Dozens Of Amateur Sleuths Make It Their Personal Crusade To Figure Out What Happened To DB Cooper

Transcript

Event Location(s): Portland, Oregon, Washington | Description: It remains the only unsolved hijacking on the FBI's books and on this 40th anniversary of his disappearance dozens of amateur sleuths have made it their personal crusade to figure out what happened to D.B. Cooper. SKETCH: Black and white of DB Cooper. EXT DAY WASHINGTON STATE MS: Point of view shot of driving down a road in the woods as shot pans to the driver, Jerry Thomas (ph), who has been hunting DB Cooper for 2 years who says in interview "He could have landed anywhere in there and see what kind of terrain he had to come down?" MS: Choppy footage of Thomas climbing a hill during his search. MS: Choppy footage of leaves on the ground. EXT NIGHT WASHINGTON STATE MS: Silhouetted trees and branches. BRIEF CUTS: Panning shots of silhouetted trees and branches. MS: Thomas' feet in brush pulls back to MS of Thomas on-camera saying (part VO) "Now you get a general idea in here what he's going to have to negotiate." BRIEF CUTS: Choppy footage of Thomas searching through brush, and of trees. MS: In interview Thomas says "The bottom line is he was not experienced enough or prepared for the terrain in which he jumped in." INT PORTLAND, OREGON MS: In interview scientist Tom Kay (ph) says "Now, there's some very good reasons to believe he lived because we've never found a body in 40 years." MS: In interview man says "I feel he very, very much survived it." INT MS: Plainclothes police officer wearing rubber gloves unfurls a parachute. EXT DAY WASHINGTON MS: Holt and man look out from a car. EXT DAY MS: Scuba diver wearing gear climbs down a ladder into a lake. INT PORTLAND MS: Man looks at table full of documents. MS: Poster "Welcome Sleuths!" at a DB Cooper symposium. MS: Man in interview shows newspaper articles in a scrap book. MS: In interview man says "If he's out there, there's no way he cannot come to this event." MS: Author Geoffrey Gray, who arranged the symposium, arranges documents on a table. INT MS: Panning shot of a pile of Gray's book "Skyack" seen. INT PORTLAND MS: Various shots of audience at a lecture at the DB Cooper symposium. MS: In interview man says (part VO) "Now you have this motley collection of folk all in a room because a guy boarded a plane and passed her note which said, `Miss, I have a bomb here. I would like you to sit by me.'" INT MS: DB Cooper's note to the stewardess asking her sit by him. CLIP: 1971-11 Nightly News report with then-anchor John Chancellor reporting on the manhunt for DB Cooper. MS: Black and white sketch of DB Cooper with superimposed footage of a plane in flight. MS: Superimposed money. INT PORTLAND MS: In interview man says "He asked for four parachutes, two backups and two primaries." SKETCH: Black and white of DB Cooper zooms to CU of his eye. STILL: Black and white of Northwest Orient Airlines plane on runway. INT MS: Panning shot of Northwest Orient pane ticket in the name of "Dan Cooper." EXT NIGHT 1971-11 MS: Black and white footage of freed passengers walking in an airline terminal. STILL: Black and white of the hijacked plane. INT MS: Holt reports on-camera in a plane's cabin, opens up a rear exit door, and walks down the steps. GFX: Animated plane in flight, and an animated DB Cooper jumping with a parachute in the rain. EXT DAY WASHINGTON WS: Trees and hills in field. INT MS: Teenager at a press conference. MS: Tattered money DB Cooper had. EXT DAY COLUMBIA RIVER, WASHINGTON MS: The river and a beach. MS: The river and trees on the shore with GFX superimposed black and white sketch of DB Cooper. SKETCHES: Black and white of DB Cooper. EXT DAY WASHINGTON MS: Sepia toned footage of helicopter flying over water. INT MS: Black and white footage of newspaper articles about DB Cooper spread out on a table. INT PORTLAND 2 MS: Man who claims to know the identity of DB Cooper, Ron Forman (ph), shows black and white photos in interview as woman watches. MS: The photos. 2 MS: Forman and the woman as Forman says "Well, we believe we know who D.B. Cooper is. He was a friend of ours that we met back in 1977. I flew her for a full year before she told us that she used to be a man." MS: Photos (faces blurred out) of a man and of a woman. INT MS: Document about a code name "Norjak." MS: Evidence of DB Cooper's mangled parachute's cord. GFX: Computer screen showing "The Vancouver Sun" website article "DB Cooper's Canadian connection probed 40 years after hijacking" seen. GFX: Computer screen showing article "Was DB Cooper a French Canadian who got the idea from Belgian comics?" as superimposed comic about a hijacker parachuting is enlarged. INT PORTLAND MS: Kay says "Dan Cooper is the character in a comic book. He is a pilot for the Canadian Air Force." STILLS: Kay at a microscope, CU panning shot of Cooper's neck tie, enlarged microscopic image of titanium on the neck tie, and photo of Cooper evidence. INT PORTLAND MS: Kay says "We're kind of narrowing him down to someone who would have immigrated from Canada, worked in the titanium industry. Probably had a military history in Canada." INT MS: Pages of testimony evidence are flipped. MS: In interview while looking at the testimony evidence pages Gray says (part VO) "One of the things that I've found in the files deals directly with this motive and it's right here. "It's not because I have grudge against your airline it's just because I have grudge." Dan Cooper likely was an extreme loner, depressed, I believe suicidal." MS: The testimony evidence with the word "grudge," various shots of evidence, and superimposed black and white sketch of DB Cooper. INT MS: One of the FBI agents first assigned to the case, Ralph Himmelsbach (ph) in interview as shot pans to framed DB Cooper information and a letter on the wall. MS: Airplane interior with steps and wiring. MS: In interview Himmelsbach says (part VO) "He bailed out of an airline going almost 200 miles an hour at 10,000 feet, with the air temperature outside of the airplane at seven degrees below zero. I think of him as being a just another sleazy rotten criminal." EXT DAY MS: Black and white footage of a plane in flight. INT MS: Black and white shot of stairs and wiring in a plane zooms to CU of the stairs. MS: Panning shot of Northwest Orient Airlines document for passenger "Dan Cooper." INT PORTLAND MS: Cooper enthusiasts watch a large screen showing Cooper information. MS: Audience at the symposium. EXT DAY WASHINGTON MS: Thomas says "Becoming part of the story is actually what you have to do in order to solve a case." INT PORTLAND MS: Kay says (part VO) "It is a great American mystery that's never been solved. And it's like the X Prize. When you throw a challenge out to the public, the public will pick it up and do a very good job of trying to solve it."