Banner Graphic, Volume 9, Number 224, Greencastle, Putnam County, 26 May 1979 — Page 2

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The Putnam County Banner Graphic, May 26,1979

Spenkelink's death may speed other executions

STARKE, Fla. (AP) The black-hooded executioner closed the circuit, John A. Spenkelink lurched into death, and for the first time in 12 years officials had executed a prisoner against his will in the United States. Many expected Spenkelink’s death Friday to speed other executions in other states, where 535 other prisoners now wait on Death Rows. But some death penalty foes, echoing Spenkelink’s wishes, said it would only sharpen their resolve to fight capital punishment. "Murderers, murderers!” shouted a demonstrator outside the Florida State Prison. Others there knelt in prayer. Some cried. In Gov. Bob Graham’s reception area in Tallahassee, 100 protesters prayed. There were demonstrators with other opinions, too such as the man in a car who drove past the gathering outside the prison and shouted: “Burn the SOB.” Or the pro-death penalty demonstrators nearby who brought a coffin topped by a flashing yellow light. When it was all over, a memorial service was scheduled for Spenkelink at 3 p.m. Sunday in Tallahassee. The moderator of the 900,000-member Presbyterian Church in the United States, Albert C. Will, said he would send a representative. The execution was the first in the United States since January 1977, when Gary Mark Gilmore was shot by a Utah firing squad after he had repeatedly refused to authorize appeals of his death sentence. But before that largely because years had gone by while the U S. Supreme Court redefined when the death penalty may be used no one had been executed against his will in the United States since Aaron C. Mitchell was gassed in California in 1967 for killing a policeman.

Banner-Graphic "It Waves For All" (USPS 142-020) Consolidation ot The Daily Banner Established 1850 The Herald The Daily Graphic Established 1883 Telephone 653-5181 Published twice each day except Sundays itnd Holidays by LuMar Newspapers, Inc. at 100 North Jackson St.. Greencastle, Indiana. 46135. Entered in the Post Office at Greencastle. Indiana, as 2nd class mail matter under Act ot March 7,1878. Subscription Rates Per Week, by carrier $.85 Per Month, by motor route $3.70 Mail Subscription Rates R.R.in Restol Rest of * Putnam Co. Indiana U.S.A. ' 3 Months *8.75 9.50 *11.45 6 Months *17.50 *19.00 *22.90 1 Year *34.00 *37.00 *45.75 Mail subscriptions payable in advance . . . -mot accepted in towns and where motor route service is available. Member of the Associated Press The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republication of all the local . mews printed in this newspaper.

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Four on Indiana's death row are surprised by execution

By The Associated Press The four men on death row at the Indiana State Prison expressed surprise Friday after the execution in Florida of John Spenkelink, prison officials said. A guard said Larry Hicks, 21, Gary, convicted in the 1978 stabbing deaths of two Gary men, appeared surprised when he heard the news which spread quickly through the institution. “They killed one of them,” the guard quoted Hicks. Warden Jack Duckworth permitted reporters to meet with Hicks, but he refused further

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Spenkelink was executed for a brutal killing in a Tallahassee hotel room on Feb. 4,1973. An accomplice, Frank Brumm of Racine, Wis., told the Tallahassee Democrat this week that he and Spenkelink, a chronic lawbreaker since his youth in California, had slammed fellow drifter Joseph Syzmankiewicz across the side of the head with a hatchet, and that Spenkelink shot his victim in the head and chest. Brumm’s story didn’t support Spenkelink’s claim of self-de-fense Spenkelink also said he’d been forced into a homosexual act but Brumm made another claim echoed by death penalty foes: “It isn’t fair.” Brumm’s point was that he, too, took part in the murder, but now is free while Spenkelink is dead. Brumm, who said he now is glad he didn’t testify about circumstances of the crime, was acquitted of firstdegree murder by the jury that convicted Spenkelink on Nov. 28,1973. The Constitution says Brumm can’t now be tried again for the same crime. Spenkelink was brought into the drab beige prison death room only minutes before his death. He stared through a glass and wood partition directly at 32 people chosen to watch him die. His eyes wide open, he didn’t speak or blink. A witness described his expression as helpless. He made no statement then. But earlier, he had told friends and family he hoped his death would help opponents of the death penalty. A 2,300-volt surge of electricity, the first of three, jolted him at 10:12 a m., one minute after the governor telephoned final authorization. After two more jolts, a doctor tested Spenkelink’s heartbeat three times and declared him dead at 10:18 a.m.

comment, saying he would not talk without permission from his attorney. His is scheduled to die in the Indiana electric chair Sept. 6. The other three on death row, all convicted murderers, are Donald North, 29, convicted of hiring a man to kill his wife and chid in Parke County; James Brewer, 21, Gary, sentenced in the 1971 slaying of Steven Skirpan in a home robbery at Gary, and James Bonds, 39, Porter County, sentenced in the killing of Wilma Rosado. Meanwhile, Gov. Otis R. Bowen said Friday the carrying

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out of the death penalty in Florida may “open the gate” to more executions around the nation. Bowen said he doubts he would prevent an execution once he was convinced of the condemned person’s guilt. Bowen said that “with the increase in serious crime, we need to do all we can to reduce it. The threat of the death penalty is one of the ways we can help reduce crime.” Bowen, as a legislator in 1965, voted to repeal Indiana’s death penalty “but such awful crimes as Speck, Manson and Judy made me change my mind.”

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Personalized Plates tell the feelings Californians have toward the oil companies and the gasoline shortage that has gripped that state. From left, comediaji Scatman Crothers, Ben Schuck and brothers Dean and Neil Cuadra display their plates in Los Angeles. Owners of

Fuel woes Plan to keep tractors rolling eyed

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) Federal energy officials disagreed Friday over the severity of the diesel fuel shortage facing Midwest farmers, but agreed on a plan to cut red tape in order to keep tractors rolling. A Region 7 Department of Energy official said earlier Friday that agricultural fuels were “down to the bottom of the barrel” and some spot shortages might be experienced next week. Later that afternoon, Washington DOE and Department of Agriculture officials, meeting with governor’s representatives from 10 states, expressed skepticism about such shortages. The afternoon meetings, with state officials and suppliers, were closed to the public on orders of Jim Williams, deputy secretary of agriculture and one of the participants. Missouri Gov. Joseph P. Teasdale told newsmen after the meeting that Washington officials “questioned the veracity” of claims that some farmers are out of diesel fuel. “They didn’t believe they (the claims) were true,” Teasdale said. Meeting with newsmen after the closed sessions, Williams said DOE and DOA had devised a plan whereby a farmer out of fuel could contact his county Agriculture Stabilization and Conservation Service office. That ASCS office would then contact a federal DOE worker in the state’s energy office and the fuel would be sent where needed.

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personalized plates can only buy gasoline on oddnumbered days. The total number of cars in California with such plates is less than one per cent of the more than 15 million registered vehicles in that state. (AP Wirephoto).

Williams said by DOE providing help to state energy officials, the beleaguered state officials “could spend their time doing things other than shuffling paper.” Williams said he believed farmers could make it through the current planting season without much trouble, but refused to speculate what might happen to agriculture by wheat harvest time. ‘The farmers are just going to have to operate with less than they’d like to in reserve,” Williams said. When asked about the growing scarcity of diesel fuel for trucks, Bill House, DOE director of fuels allocations, said “If you don’t plant the crops, you don’t need to worry about trucks to get the products to market.” Teasdale said he complained to federal officials that it was impossible to get a straight story from oil companies and suppliers. He said the federal officials agreed with him. “How can the oil companies of this country continue to report mind-boggling profits while escalating prices?,” he said. “It’s just highway robbery. No one believes there is a real crisis. I don’t know why we can’t get some straight answers.” Attending Friday’s sessions were state energy officials and fuel suppliers from Missouri, Kansas, lowa, Nebraska, Montana, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Five men die in clothing store fire

SHELBY, N.C. (AP) - A seemingly routine fire at a women’s boutique became a rumbling inferno when a wall collapsed in a fiery shower of brick and glass, killing five men and injuring at least 25 others. Four Shelby firemen and one gas company employee were killed in the Friday night blast, said Shelby Police Capt. Harold Smith. Assistant Fire Chief William Kennedy said firemen were at JE’s, a women’s clothing store in downtown Shelby, about 10 minutes and thought they had the blaze under control. Then there was an explosion. “There was no warning whatsoever. The building just fell around us. One of my men got killed right in front of me,” said Fire Capt. Gerald Rogers. “The wall caved in and the fire shot out,” said Police Lt. J.J. Wall. “There were five or six firemen in front of me. Bricks fell all around them. I was just lucky.” Wall was not injured. Freddie Harrill, 31, a Shelby businessman, was driving through town when he said he saw smoke from the initial blaze and arrived in time to see the explosion. “Firemen started running away from the building,” Har-

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rill said. “Within seconds, three, maybe four, the walls came tumbling down. I saw two firemen running with tumbling bricks close behind. Then I didn’t see them. They were covered with bricks.” The blast caught shoppers and passers-by in a shower of glass and debris. Harrill said for a second or two afterward there was total silence. “Then all hell broke loose,” he said. “There was chaos, pandemonium, people running, screaming, crying.” Like a giant fist, the blast punched the front wall out of the clothing store. The ensuing fire gutted three nearby stores. Kennedy identified the dead firemen as George Magness, 44, Nathan Hall, 27, Floyd Sharts, 31, and Gene Melton, 24. The gas company employee was identified as Max Bolin, 45. A spokeswoman for Cleveland County Hospital said a least 25 firemen and bystanders were treated at local hospitals. She said three were hospitalized. Their conditions were not immediately known. Firemen continued to search the rubble Friday night to make sure there were no other victims trapped underneath. But authorities said they believed all the bodies were recovered.