WHY N.J. MURDER SUSPECT MIGHT BE D.B. COOPER

By Rita Hibbard P-I Reporter

FRIDAY, June 30, 1989

There are at least five good reasons why a multiple-m= urder suspect sitting in a New Jers= ey jail could be D.B. Cooper, says a retired FBI agent who investigated the 19= 71 skyjacking case for eight years.

But his gut feeling tells him no.

"It's a delightful, unsolved mystery, and there = are an awful lot of fascinating possibilities," the former agent, Ralph Himmelsbach of Portland, said yesterday. "But I still feel it's most likely that the hijacker perished."

John List, who police say was a fugitive for 18 years= under the name of Robert Clark, spent last night in a jail in Westfield, N.J.<= /st1:place>, where his wife, three teen-age children and mother were killed on Nov. 9, 1= 971.

The five were killed two weeks before a man known as = D.B. Cooper commandeered a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Seattle from Portland, taking a $200,000 ransom aboard in Seattle and parachuting to fre= edom with the money somewhere near Vancouver, Wash.

The FBI has identified List as a suspect in the skyja= cking and will be investigating further, said Seattle assistant special agent in charge Jon Eyer. But= , Eyer said, he knows of nothing connecting List to Coo= per other than the timing of the killings and the skyjacking.

"It's routine, with a capital R," Eyer said.

No trace of Cooper has ever been found, though in 198= 0 a child found about $5,000 on a Columbia River beach near Vancouver and the money was later ident= ified as part of Cooper's ransom.

List was considered a suspect shortly after the crime, "as were a number of other people," Eyer said.

Asked if there are other D.B. Cooper suspects, Eyer said, "There are always a couple of folks percolating." He declined to comment further.

List was arrested June 1 in a = Richmond, Va., suburb where he lived with his wife, Delores, whom he married in 1985. Alth= ough he insists he is Robert Clark and not John List, fingerprint tests have sho= wn he is List, local authorities told The Associated Press.

List worked as an accountant before his family was ki= lled, and afterward apparently found work in Denver and later in Virginia in the same profession.

A Richmo= nd attorney who represented List in an extradition hearing yesterday described= his client as a "Republican" and a "history buff" who while= in jail requested books on the Civil War, Gen. George Custer and Sitting Bull.=

Attorney David Baugh doesn't think the man he calls R= obert Clark is D.B. Cooper. He also doesn't think he's John List. But Baugh also = said he never discussed the skyjacking with his client.

Of the FBI interest in his client, Baugh said, "= It's some retired agent trying to clean up his files."

But at least one retired agent, Himmelsbach, disagree= s.

Himmelsbach, who worked the case longer than any othe= r FBI agent, wrote a book about Cooper and still retains an active interest in the case, calls List "a viable suspect" who ought to be thoroughly checked out.

He notes a number of similarities between the two cas= es, including similar descriptions of the suspects.

List would have been 44 at the time of the slayings, = and Cooper was described as in his mid-40s.

Cooper was described by passengers and crewmen as hav= ing dark hair, standing about 6-feet-1, weighing about 175 pounds and wearing glasses. List was described by his attorney as standing about 6-feet-2, weighing about 175 pounds and wearing glasses.

The timing of the two crimes fits, Himmelsbach said, = and List's car was abandoned at an airport.

"List had nothing whatever to lose," Himmel= sbach added. "And that is the impression that Cooper gave people during the hijacking. Both men appeared to arrive at middle age as apparently ordinary citizens, and then all of a sudden their lives became extraordinarily bizarre."

Himmelsbach also notes that List had spent the last f= ew thousand dollars of his mother's $200,000 savings account shortly before the killings. And, he adds, D.B. Cooper demanded and received $200,000 from the airline.

Finally, Cooper was described as having no regional a= ccent, something Himmelsbach says also applies to List.

But, Himmelsbach said, many people suspected of commi= tting major crimes shortly before the hijacking were considered possible suspects= . He said he does not remember List's name appearing during the course of the investigation, though he noted he wouldn't necessarily recall it.

List, who has not yet been charged with the murders o= f his family, was arrested after a segment on the crimes was aired on the televis= ion show "America's Most Wanted." Within a few days, viewers had provided a name and addre= ss for the fugitive, according to Westfield police.

The slayings have been dubbed the "ballroom murders" because the five bodies were laid out neatly in an empty ball= room in the Lists' 19-room Victorian mansion.

According to police, List's invalid mother and wife w= ere killed first, then the teen-age children were sh= ot one by one as they arrived home from school.

= &nb= sp; John List

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