Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 3

Detroit Jftee Today's Chuckle Recipe for speeches: Add shortening. Recipe for marriages: Add sweetening. 1 1 1 1 1 i.i THE SECOND FRONT PAGE i'i'i'iIViI Page 3, Section A Wednesday, March 30, 1977 i BAD BET Eateries in Tizzy Over Smo king Lam BY HELEN FOGEL Free Press Staff Writer When Michigan's new law governing smoking in restaurants goes into effect on Thursday, non-smokers will have the edge at the chic Money Tree in downtown Detroit. The Money Tree management is planning to reserve only six tables, by the window, for diners who insist on having a cigaret with their after-dinner coffee. But across town at Jacoby's, a popular hangout for attorneys, judges and politicians, owner Ed Jacoby acknowledges he'll have a problem carving a non-smoking area out of the single, smoke-filled room.

All become effective Thursday. Restaurant owners have greeted the new legislation with about as much enthusiasm as an invasion of salmonella. "It's going to be mass confusion around here for at least two months," said one. At another downtown restaurant, the manager said he planned to set aside a portion of one room for non-smokers. "I hope they'll be comfortable," he said, acknowledging that he himself is a smoker.

AT THE ROMA Cafe owner Hector Sossi is doing his best to encourage the non-smoking trend. He's hoping his place is too small to qualify under the new law, which requires all food establishments with a seating capacity of 50 or more to provide a non-smoking area and post notices that the area is available. "We seat about 23. Of course we stand 60," Jacoby laughed. "I guess we could stand non-smokers over by the window." THE RESTAURANT law is part of a package of legislation that will also prohibit smoking in retail food stores and require hospitals and nursing homes to develop a smoking policy so non-smoking patients will not have to share quarters with smokers.

Besides setting aside one of the Roma's three dining rooms for non-smokers, he has raised the price of a pack of cigarets to 75 cents. "People keep right on buying them, though," he said. Like other restaurant owners, Sossi finds the new regulations some bother. "It would have been easier for us if they'd outlawed cigaret smoking in restaurants altogether," he said. "About 75 percent of the people who come here just don't rare about the non-smoking area." Please turn to Page 7A, Col.

1 Others Did VA Killings Jury Told MSU's Expensive Compiiler Bern" Used for Foolbull Pool MICHIGAN STATE University trustees met in private last week to talk about two audits that indicate the possible waste of thousands of dollars in tax money because of mismanagement in the school's $2 million computer department. The audit showed, among other things, that one department employe used the computer which MSU rents for $60,000 a month to run a football betting pool. MSU President Clifton R. Wharton Jr. plans to hire a new department director.

Panel Spurns Sen. Alack MEMBERS OF THE state House-Senate Committee on Administrative Rules quietly completed an end run Tuesday around Sen. Joseph S. Mack, D-Ironwood, by selecting Sen. John C.

Hertel, D-Harper Woods, as their new chairman. Mack was named to the committee early this year as a consolation prize after being denied a sat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. And hu promptly sought to be named chairman. House members objected, saying that Mack is an obstructionist, and they held firm until Senate Democrats signaled that Hertel was their choice. Mack skipped Tuesday's meeting.

No Gas, No PBB, No Spill WHEN A CAR and a tanker truck collided in Southfield Tuesday, police talked not about a gasoline explosion but jokingly about PBB contamination. The truck was carrying milk, but there was no need to cry. None was spilled, and there's now no PBB in Michigan milk sold commercially. Beller Lale Than Never WHEN NEWLY ELECTED state Sen. Harold J.

Scott was late for his own swearing in Monday night, a few legislators and reporters passed the time wondering where he could be. "Maybe he went to the House and is waiting for someone to swear him out," suggested one. Others speculated that the Flint Democrat was having trouble finding the Senate chamber, which is across the Capitol Rotunda from the House. When Scott a state representative chosen in a special election to fill the Senate seat arrived 35 minutes late, he said: "I'm very relieved you didn't swear in someone else." He later said sheepishly, "I just didn't set aside enough" time to get here." $1.15 Million isn't Enough THE HURON VALLEY School Board had to say "thanks, but no thanks" to a $1.15 million federal grant to build an indoor swimming pool. The board had sought the grant based on a construction cost estimate that turned out to be about $500,000 too low.

Now there is no way to build the pool for the amount of money available, and it's too late to resubmit the grant application. The school board is blaming the mess on the architectural firm that made the original estimate. Free Press Photo bv IRA ROSENBERG t'i2'l, I It 1 TM IVm if A downtown pedestrian sports the latest in sweeping hairstyles as she battles with the wind Tuesday. Spring Bloivs In Like a Blooming Late March Lion 3 Suspects Mentioned By Defense BY KIRK CHEYI1TZ Free Press Staff Writer Defense lawyers Tuesday said they have three other possible suspects in the Ann Arbor Veterans Hospital murder case and vowed to do better than the FBI in solving the hospital mystery. The defense, presenting opening arguments in Detroit's U.S.

District Court, declared the innocence of Fili-pina Narciso and Leonora Perez, the two former VA nurses accused of murdering two patients and poisoning seven others during the summer of 1975. THE DEFENSE lawyers told the jury they will offer evidence casting suspicion on three other persons a mentally troubled nursing supervisor who is now dead, a mysterious man in a surgeon's green uniform and a nursing aide who was granted im-numity from prosecution in the case. The lawyers said the jury would learn more about these three persons when the defense presents its evidence later in the trial. The prosecution's circumstantial case against Miss Narciso and Mrs. Perez "is not unlike the sort of house a young child makes out of playing cards," said Thomas O'Brien, who went first for the defense.

"It doesn't hold together. This house is going to fall apart," O'Brien told then 12 jurors and four alternates in Judge Philip Pratt's courtroom. O'Brien dismissed as "nonsense" the charge that the two women formed a criminal conspiracy to poison patients. "There was no conspiracy formed," he said. THE DEFENSE team also suggested that the VA Hospital itself may be to blame for the dramatic increase in sud-d breathing failures Oiat struck patients during July and August 1975.

Some of the breathing failures may have resulted from accident or negligence, they said. The lawyers said the huspi-t a 1 was chronically understaffed, with no security ito protect the patients. The hospital's record-keeping proce- Please turn to Pagte Col. 1 Free Press Photo by JOHN COLLIER BY DEE SIEGELBAUM Free Press Staff Writer Winds gusting up to 51 m.p.h. Tuesday buffeted Detroit area motorists and pedestrians who were otherwise enjoying near-record temperatures in the 70s.

A low pressure system moving across the state from the west was responsible for the strong crosswinds, which subsided late Tuesday. Wednesday's temperatures are expected to reach the mid-60s. The National Weather Service in Detroit recorded the 51 m.p.h. gusts at 12:13 p.m. Tuesday, and the temperature reached 76 degrees one degree short of the record for the date at 3 p.m.

A TORNADO-TYPE storm struck about five miles north of St. Johns, near Lansing, blew out windows in a house and uprooted trees on the same property. No injuries were reported and the i National Weather Service could not confirm that the storm was a tornado. The wind was fierce, but the sunshine proved just too inviting. Peter Spitaels, 6, (above) gets a steadying hand from Billie Jean Harper, 8, as the northeast Detroit lad makes a shaky debut on his bike.

The Grand Rapids office of the National Weather Service advised motorists in southwest Michigan to use caution on highways and freeways because of the difficulty of maintaining a straight path on windswept roads. A Detroit Edison spokesman said some equipment fuses were blown when wind tangled high voltage power lines. About 450 customers in Salem Township in Washtenaw County were without power from 9:20 p.m. Monday to 11:43 a.m. Tuesday after a thunderstorm in the area, which also caused low-voltage problems at the Detroit House of The power company spokesman said no major outages occurred.

Prayer Asked to Uncover Child Killer Algonac Just Right For Boating Shrine SPRING MAY HAVE SPRUNG at last (I'm keeping my guard up), and what better time to hope the good citizens of Algonac are successful in their battle to become the site of the National Boating Hall of Fame? That would put Algonac in a class with Cooperstown, N.Y., where the National Baseball Hall of Fame is located, and Canton, Ohio, home of a similar shrine for pro football. Spokesman for the citizens group spearheading the campaign is Donald Baxter. He reports that the sponsoring organizations, the National Association of Engine and Boat Manufacturers and the a i Industry Association, started with 40 possible sites. The field has been cut to two, Algonac and Baltimore. An inspection trip was made to Algonac last week by representatives of both organizations.

The sponsoring group, the Algonac Boating and Historical Museum officers, proudly showed the team around their city. They pointed out especially the site of the old Chris Craft property of some 40 acres located on the North Channel of the St. Clair River at the city's southerly limits. The property is being purchased by the city with federal funds furnished by HUD. It will be designated as a recreational center and, says Baxter, would be the perfect place for the Hall of Fame.

Algonac drips with boating lore. Chris Smith built a national name there and teamed with Gar Wood in constructing and racing the first hydroplanes powered with Packard aircraft engines. The Harmsworth and Gold Cup races had their American beginnings in the St. Clair River near where a new Municipal Building is being completed. The sponsoring group includes Mrs.

Beatrice Osgood, Patrick Morrison, Mrs. Hilla Wright and Baxter. They're certain that with the physical facilities they have to offer, plus the historical background of participation in boating, they've made an offer that should be hard to refuse. year-old Timothy King of Birmingham, are believed by police to have been committed by the same person. The letter sent by Christ Church Cranbrook to be signed by the churches and synagogues, is a direct appeal to the killer or killers to surrender and says- "For the good of all human kind, including yourself, we shall be offering prayers that you unburden yourself of the weight you are carrying and come forward and acknowledge what you have done." The letter begins: "Dear unknown person: We, shot," said the Rev.

Lew Towler, associate rector of Christ Church Cranbrook, an Episcopal church. "This is a symbol for us to do something, rather than sitting passively by," he said. The two paragraph letter went to all Catholic, Prctestant and Jewish congregations listed in the North Woodward area telephone directory. It asked a response by noon Friday. No particular day of prayer was set.

Seven children have been abducted and killed in or near Oakland County since early 1976. Four of the slayings, including the most recent, that of 11- BY JANE BRIGGS-BUNTING Free Press Staff Writer All churches and synagogues in south Oakland County are being asked to join in a prayer effort to get the Oakland County child murderer to surrender. Christ Church Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills sent a etter to 300 churches and synagogues Tuesday asking for prayers. Since the task force (investigating the slayings) is following any lead they get, even a shot, we felt the religious community should try our Please turn to Page 4A, Col. 3 Mayor's Fund Aide Admits Taking $35,000 for Himself He who pays his gas bill THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: gets hot twice.

1 raiser coverted $35,000 in contributions to his own use. He has repaid nearly $30,000 and says he plans to repay the final $5,300 this week. BY REMER TYSON AND WILLIAM J. MITCHELL Free Press Staff Writer The co-chairman of Mayor Young's 1976 political fund IF YOU THINK you're a gin rummy expert and have a friend who agrees that the two of you'd make the best team hereabouts, the place for you is the Fairlane Club in Dearborn at 3 p.m. Friday.

That's the starting time for the second annual gin rummy tournament sponsored by the Great Lakes chapter of the Eastern Air Lines' Silverliners Club. Ex-Con Has Plow To Detour Crime BY WILLIAM HART Free Press Staff Writer I Ray Johnson is a celebrity. People demand his autograph at airports and write him hundreds of week. A book he wrote last year may soon become a movie. This Friday he will make his 22d appearance on the Johnny Carson show.

Johnson, is a celebrity today largely because of what the Grand Rapids Press last Nevember. Starting at age 18, he spent 25 of his 50 years in! California prisons. He was sent up three times, the last time for life. He spent more than four years in solitary' confinement after becoming the first maximum security inmate, to escape from Folsom Prison near Sacramento" The judge who sentenced him after his recapture de scribed him as "too dangerous to be at large." Johnson, who was parolled in 1968 and officially par doned just last week, was in Detroit Tuesday to put his past expertise to work on the right side of the law. I Joined by other ex-cons and analysts from a Calk fornia social research firm, the former stickup man has devised an anti-stickup security program.

It is being introduced at the 6,000 nationwide 7-Eleven Stores the couni try's largest, and most often robbed, convenience store chain. I "What we have put together is really a series of com mon sense elements that just have not been systematic cally applied before," said Johnson, a large, gravel Please turn to Page 6A, Col. 1 Louis R. Lee, who was being disbarred as a Detroit lawyer during the time that he made the unauthorized withdrawals from the mayor's political fund, acknowledged his actions Tuesday. "I want to make clear the blame is mine and mine alone," Lee said in a telephone interview from Washington, where he had been working as a volunteer with the Democratic National Committee in hopes of getting employment there.

Malcolm Dade, executive assistant to the mayor, and Detroit lawyer Avern Cohn, finance chairman of Young's 1977 re-election campaign, said Tuesday that they had planned to make a full public report about Lee's unauthorized withdrawals from the mayor's "People for Detroit Fund." Dade and Cohn said they will give the report to the Please turn to Page 4A, Col. 3 Federal Agent Admits PBB Eavesdropping BY BOB CALVERLEY Free Press Staff Writer GRAND RAPIDS An investigator for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration admitted during federal hearings Tuesday that he deliberately eavesdropped on a phone conversation about FBB between a Michigan physician and a reporter from the Grand Rapids Press last November. The admission by investigator Raymond K. Hedblad brought instant criticism from Michigan Sens.

Donald Riegle and Robert Griffin, members of a U.S. Senate subcommittee which is conducting hearings on the PBB epsiode this week. "Why would you be paying attention to such comments?" Riegle asked Hedblad. "It's like, your government is watching you or listening to you." Hedblad said he was sent by his superiors to a Grand Rapids hospital last November to check the accuracy of newspaper Please turn to Page 7C, Col. 1 Ed Armelli and Rod Chubb, who split $1,000 for their first place finish last year, will be back for more.

The entry fee is a hefty $75 apiece, but 80 percent of that is tax deductible, since most of the proceeds will go to the Metropolitan Society for Crippled Children and Adults. The society's Dr. Frank Jakes will accept reservations at 341-4900. All the officers of the Silverliners are former Eastern stewardesses. President Joanne Huner is somewhat chagrined that only one gal entered last year, and there are none so far, even though they are welcome.

TODAY'S WORST JOKE: There once was a nearsighted factory worker whose job it was to fit small screws into their proper places. He had great difficulty finding the holes and he frequently threw the screw aside, thinking it was badly made. One day the boss noticed this waste, said angrily: "If the screw fits, spare it." Ex-con Johnson "What we have put together is really a series of common sense elements that just have not bee systematically applietl before.".