Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 21

5etroU4frce Vtm SECTION IS) In This Section Features-Editorials Editorials Books Entertainment Soaps Page 2 Page 5 Pages 6-10 Page 9 SUNDAY, JULY 10, 1977 I A ITS NOT BERMUDA, BUT ITS HOME Stranger than Fact! The Great Lakes Triangle history wrecks and mysteries, and Gourley BY JIM SCHUTZE I magm AO mmmJrWii vi because of almost anything short of space kidnapping? JOURNALIST TO JOURNALIST Gourley confided that there are a lot of good reasons for the wrecks and founderings on the lakes, including traffic, weather, reporting methods, and so on. But, journalist-to-journalist, he allowed as how he left all those reasons out of "The Great Lakes Triangle" in order to make the book more right," he said. "That was my intention in leaving it out, not to interfere with the drama." In fairness to him, it must be said' that Gourley's avowed intention In writing "The Great Lakes Triangle" was one of the most time-honored of motives among writers money. "I got a $7,500 advance from Fawcett, (publishers)," he said in response to a telephone question, "and now a British firm has bought the United Kingdom rights for $1 1,000, which is more than they usually pay over there. And we're negotiating with Japanese, Scandinavian, German, Dutch, and other companies for translations.

"I don't think it's going to be fantastically profitable, like half a million dollars or something like that, but right now it looks like it's going to be fairly profitable." PEOPLE IN THE Great Lakes region may remember Gourley from two years ago when he was nabbed by the Secret Service while touches on most or tne gooa ones, ue me wreck of the Wtubuno in 1879 (was her tragedy foreseen by a the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald two years ago (was she destroyed by an "incomprehensible and the disappearance of blues singer Otis Redding's plane over Lake Michigan in 1967. Most of the mishaps Gourley describes, however, are more prosaic. Take for example, the case of Lee Norman Sanborn, "a 45-year-old professional pilot from Grand Rapids, who crashed his small private plane while trying to get home on Dec. 6, 1967. Somehow Sanborn got going in circles the wrong way, balled up his instructions from the tower, crashed Into the ground, and died.

Gourley asks rhetorically what in the world could have happened? "Are there 'magnetic 'space or 'space-time vortices'? What is the answer?" One barely supresses a shudder at the prospect of space kidnappings and magnetic earthquakes in Grand Rapids, a city that has earned a solid reputation in recent years by cleaning up its downtown. This reviewer asked Gourley if there might not be other explanations for the fate of Sanborn and other unfortunates described in his book. Might it be possible that there are a lot of mishaps over and on the lakes because of the peculiarly irascible weather patterns of the Fret Frew StH Writer A Washington writer has put together a book called "The Great Lakes Triangle" which claims that the freshwater seas of our region are "deadlier than the Bermuda Triangle." The Bermuda Triangle is an expanse of the Atlantic Ocean which writer Charles Berlitz described in a 1974 book of the same name. Berlitz claimed that an extraordinary number of ships and planes had been lost there and suggested that there might be something vaguely woo-hoo about the area. Now writer Jay Gourley Is saying that there may be something even more woo-hoo about the Great Lakes.

There are probably two ways to approach this book. One is the sane-but-stuffy approach, pointing out that Gourley has packed an awful lot of baloney between the book's frail paper covers. And there is the irresponsible-but-more-fun approach which takes the book for what it really is, a ghost story that might help spark the area up a little and could even be good for tourism. THE BOOK IS a catalog, more exhausting than exhaustive, of airplanes and boats that have disappeared around the Great Lakes more or less from Creation to the present day. Some of the disappearances are top-grade spooky, as described by Gourley, and many are boring, but the nice thing about almost all of them is that they take place in such familiar l-MMpMreSwMw aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii AP Photo places.

area, or because mere are a un oi peopie uying private planes over broad expanses of water, or The Great Lakes do have their own romantic A MATTER OF CREDENTIALS 9 The Laetrile Lobbyffow Trustworthy. in recent vpnrs. nne of Krehs' close associates has been Federal and state investigators have testified that Bradford had taken part in Laetrile sales transactions involving hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars; he said, however, that he had only a modest income. BUT DR. JOSEPH X.

DIPALMA, the dean of Hahnemann, said that Krebs had failed his freshman year at the school In 1939, had been allowed to repeat it, and had successfully finished the freshman course on his second try. DiPalma said Krebs then failed his sophomore year and was expelled. "The letters in the file show that he pleaded and begged for reinstatement but that the officials at the time refused," DiPalma said. Krebs, who has at other times used the Initials PhD. after his name without further elaboration, has had a circuitous academic career.

At various times he has attended Memphis State Teachers College, the University of Mississippi, San Mateo Juiior CoMege, the University of California and the University of Illinois, which awarded him a bachelor of arts degree in 1942. Transcripts of his college records indicate that he was a lackluster student, having been awarded low or falling grades in some of his scientific courses including chemistry. Yet Krebs has repeatedlyh referred to himself as a biochemist and a nutritionist. Regarding his finances, Krebs told an interviewer that "neither myself nor any member of the Krebs family has ever made a cent from laetrile." Yet records seized by state and federal agents la 1972 indicated that Krebs and his brother, Byron Krebs, a medical doctor, had an income of $259,099 in 1979 and 1971, primarily from the sale of laetrile and other substances not recognized as valid drags. In 1974, Krebs and Dr.

Byron Krebs pleaded guilty to violations of state health and safety laws and were fined $500 each, given suspended sentences of six months and placed on probation. Last month Krebs was ordered by a San Francisco court to serve the suspended sentence because of violations of the conditions of his probation. Dr. Byron Krebs' license to practice medicine was revoked after the original trial. He died later that year.

these points were unavailing. Employes at the committee office said he was out of the state. Ernest Krebs Jr. A Matter of Degrees Krebs, 66, is" son of Dr. Ernest T.

Krebs a physician who patented laetrile in the 1940s and who in the ensuing years was arrested several times for using the chemical in violation of state law. Dr. Krebs was convicted in 1962 and in 1966 of selling illegal medicines including laetrile and fined $4,000. He died in 1970. One recent day Krebs served luncheon guests tuna fish sandwiches, coffee, and apricots in syrup dusted with a flour made of pulverized apricot pits.

His polka-dot tie sported the gold leaf pin of the John Birch Society, whose members include many in the laetrile movement Including Bradford and Richardson. When an interviewer noted that the telephone directory listed him as "Dr. Krebs" and his staff referred to him as "Dr. Krebs," Krebs said he had received an honorary doctorate from American University, which is a well known institution in Washington. The degree actually was awarded in 1973 not by American University but by American Christian College, a small Bible school in Tulsa, Okla.

Yet Dr. Dan Hobbs, ana official of the Oklahoma State Board of Regents, said that the school is not empowered to award any degrees other than the bachelor's degree. Over the years Krebs has stated that he completed three years of study at the Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia, but that he did not finish the fourth and final year. Asked by an interviewer why had had not completed his senior year, Krebs replied that he had been hounded out of the school because of his belief in unorthodox medical treatments. Richardson, co-author of a book dedicated to the Krebs' brothers and their father.

Published June 27. it is called. "Laetrile Case Histories: The Richardson Cancer Clinic Experience." The 390-page book contains dozens of detailed case histories of persons who were supposedly aided by the use of laetrile, with the names of the persons missing; and a few pictures of persons who were purportedly aided by laetnle, with the names used. Also missing from the book are the names of seven cancer patients whose case studies were described last September in a hearing of the California Board of Medical Quality Assurance, at which Richardson's license to practice medicine ws revoked. Why Richardson's License Was Revoked Among the charges against Richardson was that he had "aided and abetted the unlicensed practice of medicine by permitting unauthorized persons, to wit: Angela Jenkins (a nurse), Steve Richardson (his son) or Ralph Bowman (his business manager) to treat and care for" seven patients.

According to the board's documents, Richardson "also permitted an unlicensed person, to wit: Ernest (sic)T. Krebs to examine Helen D. Schneck." The board also found that Richardson "personally and his agents, advised and discouraged Helen D. Schneck, Kapltan P. Zema, Poul Olsen and Margaret Baldock from seeking conventional cancer therapy.

The board noted that the treatment for cancer, with the unrecognized drugs had started even before Richardson had either diagnosed cancer or been "privy to prior medical records reflecting such diagnosis." FOUR OF THE SEVEN patients either paid or were asked to pay $2,000 each for a course of laetrile treatments. Data on the total amounts paid by the others were unavailable. Financial records indicated that until Richardson started prescribing and administering laetrile in the early 1970s he was barely making ends meet through his medical practice. After becoming involved In the laetrile movement, the income from his practice rose more than tenfold. The records are on file in the San Diego Federal Court where Richardson was convicted in May 1977 of conspiracy to smuggle laetrile into the United States and fined $20,000.

His co-defendants were Bradford, Bowman, who was fined $10,000, and Frank Salaman of Redwood City, the vice president of the Freedom of Choice committee, who also was fined $10,000. For 1972, Richardson reported on his federal income tax return that he had netted $10,400 on a gross income from his medical practice of $88,000. By 1974, however, he was reporting a net income of $172,981 on a gross income of $783,000. Herbert Hoffman, the assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the case, told the court that Richardson took in $2.8 million from January 1973 to March 1976.

A $20 Million Smuggling Operation The size of the smuggling operation in recent years had been estimated at $20 million by the federal authorities. Richardson is a graduate of Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y., and the University of Rochester School of Medicine. He is 54 and served as a sergeant in the Marine Corps. He began practicing medicine in the San Francisco Bay area in 1 954 first at Kaiser Hospital, then in a series of group practices. He said in an interview that he was a general practitioner who also performed surgery, obstetrics and eye, ear, nose and throat work.

Asked specifically if he had been the target of any malpractice suit, Richardson said there had been only one and that it had "fizzled out a few years ago." Court records indicate, however, that in 1964 and in 1968 the American Mutual Insurasnce which covered Richardson for malpractice who paid claims against him totaling $77,000. The cases involved his treatament of two infants. One died, the other was disfigured. The arrest of Richardson in 1972 for expousing laetrile as a cancer cure, together with the publicithy surrounding the raid on his office, helped trigger the formation of the Freedom of Choice committee. In 1974, the doctor was one of 16 persons indicted with three Mexican corporations on charges of Conspiring to smuggle laetrile into the United States.

Please Turn to Page 4-B BY RICHARD D.LYONS New York ThMS Service LOS ALTOS, Calif. With states legalizing the use of laetrile at an increasing rate, an inquiry into the background of some leaders of the movement to promote the purported anti-cancer drug shows that they have frequently been the subject of exaggerated claims about their scientific and medical competence. The inquiry, which dealt with four men, also disclosed various brushes with the law, including a number of convictions stemming primarily from their efforts to promote and distribute laetrile. THE LEADERS include the following: Robert W. Bradford of Los Altos, president of the largest organization seeking to legalize laetrile, the Committee for Freedom of Choice in Cancer Therapy which claims a membership of 35,000 persons.

Ernest T. Krebs Jr. of San Francisco, the committee's "science director" who is considered by many to be the chief theoretician of the laetrile movement. Dr. John A.

Richardson of Clear Lake, who was one of the first physicians in the United States to openly espouse laetrile as a cancer cure and whose arrest for doing so led to the committee's formation. Andrew R. L. McNaughton, a Canadian citizen now living in Mexico, and a fugitive from justice, who helped promote laetrile to prominence. Ten states already have legalized the use of laetrile, a substance extracted from the seeds of fruits such as apricots.

Before the end of the year other states probably will permit its use, although the interstate manufacture and sale of laetrile in the United States has been banned by the federal government and the substance has been condemned by the scientific and medical community as being ineffective in treating cancer. Robert Bradford An Elusive Background On the second floor of a small office building in this San Francisco suburb is the headquarters of the largest organization devoted to promoting the legalization and use of the chemical, the Committee for Freedom of Choice, as it is known. Bradford, 46, a poised spokesman for the group, has at various times described himself as a scientist, an engineer who attended Georgia Tech, and an electronics specialist who helped develop guidance systems for missiles. Each point is open to question. Asked in recent interview if he had attended Georgia tech, Bradford answered: "Yes, for two years." Yet employes of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta said a search of their registration and alumni records failed to turn up the name Robert W.

Bradford. Records on file with the UJS. attorney's office in San Diego, where Bradford was convicted earlier this year of conspiracy to smuggle laetrile into the country and was fined $40,000, indicate that in 1950 he attended San Jose Community College for one semester, studying police administration. John McLain, a spokesman for what is now San Jose State University, confirmed that Bradford had attended the institution. He added that the records indicated that "he wasn't a very good student." AFTER LEAVING the college, Bradford enlisted in the Air Force, David Rorvik, a freelance journalist, has said that Bradford described himself as having "helped develop the guidance system for the first United States tactical guided missile" during his service at Cape Kennedy and as having directed "the Air Force electronics and guidance systems program." Yet the records indicate that Bradford's highest rank was that of staff sergeant, which would hardly have qualified him for such important positions.

After leaving the Air Force, Bradford was employed by several defense contractors in the San Francisco Bay area and in the early 1960s was hired by Stanford University, which was then developing one of the world's largest linear accelerators for research into subatomic physics. Bradford described himself as an engineer and was listed on the Stanford employment records as such. Yet his supervisor there, Earl Olsen, said Bradford's duties would be more accurately described as those of an "expert technician." Federal and state investigators have testified that Bradford had taken part in laetrile sales transactions involving hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars; he said, however, that he had only a modest income. He would not be specific. Grant Leake, an agent of the California Food and Drug Bureau, estimated that Bradford, who has openly conceded that he was a distributor of laetrile, takes in $150,000 to $200,000 a month on laetrile sales.

Attempts to reach Bradford for elaboration on some of 5 CZ i 1 1 8 ct-3 'i-A wmmmmmmmmmmmmimmitfwmmM'mmmmKv' New York Times, Alen Copeland Robert W. Bradford in his Los Altos office, president of the Committee for Freedom of Choice in Cancer Therapy the largest organization seeking to legalize laetrile..