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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2016
Cooper: ‘It’s a fascinating story’
an FBI agent announcing that the bureau is
closing the 45-year-old case, without res-
olution, to redirect resources toward other
investigations.
Unless some extraordinary evidence
materializes — namely, the money or the
parachute — it seems that D.B. Cooper, who-
ever he was, got away with it.
Colbert said he and his team plan to hold
a news conference Wednesday to protest the
FBI’s decision.
Continued from Page 1A
Soon enough, the Astoria townsfolk dis-
covered the baron was a fraud. This came
as little surprise to Roscoe, then 24, and
Soderberg, then 28; both sensed de Winter
wasn’t on the level. Van Dusen told investi-
gative journalist Tom Colbert that de Winter
scammed about 200 people.
De Winter reappeared in Corvallis for a
spell. Days before the hijacking, he disap-
peared again.
Roscoe returned from college for
Thanksgiving. He was sitting in a Union-
town tavern watching TV when he saw
news reports of the hijacking and a sketch
of the subject.
“And I said to the guy I was with, ‘That
looks like Norman de Winter,’” he said.
A man using the pseudonym “Dan Coo-
per” (misreported as “D.B” Cooper), wear-
ing a business suit and sunglasses, had used
a briefcase bomb to hijack a commercial air-
plane lying from Portland to Seattle, extorted
cash and several parachutes once the plane
landed and the passengers left, demanded the
crew ly him to Mexico, then escaped with
the money mid-light about 50 miles from
Astoria.
“I’ve felt that Norman de Winter and D.B.
Cooper were the same guy since the moment
it started,” Roscoe said. “I’ve never lost that
conviction.”
Robert Wesley Rackstraw
Cooper’s identity became an instant and
enduring source of speculation. The Fed-
eral Bureau of Investigation has eliminated
hundreds of D.B. Cooper suspects over the
years.
In the History special, Colbert — who
pitched the show to the channel — and fel-
low journalist Jim Forbes argue the case for
Robert Wesley Rackstraw, a Vietnam vet-
eran and ex-convict who was a prime Coo-
per suspect and now lives in the San Diego
area. In one scene, they ambush the evasive
Rackstraw.
Rackstraw has denied the allegations but
has a history of teasing reporters with the
possibility.
When Roscoe learned of the citizen
sleuths’ investigation several years ago, he
called them up and told them about de Winter.
“One thing led to another, and before you
know it, I’m on the History channel,” Roscoe
said.
Colbert — who, with Forbes, assembled
‘A fascinating story’
AP Photo/Reid Blackburn
FBI agents scour the sand of a beach
on the Columbia River on Feb. 13,
1980, searching for additional money
or clues in the D.B. Cooper skyjack-
ing case, in Vancouver, Wash. Several
thousand dollars of the hijacking mon-
ey was found in the area days earlier.
a 36-member “cold case” team that includes
a dozen former FBI agents — claims that de
Winter, Cooper and Rackstraw are the same
person. An undercover investigator pointed
out the coincidence of three master criminals,
all with extensive piloting experience, living
within 100 miles of each other.
In Part 2, Roscoe, Soderberg and Van
Dusen are shown photographs of Rackstraw
taken circa 1971. They and other witnesses,
some of whom met de Winter in Corvallis,
admit a striking similarity between the former
suspect and the “de Winter” character who
vanished right before D.B. Cooper entered
the scene.
“That really, really looks like the guy that I
remember,” Roscoe says in the documentary.
Few, however, are completely sure.
Soderberg’s ex-husband, Dave Palmberg,
said his reaction is that it’s not him.
Mark Fick — an Astoria resident who, at
19, worked with de Winter at a cannery and
kept a letter and Christmas card from him —
commented on the documentary’s Rackstraw
footage:
“Mr. (Rackstraw’s) voice was a little
higher than I remember Norman de Winter’s
voice,” he wrote in an email, but added: “The
photo of Mr. (Rackstraw) with the longer
sideburns looked much like Mr. de Winter.”
The stewardess who spent the most time
with Cooper during the skyjacking, Tina
Mucklow, says in the show that Rackstraw
was not the hijacker.
“D.B. Cooper: Case Closed?” ends with
Roscoe, the owner of Fulio’s Pastaria,
Tuscan Steak House and Delicatessen, will
be named an honorary member of Colbert’s
“cold case” team because of his de Winter tip.
“This whole story of Norman de Winter
essentially involves: Where was D.B. Coo-
per before he hijacked the plane? That’s what
nobody ever really talks about,” Roscoe said.
“Where did he come from? What was he
doing?”
A former bartender who served de Win-
ter during the summer of ’71, Roscoe said
almost no one gave his de Winter/Cooper
theory credence until Colbert and his team
picked up the threads.
“Everybody would just tell me, ‘Oh yeah,
you just have such a wild imagination. That’s
a great story, Peter, but we don’t really believe
you, so just never mind,’” he said.
Roscoe believes in his gut that de Winter,
Rackstraw and Cooper are the same person.
The evidence may be circumstantial, but, to
him, it is convincing.
“Am I 100-percent certain? I can’t go that
far yet,” Rosco said. “Only when (Rackstraw)
confesses will I be 100 percent sure.”
Something else that would seal the deal,
he said, would be to ind a lost photograph
someone took of de Winter during his sojourn
in Astoria.
Soderberg, who let de Winter have dinner
in the Warrenton home she shared with Palm-
berg, said there’s a lot of credibility to the
premise that Rackstraw is de Winter.
“And if he does indeed turn out to be D.B.
Cooper, I don’t doubt for a minute he was
scouting out the country” before the jump,
she said, adding: “If nothing else, it’s a fasci-
nating story.”
Colbert has written a book on his ive-
year deep-dive into the Cooper case, “The
Last Master Outlaw: How He Outfoxed the
FBI Six Times But Not a Cold Case Team”
(now available for preorder at DBCooper.
com).
Relay: 19 teams participated in this year’s event
Continued from Page 1A
He was seen at Oregon
Health & Science University
and treated with Gleevec, a drug
that targets the disease at a cel-
lular level. Wanting to give back
to the cause, he donated bone
marrow and blood for research
and became the state lead for
American Cancer Society Can-
cer Action Network during the
organization’s early years.
“I want to do anything I can
for others to survive,” he said,
adding the hope is in 50 or so
years, people will view can-
cer the same way they now do
infections, which used to result
in higher mortality rates.
For Linda Yeager, as a care-
giver, support from friends,
family and the community was
“everything, because it’s just an
amazing journey to go through.”
A portion of the funds raised
through Relay are designated
for cancer research to help ind
a cure and develop new thera-
pies. The funds also go to sup-
port programs, resources for
patients and caregivers, educa-
tion and advocacy.
A ‘common bond’
Since 1994, the countywide
Relay For Life has taken place
every year, although it alternates
between Seaside and Astoria.
The co-chairs this year were
Brian Cole and Laura Parvi,
whose father-in-law was the late
Kay Bredleau, one of the found-
ers that got Relay started in Clat-
sop County.
The reason many peo-
ple value Relay and support it,
according to Parvi, is because
cancer touches almost every-
one’s life in some way
“We all have that common
bond … and we all want the same
thing,” she said, adding Relay
brings people together over the
mutual goal of seeking a cure.
During the event, which
mostly took place outside on
the high school’s track and ield,
team members took turns walk-
ing and monitoring their booths,
from which they sold cof-
fee and snacks, gave attendees
the chance to play bra pong or
hosted other smaller fundraisers.
Participants tie-dyed shirts at
Columbia Memorial Hospital’s
booth and learned about colon
cancer from Dr. Holly Barker at
Providence Seaside Hospital’s
large inlatable Strollin’ Colon.
Astoria’s Poshe Salon & Spa cut
hair to be donated to Locks of
Love. People could get swabbed
and placed on the National Mar-
row Donor Program’s regis-
try. Several local bands and two
from Portland provided live
music throughout the day.
Cancer survivors, led by
Grand Marshal Jane Johnson,
and caregivers took the irst
lap around the track. Many of
the subsequent laps were given
themes, such as Pajama Party,
Make Some Noise, Team Pride,
Cake Walk and Tutu.
In honor of …
During the late-night Lumi-
naria Ceremony, which Parvi
described as “the heart of the
Relay,” hundreds of bags lit
from within by candles glowed
in honor of lives touched by
cancer. The ceremony was held
inside because of the weather,
but Parvi said the atmosphere
still was touching and left an
impression.
Friends and family dedicated
the luminaria bags to their loved
ones — mothers, fathers, sisters,
brothers, aunts, uncles, nieces,
nephews, friends and co-work-
ers — who lost their lives to,
survived or currently are bat-
tling cancer. Although marked
by grief, the ceremony also was
a time to celebrate those lives
and nourish hope for the future.
Organizers intended for the
event to continue throughout
the night, with the luminaria
providing light to guide walk-
ers through the darkness, but
decided to close down after the
ceremony.
“We were just concerned for
safety,” Parvi said.
During the day, though, she
said, “it was nice people didn’t
give up because of the storm.”
Overall, 19 teams partici-
pated in this year’s Relay For
Life, although not all showed
up the day of the event. The
approximately 230 team partic-
ipants raised at least $54,000 for
the American Cancer Society.
Money is still being received,
Parvi said, and the teams have
through August to continue
fundraising.
Lawsuit: ‘Counties gave up assets in exchange for promises’
Continued from Page 1A
Counties acquired these for-
est lands by foreclosing on
property tax liens during the
Great Depression but turned
them over to state ownership in
exchange for a portion of future
logging revenues.
‘Greatest
permanent value’
Oregon’s attorneys claim
that Linn County cannot sue the
state to receive compensation for
breach of contract, and that the
county’s challenge to the “great-
est permanent value” rule can
only be heard by the Oregon
Court of Appeals, rather than in
a county court.
Because the lawsuit seeks to
recover damages for insuficient
logging in the future, it clearly
intends to alter the meaning of
“greatest permanent value,” said
Scott Kaplan, another attorney
for the state.
Either the state changes its
deinition or it’s potentially liable
for hundreds of millions of dol-
lars, he said.
“This is absolutely a chal-
lenge of state policies of forest
management,” Kaplan said.
Linn County argued that con-
tracts between the counties and the
state government are enforceable.
“The counties gave up assets
in exchange for promises,” said
John DiLorenzo, attorney for
Linn County.
Counties would not have
donated vast tracts of land if
they’d known the state would
change the terms of the deal at
will, he said.
“We believe that’s precisely
what the state has done in this
case,” DiLorenzo said. “Coun-
ties must have a way to enforce
their bargains.”
Oregon Public Broadcast-
ing reported Monday that the
timber industry is inancing
the county’s lawsuit. The Ore-
gon Forest Industries Council,
Hampton Tree Farm, Stimson
Lumber Company and the Sus-
tainable Forest Fund have paid
nearly $100,000 to cover the
county’s legal fees in the case
and the group agreed to pay up
to $125,000, according to OPB,
which cited court ilings.
Clatsop County involved
More than 650,000 acres
in Benton, Clackamas, Clat-
sop, Columbia, Coos, Douglas,
Josephine, Klamath, Lane, Lin-
coln, Linn, Marion, Polk, Tilla-
mook, and Washington coun-
ties were given to Oregon based
on “promises and assurances”
on which the state government
has since fallen short, the law-
suit claims.
The law that lays out Ore-
gon’s forest management obli-
gations was written when the
United States was preparing to
enter World War II and must
be understood in that context,
DiLorenzo said.
At the time, the greatest
value of the land was to pro-
duce a large amount of timber
for the war effort, rather than to
preserve wildlife habitat or aes-
thetic beauty, DiLorenzo said.
Legal precedents also indi-
cate that Oregon was obligated
to maximize revenue from those
lands, he said.
Several environmental and
ishing organizations claim this
interpretation is erroneous.
The optimum management
of state forests was bound to be
contentious and so that question
was left to the discretion of the
Oregon Department of Forestry,
said Ralph Bloemers, an attor-
ney representing the groups.
“It’s not up to the county, or
the timber industry, or the con-
servation community, what that
should be,” he said.
There’s also nothing in
the law stating that revenues
take priority over other uses,
Bloemers said. “It continues to
be a huge gaping hole in their
complaint.”
Class action
Linn County also argues the
lawsuit should be certiied as a
class action, which would allow
other counties to participate in
the litigation.
There are numerous poten-
tial plaintiffs with common
legal arguments that would
be more eficiently resolved
as part of a single case, Linn
County claims.
The issue of class certii-
cation will be heard at another
hearing that’s scheduled for
Aug. 17 in Albany.
The Capital Bureau is a col-
laboration between EO Media
Group and Pamplin Media
Group.
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
The owner of this home fears his property could be
enclosed or blocked by a new hotel on the Prom.
Hotel: Lot has been
vacant since about 2000
round for these hotels that don’t
have people in them all year
Inn at the Prom and the Gil- long? Is there really a need for
bert Inn, which would neigh- this big monstrosity?”
bor the Pearl of Seaside, are
By building within 8 feet
both part of Haystack Lodg- of the Prom and within 3 feet
ing’s properties.
of the southern property line,
Two homes are either the proposed development
enclosed by the property or would “greatly reduce visibil-
adjacent to it, including a ity of buildings to the proposed
duplex at 25 Avenue A and hotel’s south,” especially the
a home at 341 Beach Drive Promenade Condominiums,
owned by Avrel Nudelman.
Huntley said. “We strongly
The duplex owned by oppose all of these planned
Susan and Dan Calef was built variances and therefore request
in 1912 as a companion prop- that all of the proposed vari-
erty to a larger home
ances be denied,”
built by photogra-
she said.
pher William Mon-
Planning Direc-
tag. That property
tor Kevin Cupples
and the neighbor-
said the height vari-
ing Renton Houses
ance would likely
were scorched in a
be granted because
ire started by chil-
of the building’s
dren playing with
sunken grade. Max-
matches
before
imum height of
being subsequently
a building for the
demolished, Susan
resort-residential
Susan
Calef said.
zone is 45 feet, he
Calef
The lot has been
said. Because the
vacant since about 2000.
property is below grade, they
The new hotel would limit sought a height variance of 7
her to “a little peek of a view,” feet bringing the structure to
she said, and plans for the rear 52 feet at the penthouse level,
of the property have not been he said.
presented. “My brother said,
The side yard setback
‘You like the front and side of requests 3-foot setbacks on the
the elephant, but what’s the north and south property lines
back of it look like?’”
on the eastern portion of the
“We have been here long building.
enough that we think of the
A hotel in that zone is a per-
larger buildings to our south as mitted use, he added.
anomalies in a neighborhood of
Cupples said the Planning
smaller buildings,” Dan Calef Commission will inalize their
said in an email. “We think of decision at the July 19 commis-
the condominium across from sion meeting. Residents have
us as an enormous eyesore that the option to appeal to the City
ruins the small beach town feel Council.
of Seaside.”
“We have been approached,
Nudelman, a 60-year Beach in the past, about whether we
Drive resident, said the pro- would sell our property,” Dan
posed building would eliminate Calef said. “We simply don’t
his natural light and “change want to sell our family house.
the enjoyment of my property.” We don’t want to own a unit in
In a letter to the Planning a condominium or part inter-
Commission, condominium est in a hotel. It is a very small
owner Maureen Huntley said piece of property and the fair
the variances would “greatly value is probably well below
reduce the number of parking the amount we would have to
spaces required for a building pay for another house that close
with 50 planned rental units.”
to the beach.”
“It’s too big a project for that
At the June Planning Com-
piece of land,” Seaside resident mission meeting, Simmons
Debbie Brooks said. “Does the told commissioners the hotel
Planning Commission even was “a work in progress” and,
look at the future of Seaside “at best,” they won’t begin
and what is the occupancy year- building until October 2017.
Continued from Page 1A