Slaying Suspect Possibly Could Be D. B. Cooper
An FBI agent who investigated the D. B. Cooper airliner hijacking said Friday there are a number of similarities between Cooper and a man recently arrested in an 18-year-old New Jersey multiple murder case.
Ralph Himmelsbach, who retired in 1980, said Friday that he believes Cooper died when he parachuted from a Boeing 727 over southwest Washington in 1971 with $200,000 in ransom. But Himmelsbach, who led the Cooper investigation, still believes that John E. List should be investigated.
As a fugitive after the killings of five members of his family, List was considered a suspect in the hijacking from the beginning, Himmelsbach said.
Descriptions of List and Cooper are similar. Both are accused of bizarre crimes, and a fugitive accused of mass murder has nothing to lose, Himmelsbach said.
A man police say is List was arrested on June 1 in Richmond, Va. The man, who goes by the name Robert P. Clark, is in jail in New Jersey awaiting a court appearance.
FBI spokesman John Eyer in Seattle said Thursday that List was being investigated in the hijacking but said the inquiry was routine. “John List is one of any number of people suspected in the D. B. Cooper case,” he said.
David Baugh, List’s lawyer in Richmond before he was returned to New Jersey, compared the alleged connection to reported sightings of Elvis Presley.
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