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T H E C H R O N IC L E T E L E G R A M
PoundedJuly 24,1829
Elyria,
Ohio
225 Bast Ave nue
56 PAGES
Final Edition
T H U R S D A Y , J U N E6 1968 P H O N E S : E L Y R I A 3 2 3 3 3 2 1 L O R I N 2 4 4 - 6 3 9 5
Te n Cents
Sirhan s diary: kill
RFK before June 5
By R I C H A R D
E.
M E Y E R .
Associated Press
Writer
LO S
A N G E L E S
H i s na m e
is SirhanBishara Sirhan.
Police say he is a cool,
close-mouthed Jordanian who
fired a
bullet fromclose range
into the brain of Sen. Robert
Kennedy.
*
Mayor Samuel
W .
Yorty
says Sirhan apparently wrote
in a 9-by-12 inch notebook
about the necessity
to
assas-
s inate Sen. Kenn edy before
June
5,1968.
M an y
neighbors, former
employers and the authorities
say he hates Jews.
HE H URT his head in a fal l
last year,saysh ismother .
All I know is he is a nice
kid, says one of his four
brothers.
A
district
attorney's investi-
gator revealed today he was
told Sirhan had been jailed by
Pasadena police last Decem-
ber.
Asst . Dist Atty. Will iam L.
Ritzi
said
a
grand jury would
be asked to return an indict-
ment charging
Sirb.an
with
Kennedy's murder .
Pasadena officers said they
had a red flag file on Sir-
han, but they could not con-
firm if he had
been formally
arrested.
W atch Commander
Russell Stone said the file wa s
in
possession
of
detectives
and
no t
immediately available
for
inspection. He said the red
flag
on the
file
was to
indicate
Sirhan had been booked
pre-
viously.
Stone said the file dated
from March 1961 when Sirhan
reported a bicycle stolen. H e
complained
in
1963
he was the
victim of a disturbance.
In 1962andlast March, Stone
said, Sirhan was a suspect in
disturbance of the peace
cases.
The record says Sirhan
is 24
years old, 5-feet-5, weighs
about 120p o u n d s , ha s a
swarthy complexion and wiry
hair. H e has
been
an
excer-
cise
boy at a
race track,
wa n t -
ed to be a jockey and worked
in ahealth f o o dstore.
Weather
HE WAS U N DERm a x im um
secur ity guard in a hospita l
ward at the Los Angeles Coun-
ty
Central
jail,
charged with
six
counts
of
assault with
in-
tent to commit murder .
H e is to appear at 8:30
a.m. Monday for a prelimi-
nary
h e a r i n g before Mun ic ip a l
Judge Joan Klein.
Sirhan's index f inger wa s
broken
and his
l e f t
ankle
sprained
in a
tussle that ended
in his capture, seconds
af te r
Kennedy was
shot early yes-
terday.
Sirhan has talked to police,
but not about Kennedy or the
shooting.
O f f i c e r s
said he was
advised of his rights, but
didn't
want
an attorney. H e
refused
to give officers his
n a m e .
IT'S NICE to r em a in in -
communicado, Inspector
Pete
Hagen
quoted
him as
saying.
H e
may have been
in-
flamed by K ennedy's call for
U . S . jets for Israel durin g a
televised campaign debate
Saturday night, said a New
York
committee
on
Ameri-
can-Arabrelations.
He was violently pro-Jor-
dan and anti-Israel, said
John Shear ,
wh o
worked with
Sirhan at
Hollywood Park
U.S.
curt ils flights
TOKYO ( A P )- The U. S.
military today informed the
Japanese government it would
suspend all but absolutely
necessary night
flights from
the Itazuke
A ir
Base, nea r
F u-
kuoka,
while it awaits the re-
sults
of an
invest igat ion into
the
crash of a fighter
j
bomber
from
Itazuke Sunday night .
race track. When there
w as
trouble
between Jordan
an d
Israel, he
would
become in-
flamed
WITH PERMISSION from
Sirhan's family, police re -
covered
two notebooks from
his
room. They contain
18 to
20
pages of handwrit ing.Some
in A rabic , most
in
English.
In a notation entered either
May
17 or 18, the mayor said,
Sirhan
apparently wrote a
direct reference to the
necess-
T u r n to
page
4,
col.
1
Where
t o
tu
:
W E L L I N G T O N
- A man
wh o
lived like an Indian, a ty-
phoid epidemic and the fair
are all part of W ellington's
heritage
page 36
SP EN CER B lack River
School
superintendent takes
job with Cloverleaf Schools
page 1 6
Better Health
24
Comics 5 4 , 5 5
Deaths, Births
30
Elyria
Municipal
Court 25
Finance, Stocks 4
Produce,
Livestock
4
Sports 4 0 , 4 1 , 4 2 , 4 3 , 4 4
Suburban Calendar
23
Television
34
Theater 35
Wellington 2 2
Wo me n 14, 15
Your Birthday
. . 2 5
K e n n e d y
dies
By W A L T E R R .
M E A R S
and
JOSEPH E . M O H B A T
LO S A N G E L E S ( A P )
-
Sen. Robert F .
K e n n e d y ,
felled like hisPresident broth-
er by an assasin's b u l l e t ,
diedearly today.
His mourning family pre-
pared to
take
his
body home
to
Ne w
York, across
the na-
t ion Kennedy had hoped to
led as president.
An d on Saturday, the sena-
tor is to be buried in Arling-
ton
National Cemetery,
at the
hillside plot which is the rest-
ing place of his brother, the
late
JohnF .Kenned y .
Robert Kennedy,
42 ,
never
regained consciousness, nev-
er showed s igns on recovery
after a savage burst of revol-
ve r fire sent a bullet plunging
into his brain at the pinna-
cle of his own campaign for
the W hite House.
KENNEDY, HIS P R E G -
NANT
wife, Ethel at his bed-
side, died
at
1:44 a.m, PDT,
( 4 : 4 4
a.m.
EOT) little
more
than 24 hours after the assault
at the Ambassador Hotel.
Kennedy's body was to be
flown from Los Angeles to
Ne wYork la ter today on a jet
airplane provided by
the
White
House.
It was to
arrive
in New Y ork at 5:30p.m.
Pierre Salinger,
former
presi-
dential press
secretary, said
the
body would
lie instate
Fri-
day
at St.
Patrick's
Cathedral
in New York Cityfrom 8a.m.
to 10
p.m.
A Requeim Mass wil l be
held there Saturday morning.
Salinger said Kenn edy would
Relates n ews pictures
p ag es 3 ,8 ,1 8 ,2 0 ,38
be bur r ied late Saturday in
Arlington,
across
the Potomac
R i v e r from Washington,
wher e
an eternal flame flick-
ers in memory of John Ken-
n edy ,
slain four
years
an d
seven mon ths ago.
IN PREPARATIONforK e n -
nedy's last journey, a post
mortem wa s und er way at
Good Samaritan Hospital in
downtownLos An geles.
Pres ident Johnson the man
who succeeded President Ken-
nedy, issued a proclamation
calling
for a
nat ional
day of
mourning for the senator next
Sunday.
G o v . Ronald Reagan
de -
clared a state of mourning in
California, fo r t he p e r i o d
through the senator 's funeral .
A s Kennedy died,
the man
accused of shooting him was
under heavy guard at a down-
town
prison hospital, held in
$250,000
bail for a court ap-
p e ar an c e w h i c h h a d be e n
scheduledMonday.
SIRHAN
B I S H A R A
SIRHAN
was accused of wielding the
.22-caliber revolver which cut
down
Kenned y and wounded
five other people early yester-
day as the senator and his
supporters celebrated victory
in the California presidential
primary.
The
Los Angeles sher iff 's
office refused to say whether
Sirhan had been advised that
K en n edywas dead.
Sirhan,
a
Jordanian
wh o
hae been l iving in Pasadena,
was described by those who
knew him as a man inflamed
over the hostilities between
his nat ive s ta te andIsrael.A
f o r m e r employer said
h e
might have been enraged by
Kennedy's past words of sup-
port for
Israel.
K EN N ED Y ' S
M O T H E R ,
Mrs. Rose K enne dy, was told
of the death of her son by a
niece,
A nn Gargan. She was
at
Hyannis
Port,
Mass. Mrs.
Kennedy who had cam-
paigned for Robert in the
presidential primaries
wen t
to massat St.FrancisJavier
Church.
Mrs.
Knnedy
had talked by
telephone with Sen. Edward
M.
Kennedy, D-Mass.,
the
family'
s lone
surviving son,
who
was at Robert 's bedside
at the end.
Kennedy was surrounded by
members of bis family when
he
died.
Salinger said Ethel,
the
wid-
ow, isbear ingu pver y
well.
M R S .
JOHN F.
K E N N E D Y ,
widow of the assassinated
President, was in her broth-
er-in-law's room when he
died.
Two of Kennedy's sisters,
Mrs. Stephen Smith an d Mrs.
Patricia
Lawford,
were there,
too.
Salinger
said
three of Ken-
nedy's
10
children were
in an
adjacent room
and saw
then:
father beforeliedied.
Pale
an d haggard, Frank
Mankiewicz, Kennedy's press
secretary, announced the
death to newsmen.
Sen. Robert Francis Ken-
nedy died
at
1:44 a.m. today,
he began.
T H E N H E A NS W E R E D
questions. What was the
spe-
cific causeo fdeath?
Mankiewicz
looked
up
n u m -
b l y .
The gunfire attack,
he
said. He said the bullet that
went into the head near the
right ear was the fatal shot.
It ent er ed Kennedy's brain.
Surgeons operated for 3 hours
and 40 minutes to remove al l
bu t a fragment in a vain at-
tempt to save the senator 's
life.
Bu tKenn edy neverrallied.
It was not a
question
os ni l
sinking, Mankiewicz said,
but of not rising. He needed
a
rally
an d
steady improve-
men t in his condition, andthat
did
no t
develop.
SALINGER
A N N OU N CED .
the body was to be taken from
Los An geles between 10 and U
a.m. PDT.
H e
said
the family,
friends and some staff mem-
berswereto beaboard.
Turntopage4 ,col.1
An editorial
Vofe FOR school
levy
tomorrow I
Elyria voterswill make
a
very
important
decisiontomorrow.
They will decide whether Elyria children
willget a top quality education, bytoday'sstan-
dards, or one
that
is
below
top
quality.
We say
by
today's standards becausesome opponents
of the 6-mill levy
seem
to be judging school
needs
by the
standards
of
their
own
school
years, possibly a generationago.
Those
standards
may have
been adequate
fo r
those days,
but the young people in school
n ow
must
be
prepared
tocompete in a
world
that
is and will bedi f f e ren tin many
ways.
Edu-
cation is
more
important today than
ever
be-
fore.
Itwillbeevenmore important incoming
years.
W e
have
studied the
arguments
for and
against passage
of the levy. The weight of the
evidence isstronglyon thesideof
passage.
We
are thoroughly
convinced
Elyria
schools
need
this
money
to
continue
quality
education
for the
community's children.
W e
strongly
recommend:
Vote
FOR the
levy. The need is
urgent.
Meister
creditors
given
little full
payment hope
Tiy TEX)RGE KUEBLEK
CLEVELAND
A foreclo-
sure action on h is home, a
number of judgment
liens
and
insufficient c a p i t a l were
among the
reasons H erber t H.
Meister said here yesterday
he filed a voluntary petition in
bankruptcy on May 7.
T h e 51-year-old
bankrupt
Ely r i a real estate
broker
made hisstatement at a first
meeting
of
creditors
in
federal
bankruptcy
court.
A small federal courtroom
was packed with more than40
persons, including apparently
a
num b er
of
creditors,
for the
one-hour session which began
at 3
p.m.
ALTHOUGH
TH E
session,
presided over by referee Wil-
liam J. O'Neill, was for the
purpose of hearing creditors
ask quest ions of the bankrupt ,
no creditor personally submit-
ted a
quest ion
to be
asked
of
Meister.
They heard Cleveland at tor-
ne y Theodore R. Spilka, wh o
represents federal
r eceiver
Maurice M. Weltman, say of
their chances in getting a re -
turn from their loans to Meis-
ter:
I wouldn't count on too
mu ch
Spilka said the
receiver,
who was also elected trustee
at
the
creditor's court meet-
i n g , would try for every nick-
el we can get.
IN HIS pet it ion Meister
claimed
$718,224 in
debts
and
$85,650inassets.
R e f e r e e O'Neil l empha-
sized that Meister's bankrupt-
cy petition was a personal one
and
only involved his compa-
nies
to the
extent
he m a y
have some assets in them
which could be distributed to
the creditors.
A t the firs t hear ing May 24
the
court learned Meister
ha d
a 50-50
interest
i n H & J D e -
velopment Co.
Spilka yesterday said that
additional
assets may be
real-
ized withthe sale
of
tcJ
De -
velopment Co . land from
which Meister 's
share
would
be collected for distribution to
creditors after other costs
were paid.
MEISTER TOLD the court
that an
offer
had been re -
ceived to purchase his 922
Elywood
Dr .
home
for
$55,000.
If the
o f f e r
is consumated,
part of the money, after two
mortgages
an dtaxesa re
paid,
will be collected as par tof the
assest to be distributed to
creditors, the
trustee 's
attor-
ne y
told
th e
standing room
au -
dience
in the
court.
Spilka
also
explained that
a
great num b er
of
j ud g em en t
liens filed in the Lorain
County Common Pleas Court
against Me ister would be set
aside as far as the trustee is
concerned.
A t
the
opening of the meet-
ing Meister was q uest ioned by
creditors ' trustee Weltman
with a series of quest ions ex-
plained to the audience by ref-
eree
O'Neil l
as a
rout ine par t
of
a
bankruptcy proceeding.
WEARING A D A R K brown
suit
and a rose-tan
t ie, Meis-
ter
spoke matter
of
factly
from the s tand and at tunes
was told by O'Neill to speak
louder so those persons stand-
ing in the
back
of the
court-
room could hear
h is
answers.
Did you m ake m oney or
lose money? Weltman asked
of his business dealings. Meis-
ter said
that
he
lost money in
some cases
a nd
made some
in
others.
What
real estate
do you
own? We ltman asked Just
the home, Meister answered.
Meister
at
first said
he
could
no t
recall
issuing any
financial s ta t ement unt il Welt-
m a n fur ther widened the
breadth of his question to in-
clude
any
type
of
financial
s ta t ement to anyone or insti-
tut ion.
Meister
t h e f l
said he had is-
sued a financial s ta tement to
Mr. Rinaldi. But he said he
was not sure of the date the
financial s ta tement was is-
sued.
Rinaldi is Frank P. Rinaldi,
the Cincinnat i businessman
who claims Meister showed
him an allegedly fraudulent
statement to obtain a loan.
Lorain County Prosecutor
P a u l
J. Mikus started an in-
quiry from Rinaldi's com-
plaint. On M ay
2 9
Mik us
brought the investigation to
th e
L o r a i n County
Grand
Ju ry.
Rinaldi appeared before
the grand ju ry to tell about his
f inancial deal ings with Meis-
ter.
TH E J URY
ASKED
Mik us
to
continue
his invest igat ion.
At the meet ing yesterday,
ver y little additional informa-
tion was given by or askedo f
Meister .
Two Elyria attorneys
wh o
said they represented credi-
tors
each asked
a
rout ine
quest ion.
Me ister said that h is 1966 in-
come
taxes were paid
an d he
had received an extension to
June 15 to pay his 1967 income
taxes.
The meet ing was adjourned
to 10 a.m. June 26, a t which
t ime the quest ioning of Meis-
ter is
scheduled
t o
r esume.
THE J UNE 26
date
was set
by the referee and Meister 's
attorney, G. L. Severs, ex-
plained
E l y r i a accountant
Floyd Wooldridge needed more
time
to
work
on the
books
of
Meister 's companies. Wool-
dridge
is
expected
to be
call-
ed
to the court for the nex t
meet ing of the creditors.
Referee O'Neil l sa id that
writ ten proof of claim would
have
to be
filed with
th e
court
within
six monthsof the bank-
ruptcy pet it ion fil ing date
if
creditors wa n te d to be consi-
dered for a dividend on any
uncovered assets.
In his
bankruptcy pet it ion
Meister reported owing 104
creditors $687,224 in unsecured
personal loans. He fur ther
cla imed that the amount was
about
1 0 0 , 0 0 0 less
than re -
po r
t e d . A l l o f t he l o a n
amountsar e
being disputed.
During the unravel ing of the
Meister bankruptcy story, th e
bankrupt
real
estate
broker
has been reported
as
securing
loans for a promise of an in-
terst return varying from
six
pe r
c en t
a
year
to as
m u c h
a s
twice
the
pr incipal amount
i n
six months.
Driver is charged
in
Gl
crash death
Assassination
f e / f a round t he world
Sunday proclaimed
day of
mourning
Worm
Sunny, warm
today and to-
morrow
high today in 80s.
Clear and mfld tonight, low in
pperSts and Ms.
Sunset
tonight 8:58 p.m.*
Sunrise
tomorrow , 5:53.
Details
o n
page
19.
AT METER GOLDBERG'S SU-
PERMARKET
Double your
money back guarantee on
Black
Angus Beef. Chuck Steaks, 38c
} t > ,
Open
TJjuri.
an d
Frt . untU 9
Is ,W
S V A P E R - f iICH
i
VE ^
By TH E A S S O C .
PRE S S
President Johnson led the
nation in mourning today as
Americans great
an d
small
reacted in grief and sorrow to
the tragic assassination of
Sen. Robert F.Kennedy.
The
President,
saying Ken-
nedy
had never abandoned
faith
in
America al though
he
knew
far more than
hi s
share
of personal tragedy, called for
the nat ion
to
observe
a
nat ion-
al day ofmourning Sunday.
In
a
proclamation issued
upon learning of Kennedy's
death today, the President di-
rected
that American flags on
all
federal buildings
be flown
at h a l f - s t a f f u nt il Ken nedy's
bur ial ,
VICE PRESIDENT Hub er t
H. Humphrey, expressed
a
profound personal
loss' at
Kennedy's death and calledon
all Americans to recommit
themselves to the principles of
humanity and individual jus-
tice.
May our n at ion find the
strength, the faith, and the
wisdom todispel the forces of
irrational hate among us and
to replace them with t the love
of man and
God, Humphrey
said.
Former Vice
President
Ri -
chard
M .
Nixon
said in a
statement
in New
York that
Kennedy's death is a terrible
t ra g ed y b o th fo r a fa m ily
and a nat ion which have
known too many such
trage-
dies
in r ecenttimes.
Nixon
said,
Sen Kennedy
was a man of
tremendous en-
ergy and
vitality.
He wa s o ne
of the
great
popular
leaders
in
American history.O ur deepest
sympathies go out to the fami-
ly of Sen. Kennedy in this
hour of
grief.
Gov.
Nelson
A.
Rockefeller
o f New York said the deathof
Kenned y was anunspeakable
tragedy and a
terrible loss
to
t h e n a t i o n , '
ROCKEFELLER p r
o -
claimed the
day of
burial
as
a day of mourning in this
state.
A state
of mourningfo r Cal-
ifornia
wa s
declared
by Gov
Ronald Reagan.
I have directed thatt hepe -
riod extend through the sena-
tor's
funer a la ndthat all flags
in California be flown at half
mast ,
be
said.
M y
sympatliies
go out to
Mrs. Kennedy
and the
snea-
tor's children as well as his
parent s and other members of
his family. Prayers of all
Americans
a re
with
them.
with grief and horror at the
death of Sen. Robert F. Ken-
nedy
and its
disappointment
in the concern for the United
States.
Peoplefor whom the
K en n e -
dy na m e
m e a n t
America
wept. In Dublin, Maty Ryan,
a
nur se , an d
a cousin of the
sena to r , broke down
a n d
sobbed
bitterly.
In Saigon, 2nd Lt. Lawrence
Patch
of Topeka, Kan.,
said:
It
w a s a
horrible tragedy.
But it has more meaning for
us
serving over here than
for
those back in theStates.
LORAIN H omicide by ve-
hicle, first degree, was the
charge
filed yesterday against
John Rusnak, 21, following the
death of Army Spec. 4 Jeffrey
Smith,
19, in a
head-on colli-
s ion,
Rusnak, wh ol ives at the An-
tlers Hotel, was eastbound in
the 1100 block of Wes t
Erie
Av en u e
yesterday when his
car
crashed into
the
small
sports
car which Smith was
driving, Lorain police report-
ed.
Smith and his 17-year old
sister Shelley were taking
their friend, James Cupples,
19, home to Vermil ion after
Miss Smith's graduation party
when
the
crash occurred.
Cup-
pies
an d Miss Smith were
treated at St . Joseph Hospital
and released.
Smith, a
Vietnam ve t e r a n
stationed at Fort C a r s o n ,
Colo., was on leave at the
home
of his parents, Mr. and
Mrs. E u g e n e Smith, 1262
Michigan Ave .
Smith's death
was the
city's
f o u r t h
traffic
fatality this
year .
TH E WO RLD reacted today
Torn
to page 4, col. 3
P o / /
fiours tomorrow;
6:30 o.m.to6;30p.m.
Polls will be open from 6:30a.m.to 6:30 p.m. tomorrow
for voting on the 6-mill operating levy proposed by the Ely-
ria School District in aspecial election.
Voters in the
district will
go to
their regular precinct
polling placesto casttheir ballots.