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The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 81

Location:
West Palm Beach, Florida
Issue Date:
Page:
81
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

F.l.T. Campus Price Tag Set at $13 Million LOCAL 'J Isabel Sanford's Going 'Crazy' The former star cf 'The Jeff arsons' wishes the show had been canceled with dignity, but now is content to work cff and on. as in 'Crazy Like a ACCENT AM Baseball Union Challenging Drug Penalties swrtso, Hawkins Tested To Determine if Surgery Needed A2 Post ST. LUCIE COUNTY The 80 Pages 2 Vol 19 No 33 Copyright 196 Trie Post West Palm Beach. Florida 25 Cent April 5, 1986 lired Killers Wi Me Spearman By Steve Petrone SUH Writer Robert Spearman was arrested yesterday and charged with paying $20,000 to have his wife, former West Palm Beach Assistant City Manager Anita Spearman, murdered in November by a group of contract killers who advertised their services in Sol- told him.

Mrs. Spearman. 49. was found bludgeoned to death in a bedroom of her suburban Palm Beach Gardens home shortly before 8 a.m. Nov.

16. 1985. Spearman called the Sheriff's Office that morning after returning from a breakfast meeting and reported finding his wife's body. He also reported several items of jewelry, including a wedding band with the Turn to SPEARMAN, A6 said he would enter a plea of innocent at Spearman's arraignment. Roth said he learned that Spearman had been arrested when he was called by one of Spearman's employees and a sheriff's detective at 12 30 p.m..

He said he then talked to Spearman at the jail for about two hours. Roth said Spearman "was extremely upset" but he declined to elaborate, saying it would be unethical for him to say whether Spearman was surprised or what Spearman had records as his girlfriend since 1980. Those same records state that Rozelle told investigators that her relationship with Spearman had "cooled off" during the past year. Rozelle could not be located yesterday for comment. The sheriff said he and four other detectives waited for the couple to walk into an open area before he made the arrest.

"We knew he had guns in his car and we wanted to wait until we had him away from those guns before moving in on him," Wille said. Spearman was handcuffed, searched and driven to Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office headquarters on Gun Club Road in the sheriff's light yellow four-door 1985 Mercury Grand Marquis. After Spearman's pistol there turned out to be only one was removed from Spearman's car, Rozelle drove the car away. Spearman's attorney, David Roth, Stools, a furniture store at 750 North-lake Blvd. in Lake Park, at 12:17 p.m.

Wille said Spearman showed no emotion when arrested and offered no resistance. "I walked up to him and said, 'Hello, and he said, 'Hello, sheriff. What are you doing And I said, 'I've come to place you under arrest for first-degree Wille said. Spearman was furniture shopping with Patricia Rozelle, a woman identified in Sheriff's Office investigation i dier of Fortune magazine. Palm Beach County Sheriff Wille arrested 56-year-old as he walked out of Bars Police Retrace Events Leading To Anita Spearman's Death ifv i 1 1 ii urn (Ej'Uauiuuicij By Paul Blythe and Steve Petrone special skills.

All jobs considered. That was an ad that ran on page mm. I i i A stai wntr 107 of the September issue of Soldier Gun for hire. 37-year-old profes- of Fortune magazine. The ad includ- sional mercenary desires jobs.

Viet- ed a phone number and an address in nam veteran. Discreet and very pri- Gatlinburg, Tenn. They belonged, ac- vate. Bodyguard, courier, and other cording to an affidavit filed yester- Doutre Spearman GURKHAS IN BCLI2E STAINLESS BACK-UPS SALVADOR, i i i ISRAEL'S MASTER SNIPER 2. ftt.

MVS 0 tV'l 1 '--IK Ofa I moX 34294 day by sheriff's investigators, to Richard Savage. Savage, now accused of being a contract killer, is owner of the Continental Club, a striptease bar in Knox-ville, that has been raided various times by local authorities. Two employees at the club, the investigators said, were Sean T. Doutre, a bouncer and sometime hit man, and Ronald L. Emert, a "bagman" the one who admitted ferrying money from Robert Spearman to Savage.

Spearman, a former Marine, kept copies of Soldier of Fortune around his suburban Lake Park home, according to his mother-in-law, In October, investigators say, Spearman called Savage five times. He wanted Savage to arrange the murder of Spearman's wife, Anita, the assistant city manager of West Palm Beach, according to the probable cause affidavit. They negotiated a price. "The contract killing of Anita Spearman was for $20,000," the affidavit says. Spearman, the affidavit said, told Savage his wife "was dying of cancer and was in a bad shape and that he wanted to see her suffering stopped." Later, Spearman told Emert "he had to resort to prostitutes and other women to take care of his needs and that he had found somebody else." The contract, detailed in sheriff's Detective William Springer's formal accusation, involved the delivery of money by Spearman to two men on three occasions, one muffed murder attempt and finally the Nov.

16 beating death of Mrs. Spearman as she lay in her bed. These were details, though, that sheriff's detectives did not learn until after March 18, when they received a call from a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent in Knoxville, Tenn. That, detectives said, was the turning point in what had been a fruitless investigation. Following is a chronology of the events that unfolded in the death of Mrs.

Spearman and the arrest of her husband, according to Springer's affidavit. On Oct. 16, Savage flew to Palm Beach International Airport, where September issue of 'Soldier of Fortune' magazine Spearman allegedly answered the above classified advertisement Doutre checked into an Econo Lodge and called Spearman at work. Emert said they then met with Spearman at 2 p.m. Oct.

21 for about 20 minutes in the parking lot of Denny's Restaurant at 400 U.S. 1 in North Palm Beach. Emert said Spearman told him "he wanted it to look like a burglary and that his wife would be in the wheelchair, that she was taking medication that she would be drowsy and that he didn't want any blood or mess that he would prefer for Anita Spearman to be smothered or something like that." Spearman also wanted the killing done in the late afternoon and he wanted it done within a week, Emert said. Spearman said he would leave the sliding glass doors open, and he wanted the killer to ransack the house and take Mrs. Spearman's jewelry, Emert told police.

Spearman kept talking. He said Turn to AFFIDAVIT, A6 he collected $2,000 from Spearman, Emert said. That same day, Savage asked Emert to drive to West Palm Beach to pick up the rest of the money. Emert and Doutre left Knoxville Oct. 20 in a white Toyota Corolla, drove straight through, and arrived in West Palm Beach Oct.

21. Before they left, Emert was given $50 in travel money and a piece of paper on which was written Spearman's name and address, 2367 Bay Circle, Lake Park. He also was given the phone number of Spearman's marine construction company, which Emert wrote on another piece of paper. Detectives said they recovered the second piece of paper. Emert was told to collect $18,000 from Spearman, give $1,000 to Doutre plus $250 for expenses, and then fly back to Tennessee.

Doutre was to be left with the car. In West Palm Beach, Emert and Y.7-' i ALLEN EYESTONE Staff Photographer Sheriff Richard Wille (left) escorts Robert Spearman after he was arrested yesterday 60 of Women in 30s May Divorce Johnston Considering Gibbons' Son for Ticket "It appears that divorce, remarriage and redivorce may have peaked in the late 1970s and will recede to some new normative level. If this happens, it will be an important but not dramatic change. Most adults will marry and the incidence of divorce in the U.S. will likely remain among the highest in the world," Norton and Moorman concluded.

Although every divorce involves both a man and a woman, their particular study was limited to "Marriage and Divorce Patterns of U.S. Women in the 1980s." Turn to DIVORCE, A6 nearly six in 10 of the ever-married women in each group will have been divorced." "The projection for this age group is greater than that for women 10 years older or 10 years younger," the researchers said. The projection for women in their 40s was for an eventual 45 percent divorce rate, and the rate was set at 50 percent for those now in their 20s. The projections are included in a detailed study of marriage and divorce that also said that, after rising to record levels in the 1970s, divorce seems to have leveled off in the first half of this decade. WASHINGTON (AP) Nearly six of every 10 married women now in their 30s probably will experience a divorce at some time, according to a new study by Census Bureau experts.

That would be a record high proportion, according to the study of marriage and divorce patterns by Arthur Norton and Jeanne Moorman. Their findings were being presented at a meeting of the Population Association of America in San Francisco. Nearly one-third of women aged 35 to 39 already have been divorced, and the study projects that "by the time they and women five years younger complete their divorce experience, By Joe Bizzaro and Charles Holmes TallahassM Burtau TALLAHASSEE Democratic gubernatorial candidate Harry Johnston might name a new running mate as early as next week and the son of a Florida congressman is a prime candidate for the job, according to sources close to his campaign. Sources said yesterday that freshman state Rep. Mark Gibbons, D- Freshman Rep.

Gibbons Garage-Door Openers Don't When Reagan Visits Tampa, 33, the son of U.S. Rep. Sam Gibbons, is a serious contender for lieutenant governor. "He's being considered," Johnston said. "His name is one on a short list." Johnston refused to say who else is on the list or how many people are being considered for the No.

2 spot once occupied by Attorney General Jim Smith, who left the campaign in December after a dispute over strategy. Neither Mark Gibbons nor his father could be reached for comment. Johnston refused to say what assets Gibbons might bring to his campaign, saying he will discuss what particular assets led him to choose his running mate once the decision has been made. "We're looking for someone who will bring with them a constituency," Johnston said. "Someone who has the skills to be governor if something should happen to me." "We're not confirming or denying anybody as our running mate at this point," campaign press secretary Kevin Bloom said.

"We'll make an announcement at the appropriate time." Johnston confirmed that he wiI Turn to JOHNSTON, A6 I Weather Partly cloudy today. High in the low 80s; low In the low 70s. Wind southeasterly at 15 mpn- Details, A2 Inside Today Accent A14 Bob AAichals A14 -Business A21 Mortgage Classified Ads C7-32 Charts A22 Comics B6-7 Obituaries C5 Crossword A28 Stocks A22-26 Editorials A30 Theaters A20 Horoscope A28 TV Listings A28-29 Letters A.iO TV Sports D7 said the E4-B has special satellite and other communication equipment. The plane is under the control of the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff and operated by the Air Force. Murdock said he has received thousands of calls over the years, and about 800 to 900 calls in the past week after Reagan arrived for his latest stay at the ranch.

He said complaints poured in from the nearby communities of Riverside, RciUinds. Loma Linda and Corona. He narrowed the problem to electronic interference because direct controls fd. the garage doors continued to work. Larry Murdock of Genie Garage Doors said yesterday.

"It didn't seem to matter what we did. Finally, we got down to the fact that it always happens when the president is here." Called "the doomsday plane," the E4-B is designed to be a flying command center in the event of nuclear war. On the ground, it's merely a nuisance to nearby residents. "We're apparently being bombarded by a communications satellite sending scrambled signals," Murdock said. "It affects the 300 megahertz cycle." March AFB spokeswoman tathy Rubin SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.

(AP) -Whenever President Reagan visits his California ranch, thousands of remote-control garage-door openers fail, and residents believe it's an open-and-shut case of electronic jamming. Reagan's mountaintop Rancho del Ciclo is about 200 miles northwest of San Bernardino near Santa Barbara. But when he is in California, his E4-B airborne command plane, a modified Boeing 747 packed with electronic gear, sits ready for him at March Air Force Base 10 miles south of San Bernardino. A "It had us buffaloed for a log time," i.

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Pages Available:
3,841,130
Years Available:
1916-2018