St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 17

Preserving Route 66 John J. Dunphy, of Godfrey, urges the reintroduction of legislation to designate and preserve Route 66 as 'America's Main Street" The legislation would be too late to save the Coral Court Motel. B7 Clavtnn i The statues of girls JL MOTEL dancing are in front of the Interco Corpo- rate Tower at 101 South Hanley. SwOtHATt MUS TO' Thursday, November 12, 1998 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Suction 7 JO lis uiUJ Elusive suspect in series of rapes briefly came out of hiding TZ Task force has homed in on federal fugitives 31 Rabbitt went to football game then left state, authorities say ft.

The manhunt for serial rape suspect Dennis N. Rabbitt is being led by the Metropolitan Fugitive Task Force. the first man to escape from the maximum security prison in Poto-si, in 1994. After wrapping himself in magazines and duct tape, to survive the razor-sharp prison wire, Cooksey crawled under two prison fences, stole a pickup and left for St. Louis.

Police knew they were dealing with a very dangerous felon. Cooksey was in Potosi for a 1987 crime in which he walked into a church brandishing a sword and introduced himself as Shaka Zulu, a 19th-century African warrior king. He forced a minister to disrobe and took a woman from the church to a nearby house, where he raped and robbed her. Shortly after his prison escape, detectives used computers to find names of friends and acquaintances. They walked the streets and asked informers about Cooksey.

After 10 days of false leads and near misses, police learned from an informer that Cooksey had boarded a bus for Memphis. When See Team, Page B4 By lance Williams Of the Post-Dispatch The Metropolitan Fugitive Task Force is the team of police officers and federal agents trying to track down Dennis N. Rabbitt. So far, the task force and its predecessor search teams have racked up some impressive victories in their history, said St. Louis Police Chief Ron Henderson.

The task force hunts for federal fugitives. Though it is only two years old, it has collared more than 734 armed or dangerous fugitives in and from the St. Louis region. "We're looking for the most violent offenders out there, the bad-dest of the bad," said Edward Herbst, supervisory special agent for the FBI office in St. Louis.

Before the task force was formed, each police agency involved the FBI, St. Louis city and county police, the Jefferson County sheriff's office and the Missouri Highway Patrol had their own officers assigned to BYPAULHAMPEL Of the Post-Dispatch Police believe that suspected serial rapist Dennis N. Rabbitt was among 57,261 fans who watched Missouri trounce Colorado in a college football game in Columbia over the weekend. Jefferson County detectives said Wednesday that Rabbitt, an avid football fan, came out of hiding for a few hours on Saturday to watch the game at Paurot Field. Lt.

Mark Tulgetske, chief of detectives in Jefferson County, also revealed chilling new details of a rape that police say Rabbitt committed in High Ridge in northern tracking fugitives. The task force is partly an outgrowth of St. Louis' FAST unit, or Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team. Set up in 1985, the team of St. Louis police officers worked with U.S.

marshals, Secret Service agents and others full time. In 1997, FAST was reorganized, and two of its St. Louis officers became part of the newly established Metropolitan Fugitive Task Force. But FAST didn't disappear; its four officers target mostly local fugitives, averaging about 100 caught a month, including some well-known and colorful criminal figures, Henderson said. Take the case of Percy Cooksey Wayne Crosslin POST-DISPATCH Detective Craig Vaughn of the Jefferson County Sheriffs Department shows frustration Wednesday with a call about the rape investigation.

Jefferson County. Rabbitt did more than rape this On Jan. 15, Rabbitt forced an 18- victim, Tulgetske said, year-old woman into the back seat "He cut her with a knife, all over of a car at a shopping center at her body," he said. "They were su- Highway 30 and Dillon Road, he perficial cuts indicating that he said. See Manhunt, Page B4 Landing barge jogs veterans' memories as it sails umiver TV reporter is charged with battery at casino Several men who served in WWII recount their tours of duty as they watch an LSMgo up the Mississippi.

BY VICTOR VOLLAND Of the Post-Dispatch Mike Owens threatened, pushed officer, police say He refused to take breath test By Denise HOLLINSHED Of the Post-Dispatch KSDK (Channel 5) news reporter Mike Owens threatened to ram a Casino Queen security car with a TV station truck and physically resisted police, according to Veterans Day provided a kind of closing of the circle on the banks of the Mississippi for several men who served on Navy LSMs those lumbering barges that landed troops and tanks under J. included dedication of a monument to the 6,700 U.S. merchant seamen and 1,800 naval armed guardsmen who lost their lives in the shipping lanes of the North Atlantic and the Pacific during World War II. The American Legion conducted memorial services at both the cemetery and Soldiers Memorial downtown, and a monument to veterans was dedicated in Belleville. The 200-foot-long LSM45 about the size of an average river barge had been rescued from the Greek Navy mothball fleet, where it wound up after being sold as surplus in 1958.

It was reversing its wartime route up the Mississippi from New Orleans on its way to the Freedom Park U.S. Naval Museum at Omaha, where it is to go on permanent dis-. play in spring. The vessel, whose engines are inoperable, is awaiting removal to drydock at Hartford, 111., above Granite City, for repair of a 2-inch hole in the starboard hull. It is expected to leave there Monday or Tuesday to be towed up the Missouri River to Omaha.

Bernard Garrett, who had driven down from Taylorville, 111., was a young signalman aboard LSM318 when it sank after being hit by a kamikaze plane attack in See Ship, Page B4 I 1 1 I About LSMs charges filed Wednesday after a disturbance outside the East St. Louis casino. Authorities said it started about 12:40 a.m. Wednesday when security officers stopped IP Owens fire on the invasion beaches of the Pacific in the closing months of World WarH. About a dozen septuagenarian veterans traipsed over the riverside Missouri Pacific tracks below Jefferson Barracks County Park on Wednesday afternoon to catch a glimpse of the rusting hull of a visitor LSM45 one of the few surviving examples of the class.

George Meier of University City recalled a Mission: transport personnel, vehicles, equipment and supplies to the beaches in the Pacific Theater in World War II. Length: 200 feet. Crew: 48 enlisted; four officers. Cargo: 50 troops i and six Mark VI medium tanks. Armament: a twin 40 mm can- antj-aircraftguns and seven machine guns.

the truck, driven by another man they regarded as too drunk to drive, The driver just walked away, reports said, but Owens, 48, the passenger, became belligerent and resisted officers. He was held overnight at the East St. Louis jail and released after posting $250 bond on misdemeanor charges of battery, disorderly conduct, illegal transportation of alcohol by a passenger and obstructing a peace officer. Owens left the jail at 11 a.m. and could not be reached later for comment.

He is scheduled to appear in city court at 9 a.m. Dec. 21. Police said he was asked to take a breath test but refused. A KSDK spokesperson said Owens was not on assignment but on his own time.

The station had no comment on specifics. Owens, known for his aggressive style on investigation stories, has been with KSDK since 1983. Previously, he was a reporter for radio station KMOX in St. Louis. He also is nearing completion of law school at St.

Louis University. tap many years ago on another LSM. "We came down this river in September 1944 from Chicago where LSM324 was built and ABOVE: People walk by a monument dedicated Wednesday in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery to the 6,700 merchant seamen and 1,800 naval armed guardsmen who were killed in World Ward. LEFT: This is the LSM45, which carried men and tanks in the Pacific Islands during World War II. It is docked temporarily on the Mississippi River below Jefferson Barracks County Park.

Photos by Wench Fitzgerald POST-DISPATCH commissioned, on our way to New Orleans and then to San Francisco and Pearl (Harbor) by way of the (Panama) Canal." And here was a sister ship, going upstream many years later. Less than a mile away, the sound of taps had barely faded from Veterans Day ceremonies at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. They K.A J. In Other News r. Central Institute for the Deaf picks boy's holiday card design A student's drawing of rolling, snow-covered hills and three elves on sleds will be featured on Activist, author and biotechnology foe will speak at McKendree College today Jeremy Rifkin, economist, environmental activist and now an anti-biotechnology author, will discuss the dangers and tat ftOOU0 tj Greg Epuan '1 1 ft i tl 0 this year's holiday cards from the Central Institute for the Deaf The design by Lucas Harming, 9, a student at the institute, was chosen from among four finalists.

The cards are available from Central Institute for the Deaf in packages of 20 for $15. The cards also will be sold at Left Bank Books, 399 North Euclid Avenue, long-term implications of genetic engineering at McKendree College in Lebanon, EL, today at 7 p.m. at the Melvin Price Convocation Center, on Alton Street. Rifkin is president of the Washington-based Foundation on Economic Trends and the author of "The Biotech Century: Harnessing the Gene and Remaking the World." He questions whether scientists, policy-makers and consumers understand where such advancements as cloning and gene patent Salvation Army Capt Martin Col-ipof Granite City praises a moiiDVoM Irans Worid Airihes program that lets customers donate their Aviators dub frequent-flter miles to the Salvation Army. The charity already has received more than 5 million miles of free travel, allowing it to more economically send relief workers to disaster sites.

Colip and other Salvation Army personnel returned last weekend from 17 days in the Dominican Republic, where they were involved in efforts to help victims of Hurricane Georges. B2 Lucas Rifkin is on assignment This holiday card design by Lucas Harming, 9, a student at the institute, was chosen from among four finalists. The cards from the Central Institute for the Deaf are available from the school and Left Bank Books. ing will lead. For more information, contact the college at (618) 537-6860 or (314) 436-3301, ext 6860.

beginning with the institute's book fair there on Friday and Saturday. The institute is at 818 South Euclid Avenue. For more information, call (314) 977-0163..