Banner Graphic, Volume 15, Number 252, Greencastle, Putnam County, 18 June 1985 — Page 3

Whipple is sentenced to 40 years SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) A teen-ager declared guilty but mentally ill in the ax murders of his parents has been sentenced to 40 years in prison. St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Robert L. Miller Jr. sentenced Dale Whipple, 18, of Lydick, to 30 years Monday for the death of Wayne Whipple and 40 years for the death of Sandra Whipple, to be served concurrently. Whipple, who faced up to 120 years on the two convictions, was given the minimum sentence for his father’s murder after Miller found that the teen-ager was a victim of child abuse. The judge said Mrs. Whipple’s slaying was senseless murder and a reduced sentence would have depreciated the seriousness of the crime. During his trial last month, Whipple admitted killing his parents, both 39, in the family’s western St. Joseph County home. The verdict of guilty but mentally ill requires state mental health authorities to examine Whipple and recommend psychiatric treatment, if necessary, to the Department of Correction. Court officials said Whipple would not be automatically placed in a mental hospital or psychiatric ward. Defense attorney Charles Asher had asked Miller to impose the minimum 30year sentence, contending Whipple and his sister, Penny, 13, were victims of life-long verbal and physical abuse from their parents. The prosecution conceded Whipple may have been harshly disciplined by his father, but disputed the degree of abuse described by the defense. Prosecutors argued that Whipple killed his parents for insurance money and to free himself to live with a 31-year-old woman his father had forbidden him tosee. Prosecutor Michael Barnes said he has not decided whether to seek charges against Penny Whipple. In a statement to police, Whipple said he told his sister of his plans to kill their parents. Penny was home when her parents died, although she did not witness the killings.

"Officially" summer at 5:44 p.m. Friday

WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans, many already sweltering in the heat, soon will celebrate the arrival of summer on a date many other cultures know as Midsummer’s Day. Although most people can easily tell the seasons by the weather, those seeking “official” starting and ending dates can find plenty of disagreement and even confusion. The accepted dates for the seasons have more or less evolved over the years, with no official body making the designation, explained Leßoy Doggett of the U.S. Naval Observatory. It was astronomers who designated the solstice when the sun seems to hold still at its northernmost point as the start of summer, a tradition stretching back to Rhodian stargazer Geminus in 70 B.C. And today many almanacs follow his lead, citing the start of summer as the summer solstice, occurring this year at 5:44 p.m. EST on June 21. By that calculation, summer will last until the autumn equinox, which astronomers at the Naval Observatory report will occur on Sept. 23. The solstice occurs when the sun’s apparent northward movement reaches its zenith at the Tropic of Cancer and seems to stall for a few days. This provides the longest days of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and the shortest south of the Equator, where winter is beginning. Astronomers now know that the sun’s apparent movement doesn’t actually stop, but is so slow as to be barely noticed during this period. owever, the northward movement of the sun has been giving extra warmth to this hemisphere since it crossed the Equator March 20, and many residents of the United States have already experienced ' plenty of summertime weather. For that reason, meteorologists often divide the seasons differently from astronomers, listing the months of June, July and August as “summer.” That comes close to actually marking the warmest weather erf the year, the

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Tri Kappa sorority, Greencastle, recently welcomed 10 initiates in its membership during a June 4 meeting at the Alpha Phi house on the DePauw University campus. The new members are (front, from left) Margaret Conway,

Lake County next Coleman trial?

MERRILLVILLE, Ind. (AP) - Prosecutors from three states, determined to win still more convictions against Alton Coleman and Debra Denise Brown, agree the couple should be tried next in Lake County, Ind. Authorities in Illinois, Indiana and Toledo, Ohio, have been waiting their turn to prosecute the couple on charges stemming from beatings and killings across the Midwest last summer. Prosecutors from those states reached their agreement Monday after a threehour strategy session that followed the couple’s convictions in Ohio on charges of murder and kidnapping. “Nevertheless, there is always the possibility those convictions will be overturned by a higher court,” Lake County Prosecutor Jack Crawford said in explaining the decision to seek additional convictions. In Lake County, Coleman and Ms. Brown are charged with murder, felony murder, confinement and child molesting in the June 18, 1984, beating death of 7-

definition most individuals probably con sider summer. The 93 warmest days of the year, on average, extend from June 6 to Sept. 7 in the nation’s capital, weather historian David Ludlum has reported in Blair & Ketchum’s Country Journal. This can vary somewhat, of course, from place to place. “There are a couple of traditions, here, basically which have to d& with the way we divide up the year. Modern astronomers divide it into four sections, marked by the equinoxes and solstices...,” Doggett explained. But, “there is another partition of the year by which are called the cross-quarter days. They fall in between (the solstices and equinoxes) and we know that there are traditions associated with these, particularly in the British Isles and Europe. They have been used for dividing up the year, or the whole set of eight was in fact celebrated in a system. “Mayday-is one of these days. It had more ancient names and may have been the start of summer,” making the coming solstice midsummer, he explained. The date of the solstice is still termed midsummer in cultures that date summer as starting around Mayday. The celebration of the solstice as Midsummer’s Day remains popular in Northern Europe, with festivals and bonfires common in Germany and Scandinavia and other countries. Widely popular as a holiday, at one time the festival centered on magic and merrymaking. The festivities were immortalized by William Shakespeare in the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” in which lovers are caught up in the magic web spun by the moon, the forest and fairy creatures on that special night. Finally, there was the medieval scheme of seasons, which began on popular saints’ days due to the strong influence of the church. Summer, by that reckoning, began on St. Urban’s Day, May 25, and lasted until Aug. 23.

Sherri Swihart, Kathleen Jagger, Debbie Bernsee, Kathryn Nethers, Allison Cash (back, from left) Dale Gossard, Deborah Smith, Diane Barber and Margaret Stout. (Banner-Graphic photo by Barbara Carhart).

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year-old Tamika Turks of Gary, Crawford said. The couple are also charged with attempted murder in an assault on the girl’s 9-year-old aunt, who survived and will testify, he said. Crawford cited three reasons for proceeding next in his jurisdiction: —Colemah, 28, and Ms. Brown, 21, face murder charges there that carry a possible death penalty. —Authorities have a witness to the crime.

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—lndiana’s death penalty law has survived tests by the state and U.S. Supreme courts. Federal authorities will make the final decision on the next jurisdiction to prosecute, Crawford said. The trial could begin “sometime next fall,” he said. The Waukegan, 111., couple, who claim to be married under common law, are under death sentences in Ohio for murder. Ms. Brown was sentenced to death June 11 for the July 11 suffocation murder of Cincinnati teen-ager Tonnie Storey.

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'Why bother?' asks lacocca of tax plan

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - While Americans calculate if they’re winners or losers under President Reagan’s tax plan, someone should ask whether it’s good for the country, Chrysler Corp. chief Lee A. lacocca says. Speaking to the national Jaycees convention the same audience that will hear Reagan pitch his tax plan Wednesday lacocca said talk of tax reform is premature until the budget deficit and the international trade imbalance are corrected. “What could be good politics for the 1980’s could literally be bad economics for the rest of the century,” the head of the nation’s No. 3 automaker declared Monday. lacocca, who took Chrysler from the brink of financial disaster in 1979 to profitability today, said Reagan’s tax simplification program should be judged on whether it will help curb the deficit and aid American ability to compete in international trade. If not, “my reaction to the whole issue is why bother? ” he said. Reagan’s appearance Wednesday is to tout his plan to simplify the federal tax code by eliminating some deductions, reducing the number of tax rates from 14 to three and lowering the top individual rate from 50 to 35 percent. lacocca said the average family will save S4OO annually through Reagan’s tax plan. But he said that will be more than wiped out by their $4,000 share of the annual increase in the federal deficit. “That is really getting your priorities screwed up,” he said. lacocca acknowledged that most people will judge the tax plan according to how it benefits or hurts them. “I wonder if anybody out there is asking, ‘Will this be good for America?’ I don’t hear anybody asking that. Somebody should ask because Rome is burning right now and we’re fiddling with the tax code,” lacocca said. He cited Commerce Department figures that 500,000 Americans will lose their jobs as U.S. companies move their manufacturing operations overseas. “Just ask those guys in two years how they like their tax cuts, ’ ’ he said.

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June 18,1985, The Putnam County Banner-Graphic

Indiana still 'a contender' INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Chrysler Corp. chairman Lee A. lacocca says “Indiana is still a contender” with Ohio and Illinois in the race to land the Chrysler-Mitsubishi plant. Chrysler and the Japanese automaker have formed a joint venture to build an automobile assembly plant in the United States. There has been fierce competition to get the plant, which will employ about 2,500 people. There have been recent indications from lacocca that Illinois may have the edge in landing the facility. “I didn’t mean to rule out Indiana,” he told reporters Monday after his speech to the national Jaycees convention. “Illinois, Indiana and Ohio probably have the inside track.”

lacocca said he can afford to pay more taxes to help bring the deficit under control. “What I cannot afford is to bury my kids under a dung heap of public debt that will smother them,” he said. On a stage flanked by two large American flags, lacocca insisted the country should establish goals with Japan to reduce America’s $37 billion annual trade deficit with that nation. He said the deficit is expected to grow to SSO billion this year. lacocca said the U.S. should cap its Japanese trade deficit at $37 billion and announce that it has to come down by 20 percent a year for three years. The trade deficit wasn’t even mentioned during the 1984 presidential campaign, lacocca complained. He said the United States should embark upon a plan to protect its ability to compete abroad, much as Japan and European nations do. The Jaycees greeted lacocca with a standing ovation and sent him off with one, but only after the California Jaycees presented him a SIO,OOO check for the Statue of Liberty restoration fund lacocca chairs.

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