Daily
Trojan
University of Southern California
Volume LXVII, No. 49
Los Angeles, California
Tuesday, November 26, 1974
Row murders suspect sent to mental hospital
GORE VIDAL
DT photo by Bob Chavez
POLITICAL ECONOMIC SYSTEMS
BY NANCY SHINABARGAR
Staff Writer
A 17-year-old possible suspect in the Sept. 3 murders of two university students on the Row has been placed in a mental hospital for psychiatric observation for his part in a kidnap-robbery and two other robberies of university students.
The youth is a member of a gang called “The Family.” He was found guilty in Los Angeles Juvenile Court of a Sept. 2 holdup of a woman near the university. a Sept. 5 kidnap-robbery of a coed, and the Sept. 24 robbery of another coed.
Lie detector test
The youth is one of several suspects in the How murders because of his activity in the cam-
Things will fall apart’—Vidal
BY LARRY TUCK
Staff Writer
Gore Vidal does not see much hope for the American political and economic systems.
“Things w'ill fall apart,” he said. “The center will not hold.”
Vidal spoke to about 500 students in Bovard Auditorium Tuesday.
Vidal is the author of such best-selling novels as Myra Breckenndge and Burr. He has
also been active in politics and has gained notoriety for his run-ins with and comments on political figures from William F. Buckley to the Kennedys.
Vidal spoke of the problem of effective leadership.
“America was founded by the best people, the brightest people.” he said. “We haven’t seen them since.”
He said that the country needs to create a new class of professional civil servants who w'ould
Food workers to ask contract to be voided
BY MIKE MEYER
Staff Writer
The university’s food workers union is planning to send a petition to the National Labor Relations Board this week asking for a recently approved contract with Auxiliary Services to be voided.
A spokesman for the workers said they are not discontented with the university, but instead with their own union, the Los Angeles Joint Executive Board ofthe Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders Union, AFL-CIO.
He said the workers are seeking a new election because many ofthe union members were not working when the vote was taken in August, and were not notified when or where the voting was to take place.
He also charged that the workers who did vote were intimidated by union officials to vote for the contract’s approval, and they wrere threatened that suits could be filed and jobs could be lost if they tried to pass out literature urging rejection of the contract.
“During the election, the union told the workers that they would starve if they didn’t accept the contract. They put pressure on all of us to accept a contract that is inadequate,” the spokesman said.
He said the committee is considering trying to decertify the union, and is checking into legal procedures to change unions before the present contract expires June 30. 1977. The previous contract expired June 30.
“The union is supposed to represent workers and their rights, but it hasn’t done it. It continually sides with the bosses rather than the workers,” he said.
“It doesn't respond at all to the grievances of the workers, and doesn't come to the university when problems arise. But they come here fast enough when union dues are not paid on time.
“Why should money be taken out of our pay checks to pay people who are not representing us, and are not fighting for our wages or better working conditions?”
He said the union is somewhat racist because it has refused to translate the contract from English into Spanish as it promised to do. The majority of food workers are able to read little or no English.
“And the only reason they won’t do it is because they want to keep the workers ignorant. They don’t w ant them to see that they have been short-changed, and deceived into approving a contract that has no major changes over the previous one,” the spokesman said.
The agreement will give the members of the union a &7c wage increase each year for the next three years. The workers asked for a 30rr increase.
The agreement, which was reached after 14 bargaining sessions during the summer, has also provided the workers with two additional paid holidays each year, giving them a total of 10.
One of the holidays they are guaranteed in the contract is their
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rather be paid in honor than in cash.
The people, he said, should be put in charge of the operation of the country, particularly the control of scarce natural resources.
“WTe couldn’t mess it up any worse than they have,” he said.
“Don’t let presidents fool with the economy,” he said. “They don’t know anything about it. Let them stick to throwing out the first baseball and that sort of thing.”
Vidal said that the presidency today is a joke.
“Since Watergate, no one can say we don’t know where we are, who we are, what kind of people we have chosen to be our leaders,” he said. “Nixon, through corruption and incompetence, revealed all the corruption of the American system.”
Yet one American in five still supports Nixon, he said. “I am convinced that if Nixon were to (Continued on page 3)
pus area. He was questioned by police about the Rowr murders with a lie detector, but the results were inconclusive, a police investigator said.
“He is still a strong suspect and is still under investigation for the murders. I'm not saying he is the only suspect or the prime suspect, but he is on our list because of the type of assault. the type of crime and the location.” said Warren Eggar. Southwest Division investigator.
The youth was placed in Norwalk Mental Hospital for two months for psychiatric observation. A Southwest Division detective working on the Row murders thought the youth might be committed to an asylum for the criminally insane.
“There is a strong assumption he will be placed in a mental hospital permanently.” said Sgt. Rudy Ticer.
Other crimes
The youth is also suspected in several petty thefts on the Row and on campus, in addition to some major violent crimes that haven’t been reported in the press. Police declined to talk about the other crimes.
The youth’s criminal record began when he was 11 years old, said Detective David Stachowski, who is working with Sgt. Ticer on the Row murders case. The youth’s record includes grand theft, extortion and burglary, in addition to the kidnapping and robbery charges.
Kidnap
Police arrested the youth on Sept. 6. the day after he kidnapped and held a coed at gunpoint for six hours. The youth demanded that the woman write a $75 check, and they drove around to liquor stores in the university area trying to cash it.
The youth later released the coed unharmed. A Juvenile Court judge turned the youth over to his sister on Sept. 18.
Police were upset that the judge felt the young man’s record was clean enough to release him on bail before a hearing.
“He was released against our protest. We told the judge if they put the kid on the streets he would keep committing crimes.” Eggar said.
Sept. 24 arrest
The youth was arrested again on Sept. 24 for a robbery and attempted extortion oftwo women, one a university coed, less than one hour apart. He was held in Juvenile Hall until his confinement in Norwalk Hospital.
Another university coed, raped near West 30th Street in late August, said the youth confessed to h'er rape.
Ticer described the youth as street-wise and very cunning. He said the youth was not a drug addict.
“He’s very shrewd,” he said. “He can shake people up. He threatens them, verbally abusing them with so many ways he’s going to kill them that they can’t even remember his face.”
Stachowski said the Row murders investigation, which so far fills eight large notebooks, brought out several crimes which students had failed to report, and which were later solved by police.
In one case a local resident had been stealing stereo equipment from fraternities and was apprehended and convicted. In another case, a Peeping Tom at Row sororities was arrested by police, Stachowski said.
He urged students to report crimes directly to the Southwest Division of the Los Angeles Police Department.
TROJAN SPIRIT—The yell leaders and song girls along with the Trojan Marching Band helped promote spirit for the big game against UCLA at a pep rally held
Thursday evening by shedding his Chavez
Even Tommy Trojan got in on the act mummy wraps. DT photo by Bob