Mexico Ledger from Mexico, Missouri • Page 1

18 PAGES HIGH THURSDAY AROUND 40 Mexico, Wednesday, April 2, 1975 Phone 581-1 Year No. Fifteen Cents hool Board rms Toniah New Officials The Mexico School Board will meet tonight to reorganize and elect new officers following Tuesday's election which re-elected one member and elected one new member to the board, both women. The board will also issue new contracts to tenure and non- tenure teachers. Mrs. Howard Copeland, incumbent, and Mrs.

Edward (Leta) Hodge won three-year terms on the board in a close three-way race with Jay Gourley III. Dr. John Boyce, incumbent, and Lewis Brooks Jr. won three-year terms on the city council in a four man race for the two positions. The school board will have to elect a new president tonight.

Long-time board member and president Dr. Frank Sutton did not seek reelection. Mrs. Copeland finished with 1181 votes, four ahead of Mrs. Hodge, who tallied 1177 votes.

Mr. Gourley received 1039 votes. Mrs. Hodge carried eight of the school district's precincts, Mrs. Copeland, carried five and Mr.

Gourley three. There were ties in four precincts. Dr. Boyce, seeking his second term on the council, carried all but two of the city's 12 polling stations in totaling 1089 votes. Brooks tallied 789 votes.

Russell Blackburn, who carried Precincts 2 and 10, finished with 730. Robert Knipfel tallied 522 votes. The finish order duplicated that of the May primary election. Mrs. Sheryl Ligon, city clerk, said about 1560 of the city's 6600 voters went to the polls, or about 24 per cent of the registered voters.

The council will meet to reorganize on April 14, but will possibly hold several study meetings before then to discuss its number one priority: selection of the new city manager. Present members of the city council not up for re-election this year are Mayor Herman 0. Tolson, Mrs. Ruth Olson and Harold Enslen. Democratic Landslide In St.

Louis Voting By The Associated Press St. Louis voters, in a Democratic landslide, swept Paul Simon to victory Tuesday in his bid for aldermanic president. With all 477 city precincts reporting, Simon collected 44,738 votes to 24,995 for Republican Albert J. Hoist and 2,037 for Barbara Bowman, the Socialist Workers Party candidate. Democrats won five of six board of alderman races.

Democratic winners were C. M. Carroll, Daisy McFowland, Tom Connelly, James Geisler and James Komorek. Leonard Burst, in the 16th ward, was the lone Republican winner. St.

Louis voters also elected to adopt a city medical examiner in place of the coroner's office in a vote of 41,414 to 18,375. Voters at Hannibal gave Henry Glascock a measure of vengeance. In the race for mayor, unofficial returns showed Glascock defeating, 3,068 to 2,657, incumbent Bernard Williams, who (Continued on Page 5) defeated Glascock in 1973. A proposition which would have increased the Hannibal school tax 29 cents per $100 valuation was soundly rejected, 3, 588 to 1,858. St.

Louis voters turned down two other issues. A proposition to allow the city to hire private contractors to do work presently done by city em- ployes was defeated, 19,459 to 16,839, and a five-cent property tax increase to provide sheltered workshop facilities for mentally handicapped lost, 35,813 to 26,883. In other elections around Epperson Named Triple AAut NEW MEMBERS of Mexico school board and city council elected are Mrs. Edward Hodge and Lewis W. Brooks Jr.

The other school board member elected is Mrs. Howard Copeland and the other councilman elected is Dr. John Boyce, incumbent. City And School Results By Precincts CITY COUNCIL 8 g' Boyce 1089 Brooks 789 Blackburn 730 Knipfel 522 SCHOOL BOARD Copeland 1181 Hodge 1177 Gourley 1039 County Precincts In Mexico School District 1A 2 119 1 79 0 54 1 46 2 101 3 107 3 88 IB 2 118 64 92 42 64 65 47 55 105 63 105 66 103 84 Copeland Hodge Gourley 3 127 110 90 49 125 140 105 4 90 70 60 53 88 96 87 SO ti V) 17 11 17 5 59 39 56 46 59 73 62 en ff SB 3T i 2 0 2 6 62 38 38 40 58 63 64 2 0 23 19 19 7 94 68 66 57 98' 103 73 so i 0 2 2 8 51 27 37 26 56 46 42 0 ye 26 32 20 9A 118 98 74 61 133 113 101 SO i a ra 17 21 9 9B 153 113 83 22 148 121 94 7 CO VI 7 8 6 10 32 21 35 19 34 31 40 a. 19 17 18 Anarchy And Panic In Vietnam Cities SAIGON, South Vietnam (AP) South Vietnamese Senate called unanimously today for a new leadership to end the war as President Nguyen Van Thieu's government gave up the last of its enclaves in the central part of the country without a fight.

Anarchy and panic, gripped five cities in the region, including Cam Ranh, now among the three-quarters of South Vietnam under North Vietnamese and Viet Cong control. In a flight from possible turmoil in Saigon, a World Airways DC8 left for the United States carrying 60 Vietnamese orphan babies. The head of the airline, Ed Daly, said the South Vietnamese approved the evacuation of 500 other orphan babies but that the U.S. Embassy prevented their departure because it felt his plane was unsafe. A spokesman for the U.S.

Embassy today denied that it had blocked the departure of the 500 babies, saying the Friends of All Children, a charitable organization helping Americans adopt children, made the decision. Thieu summoned Premier Tran Thien Khiem, his cabinet and the top military commanders to a meeting and there was speculation that a new cabinet would be announced. In a radio address, Khiem pledged to hold onto remaining government-controlled areas and "from there work toward retaking control of the entire country." Thieu also had a meeting with U.S. Army Chief of Staff Frederick Weyand who has been in South Vietnam for a week on a fact-finding trip ordered by President Ford. In Phnom Penh, the U.S.

Embassy made plans to temporarily evacuate 15 per cent of its 200 American staff members to Thailand as rebel forces marched on the second largest city of Battambang and swept over Neak Luong, the government's last stronghold on the Mekong River. In its first open break with Thieu, the previously pro-government Senate charged the president with "counting exclusively on a military solution in solving a war with many political charac- (Continued on Page 5) Some Americans Are Leaving Cambodia As Rebels Advance PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) The U.S. Embassy made plans today to evacuate nearly 15 per cent of its nearly 200 American staff members as rebel forces swept over Neak Luong, the goverment's last outpost on the Mekong River, and tightened the noose around Battambang, the country's second largest city. An embassy spokesmen said the staff members would go temporarily to Bangkok, Thailand, and would include administrative, aid and military personnel. He said he did not think the departure would have an adverse affect on Cambodian government or military morale "because the vast bulk of our personnel will be remaining." As he spoke, fragments from a rebel rocket wounded an American civilian pilot working for a Cambodian domestic airline, airport sources reported.

He was identified as Eldon Walker, a veteran of many years of contract flying in Southeast Asia. His home town was not immediately available. One of the U.S. cargo plant's i i inlo 1'tiJioiii also was hit for the first time by rebel rifle fire and its fuselage and tail were slightly damaged, but the American airlift continued. From Peking, Prince Noro- dom Sihanouk ruled out negotiations with the Phnom Penh government despite the departure from the country Tuesday of President Lon Nol.

However, sources in Bangkok said Premier Long Boret, who accompanied Lon Nol to the island of Bali, in Indonesia, was expected there Thursday to look into the possibility of peace talks. Military sources said Khmer Rouge forces on Tuesday afternoon overran the Mekong river town and naval base at Neak Luong and nearby Banam, 32 miles southeast of Phnom Penh. They had been under siege for 2 1 months and were jammed with 25,000 to 30,000 civilians and soldiers. Little was known of their fate. Survivors who reached Phnom Penh today in three navy gunboats said that the government commander, (Jen l.iiu Sisaatli, was lost will, it tour highranking officers.

They said 11 craft had set out with about' 150 soldiers and civilians aboard, but one boat hit a mine and burned out and they did not know the fate of the others. Government convoys have been unable to use the Mekong since the beginning of the year, and there was no hope that the Cambodian army could reopen it. But the fall of Neak Luong was likely to have a adverse psychological effect on the government's remaining forces. And it freed an estimated 6,000 Khmer Rouge troops to join the siege of Phnom Penh, where outnumbered government forces are manning defense lines three to 15 miles from the center of the capital. Western observers returning from Battambang reported fierce fighting three miles southeast of the city and said the Khmer Rouge had captured five outlying villages in the past two days.

They said the insurgent advance had pushed thousands of new refugees into the provincial capital Cason Asks Miller About Interest Conflict JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) A Senate committee investigating David R. Miller's appointment to the Public Service Commission is seeking to determine whether he has any conflicts of interest, the committee chairman, William Cason, said today. In the final minutes of a hearing on Miller's qualifications, Cason said accusations have been made that Miller may have a conflict of interest if approved to the PSC and that Miller should be able to present financial records showing otherwise. Miller, 38, answered that he had no conflict of interest and presented two affidavits to the committee, one saying he was within the law as far as conflict of interest is concerned, and the other saying his income from Rural Missouri, which he directs, has never exceeded $20,000 per year.

The affidavit also said Miller has no other sources of income other than minor intrest income from savings which has never exceeded $100. Cason's reference to the accusations that Miller might have a conflict of interest came at the end of the second day of confirmation hearings before the Gubernatorial Appointments Committee. When Miller was explaining to Cason that he thought he did not have a conflict of interest, the Democrat from Clinton urged him to be brief, since the start of the regular Senate session was near. Most of the hour-long session covered Miller's involvement in a federally funded housing project, called Missouri Housing Alliance which sponsored a self- help housing project in Holden. wanting to know if the money was spent prudently and whether you're (Continued on Page 5) today's If you think you have no faults, there's another (Weyauwega, Chronicle) Tax Rebate Details On Page Two A charge of first degree murder on three counts was filed this morning by Prosecuting Attorney Thomas I.

Osborne against Russell Epperson, for whom the search continues near and far. "We believe he may have left this area," Mr. Osborne said this morning, "and we will try to get a federal unlawful flight warrant against him." That would bring the FBI forces into the case. The complaint filed in Audrain Magistrate Court follows a coroner's jury finding yesterday that Epperson's wife, Fern, and their two children, Richard, 6, and DeAnn, 4, died at the hand of Russell Epperson. Conviction on any count of the charge would carry a penalty of life imprisonment.

The charge alleges the killings were done wilfully, premeditatedly and with malice aforethought. In the count alleging the murder of Mrs. Epperson the charge says that after striking his wife several times he "cooly" took her life. In a press conference this morning with all the major local investigators in the case, Mr. Osborne said, "There is no conceivable sane reason why he would murder his two children and lay them across his wife's body." prosecutor said that although officers believe Epperson, if he is still alive, is out of this area, search will continue.

Special investigator Mike MacPherson and Public Nuclear Plant Hearings Set JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) Federal hearings on the proposed nuclear powered generating plant in southeast Callaway County will be held next week in Fulton and St. Louis. The Missouri Public Service Commission said today it had been advised by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the Fulton hearing will be Tuesday and hearings in St. Louis will run Wednesday through Friday.

The NRC, successor to the Atomic Energy Commission, must give its approval to the plan of construction, proposed by Union Electric Co. of St. Louis, before the utility can proceed. Its concern is expected to deal primarily with the safety aspects of the $1.75 billion nuclear generating facility, the first in the state. month the PSC gave its approval to the utility's request to construct the 2.3 million kilowatt power plant, based primarily on location and economic impact information.

The commission, however, did not consider safety factors surrounding the plant's construction, citing court cases placing that responsibility in the hands of the federal government. But the PSC did say it felt the plant as proposed would be safe, although it recommended action by the legislature to develop plans in case of nuclear accident at the facility. Opponents of the plant have threatened court action to halt its construction. The Tuesday hearing in Fulton will begin at 9 a.m. in the probate courtroom of the Callaway County Courthouse.

The St. Louis sessions, beginning at 2 p.m. Wednesday, will be held in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Roy W. Harper at the U.S.

Courthouse downtown. Safety Department Chief Don Bolli urged anybody with any information about the missing man to get in touch with Mexico Police or Sheriff Arthur (Bud) Riley. The officers emphasized that no matter how unlikely, how far-fetched a report might be, they want it and will check it out as they have in all reports received since the three bodies were found a week ago today. Mr. MacPherson urged anyone with any outstanding checks drawn by Russell or Fern Epperson to turn them over to Chief Bolli or the prosecutor's office.

Chief Bolli said, "We are trying to determine what they bought and when they bought it." He added that it has now been learned that he bought his new sleeping bag on March 21, five days before the bodies were found. The account is overdrawn, but none of the checks which have come in have been for cash. All apparently were for purchases. Officers therefore have no idea how much money Epperson had when he disappeared. Mr.

MacPherson said there is a possibility that Epperson may have had a .22 pistol, so bulletins sent to all law enforcement agencies warn that he may be armed. "We don't know for sure that there was a pistol," he said, "but there was a possibility." He said Epperson's two shotguns and a rifle were found in his car, packed with camping gear, left behind in the driveway of the home at 608 W. Pearson St. He had spoken of a desire to go to Canada. The investigator said that when the federal warrant is issued, the FBI and border guards will be in a position to act in case of Epperson's appearance in some other state.

"We hope to get FBI wanted brochures printed and out on him." The only picture of him available shows him with a crew cut. He now has longer hair, cut traditionally and parted. It is light brown. Chief Bolli briefly summarized police activities from the time the report was received that Mrs. Epperson and the children were believed missing (There was no implication of foul play in that telephone report, he said.) through the rest of the day.

Sgt. Richard Duffner and Officer Al Schindler answered the call, found no one at home, and continued as in a routine missing persons case. Around noon, with Epperson's father present, they crawled through a window and found the bodies. From then on the sheriff and deputies, Chief Bolli, Lt. Frank Cason, and other policemen, including off- duty officers, and highway patrol troopers joined the investigation and the search of the north Mexico area.

Sgt. Duffner said that on his first visit to the house he heard no found in- side. He said that Officer Schindler parked his car on a side street and kept the back of the house and the car under constant surveillance during the rest of the morning. Air and foot searching revealed nothing. Cole County's bloodhounds found no recent evidence that Epperson had been around any of the places he frequented including the Epperson family farm northeast of Mexico.

Officers said there is no truth to the rumors that Epperson hid in the attic, sleeping and eating there, while the search went on. However, there was evidence, Sheriff Riley said, that someone in the past had slept in the attic. Officers do not know how long ago that was. Mr. Osborne pointed out that the house has been locked and sealed since officers left it.

He said there was no truth to the rumor Mrs. Epperson was pregnant. The autopsy would have revealed that easily, he said. "You are going to hear more rumors all the time," Chief Bolli said. "Today you'll probably hear he had been to his former home on Baker Street and stole some bread and bologna.

There is nothing to that, either. There is no way he could have got in the house." "The man has to eat and sleep," Mr. Osborne said, "the fact that there hasn't been a single valid report of stolen food, a break-in or anyone who has actually seen him, leads us to believe he is no longer around." Officers had no idea how he disappeared without being seen, but Mr. MacPherson said, "They do it all the time. Someone could have given him a ride and never thought a thing about it." Jury At Inquest Hears Testimony Fern, Richard and DeAnn Epperson "died from injuries or suffocation believed at the hand of Russell Epperson while committing a felony," an Audrain Coroner's jury ruled yesterday afternoon after a brief inquest.

Coroner Connie Pickering called Dr. John Boyce, pathologist, as the first of two witnesses. He said the bodies had not been moved when he arrived at the Epperson home at 608 Pearson St. Mrs. Epperson lay lengthwise, face down and nude on a double iron bed in a back bedroom.

The two children were lying across her body, wearing nightclothes and both with plastic bags over their heads, the boy with a Venetian blind cord or similar cord tightly around his neck. When found, the bodies had been covered with a sheet, with only Mrs. Epperson's head partly exposed. Asked about the autopsies he performed, Dr. Boyce said, "None of the individuals died of natural causes.

The mother had several fairly heavy blows with a blunt instrument, on the left shoulder, jaw and neck. The girl had two or three lesser blows. The boy had a mark about IVz inches behind where the cap of the cord formed part of the knot tying it around his neck." He said that marked a fracture of the skull near the mastoid bone which could have been the cause of death. He said the boy could have died from two or three causes, the skull fracture, strangulation or suffocation. The girl had a "frothy exudate around the mouth indicating pulmonary edema and fairly common in suffocation.

"It's possible they all were anaesthetized with chloroform," he added. He said that preliminary toxicology reports on Mrs. Epperson revealed chloroform in her liver. He said none of the mother's blows were enough to cause death of themselves. But the lungs showed signs of hemorrhage.

"She died, I believe, as a result of a chloroform dose or from suffocation," possibly from ingested blood from the neck wound. He said he could not say yet, with neither of the state lab or University Medical Center labs having completed reports. He said that bacterial growth in the lungs and heart indicated they "had been dead some period of time." He said they "definitely had been dead 24 hours or more at the time they were found." He described for the jury, in response to a question from juror Jake Miller, the red and white marks on the bodies, caused by "livor mortis, the discoloration of dependent parts of the body." After death blood settles by gravity to the dependent parts. Where the bodies lay pressed against the bed, however, the capillaries were compressed and the red blood cells could not get into them, causing white streaks. C.

R. Stevens asked if he could tell if they were dead when they were placed on the bed. Dr. Boyce said he had some question about whether the mother was struck elsewhere and then moved to the bed. The bodies would have had to have been placed on the bed within an hour or two of death, (Continued on Page 5) CORONER'S JURY heard testimony yesterday in triple murder of Mrs.

Fern Fpperbon and two children. Their verdict was death at the hands of Russell Epperson, who waft charged today with their murder (Ledger Photo by Richard.