Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 1

1C it friday 20D metro final nice day! High 89, low 66 Fair again Saturday Details on Page 8D Friday, July 8, 1983 ON GUARD FOR 152 YEARS 1KQ kli imhor fifi 1983, Deiroii Ftw Piets. Inc. Ondei the bridge 1 Chrysler power: 3-way race Iacocca names top lieutenants to 'Office of the Chairman customer of Ford. members of the office are Chrysler Vice-Chairman INDUSTRY INSIDERS in Detroit tag the personable Bidwell as the front-runner among the three heirs apparent to succeed Iacocca, who has denied rumors that he will step down later this year, perhaps to pursue a career in politics. "Bidwell has been given enormous power at Chrysler When Iacocca steps down, there'll be a three-way race now," was the way one longtime auto marketing official and former associate of See CHRYSLER, Page 11 A By PAUL LIENERT Free Press Automotive Writer Chrysler Corp.

Chairman Lee Iacocca Thursday formalized what appears to be a horse race for his job among his three chief lieutenants by establishing an Office of the Chairman to collectively run the company. Bennett Bidwell, 56, a former crony of Iacocca at Ford Motor Co. and most recently president and chief executive officer of Hertz moved into the running for Iacocca's slot as chairman and chief executive of the No. 3 U.S. automaker when he was named a member of the board of directors and of the Office of the Chairman Thursday.

IN ADDITION to Bidwell and Iacocca, 58, other Gerald Greenwaid, 47, and resident Haroia bper-lich, 53, who are also Chrysler directors. All four are former Ford Motor Co. executives. Along with other ex-Ford officials now working for Chrysler, they are known collectively in the industry as the "Ford Mafia." Despite the establishment of the new collective, "Iacocca is still clearly the boss," said a Chrysler spokesman Thursday. Bidwell was named executive vice-president of sales and marketing at Chrysler on June 2.

After 18 years at Ford, he had left his position as vice-president of the Car and Truck Group to join Hertz, the nation's largest car rental firm and a major Mi' lff 1 If I fm uf yA. i 4- Front-runners' profiles are on Page 11A. x-Congressmen Report to Prisons v. SI. 7 7 Ftw Press Photo JOHN STANO pending an appeal for a new trial.

Also imprisoned Thursday were Angelo Errichetti, former mayor of Camden, N.J., and a former state senator, sentenced to six years and fined $40,000, and Philadelphia lawyer Howard Criden, who served as an Abscam middleman, sentenced to six years. The surrenders brought to eight the number of Abscam defendants behind bars. The other two are a former Immigration and Naturalization Service employe and his co-defendant. THE 11 OTHER people convicted of Abscam bribery-related offenses including Murphy, former congressmen John Jenrette, and Richard Kelly, and former Sen. Harrison Williams are free pending appeals or due to surrender later this month.

Operation Abscam was an extensive FBI undercover sting operation using secretly made videotapes to record bribe offers and payouts. FBI agents and government operatives posed as influence-buying Arab sheikhs and their bagmen, seeking special immigration legislation or other political favors. AP and UPI The first batch of major Abscam defendants, including three former congressmen, reported to federal prisons Thursday, but a fourth ex-congressman gained a delay in his sentence with a new appeal. Among the six who began serving prison terms, more than three years after the first indictments in the case, were former Reps. Raymond Lederer, Michael (Ozzie) Myers, and Frank Thompson Each was sentenced to three years and a $20,000 fine.

"Abscam is a disgrace to the justice system of this country," said Myers just before he entered the minimum-security federal prison at Allenwood, Pa. Myers and Lederer surrendered withm an hour of each other at Allenwood, joining former Philadelphia City Councilman Louis Johanson, sentenced to three years, who had arrived earlier in the day. Other defendants reported to prisons in Lexington, and Danbury, Conn. FORMER REP. John Murphy, sentenced to three years in prison, remained free after filing a request to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall for a stay Vic Wertz: "He was the best." former Tiger all-star, dies 1 Free Press Photo bv DAVID C.

TURNLEY rieiiio niirorenn A runs throuah a bridae built by Benita James, 22, and Elizabeth Velasco, 4, during a game of London Bridge played Thursday afternoon at Palmer rarK Dy cnnaren irum House Daycare Center. CARTER BRIEFING BOOKCASE Model who sued millionaire is slain Ex-Reagan aide reportedly names Flint native as 'mole' 1 1 Jit, 'i By LYNNELL MICKELSEN and BOB CAMPBELL Free Press Staff Writers Vic Wertz, a former Detroit Tiger all-star and a Detroit area businessman and civic leader, died Thursday morning during emergency heart surgery at Detroit's Harper Hospital. He was 58. The death of Wertz, who owned a Mt. Clemens beer distributing company, shocked friends and associates, who said he had seemed to be making steady progress after a heart attack last month.

A hospital spokeswoman said Wertz was admitted to Harper after a heart attack June 23, "but developed subsequent problems." "It came as a complete surprise," said former Free Press columnist Mark Beltaire, Wertz's friend for more than' 25 years. "THE HEART attack was supposed to have been quite mild. For the last couple of weeks at the hospital, he was See WERTZ, Page11A New York Times and Free Press Staff WASHINGTON A White House official said Thursday that Richard Allen had Identified Jerry By YARDENA ARAR Associated Press LOS ANGELES Vicki Morgan, the former model who sued millionaire Alfred Bloomingdale for $10 million in pali-mony, was beaten to death with a baseball bat, and police said her live-in boyfriend had turned himself in Thursday and confessed to the killing. Morgan, 30, died almost exactly a year after she filed a 1 0 million lawsuit in Superior Court against Bloomingdale, saying she had been his mistress, therapist, confidante and partner in bizarre sexual escapades for 12 years. Bloomingdale died less than two months later.

Police Lt. Dan Cooke said Marvin Pancoast, 33, was booked for investigation of murder Thursday after he walked into the North Hollywood Division about 3:20 a.m. and said he wanted to talk to homicide detectives. See PALIMONY, Page 11 A Jennings, a member of President Laners national Security Council staff and former Michigan political Ticure. as the source of the "innocuous" material he the name of any person.

You'd be in error if you wrote that." Asked if he had indicated the identity of his source to Reagan aides in other ways, Allen replied, "I'm not going Into the details of my conversations with the White House." It was Jennings who discovered an envelope of cash in Allen's safe that touched off an investigation that ended in Allen's resignation. Jennings, a 43-year-old Flint native and graduate of Eastern Michigan University, is a former Central Intelligence Agency officer and FBI agent. He joined See BOOK, Page 6A Received in the 1980 political campaign, now executive secretary of the White UPI Photo House Office of Science and Technology, denied he was the source. Any sucn suggesuun is uuu ue aim absolutely ludicrous," he said in a terse statement. "Allen, who was President Reagan's national secu Vicki Morgan: beaten to death with a baseball bat almost exactly a year after she sued Alfred Blooming-dale for $10 million.

rity adviser until he resigned in early 1982, said in an interview Thursday: never gave me wnue nuuse Watt warns Fellowship of 'excessive government' She holds her own in South iWoman challenges men politicians THURSDAY 228 and 8115 SUPERPLAY (3 digit) 307 SUPERPLAY (2 digit) 93 SUPERPLAY (1 digit) 7 CARD GAME 9 and 9 inside today ACTION LINE 3B ANN LANDERS 2B BRIDGE BUSINESS NEWS 5-9B CLASSIFIED ADS 10-15C DEATH NOTICES 10C EDITORIALS 8A ENTERTAINMENT 1-9C FEATURE PAGE 11B HOROSCOPE 11B MOVIE GUIDE 2C NAMES FACES 10D OBITUARIES 10C SPORTS 1-8P STOCK MARKETS 6-8B TELEVISION 7P To place a classified ad, call 222-fOOO, Monday-Friday 8-6, Saturday 9-S and Sunday 10-4. grade school boys poked fun at her vow to become a lawyer. She went on to graduate at the top of her class at the otherwise all-male Ole Miss Law School. Gandy waded into a sea of male faces 300 strong. "Got a grip like a man," winced Foots Pearson, 66, a gas station owner and a member of the Lowndes County Democratic Executive Committee for more than 20 years.

"First thing I noticed. Wasn't like no dishrag. She grabbed it like she meant business." "I never voted for a woman before," admitted S.A. Beard, 73, a retired security guard. "I never thought they were tough enough.

But she's not like most women. She's tough. I'm going to vote for her." In the rough-and-tumble world of southern politics, female governors are about as rare as a Yankee lawyer in a pickup truck. No woman has ever been elected governor of See SOUTH, Page 10A By HARRY COOK Free Press Religion Writer Secretary of the Interior James Watt told a Cobo Arena crowd in language evocative of an old-fashioned revival that "America is in a battle for political liberty and spiritual freedom against oppressive and excessive government." Watt's 40-minute speech Thursday to 7,500 members of the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International, made without notes as he paced back and forth across the platform, brought the audience to its feet in a spontaneous rendering of "The Star Spangled Banner." Watt told the story of his "conversion to Jesus," which, he said, came during a 1964 meeting of the Full Gospel Fellowship soon after he went to Washington as an aide to then-Sen. Milward Simpson, R-Wyo.

"It was Jim Watt against the world" he said. "But Jsus Christ met Informative, offbeat or just plain 'interesting this corner is reserved for ii story that goes beyond today's head-lines. By BILL ROSE Knlght-Rldder Newspapers COLUMBUS, Miss. The eighth annual Version of lawyer Billy Jordan's all-male fish fry was awash in beer, bourbon and back-slapping when a big black Cadillac screeched to a halt and a woman jumped out Evelyn Gandy's quest to become the first woman governor of Mississippi, a state that epitomizes the Old South myth of macho men and gracious ladies, was about to get the acid test. "If she can handle this crowd," chuckled Jordan, 45, a cup of bourbon and ice cradled Free Press Sketch bv ROY BEAVER in one hand, "she can handle the governor's office." "MISS EVELYN," as she is known, wasn't cowed.

Gandy, 62, a thin, gangly veteran of three decades of state government, has been the only female In the gang for most of her life, dating back to when Free Press Photo by JOHN COLLIER Watt: criticized the me- James SeefiWATT, Page 6A the "enemies of truth." did as.