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Vol. 72 No. 67
12 Pages
Thursday, December 7, 1978
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Murderer in our
midst
He may look harmless enough,
but this man has “murdered”
more than 50 people in his
career. By the way, his career
involves both teaching English at
Texas A&M and writing mystery
stories. See page 8.
lls comings
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6 join to support
European currency
United Press International
BRUSSELS, Belgium — Hoping to
shield themselves from the turmoil caused
by the falling dollar, six nations have set up
a European Monetary System to support
their currencies against fluctuating ex
change rates.
But the group that announced creation of
the monetary system Tuesday failed to per-
susade England, Italy and Ireland to join.
The members initially include West
Germany, France, Belgium, the Nether
lands, Luxembourg and Denmark.
“The fact that only six of us have agreed
today should not hide the importance of the
accord, ” said Belgian Premier Paul Vanden
Boeynants, after the two-day Common
Market summit. “This will create an impor
tant monetary zone which will play a role in
relations with the dollar. ”
West German Chancellor Helmut
Schmidt — who with French President
Valery Giscard D’Estaing was one of the
main architects of the new monetary
alignment — said the scheme would help
“stabilize exchange rates around the world”
and would not threaten the dollar.
Roy Jenkins, president of the Common
Market commission, will travel to Wash
ington in two weeks to explain the system,
which he also said “is in no way harmful to
the dollar.”
Giscard said the new system will “create
confidence, and with confidence there will
be investments — this is a condition for
increasing employment.”
Under the system, members will keep
their currencies locked tightly together and
pool part of their reserves to form a $33
billion support fund, more than President
Carter earmarked last month to back the
dollar.
The European Monetary System will re
place the present European “snake,” in
which the linked currencies float jointly
against the dollar. Other European coun
tries, such as Norway, will be invited to
become associated members of the system
even though they do not belong to the
Common Market.
Britain also said it would try to keep the
pound within the 2.25 percent up-or-down
margin for fluctuation allowed currencies
within the new monetary system, even
though it did not immediately intend to
join.
Italian Premier Giulio Andreotti and
Irish Prime Minister Jack Lynch said they
will announce next week whether they will
join.
1,800 diplomas ready
The Unicorn —a unique ship and trip
jTwenty-one Texas A&M University students have a
(chance to sail on the Unicorn during Spring Break.
The sailing vessel was used in the television movie
(“Roots. The Memorial Student Center Travel
[Committee is sponsoring the seven-day Florida Keys
cruise. All interested students are asked to sign up
after the Christmas holidays at the MSC Travel
Committee booth. For a closer description of the
vessel and the trip, please turn to page 3.
By CLAY WEBER
Battalion Reporter
Almost 1,800 Texas A&M University
graduate students and graduationg seniors
will receive their diplomas in commence
ment exercises in G. Rollie White Col
iseum. Ceremonies will begin at 7:30 p.m.
Friday and 9 a.m. Saturday.
Commisioning ceremonies for the Corps
of Cadet seniors entering the military serv
ice will be held Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in G.
Rollie White.
Speakers for the two ceremonies will in
clude University President Jarvis E. Miller
and University Chancellor Jack K.
Williams.
Guest speakers at the events will be
Robert R. Herring, chief executive officer
and chairman of the board of the Houston
Natural Gas Corporation and Dr. Herbert
H. Reynolds, executive vice-president and
chief operating officer of Baylor University.
Lt. James V. Hartinger, commander of
the 12th Air Force at Bergstrom Air Force
Base in Austin, will address Corps seniors
during the commisioning ceremonies
Saturday.
Herring will address candidates for
graduate degrees from all colleges and can
didates for undergraduate degrees from the
colleges of Architecture, Geosciences, En
gineering, Science and Veterinary
Medicine during the Friday evening cere
monies.
Herring, a 1941 graduate of Texas A&M
in economics, served in the Air Force dur
ing World War II. He flew 60 combat
missions and was awarded the Silver Star,
the Legion of Merit and the Air Medal with
clusters. He has held high level positions
with the Houston Pipe Line Company and
the Bailey Gas Transmission, Inc.
Reynolds will address candidates for un
dergraduate degrees from the colleges of
Agriculture, Business Administration,
Education and Liberal Arts as well as for
Moody College during the Saturday morn
ing ceremonies.
Reynolds has degrees from Trinity and
Baylor Universities. He was Chief of Psy
chology and Director of Research of the
Aeromedical Laborotory at Holloman Air
Force Base in New Mexico and was also
appointed First Commander and Director
of the Air Force Human Resources
Laborotory in San Antonio.
Hartinger has served in the armed forces
since 1943 with service in both the Army
and the Air Force. He was graduated from
West Point in 1949 and received a masters
degree in Business Administration from
George Washington University in 1963.
He served in Germany and Korea, and re
ceived the Distinguished Service Medal,
the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air
Force Commendation Medal and the Air
Force Medal with with Oak Leaf Clusters.
In 1966 and 1967, he served in Vietnam and
was names to his present post this year.
estimony restricted on Davis’s wife
United Press International
BfOUSTON — Defense attorney
lhard “Racehorse” Haynes and the pres-
fg judge in the T. Cullen Davis trial
Igree about whether the defendant’s es-
hged wife, Priscilla, should be required
|ell jurors about her extramarital affairs.
Jistrict Judge Wallace Moore curtailed
pestioning on the topic during Mrs.
is’testimony Monday and Tuesday be-
the jury, then stopped Haynes from
lewing the interrogation late Tuesday
perjurors had been excused,
faynes had began a series of questions
bbing her travels with former boyfriend
IT, Rufner when prosecutor Tolly Wil-
on protested the interrogation was irrele-
Jit and unfair, even with jurors absent.
11 llfl understand you correctly you think
I Ou can (also) ask these questions of this
[jtness before this jury,” Moore said,
i Yes I do, your honor,” Haynes replied.
('Well, you can’t. You’re just trying to
pw specific acts of misconduct,” Moore
adjourning court until today when
posing attorneys may continue their ar-
ments.
faynes’ strategy was to persuade jurors
Iconsider Mrs. Davis’ testimony in terms
of her lifestyle and sexual escapades during
the six years she lived with Davis, who is on
trial for conspiring to have their divorce
judge slain.
Mrs. Davis was prohibited from testify
ing for the prosecution and was sub
poenaed as a defense witness because
Davis’ attorneys consider her vulnerable
and integral to their counter-conspiracy
theory.
Tuesday she heard the tape of an Aug. 18
conversation in which her husband and
FBI informant David McCrory discussed a
fee to have her killed.
McCroiy: There’s something I need to
ask you. How much money is he going to
get if he gets Priscilla? I mean you got,
man, I’ve got to tell him something. If you
want the b dead then, uh, you got to
tell me how much it, you, you know. I
can’t, uh, I mean he says he can do ‘em all,.
you know.
Davis: One at a time.
McCrory: I know, but tell me some
thing.
Davis: Uh, I’ll have to think on that one.
Mrs. Davis’ eyes darted and rolled as the
tape played and sometimes glanced at her
husband who returned her stare. After
wards she told reporters: “Cullen has first
hand knowledge of how hard I am to kill. ”
Mrs. Davis, estranged from the mil
lionaire since 1974, previously has iden
tified him as the attacker who shot and
wounded her in their 19,000 square foot
• home in August 1976. He has not been
tried on that charge. Mrs. Davis’ daughter
and boyfriend were killed in that shooting
outburst.
Mrs. Davis, 37, testified she neither con
spired nor forced Davis, 45, to say anything
heard by jurors on the secretly recorded
tape.
Haynes has suggested through question
ing that the couple’s bitter, unresolved di
vorce suit was the foundation for a conspi
racy among Priscilla and her friends to
entrap Davis into appearing to participate
in a plot to have her killed.
Mrs. Davis said she was sympathetic to
the persons suggested by Haynes as her
coconspirators because of the stigma placed
on them and the pressure forced into their
lives.
One of those persons. Fort Worth karate
school owner Pat Burleson, followed her to
the witness stand and corroborated state
ments made by McCrory and Mrs. Davis
about their relationships, both personal
and business.
McCrory identified Burleson as the man
he contacted when he wanted to relate his
allegations of a Davis-originated murder-
for-hire plot and said Burleson directed
him to a meeting with an FBI agent.
Somerville park
closed for face lift
By CHARLES HARPER
Battalion Reporter
For folks who enjoy visiting Welch Park
at Lake Somerville, there’s some good
news and some bad news. The bad news is
that the park, located on a peninsula near
the dam, will be closed until about the
middle of May. The good news is that the
park will be a nicer place to visit, after
reopening.
All traffic to the park has been restricted
to construction vehicles. Repairs and
modifications to road surfaces in the park
will make the facility inaccessible to
would-be visitors.
According to Guy Hopson, reservoir
manager at the U.S. Army Corps of Engi
neers office at Lake Somerville, the roads
have been damaged by unusually high
water at peak levels of the lake.
“Most of the damage is due to the four to
six weeks when the lake was about nine feet
above normal last winter,” Hopson said.
“Then the people who drove around our
barricades on the roads didn’t help the
condition of the surface, either.”
Although roads have been in poor, and
even hazardous conditions, Hopson says
that so far, no accidents have taken place
due to the poor conditions.
“We’ve had a number of accidents out
there,” said Hopson. “I don’t think that the
road condition has caused any, however. ”
According to the administrator, now is a
good time for the work being done, since
visitation to the park is at its lowest point.
Hopson said most of the work should be
completed during the current off-season,
and the park opened again before summer.
“It’s hoped that completion of the project
will be much sooner than scheduled,”
Hopson said. “We should be finished be
fore the contract specifies, although the
weather has a lot to do with it. So far, we’ve
had no work stoppage due to the weather,
even with the rain we’ve had.”
Plans for the project include raising a
one-half-mile section of the existing road
about two feet, constructing new roads to
the restrooms in the park, and enlarging
the parking area at the boat ramp.
Cost of the project is an estimated
$350,000. Construction of the project is
being done by Young Brothers Construc
tion Company, based in Waco.
This winter’s move by the park adminis
tration has been in the works for about a
year, Hopson said.
Advice from expert
Tips to keep tree trim
r
Sap
A droopy Christmas tree is no fun.
The color, smell and beauty of a traditional tree can add to the enjoyment of
Yuletide.
Everett Janne, landscape horticulturist with the Texas Agicultural Extension
Service, offers some tips on selecting a tree and keeping it in the best possible
condition:
— Choose the tree early. Most Christmas trees are cut four or five weeks before
they arrive on the lot. The sooner the tree is in water at home, the better.
— Select a full, dense tree that is evenly branched. The branches should be
firm and flexible. Shake the branches before buying to see if needles fall. Fresh,
healthy Yule trees do not drop their needles.
— Select a tree with good green color. This indicates that the choice is fresh,
has good needle retention, fragrance, fire resistance and longer holiday beauty.
— After selecting the tree, saw off the lower two inches of the trunk. This will
help the tree absorb water, which will insure freshness and lasting qualities.
— Stand the tree in water in a cool location outside until trimming. Then, place
it in a tree stand that holds water and keep it filled during the holiday season.
— Place the tree in the coolest location in the house, away from an open
fireplace, radiators or heaters.
“While it might seem a great waste to cut down thousands of trees every year
just to have something to hand ornaments on at Christmas, we really should not
criticize this practice,” says Janne.
“The majority of trees cut for Christmas are grown specifically for that purpose
on commercial Christmas tree farms. They are just as much a crop as fruits and
vegetables. In addition, we can be sure that, like fruits and vegetables, these trees
are carefully replanted for future harvests.”