un-off required
h student races
By KAREN WALLACE
Battalion Staff
or the five candidates for student
ly president it was a close race. For
two of them the race isn’t over yet. A
Bi-off election will be held between
Dawd Alders and Grant Swartzwel-
Rr next week.
■ Alders, a junior agricultural eco-
■mics major, received 31.3 percent
■ the votes and Swartz welder, a
liriior petroleum engineering major
eceived 27.6 percent.
jThe elections this year generally
went well except for a few minor
miblems — a low voter turnout and
■ controversy concerning the elegi-
of one of the candidates, said
^election commissioner Pat Wood.
jThe turnout was short of 6,000,”
Wood said. “It was a lot less than ex-
lened.”
pproximately 4,500 people had
led at the close of the polls Tuesday
and officials had predicted a similar
turnout Wednesday.
Although the results were ready
less than two hours after the polls
closed, the Judicial Board held the
official release while trying to decide
whether or not candidate Carla Proc
tor would be eligible, Wood said.
As of Wednesday night, the Board
had yet to decide if Proctor has
enough hours to run for class of ‘85
vice president.
“The computer programs and bal
lots were out an hour and a half after
the polls were closed,” Wood said.
“I’m mad at the (Judicial) Board for
making us wait so long.”
Another problem suffered by this
year’s election was the general lack of
candidates for open offices, Wood
said.
“I’m not sure if the interest is there
anymore,” he said.
Each office for the Class of‘86 had
only one person running and two liv
ing areas had no one running.
A unusual result of this lack of
interest was the 700 write-in votes.
“We will check their grades, their
living areas and their discipline prob
lems and if they check out, they got
the job,” Wood said. “I guess they did
it to get around paying the $3 filing
fee.”
The controversial Referendum
1(b), which will increase the student
center fee by $ 10 dollars over a three-
year period, passed with 68 percent of
the vote.
Other results included a run-off
election between Tom Urban, who re
ceived 23 percent of the vote, and Jim
Collins, who received 24 percent of
the vote, for vice president of acade
mic affairs.
Elected to the position of 1984-85
senior yell leaders were Randy Cook,
Kelly Joseph and Terry Hlavinka.
Vfef' ■
Co-Election Commissioner Teddy Dela Cruz
reads results from Tuesday and Wednesday’s
Photo by PETER ROCHA
elections to the gathered crowd outside the
Pavilion Wednesday night.
Junior yell leaders were Trey Yar
brough and Thomas Buford.
Brett Shine received 55 percent of
the vote to become vice president of
external affairs and Michael Kelley
received 56 percent to become vice
president of finance.
Randy Vickers is the new vice pre-
sdient for rules and regulations with
59 percent of the vote.
Stacey Roberts is the new Off-
Campus Aggies President.
Voting was fairly well spread out
between the four classes. The major
ity of voters were freshmen.
Texas A&M
Battalion
Serving the University community
fol 78 No. 123 CJSPS 0453110 20 pages in two sections
College Station, Texas
Thursday, March 29, 1984
A&M student to deliver
‘Candyman’s’ final plea
Blowing in the wind
Photo by BILL HUGHES
Vicki Younger, a senior wildlife and fisheries
science major from Allen, tries to fill out
her ballot for the student government
elections Wednesday. Wind gusts of 40 to
50 m.p.h. made the process difficult. See
related story page 7.
By CHRISTINE MALLON
Battalion Staff
A Texas A&M graduate student
who belonged to the same church as
death row prisoner “Candyman”
Ronald Clark O’Bryan will be in Au
stin today to deliver a letter from
O’Bryan to Gov. Mark White in hopes
of a 30-day stay of execution.
David Sefton, Aggie Class of ’80
and now completing his masters’ in
accounting here, said he was 17-years-
old in 1974 when O’Bryan was
charged with the fatal cyanide-
poisoning death of his son.
Sefton knew O’Bryan through
Sunday school and social functions at
Pasadena’s Second Baptist Church.
Sefton said he and O’Bryan worked
together at church activities, especial
ly those involving young children.
“Ron loved kids, there’s no way
he’d kill one — especially his own,” he
said.
He is convinced an injustice is being
done in O’Bryan’s case.
Everytime he reads the newspaper,
he said, all the facts concerning the
insurance policy that O’Bryan sup
posedly took out immediately before
the death of his son are incorrect.
“Ron did not take the policy out
days before Timmy’s death,” he said.
“Court testimony shows the policy was
originally taken out in 1971 and was
frequently updated.”
In the letter to White, O’Bryan asks
the governor for a minimum 30-day
stay to allow him and his attorneys
time to prepare a commutation — in
his case, a plea for a life sentence in
stead of death by lethal injection he is
scheduled to face Saturday.
In the letter, O’Bryan says a sent
ence of life imprisonment would
“allow me to continue my fight for the
truth in the death of my son, my un
just conviction and the destruction of
my family unit.”
Sefton said he has talked to official
in the governor’s office who say no
thing more can be done because
O’Bryan wants to die.
“He says he’s ready to die, not want
ing to die — there’s a big difference,”
Sefton said.
Sefton said he believes in the justice
system and, he said, he thinks if one
person can make an impact, he in
tends to be that person.
Sefton said he remembers going to
Timmy O’Bryan’s funeral and hug
ging the O’Bryans and their five-year-
old daughter.
Something very shaky went on be
fore O’Bryan was charged with the
murder, he said, the police and detec
tives put O’Bryan and his wife in sepa
rate rooms and tried to convince both
of them that the other spouse was
guilty of the murder.
The rest is history — after talking
to police, Daynene O’Bryan never
spoke to her husband again and
hasn’t seen him since the 1974 trial.
“There’s a serious injustice fixin’ to
be done here,” Sefton said.
18 killed, 94 wounded in Beirut fighting
United Press International
^BEIRUT, Lebanon — Moslem and
ristian militias bombarded re-
ntial areas across Beirut Wednes-
, killing 18 people and wounding
the worst outbreak of civil war
nee the collapse of peace talks in
witzerland a week ago.
Two television journalists working
oftheUPITN television news agency
were killed by shells that exploded
Dray a few yards away as they were
pming the violence near the Sabra
’alestinian refugee camp.
Mortar and rocket fired rained
n on streets and buildings, catch-
many residents by surprise and
dnving thousands into bomb shelters
oss the city.
|Beirut state radio appealed for
llood donations and warned resi
dents to keep off the streets and in
basements and shelters.
Druze Moslem radio said 13 peo
ple were killed and 72 wounded in
Moslem west Beirut. The American
University Hospital in west Beirut
said nine dead and 39 wounded were
brought to its emergency room.
The Christian Voice of Lebanon
radio read the names of 22 people
wounded in Christian east Beirut.
Three Druze Moslem fighters were
killed in fighting in the mountains
east of the capital, security sources
said.
A spokesman for UPITN identi
fied the two journalists killed as
cameraman Hani Tah and soundman
Mohammed Temssah, both
Lebanese. Three journalists for fore
ign news organizations have been kil
led since the latest round of civil strife
erupted in August.
Clark Todd, a reporter for a Cana
dian television network, was killed by
shrapnel in September. A fourth,
Jeremy Levin, Beirut bureau chief of
the Cable News Network in the Un
ited States, disappeared earler this
month and has not been found.
It was the worst outbreak of war
fare between Lebanon’s warring
Christian and Moslem factions since
peace talks in Lausanne, Switzerland,
broke down March 20.
The bombardment raised fears of
all-out civil war once the withdrawal
of French peace-keeping troops from
Beirut is completed Saturday. The
militias had agreed not to fight for
positions vacated by the French.
The militias, who exchanged inter
mittent shellfire during the morning
across the “Green Line” dividing
Christian east from the Moslem west
Beirut, intensified the attack for two
hours during the afternoon.
The hardest hit areas included
Christian Ashrafiyeh, Hadath and
Ain Rummaneh and the Moslem
neighborhoods of Mazraa, Sanayeh,
Manara and the southern suburbs of
the city, security sources said.
A bomb exploded earlier in an
empty classroom of the American
University of Beirut, not far from
where AUB President Malcolm Kerr
was assassinated in January. There
were neither casualties nor any appa
rent motive, a university spokesman
said.
Heavy fighting was reported in the
mountains east of Beirut, where Mos
lems shelled the Lebanese Army
stronghold at Souk el Gharb and the
strategically located Christian village
of Bikfaya, where President Amin
Gemayel has a home.
Druze Moslem radio accused
Christian militias of starting the
Beirut shelling while the Christian
Voice of Lebanon said Shiite Moslems
and communists provoked the ex
change.
The “Lebanese Forces” militia
Tuesday condemned Moslem shell
ing of Christian neighborhoods and
threatened to retaliate in kind.
The flareup provided a hot wel
come for 40 French military observers
assigned to monitor a Beirut ceasefire
once the French peace-keeping force
withdrawal is completed Saturday.
The observers arrived in civilian
clothes at French military headquar
ters to await assignment by a ceasefire
committee made up of the warring
factions, a spokesman said. The cease
fire was negotiated during this
month’s unsuccessful peace confer
ence in Switzerland.
The 1,250-member French force
in Beirut had been reduced by
Wednesday to about 800 soldiers, sta
tioned mainly at their headquarters in
the Foret des Pins park along the
Green Line.
Sources said the troops would turn
over the National Museum crossing
between east and west Beirut, the only
one still open, to government security
forces Thursday. The militias agreed
this week not to fight over Green Line
territory vacated by the French.
Bl joining FDA investigation
f Girl Scout cookie tampering
In Today’s Battalion
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The FBI
Jednesday joined the Food and
Djug Administration in a nationwide
Wstigation of apparent malicious
Upering with Girl Scout cookies.
■ “We’re currently investigating ab
out 30 reports of metal objects found
■Girl Scout cookies in Colorado, Vir-
phia, Nebraska, Kentucky, Indiana,
pnois,Ohio, New Jersey and Minne-
Ra,” FDA spokesman Jim Greene
Ed. “Two of the incidents were dis-
Rinted as false alarm.”
■“The FBI has joined the investiga-
Rn," Greene said. “We have prob-
' several incidents in which some-
fie deliberately injected metal objects
the cookies. We believe the ma-
Jity of these incidents have been
used by malicious tampering.”
] Police in several locations where
Is, needles and other contaminants
|re found reported pinholes in the
ttangular, double-wrapped cookie
boxes, piercing both the outer and
inner wrappings.
An FBI spokesman said his agency
has begun an investigation but de
clined to say whether willful tamper
ing is suspected.
“1 can confirm we are looking into
the matter to determine if there is a
violation of the recently enacted fed
eral law but I cannot give you any
details,” the FBI spokesman said.
The product tampering law was
enacted after Tylenol capsules laced
with cyanide killed seven Chicago-
area people in 1982.
Anyone convicted of tampering
with the cookies would be subject to
stiff federal penalties. The maximum
federal penalty is life imprisonment
and a fine of $ 100,000 if death results.
Greene said federal investigators
are looking into reports of pins, nee
dles, slivers of glass and bits of metal
being discovered in the Girl Scout
cookies. The incidents have left scout
officials worried about the future of
their annual jnultimillion-dollar sale.
Many of the vandalized cookies
were traced to the Little Brownie Bak
ery in Louisville, Ky., that manufac
tures about half of the 100 million
boxes of Girl Scout cookies sold
annually.
Only two injuries have been re
ported.
In Chatham, Va., a 15-year-old girl
punctured her lip when she bit into a
cookie with a pin in it. In McDo
nough, Ga., a 9-year-old boy was stuck
with a needle that went through the
edge of his gum and between two
teeth. Neither injury was described as
serious.
Greene said plants manufacturing
cookies in Louisville, Ky., Richmond,
Va., and Elizabeth, N.J., were check
ed but investigators have found no
problems. The plants have been using
metal detectors to look for foreign ob
jects in the cookies.
Girl Scouts sell about 100 million
boxes of cookies a year at prices rang
ing around the country from about
$ 1.50 to $2.25 per box. The proceeds
are divided among the local chapter,
regional council and national office.
The first tampering was reported
in St. Louis about two weeks ago.
“How many of the incidents are
copycat symptoms we just don’t
know,” Greene said. “We’re using as
many investigators as we need to do
the job properly.”
In Kentucky, authorities Wednes
day issued a “precautionary” alert to
consumers to watch out for contamin
ated Girl Scout cookies. A sewing nee
dle was found Tuesday in a box of the
cookies in the Louisville area.
And in Lima, Ohio, Girl Scout offi
cials said a pin was found in a box of
cookies distributed in the Kenton
Local
• An Aggie has been named Miss Rodeo Texas. See
story page 4.
• Ousting winds caused blown over signs and at least one
injury on campus yesterday. See story page 7.
State
• Testimony is slated to begin Monday in the Henry Lee
Lucas trial. Lucas is charged in the murder of a hitchhiker
on 1-35 just north of Austin. See story page 3.
National
• A solemn march marked the third anniversary of the
Three Mile Island crisis. See story page 5.
• Clara Peller, the “Where’s the Beef?’’ lady was honored
by the American Cattle Producer’s Association. See story
page 10.