Loretta and Dennis discussed options. Should they send someone to France to help Jim? Perhaps Sabine Goodwin, a friend who lived in the U.K., could do it. What about all the email messages in the folder—should they start deleting them? What about Jim calling them collect, was that safe? Loretta logged on to the computer and wrote a reply:
Jackie is fine with me, I know of no problems….Can’t we please make the bmtm just you calling me from a pay phone when you’re in town on my lovely, friendly, safe and clean hard line and telling me where you are and I (or mech) come get you any hour day or night? we are convinced 100% that the mere fact of you being undiagnosed enough to stand around on the street and make phone calls is complete proof that you are not diagnosed at all. Can’t wait to see you. You can get as much rest as you need here, and we can likely get any prescription meds you need.
She saved the message and logged off. Osborn read the exchange. “Bmtm” had been their code for Kopp’s escape route. “Jackie”—they were still planning to come back to the United. States via Montreal. “Undiagnosed”—they thought Kopp was moving about undetected. Not quite.
In Dinan it was 11:19 a.m. on Saturday, March 24, and 5:19 a.m. in Brooklyn. Jim had been unable to collect the money from the Dinan post office. He typed three messages.
Subject: ouestern onion, c’est horrible
Can’t get the $20 without the control number. Send the number on the email account right way and then send $50 after that and $600 after that, each time place a message with the control number for that transaction… I will study your bmtm plan and comply exactly. When I show up, I should be an ‘uncle’ from Paris.
Loretta read the messages and talked to Dennis about finding a 24-hour Western Union (“ouestern onion”) office. Loretta phoned a friend. Did he know of one? She phoned Western Union. Meanwhile, Jim couldn’t help himself any longer. The email seemed to be working so well, he was undetected. Perhaps he simply yearned to hear her voice. He had to phone. Just before 3 p.m., he dialed. Loretta picked up. It was nearly 9 a.m. Brooklyn time. It was Jim.
“Having some trouble with the French mail clerks,” he said. “You know the French, you have these virgin bitches protecting the Honor of France who think I’m committing fraud.”
They chatted some more. Everyone back home sends their love, Loretta said.
“Well let them love me with cash,” Jim quipped. They ended the call. Loretta turned to Dennis.
“He sounds OK, but like he’s under really extreme pressure,” she said. “He’s just talking the way he does when he’s under pressure.”
“What’s he want you to send him?” asked Dennis.
“James?”
“Yeah, how much money do you have to send him?”
“Three hundred.”
Dennis asked her if she wanted to do the Western Union transfer herself. Loretta went with a friend to Western Union and wired Jean Aubrigon $300. And then she wired $300 more. The friend was CS1—the informant, who was still on the job, still hoping to reap reward money if he could help capture Kopp. He managed to grab the receipt from the wire transfer, fold it up and tuck it into his sock, before getting back in the car with Loretta. Later, he found a phone book and called Michael Osborn: Kopp was still in Dinan.
Back at the apartment, Loretta and Dennis continued planning. Should they contact their friends for help with Jim due back soon? What would be better for travel from Montreal to New York, bus or train? They needed to dispose of some of the files and letters. How secure had their emails been?
“You shouldn’t stay online so long when you’re writing him messages,” said Dennis. “Who else is using the account? And who established it? We have to get rid of the papers. I’ll wrap them in newspapers and throw them in the recycling boxes in the subway.”
And what about their eldest son Louis? Would he recognize Jim when he arrived?
“We’ll call him Tony,” said Dennis. “And if he says he looks like Jim Kopp, I’ll just say, ‘yeah, he does look like him.’”
On Sunday, Judge Nina Gershon approved an FBI application to continue monitoring two cell phones that Dennis and Loretta were using: numbers 917-833-1317 and 917-826-8520. That night Loretta left a new email message in the account. Osborn recorded the time of the message as 9:58 p.m.
Subject: dauphin—not crucial to read right now
You will be introduced as Mr. Tony Barret, a friend of ours.
On Monday, Loretta wrote two more messages. She also received four phone calls. Osborn and his team listened. The caller did not identify himself, but by now they knew Kopp’s voice, could quickly recognize the tired cadence and diction, his accent at times verging on a southern drawl but never quite getting there. Kopp told Loretta he couldn’t get the $300 she had tried to send. There was still a problem with the test question used by Western Union agents to confirm the identity of the recipient, and also with the money transfer control number.
Let’s try again, said Kopp. Send $70 to John O’Brien in Dinan. Loretta agreed to do so within the hour. She immediately went to Western Union and wired the money. This time, the money got through. Later that day Loretta and Dennis scanned online for news of the manhunt for James C. Kopp. They also examined a map and located Dinan.
“I talked to him,” said Loretta. “He had problems with the wire. He’s using the name John O’Brien. I can’t believe all he’s going through.”
Later, Loretta and Dennis talked about the future. What if they were caught? What if the FBI showed up one day to knock down the door? What if they were filmed entering the Western Union office? Their fingerprints were all over the place there. They had used it too much. Couldn’t they have just mailed American cash overseas and let Jim exchange it for francs? What about tracing Jim’s calls to their apartment? They agreed to get rid of the pink Western Union receipts.
“If you get picked up,” said Dennis, “I’ll get released and grab the boys.”
“You might get released, but they would definitely detain me.”
Tuesday morning Jim sat at a computer in Dinan and typed an email. Then four more within the span of a few minutes.
At 7:23 p.m. in Brooklyn, Loretta wrote Jim.
Subject: 1950 FF in CASH ON THE WAY
Dennis went to Western Union to wire $50 to John O’Brien in Dinan. He waited, then phoned Loretta. “Check the control numbers to see if Jim has picked them up,” she said. Loretta phoned a contact named Sabine Goodwin. Would Sabine be able to get money to Jim in France? Next she phoned a contact at a monastery near Dinan. The contact said he could get a FedEx package to Jim. She went to the FedEx depot and sent a package containing 300 francs to the monastery. On Wednesday Loretta gave Dennis instructions on what to do if Jim called while she was out. Then she left the apartment, turned on her cell phone and called Sabine. When she returned, she logged on again to see if there was any message from Jim. There was nothing.
On Thursday, March 29, the phone rang in Loretta’s apartment. It was 9 a.m.
“Hello?”
“Listen closely.”
“Yes.”
Michael Osborn’s ears burned as the bug picked up the conversation. Kopp.
“I need to get out of this town because I am H-O-T,” Kopp said.
“Really?”
“Oh, not super H-O-T. Now, you’ve got no red lights at your end, right? Nothing in the news?”
“Nothing in the news, no,” she said.
“I mean, just answer the obvious stuff. I listened to some French news last night and there was no—no big deal. Do me a favor. In the next day or two I’ll get in contact with you, but do some thinking about—about Oz. Do you know what Oz is yet?”