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VENIN VJ"
By Quimby Melton
Weekend Notes:
The first week in 1972 began
with auto tags for 1972 going on
sale at the courthouse.
Reports show 1971 building
permits for the Spalding county
were three times as high as for
the previous year; with those in
Griffin accounting for $3-'
million.
Jaycees called for nomina
tions of young men for the 1971
Distinguished Service Award;
Age limit is 21 to 35.
The Bank of Molena was
robbed and three suspects
arrested; Burglars broke into
City Light and Water office,
drilled the combination and
took a small amount of cash;
and the ABM office, in the
Childers Building, was robbed
by two armed men. The
manager and a customer were
tied up and locked in an ad
joining room. ABM handles
Western Union business here.
No Hank money orders wre
stolen.
County Commissioners
reported there are no “unsafe”
bridges in the county.
Previously it had been reported
there were three small bridges,
on school bus routes, that were
not “safe”. These had been
strengthened by the county road
department and are now “OK”.
Representative Quimby Mel
ton, who has been in the General
Assembly 13 years, announced
he would complete his present
term and not seek reelection.
This will be his 14th year in
the House where he has been
chairman of the Ways and
Means committee for several
years.
President Nixon announced
plans for developing a new
“shuttle bus” spaces system.
The program is a six-year study
and development of such. When
perfected space ships would
make round trips to moon and
other planets, return to earth
and land, like an ordinary
airplane, at designated landing
fields. Immediate benefits from
the program, the President
said, would be “providing jobs
for some 50,000 persons.”
The President took time off
from meeting foreign cele
brities to attend a birthday
party given at the White House.
President Nixon was 59 years
old Sunday. He was born Jan. 9,
1913. Mrs. Nixon, who had been
in Liberia, heading an Ameri
can delegation, returned to
America in time to be present at
the birthday party.
Fighting continued in trouble
spots round the world and fights
“loomed” as would-be candi
dates for high office began to
announce. One such, of national
interest, came when President
Nixon’s name was placed on the
New Hampshire primary ballot.
It was announced at the same
time that Vice President Spiro
Agnew would “more than
likely” be Nixon’s running
mate.
But Georgians are more in
teresting in what might develop
into a “Battle Royal” in the
Georgia Legialture as it con
siders Governor Carter’s
Reorganization plans.
“Some folks are just plain
lucky _ especially if they are
hard workers.”
Deputies executed;
one suspect held
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WASHINGTON—Mrs. Richard Nixon is welcomed home by President Nixon at Andrews Air
Force Base after her seven-day goodwill tour of West Africa. She was the first wife of a U.S.
president to visit Africa and returned with messages of good will from leaders in Liberia, Ghana
and the Ivory Coast (UPI)
Tornado like winds
hit Atlanta area
ATLANTA (UPI) - Tornado
like winds destroyed several
buildings and injured at least
seven persons today in east
Fulton County and in DeKalb
County.
An apartment complex, a
church and a large supermar
ket were among the structures
heavily hit. Grady Hospital re
ported it had admitted seven
persons, one in serious condi
tion.
Heavy damage was done to a
Big Apple supermarket on Can
dler Road in DeKalb County,
but there were no immediate
reports of injuries. A wall was
partially collapsed.
About 20 buildings in north
east Atlanta in the vicinity of
the federal penitentiary were
heavily damaged.
The church was reported de
molished near the federal pen-
Stuckey won’t run
for Senate post
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Rep.
“Bill” Stuckey Jr., D-Ga.,
removed himself today as a pos
sible Senate candidate this year
by announcing he has made a
final decision to seek a fourth
House term.
Stuckey cited his emerging
House seniority plus interest in
legislation long planned for his
Bth Congressional District as his
reason for bowling out of the
crowded field of Senate con
tenders.
“There are six other reasons
why I made the decision — my
wife and five children,” Stuckey
said in a statement. “A state
wide race would take too much
of the time I want to spend
with my family.”
' With Stuckey out, political
speculators see a half dozen or
GRIFFIN
DAILY NEWS
Daily Since 1872
itentiary where some windows
were blown out. Damage also
was reported to residences in
the area.
Police said there was “heavy
damage” in the apartment com
plex and rescue units were dis
patched to the scene.
The Atlanta Fire Department
also reported a call from the
same area.
On the city’s northeast side,
the front of a supermarket col
lapsed in the high winds, a tree
was blown across a plant nur
sery, and the roof blown off
another food store. All three
businesses were located in a
shopping center near 1-285.
Tanner’s Grocery was left
without a roof. Mrs. William
Tanner told newsmen, “I was
frying to hold the door shut,
thinking the wind was about to
more contenders still possibly
in the race tor the seat of Sen.
David H. Gambrell, D-Ga.
Gambrell was appointed by
Gov. Jimmy Carter to succeed
the late Sen. Richard B. Rus
sell, D-Ga., who died a year
ago at the beginning of the 1971
congressionalsession. Gambrell
himself is vigorously campaign
ing although he has not official
ly announced himself as a can
didate.
Stuckey said he had been
speaking throughout the state
and had met “hundreds of
Georgians” who urged him to
run for the Senate. He said
most polls still showed him the
leading contender.
“I have given the matter se
rious consideration and appreci-
Griffin, Ga., 30223,
How it open, when suddenly the
whole thing gave away. I fell to
the floor and my husband laid
over me to protect me.”
The roof of the store was
Hown across the street, coming
to rest leaning against the
McDonough Heights Apart
ments.
Deputies said one injured
man was taken out of the apart
ment complex, apparently in
critical condition.
The severely hit area covered
about six square blocks east of
the federal prison.
Weather
ESTIMATED HIGH TODAY
65, low today 56, high yesterday
57, low yesterday 38. Total
rainfall 1.34 of an inch. Sunrise
tomorrow 7:45, sunset
tomorrow 5:46.
ate the interest of my support
ers,” Stuckey said. “I have
made a final decision to seek
re-election from tfte Bth District
—recently reapportioned so it is
by far Georgia’s largest dis
trict.”
“It stretches from the Florida
line to include Bibb County
(Macon) on the north,” Stuckey
said. Studcey, in discussing se
niority, said he now serves on
two “vital committees” and is
also interested in two pieces of
legislation for coastal Georgia
that he has already given con
siderable work.
One would make Cumberland
Island a federal “wilderness”
and the other would make the
Okeffenokee Swamp another
federal “wilderness.”
Monday, Jan. 10, 1972
CUMMING, Ga. (UPI)-Two
county deputies were murdered
in the trunk of their patrol car
early today. Police captured
one suspect in a massive man
hunt in southwest Atlanta hours
later and a second was being
sought.
A man identified as Marcus
Lane Ratledge, 23, was admitted
to Grady Hospital in Atlanta
diortly before noon with shot
gun wounds in his body and
facial lacerations.
A hospital spokesman said he
was told by police that Ratledge
was captured during a massive
manhunt by more than 100
county and state officers in a
wooded, residential area of
southwest Atlanta about 40
miles from here. His condition
was listed as fair.
Although it was not immedi
ately known whether one or two
persons were involved in the
laying of the two deputies, a
hunt was pressed in the area
for a second suspect believed to
have been in the getaway car.
Forsyth County Sheriff B.
Donald Pirkle said his chief
deputy, James William Cantrell,
about 30, and special deputy
Larry Mulkey, 18, were found in
the trunk of their car, about
two miles south of here on heav
ily-travelled U. S. 19 about two
miles south of here;
Pirkle said both were shot in
the head and Cantrell had his
hands handcuffed behind him.
They had apparently been shot
after climbing into the trunk
which deputies had to pry open
with a crowbar.
Pirkle said a .38 caliber pis
tol belonging to Cantrell, who
was married and the father of
two children, was missing. He
said both deputies had been
slain with a .38.
The sheriff was uncertain as
to whether one or more persons
was involved in the double mur
der. He said an eyewitness had
seen two men in the suspected
getaway car earlier but only
one was chased into southwest
Atlanta.
The license number of a car
was scrawled on a pad in the
front seat of the patrol car and
an alert for the vehicle was
flashed on police radio. The
suspect car was later chased by
police after it was spotted on
permiter highway 1-285 coming
from Cobb County.
The fleeing car wrecked a
few miles later in the southwest
section of the city and the sus
pect ran away on foot, touching
off the big manhunt by officers
from Fulton, Cobb and DeKalb
counties, Atlanta police and
Georgia state patrolmen.
Ingram said he received a
telephone call around midnight
from a motorist reporting that
a sheriff’s department car was
“in the road in a dangerous
place.” Ingram said he found
the patrol car partially blocking
one of the two lanes of the high
way, one of the arteries from
Northeast Georgia into Atlanta,
about 30 miles from Cumming.
“The ignition was on but the
motor wasn’t running and the
lights were off,” said Ingram.
He said two snow tires normal
ly carried in the trunk of the
patrol car were laying beside
the vehicle.
“We tried to get into the
trunk but it was locked so we
had to pry the lid open with
crowbars,” he said. “That’s
when we found Bill and Larry.”
Ingram said Cantrell, the fa
ther of two children, had
stopped a car Saturday night on
a routine check and later dis
covered it apparently was in
volved in a burglary. Ingram
said Cantrell and Mulkey, a
special deputy who works large
ly with the rescue squad, ap
parently spotted the same car
Sunday night.
Vol. 100 No. 7
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ATLANTA—Gov. Jimmy Carter (c) and Rep. Ward Edwards, House whip (1) talk with newsmen
Sunday night prior to the opening of the 1972 Session of the General Assembly at the state capital
today. (UPI)
Assembly braced
for windy debate
ATLANTA (UPI)-The Geor
gia General Assembly cranks
up today, facing the task of
doing something in 40 days
that it hasn’t done in 40 years
— reorganizing the state gov
ernment. It is expected to be
windy with debate, perhaps
bitter.
Gov. Jimmy Carta* has pro
posed that the state’s 300-odd
departments,agencies, bureaus,
commissions and boards be
boiled down into 21 basic de
partments to provide better
government and a savings to
taxpayers of up to S6O million
a year.
Considerable opposition has
developed, however, mainly by
constitutional officers who see
the plan as stripping away
their powers and by legislators
who see the governor’s move
as a grab for executive power.
Carter has also proposed a
supplementary appropriation to
set up a childhood development
program he describes as bet
ter and cheaper than a state
wide kindergarten and “revolu
tionary” in nature.
Opposed by Maddox
Lt. Gov. Lester Maddox, often
a foe of Carter programs, has
termed the program “commu
nistic’’ and has vowed to fight
it.
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ATLANTA—Lt Gov. Lester Maddox (r) talks with Sen. Mayion London of Cleveland at wild boar
dinner in Atlanta prior to the opening of the General Assembly session. (UPI)
Debate also looms over a
number of issues: A proposal
to allow 14-foot wide mobile
homes to be hauled down the
state’s highways, a packet of
judicial reform bills, possible
Baby eats lye;
injuries serious
Fast action by Griffin doc
tors, police and the Georgia
State Patrol was credited with
saving a Griffin baby’s life
Saturday afternoon. The child
had eaten some Red Devil Lye.
According to Juvenile Officer
Ed Crawford, he and the police
received a call that two children
were in a house on Basin street.
The officers went to the house
and found 20-month-old Grego
ry Archer and a three-year-old
alone. The younger child had a
can of Red Devil lye and had
eaten some. He said the mother
had left the two children alone
in the house the night before and
had not returned.
The officers rushed the baby
to the local hospital where
doctors said it had serious in
juries to the mouth and
esophagus. They recommended
Inside Tip
Hughes
See Page 2
tax hikes, land developer con
trol, anti-block busting laws
and a “government in the sun
shine” proposal that would ban
secret meetings of public
bodies.
immediate transferral to
Talmadge Memorial Hospital in
Augusta.
Patrolmen stationed at the
Griffin Post rushed the baby
and a nurse to Madison where
they were transferred to a
Madison Patrol car. They
transferred again at the Green
County line to a Thompson unit
and reached the Augusta
hospital in less than two hours.
The baby was admitted to the
hospital where it remains with
serious injuries.
Mr. Crawford said the older
child has been placed with
relatives.
He took a warrant for the
mother, Cynthia Archer,
charging her with child neglect.
She was arrested and released
from the Spalding County jail
under $2,000 bond.