The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, November 28, 1978, Image 1

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    Battalion
Tuesday, November 28, 1978
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
The cloth challenges the curtain
Pope John Paul II made an
impassioned speech this
weekend for freedom of religion
and human dignity. Observers
say the landmark speech about
Roman Catholics “condemned
to death” is the kind feared most
by Communist authorities in his
homeland, Poland, and other
Soviet countries. See page 7.
The hearing on whether to
move convicted cop-killer David
Lee Powell back to Huntsville
has been postponed. See page 4.
x-worker suspect
mayor shooting
United Press International
|\N FRANCISCO — It was just 45
utes before Mayor George Moscone’s
iduled news conference to announce a
appointee to the Board of Super-
rs, San Franciso’s city council,
le appointment was difficult for the
rous, 49-year-old mayor because he
decided not to reappoint the young
lid eager ex-policeman who resigned 17
lys earlier, then asked for his job back.
At 10:45 a.m. Monday the ex-
rvisor, Dan White, charged into
ne’s office without an appointment,
nown to Moscone as he ushered him
his private office for a confidential
chat, police alleged, the youthful-looking
White carried a loaded .38 revolver in his
three-piece suit.
They talked, and aides said later they
heard three noises, but did not recognize
them as gunshots.
At 11 a.m., Moscone’s press secretary,
Mel Wax, and Deputy Mayor Rudy
Rothenberg went into the office.
“When I went into the back office, I
found the mayor dead,” Wax said.
White, 32, was nowhere to be found.
He had run out a side door and across City
Hall into the Board of Supervisors’ offices.
“He was a wild man, just a wild man,”
$ew bus route
aves travel time
lue Route,” a new Intra-Campus Ex-
Shuttle Bus Route, will begin opera-
Monday morning at 7.
e new route will reduce travel time
een the West campus near the Soil
Crop Science Building and the
lemic Building, said E.C. Oates,
man of the Shuttle Bus Operations
mittee.
Wy three stops are contemplated —
Ion the west side of Wellborn Road near
(leberg Center and two on the east
The two east stops will be on Hous-
itreet.
lie the intersection of Lamar near the
horial Student Center will be accessa-
to those riding the South Route buses
fell as those residing in the Duncan
I the other stop at Houston and Jones
ts next to the Health Center will be
able to those residing in the North
residence halls, those using the North
ittle Bus Route and those with nearby
es.
ue Route has a length of 1.1 miles.
Itime between the extremes should be
■ore than five minutes, Oates said, ex-
pt when a long train may be passing,
buses will run the new route. This
.
hickley to speak on freedom
will provide a bus at each stop on about
5-minute intervals.
The Blue Route is based on the premise
that everyone will walk some and ride
some, Oates said. This will save time when
classes on both sides of Wellborn are sepa
rated by only a 10-minute break between
classes. Additionally, the Blue Route will
provide greater safety in crossing
Wellborn Road, he said. Now many stu
dents walk between the two areas, but are
faced with traffic cutting in front of them at
Old Main Drive and Wellborn Road.
The existing Red and Green routes will
continue to operate, but with fewer stops.
One bus will continue on each route with a
frequency of 20-25 minutes.
The Intra-Campus Bus service is still on
a trial bases. So far this fall, the ridership
in relation to cost is marginal, Oates said.
The Shuttle Bus Operations Committee
has proposed the Blue Route as an alterna
tive for faster, more responsive movement
than the two original routes.
The Intra-Campus Bus service is availa
ble to all students, staff and faculty without
charge.
Buses will serve between the hours of
7.T5 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
sobbed Terry Wallen, who works in the
supervisors’ office.
“Dan came running into the room look
ing wild. He was actually running. He yel
led, ‘Give me my keys!’ It was bizarre.”
Grabbing a set of keys to his old office.
White confronted Supervisor Harvey
Milk, 48, who won prominence a year ago
when he was elected as an avowed
homosexual, and who had opposed
White’s reappointment. The two went into
White’s office.
Other office aides said they heard three
shots, with White saying as the gun went
off, “Take this. Take this. Now take this.’-’
White took the keys to an ex-aide’s car,
ran out a side door of the building and
escaped before police sealed off the exits.
But after phoning his wife, he gave himself
up a half hour later at a nearby police sta
tion to an officer who had become a friend
during White’s days on the force.
He was booked on two counts of investi
gation for murder.
White resigned as one of San Francis
co’s 11 supervisors on Nov. 10, a year after
his election. He said he could not afford to
support his family on the $9,600 annual
salary. But five days later, after receiving
financial support from friends and rela
tives, he asked to be reappointed.
At first, the reappointment appeared
likely. Then, opposition began coming in
from constituents and politicians and
Moscone decided on another candidate.
Dianne Feinstein, president of the
Board of Supervisors, wept as she told re
porters of Moscone’s death. She automati
cally became acting mayor until a suc
cessor is elected by the board.
Moscone’s wife, Gina, and his mother
were at a funeral in Santa Rosa, 50 miles
north, when Moscone was shot. They
rushed home and into seclusion along with
the Moscones’ four children who range in
age from 14 to 21.
Police Chief Charles Gain clamped a
gag order on his department to stop the
release of any further information about
the shootings.
“There’s going to be a prosecution to
follow and in order to meet all the re
quirements of a fair trial, we are not going
to issue any other details or statements or
any evidence or any other thing that we
have on this case than you already have,”
Deputy Chief Clem DeAmicis said.
'illiam F. Buckley, once called “the
ng U.S. ideologue of the right” by
me magazine, will present “Some
Bughts on Personal Freedom at 8 p.m.
lay in Rudder Auditorium.
Sponsored by the Memorial Student
enter’s Great Issues Committee, the
ent is another in the group’s series of
■rams dealing with human rights.
Founder and editor of the conservative
bnal Review magazine, Buckley is re-
imbered most recently for his televised
bate with Ronald Reagan over the
lama Canal issue in January,
lis television show, “Firing Line,” is
weekly on the Public Broadcasting
Hce and some commercial stations.
Guests on the program have ranged from
boxer Muhammed Ali to author Theodore
White and President Jimmy Carter. The
show won an Emmy award for Outstand
ing Program Achievement in 1969, and
Buckley himself won the Cleveland Amory
Award for Best Interviewee-Interviewer
on television in 1974.
He writes a syndicated column, “On
The Right,” that appears in more than 300
newspapers nationwide.
Buckley studied political science, eco
nomics and history at Yale University and
graduated with honors in 1950.
In 1951 he began a successful book
writing career with “God and Man at
Yale.” The book created a stir in the
academic community by charging that
“academic freedom” served as a guise for
instilling liberalism and atheism in stu
dents.
More recent books by Buckley have in
cluded “Stained Glass,” “Airborne” and
“Saving the Queen.”
Buckley’s political and governmental
endeavors have included a bid for mayor of
New York in 1965, serving on the five-
member Advisory Commission on Infor
mation of the United States Information
Agency from 1969-1972 and appointment
as a public member to the 28th General
Assembly of the United Nations in 1973.
Admission is 50 cents for students and
$1 for non-students.
ickwood annexation denied
ryan council offers rewards
By LYLE LOVETT
Battalion Reporter
lie Bryan City Council Monday passed
Ordinance providing rewards for infor-
Son leading to arrest and conviction of
minals in Bryan.
Be city will pay $1,000 every time in
flation leads to arrest and conviction for
by offenses of burglary, robbery or
5. The ordinance will go into effect
• 27. Peace officers, private security
Kers and victims of the crimes are not
ible for rewards.
jhe council also decided not to annex
Iwood Park Estates, a subdivision out-
ji of Bryan on FM 2818.
Ibe subdivision has sought annexation
ceive city utility service in place of the
ate septic tank sewer systems cur
ly used by its residents. Residents say
system poses a potential health hazard
use of waste overflow,
iockwood is surrounded by the Munic-
Utilities District. The council said that
tnnex Rockwood, the city would also
to annex MUD and assume the dis-
:s debts. That, the council said, would
[too expensive.
ut because of the potential health
d, the council decided to explore the
sibility of selling city services to
fkwood, although the city has no treat-
t plant in the area and Rockwood has
ewer hook-ups.
oprovide services, the city would have
contract with MUD and use MUD’s
^tment plant.
But MUD could squelch the whole
thing,” Mayor Richard Smith said, by not
agreeing to enter into the contract with
Bryan.”
The council also questioned Rockwood’s
motive for seeking city services rather
than dealing directly with MUD, a move
the council suggested would reduce ad
ministrative problems and cost less in the
long run.
Rockwood representative Gordon Pow
ell said Rockwood has spoken to MUD,
and that the service would be too expen
sive.
City Attorney Charles Bluntzer was in
structed to determine the legality of the
proposed Bryan contract with MUD.
A report by City Architect M. O. Law
rence showed that low bid for construction
of Bryan’s proposed Fire Station 3 ex
ceeded the city’s 200,000 budget for the
project by some $76,000.
A committee will negotiate the bid with
the contractor and report at the next meet
ing.
In other discussion. City Manager
Hubert Nelson said the city needs to work
out an arrangement with Blinn College
because of its students’ use of the Bryan
Library.
Librarian Linda Pringle said about 100
Blinn students use the library daily.
“We want to still provide them serv
ices,” she said, “but we need some help.
Our librarians are overrun. ”
She said the students, most of whom are
of Iranian nationality, require a large
amount of assistance, and that special
tours and help locating books has put an
excessive load on the staff.
Pringle asked that Blinn help finance
changes in the library needed to provide
service for the college students. She said
an extra resource librarian and $5,000 for
books, maintenance and facilities should
be requested of the school, a total of ap
proximately $16,000.
A council committee was appointed to
discuss the matter with college officials
and a resolution was ordered for the next
council meeting formally requesting the
school’s assistance.
In other discussion, a group of residents
from the Oaks subdivision near Bryan
High School presented the council with a
petition calling for the paving of a two-
block section of Barak Lane. The petition
was signed by some 90 residents. Ten res
idents were present at the meeting to
voice their grievances.
One resident said the front end of his
1977-model car has been realigned three
times and a set of radial tires replaced be
cause of the road’s poor condition.
The cost of repaving the road is esti
mated at $45,000, money the council said
it did not have. City Manager Hubert Nel
son said the last bond issue for street re
pairs did not pass. Councilman Wayne
Gibson explained the council’s position,
saying, “the real problem is lack of
money.”
“This council worked pretty hard to get
the last bond issue passed and it foiled pret
ty miserably,” he said.
Smith said road disrepair is not a unique
problem, with 30 miles of unpaved streets
in Bryan. He said little can be done until
residents vote in the funding for road im
provements.
Tl,ere is a full house of gambli„7in Br^Tcollefe
Station from sports betting with the booldes each
week-end to the nightly poker games and dice lav
outs. Pre-arranged dogfights with heavy gamb ?ng
are also common in Texas with the nearest operating
more than 60 miles away where Byran breeders and
spectators gather.
Battalion photo Barney J. Leperie
Gambling business is
alive and well in B-CS
By BARNEY J. LEPERIE
Special to The Battalion
Editor’s note: This is the first of three
articles on gambling in and near Bryan-
College Station. The reporter spent three
months researching the story as an ob
server and through interviews. Because
of the sensitive nature of the material, the
names of “inside” sources have been
changed. The identity of the reporter also
has been protected by the use of the
pseudonym “Barney J. Leperie.” In part
two, the operation of the bookie and his
market will be examined.
It may be a dark poolroom, a public bar,
or a golf course clubhouse. Cards are scat
tered around and you can bet there is
money on the action at the 9-ball game or
perhaps the dice are rolling in a respecta
ble office suite.
No matter where, some things are the
same. Smoke permeates the air, compet
ing with the‘smell of stale beer or Jack
Daniels. And the people are deadly seri
ous about what they are doing. They are
gamblers. Society’s elite or society’s riff
raff, they share a passion and a bond.
Gambling is everywhere. In Chicago,
New York, Dallas, Bryan-College Station.
Everywhere.
What forms of illegal gambling are most
common locally?
Take your choice.
NUMBERS, POOL, back-room crap
games, bookmaking and high-stakes poker
games that are legend to those in the
know.
There’s also bingo, the game of grand
mothers and good works, the game of char
ity and church organizations. You can
catch a game almost any night of the week
— Tuesday at a dance hall, Wednesday at
a veterans club, Thursday at a fraternal
lodge.
Who gambles?
It may be anyone. College students,
aristocrats, lawyers, bankers, your
neighbors. One local bookie singles out a
special group: “You got your farming Ita
lians, your grocery store Italians, your re
staurant owner Italians and your gambling
Italians.”
“They’re'a big group here,” he says.
IF THAT’S TRUE, it’s consistent with a
national figure. Seventy-seven percent of
all Italians gambled in 1974, according to
the University of Michigan Research Cen
ter Survey. The only ethnic group exceed
ing that figure were East Europeans at 81
percent.
More than 2,000 people across the
country were interviewed in the Michigan
survey. The study discovered that a major
ity of both men and women gamble. A
higher percentage of whites than non
whites gamble and the number increases
steadily with the amount of income and
educational level. Only 40 percent of the
people in the South gamble compared to
80 percent in the Northeast.
AT A 2-TO-l ratio, this is a large differ
ence, perhaps stemming from the anti
gambling attitudes of Southern religious
groups. For example, Southern Baptists
and others have led the fight against
pari-mutuel betting in Texas; it has lost
every time it has been to the polls. The
South also doesn’t have the gambling
facilities — legal or illegal — of places like
New York City.
But don’t think Texas is missing out on
the action —or that Bryan- College Station
is, for that matter.
For example, at Binion’s Horseshoe
Hotel Casion in Las Vegas, all six finalists
in the 1978 World Series Poker Cham
pionship last May were from Texas, ac
cording to “Gambling Times” magazine.
BOBBY BALDWIN, 27, of Dallas cap
tured the title, becoming the youngest
player ever to win the event. Other
finalists were Jesse Alto of Austin, Cran
dall Addington of San Antonio, Buc
Buchanan of Killeen, Louis Hunsucker of
Austin and Ken Smith of Dallas.
These fellows could have gotten some of
their practice right here.
“Bryan-College Station is like a little
Las Vegas,” said a local professional gam
bler who looked as if he just walked out of
“The Godfather.”
“There is plenty of gambling in this
town, involving the big shots and local law
authorities. The poker games are big and
the dice layouts float around here and in
an 80-mile radius.”
THIS PROFESSIONAL gambler —
we ll call him Antoine — has been in
volved in some form of gambling for the
past 25 years, including card games, jun
kets to Vegas, Monte Carlo, all over the
world. It is now his full-time profession.
“I’m a damn good card player, ” he says,
“an egomaniac — all gamblers are — and
it is not a sport for me; I make my living at
it.”
But, he warns, “Nobody should gamble.
It’s addictive. It’ll ruin your life. I’ve lost
four businesses in Bryan because of it. It’s
not fun anymore because it is my work.”
That work for Antoine is the operation of
poker games every Monday, Wednesday
and Friday night beginning at 7 p.m. I’ve
even visited a place where certain notables
of the community were playing in a gambl
ing set-up. He provides food and drink
and cashes their checks.
“WE KEEP THE games all on a cash
basis,” he says.
And sometimes that figure has run up to
$100,000 in total money. For his services,
Antoine takes a cut of the pot.
Everyone is happy.
The gamblers have a place to play, An
toine earns $15,000 to $20,000 a year and
it is all made to look very legal. But An
toine knows better. “Anytime gambling
gets big,” he says, “there will be organized
crime and the only way to keep it out is to
have honest law enforcement and stop
grafting. ”
ANTOINE CLAIMS he is just one of
about 30 individuals who make a living or
at least a profit from illegal gambling in
Bryan-College Station. There are the
bookies, those who organize the card
games and others who run dice layouts.
These professionals accommodate the reg
ular gamblers here. Antoine estimates
there are at least 1,000 of them.
He says, “Open-limit,” (any amount
wagered), “Force-In-Blind,” and “Hold
’em High” are the most popular among the
estimated 75 games that take place every
night. They range from dollar-limit to
high-stakes games.
Fifteen of these are “good games” with
pots of $25,000 or more. And the players
fit the stakes.
“WE HAVE THE best poker player
I’ve ever seen living right here in Bryan,”
Antoine says. “He is a psychological
player, great, but a poor money manager.
I’ve seen him win big over a period of a
couple of months and then drop a bundle
in a couple of weeks. When the cards are
going bad, you just have to lay off. ”
Popular among the three dice layouts
are the “do or don’t” tables and the regular
crap games. Large sums of money have
also been known to change hands at these
gatherings.
Other forms of illegal gambling that
occur occasionally are the big blow-outs
and fish fries given by local businesses.
The purpose is to bring employees and
business associates together for a good
time, including gambling.
GENERAL
THOSE WHO GAMBLE IN SOME FORM
61
OR AT SOME TIME IN THEIR LIFE
68
ONLY BET WITH FRIEND OR COWORKERS
II
PARTICIPATE IN ONE FORM OF ILLEGAL OR LEGAL
GAMBLING 48
MALE
AMERICAN MEN WHO GAMBLE
68
FEMALE
WOMEN
S5
RACE
WHITE POPULATION
62
NON-WHITES
S2
{BLACKS GAMBLE LEAST OF ALL MINORITIES)
SCHOOL
LESS THAN HIGH-SCHOOL EDUCATION
41
COMPLETION OF COLLEGE
79
REGION
RELIGION
ETHNIC
AGE
NORTHEAST
80 %
SOUTH
40
PROTESTANT
54
EAST EUROPEANS
81%
JEWS
77
JEWS
77
CATHOLICS
80
ITALIANS
77
OVER es
23
45 TO 64
60
25 TO 44
69
18 TO 24
73
In studying the attitudes and the behavior of the American gambler, the
University of Michigan conducted a survey in 1975 interviewing over
2,000 people across the country. Above are listed some of the outstanding
statistics and characteristics.