The Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 13, Ed. 1 Monday, June 29, 1959 Page: 1 of 10
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HOT AND
WINDY
79TH YEAR. NO. 13
The Abilene Reporter ~32ews MORNING
"WITHOUT OR WITH OFFENSE TO FRIENDS OR FOES WE SKETCH YOUR WORLD EXACTLY AS IT GOES"—Byron
Associated Preu (AP)
ABILENE, TEXAS, MONDAY MORNING, JUNE 29, 1959—TEN PAGES IN ONE SECTION
PRICE DAILY 5c, SUNDAY 15c
Estimated 14 Killed
In Fiery Ex
Gas Tank Cars 2N
Spray Flames Boh
MELDRIM. Ga lAPi—Two tank cars of butane gas Fol
exploded at a river railroad trestle Sunday, shooting a
deadly blanket of flames over a recreation area below. eTNs
osion
At least 14 persons were killed, maybe several more.
Many others were burned seriously.
The Savannah Morning News reported it had ac-
counted for 14 bodies in Savannah hospitals and funeral
WRECK VICTIMS — Charred bodies of a man and a woman trapped in the
Meldrim. Ga., blast of a train tank car lie near the wrecked trestle over the ___________________________________________
Ogeechee River recreation area where the accident occurred. Portions of the homes.
trestle and train are burning in the background. (AP Wirephoto) No one could say whether all bodies had been re-
-—-— ---covered at the charred scene.
Shotgun Blast House Tax Fight
Injures Man n T,
In Gun Fight Resumes Today
The freak accident — cause still unknown — hap-
pened as a Seaboard Air Line freight train sped across
an Ageechee River trestle near this hamlet of about 300
population 20 miles northwest of Savannah.
An estimated 200 persons were in the immediate
area when tragedy struck, said J. T. Harvey, who lives
near the scene. Many were swimming, boating, fishing
and picnicking to escape---------------------------
the day’s 96-degree heat. homes for cooking and heating
Savannah hospitals reported purposes.
they had 15 injured survivors. ... tremendous sheet flame
%
An Abilene Negro mav lose the AUSTIN (AP) — A new effort to with it to defeat any revenue many in critical condition from _ ,
can Abilene Negro line the break the tax deadlock in the measure," Carr told The Asso- the burns, swept across the water and a
suit of a Sunday afternoon shot- Legislature was scheduled Sun- ciated Press. Chatham County (Savannah) great many people were burned.”
gun duel. day for 8 a.m. Monday by a 16- "That makes it apparent some- police listed 15 dead a survivor, David Parker of Sa- AIR VIEW OF BEACH — Flames lashed a path of death along this beach of a
Wounded in the affray, which member House compromise com- body mus( give if a tax bill is to Establishing exact casualty fig- vannah, said, “A lot of little river at Meldrim, Ga., Sunday afternoon when two tank cars of freight train
took place in the 50) block of mittee.be passed." ures was complicated by removal boys and girls were screaming exploded on the trestle shown. Area in center and to right shows path of
Hostee Sneaker Waoconer arr Carr said he thought the pros-of bodies from hospitals to funeral and running for their lives, and flames that charred automobiles and destroyed a house two city blocks away.
t of petting topether Was homes and transfers from one fu- AD
7Ioneiner Was 32 there was nothing anybody could (AP Wirephoto)
. House Speaker Waggoner Can-
State St., was Robert D Pennye. said he called the meeting with a pect of getting together was ac-
28. He was hit by pellets from a new feeling of optimism that a tually improved by the seemingly- neral home to another
.20 gauge shotgun Another Negro, solution can be found, frustrating session Saturday L. M Nichols, 33, of West Sa- do."
according to Capt. G. W. Sutton of The committee met with Carr D -z Fort vannah was at the recreation
the Abilene Police Dept., was re- after the House argued fruitlessly odon the ennarionee oom tea
leased on his own cognizance, and the merits of sales versus natural Worth, members said the com- dren.
is to report to the Office of District gas taxes all day and late into the mittee members, said the com-
Attorney Tom Todd Monday morn- night Saturday The committee
ing for a bearing. .
Panel Tells Ike
Inflation Critical
. u ... The tragedy occurred at a fish-
area with his wife and three chil- ing camp and recreation area
J j where hundreds of persons were
mittee was so exhausted it would h some of these, people didn’t swimming, fishing, boating and
have been useless to meet Sunday have * chance, he said. The picnicking in an effort to beat the
decided to take Sunday for infor- useless : fire swept right over them. We fierce beat.
Pennye was wounded during the mal conferences and a new ap- All compromise proposals and saw a small child still alive but Authorities reported the tanker
second part of the affray. Capt. praisal of the total situation, all other budget : balancing tax with its body charred black by exploded as the Seaboard Air Line
Sutton said. "I believe each side now sees plans were voted down in the long the flames. train passed over the wooden tree.
. .. . -.-= ...- session Saturday. The House then "When I saw the gas leak out tie across the ogeecnee River,
the House that will join recessed until Monday at 1 am, it looked just like a white ground None of the freight cars appar- By STERLING F. GREEN ceiling on government bonds, to "This will provide the margin
when it mayve an oE fog. 1 thought at first it might be ently tumbled into the water from WASHINGTON (AP)—President avoid the equivalent of "green- needed to provide for reduction in
to work on a bill with some chance poison an(j I got „,y wife and kids the blast. Eisenhower's anti-inflation com- back" financing, 5. make price the debt and absorb any tempo- ,
of passage. out of there. Then the explosion Most of the casualties appar mittee notified him Sunday that stability, by law, “an explicit goal rary losses of revenue caused by
came and the whole river seemed ently resulted from the flaming reviving inflationary forces have of federal economic policy. ' shifting to rates which, by improv-
to be burning." fuel, although some may have brought the country to a "critical The committee foresaw a budget ing incentives, will enlarge the tax
The Nichols family escaped been hit by parts of the trestle juncture." surplus and the possibility of tax base. '
without a scratch, which plummeted down. This was the first report from refonn “soon" _ including some The report carried only one di-
■ Witnesses said freight cars The Georgia state patrol esti- the committee, headed by Vice unspecified rate reductions to fos-rect reference to the deadlocked
jumped the track before the ex- mated the dead at Up to 25 and President Richard M. Nixon and ter economic growth-it spending steel wage negotiations It listed
plosion. But railroad officials said the injured
their preliminary investigation in-
dicated otherwise
First report of a shooting was that there is_ a no-tax at-all ele
received at 2:55 p.m., said Capt. ment in
Sutton.
The man told Capt Sutton a BUNNY OR BOY?
shotgun blast from a car ripped PePUE ’ D
through the upper part of his front DEATH WAS NEAR
door He fired back, hitting the
car. Capt. Sutton said The car load of boys zoom- I
Capt. Sutton said they were un- ed along Curry Lane Sunday
able to locate the man described night about 8.30 p.m. Suddenly
as firing the first shot. Shortly the car s spotlight flicked out
after, Capt. Sutton said, shooting the form of a cottontail rabbi I
broke out again at the residence beside the road. Shots rang out
The man said he fired out the and the bunny kicked his last.
rear of the house after another What the spotlight did not
shotgun blast hit his residence, show the young hunters: the
Pennye was taken to Hendrick form of young Mike Hudman,
Memorial Hospital, where be was 4 playingin his front yard,
reported to be in fair condition only 15 feet away from the
Sunday night, place where the rabbit fell
Officers investigating are Capt dead . . Paul Hudman
Sutton, Det. O L Bayne, Acting sald sufdlhe hient this was the
Det. George Hooker, and Patrol, last straw Tee the Tarily,
Det George Hooker, and Patrol- house just o
mien 1 C and H w whl whose tar SICES
men J. C. Jones and H W. wl the road.. The Hudmans live
2m__on Curry Lane about four and
a half miles from the Buffalo
Wack Tovar Dafted Gap Rd. Last year Hudman
ICAdS UOHEO lost a whiteface yearling to
, .. . rabbit hunters.
By Scaffered Pain Residents of th* area Hud.
I man said, .„, being menaced
__) daily by hunters firing down
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS the roads or into the roadsides
Scattered thundershowers dot- after spotlighted game
led the western part of Texas Sun- "They're breaking two or
day but most of the state had three laws." he declared He
clear and hot weather said he was appealing to
Temperatures soared to 109 at Sheriff’s officeri for protec-
Presidio, to 105 at Wink and to tion.
100 at Laredo and Lubbock The
low maximum was 88 degrees re-
ported at Corpus Christi and Bee-
ville.
Van Horn, with .68 inches of
Motor Boat
Prop Slashes
AHS Senior
conn . A Tome, Robert W. Morris of Meldrim,
Seventeen - year - old James one of the first rescuers on the
Charles (Jim) Head of 1870 Jack- one or We U rescuers on me
son St narrowly escaped death scene, described the horror this
in the blades of an outboard X . .
motor Sunday evening. L Some of the people never made
. j , u it out of the water. And some
The accident occurred shortly that did got as far as 500 yards
before dark on Lake Fort Phan, away before the fire overtook
torn Hill them. I never saw so much fire.
Head, an Abilene High School Everything was on fire...."
senior, was still in the Hendrick Grown men cried as they search-
Memorial Hospital operating ed the scorched area looking for
room shortly before midnight. He relatives or friends Many bodies
is the son of Mr and Mrs Curtis were so badly charred identifies
Head: his father is a partner in tion was difficult
the D&W. Appliance and Furni Butane gas is used in many
utre Stores of Abilene.
Mrs. C. L. Carter, his grand-
mother, said details of how the
accident occurred were not clear
However, she said the family had
received word from hospital of-
ficials that the youth apparently
would recover from the injuries in
Town Mourns Dead
In Plane Crash
which plummeted down This was the first report from reform “soon” — including some
The Georgia state patrol esti- the committee, headed by
ter economic growth-if spending steel wage negotiation! It listed
at up to 75. made up largely of Cabinet mem- is held q, 77 billion dollars in the steel as one of several industries
Tom Collins, chief of police at bers. year starting July 1. whose settlements this year could
Pembroke. 15 miles from the Congress. It said, must take im- “If the line can be held on the bring "wage increases of such
A house a citv block from EEOTURE « us ‘™H 106res, « 84. IPS AC - the Hine can De DeG 6. 6 —. .
.4 u A m scene, said * patrolman who was mediately three minimum steps to administration’s budget tax reve- magnitude as to lead to price in-
low trestles was destroyed by the there told him 25 were killed and avert "the serious risk of price administration s use creases.”
enveloping flames. 67 injured. increases.” nues should more than meet cur- But it disclosed that the com-
The explosion occurred about 1 The steps: 1. achieve a budget rent expenditures, the committee mittee is studying means of curb-
p.m. balance. 2. remove the interest report said, ing “the excessive concentration
of power in the hands of labor or
business" which, it said, reduce
productivity and create inflation-
Cd A
4 Safe in Crash
Of Light Plane
ary pressure.
“Remedies for these practices
should be sought through eliminat-
ing the power to injure the public
interests rather than through pub
lic control or review of the deci-
sions of businesses, of unions, or
of collective bargaining,” Eisen-
bower was told.
THE
ATHER
several weeks Another grand- „ low
mother, Mrs. Edna Head, said the wiOT
youth received severe injury to
his left arm and a cut hack from
U.S. DEPARTMENT or COMMERCE
WEATHER BUREAU
ABILENE AND VICINITY (radius 40
miles) Partly cloudy and windy with a
chance for thundershowers Monday after-
== —......— *------
Mon-and
-
the blades of the propellor.
Mrs. Carter said young Head
Four persons in a light plane es- gine sputtered and quit for lack Rodenbeck evidently kept the Official sources confirmed the
caped unscathed Sunday night aft- of fuel microphone in his hand with the implication of that sentence—that
er a forced landing in a field “Mayday. I'm out of gas" the switch open the Nixon committee will explore
about two miles north of Abilene pilot radioed Abilene control tow- Shortly after the plane stopped proposals to use the federal anti-
Municipal Airport, er. He was already dropping lower Rodenbeck was able to tell the trust powers against monopolies
The plane flipped nose-down in in anticipation of his approach to control tower that they were all in both labor and management, as
a creek-bed, but had lost enough the field, and was rapidly losing right well as the possible breaking down
momentum that none of those in altitude Two ambulances, two fire truck* of wage bargaining into smaller
the plane were injured. | Rodenbeck said he finally got as and three police cars were dis- units.
En route from Center, Colo, to low as he could, then set down in patched, and the police cars and Wallis dean of the graduate
Kerrville, where one of the pas what seemed a clear area to pre- ambulances located the downed business school of the University
sengers and his wife were to pick vent crashing into some trees he plane north of Highway go through W Cuica.o is also a member of
up a new plane and fly k back, could see ahead of him the help of Lee Boedeker of Abi. Ceman oup officially
the plane was scheduled to stop The plane’s tricycle landing lene Aviation, who had gone up titled the Cabinet Committee for
at Abilene for refueling. The plane gear prevented the plane from in a light plane and located the _ Sabi for Economic
had flown non-stop from Pueblo, nosing- 1. ---------the aim When the ve Price stabur for 2copo
Colo.
the Nixon committee will explore
well as the possible breaking down
NORTHWEST TEXAS: Partly etoudy
Monday and Tuesday with widely scat-
tered thunderstorms Not an warm Pan-
handle Monday . .
TEMPERATURES
rain, was the only point to report
appreciable rain Sunday The US. __. — wu. onunig woe .a-----. .
Weather Bureau said that scat- This little north Italian industrial and Gene Estes, 1958 graduates of ‘
tered thundershowers extended city canceled its annual festiv al. Abilene High School, on a pair of 5
over the Panhandle, South Plains, draped its church in black, and new water skis. The accident oc- 4
Pecos Valley and the mountain turned out in mourning Sunday for curred while Estes and Head were 75 .:
areas. the 68 victims of a TWA airliner skiing double, Mrs. Carter said, *
The forecast called for continued crash,.and Head was thrown under the 2
generally fair weather with scat- Twenty-eight of the victims of boat. N
tered thundershowers late Mon- the Friday tragedy were Ameri- Estes and Bond applied a tourni- ..m 93 and 7
day Slightly cooler weather was can. Others were Italians, Greeks, quet to Head's torn arm, the Hish and low same date last
predicted for the Panhandle Egyptians, French, British, Chile- family said, and rushed him to "
——————---an and Israeli. • Hendrick Memorial Hospital
was water skiing with Dan Bond
Estes and Bond applied a tourni
Mystery B-2
' WIESBADEN Germany mn
- A trail of markers found
in the Libyan Desert pointed
Sunday to a trek to death by
the nine-man crew of an Amer-
ican bomber which crashed
mysteriously in World War II
• A search team informed U.
I Air Force headquarters here
it is going to investigate a re-
port that bodies were found
several miles beyond where
the trail ended it said there
was hope the bodies of the
fliers may soon be found
Some 200 square miles of
the desert have been combed
for the remains since the al-
most undamaged B24 Libera-
tor was found on hardpacked
sand deep in the desert by a
team of British oil geologists
earlier this year
The Benghasi - based bomb-
er. named "Lady Be Good."
apparently had made a belly-
landing it had been on its re-
turn from a bombing raid
against Naples, Italy, April 3,
1943, according to an entry in
its logbook The logbook,
flight gear, fatigue clothing
and full water jugs were still
in their original places inside
the plane when it was found
by the geologists.
The Air Force said the dis
covery presented one of the
greatest mysteries in aviation
history A U.S. Army mortuary
team, including Capt Myron
D Fuller and supported by an
oil exploration team, under-
took a three week search of
the desert this month
They found no bodies but
the search led to the marker
trail which began about 20
miles north of the wrecked
plane and continued for anoth-
er. 24 miles northward before
ending at a crossing of old
desert tracks.
The search team said this
indicated the crew members
bailed out from the bomber
and started the trek together
after making contact with each
other, possibly by pistol shots.
The marker trail was made
of boots, parachutes and other
flight gear Each item placed
as a marker was carefully
pointed north After more than
is years they were found just
as they had been left, weighted
High and low for 24-hours
p.m 93 and 74
gear prevented the plane from in a light plane and located the
nosing over as he applied fun croft from the air. When the ve- Growth
___brakes, then the front wheel hides got close enough they could - other members, besides
. Center, dropped over the creek bank and see a light on the planes tall, and A. Secretary or the Treas.
Ji Colo, wax pilot. With him were snapped off. and the plane tweed made their way to the wreck _ Robert B Anderson Postmas.
E his brother, Francis Rodenbeck of over. The four persons from the plane Ury Robert Pmdet simmer
- Fullerton. Calif. and Mr. and In the control tower, the three planned to spend the rest of Sun-
2 Mrs Ken Leech Leach is owner operators on duty heard various day night in Abilene, then pro- See INFLATION, Pg. FA. Col. 1
- of Leach Air Service in Center, sounds when the plane landed as ceed to Kerville Monday--------------
ending 9 Colo.
m
year: 93
last night 7 50; sunrise today
eemi",m 28.12
Floyd Rodenbeck st
About 9 50 p m , with the plane
still some distance north of Muni-
cipal Airport, the ship's single en-
a
eft Trail
down with small stones and
mostly intact.
The tracks where the trail
ended were made by five
Italian vehicles which crossed
the desert during the war, ac-
cording to information gleaned
in Benghasi, 440 miles north
of the crash scene These re-
ports said three of the cars
stalled and were abandoned
while two made it to the coast
These reports say that the
remains of about 10 persons
lie near the abandoned ve-
hicles. Up until now, it had
been assumed they were those
of Italian soldiers, but the mor-
tuary team told headquarters
that they could just as well
be those of the American
bomber crew still carried m
U.S. records as missing in ac-
tion
"It is possible, the team
theorizes, that the missing air-
men —by conserving then en-
ergies and walking only at
night —could have followed the
route of the Italian cars until
they reached the abandoned
vehicles where last hope fad-
ed." an official said.
The report of the bodies near
the abandoned cars were re-
ceived by the search team aft-
er its return to Wheelus Air
Force Base in Libya. Officials
said a new search by a ground
helicopter team will center on
the location of the cars which
is only vaguely known It in
believed to be about 60 miles
north at the derelict plane.
CRASH LANDING — A single-engine light plane from Center, Colo., flipped
over in a creek bed north of U.S 80 about 9:50 p.m. Sunday night following
an emergency landing when the plane ran out of gas while approaching Munich
pal Airport. The pilot and three passengers escaped injury. (Photo by dere
Kemper)
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The Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 13, Ed. 1 Monday, June 29, 1959, newspaper, June 29, 1959; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1659577/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Public Library.