The Record du lieu suivant : Hackensack, New Jersey • 4

NEW JERSEYNEW YORK AUGUST 30, 1998 A-4 THE SUNDAY RECORD SYNAGOGUE FIRE A lonely man's betrayal and death mm ji i kiwi hp organized a Dartv in the com rl fir was a problem. "I said to him, 'Listen dad, you have to be careful. I don't like the way this sounds. You barely know this But his father replied: "You just don't want me to be happy." In May, Antonio and his wife took Buddy to lunch at McDonald's to talk the matter through one last time. The father told them he had bought an engagement ring, and planned to meet Basso in Texas.

They argued. And the meal ended with nothing resolved. The next week, neighbors said, Buddy Musso began shipping his belongings to Basso's home. And on June 14, after months of planning during nightly calls from the lobby pay phone, Buddy Musso marched out of his apartment in cowboy boots, a bolo tie, and Stetson hat. "He was ready to become a Texan," Albanese recalled.

On Thursday, a jogger found Buddy Musso's body in a ditch in Galena Park, a nearby suburb of Houston. Basso had reported to police that he was missing, but she quickly became a suspect. She, her 23-year-old son, and four friends were arrested and charged with capital murder, police said. worker, had been starved, handcuffed, and finally beaten to death with belts, baseball bats, and fists. His body was found Thursday, dumped in a ditch on the edge of town.

On Saturday, as news of Buddy Musso's fate spread, a portrait emerged of the man who gave up everything to pursue the comfort of marriage which had eluded him for 26 years. Musso moved to Cliffside Park in 1989, 17 years after his first and only wife had died of cancer. His son, Antonio, was 2 years old when his mother died, and he said he knows little about his father's past. "What I know is that he took it very hard when my mother died," Antonio Musso said. "It was like he lost his left arm." Over the years, Antonio Musso said, his father transformed that sense of loss into an outgoing, trusting nature that became his trademark.

Friends from his apartment building, a publicly supported high-rise for seniors at 500 Gorge Road, said he was a unique fixture at the complex. On the sixth floor, he was known for country music that echoed from his apartment. Once By MATTHEW MOSK Staff Writer The morning Louis Charles Musso left on a Greyhound bus for Texas, he was brimming with excitement about his new life. The mentally disabled 59-year-old widower was leaving New Jersey to join "his honey," Susan Basso, whom he had met the previous fall at a church carnival in Cliffside Park. When he arrived in Jacinto City, a Houston suburb, he intended to give her the engagement ring he had bought with weeks of earnings from his job bagging groceries at ShopRite.

And in August, he told friends, they would return together to the American Legion hall in Cliffside Park to celebrate their marriage. What happened instead was not simply another disappointing rejection for a lonely man who had a habit of falling a little too quickly for women he didn't really know. Police and relatives say that when the man friends called "Buddy" stepped off the bus in Texas, 44-year-old Basso greeted his trust and love with scorn and abuse. By summer's end, police say, Musso who relatives said had the mind of an 8-year-old had been enslaved by Basso as a house munity room, and when country music began playing, he grabbed a microphone and sang along. When he moved to Cliffside Park, Buddy Musso grew increasingly involved in religious pursuits.

Friends say he was baptized. He enrolled in weekly religious classes at Epiphany Roman Catholic Church, and had recently joined the choir. The Rev. Thomas F. Olsen remembered Buddy Musso as a particularly outgoing member of the congregation.

"I ran into him once on Anderson Avenue, and as we walked, he would keep seeing people who he knew," Olsen recalled. "Everyone would wave to him and say, 'Hello, Among those who knew him best, there was a common recollection: Buddy always longed for his married days. "Buddy's one fixation was that he wanted to find a wife," said Jean Albanese, 78, his next-door neighbor. "He would go out with someone for two or three days and he would tell me he was going to marry them," Albanese said. Antonio Musso said he knew that talk of marriage with Basso ft 3 ASSOCIATED PRESS Manhattan's Central Synagogue at Lexington Avenue and 55th Street was ruined by a five-alarm fire Friday evening.

Built in Moorish style between 1870 and 1872, the national landmark was New York City's oldest building in continuous use as a synagogue. Adolfo Tenorio to the hospital Saturday with the business end of a meat tenderizing machine clamped on his hand. Tenorio's hand was saved by emergency room doctors at the University Medical Center in Newark. "He's fine. He's OK now.

Not too much damage," Guillermo Garcia, manager of the President Supermarket on Jefferson Street, said after Tenorio called from the hospital. A hospital spokeswoman would say only that Tenorio had been treated and released. Tenorio, a meat wrapper, was working at the supermarket Saturday morning when one of his hands ended up where only a steak should be. "He got three fingers caught" in the machinery, said Deputy Fire Chief Carl Nordstedt. "The best way to deal with the situation was to take the machine apart and take him to the hospital with a piece of machinery attached to his hand." JAN BARRY Missouri State Highway Patrol said.

George Francis, 67, and his son, Joseph Francis, 41, both of Little Ferry, died in the accident, which took place about 10:45 a.m. Thursday, the patrol said. Dorothy Francis, wife of George and mother of Joseph, was seriously injured. Her age was not immediately known. The accident occurred as the Francis car went out of control on wet pavement and crossed the median into the westbound lanes of the interstate, the patrol said.

It was not immediately known who was driving. The Francis car was struck by the two oncoming semis, the patrol said. All of the occupants of the car were ejected. FROM NEWS SERVICE REPORTS Doctors save injured hand of Passaic meat wrapper PASSAIC In a delicate maneuver, emergency workers took "Now I'd like to see a really cold winter." Olivo said he has been advising his customers to fill up their tanks during the summer to take advantage of the situation. At 85 cents a gallon, the current average price of heating oil is the lowest since November 1988, according to officials at the state Board of Public Utilities.

And lower gasoline prices also have motorists on the road to savings. Retail prices in the Garden State are 16.5 percent lower than a year ago, with a gallon of regular unleaded selling for an average of 97.7 cents and for under 90 cents a gallon in some parts of the state. Little Ferry father, son killed in Missouri crash KINGDOM CITY, Mo. A father and son from Bergen County were killed in a collision with two tractor-trailer rigs on Interstate 70 just east of Kingdom City, the Molester gets 1 5 years Heating oil, gasoline hit 10-year price lows in N.J. TRENTON It hasn't cost this little to fill up the car or heat the house in nearly a decade.

The cost of home heating oil is the lowest it has been in New Jersey in 10 years, and gasoline prices are at a nine-year low, industry spokesmen say. Prices have fallen this year because of a worldwide glut in the oil market and continuing overproduction by overseas petroleum exporting countries, they say. "It's definitely a good time to fill up, get equipment serviced, and get ready for winter," Frank Olivo, vice president of the Blue Ribbon Fuel Oil Corp. in Clifton and Nut-ley, said in a published report. saulting the girls, ages 10 to 12, some of whom stayed at his house as overnight guests.

One of the children told her mother, who confronted Hutto's girlfriend. An arrest warrant was issued for him in April 1997. He fled to Richmond, in an attempt to avoid prosecution, but he was arrested there three months later. The Associated Press ELIZABETH A man who molested his girlfriend's daughter and five other girls has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Willie Hutto, 50, of Elizabeth, begged for mercy at his sentencing.

But Union County Assistant Prosecutor Harold Knox said Hutto was entitled to none for as ALFOW) BUY SATURDAY 10-6 SUNDAY 12-5 WHITE HOUSE FURNITURE WILL I BAW IB AI TAW 4 fHITEUSE FURJXITURE Now Thru Labor Day, Monday, Sept 7th OPEN LABOR DAY 10am-5pm Rush In For These Sensational Fall Savings! 1237 BLOOMFIELD AVENUE, FAIRFIELD ASK ABOUT ADDITIONAL DISCOUNTS ON SPECIAL ORDERS 25 off MISSES JUNIOR SPORTSWEAR OQ90 cam rnrrrnN sweaters Oread $1,100,000 ilare Closing lowing Sale! by Jeanne Pierre. S-M-L. reg. 44. WOOLRICH FLEECE JACKETS solids novelties.

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29.90-38.90. CHENILLE SWEATERS faH novelties. S-M-L JONES N.Y. CAREER WEAR new fall collection, misses petites. reg.

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JUNIOR JEANS 20-30 off 20 off 20 off 20 off 20 off 20 off 20 off 20 off 20 off 20 off 20 off 20 off 20 off 20 off Reg. "595- LANE CEDAR CHEST Reg. ws- CURIO CABINET -SELECTION C) ODD CHAIRS Reg.2999- COMPUTER ARMOiRE Reg.82i- OCCASIONAL CHAIR Reg. '4426- WHITE WASHED BEDR00M1999" Reg. 1492 COUNTRY STYLE SOFA .699 Reg.

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FLEECE OUTERWEAR JACKETS 25 Off solids patterns, reg. 100-210. MISSES PANTSUITS 20 off in our dress department reg. 72-170. ALL SOCIAL OCCASION DRESSES 20 Off reg.

130-1790. MISSES ACCESSORIES LINGERIE FALL LEATHER HANDBAGS 25 Off selected styles, reg. 76-99. ALL SILK SCARVES 25 OfT fall prints, reg. 38-100.

FALL NECKLACES EARRINGS 25 Off selected styles, reg. 22-45. SHREWSBURY 10am-6pm HJ5E SELECTION OF LAMPS PICTUSEl KIHRCSS a TABLE AT LEAST 60 OFF HANDMADE HANDKN0TTED ORIENTAL RUGS 65 OFF sizes 4-14. reg. 39-5J.

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15-43. IS AD items subject to prior sale! ALL SALES FINAL NO REFUNDS NO RETURNS DLS Co. 1998.