LI
'ENT
'GHT
^Und
Today’s high 64
Today’s low 36
Tomorrow’s high 65
Chance of precipitation
Today none
Tomorrow none
Che Battalion
Weather
Fair becoming partly cloudy
Tuesday and Wednesday. North
easterly winds and cool.
Vol. 69 No. 55
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, Dec. 9, 1975
Three jail escapees
attack state trooper
Associated Press
SNYDER, Tex. — Three jail escapees from
Amarillo were behind bars again today after re
portedly attacking a 21-year-old state trooper
who singlehandedly tried to arrest them.
Also in custody was a woman who Amarillo
authorities believe helped the prisoners escape.
Potter County Sheriff T. L. Baker was to re
turn the escapees to the jail in Amarillo, about
220 miles northwest of Snyder.
Baker identified the escapees as Charles
Rumbaugh, 18, held for murder; Michael Joe
Sutton, held for armed robbery; and Roger
Barett, 24, an escapee from New Mexico.
The name of the arrested woman was with
held pending formal charges.
Department of Public Safety patrolman Keith
Pherigo stopped the escapees and the woman
on the outskirts of Snyder because he said their
car looked suspicious.
When the male driver of the car had no drive
r’s license, Pherigo took the man to the Scurry
County Courthouse in town, with the woman
and three men following in the suspect’s car.
Pherigo, 21, of Snyder, who has been a DPS
officer for just 14 months, ran a license check on
the car and found it did not check. He asked for
a backup DPS unit.
As the young officer led the four people into
the courthouse, he said, the three men sud
denly jumped him and one held a butcher knife
at his throat.
“I could feel the knife was sharp and it was
cutting into my neck. They said they were going
to kill me,” he recounted to The Associated
Press. “I grabbed the knife with my hands, and
at the same time I could feel they were going to
kill me,” he recounted to The Associated Press.
“I grabbed the knife with my hands, and at the
same time I could feel they were trying to get
my gun. I grabbed my gun and dropped to the
ground.
‘The three of them jumped on me and finally
got my gun away. Then they ordered me to go
with them back down to their car, just like we
came in.”
On the way to the car, a second DPS patrol
car arrived and Pherigo said he grabbed the man
with his gun and tried to get it back. A struggle
ensued, he said, but when the prisoners saw the
other DPS officer arrive, they surrendered.
In Amarillo earlier, Sheriff Baker said the men
cut through a three-eighths-inch steel plating in
the maximum security section of the Potter
County Jail. They then sawed through a barred
window and dropped 100 feet to the ground on
ropes braided from blankets.
Jail officials said the men were last seen at 2:30
a.m. Monday, but were gone at 7 a.m.
Baker said the three escapees “had to have
outside help.” He said a woman friend of one of
the escapees had been staying at a motel near
the jail. After the escape, officers could not lo
cate her.
Barett, who tried to overpower a jailer last
week, was arrested in Amarillo on Aug. 6 after
escaping from jail in Albuquerque, N.M., Aug.
1 with four others. He was held on charges of
armed robbery, kidnaping, aggravated assault
on a police officer and auto theft stemming from
a May 2 jewelry store robbery in Albuquerque.
He also faced charges of robbery involving a
$50,000 jewel heist earlier this year in Arkadel-
phia. Ark.
Rumbaugh was being held on a murder
charge stemming from the robbery of an
Amarillo jewelry store in April. He is wanted in
San Angelo on a warrant charging aggravated
robbery in May.
Sutton was charged in Amarillo in April with
aggravated robbery after the holdup of a pizza
parlor. He also is charged with the theft of
diamonds in Tulsa, Okla.
NOW asks for withdrawal
of SC candidate Stevens
IRA gunmen
exchange
Winter Wonderland” presented December 7. The
show was sponsored by the MSC Student Programs.
Photo by David McCarroll.
refuse food
for hostage
- Irish Republican Army gunmen
J a man and his wife hostage in the living
of their London apartment for the third
1 refused today to exchange the woman for
food, police reported.
Police offered the three or four gunmen their
first meal since the siege began Saturday night
in exchange for the release of Sheila Matthews,
53. But the gunmen rejected the proposal in a
Sill collector talents
mite dogs, owners
15 min-
in the
iversit)’
ip.
game.
tnd 15-
in the
Associated Press
MOUNT PROSPECT, 111. — Using his
talent as a former bill collector, Bob Franks
has become a dog sleuth dedicated to reunit
ing lost dogs with their owners.
“I incorporated in August as the Society of
St. Francis, placed ads in newspapers with a
dog-lost hotline number and so far have re
turned 84 dogs to their owners,” said 41-
year-old Franks, once collection manager of
a Chicago bank.
Franks says his work as a dog detective
stems from his love of the animals and the
emotional satisfaction of saving strays from
being put to sleep.
“My parents would never let me have a
dog in my childhood and I guess I was de
termined to have as many as I wanted when I
grew up,” he says.
As for his corporation named after the
saint of animals, Franks said, “I’m using my
1 savings — which should last about a year —
to run the operation. No donations are solic
ited, but sometimes they are sent in.
“In October and November, my phone
bills were $39 and donations were only $11,”
|
said Franks, who has 11 unwanted old strays
of his own at his home in Mount Prospect, a
suburb northwest of Chicago. “My goal is to
establish a national membership in the Soci
ety of St. Francis and get it on a break-even
footing.”
Franks’ hot-line callers are those who have
lost their dogs and those who have found lost
dogs. Sometimes he is lucky in matching the
dogs lost with those found.
“But mainly my service is telling people
where to look — the dog pound, the Anti-
Cruelty Society, Animal Welfare and various
suburban shelters,” said Franks, a director of
the Illinois State Federation of Humane
Societies. “You’d be surprised how many
people haven’t the slightest idea of how to go
about finding a lost dog.”
Franks said a man called with a description
of his 130-pound German Shepherd missing
IV2 months. Several days later a woman
called that she had found a tagless dog that
was skin and bones.
“I went to her house. It was a half-starved
German Shepherd weighing about 65
pounds. But it turned out to be the missing
one,” said Franks.
telephone conversation this morning.
The men also refused to let police talk to Mrs.
Matthews or her husband, John, a 54-year-old
postal inspector.
“We are absolutely sincere in saying our ob
jective is to save the lives of every person in that
room — hostages and kidnapers alike,” said Sir
Robert Mark, the head of Scotland Yard, in a
message he said was aimed at relatives of the
gunmen.
But Mark added that the IRA men “are com
ing out of that room in one way only — as pris
oners under arrest. The only place they are
going is to Brixton Prison.”
The Yard intensified its security measures
elsewhere in London following indications that
Michael Wilson, Britain’s most wanted criminal
who was previously believed to be one of the
gunmen trapped in the 12-by-14-foot room, may
not be among them.
The gunmen fled into the Matthews’ apart
ment Saturday night after escaping a police am
bush. The police said then there were four of
them and that Wilson, wanted for the slaying of
Ross McWhirter, coeditor of the Guinness Book
of World Records, was believed among them.
Monday night, Cmdr. Ernest Bond, deputy
assistant commissioner of Scotland Yard, told
newsmen the kidnapers had asked for food and
cigarettes for five people, presumably three
gunmen and the two hostages.
“However, it is possible they are trying to
make us think there are only three when there
are four,” said Bond.
The gunmen said they were members of the
Provisional wing of the IRA, which has been
fighting a guerrilla war to end British rule in
Northern Ireland and unite the predominantly
Protestant province with the Roman Catholic
Irish republic.
Both said they were “a good part of the team”
responsible for a series of bombings and shoot
ings in which nine persons have been killed and
more than 20 injured since August.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The National Organiza
tion for Women is asking President Ford to
withdraw the Supreme Court nomination of
John Paul Stevens because he said he would be
“more concerned” about discrimination against
blacks than against women.
Stevens, who is returning for further tes
timony today before the Senate Judiciary Com
mittee, told the panel Monday that blacks “are a
more disadvantaged group” than women.
The committee and the full Senate are ex
pected to approve Stevens’ nomination to the
high court.
His testimony led NOW President Karen
DeCrow to issue a statement saying, “NOW is
disgusted at this blatant example of the white
male power structure pitting women against
minority males and making us all scramble for
the crumbs of power.”
Ms. DeCrow said, “The NOW board is pro
foundly shocked that President Ford is not able
to see the significance not only of not appointing
a woman to the bench but of appointing a man
who is so against women’s rights that he does not
even understand the issues of civil rights for
women in 1975.”
Stevens also told the committee Monday that
he believes in equality of the sexes. But he said
he is not sure the proposed Equal Rights
Amendment to the Constitution would accom
plish much beyond the equal protection clause
of the 14th amendment, “aside from its symbolic
value.”
Stevens also said he is against putting any
litigants, even victims of past discrimination, in
a favored class. Instead, he testified he felt “my
primary obligation is to deal with litigants impar
tially.”
The issue of “reverse discrimination” was
raised by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.,
who said he thinks that in the civil rights area
courts have recognized that simply striking
down discriminatory laws is not enough.
Kennedy said they frequently have gone be
yond that to require affirmative action, like
school busing, to remedy the effects of long pat
terns of discrimination.
He wanted to know if Stevens, now a judge on
the 7th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Chicago, was “sufficiently concerned” to feel
that judicial action of that kind is necessary.
Stevens told him that in many cases affirma
tive action by the courts is necessary, but he
added that “these things really depend on the
facts in a particular situation.”
Most of Monday’s hearing went smoothly for
Stevens, who drew high praise from the Ameri
can Bar Association and from Illinois’ senators,
Republican Charles H. Percy and Democrat
Adlai E. Stevenson III.
Several of the committee members also told
the 55-year-old jurist that they intended to rec
ommend Senate confirmation of his nomination.
Moluccan captive
dies during escape
Associated Press
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands — An In
donesian injured in escaping from South
Moluccan nationalists who seized the Indone
sian consulate in Amsterdam died during the
night, the Justice Ministry reported today.
E. Abedy, a 52-year-old consular official, was
the first fatality in the six-day-old siege at the
consulate, where about 25 hostages are reported
held. Three Dutchmen were killed by another
group of South Moluccans who hijacked a train
in northern Holland last Tuesday and are hold
ing about 3 persons hostage.
A spokesman said Abedy was injured in a fall
while escaping down a rope from an upper win
dow of the consulate. A second man was shot by
the Moluccans during their assault, but there
has been no report on his condition.
An Indonesian Embassy official was to meet
today with a representative of the Moluccans,
but police expressed doubt that either siege
would end soon.
The political counselor of the Indonesian Em
bassy, Surjadi Kromomihardjo, agreed to meet
with the Rev. Semeul Metiary after the gunmen
who seized the consulate last Thursday released
a 14-year-old Indonesian girl and three boys 13,
14 and 17 years old.
Surjadi said he would only talk with Metiary
in a private, unofficial capacity, not as a repre
sentative of the Embassy. The Embassy refused
to have any official contact with the Moluccans
to avoid any appearance of recognition of their
demand for independence for their native is
lands in Indonesia.
Dutch officials have made no attempt to
negotiate with the Mohicans aboard the train
since the breakdown Sunday of mediation efforts
by a leader of the South Moluccan community in
The Netherlands, Johan Alvares Manusama.
The freed children were the last of 16 who
were attending an Indonesian school in the con
sulate building when the gunmen broke in last
Thursday. They said there were seven
Moluccans occupying the consulate, not six as
the police previously believed, and that they
were holding 27 adult hostages. But shortly after
midnight the gunmen released one of the adults,
an Indonesian teacher in the school who police
said was suffering pneumonia.
Police believe there are six Moluccans aboard
the train, which was hijacked last Tuesday, and
that they are still holding 31 hostages. Three
other hostages have been killed.
The Moluccans are demanding that the Dutch
government take their demand for indepen
dence in the South Molucca islands to the
United Nations. The islands in the south central
part of the Indonesian archipelago were part of
the prewar Dutch East Indies which became in
dependent Indonesia in 1949. Thousands of the
Moluccans fled to The Netherlands after an un
successful rebellion in 1950.
Stevens’ nomination to fill the Supreme Court
vacancy created by the retirement of Justice
William O. Douglas was submitted to the Senate
by President Ford on Dec. 1.
Barring unexpected developments, there ;
were indications the committee may vote on the
nomination before the end of the week.
Beirut sees
‘worst night’
in civii war
Associated Press
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Christian gunmen
with their backs to the Mediterranean held out
against a fierce encircling assault by Moslem
forces in Beirut’s downtown hotel and commer
cial district today.
A police spokesman said more than 50 persons
were killed and hundreds were wounded during
the night. The government radio said it was “the
worst and crudest night of fighting” in the
eight-month-old civil war for control of the coun-
try.
Police said at least 125 persons have been kil
led in the latest round of fighting. It began
Saturday night after a massacre by both sides in
which police said 128 persons were murdered.
The heaviest fighting was in the seaside area
that includes the major tourist hotels, the main
commercial district and the banking district,
once the financial heart of the Middle East.
An estimated 700 Moslems pushed ahead in a
pincer movement that virtually surrounded the
Christians, cutting them off from the Ashrafieh,
their stronghold inside the city.
Half a dozen big fires burned out of control
after fierce rocket and mortar exchanges. They
included one in the 500-room Phoenicia Hotel
complex where Christian militiamen were be
sieged.
The Moslems apparently were trying to push
to the sea near the port of Beirut, which adjoins
Ashrafieh, and cut off the Christian fighters in
the hotel and commercial district.
The Christians were holding out in several tall
buildings in the area including the Holiday Inn,
the Phoenicia, the unfinished Hilton Hotel and
the Starco office complex.
The government radio told all residents to
stay indoors for the third straight day.
Christian and Moslem militias also traded
mortar barrages in suburban battle areas on the
northern and eastern sides of the city.
A meeting of 24 religious and political leaders
called by Christian President Suleiman Franjieh
was cancelled after Moslem leaders refused to
attend until Franjieh announces a program of
political reforms.
The Moslems want to wrest political control
from the Christian minority, which holds the
presidency, the armed forces command and the
majority of the seats in the parliament under a
1943 agreement drawn up when the Christians
were in the majority.
Texas Democrats
presidential
Associated Press
FORT WORTH, Tex. — With a minimum of
iscussion and debate, Texas Democratic lead-
« have started the ball rolling for their party’s
'fst and perhaps last presidential primary.
The State Democratic Executive Committee
l, ound up its year-end meeting Monday by
idopting rules governing the selection of the 130
lelegates and 70 alternates who will represent
lexas at the national convention in July.
In an abbreviated session that ended shortly
plan
primary
—Allocate three delegates each from all but
five of the state’s 31 senatorial districts to the
national convention. Those five get an extra del
egate apiece, based on the amounts of votes cast
in the districts in the 1968 and 1972 elections.
There are two districts in Harris County, and
one each in Travis, Nueces and Bexar counties,
which will draw the extra delegate.
The SDEC also voted for the first time ever
Monday to hold the June convention on a
weekend, rather than during the week.
noon, the 64 committee members ap-, Vi ailed by liberals as a further step to show that
V", „ r es , a * : control is being taken out of the hands of the
- Call for the party to hold its state conven- conservative element.
Sons in June and September on two days, rather The convention is to be held here either the
lan one, a move that some say is designed to weekend 0 f T un e 11 and 12 or June 18 and 19,
speed up the Democratic process depending on the availability of hotel rooms and
-Leave up to the delegates at the state con- ^ Tarrant County Convention Center,
vention —through their votes in a straw pole on . Members of the legislature earlv this year
the presidential preferences — the selection of ed that Texas should join 29 other states
32 at-large delegates and all the alternates. vmich hold presidential primaries.
They decided, however, the legislation shouid
just pertain to the 1976 election year.
Some SDEC members were saying privately
this weekend that Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, who
sought the act as then Sen. Lyndon Johnson did
in 1960, is regretting the decision. They contend
Bentsen’s campaign for the presidential nomina
tion is lagging and that a strong showing by
either George Wallace, Jimmy Carter or any of
the others in the race will make it that much
harder for the Texas Democrat to get the nomi
nation.
Bentsen’s campaign chairman in Texas, Ag
riculture Commissioner John White, Monday
denied the charge that Bentsen is faltering and
said that he will campaign actively here, as he
(Bentsen) will do in many other states.
Both conservatives and liberals indicated they
could live with the new convention rules.
Campus
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY’S fall com
mencement exercises will be Saturday, at 9 a.m.
in the G. Rollie White Coliseum. Ford D. Al
britton, Jr., Chairman of the Board of Tipperary
Corp. in Midland, and of the Ashbrook Corp. in
Houston, will speak to the expected 1,260
graduates.
AIR FORCE Lt. Gen. John W. Roberts will
address newly-commissioned officers at fall
commencement ceremonies Saturday. Gen.
Roberts commands the Air Training Command
headquartered at Randolph AFB. Commission
ing starts at 1:30 p.m. in G. Rollie White Col
iseum.
THE AGGIE BASKETBALL team plays Sam
Houston State Tuesday night. The girl’s game
begins at 5:15 p.m. and the Varsity tips off at
7:30.
REFRIGERATORS may be re-rented for a
$20 fee, or returned December 11-12 and 15-19.
If the refrigerator is clean and defrosted, the $10
deposit will be refunded. For further informa-
rion call Alleson King at 845-3051.
THE STUDENT Y’ ASSOCIATION has a
Community Christmas service planned for De
cember 11. The service will be held at the Rud
der Tower fountain, beginning at 7 p.m. Larry
Grubbs, student worker for the A&M Methodist
Church, will be the speaker.
National
HENRY A. KISSINGER, secretary of state,
is holding up a final decision on a trip to Moscow
until he has assurances from the Soviet Union
that it is ready to break the nuclear arms dead
lock. U.S. officials said Kissinger made the point
to Ambassador Anatoly F. Dobrynin after sum
moning him to the State Department last night.
THREE of the four Texas shrimp boats are
expected to be released today after paying fines
for allegedly fishing in Mexican territorial
waters, Mexican authorities said.
A spokesman at the U.S. embassy in Mexico
City said yesterday that the other boat will not
be freed because the Mexicans say that it re
sisted when they tried to detain it. It didn’t stop.