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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 11, 1982)
you tied 'he Ail The Battalion Serving the University community 75 No. 185 USPS 045360 12 Pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, August 11, 1982 an suspected of 22 murders United Press International ilOUSTON — A state district Tuesday accepted the bar- Jned guilty plea of a city bus mecha- iic on a burglary charge and dis used the man may be involved in 22 yings in two states and Canada. [“I have been told we may be talking Vitas many as 22 (murders),” State iistrict Judge Doug Shaver said, j He said he was informed in con versations with prosecutors that the ipected slayings spanned a 10-year pod. Prosecutor Irajones said dur ing the hearing Watts was a suspect in deaths which occured in Windsor, Ontario; Detroit, Kalamazoo and Ann Arbor, Mich., and Houston, Au stin and Galveston. Shaver postponed sentencing of Coral Eugene Watts, 28, to see if the man kept his promise and led police to burial sites in Houston as he prom ised them. Watts, who police say moved to Houston from Ann Arbor a year ago, took police late Monday to a vacant lot where the decomposed body of a young woman was found, but public ity of the grisly find caused homicide detectives to fear he would not help them further. Shaver accepted the bargain plea to a charge of burglary of an apartment with the intent to commit murder. The agreement called for dismissal of all other charges in the May 23 inci dent, and the agreement included a promise of no further prosecution in Houston. Watts was to go on trial in the attempted kidnapping, burglary and attempted capital murder in the attack on a 20-year-old woman and her roommate May 23, Harris County District Attorney John Holmes said. In the May 23 case, Watts allegedly abducted a woman, forced her back into her apartment, bound her with coat-hanger wire, then tried to drown her roommate in a bathtub. The bound woman broke free and gave an alarm. Watts fled. Holmes said Watts was offered a plea bargain sentence of 60 years in prison in the case in exchange for help solving a number of other kill ings. Holmes said Watts confessed to nine killings. Holmes said the cases had baffled police. “It’s because the traditional mo tives are not there. It is not people he knew. It is just cold, calculated kill ing,” Holmes said. He said the victims were selected at random. All the killings took place on Saturdays and Sundays and all the victims were in their late teens or early 20s. But Holmes said it appeared none of the victims was sexually attacked. Holmes said that whene Watts moved from Michigan to Houston in 1981 Michigan authorities told local police to keep watch on him, and “a homicide detective has had him under surveillance for more than a year.” Ann Arbor, Mich., tried to ques tion Watts, after his arrest in the Houston case, about the so-called “Sunday morning slasher” killings, Holmes said. Watts refused to coop erate. Investigation Monroe’s death started ;for dboo 3 you ]h Sept United Press International LOS ANGELES — New informa- n about Marilyn Monroe’s death $ prompted the district attorney’s st investigation into whether her ugoverdose was self-inflicted and entually could include an ex- imation of her body, officials say. "For us, this is something of a sh matter and we’re going to look it in that manner,” District Attor- yjohn Van de Kamp said Tues- ly after announcing the investiga- m into Miss Monroe’s death Aug. 1962, which was ruled a suicide. “Twenty years have gone by and lot of people have written about ’’ Van de Kamp said, suggesting omanticized reports” should be fferentiated from those “with sub- mce in fact.” “Now seems like a good time,” he ded. Van de Kamp said he expects a ireshold inquiry” to take about 10 lys before it can be determined if full-scale criminal investigation” I warranted. I He said the investigation would insist of reviewing official records d questioning people quoted in cent news accounts to determine lie “veracity” of their statements. I He said an exhumation of Miss Monroe’s body would only come Btiite a ways down the line,” if at all. I “If there’s questions to be liswered that can be answered by tie records, we’ll do that right out. ■ further questions are raised, we’ll [ursue it,” Van De Kamp said. His announcement followed the unty Board of Supervisors’ unani- ious call for an investigation. Supervisor Mike Antonovich, ho spearheaded the drive, said the request for a more thorough look at the actress’ death in her West Los Angeles home stemmed directly from recent news events, including a seven-part series in the New York Post. The motion cited statements by former coroner’s investigator Lionel Grandison who reportedly said he was coerced into signing Miss Monroe’s death certificate, re ports that Miss Monroe’s diary was missing from the coroner’s office two days after it was brought in and reports the coroner’s investigation into Miss Monroe’s death was in complete. Last week, Milo Speriglio, a pri vate detective, called a news confer ence and offered $10,000 for the actress’ red diary, claiming it will prove his theory she was killed by a “dissident faction of the CIA” to protect secrets revealed to her by Robert Kennedy. Speriglio, who based much of his theory on statements allegedly made by Grandison, claims Miss Monroe threatened to reveal CIA plots to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro after Kennedy, then attorney general, refused to marry her. The supervisors’ motion asked Van de Kamp to refer the matter to the grand jury “if any or all charges are substantiated.” The district attorney said the alle gations were “intriguing and very titillating” but refused to venture a guess on their truthfulness. “I’ll be interested to see what the records say about it,” Van de Kamp said, adding the passage of time since Miss Monroe’s death could hamper the investigation. Man arrested in brutal case Five slain in Fort Worth United Press International FORT WORTH — Police in Wichi ta, Kan., today arrested a man car rying identification belonging to one of the victims in the five gruesome slayings in a “usually quiet” suburb. The man, who was carrying a re volver, was held on a weapons charge and Fort Worth police early today were headed for Wichita, police said. Wichita Police Capt. Rick Easter said the man, about 25, carried three sets of identification, including at least one belonging to one of the vic tims slain in Fort Worth. The man was asleep in a car parked behind a church, he said. Fort Worth police had no motive in the bloody murders. Police discovered the four stabbing victims while investigating the slaying and sexual mutilation of Rickey Lee Bryant, 31, whose body was disco vered by his mother when she stop ped in after he failed to answer his telephone. He had been decapitated, cas trated and stabbed repeatedly, a spokesman for the Tarrant Count Medical Examiner’s office said. Autopsy reports were expected today. Police said they do not know of any relationship between the victims other than they were neighbors. But McEntire said the man living alone probably was the target in a murder plot and the other four were bystan ders. Police refused to release the identi ties of the victims. The four found with their throats cut in the second house were described only as a man in his mid-20s, a woman in her 40s, a woman in her late teens or early 20s and a boy about 10 or 11 years old. “We’re assuming they are all in the same family,” said Sgt. R.M. Beckrich. The two homes were near the southern edge of the Fort Worth sub urb of Lake Worth, about 75 yards from the street down a winding dirt road. Few homes dot the heavily wooded area with most from 200 to 300 yards apart and no other homes use the dirt drive. Residents George and Mavis McMurry described the area as “usually quiet,” although on occasion they heard “noises and loud music” generating from the homes where the bodies were discovered. “I can tell you one thing, we’re going to keep the lights on at the house tonight,” McMurry said. Police said they went to the second home to ask neighbors if they had seen anything and found the four other bodies. Of the four found in the second house, the older woman and man were found in the back of the home. She was in a pink gown and the man was fully clothed. The younger woman was found nude in a bedroom and the boy, clad only in his under wear, was found in another bedroom. None had been sexually mutilated, police said. Advisors tell CS to grow south 'olice release drawing if suspected rapist A composite drawing of a suspect [the Aug. 7 rape of a Texas A&M nployee was released Tuesday by |e University Police. The suspect is believed to be a bite male, 5 feet 11 inches tall, in his Irly 20s, 150 pounds, with wavy lown hair, brown eyes, slender to (edium build and a dark sun tan. He ; last seen wearing a light T-shirt, lue jeans and soft shoes in the jleberg Center. The rape occurred between 5:40 hd 6 p.m. Saturday in a restroom on the fourth floor of the Kleberg Build ing, Detective Bill Wade said. Wade said that in an effort to dis courage her attacker, the victim told the attacker that her husband was studying on the first floor of the building. Her husband, a Texas A&M University student, was actually studying in the Zachry Engineering Center. Wade said police searched the en tire building after the attack was re ported, but found no one. by Terry Duran Battalion Staff The best direction for College Sta tion’s growth until the year 2000 is southward, a development consulting team advised citizens and city officials Tuesday night. At a joint public hearing of College Station’s City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission, a spokes man for the team presented pros and cons of development to the south, east and west of the present city limits. Samuel L. Wyse III, a Richardson development consultant, presented a preliminary report analyzing the best direction for the expansion of College Station. He said southward expansion is the most advantageous because it is the easiest to supply with water, sewer and utilities, has good auto access and will be near the proposed College Sta tion industrial park. Crossing Carter’s Creek and prob lems in supplying water make east ward expansion difficult, and prob lems would occur in supplying any westward growth with sewage service. Wyse said the current College Sta tion population is between 40,000 and 42,000. Wyse said at the turn of the century there may be up to 75,000 College Station citizens, with about 56,000 living in the current city limits. The expansion recommended by Wyse and Wayne W. Snyder, a Fort Worth development consultant, would extend the city limits about 1.5 miles, to the Lick Creek area, which is about two miles south of the Highway 6 and Texas Avenue junction. Wyse said the growth area will probably be predominantly residen tial. Planning consultants outlined their are (from left) College Station Mayor Gary recommendations for city growth to the year Halter and city councilmen Alvin Prouse, Tony 2000 at the combined City Council and Jones and Bob Runnels. Planning and Zoning Board hearing. Listening “The development out there is probably going to be very much like Southwood Valley — single family re sidences with some medium density residences, which means duplexes, townhouses and the like.” Wyse said the majority of apart ment development will be further into town. Wyse added that the character, or plan, of the city in the year 2000 will probably be the same as it is now. Col lege Station is basically organized so that most consumers’ needs are satis fied at small commercial centers or at scattered complexes, rather than at a highly centralized development. “With the type of compact and orderly development we expect, the character of the city with a larger population should remain very much the same as now,” Wyse said. College Station residents who appeared at the public hearing said they were worried about high-density development. Some citizens lobbied for their own growth plan and others expressed concern about a lack of opportunity for public comment. However, explanation by city coun cil and planning and zoning commis sion members appeared sufficient and a second public hearing on the final version of the accepted plan will be held at the city council’s Aug. 26 regular meeting. 1 ) izza. izza. -ry. :e on wings part of cause Potomac air crash studied .j United Press International WASHINGTON — A federal safe- board staff reported Tuesday that lilure to use engine anti-icing and ie decision to fly with ice and snow on the wings as a probable cause of jjanuary’s deadly Air Florida crash. As the National Transportation iafety Board opened its final chapter |n Flight 90 — a Boeing 737 that fashed into the ice-covered Potomac ver Jan. 13, killing 78 people — ard chairman James Burnett was arply critical of a Federal Aviation dministration study on aircraft de- cing procedures. In addition to the failure of Flight lO’s crew to use an engine anti-icing lystem and the decision to takeoff with ice and snow on the wings, the staff report cited the 49-minute delay between the plane’s last de-icing and takeoff; the inherent tendency of the 737 to “pitch up” or lift its nose on takeoff with even small amounts of ice or snow on the wings; and the limited winter flying experience of the flight crew. The board was discussing the staffs 200 pages of conclusions dur ing its all-day session, and later will vote on what it believes to be the “probable cause” of the disaster. Burnett said the previous testi mony of an FAA official in charge of the de-icing research project “deeply disturbed” him because it “revealed his project was inadequate and may be in existence more on paper than in reality.” Member Francis McAdams agreed, saying there was a “serious lack of knowledge as to precisely what the quality of these (de-icing) fluids were and to what the best methods use should be.” During ice or snow conditions, planes must be de-iced with either hot water or a solution containing ethylene glycol. Air Florida Flight 90 was bound from Washington National Airport for Tampa, Fla., with a crew of 5 and 74 passengers. Five people on the E lane survived the crash, which also illed four people on the commuter- clogged bridge the plane hit during rush hour. Funeral for Estes conducted today The funeral for Charles E. Estes, head of the Department of Architecture at Texas A&M since 1979, was held at 11 a.m. today at St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Bryan Estes died Monday afternoon at a Bryan hospital after a series of heart attacks within the past month. He was 53. Estes, a native of Houston, re ceived his bachelor’s and master’s '.degrees from Texas A&M. Estes began his career in 1949 with Caudill Rowlett Scott, Inc. of Houston. He then joined the Texas A&M faculty as an assistant profes sor in 1967 and was promoted to associate professor in 1969. In 1970, he returned to Caudill Rowlett Scott, Inc., and returned to the Uni versity in 1979 as a professor and department head. He was past president of the Bra zos Chapter of the American Insti tute of Architects, a member of the Texas Society of Architects and a veteran of the Korean War. Memorial contributions can be made to St. Andrews Episcopal Church and the Department of Architecture. Survivors include his wife, Kay Smith Estes of College Station; a daughter Leah Katherine Estes of Houston; three sons, Charles Jeff Estes and Robert Morgan Estes, both of College Station and Mathew Guy Estes of Houston; his mother, Alma Estes and a brother Alfred Estes Jr., both of Houston, inside Classified 4 National 7 Opinions 2 Sports 11 State 3 Whatsup 9 forecast Mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of rain; high in the low 90s; low in the mid-70s.