Indiana Gazette from Indiana, Pennsylvania • Page 4

The Indiana Gazette Thursday, September 6, 1984 Page 4 Man charged with drunken driving turns out to be robber MANORVILLE, N.Y. (AP) Police saw through the dyed hair and phony name of a man stopped for driving erratically to recognize the last fugitive in the nation's largest cash heist, an fll.2 million job of which more than $10 million is still missing. Police remain baffled over what the thieves did with most of the loot taken in the inside job at the Sentry Armored Courier Corp. in the Bronx 20 months ago, and hope that the arrest Tuesday of Nicholas "Nick the Greek" Gregory will help solve the mystery. Gregory at first identified himself to a Suffolk County officer as Victor Griffin, then refused to give his.

fingerprints and smeared them so they were useless. However, when confronted with a photograph that one officer remembered seeing in The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, Gregory, who had dyed his dark hair blond, admitted, "I'm Nick the Greek you got me," said Lt. William D. Okula, a Suffolk County detective. Gregory, 41, pleaded innocent to drunken driving and a forgery charge, and was ordered held tin million bail.

He was expected to be arraigned today in federal court in Manhattan on charges of bank robbery, conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property. Three other men were convicted in December of the Sentry theft and hiding the stolen money. A fourth, Demetrios Papadakos, was acquitted. A Sentry guard told police he was overcome by robbers and chained to a railing at the company's depot in the Bronx on the night of Dec. 12,1982.

Two masked men cut a hole in the roof, dropped in, surprised him and ransacked the money room, he told police. Authorities at first took the story seriously, but finally concluded that the guard was an accomplice in the heist. Christos Potamitis, 25, the guard on duty the night of the theft, and Eddie Argitakos, 24, a travel agent, were sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined $35,000 each for conspiracy and robbery. Argitakos' father, Steve, 58, was sentenced to four years in prison and fined $5,000 as an accessory for hiding $392,000 of the loot in East Greenbush, near Albany. Another $379,000 was found at the Westport, home of Thomas Skiadas, father-in-law of Papadakos, authorities said.

Skiadas was not charged. Court documents said that more than $169,000 of the Sentry money was found in a Hackensack, N.J., apartment, and an undisclosed amount was found in a West 47th Street jewelry firm. In an affidavit seeking a search warrant during the investigation, an FBI agent said that at the time of the heist, Gregory was out on parole following a 1976 bank robbery conviction. The affidavit also said a confidential source overheard a Gregory associate say that Gregory's share of the naul was $1.5 million to $2 million, and the source said he was asked to seek protection from organized crime against any rip- offsoftheloot. The theft of the $11.2 million was one of several crimes which victimized the company, which since has gone out of business.

Two months before the holdup, four armed men held up the Sentry depot, killing a guard. The bandits escaped with about $35,000 and have not been caught. Six months before the huge heist, $100,000 was stolen, and three weeks after the holdup, another $225,000 was taken, authorities said. A month after the record heist, Sentry's president, John P. Jennings, 64, of Ossining, N.Y., chairman of the board Kuno Laren, 58, of Manhattan, and a vice president, Angela Fiumefreddo, were accused of skimming those amounts to help secure a $750,000 line of credit so the company could buy more armored trucks.

That case is still pending. Mondale hits arms controls Continued from Page 1 tfiat the group's members would be more receptive to the Republican's defense program than his own. But his visit was another attempt to un- his differences with Reagan for a national audience. Mr. Reagan appeared before you and spoke of his desire for a world without war," Mondale said.

"I do not challenge the sincerity of that desire. is not the issue. The issue is he has set us on a course Howard peace and a safer world. In my judgment, he has not." pledged to seek a summit meeting on nuclear weapons with the Soviet Union within six months his inauguration. also renewed his pledge to a temporary moratorium on the of all nuclear weapons, and he said Reagan has failed a "crucial test of leadership" on arms control.

running mate, Geral- dlne Ferraro, joined in accusing Reagan of failing to reduce the risk of war. Appearing in Portland, with Mondale, she said, "This president never saw a weapon he didn't like." She added: "He's not had a single diplomatic success in 312 years." Ms. Ferraro was on her own again today in Kansas City, speaking to 'high school students before ing home to New York and heading to New England on Saturday. President George Bush, wound up a three-day campaign swing, insisting the world is further from war now than when Reagan took office and accusing Mondale of using scare tactics. Bush defended the president on -the war and peace issue in some form at nearly every stop on his trip and acknowledged that the issue is a problem for Reagan.

"I know people are concerned about this," Bush said in Lexington, Ky. "They've been scared by a year's worth of rhetoric out of our opponents talking about we're closer to war. Reagan endorses treaty to eliminate genocide WASHINGTON (AP) For the last 35 years, American ratification of the treaty to outlaw genocide has shuffled between the White House and the Senate, an idea whose time never quite came. Now President Reagan, engaged in his campaign for re-election, is endorsing it as an opportunity to remove a longstanding international embarrassment and to dramatize U.S. human rights concerns.

The president's decision came after a review lasting nearly three years and was announced Wednesday, the day before his scheduled address before the annual convention of B'nai B'rith, one of the nation's most prominent Jewish organizations. Delegates at that convention welcomed Reagan's decision and noted that B'nai B'rith has campaigned for Senate ratification of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide for more than three decades. Although some delegates said they saw political opportunism underlying the White House move, administration officials denied any such motivation- John Hughes, the State Department's chief spokesman, said he was "shocked" that the question would even be raised. Dr. William Korey, director of international policy research for B'Nai B'rith, said failure to ratify has "embarrassed the United States and thereby hindered (it) from championing human rights." Sen.

William Proxmire, the Senate's most vocal champion of ratification of the long-stalled treaty, said he is so eager to see it approved that political motivations are almost beside the point. "I suppose we do lots of things in this world for political reasons but I wouldn't question the administration's motives now," Proxmire said. "This move is very, very welcome and to their credit." Since January 1967, Proxmire has given more than 2,900 speeches on the Senate floor advocating ratification of the pact. And he has vowed to continue to address the issue in a speech each day the Senate is in session until that is accomplished. "I'm confident we now have every chance in the world of ratifying the treaty this year," he said.

"We have a good shot at it." And he said that if the treaty is brought to the Senate floor this year and is faced with a filibuster by such long-time opponents as Sen. Jesse Helms, and Strom Thurmond, "there is no question in my mind at all that we would have the votes" to end debate. "After all," the Wisconsin Democrat said, "there is no crime more heinous than the planned extermination of an entire racial or ethnic group. There is no more important human right than the right to live." The treaty, signed by President Truman in 1949 in the aftershock of the Nazi holocaust that claimed the lives of 6 million Jews and other ethnic groups, calls for the enactment of laws by each ratifying nation making genocide a crime and providing punishments. Ninety-six other nations, including the Soviet Union, now have ratified the genocide treaty.

But the treaty was never ratified by the U.S. Senate, although it was signed by every chief executive from Truman through Jimmy Carter. Instead, it lay dormant for decades, largely due to the opposition of conservative politicians and groups such as the Liberty Lobby and the John Birch Society, which claim it constitutes an infringement on national sovereignty. Reagan waited until now to endorse the treaty because of a decision to subject the pact to a lengthy review considering all aspects of past opposition, including claims it would violate state rights. Administration officials ack- nowlege the long delay by the United States has proved an embarrassing handicap in promoting U.S.

human rights policies. Hughes said the U.S. failure to act has "opened the United States to un- neccessary "We can refute such baseless criticism by ratifying the convention, and, more importantly, we can utilize the convention in our own efforts to expand freedom and fight human rights abuses around the globe," Hughes said. The pact makes genocide an international crime and defines it as an act "committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnical, racial or religious group." It gives such examples as killing members of a group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, or deliberately inflicting conditions intended to bring about its physical destruction, such as preventing births or transfering children to another group. The convention provides for punishment of persons committing these acts, whether they are rulers, public officials or private citizens.

AFSCME defends labor board HARRISBURG (AP) A top union official has praised the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board for effectively and efficiently dealing with labor disputes. The board has repeatedly demonstrated it can "resolve in a fair and orderly manner public sector labor- management disputes," Edward Keller, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said on Wednesday. Keller, who said 80 percent of the cases before the board involve AFSCME, told the House Labor Committee that "the relative order present in public sector labor-management relations would cease were the PLRB to be terminated." The union, which represents about 80,000 state employees, has gone to the panel 210 times since 1972 for resolution of unfair labor practice charges, Keller said. Under the state's "sunset" law, the board will terminate in October unless the General Assembly votes for a continuation. "I think the board is doing a good job," said Rep.

Mark Cohen, chairman of the Labor Committee. He said there should be no problem extending the board's life. "The board is clearly perceived as being neutral and fair." Keller suggested that the governor, labor and business each select one member to the board. Currently, the governor chooses all board members. Cohen said that proposal could be controversial and would not be considered this year.

He said that having interest groups appoint board members could lead to a less impartial panel. Nicholas Gregory, arrested for erratic driving, couldn't fool fife police (AP Laserphoto) Oil explosion causes damage ANTHONY, Kan. (AP) An explosion ripped through an oil company, damaging homes and businesses and killing two people as it hurled debris two blocks away and sent up a fireball visible for 10 miles, authorities said today. Several people also were injured, two of them seriously, in the explosion at around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Farmer's Oil Co.

in west Anthony, a Harper County sheriffs deputy said. The blaze that gutted the building raged out of control for nearly three hours, a police dispatcher said. Residents were evacuated from their homes until the blaze was brought under control about 12:30 a.m. Firemen were still pouring water on hot spots in the shattered structure at 2:30 a.m. The cause of the blast was not immediately known.

It occurred as a propane truck was backing up into a wash bay at the company. Police Chief Richard Happ said he was at home on the opposite side of town watching television when the explosion shook "the house real good." A fireball that soared into the air following the explosion, police said, was visible more than 10 miles north of Anthony, a town of 2,600 people 45 miles southwest of Wichita in south- central Kansas. The walls of the oil company's two-story brick building, on a corner on the west edge of downtown Anthony, were blown out, Happ said. Bricks were hurled up to two blocks. A house just north of the explosion scene caught fire and was extensively damaged, Happ said.

Three other homes were damaged by flying debris, one extensively, he said. The roof on a gasoline station across the street caved in and large plate glass windows in the building were shattered, Happ added. The oil company building also included an optometrist's office and the district soil conservation office. Ray Graves, 51, president of the oil company was backing a propane truck into a wash bay in the building, Happ said. Fire officials said the propane tank itself did not explode and remained intact following the explosion and fire.

Fire officials said barrels of antifreeze and diesel additives were stored in the building. The company is a wholesale and retail distributor of kerosene, diesel fuel, propane and gasoline. The bodies of two males were found at the scene. Authorities withheld the identities pending notification of relatives. Graves was treated at the Anthony Hospital and later helicopter to the burn center at St.

Francis Medical Center in Wichita. Authorities said he suffered second- and third-degree burns. Another man, not immediately identified, apparently was injured by flying debris, police said. He also was treated at the Anthony Hospital and later transferred to the Harper Hospital. Several other people, Happ said, were injured by flying glass or other debris.

They were treated and released. A nine-mile segment of Kansas 2 between Anthony and Harper and a 12-mile stretch of the K-2 west of Anthony were closed for traffic control, said a dispatcher in the Wichita division of the Kansas Highway Patrol. IUP to charter new fraternity Phi Delta Theta International Fraternity will open a new chapter at Indiana University of Pennsylvania with an opening ceremony and a celebration banquet Sept. 15. Phi Delts, their families and friends will gather from throughout the country for a ceremony at the Newman Center at noon, followed by a banquet at the University Inn at 5 p.m.

This is the first Phi Delta Theta chapter to be chartered in Pennsylvania in 66 years. The fraternity was founded at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, on Dec. 26,1848. -AUDITOR SWORN IN Indiana County Judges W. Parker Ruddock, left, and Robert C.

Earley are shown swearing in Samuel J. Kelly as Indiana County auditor. Kelly was sworn into office yesterday at the to fill the unexpired term of Ralph Hill, who resigned that position. The term expires Dec. 31, '1988.

(Gazette photo by Bechtel) HARRISBURG (AP) The winning number Wednesday in the Pennsylvania Dally Lottery was 0-87. HARRISBURG (AP) The winning number Wednesday in the Pennsylvania Big Four was 7-8-2-7. NEW YORK (AP) Stocks: AMRCorp AlcanAlum AlcoStand AllaahCp Allaghintl Allao. Pw Alcoa Am Cyan Amarltach Am AmtrTfcT Armcolnc Aureo Ine AtlRlchlld BtllAtUnn BellSouth Banaf 1 Cp BethStMl BoroWrn Bruniwck i CBS Cluvron Chrysler Colum Gat Comiat 10:30 Lett 80ft 28ft 35 W. KW4 72ft VA 19 74ft 19 2CH4 3414 28ft a.m.

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