Stevens Point Journal from Stevens Point, Wisconsin • Page 11

Community Accent. Stevens Point Journal 11 Tuesday, April 7, 1981 Author probes mysterious death of Karen Silkwood By DEBBIE BRADLEY Staff reporter Karen Silkwood was a 28-year-old lab technician working at a Kerr-McGee plutonium processing plant in Crescent, Okla. She was worried about plant safety and began collecting information to give to her union. After a series of minor exposures to plutonium at her job, Karen Silkwood was contaminated at home, possibly from bologna in her refrigerator. A union official arranged for her to meet with a reporter from the New York Times to whom she would give evidence of Kerr-McGee's safety and security violations.

But on the way to that meeting Karen Silkwood's car went off the road and slammed into a concrete wingwall. She was dead. No documents were found in the car. Karen Silkwood's death has been investigated by the FBI and other federal agencies, was the subject of a congressional probe and has resulted in a $10.5 million civil suit negligence finding against Kerr-McGee. But questions have continued to surround Karen Silkwood's death.

Did she fall asleep at the wheel or was she forced off the road? A new book, "The Killing of Karen Silkwood" by Richard Rashke, attempts to gather all available information about the woman, the company she worked for, the events surrounding her death and attempts to probe deeper into the circumstances of her death. Rashke, the brother of Don Rashke of The Insurance Center, was in Stevens Point this week to talk about his book. Karen Silkwood died Nov. 13, 1974. Why write a book on her death in 1981? "Some books you can't write when the thing happens," Rashke said.

"You need a little distance." Rashke followed the Silkwood story in 1976 as a reporter for the National Catholic Reporter. But the whole Silkwood story didn't get out, he said. The media tends to "cream the surface" and leave the whole story sitting there, he said. Rashke wanted to tell that story, but said he wanted to stay objective and factual. There are followers of the Silkwood case who will say that she was murdered, Rashke said, and there are KerrMcGee proponents who will say she was a "flake" who contaminated herself with plutonium to make the company look bad.

But there was no shred of evidence for either side, Rashke said. "I wanted to calmly look at the whole Silkwood case and let as much reporter's credibility to do a service to both sides," Rashke said. He admits "my heart was with Silkwood," but he didn't try to hold back facts, like her use of marijuana and tranquilizers. Rashke doesn't name who killed Karen Silkwood, but he does provide the reader with enough factual information to allow him to draw his own conclusions. "I have been criticized for not drawing conclusions," Rashke said.

"I've been praised for being objective but criticized for not being interpretive." Rashke said he didn't draw conclusions because he didn't want to discredit himself with the skeptical reader who would then disregard all of the facts he presented because he doesn't agree with Rashke's conclusion. He wants to "force people to come to grips with the facts." Then they can believe what they want, he said. "I don't feel that (drawing conclusions) was my job," he said. "Someone else can do the interpretation." But the book aside, Rashke is willing to spin out some Community Events THE MIN -courses "Car Buying" and "Bike Tune-Up Clinic" will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

The courses are free and open to the public. Reservations are to be made with the University Activities Board. A STUDENT recital will be held at 4 p.m. Wednesday in Michelsen Concert Hall. Public welcome without charge.

THE ALDO Leopold Audubon Society will elect officers at a meeting Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the Sentry Insurance Strongs Avenue building. Also scheduled is a program, "Tips for Beginning by Vincent Heig. A SIX-WEEK series of Lamaze childbirth classes will be held Tuesdays at the Rice Clinic. Contact Kathy McNaught, 1106 Plover Springs Drive, to register.

possible scenarios. Prior to her death, Karen Silkwood casually mentions that she has discovered 42.5 pounds of plutonium missing from the plant. During the civil suit trial, Kerr-McGee denied that any plutonium was missing, but following the closing of the Cimarron plant in 1976, it admitted that at least 10 pounds were missing. Forty pounds of plutonium is enough to make at least two atomic bombs. That could mean one of three things, Rashke speculates.

Either the plutonium was thrown out with the trash means it is sitting under somebody's terrorists obtained it through the black market or the government deliberately diverted the plutonium to a "friendly" country such as Israel or South Africa or is secretly stockpiling it. The diversion of plutonium seems more reasonable, Rashke said, and government involvement is to him "the only possible scenario." But since he has no proof of government involvement, he wouldn't offer the conclusion in the book. "The reader just has to line up the possibilities," Rashke said, and make his own conclusion. AUTHOR Author Richard Rashke makes a point of Karen Silkwood -The Story Behind the ART LEAGUE of Stevens Point will change the display at McCain's Department Store Wednesday. Members who want to hang work should bring it to the store by 1 p.m.

Wednesday. CHAPTER CB, PEO Sisterhood meets Thursday at 1 p.m. at the home of Virginia. Colby. Members unable to attend are to call her.

A FUN fair will be held Thursday from p.m. at the Rosholt Elementary School. Food will be served and there will be a craft and bake sale, games and prizes. Proceeds will be used for the Reading Is Fundamental program. GALILLEE SHRINE 22 will have officers practice Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

for the installation Saturday at 7:45 p.m. A business meeting will be held at Accent on the Area Career, life planning workshop set A workshop on career and life Mary Wagener, educational and planning will be offered Friday and career counselor for the University of Saturday at Peace Campus Center. Wisconsin-Madison and UW-Extension "Is There Life After College? or Now will lead the workshop. That I'm Grown Up, What Will I Do?" is The sessions will be held Friday from sponsored by United Ministries. in p.m.

and Saturday from 9 a.m. to Higher Education, an ecumenical 5 p.m. campus ministry. The registration fee of $5, which The program will focus on identifying includes meals, may be sent to Judy skills, exploring the work environment, Bablitch, coordinator for United exploring values which affect career Ministries, 600 Wilshire Blvd. decisions and planning.

Talk set on wild turkeys The Wildlife Society at the University Natural Resources Building. of Wisconsin-Stevens Point will present At 7:30, a presentation will be given a program on the introduction of the by Dan Olsen, Department of Natural wild turkey north of its original range in Resources wildlife manager at Green Northeast Wisconsin tonight at 6:30. Bay, who will speak on artificial platforms to improve cormorant nesting J.R. Acker, a former graduate success on the lower Green Bay. student at UW-SP, will give the Both presentations are open to the program in Room 112 of the College of public without charge.

Schlice retires from Means Co. Don Schlice, 2840 Algoma has He started with the company in retired from the F.W. Means Co. after Stevens Point as a route salesman on 43 years. Jan.

17, 1938. 1 He held branch manager He was honored recently at a and supervisory positions and was reception and dinner at the Columbus manager for data processing in Club in Appleton, and received a gold Appleton and Upper Michigan before watch and a gift of money. becoming merchandise manager. For the last six years, Schlice was merchandise manager for the Means Schlice plans to pursue his hunting Plants in Appleton and Caspian, Mich. and fishing hobbies in retirement.

There has been speculation that the CIA is stockpiling plutonium and working on its own atomic weapons, he said. The CIA's own agents have said the agency is "out of control," he said. "If she had MUF (materials unaccounted for) figures, then I believe Karen Silkwood had hot information and she didn't even know it," Rashke said. That leads to more speculation about her death. Rashke rejects the assumption she fell asleep at the wheel because her car followed a straight path for 240 feet on the grass shoulder before hitting a concrete wingwall which couldn't be seen from the road.

He speculates that someone from a federal agency was chasing her, then driving alongside her on the grassy shoulder trying to flag her down to get the documents she was bringing the New York Times reporter. The intention wasn't to kill Silkwood, he theorizes, but to obtain the documents. She was killed because neither Silkwood nor the chase car saw the approaching cement wingwall. "It's irrelevant what she had in the documents, but that she had them," Rashke said. Documents meant to embarrass Kerr-McGee for insufficient safety and security during an interview about his book, "The Killing Kerr-McGee Plutonium Case." (Staff photo) measures would be minor to the embarrassment to the federal government should it contain information on the diversion of plutonium.

If the reader accepts the premise that her phone was tapped (Rashke presents evidence along that line) then federal agents, who were known to be in the area, would know where she was going and why on the night of her death, Rashke said. "I never really tried to find out who killed Karen Silkwood," Rashke admits. "If I found out and didn't have absolute, total and complete evidence to back it up without a trial and put it in the book, I could be sued for libel." And if he didn't publish it, he would know who killed her but couldn't say. "I'd be a walking target," Rashke said. He had decided that if he did discover who killed her, he would have gone to a U.S.

attorney to put his story on tape, but a tape won't stand up in court so he'd need 'round the clock protection until the trial. "I'm not out of the woods yet," Rashke said. If there's "someone out there" who thinks he knows who killed Karen Silkwood, he could be a marked man. Rashke does use three unnamed sources for material in the book, referring to them by code names. But he checked the sources carefully, Rashke said, and is convinced of their credibility.

"I wouldn't risk my reputation if I didn't believe," he said. Rashke said he hates to use the word conspiracy in connection with Karen Silkwood's death because it connotes "kooks," but believes there was a plot because "the things done to Karen Silkwood had to be done by more than one person." Rashke thinks his book will have some impact on the public. Anyone who reads it and has hopes of being a corporate "whistle blower" is bound to have second thoughts, he said. He said he knows of 12 corporate "whistle blowers" who have been harassed, fired or had their life threatened. But he hopes anyone who has information about unlawful corporate activity would at least agree to share the information anonymously.

He expects the book will "add to the skepticism people have about the honesty of government and the power of government." Rashke said he knows that FBI documents exist concerning Karen Silkwood's death and he couldn't get Neither could a congressional committee investigating her death. He said he felt helpless because there was "no way to get to the bottom" of the case without the documents. And it made him angry. Rashke isn't hoping for another congressional investigation into the death. A member of the president's cabinet would be the only one who could pry open the case, Rashke said, because he would possess the national security clearance to sift through the FBI documents and reject those which do not deal with the pertinent questions surrounding her death.

"We just want to know who did it, why and what did she have in her documents," Rashke said. But he doesn't think there's a "ghost of: a chance" of reopening the investigation unless there's a groundswell of public pressure. In the meantime, Rashke is working on his second nonfiction book, the true story of an escape from a Nazi extermination camp during World War II. That takes him far enough back to 1942 that he feels he's safe. Benefit ball scheduled for May 2 5:15 p.m.

Saturday. Meetings are at the Masonic Temple. GAMES WILL be played Friday at 7:30 p.m. at St. Phillip's Church, Rudolph.

SONS OF Norway Lodge No. 580 will meet Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Iola Country Club. BUSINESS AND Professional Women's Club meets Thursday at the Hot Fish Shop at 6 p.m. Dr.

Egbert Kamstra will speak on hypnosis and weight loss. Make reservations with Dorothy Bourn. RICHARD SCHNEIDER of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point art department will present the program "'The Craftsman in All of Us" Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Charles M. White Memorial Public Library Ellis Room as part of the Portage County in the Wider World series.

EMERSON SCHOOL class of 1931 reunion committee meets Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn. All classmates are welcome. A SEMINAR on domestic violence will be held 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Thursday at United Church Christ First Congregational Church, sponsored by Mid-State Technical Institute. SARAH CIRCLE of St. Paul's United Methodist Women meets at 7:30 p.m. Thursday with Carol Viertel, 5343 Golla Road. Marriage Licenses Couples have applied at the CountyCity Building for licenses to wed.

Planning to wed Saturday are Timothy Brady, Mosinee, and Cheryl Smith, 2282 N. County Trunk John Johnson, Route 2, Almond, and Roxanne Takacs, Route Almond; Dennis Kosmalski, Rosholt, and Laurie Zimbauer, 1279 County Trunk and Neil Dreifuerst, Route 1, Amherst, and Denise Enders, Amherst. Michael Molinaro, Onalaska, and Linda Stanislawski, 4016 Simonis have applied for a license to wed April 25. Armed Forces Army Pvt. Diane J.

Hardin, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel E. Hardin, 3263 Welsby completed basic training at Fort McClellan, Ala. The 13th annual benefit ball at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is scheduled for Saturday, May 2, in the Program Banquet Room of the University Center.

Sponsors are hoping to raise more than $4,000, the amount earned during the past few years, to fund student scholarships. Tickets have been mailed to area residents who have attended past dances, and people who would like to be added to the mailing list may contact the UW-SP Alumni Office, 201 Old Main. Chairpersons Joe and Pat Okray, 2301 Rainbow John and Mari Buzza, 4925 Barbara's Lane, and Vern and Ruth Holmes, 430 Maple Bluff Road, will host a pre-ball reception from 8 to 9 p.m. in the lounge of the University Center, followed by dancing to the music of Chuck Howard and his orchestra. Other benefit ball sponsors include: Paul and Patti Adamski, 206 McDill Alice L.

Clawson, 3147 Dan's Drive; David and Marg Coker, 487 W. Maple Ridge Drive; Thomas and Marie Copps, 703 River Bend Road, Plover; Jay Dee and Marcy Cutting, 410 Maple Bluff Road; Paul and Carolyn Durant, 155 N. Maple Bluff Road; Burdette and Sarah Eagon, 1741 Main David and Pamela Enerson, 1201 Soo Marie Nyles and Genny Eskritt, 111 N. Maple Bluff Road; Marion B. Fey, Wisconsin Rapids; David and Jeanne Galecke, 430 West Maple Ridge Road; James and Ann Garvey, 1802 Chippewa Drive; John and Joyce Kirsch, 1720 N.

Casimir; Michael and Margaret Kocurek, 3915 Green Court; Keith and Eve Lea, 3004 Post Road; Thomas and Shirl Leech, 807 Tommy's Turnpike; David and Mary Miller, 5980 Westminister Court; James and Lorraine Neale, 217 Greenbriar James and Mary Ann Nigbor, 1601 Airline Road; Rudolf and Barbara Ottersen, 336 Maple Bluff Road; Donald and Rebecca Pattow, 5564 Jefferson Richard and Barbara Pavelski, Amherst Junction; John and Carol Pearson, 408 W. Maple Ridge Drive; Charles and Rose Reichl, 606 Opportunity Lane, Plover; Edward and Marilyn Rinka, 3272 Clifford James and Elmarie Rowe, 2416 Simonis Mark and Jan Seiler, 306 Greenbriar George and Dathel Seyfarth, 924 Lindbergh Nick and Dianne Somers, N646 Co. Marjorie Spring, 3147 Dan's Drive; Virgil and Glorian Thiesfeld, 1003 5th Lawrence and Julia Weiser, 616 Sunset Louis and Avis Wysocki, Custer, and Maynard and Mary Jane Zdroik, Rosholt. Library sets poster contest "Any Time. Any Place.

Any Book." is library system will be sent on to state the subject of a poster contest for children from now until May 23 at the Charles M. White Memorial Public Library. Based on the theme of 1981 National Children's Book Week, it is open to all area youngsters, preschool through eighth grade. Sponsored by the Wisconsin Public Library Systems, the contest will provide the state's public libraries with posters for celebration of Children's Book Week in November. The top five posters in the valley competition.

A panel of judges from across the state will select the winning poster from the finalists. All finalists will receive certificates of appreciation. The winner's poster will be printed in full color for distribution throughout the state. Designs will be judged on their use of the theme, their originality, neatness and the suitability for reproduction as a printed poster. Contest rules are available at the Charles White Library and libraries in Rosholt, Almond, Amherst and Bancroft.

Deadline for entries is Saturday, May 23. CHAIRPERSONS Chairpersons for the annual benefit ball Saturday, May 2, at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point are (from left) Vern Holmes, John Buzza, Mari Buzza, Joe Okray, Ruth Holmes and Pat Okray. 00.