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FO-850 (Rev. 5-8-B1} ; fon r) {Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.} T tn 24089, uae Kl 2. Gooper’ |, Government informer, skyjacker B@Gh “IE _ Same person, Magazine claims By Robert Macy : _ Associated Press - a LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A dozen years ago today, _ “D.B, Cooper,” laden with two parachutes and 10,000 © ’ $20 bills, inched his way down the rear stairway of a _ Boeing 727 jetliner and plunged into.stormy Oregon skies, history books and oblivion. : Now a Las Vegas magazine writer says. Coope’ actually was a Missouri con man and purported © government informer named Jack Coffelt who took the secrets of that chill November night to his grave four years later. The writer, Byron Brown, ba s he and | (Mount Clipping in Space Below) oe 80-3074 Classification: 164-571-5 oa ,James Brown, a cell mate of Coffelt at the federal |, penitentiary in Atlanta in the 1950s, accompanied the | self-proclaimed hijacker to Oregon in 1974 in a futile ‘ search for the $200,000. _ a oO, FBI agents discount Brown’s story, although they apmit Coffelt ranks “in the top 20” among 933 Cooper a Tt a fner a note saying he i . h 6. gave stewardess Florence Schaffner | aaah ° beat hae ignored “the Coffelt , had a bomb in his attache case. He demanded §200,000 : . theory because Coffelt apent half of his adult life in and four parachutes. She rode next to the hij { j ‘ brief flight and has said 1954 prison phatos of . prison ang ane other half in gray ares working for the eral plus later photos taken by Brown, bear . £Ov . 4 thing , : triking resemblance to the man. a ething of a romantic hero tothe * :; ae | ubendnce he tied a sack G money atound his waist, Seattle lawyer George LeBissoniere sat ‘three rows.' strapped parachutes to his chest and back and plunged from Cooper. He said Coffelt’s pictures are “the closest , ° : lines Eli thing I'd ever seen” to the mystery man on Flight 305, off the rear stairway of Northwest Airlines Flight 305 Beth had viewed scores of FBI photos in the weeks. en on Nov, 24, 1971. a Me ye ye : «at after the hijacking. bio remains America's only unsolved In Seattle, Cooper ‘let the 36 passengers and two stewardesses disembark. Three crewmen and eteward- | ess Tina Mucklow were told to stay. Once the money is parachutes were on board, Cooper demanded the It began in the twilight hours at Portland International Airport when a man _ listed on the manifest as Dan Cooper boarded the Boeing 727 with 836 other passengers and a crew of six. - Brown, writing in this month’s issue of the Las Vegan magazine, said the craft was only one-third full ‘bon the busy holiday eve. because Coffelt had made numerous reservations, knowing the no-shows would: leave the back of the plane empty for him. - - “As 305 began its 30-minute hop to Seattle, Cooper | __ As oo Dee an Ne plane take off with the rear stairway down. The captain - gaid that could not be done. The plane lifted off, j stairway up, heading south toward Cooper's announced destination — Mexico. Retired FBI agent Ralph Himmelsbach of Portland, ‘who spent thousands of hours in pursuit of Cooper, | { mete [ey-S7i-]{ stARCHED INGE} ; SER AT PET C5 an DEC § 1983 7 — —_ nes AM EY YY = may DB Cooper- {84