there for less than two years.
Kenneth Moore, a Seattle F.B.I. agent assigned to. the case, said, "One reason for conducting an exhaustive search of this area would be to find other indications of what happened - pieces of clothing, pieces of bag, pieces of parachute or human remains, which in this case would be only bones.'
The beach area is 71/2 miles northwest of Vancouver! on a stretch of shoreline used heavily by fishermen and lined with industrial plants and farms.
Moore and other agents said it would be just specula- tion to,suggest that Cooper might have come down near the Columbia River beach, or that the search site might give any clue besides additional pieces of money.
Moore and other agents said it would be just specula- tion to,suggest that Cooper might have come down near the Columbia River beach, or that the search site might give any clue besides additional pieces of money. The' round shape of the wads of money suggested that the cash could have tumbled along the river bed, agents said.
The farmers who own the shoreland, Al and Richard. Fazio, said the place where the money was found is peri- odically underwater during high river runoff, like last week.
Moore said the currency might have been pumped on" the beach during the dredging, but that was doubted by Dr. Leonard Palmer, Portland State geologist.
Palmer said the scraps of money had been found in looser sand, not in dredging spoils. The river last was !! dredged there in 1974.
Moore said the meager evidence suggests the hi- ; jacker "may have landed in the water, although not nec- essarily the Columbia."
SUBS: B,E.G.M
Speculation that Cooper could have dropped' into Lake Merwin, a reservoir on the Lewis River, was re- placed this week by speculation he could have landed in the Washougal River watershed.
M
Speculation that Cooper could have dropped' into Lake Merwin, a reservoir on the Lewis River, was re- placed this week by speculation he could have landed in the Washougal River watershed. The Lewis River enters ¿ downstream from the search area, the Washougal up- stream from Vancouver.
But Moore said there were no plans to search upriver "unless evidence leads us to a more specific area."
Small pieces of currency were found yesterday in : scattered places as they combed through sand several hundred feet downstream from Sunday's discovery sitel
Other fragments showed up as, agents shoveled sand) through wire screens around the main site. The largest' piece discovered yesterday was about the size of a stick of chewing gum. It was several layers thick.
Moore said the new fragments may once have been .. part of the destroyed bundles discovered Sunday.
Although there were several rewards offered for the ' discovery of the money or the arrest of D.B. Cooper, fed- eral agents said it looked as if the Harold Ingram family is out of luck. Ingram's son, Brian, 8, uncovered the money.
Cooper, fed- eral agents said it looked as if the Harold Ingram family is out of luck. Ingram's son, Brian, 8, uncovered the money.
"As far as I know, all'reward offers have been can- celed," a Portland F.B.I. agent, Bill Williams, said.
Roy Erickson, a spokesman for Northwest Orient in St. Louis, said the airline had settled with its insurance company, Globe of New York, several years ago and re .. ceived $180,000.
"Our loss was covered by our insurance and so we . are out of the situation now," he said.
·Ralph Himmelsbach, a Portland F.B.I. agent who has worked on the D.B. Cooper case since 1971, said the finding of the money gave him "a certain sense of satis -. faction," the Associated Press reported.
"The case isn't solved," Himmelsbach said, "but this is certainly a major milestone.
"So we know at least that he (Cooper) never spent this money, and we know that none of the money he was given has ever turned up in circulation."
Himmelsbach said Cooper's skeleton probably never will be found if it is in the forested mountain area where; he is supposed to have landed.
"
Himmelsbach said Cooper's skeleton probably never will be found if it is in the forested mountain area where; he is supposed to have landed.
"Unlike the money, Cooper is biodegradable," Him- melsbach said. SUB B 621-81-8237
SEARCHED SERIAL'ECO_ FEB AS 1980 FBI - SEATTLE 1
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F81/DOJFD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
FBI: Cooper likely dead man
By KERRY WEBSTER TINT Staff Writer
1 It's more likely than ever that the legendary D. B. Cooper is just a grinning skeleton in a nylon shroud, say FBI agents raking the sand for the last of his mouldering stash.
"The discovery of the money adds credence to the theory that he probably did not survive the jump," said Bill Williams, a special agent in Portland.
On the north bank of the Colum- bia River today, more than 30 FBI agents worked behind a cordon of armed sheriff's deputies, spading over every square foot of sand along 150 feet of shoreline.
The site is where eight-year-old Brian Ingram of Vancouver, digg- ing idly in the sand with a stick on Sunday, turned up a sodden wad of $20 bills.
The site is where eight-year-old Brian Ingram of Vancouver, digg- ing idly in the sand with a stick on Sunday, turned up a sodden wad of $20 bills.
Serial numbers on the money - 12 stacks of twenties, still in their bank wrappings - matched some of those given to "Dan Cooper" when he hijacked Northwest Air- lines Flight 305 .on Thanksgiving Eve, 1971.
. Flourishing what looked like a stick of dynamite, "Cooper" or- dered the plane to fly from Seattle- Tacoma International Airport to Reno, Nev., after first demaninding $200,000 and four parachutes.
The Boeing 727's flight recorder indicated that he jumped from the plane's lowered rear stairwell somewhere near Ariel, a tiny logg- ing town in Southwest Washington.
No trace of Cooper or the hijack- ing loot had shown up in the past 'nine years. The mysterious air pi- rate in that time has become a cult figure, with sweatshirts, bumper- stickers and endless pulp-magazine stories dedicated to the exploit.
FBI agents, who have been the butt of D. B. Cooper jokes for nine years, did not conceal a certain grim satisfaction when they an- nounced the finding of the money in .
Cooper jokes for nine years, did not conceal a certain grim satisfaction when they an- nounced the finding of the money in . Seattle and Portland press confer- ences yesterday.
The fact that the money appears to have washed up on the river- bank, rather than having been pur- posely buried there, increases the chances that Cooper is dead.
"There is no way we can tell if he is dead or alive," said John Pringle, assistant agent in charge of the Seattle office. "We only know that if he is alive, he doesn't have this money."
The site of the find is about nine miles downriver from the Inter- state 5 bridge over the Columbia between Portland and Vancouver. Young Ingram made the discovery while picnicking with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Dwayne Ingram.
The elder Ingram told reporters yesterday he was preparing to build a fire when his son "ran up and said, 'Wait a minute, Daddy.' He raked a place out in the sand, and there it was."
Ingram told The Associated Press he didn't even consider spending the money, because it looked so badly deteriorated.
"
Ingram told The Associated Press he didn't even consider spending the money, because it looked so badly deteriorated.
The decomposed money was being sent today to the FBI crime lab in Washington, D.C., for exami- nation. Pringle said there is a pos- sibility that mud and soil deposited in the bundles may give a clue as to where they were washed from.
"We're going to be doing some study of. tide tables and flood records, also," added Portland agent Williams today. "That'll tell us whether examining any of the
(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) News Tribune Tacoma, Wa.
p.A3
Date:
2/13/80
Edition:
Final
Title:
NORJAK
Character:
or
164-81
Classification:
Submitting Office: Seattle
Columbia's tributaries would be useful."
The Washougal River flows into the Columbia below the money site, and its origins are deep in the woods over which Cooper is be- lieved to have jumped.
However, Williams noted, the Columbia is frequently dredged and often floods where the money was found, so the situation could be very confused.
However, Williams noted, the Columbia is frequently dredged and often floods where the money was found, so the situation could be very confused.
Pringle said Cooper jumped with the money tied around his · waist, and he said he believed "it was in a bag which would have de- teriorated over this length of time."
He said a major objective of the search going on now is to find some other object that is connected to Cooper.
"We could find bones, or a piece of parachute," he said. "Nylon does not deteriorate rapidly."
Agents using spades and rakes have discovered a few more pieces of $20 bills, about the size of nick- els and dimes, according to the FBI. The new discoveries were made within a three-foot radius of the original finding.
"We 'are planning to bring in . some heavy equipment tomorrow to speed things up," Williams said. "The problem when you dig up a spadeful of sand is, what do you do with the sand?".
In Ariel, meanwhile, tavern owner Dave Fisher said the little town will go on with plans for its annual "D. B. Cooper party" at his Ariel Store & Tavern-this-Nov .
In Ariel, meanwhile, tavern owner Dave Fisher said the little town will go on with plans for its annual "D. B. Cooper party" at his Ariel Store & Tavern-this-Nov .. 24
"You know, if they had found tlles body," he said, "we were planning some sort of a memorial pr Ty 1980
y
b6 b7C
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SUBS: BIE,GIM
#5-
DB Cooper-26357
SUB B
6-4-81-8296 La
FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
+9
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) Seattle Times Seattle, Wa.
p.AL
Date: 2/13/80 Edition: Final
Title:
NORSAK
Character:
or
164-81
Classification:
Submitting Office: Seattle
More D.B.I
Cooper cash
sought
by Richard Zahler land Steve Johnston Times staff reporters VANCOUVER, Wash. - The Federal Bureau of Investigation brought a backhoe and experts in soil, archeology and river currents to a sandy Columbia River beach west of here today to seek more clues into the 8-year-old D.B. Coo- per hijacking mystery.
An 8-year-old boy Sunday uncov- ered on the beach a small part of ,the $200,000 the legendary hijacker had strapped to his body when he parachuted from a Northwest Ori- ent Airlines 727 over Southwestern Washington
An 8-year-old boy Sunday uncov- ered on the beach a small part of ,the $200,000 the legendary hijacker had strapped to his body when he parachuted from a Northwest Ori- ent Airlines 727 over Southwestern Washington November 24, 1971.
F.B.I. agents yesterday found more fragments of $20 bills while 'digging at the beach. Paul Hud- son, the F.B.I.'s on-site coordina- tor, said the fragments - the size of nickels and quarters - were found as much as 5 feet away from where the money was found Sunday. Some fragments were 3 feet under the surface.
Hudson said the bureau is trying Ito determine possible ways the money reached the beach. The Driver recently covered the beach, he said.
Hudson also noted that the Co- lumbia River channel is dredged periodically and sand from the riv- er bottom is pumped on the shore.
"It's possible that it washed up here a period of time ago . . . not 9 years ago but not necessarily recently," Hudson said.
SUBS BEIG,MI
Brian Ingram Got scoop on skyjacker
Discovery of the money "probl ably raises as many questions as it does answers," Hudson said. "In my own mind I can rule out the possibility that (the money) was buried here.
SUBS BEIG,MI
Brian Ingram Got scoop on skyjacker
Discovery of the money "probl ably raises as many questions as it does answers," Hudson said. "In my own mind I can rule out the possibility that (the money) was buried here."
Hudson said whether searchers might find Cooper's remains in the area is "one of the questions we hope to answer today."
The beach is about nine miles west of Vancouver, adjacent to a dairy farm and a popular spot for steelhead fishing. Today a Clark County deputy sheriff was at the
farm gate, turning away fisher- men and the curious.
One longtime fisherman, Sidney Tipper, 80, of Vancouver, was ad- mitted to fish. Tipper said, "I've" been going up and down this river for 10 years. The money wasn't very deep. If it had been here (a long time) I think we'd have seen it."
The F.B.I. said yesterday it pre- sumes the money had been washed downstream, possibly from a tributary to the Columbia. An Army Engineers hydrologist , said that the Washougal River was the only tributary that might have carried the money. The Washou- gal is the first Washington tribu- tary upstream from Vancouver.
William M.
hydrologist , said that the Washougal River was the only tributary that might have carried the money. The Washou- gal is the first Washington tribu- tary upstream from Vancouver.
William M. Baker, assistant spe- cial agent for the Portland F.B.I. office, said he expected searches, would be carried out along the Co. lumbia to the mouth of the Wall. shougal and possibly up the Wall shougal.
The money recovered Sunday, in three bundles of decomposing $20 bills, was discovered by Brian Ingram, 8, of Vancouver. The boy
SUB-B- 164-81-8235
SEAN_HED ......... INCC SERIALIZEO .L.FILC FEB 15 1980 FBI : SEATTLE
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FBI/DOJ
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b6 b7C7D-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
HR
Phones: ringing 13 EI ioff the hook' 5
(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) p. BL Seattle Times Seattle, Wa.
Date:
2/13/80
Edition:
Final
Title:
NORJAK
Character:
or
Classification:
164.81
Submitting Office:
Seattle
at Ariel
by Richard Zahler- Times staff reporter
ARIEL, Cowlitz County - Not much happens in Ariel, a small logging community Il miles east of Woodland.
+
Until a hijacker vanished mys- teriously over Southwest Washing- ton more than eight years ago, probably
+
Until a hijacker vanished mys- teriously over Southwest Washing- ton more than eight years ago, probably nothing happened in Ariel.
But D.B. Cooper put the town on the map, and yesterday and last night the telephones at the Ariel Store & Tavern were "ring. ing off the hook" said Dave Fish- er, the owner.
Ariel happens to be near Lake Merwin, and a number of theorists suggested that Cooper might have gone into the reservoir behind the Ariel dam.
Since 1976 the Ariel Tavern has hosted an annual D.B. Cooper par- ty on November 24, the anniversa- ry of the hijacking in 1971. Every year 200 to 300 people have shown up to eat buffalo stew and see whether Cooper would answer the standing invitation to join the party.
He never has, of course.
Fisher bought the tavern and the tradition 15 months ago, and until 3:30 yesterday afternoon, "1 wasn't expecting a thing tonight. It's pretty dead in winter."
But then the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced in Seattle and Portland that part of $200,000 given to the hijacker had been found along the banks of the Co- lumbia River near Vancouver.
"
But then the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced in Seattle and Portland that part of $200,000 given to the hijacker had been found along the banks of the Co- lumbia River near Vancouver.
The moldering money, about." #$4,000, was found by a family pic- I nicking along the river north of Portland. A young. boy digging in the sandy riverbanks with a stick uncovered the loot.
After that, Fisher said, "It was just like the D.B. Cooper party."
Fisher said he had been on the run answering telephone calls from television-network reporters in New York and newspapers and. radio stations all over the West, Coast.
Only about' 20 or 30 patrons were in the Ariel Tavern lost - night, and most were paying as! much attention to playing pool as to the Cooper talk. A weekly Tues- day-night pool match with the Riv- erside Tavern in Woodland had' been moved to Ariel last night at . the request of a Portland televi- sion station interested in filming . reaction to the discovery of the. money.
Fisher and others said they were mystified as to how the mon- . ey arrived on the banks of the Co- lumbia River, but they still would have to be persuaded that the hi- jacker didn't survive after he.
ey arrived on the banks of the Co- lumbia River, but they still would have to be persuaded that the hi- jacker didn't survive after he. bailed out of the Boeing 727.
"I still think he's alive, until - ;they find some bones," Fisher : said.
He said the finding could lead to other developments, pointing out that the discovery by the boy was" a strange first trace of Cooper alter so many years.
Then the telephone rang in the next room, Fisher raced to an- swer it, laughed and announced, "San Jose calling."
SUBS: B,E, G,M
SUB B- 64-81-8232/
SERIALIZSOM ... . FILED 4
FEB 15 1980
FBI . SEATTLE 1
56
FD1/DOJO7C
DB Cooper-26363 FD-350 (Rev:, 12-5-78)
(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) p. BL Seattle Times Seattle, Wa.
Date: 2/13/80 Edition: Final
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
Finally, a fact is added to Cooper
HQ
Title: NORJAK
Character:
Classification: 164.81
or
Submitting Office: Seattle
sagal
by Steve Johnston ¡Times staff reporter
À
Passengers on Flight. 305 re- membered the man as a quiet- spoken sort wearing a dark brown' suit.
81
or
Submitting Office: Seattle
sagal
by Steve Johnston ¡Times staff reporter
À
Passengers on Flight. 305 re- membered the man as a quiet- spoken sort wearing a dark brown' suit. He took the last seat on the right-hand side of the Northwest Orient Airline's flight out of Port- land.heading for Seattle.
The only thing . unusual about. the man was that he wore sun glasses, unusual because it was a rainy day on November 24, 1971, a day before Thanksgiving.
The man checked aboard the Boeing 727 under the name of "Dan Cooper" in Portland, the Jast leg of the flight that had start- ed in Washington, D.C.
By the time the plane finally set down in Reno several hours later, the man who became known as "D.B. Cooper" was gone, along with $200,000 in $20 bills, two para- chutes and a briefcase which Coo .. per told the stewardess contained a bomb.
Somewhere in Southwest Wash- Vington, D.B. Cooper had bailed out at 10,000' -feet into. dark storm clouds and into history. He would - remain to this day the 'only hi- jacker in the United States ever to . escape arrest.
Over the last seven years, the F.
He would - remain to this day the 'only hi- jacker in the United States ever to . escape arrest.
Over the last seven years, the F.B.I. has questioned more than 1,000 possible suspects, chased,) down thousands of leads and! heard from hundreds of .people who claim either to be Cooper on to know his whereabouts.
But it took an 8-year-old Van- couver, Wash., boy to uncover the : only piece of concrete evidence that Cooper really did bail out into : the dense forest of Southwest Washington.
SUBS:BEG,M,
Until"Brian Ingram dug up 12. packets of $20 bills while on a pic" nic with his family along the Co4 lumbia River, law-enforcement of; ficers only assumed D.B. Cooper jumped over Southwest Washing- ton. The plane's recorder showed a "low pressure bump" at 8:11 p.m. near Woodland, and when the plane landed in Reno, the hijacker couldn't be found.
Hundreds of searchers .. spread out over the area around Wood- land, hoping either to find the body or the money or just a piece of the parachute dangling from a tree. Most parachute experts con- sulted at the time agreed it would be almost impossible.
spread out over the area around Wood- land, hoping either to find the body or the money or just a piece of the parachute dangling from a tree. Most parachute experts con- sulted at the time agreed it would be almost impossible. for Cooper to survive the plunge.
But within days of the 'hijack; ing, the legend of D.B. Cooper 5
istarted to build. People started ti "talk about him as a modern-day Robin Hood. They admired the daring, the planning and the ex- ecution of the jump.
Slowly but surely, the reports of encounters with Cooper started to come out. A man in Woodland said someone knocked at his back door on November 24 about the time Cooper would have landed, but he didn't answer. Other people start- ed turning in friends who looked like Cooper, in hopes of collecting the $25,000 reward.
Then the stories started to ap- pear. The now defunct Seattle Flag ran several pages of purport- ed interview with Cooper, and two
A
Kitsap County men were arrested for selling a fake interview with Cooper to a former contributing editor of Newsweek for $30,000. Five months ago, two Tacoma nen said they had talked with D.B. Cooper, who, they said, was living in Puyallup.
Five months ago, two Tacoma nen said they had talked with D.B. Cooper, who, they said, was living in Puyallup. The man told them that the money was buried ' under a pile of garbage at the Puyallup dump.
Mostly, however, people .just have had fun with the D.B. Cooper story. T-shirts with the picture of D.B. Cooper in his sunglasses and bearing the legend, "D.B. Cooper, Where Are You?" became popu -: lar, and there even was a song written about him.
The residents of Ariel, Cowlitz ,County, near where Cooper sup-) posedly bailed out, started holding an annual "D.B. Cooper Day" to' commemorate the event. The fes- tival, called the "Cooper Caper," featured buffalo stew and sky divers and attracted 'more than .800 people. But not, apparently, < D.B. Cooper.
. As for the two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who have been on the case since it began, they say they believe D.B. Cooper probably died the night he went but the plane.
"It is my personal opinion that he is dead," said Joseph O'Con- nell, who has retired.
Cooper probably died the night he went but the plane.
"It is my personal opinion that he is dead," said Joseph O'Con- nell, who has retired. "He jumped out of a plane at 10,000 feet on a cold, raw night and he jumped in an area densely populated with Douglas fir and ponderosa pine." Ralph Himmelsbach, Portland F.B.I. agent who is to retire Feb:" ruary 29, said he was "del gifieldit .....!! : ) about the money being found. Het EB 15 1980 said the find reduced the chances of Cooper ever being found alive FBI . SEATTLE to "less than 50-50."
SUB-B 62-81-8733 4
y 2
FBILROS
DB Cooper-26365
b6 b7CFRE-350 (ISTv. 12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
19
cate page, name of spaper, city and state.) p. Al Post-Intelligencer Seattle, Wa.
Date:
Final
Edition:
Title:
NORJAK
Character: or
Classification:
164-81
Submitting Office: Seattle
My Search for D.B. Cooper 9 Years Trailing The Phantom Skyjacker
c= Tuesday's announcement of the finding of part of the D. B. Cooper loot was the first dramatit development in one of the nation's, most publicised - and pussling - skyjack cases.
Cooper loot was the first dramatit development in one of the nation's, most publicised - and pussling - skyjack cases. Seattle teriter Dar- rell Bob Houston, who has devoted years of study to the case and who wrote the book "King of the Midnight Blue," herewith reviews the D. B. Cooper history und his own preoccupation with it.
By Darrell Bob Houston
My first mistake was having the same initials as D.B. Cooper.
My second was writing a book about bim.
My third was allowing myself to' become a D.B. Cooper expert.
My fourth - and perhaps most] dangerous - was when I scoffed
at the supernatural overtones in! the case.
My fifth mistake was the most embarrassing. After nine years of checking out everything from the Raleigh filter cigarettes that D.B. smoked to the thin clip-on necktie he wore, I came to see him as a kind of avatar. The Last Invisible ¿ Hero. He could be anybody - be- cause be was nobody. Punk or par- lagon, he could go either way.
Even the FBI doesn't know what he looked like. The thousands of flyers they plastered around the
İ world show Cooper's face hidden behind the fattest pair of
The thousands of flyers they plastered around the
İ world show Cooper's face hidden behind the fattest pair of sun- glasses this side of Hollywood Bou- ¡levard. .
D:B. is the only man ever to make the global Ten Most Wanted List - in disguise. But ask any school kid who the first man to walk on the moon was, and all you get is a stare. Mention D.B. and the kid will give you everything but; the serial numbers on the ransom money.
There I go, parroting the lines ithat I've fed to people for the past nine years. Especially people who wanted my help in turning "the real D.B. Cooper" over to the po- lice. Many claimed to have been in jail with him. One caller, after 'reading one of my essays on Coop- er, said D.B. was really his mother - in drag.
Steadily it was building up, this feeling that I was hiding the truth from myself. I fought it back. Every time a new clue would turn up - a pair of soiled underwear in a Southwest Washington tree, the . alleged sighting of a sasquatch;, playing building blocks with a pile: of $20 bills - I would write an- other skyjack article.
alleged sighting of a sasquatch;, playing building blocks with a pile: of $20 bills - I would write an- other skyjack article.
D.B. had become, in a sense, my life. And my livelihood.
Then came the day when the
conviction stritek home.y
I had, just finished a story for Saga Magazine called "The' Phan-i. tom Skyjacker." J brushed off my dark Montgoinery Ward ,business suit. I flicked at a mote of. dust on my lowcut military brogans. I. straightened my, thin, clip-on tie. I; pushed my wrap-around sunglasses up on my forehead and exclaimed . to the skies. İ
"It's true. I know too much. I am D.B. Cooper!"
My megalomania fled the next day.
: It 'was the letter that did it. From the opening paragraph, I was hooked.
Here's how it began:
: Thanksgiving eve: 1971. A stormy night. A Northwest Orient 727 lumbers through the dark-" ness. Its speed is barely above stall-point. A stairwell slowly dis- tends from the big jet's belly.
: A man appears. Ile rides the staying ladder like a tomeat on a fire ladder. He wears a dark suit and overcoat.
: A man appears. Ile rides the staying ladder like a tomeat on a fire ladder. He wears a dark suit and overcoat. Sunglasses are taped to his temples.
. Strapped to his waist is a can- bas bag stuffed with the $200,000 ransom he collected at Scattle. Over his buttocks, on the same !strap, an attache case dangles. It is black and contains five sticks of phony dynamite.
The man is, poised on the final step. His"laughter .. rises in thes wind. He spreads his arms wide. and skydives toward the treetops, - and the folklore of the nation.
. D. B. Cooper has arrived. The' world will never be the same place again.
I felt a pang of professional jeal- fousy. This guy was good with the
+5℃
typewriter. And all the space-age jargon was there. He called thet 727-100's engines "Pratt & Whitney jewels." He knew the skyjacked! plane's fuel capacity - in U.S. gal- Tons. And he knew how much 10,000 twenties weighed.
It was smooth and authentic. Still, the writer could have gotten most of that stuff out of Jane's All the World's Aircraft.
It was smooth and authentic. Still, the writer could have gotten most of that stuff out of Jane's All the World's Aircraft.
But one section struck hoine. The part that told about the deliv- cry of the ransom aboard the 727 at Sea-Tac Airport:
"The bills were the real MeCoy. But all of them had been xeroxed; to get their serial numbers. I know! I snarfed them personally."
Snarfed? A doozy of a verb, an active verb.
One that might lead me straightt
f
¡ to the skyjacker. To an all-time journalistic scoop. To fame, fori. etune - and a Hollywood contract.
I read the letter a dozen times.
It was signed like the rest of. them: D.B. Cooper. This one, how- ever, was different. After more than 200 bogus D.B.'s write to you, . you can tell.
f The address was an apartment -; house on Capitol Hill. The place smelled of pomade and-insecticide!
It was enough to make a healthy inspector call in sick. I knocked ont Number 9.
"He ain't here. Not if you're", looking for D.B." SUBB The old man had tippy-toed up. behind me in the carpeted hall .
Not if you're", looking for D.B." SUBB The old man had tippy-toed up. behind me in the carpeted hall ..
64-81-8232
SEARCHED SERIALIZEDFILS. FEB 15 1980 FBI - SEATTLE
DB Cooper-26367
FDI/DOJFD-350,(Rev."12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
More Of D.B.'s Ransom Found
By Neil Modie
FBI agents yesterday found bits of more $20 bills buried in the sand be- side the Columbia River near Van- couver, Wash., and said it was more of the $200,000 ransom collected in 1971 by airline hijacker D.B. Cooper.
Agents speculated earlier in the day that the muck and sand the money was buried in may have been dredge material. But they discounted. that theory after a geologist examined the site, about 10 miles northwest of Vancouver.
"His (the geologist's) feeling is thal; the probabilities are that the material! was washed ashore rather than (being: Fin) dredged sand." FBI - Agent Ralph! ; Himmelsbach of Portland told The Post - Intelligencer last night.
Children on a family outing on Sunday found the first half - decom- posed packets of $20 bills with which .
Children on a family outing on Sunday found the first half - decom- posed packets of $20 bills with which . Cooper bad parachuted from a North- west Orient jetliner on Thanksgiving Eve, Nov. 24, 1971.
The total was between $1,000 and $4,000, Himmelsbach said, and serial numbers checked matched numbers on the marked bills given Cooper.
The money was found farther downriver from Vancouver than FBI agents had estimated Tuesday, when they announced the discovery, and it caused Himmelsbach to return to the theory he has bad since 1971 that Cooper landed - dead or alive - in the vicinity of Lake Merwin on the Lewis River about 25 miles north of Vancouver.
Himmelsbach, the agent in charge of the investigation since the hijack- ing took place, said he believes the dozen packets of greenbacks were gradually washed down the Lewis River and into the Columbia River. Then, he said, ocean tides could have pushed thein several miles up thu Columbia to where they were found.
There was speculation Tuesday
·that the site was too far up the Colum- · bia for the money to have come from the Lewis River.
There was speculation Tuesday
·that the site was too far up the Colum- · bia for the money to have come from the Lewis River.
. However, Himmelsbach said yes- ferday, "My understanding is that this is tidal water, and if so, there are times that this (river) runs backward. So it could have run upstream that far."
i
Did Cooper, lightly dressed and . buffeted by wind and freezing rain . when he parachuted from the airlin- er, drop the money on the way down?
"That's a good possibility," Him- melsbach said. "There's also the possi- bility that he just took the money, and neither he bor the money left there (where he landed).
."I feel this is an indication that ". probably he didn't make it (alive), and it has been my feeling that probably he didn't make it because of the cir- cumstances of the jump and the fact that he didn't have the proper equip- ment for parachuting," Himmelsbach continued.
"He didn't have a hardhat, goggles, leather gloves, jump suit or jump boots. He didn't bave any of those things and he sure needed them all.
"He didn't have a hardhat, goggles, leather gloves, jump suit or jump boots. He didn't bave any of those things and he sure needed them all.
"I don't think the fall killed him," "Himmelsbach theorized, "but there" ",was that sudden stop. I think probably there was good likelihood he was in jured during the fall and didn't have! any help . . . and was unable to extri- cate himself (from wherever he fell). And probably is still there."
Agents continued digging yester- day, and Himmelsbach said he didn't know how long they would continue.
There was no trace at the site of the legendary extortionist nor of his parachute, and Himmelsbach indi- cated he didn't expect to find such evidence there.
The ransom money was given to "Cooper at Seattle - Tacoma Interna- tional Airport after he threatened to blow up the 727 trijet while on a flight from Portland. At Sea - Tac, be al- lowed all the passengers and all but : four members of the crew to leave, demanded and received the $200,000 and four parachutes, and had the plane depart for Reno, Nev.
At Sea - Tac, be al- lowed all the passengers and all but : four members of the crew to leave, demanded and received the $200,000 and four parachutes, and had the plane depart for Reno, Nev.
1
The skyjacker bailed out over Southwest Washington.
Sunday's find was particularly sat- Fisfying for'Himmelsbach, who on Feb. 29 is scheduled to retire from the FBI !after a career of nearly 29 years - more than eight of which were spent trying to solve the Cooper caper. The discovery of the money was the first solid break in the case.
J
"It doesn't increase my (retirement) annuity any, but it doesf make me happy," Himmelsbach said ..
H9
ate page, name of spaper, city and state.) p.AL
Post-Intelligencer
Seattle, Wa.
Date:
2/14/80
Edition:
Final
Title:
NORJAK
Character: or 164-81
Classification:
Submitting Office:
Seattle
SUBS: B, E, G,M
75€
SUBB- 1641-81-8231
SEARCHED 4
212
SERIALIZED ....... ].[' __ ) FEB 15 1980 FBI - SEATTLE
DB Cooper-26370
FBI/DOJPD:50 (Rev. 12-5-78)
SUBS: B,E,G,M,
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
HG
(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) p. Al Post-Intelligencer Seattle, Wa.
12-5-78)
SUBS: B,E,G,M,
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
HG
(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) p. Al Post-Intelligencer Seattle, Wa. b6
Date:
2/13/80
b7C
Edition: Final
'Title:
NORJAK
Character:
or
164.81
Classification:
Submitting Office:
Seattle
Found- D.B.'S Loot!
Kids Dig Up Hijack Cash
By Neil Modie
More than eight years after D.B. Cooper parachuted into rainy dark- ness from a hijacked airliner, part of . his $200.000 loot was found buried in a river bank near Vancouver, Wash., the FBI announced yesterday. -
Badly weathered and apparently washed ashore from the Columbia River, the stacks of $20 bills say noth- ing encouraging about the fate of the legendary hijacker.
"it can tell you a number of things - either be dropped the money or he's dead." commented John D. Prin- gle, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI office in Seattle. "We can't tell at this point."
For Ralph Himmelsbach of Port- land, the FBI agent in charge of the investigation since it began, the dis- covery reinforces his opinion that Cooper died after he parachuted from a Northwest Orient 727 trijet on Thanksgiving Eve, 1971.
"
For Ralph Himmelsbach of Port- land, the FBI agent in charge of the investigation since it began, the dis- covery reinforces his opinion that Cooper died after he parachuted from a Northwest Orient 727 trijet on Thanksgiving Eve, 1971.
BRIAN INGRAM The money in the sand
Himmelsbach said the find re- duced to "less than 50 - 50" the odds that Cooper is still alive.
The money was found Sunday by an 8-year-old Vancouver boy, Brian Ingram, and his 5-year-old cousin, Denise, as they were digging in the sand with sticks along the river bank during a family outing.
"This clue is the first we've nad , since the night of the occurrence," said Bill Baker, assistant special agent in charge of the Portland office, which the Ingram family contacted on Monday.
The money was found about 25 miles southwest of the area where the FBI had thought it most likely Cooper landed after he parachuted from the jetliner into a freezing rainstorm on Nov. 24. 1971.
The hijacker, who had used the name "Dan Cooper" to buy his airline ticket, boarded the jet in Portland, threatened to blow it up with what he . claimed was a bomb in his briefcase, then forced it to land in Seattle to col- ect the ransom.
The hijacker, who had used the name "Dan Cooper" to buy his airline ticket, boarded the jet in Portland, threatened to blow it up with what he . claimed was a bomb in his briefcase, then forced it to land in Seattle to col- ect the ransom.
Cooper allowed 36 passengers aboard the flight to leave, then or- dered the crew of four to fly it to Reno after $200,000 in marked bills and four parachutes demanded by the hijacker were brought on board.
As the southbound airliner passed over Southwest Washington, the hi- jacker - wearing only a business suit and street shoes - parachuted through a rear stairwell door. -
As "Dan Cooper" became a legend, the name "D.B. Cooper" - as an FBI . agent had initially identified him - became the name that stuck.
The FBI said his chances of sur- vival were slim because he was lightly dressed for jumping into a howling wind and a freezing rain in at riparachute not likely to work.
Agents have theorized that his remains are at the bottom of Lake Merwin, its forest of underwayvi snags entangling his parachute of fris FEB 15 1980 FBI . SEATTLE IL
#5€
SUB B 1621-81-8-999-17
DB Cooper-26372 FD-350 (Rev.
Agents have theorized that his remains are at the bottom of Lake Merwin, its forest of underwayvi snags entangling his parachute of fris FEB 15 1980 FBI . SEATTLE IL
#5€
SUB B 1621-81-8-999-17
DB Cooper-26372 FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
SE
KIndicate page, name of
spaper, city and state.) p. F19
Seattle Times
Seattle, Wa.
Date:
2/20/80
Edition:
A.N.
Title:
Character:
164-81
or
Classification:
Submitting Office:
Seattle
Boy who found hijack loot gets bill as souvenir
VANCOUVER, Wash. - (AP) - Brian Ingram, the 8-year-old who uncovered some of D.B. Coo- per's hijack loot, will get to keep one of the frayed $20 bills as a souvenir.
The Federal Bureau of Investi- gation also gave the Vancouver' boy a certificate praising him for . his discovery.
Brian was helping his father, Harold, build a fire on a Columbia River beach February 10 when he; uncovered three bundles of weath- >ered $20 bills. The bills were the first evidence uncovered in the case since Cooper hijacked the jetliner in 1971.
SUBS: B
-16.4 b6 b7C
SUB-B- 64-81-8327
$15
SEARCHED .... ) ... (INSAE). SERIALIZED ...... FILSO.
The bills were the first evidence uncovered in the case since Cooper hijacked the jetliner in 1971.
SUBS: B
-16.4 b6 b7C
SUB-B- 64-81-8327
$15
SEARCHED .... ) ... (INSAE). SERIALIZED ...... FILSO. FEB 20 1980 FBI . SEATTLE și
DB Cooper-26375
FBI/DOJ FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
Wait a minute Daddy jolts
(Indicate page, name of
p.B3
aper, city and state.) Daily News Longview, Wa.
Date:
2/13/80
Edition:
Final
Title:
NÖRJAK
Character: or Classification: 1.64-81
Submitting Office: Seattle
Cooper story SUBS: B 9.
b6
b7C
By Thomas Ryll Vancouver Columbian
1
· VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) - It started as a Sunday 'pienic on a chilly river beach for a Vancouver, Wash., family and became a new chapter in the legend of D.B. Cooper.
With one sweep of his arm, 8-year-old Brian Ingram discovered Sunday what thousands of searchers failed to find - a bundle of $20 bills, now deteriorated, demanded by the infamous, parachuting skyjacker in 1971.
Tuesday night in an interview with the Vancouver Col- umbian, Brian, his father, H. Dwayne, and his mother, Patricia, recounted the events of a casual outing that unearthed what one official called the "most important
Dwayne, and his mother, Patricia, recounted the events of a casual outing that unearthed what one official called the "most important discovery" in the 81/2-year-old case. At the same time, the elder Ingram described finding several thousand dollars of soggy cash as "heartbreaking" without a pen- ny of reward money in sight.
The family and two relatives were walking along the Columbia River near a sand company about 3:30 p.m. Sunday. They decided to gather wood for a fire to take the chill off the 40-degree temperature.
1
"I gathered an armload of firewood," said Ingram, 28, Ja painter for U-Cart Manufacturing, a Vancouver firm. "He (Brian) was doing his part, happy and enthusiastic. I was about ready to set the wood down and he said, 'Wait a minute, Daddy." **
Brian, a second-grader at Hough Elementary School, knelt beneath his father to smooth a spot for the fire. He swept the river sand only once, uncovering three worn bundles of $20 bills.
"I seen that money, I thought 'Wow!"" recalled the slender, towheaded youngster, who said it was the first money he ever found.
"I seen that money, I thought 'Wow!"" recalled the slender, towheaded youngster, who said it was the first money he ever found. "I went over to my parents and they thought it was counterfeit."
Unknown to them, Brian had uncovered part of a $200,000 ransom handed over to a man calling himself Dan Cooper on Nov. 24, 1971. Cooper demanded the cash , as ransom and hijacked a Northwest Airline Boeing 727 jet in Seattle.
As the plane flew south to Reno, Nev., Cooper bailed out from the jet's rear-stairway with the bundled money wrapped in a parachute and tied to his body.
Authorities believe he jumped. over southwest Washington.
The Ingrams, who moved here from Oklahoma less than a year ago, said they were aware of the D.B. Cooper saga but did not connect it to their find.
Neither did the buried treasure put a damper on the): "afternoon activities. "We had a picnic," said Ingram.' "We forgot about the money and had a great time."
Back home about 5:30 p.m. Sunday, the bills, erroded into lozenge-shaped piles, were placed unceremoniously atop a kitchen cabinet to dry.
Sunday, the bills, erroded into lozenge-shaped piles, were placed unceremoniously atop a kitchen cabinet to dry.
"I was thinking about decoupaging them and putting them on a board," said Mrs. Ingram, 26.
"I thought it might have been mob money or lost money. I just didn't know what to think, but it was just money that looked useless to me."
Monday, during his 10 a.m. coffee break, Ingram call- ed a local bank to see whether the battered bills could be . exchanged for new ones. A bank employee told him it could be done if the serial numbers were intact, but add- ed a check would be made of the numbers.
Ingram said he brooded on that the rest of the day and called the Portland FBI office Monday evening, reading? several serial numbers to an agent.
When Ingram called back 30 minutes later, "they said they'd like to talk to me."
It was not until Tuesday morning that he learned the money was part of the Cooper caper.
Tuesday evening, the couple watched themselves on national television. By then, they had grown weary of the day's hectic activities and exuded disappointment in learning that apparently
By then, they had grown weary of the day's hectic activities and exuded disappointment in learning that apparently no reward awaits their hones- ty.
"It's just heartbreaking that nothing may come of this," Ingram said.
"I went from a rich man to a poor man without hardly making a move."
Supporting a family of four and making the $200 a month rent payment for their ragged westside home is tough at times, Ingram said, adding "If all this fame ; came with a little fortune, I would talk to everyone in the sworld about this story."
He abruptly ended the interview minutes later, turn- ing his eyes to the television set, saying, "If you don't! mind, I've waited five years to see this movie (The EXOF! cist) on television."
¥5 €
DB Cooper-26376
SUB B 16-1-81-8225

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FEB 1 9 1980
FBI - SEATTLE

T+(0 (Pev. 12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
The Hero Left a Victim After All
By Darrell Boh Houston
The big 727-100 shot spray as it
12-5-78)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
The Hero Left a Victim After All
By Darrell Boh Houston
The big 727-100 shot spray as it pow- ered down the runway at Sea-Tac, "leaving an oily rainbow in its wake. The pilot began his climb, grabbing altitude at more than 3,000 feet per minute. He leveled off at 30,000 in the vicinity of Mount St. Helens, home of the legend- ary Sasquatch and a landmark in the nine-year ground search for D.B. Cooper.
I looked up from my manuscript and studied the cabin. Seat C, Row 18. That's where Cooper had sat on Flight 305, chain-smoking his Raleighs and fondling that attache case with the five phony sticks of dynamite inside. Mr. Nice Guy with the Rotary Club smile and the cheap business suit. Tobacco stains on his teeth - and larceny in his heart.
I glanced al the ventral stairwell. That had been the key to D. B.'s dream- ship. Located under the center engine," it allowed him to climb out and jump
without being sucked into a turbofan For sliced to carrots on the flaps.
Now, a large red sign proclaimed: This stairway cannot be opened in flight.
Located under the center engine," it allowed him to climb out and jump
without being sucked into a turbofan For sliced to carrots on the flaps.
Now, a large red sign proclaimed: This stairway cannot be opened in flight. The D. B. door was closed - for good. Cooper had changed the specifi- cations of a fleet of $5 million airplanes. He had also made me a hero worshiper. The stewardess came up the aisle. She stopped at my seat.
"I'm curious . . . " she began. My paranoia mounted. I fumbled around, trying to hide the manuscript that was open on my lap.
The stewardess was charmed by my modesty.
"You're a writer, aren't you?" I mumbled a confession.
'. . . And that's a book manuscript?" Her smile was very white. I thought of the froth on a Wyoming trout stream.
Faking a cougbing attack, I bent over the thick pile of pages that consti- tuted my D.B. Cooper novel. "What's your book about?" I sat up straight.
"It's about a man," I said. "A man "who figured that we're all riding on an airplane. Its name is Earth - and its zooming through the Void at some- thing like 66,690 miles an hour.
"Bul even at that speed - or so his-
theory went - mnost people are still bored spitless.
Its name is Earth - and its zooming through the Void at some- thing like 66,690 miles an hour.
"Bul even at that speed - or so his-
theory went - mnost people are still bored spitless.
"This man gave us the answer: The only way to get off that angst ridden' 'airplane IS TO JUMP!"
I saw it coming - all the way to the nearest FBI interrogation room.
"What was his name?"
"D. B. Cooper," I whispered.
"Any relation to James Fenimore?"
The stewardess' wink said it all. I closed my eyes. I wanted to slip on my dark glasses - but why tempt fate any further? I would have to cringe openly.
I pretended to sleep all the way to San Francisco.
***
Emerson said that the trouble with heroes is not their ceramic feet. It's that eventually they become a pain in the ass.
I wonder if the Sage of Concord would have been all that blase about the acturial little gent who called him- self Dan Cooper - especially if D. B. had kept him in groceries for almost 10 years. .
When I think back to that stormy Thanksgiving Eve of 1971, the night Cooper half-gainered his way to im- mortality, I find it hard to label him the criminal he officially is - dead or al- l'ive.
When I think back to that stormy Thanksgiving Eve of 1971, the night Cooper half-gainered his way to im- mortality, I find it hard to label him the criminal he officially is - dead or al- l'ive.
I was huddled in bed in my $50-a- 'month pad on Summit Avenue, listen- ! ing to the radio and cating noodles with a pair of borrowed chopsticks.
The noodles were even colder than the apartment. But after the first flash about the parachute skyjack, it didn't matter.
Apologizing to my pet cockroach, William S. Burroughs III, I scratched i around on the floor and found a dime. I called the Los Angeles Times. The edi- > tors assigned me to do a D. B. story.
I was elated. I would eat again. So would Burroughs, who was as sick of monosodium glutamate as I was.
The first national D. B. Cooper epic was laid out in the March 19, 1972 issue of the L.A. Times' West Magazine. It covered seven full pages with six dia- grams and photographs. Included, too, was a song called "The Ballad of D.B. :Cooper." The lyric was catchy - and ·forgettable.
Then, after the huge presses at .Times Mirror Square had already.
" The lyric was catchy - and ·forgettable.
Then, after the huge presses at .Times Mirror Square had already. kicked in, the editors had second thoughts. With several thousand copies
SF
(Ind e page, nanie of per, city and state.) p. Al Seattle Times Seattle, Wa.

Date:	2/15/80
Edition: Final

Title: NORJAK
Character: or 164-81
Classification:
Submitting Office: Seattle
fun off, the Times pulled my story and replated -at considerable cost.
They said they loved the headline: "Coffee, Tea - or $200,000?" But they didn't want to glorify the skyjacker, ! who, after all, was a dangerous fugi- tive.
Now how in the hell was I going to rationalize that to a cockroach? ***
SUB B
My hero-fixation surfaced next on a Seattle television show.
By that time I was really into my role. I had my own tacky attache case to go with my black suit and skimpy tic. I encouraged people to call me D. B. I wore my sunglasses - even on rainy days.
I had my own tacky attache case to go with my black suit and skimpy tic. I encouraged people to call me D. B. I wore my sunglasses - even on rainy days.
When my television host asked me if I thought Cooper was a new Ameri- can hero, I was ready.
"Yes," I said. "He was a terrific hero. He screwed the System back -- nonvi- olently, nonpolitically. He didn't burt anybody, and he only took 200 grand.
"And best of all" - i had rehearsed . the line for a week - "he didn't leave any footprints in the clouds."
The switchboard at the station turned into a pinball machine.
The most irate of the callers was Ernest K. Gann, the author and formerj airline pilot.
Ť
I still have a copy of the telegram he isent to the station the next day.
"The true depiction of all hijackers for what they are, instead of as he- roes," it said in conclusion, "must be shown now or you and your loved ones may well, and very soon, be aboard the next of another Robin Hood's terrible adventures."
I fired back at Gann through Em- mett Watson's column in The P-I. I re- peated my favorite argument: D.
"
I fired back at Gann through Em- mett Watson's column in The P-I. I re- peated my favorite argument: D. B., with his lopsided grin and gentle man- ner, had left no victims.
I was not only smug. I was wrong.
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64-81-8222
The door to my apartment was ajar when I returned. A tall young wonen isat at my writing desk. Blonde hair fell to her shoulders. Her posture strueR !! LIZE me as incongruent to her beauty Her slump was one of weariness - arad de- feat.
# 5
FILED 4
FEB 19 1980 FBI . SEATTLE 8
FUI/DOJ
DB Cooper-26377FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
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Cooper parties will continue in Ariel
By Fran Kaiser The Daily News Staff Writer
. ARIEL - The party will go on - whether D.B. Cooper is found or not.
That assurance is from Laurel Fisher, owner of the Ariel Store and Tavern, where legend seekers gather each November to fete the famous skyjacker.
"We'll probably have the party forever," said Laurel, who spent the morning hosting television crews from as far away as Los Angeles after some of Cooper's loot was found near Vancouver.
"We'll probably have the party forever," said Laurel, who spent the morning hosting television crews from as far away as Los Angeles after some of Cooper's loot was found near Vancouver.
Even if Cooper is found dead the party will continue as a memorial, she said.
"It means something to everyone up here. It's a legend. He sort of put Ariel on the map."
Authorities believe Cooper bailed out of the hijacked Boeing 727 near Lake Merwin in the area east of Woodland. Neither he nor $200,000 in loot was ever seen - until some of the money appeared Tuesday.
The money caused excitement in the small community on the 4 Lewis River near Merwin Dam. Despite the find, some Ariel residents still say maybe Cooper dropped some of his money, but got away.
Laurel and her husband, David, bought the store 15 months ago and continued the traditional party started by the former owner.
About 300 people showed up for last November's party. Some, perhaps, hoped Cooper himself might be lured to the celebration if he's alive.
He's never shown, but he has an open invitation.
(Indicate page, name of 'spaper, city and state.
Some, perhaps, hoped Cooper himself might be lured to the celebration if he's alive.
He's never shown, but he has an open invitation.
(Indicate page, name of 'spaper, city and state.) Daily News Longview, Wa.
p.BL

Date:	2/13/80
Edition:	Final

Title:
NORJAK
Character:
or
Classification: 164/81
Submitting Office: Seattle
SUB B
$5€
SUB B- 164-81-8221-
SEARCHED SERIALIZED
FEB 1 9 1980 FBI - SEATTLE
INDEXED FILED 4 2
FBI/DOJ
DB Cooper-26379FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
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SE
Jodicate page, name of
per, city and state.) p. A6
seattle Times
Seattle, Wa.
Date:
2/15/80
Edition:
Final
Title:
Character: or
Classification:
Submitting Office: Seattle
SUB B
FRAN RESET the SEATTLE THISORO
BEFORE WE START CUTTING, I'D LIKE TO TRY A NEW THEORY I DEVELOPED YESTERDAY.
LUMBER
GOLLY THAT SURE LOOKS LIKE MORE D.B. COOPER MONEY!
OVER THERE!
NO. OVER HERE!
RUMBLE RUMBLE
RUMBLE
LUMBER
400 1.00)
TRAMPLE SUB-B 621-81-8218

SEARCHED INCEMED. of SERIALIZED FILLO
FEB 19 1980 FBI .
00)
TRAMPLE SUB-B 621-81-8218

SEARCHED INCEMED. of SERIALIZED FILLO
FEB 19 1980 FBI . SEATTLE
J

FB1/003
DB Cooper-26380
#5D-850 (Rev. 12-5-78)
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Found by Family on Outing Part of D. B. Cooper Loot
WASHINGTON-A young Van- couver, Wash., family on an outing along the Columbia River last Sunday suddenly stumbled across 12 stacks of moldering money-part of the $200,- 000 that the notorious airline hijacker "D. B. Cooper" made off with more than eight years ago, the FBI said Tuesday.
With the bills now having been! traced definitely to the Cooper loot, 30 agents from the Portland and Seattle FBI offices have begun an ex- tensive search of the area for more of the money-and possibly for some sign of Cooper or, more likely, his re- mains.
The money-"several thousand dollars," according to one official- was found in Washington about five thiles northwest of the Interstate 5 bridge that spans the Columbia and separates Washington from Oregon, FBI agent William M.
The money-"several thousand dollars," according to one official- was found in Washington about five thiles northwest of the Interstate 5 bridge that spans the Columbia and separates Washington from Oregon, FBI agent William M. Baker told a news conference in Portland.
Discovery of the money by Harold Dwayne Ingram, 27, his wife, Patricia, 26, and their sons, 8 and 3, marked the latest twist in the bizarre saga of the now-legendary Cooper, who pa- rachuted from a Northwest Airlines jetliner on Thanksgiving Eve, 1971, never to be seen or heard from again. When found by the Ingrams, the stacks of $20 bills were bound by de- composing rubber bands, the FBI said. But there was "no trace of D. B. chute. .
Crew members last heard his voice on the plane's intercom when they were over the Washington-Oregon border. They said they believe he jumped, using the least reliable para- Cooper," according to the agency.
Shortly after the hijacking, a cult sprang up around D. B. Cooper, a name that never has been traced to its origins.
A private club was named in his honor, D. B. Cooper T-shirts were manufactured, bumper stickers were run off and anniversary parties were held.
Cooper T-shirts were manufactured, bumper stickers were run off and anniversary parties were held.
Baker said in Portland that wheth- er Cooper got away with the cast of the money was an open question. .
Law enforcement authorities-long have believed that Cooper died in his plunge from the Boeing 727 because he was wearing only a business suit and street shoes when he jumped into a howling wind and freezing rain in an unreliable parachute. It has been estimated that he hit the ground at a speed of 50 to 70 m.p.h.
The saga began when "Cooper" boarded the jetliner in Portland for an evening flight to Seattle. Once air- borne, he demanded that the airline have $200,000 in $20 bills and three parachutes on hand when the plane landed in Seattle. He threatened to blow up the plane if his demands were not met.
The airline complied, providing the parachutes and money. However, the FBI said Tuesday that the serial numbers of the bills had been record- ed.
Cooper permitted the airliner's 36 passengers to leave the plane in Seat- tle.
However, the FBI said Tuesday that the serial numbers of the bills had been record- ed.
Cooper permitted the airliner's 36 passengers to leave the plane in Seat- tle. He then ordered the crew to take the plane to Reno and told the pilot to fly at a relatively low altitude and to open the plane's rear stairway.
The decomposed money was found 17 to 20 miles from the jump site by (the Ingrams' older son, Brian. The bills were partly buried in sand that the Ingrams were scooping out to build a fire.
"Here's some more wood for the fire, Daddy," the father recalled his son as saying.
(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) I-1 LOS ANGELES TIMES
LOS ANGELES, CA
Date:
2/13/80
Edition:
Wednesday Final
Title: PART OF D. B. COOPER SLOT FOUND
Character: or Class Submit 164-497
os Antes
SUBS; B; ; GIEM
b6 b7C
SUB B- 16-1-81-8216
SEARCHED.
SERIALIZER 14 FEB A 9 1980 2
SEARCHED INDEXED SERIALIZED TILED, FEB 1 3 1980 "FBI - LOS ANGELES
FOI/DOJ
ORIGINAL TO THE BUREAU DB Cooper-26381FD-350 (Rev. 135-78)
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D.B. and 3
(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.
135-78)
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D.B. and 3
(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.)

A-1	HERALD EXAMINER LOS ANGELES, CA
Date:	2/13/80
Edition:	Wednesday. Latest
Title:	D.D. AND THE KUNE

Character: or DAMV Classifi
164-497
Submittil Los Angeles
the money
SUBS; B;
GiE; M b6 b7C
V ANCOUVER, Wash. - William M. Baker, assistant agent Twelve packets of $20'in charge of the Portland FBI bills, used eight years office, said discovery of the money ago as part of the $200,- lends credence to the FBI theory 000 paid to airline hijacker "D.B. that Cooper died in the hijacking Cooper," have been found on a attempt.
Columbia River beach near here,' Cooper's extortion effort was the the FBI announced yesterday. ifirst time a jet had been hijacked
Harold D. Ingram, 27, his wife, 'for ransom. A number of hijack- Patricia, 28, and their two sons, ings for cash have been carried out ¡were picnicking on what is known since the Cooper escapade.
A number of hijack- Patricia, 28, and their two sons, ings for cash have been carried out ¡were picnicking on what is known since the Cooper escapade. as Tena's Bar last Sunday . when Baker said the FBI could not be their older son. discovered the certain how much money was in inoney. the packets, but said it amounted Eight-year-old Brian Ingram was to "several thousand dollars." helping his father gather firewood The money has been sent to the and had scooped out sand for a FBI laboratory in Washington, fire. As his father was about to D.C., and Baker hopes the. lab will drop an armload of wood, young be able to pick fingerprints off the Ingram Fald, 3'Wait a minute, bills, which could lead to the Daddy."
suspect.
' Recalling his find yesterday, . "That would be a hell of a Brian said, "I seen that money, I break." he said .. . thought, wow."
But his parents remained calm, the son recalled .. "They thought it was counterfeit."
The tattered and worn bills young Ingram found were the first to be recovered by law enforce. ment agencies since Nov.
"
The tattered and worn bills young Ingram found were the first to be recovered by law enforce. ment agencies since Nov. 24, 1971, when a passenger hijacked a Northwest Airlines Boeing 727.
The man, identified on the flight list as Dan Cooper, parachuted out of the airliner somewhere over southwestern Washington.
The serial numbers on the bills discovered by young Ingram matched those on the money given Cooper by the FBI in 197 !..
SUB-B- 164-81-5315-
SEARCHED INDEXES 1
SERIAL'Z 11 FEB 1 9 1980
SEARCHCD MIXE SERIALIST FEB 1 3 1980 FBI - LOS ANGELES
FOIVOOS
DB Cooper-26384
ORIGINAL TO THE BUREAUFD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
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Mystery remains in the saga of D.B. Cooper
ORTLAND, Ore. - The" mystery surrounding D.B. Cooper's skyjacking and disappearance eight years ago has been rekindled by a Vancouver, Wash., family's inad- vertent discovery of worn packets of $20 bills on the Columbia River shoreline - part of Cooper's $200,- 000 ransom.
The saga which changed the nature of airline piracy began on Thanksgiving Day, 1971, when Cooper boarded Northwest Air- lines flight 305 for a
The saga which changed the nature of airline piracy began on Thanksgiving Day, 1971, when Cooper boarded Northwest Air- lines flight 305 for a flight from Portland to Seattle. Once aboard. he handed a crew member a note, saying he was carrying a bomb in a satchel and wanted $200,000 in unmarked $20 bills.
When the jetliner landed at the Seattle-Tacoma International Air- port that evening, authorities had arranged the cash and had also obtained four parachutes, as in. structed by Cooper.
Cooper then allowed the flight's 36 passengers and all crew mem- bers but two pilots and one stew. ardess to disembark. He_then ordered the aircraft to take off for Reno, Nev.
'At. one point in that flight, the crew felt a fluctuation in cabin pressure which suggested the ·jet- liner's rear cabin door had opened.
SUB- B;
(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) A-1 HERALD EXAMINER LOS ANGELES, CA

Date:	2/13/80
Edition:	Wednesday Latest
Title:	MYSTERY REMAINS
IN SAGA OF D.
) A-1 HERALD EXAMINER LOS ANGELES, CA

Date:	2/13/80
Edition:	Wednesday Latest
Title:	MYSTERY REMAINS
IN SAGA OF D. B.
COOPER
Character:
or	DASV
Classifi Submitting	164-497 LOS An. eles

b6 E;Gim. b7C
DB Cooper-26390
CACHED. INDEXED SERIALORD FILED. FEB 1 3 1980 SS: - LOS ANGELES SUBITO 1686-81-82125
SEARCHED. ...
MODELO THE BUREAU
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SERIALIZED ....... .
FEB 1 9 1980
FBI/DOJFD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
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Agent 'explains' beachfront deposit
PORTLAND (UPI) - Ralph Himmelsbach, the Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who has headed the D.B. Cooper case since the 19/1 hijacking, outlines this "possible scenario" to explain how. some of the Cooper money washed up on the beach west of Vancouver:
"Probably the money (in the + bag) came down close to the bank of a stream. When the water got high enough it washed down- stream, bumping along the bot- tom.
up on the beach west of Vancouver:
"Probably the money (in the + bag) came down close to the bank of a stream. When the water got high enough it washed down- stream, bumping along the bot- tom. The bag finally degraded.
"Perhaps it could have burst on impact, but that is not likely. We think finally, tumbling down the river bottom, it broke open and Ithe money was carried on, wear- ing off little bits and pieces around the edges, grinding it down like it, had been ground with sandpaper or a file, leaving the center portion.'
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cate page, name of
paper, city and state.)p. B1
Seattle Times
Seattle, Wa.
Date:
2/13/80
Edition:
Final
Title:
Character: or Classification:
Submitting Office: Seattle
SUBS B, G;M
SuBB- 164-81-8212
GEARCHEO SERIALIZED FEB 19 1980 FBI - SEATTLE
K
F81/00J
D.B. Cooper-26394FD-350 (Rev. 12-5-78)
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HQ
Part of D.B. Cooper money found
SUBS B;GIM
Undiente page, name of newspaper, city and state. p . AL .. Seattle Times Seattle, Wa.
Date: 2/12/80 Edition: Final
Title:
Character: or Classification: 164-81
Submitting Office: Seattle
Compiled from news services WASHINGTON - The Federal Bureau of Investigation has found "about $4,000
Date: 2/12/80 Edition: Final
Title:
Character: or Classification: 164-81
Submitting Office: Seattle
Compiled from news services WASHINGTON - The Federal Bureau of Investigation has found "about $4,000 of the money that they legendary hijacker, D.B. Cooper, carried with him when he para- chuted from a commercial . jet over Southwest Washington in -1971, a bureau spokesman said Tuesday.
The spokesman, who asked not to be named, said a family wan- dering along the banks of the Co- lumbia River north of Portland, Ore., found a packet of money this week.
#
Held together by a rubber band, the packet of $20 bills was so bad- ly deteriorated the F.B.I. could not make an exact count of the amount, the spokesman said.
Despite the deterioration, the spokesman said the F.B.I. was able to identify the money as part of the $200,000 ransom given to Cooper in Seattle nine years ago. When the money was given to the hijacker, the F.B.I. kept records of the serial numbers.
7 The packet was found 20 miles "downstream from the point where" Cooper is believed to have bailed
out of the Northwest Airlines 727, the spokesman said.
7 The packet was found 20 miles "downstream from the point where" Cooper is believed to have bailed
out of the Northwest Airlines 727, the spokesman said.
He added that with floods along the river it was likely that in nine : `years the packet had been carried some distance.
: The Portland and Seattle offices of the F.B.I. were conducting a search in the area, but the spokes- man said it was unlikely that dis- covery of the money packet would aid in the search for Cooper, the only parachute-ransom hijacker in United States history who has not been apprehended.
Cooper boarded a Northwest
A
flight in Portland on Thanksgiving, Eve, 1971, using the name Dan Cooper. Before the plane reached Seattle, Cooper threatened to ex- plode a "bomb" in his brief case if he were not given $200,000 in $20 bills and four parachutes and flown to Reno, Nev.
The plane circled Seattle for 21/2 hours while authorities gathered the parachutes and money.
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.