Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 13

THE 1 I li GION LOTTERY 2 DEATH NOTICES 5 OBITUARIES 5 NEIGHBORHOODS PAGE 3 SECTION STATE PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2000 4 HkL- Allegheny Club finds new home at science center County treasurer following the cents with sales of dog tags We are going to have water taxis and vans to take our members and their guests to PNC Park: Kevin M. Vaughn, club president By Lawrence Walsh Post-Gazette Staff Writer The Allegheny Club, which had faced the prospect of closing next January if it didn't find a new home, has found one right down the street at the Carnegie Science Center. The private, for-profit club will have temporary quarters in the science center for a few years until that facility expands. When it does, the club wants to move into the top floor to give its members a commanding view of the Point and Downtown. "We're very excited," said club President Kevin M.

Vaughn. "We plan to be open for business at our new location for opening day of the Pirates 2001 season." In a letter sent Monday to the club's 2,000 members, he said the advantages of the new location include additional parking, easy access to both stadiums and special transportation arrangements for those who would rather ride than walk to PNC Park, the Pirates' new stadium about 1,200 feet away. "We are going to have water taxis and vans to take our members and their guests to PNC Park," Vaughn said. "We're also thinking about expanding the water taxi service to and from the Downtown area when the Pirates aren't playing, and possibly even year-round." Vaughn said the club's extensive sports memorabilia collection also will move to the science center. The collection includes a section of the Forbes Field red brick wall that Bill Mazeroski's World Series-winning home run cleared in 1960, the Forbes Field scoreboard and sever- 'A 1 7 Mil irtftfTMlrr A 'j 1 firTr Douglass OsterPost-Gazette Side The Pittsburgh Children's Museum is hosting some special visitors until May.

"The Vision of Jim Hen-son" traveling exhibit has moved in and is getting ready for its opening Monday. Above, Margaret Heinlen of the Henson group makes some adjustments to Big Bird, one of the characters in the retinue. At left, one of Big Bird's buddies, Kermitthe Frog, hangs out with a reporter taking notes at the exhibit, which includes original artwork, clips from Muppets television programs and films, and workshops through May 28. The museum is in Allegheny Center Funeral fails to end family's nightmare al of the old ballpark's arched windows. Although space will limit the size of the collection that can be seen while the club is in its temporary quarters, more items will be displayed when the club moves into its permanent location.

Vaughn said he and Seddon Bennington, director of the Carnegie Science Center, have reached "a verbal understanding" about the club's new home. "We called him to see if the center could rent us some space and it went from there," Vaughn said. "We had several meetings and concluded it would be a good match for both of us. We anticipate that our members, especially those with families, also will want to become members of the science center." Still to be determined is where the club's temporary quarters will be. SEE CLUB, PAGE B-2 they received the body from the custody of Armstrong County Coroner Robert Bower.

Brad Adamson, a funeral director at the Indiana funeral home and an Indiana County deputy coroner, volunteered to go with Swartz and Snyder to retrieve the pieces of brain. Adam Swartz, 29, was killed when his girlfriend, Chelsea J. Richter, 25, lost control of her car on Route 156, crossed the center line and went over an embankment. The car rolled end over end for about 300 feet before coming to rest on all four wheels, Bower said. Richter, who lived with Swartz in Homer City, had a blood alcohol level of 0.13 after the accident.

She is facing charges of vehicular homicide and drunken driving in Armstrong County Common Pleas Court. Drivers in Pennsylvania are considered too drunk to drive if they register above the legal limit of 0.10 on a blood alcohol test. Adamson brought a container SEE FINEPAGE B-2 IT take to the North By Jeffrey Cohan Post-Gazette Staff Writer Here, John Weinstein. Come here, boy. That's a good boy.

Here's a Milk-Bone. X)K Go fetch the Frisbee, John Weinstein. Go get it. Now bring it back! Stop chewing on it, John 'Weinstein. C'mon.

Let go of it, boy. "Now roll over. John Weinstein. Some might think "John Weinstein" has replaced "Rover" or "Spot" as the most popular dog name in Allegheny County. After all, the name is dangling from the collars of about 20,000 canines here and will soon appear on another 100,000 or more dog tags.

"John Weinstein," in fact, is the only name on dog licenses issued by the Allegheny County treasurer's office. John Weinstein, as it turns out, is neither a German shepherd nor a Great Dane. But he is a bit of a political animal." Showing a penchant for self-promotion, Weinstein, the county treasurer, has his name stamped on every dog license his office sells, starting this month. "I'm glad to have 100,000 four-legged friends that are wearing my name around their necks," he said. Weinstein also has printed 130,000 brochures featuring a photo of himself with his since-deceased dog, Sheeba.

The six-sided brochures, printed at a cost of $6,000, will be mailed with license renewal notices and stacked in pet supply stores as part of the treasurer's "Collar ID" promotion, an effort to make sure dog owners comply with the license requirement Weinstein and Sheeba will soon appear on 15 billboards scattered across the county, too. In addition to Weinstein's name, a treasurer's office phone number appears on the new dog tags. If a licensed dog gets lost, whoever finds it can call the treasurer's office during business hours, read the license number to a clerk, and learn the owner's name. Until this year, dog tags didn't list any phone number or the treasurer's name, for that matter. "The new Collar ID makes it that much easier for someone to get hold of the owners and therefore gets the dog back where it belongs a lot faster," said Clay Criswell, executive director of the Humane Society of Western Pennsylvania.

"The new approach the county treasurer is taking is very good." Weinstein has also won plaudits for inserting dog license applications in property tax bills. The number of dog licenses issued by the treasurer's office shot up from 65,000 in 1998 to 92,000 last year, Weinstein's first year as treasurer. He's shooting for 150,000 this year. The added revenue from dog license sales more than makes up for the $15,000 that Weinstein is spending on brochures, billboards and other promotions. "We're knocking 'em dead selling dog licenses in Allegheny County because of what John Weinstein is doing," said Jim Brush, state dog warden for Allegheny County.

And in the process, John Weinstein is becoming a household name in doghouses, anyway. 'V'v it 1 Peter OsyfPost-Gazette Temptress turned teen-ager into a killer, police say By Mike Bucsko Post-Gazette Staff Writer Tricia Swartz drove to Armstrong County the day of her brother's funeral to look at the scene of the traffic accident where he lost his life on Thanksgiving night. What she found left her feeling angry and hurt. Over an embankment in a field off Route 156 in South Bend, she discovered large pieces of Adam Swartz's brain. The discovery led to a crusade by Tricia Swartz and her family to reunite Adam Swartz's brain with the cremated remains of his body, a process that took more than six weeks.

At first, Swartz said, she refused to believe what she saw at the accident scene. So she and her friend, Cindy Snyder, contacted Indiana lawyer Myron Tomb, who was handling Adam Swartz's estate. They asked him to contact the funeral home. Tomb said the funeral home told him the brain was missing when wife's death broke down, Patterson said. "He said it was a terrible thing.

Things got out of hand. He said he was sorry, it shouldn't have happened," Patterson testified. Three months later, Patterson said, he grew weary of Witherell's mood swings and hot temper and his feeling that he was being used by Witherell and his brother. He returned to Denver in March 1994. SEE HEARING, CE B-2 son for the representing phoned alternated boyfriend.

was "She the man and gunned him down in a dark apartment. The boy was captured and charged with first-degree murder. And after fingering him as the killer, the woman walked away, free. Investigators cast the parts and wove the plot into the criminal complaint they filed yesterday when they arrested Johnstown resident Michelle Clark, now 31. Johnstown police say Clark prodded teenager Robert Hudson to kill her ex4)oyfriend, Robert Hawks, 35, last March 11.

After the shooting, Clark told police that By Tom Gibb Post-Gazette Staff Writer JOHNSTOWN, Pa. She was his 30-year-old lover. He was her 15-year-old baby-sitter turned hit man. She wanted someone to kill the man she moved out on, the father of her two young children. And late last winter, she told the pale, skinny, dirt-poor teenager that if he wouldn't do it, their five months of sex was history.

Three days later, the teen-ager ambushed she and Hawks, upon arriving back at her apartment, had suspected a break-in occurred, so Hawks went looking for an intruder. As he climbed the stairs to Clark's darkened attic, Hudson fired three shots into him from his father's pistol. "She set out the plans that Hudson would kill Hawks in her home and she would get rid of the body," police charged in an arrest affidavit filed yesterday with District Justice Leonard Grecek of Johnstown. But it was a double-cross, because Clark planned to get rid of Hawks and blame Hud his death, according to Kenneth Sot-tile, Cambria County public defender Hudson. Moments after the Clark the Cambria County 911 center and between shrieking for paramedics and trying to rally her unconscious Hudson ran from the scene but arrested the next day.

duped Mr. Hudson," Sottile said yesterday. SEE TEMPT, PAGE B-2 Witnesses: Wiiherell changed accounts of Jiiii i Michelle Witherell But Patterson never met With-erell's glances, looking away instead. Patterson, 30, of Denver, said he lost trust in Witherell after piecing together evidence that did not jibe with what Witherell had told him. "I backed away.

I didn't want to have anything to do with him," Patterson said on the second day of the hearing before Senior Common Pleas Judge Robert E. Dauer. Patterson said he moved to Pitts By Jim McKinnon Post-Gazette Staff Writer Jeremy Witherell occasionally glanced at the witness whose testimony helped prosecutors charge Witherell with killing his wife. "He's helped me through some hard times, Geoffrey Thomas Patterson said at a preliminary hearing yesterday for Witherell, his former best friend, who is accused of killing his wife, Michelle, on Dec. 20, 1992.

burgh to join Witherell as an account executive at the Pittsburgh City Paper, a weekly publication founded by Witherell's brother, Brad. He said he and Witherell shared an apartment in The Penn-sylvanian, Downtown. On Dec. 20, 1993, the anniversary of Michelle Witherell's death, Jeremy Witherell became increasingly distraught and agitated, even after the two men went out for drinks to calm him. Witherell everually h1' L' V' Jererjny Wltherell.