Kingsport News from Kingsport, Tennessee • Page 1

Scott Lawmen Hunt Car Thieves Four Scott County lawmen raided an abandoned mountain cabin at the end of a valley near Fort Blackmore, Tuesday in search of two members of a car theft ring who reportedly have been hiding there, came away empty- handed. The house is located about a quarter- mile above where the thieves have allegedly been stripping and abandoning cars, and where two Times-News staff members and a car theft victim were fired upon last Saturday. The deputies carried rifles and shotguns, and were led by i John Henry McMurray. After the raid, the officers searched across Scott County for the man who did the shooting. They hadn't found him by press time.

A warrant charging the as-yet-unidentified man with "attempt to kill" was sworn out Monday by reporter Bob Smith, who was hit on the foot by part of a shotgun blast fired at a tree behind which he was crouching last Saturday. Smith and photographer Earl Carter had accompanied Kingsport salesman Marvin Wilder, whose car was stolen Aug. 15, to the auto "graveyard" and were checking through abandoned cars for identification when the man drove up in a pickup truck. They hid behind trees and the man opened fire with a 12-guage shotgun in Smith's direction. Sheriff McMurray said Tuesday he thinks he knows who did the shooting, arid plans to arrest the man on sight.

The man has told friends that he was "just target practicing i a rifle," McMurray said he was informed. Scott County Deputy Don Sluss said another man who was with the gunman is the brother of one of the men who has been hiding out in the cabin. McMurray and three deputies arrived at the cabin about 7 a.m. Tuesday and surrounded it, but found no one inside. However, there were fresh cornbread crumbs and pieces of fresh onions on a table inside.

"Somebody was eating an onion sandwich here yesterday," the sheriff said. Deputies also searched three other abandoned houses in the valley, but found them empty. A Kingsport man, Chester DeFreece, told the Times-News Monday that he had seen five "rough-looking" men on the porch of one of the houses Sunday, and that they appeared to be guarding the entrance to the hollow where the cars are kept. DeFreece said his car was stolen about a year ago, and that he had made "four or five" trips to the Fort Blackmore area in search of it after hearing that a car theft ring has been operating out of that area. DeFreece, 1634 Pierce said a just before his automobile was stolen, a car with Virginia lags had been cruising More On Page 10, Col.

1 Kingsport VOLUME XXX, NO. 435 PHONE 246-8121 KINGSPORT, TENNESSEE, 37662, WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER 5. 1973 2 SECTIONS 24 PAGES Bank Robber Gets $6,000 UFOs LIGHTING UP KNOXVILLE? KNOXVILLE I Strange lights, some i i red and green, have up in ville's skies during weekend. Police said they received calls from residents of a north Knoxville area i i i toward the northwest and flashing red and green.

Police cruisers went into the area to investigate, even the police were skeptical of the whole thing. i a i a howver, "1 see it. It's got red and green flashing lights." Ted Riggs, a sports writer for the Knoxville News Sentinel, said he saw a fiery object Saturday about 1:30 a.m. as he was going home from work. "I could see this object, or whatever it was, in the sky to a of i I went to the parking lot to gel my car.

"When I got home I checked the sky again and it was still there, i another smaller object off to the right, moving in an up and down direction, as if it were monitoring the larger object," Riggs said. "I awakened other members of the family who came out into the yard to witness the aerial display." The a came as i of a i and observers in locations ih Georgia reported seeing lights in sky. Earlier there were reports of strange lights in the La Follctle area of Campbell County, some appearing on a regular time schedule for several weeks. None of the lights reported in East Tennessee have been iden- i i a a been speculation a some of the lights may have been made by planes heading for the Municipal Airport in Knoxville. Area-wide alert for lone gunman An area alert has been issued in East Tennessee for a lone i i i man who held up the Boones Creek branch office of First Peoples a a around 11:30 a.m., taking off with more than $0,000 in cash.

The robber is i by the Washington County i Department as in his early 20s, with dark, collar- length hair, clean-shaven, approximately five feet, eight inches tall. He was reportedly clad in blue jeans and a blue denim jacket over a white football jersey bearing green or navy blue numbers. He also was wearing a white sweatband about his forehead and drove a small black car. possibly a 1963 or 1964 Falcon. a i reportedly a and asked assistant cashier.

Zoola Ford, to see the a a She turned and walked into the manager's office and was followed by the a who revealed an automatic pistol as he handed her a note demanding the money. Mrs. Ford reportedly protested and he a to shoot her if she i cooperate. He also told her there was a man in the car armed i a sawed-off shotgun. Eyewitnesses later told officers the man was alone when he drove off.

Mrs. Ford gathered the money, which was in mixed currency, and gave it to the man. The robber stuffed it into a brown paper bag and tried to escape through the back door, which was locked. He then reportedly ran out the front door to his car, which was parked about 100 feet from the bank building. Mrs.

Ford had activated the automatic camera device, i a a gave the officers no i i clues as to the gunman's identity. Deputy Sheriff Hal Crumley was the first to arrive on the scene. He alerted area law enforcement officers, including the state highway patrol, for the getaway car, which left the a a i in a northerly direction. The Washington County Sheriff's office is receiving aid from the FBI, the TBI and the Johnson City police department in the investigation. The Boones Creek Branch i of First Peoples has been the scene of two previous robberies, the latest one occurring in January of 1972.

Delia Hits Texas--Gently GALVESTON, Tex. (UPI) --Tropical Storm Delia slruck the Texas coast with 70-mile-an-hour winds, blinding rain and high lides Tuesday, but caused virtually no physical damage. Scattered flooding produced isolated human hardship along 300 miles of i i a a and Texas coastline. The only i a a was at Cameron, over 100 miles from the center of Delia's impact with land, where six-foot tides forced aboul 8,000 residents inland. Along the Texas coast, particularly in the Galveston-High Island areas where the i i i eye of the storm i beaches were evacuated briefly, but reoccupied within two hours of the passage of the storm.

The storm slruck in the midafternoon, but skies along the enlire coast were clear by the lale afternoon. "I've been in this business 30 years -in Galveston 13 years and I've tracked 15 storms," said Dave Benton, chief meteorologist in Galveston. "I rank Delia as Ihe weirdesl slorm I've ever Iried lo track. "It does not have any spiral bands. A few years ago before you had satellites, this storm would probably never have been named.

It is blowing itself out. It is coming apart. It was never put together, really." The Texas a of Public Safety said highway patrolmen toured both Chambers and Galveston counties where the center of the storm hit and physical a a winds. However, they said the heavy rain, which approached a fool in isolaled areas and lotaledalleasl five inches in all areas, closed numerous streets and highways briefly. The community of Sabine Pass, located at the Texas-Louisiana border on the coast, was evacuated well before Delia hit because high tides closed all highways out of the High a kept the highways closed through the night Tuesday, but officials said residents probably could return Wednesday.

Officials of the Johnson Space Center outside Houston, just inland from the coast, sent 8,000 employes home early and girded to control the Skylab 2 astronauts in an emergency situation. However, the winds had fallen to 30-40 mph by the time they hit the space cenler and rains were the only problem. Capt. Lloyd Kelley said the Beach Patrol of the Galveston police department found six boys trying to surf in the 14-15 foot waves shortly after Delia hit hnd. "We told them if they went back in the waler they would be put in jail." Kelley said.

"They left Ihe beach." The National Weather Service said the tropical storm i i caused nadoes and severe thunderstorms to form 200 miles inland in Texas and in inland Louisiana. No damage was reported from those tornadoes. a a McMay, a at High Island High School where Ihe slorm firsl i said the i i was closed lo students and used as a shelter Tuesday. More On Page 10, Col. 1 Government May Drop Medical Tax Deduction A I I The government is considering a plan lo eliminate income tax deduclions for medical expenses, federal officials said Tuesday.

The estimated $7 billion in extra revenue could be used to help finance a national heallh insurance program. The proposal to do away with Ihe deduclions has been submilted to Secre- lary Caspar W. i of I Department of Health, Education and Welfare and has been reviewed by Ihe Treasury. Bui il has nol been submilled to the White House. Elimination of the deductions would have to be approved by Congress, and chances of such action were considered nil unless accompanied by some form of national health insurance.

Under an administration proposal expected lo be presented to Congress later this year, the $7 billion in extra revenues could be used to finance a national health insurance program. But Ihe a i i a i a published in the May 22 Congressional Record, provided these oplions: i employers lo i workers with minimum levels of health i a to be by federally financed coverage for the cost of catastrophic illnesses. Provide a cards a i individuals and families could use lo buy medical and heallh services in Ihe same way Ihey mighl use credit cards, with the government and card holder sharing the bill. "We are drafting stuff to send to Ihe While House right now," a HEW health aide told UPI. "All we have at Ihis poinl are consideralions.

The staff work isn't complete yet." Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who has proposed crealion of a national health insurance plan, published in the Congressional Record May 22 an interoffice memo he obtained HEW sources thai disclosed consideralion was being given lo eliminaling the medical deductions. Thai memo called Ihe medical deduc- lions "highly regressive, i i as More On Page 10, Col. I Shot While Stopped At Light The camera told Boston Globe photographer Bob Dean was unaware when he took this picture that the teenager dead under a car in an accident near Plymouth, was his own son, Steven, 17.

Dean didn't recognize the boy in the light of the flash bulb and was unaware of his son's death until he developed the photo. He insisted his editors use the picture "If it can save the life of somebody's kid," he said, "it will be worth it." By LEE OLESON Times-News Staff Writer A 20-year-old Kingsport woman was shot three times by another woman while she was waiting for Ihe light to change at Eastman Road and Stone Drive Monday afternoon. The victim, Carol E. Trlbblc, said she was shot because she had casually waved at the woman's husband a few minutes before. Miss Trlbblc, of 1812 Westmoreland was reported in fair condition at Ilolston Valley Community Hospital.

Police Chief Kvcrctlo Dykes said today that a warrant would be sworn out Tuesday for the arrest of Martha Flanary of Kingsport, who according to Miss Tribblc is the wife of Gary Flanary. Miss i was i i easl on Center Street at aboul 5:30 p.m. when she saw Gary Flanary near the Peggy Ann a a A i Miss Tribblc she threw up her hand and waved at Flanary as she drove by, then did not i anything more about it. "I had seen the guy and talked lo him a couple limes at the i Market," she said. "Hut I hardly knew him, and 1 hadn't seen him for six months." A few minutes later Miss Tribblc was driving north on Eastman Road and came to a stop at Ihe a i Unlit at the Kastman Road-Stone Drive intersection.

More On Pane 10, Col. I (Times News Pholo Earl Carter) McMurray and deputy leave empty cabin. 1st Meeting For 7-Man Council Kingsport's seven-member Board of Mayor and Aldermen covered a wide variety of business in its first session Tuesday night, including: --Awarding a $91,167.50 contract to Byerley Construction Company to pave the new public parking lot at the Main Street end of the Clinchfield Street extension. The successful bidder agreed to do the work in 60 working days, which City Manager Charles K. Marsh said should assure completion by the opening of the Christmas shopping season.

--Voting to ask the Tennessee Department of Transportation to complete the unfinished 600 feet of the Fort Henry Drive widening project and install a i lights at the intersection of Stone Drive and the John B. Dennis Highway at slate expense. --Hearing a list of proposals from the city's first black alderman designed "to allow minority citizens lo become involved in city government." After an invocation in which Alderman Elery A. Lay asked "blessings on this historic meeting," the council accepted the report of the Sullivan Election Commission declaring that John I. Cox Jr.

had been elected to a four-year term and Richard H. Wallerson to a two-year term in the special election in August. Then Harry Egan, assistant city-recorder-treasurer, subbing for vacationing E. Lester Shelor. swore in the two new aldermen and the board gol down to regular business.

In the case of Ihe traffic light at the controversial intersection, the council took the posilion lhat traffic- congestion there is Ihe faull of Ihe slale, which declined to install a full cloverleaf inlerchange as urged both by the council and citizen groups, hence the city-should not have lo pay for the traffic light now needed. In the case of Fort Henry Drive, the original contract called for widening from Brooks Circle to the existing More On Page 10, Col. 1 TEAMSTERS ATTACKED HIM, TRUCKER CLAIMS The president of the local Teamsters Union flashed a gun and shoved him around, the suit says, and another union member hit him in the a i a a against a car, all of which was done to keep him from driving a truck because he isn't a union member. This is the basis of a $43,000 claim filed by James Hayes of Sullivan County against Teamster Presidenl Howard Tennyson and teamster member Edward Matney. Also named a is the trucking firm.

Time ID. C. According lo Ihe complaint Hayes wenl to work for Time U. C. in March.

After three days on Ihe job, Hayes said his employer was called by the teamsters about his working there i a union card. So the company asked Hayes to go down and get one. According to Hayes he had tried two weeks previously to get a union card but didn't have the $52 initiation fee at that time. However, at Ihe request of his employer he said he wenl back to the union hall on March 26 where he was told by Tennyson "You can't join this union." Hayes asked why. Tennyson told i he says, that the union didn't have to tell him a "damn thing" and thai Tennyson had been referring drivers to Time D.

C. and a these drivers had not been hired, and so he was nol going lo lei new individuals join Ihe union and get i i a employment. But when he continued to press the issue, Hayes said, Tennyson "went behind his desk, got out a pistol and pnl it in his back pocket." Hayes said he then started to leave building and all five teamsters followed him. In the vestibule, Hayes said, Tennyson started More On Pago 10, Col. 1 Mostly cloudy i a chance of Ihnndersliowers late today, increasing tonight and Thursday.

High today in the mid 80s, Low tonight in the upper (10s. High Thursday in the low KOs. Winds light and variable. Chance of ruin 30 per cent today and 50 per cent tonight. Tuesday's high was low was fill..