Newspaper Page Text
E good
VENIN VT
By Quimby Melton
Monday’s paper had two
“lead” stories. One was good
news, the other sad news.
One told of Griffin High’s new
R.O.T.C. unit’s having been rat
ed an honor unit.
The other told of the tragic and
mysterious death of Solicitor Ge
neral Floyd Hoard of the Pied
mont Superior Circuit.
Both were “local” stories; for
Solicitor General Hoard was a
native of Griffin, best known to
his many friends here as “Fuz
zy”, that name dating back to
the days when he was a s t a r
football player at old Spalding
High.
“Why would anyone place a
bomb in the automobile of Fuz
zy Hoard that went off when he
tried to start his car?” That’s
the question all here are asking.
The only answer anyone can
even guess at is either that
someone made a horrible mis
take and the bomb was not
meant for him; or someone an
gered at "Fuzzy” for his work
as solicitor general did this das
tardly act to “get even”.
There have been few solicitors
general in the history of Geor
gia courts who have been as en
ergetic and as thorough in get
ting evidence against criminals,
nor who has pressed his cases
so fearlessly as Hoard. As a
practicing attorney, before be
ing elected solicitor general,
FuzzylToard made a specialty
of defending "the little fellow”
and often in doing so he unco
vered “the man higher up.”
This, in itself, may have creat
ed enemies to the man who be
lieved in the law and who believ
ed in protecting the "little man”
who might have been made the
“goat” for the “higher up”.
It is to be hoped that the per
petrators of this Chicago-gang
land-like killing will be quickly
apprehended and made to pay
for their act.
— + —
Now as to the good news.
Congratulations to the Griffin
High R.0.T.C.; to the corps of
Army men, headed by Major
Tom O’Connell; to the school of
ficials; and to the entire com
munity that so actively worked
for and cooperated in getting the
unit in shape for its first offic
ial inspection last March. And
we must not forget that much of
the credit for this excellent
showing should be given the ca
dets themselves, many of whom
had never had the first lesson
in military training. To a great
majority of them there was no
difference between “right shold
er arms” and “to the rear mar
ch”. But they went to work with
enthusiasm, learned the rudi
ments of military training and
then went on to polish up their
parades, and drills and hit the
“honors” mark.
— + —
Monday noon Good Evening
attended the monthly meeting of
the board of directors of the Sp
alding Cancer Society at whi
ch the young lady who has head
ed the society for six years —
stepped down and asked that a
new president be elected. This
six-term president was Miss
Myrtle Higgins, and no head of
any organization ever gave more
devoted service to her organiza
tion than she. Much of the pro
gress the society has made in
its fight on dreaded cancer is
directly due to her untiring de
votion.
Dr. O. R. Butler, Griffin den
tist, known to all as Dr. “Son
ny” Butler, has a hard job to
fill and he was smart when he
told those who will serve on his
board this year that he hopes
and expects to “find plenty for
Myrtle to do.”
Dr. Butler, himself, is a bun
dle of energy and a skilled lea
der and no doubt, with a lot of
help from Miss Higgins, the
work of the society will keep
right on getting results in it s
fibht to educate the people on
cancer.
One of the best ways anyone
can help this society is by the
“double check” plan — have a
yearly physical check up and
send a check, a check for mo
ney, to the society to finance its
work.
Weather:
FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN
AREA Fair and mild nights.
Partly cloudy and warm
afternoons through Wednesday
with a chance of thundershowers
by Wednesday.
LOCAL WEATHER Maximum
today 89, minimum today 69,
maximum Monday 88, minimum
Monday 67, Sunrise Wednesday
6:59 a m. Sunset Wednesday 8:32
p.m.
Federal Money Paying
‘Hate Whitey’ Rent
WASHINGTON (UPD—The
head of the Nashville, Tenn.,
antipoverty program admitted
today that his agency, financed
largely with federal funds, is
helping pay rent of four persons
connected with a “hate Whitey”
school.
He had denied previously that
any antipoverty funds whatever
went to the school.
J. Paschall Davis, chairman
of Nashville’s Metropolitan Ac
tion Commission, described the
rent payments in a telegram to
chairman James O. Eastland of
the Senate Judiciary Commit
tee, which last week heard the
Tennessean’s denial that money
had gone to the so-called
Liberation School.
Conceding in his telegram
that his testimony “is not quite
correct,” Davis said his agency
had agreed under contract to
pay up to S2O a week each
toward the rent of four young
women, over a six-week period.
He said the payments started
July 27.
The telegram did not indicate
whether payments would con
tinue over the full term.
“Two are working as teachers
and two as aides in the
Liberation School,” the tele
gram said, “and one is a
member of SNCC (the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Com
mittee).”
The telegram also said that
Fred H. Brooks, director of the
Liberation School, had used a
station wagon leased by the
metropolitan action commission.
Davis’ denial last week was
directed primarily at a charge
by Capt. John A. Sorace of the
Nashville police that the com
mission made a $7,700 grant to
Israel Cracks Down
Dn Striking Arabs
By WALTER LOGAN
United Press International
Israel cracked down today on
the Arabs who staged a series
of strikes in Old Jerusalem
Monday and served notice it
would not allow the situation to
deteriorate into civil disobe
dience.
Norma! life returned to
Jerusalem as Arab taxis and
buses resumed services, but
Amman Radio called for more
strikes in Nablus and Hebron in
what Israeli officials described
as a “new incitiement camp
aign.”
UPI correspondent Eliav Si
mon, quoting reliable sources in
Jerusalem, said Israel will
reappraise the situation in the
occupied areas and reintroduce
a measure of military govern
ment.
The sources said the Monday
strike, which shuttered virtually
all Arab shops, coninced the
government of Premier Levi
Eshkol that the wholesale
restoration of civil liberties in
“enemy territory” may have
misfired.
Israeli officials said the Radio
Amman appeal for further
strikes has “completely failed.”
They blamed the Monday strike
on Amman’s “financial and
radio trouble making” and said
they would concentrate on
troublemakers known to be
following Amman’s advice.
In Belgrade the Yugoslav
government confirmed reports
President Tito will leave
Thursday on a visit to Egypt,
but the announcement said
nothing about his reported plan
to go to Syria and possibly Iraq.
Tito was expected to discuss
aid for the Arab nations.
Some Address
EL PASO, Tex. (UPD—
Neither snow, nor rain, nor
sleet, nor dark of night—nor an
unbelievably casual address—
could stay the postal couriers
from the swift completion of
their appointed rounds.
A man from El Paso wrote a
letter to a friend vacationing
with his parents in lowa.
The letter was addressed:
“H. Fred Whitt of El Paso,
who is visiting his parents out
by the highway kind of close to
the old wooden bridge out in
Melbourne, lowa.”
Whitt got the letter.
DAILY NEWS
Daily Since 1872
Brooks, who also is nashville
director of SNCC. Sorace said
the Liberation School was de
voted largly to teaching Neg
roes to hate whites.
U. S. Warship
Shell Troops,
Gun Batteries
SAIGON (UPD—U.S. Navy
warships shelled artillery batte
ries and Communist troops in
North Vietnam and the Demili
tarized Zone (DMZ) Monday
while U.S. Navy jets dive
bombed army barracks on the
outskirts of the port city of
Haiphong, military spokesmen
reported today.
The destroyer USS Harry E.
Hubbard, firing into the DMZ
with such accuracy it picked off
a speeding truck, blew up 16
gun emplacemts and damaged
five others, a spokesman said.
The gun emplacements were
used to shell U.S. Marines just
below the DMZ.
The heavy cruiser USS St.
Paul used its eight-inch guns
against the Than Gia military
complex 21 miles southwest of
coastal Thanh Hoa city while
the Australian cruiser Hobart
and the destroyer USS Blue hit
coastal defense sites nearby.
The coastal bombardments
were credited with helping clear
the way for Navy jets streaking
inland from aircraft carriers in
the Gulf of Tonkin, part of the
167 missions flown against the
North.
Several Feared
Dead In Blast
At Lake Charles
LAKE CHARLES, La. (UPI)
—One great explosion and a
series of smaller explosions
today shook the Cities Service
refinery five miles southwest of
Lake Charles and set off a
raging fire.
A spokesman for Cities
Service said six or seven men
were working in the area and
he presumed they were dead.
The main explosion, in one
unit, spread to two other units
and all three were fiercely
burning at last report. Unoffi
cial sources said five men were
assigned to each of the three
units and that none of the 15
had been accounted for. Rescue
forces were unable to enter the
burning units because of the
heat.
Sheriff’s deputy Breezie Ragu
sa said, however, that he had no
reports of anybody being killed
“but there were numerous
injuries of men at a distance
from the initial explosion.”
Two Lake Charles hospitals
and a hospital in Sulphur, La.,
15 miles from Lake Charles
reported receiving 11 injured
persons. St. Patrick Hospital in
Lake Charles released two of
the four persons brought there.
“That plant is In a complex of
plants,” Ragusa said. “We have
it contained in this one plant.
But there are underlying pipe
lines burning and there is a
danger of secondary explo
sions.”
Other plants in the complex
are a Firestone Rubber Co.
plant and a Hercules Powder
Co. plant. Underground pipe
lines connect all the plants but
those to Firestone and Hercules
were cut off, Ragusa said.
The fire was being fought by
an industry-community mutual
aid system. Civil defense units
stood by in case the fire
threatened homes.
Firemen poured foam on the
burning units to keep the fire
from spreading to catalyst
units, the largest in the
refinery.
The firemen also pumped
foam into the sewer system and
the pipes that connect parts of
the refinery.
Broken windows were report
ed all over Sulphur, La., some
four miles west of the refinery.
Burglar alarms went on all over
Sulphur when the first explosion
shook them.
GRIFFIN
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Tuesday, August 8, 1967
Seven GBI Agents Hunt
Solicitor Hoard’s Killer
.Qi
fl I -HR* "if** 9*
is. .
(Griffin Daily News Staff Photo)
Ready To Open
Electronic instructor Robert W. (Bobby ) Donehoo checks equipment to be used
in the electronics lab during the fall quarter at Griffin Tech. The fall quarter be
gins Monday. Vacancies are available in most of the course areas. Fifteen courses
will be offered in day and night classes at Griffin Tech.
sl.l Billion Asked To
Ease Tension In Ghettos
WASHINGTON (UPD—A
bipartisan plan was unveiled
today to set up immediately a
sl.l billion emergency fund to
help ease tensions in the
Highland Mill
To Increase
Wages Sept 11
Crompton-Highland Mill in
Griffin will join other textile
concerns in the southeast in
wage increases.
Jim Dough tie, who handles the
Griffin operation of Crompton,
announced the wage increases
today.
He said notices were posted in
the mill stating that an upward
revision of wages would be made
Sept. 11.
He said that Crompton offic
ials still were reviewing the
program to determine the de
tails.
A number of other textile mills
including Dundee and Thomas
ton announced pay increases last
week.
Country Parson
I’m
“Heaven must be filled
mostly with folks who have
scars on them.”
nation’s big city ghettos.
Sen. Charles Percy, R-111.,
and Sen. Abraham Ribcoff, D-
Conn., announced plans to
introduce legislation that would
permit President Johnson to
transfer up to two per cent of
the non-defense budget into a
neighborhood emergency fund.
The money could be used to
create more jobs, provide better
housing, and improve law
enforcement. Under the propo
sal, a mayor could apply
directly to the White House for
financial help in carrying out a
plan requiring immediate ac
tion.
Ribicoff and Percy made
their announcement as the
Solicitor Was Marked
Man, Brother Believes
“He was a marked man,”
one of Floyd “Fuzzy” Hoard’s
brothers told another brother
Monday afternon in Jefferson.
“They got him. They got him,”
the grief stricken widow of the
Piedmont Circuit solicitor gen
eral told a Griffin .relative.
These were among the com
ments Griffin reltives of Floyd
Hoard heard Monday when they
went to Jefferson to see the fa
mily.
Sol. Gen. Hoard of Jackson
County was killed early Monday
morning when a charge of dy
namite ripped apart his auto
mobile as he turned the ignition
keys. It happened at the Hoard
home about three miles from
Jefferson.
Mr. Hoard was a native of Gr
iffin where he grew up and
studied at Spalding High School.
He was a football star there.
Joe Hoard, one of his six bro
thm-s, had been making his
home in Jefferson. He had help
ed his brother with his chicken
business and had been looking
after a downtown apartment wh
ich the solicitor general had ope
rated.
Troy Hoard, one of Floyd
Vol. 95 No. 185
Senate Judiciary Committee
took a break from its inquiry
into this summer’s big city
riots. The hearings will resume
Thursday.
A Newark, N.J. policeman
told the Senate panel Monday
that police had “unofficial
orders” before rioting erupted
there July 12 to make no
arrests of black militants
agitating for violence.
Two liberals on the Judiciary
Committee, Sens. Philip A.
Hart, D-Mich. and Edward M.
Kennedy, D-Mass., planned to
press chairman James O.
Eastland today to expand the
investigation beyond the testi
mony of policemen.
Hoard’s brothers who makes his
home in Griffin and is employ
ed at Dundee Mills, made the
trip to Jefferson Monday after
noon against the advice of his
physician. Troy Hoard had suf
fered a heart attack but he felt
he should make the trip anyway
so he did.
He talked with his brother Joe,
in Jefferson.
Troy told his brother, Joe, that
he had thought about coming to
Jefferson last Friday for a week
end.
“Maybe if I had come, this
wouldn’t have happened,” Troy
Hoard said.
“He was a marked man,” Joe
replied. It might have delayed it
a week or so but he was a
“marked man,” Joe said.
James Helms of Griffin, bro
ther-in-law of the dynamite vic
tim, drove one car with relativ
es to Jefferson Monday.
When Floyd’s wife saw Mr.
Helms, she grasped him and
said, “They got him! They got
him!”
She told Mr. Helms about see
ing her husband off to work.
She described it liked this:
Mrs. Hoard went to see her
husband off to the court house.
Lawmen Have
2 Or 3 Leads
By EDWARD McHALE
JEFFERSON, Ga. (UPI) —
State Safety Director R. H.
Burson said today GBI agents
had turned up “two or three
leads” in the booby-trap mur
der Monday of crime - busting
solicitor Floyd Hoard.
Burson scheduled a trip here
today with Assistant GBI direc
tor R. H. McCutcheon to check
on the progress of the investiga
tion into tne slaying of Hoard,
killed instantly Monday morn
ing by a dynamite blast when
he turned on the Ignition of his
car.
“We’re just getting into the
investigation,” Burson said in
Atlanta. “They’ve got two or
three leads.”
He said the seven GBI agents
assigned to the case “have
some things to run out. We’re
checking every possible clue.”
The state mobilized all of its
investigative forces in an all-out
effort to identify and appre
hend the bomber who wired
eight to 12 sticks of dynamite
to Hoard’s car.
Burson said he planned to put
a “permanent organization of
agents” in Jefferson “to pursue
this thing.” He added: “We’re
going to put in whatever is
necessary.”
Burson said an FBI agent in
the area was aiding, along with
a member of the State Motor
Vehicle Theft Squad.
The state safety director said
he had blanket authority from
Gov. Lester Maddox to use
whatever forces were necessary
in the investigation.
He said the state considered
the murder of Hoard in the
same high-priority category as
the slaying of three Gwinnett
County policemen by car
thieves in 1964.
Hoard last year prosecuted
more bootlegging and car theft
cases than the court could han
dle and asked the state to ap
point an additional judge for his
Piedmont Judicial Circuit to
help handle the load.
A reward of $2,000 was im
mediately posted by Gov. Les
ter Maddox for the killers of
Floyd (Fuzzy) Hoard and other
Jackson County officials here
wondered if they were on the
assassin’s list.
Hoard, 40-year-old solicitor
general for Georgia’s northern
Piedmont judicial circuit, was
killed instantly in the front
yard of his home when he
turned on his car’s ignition. Au
thorities said the ignition may
have exploded as many as eight
sticks of dyamite placed be
neath the automobile’s hood.
Maddox said Hoard’s death
She suggested he take the sta
tion wagon and leave the other
family automobile at home.
She reminded her husband
that their daughter, Peggy Jean,
was to take a drivers license test
that day.
The solicitor general said he
thought he would take the auto
mobile anway. He said if he
had to make a trip, he would ra
ther have it than the station wa
gon.
Mrs. Hoard went back into the
house and had reached a hall
way when the explosion went
off.
“I knew what had happened,”
she told Mr. Helms.
Peggy Jean who was sleeping
in the front part of the house
was the first to reach her fath
er. She said he still was breath
ing and gave her a faint sort of
smile. The daughter tried to
give him mouth-to-mouth re
suscitation. But her father was
dead almost instantly.
Had not Mr. Hoard insisted on
taking the family automobile
and leaving the station wagon,
both his wife and daughter migh
have been blown up with the dy
namite, apparently meant for
the solicitor general.
“has all the earmarks of a hir
ed killing and proves beyond a
doubt that organized crime and
unmerciful killers are at work
in Georgia.” Maddox posted a
$2,000 reward, the maximum
SI,OOO allowed by state law and
SI,OOO from his own pocket, for
information leading to the kill
er’s arrest.
Officials here had other the
ories. Some felt that Hoard, the
father of four, was on to some
thing “hot” or that the motive
was revenge. Jackson County
Sheriff L. G. Perry said be
tween 25 and 30 persons had
been convicted of auto theft
since he and Hoard won elec
tion on a crime-fighting plat
form three years ago. He said
“a good many who went to the
chain gang since we’ve been in
office have been getting out re
cently.”
Both Perry and Superior
Court Judge Mark Dunahoo
conceded that they, too, might
be marked for murder because
of their roles in what Perry
called “the strong prosecution”
of auto theft and bootlegging
cases.
“But if this was intended as
a threat to warn the sheriff or
myself, let me warn that we
are going to double our efforts
to eliminate this brutality and
hoodlum tactics,” Dunahoo
said.
Perry, a tall, husky man with
piercing eyes, said he was “not
seeking protection from anyone
but myself.”
While the motive for Hoard’s
death remained a mystery to
day, so did his method of oper
ation. Hoard’s frame colonial
home was brilliantly lighted by
a vapor lamp and three watch
dogs usually barked loudly at
intruders.
Whoever killed Hoard appar
ently crept to within 25 feet of
the home sometime after the
solicitor came home late Sun
day night from his office, plac
ed six to eight sticks of dyna
mite under the car’s hood, ex
pertly wired the explosives to
the distributor and vanished in
to the night.
Hoard left his house for work
at about 7:30 a.m., climbed into
the car and, when he turned
the ignition key, was hurled in
to the back seat by the force
of the explosion. The force of
the blast tore limbs from near
by trees, shattered windows in
the Hoard home and mutilated
the prosecutor’s body.
Hoard’s wife and two of his
children—Dick, 14, and Peggy,
16—were in the house when the
bomb went off. Two smaller
children—Vivian, 7, and Clau
dine, 9—were visiting relatives.
Peggy and Dick rushed to the
car and tried to give their fath
er mouth-to-mouth resucitation,
but he was dead.
“My entire house shook,”
said Mrs. Cleo Thompson, a
widow who lives nearby and
who sometimes minded the
Hoard’s children. “At first, I
thought someone’s butane gas
tank had exploded. After I
found out what happened, I’ve
just been too nervous to think.”
Funeral Today
For Floyd Hoard
Funeral services for Sol. Gen.
Floyd Hoard were to be held
this afternoon at 4 o’clock at the
Jefferson, Ga., Methodist Chur
ch. Burial was to be in a Jeff
erson cemetery.
The family requested that in
lieu of flowers that contributions
be made in his memory to the
Jefferson Methodist Church par
sonage fund.
Mr. Hoard, a member of the
church, had been interested in
building a new parsonage for
the church. He was working
with a church committee on the
project.
Mr. and Mrs. R. C. Hoard,
parents of the Griffinite, were
not able to make the trip to Jeff
erson for the funeral services.
They were not physically able.
Mrs. Hoard was dismissed from
the Griffin-Spalding Hospital
only last Friday.