The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 3

bf Onilloinr 1 XX Sept. 8, 1984 3A REGISTER PHOTO BY BOB NANDELL i X'' Ira D.6. man is subpoenaed in Gosch case i 'Oyez, oyez, Alfie is his name, crying is his game By JIM POLLOCK Register Stall Wrttw The passing of a title from generation to generation always looks clear-cut and simple in the history books. Alfie Howard knows it isn't necessarily so. The procedure may be nearly flawless for royalty, but problems can arise when it comes to a skilled position like English town crier.

"My father was a bad town crier," said Howard. "He was an introvert." So Alfie had to learn the trade from his more outgoing grandfather. Then Howard's children turned out to be daughters, and there are no town crier-ettes, so he had to wait for a grandson. Now he's worried that his grandson won't be ready to become the family's sixth-generation London town crier until he learns a little tolerance. "He's 6 foot 2, has a great big fist and plays ice hockey," Howard said, "and if he heard some of the things I hear, I'm afraid he might put someone in the gutter." That, of course, is an important message for any messenger: When you wear a tri-cornered hat, a fancy red coat, knee-length breeches and roam around clanging a 15-pound bell, you'd better be prepared to receive all kinds of attention.

Howard, 72, ought to know. He has been attracting London's attention since 1946, spreading news of recent laws, royal announcements and coming elections. Although the job sounds like something that must have disappeared long ago, Howard is one of 42 town criers in England. He's the only one in London, however, and covers 10 of its 32 boroughs on a motorbike, putting in two or three hours almost every day but Sunday. The London news will have to spread via grapevine and wild guesses for a while, because this week Howard is working on Des Moines' attention for the sake of Younkers' "Festivale Europa," appearing in schools and shopping malls around town.

The results of wearing a tri-cornered hat are slightly different on this side of the Atlantic. "Once people here know you're 'for they're very nice," Howard reported. "If they think you're an American dressed up, they think you're a nut." He ought to be an expert on American reactions, too, because this is his 67th trip to the states over the past 32 years, besides trips to 48 other countries. After that many visits, Howard's American experiences have grown a bit predictable: "Mayor Harold Washington made me the honorary town crier of Chicago, and I hadn't the heart to tell him Mayor Jane Byrne had done the same thing two years before. And I hadn't the heart to tell her Mayor Richard Daley had done it 10 years before that." On a visit to St.

Pius elementary school in Urbandale, the only thing that surprised Howard was the thing that didn't happen. Nobody asked him how much money a town crier makes. "I can't remember that ever happening before," he mused on the way out. But then, he wouldn't have told them anyway. What he did offer the I Mil lf4f Alfie Howard, official town crier of London, England, lets loose his call Thursday afternoon in Des Moines.

The 72-year-old Howard has been a town crier since 1946. fourth- and fifth-graders was a demonstration of a town crier in action Oyez! Oyez! and the kind of tidbits that bring the outside world a little closer: He told them that he used to officiate at the children's parties when Prince Charles was a lad; that his gold watch was a gift from a sheik in Qatar; and that one of the ribbons on his uniform had to do with an event at Dunkirk that they would learn about some day. Then he was off to more stops around Des Moines, and will go from here to Cedar Rapids Thursday through Sept. 17 and Davenport Sept. 17-21, giving the Midwest a few more chances to catch an old traveler off guard.

Somewhere must lurk another unexpected moment like the one in Kansas City, where a group of young schoolchildren asked if he knew Queen Elizabeth, and then asked if he knew Prince Phillip, and predictably proceeded through the royal list. "As they left the room," Howard said, "I stood there shaking hands and finally one little boy came up, looked around to make sure no one was listening and asked, 'Do you know Benny Dioceses Ho exceptions for Franklins 1 AY DEBRA FRANKLIN FRANKLIN JULIE GflmCKA Making things Chrystal clear I met John Chrystal the same way I met a lot of people I now consider good friends: I asked him for money. Back in 1971 1 first started pounding the pavement for various causes, some of them hopeless, some of them not. Coon Rapids was a mecca for I ao-gooaer tuna-raising Decause tne prominent Garst family, of which Chrystal is a member, had a history of making generous contributions, and Coon Rapids was where they lived (and still do). He has been an adviser and resource for me often enough that his telephone number is one of the few I have commited to memory.

John Chrystal has just been named president of mega-bank Bankers Trust, overseeing a much bigger operation than his family's small Iowa banks combined. It's a major change for a 58-year-old man who has grown up and worked in Coon Rapids all his life. Many folks have thought it ironic that a banker from small-town Iowa would be a major force in Soviet-American relations, as John has been. Many folks have thought it ironic that a man who was president of the Iowa Bankers Association would also serve as president of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union. And there are, no doubt, those who think it's ironic that the same John Chrystal known as a "money bag" for the Iowa Democratic Party would be tapped for the Bankers Trust spot by a "money bag" for the Iowa Republican Party, John Ruan.

"I told Ruan he doesn't have to change parties that's not one of my requirements," says Chrystal with a laugh. But truth be known, it's a shrewd move, be it calculated or not, for John Ruan to have both "political bases" covered. Even though Chrystal is a generous contributor to elected office holders, the most he usually asks in return is for a member of the U.S. House or Senate to show up at a Coon Rapids function. And they do.

Perhaps it's also ironic that a man who is described as a stickler for details refuses to keep a checkbook. Why? "Because bank officers can't be overdrawn, and if you're not too good at keeping check stubs and I'm not then you shouldn't keep a check Consequently, he pays cash, gets someone else to pick up the tab, or charges it as he has for some 26 years at Coon Rapids' South Side Cafe. Charging has also relieved him of tipping for his morning breakfasts or noon dinners at the cafe, but Lucille Lamp, former cafe owner (along with husband Arnold), isn't complaining. "My first recollection of John was he was a typical farm boy, or young man. I never ever would've thought he'd reach the heights he has.

But he's the same man. Yes, he's the same man," says Lamp. "He'd come in for breakfast, and we'd always call him 'the old Democrat' or something like that, and if there was ever something written about him, everybody would've read it and we'd tease him. John's a great kidder himself. He's like one of the family.

If there was an empty chair next to someone, he'd just sit down and talk to them." But Chrystal is as much a citizen of Iowa as he is of one town. He spends a lot of time on the road touring the family-owned banks in Adel, Audubon, Perry, Sac City and Jefferson. He accepts virtually all speaking engagements he's asked to fill on his favorite topic, the Soviet Union. He rarely turns down a dinner invitation with friends in Des Moines, but even on the snowiest of evenings he heads back to Coon Rapids. Joe Rosenfield is one of Chrystal's close friends, so I asked him if he thought Chrystal would now have to break down and get a place in Des Moines.

Said Rosenfield: "I know where he'll probably live for the first four weeks with Joe Rosenfield. He can live there free for four weeks, then I'll charge him more rent than he can afford. Otherwise he'll be there for 10 years." The hometown reaction to Chrystal's new job, which officially begins Oct. 1, is a rousing "hooray," although one person joked that Chrystal was deserting the struggling community. He will not be bowing out of the family businesses completely, however.

He'll be more of an outside director than an inside director. "I'm not going to the moon just Des Moines," he says. If you see the exhibit of Charles Ath-erton Cumming's painting now on display at the Heritage Gallery, be sure to check out the portrait of "Neva." Neva Leib was my mother-in-law's aunt. That painting might well have been of my mother-in-law's mother had she not thought it improper when Cumming first suggested the idea. Says my mother-in-law, Kay Tor-mey, "She didn't think it was proper, but that's nothing I inherited, dear." The exhibit is on display through Sept.

14. Julie Gam-mack i. a lins said. Franklin said Friday he understood the rules, and the need to enforce them. It's his former bosses he's mad at.

He has appealed his firing to the state Merit Employment Commission. Currently most couples signing up in the Sioux City Diocese can expect to wait from five to seven years for the pre-adoption studies to be done, explained Broderick-Rehan. The actual adoption can take up to another year after that. "It's a long wait, but that's what we tell them," she said. It could be sooner for the Franklins.

An official of the Fort Dodge branch of the adoption agency told the Franklins in a letter that the study process could begin in the spring of 1986 about two years after the Franklins applied last February. Aletha Panek, worker for the adoption agency of the Dubuque diocese, said the current wait for the family studies there was between one and five years. But the diocese only accepts names for the list about two months each year, she said. ly lost control of the semi-trailer truck he was driving and it overturned. Nielsen's wife, Terri, was listed in fair condition Friday at a hospital in Battle Creek, Mich.

$20 job directory contains information that is free CEDAR RAPIDS, IA. (AP) Persons answering a local advertisement are being offered a listing of federal jobs for $20, but Job Service of Iowa officials say information on federal employment is free for the asking. A telephone number contained in the ad is for Income Opportunities Inc. of Chicago, which sells directories of federal agencies for $20. Russell Coleman, an official in Job Service's Cedar Rapids office, said: "Someone wants you to pay $20 to get the list.

They just don't tell you that information should be available through the federal government personnel offices." Bill Gibson, president of Income Opportunities, said a person would have to spend a great deal of time getting all the information his workers put into a concise directory. However, a copy of the directory contained no information on specific job openings. Instead, it included a list of all federal job information centers in the country and instructions on how to write the centers for job information. Cedar Rapids thief takes $300 parrot, recorder CEDAR RAPIDS, IA. (AP) A $300 parrot, complete with cage, was stolen during a break-in at a Cedar Rapids home Wednesday.

The bird, an orange-winged Amazon parrot, and a $520 videotape recorder were stolen from the K.C. Maring residence, according to police reports. The thief entered through a door that was forced open, reports said. 1 fl By FRANK SANTIAGO RMttor Staff WnMr A Washington, DC-area man who says he searches for missing children has been ordered to tell a federal grand jury in Des Moines what he knows about missing newspaper carriers Eugene Martin and Johnny Gosch. Paul Bishop, 25, who describes himself as a "former street kid," has been subpoenaed to appear Tuesday.

He apparently will be asked to discuss statements tied to him alleging that Gosch is being held by child pornographers. U.S. Attorney Richard Turner wouldn't confirm or deny whether a grand jury is interested in the cases and declined to comment. Noreen Gosch, Johnny's mother, says Bishop has been an unpaid volunteer in the search for her son. She said that she and Bishop are "baffled" by the order.

'We've been told by various sources that law enforcement basically doesn't have much to go on and they're trying to find out if we've got anything going," she said. Frequent Contacts Bishop, who lives in Springfield, and has made frequent contacts with Noreen and John Gosch, wasn't available for comment Friday. A phone number he gave to Washington authorities was answered by a man who said he didn't know Bishop. Asked if Bishop lived at the Washington number, the man said "I don't think so." He said he was standing in a phone booth and had picked up the receiver because he heard the phone ringing. The subpoena could force Bishop to explain under oath statements that Gosch was abducted for pornography and was being held captive along with Martin.

Martin, 14, disappeared Aug. 12, and Gosch vanished Sept. 5, 1982, when he was 12. The two were delivering the Des Moines Sunday Register but police have been unable to connect the disappearances. Sue Martin, Eugene's stepmother, said Bishop "got us excited and said he knew the boys were alive" in the Southwest.

But she said the contact with him "fizzled" and the family no longer is in touch with him. "I didn't like him," she said. About two weeks ago, according to an investigator, Bishop was interviewed by two FBI agents near his home. "Renegade Group" Described in an April 18 Washington Times story as head of a "self-proclaimed renegade group" known as KIDS, an acronym for Kids in Distress Services, Bishop recently helped find two East Coast 15-year-old runaways in Little Rock, after a week-long disappearance, the Times said. Gosch said Bishop first contacted her in February and was one "of a lot of people who offered assistance," including private investigators in Rhode Island, Missouri, New Mexico and California.

"Most of them called after seeing national publicity on Johnny and wanted to help," she said. Among the investigators, she said, is Sam J. Soda of Des Moines. Soda said that he hadn't been subpoenaed and that he knew nothing of a grand jury investigation. Gosch said she knew of no other subpoenas.

Straight Answers Bishop, the Gosches say in a reference letter circulated by him, has given "the only straight answers to questions we have had during this painful search." The Gosches say he has been "straightforward and honest about the possibilities in our case." "Mr. Bishop has connections which could make the difference in our son's life," the letter said. In an interview Friday, Gosch said that a pattern has emerged from a number of sightings across the country to indicate that her son is alive. She said the descriptions are "always identical" and resemble her son. "We've never been fortunate to be on the spot when they see the boy.

By the time we get a man there we can only put pieces together," she said. dWiiiliifiiifiiWhilW nail Johnny Gosch By BOB SHAW Rttfsttr Stiff Writer An official of the Sioux City Catholic adoption agency handling the case of a fired state employee said Friday that no exceptions will be made to the rule that its prospective adoptive couples must live in that diocese. Barring such an exception, it appears that Ray Franklin has had to choose between keeping his job and adopting a baby. Franklin was fired from the Department of Human Services because he refused to accept a job transfer from Fort Dodge to Mason City, which is out of the diocese. "I think it sometimes gets twisted around by the public that we are this mean, terrible agency who won't give this family a baby because they are moving," said Bev Broderick-Rehan, adoption supervisor for Catholic Charities, run by the Sioux City Diocese.

"But we know hundreds of couples who want children. If we made this exception, we'd have to make hundreds of them." Sioux City Diocese Bishop Lawrence Soen couldn't be reached for comment Friday about whether he would intervene to make an exception to the rule. Decorah woman pleads guilty in theft No evidence of abuse found at care center By LISA A. FUNG Rttfsttr Staff WrHtr The Iowa Department of Health has found no evidence to support employee allegations of physical and sexual abuse of residents at the Buchanan County Care Home in Independence, County Attorney Phil Havens said Friday. Havens said investigators from the health department were at the home this week and questioned employees, residents and county officials.

They could find no evidence, he said, to substantiate allegations brought to light last month in an 8 Ms -page petition that called for the immediate termination of the care facility's administrators, Bonita and Darrell Davis. The employees' petition was sent to the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors and later was referred to the county attorney. County officials then decided to call state investigators to look into the allegations. Some Violations Found Havens said investigators found evidence that unqualified staff members had administered medication to residents, but he said that problem has been resolved. In addition, the investigation found the home violated a county policy designating smoking and non-smoking areas.

The most serious charges were without basis, Havens said. Those charges, outlined in complaints from nine employees, included accusations that residents of the center were abused sexually, physically and verbally, were denied adequate medical and dental treatment, and were denied adequate food and clothing. Another of the allegations was a charge that the Davises had misused the care center's food. However, Havens said the investigators found that the Davises' contract with the county did not specify what food would be available to them for their personal use. Havens called the investigation thorough and said he would ask Attorney General Tom Miller's staff to examine the health department's report to determine whether criminal charges should be filed.

However, he said he anticipates none will be filed. Wanted Names Removed He said five of the nine employees who had signed the petition later contacted the county supervisors and the county attorney to ask that their names be removed from the petition. Three of them made the requests before the investigation began; two others made the request during the investigation. According to Havens, employees had asked that their names be removed from the petition because they had not witnessed the allegations of abuse or because they had signed the petition before all allegations were listed. Some said they simply were going along with other employees; one said she had not read the petition before signing it.

Havens said morale problems among some of the employees might have prompted the complaints. No disciplinary actions is expected against the employees who signed the petition, he said. On Aug. 3, Franklin was fired for refusing to accept a transfer that officials said was necessary because of a greater need for youth workers in Mason City. For Ray and Debra Franklin, the move would have put them in a different Catholic diocese and the rules of their Sioux City Diocese require couples to be living in the diocese so that they can be examined to see whether they would be fit adoptive parents.

The move would have meant losing their place in line for the adoption. The diocese serving Mason City, based in Dubuque, is not currently accepting applications for adoptions, the Frank hausi in PHI Kbit I01VA rocks in the soil may have trapped air for him, too. Tegler said his first reaction was to stand up, but he could not budge and the pain creeped through his legs as his muscles cramped. Tegler said he began yelling and bobbing his head to help workers find him. As Shonka dug with his hands, Independence firefighters rushed to the farm.

Although it took 20 minutes to get Tegler out, rescuers said they reached his face in less than two minutes. DCI will probe loss of $200 in Johnson County IOWA CITY, IA. (AP) The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation has been called in to look into the disappearance of about $200 in cash from the Johnson County clerk of court's office. Clerk of Court Mary Conklin said she discovered in mid-August that about $200 was missing from the safe. She said she does not know if the money was stolen or if there simply was a discrepancy in the bookkeeping.

Alburnett tot killed, mother injured in crash Tht Rtcisttr's lowi Ntwi Same ALBURNETT, IA. Rebecca Nielsen, a 21-month-old Alburnett girl, was killed and her mother was seriously injured in a traffic accident -Tuesday on Interstate Highway 94 near Jackson, Mich. Officials said the girl's father, Steve Nielsen, apparent DECORAH, IA. (AP) Cheryl Grinna, 31, of Decorah changed her plea Friday and admitted her guilt to a first-degree theft charge stemming from missing money at the Winneshiek County treasurer's office. Grinna admitted in Winneshiek County District Court that she took more than $5,000 from the treasurer's office from June 1971 through last May 22.

When sentenced, she could be ordered to spend up to 10 years in prison and pay a fine of up to $5,000. Prosecutors said they will seek restitution of a yet undetermined amount of money. Rosalind Quam, 51, of Ridgeway last week changed her plea to guilty through a plea-bargaining agreement with prosecuting attorneys. She also agreed to testify against Grinna. State auditors discovered in May that more than (130,000 was missing from the treasurer's office.

The discovery was made during a special audit that followed the suicide of Treasurer Charles Quandahl. Independence man buried in ditch for 20 minutes INDEPENDENCE, IA. (AP) -John Tegler, 23, of Independence escaped with only a broken shoulder blade, bruises, and a hoarse voice after being buried for 20 minutes in a ditch Thursday afternoon. Tegler was trapped at the bottom of a 7-foot-deep ditch while installing a water line on the Don Shonka farm south of here. He was trapped in a squatting position under about a foot of earth when a 30-foot section of soil and heavy gravel peeled away from the ditch wall.

The bill of the cap Tegler was wearing created an air pocket in front of his face so he could breath while Shonka began feverishly digging with his hands to free him. Officials said the.