The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 225

News of MartinSt Sfniiijj North Lakr Okrcrliohrp SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1973 SECTION Gerard Schaefer Trial Starts Monday The Palm Beach Post-Times ByJAYNE ELLISON Poll Mall Wnttr It was Sept. 27, 1972, a sultry Florida evening which beckoned youngsters to the beach. Susan Place, 17, and Georgia Jessup, 16, told Susan's mother, Mrs. Ira Place, they were going to the beach to play guitar with a companion, Jerry Shepherd. The trio drove off in a small, foreign sedan from the Place's suburban Fort Lauderdale home.

on the stand in his own defense during the trial. "We'll have to wait and see what the evidence is," he said. "I may and I may not put him on the stand. The intensive investigation by law enforcement officers in St. Lucie and Broward counties since the gruesome April 1 discovery of the bodies has linked Schaefer to the deaths or disappearances of nine young women, including two from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and possibly as many as 28 missing and presumed victims of foul play.

Circuit Judge C. Pfeiffer Trowbridge denied a defense motion for a change of venue, which claimed publicity would impair Schaefer's chance of a fair trial. But the judge ordered 306 prospective jurors be called, starting with 102 Monday. The six-member jury and two alternates probably will not be sequestered, since Judge Trowbridge said he would be "extremely reluctant" to take such action. There remains the possibility that a jury cannot be obtained from among the Turn to SCHAEFER, B2 State Atty.

Robert E. Stone contends Gerard John Schaefer Jr. and Jerry Shepherd are the same person Schaefer has pleaded innocent to the charge. In a surprise move during an earlier hearing, Schaefer denied knowing or killing the Place and Jessup girls. Public Defender Elton H.

Schwarz, who is representing Schaefer, said yesterday that while his client's plea is not guilty, "we have given notice that it may be by reason of insanity." Schwarz said he may put Schaefer That was the last time the Place and Jessup girls were reported seen alive. Their butchered, decapitated skeletons were found on a Sunday, six months later, on a desolate stretch of Hutchinson Island in St. Lucie County. Monday, jury selection begins at the St. Lucie County courthouse in Fort Pierce in the case of the State of Florida versus Gerard John Schaefer a 27-year-old former Martin County deputy sheriff, who is charged with two first-degree murder counts in the Place and Jessup girls' deaths.

(9n James III; wi. i- iQuinlani ft ft WJf if'. Post Columnist J. A.l. 1 in 1 One shopper looks warily al Huff-n-Puffs squaw upon entering the produce market.

That's Easy For You To Say I 1 i.T .9" Well, there are Cathy and Jani They're the oldest of the Sellers girls. Cathy is 22 and Jam is 20. Next comes Debbi, 18, Joy, 16 Vicki, 14, and finally Marcy, 13. Slall Phetoi by Jen Krai Six sisters, and on an August Sun day, there was to be a little picnic of sorts at their Jupiter home. Old Chief Huff-n-Puff Returns to His Wife Cathy brought her boyfriend, Bob Havlick.

Jam brought her boy friend, Jim Fletcher, or "Bunky as he is known to his friends. Yvonne Moore, that's Cathy, Jani, weekend," Mrs. Owen explained. "Some kids broke in and acquired old 'Chief as my son calls him. reason was to provide evidence or, more accurately, to be the evidence in a robbery.

"It happened over the Labor Day "When the kids were trying to leave, a sheriff's deputy pulled up right behind them to help them because they were having car trouble. Debbi, Joy, Vicki and Marcy's mother, decided to' bake some bread for the occasion. She hadn't done it in quite a while, so she was understandably anxious. Little did she know that, at that moment when she was kneading the dough, other family members had something cooking. Shock or should we say surprise (shock would be better, all things considered) shock number By MICHAEL G.

TSCHLDI Pnt Stall Wrlttr WHITE CITY The serene smile of the old Indian woman sitting outside the fruit stand on U.S. 1 seemed to reflect her relief in having her husband sitting beside her after his release from the St. Lucie County Jail. The two Indians outside the Red Barn Fruit Stand on U.S. 1 in White City are really dummies belonging to Mrs.

Fran Owen, owner of the Red Barn. "I think they're Seminoles," she said of the two cotton-stuffed figures which she said "meandered up the road and took up residence." "I bought them from another fruit stand that was going out of business. I got them because I really like that man even if he did have to go to jail," Mrs. Owen said with a laugh. Although she tells visitors to her fruit stand the old Indian was in the St.

Lucie County Jail "because he went out on the warpath," the real one came in the afternoon. A little more background at this point would be helpful. Jam and Bunky had been going together for about three years. They were laval iered, which usually comes before being pinned. Cathy had met Bob, whose par ents, Sam and Doris were friends of Yvonne and her husband, Jack, a The lifelike faces of Huff-n-Puff (right) and his ivife (left) greet prospective buyers at The Red Barn year ago.

At this juncture it all sounded at little like a Russian novel. (Or "As the World And when he looked inside the car, he saw what happened," she said. The chief was in the jail until Thursday when he was released by the Sheriff's Department. Although the chief's wife doesn't have a name, Mrs. Owen said one of the workers at the fruit stand calls her "the nicest lady he ever met because she never gives any back talk." The realistic couple, dressed in battered old shoes, old-fashioned work clothes and matching shirts has caused quite a response both from customers and from people driving by The Red Barn.

"One woman came in and told me she had passed the stand, turned around and had come all the way back to tell me how cruel she thought it was that I made those two sit outside in the hot sun just to attract business," Mrs. Owen recalled. The Indians, since they are stuffed with cotton, can be moved into a variety of positions and life-like poses. The squaw, with her dark black hair pulled tightly behind her head, generally sits calmly in her rocker, tightly clutching a small American flag. Next to her on the other side of the doorway her husband sits with his arms folded, staring across the roadway.

"I enjoy them because they're so different. I like the man better because the work on him is so much better than on the woman. His eyes are better," she said. "They're kind of scary around dusk and you don't know they're there and come up on them suddenly, or if you forget that they're there. "We keep them securely locked up inside now because I don't want to lose them.

They put so much more personality into the place than just being a place to buy tomatoes," Mrs. Owen said. Well, when Bob got out of the Navy, he was introduced to Cathy by Sam and Doris and Yvonne and Jack. Back on the day of Yvonne's bread making, Cathy and Bob said they would go to the store for pretzels. No one knew for sure if there were any calls for pretzels, but that's what they said.

While they were gone, Bunky, with a funny look on his face and Jani's hand in his, announced to Yvonne, Jack, Debbi, Joy, Vicki and Marcy that they were to be wed. Great! everybody said, and Yvonne after getting over her shock, got on the phone and called Sam and Doris. She asked her friends to come over, have a little bread, drink a toast and share the celebration. Minutes before Sam and Doris ar rived, Cathy and Bob returned with the pretzels. Immediately, they were told about Jam and Bunky The Fine Work on the Chief's Wife Includes Lifelike Hands Vicki said Cathy turned red and Bob turned stark white.

Both said they were going outside to the car for a minute, and would be right back. Don't Develop Hutchinson Island Nat Reed "Do we need more pretzels?" asked Yvonne. True to their word. Cathv and HWhat isjeally badly, badly needed state- cans don't seem to be able to cope with modern wide is meaningful, enforceable density stan Bob came right back and. with a funny look on his face, Bo1ran: nounced that they, too, were to be wed.

That's when Sam and Doris ar rived to help celebrate Jani and Bunky's engagement, only to find 7 personally do not believe the vast majority of residents of Martin County icant a Miami Beach on Hutchinson Island and that's what we're heading for right now. 1 By BILL TERRY Pen still Wrlttr STUART Most Martin County residents don't want to see Hutchinson Island developed into another Miami Beach, says Nat Reed, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Recently Reed addressed the, annual convention of the Florida Wildlife Federation, saying the proposal of developers to put 6,000 living units on the island is "insanity." The land is better suited for 600 units, said Reed who once was Florida's chief pollution fighter. out their own son, Bob, was head dards, Reed told the convention.

He amplified his views in an interview. "I have talked with Gov. Reubin Askew about density," Reed said. "Zoning just left to the imagination of zoning boards may not be the wisest thing. "Does proper zoning work?" He answered his own question by saying, "The Puritans brought zoning to this country and it was very effective.

But modern Ameri- Reed, who maintains a home on Jupiter Island, immediately south of Hutchinson Island, said he was pleased to hear Martin County officials are working up a land use plan for Hutchinson Island. "I'm encouraged by the land use study and see it as hopefully the answer." Reed said. Martin County employed the planning consulting firm of Peat, Marwick, Mitchell and Company to make the study of future land uses, and the work is to be finished in November. Turn to HUTCHINSON, B2 ing up the aisle with Cathy. As the bread burned, Bani, Junki, Bathy, Cob, Dam, Soris, Jvonne, Yack, Jebbi, Doy, Micki and Varcy lifted their glasses in a toast..