Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 19

77ie Edmonton Journal, Sunday, May 18, 1997 B5 CanadaAlberta Libraries can write book on patrons' vandalism Calgarian may be charged in death of friend in Texas But his lawyer doubts he wrote graphic confession IN fi! iO Ch, HJ1I 7 quickly hit him It didn't hurt him at all so I hit him and hit him and hit him. His breathing got really heavy and congested. He bled buckets. I stood over him for a long time. When his breathing stopped I got a hanger and wrapped it around his throat Gary Daniel Wilson in an alleged confession about the death of Marek Kosciukiewicz in Houston in June 1996 IAN BAILEY The Canadian Press Vancouver Vancouver's top librarian keeps a special book to highlight vandalism issues facing one of Canada's largest library systems.

As Madge Aalto passes a copy of Standard Eye Surgery across her desk, it appears someone has operated on the book itself. Chapters have been cut from the text, leaving a book with so many gaps it looks like a mouthful of bad teeth. "That's fairly typical," says Aalto, director of the 22-branch Vancouver system. "I show that to board members so they have some idea of the issue." The issue is a problem facing Vancouver's library system and cash-strapped libraries across Canada. Bad enough that budgets are tight.

But librarians are also frustrated by the regular vandalism of books. In a move unusual among Canadian libraries, the Vancouver system is to be the site of a major study to assess vandalism damage a research effort that could lead to new security measures to protect books. Within days, staff at the Vancouver system's branches will begin poring over incoming materials looking for damage. The study may be repeated later in 1997. Librarians say vandalism by patrons is a phenomenon they talk about when they get together.

It leaves them shaking their heads at the things they find. Photos are cut from texts. Other patrons have cut the text from books like fruit from a melon, then left the gutted covers on the shelf. It gets weirder. Readers have pressed slices of bacon and french fries like rare flowers between pages.

Some borrowers have written running commentaries in the margins of mysteries. Others have corrected grammar and spelling. "This has to rank as one of the top five issues (for libraries)," says Mario Bernardi, development manager for the Metro Toronto Reference Library. "It affects the money that's available to keep the doors open and provide service." Bernardi's department has suggested it can cost up to $300 a book to deal with a vandalism case. That may sound extreme but it BOB BEATY Calgary Herald Calgary A Calgarian who recently turned himself in on a possible U.S.

murder charge allegedly wrote how he killed a colleague and disposed of his dismembered body. The alleged confession by Gary Daniel Wilson, 30, gives a graphic account of how he used a hammer to kill the husband of a woman he claimed to be in love with. But the document also states that victim Marek Kosciukiewicz first attacked Wilson with the hammer after Wilson questioned who impregnated Kosciukiewicz's wife. It says Wilson wrestled the hammer away from Kosciukiewicz, then beat him unconscious with it. "I quickly hit him with it," the document says.

"It didn't hurt him at all so I hit him and hit him and hit him." Wilson's Calgary lawyer, Don MacLeod, said Friday that while he is aware of the alleged confession, he is not conceding that Wilson wrote it. Nor is he conceding that the document's contents accurately reflect what happened to Kosciukiewicz, whose whereabouts remain unknown. "According to the Court of Queen's Bench extradition file, Wilson wrote the confession letter on June 20, 1996, and gave it to a Calgary friend. Calgary homicide Det. Colin Acheson swore in the court file that he received the original confession from Wilson's friend.

At the time of the alleged homicide in Kosciukiewicz's Houston home on June 15, 1996, Wilson and Kosciukiewicz were friends working in Texas for the international oil company Amoco Eurasia. According to the court file and to U.S. police, Wilson was in love with Kosciukiewicz's wife Alicia. After Kosciukiewicz's death, U.S. police say, Wilson fled Houston, arriving in the Calgary area about five days later.

Wilson was a fugitive for nearly a year before turning himself in to Calgary police last weekend. While Wilson was at large, the story received widespread attention in the U.S. and was featured on the Jan. 10 episode of the Unsolved Mysteries television program. "most of his driving was done at night or it might be a ruse." Wilson allegedly wrote in the confession letter that while his life had been destroyed, he is happy knowing Kosciukiewicz's wife will no longer be beaten.

But Pokluda said Kosciukiewicz's wife was distraught about her husband's fate, and that she and her two children still live in the same home where her husband is believed to have been killed. In the document, Wilson reportedly said he was planning to attend law school before the murder. The letter concludes: "Tell Mom Dad I love them," and signs off, "Hopelessly Yours. Gary." Calgary Crown prosecutor Ken McLeod, who will be pushing for Wilson's extradition, could not be reached for comment. While a U.S.

charge has not been laid formally, Pokluda said Wilson faces one count of murder, a charge that does not carry the death penalty. If extradited and convicted, Wilson could face a jail term between five to 99 years, Pokluda said. Fort Bend assistant district attorney Jim McAlister said the alleged confession letter will form part of the evidence put before a grand jury that will decide on Monday if there is sufficient evidence to warrant a murder charge. Under U.S. law, until the grand jury commits a suspect to trial, the suspect is not formally charged.

But a U.S. magistrate decided last year there were sufficient grounds to ask Canada to issue a warrant for Wilson's arrest and to seek his extradition, McAlister said. Wilson is scheduled to appear in Court of Queen's Bench in Calgary on Wednesday to set a date for a possible bail application and extradition hearing. His lawyer said the extradition hearing is likely to open this fall. Southam Newspapers According to the Calgary court file, a typed duplicate of the original handwritten version, Wilson wrote that after beating Kosciukiewicz unconscious, he stood over him with the hammer fearing he might attack again.

"His breathing got really heavy and congested. He bled buckets," the document states. "I stood over him with the hammer for a long time. When his breathing stopped I got a hanger and wrapped it around his throat." Wilson allegedly wrote that he knew he should turn himself in, "but as a frightened idiot who does not trust the justice system, especially in the States, I cannot force myselftodothis. "Believe me, it will be a relief if I am caught.

The weight is too much." In the Calgary court file, it is alleged that Wilson cut up Kosciukiewicz's body and tried to freeze it before putting it in his car and driving north to Canada. "I spent the whole day chopping him up, bagging him. I would have dropped all of Marek into the Red River but I figured he'd float," the document says. "I kept driving, looking for likely disposal sites and then I decided to get rocks to weigh him down." But when a river near Muskogee proved to be too shallow, "I panicked and just dumped it in the bush." Sgt. Jim Pokluda of the Fort Bend, sheriffs department said his investigators received the alleged confession letter from Calgary police last summer.

An extensive search of the Red River near the Texas-Oklahoma border and the Muskogee, area failed to reveal any human remains. Moreover, Pokluda said that Kosciukiewicz's remains may have been eaten by animals or carried away by river currents if buried near water. He said the confession may be wrong about the location because The Canadian Press Sue Yates, regional manager of Vancouver's central library, shows books vandalized by patrons includes staff time to assess a book, do the paperwork to replace it or track down and copy replacement pages to fix the book. "That's a cost we can ill afford," says Bernardi. Karen Adams, executive director of the Canadian Library Association, says there's little research on the whole issue.

"The nature of the problem nationally is unstudied," she said from Ottawa. Sue Yates, manager of public services for Vancouver's central library, says it is difficult to gather data when thousands of books are returned all over the system every day. Each one of them can't be picked up and examined. "Unless the person who returns the book says, 'Listen. My dog chewed half of this sometimes it's difficult for us to know unless something obvious has happened to the book." Some librarians suggest a shortage of photocopiers may prompt people to cut out what they need.

Others blame overzealous students. Some cite eccentricity. Aalto cites a bizarre double standard about library materials. "There is this kind of curious amorality: 'These books are mine because my taxes paid for them and my need is greater than anybody else's so it's OK' "It doesn't somehow seem to them dishonest or wrong. It's a mystery to me." nc A GM buyback is a short term lease or rental vehicle returned to General Motors that are only ottered to beneral Motors dealers.

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