The Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 146, Ed. 1 Friday, November 7, 1958 Page: 1 of 28
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M.!
COOL
Che Abilene
porter-BPrmg MORNING
iA AA
"WITHOUT OR WITH OFFENSE TO FRIENDS OR FOES WE SKETCH YOUR WORLD EXACTLY AS IT GOES"—Byron
78TH YEAR, NO. 146
Associated Press (AP)
ABILENE, TEXAS, FRIDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 7, 1958 —TWENTY-EIGHT PAGES IN TWO SECTIONS
PRICE DAILY 5c, SUNDAY 15e
Aid Brought
Plane Crew
After Crash
TOWN CREEK, Ala. (AP)—The
crew of a passing freight train
Thursday brought aid to survivors
from an Air Force plane which
crashed and burned beside a rail-
Trond
Cl H lv
ities
ake Hits
vel
read.
The pilot of the two-engine air-
craft was killed but three other
occupants escaped alive from the
wreckage.
The crash occurred as the C45
attempted an instrument landing
at Muscle Shoals Airport. The air-
craft slashed through communica-
tien lines alongside .the Southern
Railway tracks, knocking out rail-
road signals.
Creeping along because the sig-
ansi were out, the freight reached
the burning wreckage about mid-
night. One of the airmen, who was
able to walk, was standing on the
tracks waving for the train to
stop. He had pulled the other two
surviy ors clear of the flames.
“It was awful,” said train con-
ductor D. P. Floyd, of Sheffield,
Ala. “They were begging us not
to leave them. . . They were in
pair . . . One of them was stran-
gling in his own blood. . . ”
First engineer Jesse Streit un-
hitched the engine and sped two
miles into Town Creek, where he
telephoned a railroad dispatcher
for ambulances. Then he returned
Archie M. Golson, 46, Birming-
Ambulance drivers couldn't find
their way to the injured men so
the engineer again shuttled back
into Town Creek, picked up am-
bulance attendants and stretchers,
and brought them back. The in-
' jured men were loaded on a box
car and carried into Town Creek,
from where they were taken by
ambulance to a hospital at Tus-
cumbia.
Streit also called for Civil Air
Patrol members, who later found
the body of the pilot beneath the
wreckage. He was Lt. Ccl. Ralph
W. Mitchell, 40, Atlanta, a student
at the Air University at Maxwell
Air Force Base, Montgomery.
The other occupants were LI
Col. Fred P. Wright, 40, Milledge-
ville, Ga.; Lt. Col Stanley H
Bear. 37. York, Pa.: and Sgt.
Archie M. Golson 46, Birming-
ham. all stationed at the Air Uni-
versity.
The plane was returning to Max-
well from Orlando, Fla., and had
been rerouted to Muscle Shoals
because of adverse landing condi-
tions at Maxwell.
STILWELL PRAISED
Book Belittles
Burma Campaign
LONDON (AP)—One of World
War II’s most daring British op-
.- erations—Wingate’s campaign be-
hind Japanese lines in Burma-
Thursday got this official ap-
praisal: "Of little or no strategical
value.”
BURIAL BOX TRIP—Three Railway Express agency
employes look over a wooden burial box that an 18-
year-old University of Wichita student said he was
imprisoned in and shipped by rail to Kansas City. The
youth, Larry Good, said he was attending a football
game when several persons approached him from be-
hind, grabbed him and later nailed him in the box
and shipped it. The FBI labeled the incident as a
hoax. Looking over the box are, from left. Railway Ex-
press employes E. F. Pipes, A. P. Ellison and N. 0.
Plant. (AP Wirephoto)
FRANK, SAYS FBI
Boy Takes Trip
In Burial Box
KANSAS CITY I API—Someone
beat the Santa Fe Railway out of
a passenger fare Thursday—a live
boy was shipped here from New-
ton, Kan., in a burial box
Larry Good, 18. of Wichita,
popped out of the box and said
he was kidnaped, nailed in, and
shipped here by express The FBI
said the whole thing was a hoax.
Two Injured,
One Critical,
After Wreck
TRENT — Two Abilene men
were injured, one criticatty.
Thursday afternoon when their
loaded pickup blew a tire and
overturned 1.9 miles west of here
on U.S. Highway 80.
Good, a Wichita Ur, ersity stu-
dent, kicked off the Ed when the
box arrived, labeled "flowers”
and addressed to "Nevin Fitz-
patrick, will call, Kansas City."
He was confronted by security
guards for the Railway Express
Agency who insisted their com-
pany was licensed only to carry
dead bodies, not live humans.
They took a dim view of the
affair and turned he matter over
to the FBI and U.S. district
attorney's office.
Good first said he was kidnaped
at a high school footban game
Wednesday night, blindfolded,
nailed in the ventilated coffin
carrier and warned to make no
outcry after the shipment was
aboard the train or guards in the
baggage cars would shoot him. He
said he followed instructions.
At Wichita, Nevin Fitzpatrick,
a freelance photographer, said he
had received a post card Wednes-
day saying he would get a box
with a boy in it by express.
Good went back to Wichita—in
a passenger car. When he ar-
rived in Wichita, the FBI an-
nounced here, he admitted the
whole thing was a prank per-
petrated by his fraternity at the
University o' Wichita.
Volume 2 of the British official
history of World War II, ".The
War Against Japan." however
praises the courage and zeal of
the late Maj. Gen. Orde C. Win-
gate. He led his mixed British,
Indian and Burmese troops in one
of the most celebrated jungle en-
terprises of the war.
The book, written by Maj. Gen.
S. Woodburn Kirby and a team of
experts, said of Wingate:
Despite the fact his motto was
'Don't be predictable,’ he played
into the hands of the Japanese by
committing his entire force to the
triangle between the Irrawaddy
and Shweli rivers.”
Early in the war against Japan,
the heroic deeds of «Wingate’s
Raiders stirred the imagination.
Wingate, who was to die in a
plane crash in 1944, dropped with
troops behind Japanese lines and
disrupted communications after
the Allies were driven from
Burma.
The book also:
1. Tells of the brutal treatment
of prisoners of war forced to work
on the notorious “death railway"
the Japanese were building from
Thailand to Burma
2. Is critical of decisions made by
Field Marshal Archibald Wavell
when he was supreme commander
in India.
3. Puts blame on London author-
ities for unpreparedness and lack
of a defensive plan.
4. Tells of the blowing up of the
Sittang bridge to impede advanc-
ing Japanese, thereby leaving
many British and Indian troops
without a line of retreat from
Burma.
5. Speaks of U. S. Gen. Joseph
W. (Vinegar Joel Stilwell as "out-
spoken to the point of rudeness."
"utterly uncompromising,” a man
whose “criticisms were often un-
justified" but yet a man of "great
courage and determination and
powers of leadership in the field.”
OFFICIAL
CONFUSION
Big Deal:
County Judge Reed Ingalsbe
Thursday received a letter
from the office of Secretary
of State Zollie Steakley stamp-
ed in bold, red letters:
"IMPORTANT"
He quickly opened it.
Out fell a blank piece
of Steakley’s official station-
ary.
"Frustrating, to say the
least.” Ingalsbe said.
The judge plans to write
Steakley to see what was so
important.
Worst Shock
In Hokkaido
TOKYO (AP)—A strong earth-
quake centered deep under the
ocean bed of the western Pacific
shook northern Japan for two
frightening minutes Friday.
' A tidal wave warning was
flashed throughout Hokkaido, the
northernmost Japanese island, but
was canceled later.
National police said they had no
immediate reports of casualties.
Some damage was expected.
Oilmen Told Gas
Young Suspect
Robbery
Caught After Plane Flight
Would-be Holdup
Bandits Beware
In Sadler Clinic Hospital at
Merkel in critical condition is
Ira Van Bradley, 23. He was re-
ported to have a fractured skull.
Bradley regained consciousness
Thursday night and recognized
MARLIN (AP) - Cliff McCoy,
veteran Marlin bank president,
doesn't take any foolishness from
would-be holdup men.
A bandit who threatened to blow-
up the Marlin National Bank
quickly discovered that Thursday.
He fled without loot
McCoy, 85, said the khaki-clad
man stepped into the bank about
CHICAGO (AP) - A 19-year-old
gunman accused of a 31.400 gas
station robbery and subsequent
getaway in a chartered airplane
was seized Thursday a few mo-
ments after he landed in Chicago.
Police nabbed Walter Molen-
kamp, of Grand Rapids, at the
Midway Airport charter gate and
relieved him of a .22-caliber pistol
he carried in a shoulder holster.
Molenkamp, who admitted the
robbery, offered no resistance,
said police Capt. William Ryan
in his pockets, detectives found
$1,149. The flight from Grand
Rapids, he said, cost $69 which
he paid from proceeds of the
robbery.
"I'll go back without any trou-
ble,” he told police. "I was going
to take another plane out to New
Mexico and kill myself, any-
way.”
Molenkamp, a service station
attendant, said he was discour-
aged because he was unable to
support his wife on his 90-cents-
an-hour pay as a filling service
station attendant
The charter pilot who flew Mol-
enkamp to Chicago from Kent
County Airport, Grand Rapids,
took off on his return flight un-
aware he was a figure in a real
life cops-and-robber thriller.
Molenkamp, a bridegroom of
one month, was token to the Chi-
cago Lawn police station near the
airport while detectives tele-
phoned Grand Rapids police and
reported success in intercepting
the wanted man.
Police said Molenkamp chart-
tered by telephone before the rob-
bery was committed.
The police chase was touched
off at about 3:15 p.m. by station
attendant Ed VanderWerf. He said
he was working alone in the sta-
tion when the man entered and
asked for a package of gum.
"I turned to the shelf to get it
and turned back to find a gun
pointing at me," VanderWerf said
"I gave him everything we had in
the cash register-about $1,200-
and 1200 from my pocket.”
VanderWerf was ordered into
the station washroom. He said he
stayed there until he heard the
man’s car, a 1952 model yellow
convertible, drive off. The auto-
mobile was found abandoned near
a cemetery and police traced its
occupant to the airport through a
woman cab driver.
Police said the car was regis-
tered to an employe of a parking
garage at a Grand Rapids hotel.
They said the owner of the car
was the man who chartered the
plane but they refused to identify
him.
Chill lo Continue
Through Tonight.
Hi-jackers
Arrested
ROBY (RNS) — Two men who
hi-jacked a Lubbock man near
Tahoka Wednesday night were
arrested early Thursday by Sher-
iff Bus Rollang near here.
Kushiro, 600 miles north of
Tokyo on Hokkaido's eastern
coast, absorbed the strongest re-
ported jolt. It registered five on
a Japanese scale of seven. This is
strong enough to crack walls, top-
ple some rigid buildings and causa
other damage.
The big shake was felt in di-
minishing intensity throughout Ja-
pan.
Japan's meteorological board
fixed the epicenter 155 miles east
of Nemuro in eastern Hokkaido.
They computed it was centered 63
miles below the surface of the Pa-
cific- and thus under the ocean
bed.
Hokkaido, second largest of Ja-
pan’s four main islands, has near-
ly four million people. Its 30,000-
square-mile area is second in size
only to Honshu's 88.000 square
miles but Honshu has nearly 60
million people. Hokkaido has
many volcanos in its mountain
chains.
Sapporo, capital of Hokkaido,
with a population of 426,620, is the
10th largest city in Japan.
The quake struck at 7:58 a.m.-
5:58 p.m. EST Thursday—and for
two terrifying minutes held Hok-
kaido in its grip.
Initial damage reports said tele-
phone and power lines were down
on Hokkaido.
Damage to some Japanese
houses seemed likely.
The men, ages 39 and 56, were
taken back to Tahoka Thursday
night to face charges after they
Low temperatures in West Cen- were identified by J. W. Sanders,
tral Texas will stay below the a painter, and victim of the at-
40-degree mark at least through
Friday night, the U. S. Weather
Bureau here predicted Thursday
night
Weathermen predicted a low of
about 38 degrees Friday night,
after a high of 65 Friday.
The low here early Thursday
was 36 degrees, weathermen said,
the result of a cold front which
flowed into the area Wednesday
morning.
Low reading Thursday morning
tied with that of Sunday morning
for lowest so far this season.
tack.
Sanders said he picked up the
men while they were hitchhiking
near Tahoka. He said they slug-
ged him on the head with a home-
made blackjack and took his 1956
Payment to Rise -=-typed - ime
" the front door at the rail separat-
ive report on the gas price in-ing his office from the lobby-
crease came from Lester Clark,
who with E. Bruce Street of Gra
ham has been discussing the mat-
Callas Contract
By SHERWYN McNAIR
Reporter-News Oil Editor
Abilene area gas producers will
receive more money for their gas
The intruder," about 55 or 60.
carried a bundle with two wires!
relatives, nurses said.
Bela Victor (Pete) Lomax, 31.
of 1833 N. 17th Abilene, was after Jan. 1, members of the
in the same hospital and was re-West Central Texas Oil and Gas
ported to have received some were told here Thursday
broken ribs Hospital attendants. Assn. were Laid here irnirsnay.
condition a fair The announcement that Lone
described his conditions Cleve- Star Gas Co. will renegotiate promised to re - negotiate con-
Sweetwater ‘ Lomax long-term contracts with Railroad tracts, giving a raise of 3 cents
land of Sweetwater said Lomax Commission District 7-B produc- per 1,000 cubic feet Jan 1, a 2-
ers came at a directors meeting, cent increase in June, 1963, and 1-
closing event of the downtown cent hike five years later and a
. _ phase of the association’s 25th an- similar raise five years after that him immediately
He said the load of scrap iron nual meeting and Silver Anni Individual Basis | -
and metal caused the pickup to versary observance.. The increase will be negotiated Former Eactand
go out of control It overturned ...... Seine pact presidents of on an individual basis with pro- Former Eastland
one and one-half times, throwing t ne association and three who a re ducers. who hold long-t erm con- Judge Stricken
both men out was lanid deceased were honored Thursday tracts in all the district except a
Cleveland said Bradley landed night at the annual membership low pressure gas area in Brown
banquet held at Abilene High County
Presented “
ter with Lone Star Gas Co. for
several weeks.
Clark said Lone Star, only pur-
chaser of crude in District 7-B.
was at the wheel of the pickup
headed west when a "blowout”
occurred on the left back tire.
about 30 feet from the pickup.
Damage to the pickup, owned School Gymnasium
by Tesco Equipment Co. of Abi-
lene, was about $400, Cleveland
said.
Arthur Collins, manager of Tes-
co, said both men had been em-
ployed there for several months.
special plaques were .f. D San-
defer Jr. of Breckenridge. C. W
Hoffmann of Eastland, Marshall
THE WEATHER
R Young of Fort Worth, Paul
Pitzer of Breckenridge, A. J.
(Art) Frazier of Abilene. Joe
Clarke of Fort Worth, W J.
Rhodes of Breckenridge, Jack
Roberts of Breckenridge. V. C.
Perini Jr., of Abilene, French M.
Robertson of Abilene. Lester
Clark of Breckenridge, J. C. Hunt-
r. •. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE___________.....
ARIENEED VICENNIAL Clear to er Jr., of Abilene, P. W (Bill)
partly cloudy and cool Friday and Satur-
fay High temperature both days 65 de-
^ MA PH Lar;
Pitzer of Breckenridge, E. Bruce
Street of Graham and James S.
Cancelled by Met
protruding. Hec laid down a note NEW YORK (AP)—The Metro- the world. She was received with
which read: This a bomb. m ua
Give me the money or I’m going politan Opera Thursday canceled
to blow us to hell” 5 its $18,000 season contract with
Maria Callas, the temperamental
terror of the opera world. The
McCoy, convinced it wasn’t a
bomb, snapped: “Aw, get the hell
out of here " Then' the banker Met said it was glad to get rid
of her.
turned his back and walked awav.
The unnerved bandit broke for General Manager Rudolf Bing
the door Police found no trace of said the soprano told him she is
going to give up singing. He sug-
gested that what he called her
whims are aimed at that end.
Bing accused Miss Callas of a
[display of her famed tempera-
ment in attempting to force
FORT WORTH (AP)—Clyde L. through a last minute change of
__. Garrett of Eastland, former con- the repertoire agreed to for the
Current prices for high pressure gressman from the 17th District,! current season. He said she has
gas are 10 cents per 1,000 and 7 suffered a heart attack Thursday done the same thing before all
on a plane while flying here from over the world and that the Met
Washington has had enough of it.
He was taken from the plane at Praising Miss Callas’ artistry,
Carter Field to St Josephs Hos- Bing added that “the Metropoli-
pital. where he was placed in an tan is nevertheless also grateful
oxygen tent He was in fair con-that the association is ended ’
ditto late Thursday night The Met boss suggested the dav
Garret: is a former county
judge in Eastland County, a post
for which he was defeated during
the Democratic Primary election.
cents for low pressure gas
Jake L. Hamon, Dallas inde-
pendent oil operator and past
chairman of the board of the
American Petroleum Institute,
warned oilmen attending a lunch-
eon at the Windsor Hotel that the
IL M311O OAFE Anu OS ESN
WEST TEXAS - Clear to partly cloudy
Partly cloudy Friday and Saturday with
mild days and cool nights
TEMPER ATURES
Thurs a m Thurs -2.m.
Lauderdale of Abilene.
Past presidents no longer living
were J. C. Hunter Sr. of Abilene.
Joe M Weaver of Eastland and
Tom Grisham of Abilene.
Reelected president for a second
term was Lauderdale, who is a
partner in Lauderdale and
Straughan Drilling Co. in Abilene.
Eugene Adair of Fort Worth and
and low for 21-hours ending • p.m.:
36.
and low same date last year:
tumultuous cheers in appearances
last season at the Met. A similar
greeting met her last season in
London
The Met named Viennese-born
Leonie Rysanek to take over Miss
Callas' place on its roster for the
season. Miss Rysanek currently is
in Chicago singing at the Lyric
Theater.
Ford sedan and 348 cash, and
dumped him out along the high-
way. The blackjack, a steel ball
with a glove wrapped around it,
was found in the car, Rollans
said. *
Rollans arrested the men about
3 a.m. Thursday after they pulled
off into a borrow ditch along
State Highway 70 between Roby
and Rotan. He said they were
both asleep in the car.
The pair, identified as Wood-
row Seagroves, 39, and Homer
Smith, 55, were charged Thursday
j night with robbery by force.
The sheriff had been alerted to
be on watch for the men and the
1956 Ford when a statewide alarm
was put out for them following
the hijacking.
He said the men were ex-con-
victs by their own statements,
one having been released from
California State Penitentiary, and
the other from a penitentiary in
Kansas. One man said he was a
native of Oklahoma, and the other
had lived in Arkansas.
Plane Passengers
Described as Sale
After Hijacking
HAVANA, Cuba (AP)—A Cuban
airliner which vanished Wednes-
day night is in rebel hands and
all 28 persons aboard are safe, a
qualified source said Thursday. It
was the third Cuban airliner to
be hijacked in little more than a
fortnight
The informant said radio mes-
sages from the Cubans Airlines
DC3 reported the aircraft is being
held on a rebel air strip.
The radio messages said the
rebels promised to turn over all
the 25 passengers, including one
American, to the International
Red Cross as soon as it can be
arranged. No mention was made
of returning the three crewmen.
The hijacking of airliners seems
to be developing as a favorite
tactic of the rebels. After nearly
two years of violence and blood-
shed they apparently are no closer
to their goal of toppling the gov-
ernment of President Fulgencio
Batista.
NEWS INDEX
SECTION A
Oil news .......
Food news .......
SECTION ■
Women’s news .....
Sports......:...
Editorials ..........
Comics ...........
Obituaries.........
Radio, TV logs......
Faria. Market news .
..... 2
.....6
..... 3
4-5, 7
12
12
13
may come when Miss Callas will
give her "eyeteeth to be back
with the Metropolitan.”
The tempestuous star has o’ten
been in hot water with her em-
ployers. In 1957, both the Vienna
Opera and the San Francisco
Opera dropped her Last January.
Miss Callas walked out after the
first act of an opera in Rome and
later issued a public apology to
Italian President Gronchi,
Miss Callas also has been wag-
ing a cold war with the citadel ot
opera. La Scala in Milan. She said
last season that she was not re-
turning there.
She has been involved also in a
series of lawsuits
In 1956, the Met fired Enzo Sor-
dello, reportedly at the instigation
of Miss Callas.
Despite her flamboyancies, the
American-born star has received
tremendous acclaim throughout
oil industry's position in the next
session of Congress may be "not
so good."
Hamon predicted a "terrible
fight" ahead on depletion. Much
depends, he said, on what men art
chosen to fill vacancies on the
House Ways and Means Commit-
tee.
As for other problems facing the
industry , Hamon saw no hope of
an increase in crude prices, and
predicted that oilmen would have
to resort to economy moves such
as wider spacing of wells to take
up the slack.
Earlier, the oilmen heard Sande-
fer. the association's first presi-
dent, reminisce on “The Past 25
Years" in an address mixing hu-
mor with seriousness.
Speaking before a capacity
crowd in the Wooten Hotel Ball-
See OILMEN, Pg, 12-A, Col, 4 |
Sam Roberison of Abilene were
elected vice presidents, and Ray
Dilger of Fort Worth and William
G. Arnot Jr., of Breckenridge
were reelected vice presidents
Adair is with Texas Pacific Coal
and Oil Co. and Robertson is an
HEIdependemt operator.
el
CLYDE GARRETT
, . , ex-congressman
PEUNITED — Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Rezbanyay have a happy reunion with their
children, Gabrialla, 9. (left) and Katalin. 5, at the airport in Windsor, Ont,
Thursday. The children managed to come through the Iron Curtain from Hungary
after nearly two years separation. The parents had to leave the children with a
grandmother because of their part in the freedom uprising which caused them to
flee the country. (AP Wirephoto)
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The Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 146, Ed. 1 Friday, November 7, 1958, newspaper, November 7, 1958; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1659344/m1/1/?q=technical+manual: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Public Library.