New Pittsburgh Courier from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 3

Convicted ot Murde rt mmm mm II man Finally Is Heed jj (. 5 1 in Ml (i I II WZDOM FOt HATTY TJrir Flanked by bit attorneys, Harvey Moor (loft) and Edward B. Meridith (right), Reginald O. Driver, 3j.year old Ewing Township, carpenter, beams happily at ha Uavi avat Did 14 Months of life Term Before Injustice Uncovered By BOB QUEEN TRENTON. N.

J. The fantastic story of how a man convicted of murder by a jury and sentenced to Lfe imprisonment oa June 2. Idol, walked from behind the grim walls of the New Jersey State Prison 14 Tmontns later, a free man, Is a documented history of unsavory police tactics and Just how deep into difficulties in law troubles can immerse one. Reginald O. Driver, 33 year old Ewtng Township carpenter, who was freed of the charge on Aug.

24. has felt both aides of famed "Jersey justice," the sting of Its unrelenting prosecution against of fenders, and the alertness of its Supreme Court in determining certain methods used by the protection as Charged with being one of tha participants in the robbery sbrjrmg of Jacob Mayer, an A store manager, in 1958. Drtvar release on his own jtoogaizanc after his first year of "lifetirne" prison, pending a formal dismissal on Sept 10. brings tnto focus the guuettiuet cruel side of Jus tv that which leans more toward mjustloB. Tha almost believe it or not situation stands as follows: Convicted on ctrcumstantial evidence and alleged "confessions," and a new trial ordered or the Supreme Court last Juno 17.

the Mercer County Prosecutor's office threw in tha towel by admitting that it Aid not have "sufficient" evidence to obtain a second con etadoa. Tat all of Am evidence, plus the eunfrsstnnt, against Driver fa his Hay. 1N1 trial waa thea tenTkteat for a Jury of nine stea aad tares nomcm to find htm guilty within minutes of oeUbrrktioa! Consider, too. that Driver was not charged with commission of the actual murder, but cited as driving the get away car. A brother in law, who fled the Jurisdiction when Driver was arrested, is charged with the slaying, and an alleged "third man" is still unidentified.

Even more bizarre, is the fact that Driver's conviction appears to be more as the result of a feud with his estranged wife and mother in law for one of the points cited In the Supreme Court's order was that Driver was questioned by Trenton detectives on 18 separate occasions while serving six months in the Mercer County workhouse for 'an assault upon his wife and jnother tn la w. Aaathrr incredible bit of Vridesce" wan the playing oT tape recording of Driver's Taioa, take white the machine planted ander work seek daring an mtrrro The voice re was a poor that eserl stenographers were un aoks to transaribe the words. AaMtfcae an racordlne of a tna New Jersey Stat Prison at Trtnton, NJ? after serving 14 months of a lifa sentence on a robbary murdar conviction. Driver was ralaaiad afar tha Suprama Court ordarad a naw trial. conversation between Driver's mother in law and Hamilton Township Police Captain John Bojarski.

in which she accused him of "confessing" the murder, also figured in the state's case. So dear cut was this link that during the cross examination of hi wife's mother, Mrs. Mattie Scott, his couseJ. Her vvy Moore, asked her if the had on one occasion dashed ir.to the middle of New Trent Trenton, and shouted words to the effect that she was going to "put the noose around Buddy's (Drivers) neck." if she had to do it her if. Mrs.

Scott denied the al legation on the stand. But Drivers troubles was the brew stemming from the Holy Day of Good Friday, 1958. when a robbery slaying that bore the earmarks of old pro heisters, rather than any combination of small timers. the Trenton area cora munityv Arriving at Ms home that evening after dotting the South Broad St. A A market he managed, Mayer waa accosted hv a frV of mm.

(rmtira 4. auction), and forced to return to the store and open the door. Inside they forced him to open the safe and hand over approximately $110. Then binding his eye and month with tape, Mayer waa driven to a lonely spot near Carnegie Lake. Princeton, and dumped Into the Delaware and Barttan Canal which flows alongside.

The burned out kidnap car waa found two daya after the crime, and Mayer's body wa.int found antil six days later. A widespread mam rant was on. Even at this early date, it is apparent that Driver's domestic troubles drew him into the line of suspicion, for he had not been under any consideration until Hamilton Township police received a phone tap from a woman who identified herself as Mrs. Dorothy Driver, wife of the defendant This was in June, 1958, and the testimony regarding the phone tip was ruled out of the trial testimony. Also questioned following the phone tip, along with Driver, was his brother in law.

David Mills. Mills was married to Driver's sister. Thelma, and besides possessing somewhat of a police record, was having domestic troubles of his own. Both were released after several days of the 1953 questioning on the Mayer slaying, and both had been involved in previous trouble together. FoOce still pursued the May er Investigation, and the next time Driver was called In, was following a statement by his mother4n Uw In inly, Mrs.

Scott made the police station visit while Driver was incarcerated In the workhouse, doing time for the assault upon her and his wife. In the ntima. brother in law Dav id was being sought for Jumping $2,500 bail and faced sentencing on a charge of neglect and abandonment of his children, when the newspaper stories involving Driver and the mention of his name as a suspect, broke, Mills became more missing than ever he has until this date, virtually vanished into thin air. The testimony by Mrs. Scott at her son in iaw's trial told of his alleged "confession' to her In an East Trenton bar on Dee.

39. ISM, but It wasn't until after Driver had been committed on the assault charges in 1959. that she bothered to volunteer the Infosmation. Under cross examination by Edward Meredith, associate defense counsel, Mrs. Scott had vague, or no memory of who else or how many were in the place, or other details about activities in the tavern at the time.

It was a tape recording of her talk to police that was used as part of the "evidence." At the workhouse, it was pointed out by Driver's defense, he was questioned on one occasion from 6 PAL in the ev iLig. urtU 5 30 AM, the next morning. The prosecution, under First Assistant Prosecutor John J. Barry, attempted to "prove" that Driver had spent an "excessive" amount of money just after the Mayer robbery, and hinted that he had received approximately $2,500 of the loot, with Mills and the atill unknown "No. 3 man." splitting the rest.

When Detectives Bojarski listed Driver's expenditure's against his income, defense counsel retaliated by showing that the "excess" didn't exceed $350. Driver, in his own testimony stated that he was refused an attorney while being questioned at Hamilton Township, was struck and cursed at, and that everytime he denied any part in the crime, was told to "shut up." He vehemently denied making any statement to his mother in law. CoL Frank HarUeroad, Mer cer County workhouse warden, offered records showing the tea and times that Driver waa questioned by police while an Inmate 136 hours, on St separate dates. The "confessions, the high court noted, were unsigned. Girl, 11, Cheats Tetanus Death CHICAGO (ANP) Though still in danger, an 11 year old Negro girl is responding to treatment after narrowly es caping death from tentanus.

If she recovers completely. Patricia Bailey of Gary, will become the third tetanus victim in recent month to owe her life to a borrowed decompression chamber at St James Hospital, Chi caeo Heichts. Law 'fe' 1 i a safjfc ni 'i "i JaLsaatamaaaaataannassssBBaanaannn IEST ORATOI Robert E. Dardan Jr. of Dtrden, Nathan J.

King JrH Naw Orlaan. Nathville, was winner of tha 1962' assistant grand director public rela Elks oratorical contest. Left to right: tions, and Grand Exalted Ruler Hobson Grand Director of Education Lt. Georga Reynolds. W.

Lee. Daughter Ruler Nattia B. Smith. an the ED Up to By WILLIAM G. NN (Courier Editor) DETROIT.

Mich. I'm not sold 100 per cent yet because it appears too good to be true! But there was a feeling here at the 63rd annual convention of the IBPOti of that this grand old fraternal order Is on the way bark. Cobo Hail, where the sessions were held, is a giant building octopus (construction cost Sod.OOO.OOOi where four groups, were meeting at one time where meeting halls can handle from 500 to 30,000 people. Crrdinarily, a convention is NOT the place to render a considered judgment But it's a human weather vane, indicating what's ahead fair weather or foul: What the writer has viewed here in' 1962. is a corV.itioned maturity of thought and action; at total variam with Elk conventions of the immediate past For 10 long years through circumstances which the lodge allowed to grow through its own inertia Elkdom.

struggled to survive one death blow after another. Bat today, it appears to haw shragged off the clammy hand of doom. The convention 1962 version has accepted the challenge of the confused, distorted period in which we live. The national figures who were progratnnied the frauea nnder discussion the programs proposed all organization. He needs a re of these thing helped to focus vitalized youth (program, and on an organisation with a pur he intends to do something pose.

There was a significant about it. blending of youth and i He's pulling young men What Happened in Detroit As Elks Met for 63rd Time DETROIT. Mich. One big event followed another in rap id sccrkfl. the Elks nvet.

here, last week. More than 1.000 Elks registered (S60 each), while women delegates numbered in excess of 1.300. Cobo Hall's cost for the week of activities was $7,000. A minimum of 23 booths S350 per booth), plus a spectacular brochure (gross advertising worth over $16,000 helped to make the convention profitable for the local lodges and temples, which underwrote the local cost. Ulysses Bov kin was engaged to do the leg work, under the chairmanship of John H.

Burns. Thev did a beautiful Job. Elks headquarters 1 Pick Fort Shelby buzzed with delegates, but other hostelries did landslide business, too. They Included Fort vyne. Gotham, Sheraton Cadillac (where Grand Lodge officers stayed), Sutler Hilton.

Tuller. Leland. Milner and Diplomat Motel. Two of the busiest men at the conven Hon were Dully An the perpetual admini strative assistant to Hobson ReraokK snd SUver maned Charles P. McTbvne, Grand Di rector of Public Relations Bill Graham, now managing partner with the multi million dollar United Housing Associates, Is the big man behind the scenes fn working out the Elks hoaslng project.

His partner, Jack MaaneUy, also, wss on the There oughtta be a law against the Invasion of these pseudo photographers and picture bugs, who overflow the convention, annually Understand that additional help had to be called In to feed the delegates. Most dynamic Individual to grab the microphone and "lift" ipie of boundless enerar and re strained wisdom of unity between The Grand Lodge and The Grand Temple. Once again, educators, the clergy," lawyers, doctors have joined to give of their hearts and their talents, for the good of the order. It's a throwback to the days of yesteryear. Chief Architect and Master Builder of this "new purpoxe" which wems to be both a spiritual and physical is Hobxm It.

Keynolds, Grand Exalted Kuler since I9ti0. He was re elwted Wednesdsy morning. Reynolds, a human dynamo, has almost single handedly breathed the park of his own genius into Elkdom. Some of his mi porters insist this native North Carolina's ruliing hills was born to assume the goM auountre mentis of the oflne he now holds. Reynolds is dedicated, determined, objective and ruth low, hen the occaftion demands lt To him, Elkdom is the ship, and all else the He knows what he wants.

He allows nothing to stand in his way. He's come a long way back but there's still a lot of work to be done. No one knows this better than Hobson Reynolds. His zeal is only surpassed by his vision. He recognized inherent weaknesses in the structure of the the convention as New Orleans' Ernest J.

Wright. Cur TrTitly nK liufled with the Teamsters Union, the former Courier columnist, Michigan trained graduate, and Cincinnati employed genius, easily could become a pillar of the organization. Watch out tot him! It was good to learn that another Courier "graduate," Randy Dixon, is the new editor of ELKS NEWS that Collins George, former Courier DeTroit editor, is returning, this week, to his post as music critic for the Detroit Free Press that former Courier ite. AI Dunmore, now is handling the Chronicle's news desk. That former Courier column Lst.

Grayce Saddler, is getting paid by a local dallv that former Courier head. Ernti Durham, now is recognized as this city's outstanding radio disiTjockeyr. and that form er Couiierite, Norman E. Jones tfrom the Tampa St. Petersburg area), still is in the newspaper field.

Death of Clarence Jackson, Columbus. Ohio, at the convention, last Wednesdav victim of a heart attack was' a sad note. BOSTON gets the 1963 convention, and loop hotels in Chicago are vying for 1965, RIGHT Delegates to the convention were amaaed at the change In Detroit's appearance In recent years the demise of Paradise Valley; the new entertainment spot (30 Grand) the removal of home and bus! nesse In the vicinity of Harper Hospital, right across from the Gotham. Of more Importance, however, are the healthy slacks of greenbacks John White and Eddie Cummlngs got for their properties. It's an amazing revelation, 'Hob'! from the far west and from the south Into the organization, and i giving them status and responsibility.

His cry irom coast tocoast: "Attract our young peopu and let them do something!" There are several departments which must be stivamlined and modernized. He knows' these departments, and knows what must be done. He'll not make friends when he moves into Ihene fields but he knows that efficiency is necessary to maintain and perpetuate the order. He's modernlxlnc the heart of the'organization, the auditing and clerical work. He's insisting that the order" place greater emphasis on a Career Guidance program, and look the first Important step in this direction at the convention when General ElecTic was given the Equal Opportunity Employment Award.

He's committed to an Elks Retirement Center, and. along with United Housing Associates, is well along on plans to build a $12,500.00 housing project some 40 miles south of Los Angeles, in the beautiful San Fernando Valley. He recognizes the need to make an adjustment betwen the glamorous and spectacular and the serious and profound. The 1962 program was well planned, well balanced, thought provoking inspiring. People who wanted to hear great speeches heard them.

People who wanted to witness heated discussions, listened, People who used the conven tion as a vacation need, found this city to furnish the diversions they needed. As this observer summed up i Glimpsed in town from Ohio were "Doc" Leo Robinson, riuiiy and Councilman Charlie Carr. Detro iters are showing with pride the better than $1,000,000. 4 story building which houses the Great Lakes Mutual Life insurance Corrn pany. It's a monument to the city's economic progress and unity of purpose.

Carmen Murphy's House of Beauty is one of the modern businesses in this modern establishment. Detroit stiii has some of the finest home areas for Negroes in the country. Integrated. too. NEW ELKS QUEIN Pr.fry La Rata Hinton of Peoria.

reignt at tha flaw Elks queen. Her measurements are 39 26 40. She stands five feet nine inches and weight 143 pounds. Elks Are Important In U. 3.

A. Politics! DETROIT, Mich. Believe it or not The Elk are an important political cog in the future of America! If you don't believe it, let's look at the box score of events which was read to the delgates. which happened during the; On Tuesday morning. And convention.

'SttS for the President, ar First President John on to dAWft Kennedy called Mr. Reynolds greetings. personally, at his five room ho tel suite in Detroit, to congratulate the Elks on their conven tion. He followed this up with wire of congratulations, the convention, the following neetld things stood out in bold relief: (si Strengthen publicity and coinmunicatioiM. (bi Press for more emphasis on health care.

Ages of most Elks appear ul be above 40, snd therewere too many people who obviously needed medical attention, this of course suggests a complete reorganization of the Medical Dept. let Build a strong organization. Elkdom Is bigger than any one Individual. TL'nhappy results of past lP t. iki I I rfr, rV Nv.

V7 "Vta, i a 10 years should HhowJti ket necessary to Ilnu ine riRht people for the right organizational job, and then pay them to do the 1.... job. (ill Let Nome reliable figures mi total Elk membership, total value of properties. These should be figures which tell a potent story. let In motion an inter national membership drive, geared to highlight the new program, which should be professionally planned and professionally handled.

(fl Select young men with vision and drive to serve administrative assistants to the men who now head jup the various Important departments of Klkdom. This, it appears to us. It a MUST. Maintain the integrity and the closest liaison with the Daughter Elks. it is still too early to render final' judgment, but from all the signs, the Elks are on their way back, with a bang! f.

,4 1 i 4 NEW VICC PRESIDENT Richard Parrish. (shakina handt) of the United Federation of Teachers, Local 2, New York, was recently elected national vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, at the 36th annual convention, held at the Stetler Hilfon Hotel Detroit. Left to THE THE COUftlE 3 COURIER Others on the national, state and city Democratic "team." which gave solid impact to the drive for votes included Gov. John B. Swainson.

State Supreme Court Justice Ott Smith. City Councilman WJ. liam T. P.ttri. Ethel Payne, representing National Democratic Headquarters, and former Gov.

Mennon Hams. Republicans were represented by a hard hitting team, which made up in daring and initiative, what they lacked numbers. Bellweather for this group waa Grant Reynolds of New York. Associate Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Assisting; were Grorgr Romney. the arth ulate and demonstrative candidate for Governor on the Republican Clay Claiborne, has taken ouis Lautier place on the Republican National Committee and Ab Herman, wno Uey." up as tiOP trvub le shooter.

Wednesday morning, at the joint session of the Lodges jnd Temples. Grand Reynolds set up a debate between the two opposing groups. Grant Reynolds (no relation i represented the Republicans and in an eloquent plea, made a strong ii for his side. Ethel Payne responded (he Democrats, and took the woman's prerogative of getting In the last word. Both were warmly applauded.

Hobson Reynolds remained a "neutral Republican." 1,000 Attend NQSA Confab SAN ANTON iO. Tex. More than 1.000 delegates and guestj attended the UUh annual National Quartette and Singers Alliance convention which closed on a happy note heie last week. Wf i right: Charles Cogen, president of the United Federation of Teachers. AFT Vice President Parrish; Mrs.

Rebecca C. Simon son of PeelcskiH, N.Y.; Simon Beagle, chair, man of the UFT's AFT affairs committee, and Sid Harris, UFT executive board member. 1.