THE WEAT~E~ . Northeast Miss1~i;1pp1 .Considerable cloud11!ess with intermittant periods of thundershowers through Saturday·. Lows near 70; highs in the low 80s.:
aily
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Vol. 100 No. 154
Tupelo, Mississippi, Friday Morning, September 28, 1973
Evidence About Agnew Given To Grand Jury First Session Conducted In Strictest Secrecy; Lawyers For Vice President Ask Halt Of Inquiry On Constitutional Grounds BALTIMORE ( UPI) - Meeting in strictest secrecy,afederalgrandjury heard its first evidence against Vice President Spiro T.. Agnew Thursday in a seven-hour 20 -minute session. Agnew's lawyers made plans to try to block the inquiry on constitutional
grounds . While Agnew put in an apparently routine workday in Washington on the eve of a long weekend in California, 22 members of the grand jury investigating political corruption in Maryland were understood to have hea rd four witnesses before they
Broad Trade Bill Approved In House WASHINGTON (UPI) - The House Ways and Means Committee approved legislation _Thurs~ay · granting President Nixon broad powers to negotiate new trade agreements, but tying his hands in deali~gs with Communist countries until they liberalize their ·emigration policie~. . Tne 0111 would give Nixon power to raise or lower tariffs, make agreement_s on non-tariff trade restraints , and to take emergency BECKWITH ARMS -Police intelligence officer Hiltdn Stein uses a table to lay action when the nation balance of payments out the weapons seized from the auto of Byron De La Beckwith, 52, of Greenw~d, suffers problem s or inflation. Miss . Beckwith's bond on several charges was set at $8,5~ by a New Orleans city However , the committee voted to place limits on how judge, before he was taken before a U.S. magistrate. UPI Telephoto much and how fast Nixon could change tariff barriers, and to give Congress veto power over emergen~y actions and over changes m non-tariff barriers, such as quotas . The limits 'Yere more restrictive than Nixon had wanted. The committee also voted to give assistance to workers and to small firms , which suffer as a r esult of imports . The most controversial
·ACCUSED EVERS SLAYER
Beckwith Held In Bomb Plans
NEW ORLEANS (UPI ) - By ron De La Beckwith, tried but never convicted of killing civil rights leader Medgar Evers, was a rrested ! and held under $8.500 bond · Thur s da y on charges of brin gin g a pistol , parts of a machin e gun and a time bomb lo New Orleans with intent to commit a crime. " He obviously had some intent to bomb someplace, " said Fran k Haywa rd , police dep a rtm e nt information officer . Charles Evers, the mayor of F aye tte, Miss ., a nd the brother of the sla in civil rights leader , ha d a ··no comment' ' when asked about Beckwith' s a rrest in New Orleans . " Int e lli ge n ce off ic er s armed with information that Beckwith wa s coming to Ne w Orleans lo commit a crim e . es t ab li s h e d a surv ei ll a n ce of th e Intersta te 10 at the Orleans t Pari s_h line in the e~ster_n s e cti o n o f th e c it y, · ' Hayward said . " As the a utomobile driven by Beckwith a pproached the officers, ·a roadblock was quickl y established and he was a r res ted about 12 :03 a . m . H e o ff e r e d no resistance ." Wh en take n , th e Mississippi sa lesman was armed with a .45 caliber autom a ti c pis tol in his waistband, a time bomb de vice m ade .with dyna mite and pa rt s of a m ac hine gun . Police d isarm ed the homb. Bec kwith , 52. o f Greenwood, was tr ied twice on charges he was the sniper who killed Evers on J une 12. 1963 in the dr iveway of E vers · home. At the time, ,,.Evers was Mississippi field !ecretary fur the NAACP. '. Both cases ended in mistrials. Ne wsmen asked Beckwith followin g his a rrest if he was a membe r of the Ku Klux Kl a n. " I' ve been accused of it," he sa id . Asked again if he was a m e mb er , h e r es pond ed , "T h a nk yo u fo r your inte rest. ' · As for his ar rest. the skinny suspect, who wore riml ess c la ss es , gray trousers and a yellow shi rt , said. " I was just about as courteous as I could be a nd a s quiet a s a mouse." Pre~:::: :! whether he W ll s corning to New Orleans to I r , to blow something up. !1oc said . " Whenever you tcll nw about 1t, then I'll know it. ··
recessed , possibly until some time next week. One of the first to appear before the jury in the federal courthouse in downtown Maryland was William J. Muth , public relations vice president of an engineering consultant firm and former vice pre s ident of the Baltimore City Council. Some reporters said they r e cognized an Internal Re v enu e Service agent entering the building, but it could not be established whether he had testified. ' 'This whole investigation is a lot of b---t ," Muth told reporter s a fterwards . . Muth was sentenced to 18 month s in jail in 1954 . three years after he left the city council , for unlawfull y obtaming $2,400 in city funds. Last fall , he did publi c relations work for I. H. " Bud " Hammerman, a Baltimore mortgage banker and long-standing Agnew political friend and fund ra iser .
section of the bill would deny Nixon the pow_er to grant " most favored nation" trade status to the Soviet Union and other Communist countries until he certifies to Congress that the nation allows free .e migration for all its citizens. This section was directed at the Soviet Union, which has placed obstacles in the path of emigration by Jews. Nixon told GOP congressional leaders at a White House meeting hours before the bill was approved that it would be " disastrous and cata strophic" to U . S.Soviet relations to single out the Soviets for punitive action. The AFL-CIO's objections ' wer~ the opposite . A By NORMA FIELDS statement by its legislative Journal Staff Writer director , Andrew J . ABERDE EN, Miss. - A 'Biemiller, said the bill ga ve too much to the Soviets. He six-woman biracial federa l said it would " a ss ure court jury deliberated only massive imports from 35 minutes here Thursday countries which r e press afternoon before returning a their population , thwart verdict for the defendants formation of free trade followin g a four-day trial of a union s and stifle legit imate law suit stemmi ng from the dissent." d ea th of a 15-yea r -old Prentiss County youth who
As evidence against a vice president of the United Sta tes was presented to a grand jur y fo r t he fi rst time in history, Agnew attended a Whit e H ouse m orni n g meeting between President Nixon a nd his Cabinet and Re publi ca n congressional le a d e r s on l eg is lati ve m atters. ''He didn't say a word" and left the meetin g early. one participant said later . He said the vice president s eemed calm and " pre possessed a s a lways." Agnew' s legal and political trouble s reportedly were never mentioned. Late r, Agnew was at the Capitol, standing by in the event he wa s needed to break a tie vote in the Senate on accelerated development of the Trident subma rine. At the direction of Attorney Gener al Elliot L. Richardson . U. S. Attorney George Beall and his team of federa l prosecutors began presenting the grand jury
Jury Finds For Defense In Booneville Youth's Suicide
Highway Hearings Open Friday At Lee Courthouse
FACES PRESS -Byron De La Beckwith, 52, the accused killer of Mississippi civil rights leader · Medgar Evers , is questioned by reporters as deputies lead him to court in New Orleans. UPI Telephoto Ne wsmen wanted to know about the dynamite bomb. m ore a bout the bomb found "The authorities are taking in his 1968 Oldsmobile , but care of that. You'll probably all Beckwith would say was, be well satis fied with what Continued on Page 14 " You'll ha ,•e to talk to the a uthorities." Magistrate Robe rt Collins set bond of $1,000 on an a tt e mpt e d a g grava t ed a ssault charge, S2.500 for c a r r yi n g a con cea le d weapon and S5,000 for an a tt e mpt e d agg r a v a t ed assault cha rge, a total of $8,500. / WASHIN GTON (UPI ) - ln At the hearing in which an at times ra ucus nighttime bond was set a nd an a ttorney session, the Senate Thursday a ppointed to represent him, v o t'e d to ord e r the ;,in assistant district attorney adminis tra tion to bring told the court that while 110,000 U.S. troops home inform ation on the cha rges from abroad within 2 V2 wa s sketchy, " I can only years. ass um e they ( polic~ The vote was 48 to 36. int elli gence division) are basing these charges on Just 3 hours earlier the i nformation pe culiar to Senate had voted a gainst a them." proposal to order 200,000 Bec kwith 's a rraignment troops brou g ht home on the cha r ges was set for although six hours before Oct. 19. that it had voted to bring the T wo uniformed Orleans 200,000 home. Pa r is h crimina l s heriff's Sen . Hubert H. Humphrey , deputies brought Beckwith D - Minn . , s pon s or of out in a ha llway that leads to Thur s day ' s s uc cess ful p ..i ris h p ri so n for a am endment, said it was t h ree - minute new s aimed at troops " primarily <·1111 l'l'rencl· two hours after and entirely in the Pacific ilnncl was set. and scattered areas" rather lt,!sponding haltingly and than E urope , and thus would r L11U( ta ntl y to questions, not tie the hands of the 13eckwith would only say Administration as it enters
By JOE RUTHERFORD Journal Staff Writer The first of two North Mississippi meetings of the Joint Legislative Highway Study Committee is scheduled to begin in the court room of the Lee County Courthouse here this morning at 10 a .m . The open meeting will move to Holly Springs for a second session tonight at 6 :30 . The Holly Springs session will be al the Colonial Restaurant . S e veral committee members had requested they be given an opportunity to ride on Highway 78 to Holly Springs. Created by a resolution of th e 1973 legislature, the committee was charged to study th e prog ress of Mi s sissippi ' s highway, system. including a $i00 million program passed in 1969 and a $600 million constru c tion program approved by the 1972 session. Lee County Sen. Perrin .Purvis , a member of the committee, said the public sessions would seek to determine " the real highway problem s" in various areas
with evidence gathered in their investigation of Agnew for pos sible t a x fraud, ex t ort ion , briber y and conspiracy violations. The Justice Department, r es ponding to a general in q uiry without any refer ence to the Agnew case, said Thursday the federal s t a tute of limitations on briber y and extortion expires five years after the da te of the offense. For tax fraud , a spokesman said the limit is six years after the d a te a tax return if filed. With those limitations, any po ss ibl e g rand jury indictm ent of Agnew on briber y or extortion charges would have to be based on a lleged violations in . his last• few months as governor of Ma ryland or s ince h e became vice president in Januar y, 1969 . Th e indictable period for tax fraud would be a year longer . The grand jury has been Continued on Page 14
of the stale. Th e Tupe lo and Holly Sprin gs session s will concentra te on information concerning Highways 72, 78, 45, 6, 15, and 25. In addition to the genera l public , officers of area chambers of commerce and civi c groups ha ve been asked to present their views to the committee. North e ast Miss issippi towns expe cted to have repre s entative s at · the me e ting include Holly Sprin gs , Tupelo, Calhoun City, Abe rdeen , Amory, Corinth, Fulton , Houston, Okolona , New Alba ny , Pontotoc, Ripley, and Iuka. A citizens group from the Shannon and Bre wer communities in Lee County are expected to be at the se s sion to qu es tion committe e m e mbers concerning the possibility of four -l anin g a two-mile str e tch of Hi ghwa y 45 between the t wo towns. Residents of the a rea have complained that the nea rly 10,000 vehicles per day which travel the stret ch make it
unsaf'e. A petition r equesting th e impr ove m e nts has already been presented lo Northern District Highway Co mmi ss ion er Hersc hel Jumper a nd Mi ss iss ippi Hig hwa y Director E. L. Boteler. T he petitioners say no action has been tak en on their r equest. Se n . · Purvi s said a ll tes timon y g iv en to the c ommitt ee would b e recove red a nd enter ed in the committee 's minutes. " L e t m e empha size," Purvi s sa id , " th a t thi s meeting is open to the public. Anyone who has information they wish lo present to the committee is welcome." · The committee is chaired by Sen. R. B. " Breezy" Reeves, of McComb. Other members of the committee, in add.ition to Purvi s and Reeves, are Rep. Cla rence Pi e rce, of Vaiden ; Rep. Walter Brown of Natchez: Re p. George Payne Cossar of Cha rle ton: Sen. J . K . Gresham of Greenville ; Sen. Robe rt Log,111 of La ke ; and Se n . J o h n Cor lew of Pa sca go ula . r.
hanged himself in Booneville City Jail on Christmas Eve, 1971. Mr s. Elizabeth Yates Morgan had filed the suit a ga inst the C it y of Booneville, Chief ol' Police W.W. Stacy. officer s J ess C h a ffin a nd Tr av i s McGaugh y, ja iler Richard Moffitt . and civilians J .D. Burns a nd Clyde Edge Jr. She asked $1.5 million in dam ages as a result of her son Carey Yates' death, contending his constitutiona l ri ghts were violated when he was not allowed to make a tele phone call when a rrested by Cha ffin and McGaughy. The s uit a lso cha rged the defendan ts were negligent in not r em oving her son's belt, by which he ha nged himself, a fter he had threatened to ha ng himself if locked in a cell . It a ll eged Chaffin had beaten the 125-pound youth before bringing him to the j a il a fter obser ving him v io l a tin g th e cit y·s a n ti. firewor ks ordinance. P la intiff's attorneys J ohn B. Fa r ese and Robert W. Elliott said late Thursday they ha ve not yet decided whether t o appeal the jury 's verdi ct. With U.S . District Court Judge Willia m C. Keady presiding, Moffitt took the sta nd for the second time T hur s d ay mornin g lo •·correct " testimony he had given earlier concerning the charges filed against young Yates. Tuesd ay Moffitt had tes tifi ed that Yates was cha r ged with disturbing the p eace a nd di sch a r gin g fir ewo rk s . U nd e r c ro ss - e xamin a ti o n Thursday, he admitted he h ad g iven th e sa m e s t ate m e nt in a s worn de position about two months a fter Ya tes' death . However , Thursday he
said the boy was actually ch a rged with dischar ging fireworks, resisting arrest and public drunkenness. The j ail docket page bearing the charges was introduced in evidence Thursday morning, a nd Moffitt denied plaintiff's attorney's cha rge that the publi c drunkenness charge had been enter ed on the docket after the youth died. When Judge Keady asked him a bout his duties, Moffitt r e pli e d h e was r a dio dis p a t che r . answered the te l e ph o n e. and wa s custodian of the keys to the jail cells . He said the city had no jailer as s uch, and said in his dispat cher's office only dull noises could be heard from th e cell block. Moffitt said if prisoners got too unrul y, he would call in a police unit to look into the matter . When Chief Sta cy took the sta nd Thu rsday morning, he said he left Moffitt in charge of the jail. a dding, "he is in cha r ge of the r adio, but he is in cha rge of seeing a fter the prisoners. ' · E a rli e r , former Mayor Marion Smith had testified th a t retired FBI Agent Sam Allen was retained by the city to t est a nd recommend appli cants for poli ce jobs to the m ayor and board of ald ermen. Thursday, Judge Keady asked Stacv a bout Chaffin 's hirin g . St acy r e plied , " Cha ffin was recommended lo the boa rd by me.·· He a dd e d th a t Chaffin , a m ember of the force for nine year s, was hired before Allen was retained to test appl icants . Stac y a lso told the judge that it never came to his attention that Chaffin -was mi streating young people . Under cross-exa mination , Continued on Page 14
AFTER REJECTING LARGER PROPOSAL
Senate Votes 110,000 Troop Pullout talk s on mutual troop cutbacks in Europe with the Soviet Union. However , Congressiona l observer s said the Humphr e y am e ndm e nt would undoubtedly be killed
in a conference committee with the House and would never enter the law . Earlier the Senate , near th e halfway point in con s id er a tion of a $21.9 billion military procurement authorization bill, had defeated by a mere two votes an effort to slow down the Trident subma rine program . Opponents of th e Humphre y amendm e nt hammered a t the Minnesotan wih ridicule and succeeded in flusterin g him while creating something of a c a rnival atmosphe r e . Humphrey often wrongly quoted his own proposal.
Wh e ri Humph re y expla ined that under his am e ndment Gua m , the America n possession in the We s t P ac ifi c, wa s con s idered hom e territor y a nd t ro op s could be pulled back lo that i s_ L<! I! c\ •, Se n . Russell Long, D-La., brought lau g hte r to the packed cha mber by s houting, " You try to tell someone from Louisia na he's home? " It was the first time the Senate had ever voted to force troop withdrawals from ov e r s ea s - exceptin g Wednesday's flip -flop vot e. Se nate Democratic Leader Mike Mansfield , Mont. , has been introducing such bills for more than a decade., Humphrey first proposed ordering the withdrawal of 125,000 m en over two year s
but tha t was changed on the fl oor to U0,000 men by Dec . 31, 1975. Sen. John Tower . R-Tex., tried to salvage somethi ng for the administration when he r ealized the Humphre, proposa I was destined to win . He tried to change the am e ndment to cut onl y 40,000 men by next June 30 but was defeated 73 to 14. · Th e Senate voted 49 to 47 agains t an am<'nclincnt by Sen . Thom as J . Mcl nty re, o. N . H ., lo s ubtract $885 million from the $1.5 billion earma rk ed fo r Trident in the $21 . 9 b illi o n milita r y pro c ure ment bill for the current fi sca l year . Following the vote: the White House said : " The Pres id e nt is ex tre m ely gr atified at this vote as he was last evening when the Cr an ston amendment which
would ha \·e unila tera ll;v· cut could be deployed iniliall y on the U. S. troop fo rce a broad existi ng Pol aris subs a s a was defeated." r e pl ac e m en t for th e On Wednesday, the Senat e P oseidon. ·approved 49 to 46 a prnposal Admini stration s upporters by Sen. Alan Cranston. D- ar gued that the full project Calif. , to cut the number of s hould go ahead full speed to troops serving abroad b\ keep pace with the Russia ns 200,000 -- but the effort fa iled w~o _recnetly began testing on a la t.er vote when four m1ss 1les of approximately m embe rs switched sides. the sam e r ange as Trident. Adm . Hyma n G. Rickover, Up fo r a vote next was an chief m astermind of the nuamendment by Sen. Hu bert clear submarine, told the H. Humphrey to reduce the Senat e in a letter that the 500,000 overseas force level prop osed t wo-year delay by 125,000. wo uld save no money in the The Mc Intyre amendment long run. and might even wo uld ha ve delayed from pus h up costs due to infl ation 1978 lo 1980 the advent of and dis rupted production . Trident. a ne~v generation of Mc In tyre had ar gued that s ubm arine 'equipped with the Navy's plan to ex pedite 4,000 mile-ran ge missiles. production of the subs would T he Mc Intyre proposal not allow adequate time for would have slowed work on design resea rch and might the s ubmari ne but not on the entail expensive changes n Pw mi..;. ~ ili:.
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