The Miami News from Miami, Florida • 8

4A The Miami News Thursday, August 30, 1984 Arthur expected to bring gusts to I-eelVary Islands VERNE WILLIAMS and LUISA YANEZ Moroni Men Reporters Arthur before it. this weather system was spawned off the coast of Africa. "It's a yeti, large tropical weather disturbance." said Sheets. "We will try to get a hurricane reconnaissance planeinto it tomorrow." Both Arthur and the new disturbance are known as a "Cape Verde-type disturbance." for the area off Africa where the storms form at this time of year. Cape Verde consists of 10 main islands and five tiny islands about 400 miles west of Dakar.

"Right now we donl expect any rapid strengthening." said forecaster Bob Sheets. "Conditions are not that favorable for any rapid increase in strength." At noon today, the center of Arthur was located near latitude 13.8 north and longitude 58 west about 205 miles east-southeast of Martinique. Gale force winds extended out 75 miles from the center. according to the advisory. Meanwhile, forecasters were watching a tropical depression moving across the Atlantic about 1.200 miles east of Barbados.

Like Tropical Storm Arthur was expected to bring rain and gusty weather later today to the Lee. ward Islands. from Barbados to Antigua, said forecasters at the National Hurricane Center. With- winds clocked at 45 to 50 mph, the first storm of the 1984 season was moving northwestward at about 10 mph and no significant strengthening is expected in the next 24 hours, they said. 1' i -''4 it 41 fe, 1 sk ilm, ,00, 114 't l' It 't 4 I 4 4 1 4., A I I 1 1 4 1.

411 1, 'k 14 A' 1,, top I git7, i 1 i i t. vi v. (,,, 1 I 0 1 :4 20 years probation due for boy in slaying of mother, brother ZITA AROCHA Miami Nom lit000rOor of murder for the Oct. 18 shooting of his 4I-year-old mother. June White, and his nine-year-old brother.

Kevin. He was being tried In Dade Circuit Court as an adult for the murders. The grand jury also recommended that White be sentenced to a treatment program for juveniles if convicted. Court. psychologists, pschiatrists and social workers examined White following the slayings and diagnosed him as an intelligent boy who was severelly disturbed and had problems at home.

A report contained in court files said the youth was punished for bad grades by being restricted to his room except for school, meals and use of the bathroom. White told psychiatrists that he had decided to kill his mother the next time he got bad grades because of the pressure he was under to do better. In April, Metro Homicide Detective Steven Road-ruck said in a sworn deposition that the youth told the detective he planned to kill his mother and himself. White said he thought about "abandoning the mission" when Kevin White arrived home first, but Instead instructed his brother to pick up a toy from a closet and then shot him in the back of the head. After shooting his brother, White watched television until his mother came home about one-half hour later.

the detective said in his deposition. When she walked into the garage, White shot her in the face, the detective said he was told by the youth. "Kenny is a wonderful kid, and he's eager to work In a structured environment." Levine said. "We're all hopeful he'll get better." Dade Circuit Judge Joseph Gersten was expected today to sentence 13-year-old Kenneth White to 20 years probation, under the judge's supervision. in connection with the 1983 slayings of White's mother and brother.

the youth's lawyer said this morning. The sentence was to follow White's entering a plea of guilty today to two counts of second-degree murder in the case, Assistant Public Defender Steve Levine said. Gersten also was to order the boy turned over to officials from the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. White, who also was to plead guilty to a charge of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, will be sent to a mental health facility in lirgina for rehabilitation. Kenneth's father, Richard, a management counsultant did not attend the hearing, but Levine said the father agreed with the sentence.

"The father is hopeful he'll get beter," Levine said He recognizes the boy has severe psychiatric lems. Levine said the State of Florida will pay for White's treatment until he is 18, at which time Gersten will re-evaluate the boy. Should Gersten then decide White is mentally fit, White would serve the remainder of his probation outside the hospital, Levine said. White was indicted by a grand jury on two counts The Miami News A.G. MONTANARI Haast applies pressure to take venom from a Russell viper HAAST, from 1 A We still don't know exactly what the venom can do 9 SHUTTLE, from 1 A Bill Haast morning at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

A successful journey is vital to NASA. which must demonstrate to Its commercial payload customers that the shuttle is a reliable space transportation system. The 12th shuttle mission was delayed twice in June and again yesterday because of a series of technical problems. The June delays came back-to-back and both times the crew had climbed into the cockpit for launch, only to scramble out again frustrated. "There's been a history of teething problems in getting orbiters off on the first launch," Kennedy Space Center spokesman Richard Young said.

"We've come to anticipate this sort of thing." The inaugural flight of the first shuttle, Columbia, was delayed two days by computer software problems, while the second ship. Challenger, had engine troubles that pushed its debut back two months. Besides the delays, NASA's rep. utation has been tarnished also by the failures of three satellites to reach proper orbits after being launched from shuttles. A few commercial customers have shifted their business to the European Space Agency's Ariane rocket.

The satellites are owned by American Telephone Telegraph Satellite Business Systems and Hughes Communications Services. which are paying NASA between $10 million and $17 million each to deliver the payloads to orbit. These will be the first commercial satellites launched from the shuttle since February. when two communications payloads fired into the wrong orbits because their booster rocket nozzles failed. The and SBS satellites have the same type of rocket system.

and, although engineers are confident they have fixed the notzle problem, officials will be bolding their breath until after the rocket firings. The heavy cargo results from NASA's decision after the dual postponement in June to combine the best features of Discovery's first two missions into a single flight. adding two satellites to the manifest. Officials said that would save time and maintain the shuttle launch rate, accelerating to the planned one flight a month with this mission. Walker will be operating a device to produce in weightlessness a drug identified only as a hormone derived from protein that will be tested on animals and humans.

McDonnell Douglas and its partner in the venture, pharmaceutical giant Johnson Johnson, hope to mass-produce the drug in space by 1987. private aircraft had penetrated the Kennedy Space Center airspace. One had to be chased away by a government plane and Tom Utsman, shuttle operations manager, said it "was In the flight line in a dangerous area" not only dangerous to themselves but also to the shuttle. With tens of thousands watching from beaches and highways, the blastoff capped a countdown that was interrupted for 24 hours Tuesday night due to an electronic malfunction. But a hastily redesigned computer program worked perfectly, permitting twin boosters to peel away two minutes seven seconds into the flight to splash down in the Atlantic for retrieval.

Hartsfield, who flew on a shuttle two years ago, is joined by five first-time space fliers. They are pilot Michael Coats, 38; mission specialists Judy Resnik, 35, America's second woman astronaut; Steve Hawley, 32; and Richard Mullane, 38, and payload specialist Charles Walker, an industry engineer whose employer, McDonnell Douglas paid NASA $80,000 for his training. The crew's main job will be to deploy the three satellites for commercial customers one of them later this afternoon. Walker will operate the drug factory to produce the hormone in greater purity than is possible on Earth. Also aboard is a 10-story-tall solar sail that will be unfurled in a test of a device that may one day convert the sun's rays to electrical power for space stations.

The flight is to end Wednesday Death Notices Classified Advertising AA-01 Death Notices AA-01 Death Notices AA-01 Death Notkes. Lottery winners Fumbling with the folds of her cotton print dress, Clarita looks up tearily. She glances at the wall with photos of their grown daughters, Hannah and Shantih, and steadies herself. "Is he a real person?" she asks herself. "Yes, he is.

And German, a perfectionist. And a man who challenges himself mercilessly." Haast maintains that his biggest challenge is contained in venom. in its death-delivering and life-sustaining power. He's been extracting it since he was a teen. And, since 1948, he's been immunizing himself at least once a month with an injection of 28 different venoms, diluted enough for his 135-pound frame to handle.

"We still don't know exactly what the venom can do," he says, once again taking his chair. But he began learning of its medicinal value in 1949, when he dealt with a University of Miami research team headed by Dr. Murray Sanders. Polio was the scourge of the times, and Haast proposed using cobra venom to treat it. Sanders and his team tested the venom's effect on hundreds of monkeys.

and it relieved the symptoms enough to interest Leder le Laboratories in Pennsylvania. That Sanders refused the drug company's offer still rankles Haast. "It was my life's work!" he says, hunching forward for emphasis. "At the time, I told myself, 'Sanders is right, he's got a His reason was more money." In 1965, the National Institutes of Health commissioned Haast to produce a pint of coral snake venom for the production of the first coral snake antivenin in the United States. "My blood was used most often when there was no coral snake treatment." he says, explaining that he donated blood to 21 patients, usually after having been whisked off to far-flung hospitals by government jets.

In the 1970 Haast teamed up with the late Dr. Ben Sheppard to produce PROven, which the doctor used to treat sufferers of arthritis, muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis. Haast had developed the drug in the '50s and, after an experimental license from the Food and Drug Administration, distributed it free to doctors. But after the tragedies of Thalidomide were revealed. "the FDA cracked down." Haast says.

After it was reintroduced with Sheppard, the controversial drug drew people from throughout the country and the attention of ''Sixty Minutes," which featured it in a 1979 segment. But lengthy court battles and a subsequent ruling halted the drug's sale outside of Florida. Haast finally stopped production in 1982. "We just put it on the shelf," he says. Today, his lab work involves collecting venom for more than 100 institutions worldwide, ranging from the American Red Cross.

the Mayo Foundation and the Institut Pasteur in Paris to universities such as Yale, UCLA, Columbia and Dartmouth. Venom sales have become the Serpentarlum's bread and butter since the number of visitors trickled to maybe 500 a week a decade ago. "That's when I first thought about leaving here." he says. Somewhat wistfully, he adds, "I was hoping that the university (of Miami) would get as interested in my work as Utah is." Haast, a high-school dropout, admits "being affiliated with the university will give us credibility some of the academicians refuse to acknowledge what we've done here." And it will provide plentiful opportunities for lab experimentation. He plans to start with fractioning, a process that Isolates enzymes in the complex venoms.

He intends to get back to the PROven, too. Most of all, he wants to step down from the stage. "When I'm up on stage, I'm enjoying every minute. But It inter- feres the work is so demanding. The show is just my hobby." test tube.

The snake plunges its fangs through a rubberized Dacron shield. and the venom so lethal that one drop can kill 16 mortals slides into the tube. Haast is no ordinary man. He's the only known person to have survived the Thailand snake's bite without anti-venom treatment three times. The first bite, in 1954, put him in an iron lung and on the critical list for five days.

"A short time later, the krait died," Harrell says, to laughter and applause and a flash of a smile from the otherwise solemn-faced Haast. Move over, Indiana Jones. This man has lived through 141 poisonons bites, including 17 near-fatal ones. Maybe that's why health insurers won't touch him with a 10- foot snake pole. "But, as a senior citizen, I've at least got Medicare," he confides after the show.

He's a surprising 73. As legends go, Haast ranks up there for the hundreds of thousands who since January 1948 have toured his Serpentarium and seen the snake charmer extract venom fr3rn cobras, rattlers, coral snakes and poisonous lizards; for the hundreds who have sought out his snake-venom drug, PROven, for relief from arthritis, muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis; and for the score of snake-bite victims who might have died without a transfusion of the snake expert's own immunized blood. But as legends go, so will Haast. The Serpentarium will close its doors Sept. 9, ending a 37-year chapter of Miami history.

Haast and Harrell will move with 300 snakes and tons of lab equipment to new headquarters at the University of Utah Research Park. The concrete cobra arching 35 feet above the attraction at 12655 S. Dixie Highway will go to South Miami High School as a mascot for its football team, and the remaining Serpentarium memorabilia will head for the auction block. Janis Enterprises, which paid $3.25 million for the 5.24-acre property. will clear the grounds for a shopping center.

Bill Haast, finds himself a man on the move, uprooting himself at an age when most folks are settling into Laz-E-Boy recliners or retirement. "What's most amazing about this man is his stamina," says Harrell, who has worked with him in the venom research lab since 1966. "He keeps going at a pace that would tire most people Sometimes, you expect him to throw open his shirt and you'll see Superman." Usually, though, he's a mild-mannered Clark Kent, most content when he's isolated in his venom laboratories. Get him into a chair in the Serpentarium's paneled office, and he squirms like a snake on a catching board. The glass cobra on a corner table, the snake-embroidered pillows, even the serpent-shaped ring on Harrell's hand remind him of work to be done.

So does the phone, Jangling with calls from hobbyists or frightened Floridians with snakes in their yards. In the lulls, Haast reminisces, sliding back 61 years to his boyhood in Paterson, N.J., and to a Boy Scout camp at Greenwood Lake, N.Y. "We had the Rattlesnake Club. To get into it, you had to eat rattlesnake. A troop leader or a counselor would catch one with prongs, cut off its head and bring it to the chef.

He'd cook it, and we'd all sit around the campfire and you had to take a taste." Haast went one better. He sneaked off, pinned down a rattler with a prong and whisked it alive into a cloth bag he made from tying his shirt. He made a triumphant return to camp, and the snake was served as dinner. Skip to the summer of 1929. The 19-year-old Haast, scouring southern New York's hills for snakes, met an old codger running a roadside snake attraction and preparing to light out for Florida.

"His name was Van that's all 1 remember," Haast recalls. The old man invited him along as driver and mechanic for his aging Hudson and rickety carnival trailer. and shortly thereafter, the two. pulled into Fort Lauderdale. Slow business at the carnival attraction pushed them south to Miami, to a triangular patch of land near where Interstate 395 now empties onto Biscayne Boulevard.

"We dug a pit for the snakes and put up a thatched hut, and Van would ballyhoo for tourists get about a nickel apiece," Haast says. Months later, the Depression choked off loose change. Van figured Lauderdale held more promise, and he dragged along a reluctant Haast. "But I arranged with Gordon (Walters) to come get me." Haast says, his gray-blue eyes crinkling with a smile. Walters, a bootlegger he'd met in the Everglades, took the teen to his ramshackle cabin and inducted him into the moonshining trade.

"I'd run the still at night." Haast says. "Gordon would take the jugs of mash and hide them behind the palmetto bushes. People would come up to the door at night and buy them for 50 cents a pint." Haast was getting heady on the lifestyle, working furtively by night and catching snakes by day. But revenuers intervened, smashing the still. "So we piled into his Model I and headed west to Missouri," Haast says.

"Gordon didn't even tell his wife where he was going. When we came back six weeks later, it was like we'd never left. Gorden went out and built a new still." Haast returned to Jersey for almost a year, but "came back down in '31 didn't want to spend another winter up there." As the memory clears, Haast's voice fades and a grin appears. "Oh, that's right. I got married" to Ann, a college girl he'd met at Greenwood Lake.

In Miami, the newlyweds moved in with Walters, and Haast scouted for a job. "One day, I was walking down Flag ler. and a guy called out. 'Hey, It was a man named Singer, who years ago had seen Haast extracting venom in a Paterson drug store window. Singer, a taxi driver turned beer runner, sent him to the Boulevard Chop House.

"It was a speakeasy on Biscayne, and I was a cashier during Prohibition But the revenuers came in again and chopped up the place." With a baby on the way, Haast and his wife decided to return to New Jersey and steadier work. Bill Junior was born in 1933, and over the next few years his father held a succession of jobs, finally landing at Wright Aeronautical Engine Co. in Paterson. It was the perfect launching pad for his inevitable return to Miami, in 1940, this time as a flight engineer for Pan American. The Air Force contracted Pan Am's planes after the outbreak of World War II, and Haast transported men and supplies all over the world.

It gave him a chance to collect snakes from such exotic spots as Brazil, India, Nepal and Africa. It also gave him a chance to build up enough cash to buy. in 1946, 311 acres of overgrown property in the wilds of South Dade. That marked the beginning of the Serpentarium. Bill Jr.

stayed with his father. Working evenings and weekends after Haag returned from his job, the two cleared the property and built a combination house and laboratory. Months after Ann had left, Haag met 20-year-old Clarita Matthews. "We were married after three weeks. I was 20, going on 16," says Clarita, settling into the chair Haast has just vacated to prepare for a snake show.

RODGERS EVALINE B. 77 of Miami passed away Aug. 25 at Blowing Rock, N.C. She is survived by her beloved daughter, Mrs. Susan Primm Brison; granddaughters.

Dana Lizabeth Primm, Jennifer Weeks Primm 2 brothers 2 Sisters. Memorial services will be held Sat. Sent. 1 at 10 P.M. at Plymouth Congregational Church Coconut Grove.

In lieu of flowers. family re-guest donations to the American Cancer Soca- Wk. AHERN-PLUMMER 13 a. Fleeter 64.3-3333 FOSTER RUBY LEE 5S of 'Miami passed away ALIO. 26.

She was a resident here for over 40 years coming from Ocala, Fla. Mrs. Foster is survived by her sons, Henry A. Martin. Sammy E.

Martin, Steven C. Foster, George C. Foster, daughters, Veronica Washington. Carolyn Asbury, Eunice Martin. Brenda Fisher, Tanis Kirkland; brothers, James A Oscar Marten; sisters, Anneebell Holmes, Dorothy Walton; clevoted aunt Janet Marsh A randchildren.

Friends may Fri. Aug. 31. 5-7 P.M. at the LITO-IGOW MIAMI CHAPEL Services will be held Sat.

1:00 P.M. LITHGOW CHAPELS 485 NE 54 St 757-5544 MARYLAND Yesterday's number: 777 Pick Four number: 3041 Subscription: 398198; 71280; 2908 MASSACHUSETTS Big Money Game: Yellow-864; Blue-15; White-3 Megabucks: 03; 11; 16; 28; 33; 34 NEW JERSEY Yesterday's number: 275 Pick Four number: 8603 NEW YORK Yesterday's number: 556 Lotto: 44; 24; 37; 29 Supplementary: 42 PENNSYLVANIA Big 4 Lottery: 6673 RHODE ISLAND Grand Lot Game: 832; 7798; 74822; 145224 ALLEN MARGOT FAIRCHILD of Gulfstream, Fla. died Aug. 29 in Watch Hill. R.I.

after an extended Illness. She Is survived I2y 1 son. Frederick F. Fros? daughters, of reerict, risks WYatertoawn: I. Margot D.

Frost of Westford, Mass. A also survived by 3 granddaughters. Mrs. Alien was a member of the Huegenot Society. Memorial services will be held at Christ Episcotsal Church Green- wich, CI.

on Fri. Sept 7 at 2'00 P.M. In lieu of flowers, cont. may be made to the National Audubon Society 9S0 3 Ave. N.Y..

N.Y. 10022 CAPEL MAX Of MB. A member of the Cuban Hebrew Cong. Services were held Wed. RLIB1N-ZILBER1 MEMORIAL CHAPEL 1701 ALTON RO M13.

538-6371 DANOWITZ CELIA 85 of N.M.B. Passed away Wed. Sur, vived by daughters. Elaine Leff A NM Harriet Hintz. Wash.

son, Phil. N.A6 sister. Freda Katz. Y.C.' 8 grandchil- dren; '9 great-grandchatVen. Member of Young Israel of Greo.or Miami A the New Horizons Chapter Hades-sari.

Services Thurs. 2.00 M. LEVITT-WEINSTEIN Guaranteed Security Plan Chapel 16640 Dixie Hwy NMB 949-6315 Interment Lakeside GOLDSTEIN BENJAMIN 79 of N.M.B. passed away Wed He is survived by daughter. Dr.

Dorothy (Dr. Neil) ore-man; sisters. Frteda Wolf. Zelda Lynn Rosalie Trube 2 grandchidren. Elizabeth Robert Koreman.

Services will be held Thurs. 1 00 P.M MENORAH CHAPELS 20955 Bscayne Blvd NMII 935-3939 THE hilletel NEWS (USPS 5e2-120) is published deity except Sunday. et I Herald Plata, Mierni, Ft. (NOTE Send mail for the departments to P.0 Box Miami. Ft.

3315a. correspondence to circulation end promotion departments should be naled to P.O. Box IOW, I. STRICKLAND WILLIAM J. 43 died Aug.

28. Miami resident for 7 years for, merIV of Va. He was employed by National Linen Co. for 30 years. Survived bv his wife.

Madeline; 2 sons. Charles Lee Roger; daughter. Shelby Prado; 2 brothers. James Tom sis- ters. Barbara.

lien, Annette, Faye. Tone. Funeral services will be held in Chesapeake. Va. Stanfill Funeral Homes S-Clisie 667-2510 NIVELKER FRANK S.

of Miami Passed away Aug. 20. 1984. A native of St. Louis, he was former Pres Owner of Allied Concrete Products, Inc.

A life member of the Society of Professional Engineers A a life member of the Masonic Lodge. Survived by his wile, Lillian. Memorial services will be held at St. Marks Lutheran Church, Coral Gable, at 11.00 AM. Fri.

Pastor J. Bruce Weaver officiatin g. in lieu of flowers, memorials to St. Marks Church is Suclgested. PHILBRICK FUNERAL CHAPEL JOHNSTON WILLIAM EDWARD 73 a native of Camden, J.

and resident of Miami since 1947, passed away August 77, 1984, He was a ornminent optician in Miami for over 30 veers and member of the South Miami Elks Lodge No.1888 He was preceded in death by his infant daughter, Pamela Lynn, $urvivors include his wife, taeatrite; a son, R. Scott Johnston 8. his wife, Christina both of Mgami a sister, Mrs Ceres Schroeder, of San Carlos. CA. and 2 granddaughters, Dan-wile and Victoria neral services will be in the funeral horn 3om Thursoav with burial to follow in Flower Pak Cemetery.

LIT HGOW CHAPELS 8080 SW 67 AVE SO. Miami 757-5544 Managing Editor 350-2208 City Desk 350-2145 Ldestyie 350-2165 Photo 350-2187 Sports 350-2175 Display Ads 350-2462 Classified 350-2222 Circulation Dade 350-2000 Broward 462-3000 AN other 350-2200 HOME DELIVERY RATES 1 yeat 539 00 6 months 1950 3 months 9,75 Monthly 325 1 week 75 MAIL SUBSCRIPTIONS 1 year 559 80 6 months 29 90 3 'moths 14 95 4 "mess 4 60 SINGLE COPY PRICE Dade. keys. Monroe 15 class melt enviseees rotherred at Po Post Met tAtitme, DRAPKIN MORRIS of NM 13. passed Swale Wed.

Beloved husband of Mollie; devoted father of Sarah L. Dreiskin of 41'174t4r' nart Of Ann VVetzel of Detroit, He was the first business agent of Matti Local 133 back in 1933. In to many intre-unton oft ices he has occupied, he was Vice Pres of the Dace County Federation of Labor Fla. AFLCIO, Services Fri. 11.00 A.M.

at LEVITT-WEINSTEIN Guaranteed Pan Chaise, Dixie Hwy NMB 949-6413 Interment LakeSid Memorial Park WULKAN FRIEDA NI of B. passed away Tues. Survived by husband. daughter. Roth Ogen.

brother. Phwo Hirschhorn. L.A.; 1 grandson. Member of the Young Israel of Sik.y Lak Consp a. OP Service Thurs.

10.001 at LEVITT-WEINSTEIN Guaranteed Seruroy Part Chanel ItI840 Hwy P4MB 949-43IS Interment Lokesdo LATI-IMER LILLIAN SS A Miami resident for veers coming from Snyder. V. died Aug 28 She was a retired real estate agent. Survived by her son, Jesse Laws, Jr stepson, Jack Lattirner of kV's' grandchildren; 5 oreat-orndcholdrets Funeral services 200 P.M. Fri.

at Stanfitt Funerel Hawses Dixie Add-25 le DuVINAGE VOROINV The employees of InC deeply fne death of teyely tecly loyal consc tectious Her Wends ve.11 always remember her in Maar UNVEILING NOTICES APPEAR IN COLUMN AA-03 tIttefattl 1,, t4ori 0 I.