The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 3

Sunday, August 12, 19S4Part I 3 i 1 Coa Anflclea limes Escaped Killer Still at Large r.d!iai.WivrridiHitf-w,i.i Ranch Landscape Clouded in Fear By JOHN HURST, Times Stafl Writer CSS burgh's father five years ago escaped from Folsom Prison Aug. 2 and is at large. He is the first convict to break out of the maximum-security state prison in 15 years. Stephen Leslie Wilson came to the Owens Valley from the San Diego area in the mid 1970s to manage the Olancha Mill which produces industrial talc. Wilson was about 30 when he arrived in the valley.

Blond, with a round baby face, he is short, but powerfully built and extraordinarily strong. He is a weightlifter, a physical fitness fanatic and is reputed to be a martial arts expert. Offi IAN DRYDEN Los Angeles Times Alford Garcia "I'd been out of work since last February. I was working at a parking lot. I hadn't been able to find anything since I got laid off.

My cousin told me about this. It was a job. I took it." ELLEN JASKOL Los Angeles Times Julia Wark: "I was the last employee to leave the Olympics office in 1 933. 1 was the one that turned the key in the door for the final time. Now here I am again.

Isn't this fantastic? Isn't this wonderful?" IAN DRYDEN Los Angeles Times Sonja Herman: "You see, a lot of us old ladies don't want jazz to die. we're raising money for scholarships to send kids to college to learn the music and to keep playing it long after I'm gone." Golden Moment to Remember For Olympic Workers, It Was Special a Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity A Fleeting By AL MARTINEZ, Times Staff Writer Lisa Nichols remembers that she had just turned away from the starting blocks when the cheering began. She paused, looked around to see what was happening and then it hit her. "My God," she whispered, "they're cheering for me" And so they were. Spectators at the XXIII Olympiad, swept up by the whole grand immensity of the Games, were cheering for the young women who, in baskets hooked over their arms, were carrying the sweat suits of the athletes away from the starting blocks minutes before a sprint was to begin.

Lisa Nichols, 18, a volunteer, will hear the cheers for the rest of her life. "They were telling us that we weren't just little side people," she was saying a day later, still charged with the energy from that moment when she looked up at the massed colors of an international audience and realized that the applause was town near Fort Lauderdale, Fla. But unlike Lisa, who will pursue track at a college in Oregon, he realized as his grade school years were drawing to a close that he would never be a world-class competitor. Nichols is absolutely convinced that she will be in the 1988 Olympics. Merlo knows he won't be.

"I was good," he said, leaning over an old upright vacuum cleaner in a warm-up gym at UCLA's Olympic Village, "but I wasn't that good." He is a handsome young man of 20 with the physique of an athlete. "Maybe if I'd had the right coach, maybe if they had taught me how to train, just maybe. Merlo always knew that he wanted to attend a college in California, and then when he heard the Olympics would be held in Los Angeles, he was convinced of it. "I came out here still not knowing exactly where I'd be going to school," he said, "but I knew, I just knew, I'd be working for the Olympics." Please see WORKERS, Page 22 other Olympics will be measured by. Others felt that by selling peanuts on the day Carl Lewis won his third gold medal or by ushering crowds to their seats on the day diver Greg Louganis stopped hearts, they were as close to greatness as they might ever be.

"Do you realize," Lisa Nichols said in the hushed manner of a child discovering the sky, "Evelyn Ashford now knows who am." They applied for jobs as paid workers or volunteers for different reasons. For Bill Merlo, a business student at USC, it was to just be near the great athletes of the world, and to all the things that might have been. Like Lisa Nichols, Merlo was a track star in high school. He set records in half a dozen events in a for her. "They were telling us we counted." She shook her head in wonder as she sat in a supply building just outside the Coliseum.

Nearby were neatly stacked rows of crossbars for the high -jumping equipment and thick mats to cushion the pole-vaulters. "It makes me feel special," she said. "It makes me feel proud. Lisa Nichols, a high school track star, is part of an army of 65,000 workers, both volunteers and paid personnel, who have made the Summer Games by many estimates as much a celebration of labor as a gathering of champions. They are students and retirees.

Some are unemployed and others are professionals. Some gave up vacations and some sacrificed better-paying jobs to be a part of what they consider the Olympics that all If you are a freeway commuter, use this map to locate Olympic events that could add to freeway congestion today. Use beginning and ending times of events to estimate whether your trip could be slowed by spectator traffic on adjoining freeways before or after the events. OLANCHA, Thornburgh nudged her sorrel horse alongside the cattle, forcing the bawling animals through a gate. Slender and deeply tanned, the 25-year-old woman moved with the easy grace and gentleness that people who work with big animals often have.

Like her father before he was murdered Tracy Thornburgh is an expert with horses. She makes her living as a trainer of colts and as a cowhand. The cattle mooed their protests as they were herded toward a small corral where a cowboy waited to spray them with a fly-killer solution. As the cattle approached the Stephen Leslie Wilson "can make you think he's the nicest guy in the world," said a source close to the Thornburgh family. pen, the cowboy ducked his head behind his wide-brimmed hat, turning his face away from the animals.

"You have to turn your back on them so they don't see your face," he explained. "They're scared to death of humans." The cattle aren't the only ones who are afraid in this remote Owens Valley ranching community of 100 people. Tracy Thornburgh, despite her appearance of self-assurance and ease astride her horse, is frightened. So are her relatives and friends. Some have armed themselves and are waiting with apprehension.

They are afraid because the man who murdered Tracy Thorn- The Top 30 Pupils? List By DAVID G. SAVAGE, Times Education Writer What are the 10 books that all high school students should be familiar with? William J. Bennett, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, had often asked that question of friends, and intrigued by the responses, he recently sent a letter to hundreds of educators, authors, businessmen and politicians asking for their recommendations. After getting replies from 300 people many enthusiastic, some anxious over their choices and a few angry over the idea of making such a list Bennett and the endowment staff decided to release the list of 30 works that were selected most often. "I think it's interesting that when you ask people to choose, they do have a clear sense of what's worth reading," Bennett said.

"The same works kept showing up on almost all the lists. Personal View "My view is that the first 10 (books) could make a good reading list. But so could the second 10 and the third 10 or any 10 on the list." Though Bennett added what he called the "obligatory caveat" that his was in no way a "federally recommended curriculum," his effort was criticized last week by the National Council of Teachers of English. The group, in a statement issued Monday, questioned whether there is a "common body of literature" that is appropriate for all U.S. students.

Rather than defining a list of the best books available, teachers should urge students to "read widely in the literatures of their own cultures and regions, from the pluralistic American experience and from the world' at large," the council said. "We were concerned that the traditional canon tends to rule out works by women and by blacks and Chicanos," said James E. Miller, chairman of English Department at the University of Chicago and head of the council's panel on reforming English instruction. "We were aware of his (Bennett's) list and they are good books to read. But for teachers confronted with inner-city students, you don't just fling Shakespeare at them." Bennett's "emphasis on Western literature above everything else" was also criticized for "promoting a false concept of superiority and a narrow view of human experience" by Rosentene Purnell, head of the Pan -African Studies Writing Program at California State University.

Northridge, and another mem- cials say he possesses a pilot's license and the ability to speak Spanish fluently. He is also said to possess an outsized ego and a white-hot temper. Divorced before his ar rival in Olancha, Wilson was the father of a school-age boy who sometimes stayed with him. At the talc mill. Terrv McRob- erts, who worked under Wilson and now manages the operation, said his former boss wasn't hard to get along with, but liked to demonstrate his strength by picking up fellow workers in one hand.

Despite his boastfulness and violent temper, Wilson could be very likable and had no criminal history. "He can make you think he's the nicest guy in the world," said a source close to the Thornburgh family who asked not to be named. Calli Thornburgh, four years older than her sister Tracy, thought Wilson was a nice enough guy to marry him in 1978. But the marriage came apart within months. Please see RANCHERS, Page 12 Books for Draws Fire Well-Read Students: The Top 30 Books According to the National Endowment for the Humanities, these are the books that educators, businessmen, politicians and journalists believe that high school students should read.

They are listed by percentage of responses. Book Percent Macbeth, Hamlet Shakespeare 71 American historical documents (particularly the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Gettysburg Address) 50 Huckleberry Finn Mark 49 Bible 48 Odyssey, Iliad Homer 28 Great Expectations, Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens 26 The Republic Plato 21 GrapesofWrath John Steinbeck 19 Scarlet Letter Hawthorne 17 Oedipus Sophocles 17 Moby Dick Herman Melville 13 1984 George Orwell 13 Walden Henry David Thoreau 13 Collected poems Robert Frost 12 Leavesof Grass Walt Whitman ..11 Great Gatsby F.Scott 9 Canterbury Tales Chaucer 9 Communist Manifesto Karl 9 Politics Aristotle 9 Collected poems Emily Dickinson 7 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 7 Collected works William Faulkner 7 Catcher in the Rye J.D.Salinger... 7 Democracy in America Alexis deTocqueville 7 Pride and Prejudice Jane 6 Essays Ralph W.Emerson 6 The Prince NkxoloMachiavelli .6 Paradise Lost John Milton 6 WarandPeece Leo Tolstoy 6 Aeneid Virgil 5 ber of the council panel. "I think he comes from a different time, when the student body was more monolithic. I see a great danger in emphasizing one body of literature over another," Purnell said.

She added that she would urge students to read such works as "The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass" and the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks, along with Latino, African, Japanese and Chinese literature. In reply, Bennett emphasized that the choices were not his but came from "a very diverse group of Americans." "I wish George Eliot were on the list; she happens to be my favorite novelist. And I think I would have included (Martin Luther King's) 'Letter From a Birmingham he said. However, he disputed the notion that Western civilization was simply one among many to be taught in American schools. "The Western tradition is, after Please see BOOKS, Page 17 Van Nuys OX Glendaleli X.

I iu .1 Pasadena Nk FfS FOOTHILL Hollywood- XV Park VP. Alhambra gftN BERNARDINO Civic'X el" SJ hwy OA Westwood Center CI A.A- West SANTA MONICA FWY 17 -'S Covina fio3C MontebelloW" "Jtfi vlnglewood i 5 cj Whittier "1 South Ji co lax'" Gate orange CO HawthorneJ 5 I I Vf Fullerton I Carson A AnaheimX Rancho GdengR0V tPU. San Ly Beach Ana Kiss' S3 Ban aaaaauau. DON CLEMENT Los Angeles Times 1 CoHum Sports Arena: Diving, 1 1 a.m.- 1 p.m.. Track and Field, p.m.; Closing Ceremony, p.m.

2 Santa Monica: Start of Men's Marathon at Santa Monica College, 5 p.m., through Santa Monica, along Ocean and Pacific avenues to Venice, through Marina del Rey to Marina Freeway, to Jefferson Boulevard, Rodeo Road and Exposition Boulevard to Coliseum, during Closing Ceremony. 3 Santa Anita: Equestrian, 7 a.m. -2 p.m. MARY FRAMPTON Los Angeles Times Joe Salas, 1924 silver medalist, watches Gonzales accept. Barrios Turn Red, White, Blue and Gold for Gonzales By GEORGE RAMOS, Times Staff Writer The predominantly Latino barrios of Los Angeles' Eastside went red, white, blue and gold Saturday over the Olympic victory by gang-member-turned-boxer Paul Gonzales, who was taught to fight in the ring in the basement of the Hollenbeck Division police station in Boyle Heights.

Never mind that Gonzales' opponent in the 106-pound division, Salvatore Todisco of Italy, had an injured hand and could not box, thus giving the 20-year-old kid from the tough Aliso Village housing project the gold medal by default. "A win is a win," said one Gonzales admirer in Spanish. "And gold is gold." Gonzales' mother, Anita, was escorted to the Sports Arena, the boxing venue, in a Los Angeles police car, proudly saying, "My hijo (son) won the gold medal. A caravan of brightly painted cars, festooned with U.S. flags trimmed in gold, honked their way down City Terrace Drive in the late -morning sun.

Shouts of "Viva Paul!" and "Viva gold medal!" from passers-by greeted the procession. '24 Medalist Watches At his El Sereno home, Joe Salas, 80, the first Latino to be a member of a U.S. Olympic team, watched his TV set with pride as Gonzales was awarded the coveted medal. Said Salas, who won a silver medal in boxing at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris: "He earned it." The Eastside pride was no greater than that at the Hollenbeck Youth Center, where Gonzales got a noisy reception in the afternoon when he came by to show off the gold medal, the first ever to be won in Olympic boxing competition by a U.S. Latino, and to sign autographs.

(Three other Latinos on this year's U.S. Olympic team have won gold medals so far as members of first-place teams swimmers Dara Torres, Pablo Morales and Tracie Ruiz. It was at the youth center where Los Angeles police Officer Al Stankie turned Gonzales from a street brawler into a polished boxer. "People thought I was going to end up behind bars," he said. "But I didn't.

My dream for the gold has come true." Please see BARRIOS, Page 26 MONICA ALMEIDA Los Angeles Times To the victors American swim team Olympic gold medal winners Rowdy Gaines, left, and Steve Lunquist display their medals and sign autographs for fans at Exposition Park..