Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 4

4 Tuesday. May 3. 1383 PtfldtpWa Daffy Nw Blast Victim Is Facing Charges By JACK McGUIRE Daity News Staff Write Joseph "Hawaiian Joe" Kahana claims he was "just walking by" th night of April 24. when an explosion and fire ripped through three stores in the Philmont Shopping Center in the Northeast and severely burned him. But yesterday, police went to Kahana's room tn the St.

Agnes Burn Center and charged him with arson ai and related charges in con-v i nection with the I- The target. of alleged ar- tr' son was Barson's Overlook Deli. .4 according to i 5s authorities. lnestigators ,4 4 1 1 4 "7 dj ue iir ml probing the possibility that Drawing by Iteroa IhnMllWPVI-TV the blaze was set on orders ol Kahana District Justk: Mary Cross fistens to yesterday's testimony by Christopher Pappas, a former teacher at Upper Merion High School Br ad field Held for Trial In 3 Killings organized crime. Kahana, 47.

is said to be an associate of reputed monster Harry "the Hunchback" Riccobcne. Police say Kahana had a slip of paper in his pocket bearing the phone number of an owner of the iklu.ates.sn. Kahana suffered Second- and third-degree burns over 40 percent of his body in the blaze. He was admitted to the burn center in critical condition but has been upgraded to fair. No one else was injured in the two-alarm fire, which wrecked two adjoining stores in the shopping center on Rcnnard Street near Tomlinson Road that Sunday nit; tit.

Kahana. of lrl Street near 67th. in Southwest Philadelphia, was charged with arson, criminal mischief, causing and risking a catastrophe and recklessly endangering other persons. A police source said Kahana has worked for Riccobene, and that he "does all kinds of odd jobs fir him." City records show the delicatessen is owned by Philip Yaisherg. of Algon Avenue near HartcL Vaisberg has declined to discuss the case.

A partner. Mikhail Albender. of Norvelt Drive near Hoven Road, died about a year ago. trial yesterday by Swatara Township District Justice Mary E. Cross, after three days of testimony.

Bradfield is accused of murdering Remert and her children. Karen. 11. and Michael. 10, who disappeared with her from their Ardmore.

Delaware County, home on June 22. 1979. No trace of the children has ever been found. The bartered body of Reinert. 37.

who taught Knglish at I'pper Merion High, was found three days later in the heel well of her IsfH Plymouth Horizon parked at the Host Inn in Swatara Township, near llarrisburg. She had been bound in chains, asphyxiated and injected with a lethal dose of a morphine derivative, authorities said. Bradfield. of Downingtown. Chester County, was arrested April 6 after a statewide grand jury determined that he and an unnamed accomplice planned the murders of Reinert and her children.

Reinert had named Bradfield the beneficiary of her SI 1-m 1 11 ion estate. Pappas also testified that Bradfield By JENNIFER PRESTON Daily News Staff Writer IIARRISM RG A former associate of HilLiam S. Bradfield Jr. testified yesterday that Bradfield prepared himself for a possible showdown with former Tpper Merion High School principal Jay C. Smith by pumping several bullets into a target hung on a tree.

Hradfield. accused of murdering fellow teacher Susan Remert and her two children, had told friends that Smith, now in jail on robbery charges, planned to kill Rcinert "Mr. Bradfield considered taking the matter into his own hands." testified Christopher Pappas. a former I'pper Merion teacher. "He practiced doing this if ever he felt that the crisis and the moment had necessitated saving Susan Remert from potential harm." Pappas said Bradfield tokf him Smith wanted to kill Rcinert because she was "privy to some of Smith eccentric behavior outside of school and was a threat to him." Bradfield.

50. was held far i I JL. William Bradfield: faces trial told him Smith had murdered his own daughter, Stephanie, and son-in-law, Edward Hunsburger. The Hunsburgers, who had lived at Smith's King of Prussia home, disap- lay C. Smith: hit man? peared in February 1978.

Smith told authorities the couple had left for California, but investigators discovered they had left their personal See BRADFIELD Page 20 Breathe Easier as Exhaust Bill Shapes Up United Press International RRISBl RG egislative leaders predict final approval of an auto emissions inspection bill today to end years of squabbling with the federal government and weeks of stubbornness in a conference committee. rh bipartisan panel of three members each tnrni the House of Representatives and Senate voted unanimously yesterday send both houses a new version of the bill agreeable to both parties and. presumably. II.S. District Louis Bee title.

The bill would cost urban motorists $5 for an annual inspection, plus repair costs of up to S2S for older cars and S50 for newer ones, llowev-er. a rebate plan is included for low-income car owners vehicles in the Pittsburgh. Philadelphia and Allentown areas. The inspections would cost S5. If pre-1974 cars fait the tests, their owners would hav to pay up to S25 for repairs to emissions systems.

Owners of newer cars would have to pay a maximum of S50. The key provision that led to the compromise, however, gives low-income motorists what amounts to a S14 rebate if they comply with the program. Regardless of whether they pass or fail the test, households with an income of less than S9.000 a year would be able to deduct S19 from the M4 cost of annual auto registration. They would still have to pay tile S5 inspection fee. The reductions, expected to cost the slate SI 1.5 million annually, are to last only the first If approved, the bill is expected to receive a quick signature from Gov.

Thornburgh. who has made passage of the program a top legislative priority this year, due to the highway funds and the estimated 44.000 construction jobs at stake. Bechtle. of Philadelphia, must affirm that the program complies with a 198 consent decree signed by the Commonwealth and the Environmental Protection Agency before he will release S419 million in federal highway aid. He ordered the aid embargoed until the I egislature repealed its ban on the unpopular tests.

The proposal, achieved in a sudden breakthrough after pessimism last week, would require annual anti-pollution tests of 11 million two years of the program. "We were trying to arrive at a compromise dealing with the issue of poverty." said Senate Majority Whip John Stauffer, R-Chester. "We're giving these people a two-year break on registration in return fo" compliance with the program," The new provision was negotiated in a day of private talks between Stauffer. the emissions bill's sponsor, and House Majority Leader James Manderino. DAVestmorcland.

whose tempers had flared during four earlier committee meetings- The program as proposed would affect Allegheny. Washington. Westmoreland. Beaver. Philadelphia.

Bucks. Chester. Montgomery. Delaware, Lehigh and Northampton counties..