Book links Abraham Lincoln to a hijacker

New York, October 5 : D.B. Cooper, the notorious hijacker who parachuted from a Boeing 727 in 1971 with 200,000 dollars in cash and vanished without a trace, has ties to the family of Abraham Lincoln, according to a new book.

Charles Lachman, executive producer of "Inside Edition", claims in The Last Lincolns: The Rise and Fall of a Great American Family that Cooper was actually Jack Coffelt, the chauffeur of Abe Lincoln's great-grandson, Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith.

The author writes that Coffelt had set his eyes on the Lincoln fortune, which is why he charmed his way into Beckwith's life.

However, his failure to assume control of the Lincoln trust fund might have driven him to turn hijacker, the writer states.

Lachman writes that Coffelt was in Portland on the same day "Cooper" boarded the plane there, and was later seen sporting leg injuries that could have resulted form a rough parachute landing.

He claims that Coffelt, who died in 1975 at age 59, even made statements to a family friend that he was Cooper.

The book traces the checkered lives of Lincoln's descendants.

"(A) dysfunctional family of alcoholics, eccentrics and spoiled brats," the New York Post quoted Lachman as saying.

ANI