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Georgia Pushed Crime Fighting In 1968
By ESTELLE FORD
ATLANTA (UPI) — Law of
, ficers cracked down on Geor
gia’s organized crime in 1968,
while a blue-ribbon commission
probed its causes and the leg
islature gave lawmen a weapon
• to fight it.
More attention at all levels
was centered on eradication of
car theft, drug and moonshine
• rackets—all home-grown opera
tions which apparently were
not connected with out-of-state,
Mafia-family organizers.
• The kidnaping of wealthy
Emory University coed Barbara
Jane Mackie—a plot apparently
hatched in Miami — headlined
f Georgia news for several days,
as details of the state’s biggest
single crime of the year came
to light.
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Organized crime in the state
made the front pages with such
stories as:
— State and local lawmen
break up what is called “Geor
gia’s second largest car theft
ring’’ and obtain indictments
against eight men — most of
them from Banks County.
— Five men are convicted
and one given a later-over
turned death sentence for the
murder of the enemy of moon
shiners and car thieves, Pied
mont Sol. Gen. Floyd Hoard.
— A blue-ribbon crime com
mission reports that 42 law en
forcement officials are suspect
ed of involvement in illicit
liquor business in Georgia.
— The same committee says
Georgia’s 20 most significant
liquor law violators distribute
an estimated 42,800 gallons of
whisky each week.
— GBI agents conduct their
first lottery raids, without the
South Viet Rangers
Break Out Os Trap
By JACK WALSH
SAIGON (UPl)—South Vietna
mese Rangers trapped in chest
deep rice paddies shot their way
out of an ambush with the aid
of blazing napalm dropped by
U.S. planes and killed 70 of the
Communists who surrounded
them, military spokesmen said
today.
The Rangers lost 15 men
killed and 35 wounded in the
engagement which was part of
an operation to clear Reds from
the doorstep of Da Nang on
South Vie tn a m’s northeast
coast.
Viet Cong guerrillas broke
their own New Year's truce
shortly after it began today by
shelling four U.S. and allied
positions, military spokesmen
said.
Allied sources said the United
States would meet again with
the Viet Cong to talk about
possible release of three Gl’s. A
first session Christmas Day
broke up when the guerrillas
failed to hand over the captured
Americans as promised.
UPI correspondent David
Lamb said the Rangers held
their ground when the Commu
nists opened fire from all sides
and called in U.S. air support.
The American jets dumped
hundreds of tons of napalm on
the Reds, 200 yards from the
South Vietnamese.
It brought to 401 the toll of
Communists in the operation
near Da Nang since Dec. 23.
South Vietnamese troops re
ported killing 218 Reds in the
PLANNING AHEAD
CHESTER, England (UPI)—
Real estate developer John
Harrison said today he has
hired an agent to find out who
will legally own the land on the
moon once a manned space ship
arrives there.
Harrison said he wants to
know so he can get in on moon
development.
knowledge of Atlanta police,
and arrest 29 persons in a one
day siege.
The Mackie kidnaping case
was still open at the end of the
year, with one of the suspects,
marine biologist Ruth Eisemann
Schier, still free. The alleged
mastermind of the plot, skin
diver Gary Steven Krist, was
being held under $500,000 bond,
the same amount demanded as
Barbara’s ransom.
While her father, wealthy real
estate developer Robert Mackie,
attempted to ransom her in
Miami, only to have one of
those attempts thwarted by lo
cal police, the 20-year-old coed
spent four days in a premature
grave in a deserted area of
Gwinnett County.
She was finally recovered in
good health, and Krist arrested
in a getaway boat containing
most of the money two days
later.
same area in the previous two
days and 133 other Communists
were killed before the 24 hour
Christmas cease-fire.
The Allies have killed 826
Communists in the area since
the operation began three weeks
ago.
"We had swept through this
area three times in the last
New Queen Ship
Flunks Sea Tests
LONDON (UPl)—The $72
million Queen Elizabeth II
steams home from the Canary
Islands at half speed today to a
charge by Cunard Lines that
the pride of Britain’s passenger
fleet flunked her sea tests.
Cunard said it would refuse to
take delivery on the new liner
because her engines developed
such violent vibrations on her
first voyage her speed had to be
cut to slightly more than one
mile an hour.
The liner’s severe shuddering
was the second major mishap in
less than a month.
The ship developed a leak in
Its oil system which contaminat
ed the water supply to its
boilers on its initial sea trials
early in December.
Labor party members of
Parliament John Rankin and
John Cronin asked in the House
of Commons during the week
end if there would be an inquiry
“because of potential damage
done to the reputation of
Britain’s shipbuilding indsutry.”
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MORE IMPRESSED with camera than U.S. golfer Billy
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Africa. Casper has won a lion’s share of tournament
money on the U.S. circuit this year.
SPRUCE’S
BARBECUE
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OPENING
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The man in charge of state
criminal investigations is non
commital about trends in Geor
gia crime — whether there’s
more organized crime, or
whether Georgia law enforce
ment officials are just more in
the know about activities.
“We’ve had increases in all
the categories we handle,” said
FBI director Maj. Barney
Ragsdale. Ragsdale was also a
key member of Gov. Lester
Maddox’s Commission on Crime
and Justice.
James L. McGovern, director
of the Metropolitan Atlanta
Commission on Crime and Ju
venile Delinquency attributed
the uncovering of organized
crime to “more attention being
paid by police to these things...
more manpower being put on
them, or more information
being made available” to po
lice.
Atlanta continues to be the
three weeks,” said Capt.
Freddie McFarren, 25, of
Cleburne, Tex., a U.S. adviser
to the 23rd Ranger Battalion.
“I don’t know where the
enemy came from, but all of a
sudden they were all around
us,” McFarren said.
In truce violations, the
Communists twice shelled a
Their questions followed an
announcement by Sir Basil
Smallpeice, chairman of the
Cunard Line, that the shipping
company could not accept the
vessel from its builders in early
January, as scheduled, because
it was “not up to Cunard
standings.”
Both of the ship’s engines
were reported crippled because
the rotors of their steam
turbines were believed a few
thousandths of an inch out of
line.
The 65,000-ton liner was
originally due to make a short
charity cruise before Christmas,
a "preview” cruise Jan. 10 and
a maiden voyage to New York
Jan. 17.
The oil leak forced cancella
tion of the charity cruise.
Sir Basil said the latest
difficulties meant that the
Queen would make neither the
scheduled Jan. 10 or the Jan. 17
voyage—at a cost to the
builders and Cunard of $1.2
million.
scene of lottery operations,
which McGovern called a “so
cial disease” not to be ended
until the community ceases
being the “clients,” the chief
victim of car thefts, and still
a large center for distribution
of the moonshine being made
in north Georgia.
However, according to Mc-
Govern, a former FBI agent
whose commission succeeded
the Bell commission as a look
out for organized crime of the
Mafia-type, the big-time, Mafia
family crime organization
hasn’t any roots in the area—
yet.
Individual crimes continued
to increase in the state in 1968,
with Savannah showing a whop
ping 51.1 per cent increase over
1967 in the first nine months of
the year, according to FBI sta
tistics.
The national average was a
U.S. base camp near the
Cambodian border and rocketed
two towns near Saigon to break
their own cease-fire.
The U.S. Command today
reported loss of two American
helicopters shot down over the
weekend. One was hit by ground
fire 40 miles northwest of
Saigon on Saturday, killing two
crewmen and wounding two
others.
The other was shot down 70
miles northwest of the capital
Sunday. All three crewmen
escaped injury.
The U.S. command will
announce later formal accep
tance of the Viet Cong proposal
to meet five unarmed Ameri
cans at the same river bank
where a similar conference was
held on Christmas, the sources
said.
The Communists identified
the three American prisoners as
Spc. 4 James W. Brigham of
Ocala, Fla.; Spec. 4 Thomas N.
Jones of Lynnville, Ind., and
Pfc. Donald G. Smith of Akron,
Pa.
The Communists twice shelled
an American base camp near
the Cambodian border before
the truce began and blasted
spokesmen said.
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19 per cent Increase in major
crimes, including murder, rape,
burglary, robbery, larceny and
auto theft.
Atlanta recorded a 19.7 per
cent hike in all categories for
the same period, including a
37.6 per cent jump in murders.
Rioting in Georgia, which was
made a misdemeanor by the
1968 General Assembly, was
nonexistent, despite the murder
of native son civil rights leader
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in
April. More than a hundred
thousand poured into the Geor
gia capital for the burial, but
the National Guard, alerted by
Gov. Maddox, was not needed.
At the same time, Atlanta De
tectives Supt. Clinton Chafin
pointed out, homicides and
other crimes of violence against
persons were high at the time
of King’s death and that of Sen,
Robert F. Kennedy.
“Emotions of people ran high
following the two deaths, and
violence, particularly in the low
income sections, flourished,”
Chafin said.
The story of crime has one
recurring theme: despite the
efforts of lawmen, it always in
creases. Nineteen - sixty - eight
was a year, however, when
lawmakers made a greater ef
fort to control crime.
The new criminal code, the
fruit of seven years of con
densation and clarification, was
the first legislation passed by
either house of the Georgia leg
islature in 1968.
The Bell Commission’s bill
making conspiracy to commit a
crime illegal and punishable by
the same penalty imposed on
the persons committing a crime
also passed the legislature,
giving lawmen a weapon to
fight organized crime—whether
imported or confined to a single
county.
The governor’s crime com
mission also passed an astound
ing recommendation which has
yet to receive serious considera
tion by Maddox, a tetotaller:
statewide legalization of liquor
sales.
Maddox shelved the recom
mendation charging that Atlan
ta, in wet Fulton County, was
plagued with illicit liquor busi
ness as were dry areas. A spe
cial subcommittee pointed out
that of 42 public officials strong
ly suspected of involvement In
illicit liquor trafficking, only five
were in wet counties and 37
were in dry counties.
Maj. Ragsdale’s law enforce
ment subcommittee called for
legislation requiring all state
' law enforcement agencies to
Monday, Dec. 30, 1968 Griffin Daily News
hook up to the computerized
statewide communications sys
tem, to provide a central re
porting service.
The group called for mini
mum high school education re
quirements for all Georgia law
men, as well as training stand
ards and screening procedures,
for an internal investigation
units on every police force able
to provide for it.
Ragsdale sees the recommen-
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dation to set up a promotional
system to attract better quali
fied officers with “salaries that
compete with local industry” as
the first priority in the fight
against crime.
The average starting salary
is S4OO monthly in medium-sized
cities, while officers In smaller
towns may start at S2OO month
ly, Ragsdale said.
“You’re Just getting what you
pay for,” he said.
5