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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 14, 2016)
7A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JULY 14, 2016 Cooper: FBI closes case Continued from Page 1A Photos by Damian Mulinix/For EO Media Group Students file into the main pool at the Astoria Aquatic Center for a swimming lesson Monday afternoon. Oller: ‘It’s kind of a win-win for everybody’ Continued from Page 1A Evidence and speculation Pools don’t come cheap When Oller, 98, died in Long Beach May 2010, only a few people, including her attorney, Guy Glenn Sr., knew that she had amassed a for- tune through smart investing and frugal living. Oller left behind a $4.5 million bequest, and designated Guy Glenn Sr., his wife Carolyn Glenn, and Glenn Jr. as the trustees. Oller left about $1 million for local educational causes. She left the rest to the city of Long Beach, with the provision that it should be used for a pool. Oller’s will provided money for building the pool, but not for insuring or maintaining it, or employing people to run it. Pools don’t come cheap, Knu- tzen said, the city of Astoria is subsidizing the Aquatic Cen- ter at a cost of about $150,000 per year. After careful consid- eration by a committee of cit- izens and local of¿cials, the Long Beach City Council decided not to accept Oller’s gift. Astoria’s experience of having to continually augment funding for its pool — despite having a much larger popula- tion than Long Beach — was a key factor in their decision. Oller’s will said that if the city didn’t build the pool within ¿ve years, the trust- ees should fund another proj- ect that would increase local access to swimming education — something that was easier said than done. The language of Oller’s will limited the trust- ees’ authority to pursue alter- natives. The cities and county didn’t want the responsibil- ity and expense of a new pool, and each new possible alter- native — for example, busing students to the Astoria pool — came with its own consider- able logistical issues and lia- bility concerns. The money is still in the bank Last year, Glenn Sr. began working with a specialized probate attorney to alter the language in the will. The slow process rankled some commu- nity members, who became increasingly concerned that Oller’s dream would not com to fruition. Starting in 2014, rumors and accusations about the trustees’ intentions for the money began to proliferate in local social media groups. Though the effort to change the terms of her bequest did nothing to appease those who were suspicious, Glenn Sr. said in a previous interview that it was absolutely necessary to make it possible to ful¿ll the intent, rather than the letter of Oller’s will. The state Attor- ney General’s Of¿ce had to approve the new arrangement, he said, and the fund only grew while it sat waiting. Federal tax documents, pro- vided by Glenn Jr. in response to a Chinook Observer public records request, indicate that the trustees have managed the Aquatic Trust funds respon- sibly and frugally. In 2014 and 2015, none of the trustees were compensated, and they spent just $2,435 on adminis- trative expenses. After trans- ferring an additional $1.5 mil- lion to the separate Ocean Beach Education Foundation in 2015, the trust ¿nished the year with about $3.5 million in the bank. During 2015, those In Part 2, Roscoe helps explain a new Coo- per theory: That a stranger named “Norman de Winter” — who came to Astoria months before the hijacking, claimed he was a Swiss baron with a private plane, and conned locals before disappearing — may be Cooper suspect Rob- ert Wesley Rackstraw, 72, of San Diego County, California. Roscoe, who tended bar in downtown Asto- ria in 1971 and remembers serving de Winter, always thought the widely circulated sketch of Cooper resembled the so-called baron — a fact he shared with his skeptical peers. The documentary draws parallels between de Winter, Rackstraw and Cooper — then casts serious doubt on the three-way connection when the stewardess Cooper interacted with most says Rackstraw isn’t Cooper. One of the journalists who spent years exploring the case backs off de Winter/Rackstraw as the most likely Cooper candidate. “I felt totally disrespected when the journalist dismissed everything,” Roscoe said. The program ends with a ¿nal knife-twist in the side of “Cooper-ite” community: The Fed- eral Bureau of Investigation formally announced it is closing the 45-year-old unsolved case and directing resources elsewhere. While waiting for the swimming lesson to start, children play with the Astoria Aquatic Center’s basketball hoop Monday afternoon. Children and adults enjoy the Lazy River portion of the main pool at the Astoria Aquatic Center Monday. WANT TO SWIM? Starting Aug. 1, the Aquatic Center will offer free services to South Pacific County families who live in the following zip codes: Naselle 98638 Chinook 98614 Ilwaco 98624 Long Beach 98631 Seaview 98644 Ocean Park 98640 Oysterville 98641 Nahcotta 98637 To participate, you must provide proof of residence in one of these zip codes, such as a valid ID with a current physical address, or valid ID plus recent utility bill. For more information and schedules, visit http://bit.ly/29STp9k funds earned about $144,000 in interest. A new plan In August 2015, Glenn Sr. completed the changes to the terms of Oller’s bequest, and turned over management of the trust to his son. Glenn Jr. then appointed an advi- sory committee, consisting of Knutzen, the founder of South Paci¿c County Technical Res- cue (known to most as “Surf Rescue”); Michael Eschel- man, a retired doctor with a strong interest in water safety and physical ¿tness; and Nick Haldeman, a ¿re¿ghter and surf rescue volunteer who is also active on Ilwaco’s Parks and Recreation committee, to help him decide how to proceed. The committee members agreed that it would be more cost-effective and ef¿cient to try to make an arrangement that would support existing facilities in the region. “We started to reaching out to Astoria Aquatic Cen- ter and Dunes Pool to see if there was an interest in send- ing south Paci¿c County resi- dents to their facilities, and us covering the cost of it,” Knut- zen explained. After leaders at both facilities said they were open to the idea, the parties took a few months to ¿gure out how to make the arrangement work to everyone’s bene¿t. “We wanted to make sure we weren’t trying to change anybody’s ways of doing busi- ness,” Glenn explained. At a Wednesday news conference at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Los Angeles, Ros- coe and others challenged the FBI’s decision. He believes the bureau is ignoring lots of circum- stantial evidence suggesting Rackstraw, a Viet- nam veteran and one-time Cooper suspect, may be the elusive skyjacker. Tom Colbert — the sleuth who named Rack- straw as Cooper, and de Winter as Rackstraw — made Roscoe an honorary member of the “cold case” team whose multiyear investigation is spotlighted, and undermined, in the History program. The History channel “edited down my doc- umentary responses at the end to leave me like a deer in (the) headlights — while also leaving out many, many pieces of the team’s key evi- dence that weren’t visual, dramatic or sensa- tional,” Colbert wrote in a release. “It’s the limit, and curse, of TV.” Willis Van Dusen, Astoria’s former mayor, shares screen time with Roscoe during the docu- mentary’s “de Winter” segment. Based on the photos he saw, Van Dusen said he is con¿dent, if not wholly certain, that Rack- straw is de Winter, whom he met in his teens. But whether that man is also Cooper is another matter. “I cannot say that I believe that person truly is D.B. Cooper, but the facts are very interest- ing,” he said. P.K. Hoffman, a ceramic artist from Astoria who had a memorable run-in with de Winter, is on the same page. The summer de Winter came to town, the Photo courtesy of P.K. Hoffman In the summer of 1971, P.K. Hoffman makes a ceramic pot (never to be bought) for “Norman de Winter,” the person who some people suspect pulled off the D.B. Cooper skyjacking a few months later. charlatan commissioned about $3,000 worth of pots from Hoffman, checked in on the artist’s work, only to skip town without buying any. “The guy I dealt with was de¿nitely capable of being D.B. Cooper, for sure,” said Hoffman, who now lives in The Dalles and teaches ceram- ics and sculpture at Columbia Gorge Commu- nity College. (Though he was invited to be part of the History channel show, he was recovering from open heart surgery at the time of ¿lming.) However, his strong belief that de Winter could have been Cooper is still speculative, he said. “If I was in a jury ... I’d have to say ‘not guilty,’ because how can you prove it?” Rackstraw, for his part, has denied the assertions. ‘Close the case’ Van Dusen thinks it’s a good move for the FBI to close the Cooper case. “I think 45 years of investigation is more than ample. I think they should have closed it earlier,” he said, adding that taxpayer dollars would be better spent on more urgent cases. This doesn’t mean he thinks Cooper’s crimes were trivial or victimless. “The very serious part of the documentary was how it affected the Àight attendant and the pilot. There have been some people that have really been affected, so I don’t want to laugh at the whole thing and say there’s no victims,” he said. “However, enough is enough. Close the case. Put the tape on the boxes and move on.” Marian Soderberg, who also told de Winter stories for the show, agreed: “I’d like the FBI to focus on other things.” As for the documentary itself, “it should be taken lightly,” Van Dusen said. “I mean, it hap- pened 45 years ago. Most of the evidence that was laid out in Astoria was just memories of some nice, individual, amateur people, so there isn’t a lot of hard evidence in court.” FAMILY OWNED & OPERATED Future plans Earlier this month, the members of the trust ¿nal- ized their contract with the city of Astoria. Anyone who lives within a designated set of zip codes can use any of the Aquatic Center’s services, except private swim lessons and extras like birthday par- ties, snacks and swimming gear. The Aquatic Center will bill the trust quarterly. There is no expiration date on the con- tract, but a clause in the con- tract allows either party to opt out with 30 days’ notice. The biggest question at this point is how many peo- ple will actually take advan- tage of the new deal. When Astoria built the Aquatic Cen- ter, they counted on revenues from Paci¿c County visitors, but those visitors never really materialized. No one knows whether the free services will change that. “We don’t know how many people are actually gonna take advantage of it. Other than that, I don’t think there really were any concerns,” Knutzen said. “It’s kind of a win-win for everybody.” The advisory committee hopes to do some marketing to get the word out, but hasn’t decided on a strategy yet, Glenn said. Over the coming months, the committee will ¿nalize the arrangement at the Dunes pool, and recruit and train lifeguards for that facility. Once a few months have passed the com- mittee members say they’ll evaluate the current strategy, so see if it’s working. 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