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The Battalion
Vol.82 No. 104 GSPS 045360 10 pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, February 23, 1987
uardsman arrested at A&M
for rl
imed man
leads police
in wild chase
By Sue Krenek
Staff Writer
An armed Coast Guardsman’s
light from his cutter in Freeport
nded in his arrest at Texas A&M
Sunday night.
Gus Peter Grammas, 20, of
arker Heights, led University
'olice on a chase from Dorm 9
hrough the Commons area be-
bre he was taken into custody in
5 A 30, the parking area behind
he north campus dormitories.
Police Chief Elmer Schneider
aid Grammas was carrying a .45-
:aliber automatic and two clips of
mmunition and was wearing a
ullet-proof vest, all stolen Satur-
lay from the arms room of the
bast Guard Cutter Point Mon-
oe. Grammas is believed to be
WOL from the cutter.
Grammas faces felony charges
f weapons possession on school
[premises and Class B misdemea
nor charges of resisting arrest.
Schneider said Grammas, who
as visiting a friend at A&M, is
[wanted by Clute police in connec
tion with a burglary there and
may face theft charges in Free
port. Items found in the room
where he was staying are believed
to be connected to the Clute bur
glary, Schneider said.
Schneider said police received
a report of a man with a gun in
Dorm 9 at 10:22 p.m. Sunday.
When officers went to investigate,
he said, Grammas jumped from a
second-floor window and was
chased to PA 25, where he took a
1969 Buick belonging to his
friend, whose name was not re
leased by police.
Chased by police, he drove to
Lubbock Street, driving the car
up a curb and across the Quad
before coming to a stop on the
lawn next to Dunn Hall.
Schneider said Grammas then
fled the car. Police are unsure if
x Photo by Tom Own bey
Gus Peter Grammas, left, is transferred from the University Police Station to the Brazos County Jail.
he entered a dorm. Commons
residents reported that Univer
sity Police entered the dorms with
guns drawn to look for Grammas.
Schneider said Grammas then
fled on his motorcycle and was
chased by police officers from PA
24 on the south side of campus to
PA 30 on the north side, where
he was arrested.
Schneider said Grammas
waived his rights and made a
statement to University Police.
Grammas is being held at the
Brazos County Jail.
Battalion senior staff writer
Olivier Uyttebrouck contributed
to this story.
Investigators
will question
NSC secretary
'op Art prince Andy Warhol dies
'rom heart attack after surgery
NEW YORK (AP) — Andy War-
Jol, the pale prince of Pop Art who
tiirned images of soup cans and su-
rstars into museum pieces, died
Sunday of a heart attack.
1 One of the most influential and
pnous artists of his time, Warhol,
viho was believed to be 58, died at
New York Hospital a day after un
dergoing gall bladder surgery.
A cardiac arrest team worked for
i hour to save him.
| Slender, pallid and soft-spoken,
stantly recognizable in his blond
ig, Warhol abandoned a successful
reer as a commercial illustrator in
tie 1950s to gain worldwide fame as
ie principal exponent of the Pop
rt movement.
He won fame in the early 1960s by
reducing repeated silk-screen
ages of commonplace items such
Campbell’s soup cans, and went
On to establish himself as the emo-
mless recorder of the images of his
ay.
Andy Warhol
Warhol was an iconoclast and an
eccentric, rejecting accepted conven
tions of art, society and behavior.
“In the future,” he wrote in a
1968 exhibition catalog, “everyone
will be world-famous for 15 min
utes.”
But Warhol’s fame endured for
decades, through his work in under
ground film, his creation of the gos
sipy Interview magazine, his por
trayals of members of the glamorous
jet-set in which he traveled, even his
cameo appearance on television’s
“Love Boat.”
“He made his own lifestyle a work
of art,” Richard Oldenburg, director
of the Museum of Modern Art, said
Sunday. “He was one of the first
people to really become a star as an
artist, and once celebrity came he
certainly enjoyed it.”
William Rubin, the museum’s
chief curator of painting and sculp
ture said, “He was a serious artist
whose posture was unseriousness.
He was a pioneer of image-appro
priating Pop Art, and the implica
tions of his ideas are still unfolding
in Post-Modernism.”
Born Andrew Warhola, one of
three sons of Czech immigrants,
Andy Warhol grew up in the indus
trial city of McKeesport, Pa., near
Pittsburgh. A delicate youth, he suf
fered three nervous breakdowns as a
child.
His date of birth is most com
monly listed in reference books as
Aug. 8, 1928, which would have
made him 58 at the time of his
death. But a date of birth of Sept.
28, 1930, also has been cited, and
Warhol never cleared up the confu
sion.
His father died when he was 14.
But he pulled together the money to
attend the Carnegie Institute of
Technology in Pittsburgh, graduat
ing in 1949 with a bachelor’s degree
in pictorial design. He moved to
New York City, cut the final vowel
from his name and quickly found
success as a commercial artist.
The turning point of his career
came in 1962 when his work:
“Campbell Soup Cans,” was shown
in Los Angeles, placing him at the
forefront of the Pop movement.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Con
gressional investigators will question
the former personal secretary to Lt.
Col. Oliver North who reportedly
helped North destroy White House
records crucial to the Iran-Contra
probe, a member of the Senate com
mittee examining the affair said
Sunday.
The new report comes amid deni
als by White House officials that
chief of staff Donald Regan planned
to resign following bitter disputes
with President Reagan’s wife, Nancy,
and criticism of his handling of the
Iran affair.
Dismissing the reports as rumors,
Regan’s executive assistant Thomas
Dawson said, “I don’t believe they
are true.”
However, Larry Speakes, former
White House press secretary, said
Regan may resign in the next few
days because the controversy over
the Iran-Contra affair may be “al
most at the unbearable stage” for the
chief of staff.
“Don Regan has been the victim
of a vicious campaign by the media
to get him out of office,” Speakes
said in Richmond, Va. on Saturday.
“I’m sure he’s said, ‘Why the heck
should I put up with this mess,’ ”
Speakes told a forum on U.S. prob
lems with Iran, adding: “This is not
insider knowledge but based on my
understanding of what goes on at
the White House.”
Sen. George Mitchell, D-Maine, a
member of the Senate select commit
tee investigating the secret sales of
U.S. arms to Iran, said his panel had
planned to interview secretary Fawn
Hall even before the Washington
Post reported Sunday that she had
helped North shred documents.
“Obviously this is something that
the committee will look into very
carefully,” Mitchell said.
Hall’s attorney, Plato Cacheris,
said on Sunday that she has been
granted immunity from prosecution
by independent counsel Lawrence E.
Walsh. Hall was North’s secretary at
the National Security Council.
Cacheris said the grant of immu
nity was made “in return for her
talking” to Walsh. He said Hall had
not finished in her dealings with the
independent prosecutor.
Cacheris refused to comment on
the substance of Hall’s testimony.
The Post reported that Hall told in
vestigators she helped North destroy
documents and internal messages
last November.
Cacheris said his client would
have no comment on the reports.
The paper quoted a government
source as saying that the statements
from Hall and other NSC aides, as
well as the retrieval of multiple com
puter communications have estab
lished “a clear case of obstruction of
justice.”
Repeated efforts to reach Hall
were unsuccessful.
“The congressional investigating
committees are quite interested in
talking to her and will do so at some
point,” a source close to the congres
sional investigation told the Asso
ciated Press. “She’s someone worth
talking to.”
The source, who spoke on condi
tion he not be identified, said the
committees’ counsels had been in
touch with Hall through her lawyer.
A White House source said Hall
now works in the Defense Depart
ment.
A White House source said Hall
now works on the Defense Depart
ment.
The Tower board, headed by for
mer Sen. John Tower, R-Texas,
which has been investigating the af
fair, is scheduled to submit its report
on Thursday to Reagan.
White House spokesman Marlin
Fitzwater has said Reagan’s aides ex
pect “a very critical and a very tough
report.”
A spokesman for independent
spokesrm
1 Walsh,
;pen<
counsel Walsti, Gail Alexander, said
there would be no comment from
the investigator about the report
that Hall said she had spent about an
hour on Nov. 21 helping North de
stroy key memos and computer mes
sages hours before Justice Depart
ment investigators were scheduled
to begin reviewing NSC files. The
report said the stack of documents
was “mammoth.”
White House spokesman Dan
Howard, asked to comment on the
report, said White House officials
had no knowledge of Walsh’s investi
gation, nor would they comment on
it.
“We just don’t know what Walsh is
doing and it would be improper to
say anything,” Howard said.
Two students killed
in car crash Friday
Two Texas A&M students were
killed Friday night when their car
collided witn an 18-wheel truck at
the intersection of U.S. Highway 77
and FM 696 in Lexington.
John Wall Stallings, 19, a fresh
man electrical engineering student
from Dallas, and Julie Ruth Heid-
man, 19, a freshman ocean engi
neering student from Irving, were
both pronounced dead at the scene
of the accident. A “jaws of life” ma
chine was used to extract them from
the car. *
A report from the Department of
Public Safety says the accident oc
curred when Stallings, driving a
1980 Plymouth, ran a stop sign and
crashed into the truck as it traveled
south on U.S. 77. The driver of the
truck, Edward Cecil St. Clair Jr. of
Fort Worth, was not injured.
Funeral services for Heidman will
be held at 3:00 p.m. today at Don
nelly Funeral Home in Irving. Fune
ral services for Stallings will be han
dled by Sparkman and Hillcrest
Funeral Home in Dallas. His family
has requested no flowers be sent.
3 suspects arrested,
charged with murder
of 2 Bryan residents
By Daniel A. La Bry
Staff Writer
Two men and one woman are be-
ng held without bail in the Brazos
bounty Jail on capital murder
barges in connection with the
Wednesday morning slayings of two
iryan residents.
Gary Allen Penuel, 20, of 204
dge St. in Bryan; David Michael
lark, 27, of Route 5 in Bryan; and
dary Gober Copeland, 25, also of
loute 5 in Bryan were arrested early
? riday morning at their respective
. ■esidences, Sgt. Dale Cuthbertson of
f Bhe Bryan Police Department said
^™unday.
Clark and Copeland were ar-
ested at 4 a.m., and Penuel at 5:26
Cuthbertson said the arrests were
nade after the names of the suspects
vere obtained from a reliable
ource. The source was found
through a joint effort of the Bryan
Police Department and the narcotics
division of the Texas Department of
Public Safety, he said.
Charles Gears, 21, and Beverly
Jean Benninghoff, 25, were found
dead Thursday morning in the liv
ing room of their newly rented
home at 408 Foch St. in Bryan.
Gears, who worked in movie theater,
and Benninghoff, a waitress, had
lived in the house for a little over a
week.
Gears had been shot twice and
Benninghoff had been shot five
times. Two small-caliber guns were
used in what appears to be a drug-
related incident, Cuthbertson said.
He added that to his knowledge no
weapons have been found.
Cuthbertson said police estimate
the time of the shooting was early
Wednesday morning.
Students to learn about life at A&M
‘Transfer camp’ starts this summer
By Stacey Babin
Reporter
It’s an idea whose time has
come — Transfer Camp — a
Fish Camp, of sorts, for transfer
students.
Incoming transfer students at
Texas A&M will be able to at
tend a camp August 26-29 at
Camp Hoblitzelle in Midlothian,
Texas.
For four days, the students
can learn about life at A&M so
they can be more comfortable at
a new school, says camp director
David Mendoza.
Mendoza worked as a peer ad
viser last summer and talked to
many transfer students.
“I’ve also talked to many
transfer students here now, and
they see Fish Camp and ask
‘Why isn’t there one of these for
transfer students?’ So we know
the interest is there,” he says.
About 200 students are ex
pected to attend, but camp ca
pacity is 500, so there’s room to
expand, he says.
Associate director Tom Lena-
han says he has talked with seve
ral transfer students who wished
the camp had been offered to
them.
“A lot of them, although they
have already attended school
and know what college is about,
are not all that comfortable with
the A&M campus,” Lenahan
says.
Robin Ray, a transfer student
from Baylor, thinks the idea is
great.
“I think a camp will be really
helpful because A&M is very dif
ferent from other schools,” she
says. “We (transfer students) feel
like freshmen coming in to a
new place. You have to get ac
quainted with a new system.”
Lenahan says social and infor
mational activities are being
planned to meet the special
needs of the newcomers. A staff
of about 14 must be selected first
so ideas can be developed fur
ther, he says.
Swimming, canoeing, intra
murals, group discussions and
dances will be included, he
added.
Mendoza says about 50 coun
selors will be chosen for the
camp.
He added that transfer stu
dents’ needs are different from
the needs of incoming fresh
men.
“Transfer students know how
to calculate their GPR (grade-
point ratio), how to study, and
they have already gone through
leaving home,” Mendoza says.
He hopes the camp will help
the incoming students cope with
a different school and environ
ment.
The camp will cost about $70,
which pays for transportation,
food, and lodging, Mendoza
says.
“I think a camp will be really helpful because A&M is
very different from other schools. We (transfer stu
dents) feel like freshmen coming in to a new place. ”
— Robin Ray, transfer student