Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 1

IReoo exodos possible rn Housing shortage might force aircraft firm from Nevada yet to complete escrow. They refused to identify the buyer. Bob Goodman, head of the state Department of Economic Development, said today he hopes to convince Mrs. Lear to consider alternate sites within Nevada, if a final decision Is reached to move Lear Avia from Stead. Goodman said he has ideal sites in mind elsewhere in the state which he thinks would prove "very competitive," but he declined to discuss specific locations for the record.

Goodman's staff, ironically, has been working to woo Industries like Lear Avia in other states into Nevada. He said it would bode Lear, page 3, col. 1 versible decision has been made to leave Nevada, but she said Lear Avia is seriously studying several new potential sites for its aircraft plant, Including New York state, Dallas and Southern California. Also today, it was announced that Leareno, a subsidiary of the Lear Avia firm is abandoning plans for a development on a portion of its Stead property. Until recently, the Lear firm had planned its own housing development for employees at Stead, but since Lear's death, the firm has decided to sell Leareno.

Company officials said today the transaction is under way and has 1 MOYA OLSEN company might pull up stakes (Gazette file photo) Re no Evening Gazette Reno, Nevada, Tuesday, December Final stocks A Gannett Newspaper G0L0R- Christmas cheer turns sour Compulsive gamblers 'don't love to gamble' 7 i sJ- v-if Jrri i -a 1 i in -r nr Tr 5 By MARK OLIVA Reno's low-cost housing shortage may cost Northern Nevada the entire Lear Avia aircraft industry including its current $6-million-a-year payroll and projected 1981 payroll of $20 million a year. Moya Olsen Lear, who succeeded her husband, the late William Lear, as board chairman of the Stead firm, today confirmed rumors that the company is considering pulling up stakes in Nevada, after abandoning its own plans to develop housing. "We don't want to move," Mrs. Lear said this morning. "Nobody wants to move.

But we have to find housing for our employees." She emphasized that no irre River Inn bankrupt; Jobs, homes lost By DOUG MCMILLAN There was little holiday spirit around the River Inn west of Reno today as about 20 families residing in recreational vehicles there received a pre-Christmas blow that they must vacate the trailer park by noon today because of the ruling of a federal bankruptcy judge. Also, about 60 employees of the financially-troubled casino and mineral spa discovered suddenly they've lost their jobs just one week before Christmas and might not receive their final pay-checksbecause of the court-ordered closure of the business last Friday. Federal Bankruptcy Judge Bert Goldwater ruled the business bankrupt and ordered it closed down effective 5 p.m. Friday. Today, a tinselled "Merry Christmas" greeted people over the registration desk of the inn, but the hotel-casino was empty save for a small cluster of former employees milling around the lobby deciding what to do now that they've lost their jobs.

The employees were still in a River, page 3, col. 5 pileup after she walked away from her car, "This guy came driving up and hit it in the front. Then another car hit it in the back. Then more cars kept coming and hitting each other, and that's when I began to get scared." She said she purchased her 1978 car just last September. Another person involved in the accident, Pat Loveless of Reno, was almost past a five-car accident in the same area and thought she was home free when suddenly, "someone rear-ended me.

I had stopped my car to avoid an accident and was trying to get by it when I got rear-ended. The impact spun me around and then my car was struck' in the side by another car," she said. Two other drivers, who would not give their names, told their versions of the accident. "I was only going about 15 miles per hour, but when I hit the brakes I went faster," one woman said. "There was no way to stop.

One car started spinning alongside of me. It hit my car in the side and I started to spin. The only thing I could do was ride it out," she said. "You know, it reminded me of one those circus bumper car rides." The driver of a Nevada Bell truck said the driver of a car which struck his truck left the scene before police arrived, saying his insurance company would take care of things. Witnesses told the Nevada Highway Patrol that at least 10 cars also involved in minor "fender- 3 injured, page 5, col.

1 19, 1978 20 City, is in serious condition in the intensive care unit at Washoe Medical Center, where all were treated. Pickup driver Gary E. Worthen, 27, of Kelseyville, was released after treatment, as was his passenger, Loretta M. Johnson, 32, also of Kelseyville. Two children in the car were hurt.

Cynthia Spining, 11, is hospitalized in fair condition; Denise A. Spining, 9, was released. They have the same address as the driver. The vehicles on 1-80 crashed into each other like carnival bumper cars, witnesses said, rolling into ditches, spinning around in circles and creating general havoc for more than an hour. The accident occurred near Keystone Avenue VjiW "w- lib 25-car and Sierra and Virginia streets.

Three persons suffered injuries and were taken to St. Mary's Hospital, where they were listed in satisfactory condition. They are Harold Bacon, 31, Betty Twit-chell, 57, and Manuela Marshaly, 23, all believed to be from Reno. All of the cars in. the 1-80 accident were eastbound when, the series of collisions began at around 7:15 p.m.

"I was driving about 15 miles per hour when my car suddenly slipped to the side and some man came running over to me and told me to hurry up and get out of my car," said 20-year-old Margarita DeLaCruz, a student at Western Nevada Community College in Reno. Mrs. DeLaCruz said, seconds Bleak prospects Donald Terry, left, and Dan Maranto face the their trailer from the Recreation Vehicle Park bleak prospect of not having a place to stay for at the River Inn west of Reno on old Highway Christmas because they'll be forced to move 40. (Gazette photo by Dee Burchett) Snow, ice contribute to accidents By SUSAN STOOKEY Fifteen years ago, Gerry Fulcher was a Bronx police officer. The day President John F.

Kennedy was killed, he lost $1,500 gambling with other patrolmen from the station house. Today, at the MGM Grand Hotel in Reno, he talked about his years as a compulsive gambler. "I would like to dispel some myths," he told those attending the Fourth Conference on Gambling. "We don't love to gamble. Every day I'd get up to go to the race track, but I hated it.

We don't think money is important at all look at the way we can win annual salaries and throw them away. We're not crazy." Furthermore, he said, compulsive gamblers are bright, talented, well-intentioned people whose consciences bother them. Our intent is never to defraud anyone. We leave IOUs all over the place." He said that while some people are able to gamble merely as recreation, others become compulsive bettors and craps players because they become obsessed with the idea they 3 injured in will soon win. That obsession distorts their judgmqnt.

Fulcher was to lose a total of $280,000 in his gambling career. He never believed during those 15 years that he had a mental disorder, or that he was doing anything wrong. By the time he was caught, he had progressed from the ranks of the Bronx station house, and had become a university teacher of criminal law. He was also a consultant to the state's attorney general. "I would teach a class in law and order and then go out and cash up to $1,000 in bad checks.

I was never in my own mind doing anything wrong; I was just suffering a temporary financial setback. "Compulsive gamblers are gamblers who steal, not thieves who gamble," Fulcher said. "Their lives are full of lies, larceny, and loneliness." Eventually he was caught. But because law enforcement officers who handled the case were friends, they tried to expedite his case. "I had to be led into a jail cell and be searched by one of my own criminal justice stu- Gambling, page 3, col.

1 Money Tree employees who work during that time, Higgins said, will be absorbed either into different shifts at the Money Tree or to the Mapes Hotel. He couldn't give an estimate of how many employees are affected. The Virginia Street side of the Money Tree also will be closed along with addition on Second Street. The planned improvements include stabilization of the heating system, installation of a special Chinese oven in the coffee shop, and installation of a number of large graphic glass panels that have been in storage since the opening of the casino July 1. Money Tree closes for 'improvements' By PHIL BARBER Snow and ice Monday contributed to many Northern Nevada traffic accidents including once involving an estimated 25 vehicles on Interstate in Reno.

But Reno police investigated only 16 accidents all day, and the California Highway Patrol at Truckee reported "only a couple" As far as injuries, the most serious accident happened at 11:30 a.m. on U.S. Highway 395, 12 miles south of Reno. The Nevada Highway Patrol reported a southbound car went out of control and crossed into northbound lanes. It and a northbound pickup truck collided, injuring five persons.

Car driver Margaret A. Madison, 31, of 1415 Lord Carson lndex 5 Sections, 52 Pages SSEEEd dg. SSto 28 Crword puzzle Deaths 29 Doctor 27 Earl Wilson 28 Editorials 4 Lifestyle 18-19 JaiTi: PubUc notices ...30 Sylvia Porter Television 20 Vitals 29 Weather 2 The Mapes Money Tree, which this year opened a large addition in downtown Reno, will be closed on the 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. graveyard shift for two to three days.

A spokesman for the casino said the reason for the closure "is to make a variety of improvements that cannot be done with customers in the building." Jim Higgins, director of advertising and publicity for the Mapes, said owner Charles W. Mapes decided to delay the improvements until now because "the snowstorm has caused business to decline dramatically." Higgins said Mapes stressed that the casino will be closed only during the graveyard shift and only for "a couple of days." Cult leader's son accused of killings Bv T0M FENTON Beikman, another cult member GEORGETOWN, Guyana AP) already charged in the slayings. Stephan Jones, son of Peoples The prosecutor had asked Jones Temple leader Jim Jones, was whether he was part of a conspira- charged with murder today in the cy to commit murder, and the throat-slashings of a cult member young man, apparently irritated and three of her children in Geor- by the tough interrogation, getown Nov. 18, the day of the snapped back, "Yeah, I killed mass deaths at the Jonestown them and was just trying to throw camp it off on Chuck (Beikman The charges stemmed from a Jones had just testified, howev- bewildering "confession" the 19- er, that he was not at the house year old Jones made at a prelimi- nary hearing Monday for Charles JOneS, page 3, COl. 1.