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John A. Swint
Xcws highlights
By United Press International
Trudeau distressed
OTTAWA (UPI) — Prime Minister Pierre Elliott
Trudeau said Thursday he was “deeply distressed” at a
remark by President Nixon concerning the U.S. oil
shortage that “even our Canadian friends can be pretty
tough when they’re looking down our throats.”
Trudeau said Canada will continue to ship as much
crude oil as possible to the United States after domestic
needs are met and added, “Friends care about each
other’s problems.”
Coalition government
BELFAST (UPI) — Protestant and Roman Catholic
moderates agreed to form a coalition government aimed
at ending violence in Northern Ireland, but bomb, rocket
and bullet attacks came after the new agreement was
announced. Police blamed militant members of the
breakaway Provisional wing of the Irish Republican
Army (IRA) for the latest fighting, but both Catholic and
Protestant extremists have issued threats against
moderates accepting the accord.
Scientists help police
ROME (UPI) — Scientists are trying to help police
identify the background of photographs purportedly
showing the mutilated 17-year-old grandson of American
billionaire J. Paul Getty. The photos, which showed a
young man with a missing right ear, were in a packet sent
to a Rome newspaper Thursday with a note threatening to
cut him up “piece by piece” unless a $3.4 million dollar
ransom was paid.
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Margie Ellington frolics with her pet snake named (what
else?) Snake.
Richard, 10, flew with his dad. Page 6
DAILY NEWS
Daily Since 1872
Spalding native is victim
of Argentine gang attack
BUENOS AIRES (UPI) -
Police reported little progress
today in the search for a gang
of gunmen that killed an
American executive and his
three Argentine bodyguards in
a Thanksgiving Day ambush.
Authorities said they have
found no clues so far to the
men who gunned down John A.
Swint, 56, general manager of
the Ford subsidiary Transax,
near his home in the industrial
city of Cordoba.
Swint, a native of Spalding
County, was the son of Mrs. A.
G. Swint of Orchard Hill. His
Kidnap search centers
in Warner Robins area
WARNER ROBINS, Ga.
(UPl)—Agents for the State
Department of Investigation
(DOI) were in this central Geor
gia town Friday checking on
leads to the whereabouts of
three white men who kidnapped
a Jonesboro minister’s wife and
teenage daughter Wednesday.
DOI agent Roy Angel said
they were “maintaining a lia
son” with the F. 8.1. and Clay
ton County Police but declined
to say how many law enforce
ment personnel were actively
looking for the men or how
wide an area the search cover
ed.
Angel did say he would not
“attach any significance” to a
report that authorities were
looking for a white Cadillac be-
Santa
letters
to start
The Griffin Daily News again
this year will publish letters to
Santa.
This is a tradition the
newspaper established many
years ago.
Youngsters wishing to get
Santa a message may write to
the jolly old fellow, care of the
Griffin Daily News, Box 135,
Griffin.
Brooks girl has a pet named Snake
CARROLLTON, Ga. - “I’m
going out to walk the dog” is a
fairly common statement, but
when Margie Ellington, West
Georgia College freshman,
walks her pet, she picks it up
and puts it around her neck.
Margie, a business education
major from Brooks, Ga., has a
snake. “Six months ago I would
have happily jumped out of the
window on the tenth floor of a
building if someone had men
tioned the word snake.” said
Margie, as she fondled her five
foot long pine snake. “But now
Snake (the snake’s name)
sleeps with me sometimes, and
I take him almost everywhere.
According to Margie, Snake is
about the best pet in the world,
because “he is noiseless, he’s
non-venomous, he’s clean, and
he doesn’t shed hair all over the
GRIFFIN
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Friday, November 23, 1973
late father, Albert Swint, was a
prominent Griffin-Spalding
businessman and civic leader
and pioneered in grain
elevators in the state of
Georgia.
The Ford executive graduat
ed from old Spalding High in
1934 and entered Georgia Tech
as a Co-op student. He
graduated in 1939.
During World War II he
served in the Army and was
coordinator with defense fac
tories for the production of
tanks.
The engineer was in the
second year of a three-year
lieved to be driven by a fourth
man and used in the suspects’
getaway.
Mrs. Jackie Nelson, 44, and
her daughter Debbie, 16, were
returned to their home Thursday
after a 30-hour ordeal in which
they were abducted by three
men who later left them blind
folded and handcuffed in Rev.
Nelson’s 1966 station wagon in
a wooded area more than 100
miles from their home.
Griffin
would limit
liquor stores
The Board of City Com
missioners said today if voters
approve the legal sale of liquor
in the Dec. 4 referendum, they
would put a limit on the number
of package stores in the city.
The commissioners didn’t say
what the limit would be.
The board said the locations
of package stores would be
selected carefully and that
owners and operators would
have to meet rigid require
ments to get a license.
The commissioners said if the
voters decide to keep the
community dry, then laws
against liquor sales here would
be enforced to the letter.
place.” She said that caring for
him is quite easy, all she does is
toss him a mouse about once a
week.
Snake lives in an aquarium,
with a lid over the top. “There is
absolutely no danger of his
escaping because I make sure
that he is locked in unless I’m
with him.” said Margie. When
asked if her roommate minded
Snake as a roomie, Margie
replied, “I wrote her before I
came, and asked her if it would
be okay to bring Snake along,
and she said it would be, as long
as he had a cage.”
Snake was a gift from
Margie’s boyfriend. “We sort of
mutually own him, but I’ve had
him since this summer.”
Margie’s boyfriend bought the
snake from a friend that hunts
snakes in Margie’s home town.
assignment in Argentina for
Ford.
Other survivors include a
brother, Herman Swint, and a
sister, Mrs. Lillian Murphy,
both of Griffin; a brother,
James Swint who lives in
Hayward, Calif., and a brother,
George Swint who lives in
Cordele, Ga.
His widow is the former Helen
Sherman who was making her
home in their summer house at
Kewadin, Mich. The Swints
have two grown sons.
Officials also conceded hav
ing no idea of the motive for
Clayton County Detective Sgt.
William Raby said in Jonesboro
the women were left in the
station wagon around 4 a.m.
Thursday. When they heard no
noises for half an hour, they
removed the blindfolds, got out
of the car, and began walking
for help. They were picked up
by Mr. and Mrs. Glenn
Thompson of Macon along
Georgia 96 and driven to police.
The women were still handcuf
fed.
According to Coley, Debbie
told police the kidnapers talked
about a white car following
them on the highway, and one
of the men acted as if he knew
the driver.
Coley said deer hunters in the
area where the station wagon
was abandoned saw a white
Cadillac early Thursday.
“The driver was not dressed
for hunting,” he said. “We feel
pretty sure the Cadillac is
involved”
Neighbors gathered in front
of the Nelson home in
Jonesboro to greet Mrs. Nelson
and Debbie. The two women
refused to talk with newsmen.
However, Nelson, pastor of the
Jonesboro United Methodist
Church, read a brief statement
thanking police and saying the
kidnapers “are God’s children
and need His love and mercy.”
“My faith sustained me
during this period,” Nelson
Although Snake adjusted to
captivity rather wjell, Margie
says that returning him to the
woods would probably be a fatal
mistake. “Providing him with
food has resulted in a loss of
Snake’s natural instincts to hunt
and care for himself,” Margie
stated. Snake has never been
hostile, he was just afraid of
humans at first. When I fed him
and loved him he became
responsive to my affection.”
When asked how Snake
displays affection, Margie
replied, “He crawls towards me
and wraps himself around my
neck; he won’t choke me or
anything, he just stays there
because it’s warm.” She con
tinued, “Snakes do respond to
their owners. Snake would
crawl to me before he would
anyone else.”
Vol. 101 No. 278
the killing. Police said it
appeared on the surface to be
an outright murder, but it was
still possible Swint might have
been killed during an attempted
kidnaping.
Transax, which makes trans
missions and axles for several
car manufacturers, has had no
recent labor-management dis
putes, spokesmen said.
Swint, a graduate of Georgia
Tech in Atlanta, was shot and
killed with his bodyguards
Thursday morning soon after
he drove away from his home
in Cordoba, 420 miles northwest
of Buenos Aires, and headed for
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The Reverend E. M. Nelson (r) looks at his wife, Jackie, and his daughter, Debbie, after
they were returned safely to their home here. (UPI)
said. “This was a great
Thanksgiving Day. It makes
you know what the real
meaning of the word is.”
Nelson said his wife and
daughter were not mistreated
by the men who abducted them
around 2 a.m. Wednesday. The
kidnapers demanded the re
lease of Daniel Warren, one of
three men being held in the
Clayton County Jail in Jones-
A girl with a snake wrapped
around her person would sur
prise someone, but Margie
laughed as she said, “sure I’ve
surprised a lot of people with
Snake, he is pretty unusual but
people don’t hassle with him, so
he’s not about to hassle people.”
“Superstition says snakes are
bad, because in the Bible ser
pents are evil. I’ve changed my
view about snakes, and I enjoy
my ‘serpent’ as much as you
enjoy your cat or dog. There’s
no difference,” Margie ex
plained.
According to Margie, “Snake
is really harmless, and would
kill only out of necessity.”
Margie said that even then the
victim (a mouse or another
small creature) dies a quick,
painless death. “Snakes are not
his office.
Police said a group of about
15 “well-dressed” men in two
cars and two trucks surrounded
Swint’s auto and another
carrying his bodyguards.
The slayers then opened up
with intense machine-gun fire
from the vehicles as well as the
top of a small hill alongside the
road. “They didn’t give them a
chance,” said Guillermo
Caram, spokesman for Ford in
Buenos Aires.
Police said Swint hired the
bodyguards — Virgilio Rivas,
Manuel Varela and Juan
Bornes—following the killing of
boro for the robbery of the
Bank of Molena. Warren,
however, was not released.
Weather
ESTIMATED HIGH TODAY
73, low today 51, high yesterday
72, low yesterday 55, high
tomorrow near 70, low tonight in
mid 50s, sunrise tomorrow 7:19,
sunset tomorrow 5:38.
Forecast
Rain
Map Page 5
a Ford employe last spring.
Ford paid $1 million last May
to charities specified by leftist
guerrillas who killed the
worker, wounded another and
threatened to kidnap others.
More than 160 persons,
including three Americans and
six other foreigners, have been
kidnaped this year, forcing
worried executives to walk the
streets with shotgun-carrying
bodyguards.
Swint’s wife, the former
Helen Catherine Sherman, was
reported visiting in Michigan
with the couple’s two sons for
the Thanksgiving holiday.
Gas explosion
SEOUL (UPI) - A gas
explosion at a provincial mine
trapped 17 miners deep beneath
the surface today and police
said they feared most of the
miners were dead. The explo
sion ripped through at a mine
in Chongson 100 miles southeast
of Seoul, police said.
like humans, who kill for en
joyment. Snake would only kill
for food, or in an effort to
protect himself.”
While Margie talked, Snake
crawled all over her, and at one
time looked her square in the
eyes. He stuck out his little
forked tongue, seemingly in an
effort to show affection to
Margie.
While stressing the human, or
the civilized, qualities of her
snake, Margie didn’t mention
any current problems, that
might affect her pet. But one
such problem that might arise:
What would Snake do if due to
the energy crises dorms were
forced to lower their tem
peratures enough to put him
into hibernation?