Banner Graphic, Volume 12, Number 110, Greencastle, Putnam County, 18 January 1982 — Page 2

A2

The Putnam County Banner-Graphic, January 18,1982

Death penalty sought Bell mass murder trial begins

INDIANAPOLIS IAP) - King Edward Bell, a laid-off autoworker who was having trouble coping with a night job and his young family, was to go on trial today for the slayings of his four young children, his estranged wife and his mother-in-law. Bell, 31, has asked to die for the crimes and the prosecution is seeking the death penalty. A Vietnam veteran with a history of mental problems. Bell was a laid off autoworker who had been having money troubles for nearly two years. Banner-Graphic "It Waves For All” (USPS 142-020) Consolidation of The Daily Banner Established 18S0 The Herald The Daily Graphic Established 1883 Telephone 653-5181 Published daily except Sundays and Holidays by luMar Newspapers. Inc. at 100 North Jackson Si.. Greencastle, Indiana 46135. Entered in the Post Office at Greencastle. Indiana, as 2nd class mail matter under Act of March 7,1878. Subscription Hates Per Week, by carrier *I.OO Per Month, by motor route ‘4.55 Mail Subscription Rates R.R. in Rest of Rest of Putnam Co. Indiana U.S.A. 3 Months >12.00 *12.55 ‘15.00 6 Months 24.00 25.10 30.00 1 Year 48.00 49.20 60.00 Mail subscriptions payable in advance . . . not accepted in town and where motor route service Is available. Member of the Associated Press The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use tor republication of all the local news printed in this newspaper.

24 S. Indiana

FRIGIDAIRE REFRIGERATORS You’re buying long-lasting value.

Frigidaire 14.0 cult Refrigerator • Forget the messy, timeconsuming bother of defrosting the fresh food compartment thanks to the Cycla-matic partial automatic defrosting system. \ • Three full-width shelves, fixed egg storage for 24 eggs, Twin Vegetable Hydrators. and a separate freezer compartment provides organized, convenient food storage. • To eliminate condensation on the outside of the door openings—no matter how hot the weather—there’s an Electri-Saver Coop. $ 579 WHITE

I | 1§ SjjpßMßfl n n |T *?T! 1 1 "'",' 1 ' 1 " i**n I M |

*759 ALMOND COLOR

Quality ... Value ... Service ... Low, Low Prices 24 S. Indiana “The Store of Furniture Since 1902” Greencastle, Indiana

His new job was at night and he spent his days taking care of his four young children. His wife had left him and was seeing another man. She had hinted at seeking custody of the children after their divorce became final. On Aug. 21, police booked a dazed and incoherent Bell for the murders of his wife, mother-in-law and children, as he mumbled, "What happened to my babies, what happened to my babies?” In the basement of Bell’s northside home police found the four children shot to death. Across town. Bell’s estranged wife and her mother also were dead and Mrs. Bell's boyfriend, Clarence Barnett, 51, was seriously wounded. At his arraignment for the largest mass murder in this city’s history. Bell said “I’m guilty. I wish the death penalty.” He has since pleaded insanity.

LOCO JOE'S St. Rd. 42 & 231'<>f inCloverdale 795-3667 V 7 [\ Mexican and American Food Offering Daily Lunch Special between 11 a.m. & 2 p.m. Open Mon.-Fri. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. Sat. 12 noon-9 p.m.

"In the past IP years, weie had 32 blizzards. 5 snowblowers and one refrigerator. A Frigidaire' l) O Vi'-qJ- tfUUyQLLx

ENERGY EXTRA: In the past 15 years Frigidaire Refrigerators have become 50% more energy efficient.

Get plenty of organized storage space for all kinds of food with this Energy Saving 17.0 cu ft Frigidaire Refrigerator-Freezer. • Four half-width cantilevered wire shelves give you the flexibility to store virtually anything, no matter what size. Each half-width shelf is fully adjustable, allowing you to match them up for a full-width continuous shelf, or get the depth and height you need for odd-shaped foods and containers by staggering them as needed. • Forget the mess and time consuming bother of defrosting. This refrigeratorfreezer is 100% Frost-Proof! • To eliminate condensation on the outside of your door openings—no matter how hot the weather—there’s an Electri-Saver Loop. • Stunning textured steel doors offer an elegant look —and, better still, protection against the mess of fingerprints!

Investigators were at a loss to explain the crime. Friends and neighbors described Bell as a quiet, deeply religious man who loved his wife and children. “He was really soft-spoken with his kids. I never saw him rough with them,” said Loyce Neal, a neighbor. “He told me he still loved his wife.” “He was devoted to his family,” said the Rev. Clarence 11. Waldon, pastor of Bell’s parish church. Duge Butler, Bell’s attorney, said Bell was pushed to homicide by “a wide spectrum of fear. Fear of unemployment. Fear of indebtedness. Fear of his wife’s boyfriend. Fear of losing his family.” The extent of that fear wasn’t known, Butler says, until Aug. 21,1981, when Bell was arrested outside the home of his mother-

THE Books Antiques C ollectibles SHOP -15 S. Indiana NEW HOURSt Tues.-Fri. 11-6 Sat. 10-4 SALE ON • Barbara Cartland • Regency Romance used books

Greencastle, Ind.

r z ■ ■ BES. • I P - fl

Frigidaire 14.0 cuff Refrigerator-Freezer • Forget the mess and time consuming bother of defrosting. This refrigeratorfreezer is 100% FrostProof! • To eliminate condensation on the outside of your door openings—no matter how hot the weather—there’s an Electri-Saver Loop. • Eliminate the nuisance of filling and spilling ice trays with an Automatic ice Maker. Available at extra charge. *629 WHITE

in-law, Mary Alice Kirby. Mrs. Kirby, 54, was found shot to death inside. Bell’s estranged wife, Birtha, 23, was lying dead in a parking lot outside the house. After dropping his shotgun and surrendering, Bell told police about the slain children. Police found the bodies of King Edwin 11, 5; Bertina, 4; Berkima, 3, and Kingston Edmund, 1, lined up on a single bed in a basement room. Each had been shot in the head at close range with a pistol. "Jesus take these children,” was written in white chalk on the wall above the bed. “It looked like an executionstyle slaying,” said Homicide Capt. Tim Foley, who viewed the bodies after Bell was arrested. “They were four dead babies just four little children in a row.”

Five Navy divers die aboard sub MANILA, Philippines (AP) The five divers who drowned in a chamber aboard the submarine U.S.S. Grayback had no warning that the tank was not filling with oxygen as it should have when the water drained out, a U.S. Navy spokesman said today. “It can happen very, very suddenly,” said Navy spokesman Fred Leeder, at the Subic Bay Navy Base, 50 miles northeast of Manila, where the incident early Sunday is being investigated. He said there was no warning bell or other device to signal a lack of oxygen in the chamber. The men had followed proper procedure in taking off their diving equipment when it should have been safe to do so, Leeder said. “It was routine. They had all been through it several times before,” he said, adding they were unable to get their gear back on before the lack of oxygen knocked them out. Four enlisted men and an officer slipped under the water remaining in the chamber and drowned, Leeder said. A sixth man survived because his arm draped over a valve as he fell unconscious, keeping his face out of the water, Leeder said. The man was listed in good condition, he added. Leeder said crewmen monitoring the draining process realized something was wrong when they lost communication with the divers. A doctor was rushed into the chamber and found the five victims without vital signs, said an official statement. Leeder said it was only “a few minutes” before the chamber was opened to release the men, but he said there was some delay because water had to be drained out and pressure equalized before the door could be opened. The spokesman said the identities of those involved would not be released until officers personally notified their families. He said this could take one or two more days.

t FORMULA 1000' GAS FURNACE ONE OF THE WORLD S MOST EFFICIENT GAS FURNACES Formula 1000 rates over 83% in annual fuel utilization efficiency RON ELLIS (AFUE) vs. 71 % for our Immediate previous best i Installation Buy from one of the with Experienced oldest heating firms Personnel in Pu,nam county and A \ receive service from EDCC 0 our experienced 0 service technicians. Estates *>* J QE (WS ..,7-,- HEATING and 05i-071 2 AIR CONDITIONING

world/state

137 mph Colorado winds destroy homes, hurt 17

By ERIC KRAMER Associate Press Writer Winter blew viciously hot and cold as warm Chinook winds gusting to 137 mph tore apart homes in Colorado, while a 10th day of a record-setting freeze wearied emergency crews in the East and Midwest and raised the death toll to 267. Power outages forced Ohio residents to head for emergency shelters, homes near Superior, Wis., were without heat when fuel oil congealed in outdoor tanks, and water supplies were threatened in Kingston, Tenn., when intake pipes froze. Highways were slippery throughout the Midwest. Milwaukee posted its coldest reading ever Sunday with a 26 below zero mark Sunday. In Buffalo, N.Y., it was minus 15, also the coldest January reading ever. Pittsburgh’s wind-chill index plunged to 60 below. New York City’s temperature dropped to minus 1 early today, with high winds winds making it feel as if it were 40 below. Firefighters watched an ice jam near Poughkeepsie, N.Y., today, fearing it might cause a flood that would sweep toxic chemicals from a destroyed dye factory into the Hudson River. Seventeen people were injured and several homes demolished in Boulder, Colo., on Sunday when chinook winds raised the temperature 20 degrees in half an hour, ripping roofs off houses and blowing out windows, doors and walls. Dave Peterson of Hyperion Aviation at Boulder Municipal Airport estimated 20 small planes were destroyed at a cost of $4 million. “Planes were pulled out of their tie-downs, took off and landed by themselves,” said Peterson. “Several planes flew over me and it was lucky no one got killed.” Streets were littered with foot-thick power poles, snapped like twigs by the Chinooks,

46 bodies pulled from Potomac

WASHINGTON (AP) - Divers have recovered the bodies of more than half the people on the Air Florida jetliner that crashed into the ice-filled Potomac River and autopsies show all but one of them died from the impact of the crash rather than drowning. Autopsies on the 46 bodies raised speculation that the drowning victim, Arland D. Williams of Atlanta, could be the man who sacrificed himself during rescue efforts by helping five other victims onto a line dropped by a hovering helicopter. That speculation was shared by some federal and local in-

■V

A lighthouse on Lake Michigan at St. Joseph, Mich., is covered with ice and snow in the wake of sub-zero temperatures and blizzard conditions on the lake. The southwestern Michigan coastline has been battered by high winds, as was much of the upper Midwest. (AP Laserphoto)

which were triggered by air rushing from a high-pressure center in the mountains to fill a low-pressure trough over the western Great Plains. Don Morgan, who planned to spend the night with friends, said the wind stripped the roof from his home and dumped

vestigators, said a federal source who asked not to be identified. Dr. Brian Blackbourne, chief deputy coroner for the District of Columbia, said Williams died from exposure and drowning. Blackbourne told reporters the possibility that Williams was the unknown hero would be pursued, although there is no definitive evidence he was the one who sank into the frigid waters before the helicopter could return to get him. His body was among the eight recovered Friday and it was reported at the time that all eight had been strapped in their seats. However, that report

Bridge collapse fatal to 40; horseplay, neglect blamed

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) Horseplay, overloading and neglect were blamed today for the collapse of a suspended footbridge over one of the Sete Quedas Falls that plunged at least 40 sightseers to their death in the churning waters of the Parana River 50 feet below. Most of the people on the narrow suspension bridge were swept away by the swift current, but seven managed to grab onto the bridge cables or rocks near the water’s edge and were rescued, said army Sgt. Celio Kemps, head of one of the first rescue teams to arrive Sunday at the scene of the tragedy on the Brazil-Paraguay

debris on his sleeping 14-year-old daughter. “She was screaming and I had to run in and pull the ceiling off of her,” Morgan said. “My son was sleeping on his stomach and said he thought the covers got awfully heavy all of a sudden.”

could not be confirmed Sunday night after the autopsy reports raised the possibility he could have been the middle-age, balding man described by the crew of the U.S. Park Police rescue helicopter. Paramedic Gene Windsor, who said he was within 10 or 15 feet of the mystery man, said he had a heavy mustache and silver hair above his ears. Williams had a silver beard and mustache and silver hair over his ears. Park Police officials say they will make every effort to make a positive identification of the man, but have instructed Windsor and the helicopter pilot not

border about 700 miles west of Rio de Janeiro. All of those on the bridge were believed to have been Brazilians. “There were people fooling around, making the bridge sway. The cables broke right in the middle of the bridge and people started falling into the torrent,” Kemps said in a telephone interview. He said there were about 50 people on the bridge, and their weight may have caused the cables to snap. “But the maintenance of the bridge was not good," he added. “That must have had some influence in the breaking of the

Boulder City Manager Robert Westdyke said he would ask for state disaster assistance, but Gov. Robert Lamm’s emergency fund has dwindled to $40,000 after weeks of severe weather. Winds up to 100 mph were recorded in Wyoming and gusts of 70 mph reached into western Nebraska. The continued low temperatures in the East and Midwest were just a matter of bad luck, said Sylvia Graff, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Ann Arbor, Mich. She said chunks of cold air have unexplicably dropped from an arctic air mass in Hudson Bay, Canada, and moved south, just as the ball on a roulette wheel drops into a numbered slot. “It is only coincidental” the cold air has come south on two successive weekends, but it could happen again, she said. Emergency workers also had bad luck. “You don’t know Saturday from Sunday or Monday or Tuesday,” said Ted Patchett, a state highway employee who has worked every day for three weeks from his post near Kankakee, 111. “You just come in and put in your 12 hours and hope there is a bar open when you get off.” “We’ve probably run 1,300 calls today,” said Bill Benton, of the AAA in Columbus, Ohio. ‘‘lt’s largely stranded motorists. People don’t know enough to stay home.” Portage County, Ohio, residents were forced to keep warm in a school building in Kent after a 69,000-volt line failed Sunday morning. About 12,000 Mentor residents lost electricity during the noon hour. In Akron, Ohio, it was 22 below Sunday, the coldest ever recorded there. In Embarrass, Minn., the thermometer broke at 44 below and officials guessed it was actually eight degrees colder.

to cooperate directly with the news media in attempting to identify him by viewing file photographs shown them by news organizations. There was no indication whether the five survivors who were in the water beside the man have been asked for their recollection of him. Bitter cold the high was 10 degrees and strong winds kept the salvage operation to a crawl Sunday, although authorities said the 46th body was found before diving was halted because of the weather. Divers also placed rigging around the tail section of the plane.

cables.” A woman interviewed on a television newscast said she saw “some people saving themselves. others screaming, others tumbling over and over in the current.” “My son was on the bridge. Now he has disappeared,” she said. None of the bodies had been recovered by late Sunday night, said another member of the rescue team, Sgt. Durival Oliveira. He said an entire family of eight was among those swept away. The search for victims was to continue todav.