The Daily Oklahoman from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma • Page 1

THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN The State Newspaper Since 1907 OKLAHOMA CITY, OK FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 1979 76 PAGES 20c Death Trial Ordered for Stafford By Kevin Donovan Roger Dale Stafford was ordered Thursday to stand trial on six counts of first-degree murder in last massacre at a southwest Oklahoma City restaurant. Oklahoma County Special District Judge Leonard Geb made the ruling at the end of two-day preliminary hearing and scheduled a 2 p.m. Tuesday arraignment on the charges. The hearing ended in mid-afternoon after defense lawyers called three policemen to the witness stand and then rested their case. But chief defense counsel J.

Malone Brewer spent much of the day hammering at inconsistencies between written statements Stafford's estranged wife gave police and her testimony Wednesday. Verna Stafford, who admitted Wednesday she had lied to detectives about the extent of her involvement in the slaying of six employees of the Sirloin Stockade, 1620 SW 74, repeated the admission to Brewer. didn't want the Police Department to know how involved I was so I told them it was Roger who planned the Mrs. Stafford said. Wednesday she testified that she, Roger and late brother, Harold, planned the July 16, 1978, holdup in which six employees of the steak house were herded into a walk-in freezer and gunned down.

Mrs. Stafford admitted to Brewer that she had lied in earlier written statements about not being armed and about the description of the station wagon the trio had driven to lahoma City from their temporary residence in Tulsa. told the police that I had just come down with them without knowing about the Mrs. Stafford said. When Brewer asked if Mrs.

Stafford had changed her story because she flunked a lie detector test, District Attorney Andrew M. Coats and First Assistant District Attorney James R. McKinney jumped up to object. Geb sustained the objection and Brewer asked Mrs. Stafford, did you decide to tell the Oklahoma City Police Department the truth?" She answered, two and a half or three months ago after I talked to Mr.

McKinney and he told me there was nothing to be afraid of and the truth would come out." Mrs. Stafford denied she had been promised immunity or other consideration for her testimony, remarking to Brewer, take whatever comes to me, sir." Seeming tired and appearing to control a See STAFFORD, Page 2 mmx Staff Photo by Bob Albright A member of the Rogues gives Prober a goodbye kiss as other members wait to file past. Boren Plans Moscow Trip By Allan romley Washington Bureau Washington U.S. Sen. David Boren is one of a half-dozen senators who later this month will confer with top Soviet leaders in Moscow- on the SALT II treaty, his office disclosed Thursday.

All six are uncommitted on ratification of the treaty, signed June 18 in Vienna by President Carter and Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev. Officials Involved They will meet with Brezhnev, Premier Alexei N. Kosygin, Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko, top Soviet negotiators of the treaty and other Soviet officials.

They will leave Aug. 23 on an Air Force plane and return Sept. 1. Mrs. Boren will accompany her husband but will not go at government expense, said Barbara Webb, Boren's press secretary.

The purpose of the trip, sponsored by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is to gain information otherwise not available to the senators, Miss Webb said. Others Listed Other senators making the trip will be Joseph R. Biden D- Bill Bradley, D- N.J.; Carl Levin, D- Richard G. Lugar, and David H. Pryor, D-Ark.

Two unidentified senators are considering the trip. Miss Webb said the delegation will sound out the Soviets on various amendments to the treaty that have been or will be proposed in an attempt to make it more palatable to senators who think it favors the Soviet Union. On the return trip, they will meet with Britain's prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, to sound out Europeans' sentiments to- SALT. By John Hefner He was laid out in his coffin in Rogues motorcycle club regalia a knife and liquor bottle were strapped to his side and a hand-rolled cigarette was lying on his chest. He wore a short- brimmed motorcycle cap, studded gloves and an emblem-be a ring vest covered with medals and pendants.

As weeping Rogue members filed past his body, some touched him, some kissed him and some ripped off part of their clothing to place in the open cask- et. About 300 members from half a dozen states came to Midwest City Thursday to pay their last respects to Rogues president Terry Lee Prober, 30, 1414 V2 NW 40. Prober died Sunday following a motorcycle TODAY Ration Plan Munson Dies in Airplane Crash New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson dies in a plane crash 1,000 feet short of the Canton-Akron Airport in Ohio. Two survive the fiery crash during touch-and-go practice landings and takeoffs. One of the survivors is a flight instructor.

Munson had recently purchased the Cessna Citation jet. Details, Page 25. Thurman Munson Gasoline Dealers Get New Rules New regulations go into effect for gasoline dealers but some apparently are dawdling in rolling back prices to bring their profit margins in line with the new federal ceiling. On the other hand, others below the limit are quickly raising prices. Details, Page 14.

The Weather Oklahoma City had fair skies and a high of 90 (32 C) Thursday. State highs ranged from 86 (30 C) at McAlester to 95 (35 C) at Guymon. The metropolitan area will have partly cloudy skies today with a chance of showers. Highs will be in the 90s. Details, Page 11.

Inside Features Amusements 13-18 TV Log .............................9 Ann Landers 20 20,21 4 7 A Classified Ads 34-48 I0 Paid Circulation Horoscope ...................20 Morning-Evening Markets ..........14,31,32 Average for Last Week Obituaries 34 Delivery Service 239-7171 Public yOJOther Calls 232-3311 Entire contents copyright 1979, The Oklahoma Publishing Box 25125, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73125, Vol. 88, No. 210. i Bogs Down WASHINGTON (AP) Congress formally abandoned on Thursday the attempt to send President Carter a standby gasoline-rationing bill before the August congressional recess. Instead, a House-Senate conference committee was named to produce a compromise rationing bill that leaders said they hoped could go to the president's desk in September.

"It was very clear there was no way in which we could get the House package completed today," said Sen. Henry M. Jackson, D- chairman of the Senate Energy Committee. "We had to weigh symbolism against practicality," said Sen. Bennett Johnston, D- La.

"Then we had to say, the The decision to put the matter over until September came after House Speaker Thomas P. said he intended to stick to his plan of recessing the House at 5 p.m. CDT. The House passed its version of the rationing bill by a 263-159 vote late Wednesday, but saddled it with so many amendments that Senate leaders said there was no way they could deal with it on the last day before the recess. Thus Congress headed for its August recess without approving any pieces of the new energy plan the president unveiled on July 15.

New Ruling Strips Trusts of 'In Lieu' Tax Divvying Reins 300 Grieving Bikers Bury Leader race in Texas Saturday in which he flipped his Harley-Davidson and struck his head on the pavement. A Midwest City police escort led about 150 rumbling motorcycles in a nearly mile-long procession from the funeral home to the Arlington Memory Gardens, NE 36 and Midwest Boulevard, where Prober was laid in the ground. "He was one of a kind," said Rook, Wichita Falls, Texas, who was racing Prober when the accident happened. Beal, Bethany, said, "He was the kind of guy who could hold an All-American uptight job, have a wife and family and be in the club too. He could do ii all." Another said, "He was one of the most respected bikers.

You can look around and see the patches from the other clubs: Hangmen. Outlaws, Scorpions." Rick Smith, manager of funeral home, which conducted the services, said gang members were very specific on how they wanted it very loyal. You have to respect them for that," he said. Many of the bearded, tattoo-bearing bikers, dressed in the soiled, patched denim that has become part of their trademark, openly wept. They hugged and kissed each other in their grief.

The crying women, many with long, black streams of make-up running down their faces, clung to each other or to their men as the members passed by the open casket. Then a member named "Gravedigger" shoveled in the dirt. No one left until the last of the flowers was laid on the fresh grave. With the widow, Jan, on the back of the lead bike, the procession followed a police escort out of the cemetery. By John Greiner Attorney General Jan Cartwright issued another public trust opinion Thursday, ruling that public trusts have no authority to decide where to distribute lieu" tax payments from tax-exempt industries.

The opinion actually is an extension or companion opinion to Wednesday's ruling which said profit-making businesses on public trust land must pay ad valorem taxes unless they are used for charitable purposes. The opinion Thursday was in answer to a question asked by Dr. Leslie Fisher, state Superintendent of Public Instruction. assistant, John Percival, who drafted that opinion as well as opinion, said the "in question was handled in a separate opinion although Wednesday's opinion held unconstitutional a law that authorized trusts to distribute lieu" tax payments as the trusts saw fit. Under the trust financing system in Oklahoma, some tax-exempt industries have made "in lieu" payments for taxes to the trusts which determined where to distribute the money.

Paul Strashaugh, executive vice president of the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, said General Motors was planning to make an "in lieu" payment of $500,000 which the trust was going to divide among school districts in Midwest City, Moore and Oklahoma City. He said the theory on distributing "in lieu" tax payments was that it was more fair to distribute those payments Schools Benefit -Page 4 among several areas which are impacted by a particular industry. Cartwright's opinion said that "in lieu" pay- ments are in fact ad valorem tax receipts which must be assessed, levied, collected and paid in conformance with the specific statutory provisions controlling ad valorem taxation. Ad valorem taxes collected from industries on the tax rolls go to the school district and city or cities in which the industry is located. A portion also goes to the county in which the See R1 LING, Page 2 Balking Neighbors Freeze Nixon Out NEW YORK (AP) In the face of dissension among tenants, former President Richard Nixon will not buy a penthouse apartment in an exclusive cooperative in Manhattan, sources said Thursday.

Tenants in the building at 19 E. 72nd at the corner of Madison Avenue, received a letter Thursday that said: "Please advised that former President Nixon and Mr. Becker (the current owner of the apartment) have agreed to cancel the contract relating to Mr. apartment. Mr.

apartment is once again on the market." The letter was signed by Minot Mil liken, the president of the cooperative. It was not immedi- Really Picasso, Or Just Copies? By Paul H'enske Are the mysterious paintings sealed in the vault of the Oklahoma City federal court clerk's office valuable works of Pablo Picasso or, as one viewer described them, renditions of spilled pizza? That question puzzled clerks and curious rub- berneckers Thursday as they pondered the two paintings temporarily displayed in preparation for auctioning off to the highest bidder later this month to pay creditors of the bankrupt House of Ideas. If the paintings are actually the works of the late world-renowned artist, they could be valued together at more than $250,000, said bankruptcy trustee Joe Steele. If not well, they still might look alright over someone's living room divan. "There's no telling what they might sell for," said Steele, who along with attorney Burns Hargis will conduct an unusual art auction Aug.

21 in the court of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Berry. Steele and Hargis said someone could possibly walk away from the auction with a real Picasso at a reasonable price but then again, as they say. PICASSO, Page 2 ately known whether Nixon had bowed out of the $750,000 purchase voluntarily, or whether board, jarred by complaints from tenants worried about security and other problems thoy said could accompany Nixon, had rejected the former president. Jane Maynard, a coop resident, had taken a poll earlier in ihe week and said half of the 34 residents were to moving info the building.

"I have no ax to grind politically or morally, but he is very controversial," she said. "There is an enormous number of people who hate him. and I think it would change ambiance of the building if he lived here There would be news and curiosity seekers around, potential bomb scares and a great number of Secret Service men around." Other famous persons have been entrance to co-ops in the past two years, mostly due to some aversion to publicity. Joey Heat her ton, Prince Saud al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia and comedian David Brenner ali have been rejected 'Freedom 'Elates By Paul Wenske A key prosecution witness in the federal conspiracy case against state Sen. Gene Stipe said late Thursday her first day of freedom from government scrutiny was the happiest day they have had in a year.

"We feel like we re on our way to freedom," said Billie Cantrell, who Wednesday left hind the rented Huntington, W.Va., residence where her family had secretly spent a year in the Justice i Protection Program. "You just don't how good it feels. not on the program anymore. not accountable to anyone. me again," Mrs.

Cantrell said during a short telephone call to Oklahoman from undisclosed loca- Tht an tion The Cantrells said they have no plans for the present and have not decided where they will go. They also said they have not yet contacted government officials. "Right now we re just enjoying ourselves." Mrs. Cantrell said, explaining the familv is "just taking our time, traveling back roads, taking the scenic routes." Earlier, U.S. Attorney Larry Patton said he expects no snags in the government's prosecution of Stipe, John Glenn Peters and John Warren Martin because Mrs.

Cantrell and hot- family left the government's protection. "I fully expect that every witness that the government is relying upon will be present at the trial," Patton said. Mrs. Cantrell first appeared a year ago July before a federal grand jury est Stipe, a McAlester Democrat, and his involvement in an allegedly ill-gotten government loan obtained to purchase a MeAles- ter meat plant. Both Mrs.

Cantrell a her husband. Butch, once worked for McAlester Frozen Foods Inc. Last August, the government placed Mrs. Cantrell and hei family under the witness protection program. Family members said they were not angry at the government, hut that living on the program had disrupted personal lives.

They were a new name, new social security numbers and a fabricated past. Mrs Cantrell said she mailed a lettei Wednesday to U.S. marshal who supervised their protection in Huntington. thanked him for all his help. We really appreciated him.

"They (U.S marshals) told us what to expect. But no one can really tell you how it will until you're actually on it (the witness progra m). "We did not look back when we crossed the state line,.