The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 1

Basketball Vandcrbilt. 91 Auburn 75 Florida 97 Tennessee 90 Oklahoma 89 UNLV 88 Alabama. 71 OleMiss. 62 See Page 1C I III Kk Humble superstar I See Showcase "CopyrigM 1987 A GANNETT NEWSPAPER South North 42 38 24 Section Volume 2, No. 5 JANUARY 18, 1987 Nashville, Tennessee Second claw pottage paid at Naslnilk.TN The ENNESSEAN Ud aire Sitting quietly Strobel alive when police cited suspect I i ft i A A A---H iAAAAAf AA'AiOiiA'AXXAAAA; v'' i A "iSt -iif AA-t -A A a fi -r AAA sfciiiM: -i J.

A Sf 'A AAA AAiiSAAA' mi A AyAfg A Ai '--A'' AAiA Ax-- AA A I 'V 'iMy: tAA IzSaIZ i ji Vows a just deal for all Tennesseans LARRY DAI ICtlTREY Staff Writer Ned McWherter got his coffee and vanilla wafers yesterday, delivered a speech as simply worded as its maker, and Tennessee welcomed a new governor in a ceremony draped in tradition. At 10:28 a.m. McWherter leaned into the microphones on the steps of the War Memorial Building, his amplified voice echoing through the concrete canyons of downtown Nashville. Ned Ray McWherter, do solemnly swear that I will obey the constitution of the state of Tennessee and the Constitution of the United States and that I will perform with fidelity the duties of the office of governor, to which I have been elected and which I am about to assume. So help me God." With that, the political leadership of 4.8 million people passed from Republican to Democrat A crowd of thousands, including what seemed to be all 2,256 residents of the new governor's hometown of Dresden, cheered its approval.

Then McWherter raised aloft his coffee and vanilla wafers, symbolic of his campaign pledge to be a working, first-day chief executive. McWherter's 11-minute inaugural address stressed themes of community pride, optimism and fairness, but outlined no new initiatives. "No state that chooses to Ignore its troubled regions and people while watching others thrive can call itself justified," he said. "My message to the people of Tennessee will be that we are all family. No group or region will be favored.

"And none will be forgottea" McWherter, 56, and outgoing Gov. Lamar Alexander, 46, swapped warm words of friendship and admiration before the exchange of power. "I want Ned McWherter to succeed because I want Tennessee to succeed," Alexander said. Then he repeated what McWherter told him eight years ago: "I will help you be the best governor Tennessee ever had." "For eight years, you worked to move this state in the right direction," McWherter responded. The scene was a sharp contrast to Alexander's inauguration eight years ago, which followed the early Turn to PAGE 12 Column I DAMDJARRARD and PHIL Wll JAMS Stat Writers Mary Catherine Strobel sat silently in her car while the driver, her alleged kidnapper and killer, was cited for traffic violations by a Metro police officer the day she died.

For William Scott Day, 35, an escapee from a Michigan mental hospital, this was the first of two brushes with Middle Tennessee law officers last month, officials here and in Van Horn, Texas, said yesterday. On Dec. 9, while driving Strobel's car, Day was stopped in West Nashville and cited for speeding and driving without a license while Strobel sat quietly in the back seat, said Culberson County (Texas) Sheriff Richard Upchurch. Early the next day, the escapee fled the parking lot of a Franklin market he had allegedly robbed of approximately $500 as a city police car sat nearby, Upchurch said. Day was gone when police realized the crime had occurred, according to Upchurch.

But by that second close call, Strobel was already dead, the sheriff said. Strobel, a longtime worker with the homeless and poor, was the first of at least six people police say Day admits killing since escaping Dec. 4 from the hospital for disturbed prisoners, authorities said. Now Day, held in the small Culberson County Jail since Monday on armed robbery and murder charges, claims to have left even more dead victims in his wake. "He says there are several more of his victims out there, and I believe him," Upchurch said.

"But as far as we know, Mrs. Strobel was the very first It all began in Nashville." Day arrived in Nashville sometime during the second week of December on a Greyhound bus from Louisville, where he abandoned his accomplice, hospital employee Thomas Fortimato, Upchurch said. Fortunato, 36, had helped him escape from Ypsilanti Center for Forensic Psychiatry in a laundry cart On Dec 9, Strobel left at about 2:30 p.m. from Holy Name Catholic Church, 521 Woodland where her son, the Rev. Charles Strobel, is pastor.

She went to the Sears store, 639 Lafayette where she was approached by Day just blocks from the bus station. "She was robbed, and then he took her for a ride," Upchurch said. "They rode for a long, long time. She was alive for some of that For some of it she definitely wasn't" At 4:05 p.m., Metro patrol officer Jerry Sharpe stopped Day as he sped through a school zone at Old Hickory Boulevard and Charlotte Pike, said Metro homicide Lt R.C Jacksoa Strobel sat motionless in the back seat of the sedan while Day gave Sharpe a false name and said he didn't have his driver's license with him, officials said. He identifed himself as a Roger Willis from Memphis.

"She did not say anything to the officer or indicate to him that she was in trouble," Jackson said. "It was, at that point a routine traffic stop." Sharpe, who could not tw reached for comment last night cited Day for speeding and driving without a license and sent him on his way, officials said. "You have to understand that this was an officer stopping a car for which there was no search, no APB 1 CaKe SheR StaH Gov. Ned McWherter makes good on his campaign promise, sipping a cup of coffee and munching on a vanilla wafer which he holds aloft to show he is ready to go to work after he was sworn in as Tennessee's 46th governor. Smiling at his father is Mike McWlierter, a Nashville attorney.

Ned's 'NiHas' put snap in a gray day candidates. "Today has been the best day I've ever had," Warlick said. "Everybody's upbeat "I guess it's being out of power for eight years." Warlick began selling the buttons red with a picture of McWherter and emblazoned "Tennessee Inauguration, 1987, Ned Ray McWherter" for $3 each at the beginning of the day, but the last one sold for $25 and the 10 before that went for $10 apiece. Warlick had only 1,000 of the buttons Turn to PAGE 1 2 Column I quickly joined in the cookie orgy. Nabisco provided the Democrat's inauguration with 20,000 miniature packages of Nilla Wafers, which people grabbed by the handful.

On the front of the package was a silver decal with McWherter's campaign motto: "Our best is yet to come." After the cookies, the second most popular item was a red inaugural button being hawked by Jim Warlick, president of Political Americana, which specializes in campaign buttons for collectors and Democratic JIM O'HARA Staff Writer Vanilla wafers, a red inaugural button, governors sporting Stetson hats, and good will from both Democratic and Republican officeholders brightened the gray day when Ned McWherter became Tennessee's 46th governor. As promised, McWherter was a first-day governor right after he took the oath he sipped a cup of coffee and ate four vanilla wafers presented to him on bone china rimmed with gold plate. The crowd, packed onto and around the Legislative Plaza and estimated at 8,000, I Turn to PAGE 10A, Column 3 At 17, death row is home to her 2,250 visit offices daily Metro centralization stirs traffic concern HIGH 52 low 35 See2B There was a tremendous personal conflict." said Lake County Judge James Kimbrough. 'iBut I felt I really had no alternative. I do not believe any individual judge can pick an age and say.

This is too Cooper, a chronic runaway with a troubled childhood, was among nine juveniles sentenced to die in 1985 and the first nine months of 1986. But because she is so young and the only girl, her case has sparked more emotion, more debate and more pub- I Turn to PAGE 10A, olumn 6 SHARON OOMEN Associated Press GARY, Ind. At an age when most girls are busy with school, homework and dates, Paula Cooper has her own routine. She sits locked in her prison cell 23 hours a day, waiting to die Cooper is a teen-ager and a murderer. In May 1985, when she was just 15, she stabbed an elderly Bible teacher 33 times with a 12-inch butcher knife.

Her victim, according to testimony, recited the Lord's Prayer as she lay dying. Last summer, Cooper became the youngest female since 1892 sentenced to death in the United States. Now 17, she is among 34 inmates, only two of them female, facing execution for murders and other crimes committed at age 17 or younger. Cooper was among four teen-age girls charged in the slaying of Ruth Pelke, 78. They fled with $10 and the victim's 1976 Plymouth.

Cooper, portrayed as the ringleader, received the only death sentence. Ironically, Cooper, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced by a judge who opposes the death penalty but said the law was the law. 1 Saw O-ring flaw before blast, court told fiMl.McKMGItT Slat) Hrmr Up to 2J50 people visit various Metro departments for services on an average day a number no one calculated when designing the proposed centralized Metro office building, officials confirmed A survey of Metro department directors shows there is overwhelming support for the concept of centralization, but there is also concern for the taxpayers who would have to negotiate downtown traffic and search -for one of 500 parking spaces if the Metro Council approves the $49.6 million building. "I wouldn't say they didnl talk about that, but no one did a specific survey." said Ron Gobbell, with Cob-bell Hays Partners Inc. "You can study this building to death.

That was not an in-depth study from that point of view." Gobbell Hays Partners Inc. was authorized by the council to conduct a $57,000 study to analyze the feasibility of a consolidated Metro office building. Mtrro Finance Director Charles Carttf ell coorrded that more d.jta Wioeld Jay bA5i tachaJed in tke Gobbell Hays study about public con venience. "There were holes in it," he said. The report was used as a guide by a selection committee, which then chose The Metro Partnership to develop the deal.

That partnership came up with specifications and architectural plans for a 400.000-square-foot, $49.6 million building to be located beside the Metro Courthouse. The council has deferred action on the building until March after questions were raised that the building was too expensive. A survey of 1 5 out of 30 Metro departments those that primarily serve the public shows that between 2.050 and 2.250 people come and go doing business with the city each day. Each department head stressed that there has never been an actual count, so the figures are estimates. That survey shows on an average day: 75 to 100 people visit the Metro Employee Benefit Board.

100 visit the trustee's office. 1. 000 visit the county clerk's off- I lumloI'VU t4umn I Art Leisure SECTION ArtTheatre. Books 9f Budge 3F Oafts 5f Crossword 5f Food 5f Garden lips. SF Music Trawl 1-4F Showcase Ask Showcase.

SO NashwBe Beat 51 Nash ShowLave 72 SoapOpeias Talk Shows TVlisKs 2M2 Perspective SECTION tditonats. 4H letters 4H Opnons 4 5H HrMiKlf SM BwtineM SECTION I xut(Sf a Pert. Thic Section Newsmaker National News. 1 MM Walton NemlSA Vw Id News. .2.4 Metro SUU SECTION Deaths ffi Mittate Calendar .38 Thompson's SUtwn 18 Wsh list 2B Sport SECTION BtfketbJ 14-7C Dawtwl Deaths 14C FootbJ umc Outdoors.

12C Sayetnart. SportsHH. Sondaf 1C Rtai EtUtt SECTION OauM. 2-13) fcallslatf nVws .10 Living SECTION (i'lTatTri .21 Aminatcti tress SPACE CENTER, Houston A Morton Thiokol Inc. executive says in the first deposition in a lawsuit over the Challenger explosion that NASA's chief astronaut asked him about booster rocket seals before the blast IDs reply.

"It appears to be a problem." Edward J. Mason, ThiokoTs office manager at the Johnson Space Center, made the statement In connection with a suit against the Utah-based maker of the space shuttle's i solid-fuel boosters by the widow el Ronald McNair, one of seven crew October or November 1985 about the rubberized O-ring gaskets used to seal joints between segments of the booster rockets. "He knew about the problem." Mason said, "and he asked me is it a real problem and I said something like 'It appears to He said the two had met to discuss another matter, and Crippen "mentioned it casually. So I just said. 'It appears to be a or words to that effect" A presidential commission said the expkrion was cauvd.

tva one the shutJe's biosters teckfd I lumlol'AU IIV(Uiw I members killed In the Jan. 28 explosion. In the weeks that followed the Challenger disaster, the crew members' families took a public stance against legal action, but some of them changed their minds after public hearings revealed the rocket flaw. Cheryl McNair. who filed suit in October seeking unspecified damages, explained: "To do nothing would be a tacit acquiescence or stamp of approval of the type of conduct that took my husband's life." Mason said Monday In a drpasj-fcon taken by attorary Ronald Krei that Robert Crtppcn asked him in.