The Courier-News from Bridgewater, New Jersey • Page 1

THE MEW FINAL EDITION 10c Plainfield, New Jersey, Tuesday, June 24, 1969 Phone 757-4000 Fire s'sile Output Tonight: Partly Cloudy Tomorrow: Fair Details on Page 25 34 Pages COlffiEE Nuclear Mi TToDjp Mews Far Hills Man In Line for Production Unsure for Rest of Year Him HBrfeff Top U.S. Post By BOB HORTON WASHINGTON (AP) U.S. nuclear missile production has been halted for perhaps the rest of this year because of a crippling fire at an Atomic Energy Commission plant. This rather stunning situation still unmentioned publicly by the government is disclosed in the back section of a page volume of official testimony recently released by a Senate appropriations subcommittee. Government sources also give strong indications that testing of antimissile warheads may be delayed by the blaze that hit a plutoniunvhandflng facility at Rocky Flats, May 11.

The nffifial AV.C. nnsitinn is that. FAR HILLS Pharmaceutical company executive Roderic O'Connor of Route 206 confirmed today that he was being considered for presidential appointment to a State Department post. "I cannot go beyond that at the present time," he said. "I can't scoop the White House!" O'Connor said he was ready to accept the post "even though it will mean a substantial cut in salary." He rated his potential new position as "challenging." Aged 48, O'Connor is vice president, secretary and a board member of Ciba Pharmaceutical Company in Summit.

He was in government service during the Eisenhower Administration when he was administrator of the Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs with the rank of assistant secretary of state. A graduate of Yale University and its law School, O'Connor served as a navigator with the 15th Air Force Wing in Europe during World War II, flying in 50 combat missions. He was appointed by President Eisenhower to head the U.S. section of the Caribbean AP wirepnoio CRUSHED This car was crushed and burned yesterday persons on the ground. The wreckage was scattered for more wnen one oi tne tour engines of a DIM cargo plane fell on it than a block.

in Miami. Killed were the plane's four occupants and six Safeguard deployment schedules will not be setback. $45 Million Asked The impact of the fire, first jserious blaze at an AEC plant, was laid before Congress behind closed doors nine days later when AEC leaders urgently appealed for $45 million to make repairs. Most nuclear weapons require plutonium to trigger their atomic warheads. Air Force Maj.

Gen. E. B. Giller, assigned to the AEC, told subcommittee members the impact on the weapons production schedule would last "a few months to perhaps a year," according, to preliminary estimates. Sen.

Allen Ellender, asked Giller: "Will this Fire retard you in the production of Cargo Plane Crash in Miami Kills 10 Leaves Area Ablaze MIAMI (AP) A DC4 cargo plane with an engine ablaze roared into a busy street yesterday, cutting a four-block swath of flaming destruction. examining the wreckage today in an attempt to learn the cause of the accident. The Dominicana Air Lines craft was attempting to circle back to the airport from which CU1 lllUOUCS Reply Deleted nilWe immpriifltp words in Ten persons were killed. One ment building where she lives and bounced off a roof top. "It was coming at terrific speed," she said.

"I couldn't move before it hit." A wing struck the corner of the Burmesters apartment building about a dozen feet from where she sat. The plane rumpled the second story of a medical center, skipped over a bakery, plowed a furrow in the roof of the next, building, took the corner off an auto transmission ship, knocked over the pumps of a gasoline station and slammed burning into Charles Knapp's auto body shop, killing four persons in the shop7r Pieces of the plane and debris from the buildings flew forward. One engine demolished a car 20 yards down busy 36th Street. Other pieces sailed 50 to 100 yards farther. building was destroyed, eight it" had 'just departed, one of its I it I iniminiini 'TirTTiniiMiiiiiini mi JtmI xbmhmm damaged.

Flames and flying de- tour engines was out ana a sec- ond was smoking. bris destroyed or damaged 42 Suez Fighting Intensifies By The Associated Press Israeli warplanes shot down an Egyptian MIG today over the 'Gulf of Suez, an Israeli army spokesman said. He said the plane was hit by cannon fire from an Israeli fighter, exploded in the air and crashed in Egyptian territory. No parachute was seen. Earlier, Israeli spokesmen reported Egyptian commandos slipped across the Suez Canal for the third time in three days to raid an Israeli army position.

They battled the Israelis with light arms and grenades. 6 Flee Burlington Jail MOUNT HOLLY (AP) Six prisoners overpowered a guard and broke out of Burlington County Jail this morning. Police said all six are dangerous. The fugitives were believed to be riding in a stolen, late model black sedan. They were not reported armed.

Authorities said the six, who were all in jail in connection with bank robbery or murder charges, made their escape after locking up a guard to get his keys. All six men are from Philadelphia. Ben Het Gets Supplies SAIGON (AP) Bloody fighting raged around the besieged Ben Het Special Forces camp Monday and it sustained its heaviest artillery bombardment since May 1. But S. spokesmen said today a convoy broke through the encircling enemy troops with badly needed ammunition and supplies.

The U. S. Command said the convoy, the first to reach Ben Het in a week, pushed through by road from Dak To. Previously supplies had to be dropped by cargo planes and only medical evacuation helicopters risked landing because of the daily artillery barrages. South Vietnamese infantrymen backed by U.

S. artillery and planes killed 105 North Vietnamese troops around the camp yesterday in some of the heaviest fighting there since May 1. South Vietnamese casualties were five killed and 15 wounded. North Vietnamese gunners poured in 195 artillery, mortar and recoilless rifle shells into the camp 280 miles northeast of Saigon. Defy Threat of Suit WASHINGTON (AP) The Justice Department threatens an antitrust suit if International Telephone Telegraph Corp.

and Hartford Fire Insurance Co. go ahead with their planned $6 billion merger. But ITT said yesterday it "intends to move forward with the merger of the companies depending on the outcome of the vote of the stockholders" of the two firms. The companies have agreed to the merger the nation's largest in terms of assets. It would link the country's 11th biggest industrial corporation with the sixth largest property and liability insurance firm in the United States.

Laird Testimony Hit WASHINGTON (AP) Senate critics of President Nixon's Safeguard missile defense program claim Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird has redefined in mid-controversy the Soviets' first-strike nuclear capability in an attempt to support the administration position. Sens. J. W.

Fulbright and Albert Gore made the charges following Laird's joint appearance yesterday with CIA Director Richard Helms before a closed session of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Laird and Helms were called to testify in the wake of Safeguard critics' claims that the Pentagon and CIA had conflicting views on Soviet missile intentions. Fulbright, the Arkansas Democrat who heads the committee, and Gore, said they felt the meaning of "first strike capability" had been completely changed by Laird's testimony yesterday. Laird now applies the term to Soviet potential for knocking out American Minutemen sites with the new powerful SS9 rocket, the senators said, without considering United States Polaris submarines. Maxine Burmester's television winked out at 3:40 p.m.

as the plane sheared power lines a block and a half from the apart Judge Buns Photographers State Won't Withdraw Charge Of Contempt Against Wolf son reply were deleted from the published transcript but then he said: "We are estimating at this moment six months plus or minus three, meaning a maximum of maybe nine." Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, AEC chairman, termed the $45 million request to get the Rocky Flats plant back into operation "very urgent." "If we didn't receive the additional appropriation it would delay by an undetermined amount the production dates (deleted)," Seaborg said. Sen. Robert C.

Byrd, D-W. chairman of the appropriations subcommittee, told a reporter last night, "I regard this as a serious situation." He said the subcommittee has completed action on the $45 million request and the next step is a meeting with House appropriations committee leaders sometime this week. Safeguard Not Affected Giller said the disruption of Rocky Flats work would not affect the Nixon administration's 1974 deployment schedule for the proposed Safeguard missile Roderic O'Connor Commission and held this post from 1956 to 1960. He also served as head of a U.S. delegation to the International Government Commission on Migration in Geneva for a year.

In New Jersey he has long been active in civic and political affairs. He served as state chairman for the N.J. Association of Mental Health's fund campaign in 1963, was a member of the board of trustees for the N.J. Educational Television Corporation, and led the GOP Finance Committee's Key Men Club. cars and trucks.

A police spokesman estimated the over-all- property loss at about $1 million. The known dead included the plane's four crew members and six persons on the ground. Another dozen were injured. Hours after the crash, a half mile northeast of Miami International Airport, rescue workers probed the smoldering wreckage and rubble for more bodies. "We're sure there will be more," said Police Lt.

James Reese. A Red Cross worker said he believed there were at least two more bodies in the debris. A team of plane crash investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board began Hailstorm Batters Church and Store BERLIN (AP) Fierce battering by a thunderstorm with "hailstones as large as baseballs" caused a church steeple to topple and the roof of a store to cave in. Two persons were slightly injured when the roof of Coplan's Furniture Store collapsed at the height of last night's storm. State police said a 40-foot steeple on the Holy Communion Lutheran Church also toppled during the storm.

The Courier-lS 'eu Bureau TRENTON The State Investigation Commission refused in Superior Court today to withdraw its contempt charge against Laurence Wolf son of. Deal, a reputed Mafia big shot. Wolfson's counsel blamed another lawyer for Wolfson's fail-, ure to produce the records of four corporations with which he is affiliated by last Thursday. Most of the records were produced today. Judge Frank J.

Kingfield continued the hearing for Wolfson, a roly-poly, pudgy-faced man, to next Thursday. Kingfield also ordered the State House Annex in which state courts are located cleared of all photographers. Wolfson's lawyer, Michael Sa-landra of Newark, said his cli ent's original lawyer, Sidney M. (Chris) Flanzblau, misunderstood the return dates on the subpoenaes issued for Wolfson. Salandra said Franzblau thought a July 8 date for Wolfson's personal appearance before SIC also applied to the date for submission of his corporation records.

Franzblau, attorney for Sam "The Plumber" DeCavalcante, set off a furor earlier this month when his technical request for federal wiretap evidence resulted in the government making public more than 2,000 pages of wiretapped conversations by DeCavalcante, mostly with other reputed Mafia leaders. Wolfson is described by the SIC as DeCavalcante's top lieutenant. The corporation's whose records SIC subpoenaed are all Penn Station Crash Injures Passengers NEW YORK (AP) Five passengers were hospitalized and 70 more were injured yesterday when a Long Island Rail Road train entered Pennsylvania Station on a wrong track, then backed into another train, a railroad spokesman said. Service into and out of the busy Manhattan terminal was paralyzed for hours, stranding thousands of homeward-bound commuters. located ae 21 N.

Michigan Kenilworth, the same business address DeCavalcante uses. Kenneth Zauber, counsel to SIC, protested Salandra's contention Wolfson had "no willful desire" to avoid submitting his records, declaring the commission would insist on pressing the contempt charge. Zauber said the SIC refused to accept the records of the corporations when they were brought to the commission's office this morning. Later, after 1 the hearing ended, Andrew Phe-lan, executive director of SIC, agreed to accept the records. Kingfield ordered the news photographers out of the building in an impatient tone: "Tell those photographers to get out of the building.

If they don't get out I'll hold them in contempt." Then he added: "Make sure they're gone. If they are not gone, get a state trooper." The Wolfson hearing followed the service of subpoenaes on three more reputed Mafia leaders Thomas (Tommy Ryan) Eboli of Fort Lee, Joseph (Bay-onne Joe) Zicarelli of Bayonne and Angelo (Gyp) DeCarlo of Mountainside. The Wolfson corporationss under scrutiny are the Controlled Hearing Leslie Holding Kenworth Corp. and De Wolf all of the DeCavalcante's Kenilworth address. defense system.

But Giller said Rocky Flats was preparing to produce test models of Safeguard nuclear warheads to be test fired in Nevada and indicated this schedule was thrown off. While Rocky Flats is being repaired, he said, the AEC hopes to produce test ABM devices at its limited facility in Hanford, or at the Los Alamos research center in New Mexico. The AEC, Giller said, has no indication sabotage was involved in the fire, but an independent fire investigation company has been assigned to check such a possibility as it seeks the cause of the blaze. The AEC has eight nuclear plants, all operated under contract by private firms and all heavily dependent on each other in the production process. As Sen.

Byrd, observed, the work of all eight "is interdependent, interrelated and Inside 1HE COURIER-NEWS A Grisly Find WATCHUNG Three boys from Springfield came across a grisly find while on a fishing trip near Seeley's Pond off New Providence Road during the weekend. The boys found a skull and four bones protruding from the ground in a area which Detective Lt. George King said had been a dumping area about 30 years ago. King said the skull was a human one and will be shipped to the Martland Medical Center, Newark, along with the bones which the detective said appeared to have been sawed. The official added a search of the area will be continued tomorrow by his department and the Somerset County prosecutor's office.

President Host On River Cruise WASHINGTON (AP) President Nixon took 17 senators and some of his Cabinet members on a Potomac River cruise last evening aboard the Pentagon yacht, Sequoia. Guests included Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, Transportation Secretary John A. Volpe, Interior Secretary Walter J. Hickel, Senate Republican Leader Everett M.

Dirksen of Illinois and Sen. John L. McClellan, D-Ark. Classified Comics Editorials Entertainment Family Obituaries Sports Stocks 25-33 33 22 15 9-12 25 16-18 24 14 AP Wirephoto WIPED OUT Mrs. Ester Thome weeps in front of ruins of her farm that was demolished yesterday by a near Wichita, Kans.

Television.