The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 1

A ATLANT in MORNING STREET EDITION For 113 Years the South' Standard Newspaper TWENTY-FIVE CENTS; (Higher Outside Retail Trade Zone) 62 PAGES, 4 SECTIONS ATLANTA, GAL 30302, FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 1982 VOL. 1 14, NO. 149 P.O. BOX 4689 Grows On Outages TZZ State Patrol Warns Atlanta Drivers Of Week's Worst Road Conditions -1 4-l Hit Macon, LaGrange i Bruises, sprains and fractures from slipping on icy sidewalks have been the most common injuries treated ia Gradys emergency room Page 1-R 'The snow has shut down most ot Georgia's poultry processing plants, causing a sharp rise In the price of broilers. Page 1-C Wednesday's ice storm caused power outages across central Georgia and sent teams of Georgia Power workers scurrying to repair fallen lines.

Page 1-C By Sharon Bailey and Sam Hopkins Constitution Staff Writtn Yon thought the worst was over? Think again. Snowbound Atlantans may face the worst driving conditions of the week when they get up Friday, the Georgia State Patrol warned Thursday, -4 Another inch of snow and sleet pounded the city, early Thursday, adding to a compacted 5.3 inches that had already turned Atlanta into one huge skating rink. Skies were expected to clear Thursday night but temperatures were expected to plunge to the mid-teens a hard freeze that could transform slush on city streets back into a treacherous glaze. "There will be more raw danger for motorists by Friday morning than at any time during this storm period," State Patrol spokesman Bill Wilson predicted Thursday. i ,.) f- Wilson said motorists may be tempted to drive faster Friday increasing the risk of skids and accidents because roads'may appear to be clear when in fact they are sheeted with ice.

Even so, State Patrol officials reported no major traffic pileups on Atlanta-area Staff Photoi-Billr Downs The Mail Gets Through At Least Along This DeKalb.Roule iui.iumjj.. i Hum jjhim f.i tm u.1.11 iiiii. .1 j.wi 4 i By Scott Thurston and CellaW. Dagger ComtltutiM Staff Writtr As many as 10,000 residents of La-Grange were without power Thursday, and officials of the west Georgia town on the Alabama line were hoping Thursday night that power lines restored earlier in the day-would not refreeze and fall again. Meanwhile, some 14,000 residents in Macon were without power; and Maco-nites were staying off icy streets.

The National Weather Service issued a travel advisory for Macon's 14-county area that lasted through Thursday night. Area schools were closed Thursday, although public buses continued to run. Meteorologist Terry Murphy in Atlanta said temperatures in Macon were expected to drop into the low 20s Thursday night "Anything on the street after dark will freeze." "Wednesday night and Thursday morning as many as 30,000 Macon residents were without electricity. Civil Defense, which had 13 shelters ready to open, decided not to use them, and will not unless the city gets much colder. Mayor George Israel called a press conference Thursday to ask area residents to avoid driving unless absolutely necessary.

He said the icy road condi- tions, as well as falling trees and tree limbs, made the streets "extremely dan-' gerous. I had a pretty close call myself with a ailing tree." a la LaGrange, assistant City Manager John Bell said utility repair crews were making "some headway" Thursday, but that "it will take us a big break from the weather tonight (Thursday) to give us much chance of restoring power to many homes. We worked all day Wednesday See GEORGIA, Page l-A. I 1 Wilcox Is Given Life In Slaying mm 1 New Storm Aims Blast At Midwest Aitoclattd Prn photoi Park Service Helicopter Crew Pulls In Survivors From The Icy Potomac i 'i i -r i i i. -1 4 1 i Tve Never Seen A Person Give Siich A Commitment9, 1 i Lowndes Jury Confers Less Than Two Hours By Bob Dart Contitutlon Staff Writer A decade-old mystery climaxed.

Thursday as Keller Wilcox was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Hellen Hanks, the attractive bookkeeper who vanished from her job at the Wilcox family business in 1972 and whose bones were unearthed by a plow in 1980. "Thank God for that chisel plow," said a tearful Herman Griffin, the dead woman's twin brother, after the verdict was announced. "People said the Wilcox money would buy him off, but it didn't do it I want to see him go to prison now." "It never occurred to me that the jury would find him said Foxy Wilcox, the convicted murderer's 73-year-old father. "Because he isn't" "I feel that justice was done," said Lamar Cole, district attorney of Lowndes County. It took Just under two hours for the jury -eight women, four men; 10 whites, two blacks to reach its verdict on Keller Wilcox, a handsome young businessman here and a member of an aristo- cratic old Valdosta family.

Wearing a tan suit the 31-year-old Wilcox showed no emotion as he stood and. heard the decision: guilty of murder and guilty of concealing death. Asked by Judge Roy Lilly if he had anything to Wilcox replied, "No, sir." "You know, that just kills me," said Hyta Plow-. den Mederer, Keller Wilcox's spunky aunt who wore 1 a fur coat to the trial, as a deputy led him off in handcuffs later. "They don't have to handle him that rough." The case has enlivened gossip in this south Georgia town ever since Mrs.

Hanks, the 35-year-old mother of three children, disappeared from her job '-at the Wilcox family advertising business on Aug. 31, 1972. Her dismembered remains were discovered 1 in November 19S0 when a farmer's chisel plow hit a buried box a container for the Wilcox family firm's billboard poster paper which had become her makeshift coffin. -r If the box had been buried six inches deeper; the farmer testified in the two-week-long trial, the deep-furrowing chisel plow would have passed over it and the remains of Hellen Hanks "would still be After Keller Wilcox had been taken to' the Lowndes County jail Thursday morning, Wilby Coleman one of his defense lawyers said the ver-" diet would be appealed and that appeal bond would be sought to get Wilcox out of prison. He said the process would probably take at least two weeks.

-V: "He's stunned," Coleman said of his client "You can imagine how he's taking it I know I would be scared if this had happened to me." Coleman, who is married to Keller Wilcox's first cousin, said the verdict shocked him, too. "I can't conceive cf how it was arrived at" he said. I review it in my mind, I can't think of any bit of evidence" that pointed conclusively to the guilt of Keller Wilcox, Coleman said after the verdict was read. He had assisted in a defense team led See WILCOX, Page 17-A Park Police crewman who helped drag the five to safety. "You see people really battered and torn.

You are steeled to it to some extent But I don't mind telling you that when I was relaying the -information about the gentleman who was lost the tears came. They really did because he was very deserving of ifl think." i "I've never seen a person give such a commitment as he did. He gave the ultimate." President Reagan, in New York to speak to a business group, bailed the courage of the still unidentified man and said, "We don't know who he is because he gave his life doing "Greater glory hath no the preside SURVIVORS, Page Z-A From Prtu Dlipalchn WASHINGTON There he was, a bald, middle-aged man, clinging to the severed tail of an Air Florida 737 jetliner along with five other dazed and benumbed survivors of Wednesday's crash, waiting as a U.S. Park Police helicopter let down flotation rings and a rope to pull them from the ice-choked Potomac River. And each time a rescue line was dropped to him, he banded it over to a fellow survivor until he slipped beneath the surface of the river.

"I am a paramedic and you see disaster on almost a daily basis," said Gene Windsor, a Frwn Prtn Dlmtchts A new round of winter storms stunned the Midwest and East Thursday, plunging temperatures back below zero and dropping a fresh layer of snow, while the South reeled under a third straight day of. snow and ice that coated highways and power lines. i' At least 211 deaths have been blamed on the weather since an onslaught of successive storms last weekend pushed tern- -peratures to the lowest of the century. The snowstorm that pelted parts of the South with the highest accumulations in nearly a half-century regrouped for an assault on East Coast states. The storm began its attack on New York City late Thursday.

New snows from 3 to 6 inches were forecast on top of up to 7 inches of snow that hit late Wednesday. Western Massachusetts was warned to expected "near blizzard" conditions and up to a foot of new snow on top of the 9 inches that fell Easterners, especially in southeastern New England, braced for the worst one looks like a big storm with gale winds and considerable blowing and drifting snow expected," said a National Weather Service spokesman. Snow fell as far south as north Florida on Thursday, but southern portions of the state were deluged by thunderstorms and winds whipping up to 60 mph. A tornado cut a path a mile long and 100 yards wide in Fort Myers, causing an estimated $300,000 in damages to homes. No serious injuries were reported.

Bitterly cold temperatures stung the upper Midwest where the mercury lunged to a record 16-below zero at taverse City, and to 28 below in St Cloud, Minn. See NATION, Page l-A A lIKf Jill lliilll i mwf msmmai Air Crash Death Toll Set At.7i8 By Cheryl Arvidson Constilulion Waihlngton Bureau WASHINGTON Authorities constructed a pontoon platform Thursday and used marker buoys to section off an area where military divers will concentrate their search for the victims aboard an Air Florida jet that struck a bridge on takeoff Wednesday and plunged into the ice-covered Potomac River, killing 74 of 79 passengers and crew. The presumed death toll for the crash stood at 78 Thursday, Including four motorists whose automobiles were struck by the plane. Two of the motorists died Thursday afternoon. District of Columbia police said a team of 19 Army and Coast Guard divers made their first grisly journey beneath the ice late Thurs-' day afternoon in hopes of coming 'up' with a' plan to raise the wreckage and recover more than 60 bodies believed to be still in the The divers wore special "dry suits" that will See CRASH, Page 2-A Busbee Proposes $3,777 Billion Budget Inside By Beai Cutti ContlltutlM Staff Wrllar -) Legislation to abolish the state's vehicle inspection prp gram Is approved by the state House.

Page 16-A. GtyState '-'C A bill is introduced In th rural Assembly which would require the Fulton County Commission chairman to run for election countywide. Page 16-A. Business President Reagan promises the recession will end "faster than Page 1-C. Ford decides that It will not pay dividends to its stockholders for the first i three months of 1982.

Page 1-C Sports The Georgia Bulldog basketball team overcomes travel problems and a Mississippi State slowdown for 26-20 Southeastern Conference victory. Page 1 5-B 7-C Doonesbury. Movies. V. 8-B Bridge.

9-B Comics. 9-B Editorials. 4-A Newsmakers. 2-B 1-C Crossword. 9-B Graham.

5-B Sports 1-D i To Our Readers This morning's Constitution was produced on a schedule of early editions due to winter storm condi-. tions throughout Georgia. The weather was also delaying delivery, of the paper to some subscribers. Subscribers will receive their papers as soon as weather conditions permit "Our goal is to get the paper to everyone, and if we have to deliver them with today's delivery, or tomorrow's delivery, then we'll do that," Tom Giuffrida, circulation director, said. George Busbee, offering the last budget address of his two terms as governor, Thursday proposed spending an historic high of 33.777 billion for the fiscal year beginning July 1..

"My No. 1 priority at this session," Busbee declared during a joint meeting of the Georgia House and Senate, "is to provide sufficient funds and necessary changes in law to empty our 140 county jails of all convicted felons who should be in our task, however, will be difficult, he said, "since our prisons are full and the three new prisons opening between now and next December will not provide sufficient space to empty the jails and take all newly sentenced prisoners IS days after the state receives formal notice of pickup." Continuing a backlog of convicted felons in county jails means that "local property owners are, in effect subsidizing the upkeep of state prisoners," he said. Busfce told the legislators: "If you pass the JHis-million Offender Rehabilitation budget I have proposed (fiscal) 1983, It will represent a spending level seven and a half times greater than it was In 1971." The governor then issued an lnterssting statistical report "on Georgia's rate of incarceration. "Among all nations," he; said, "the Soviet Union and the Union of Sonth Africa imprison the greatest proportion of their citizens. Not only does Georgia'' lead all other states in locking up our citizens, but we put be-" hind bars a greater proportion than either the Soviet Union or South Africa.

In short there Isn't another government on the' face of the globe that locks up more people thn we do." Overall, Busbee's spending proposals would be an increase -of 7.2 percent over the current fiscal year's budget including-amendments expected during this legislative session. i See BUDGET, Page 20-A Gumver.X''..'4-A 11-B.