The Star Press from Muncie, Indiana • Page 1

HE MUNfJE THE WEATHER Clearing Other Details on Page 1 GRIN AND DEAR IT Comic Panel Appear Daily in The Star 'Where the Spirit of the Lord Is, There It Liberty." 1 Cor. 3:17 VOL 81 NO. 349 INDIANA. SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1958 AT 8-6631 SEVEN CENTS fo) Lfu Star o) 1 nnC I I Stompanato Lana Charges Threats Fired From Under Water Put in Fear of Death Reds Trying )w ft Downtrend of Business Tapers Off March Retail Sales Only 2 Per Cent Ielow Year Ago Said He 'Would Kill Me. Daughter.

Mother' Actress Testifies for Coroner; Juvenile Court to Hear Cheryl LOS ANGELES (AP) "He said he would kill me and my daughter and my mother," Lana Turner sobbed to a coroner's jury which later Friday decided her daughter's killing of Johnny Stompanato was justifiable. The actress declared her last words to Stompanato were: "Don't ever touch me again! I'm absolutely finished. This is the end and I want you to get out!" Then, the' blonde star said, her daughter Cheryl slipped a kitchen knife into Stompanato's stomach "and I swear it was so fast I truthfully thought she had 'lr'f If 1 most a half turn and then dropped on his back. I I A dummy missile rises from the ocean during tests of an underwater launcher for the Polaris ballistic missile being developed for firing from submarines. The Navy released this photograph in Washington, said it was made during the current tests in the San Clemente Island off southern California.

The dummy was launched from a tube housed in a stationary cylinder beneath the surface. (AP Wirephoto). 4 lj WASHINGTON wi The Navy said Friday it has test fired a dummy Polaris ballistic missile from underwater for the first time. The missile, the same size, shape and weight as the 1,500 -mile range Polaris, was fired March 23 from a new "pop-up" launcher off San Clemente Island, near Los Angeles. Rear Adm.

W.F. Raborn, head of the Navy's Polaris program, showed motion pictures of the event. They disclosed the dummy missile, apparently about 30 feet long, popping up through the smooth surface of the Pacific and rising several hundred feet in a geyser of spray. Then the orange colored missile angled over and plunged nose first back into the water. Raborn, director of the special projects office of the Navy Bureau of Ordnanace, told a Navy League symposium on seapower that the Polaris would be readv for use Truman Favors Altering Capitol WASHINGTON t.lv-Harry -S Truman took a swipe Friday at the "ignorant and uninformed people" opposed to extending the east front of the nation's Capitol.

"One of these days the old center sandstone building will (all, and we will find the dome and Lady Freedom out in the middle of the avenue on which the Capitol fronts," he said. "I hope that does not happen." Rchels Set Bis Blast 30 Tons of Dynamite Jolt Santiago Suburh HAVANA v-The Cuban re volt blazed again Friday in a hit-and-run guerilla raid and a 30-ton dynamite blast set off by Fidel Castro's saboteurs. Explosion of a huge dynamite dump in eastern Oriente Prov ince damaged buildings and shattered windows in Santiago, nearly 12 miles away. The dump in foothills below the town of El Cobre contained 60,000 pounds of dynamite. The force of the jolting explosion ap parently was funneled eastward down the hills toward Santiago Cuba's second largest city.

Castro's men moved into El Cobre before dawn and occupied the town briefly. Reports reaching Havana said they first burned the city hall and threatened to set fire to the electoral board offices. They held off further destruction when residents pleaded that flames would sweep the town of 2,000 Army reinforcements rushed to the town and the rebels scattered to the hills of the Sierra Maestra CATHOLIC YOUTHS TORTURED, SLAIN HAVANA (UP) Cuban police dragged three prominent Catholic Action youth leaders from boarding house, tortured them and then shot them to death in their purge of rebel sympathiz ers this week, Roman Catholic sources reported Friday. Neiv Taxes Proposed on Insurers WASHINGTON M-The Treasury Friday proposed a new method for taxing insurance compan ies which would increase the industry's tax bill. It would establish a permanent tax system replacing the present temporary legislation.

Secretary Anderson proposed the plan, to be adopted gradually over a period of three to five years, in letters to Sen. Byrd (D-Va). a chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Mills (D-Ark). head of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Anderson suggested that the tax be based on the income of individual companies, as is done with other corporations, instead of permitting deductions according to a standard industrywide formula. The Treasury chief said deductions would be allowed for all dividends paid to policy holders and amounts added to policy reserves. The companies should be entitled to longer "loss carryback" provisions than other cor porations, ranging up to 10 or 20 years, Anderson said. 83 Per Cent Have TV WASHING ION upv-lhere is a TV set now in 83 per cent of American households. And one in 14 families have two or more sets, the Census Bureau reported Friday.

Inside Today's Star Churches 5-fi Classified Ads 10-11-12 Comics 13 Editorials 4 Junior Editors 14 Obituaries 2 Puzzle Radio-TV Sports 9 Steincrohn 13 Trade Winds 2 Weather 2 Winchell 7 Women 7-8 to Sew Up Meeting America Unwilling to Let Agenda Be Dictated by Kremlin WASHINGTON (-The United States swiftly rejected Friday the price Russia demanded to open lower level diplomatic talks In advance of an East-West summit meeting. The White House, with unusual speed, turned a cold shoulder to a new Russian note renewing the Kremlin's bid for top level talks. Press officer James C. Hagerty as "not an acceptance" of Western conditions for a summit meeting. The Soviets proposed that Western Big Three ambassadors meet next Thursday in Moscow with Russian representatives, followed by a foreign ministers conference between May 1 and May 15.

Top officials in studying the Soviet note quickly found three objections: 1. Russia is seeking to force the West to agree to a summit meeting even before the results of lower level diplomatic talks are known. The West has insisted that a top level meeting be convened only if prior diplomatic talks demonstrate prospect of agreement. Soviet Insists on Veto 2. The talks by ambassadors which Moscow has suggested would be limited to discussing organizational arrangements for the later foreign ministers meeting.

The West lias suggested the ambassadors be the main avenue for solid negotiations aimed at narrowing East-West differences. 3. Russia is insisting on the right to veto any discussion of problems to which it objects at the later foreign ministers conference. This would guarantee that only topics agreeable to the Kremlin would be discussed at the summit. The speedy American reaction came while President Eisenhower and Secretary of State Dulles discussed the newest Soviet diplomatic move at the White House.

It reflected the administration's reported determination to reply swiftly to Soviet notes which are viewed as mainly designed for international propaganda. Will Consult NATO Allies The State Department said it would consult promptly with America's 14 Atlantic Pact allies to draft a reply. Diplomatic authorities forecast that the Western answer would be a counterproposal, reasserting a desire to meet at the summit but only with satisfactory diplomatic preparation showing that the meeting would not be a spectacle. Authorities who have carefully followed Russia's diplomatic maneuvering for a summit meeting noted a shift in the Soviet position toward a foreign ministers meeting. The new note said Russia "considers it essential." This attitude contrasts with previous objections, registered February 1, on the grounds that "the biased position of certain pos sible participants" made failure likely.

This was viewed as a crack at Dulles and brought a reply by Eisenhower pointedly noting that Dulles would represent the United States regardless of Soviet views. SKETCHES By BEN BURROUGHS "1 ill Mankind" I will mankind my past miv takes so they can detour wrong I leave to them a wealth of love to help make life a song the faith God was so good to give 1 will to those in need with faith in God, even a loser will someday succeed to friend and foe I leave behind deepest sincerity because without this I have learned life is a stormy sea tenderness is another thing that makes it all worthwhile this treasure I bequeath to those who mipht forget to smik some may believe ray will unjust yet, life has taucht me this the ones who lack these precious things will never know sweet bliss. WASHINGTON UPi A slowdown in the downward movement of retail sales and personal income oc curred in March, the government reported Friday. The figures are expected to strengthen President Eisenhower's conviction that the time has not arrived for a tax cut to stimulate the economy. A prominent Democrat, Sen.

seled a go-slow attitude, saying: "I think we had better see a little farther before we start cutting taxes." The Commerce Department reported sales in all types of retail rstores last month were 000,000, or 1 per cent below the February total and 2 per cent below March 1957. The department said the annual rate of personal income last month was $341,400,000,000 compared with $341,700,000 000 a month earlier. Farm Income Up In both cases, the rate of de cline was less steep than in Feb ruary. I he income figures showed a big drop of $1,100,000,000 in the annual rate of wage and salary payments, reflecting further lay offs and slowdowns in industry, but this was partly offset by in creases in farm income and other categories. Farm income rose 300 million dollars from February to an annual rate of $16,800,000,000 in March.

The income of landlords and proprietors was up a similar amount for an annual rate total of $51,300,000,000, and there was $600 million increase in the annual rate of such government payments as Unemployment Compensation, Social Security and veterans benefits. In retail sales, the Commerce Department's preliminary report for March showed a drop in automobile sales of almost $600 million from a year ago. The March 1958 figure was Alexandria Man Burns to Death ALEXANDRIA, Ind. (Special) An Alexandria man was burned to death and his wife burned severely as flames swept their home here Friday. Homer Halterman, 56, a retired painter, was killed and his wife, Lola, also 56, suffered bad burns in the blaze.

Mrs. Halterman was taken to St. John's Hospital at Anderson. The fire was believed to have started in the living room, pos sibly by a cigaret, according to Deputy Coroner Karl M. Kyle.

It was first believed that a gas leak was responsible for the mis hap. There was no evidence of an explosion in the home. Funeral services are pending the Sunday arrival of a son, U.S. Navy Petty Officer Richard Halterman, who is stationed at Patux-ent River, Md. The body is at the Davis and Stricler Funeral Home, Alexandria.

Other survivors are the moth er, Mrs. naiterman, ana a brother, Melvin Halterman, both of Anderson. The Country Parson "One thins I ve never heard of a fellow being un able to find if he hunted for it good in people." hit him in the stomach." She added that in the argument preceding the stabbing Stompanato, while Cheryl was standing at the door, "came to me like he was going to strangle me." After hearing mor hour of her tremulous testimony, the jury of 10 men and two women decided 14-year-old Cheryl's slaying of her mother's lover was justfiable homicide. Verdict Not Binding The verdict is not binding on the courts, however. Cheryl, who has been at Juvenile Hall since the slaying last Friday night, will learn 'her future at a Juvenile Court hearing April 24.

She could go free, be made a ward of the court, sent to a foster home, or placed in the custody of her mother or father. The letter is Stephen Crane, second of Miss Turner's four husbands. Lana, in the first public account of the nightmarish scene in the pink-carpeted bedroom of her Beverly Hills home, took the stand at a jammed courtroom on the eighth floor of the Hall of Records. Often choking with emotion, she told of her struggle to break off her romance' with the handsome former underworld figure who had been her companion for months. 'Not In Front of Baby Once in London, she said, he threatened to slash her face with a razor.

And just before he was killed, she said, Stompanato threatened to "kill me and my daughter and my mother." Miss Turner gave this account of the violent quarrel that preceded the killing "I walked into my daughter's room and she was watching TV. .1 walked over to her and Mr, Stompanato was behind me all the time and saying some very bad things. "The language was bad, swear ing, and I turned to Mr. Stompanato I said, 'I've told you I do not want to argue in front of the I've always called her that went downstairs with Mr. Stompanato following me, and the quarrel was now becoming more violent, and I answered back that I was just finding out too many lies.

The actress said she told him "I can't go on like this. You know that I have begged, Ive pleaded for you to leave me alone even with all your threats. Told Daughter to Go She added that he followed her to the bedroom and: "Mr. Stonv panato grabbed me by the arms and began shaking me, cursing me very badly and saying that, as he had told me before, no matter what I did, how I tried to get away, he would never let me that if he said jump, I would jump; if he said hop, I would hop, and I would have to do any and everything he told me, or he would cut my face or cripple me. and if it went beyond that he would kill me and my daughter and my mother.

Miss Turner said she broke away and saw her daughter standing at the bedroom door, She pleaded with the girl not to listen, but to go to her room. "She looked at me I think as if to sav. 'Are vou sure, moth Lana said. "Because I know that I repeated it and I begged her I turned to Mr, Stompanato after I had closed the door and I said. 'That just great that my child had to hear all of that You are horrible, and I can go through any more.

Says He Took His Jacket She said that he went to a closet and took out a jacket and shirt of his, threatening her "in a way that he was going to strangle me with it." Then she spoke her last words to Stompanato, and Cheryl entered with a knife. "As best I can remember, they came together and parted. I. still never saw the blade. Mr.

Stompanato grabbed himself here in the abdomen. He started to move forward and he made al 'His arms went out so that I still did not see that there was blood or a wound until I ran over to him and I saw that his sweater was cut, and I lifted the sweater up and I saw this wound. I remember only barely hearing my daughter sobbing, and I ran into my bathroom, which is very close, and I grabbed a towel. "I didn't know what to do, and then I put the towel there and Mr. Stompanato was making very dreadful sounds in his throat of gasping, terrible Tried to Take Blame The actress confirmed what Beverly Hills Police Chief Clinton Anderson had already testified: that she tried to take the blame for the killing.

Anderson told her that was im possible. Stephen Crane, father of Cheryl, testified that he received a hysterical phone call from his daughter on the night of the slaying while he dined at the cafe he owns. When he rushed to the Turner house and learned of the tragedy, he said Cheryl told him: "I did it, daddy, but I didn't mean to. He was going to hurt mommy." Crane said that both the girl and her mother were hysterical. Cheryl kept asking, "He's Stompanato going to be all right, isn't he?" Crane said he reassured his daughter, "But both Miss Turner and I knew he wasn't going to be all right." Mrs.

Turner Is Excused Lana's mother, Mrs. Mildred Turner, whose own husband was murdered in 1930, proved even more emotional than the actress, Visibly shaking, she told of rush ing to her daughter's house to dis cover the tragedy. She was so overcome on the stand that Dep. Coroner Charles C. Langhauser excused her.

Much publicized Mickey Cohen, onetime gambler with whom Stompanato was associated, creat ed a flurry at the start of the in quest by refusing to identify the, dead man's body. After three fruitless questions, he was dis missed. Cohen declared he refused be cause "I'm afraid I might be ac cused of his murder," and then bustled out of the packed court room. He didn't elaborate. Cohen has been at odds recently with Beverly Hills Police Chief Ander son, who heads investigation of the case.

Dr. John McDonald, who was summoned by Lana after the stab bing, told ot ettorts to revive Stompanato by shots of adrenalin in the heart and artificial respira tion. Lana and her mother even tried to breathe life into the dead man's mouth, the Beverly Hills physician said. Excerpts from Cheryl's state ment to police shortly after the killing were read to the coroner's jury by Capt. Ray Borders of the Beverly Hills police department "The argument started when mother found out he Stompana to was 10 years younger than he said he was," the statement said.

Immediately after his killing, police gave his age as 42. Later it was changed to 32. Lana is 38. "I heard him threaten to kill mommy, daddy, granny and me," Cheryl's statement continued. "I didn't want him to hurt her so I rushed into the room and stuck him with the knife." STEPHEN CRANE IS I 1 11 L.J 4 in I960, or about the date original ly set for the beginning of tests.

Raborn said the basic problems have all passed from the scientific to the engineering stage. This means, he said, that no lew breakthrough or sensational advances in development are required to carry the new weapon system into reality. Robert E. Gross, chairman of the Lockheed Aircraft Bur-bank, told the group the Lockheed Polaris is the only one of the nation's ballistic missiles that now is ahead of schedule. Raborn said the Polaris would bring within the range' of direct attack from the sea virtually all the important military targets in that part of the world controlled by the Communists.

He added that the weapon could reach these targets within 15 minutes of firing. Raborn said the Polaris was designed to be launched from below the surface "in fact, from quite deep below the surface." basis with those in other fields gree, from the present minimum starting salary of $4,200 to a new starting salary of $4,400 a year. The group also recommended $6,900 to a teacher with 13 years of experience as compared with the present scale of $5,700 to an instructor with 14 years' experience. Gill also outlined certain policy changes, including a severance payment to retiring teachers for accumulated, unused days of sick leave at the rate of pay which that teacher had attained at the time of retirement. The group further advocated an increase of accumulative sick leave from 60 to 90.

The proposal further asked that contracts be presented at an earlier time and that payments be spread over 22 rather than 20 pay prriods with one pay period in July during the vacation time. A report, following Gill's of the progress made on the building of new schools and additions, West View, Anthony and Storer, revealed that West View addition will be completed by August according to sechedule and that the Anthony building, while progressing slightly behind schedule, will be ready for occupancy in time for the new school term. Herman Beckley, supervisor of building and grounds, in an- Tuni lf Pti'jf. 2, Column i Raise in Teacher Salaries Proposed to School Board At a meeting of the City School Board held Friday, Rollin A. Gill, chairman of the Muncie Teachers Finance Study Group, offered a proposed raise in salaries and improvement in teacher contracts in the city.

School board chairman, Gene Clock, announced that the pro Lana Turner testifying MRS. MILDRED TURNER Too Upset to Testify Suspicions in Sunhather Case Hinted CHICAGO (B A lie detector test has indicated that 21-year-old Barry Cook has guilty knowledge of the mysterious lakefront slaying of a woman sunhather, Chief of Detectives Patrick J. Deeley said Friday. Deeley made the report as Cook appeared in court on another case but where witnesses to the slaying would have an opportunity to view him. The victim.

Miss Margaret Gal lagher, 50. was beaten to death July 22, 1956, by a bare-chested man who pounced on her from a clump of bushes while she was sunbathing alone in Lincoln Park. A horrified apartment dweller, Arthur K. Besley, 52, helplessly watched the assault through bi noculars from his 15th floor living room. He had been watching sailboats on Lake Michigan.

Cook was shot, wounded and captured Feb. 26 by policemen investigating north side rape attempts. He was indicted for rape and attempted robbery in one of the assault cases and was required to appear in Criminal Court when the state moved to continue his trial from May 19 to June 2. Legion Unit Backs Ike Defense Plan WASHINGTON i.W-The American- Legion's national security commission recommended Friday that the legion support President Eisenhower's Defense Department reorganization plan. The commission's recommen dations, will be presented to the legion's national executive com mittee at Indmnapolis early next I month.

si 1 i at coroner's inquest. (Cmtfd Press TelfPholos) CHERYL CRANE Not at Hearing Grange Urges Tax Cut, Public Works, Crop Aid WASHINGTON tift The National Grange called Friday for a program of tax reduction, public works and farm legislation t3 "blunt" the recession and promote economic recovery. The appeal was made by the executive committee of the oldest national farm organization after a week's study of the economic situation and conferences with government leaders. It proposed a reduction of about $10 in income taxes for individual taxpayers and for repeal of fed eral excise taxes on transportation, communications and farm equipment. The committee directed Her-schel Newsom of Columbus, master of the grange, to work for congressional overriding of President Eisenhower's recent veto of a bill to freeze farm price supports this year at not less than last year's levels.

Phone Rate Increase Opposed hy Dunkirk INDIANAPOLIS (UP) More than 150 customers of the Eastern Indiana Telephone Company's Dunkirk exchange complained Friday of poor service in petition against i newly-granted rate "increase. The increase for Dunkirk and other Egstern exchanges was ap proved by the Indiana Public Ser vice Commission March 7, but the matter was set for rehearing April 7. An intervening petition filed by tha patrons claimed the service does not justify the increase. Telephone and lines are improperly and telephones are noisy and frequently out of 1 order, the petition said. a posal, outlined on a comparison of endeavor for over 15 minutes by Gill, would be considered by the board at a subsequent meeting.

The finance study or ganization proposed a $200 nual increase of salaries teachers with a Bachelor's an-for De- Irene Dunne Named Indiana Woman of Year INDIANAPOLIS (A Irene Dunne, a U.S. delegate to the United Nations and distinguished actress, has been named Indiana Woman of the Year by Indianapolis alumnae of Theta Sigma Phi. national Journalism fraternity for women. Miss Dunne, winner of Notre Dame's Laetare medal in 1949. has been an active champion of the underprivileged for many years.

In the U.N., she was given the privilege of announcing that the United States would contribute 24 million dollars for relief and re habilitation of Palestine Arab ref ugees. Miss Dunne was born in Louisville, but moved to Madison, in 1915 after the death of her father. She attended the Indianapolis Conservatory of Music and won a scholarship at the Chicago Musical College. The award will be made in absentia at the Theta Sigs' annual Matrix Table luncheon April 19 at the Athenaeum. Miss Dunne will be unable to attend because of a prior commitment in Canada.

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