The Battalion
Vol. 73 No. 36
12 Pages
Monday, October 22, 1979
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
Cable car accident
kills 1 at State Fair
Volverint'P
lorado
gotten Ik■
Pablo Cruise-ing
David Jenkins, lead vocalist and guitarist for Pablo
Cruise, reflects the emotions of a song as he per
forms at Texas A&M University. Most of the music
the group played Saturday night in G. Rollie White
Coliseum ran the rock gamut, from soft to dow
nright hard and loud, and the audience stomped for
more. See the review, page 3.
Battalion photo by Ken Herrera
United Press International
DALLAS — A gondola car moving on a
cable 80 feet above the packed midway at
the State Fair of Texas hung up on a tower
Sunday and was hit from behind by
another car, knocking both loose and send
ing them crashing down on tent-top
booths below, killing one and injuring 15
others.
The accident forced officials to close the
fair grounds immediately while ambu
lances moved onto the midway to rush
away the injured and fire department re
scue crews began maneuvering “cherry
pickers” to lift down other persons
stranded when the workers brought
“Swiss Sky Ride’ to a stop.
The accident occurred while 40 mph
winds were buffeting the ride and officials
initially thought the gusts had knocked the
cars together. Those officials said later,
however, that although the gondolas were
rocking back and forth, the accident was
caused by the one hanging up on the
tower.
“I heard something that sounded like a
real loud drum,’’ said a woman operating
one of the concession stands. “Then one of
(the gondolas) crashed down next door.
“I got my shoes on and ran out —- and
then the other one landed right on top of
my place.’
The first gondola smashed through the
canvas tent and onto the black asphalt
midway just a few feet from where
thousands of fairgoers were making their
rounds. The second car fell a few feet be
hind the first one but did not go through
the canvas top.
The cars fell at about the midpoint of the
tramway and near the Cotton Bowl
Stadium. The fair, which annually hosts up
to 3 million people and calls itself the
largest state fair in the nation, was in its
final day when the accident occurred.
The dead man was identified as Fred
Millard, 41, of Dallas, who was riding with
his wife and two daughters in the first
gondola car. Millard died at Parkland
Memorial Hospital about two hours after
the accident. His wife Sandra, 35, and two
daughters, Roxanna, 9, and Renee, 8,
were in good to fair condition.
Parkland hospital’s assistant adminis
trator, Kent Norman, said 14 persons in
jured in the gondola accident were admit
ted there and a 15th person, a Dallas fire
man who received a broken leg when he
was hit by a rescue unit, also was admit
ted.
“Most of the injuries are head and
back,” he said. “Most of them aren’t too
serious. There’s just the one (in serious
condition). A lot of them have cuts and
bruises. ”
Two others injured on the ground were
treated at Baylor Medical Center with
cuts. A spokesman there said the injuries
were “not too bad.’’
After the injured were moved away, fire
department trucks with “cherry pickers”
moved from gondola to gondola to lift
down those stranded on the ride. The
crowd pushing in around the, trucks
applauded each time a gondola door
swung open and its occupants crawled out
to the waiting firemen.
While persons waited to be rescued a
band played at one end of the tramway.
Near where the accident occurred the
huge “Big Tex,” a 30-foot statue of a cow
boy that booms messages to fairgoers, ap
pealed for calm.
The ride was built by the same com
pany, Von Roll of Switzerland, that made a
gondola ride at Six Flags Over Mid-
America in St. Louis on which three per
sons were killed in 1978. A three-month
investigation determined that accident
was caused by the mechanical failure of a
4-inch nylon bushing. That car plunged
about 75 feet to the ground, killing two
young girls and their 25-year-old uncle.
No one on the ground was injured.
Officals at the Texas State Fair said an
investigation of the accident would begin
immediately.
7 freshmen campaigning for Wednesday’s election
3 ittsburf!:!
oiindat k By ELLEN EIDELBACH
L Battalion Reporter
35, WaslBNj ne ty- seven students have filed to run
un D' for offices in the freshman elections, to be
er the'(held Wednesday from 9 a. m. to 6 p.m.
’ars spiai®The number of candidates represents an
ainst k Arease of about 49 percent from 1978.
’ornia MflPositions to be voted on are Class of’83
1 tough; president, vice president, secretary-
win treasurer, social secretary and student
38, Wy« government senators.
s has 0,1( BThere will be eight polling places. In
2 game order to vote, freshmen must bring their
student I.D. cards to one of the following
locations:
— main floor in the Memorial Student
Center
— in front of Sbisa Dining Hall
— Corp of Cadets Guard Room
—- Commons main desk area
— main floor in Zachry Engineering
Center
— Rudder Tower-MSC bus stop
— outside between the library and Har
rington Tower
— main floor in the Kleberg Animal and
in Bonfire cutting
mwomen take part
icordjfl*
will
Food Science Center (across the railroad
tracks).
Two of the polling places are different
from last year, said Bill Jentsch, election
commissioner for 1978-79.
This year’s election commissioner,
Bruce Russell, said the polling place at the
Reed McDonald bus stop was moved to
Zachry Engineering Center and the one at
the Commons bus istop was moved be
tween Harrington Tower and the Sterling
C. Evans Library.
Russell, who hopes for a better voter
turnout than last year, says he picked the
polling places by observing where the
biggest concentrations of people are.
He says the increased number of candi
dates may be due to class interest, extra
publicity and the cooperation of depart
ment heads in reading out memos con
cerning election filing dates (Oct. 3-10),
election date and available positions.
Unlike other classes, the freshman
senatorial positions represent the class at
large.
Glass officers are part of a class council
and are not connected with student gov
ernment.
Candidates qualified to run by paying a
$1 filing fee and meeting scholastic re
quirements. First-semester freshmeh who
aren’t on scholastic probation and those
with grade point ratios of 2.25 or better
were eligible.
Campaigning began Oct. 15 and will
continue until the run-off elections Oct.
31.
Each candidate may spend up to $75 on
campaign material and an additional $35 if
he participates in the run-off elections.
Freshman interested in meeting th^
candidates should come to “Meet the
“It’s for anyone who wants to meet the
candidates, because in the past, people
have complained that they don’t know who
Candidates Night” today at 7 p.m. in
Room 201 of the MSC.
they’re voting for,” Russell said.
He said that speeches would not be gi
ven, but candidates will post their answers
to the following questions:
— What qualifies you to be a leader of
the Class of ’83?
— Do you have any specific goals for
the Class of ’83?
The election commission, part of stu
dent government, is made up of one com
missioner and 11 election supervisors.
Russell says the group has spent three
weeks preparing for the election.
There will be one election supervisor
and two volunteer poll workers at each
poll throughout the day, he said.
SMUafl By ANGIE JONES
at the sat®' Battalion Reporter
indArksBFor the first time, women were allowed
ed reJ to work on the Bonfire cutting site Satur-
alldidKWy-
■ They were there as a result of a decision
By Dr. John J. Koldus, vice president for
piudent services. Koldus approved a rec-
[ommendation by the Texas A&M Univer-
1 sty Bonfire and Yell Leader Committee
/KS N women be allowed to work on the
SJoject.
ir footwB As a result of the decision, 25 women
tfrom Squadron 14 appeared at the cutting
redAi# site Saturday and Sunday prepared to take
oweari’M their share of the work,
il meetiiiK Georgia Hughes, senior member of
id shf ^Squadron 14, said she and the other
(women were shown to the cutting site
along with the men. “They’ve been really
Ipood to us,” she said of the men on the
—“^Icutting crews. “We haven’t tried to pick a
fight and neither have they.”
Past Bonfire cutting policies have pro
hibited women from cutting or carrying
out the trees used in building Bonfire.
However, the Bonfire work supervisors —
redpots -— let the women work this
weekend as long as they had a cutting
card, proof that they had attended a man
datory cutting class.
Redpot Sterling Price said the first cut
ting weekend went well, “There were no
accidents and no problems.” The women
worked from noon until 4:45 p.m. Satur
day and from 6 a.m. until 1 p.m. Sunday.
Hughes said they women will continue to
work at each of the remaining mandatory
cutting weekends.
Ron Hilton, area coordinator for the
Corps of Cadets and a committee
member, said he requested a meeting
which led to the proposal after some
women cadets did not receive cutting
cards upon completing the cutting class.
Exhumation opposed
by Oswald’s mother
6 Good bulV water fight
As the semester progresses, some Texas A&M University students are
finding it harder to concentrate on those sometimes monotonous assign
ments. Letting off steam becomes an absolute necessity. These Moore
and Davis-Gary hall residents partake in a little ‘good buir session by
throwing trashcans of water on each other. It may be cold and wet, but
it’s more fun than doing physics problems. Battalion photo by Sam Stroder
United Press International
FORT WORTH — The mother of Lee
Harvey Oswald — the man accused of kill
ing President John F. Kennedy — has
labeled as “asinine” a British author’s
‘theory that the body of a Soviet agent lies
in Oswald’s grave.
I Lawyer-author Michael Eddowes, who
visited the Oswald grave in Fort Worth
Saturday, claims there were two Oswalds
I- the real man who defected to Russia
ftnd a KGB imposter who returned to the
United States on June 13, 1962.
I “It’s an asinine theory, said Marguerite
ipswald Saturday in a radio interview with
Columbus, Ohio, radio station WCOL
from her Fort Worth home.
f Fingerprints taken of the man arrested
One week until
Q-drop deadline
Students have until next Monday to
|rop classes with no penalty.
A student’s record will show a “Q” for
[classes dropped through that day. Stu-
Jdents who drop a course after Monday will
Ireceive an “F” unless unusual circum-
Istances exist.
in Dallas after the assasination matched
Oswald’s Marine Corps fingerprint rec
ords, but Eddowes maintains the Soviets
may have infiltrated the FBI’s fingerprint
file system, or that the FBI may have
switched records “in the interests of na
tional security.”
The Dallas County medical examiner
has proposed that the remains in Oswald’s
grave be exhumed and re-examined to es
tablish positive identity. However, Tar
rant County officials in neighboring Fort
Worth have said they will not accede to
disinterment without a court order.
A spokesman for the Dallas County dis
trict attorney’s office has said there were
no plans to petitition for disinterment.
Mrs. Oswald, 72, said that exhumation
of the body would not help to determine
who killed President John F. Kennedy.
“You open that grave, and let’s just say
it’s not Lee Harvey Oswald, how . . . are
you going to prove who it is?’ she asked.
“There are some things that don’t jibe
and I think it is better to answer the ques
tions than to allow the speculation to con
tinue forever,” said county medical exam
iner Dr. Charles Petty.
Mrs. Oswald said she talked with her
son in jail on Nov. 23, 1963, the day after
Kennedy was shot. She emphasized that
the man she talked with was her son.
Eisenhower taped Oval Office talks
United Press International
HOUSTON — Dwight D. Eisenhower
installed and for more than five years of his
presidency used a secret Oval Office tap
ing system to record the conversations he
had with his staff, congressional leaders,
reporters and Vice President Richard Ni
xon, the Houston Chronicle reported in its
Sunday editions.
The widow of the Army Signal Corps
colonel who supervised the installation
said Eisenhower used a taping system
“you wouldn’t believe to record meetings
as frequently and commonplace as “every
time he blew his nose,” the newspaper
said in a copyrighted story.
“The existence of Eisenhower’s secret
Oval Office tapes was doubtless one of his
and his administration’s best kept secrets,”
said Francis L. Loewenheim, the Rice
University historian who authored the
story and who found transcripts of the
tapes at the Eisenhower Library in
Abilene, Kan.
Loewenheim said records showed
Eisenhower began recording meetings in
his office in October 1953 and continued
until at least December 1958.
Among those aware of the installation
and operation of the president’s recording
system, Loewenheim said, was John Fos
ter Dulles, who served as Eisenhower’s
secretary of state from January 1953 until
shortly before his death in 1959.
“Existence of the monitoring operation
was almost certainly also known to a
number of other top members of
Eisenhower’s White House staff, includ
ing Murray Snyder, then assistant press
secretary, James C. Hagerty, the presi
dent’s press secretary, later vice president
of ABC, and Maj. Gen. Wilton B. Persons,
deputy assistant to the president,” the
newspaper said.
“The transcripts of the tapes were gen
erally, if not invariably, prepared by the
president’s trusted personal secretary,
Ann C. Whitman.
‘Tough cookie’ dies in Nevada gas chamber
United Press International
CARSON CITY, Nev. — Jesse W.
Bishop, a smalltime criminal who bragged
about his life of fancy cars, beautiful
women and drugs, died in the Nevada
State Prison gas chamber early today, ful
filling a wish attorneys tried to deny him.
Bishop, condemned to death for slaying
a newlywed in a Las Vegas casino holdup,
maintained his bravado to the end.
His last meal of filet mignon evoked a
joking comment: “My compliments to the
cook.”
“He was a tough cookie,” Prison
Superintendent Rober Lippold told re
porters.
The execution came after, an endless
flurry of legal moves to save him — all
spurned by Bishop on the ground they
would only prolong the inevitable and
constituted cruel and unusual punish
ment.
He said he was ready to take his
punishment.
Bishop, who spent 20 of his 46 years
behind bars, wore a white shirt, prison
denim trousers and white socks into the
death chamber where he became the sec
ond person to be executed in the United
States this year. The first was John Spen-
kelink, who was electrocuted in Florida in
May.
The last time Nevada used its gas
chamber was nearly two decades ago.
In Las Vegas, District Judge James
Brennan rejected a last minute appeal by
the American Civil Liberties Union Satur
day to stay the execution on grounds
Nevada’s capital punishment law was un
constitutional.