The Daily Reporter from Dover, Ohio • Page 1

A tra By WARREN L. NELSON UP1 Writer In a small cemetery in Ohio lies the charred body of a youth that has become the center of a nasty spat between a grieving family and the Navy's Washington bureaucracy. Charles and Vera Dennis of Miamisburg, were told in July 1966 that their 19- year-old son, Mark, had been killed when his helicopter was shot down in South Vietnam. His body, burned beyond recognition, was shipped home and buried with hon- Dennis ors such as those given 45,000 other young Americans who have died in the Vietnam War. BUT NOW THE family thinks the body they have is not their son's.

They feel Mark may really be a prisoner of war. The Navy says it is sorry but the body is Mark's. It all began when the Dennis family saw a photograph in Newsweek magazine of an American prisoner in Hanoi. Though fuzzy, it looked like Mark and sparked their hopes that their son was indeed alive, if not safe. The man in the photograph, however, had already been identified as Lt.

Cmdr. Paul E. Galanti, a Navy pilot Hanoi has acknowledged holding. The Dennises have now agreed the photo shows Galanti, but they still feel the body they have is not Mark's and they want the Navy to say their son is missing. "UNLESS OUR government says Mark is missing in action, the Viet Cong are never going to release him when the war is over," Mark's mother said.

"They certainly won't say at the end of the war, 'you forgot one' and send him back with the rest of the The body which the Navy says is the mortal remains of Hospital cbrpsman 3rd Class Mark Dennis (the is a Roman numeral signifying Mark was the fifth child) has been exhumed twice and is probably one of the most analyzed bodies in military history. NAVY, AIR FORCE and Smithsonian Institution experts have looked at it and said they believe it is Mark Dennis. A Cincinnati met and an Ohio State University anthropologist have also inspected the remains and reached opposite conclusions. There is no conclusive evidence either way and there never will be unless Mark FT1-B i-miimes 1 tie Jrfeporter No. 75 Dover-New Philadelphia, Ohio Thursday, October 7, 1971 Price 10 cents Jack Helton dead at 85 John M.

(Jack) Hoi ton, 85, owner and operator of Holton's Drug Store in New Philadelphia from 1921 to 1941 and a former president and director of the Citizens Budget died today in his home at614Rayav.NW. Born in Ashland, he was graduated by Ashland High, Scio College of Pharmacy and the University of Pittsburgh. He moved to New Philadelphia in 1908 and was employed at the Frank C. Rea Drug Store, which he rejoined after being discharged from the Army in 1919. The drug store he established in 1921 was purchased by Harold Heller, now deceased, and now is Cherry Pharmacy at 138 N.

Broadway. He enlisted in the Medical Department of the Army in 1918 and held the rank of Sergeant. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church, a member and past commander of the New Philadelphia American Legion and a 50-year member of the Masonic Lodge. He was preceded in death by his parents, James and Margaret Leland Hoi- ton, and his wife, Lorena Wallace Hoi- ton, who died in 1961. There are no immediate survivors.

Services will be Saturday at 10:30 a.m. in Linn-Hert-Geib Funeral Home with Rev. Stuart Barr officiating. Interment will be in East Avenue Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home Saturday morning.

It is requested that memorial gifts be made to a charity of the donor's choice. News Scope Nixon speech President Nixon goes on national TV and radio tonight at 7:30 to describe the kinds of controls that will replace the 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents which expires Nov. 13. See story on Page A-3. Reminder COLUMBUS (UPI) Smallpox immunization will no longer be required for school children, but the state Department of Health urged parents today not to become lax about other diseases such as polio, diptheria, measles and whooping cough.

The federal government last week ended compulsory smallpox vaccinations because it felt there is now more possibility of death from such innoculations than from the disease itself. There has not been a case of smallpox reported in the United since 1949. Forecast Clear and cooler tonight, low near 40. Friday, fair and not so cool, high in the mid to upper 60s. Probability of precipitation near zero per cent tonight and 10 per cent Friday.

40 Pages 3 Sections Around the World A-5 CourtRecords B-10 Editorials A-4 Hospital B-10 Hot Line B-l Obituaries A-6 Sports B-4 Stocks B-10 Television B-6 Women A-14, A-15, A-16 Dennis walks out of the jungle alive. Identification of a body so badly burned is a difficult proposition at best and involves an acceptance of the weight of evidence rather than the absolute conclusiveness of evidence. However, in the Dennis case even the weight of evidence is in dispute even basic facts like the body's height are in dispute. SOMEWHERE IN the early days of the case a report surfaced that the Navy had identified the body as Dennis from his fingerprints and dog tags. That report was first credited in print to an unnamed spokesman and later to Lt.

Cmdr. D. D. Nelson, a Navy public affairs officer who denies saying any such thing. The supporters of the Dennis family have denounced the Navy for claiming to rely on fingerprints.

They point out that the body has no hands and therefore couldn't be identified that way. If any Navy official ever said fingerprints were used, he was clearly mistaken since the body identification papers dated July 25, 1966, and signed by Lt. Cmdr. S. Lugo carry a space numbered 21 in which to put a fingerprint of the deceased.

In capital letters Lugo typed "BURNED. DR. ROLAND PAPUCCI, a metallurgist and director of the Papucci Laboratory in Cincinnati, has inspected the body and the dog tags that were in the coffin. He says the body burned at temperatures between 900 and 1400 degrees while the dog tags never saw temperatures of more than 250 degrees. "We feel these dog tags were fabricated and placed on the body after the actual explosion or burning," Papucci told UPI.

Navy Capt. N. B. Curtis, head of the Patient Affairs Branch in the Navy's Bureau of Medicine, doesn't dispute Pa- DEAN SIMERAL (L), MRS. JOHN WELLING AND ED DICHLER Farm Bureau activities are discussed Piggyback tax is favored Farmers victims of inflation, claims Ohio Farm Bureau leader "Farmers are not the cause but the victims of inflation," Dean Simeral of Columbus told the 139 attending Wednes- day'night's Tuscarawas County Farm Bureau annual meeting in Schoenbrunn Moravian Church.

Simeral, associate director of public affairs of the Ohio Farm Bureau Feder- West Coast longshoremen are ordered back to work WASHINGTON (AP)'- Responding to Nixon administration pleas, federal judges have temporarily halted longshoremen's strikes against West Coast docks and the Port of Chicago. The judges Wednesday night directed strikers to return to work for 10 days, pending hearings on whether the moratorium should be extended the full 80 days allowed by the Taft-Hartley Law. The West Coast walkout, at 99 days the longest longshoremen's strike experienced in the region, has idled 15,000 dockworkers and cost affected states more than $1.7 billion. The Chicago walkout of grain- elevator operators 35 days ago has kept 500 grainhandler members of the union off the job. The suits were initiated on orders of Prudent Nixon who cited the report of a special four-man council he had created under the Taft-Hartley Law to investigate the shipping situation.

East and Gulf Coast dockworkers, also striking, were reported trickling back to work at some ports, in expectation of Taft-Hartley action but Nixon did not use the law in their dispute. Instead, he sent a team of federal officials to New York where it was hoped the dispute could be mediated. The San Francisco court set Friday morning as the date for a hearing on the West Coast suit. In Chicago, Oct. 15 is the hearing date.

The government said continuation of the Chicago and West Coast tieups might "imperil the national health and safety." Agriculture Secretary Clifford M. Hardin said in an affidavit that Japan and other nations are concerned about the United States' ability to deliver agricultural commodities. Bay, 14, recovering from flight after gun ndshap Jailed his twin pucci's temperature findings, but says they are irrelevant. HE NOTES THAT in Lugo's 1966 death report no mention is made of the tags and they played no role in the identification. Dennis' tags might have been blown away from the burning area, particularly since the head was separated from the torso, and after the body was identified by other means the leftover tags were dropped into the coffin, officials explain.

If fingerprints and dog tags played no role in the body's identification in 1966, To explain that, the Navy refers back to the events of July 12, 1966, when Dennis was a Navy medic attached to a Marine company about to be helicoptered into combat in South Vietnam's Quang Tri Province. THE MEN OF COMPANY were mustered and each man accounted for. They were ordered into assembled helicopters. Sixteen men were put on the CH47 Chinook chopper piloted by Capt. Thomas McAllister.

About 15 minutes later the Chinook was 1500 feet high and preparing to land when it was hit by ground fire. In flames, it crashed into a Marine mortar emplacement area 75 yards from the landing zone. "Our troops were right there and pulled the survivors out of the crash," McAllister said. Butthechopper soon blew up. Of the 16 on board only McAllister and two others were pulled out alive.

Thirteen bodies were retrieved from the wreckage. Twelve were identified positively. One remained. WHEN THE ONE helicopter crashed, the other choppers flew back to base without landing in the fighting area and See A-3 Junkyard law may pose problem in spotting wealthy hillbillies COLUMBUS (UPI) The joke says you can tell the wealthy hillbillies because they're the ones with two cars up on blocks in their front yards. But you won't be able to tell them anymore if the Senate acts favorably on legislation passed Wednesday by the House extending Ohio's junkyard law to private lots with two or more inoperable automobiles on them.

The measure, authored by Sen. Harry L. Armstrong, (R-Logan), already has cleared the Senate once but has to go back for concurrence in amendments inserted by the House before adopting the proposal, 67-26. Armstrong said the bill would give property owners, including service stations or auto repair establishments, 60 days to either erect a screen or "put the cars behind the barn." After that, they would be "taxed" $20 a day and also be subject to a $25 to $1000 fine for violating the unkyard act. ation, was principal speaker and discussed several subjects, including the farmers' role in preserving the environment and taxes.

He said that the House version of taxing methods is acceptable to the Farm Bureau but the Senate sales tax bill is not. Simeral also commended Jim Durbin and Cloyd Sherer, both of RD 4, New Philadelphia, for their work on gas and oil bills and stated that when they are written into law, it will be the sole result of work by Tuscarawas County residents. During a business session following dinner, resolutions were adopted and among them was one favoring continued support of the county's piggyback sales tax. Carl Finton of RD 2, New Philadelphia, policy development chairman, said, "Realizing that local government must get its operating funds somewhere and also aware that property has been taxed to the limit, we feel this is the most equitable Durbin and Sherer were named delegates to the 1972 Farm Bureau meeting in Columbus. The Farm Bureau board of trustees comprises Jay Veley of Rush Township, Willard Himes of Sandy Township, Harry Reed of Union Township, Durbin of Warwick Township and David Frank Miller of Washington Township.

Crowd pleaser JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) A 14-year-old boy who lived in a wilderness 37 days after he fled from his home when he accidentally wounded his twin sister with a shotgun blast ha.s a temporary new home in a juvenile shelter. William Floyd Merrick left his home in fright Aug. 24 and lost 20 pounds living off the land. Authorities say he spent part of the time with a band of hippies in a wild area near his Atlantic Beach home.

His sister Bonnie died three days after she was shot, but Merrick didn't know about it. "He was greatly disturbed when he learned of his sister's death," said Lucy Farley, a juvenile court counselor. "He said he had not known what had happened." Patrolman D. P. Green found Merrick last Friday walking through sand dunes along the ocean.

"He was kind of puny." Green said of Merrick, "He weighted about 80 pounds and his pants were too big for him I bought him a hamburger and Coke before we went to the station, and he inhailed it." Green said he didn't realize Merrick was the boy who had shot his sis- ter until they reached the police station and asked if there had been any trouble at his house. "He started crying," Green said. "All of a sudden I knew this was the boy who shot his sister. We got to talking and he admitted it." Merrick said he and his sister were going through the door to go shoot the gun when he tripped and the gun fired. Authorities said the teenager told them he then helped his sister onto a couch, called an ambulance and ran.

Authorities said the sister told the same story before she died. vh Susmtii Kimstter-Uben Walzer Aus Dent Weiner Wald LECTIONS Coshocton County fairgoers can rest their "tootsies" and enjoy the antics of Bobo the clown and his calliope music there this week. He is one of the attractions at that fair which opened Tuesday and will continue through Saturday. The Rotroff all-girl auto thrill show will top tonight's schedule of attractions at the fair. On Friday, the fair card will feature harness racing with pari-mutuel betting and little theatre contests at 1:30 and a junior livestock sale and horse show at 7.

More harness racing and little theatre contests are scheduled Saturday at 1:30 and a 7:30 demolition derby will round out the day's events..