Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 2

Gaming commission studies Vegas casino 2 Reno Evening Gazette Thursday, Oct. 16, 1978 Meller waives extradition Arraignment due in slaying case Kenneth James Meller was scheduled to with the slaying of Gif ford at Cave Rock and be arraigned today at Zephyr Cove before ended with the taking of four hostages at a iT, A I p. I 4 I 1 1 i-- Ik r. 1 I justice ioun Juuge cusworin mappeii on rung The psychologist who helped negotiate charges of capital murder and bank rob bery. Meller's surrender after he holed up in the clubhouse with the hostages said Wednesday that the gunman talked of killing his four hostages and committing suicide.

Meller weighed other alternatives before surrendering his gun to an old Marine buddy, federal firearms agent Larry Clendinen who was flown to the scene from San Diego. The psychologist, Allen Lovett, of a North Tahoe clinic, said Meller several times broke down in tears during the ordeal. Reports of the crime spree made him "nervous and he ordered the television turned on to the world series, Lovett laid. Meller "was holding a rifle," Mid the psychologist. "He was very nervous and pacing back and forth.

"At first he was going to shoot ever) body and kill himself." The Nevada Highway Patrol will provide an honor guard for the memorial servke for patrolman Gifford at 1:30 p.m. Friday at Woodlawn Memorial Park, Colma, Calif. A fellow patrolman will deliver the eulogy. Gifford, 29, a six-year veteran of the force, was the first Nevada Highway Patrolman shot to death in the 26-year history of the force. The 34-year-old ex-Marine waived extradition to Nevada where he is being charged in connection with the shooting death of Nevada Highway Patrolman Gary Gifford and the robbery of a bank at Round Hill Tuesday.

Meller also will face an arraignment on federal bank robbery charges before U.S. Magistrate Thomas Craven either this afternoon or Friday. Asst. U.S. Atty.

Sam Coon said the possibility of federal kidnaping and grand theft auto charges also are being studied. The federal complaint will be presented to a federal grind jury within a week, he said. In addition, Meller was arraigned Wednesday at Auburn, on charges of kidnaping and assault with a deadly weapon. The Douglas County sheriff's spokesman said the California charges probably would be dropped if Meller were convicted of the more serious charges in Nevada. Meller will be held in the Douglas County Jail at Minden.

The numerous charges stem from a nine-hour crime spree that started with the bank robbery near South Lake Tahoe. continued Tahoe crime suspect booked operating sale plan LAS VEGAS (AP) The Nevada Gaming Commission was to consider a recommendation today from its investigative arm that two Fresno, Calif, brothers not be allowed to take over the Marina Hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The Nevada Gaming Control Board voted last week to recommend denial for a plan by Robert and Nick Lattanzio to hold a 60 per cent share of the club now controlled by Allen Click. 3 The board said the brothers had provided inadequate and partially misleading information about their deal on their application. The board said the proposed financing of the deal was inadequate because some documents were missing and because Lattanzios' father, Bruno, appeared to have a financial interest also, but did not apply for a gaming license.

The deal called for John Ianni of Las Vegas to hold a 10 Eer cent share in the club with the remaining 30 per cent eld by O.N. Inc. of Las Vegas. Board members also said the Lattanzio brothers allegedly gave false or misleading statements when asked about a $500,000 loan they made through their father to Glick at about the time the Marina deal was closed. The Lattanzios, Ianni and their lawyer, Herb Waldman, refused to discuss the matter following last week's control board hearing.

During that meeting in Carson City the control bord members questioned the Lattanzios about the $500,000 loan to Glick, president of Argent Corp. which controls two Las Vegas clubs. Nick Lattanzio, 26, said he was aware of a gaming rule that such a loan could not be made directly to Glick while negotiating to purchase a club but denied there was any effort to subvert the rule by loaning the money to his father who in turn loaned it to ARJ a Las Vegas real estate operation. The cancelled check was endorsed by Argent Corp. Gaming Control Board Chairman Phil Hannifin also said the Lattanzios gave board members "evasive answers, even misstatements." Nick Lattanzio said he was told by Jerome Snyder, a Las Vegas lawyers who represented Glick, that the loan arrangement was proper and also said Snyder told him the loan would show "good faith" of the brothers to come up with money to buy the casino.

Lattanzio also said the loan was to help insure "complete cooperation" from Glick during the period leading up to the final takeover by he and his brother Robert, 31. Hannifin said that even though the loan to Glick has been repaid "That doesn't take you off the hook" as far as the board was concerned. The brothers own Lattanzio Enterprises, a contracting operation which has built large apartment complexes in the Fresno area. Vegas casino operator under investigation LOS ANGELES AP) Allen R. Glick, one of the largest casino operators in Las Vegas, is under investigation by the federal Organized Crime Strike Force, the Eos Angeles Times reported today.

The probe, the newspaper said, is focused on Saratoga robbery-slaying spree Tuesday which ended when hostages were freed after a nine-hour siege. Deputy John Roman books the ex-Marine. Kennetb J. Meller, left, was booked Wednesday at toe Tahoe City sub-statiof of the Placer County Sheriff's Office on charges stemming from a oBank plot accomplice (Continued from Page 1) The man turned on the television set and Aashe opened the door, a young man and put her glasses on her. She remembered a young woman stepped inside.

The man, "Gambitr' was on. Buses seized in Mexico wearing a grayish-blue suit, was polite, soft spoken and clean cut; the woman had platinum curly hair, no make-up and wore slacks. Both wore gloves. Mrs. Butler saw a pistol in a holster under the man's coat.

Showing her a business card with the name of an investigating firm, the man said, "Mrs. Butler, your husband has been followed. We're going to take you. Get dressed." Mrs. Butler was told the couple intended to take her to a Reno motel, then get money from her husband at his bank.

The woman remained with her while she PUEBLA, Mex. (AP) -College studentt and professors seized SO eupty city buses todiy aid demanded the release of 0 peasant farmers helrf by the government. A "solidarity committee" from the University of Puebla took control of the buses early in the morning without incident. Police did not Immediately intervene. Prison violence leaves inmate dead, 6 injured By CARLZEITZ TRENTON, N.J.

(AP) One inmate was killed and six others injured today in a disturbance at Trenton State Prison that officials attributed to "an internal power struggle" among black inmates. Robert Mulcahy, deputy commissioner of institutions and agencies, said all seven victims had been stabbed with homemade weapons. Mulcahy said the violence at the maximum security institution began at 9:35 a.m. in the prison's school building. About 100 inmates and 30 teachers and social workers were in the building at the time, he said.

"It is our belief the incident took place as the result of an internal power struggle," Mulcahy said. The commissioner said all of those injured and all of the assailants identified thus far were black. He said state police, Trenton police, the Mercer County prosecutor's office and prison authorities have begun a Mrs. Butler doesn't know how long she struggled after the couple left she finally freed herself. Today as she recalled the incident, Mrs.

Butler's voice trembled slightly. "I just got desperate and frightened and I struggled until I tore the tapes," the 53-year-old woman said. "I'm bruised and I'm sore. But you'll find out just how much you can do when you're desperate. Mrs.

Butler declined to comment on whether her captors handled her roughly. "I'd rather not talk about that," she said. "I haven't had any sleep. I'm so shook up. I just don't want to say anymore." The Carson City Sheriff's Department previously said she telephoned her husbanda bout 10:30 and warned him of the couple's plan.

Alerted deputies arrested Crane at the bank without incident. Police said the room had been reserved Oct. 11 by a woman with platinum hair. It was rented for two persons for one night under the name of F. Avery of Portland, Ore.

An FBI spokesman said, "As far as I know, we're looking for one person." dressed. The man went with her through the en- The committee accused the government of arresting trance to the garage and drove her car out. the tanners when tney mei bne closed the garage door with an elec Wednesday with a government official to demand water for their lands from a nearby dam. tronic closer. The man drove to the Golden Road Motor Virginia where they met the wonanandentered room 222.

He then taped her wrists and lees to a The'farmers were taken to cnair nd been placed on a mattress a military camp in Mexico in tie center of the room. The young woman City, 60 miles northwest of justsUod by a wall. Puebla. Mergy variety encouraged Government sources said the farmers planned to sabotage the Pan American Games, which have attracted more than 3.S00 athletes from 33 counties to Mexico. He said the legislation is needed to close the gap between plans for solar energy and the state of its development.

Nevada Sen. Howard Canton said, he plans to introduce legislation designed to give cwsumert more freedom of clsice in the energy market. His amendment would increase the tax credit for installation of solar heating and cooling equipment in a private house from 25 to 40 per cent of the first $8,000 uevewpmeni corp. oi aan uiego. wick has been a co-owner of the financially-troubled firm since before he became involved in Nevada gaming.

Richard P. Crane head of the Los Angeles-based strike force, declined to discuss the scope or status of the investigation. The Times said a "key agent" in the investigation until last summer has recently become a consultant to Glick. The newspaper quoted unidentified sources who said Naurbon Perry of Pasadena, a veteran Internal Revenue Service intelligence agent who had been assigned to the task force, "had preliminary discussions about a job with Glick while still on the strike force." "There is nothing illegal involved," Crane said, "but we must aviiid the appearance of conflict of interest, and this has the appearance of conflict." Perry he had another Las Vegas client in his new consuming business and added, "I have no intentions of jumping fro3, being a law abiding citizen to a non-law abiding citizen." Saratoga, a real estate development firm, recently filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the federal Bankruptcy Act. Would Shakespeare, Michelangelo have been great in comics field? VI I '11 I joint investigation.

A spokesman at St. Francis Hospital said the dead inmate was Samuel Mayers, 38, who suffered multiple stab wounds. Another inmate, Ben Walton, was in critical condition with multiple stab wounds. The 178-year-old prison, whose massive stone walls occupy a square black in the heart of the city, was cordoned off by police this afternoon. Prison authorities locked the nearly 900 prisoners in their cells, but scores of inmates complained about the lockup by shouting out the windows.

A spokesman for Helene Fuld Hospital in Trenton said two more inmates were admitted there with multiple stab wounds, adding that their identities and conditions had not been determined. The State Department of Institutions and Agencies said officials were trying to determine what had happened, but had no immediate information. A woman outside the prison said she had been talking on the telephone with an inmate in the black studies program office located in the prison education building when the disturbance began. She said the inmate told her that, members of the Black Muslim organization in the prison had attacked inmates in the black studies office with homemade knives. The Black Muslim organization also has facilities in the education building.

The report by the woman, who asked not to be identified, could not be verified immediately by prison officials. Argentine president back from vacation By SUSAN LINNEE AKIN BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) President Isabel Peron has returned from her vacation looking tanned and cheerful, but plans for her to resume office as expected today were still not settled. There was also speculation she would soon take another vacation, and that this one would be permanent. Mrs. Peron planned a morning meeting with cabinet members and Acting President Italo Luder to discuss final arrangements for the transfer of power.

The transition ceremony had been expected today, but one local news agency said it might be delayed until Friday morning. Meanwhile, the Peronist movement went ahead with arrangements for a big Loyalty Day rally Friday afternoon, with an address by Mrs. Peron as the chief attraction. The newspaper La Opinion reported that Interior Minister Angel F. Robledo told military leaders that the return to office of Juan D.

Peron's 44-year-old widow would open a dynamic new phase of her regime, perhaps with key wvvtu i BALTIMORE (AP) -Shakespeare and Michelangelo would have been great comic book collaborators if they were alive today, according to the man who publishes Marvel Comics. Stan Lee, who has turned out such comic book heros as The Incredible Hulk, Spider Man and Dr. Strange, said in a John Hopkins University appearance that the dynamic duo of the great Bard and the legendary artist "would be so beautiful" in the field of comics. The antics of Lee's heroes are followed by more than six million readers a month, and he says about 25 per cent of those readers are over 16. The success of his publications is based on the fact that the super heroes are fallible, Lee said.

Their exploits defy imagination, but their human foibles and problems are shared by readers. Spider Man, for instance, has aged through the years, just like his fans. Lee, a speaker at the Milton S. Eisenhower Symposium, said comic books are "one of the greatest instruments for education that I know of." Oigon county's rare possession to place the 126-year-old document under heavy security. Poppen was informed by historians that U.S.

District Court in Oregon City was the first federal court west of the Rockies and, as such, the only place the original plat could be filed. (UPI photo) Clackamas County (' Clerk George Poppen points to the legend bottom of original San Francisco plat at county courthouse in Oregon City. Poppet: id the plat is being encased in metal and to an alarm system. Earlier this week, coiy ommissioners agreed camnei cnanges. It was an obvious attempt to answer criticism of her failure during her 15'j months in office to make any progress toward restoring law and order or improving the gravely ill economy.

independence Lale: A tour of total wilderness must remote corners of the holdings and ski back. "They're shooting for a million eallons a Hav wo nro (Continued from Page 1) some fallen pine cones ana Din mn nismoiars. The guides think Independence Lake looks too much like We study the map some Near the hexagon are Donner Lake, a few miles to the south, luring pilots un- small squares. Sewage dispt a we are informed, warilv to their doom Curving red and pink liro me around the core area We trudge off to see wnat me Disney nrm pians. uur anaDeyunu.

inereuuire miguj wuiww. in "CS-nm (hie nnlnt a iniiorornnnfl SflVB he says. twits make no noise on me aamu luresi noor. ici minus, i Condominium owners wt their vehicles at their told. "And they'll get it." Already, a well tapped into the south shore is a producer Back at the jeeps, we crack beers and shed coats.

We start the bumpy way back to civilization, along the access route called Sagehen. We pass the stream where planted trout-fishing are will be graded first for experts, then for "family" type fishermen, then for kids. On past the meadow where tourists will be able to eaior an overnight "camping experience." On a summit we stop for a last look at the area B'sa magnificent vista in its new winter coat. A Disney man aims an arm at a slope strewn wih gigantic rocks, the debris left by an ancient glacier "Will have to cut the road down there somewhere "he says. Our guides point to raw gashes on the slopes where the timber has been removed naturally by slides.

The ski runs will follow some of these. There will be runs ranging from precipitous plunges designed only for the expert skier to an easy "kin-derbaum," projecting from a small knoll to the west of the village. Miles of lifts are planned. They climb ridges on all sides, and spill over to neighboring slopes. There are many more miles of ski paths, now only dotted lines on topographical maps.

Ribbons flutter from a huge white bark pine, patriarch of this glade soon to become a teeming tourist hub. "We are trying to save this one," says Jim. "Some of these lodgepole, though, will have to go." He sweeps the village site with a tanned hand. We move on into a meadow still green and boggy. The sun glistens off a pond where ice cutters once worked with their saws and teams.

A flockf ducks arcs up into the clean sky in a clatter of wings. It cirbles into a formation. Nearing the lodge area dgain, we approach a white pole. It marks the shaft of a 60-foot-deep test well. The wheel tracks of the drill rig are just visible.

The workmen have not disturbed the vegetation or the soil. There is talk of expenditures in the neighborhood of $70 million and traffic ol 5,000 and 10,000 people a day. A quarter mile to the west of the old resort area, we stop on a knoll where Wright unrolls a big map and pins down a corner with a crepe-soled boot. "This is the village," he says, pointing to an oblong hexagon where a nest of multi-story shops, rooms and condominiums will grow. This will be the heart of the Disney project.

Thousands of people will congregate here on a weekend. We try to picture the alpine-styled buildings on this wild site among tall, yellow-stemmed lodgepoles and dark firs. They'll jut up several stories, but not so high that they 11 clear the forest around them. "You get a quarter of a mile away from them and you won't be able to see them," we are told by Wright, a hogUhv.inAirino vounff snecimen who chatters about his door a dozen feet under the "here'll be no cars in the village," says Wright. Plans are to exclude 'chicles almost entirely beyond the parking lot at t-r of the access highway.

The lake will be for sailing ai a and rowing. The pink line is the cog ra ij It loops around the core area, swings along the lake id ascends the slope to a summit where a restaurant is planned. From up there, say our gu ners will be able to look down on a corner of Lake Tt -d on a clear day see the white pyramid of Mt. Shasta es to the north. Outside the village, anyone i ng to reach into the vast Disney holdings will have tc he railway, or walk, or ride one of the ski lifts.

These radiate on the map straight, black lines from the core area. From ac rmini, more black lines my urn. iu uie nignway on a rotd ot meant for sedans It encounters pavement at a cWaof green buildings where the huge Donner burn of 1955 kfthe umbered mountains denuded for Snow tires sing on the pavement as we speed darn he mountain. days at University of Nevada. His black and tan pup Digger angle off.

MllMu. tags along, sharing his master's enthusiasm. He worries From the village area, the i mil be able to reachthe "Just beautiful," another agrees..