T‐shirts emblazoned “D. B. Cooper, Where Are You?” have appeared in West Coast novelty shops.  Confidence men have moved in, trying to cash in on the missing $200,000. Two men are under arrest in Seat tle, charged with a $30,000 hoax that bilked the editor of a Los Angeles weekly newspaper who was sure he had found the missing hi jacker and spent hours re cording what he believed to be “D. B. Cooper's” firsthand account of how the robbery was staged.  One letter brought to the F.B.I.'s attention was mailed Sept. 19 from the 902 postal zone, which includes the San Diego area and part of neighboring Orange County. Addressed to The New York Times, and neatly hand printed, it was signed “D. J. Cooper,” who said that he had helped his brother plan “the most successful sky jacking to date.”  “My brother is dead,” it began. “'D. B. Cooper' passed away on Sept. 12. While he was alive, my brother re fused to let me tell the pub lic that he wasn't really bad. He died with the American people thinking he was just another skyjacking terror ist’ but he wasn't.”  The letter caused the F.B.I. to search death records in San Diego and Orange Coun ties, in the hope of discover ing a recorded death of some person whose background— including a lengthy illness— would lead to the true iden tity of “D. B. Cooper.”  The search has been fruit less, so far at least, and the F.B.I. says that it is not pre pared to accept the report of the hijacker's death or the writer's contention that he is the hunted man's brother.  The letter, according to an F.B.I. spokesmen here, may suade the authorities to abandon or at least relax their manhunt, particularly in view of the writer's state ment that most of the ransom money had been disposed of.  The letter to The New York Times was in the form of a eulogy to the long‐sought hi jacker.  To me and those of you who knew him, he was not ‘a ruthless criminal,’ it said. “He was a kind and gentile [sic] human being who loved life and everything about it.  “In fact,” the letter said, “we gave almost $168,000 of the ransom money away to charities and families in need. He paid off all of Mom's hos pital bills and gave her about $5,000 cash.”  The letter added that the hijacker's last 68 days were completely bedridden and that with “disease knawing [sic] his insides out and pain shooting through his body.”  An earlier letter, purport edly from the hijacker him self, was mailed last Decem ber, shortly after the hijack ing, to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and The Seattle Times.  That letter also said that “D. B. Cooper” was dying of an incurable disease, with on ly 14 months to live.  “My life,” the earlier let ter said, “has been one of hate, turmoil, hunger and more hate. This seemed to be the fastest and most prof itable way to gain a few fast grains of peace of mind.”  The writer concluded by saying that he was “not holed up in some obscure backwoods town” and that since the hijacking, he had made several airplane flights.  “Neither am I a psycho pathic killer,” he wrote. “As a matter of fact I've never even received a speeding ticket.”  The victims in a $30,000 arrangement that was to have given them “D.B. Cooper's” exclusive first‐hand story of his exploit were Karl Fleming, editor‐in‐chief of a new Los Angeles weekly tabloid, LA, and the news paper's publisher, Max Palev sky.  On Oct. 21, the tabloid began publishing a three‐part series, The D. B. Cooper Story — The Skyjacker who got away with it.” The 4,000‐ word account was accompa nied by photographs of a thin‐faced man wearing a knitted cap, talking with Mr. Fleming and identified as D. B. Cooper.  However, the man who had persuaded Mr. Fleming that he was D.B. Cooper, and an intermediary known to Mr. Fleming as Seth Thomas, were being held by the Federal authorities in Washington on charges of plotting to imper sonate the hijacker and ex torting $30,000 from the tab loid.  In the final article of the three‐part series, which was published Nov. 4, Mr. Flem ing acknowledged that he had been bilked in paying the $30,000 and that the two men were in Federal custody on charges of extortion.  Two $20 bills, supposedly from the ransom money, had convinced Mr. Fleming that the man he met was the hi jacker. The F.B.I. informed him, however, that although photocopies of the two bills corresponded with serial numbers of the stolen money, the bills had been “doctored.”  The two men known to Mr. Fleming as D. B. Cooper and Seth Thomas were iden tified by the Federal authori ties as Donald Sylvester Murphy, 49 years old, and William John Lewis, 32, both of Bremerton, Wash.  We are continually improving the quality of our text archives. Please send feedback, error reports, and suggestions to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.  A version of this archives appears in print on November 26, 1972, on page S23 of the New York edition with the headline: TRANSPORTATION. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
Article recalls Nov '71 hijacking of Northwest Orient Airlines Boeing 727 by D B Cooper, air pirate who commandeered craft during Portland-Seattle flight, extorted $200,000 in ransom and parachuted from craft, but who has never been apprehended; Cooper illus in FBI sketch