Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 26

Tucson, Friday, August 8, 1986L f)f Arizona Bailn Slur Page Twelve Section Mass killer Steelman dies in Phoenix hospital New U.S. food program to feed low-income mothers, children Kimball says McCain opposed' food aid he now takes credit for formation on his vote was available last night. She said McCain has "an excellent record for helping the needy in Arizona." She listed eight of what she said were numerous votes by McCain to make sure the poor and elderly have enough to eat. Instead of making "cynical remarks," Clarke said, Kimball "should be happy that because of John McCain's and (Rep.) Jim Kolbe's (R-Ariz.) hard work, about 2,800 needy women and children in Arizona will be able to receive food that they desperately need." Kimball said McCain has voted against food assistance programs 22 times, and called his election year support for the program after Initially opposing it "too lit-i tie, too late." their East Fort Lowell Road condominium on Nov. 3,1973.

Steelman and Gretzler had already killed six people in Arizona and were hiding from police in the Sandbergs' home. The best thing to do "We thought about taking the people with us and I kept thinking, 'That car is so Steelman later told authorities. "'So we decided, Doug decided, that the best thing to do would be shoot these people, too, and then there would be no witnesses take what we could and run like hell. "Douglas went into the bedroom and shot the gentleman in the head," Steelman said. "The lady, I had her roll over on her side facing the couch so that she couldn't see it coming." Gretzler pumped three or four rounds into her head, after which Steelman said he fired a shot himself "to make damn sure she wasn't still suffering." Steelman and Gretzler took the couple's credit cards, checks, camera and car, then headed for California, where they killed at least nine other people.

They were arrested in California nine days later. They were given nine consecutive life sentences for murder in California. Gretzler remains on death row. Nearly 13 years after the Sand-berg murders, Steelman had not exhausted his Arizona death-sentence Star Se photo Willie Luther Steelman appeals. His case was working its way through the federal courts, Leto said yesterday.

Condemned at every level "It annoys me that he died of natural causes before he could be executed," Roderick Mays, Patricia Sandberg's father, said yesterday from his home in Ojai, Calif. "I'm sorry he was not executed. "He had been condemned to death at every level, and I believe he should have been executed long before this," Mays said. "I regret that it's such a long, drawn-out process, with so many chances of appeal, that he died of natural causes before he could be executed." It Is "the height of hypocrisy" for Rep. John McCain to take credit for a $779,760 allotment to buy food for Arizona's poor because he voted against the aid program in the first place, Richard Kimball said yesterday.

Kimball, a Democrat who is running against McCain for the U.S. Senate, said the Arizona Republican was one of only 18 congressmen to vote against the Emergency Food Assistance and Commodity Distribution Act when the program was created in 1983. "Today he wants to take credit for its implementation. This is the height of hypocrisy," Kimball said. McCain could not be reached for a response last night, but an aide, Victoria Clarke, said no in WIC will handle eligibility screening, he said.

When the new program is operating, the Food Bank's infant formula program will be phased out. Woods said. He said 85 percent of the $779,760 allotted to the Food Bank will pay for food and the rest will go for ad ministrative, warehouse and food-handling costs. The Food Bank also is to serve mothers and children in Yavapai County and the Salt River Indian Project under the program, said an aide to U.S. Rep.

Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz. Woods said Kolbe "really was the ramrod that made this happen. He put a lot of pressure on the White House." The Arizona Department of Health Services applied for the USDA program in 1984, but the program did not have enough federal funding to serve Arizona until this, vear. Bode said. It has received $38 million, of which $779,760 will go to Arizona.

The program already is being, used in 28 other cities. (' Bode's comments came at a Capir tol Hill news conference with Kolbe and U.S. Rep. John McCain, R-Ariz, Kolbe said the USDA plan wiUi help overburdened federal, local and volunteer food programs, i already in existence. He said WIC reaches only 30 percent of eligible Tucsonans.

"We. have had to take food away from adults in order to care for the chil-dren," Kolbe said. "This will allow us to bring food to the public at large." McCain noted that the USDA plan supplies food while WIC distributes vouchers. Bode said some of the food comes from government surplus and some is prepared especially for the zi Colored By Jim Erickson The Arizona Daily Star Mass murderer Willie Luther Steelman, who had been on death row since his conviction for the 1973 murders of a UA couple, died yesterday in a Phoenix hospital, one of his attorneys said. Steelman died at Maricopa County Hospital after being transferred from the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence, said attorney Frank Leto of the Pima County Public Defender's Office.

Department of Corrections spokesman Michael Arra said Steelman, 41, probably died of liver disease, and that an autopsy would be performed to determine the exact cause. Steelman had been suffering from severe kidney dysfunction and cirrhosis of the liver, which was diagnosed in 1983. -Babbitt can't get me" Earlier this year, prison officials told Steelman that he had six months to three years to live. "When they told me it was terminal, they had guards outside the door. They didn't know how I would react," Steelman said in an April interview with The Arizona Daily Star.

said, 'It's one way (Gov. Bruce) Babbitt can't get me. I beat the In 1975, Steelman and Douglas pretzler were convicted of murdering University of Arizona graduate students Michael and Patricia andberg, who were held captive in 0 PRICES GOOD THRU AUGUST i -S 5 I "KS'S I ffiaET 1 I ELEVEn I By Steve Lash States News Service i. WASHINGTON Lo-income Arizona mothers with young children will receive food assistance within the next few months, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official said yesterday.

This fall, a department program will begin providing meat, cheese, milk, hot cereal and other food to about 2,850 pregnant women, new mothers and children in the state, said John W. Bode, assistant secretary for food and consumer affairs. The Commodity Supplemental Food Program has broader eligibility requirements than the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC. That program is run by the Department of Health and Human Services. Children up to age 6 are eligible for the USDA assistance.

WIC benefits stop at age 5. Reacting to news of the funding, Charles "Punch" Woods, executive director of the Community Food Bank, said, "Will 'euphoric' be the right word?" Woods said food, bought in bulk by the government, will be shipped to Tucson for distribution by the Food Bank. Boxes valued at $14.39 each will be given to qualified babies, children and mothers, he said. "The actual value of the food will be more than that, because the government is buying it in quantity," he said. THE SOUTHLAND CORPORATION (om (Q)Qj l)p EVERYDAY LOW PRICE! 12 BEER Bud Coors Miller Stroh's 12oz.

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