The Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 63, No. 357, Ed. 1 Friday, June 11, 1954 Page: 1 of 24
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00
07
34
POSSIBLE
SHOWERS
VOL. LXIII, No. 357
The Abilene
00
ms MORNING
"WITHOUT OR WITH OFFENSE TO FRIENDS OR FOES WE SKETCH YOUR WORLD EXACTLY AS IT GOES"—Byron
Associated Press (AP)
ABILENE, TEXAS, FRIDAY MORNING, JUNE 11, 1954—TWENTY-FOUR PAGES IN TWO SECTIONS
Wealthy Phoenix Man’s
Wife, 23, Is Kidnaped
Abilenian, 81, I..I
Is Charged • UCN
With Abortion
PRICE DAILY 5c, SUNDAY 10e
PHOENIX, Ariz., June 10 W —
The 23-year-old wife of a wealthy
Phoenix industrialist was kid-
naped yesterday and her husband
said he paid $75,000 ransom today
for her return.
Police said the abductor got
away.
Mrs. Evelyn Ann Smith, mother
of two children, was seized yes-
terday afternoon as she drove
away from a beauty parlor in the
car. She was returned unhurt.
Her busband is Herbert Smith,
treasurer of the Smith Pipe and
Steel Co.
Newspapers, news services and
radio stations had remained silent
about the kidnaping for 24 hours,
cooperating with a police request.
Police said the vicious threats in
the ransom note caused them to
fear that Mrs. Smith might be
killed.
Delivered in Roses
Smith, following instructions de-
livered to his home in a bouquet
of rose buds this afternoon, drove
his car into the rugged Supersti-
tion Mountains, 45 miles east of
Phoenix.
The pilot of a sheriff's airplane
saw him standing by his parked
car on a dirt road, waiting for a
contact about 5 p.m. (MST).
About an hour later police Sgt.
Clem Hoyt saw Smith driving
through the city of Mesa. U miles
east of Phoenix, with a woman
in his car.
Smith and his wife arrived at
their home at 3:32 p.m.
Mrs. Smith was whisked into her
bedroom and a physician was
called
Reporters were admitted to the
home for a few minutes and then
forced to leave.
look for instructions at a mine
marker.
The sheriff's plane pilot saw him
turn off onto a dirt road leading
into the Superstition Mountains.
The sheriff's office reported
later it had sighted Mrs. Smith's
car in a canyon off the road.
Mrs. Smith was last seen about
1 p.m. yesterday when she drove
away from the beauty parlor in
her car.
The first word Smith received
about the kidnap plans was in a
telephone call to his office at 4:40
p.m. yesterday from a man who.
without identifying himself, told
him:
"Know where Apache Junction
is? You can pick up your golf clubs
at the Chevron service station,
Ed's place, one-half mile from
there. You will find a note.”
Smith said he hadn't used his
golf clubs in three months and had
forgotten they were in the trunk of
his wife’s car.
Smith telephoned his home al
5:45 p.m. and asked for bis wife.
The maid said she had not
returned.
Smith notified police and the
sheriff’s office.
Deputy Sheriff Paul E Mullenix
was sent to the service station.
32 miles east of Phoenix.
Service station attendant Robert
J. Plucinski, 17, handed the golf
bag to Mullenix. In the side pocket
was a sealed note addressed to
"Mr. Smith."
Plucinski told officers the bag
had been delivered by a man about
45 years old, 5 feet I inches tall
weighing 145 pounds and wearing
half-rim glasses.
Plucinski said the man told him
the bag of clubs had been left in
his car by a friend with whom he
had played golf.
“I don't want to drive back to
Phoenix," the attendant quoted the
man as saying. "I'll leave it here
he’ll pick it up later.”
ABOUT PHONE CALL
No Error, Shivers
Says to Hammonds
Scratch on Feet
Chief of Police Charles Thomas
saw Mrs Smith for a moment and
reported she was all right. He said
she had a scratch on her foot.
Thomas said Mrs Smith told
him she was locked in the trunk
of her car for a time yesterday.
The ransom note, found in a golf
bag left at a service station yes-
terday, told Smith to go to Apache
Junction, M miles east of Phoenix
at 3 p.m. today and to telephone
his Phoenix home for instructions.
The bouquet of roses, delivered
by a messenger, contained a note
directing him to drive 8% miles
southeast of Apache Junction and
AUSTIN. June 10. W - Another
exchange of charges and denials
between Gov. Allan Shivers and
Ralph W. Hammonds, top man of
Lloyd's of North America of Hous-
ton, were tossed into Texas' in-
surance furor today.
Hammonds, here under court
order for the receivership trial of
his Lloyd’s firm, said Shivers was
"knowingly or unknowingly" mis-
taken of his facts regarding a tele-
phone call Hammonds made to the
governor April 28.
Shivers, campaigning in Dallas,
replied. “There was no mistake.”
The governor injected the phone
call into the insurance tempest at
a press conference Monday. He
said Hammonds called him long
distance and threatened to "em-
barrass" his administration if he
didn’t caU off the state’s fight
against the Lloyd's firm.
Shivers quoted Hammonds ss
saying he was advised to make
the call by Ralph Yarborough, ooe
of Shivers' opponents in the gov-
ernor’s race, and Austin attorney
Herman Jones
Hammonds denied on three oc-
casions today—twice in news in-
terviews and again in a prepared
statement—that he had even met
Yarborough or Jones at the time
of the call.
“I did call Shivers from Ban-
ders.” he said in the statement
"I did tell him I was being per-
secuted.
"I total him John VanCronkhite
had threatened me by innuendo if
I didn’t keep him on the payroll,
and it would be bad for my com-
pany. 1 wanted to know if Shivers
knew what was going on.”
Salary: $1,000 Monthly
Previously Hammonds had said
he had hired VanCronkhite at
$1,000 a month to get cordial rela-
tions with the State Insurance
Commission. VanCronkhite desued
be did anything improper and said
be quit when he found the com-
pany could not get its affairs in
order.
F. L. Devereaux. 31, of 154 South
32nd St . was charged Thursday
with performing an abortion.
Tom Todd, 104th District attor-
ney, filed a complaint against him
in Justice of the Peace Henry F.
Long’s court. The complaint will
be returned to the 104th District
Court grand jury for investigation
June 21.
Freed on Bond
He was released from jail about
5:30 p.m. on 33.000 bond Signing
the bond with Devereaux were J.
W. and T. M. Reid, attorneys, and
C. C. McRorey.
City and county officers arrest-
ed Devereaux at his home about
11 a m Thursday within minutes
after he performed an operation
on a married woman in her twen-
ties, Sheriff Ed Powell said. The
woman was taken to Hendrick
Memorial Hospital for treatment.
Officers making the arrest were
Sherriff Ed Powell and Deputy
Sheriff Leroy Arnold, City De-
tective Capt. W. B. McDonald,
Det. Lt. W. E. Clift and Det. Lt.
Grover Chronister. They were ac-
companied by an Abilene physician
who specializes in obstetrics.
The officers confiscated a large
number of medical instruments
and other equipment and sup-
plies.
Indicted Twice Before
Devereaux was indicted in 1933
and again in 1943 on charges of
performing abortions. The first in-
dictment was dismissed because
of insufficient eveidence and the
other is still pending.
A third indictment was returned
against him in 1950 on a charge
of attempted abortion. This case
was transferred to Taylor County
Court and is still pending.
The penalty under Texas law
for performing an abortion is from
two to five years in the peniten-
tairy. Penalty for attempted abor-
tion is a fine of not less than
$100 nor more than $1,000.
0
HAS
Dismisses
AIFF SAL ITC
4:I 4E16D
MIDLAND AREA GAINS
LARGEST OIL STRIKE
TULSA, June 10 (AP)—A 3,200-barrel-a-day oil well
15 miles southeast of Odessa in Midland County, was
reported today by Cities Service Oil Co. and Forest Oil
Corp.
They said in a joint release that the well, the Dora
Roberts No. 1, flowed 49-gravity oil through a one-inch
choke after penetrating 157 feet of the Ellenburger
Dolomite.
Operators halted drilling at 13,233 feet but ex-
pressed belief the pay section extends downward 200
feet.
The firms described the oiler as apparently the larg-
est Ellenburger discovery in West Texas in recent
years.
Five other wells are being drilled in the area by the
two companies.
McCart
Ike Appeals to Followers
To Get Behind His Program
WASHINGTON, June 10 —
President Eisenhower urged his
followers tonight to put “less politi-
cal fission and more political fu-
sion’' behind a legislative program
he said is essential to a stronger
America.
He said it is a program that in-
cludes a "potent package of pro-
tection against communism," a
strong, forthright foreign policy,
and a domestic plan aimed at a
strong and growing economy
shared in equitably by all citizens.
The President went to bat for
the program in its entirety in an
address prepared for delivery to
district chairmen of the National
C shower Congres-
sional Committee. The organiza-
tion is a carryover from the 1953
political campaign, directing its
efforts now at mustering both the
Republicans and Democrats, along
with independents, behind the Eis-
enhower legislative blueprint.
Nationwide Broadcast
The speech was arranged for
nationwide radio-TV broadcast.
As he has said many times be-
fore. Eisenhower told his audience
the policies and objectives of the
administration program before
Congress are designed "to build
a better and stronger America "
Its military aspects, he said, are
intended to build up the necessary
strength to “oppose successfully
any rash aggression by the Com-
munists.”
On the home front, the chief ex-
ecutive stressed heavily his desire
for a flexible program of farm
price supports. Against this, the
House Agriculture Committee has
voted for a year's continuance of
the present rigid, 90 per cent of
parity support plan.
Eisenhower said he has been told
it would not be good politics to
try to solve the farm problem in
an election year, that the sensi-
ble thing to do would be “to close
my eyes to the damage the pres-
ent farm program does to our
farmers and the rest of our people
—and do this job of correction next
year.”
But be said he wants to make
this one point clear:
"In this matter I am completely
unmoved by arguments as to what
constitutes good or winning poli-
tics. And may I remark that,
though I have not been in this poli-
tical business very long, I know
that what is right for America is
politically right."
^
THE WEATHER
ABILENE AND VICINITY - Fair, to
partly cloudy. Continued warm Friday
and Saturday. Possible scattered thunder
showers mostly Io the west of Abilene
Friday afternoon and even ng. High Pri
day 90-95. Low Friday night 7. High
Saturday near 90.
NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS Partly
cloudy and continued warm: widely seat-
tered afternoon and evening, thunder:
storms northwest portion Fndey and
WEST TEXAS - Partly cloudy; widely
scattered afternoon and evening thunder
storms west portion. ____
TEMUERATUAES , *
a. M.
77 ....
n ....
n ...
72 ....
12 ....
6.30 ....
TS
•I ........ 9:90
as :eenet 11:30
Rich and low temperati
ended at 6.30 p. m.t 93 and T.
High and low temperatures same date
last year: 201 and 75.
Sunset last night Tres r. m. Sunrise to-
day 5:31 a. aa. Sunset tonight TA »-•-
Barometer reading at 9:30 a- m. 28.03.
Relative humidity at 9.30 p. m. 40 per
cent.
ti hour
Jury Now Can Bar
District Attorney
SAN DIEGO, Tex., June 10 -A
special district judge today denied
a suit to make an investigating
Duval county grand jury let the
district attorney and county attor-
ney sit in on the jury sessions.
Judge H. D. Barrow of Jourdan-
ton also tossed out a suit against
acting 7th Dist. Judge A. S. Broad-
foot and set for bearing June 25 a
plea on one involving Atty. Gen.
John Ben Shepperd.
The suits were brought by pro-
George Parr forces in the continu-
ing battle of Duval County.
Parr is the long-time dominant
Denies
oluRV
All Army Charges
political boss of the county and
area.
The state has been investigating
the affairs of the county more than
a year. Shepperd has claimed
there has been misuse of public
funds.
Parr has contended the investi-
gations were "politics.”
Barrow was appointed by Gov.
Allan Shivers to sit as a special
judge in the case today.
Barrow said the grand jury had
a right to call whom ever it pleased
for advice.
Shepperd said after the judge's
verdict. “This is the failure of an-
other attempt to cover up, hide and
keep the lid on the deplorable af-
fairs in Duval County. There will
be other actions—all of them of
the delaying type, attempting to
preserve George Parr’s bucket of
whitewash. My only interest is to
develop the truth.”
Ballinger Jury
Indicts Ex-Con
In Drowning
BALLINGER, June 10—A 119th
District Court grand jury Thurs-
day indicted Allen Clyde (Buddy)
Jennings, 33, on a murder charge.
Two other persons facing felony
charges also were indicted.
Jennings was charged with mur-
der with malice in the May 27
drowning of Wallace Windsor
O'Neal, 16-year-old Georgia youth.
The body was found 20 miles
northwest of here on the morning
of May 29. The suspect was ar-
rested the same day in Pecos.
Jennings is an ex-convict. The
drowning victim had spent time
in a Georgia reform school.
Marie Dickey was indicted for
forgery and passing in connection
with an $85.69 check handed to a
Winters grocery store. Joe Grigs-
by was indicted on a charge of
second - offense driving while
intoxicated.
WASHINGTON. June 10 W—Sen.
Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wis) de-
clared under oath today the "im-
proper pressure” charges against
him are false and fraudulent He
said the Democrats and some high
figures in the Eisenhower adminis-
tration must share with Army offi-
cials the blame for the accusations
being made.
McCarthy testified all day in a
televised public hearing which was
followed by a closed meeting of the
Senate Investigations subcommit-
tee for the purpose of deciding on
further witnesses and calling an
early halt to the turbulent, seven-
weeks-old proceedings.
Sen. McClellan (D-Ark) said the
subcommittee voted 4-3 on party
lines tonight to wind up the Mc-
Carthy-Anny hearings when the
testimony of Sen. McCarthy. Roy
M. Cohn and Francis P. Carr is
completed.
Denies Testimony
Specifically. - McCarthy denied
sworn testimony by Secretary of
the Army Stevens and Maj. Gen.
Miles Reber that he sought a di-
rect commission for subcommittee
one-time adviser to President Tru-
man. as well as White House and
Justice Department officials who
attended a secret meeting last Jan.
21.
The senator declared, too, the
charges were filed in an effort to
stop him from investigating (1)
Communist-clearing members of
"the old Truman loyalty board” at
the Pentagon and <2) those still
at the Pentagon who "caddied a
Fifth Amendment Communist ma-
jor.” The reference was to Dr. Irv-
ing Peress, a dentist who was pro-
moted and honorably discharged
despite his refusal to answer ques-
tions about communism.
McCarthy went right down the
line in backing up the testimony
and defending the conduct of his
chief counsel. Cohn, though he
pleaded a hazy memory on some
points, and once declared:
"I can’t be dead certain about
anything that happened a year
ago."
McCarthy declared Cota had ev-
ery reason to be thoroughly irri-
tated and disgusted" when he was
denied admittance to a secret ra-
dar laboratory at Ft. Monmouth,
N.J., last Oct. 20.
McCarthy described this incident
See MCCARTHY, Pg. 12-A, Col. 1
Names New Clerk
On June 15, Barrow will hear a
plea of privilege involving the suit
against Shepperd and also a trill
of exceptions filed by the defend-
ant’s attorneys.
- Die in Plant
Blast; 32 Injured
ST. LOUIS, June Id —A power-
ful explosion that sent debris sail-
mg 300 feet into the air at a drug
company plant today killed four
persons and injured 32. A fifth per-
aide Pvt. G. David Schine.
On the contrary, McCarthy said,
he told the Anny repeatedly to posve--*=
"lean over backwards” in avoiding son was unaccounted for.
any sort of favored treatment for Four charred bodies were pulled
the wealthy young Schine. from the ruins of the two-story
McCarthy pictured Stevens as a brick building of the Wilsoa-Keith
"fundamentally honest” man who Pharmaceutical Co. plant, which
was mousetrapped by others into swept , fire after the blast
a blackmail plot because he failed T : Ten Mart ,
to understand “the tremendous in-about five miles from the heart
terwoven Communist conspiracy Nono Two the
or the "very rough politics being Nearly two hours after the ex.
played down here in Washington”:
The senator said Stevens plainly Mg L AmlEu | 1
acted at the urging of Sen. Sym-FIVO IIHAIA
ington (D-Mo), one of the “judges" 1 | ITU VIIIIUIU
in this dispute, and Clark Clifford,
Workers Hurt
COLOR cry une
•RTu.....- - - -
only an hour apart ned fam
I in Mitchell County Thursday. None
BIocthenfenmen
BFINTNEEsube seriously injured
.
Bhm down and cutting his head
FETh a
■ Kinney No. 3 five miles northwest
WethoNAT
fosses day alternod Sever • -
1. were taken in his scalp at Root
= J Hospital in Colorado City
an-apri About 1 15 an explosion at the
• Rassingame Number t one
plosion Fred R Layton, 28, who
had been working in the building,
was dug from the wreckage and
taken to a hospital unconscious.
Firemen, using an electric saw to
cut through heavy timbers, could
bear his moans 40 minutes before
they were able to rescue him.
The cause of the explosion was
unknown. Various persons ad-
vanced as possible causes an ac-
cumulation of dust, escaping gas
and a mishap on processing of a
powder mixture used in army
flame throwers.
The blast shook the southside of
St. Louis for miles around. The
immediate neighborhood was show-
ered with bricks, wood and glass
shot skyward like a great geyser.
The wall of an adjoining laundry,
the White Linen Laundry, was
showered with white dust before
the laundry, one of St Louis’ larg-
est, broke into flames. A residence
nearby also caught fire and was
destroyed.
Five fire alarms were sounded
as firefighting equipment from all
directions sped to the scene. All
available ambulance and police
patrol cruising cars were rushed
there.
And the judge followed the de-
fense’s suggestion far an acting
district clerk and appointed the
wife of a leader in the Freedom
party, which opposes Parr.
The acting clerk was appointed
because the regular district clerk,
Juan Perez, was one of three filing
the suit.
John Pearce, San Antonio attor-
ney representing the Duval County
grand jury and Dist. Judge A. S.
Broadfoot, said Perez had no right
to file the papers because he was
district clerk and therefore the
suit should be dismissed.
Must Rectify Errors
“I’m not here for my own pleas-
ure,” Judge Barrow said. “I take
the stand that the case is before
the court and the matters you have
brought up are not fatal The
court’s duty is to rectify errors
and so the plaintiffs should have
followed the statutes. The court
holds the case is pending. If I am
in error, it will not hurt you gee-
tiemen.”
The suit was filed by Peres: Rae-
burn Norris, 79th District attorney,
and Reynaldo F. Luna, Duval coun-
ty attorney.
It asked a court ruling on wheth-
er state Atty. Gen John Ben Shep
perd had the right to work with
the grand jury, a court ruling on
whether Judge Broodfoot had the
right to impound certain orders
and names of jurors in Duval Coun-
ty and the court to declare that
the district attorney and county
attorney had the absolute right to
be with the grand jury.
The grand jury had said it did
not want the district attorney and
county attorney with it because the
course of its investigation would in-
elude their offices
NEWS INDEX
SECTION A
Women’s news ....
Oil news
Spoms ..
Editorials
Comics
SECTION a
Redio-TV log
Form news .
4-5
.2-3
... 4
.. 5
... •
..9
House Ups Budget
Of Labor, Welfare
22*6290551.-0 Charles Robertson of Colorade
Bin seiBBo Bit ‘ 7 C ’ bin sen i ‘ City, 37. believed to be most pain
SE-13:2,9*129--fully injured, had cuts about his
“,.‘face and hands. He also suffered
. : injuries......---------
antdetrsoomracaliIthPACahat—eNCRassgame se and d- vsi wc 873 061 to/fnanre/the
PAAIthe latter 16, and J P Perce, labor and Welfare Departments
ye-tees MM, W) about 35, suftered-ese injuts
-.------.. opay Robertson, and both the junior
22029.91 =1: -=, . and senior Rlassinganes were
R.r.X.lisesneenenl Thiaier-gen treatment at Root Hospital
and sent 1.1 B.,. S>rr.:
22lx..ss15as-s9--ess-seseessloncsstiienten twee are under the care of an eye
urannony.nene-51.120231aaSical,.adi..(-12s.-nogoelcerteisoEPM) specialist. Pierce, u hose eves
eneeelninsnsisise.5.2l.2.-s-nocceesenerepercaiennigpu were less damaged hospital
aine,5e0s1-nsnsseemu ied at Colorado City
‘.-----..,-., other three had opened a hiendler
V :,...„..' >"J -rev-: ' :
ss-elerinonnelenendlenlenthere was an explosion The cap
P was
! IEING,, odd not know whether the blast
=============== came from gas collected in the
THEY’RE OFF Don Smith of Breckenridge stays aboard rodeo will be held at 8:15 p.m. Friday at the Brecken: pit or from forces within the well,
a horse named K.C. Paint at the 11th annual Stephens ridge arena. (See story, pg. 12-A.) (Staff photo by David Drilling mud was sprayed over
County Rodeo and Fair. The third performance of the Barros) m
WASHINGTON, June 10 * — ! neurology, and for grants to states
for vocational rehabilitation work.
Overriding its own Appropriations
Committee and the President’s
Budget Bureau, the House today
for the fiscal year starting July 1
This is $5,093,500 more than the
President requested and $21,432,750
above Appropriations Committee
recommendations.
The funds were provided in a bill
passed by voice vote and sent to
the Senate. It was the last of the
big annual appropriation bills on
which the House must act this
year.
Only four of the nine bills passed
by the House have cleared the Sen-
ate and only one has reached the
President.
The House voted more funds
than the President asked and the
committee had recommended for
national institutes doing research
work on cancer, mental health,
heart disease and blindness and
In voting 75 million dollars for
grants to states for hospital con-
struction under supervision of the
Public Health Service, the House
boosted by N million the amount
recommended by the committee.
It did this by standing vote of 139-
56. The 75 million was what ths
President requested.
Unanimous voice votes increased
by to mfllion each the allotments
for the health institutes, for which
the Appropriations Committee al-
ready had urged mere than the
President requested.
The $1,970,378,761 provided is the
bill includes $298,714,000 for the La-
her Department, $1,658,913,761 for
the Department of Health. Educa-
tion Md Welfare: $8,400,000 for the
National Labor Relations Board,
$1,217,000 for the National Media
tion Board, and $3,134,000 for the
Federal Mediation and Conciliation
Service.
4
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The Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 63, No. 357, Ed. 1 Friday, June 11, 1954, newspaper, June 11, 1954; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1653126/m1/1/: accessed May 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Public Library.