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. If it is
successful, Glenn and Knutzen
said, the Aquatic Trust might
consider making a further
investment in local swim edu-
cation by working with area
children’s groups or reaching
out to other facilities.
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