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Vol. 71 No. 164
6 Pages
Tuesday, June 20, 1978
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Inside Tuesday:
• A look at the Supreme Court deci
sion to stop building Tellico Dam - j
p. 2.
• MSC craft shop courses begin
p. 3.
• Godine leaves A&M - p. 6.
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oophole may shield
rug-dealing doctors
United Press International
AUSTIN — The Texas Board of Medical
miners said Monday a loophole in state
ninal statutes protects doctors from
irosecution for dispensing dangerous
Igs.
[These few physicians do account for a
jge number of the drugs on the streets,”
Stone, attorney for the state agency,
jtoard officials denied doctors are reluc-
It to take the medical licenses of such
hsicians but said there are serious prob-
; in developing evidence needed to re-
[ce a license.
)r. A. Bryan Spires Jr., secretary-
isurer, and John H. Sortore, theboard s
|efinvestigator, called a news conference
fe Monday to dispute a copyrighted arti-
[by the Fort Worth Star Telegram Sun-
that said 10 Tarrant County doctors,
crating with virtual immunity from pros-
jtion, supply one-third of the dangerous
jgs taken by drug abusers.
f[f (he poffee in Fort Worth or any other
city are saying that addicts or habitual users
are on the streets with drugs prescribed by
physicians, then I think nobody can argue
with that,” Stone said.
Stone said action would be taken against
any doctor if police or other investigators
can produce evidence that can be used in
court to substantiate charges the physician
is prescribing pills for nontherapeutic pur
poses.
Sartore said in the past two years the
board has canceled licenses of 13 doctors —
including nine accused of improperly dis
pensing drugs — and reprimanded 47
physicians — including at least 23 involving
drugs.
The doctors who lost their licenses in
cluded physicians from Vernon, Lubbock,
Bonham, Brownsville, Sour Lake, Austin,
Buna, Beaumont, Overton, Tyler and
Houston.
Sartore said 753 doctors were investi
gated during ther 1976-77 fiscal year.
“Any large city in Texas has several
physicians under investigation at any one
time,” Stone said.
Stone said drug dispensing is “by far the
largest single grounds of complaint against
doctors” to the board.
The Board of Medical Examiners sup
ported a bill in 1977 to make doctors sub
ject to state criminal prosecution for pre
scribing drugs in a nonprofessional man
ner, but the measure failed.
“We must operate within the statutes
prescribed by the Legislature,” Stone said.
Spires said he thinks the board has been
effective in policing the medical profession.
“This business about a code of brother
hood among many physicians creating a
situation where it is virtually impossible to
get the board to do more than slap the wrist
of an offending doctor — that’s just not
true,” Spires said. “Physicians by and large
are more interested in getting rid of the
rotten apples than anyone else.
“Our big problem is to keep our board
members from crawling over the tables and
personally assaulting some of the physi
cians who have appeared before this
— board,” Spires said.
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Texas parties feature
armadillo races, beer
By PAULA BUTTUR1NI
United Press International
At this time of year in San Angelo
they’re issuing armadillo hunting
licenses. People are looking for fast
ones, not the tender ones they use
for armadillo chili.
In Victoria, women likely are
thinking about strange talents that
will help them win the coveted Miss
Vacant Lot of the World award. In
Fink, officials can’t wait to sing the
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It’s early summer and towns and
cities across Texas are making up
their annual excuses to throw a
party.
In San Angelo, a contest billed as
the National Armadillo Cham
pionship is scheduled June 24. The
race is part of the Fiesta Del Concho,
June 17-25.
“Anyone can enter as long as you
have an armadillo,” advertisements
say, but entrants must adhere to stiff
rules (“No drugging of the armadillos
will be allowed ”) or face disqualifica
tion by the armadillo inspector,
whose decision is final.
Victoria has scheduled its eighth
annual International Armadillo Con
fab and Exposition for July 28-30.
Armadillo races are the big event,
but the selection of Miss Vacant Lot
of the World draws considerable
interest. One year the winner played
a tune on her nose. Another year the
winner stuffed her mouth with pen
nies. Last year, the 200-pound win
ner dressed like an armadillo and
sang an armadillo song.
Contests at the Confab include a
world championship body-painting
competition, thebeer can smash, the
yell-off, a Bohemian apple-eating
contest and a jalapeno gobble.
Officials in Fink are preparing for
the National Fink Day celebration
set for June 23 when the Fink of the
Year will be chosen.
“National Fink Week was created
to restore a little honor and dignity to
the grand old name of Fink,” said
Fink Chief Robert L. Fink of Con
verse, Tex.
Officials of the northeast Texas
hamlet have been accepting nomina
tions for the honor from across the
country. A Bristow, Va., man wrote,
“Fink of the year? Billy Carter, who
else. Nominations closed.”
The Fifth Annual Tex Ritter
Roundup and Reunion is scheduled
in Carrollton, a Dallas suburb, July
8.
Ritter fan Texan Jim Cooper initi
ated the roundup in 1974 after the
screen hero and Grand Old Opry star
died of a heart attack in Nashville,
Tenn.
Events include screening of
“Trouble in Texas,” Ritter’s fourth
film, which features 17-year-old Rita
Hayworth in her first major role.
In Dallas July 1-3 the Texas World
Music Festival will feature concerts
by Willie Nelson, Rita Coolidge,
Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris
and numerous other popular singers.
The event includes the Willie Nel
son Fourth of July Picnic on July 3.
Block that ball
The Brazos Valley Amateur Soccer League com
petes weekly on the field at Eastgate next to the
polo field. Teams that compete within the league
are formed by local businesses, service organiza
tions and Texas A&M students.
Battalion photo by Pat O’Malley
Workers seek final victim
i
of Kansas boating tragedy
United Press International
OTTAWA, Kan. — Rescue workers,
emotionally and physically drained from
two days of pulling bodies from muddy
Lake Pomona, say the fifteenth victim of
the state’s worst boating disaster might be
pinned to the lake floor by debris.
The two dozen volunteers, many of them
working with little or no sleep, cruised the
4,000-acre lake from 11 a.m. until 6:30
p.m. Monday, trailing grappling hooks and
looking for some trace of Melissa Wright, 9,
of Topeka. Dragging operations were to
resume Tuesday.
The young girl’s mother and grand
mother were among the 14 other persons
who drowned Saturday when a quick
forming, willowy tornado capsized the
dinner theater showboat “Whippoorwill”
only 10 minutes into a three-hour cruise.
The canvas-covered bodies were trans-
ietnam consulates
closed by Chinese
United Press International
BANGKOK — China ordered Vietnam
londay to close its three consulates in
WSmthern China in a growing confrontation
" [iat may be coming to a head.
Radio Hanoi indicated Vietnamese offi-
aals may refuse Chinese ships permission
m begin an evacuation of ethnic Chinese
[om Saigon and Haiphong Tuesday.
In a Vietnamese language broadcast
umitored in Bangkok, Radio Hanoi said
be Chinese government recently de-
anded the closing of Vietnamese consu
lates in Canton, Kunming and Nanking.
I Vietnamese diplomats have been or
dered out of the three Chinese cities “in the
shortest period of time,” the broadcast
said.
The Chinese demand apparently stop
ped short of closure of Vietnam’s only other
diplomatic post in China — its embassy in
Peking.
E Closing the consulates, said the radio
Broadcast, has caused “a further deteriora
tion of relations between the two coun
tries. ”
“The Chinese side is entirely responsible
for this situation,” the broadcast said.
Ironically, the Chinese order to close the
Vietnamese consulates came at almost the
same time Vietnam offered Peking permis
sion to open consulates in Haiphong and
Saigon, a Chinese demand resisted by
Hanoi for years.
The Hanoi broadcast said it was quoting a
foreign ministry note to the Chinese side,
passed to the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi
Monday.
Earlier, in another note to the Chinese
embassy, the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry
“demanded” Peking answer a request for
information on the seaborne evacuation of
ethnic Chinese due to start Tuesday.
Vietnam said it had agreed to let Chinese
ships into Haiphong and Saigon port areas,
but first required information on the ships
themselves and their crew.
It said China had refused three requests
for the information.
Lebanese militia revolts
against UN interim forces
United Press International
BEIRUT — Christian militiamen in
Southern Lebanon declared open revolt
Monday against the central government
ind warned they would fight any United
Nations forces that try to enter the border
[egion.
In a communique distributed in the
outh by the “War Council of the Militias of
South Lebanon,” the militiamen declared:
“We are forced to resist UNIFIL (the
Inited Nations Interim Force in Leba-
lon), though we have nothing personal
igainst the force commanders and mem-
>ers, but we consider Dr. Kurt Waldheim
md his organization in Lebanon as servants
>fthe PLO (Palestine Liberation Organiza
tion) and Yasser Arafat.”
The communique referred to orders by
the central government of Sunni Moslem
Prime Minister Selim al Hoss that
Lebanese army commanders Maj. Saad
Haddad and Maj. Sami Chediak confine
their men to their barracks and facilitate
the task of the U.N. peace-keeping troops
in the south.
“The military commanders of the south
were and are the gallant officers of the
Lebanese army, Maj. Saad Haddad and
Maj. Sami Chediak,” it said. “The militias
are looking upon them as brave military
leaders and will return to serve under their,
command when the evil declaration and!
orders of Dr. Selim al Hoss will be can
celed.”
Although reliable information from the
south has been sketchy, a conflict appar
ently developed between rightist army
commanders, who want to obey the orders
of the central government, and the militias,
who do not.
ferred Sunday to local funeral homes. Only
Melissa’s body remained to be claimed
from the lake located about 70 miles south
east of Kansas City.
“We ll only drag during the daylight
hours,” said Osage County sheriff Robert
Masters. “There’s a possibility the body
may be pinned under the anchor or be
stuck under something else near the bot
tom of the lake.
“Diving is such a slow process we don’t
want to call them back in until we find
something. We’ve got a depth finder out
there now. It does locate fish so no doubt it
could give us some help in locating a body. ”
One rescue worker, who took a short
break before resuming a second pass over
the lake, said the search operations would
continue until the girl was found, no matter
how long it took.
“We ll just keep doing it,” he said.
An Osage County sheriff s office spokes
man said they had been beseiged by volun
teers.
“They have really been wonderful. The
office has received more than 50 offers in
the past two days to assit in dragging and
diving operations.”
Meanwhile, a spokesmen for the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers and the Kansas
Forestry, Fish and Game Commission said
they would not investigate the seaworthi
ness of the 65-foot, double-decked
paddle-wheeler since it had been inspected
recently and since the accident was obvi
ously from natural causes.
“The accident was an act of God,” said
Masters.
“There ain’t no way this could have been
prevented other than not having a boat,”
said deputy district coroner Dr. Dwight
Adams said.
Police chief Luther
dies after long illness
Battalion photo hy Pat O’Malley
Sailing at Somerville
Saturday was a beautiful day for sailing at Lake SomerviUe, and several
Texas A&M students took advantage of the warm weather and slight
summer breeze that blew across the lake. These sailboats were moored
on the north end of Somerville.
Funeral services are scheduled Wed
nesday in Bryan for O. L. Luther, chief of
the University Police Department at Texas
A&M University. He was a former Texas
Ranger and Department of Public Safety
officer whose entire law enforcement
career centered in Brazos County.
Luther died Monday evening in a Bryan
hospital following a lenthy illness. He was
to retire July 1 from Texas A&M.
Services will be held at 10 a.m. Wenes-
day in the Hillier Funeral Home Chapel.
Graveside services only will be conducted
at 3 p.m. in the Oakwood Cemetery, Cor
sicana. Both services are under the direc
tion of the Hillier Funeral Home.
The Rev. Clifton Barnett, pastor of the
Wheelock Baptist Church, will officiate.
Pallbearers will be Texas Rangers from Co.
F in Waco. Two Texas flags have been sent
by the DPS in Austin for the funeral. One
will be at half-staff and the other will drape
the casket, a distinct honor.
Luther is survived by his wife, Mrs.
Margie Luther of 1602 S. College Ave.,
Bryan; two sons, O. L. “Bud” Luther Jr. of
Houston and Jim Luther of Edinburg, and
one granddaughter, Tiffany Luther of
Edinburg. Both sons are former students of
Texas A&M.
Luther always considered himself an
Aggie and worked closely with students,
including assisting those who had prob
lems.
Twice during his career, once as a ranger
and once as police chief, Texas A&M stu
dents went to Austin and borrowed Bevo,
the University of Texas mascot.
The students hid the big Longhorn in the
Brazos area and kept quiet. Bevo could not
be found. Both times political pressure was
put on Luther to recover Bevo.
Each time he gained the confidence of
the students and told them if the steer was
returned they had his promise cattle rustl
ing charges would not be brought, but he
emphasized he had to get the animal back
unharmed and unbranded.
Each time the students gave Luther the
Longhorn.
Among his many honors was the Bryan-
Chief O. L. Luther
College Station Jaycees’ Outstanding Law
Enforcement Officer Award in 1971. He
was considered one of the great modern
day rangers and an outstanding inves
tigator.
Luther in 1961 was appointed to Texas
Ranger Co. F. He was one of 80 Texas
Rangers when he retired to join the Texas
A&M staff on Sept. 1, 1971.
He was honored many times for his law
enforcement record with the DPS and the
rangers, and participated in the investiga
tion of most of the major Texas crimes dur
ing the 10 years he served as a ranger.
Bom Sept. 4, 1916, in Frost, Texas,
Luther graduated from Emhouse High
School in 1934. He joined the DPS in 1942,
taking a leave of absence to serve in the U.
S. Navy during World War 2.
He was decorated for combat action in
the South Pacific in 1945 and 1946.
Luther rejoined the DPS after the war
and was named supervisor for a five-county
area in 1957.
He was a graduate of many police
schools, including a special FBI Academy
class, and he served as an instructor for the
DPS in Austin.