Banner Graphic, Volume 10, Number 42, Greencastle, Putnam County, 22 October 1979 — Page 2
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The Putnam County Banner Graphic, October 22,1979
Bishop dies in Nevada gas chamber
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) Jesse Bishop, the tough-talking murderer who sneered at attempts to save him from the Nevada gas chamber, was executed early today, the third man put to death in the United States in the past 12 years. “This is just one more step down the road of life,” Bishop told State Prison Director Charles Wolff Jr. in his final words. Moments later, he was strapped in a freshly painted death seat and green curtains went up in the gas chamber. Bishop smiled at a reporter among the 14 witnesses woman standing on an adjacent room. “He looked each of us in the eye, I think,” said Tad Dunbar of KOLO-TV in Reno, one of those who watched the 46-yearold exparatrooper die for the murder of a Maryland man. Bishop shook his head and said nothing. Cyanide pellets fell into an acid bath, unleashing deadly gas. Bishop made what appeared to be a thumbsdown sign, wrinkled his nose, seemed to search the room and breathed deeply several times. His eyes rolled upward, his head fell on his chest and then snapped back. He took another deep breath and closed his eyes for the last time. Bishop’s face reddened, saliva ran from his mouth and his body shuddered. After a series of convulsive jerks, it was over.
Kidnap victim goes home COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) Jamie Mokshefski, allegedly kidnapped last month by a teen-age babysitter, is home with his parents after being rescued by police and welfare workers in Texas who learned a teen-age girl offered to sell the 2-year-old boy for SIOO. “That’s my dog, Sassy,” Jamie shouted Sunday, and after grabbing and hugging his brown terrier, rushed into a bedroom and woke his three sleeping sisters, Jamie vanished from his southside Colorado Springs home with his 15-year-old babysitter, Letha Rose Kingsbury, on Sept. 25. The boy was taken into protective custody by Texas welfare officials at Liberty, Texas, on Oct. 12 after a motorist told sheriff’s deputies a teen-age girl tried to sell the child to him for SIOO. But it wasn’t until late Friday night that the child, who welfare officials said had bite marks and bruises when taken into custody, was identified as the missing boy. Federal and El Paso County kidnap warrants remain out for the missing teen-age girl who escaped through an open window during a break in questioning by social workers. Sightings of the boy had led his parents on two trips to St. Louis, as well as Des Moines, lowa, and Cheyenne, Wyo., the runaway Kingsbury girl’s home. Charles and Vera Mokshefski, returning from their last vain search for their missing boy, were putting up posters for Jamie Friday night at a Denver truck stop when a passerby told them, “Why, he’s been found.” Denver television station KOA-TV paid for the parents’ round-trip air fare to Texas and they were reunited with Jamie Sunday afternoon.
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world
Dayan's resignation, court order jolt Israelis
JERUSALEM (AP) - Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s government was reeling today under two surprise blows the resignation of Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and a Supreme Court order that Jews must give up a controversial West Bank settlement. The court order, handed down today, said the government’s seizure of privatelyowned Arab land for the Elon Moreh settlement near the Arab city of Nablus was illegal. It gave the settlers 30 days to get out. The Arab landowners had challenged the government’s
Economic mood is pessimistic
By LOUISE COOK Associated Press Writer The average American today believes that that past was better than the present and that the future will be even worse, says pollster Daniel Yankelovich. “We’ve gone almost overnight from a nation of optimists to a nation of pessimists,” Yankelovich said at a recent conference in Philadelphia on “Coping with Economy Uncertainty.” Yankelovich, head of the firm of Yankelovich, Skelly & White, cited these signs of gloom: —Almost half of all Americans are having trouble paying for housing. Five years ago, only 23 percent complained of prob-
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One witness went down on one knee, but recovered and stood up again. Wolff had offered Bishop, 46, a chance to appeal even up to the point at which the inmate, clad in blue denim pants, a white shirt and white socks, was brought into the chamber and strapped into a freshly painted death chair. But the feisty prisoner said no, just as he earlier spurned offers to see a minister before going to his death. Wolff sent the prison chaplain to see the convicted murderer on his last day. Bishop had told authorities “I believe in Jesse Bishop. I don’t believe in any religion. I don’t believe in God.” Prison officials pronounced the execution complete at 12:21 a.m. Moments later, Gov. Bob List, who had refused clemency sought by others on Bishop’s behalf, said the convict had paid his due. “The sentence of the law has been carried out and Mister Bishop has paid his debt to society,” List said in a statement from the governor’s mansion. “He is now in the hands of the Supreme Authority. ’ ’ Last minute appeals to two U.S. Supreme Court justices were turned down Sunday. Bishop had not authorized them. “He was genuinely not afraid to die, and that’s an awe-in-
claim that the settlement was essential for Israel’s security, an argument the high court had accepted in all previous cases involving Jewish enclaves in occupied territory. Dayan had cited his opposition to the Elon Moreh settlement as one of reasons for his resignation Sunday. But his chief gripe was his lack of influence over the four-month-old negotiations with Egypt and the United States on autonomy for Palestinians on the occupied West Bank of the Jordan River and in the Gaza Strip. Begin and other leading
lems in buying and keeping up a home. —Nearly three people in four statement: “We are fast coming to a turning point in our history where the land of plenty is becomming the land of want.” Sixty-two percent think the United States is entering an era of permanent shortages. —There is widespread disillusionment with government. Seventy-seven percent of the public thinks government wastes money; 60 percent say it doesn’t care about the people; 65 percent say it is run in a way that benefits special interest rather than the population as a whole. —More than four people in
Opinion polls
Their findings affect the nation-its policies and politics
By MALCOLM N. CARTER Associated Press Writer Suddenly they are everywhere. Public opinion polls pervade the nation, affecting its policies and its politics. The federal government uses them in its decision-making. Political candidates use them in election campaigns. And what the “polls show” on a wide range of issues, from the arms race to abortion, becomes central to public debate. In large part, the polls have achieved this position by compiling a solid track record. One major pollster, for example, likes to boast that his final preelection presidential polls have been off by no more than an average of 1.3 percent in the last 20 years. Reputable polls on local election and referenda also have been generally accurate within a few points of the actual vote. So few can argue that polls are simply a matter of trickery by untrustworthy statisticians. But the polls are not infallible, and results can vary widely. The figures sometimes are endowed with a precision that not even the pollsters themselves would claim, leading to mistaken conclusions. Differences in question wording, question order and interview timing can cause one poll’s results to differ from the next. Changing a single word can turn the results upside down. Waiting a day to take the poll can have the same effect. And one of the pollsters’ biggest pitfalls is to think they are asking one question while the public thinks it’s answering another.
members of his Cabinet said the resignation won’t change their tough stand in the autonomy talks. But Israeli newspapers today predicted Dayan’s departure would weaken and a government already staggered by a domestic political crisis. Even before Dayan resigned, several opposition parties raised motions of no confidence in the Begin government, primarily challenging its handling of the inflation-warped economy. Those motions come up for debate Tuesday when Parliament opens its winter session.
five say that the individual who works hard and plays by the rules of society goes unrewarded. Yankelovich told the conference: “The American personality is not changing, but changes in the environment are posing an almost unique problem of adaptation.” He said the changes have come not only in the economic situation where inflation is eroding incomes and hopes, but also in the areas of culture and politics. In the cultural area, for example, Yankelovich noted that the so-called typical family a male breadwinner, nonworking wife and two small children is rapidly disappearing.
Ask about support for a Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, for instance, and most everyone says it’s a good idea. Ask whether the United States should sign the proposed treaty with the Soviet Union to limit the nation’s nuclear weaponry, and support all but vanishes. Burns W. Roper, who publishes his poll results in Roper Reports 10 times a year, concedes that polls may actually mislead. He observes that pollsters often refer to a three-or fourpoint marging of sampling error, but he and others acknowledge that this may be the least of it. “We know how to draw a sample,” says Harvard professor Gary Orren, a polling consultant to the Washington Post. “What really differentiates one poll from another is the skill of the artistry.” Since errors in the art cannot be measured but errors in the science can be, it is sampling error that pollsters talk about. While polls have transformed the oldfashioned political campaign manager who trusts his gut into a director of marketing who trusts his charts, they still don’t insure victory. This was a lesson that Charles D. “Pug” Ravenel learned the hard way against Strom Thurmond in South Carolina’s Senate race last year. The polls correctly identified the issues, but “it turned out that people did not want to hear about the issues,” muses the loser. Though more and more government decisions that affect our lives are grounded in polls, both the General Accounting Office and the American Statistical Association say the feder-
spiring sight,” a brother, who did not want to be identified, had said after a recent meeting. One of the last things Bishop saw was a slip of darkened Nevada sky visible through a window in the chamber. Bishop dined late Sunday on a final meal of steak, sent his compliments to the cook, and refused to pick up the telephone provided him so that he could file an appeal on his own something he flatly refused to do. Bishop, a decorated Korean War paratrooper, was a heroin addict and professional robber. He said he robbed a country store at 15 and was working on a county road gang a year later. He had spent more than 20 years of his life in prison mostly for robbery and drug-related arrests. Bishop’s execution, the first in Nevada in 18 years, was the second time this year that a man had been put to death in the United States by government order. John A. Spenkelink died in the Florida electric chair on May 25 after a desperate court struggle to live. The only other execution this decade was the death of Gary Gilmore, who, like Bishop, spurned appeals to save his life. Gilmore died before a Utah firing squad in January 1977.
Cable car accident kills one r injures 15 at Texas State Fair
DALLAS (AP) Thousands were jammed into the midway on the last day of the State Fair of Texas when two cable cars plunged to the ground, killing one man, injuring at least 15 and stranding scores aboard cars suspended in the air. Fred Millard, 41, of Dallas, died in surgery, a medical examiner’s investigator said. His wife and two daughters were injured. Officials believed Millard and his family were on the ground playing a carnival game at the time of the accident Sunday afternoon. It was not known how many of the injured were aboard the fallen cars, but officers said the 15 hurt were “better than serious.” The “Swiss Skyride” ground to a halt when the cars fell, but it was not known if the shutdown was automatic. About 85 people were left swaying aboard stranded cars for more than three hours while rescuers used aerial ladders to bring them down to safety. “The last figure I heard was that 85 people were rescued,” Police spokesman Ed Spencer said. Fair officials said 41 cars were stranded. The cars plummeted from the cables into a pair of game concession stands. One car crashed through the booth of a game, and the second caught in the canvas awning of a nearby booth. Winds were gusting at 28 mph, the National Weather Service said, but no official cause for the accident was determined. Curious throngs of fairgoers jammed the area immediately after the accident, impeding ambulances, paramedics and other rescue workers trying to
make their way to the victims. Air Force and Marine units manning displays at the fair helped authorities with crowd control. Police arrested two persons. The cars’ plunge triggered screams as those attending the 16-day fair realized what was happening. “I heard a great big rumbling noise,” said concession operator Scott Sanderson, 21, of Muncie, Ind. “I saw people pointing in the air and I thought an air show was going on. I saw it hit that lady ...I did see a girl in the cable car that fell on top of that awning. She was screaming, ‘Help, help.’ She had blood coming out from underneath.. .her ear. ” Deborah Grams was among the first rescued from the stranded cars. “I heard the sirens and saw the firemen climbing the pole,” she said. “I thought at first we had just stopped momentarily. But after I realized something was wrong, I started getting a little nervous. You get used to it up there. I wasn’t scared when I saw that everything was getting organized down below.” Tense spectators cheered as Miss Grams and others were plucked from the cars and brought to the ground. The “Swiss Skyride” spans the midway lengthwise, serving as an aerial taxi for some and an opportunity to get a bird’seye view of the midway for others. The ride was manufactured by Von Roll Co. of Bern, Switzerland. Representatives of the Swiss company said the ride had operated 15 years without incident, fair officials said. They said Von Roll Co. inspected the ride “this past spring.”
al government doesn’t design them well or interpret them correctly. In a report on five federal agencies last year, the GAO said that the government drew debatable conclusions from polls. A report of the American Statistical Association said further that polls by 15 of 26 federal agencies it examined did not meet their objectives because of poor design, faulty sampling or a combination of “serious” technical flaws. Yet largely on the basis of polls, President Carter concluded that this nation is suffering from a “crisis of confidence,” the Defense Department changed Army enlistment terms and the federal government decided to require airbags as a safety option in automobiles. In fact, the Office of Management and Budget says the government is spending $7 million a year to mine the public’s opinions. The polling profession is the big winner in all this and collects more than an estimated half billion dollars a year from all sources. Is it any wonder that when Gallup did a poll on polls four years ago, one out of seven adults said they had been interviewed for for at least one other survey? Now, says Roper, it is one out of three. Polls touch us in many ways: —The Federal Trade Commission just spent $40,000 to find out what information consumers want on energy labeling for major appliances. The result: New regulations will come out this fall. —Assistant Secretary Donna Shalala says that roughly $1 million is spent every year on
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Cassie Fuellhart Bet Tony Montooth, owner of the Nut House Bar and Hofbrau in Palo Alto, Calif., that the Baltimore Orioles would win the World Series. She spent four hours Thursday perched atop a chair welded to a light standard outside Tony's bar enduring the light rain and chilly weather. "I can't wait for the Superbowl,” she said. (AP Wirephoto).
polling by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. “Public opinion surveys are very helpful in terms of general policy decisions,” she says, adding that they balance the clamor of special interest groups with what the public really wants. —Robert Teeter, who polled for the presidential campaigns of Gerald Ford in 1976 and Richard Nixon in 1972, says he is paid to do regular polls for 12 of 18 incumbent Republican governors. Yet former Treasury Secretary W. Michael Blumenthal wonders whether political leaders, including the president, depend on polls too much. “Reliance on polls tends to lead politicians to say things and do things that may not be the best policy,” he warns. Whatever the faults of polls, the pollsters say it is not that they are inaccurate but that someties they are imprecise. Read as approximations, polls are said to be valid. “Why talk about something you cannot describe nicely and neatly and assign a number to it?” asks veteran pollster Harry W. O’Neill. Cautions Caddell, polling is more art than science. But Roper, who concurs, did not not explain over national TV in 1976 that his election eve prediction for president was almost a guess. Saying he had to compensate for a high percentage of blacks and the unknown number of them who were poor, he adds. “I sweat bullets.” Ironically, his was the most accurate call of all.