True Crime: Box Set (5 page)

Maurice
was shocked- he couldn’t believe that the car they were
searching for was so close to them. He also couldn’t understand
how Baldwin Borough Police Department failed to recognize the car
since Pittsburgh police gave a detailed description. The car was
sitting in the pound for 91 days.

Reports
said that the car was found on River Road just two hours after
Michael left Lisa. Two of the tires were flat, the key was nowhere in
sight, and the engine wasn’t hot. There was no sign of Michael
when the police found the car. Pittsburgh Police inquired Baldwin
Borough about the delay, and they reported that a day after the car
was impounded; they mailed a letter to Lisa to let her know.

Lisa
insisted that she never received a letter. To prove their side,
Baldwin Borough produced the copy of the letter dated February 15.
Still Lisa didn’t change her stand: she didn’t receive
any letter.

According
to private investigator Stephen Tercsak who was involved in the case
together with Pittsburgh Police, knowing the location of the car
right away could have been a game changer. Had they received early
info about the car’s location, the chances of knowing what
exactly happened to Michael could have been higher. For Maurice, it
was an obvious cover up for something “more sinister”.

His
logic was simple-- if they were really serious about letting Lisa
know about her car, then they should have tried more ways of
contacting her. Being able to send the letter meant they knew of her
address, so why didn’t they go to her? As for the copy of the
dated letter, well, that could be fabricated, right? It was very easy
to type a date from the past.

What
made Maurice suspect Baldwin Borough more was the two phone calls he
received. Both calls were anonymous, but the two callers said the
same thing: Michael was arrested by Baldwin Borough Police
Department. On the first call, which took place before the discovery
of the car, Maurice hung up, thinking that it was just a prank.

But
on the second call, which was placed after the car’s discovery,
Maurice became suspicious. And he became even more suspicious when on
July 15, 1980, Baldwin Borough Police Department issued a warrant of
arrest for Michael Rosenblum. The warrant was for armed robbery which
happened in April, two months after Michael was reported to be
missing.

The
composite sketch issued by the police resembled Michael in some way,
but when investigator Stephen Tercsak made his own interviews with
the witnesses, they gave a different description. According to the
witnesses, the robber was a “white man”, who wore
“aviator mirrored sunglasses” which reached the top of
the eyebrows and extended down to the bridge of the nose.

With
these descriptions, it was apparent that the only visible features of
the robber was his forehead and his chin. If that was so, then why
did the composite sketch include a man WITHOUT sunglasses, and why
did it resemble Michael? For Tercsak, the composite was made from one
of the flyers featuring Michael’s picture.

And
as if caught in the middle of something, Baldwin Borough dismissed
the arrest after one week of its issuance. No explanation was given.

This
made Maurice seek more help. He wanted to know if Baldwin Police had
something to do with Michael’s disappearance, so he asked for
the help of Attorney General LeRoy Zimmerman. However, Zimmerman only
cleared the suspicious police department.

He
also said that the notice for Lisa must have been lost in the mail.
Their statement said 1) Whatever happened to Rosenblum was still
unknown, 2) there was no evidence of foul play, and 3) Baldwin
Borough Police did not violate any rule, as well as the Streets Run
Auto Boyd which towed and impounded Lisa’s car.

But
if the following information is considered, Baldwin Police certainly
violated some rules: 6 and a half years after Michael disappeared,
Maurice received an anonymous letter that encouraged him to talk to
Margaret Haslett because she knew something about the incident with
Lisa’s car. Maurice did just that: he contacted Margaret and
she did have a disturbing revelation.

According
to Margaret, two or three months after the vehicle was towed and
impounded, the chief of police, Aldo Gaburri asked his clerk, Fred
Cappelli to write a notice addressed to Lisa about her car. He also
asked Fred to backdate the letter to February 15. When Maurice asked
Fred Cappelli, he corroborated Margaret’s story. He said that
at that time, he thought nothing of it.

The
chief was his boss, after all. He also added that Aldo Gaburri asked
him to deliver the letter to Chester Lombardi (the Senior Officer at
the River Road during the scene-- he was the one who found Lisa’s
car) and have him sign it. Chester didn’t agree to sign the
letter because it was backdated. When Fred told the chief about it,
he just asked him to sign the name of Chester, and not send it. Just
keep the letter there.

Angered
by this information, Maurice demanded an investigation. When the
hearing was over, Gaburri was dismissed from his position, but he
contested it. Frustratingly so, he was reinstated and was supported
by the Civil Service Commission. For them, there was no “misconduct”.
The transcript of the hearing was never released, but it was very
clear that they chose not to believe Fred Cappelli.

According
to Fred, it could be because Gaburri had friends in the council.
Civil Service admitted that there were “innuendos” on how
the case was handled, but the decision was based from what was
presented during the hearing. Later on it was revealed that the one
who sent the anonymous letter to Maurice was George Galovich, who was
a police officer in Baldwin. He was fired due to “lying under
oath” during the case, but later on, he was also reinstated.

A
bone fragment and clothes were found on River Road on April 1988.
Although the bones couldn’t be identified, the clothes eerily
resembled what Michael wore when he disappeared.

Could
there really have been a cover up? For Maurice, there was. In fact,
in 1989, he received a phone call from a person who claimed to have
seen Michael in jail at the time of his disappearance. He said that
he was Michael’s jail mate and he saw that Michael was beaten,
probably even shot. He was arrested due to driving under the
influence (of drugs or of alcohol, it wasn’t mentioned). After
some time, the police took Michael away. Back then, he thought they
were going to bring him to the hospital but Baldwin Police denied any
arrest made for Michael.

In
1992, the proof of Michael’s death emerged. A hiker found a
human skull near River Road. When the authorities checked, it was
positive- the skull belonged to Michael. 12 years of searching was
finally over, but the case is still unresolved. Michael’s
family still ponder on how Michael died and if he was murdered.

Chapter
3 - DB Cooper

DB
Cooper was not a good guy. He was a man not only known because of his
mysterious disappearance, but also because he hijacked a plane and
demanded $200,000, in exchange for the passengers’ safety.

On
November 24, just one day before the Thanksgiving of 1971, people
rushed to Northwest Orient Airlines, trying to buy tickets for Flight
305. The flight was supposed to be ordinary, as with any other
flights. From Washington, the plane would have stops in Minnesota and
Montana; finally, it would land on Portland, Oregon for its last
flight before hopping to Seattle, Washington. What was so special
about Flight 305 was Dan Cooper- the hijacker.

Like
other passengers, Dan also lined up for his $20 ticket. At a glance,
there was nothing wrong with him, nothing suspicious. He wore a black
suit over a white shirt, and his tie was bound by a mother-of-pearl
clip. From the two flight attendants who spent most time with him,
the FBI found out that he was in his 40’s, approximately 77-82
kilograms in weight, and 1.78 to 1.8 meters in height. Others who saw
him also gave the same description.

Additionally,
he was wearing a raincoat, a pair of sunglasses, and loafers. From
these, the FBI had deduced that he looked like a typical businessman,
so people didn’t think twice about his motives. His ticket was
paid in cash and he was not required to submit a photo ID. When he
boarded the plane, he was seated on Row 18-- the last row in Flight
305 which was a Boeing 727 aircraft. Even though tomorrow would be
Thanksgiving, the plane wasn’t full. In fact, there were only
37 passengers. Everyone expected the flight to be uneventful, except
of course, Dan Cooper.

Once
Dan was seated, he ordered drinks, particularly whisky and 7-Up. He
then smoked one of his Raleigh cigars. His order was handed out to
him by a flight attendant named Florence Schaffner. Florence also sat
down beside Dan as the plane took off. When Dan paid for his order,
he handed a note to Florence. Assuming that the note was another
flirtatious letter (as Florence was accustomed to), she placed the
note in her purse. Dan caught her attention by whispering: “Miss,
you might want to read that note. I have a bomb.”

Shocked
and confused, Florence read the note. The message was written using a
felt pen and it said: I HAVE A BOMB IN MY BRIEFCASE. I WILL USE IT IF
NECESSARY. I WANT YOU TO SIT BESIDE ME. YOU ARE BEING HIJACKED.
According to Florence, Dan opened his briefcase to show her he was
not lying.

What
she saw were cylindrical tubes: four were lying on top of another 4.
The tubes had insulated wires in the color red and were connected to
a cylindrical battery. When Dan was satisfied that Florence knew he
was not kidding, he closed the case and dictated his demands for the
safety of the plane and the passengers. The demands were: $200,000
“in negotiable American currency”, 4 parachutes: 2 were
primary and the other 2 for reserve, and a fuel truck in Seattle to
refuel the plane once it arrived there.

Florence,
went to the cockpit and told the pilot about Dan’s demands. The
pilot asked another flight attendant, Tina Mucklow to sit beside Dan
to keep an eye on him and not let him do anything that would harm the
passengers. When Florence and Tina returned, Dan Cooper was already
wearing his shades. Florence alerted the pilot of this, and also
warned the other flight attendants.

When
the captain of the plane, William Scott, received the note from
Florence, he alerted the Northwest Orient of their situation. He
initially put the plane on hold, by flying around Seattle for over an
hour. While William navigated the plane, the officials in the
Northwest Orient contacted the authorities to raise the money.

They
were able to accumulate $200, 000 in the form of 10,000 $20 bills.
Most of the money came from the Federal Reserve Bank of San
Francisco, that was why most of the bills had serial numbers
beginning in letter L. Most of the bills also had a designation of
“Series 1969-C”. The authorities hoped that since there
were a lot of dollar bills, Dan would have a hard time to escape.
Lastly, as an attempt to track down Cooper after the ordeal, they
photographed the money.

Due
to the holding patterns that William did, the passengers became
confused. So as not to worry them, he said that the runway just
needed clearing but all else was under control. Finally at 5:24 pm,
the authorities signaled William that it was okay to land. The runway
had a lot of floodlights that Dan Cooper demanded the cabin lights to
be turned off.

He
asked this because he was scared that there were snipers waiting to
be aimed at him. When the planed landed, the rolling staircase was
put down and it was Tina (the second flight attendant) who made the
trips up and down to collect the money and the parachutes.

When
Dan was satisfied with the money and the parachute, he asked all the
passengers to leave, as well as Florence and another flight
attendant. The only ones left on the plane were William, Tina, the
co-pilot Rataczak, flight engineer Anderson, and of course, Dan. As
they refueled, Dan asked William to direct the plane to Mexico, to
which William said that they would need to refuel again in Reno,
Nevada.

Dan
didn’t comment on that. He didn’t even ask about flight
route. During an interview after the ordeal, William said that
everything went smoothly. It was as if Dan was calm, and he didn’t
want to hurt anyone. As long as his demands were given, then nothing
would go wrong.

At
7:40, the Boeing 727 took off again, but this time, there were two
fighter jets that tailed them from behind. One was above and one was
below-- Dan had no idea about this because he couldn’t see the
jets. After the take-off, Tina was instructed by William to stay with
them in the cockpit. Dan didn’t refuse, but Tina noticed that
he was tying something on his waist.

At
8:00 pm, the crew noticed that the aft door was open. It was already
10:15 when the Boeing 727 landed in Reno Nevada, but Dan Cooper was
nowhere in sight. When the plane landed, police spread out outside
the plane, because they still weren’t sure if Dan had left or
not. After they searched, it was confirmed that Dan Cooper was no
longer on board. Apparently, Dan stepped out of the plane with his
parachutes and since then, he was never seen again.

After
the hijacking, almost a thousand men became suspects. Some of them
even claimed to be Dan Cooper, but later on, they were proven wrong.
One of the most prominent suspects was Richard McCoy- a Vietnam War
Veteran with great parachuting experience.