Santa Cruz Sentinel from Santa Cruz, California • Page 1

4 Flea matiiet flfl Aptos.Watsonville National win Little League titles Santa Cruz County Saturday, July 19, 1997 bCl2s0ob 090797 01 8601 dAY ICR JFILMt INC. 1115 ARJU6S AVE SUNNYVALE. CA H086 Serving the community since 1856 I aft VS AO Tl KSDDeir cDaiDms moire DcHoms 1 If he told you that he killed somebody, yeah, you'd believe him Christopher Smith, lawyer By ROBERT GAMMON Sentinel staff writer SANTA CRUZ A brutal killer serving a 41-year sentence for the torture-slaying of a teen-age girl is now a prime suspect in an unsolved murder case, according to court documents unsealed Friday. Authorities also have evidence that Terry Childs, 41, formerly of Aptos, may be a serial killer, according to a search warrant issued last month and made public Friday. Investigators turned thir attention to Childs in October, after he said from his prison cell that he's killed a dozen people four in Santa Cruz County.

Since then, detectives have been looking into Childs' claims. And while they're not sure if he's telling the truth, they say they have reason to believe he may be responsi- infamous Charles Manson. Childs was transferred there after he tried to stab another inmate to death, Hartness said. Childs' next stop may be Pelican Bay, which has been known to scare even the most hardened criminals. Childs' rap sheet reads like a bad true-crime novel.

The son of local bail bondsman Gary "Tiny" Childs, many of his siblings have been in trouble with the law. One of his brothers died in prison after he was smashed in the head with a barbell weight, Smith said. Childs' first recorded run-in with the law occurred at age 15, and over the years the violence of his crimes escalated. Robberies were followed by convictions for false imprisonment and assault with a deadlf weap- Please see CHILDS back page ble for the murder of another woman in a case that has baffled them for nearly 13 years. "It's been a real whodunit," said Sgt.

Steve Hartness of the county Sheriff's Office. Meanwhile, Christopher Smith, a Santa Cruz lawyer who has represented Childs off and on for the past two decades, said he's convinced the 6-foot, 4-inch, 190-pound man has killed 12 people. "If he told you that he killed somebody, yeah, you'd believe him too," Smith said. Childs has at least two reasons, Smith said, for coming clean after 10 years of incarceration: He doesn't want to go to Pelican Bay State Prison, known as the toughest in California, and he wants to be famous. "If he could choose between being famous and dead, he would choose the former," Smith said.

He's being held now at Corcoran Prison in Southern California also the home of the Bill LoveioySentinel file Terry Childs in 1987. Versace shooting Andrew Cunanan is suspected of killing five people. 1 Internal strife gnaws at GOP Dance, dance, damice Competition at SC Civic Following a trail of death By TOM RAUM The Associated Press WASHINGTON Just three years after they seized control from the Democrats, Republicans worry thai their chances of holding Congress in 1998 could be jeopardized by muddy messages and internal warfare. By AMANDA COVARRUBIAS The Associated Press SAN DIEGO One April night, at the Cafe San Marcos in San Francisco's Castro district, drew Phillip Cunanan held court. With friends and acquaintances squeezing past, Cunanan threw air kisses and shouted boisterous greetings.

A bevy of good-looking young men seemed enthralled with his jokes and laughter. Sean O'Hearn, however, had ln depth been trying to ignore Cunanan all night, feeling as he 38 Our congressional guys act like they can't organize a two-car funeral," complained Mike Murphy, a GOP operative and ad maker. Although Murphy and many other Republican strategists still predict Republicans will keep control and history is on their side there's no doubt that the GOP is in a grand old funk after this week's failed coup against House Speaker Newt Gingrich. "I think all of this has a surreal quality to it," said Rep. Chris: topher Cox of California, chairman of the GOP House Policy Committee.

By DAVE BROCKMANN Sentinel staff writer SANTA CRUZ Eighteen-year-old Alison Lewis walked off the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium stage brimming with, confidence. "I really did good," the Orange County dancer said, catching her breath after performing "Glory Box" in the lyricaljazz category. Lewis is one of 400 competitors from California, Utah and Washington in Santa Cruz vying for top honors and cash prizes at the Western National Finals Dance Competition. "I love it," Lewis said of her seven-year dance career. Someday, she said with a smile, "I would like to go on Broadway." The recent high school graduate is planning to hone her dance skills at Fullerton Community College in the fall.

The four-day Western Nationals began Thursday with regional dance competition in five divisions solo, duettrio, group, line and production competition in open, tap, character, lyrical, ballet and jazz categories. Judy Carroll of Starlight Productions, the Los Angeles-based organization sponsoring the competition, said the Santa Cruz event is one of three national finals across the nation. The others were in Dallas and Las Vegas. Regional competitions began in February. The three days of national competition here lead to Sunday's Grand Finals where Please see DANCE A12 GOP National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson discusses Rep.

Jim Paxon's resignation from House leadership. The failed move against Gingrich was just the latest in a string of GOP embarrassments and signs of turmoil. "I think we're losing" the propaganda battle, Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson told reporters earlier this week. "We have not done the best job selling our story." His assessment annoyed some GOP leaders, but many agreed with him.

Democrats seemed to be scoring points with the public in portraying GOP tax-cut plans as favoring the wealthy. And Republicans were still reeling from the bad reviews they got this spring for delaying emergency disaster relief. Republicans rallied behind Gingrich and his "Contract With America" in 1994 and hit the hustings hard, Please see GOP back page mmmim iU always did when the 27-year-old San Diegan was around that the guy was loud, obnoxious and a little shady. Suddenly, Cunanan grabbed O'Hearn's face and pulled him within inches of his own. O'Hearn put his open hand on Cunanan's face and shoved him away.

"For a brief second, I got a little nervous," said O'Hearn, who met Cunanan five years ago in San Diego. "It was my last interaction with the guy, and if he is a psycho killer, I saw a glimpse of it that night." The next day, Cunanan returned to his hometown, where he held his now well-known "goodbye din- -ner" at California Cuisine, telling friends he was going to Minnesota to take care of some business with friend Jeffrey Trail before moving to San Francisco. His "business" may have escalated into a four-state killing spree. The last known victim: fashion designer Gianni Versace, shot twice in the back of the head last Tuesday morning on the sun-splashed steps of his South Beach mansion. Other victims connected to the fugitive are: David Madson, 33, a Minneapolis architect and ex-lover; Trail, 28, a former Navy officer whom Cunanan considered one of his best friends; Lee Miglin, 72, a millionaire Chicago developer; and William Reese, 45, caretaker of a federal Civil War cemetery in Pennsville, N.J.

The homicides have been widely characterized as "gay murders," although only three of his five alleged victims were known to be homosexual Madson, Trail and Versace. Cunanan's current elusiveness was foreshadowed by elaborately fabricated tales he told to all who would listen. To friends in San Diego and San Francisco, his last name was DeSilva, he had a wife and child in the San Francisco Bay Area and he came from a wealthy, Please see CUNANAN'S A6 Sarita Trujillo of Fremont, above, refines her performance in an empty hallway at the Civic Auditorium on Friday. At right, Bessieann Bailey, Andrea McCarrick and Chantel Aguirre of Santa Cruz put their dancing shoes on. Bill Loveloy Sentinel photos Valencia Hall's history reaches the crossroad By DAN WHITE Sentinel staff writer APTOS People and dogs sat in the redwood shade and watched history move.

A few yards in front of them, four workers slid 117-year-old Valencia Hall across a road, bringing it far from an eroded creek bed that threatened to consume it. Communities are full of old buildings, many forgotten and shabby. But Valencia Hall has always been important to volunteers looking to protect it. Please see VALENCIA BACK PAGE Morning fog and low clouds clearing to the ocean by midday. Page A14 Coupla endows India studies Narpat and Chandra Bhandari of Los Gatos donated $250,000 to UC Santa Cruz to establish an endowed chair in India studies.

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