Alton Evening Telegraph from Alton, Illinois • Page 1

Fire And Explosion Destroys Harrelson 's Home By ED POUND Telegraph Staff Writer Pipefitter boss Frank Harrelson's $45,000 Godfrey house was destroyed by an explosion and fire late Friday night in what authorities said apparently was "foul play." Harrelson and his family were not at home when the explosion ripped apart the fashionable ranch type dwelling at Morkel Drive, Greenwood Meadows. Firemen said the home was destroyed by fire within six minutes of the explosion. Harrelson, controversial head of Pipefitters Local 553, Wood River, has recently been the center of a union jurisdiclional rift which has shut down an expansion program at Shell Oil Co. Last Tuesday in St. Louis, the unions and contractors involved in the Shell expansion program were stymied in efforts to solve the three- month-old lockout because Harrelson fidled to show up.

Shell locked out the unions and shut down the project in January after a 15-day jurisdictional dispute between the pipefitters and electricians. There was no indication from authorities today of any clues linking the explosion and fire with the labor dispute. However, there apparently has been no investigation made by the Madison County Sheriff's Office, which has jurisdiction in Godfrey. Telegraph reporters were told the sheriff's office in Edwardsville had no report on the fire. Meanwhile an Illinois deputy fire marshall, Jack Snycler was to inspect the ruins today, to determine if the home was bombed or dynamited.

Godfrey i were alerted at 10:04 o'clock last night and were on the scene within six minutes, Fire Chief C. A. (Bill) Nicolet reported. "We had four trucks at the scene," the fire chief said. "By the time we arrived, the roof was caving in and the walls were crumbling.

"It looks like something other than natural sources. It had to be fed. It w'cnt awful fast. A gas explosion will blow out the sides, but they don't burn that fast. It looks like foul play, but I want the deputy fire marshal to make that decision." All that was left of the Harrelson home was part of the foundation, Nicolel said.

C. 0. Williams, who lives next door to Harrelson at 3401 Morkel Drive, told a reporter that he heard what he thought was "sort of a double explosion." "I just got to bed," he told a reporter at the scene last night. "Then I heard sort of a double explosion. It shook my house and the lights went out momentarily.

I thought it was an explosion at Western (Olin Malhieson) where I w'ork." Williams ran outside and saw smoke pouring from the Harrelson home. Then, suddenly, flames shot out of the house in all directions and the dwelling was engulfed in fire. "It really went fast," said Williams who was concerned with saving his own home which is just south of the Harrelson residence. Williams suffered slight burns to his right arm and shoulder as he was hosing dow'n the north side of his closest point to the Harrelson home. He did not require medical attention.

Godfrey firemen found the Harrelson home destroyed when they arrived and "the first thing we did was to protect Williams' house before we even threw any water on Harrelson's place," Chief Nicolet said. "We put water on Wil- liams' home fight away. The flames were really licking the side of his house." Nicolet said the side of Williams' home was "blistered," but not damaged seriously. Firemen poured water into the ruins for hours and remained on the scene until 4 a.m. to protect the rest of the subdivision.

Nicolet posted two firemen to guard the premises overnight with instructions not to let anybody near the area until after an investigation was made by the fire marshal's office. He also ordered the ruins roped off. Some neighbors told a reporter they had expected "something like this" to happen. They said they had been living in fear "of this sort of thing" because of Harrelson's reported connections in the labor situation. Harrelson could not reached this morning.

He is married and has a 27- year-old step-son and a 17- year-old daughter. Harrelson. a Telegraph series disclosed in February, is the most feared labor leader in the Alton metro- plex. The series showed that he had widened his already powerful empire by secretly grabbing new job- rich territories in Illinois. Harrelson has refused to make public statements and, generally, efforts to reach him are fruitless.

ALTON EVENING TELEGRAPH Serving the Alton Community for More Than 132 Years SUNNY SUNDAY Low 43; High 75 (Additional weather on Page 2) Copyright Alton Telegraph Printing Co. 1968. ALTON, SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 1968 Vol. CXXXIII, No. S3 18 PAGES Price lOc Member Associated Press FBI Agents Scour Alton for Ray Clues By ANDE YAKSTIS Telegraph Staff Writer FBI agents are searching Alton for the last whereabouts of the alleged killer of Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr. after it, was revealed Friday that a prime suspect is Eric Starve Gait, really James Earl Ray, a native of Alton. Alton Resident FBI agent Robert Haines started the hunt here for relatives of Ray after Haines was alerted Friday that fingerprint identification had zeroed in on the Alton police character. FBI Agents have so far been unable to trace Ray in Alton since 1959 but they did find a trail of arrests leading out of Alton to St. Louis, Chicago and across the country to Los Angeles.

"We have been unable to find a trace of Ray in Alton since 1959," an agent said. "His parents have been gone from here for years and Ray has just dropped completely out of sight." The astonishing revelation of Ray as the 40-year-old suspected sniper slayer of Kjng gained new momentum late this morning when he was placed on the FBI's "most wanted" list today. Ray is known as a fist- fighting, gun-carrying trou- U.S. Planes Pound Red Supply Lines SAIGON (AP) U.S. warplanes set a 196S record for the second straight day Friday as Lhey flew 160 missions to blast supply targets in North Vietnam's southern panhandle.

American fliers had set a record for the year Thursday ien they flew 145 missions, the largest number in nearly four months. The Air Force, Navy and Maon Friday's raids encountered light rine pilots said they ground fire and evaded several antiaircraft missiles fired at them in the coastal area between Vinh and Dong Hoi. They hit bridges, roads, trucks and supply points in the area left open to them under President Johnson's bombing curtailment order, designed to draw Hanoi into peace talks. The northeast monsoon over North Vietnam is almost over and with the rapidly improving weather, the number of American air strikes is expected to increase unless the President orders further curtailment. Although Friday's 160 missions set a record for 1968, the number is well below the all- time Vietnam war record of 209 set last Aug.

19 before the monsoon season began. The U.S. Command said the deepest penetration Friday was about 168 miles above the demilitarized zone against a railroad spur near Vinh. This was below the 19th Parallel, a boundary U.S. planes have been observing even though Johnson's public statements gave the northern limit, as the 2()th Parallel.

No American planes were re- ported shot down, but in a weekly report the U.S. Command said 1,070 American warplanes had been lost in combat as of over North Vietnam and 247 in the South. Another 1,002 planes, have been announced lost in accidents not involving direct enemy action. The command also announced that 643-helicopters have shot down, all but nine in South Vietnam, and another 920 choppers have been lost to nonhostile causes. In ground fighting, some of the 100,000 allied troops in Operation Complete biggest allied campaign of the three clashes Friday near Saigon.

They said 58 Viet Cong were killed while U.S. losses were five killed and 28 wounded. Along the northern frontier, North Vietnamese troops struck at the newly reopened overland supply road to Khe Sanh Friday, ambushing a U.S. Marine truck convoy while pinning down Leathernecks on a road clearing operation nearby. Telegraph Wins Two Top Awards In News Contest CARBONDALE The Telegraph was awarded two of the top three prizes and an honorable mention Friday in the best news story category of the Southern Illinois Editorial Association's 1968 daily newspaper contest.

The Telegraph also won second prize in the best editorial category during the SIEA's spring meeting at the Giant City State Park near' Carbondale. The first-place award was for a story about a train derailment in Edwardsville last Nov. 29, which demolished a home in which a 74-year-old widow was sleeping. The story, written by FIRE ENGULFS UNION HEAD'S HOME Silhouetted against a roaring blaze are a Godfrey fire truck and firemen hopelessly battled to save the home of Pipefitter Boss Frank Harrelson. An explosion was heard about 10 p.m., just prior to the fire.

Telegraph staff writer Dale Armstrong, told how one of 19 derailed boxcars struck the home of Mrs. Mary E. Lane, 520 E. Schwartz jarring her out of bed and narrowly missing her The second-place winning editorial, wrilen by Editor Paul 'S. Cousley, appeared in the same issue Nov.

29. The editorial commended a meeting the previous week between Edwardsville school authorities and Chief Circuit Judge James 0. Monroe apparently to set up guidelines for conduct in 15 classes of situations. The third-place prize was awarded for a story Feb. 7 of this year by Telegraph staff writers Bill Lhotka and Dick Fackler, about the patronage system in Illinois.

The story told how a majority of Illinois employes are patronage personnel, and receive a major portion of the state tax-supported salaries despite a decade of civil service regulations. Honorable mention went lo a story in the same issue by staff writer Art Thomason, reporting how Jerseyville Unit School District 100 had clamped a lid on news there. Thomason's story related how' accidents on school grounds and in classrooms went unreported by an alleged agreement between the hospital and the school district. Armstrong and Lhotka are both working in the Telegraph's Edwardsville bureau. Fackler is at the Wood River bureau, and Thorn- ason in the JerseyvilJe bureau.

blemaker who has a long Alton police arrest record since dropping out of school to join the army which discharged him for ineptness, lack of adaptability and drunkenness. While local agents are attempting to find out about Ray's life in Alton, FBI Agents are combing the country for him on a warrant from Tennessee charging him with the murder of King April 4 in Memphis. The knowledge of Ray's background of violence, robbery and escapes compiled locally shed new light on Ray's character for FBI who have now labeled him as armed and extremely dangerous. Gall's real identity as Ray was traced, the FBI said, through "a systematic and exhaustive search of latent fingerprints" developed in the King case against the prints of more than 53,000 persons for whom wanted notices are on file in the bureau's identification division. Ray is described as 5- foot-10 and 163 to 174 pounds, with brown hair, blue eyes and small scars on his forehead and right palm.

He has a nervous habit of tugging on his left ear which protrudes slightly farther than his right ear. In Alton, Police Chief William Petersen, who described Ray as a "dirty said that police are remaining alert for any appearance of Ray in Alton. But the chief doubted if Ray had been in Alton since 1959. "I remember Ray as a dirty neck, the kind of criminal who gets in all kinds of trouble, hates, and has no respect for the law." Petersen said. Alton police were involved in a widespread manhunt for Ray and Joseph Elmer Austin after two men, carrying revolvers, robbed the Wegener Food Liner on Alby Street in August, 1959.

Ray, an elusive character, managed to escape but Austin was nabbed by Alton police. Austin implicated Ray in the armed robbery but refused to sign a statement out of fear of Ray and others whom he declined to name. While police searched for Ray on the Wegener robbery in 1959, St. Louis police captured him and another man, James L. Owens for the daylight armed robbery of a St.

Louis Krogor store. His record of resisting the police flared again during his arrest on Kroger robbery when St. Louis police had to use force to subdue him. Later when he was sentenced to 20 years as a habitual criminal on 'he Kroger robbery he tried to escape from deputies wno took him to the courtroom. In Jefferson City.

Mo. where he served his prison term, he tried to escape, again by hiding in a ventilator. He was discovered and confined briefly in the rr.en- tal security division at Fulton. Mo. Last year he escaped from Missouri Prison by hiding in a truck carrying bread.

The FBI issued a warrant in April. 19(57 chary- ing him with unlawful flight to avoid confinement. lie. has been a fugitive since In their hunt today Ray. the FBI noted that he used the James Mc- Bricle, James Walton.

C. (Continued On Page 2, Col. I) RAY IN 1955 (LEFT)---RAY IN 1968 Uncle Here Says Ray Always In Trouble By L. ALLEN KLOPE Telegraph Staff Writer James Earl Ray was always in trouble and seeking family help to get him out of his scrapes, an uncle told the Telegraph today. Ray, sought in the slaying of Dr.

Martin Luther King in Memphis two weeks ago and who lived in Alton briefly after his birth, came here only to commit crimes, the relative said. "We did not think alike, and the rest of the family didn't want anything to do with him, because he was a troublemaker," the uncle said. "He (Ray) called me once to bail him out of jail for some traffic offense, and it cost me about $45, which he never paid back. "The last time I saw him was about 15 years ago, but. I didn't talk to him much.

1 just didn't want i around the family." Asked if Ray had ever had any problem with Negroes or if he had anything against the Negro race, the uncle said to his knowledge Ray did not. as 1 said, 1 wasn't around him much, but 1 never heard him say anything about Negroes either good or bad," the uncle said. ''Personally, I contribute to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored people, and hire Negroes to work for me. I also do a lot of work for Negroes, but I don't think Ray ever kni'w this." UK- uncle said. Speaking of Hay's life in Alton, the uncle confirmed the 40-year-old fugitive born at 1021 W.

out lived here only a year, before the family moved to St. Louis. Hay's father may still live in St. Louis, the uncle, said. however, Missouri State Prison records list his father as having died in Kwing.

in l'J4ti. Telegraph reporters were unsuccessful in finding Ray's father Hay Hyan. at St. No. 1.

at 191o Louis. Burke Funeral Home 111 Alton handled the funeral at Si. Peter and Paul's Catholic Church, and the woman was buried in St. Patrick's Cemetery. al.Mj in Alton.

There is no record whether Ray attended the funeral. Rav was in the Stale Penitentiary at that time. The uncle said Ray was to have attended school in Quincy, but records there do not list anyone by that name. Quincy School Superintendent William G. Alberts told the Telegraph he and his staff are continuing to check records to determine if Ray was in the school system under another name.

The Telegraph checked with residents of the 9th Street area where Ray was born, but none remember him or his family. Alton Public School records showed a James B. Ray attended school here about the time James Earl Ray was supposed to have lived here. However, James B. Ray lives north of Godfrey, and is no relation to the fugitive.

The Telegraph also tried to reach Ray's sister, Miss Melba Ryan, who is in her 30's and lives at the New Virginia Hotel in Quincy, but the woman apparently left the hotel to avoid the press. Quincy police apparently talked with Miss Ryan sometime Friday night, but offic- would not release any information on the confer. ence. The hotel where she lives is located in a poor section of Quincy, a Quincy newspaperman told the Telegraph. Although relatives did not know of Ray living in Alton, (Continued On Page 2, Col.

4) Father Uses Girl as Shield In Shooting Fracas Over Test Hy PEGGY WOOD Telegraph Staff Writer BRUSSELS A father of eight, using his 15-year-old daughter as a shield, fired a shot "barely missing" Calhoun County Sheriff Bernard llillen Friday in the principal's office at Brussels' Grade School The angry father, Sherman Kline, then Heel the school with his daughter. Linda, who was screaming and crying. Authorities believe they are in Missouri. "He said it didn't make any difference if he took a few' of us with him," the sheriff told the Telegraph. The sheriff and his deputy, who had gone lo the school to arrest Kline on a criminal complaint for aggravated assault, said they didn't return the fire for tear of endangering the girl.

Charges were filed against Kline Thursday after he fired a shot into the floor of his trailer home, during a hassle with Carlinville welfare Frank Wildegrube. Kline also struck Wildegrube in the jaw. Hillen said. Kline had apparently lie- come angry over an examination that his daughter was required to lake at school. The girl left school at noon Wednesday, Principal Anthony Siemer said.

After the confrontation with Wildegrube Thursday, Kline went to the school and placed a call to the welfare office in Carlinville, the conversation erupting in angry shouting. When the sheriff and the deputy entered the office. Siemer and another teacher went out into the hall. After they heard the shot Siemer sent his assistant to the nearby high school to phone the state's attorney Then, everyone w'aited uneasily while the sheriff attempted lo talk Kline into giving up the gun. However, Kline threatened the sheriff again and then shielded himself with his frightened daughter as he left the building.

Hillen said they did not give chase since the girl was in the car svith Kline. According to authorities, Kline has a car tn Illinois and one in Missouri, and uses a small boat to cross the river. He has been employed as a plumber in a subdivision in St. Charles, and is believed to have relatives in that state. The Kline family has been living about three miles from Brussels for five or six months, the sheriff said.

The state's attorney Is preparing charges against Kline and state police are assisting the county in their search for him. in Si. Louis. mother. Mrs.

Lucille died on Jan. 1961 Louis City Hospital She bad been living Hickory St. in St. History Links Elijah Lovejoy, Dr. King On Xov 7.

a bullet fired I On Xov 7. a bullet unidentilied killed the Rev tionist leader and editor, on On April 4. Hilis a bullet fired by a mystery man going under the name Eric Starvo Gait in Memphis, Tcnn slew l.o\e|oy's modern-day parallel in history. Dr Martin Luther King He was preparing new measures to gam release of the Negro i rum modern day limitations of his freedom. Kridav Call.

too. was fired In an Alton man still Klijah Parish I.ovejoy. aboli- the riverfront here identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a native Altonian who had made his earlier crime record here Karl Hay. Thus crossed here the life lines of suspected assassins ii two great leaders in the nation's long t.intinued movement for greater freedom of the Negro. INSIDE Today KDITOKIAl A-4 King killing comes to Alton CONFLICT A-3 Another conflict-of-interest case looms in Kast Alton.

BIAS A-6 Sociologists say churchgoers most prejudiced. A Jim Kulp feature in the Religion Section. FAMILY A-8 1'he Alton VWCA: Us first oU years. spoins B-I Blues, Stars daah Sunday in playoff opener..