The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 59, No. 212, Ed. 1 Monday, July 6, 1981 Page: 9 of 28
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THE BAYTOWN SUN X' Monday, July 6, 1981
* 9-A
News Roundup
Catholic Mediators May Bring End To IRA Hunger Strike In Prison
BELFAST, Northern
AP) — Hopes rose Monday
hat the IRA hunger strike
s nearing an end after
There was no indication
of the killers’ identity. But
motorcycle assassination is
a specialty of Forghan, an
Roman Catholic mediators underground Moslem group
met with guerilla leaders in
the Maze Prison three
times during the weekend.
The British government’s
Northern Ireland Office
made no comment. But an
official who refused to be
indentified said there was
“the possibility of an early
break-through
With the life of at least
one striker hanging in the
balance, the five members
of the Irish Commission for
Justice and Peace, a group
of priests and laymen set up
by Ireland’s Catholic
bishops, met once on Satur
day and twice on Sunday
with the eight men fasting
in the prison on the out-
skirts of Belfast and with
Brendan MacFarland, the
convicted killer who is the
leader of the IRA prisoners
in the Maze
A spokesman for the
hunger strikers said after
the mediators left, Mac
Farland spent the rest of
the night in the hospital
vying of the prison for fur
ther discussion with the
hunger strikers.
The spokesman, who
declined to be identified,
said MacFarland would
opposed to political activity
by the Islamic clergy,
which dominates the
revolutionary regime
Iran’s official media also
reported another gun battle
between the leftists and the
revolutionary guards and
more executions.
Pars said three guerrillas
of the Mujahedeen Khalq
were killed and one revolu-
tionary guardsman was
wounded in a six-hour bat-
tle Sunday when the guards
stormed a leftist hideout in
Tehran in which eight guer
rillas were holed up. It said
two guerrillas were cap-
tured and three escaped
The news a'gency
reported firing squads in
six cities executed 13 more
people over the weekend,
bringing to 102 the number
reported put to death since
the fundamentalist Islamic
clerics controlling the
government engineered the
dismissal of President
Abolhassan Bani-Sadr on
June 22
The 13 included two men
and two women accused of
"armed uprising against
the Islamic Republic,” six
people accused of heroin
The communique charg-
ed that “certain Western
circles” were trying to use
the situation in Poland to
“discredit the socialist
system, as well as socialist
ideals and principles.”
Sea Rescue
ST. ANTHONY, New-
foundland (AP) — “It was
hell.” ■
The words were those of
John Hobert, an engineer
from Dallas who survived
the sinking Friday of the
Arctic Explorer and was
among 19 people who
drifted on a liferaft for two
days in the frigid waters off
Newfoundland before being
rescued Sunday
Hobert watched from a
Duff-Smith, 34, says he is
innocent of all four killings.
Mrs. Zabolio, 60, was
found in an upstairs
bathroom of her home in
Houston’s exclusive River
Oaks neighborhood. A pair
of panythose was wound
tightly around her neck
Authorities, assuming
she must have strangled
herself since there were no
signs of a struggle or forced
entry, ruled the death a
suicide.
Mrs. Zabolio left an
estate of about $180,000,
which was split between
her natural-born daughter,
Diana Wanstrath, and her
adopted son
In July 1979, the bodies of
Mrs. Wanstranth, her hus-
killed between 6 p.m.
Thursday and midnight
Sunday.
Council statisticians said
470 deaths could be ex-
pected during a similar
non-holiday period at this
time of year.
Last year, 461 people died
during the three-day
weekend marking In-
dependence Day.
The worst three-day
Fourth of July weekend on
record was in 1971, when
638 motorists were killed.
Reagan-Dems
WASHINGTON (AP) —
White House lobbyist Max
L. Friedersdorf says he will
oppose any all-out effort in
21 House Democrats who
have been voting con-
sistently with the president
A third of those are Tex-
ans, who constituted an im-
portant part of the defec-
tions that gave President
Reagan his budget victory
in the House.
The victory margin was
so close that had four
Democrats voted with their
the next election to defeat leadership instead of sup-
porting Gramm-Latta II,
which the president endors-
ed, the Democratic “ma-
jority” would have prevail-
cd
When President
Reagan’s substitute for the
budget put together by
Democra tic-controlled
committees narrowly won,
such Democrats as Phil
Gramm of College Station,
Kent Hance of Lubbock and
Charlie Stenholm of Stam-
ford backed the president
on all seven votes.
“These 21 are people I
think are going to be with
him through thick or thin,”
Friedersdorf said. “I would
not want to see an all-out ef-
fort to defeat those 21.”
He conceded that local
Republicans might have
other ideas. Friedersdorf
said it’s probably unlikely
that Republicans would
declare the 21 districts
completely off limits
raft while crew members band John, and their infant
decide whether-. ?*rSQtUe- smuggling and two Mujahe-
merit can be reached,
ording to Press Associa-
tion, Britain’s domestic
news agency.
B “The buck ultimately
stops with Brendan Mac-
Farland,” the spokesman
was quoted as saying
There was speculation
the mediators would meet
next with Michael Allison,
the minister of state for
Northern Ireland
Informed sources said
the IRA is anxious to find a
face-saving way of ending
■ j, the strike, in which four
men died in May, to save
the eight men fasting now.
Joe McDonnell, a 30-year-
old IRA prisoner who joined
the strike after the first of
the deaths on May 5, began 1979
the 59th day of his fast to
day and was said to be “ex
tremely weak” and rapidly
nearing death
The fast began March! in
a bid to force the British
government to give im
prisoned members of the
mostly G a t h o 1 i c
underground army the
privileges _of political
prisoners.
Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher refused the de
mand repeatedly, conten
ding political status for the
IRA would legitimize its
war of terrorism, murder
and sabotage against
British rule in Northern
Ireland and result in every
criminal in the province
claiming to be a member of
the IR A.
The hunger strikers
issued an unusually con-
ciliatory statement Satur
day. They conceded the
British government’s prin-
cipal argument that they
deen -Khalq members
charged,, with “.beating
Moslem people” and using
deadly weapons, official
m^iia reported. „
A third Mujahedeen
Khalk was shot and killed
while fleeing from revolu-,
tionary. guards, Tehran
Radio said.
Pars said Bani-Sadr, who
has not been seen publicly
since June 12, was pro-
moting revolt from a
hideaway in northwest Iran
near the Turkish border,
where Kurdish tribesmen
have been fighting for
autonomy ever since Kho-
meini’s revolution against
the late Shah Mohammad
Reza Pahlavi in February
treatment and propose
that the privileges they
demanded be extended to
all prisoners in Northern
Ireland.
The government respond
ed immediately by allowing
the Catholic delegation to
meet with the strikers.
The IRA’s demands in-
clude exemption from
prison work, the right to
.wear civilian clothes and
associate, freely among
thetnselves, the right to
remission of half their
sentences for good behavior
and more mail and visitors
Iran Killing
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP)
— Two gunmen o.n motor-
cycles assassinated the
governor general of Iran’s
Caspian Sea province of
Gilan Monday as he drove
to his office in the city of
Resht, Iran’s official news
agency Pars reported
The governor, identified
only, as Engineer Ansari,
hospital shortly after the
shooting, Pars said. His
undersecretary for
development affairs
Engineer Nurani, was bad-
ly wounded, the report said
Witnesses said the
assassins fired
[ machine gqns
l governor’s car.
Poland
WARSAW, Poland (AP)
Western observers think.
Polish ‘ Communist' Party
chief Stanislaw Kania won
grudging Soviet acceptance
of next week’s Polish party
congress in his meetings
with Foreign Minister An-
drei Gromyko.
Gromyko returned to the
Kremlin Sunday after two
days of talks with Polish
leaders. He presumably
communicated Moscow’s
misgivings about the party
congress, which is expected
to approve economic and
political reforms initiated
in the wake of last sum-
mer’s. national labor
rebellion.
Soviet leaders sought to
delay the congress earlier
this year, apparently fear:
ing it would spawn runaway
reforms that would drive a
wedge between Poland and
the Soviet:bloc and could
and fellow workers on
board the sinking ship
jumped into the cold dark
waters.*
Hobert and the other sur-
vivors were picked up Sun:
day by the Canadian Coast
Guard. The Arctic Ex-
plorer, under contract to
Geophysical Service Inc. —
a subsidiary of Texas In-
struments Ltd. — was dding
a survey for British
Petroleum when it went
down Friday morning,
Hobert was one of three
Americans among the 32
people aboard, including 27
Canadians, and two
Australians.
Hobert was part of the
scientific crew. He recalled
the terrifying scene from
his hospital bed in St. An-
thony, saying he was
awakened about 7:30 NDT
by a loud thud. The Arctic
Explorer was listing sharp-
ly on the starboard side, he
said.
“We were alerted ... to
take to the boats. We tried
to launch the port lifeboat
but the list was already too
great to get the boat out. So
we went to the liferafts.’
The boat sank 20 minutes
later, Hobert said.
“I made it off with only
pants and a life jacket on
Some guys had jackets on,
some didn’t have shoes,”
Hobert said. “We were all
asleep when it happened. At
that stage of the day you
don’t dress for dinner. ”
,4s ,Ufi4rifted on the raft,
Hobert saw others jumping
into the water.
“You are watching as you
drift away from them and
there is no way you can get
to them,” he said. “There
was a pretty good sea runn-
ing! We. had trouble getting
some of the guys in the
water to the liferafts. We
just drifted away from
them too fast.”
“We could see shore. We
spent most of the time
shivering. We were literally youngster
should not be given special rea^ t0 the pother
treatment and proposed) mernt)ers of the alliance.
The Soviet protests rais-
ed Western fears of Soviet
military intervention to
halt the reform drive, much
the same way Soviet troops
invaded Czechoslovakia in
1968 to crush that nation’s
liberalization campaign.
However, Kania ap-
parently reassured
Gromyko that the party has
brought the reform drive
under control. Many
observers are predicting
the congress will not be a
runaway session as once
predicted..
Reforms that are ex-
pected tn win approval in-
clude calls for,greater self-
management for industrial
enterprises, economic
decentralization and
democratic initiatives. The
reformers are spearheaded
by members of the indepen-
dent Solidarity labor
federation newly elected to
the party. The union, the
first in the Soviet bloc free
was pronounced dead at a of Communist Party con-
trol, was born out of last
summer’s strike wave
A joint communique
, issued at the end of
Gromyko’s visit expressed
Soviet support for Poland,
and the Poles said, “Poland
Uzi sub- is, was and shall be a per-
into the manent link in the socialist
community.”
huddled together more or
less trying to keep warm,”
he said.
He said he was worried
about whether anyone knew
the ship had gone down.
“Going off the ship we
were not sure if a distress
signal had been made,
although the skipper was
extremely safety con-
scious,” he said.
The captain, Jack King,
was among the missing,
The men in the liferaft
were rescued after they
were spotted by searchers
in a helicopter
The bodies of eight crew
members later were
son were found at their
home. The Harris County
Medical Examiner conclud-
ed Mrs. Wanstrath, 36, shot
her 35-year-old
oceanographer husband
and their 14-montlj-old son,
Kevin, then turned the gun
on herself.
Meanwhile, prosecutors
say, a 31:year-old ex-
convict, Allen Wayne
Janecka, confessed to being
the triggerman in the
Wanstrath slayings and
told police he was hired by
Walter A. Waldhauser, an
independent investor and
friend of Duff-Smith.
Last December, after
19-month investigation,
Waldhauser and Janecka
were indicted in the
Wanstrath deaths.
In mid-March,
Waldhauser admitted his
invplvement in the
Wanstrath and Zabolio
deaths and agreed to testify
against Duff-Smith. He
received a 30-year prison
sentence in the plea
bargain
The new evidence also
prompted the medical ex-
aminers to change their rul-
ings iri the cases to murder
In April, Janecka was
convicted in the death of the
Wanstrath baby and two
days later was sentenced to
death by injection. Duff-
Smith was indicted and jail-
ed in Mrs. Zabolio’s death.
Girl Missing
TYLER. (,AP.) -
Authorities say they have
few leads in their search for
an 11-year-old girl who
disappeared during an ap-
parent burglary of her
parents’ Smith County
home early Saturday
“We’re at ground zero,”
said Smith County Sheriff
J.B. Smith after 65 officers
from two counties searched
portions of Smith and Van
Zandt counties Sunday
without finding the
The parentsof Trislia Me
Coy awoke Saturday morn
ing to discover their
daughter missing from a
living room sofa where she
had been sleeping. A front
door screen had been cut
and the interior door had
been forced open, they told
authorities.
Smith said deputies with
bloodhounds picked up
trail along the Neches
River not far from the
McRoy residence but were
unable to follow it. He said
the girl and her abductors
may have gotten into a. car
at the trail’s end.
“We’re very fearful that
discovered close to the spot we have a case of homicide
on our hands,” the sheriff
said.
The McRoys said they
have no idea why, in Mrs
MaDait’c aiiapHc 1 ‘ onvnnz
where the ship sank, and
the search continued for
five crew members who
were still missing, a rescue
official in St. John’s, New-
foundland, said.
The cause of the sinking
of the Arctic Explorer, a
990-ton, steel-hulled vessel contact the family and let
sometimes used as anlthem know whether the girl
icebreakef aniPTealmg
vessel, has not been deter-
mined.
Duff-Smith
HOUSTON (AP) - Jury
selection was to begin Mon-
day in a trial to determine
whether investor Markham
Duff-Smith plotted to kill
his wealthy, adoptive
mother or was framed in
the bizarre 1975 murder.
Prosecutors say Duff-
Smith strangled Trudy
Duff-Smith Zabolio and
four years Tater arranged
the deaths of his adoptive
sister, Diana Wanstrath.
her husband and the cou-
ple’s infant son so he could
inherit their wealth.
McRoy’s words, “anyone
would take my daughter.”
The girl’s father issued a
plea for her kidnappers to
“Just bring her back,”
said Gene McRoy. “All I
want is my daughter.”
Traffic Toll
At least 537 persons died
in traffic accidents on the
nation’s highways over the
Independence Day
weekend, more than last
year but within the range
forecast by the National
Safety Council. ”
The number of reported
deaths stood, at 537 at mid-
night on the Pacific coast.
The National Safety
Council estimated prior to
the start of the Fourth of
July holiday weekend that
450 to 550 people might be *
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Brown, Leon. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 59, No. 212, Ed. 1 Monday, July 6, 1981, newspaper, July 6, 1981; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1019511/m1/9/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.