The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 2

'i-2 Pittsburgh Press, June 9, 1 978 mi Slayin Still muds wmss-bnears ystery By DOUG HARBRECHT It's over for now. The grass-shears blade, the bloody gloves, the grisly photos of blood-stained snow, the the deeds, all have been returned to the evidence room of the district attorney's office. Two men one a buddini attorney an accountant, the other a denizen of the political community have been convicted of a premeditated murder, accomplices in one 'Miller used a phone call to an aide of U.S. Sen. Richard Schweiker to set up the land swindle of Wilhelm, making him think that he was getting the land through political connections.

In fact, Miller didn't know the aide. He testified that he then used the name for co-conspirator Thaddeus Dedo to pose as a government agent and defraud Wilhelm with phony deeds. But conspiracy charges against Miller, Dedo, and Fred Orlosky were quashed last year by Common Pleas Judge Donald Ziegler because the indictments were prepared incorrectly. For what it's worth, Miller passed a lie-detector test on the quest of whether he stabbed the victim, according to homicide detective Joseph Stot-tlemyer. But according to Stottlemyer, he Sressed Miller when, in his analysis, liller wasn't telling the whole truth about his involvement.

Stottlemyer claims that Miller admitted holding the victim during the slashing. The testimony, which Dixon told the jurors they would hear, never was admitted because the results of lie-? detector tests are not admissible as evidence in Pennsylvania. But a newspaper story explaining the decision during the trial is now at issue, since Lewis refused a defense request to sequester the jury after it was published. Post-trial arguments must be filed in seven days. Also, two witnesses, a receptionist at Goldblum's accounting firm and Goldblum's former wife, testified that Goldblum received calls from a man identifying himself as the "torch" demanding money, sometime before the murder.

But both witnesses said the man sounded like a black man. Stump argued to the jury that Wilhelm may have been disguising his voice. But were there others involved? And what was the attraction between Goldblum, an intelligent, financially secure man, the son of a Squirrel Hill rabbi, and Miller, a professional political poster-hanger who, according to defense testimony, suffered from organic brain damage, an abnormally low intelligence, and a puppy-like susceptibility to authority and commands? Goldblum testified that he knew Miller as a casual acquaintance and possible client. Miller testified that he and Goldblum were pals and dined together. "I thought he was a brilliant man," Miller said.

Indeed, Miller is a well-known personage in local political circles, where a man to pass out leaflets and hang posters during election time is a valuable acquaintance. Many of the judges in the criminal division knew Clarence Miller by his first name since he performed such functions for them during campaign time. Senior Common Pleas Judge Loran Lewis was chosen for tbe trial be-cnase be did not know the defendant. It was never recovered. And in perhaps the most damaging discrepancy of all, Miller claimed that he was nowhere near the railing where Goldblum shoved the victim, knocking him to the roof of a walkway one floor below.

There were no eyewitnesses to the stabbing, except maybe for "Fast Buck Chuck, the mysterious, husky, crew-cat man who Miller claimed watched tbe episode from a shadow. Homicide detectives think tbey know who be is, but can't locate him. But Richard Kurutz, a draftsman, stepped off the parking garage elevator on the eighth floor that night shortly after 9 o'clock on his way home from night school. Kurutz testified he heard a thud, and looking to the rail, he saw two men, one tall and one short, peering over the railing. They turned, saw him, and walked slowly away, Kurutz said.

He did not know what he had witnessesd until watching tbe 11 o'clock news later that evening. There are still loose ends. For example, a stipulation for the jury was that a friend of Wilhelm's would testify if called that Wilhelm told him he was going to meet some men Feb. 17, eight days after the murder, to pay $1,800. Then he would have his deeds complete to the land he dreamed of mining for stones and precious gems.

Was tbe land fraud still going on? He was bitter, after cooperating with homicide detectives and the district attorney's office for two years, that he was. rewarded with a life prison term. He testified against Goldblum, and thereby himself. He admitted that he lured the victim to the garage, but only for a beating, to keep Wilhelm quiet about a fire at Goldblum's restaurant two months earlier. He never got bis $50 from Goldblum for the setup, he testified.

Miller admitted that he helped to swindle Wilhelm out of $20,000 in a phony land deal involving government lands in North Carolina that weren't for sale. But that was in 1974, his defense attorney, Harry Stump, argued, and had little to do with the murder. Goldblum had a motive, consistent with his client's explanation: Wilhelm had threatened to go to police because Goldblum, debt-ridden, needed insurance money from his restaurant, the Fifth Avenue Inn, and had burned the building to the ground. Goldblum was convicted last August of murder, conspiracy and arson and is now serving a life sentence. But he testified in his own defense last August that it was Miller who slashed Wilhelm with the grass-shears; blade to silence him about the land fraud.

According to Assistant District Attorney F. Peter Dixon, Goldblum was not called as a witness at the Miller trial because it would have been "unethical." "It (his testimony) was totally uncorroborated," Dixon said yesterday. "I couldn't pick and choose what testimony I wanted, and ignore the rest." "Also, we felt we had more than enough evidence to convict Miller, and I was right." The case against Miller hinged on the dying words of his best friend, lying in the snow, his nose literally cut from his face. "Clarence Wilhelm said, according to a police officer who tried to comfort him before he died. "Clarence Miller did this to me." Dixon told the jury in his closing that they could take those words to mean Miller wielded the blade, or that he was an accomplice in a planned murder.

Actually, the prosecution never contended that Miller committed the stabbing. Dixon relied on Miller's own statements, and the evidence at the scene. Miller admitted that he and Goldblum had staked out the parking garage the day before the murder. He admitted that bloody gloves found on the street near the garage were bis, but he claimed that Goldblum had used them, then handed them to him as they left. He said he got blood on his hands when he went to help Wilhelm at one point.

Goldblum pushed him away, he said, and he wiped the blood on bis overcoat. He discarded the coat in a trash can. of the more brutal and complicated killings in local history. But despite the trials, the evidence and the investigation, what really happened on the eighth floor of the Smithfield-Liberty parking garage Feb. 9, 1976 and why remains a ques-' tion for most everyone involved in solv-; ing the slaying of George Wilhelm.

The feeling among those close to the case is that the foil story did not emerge from the trial of Charles Goldblam last August, or that of Clarence Miller, which ended yesterday. Miller was convicted of first-degree murder by a jury. His bond was revoked, and be was put in the County Jail pending formal sentencing and appeals. Hunt For Slay Suspect Drags ere hfld stalrprf nut thp I.anrjfnrrf'e liohf By BOB RETCHKO The local search for Edward A. Sur-ratt, 36, of Aliquippa, wanted for murder in South Carolina, has lapsed into a tedious waiting game as police, after three days of searching, have not turn- r-i ed up any trace of him.

is "We're waiting for a sighting," said a state trooper in ct Beaver Falls. "Sooner or later he's going to show himself and when he ''K Ik ffiffhw Ndoes, we'll get him. 1 auuau, an unemployed truck driver SURRATT blue station wagon, which was stolen after the South Carolina killing and later found parked in a lot near the Jones Laughlin in Steel works. Last Tuesday night, after a two-day wait, a man believed to be Surratt got into tbe car. Two troopers, one witb a shotgun, approached from one side to arrest him when the man suddenly bolted out the other side and fled.

Despite warning shots, the man eluded all seven troopers by jumping down a 60-foot river bank. "We couldn't shoot him. We weren't even sure (then) it was Surratt," said a trooper. Surratt was reportedly last seen at 10:15 p.m. Tuesday running inside the compound, a 7Vi-mile tangle of buildings and trees.

Authorities here are not linking Surratt with any unsolved killings. How--ever, they do want to question him about three slayings in Breezewood, another in Ohio and the Sept. 30, 1977, slaying of Joseph and Katherine Weinman of Marshall Township. Surratt's car was sighted in Breez-wood at about the time and near the location where three people were killed last December. He was allegedly spotted in Board-man, Ohio an hour after a woman was killed there.

Police also say they have physical evidence from the killing of Mrs. Weinman that makes them want to question Surratt. He's described as black, 5 feet 10 inches, 160 pounds with several days growth of beard. He was last seen wearing a Steeler football jersey, 32, blue pants, a grey tassel cap and was shoeless. ''ZJ i 1 1 -f, from 162 Montini is wanted for the June 1 baseball-bat killing of Luther Langford, 66, of West Columbia, S.C.

Langford's wife, Nell, 58, survived the attack in the couple's bedroom and is unconscious and in poor condition at Richland Memorial Hospital, Columbia. Surratt, a Marine Corps Vietnam veteran, also is wanted for questioning in a series of unsolved killings in West- era Pennsylvania and Ohio. Police believe they nearly captured him three days ago. Seven state troop- HOLES IN FENDER of stolen South Carolina station wagon were made by police firing warning shots during capture attempt of a man believed to be homicide suspect Edward A. Surratt in Aliquippa.

'V Press Photo by Lynn Johnson Hazardous Chemicals Found In Scott Homes LAST-MINUTE ADJUSTMENTS are made by Antho- in graduation exercises fast night at the Civic Arena, ny Thompson, 17, left, and Dpnnell Creighton before A total of 4,292 students will graduate this year they joined 534 other Peabody High School seniors from the city's 12 public high schools. Court Section Chief Role Disputed coughs, burning eyes and other physical symptoms due to the chemical vapors. Costantino said the chemicals definitely come from the Koppers plant. Health department tests show that the chemicals do not exist in the sewer line, operated by the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority, above the Koppers plant and that no chemicals are dis-. charged into the line between the plant and the affected homes.

The Koppers attorney asked if discharge from the Cyclops Steel plant or normal sewage could be causing problems in the Montgomery Avenue homes. Costantino immediately rejected both ideas, however. Both Koppers and Alcosan asked for the hearing, which began Wednesday, to appeal a health department order to solve the Scott Township problem Benzene a chemical that can cause blood cell damage and leukemia has been found in several homes along Montgomery Avenue in Scott Township, a county Health Department official said. There is no known safe level of benzene, declared Joseph T. Costantino, deputy director of medical services for the county.

Costantino testified yesterday that "no amount of benzene in a person's home is acceptable." The benzene and other chemicals found in about a dozen Montgomery Avenue homes have been traced through a sewer line to the Koppers Co. chemical plant in Bridgeville, about two miles away. Residents have testified that they and their children have experienced sore throats, headaches, hacking By LAWRENCE WALSH Common Pleas Judge Silvestri Sil-vestri has decided he has had enough of Judge John P. Flaherty virtual one-man rule of the court's civil division. Silvestri has asked Flaherty to set a meeting within 10 days so the 15 judges in the civil division can define Flaherty's duties as the division's administrative judge.

Flaherty said last night that he will schedule a meeting, but emphasized that "it isn't up to the civil division judges to define my duties." Since his February election to a five-year term as administrative judge, Flaherty also has, in effect, assumed the jobs of motions judge and calendar control judge. This means lawyers have to see Flaherty first before they can get anything done in the civil division. Many of the cases Flaherty has decided to handle personally are newsworthy, and several judges have grumbled privately that Flaherty is using these cases to get publicity. Flaherty counters the criticism by saying that "the division was in such bad shape when I took over that I bad to take on a lot of things at once." He has since relinquished much of the calendar control work scheduling of cases to Judge Nicholas Papada- kos, but continues -to be the motions judge, the judicial fireman who is on call24 hours a day, seven days a week. The motions judge assignment used to be rotated monthly among the various judges.

Silvestri, in his two-page letter to Flaherty, said the decision to halt this monthly rotation assignment should have been made by all the division judges and not by Flaherty alone. "Since there have been no meetings of the civil division judges since you have become administrative judge, I can only assume that you have unilaterally assumed the position of motions judge for all time. In addition there are other matters, which I will not now delineate, that you have done without consultation of the division judges," Silvestri added. "Regretfully, neither the (state) Supreme Court nor the legislature has set forth the specific authority and duties of the administrative judge of a division of the Common Pleas Court; however, I am certain they are not (absolute). "Until such time as tbe Supreme Court promulgates rules delineating the authority and duties of a division administrative judge, I am requesting that yon call a meeting of the civil division judges within the next 10 days that we may take part in the decision making process relating to the business of the court and fix your authority as administrative judge," Silvestri concluded.

Asked if he had anything further to-say about the letter, Silvestri said, "It speaks for itself." Flaherty said he is "happy with the way things are going," thought the meeting "is a good idea," and admitted he has heard that "some of the judges are disgruntled with the way I'm running things." Judges usually are reluctant to publicly challenge one another, but a confrontation between Flaherty and some of the civil division jurists has been predicted for the past month. Kittanning Man Dies In Crash CLYMER (UPI) Laird A. Shotts, 36, of Kittanning, Armstrong County, was killed and four persons were injured in a two-car collision along Route 286 during a heavy thundershower yesterday afternoon. State police said Shotts' car collided, headon with a car driven by Donna R. Chichy, of Clymer, about two miles west of the Indiana County community.

Chichy and her three children were treated and released at Indiana Hospital. White Oak Prepares Group-HomeChallenge ough's building and zoning ordinances. No Crime Ruled In Penn Hills Shooting Death The coroner's office ruled today there was no criminal act involved in the death of a 24-year-old man shot in his home by a Penn Hills police officer. The victim, William Beckett of 8877 Westwood Road, had struggled with Officer Lawrence Hromyak April 27 over a gun Hromyak spotted on a cabinet in Beckett's home. Hromyak and Officer Jack McCrory -were called to tbe Beckett home after a medical emergency init was chased away by a man brandishing a gun.

In testimony today before coroner's -solicitor Stanley M. Stein, McCrory said his partner reached for the gun shortly after they arrived and that a struggle ensued. He said he struck Beckett on the back of his neck as Beckett and Hromyak stumbled by him in the struggle. McCrory said as he struck Beckett he heard the gun the two men fought for discharge, But did not see the weapon because "I was concentrating on where I was hitting Beckett County Studies Secretary Pay The pay scale and job classification of district magistrates secretaries will be reviewed by a county Salary Board committee. The six-member committee will represent Salary Board members and the Pennsylvania Economy League.

The committee was unanimously ap- roved yesterday at the request of ancy Carlisle, chairman of the reclassification committee of the District Court Secretaries Association. Some of the secretaries walked off their jobs earlier this week to protest what they considered a lack of action by county and court officials on their salary demands. There are 64 secretaries in the association. The Pittsburgh Press A Scnpps-Howard Newspaper General offices at 34 Boulevard of the Allies, Pittsburgh. Pa.

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The Family Circus It Happened June 9 AwnvxvxvxwBy JOHN PLACE nmteVXVK FIVE YEARS AGO Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Penn Hills police department, never having hired a black officer, was guilty of racial discrimination In a tough move against inflation, the Federal Reserve Board raised its key discount rate from 6 to 6.5 percent, highest since 1921. 10 TEARS AGO Elsie Hillman was re-elected GOP ward cnairman in Squirrel Hill-Point Breeze and endorsed for another term as County Republican chairman Mt. Lebanon was set to embark on a "program transforming its central business district into a verdant community shopping center." VPARS Aifi White Oak Borough officials were making plans today to make a legal challenge to the county's decision to place status offenders from Mclntyre Shelter in Ross Township into a house in White Oak Park. The plan to remodel an old house in the part to house six to eight juveniles was sharply criticized by residents at a meeting last night with county officials. Borough officials also are against use of the park property for a group borne.

Mayor John Patterson said he will send a letter to the county today asking if it plans to abide by the bor- 2 In Ohio Indicted In Phony Check Case CLEVELAND (UPI) Two men been indicted by a federal grand jury in Cleveland for their alleged participation in the theft and counterfeiting of nearly $148,000 in checks from a New York brokerage house. Carmen Verzi, 37, Ravenna, Ohio, and Stanley N. Sarubbe, 43, Los Angeles, each are charged with interstate transportation of checks stolen from Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner Smith, according to the FBI which says it's attempting to determine who at the brokerage firm worked with the indicted men. Thieves Raid Pompeii POMPEII, Italy (UPI) Thieves broke into the most treasured villa in this ancient Roman city oil ruins today and stole five pricelesstatues of cupids. which prohibit such homes.

Although the county solicitor already has indicated the county does not have to abide by the local ordinances, the mayor's letter is the first step in a legal maneuver to block the group home. Borough Solicitor Edward Osterman said the mayor will ask if the countY will seek a building permit to renovate the house and abide by the zoning ordinance. Osterman said the mayor should receive a reply from the county in about a week and "of course, it will be in the negative." He said the borough then can go before a magistrate and seek a cease and desist order to stop work on the home. "But regardless of the magistrate's ruling, either side would appeal and the county could still continue to remodel the home," Osterman said. "Then, we would have to go to court to seek an injunction to block the county's attempt to use the property as a group home." 2 Boys Arrested In Somerset Blast Prtis stale Wirt SOMERSET -Two boys, ages 15 and 16, have been arrested for allegedly detonating a large firecracker that caused an estimated $350 worth of damage to a restroom at Somerset High School.

Police said the 1W firecracker broke a large plate glass window, damaged ceiling lights and knocked several ceramic tiles off the walls yesterday. Pitcher Bob Friend was named player representative of the Pirates, succeeding Howie Pollett A countywide tuberculosis survey reached its halfway mark with 46 percent of the population X-rayed, and 3.4 percent called back for retakes after doctors examined the films. 50 YEARS AGO Former heavyweight boxing champion "Gentleman Jim" Corbett. One Of the "few niio-ilkte nf oonnina m. i J.

Pacity," appeared onhe WJAS LaPalina Smoker program Groniyhia alwCiyS CUtS it again S04 Can have The U.S. Treasury Department was looking into rll FOUR little Sandwiches. Deiween mis country and Canada..