Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 1

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58 302 PAGES ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1981 50 CENTS A COPY fit 9 A 9-year-old murder haunts a quiet south Georgia town By BILL CORNWELL St, Ptrburfl TlmM Staff Wrltf rtA 1 rijj $bs (1 BaaJt aaa( lamj Tiff passions for football and fishing. "I don't have anything to be ashamed of," explains Keller, 30, a 1969 graduate of St Petersburg's Admiral Farragut Academy. "After the first day or two (following his arrest for murder on July 3), life has been normal." "I also have continued my daily activities," chimes in 73-year-old Foxy from behind a cloud of pipe tobacco smoke. While Foxy and Keller go about their business, just about everybody else in Valdosta talks about how horrible it is for a fine family to be involved in such a mess, reads every newspaper article that is printed on the subject and wonders, "Are the Wilcoxes guilty?" Had it not been for Sidney Blanton's tractor, Fallen Griffin Hanks might have remained forever a "missing person." But, on Nov.

24 of last year, Blanton was steering his four-wheel drive Case tractor across a field about six miles south of downtown Valdosta. There was a "root rake" attached to the tractor, and this rake dug deep into soil, gouging out roots of trees that had recently been cleared from the field. Late in the afternoon, Blanton's rake snagged VALDOSTA, Ga. Foxy WUcox was his usual courtly self when a visiting reporter telephoned him the other day and asked for an interview. Indeed, for a man who is charged with helping to cover up a murder his son is accused of committing, Foxy sounded pretty chipper.

"Well, maybe we could get together this morning," Foxy offered. "Let's see, it's a little after 11; hmmm and I've got to go to Rotary at noon maybe tomorrow would be better." It was agreed that the next day would be better, and Foxy excused himself so he could make it to the Rotary Club on time. FOXY AND HIS SON KeUer are two of the most prominent residents of this city of about 40,000 people, and they aren't about to let something like the most sensational murder case in South Georgia's recent history keep them down. So they continue to go to their Rotary Clubs, continue to remain involved in the Boys Club, continue to operate their successful outdoor advertising business and continue to indulge their shared HELLEN HANKS hadn't left town. LORENZO MARSHALL accused of helping.

KELLER WILCOX FOXY WILCOX 'life is normal' seems relaxed. something that definitely was not a root. It was a heavy box made of wood and metal, buried about 18 inches below the surface. The tractor pulled the box, which was similar to the containers used by outdoor advertisers to store posters, partly from out of the ground. At about 5 p.m., Sidney's brother, Fred, who owned the property, arrived at the field, and when they examined the box, they saw human bones.

As Fred said later, when he saw the bones, he "went to find me a sheriff." See VALDOSTA. 4-A inraoiiwD 1 jr ,1 -A HI N. ILL I IW. W. fV3 JE 4 Both Central and Omega first proposed hauling the coal from Carmi, III.

(1) down the Mississippi, across the Gulf of Mexico to the Tampa Bay area (4) and then to the power plant complex at Palatka (5) by rail. Central's contract calls for it to haul the coal down the Mississippi to the Apalachicola River (2), and then up the river to Sneads (3). Additional contracts would be required to get the coal from Sneads to Palatka a straight-line distance of about 200 miles. CENTRAL Port ManeteeV I Editor's note: Seminofe Electric is a nonprofit utility serving residents in mostly rural parts of the state. Two weeks ago, The St.

Petersburg Times detailed the utility's handling of two multimillion-dollar contracts now the target of bid-rigging allegations, a federal investigation and a lawsuit. Today's report concerns the most expensive contract the utility has ever signed. It affects residents throughout Florida because the utility gets government-backed loans and eventually will plug into the statewide energy grid serving all electric customers. By WILLIAM NOTTINGHAM and BARRY CRONIN St. Petersburg TimM Staff WrKwl (D 1981, Th St.

PtOTburg Tim Last February, Florida's largest rural electric utility signed a contract to have coal hauled from the Midwest to a power plant on the St. Johns River, south of Jacksonville. The contract is worth about one-fifth the size of this year's state government budget. Last week, Leesburg coal broker H. Melvin Bishop, whose firm lost out on the 22-year contract, cried foul.

He accused the utility Tampa-based Sem-. inole Electric Cooperative Inc. of awarding the contract in an improper, if not illegal, manner. He said the contract could cost the utility's 330,000 customers, spread from the Everglades to the Panhandle, millions of dollars in unnecessary electricity bills. FEDERAL INSPECTORS are looking into the matter.

And a two-month investigation by The St. Petersburg Times indicates that there may be more to Bishop's complaint than the accusations of a poor loser. In recent weeks, The Times has accumulated OMEGA St. Ptrburg TimM TERRY MORSE A hauling route to north Florida after both competitors Central Gulf and Bishop's Omega Enterprises Inc. made offers on routes through the Tampa Bay area, which they considered to be the best path? Is it just coincidence that at the time the switch occurred, Bishop's firm was offering the lowest price? In addition: An independent expert retained by The Times criticizes some aspects of Seminole Electric's coal transportation agreement.

Concerning guaranteed profit clauses, the expert says, See COAL. 24-A hundreds of pages of Seminole Electric documents that raise questions about way the utility's billion-dollar contract was fashioned. Among them: Why was a clause included in the contract to the winner Central Gulf Lines Inc. that appears to allow the barge firm to raise its price to cover all future costs plus overhead and a guaranteed profit? Is it in the best interests of Seminole Electric's customers for the utility to buy the barges that Central Gulf will use to meet the requirements of the contract, though the utility will not own the barges? Why did Seminole Electric switch the St. Patwtburg Tim ERIC MENCHER The Apalactiicola River is called too narrow for 52 V4 -foot-wide coal barges.

240,000 jam capital for labor rally in Franklin convicted; jury to consider firing squad Monday The man who died trying to swim a channel near Anna Maria Island was most likely bitten by a shark. Story, 1-B MlMiiilBMeMMaMiaSeHaMBaeiBlBlMHlHMiBlliHiillM Florida State beaten by Nebraska, 34-14, 1-C By WILLIAM C. REMPEL lo Angl Tim weekend for the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md. "The President recognizes and appreciates the frustration that comes because there are no instant miracles and he also appreciates that the medicine is hardly sweet," said White House spokesman David Gergen, adding that Reagan believes that "the true enemy of working men and women is a sick economy." By midmorning, Washington's subways, rented for the day for $65,000 by the organizers, who opened its turnstiles free to the public, were disgorging train loads of union members into the streets that See MARCH. 24-A cline of.

labor's political influence in Washington. At 3 p.m., the National Park Service, whose jurisdiction includes the Mall area between the Washington Monument and the Capitol, estimated the crowd at 240,000. VIRTUALLY every major union in the AFL-CIO brought delegations. They were joined by leaders and members of many civil rights groups representing women, blacks, Hispanic Americans and other members of minorities, as well as the elderly and disabled. Reagan left Washington this Organized labor is becoming financial mainstay of Democratic party, 3 1-A By SETH S.

KING Nw York Tim WASHINGTON Members of organized labor and civil rights groups, angry over President Reagan's deep cuts in the social programs and changes in job safety rules that unions have promoted so fervently, streamed into Washington Saturday by the tens of thousands to register their resentment in person. The marshaling of the participants by the AFL-CIO for the Solidarity Day rally marked the first effort by that organization to regroup its scattered forces and halt the de SALT LAKE CITY An all-white jury will be asked on Monday to send avowed white racist Joseph Paul Franklin before a Utah firing squad, fol Florida sparkles against lowing his conviction early Sat 1 urday of the 1980 sniper murders of two black joggers. A midnight guilty verdict oqq rotnrnpH nftpr five hniirft nf Michigan dominates Notre Dame, 25-7 1-C deliberation, ending a three- week trial that featured a com Blaming everything on the Russians plex case of circumstantial evi- Georgia is humbled by Clemson in 13-3 upset, 6-C ST.PETERSBURG TIMES FOREIGN EDITOR LUILBUn c. innonEV dence, 75 witnesses and almost JOSEPH FRANKLIN 200 exhibits. The jury'B swiftness surprised even the prosecutors.

Franklin, 31, who has steadfastly asserted that he was framed by police, the FBI and the "Jews' media," as he called the press, appeared stunned by the verdict. He sat silent and ashen-faced next to defense attorney David Yocom who groaned and shook his head in disbelief as the decision was read by a court clerk. Franklin was convicted of shooting two young black men while they were jogging near Salt Lake City's Liberty Park with two white teen-age women Aug. 20, 1980. The state court jury will return at 10 a.m.

Monday for the penalty phase of tbe trial The jury's recommendation is binding upon the judge unless the judge contests it on some point of law. Under Utah law, both prosecution and defense attorneys may call witnesses and present evidence during the penalty phase. If the sentence is death, the case would be appealed automatically. A life sentence is the alternative. ON THE darkened courthouse steps outside, Yocom later told reporters: "The jury plainly made a mistake.

I In foreign affairs, just as in the domestic economy, reality has begun to eat away at several of the pet notions the Reagan administration brought to office, but blaming the Russians for all the world's troubles is not yet one of them. After nearly nine months in office, the administration will begin its first substantive high-level talks with the Soviet Union this week when Secretary of State Alexander Haig meets Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko to set the scene for negotiations on theater nuclear forces in Europe, TNF for short. THE AMERICAN secretary of state and the Soviet foreign minister customarily meet about this time when the U.N. General Assembly convenes in New York, but this year's meeting is Bpecial, given the Reagan administration's hard-line convictions and rhetoric Two meetings are scheduled, one on Wednesday and one next Monday. From them, agreement is expected on how to begin negotiating later this year on limiting the medium-range missiles the Soviet Union has trained on Western Europe and the missiles the United States will deploy to counter them.

SECTION A National. Foreign SECTION Local, State SECTION Sports, Outdoors SECTION Perspective, Business SECTION Entertainment, Travel SECTION Sunday SECTION Classified SECTION Homes Magazines: Floridian, TV Dial, Parade Bridge (H Jumble 14-H Chen 10-H Landers 21-F Crossword 10-H Porter 11-F Horoscope 1 5-H Stamps 1 5-H If all goes according to character, however, Haig will also give Gromyko the same lecture in private that the administration has already delivered in public the Soviet Union must shape up and change its behavior if it expects cooperation from the United States. GROMYKO, who has been around for a long time and listened to a lot of secretaries of state (seven since he became foreign minister in 1957), is not likely to be awed by this one. He is likely to reply that the Soviet Union will act in what it sees as its own national interests just as the Sea LANDREY, 5-A See FRANKLIN, 14-A.