Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 2

MONDAY, JUNE 19, 1995 THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS PAGE 3 1. sr oora Residents in Northeast neighborhood fear killing may have drug or gang connection I mil, mi I "fv who returned minutes later. Another bizarre twist to the story came when police opened the trunk of the Mercedes that belonged to Milliner's friend, which was parked in front of his apartment. "I heard one say to another cop, 'Maybe there's another body," said a neighbor. The cops did find a body, but this one was alive.

It belonged to a three-foot alligator. The find created a commotion that, for a time, swept the grim talk of death from the neighborhood. "It was like a side show-type deal," said John Allen, 49, who saw the alligator before it scurried deeper into the trunk. The cops "would open the trunk, you could look at it. Then they'd shut the trunk." The alligator was a pet that belonged to one of Milliner's friends, said Homicide Capt.

Patrick Dempsey. Yesterday, the black BMW was still in Milliner's garage. A piece of silver duct tape and a reddish stain were on the garage floor. In the car's backseat were some documents with fee schedules. Milliner had lived in Hie apartment for about a year.

He kept to himself, neighbors said. Milliner served time in prison for drugs several years ago. He was arrested last year on car-theft charges, police said. Papers found on the seat of car in which slain man was found the men in the Oldsmobile, according to a neighbor who overheard the conversation. The group then went around back to the garage, where they got neighbors to help break in by telling them Milliner was trapped inside.

They opened the trunk and found his body. "I heard her screaming, 'He's dead! My baby's said Jennifer Morrissey, 11. Other neighbors also heard the screaming and called the police, by Nicole Weisensee Daily News Staff Writer Strangers came back over the weekend, looking for witnesses. Neighbors in the quiet Far Northeast cringed, already terrified that a convicted drug dealer had been found asphyxiated, trussed and stuffed into the trunk of a BMW the day before. The strangers asked menacing questions.

"They were asking, 'What did you see? 'Where do you said one frightened man, who asked not to be identified. "It was pretty scary. Very scary," said one female neighbor. The murder was bad enough. Keith Milliner, 36, who lived on Helmer Drive, between Academy and Knights roads, was found dead in the trunk of a friend's black BMW, parked in his garage.

He was lying face down with duct tape on his face. His hands were handcuffed behind his back. The medical examiner yesterday declared his death a homicide, stating that Milliner had died of asphyxiation. There were no visible wounds on his body, a medical examiner's spokesman said. Detectives said they had no suspects and knew of no motive.

But one man said detectives had told him that Milliner, who spoke with a Jamaican accent, had been a drug dealer and that members of the Jamaican Mafia might have murdered him. This was not soothing news to the neighborhood. "The first thing we thought was, 'Is this a harbinger of things to said Bob Leonardo, 51, who lives across the street. Another neighbor, who just moved in, said he was moving out today as a result of the murder. "I'm shaking," he said.

"Nobody's safe. Obviously. I thought I could at least minimize my risk by living out here." Police said Milliner's girlfriend phoned them about 9:30 p.m. Friday, saying she had been unable to contact him since the night before. She phoned police again at 10 p.m.

and an officer met her at Milliner's home. Cops looked through the apartment. They said it had been ransacked, but there were no signs of forced entry. Then they left. Milliner's girlfriend then made a call on her cellular phone, a neighbor said.

Soon after that, two men pulled up in an Oldsmo-bile Cutlass. Others arrived in a BOB LARAMIE DAILY NEWS Tom Peters serves up some Kwak at Copa Too At last, Belgium on tap 'Kwak' offers American drinkers their 1st taste of brew on tap here by Don Russell Daily News Staff Writer This is a love story, of a man and his beer. It began two years ago in Paris, with a proposal of marriage. And it ended last week in Center City, with a long, malty sip of Belgian beer the first time anyone had tasted the draft in any American bar. Sit back, pour yourself a cold one and enjoy the tale of Tom Peters and his glass of Kwak.

Peters, 42, is manager of Copa Too, a pub near 15th and Spruce streets, where he's responsible for its selection of better-than-average beers. He started expanding the menu a few years ago, he said, to attract connoisseurs. Of course, he conceded, "I'm selfish and I like good beers, so I get to taste a lot of stuff." If you're a Bud drinker, you probably haven't noticed that these are heady times for high-quality beers. Thanks to an explosion of domestic microbreweries, many bars offer an astounding variety of tasty, unusual beers. Meanwhile on the import scene, the hottest beers are the Belgians.

Trappist ales, fruity Iambics, white beers and others are served like wine, often in large corked bottles at $10 or more. How popular are the Belgians? Don't look now, but you can buy a bottle of Boon Framboise a raspberry-flavored ale usually served as an apertif at Veterans Stadium. Copa Too boasts 28 different Belgians behind the bar, a selection Peters figures is second only to that of Bridgid's at 24th and Aspen streets in Fairmount. The problem is, it's all bottled; none of these beers is available in America fresh out a keg. That's one of the reasons Peters, like other beer devotees, regularly treks to Europe.

Two years ago, he took Barbara Thomas, his girlfriend, on one of his trips. "We'd been going out for five or six years, and I planned to propose to her. I wanted to make it special." See BEER Page 24 iv -v -7 -i lii ii Muriaiirfnrii mrm Urn Mercedes. "I knew this.waseoLne J.QIE. GRQSSMANN DAILY Nf WS KejWJvini.reHited'ia the 'glrff riend- sa'kl fo.