7/26/2019 RFK assassination

1/1

T H E C H R O N IC L E T E L E G R A M

PoundedJuly 24,1829

Elyria,

Ohio

225 Bast Ave nue

56 PAGES

Final Edition

T H U R S D A Y , J U N E6 1968 P H O N E S : E L Y R I A 3 2 3 3 3 2 1 L O R I N 2 4 4 - 6 3 9 5

Te n Cents

Sirhan s diary: kill

RFK before June 5

By R I C H A R D

E.

M E Y E R .

Associated Press

Writer

LO S

A N G E L E S

H i s na m e

is SirhanBishara Sirhan.

Police say he is a cool,

close-mouthed Jordanian who

fired a

bullet fromclose range

into the brain of Sen. Robert

Kennedy.

*

Mayor Samuel

W .

Yorty

says Sirhan apparently wrote

in a 9-by-12 inch notebook

about the necessity

to

assas-

s inate Sen. Kenn edy before

June

5,1968.

M an y

neighbors, former

employers and the authorities

say he hates Jews.

HE H URT his head in a fal l

last year,saysh ismother .

All I know is he is a nice

kid, says one of his four

brothers.

A

district

attorney's investi-

gator revealed today he was

told Sirhan had been jailed by

Pasadena police last Decem-

ber.

Asst . Dist Atty. Will iam L.

Ritzi

said

a

grand jury would

be asked to return an indict-

ment charging

Sirb.an

with

Kennedy's murder .

Pasadena officers said they

had a red flag file on Sir-

han, but they could not con-

firm if he had

been formally

arrested.

W atch Commander

Russell Stone said the file wa s

in

possession

of

detectives

and

no t

immediately available

for

inspection. He said the red

flag

on the

file

was to

indicate

Sirhan had been booked

pre-

viously.

Stone said the file dated

from March 1961 when Sirhan

reported a bicycle stolen. H e

complained

in

1963

he was the

victim of a disturbance.

In 1962andlast March, Stone

said, Sirhan was a suspect in

disturbance of the peace

cases.

The record says Sirhan

is 24

years old, 5-feet-5, weighs

about 120p o u n d s , ha s a

swarthy complexion and wiry

hair. H e has

been

an

excer-

cise

boy at a

race track,

wa n t -

ed to be a jockey and worked

in ahealth f o o dstore.

Weather

HE WAS U N DERm a x im um

secur ity guard in a hospita l

ward at the Los Angeles Coun-

ty

Central

jail,

charged with

six

counts

of

assault with

in-

tent to commit murder .

H e is to appear at 8:30

a.m. Monday for a prelimi-

nary

h e a r i n g before Mun ic ip a l

Judge Joan Klein.

Sirhan's index f inger wa s

broken

and his

l e f t

ankle

sprained

in a

tussle that ended

in his capture, seconds

af te r

Kennedy was

shot early yes-

terday.

Sirhan has talked to police,

but not about Kennedy or the

shooting.

O f f i c e r s

said he was

advised of his rights, but

didn't

want

an attorney. H e

refused

to give officers his

n a m e .

IT'S NICE to r em a in in -

communicado, Inspector

Pete

Hagen

quoted

him as

saying.

H e

may have been

in-

flamed by K ennedy's call for

U . S . jets for Israel durin g a

televised campaign debate

Saturday night, said a New

York

committee

on

Ameri-

can-Arabrelations.

He was violently pro-Jor-

dan and anti-Israel, said

John Shear ,

wh o

worked with

Sirhan at

Hollywood Park

U.S.

curt ils flights

TOKYO ( A P )- The U. S.

military today informed the

Japanese government it would

suspend all but absolutely

necessary night

flights from

the Itazuke

A ir

Base, nea r

F u-

kuoka,

while it awaits the re-

sults

of an

invest igat ion into

the

crash of a fighter

j

bomber

from

Itazuke Sunday night .

race track. When there

w as

trouble

between Jordan

an d

Israel, he

would

become in-

flamed

WITH PERMISSION from

Sirhan's family, police re -

covered

two notebooks from

his

room. They contain

18 to

20

pages of handwrit ing.Some

in A rabic , most

in

English.

In a notation entered either

May

17 or 18, the mayor said,

Sirhan

apparently wrote a

direct reference to the

necess-

T u r n to

page

4,

col.

1

Where

t o

tu

:

W E L L I N G T O N

- A man

wh o

lived like an Indian, a ty-

phoid epidemic and the fair

are all part of W ellington's

heritage

page 36

SP EN CER B lack River

School

superintendent takes

job with Cloverleaf Schools

page 1 6

Better Health

24

Comics 5 4 , 5 5

Deaths, Births

30

Elyria

Municipal

Court 25

Finance, Stocks 4

Produce,

Livestock

4

Sports 4 0 , 4 1 , 4 2 , 4 3 , 4 4

Suburban Calendar

23

Television

34

Theater 35

Wellington 2 2

Wo me n 14, 15

Your Birthday

. . 2 5

K e n n e d y

dies

By W A L T E R R .

M E A R S

and

JOSEPH E . M O H B A T

LO S A N G E L E S ( A P )

-

Sen. Robert F .

K e n n e d y ,

felled like hisPresident broth-

er by an assasin's b u l l e t ,

diedearly today.

His mourning family pre-

pared to

take

his

body home

to

Ne w

York, across

the na-

t ion Kennedy had hoped to

led as president.

An d on Saturday, the sena-

tor is to be buried in Arling-

ton

National Cemetery,

at the

hillside plot which is the rest-

ing place of his brother, the

late

JohnF .Kenned y .

Robert Kennedy,

42 ,

never

regained consciousness, nev-

er showed s igns on recovery

after a savage burst of revol-

ve r fire sent a bullet plunging

into his brain at the pinna-

cle of his own campaign for

the W hite House.

KENNEDY, HIS P R E G -

NANT

wife, Ethel at his bed-

side, died

at

1:44 a.m, PDT,

( 4 : 4 4

a.m.

EOT) little

more

than 24 hours after the assault

at the Ambassador Hotel.

Kennedy's body was to be

flown from Los Angeles to

Ne wYork la ter today on a jet

airplane provided by

the

White

House.

It was to

arrive

in New Y ork at 5:30p.m.

Pierre Salinger,

former

presi-

dential press

secretary, said

the

body would

lie instate

Fri-

day

at St.

Patrick's

Cathedral

in New York Cityfrom 8a.m.

to 10

p.m.

A Requeim Mass wil l be

held there Saturday morning.

Salinger said Kenn edy would

Relates n ews pictures

p ag es 3 ,8 ,1 8 ,2 0 ,38

be bur r ied late Saturday in

Arlington,

across

the Potomac

R i v e r from Washington,

wher e

an eternal flame flick-

ers in memory of John Ken-

n edy ,

slain four

years

an d

seven mon ths ago.

IN PREPARATIONforK e n -

nedy's last journey, a post

mortem wa s und er way at

Good Samaritan Hospital in

downtownLos An geles.

Pres ident Johnson the man

who succeeded President Ken-

nedy, issued a proclamation

calling

for a

nat ional

day of

mourning for the senator next

Sunday.

G o v . Ronald Reagan

de -

clared a state of mourning in

California, fo r t he p e r i o d

through the senator 's funeral .

A s Kennedy died,

the man

accused of shooting him was

under heavy guard at a down-

town

prison hospital, held in

$250,000

bail for a court ap-

p e ar an c e w h i c h h a d be e n

scheduledMonday.

SIRHAN

B I S H A R A

SIRHAN

was accused of wielding the

.22-caliber revolver which cut

down

Kenned y and wounded

five other people early yester-

day as the senator and his

supporters celebrated victory

in the California presidential

primary.

The

Los Angeles sher iff 's

office refused to say whether

Sirhan had been advised that

K en n edywas dead.

Sirhan,

a

Jordanian

wh o

hae been l iving in Pasadena,

was described by those who

knew him as a man inflamed

over the hostilities between

his nat ive s ta te andIsrael.A

f o r m e r employer said

h e

might have been enraged by

Kennedy's past words of sup-

port for

Israel.

K EN N ED Y ' S

M O T H E R ,

Mrs. Rose K enne dy, was told

of the death of her son by a

niece,

A nn Gargan. She was

at

Hyannis

Port,

Mass. Mrs.

Kennedy who had cam-

paigned for Robert in the

presidential primaries

wen t

to massat St.FrancisJavier

Church.

Mrs.

Knnedy

had talked by

telephone with Sen. Edward

M.

Kennedy, D-Mass.,

the

family'

s lone

surviving son,

who

was at Robert 's bedside

at the end.

Kennedy was surrounded by

members of bis family when

he

died.

Salinger said Ethel,

the

wid-

ow, isbear ingu pver y

well.

M R S .

JOHN F.

K E N N E D Y ,

widow of the assassinated

President, was in her broth-

er-in-law's room when he

died.

Two of Kennedy's sisters,

Mrs. Stephen Smith an d Mrs.

Patricia

Lawford,

were there,

too.

Salinger

said

three of Ken-

nedy's

10

children were

in an

adjacent room

and saw

then:

father beforeliedied.

Pale

an d haggard, Frank

Mankiewicz, Kennedy's press

secretary, announced the

death to newsmen.

Sen. Robert Francis Ken-

nedy died

at

1:44 a.m. today,

he began.

T H E N H E A NS W E R E D

questions. What was the

spe-

cific causeo fdeath?

Mankiewicz

looked

up

n u m -

b l y .

The gunfire attack,

he

said. He said the bullet that

went into the head near the

right ear was the fatal shot.

It ent er ed Kennedy's brain.

Surgeons operated for 3 hours

and 40 minutes to remove al l

bu t a fragment in a vain at-

tempt to save the senator 's

life.

Bu tKenn edy neverrallied.

It was not a

question

os ni l

sinking, Mankiewicz said,

but of not rising. He needed

a

rally

an d

steady improve-

men t in his condition, andthat

did

no t

develop.

SALINGER

A N N OU N CED .

the body was to be taken from

Los An geles between 10 and U

a.m. PDT.

H e

said

the family,

friends and some staff mem-

berswereto beaboard.

Turntopage4 ,col.1

An editorial

Vofe FOR school

levy

tomorrow I

Elyria voterswill make

a

very

important

decisiontomorrow.

They will decide whether Elyria children

willget a top quality education, bytoday'sstan-

dards, or one

that

is

below

top

quality.

We say

by

today's standards becausesome opponents

of the 6-mill levy

seem

to be judging school

needs

by the

standards

of

their

own

school

years, possibly a generationago.

Those

standards

may have

been adequate

fo r

those days,

but the young people in school

n ow

must

be

prepared

tocompete in a

world

that

is and will bedi f f e ren tin many

ways.

Edu-

cation is

more

important today than

ever

be-

fore.

Itwillbeevenmore important incoming

years.

W e

have

studied the

arguments

for and

against passage

of the levy. The weight of the

evidence isstronglyon thesideof

passage.

We

are thoroughly

convinced

Elyria

schools

need

this

money

to

continue

quality

education

for the

community's children.

W e

strongly

recommend:

Vote

FOR the

levy. The need is

urgent.

Meister

creditors

given

little full

payment hope

Tiy TEX)RGE KUEBLEK

CLEVELAND

A foreclo-

sure action on h is home, a

number of judgment

liens

and

insufficient c a p i t a l were

among the

reasons H erber t H.

Meister said here yesterday

he filed a voluntary petition in

bankruptcy on May 7.

T h e 51-year-old

bankrupt

Ely r i a real estate

broker

made hisstatement at a first

meeting

of

creditors

in

federal

bankruptcy

court.

A small federal courtroom

was packed with more than40

persons, including apparently

a

num b er

of

creditors,

for the

one-hour session which began

at 3

p.m.

ALTHOUGH

TH E

session,

presided over by referee Wil-

liam J. O'Neill, was for the

purpose of hearing creditors

ask quest ions of the bankrupt ,

no creditor personally submit-

ted a

quest ion

to be

asked

of

Meister.

They heard Cleveland at tor-

ne y Theodore R. Spilka, wh o

represents federal

r eceiver

Maurice M. Weltman, say of

their chances in getting a re -

turn from their loans to Meis-

ter:

I wouldn't count on too

mu ch

Spilka said the

receiver,

who was also elected trustee

at

the

creditor's court meet-

i n g , would try for every nick-

el we can get.

IN HIS pet it ion Meister

claimed

$718,224 in

debts

and

$85,650inassets.

R e f e r e e O'Neil l empha-

sized that Meister's bankrupt-

cy petition was a personal one

and

only involved his compa-

nies

to the

extent

he m a y

have some assets in them

which could be distributed to

the creditors.

A t the firs t hear ing May 24

the

court learned Meister

ha d

a 50-50

interest

i n H & J D e -

velopment Co.

Spilka yesterday said that

additional

assets may be

real-

ized withthe sale

of

tcJ

De -

velopment Co . land from

which Meister 's

share

would

be collected for distribution to

creditors after other costs

were paid.

MEISTER TOLD the court

that an

offer

had been re -

ceived to purchase his 922

Elywood

Dr .

home

for

$55,000.

If the

o f f e r

is consumated,

part of the money, after two

mortgages

an dtaxesa re

paid,

will be collected as par tof the

assest to be distributed to

creditors, the

trustee 's

attor-

ne y

told

th e

standing room

au -

dience

in the

court.

Spilka

also

explained that

a

great num b er

of

j ud g em en t

liens filed in the Lorain

County Common Pleas Court

against Me ister would be set

aside as far as the trustee is

concerned.

A t

the

opening of the meet-

ing Meister was q uest ioned by

creditors ' trustee Weltman

with a series of quest ions ex-

plained to the audience by ref-

eree

O'Neil l

as a

rout ine par t

of

a

bankruptcy proceeding.

WEARING A D A R K brown

suit

and a rose-tan

t ie, Meis-

ter

spoke matter

of

factly

from the s tand and at tunes

was told by O'Neill to speak

louder so those persons stand-

ing in the

back

of the

court-

room could hear

h is

answers.

Did you m ake m oney or

lose money? Weltman asked

of his business dealings. Meis-

ter said

that

he

lost money in

some cases

a nd

made some

in

others.

What

real estate

do you

own? We ltman asked Just

the home, Meister answered.

Meister

at

first said

he

could

no t

recall

issuing any

financial s ta t ement unt il Welt-

m a n fur ther widened the

breadth of his question to in-

clude

any

type

of

financial

s ta t ement to anyone or insti-

tut ion.

Meister

t h e f l

said he had is-

sued a financial s ta tement to

Mr. Rinaldi. But he said he

was not sure of the date the

financial s ta tement was is-

sued.

Rinaldi is Frank P. Rinaldi,

the Cincinnat i businessman

who claims Meister showed

him an allegedly fraudulent

statement to obtain a loan.

Lorain County Prosecutor

P a u l

J. Mikus started an in-

quiry from Rinaldi's com-

plaint. On M ay

2 9

Mik us

brought the investigation to

th e

L o r a i n County

Grand

Ju ry.

Rinaldi appeared before

the grand ju ry to tell about his

f inancial deal ings with Meis-

ter.

TH E J URY

ASKED

Mik us

to

continue

his invest igat ion.

At the meet ing yesterday,

ver y little additional informa-

tion was given by or askedo f

Meister .

Two Elyria attorneys

wh o

said they represented credi-

tors

each asked

a

rout ine

quest ion.

Me ister said that h is 1966 in-

come

taxes were paid

an d he

had received an extension to

June 15 to pay his 1967 income

taxes.

The meet ing was adjourned

to 10 a.m. June 26, a t which

t ime the quest ioning of Meis-

ter is

scheduled

t o

r esume.

THE J UNE 26

date

was set

by the referee and Meister 's

attorney, G. L. Severs, ex-

plained

E l y r i a accountant

Floyd Wooldridge needed more

time

to

work

on the

books

of

Meister 's companies. Wool-

dridge

is

expected

to be

call-

ed

to the court for the nex t

meet ing of the creditors.

Referee O'Neil l sa id that

writ ten proof of claim would

have

to be

filed with

th e

court

within

six monthsof the bank-

ruptcy pet it ion fil ing date

if

creditors wa n te d to be consi-

dered for a dividend on any

uncovered assets.

In his

bankruptcy pet it ion

Meister reported owing 104

creditors $687,224 in unsecured

personal loans. He fur ther

cla imed that the amount was

about

1 0 0 , 0 0 0 less

than re -

po r

t e d . A l l o f t he l o a n

amountsar e

being disputed.

During the unravel ing of the

Meister bankruptcy story, th e

bankrupt

real

estate

broker

has been reported

as

securing

loans for a promise of an in-

terst return varying from

six

pe r

c en t

a

year

to as

m u c h

a s

twice

the

pr incipal amount

i n

six months.

Driver is charged

in

Gl

crash death

Assassination

f e / f a round t he world

Sunday proclaimed

day of

mourning

Worm

Sunny, warm

today and to-

morrow

high today in 80s.

Clear and mfld tonight, low in

pperSts and Ms.

Sunset

tonight 8:58 p.m.*

Sunrise

tomorrow , 5:53.

Details

o n

page

19.

AT METER GOLDBERG'S SU-

PERMARKET

Double your

money back guarantee on

Black

Angus Beef. Chuck Steaks, 38c

} t > ,

Open

TJjuri.

an d

Frt . untU 9

Is ,W

S V A P E R - f iICH

i

VE ^

By TH E A S S O C .

PRE S S

President Johnson led the

nation in mourning today as

Americans great

an d

small

reacted in grief and sorrow to

the tragic assassination of

Sen. Robert F.Kennedy.

The

President,

saying Ken-

nedy

had never abandoned

faith

in

America al though

he

knew

far more than

hi s

share

of personal tragedy, called for

the nat ion

to

observe

a

nat ion-

al day ofmourning Sunday.

In

a

proclamation issued

upon learning of Kennedy's

death today, the President di-

rected

that American flags on

all

federal buildings

be flown

at h a l f - s t a f f u nt il Ken nedy's

bur ial ,

VICE PRESIDENT Hub er t

H. Humphrey, expressed

a

profound personal

loss' at

Kennedy's death and calledon

all Americans to recommit

themselves to the principles of

humanity and individual jus-

tice.

May our n at ion find the

strength, the faith, and the

wisdom todispel the forces of

irrational hate among us and

to replace them with t the love

of man and

God, Humphrey

said.

Former Vice

President

Ri -

chard

M .

Nixon

said in a

statement

in New

York that

Kennedy's death is a terrible

t ra g ed y b o th fo r a fa m ily

and a nat ion which have

known too many such

trage-

dies

in r ecenttimes.

Nixon

said,

Sen Kennedy

was a man of

tremendous en-

ergy and

vitality.

He wa s o ne

of the

great

popular

leaders

in

American history.O ur deepest

sympathies go out to the fami-

ly of Sen. Kennedy in this

hour of

grief.

Gov.

Nelson

A.

Rockefeller

o f New York said the deathof

Kenned y was anunspeakable

tragedy and a

terrible loss

to

t h e n a t i o n , '

ROCKEFELLER p r

o -

claimed the

day of

burial

as

a day of mourning in this

state.

A state

of mourningfo r Cal-

ifornia

wa s

declared

by Gov

Ronald Reagan.

I have directed thatt hepe -

riod extend through the sena-

tor's

funer a la ndthat all flags

in California be flown at half

mast ,

be

said.

M y

sympatliies

go out to

Mrs. Kennedy

and the

snea-

tor's children as well as his

parent s and other members of

his family. Prayers of all

Americans

a re

with

them.

with grief and horror at the

death of Sen. Robert F. Ken-

nedy

and its

disappointment

in the concern for the United

States.

Peoplefor whom the

K en n e -

dy na m e

m e a n t

America

wept. In Dublin, Maty Ryan,

a

nur se , an d

a cousin of the

sena to r , broke down

a n d

sobbed

bitterly.

In Saigon, 2nd Lt. Lawrence

Patch

of Topeka, Kan.,

said:

It

w a s a

horrible tragedy.

But it has more meaning for

us

serving over here than

for

those back in theStates.

LORAIN H omicide by ve-

hicle, first degree, was the

charge

filed yesterday against

John Rusnak, 21, following the

death of Army Spec. 4 Jeffrey

Smith,

19, in a

head-on colli-

s ion,

Rusnak, wh ol ives at the An-

tlers Hotel, was eastbound in

the 1100 block of Wes t

Erie

Av en u e

yesterday when his

car

crashed into

the

small

sports

car which Smith was

driving, Lorain police report-

ed.

Smith and his 17-year old

sister Shelley were taking

their friend, James Cupples,

19, home to Vermil ion after

Miss Smith's graduation party

when

the

crash occurred.

Cup-

pies

an d Miss Smith were

treated at St . Joseph Hospital

and released.

Smith, a

Vietnam ve t e r a n

stationed at Fort C a r s o n ,

Colo., was on leave at the

home

of his parents, Mr. and

Mrs. E u g e n e Smith, 1262

Michigan Ave .

Smith's death

was the

city's

f o u r t h

traffic

fatality this

year .

TH E WO RLD reacted today

Torn

to page 4, col. 3

P o / /

fiours tomorrow;

6:30 o.m.to6;30p.m.

Polls will be open from 6:30a.m.to 6:30 p.m. tomorrow

for voting on the 6-mill operating levy proposed by the Ely-

ria School District in aspecial election.

Voters in the

district will

go to

their regular precinct

polling placesto casttheir ballots.