The
usual
It’s long line time again
at the Spalding County tag
agent’s office in the cour
thouse. With the Friday
deadline approaching,
hundreds of Griffinites will
form lines like this one to
get their car tags and pay
taxes on the vehicles.
People who miss the 5 p.m.
Friday deadline will be
subject to penalties.
City casts eye
to local option
* Griffin City Commissioners plan to
* talk about calling for a referendum on a
local option sales tax when they meet
t next week.
• They touched on the topic lightly at
Tuesday's administrative planning
session.
Commissioner Dick Mullins said he
wanted to know how much revenue the
.local option tax would bring in for the
’ city.
Commissioner Louis Goldstein
wanted to know how much garbage fees
Violent
. crimes
decrease
4
WASHINGTON (AP) - Violent
, crime declined in virtually every
comer of the country last year, but a
surge in thefts in some big cities
prevented the over-all national crime
' rate from falling, the FBI reports.
Preliminary statistics for 1976 show
no change from the previous year in the
* number of crimes reported to state and
* local police. It marked the first time in
five years that the crime rate did not
f increase.
, The number of murders across the
country dropped 10 per cent, and a
decline in the murder rate was reported
* in every population category and in all
geographic regions.
The FBI issued the report today.
» Atty. Gen. Griffin Bell called the
’ statistics “an encouraging sign for the
criminal justice system and for the
t public.”
* But he added, “We must not ease our
efforts in this struggle, because the
incidence of crime still remains far too
J high.”
Though the over-all rate held steady
and violent crimes declined, stealing
, rose 5 per cent nationally and by much
■ higher percentages in some cities. In
Houston a startling 42 per cent increase
in larceny and theft was reported.
a
f
.People
...and things
’ Man who pledged not to wait until last
minute, waiting in tag line more than
two hours.
Small dogwood tree at 12th and
Poplar streets in full bloom,
.brightening comer, despite gray skies.
IPre-teener to aunt: “I don’t want a
chocolate rabbit this Easter. I’ll take
'.the money.”
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could be cut if the local option tax were
approved by voters.
City Manager Roy Inman planned to
make a report to the commissioners
next week on revenue estimates.
Under Georgia law, cities and
counties may set up local sales taxes as
a means of offering property tax relief.
Spalding County voters turned down
the local option tax idea the first time it
was offered. But some of the county
commissioners have mentioned the
possibility of bringing up the matter
again.
Coroner’s jury rules killing
was justifiable homicide here
A Spalding County coroner’s jury has
ruled that 18-year-old Maurice Eugene
“Bingo” Mann came to his death as a
result of a gunshot wound to the left
chest inflicted by Mrs. Avie Stallings
and that the shooting was justifiable
homicide.
The jury, under the direction of
Coroner Emmett Chappell, met late
Tuesday afternoon in the City Hall
courtroom and heard testimony for
almost 2 hours.
Witnesses included Keith Hurley, a
friend of the victim who was with him
the night of Feb. 25 when the shooting
occurred; Dr. Virgil Williams, who
performed the autopsy; Mrs. Stallings;
and Capt. WaUace Pitts of the Griffin
Police Department’s detective division.
Hurley said he and Mann (both
Griffin High students) got together that
afternoon after work and because the
banks were closed, they went to a liquor
store to cash Mann’s pay check. He said
the store operator refused to cash the
check unless they purchased
something, so Mann bought a bottle of
wine.
Hurley said he did not drink anything,
but that Mann drank the wine and some
beer.
About 11 o’clock, Hurley said, Mann
suggested they ride by a house on
Melton street and shine the lights in the
window. He said the woman who lived
there “was supposed to be a witch and
would make all kinds of faces at you.”
“Everybody was afraid to go there.
They were afraid she’d put a spell on
them,” Hurley testified.
He said Mann said he was going to
knock on the door and he wanted Hurley
to tell his friends he was not afraid.
They drove by once, then Mann told
him to go back again. He got out of the
car and knocked on the door. “I didn’t
like the idea; I called to him to stop,”
Hurley continued.
He said Maim started back and got
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Wednesday Afternoon, March 30,1977
The Country Parson
by Frank Clark
Sr®
“Contentment comes from
solving our problems —or being
unaware there are any.”
about 6 feet from the car when he
(Hurley) saw the gunfire and his friend
fall.
He said he ran to Mann and Mrs.
Stallings pointed the weapon at him and
asked “if I wanted some of it, too.”
He asked Mrs. Stallings to call an
ambulance and she went back into her
house. He said when he went to the
house to get some water for Mann, Mr.
Edward Stallings gave it to him and
told him they should not have been
there.
Several police cars arrived before the
ambulance and Hurley said he gave
Mann mouth to mouth resuscitation
while waiting.
Dr. Virgil Williams who performed a
post mortem examination, testified
that death came as a result of a gunshot
wound of the left chest.
A blood sample sent to the state
crime lab in Atlanta showed the
victim’s alcohol blood count to be .10
percent, which is considered an
intoxicating level, Dr. Williams said.
Mrs. Stallings who lives at 102 Melton
street, next door to her mother, Mrs.
Vester Ellis’s home at 104 Melton
street, testified her mother had been
Rural mail carrier awaits word on firing
He ran for county commissioner and won race; lost his job under Hatch Act
EVANS, Ga. (AP) - W. Dilliard
Watkins sorted and delivered his mail
Tuesday, waiting for official word that
he had been dismissed as a rural mail
carrier for violating the Hatch Act.
Watkins, who ran as a Democrat and
won a seat on the Columbia County
Commission, learned Monday he will be
dismissed from the U.S. Postal Service
because he ran in a partisan election.
“I got the letter yesterday,” Watkins
said Tuesday, “but I went on down to
Mayor Head called
Grand jury plans
drug abuse probe
Mayor Raymond Head told fellow city
commissioners Tuesday he had been called to
appear before a special grand jury session
next week on drug abuse.
He asked the commissioners for their
guidance.
The grand jury has been called into
session Monday morning.
City Commissioner Louis Goldstein said he
harrassed before on several occasions.
“My mother can’t hear. Her windows
had been broken twice and a screen
tom off. Bottles were broken at the door
and people would come by and say
things,” she said, her voice breaking
with emotion.
“With her not being able to hear, I
is concerned for her,” she continued.
' On Feb. 25, Mrs. Stallings said, she
/nad retired for the night and was
having trouble getting to sleep when
she heard a car stop in front of her
mother’s house.
She said she woke her husband and
told him to phone the police. She got a
pistol from a bureau drawer and
walked out the front door, she said.
“I saw someone and called out ‘What
are you doing at my mother’s door?’
When he turned I didn’t know what he
was going to do. He took a step or two..
I raised the gun and fired into the air,”
she said.
She said she walked over to him and
asked what he was doing there and if
she had hit him and where he was hit.
She then went back into the house to
put on her robe and get a blanket for
him, she said.
the post office and asked the post
master what to do. He said he hadn’t
heard anything, so go ahead and deliver
the mail.”
The U.S. Civil Service Commission
ruled Friday that Watkins was in
violation of the Hatch Act, which bans
federal employes from participating in
partisan political activities.
President Carter last week asked that
the Hatch Act be revised to lift
restrictions from those “not in sensitive
Vol. 105 No. 75
Capt. Pitts said the police
department first received a call of an
attempted burglary at the house at
11:39 p.m.
When officers arrived, Mann was
found lying flat on his back approxima
tely 20 feet from the front door of Mrs.
Ellis’ house, near the sidewalk, Pitts
said.
The jury deliberated a few minutes
before returning their findings.
Mrs. Stallings was represented by
Atty. Jim Owen.
Mr. Emory Mann, the victim’s
father, was represented by Atty. Larry
Evans.
“My son never harmed anybody in
his life. The only thing, the boy was just
curious and wanted his buddies to know
he wasn’t afraid to knock on that door,”
the father remarked after the session.
He termed the whole thing just a
teenage prank and said he has heard
that hundreds of other boys have gone
there.
He has taken a warrant charging
Mrs. Stallings with voluntary
manslaughter. The incident may be
considered by the Spalding Superior
Court Grand Jury in June.
positions.” Carter said more than 2.8
million federal employes “are now
denied a full opportunity to participate
in the electoral process.”
Watkins, a mail carrier in this east
Georgia area eight years, said he and
others interested in his case had asked
the Carter administration for changes
in the act, but he said he had no way of
knowing if their requests had con
tributed to Carter’s decision to propose
changes.
Weather
FORECAST: Thundershowers likely
tonight, ending early Thursday.
EXTENDED FORECAST: Fair and
mild through Sunday.
strongly urged the cooperation of the city
and county in the fight against drug abuse.
“Speed, heroin and cocaine—the harder
stuff—are more prevalent in Griffin than I
thought,” commented Commissioner Dick
Mullins.
Mayor Head brought up the matter
Tuesday at the city’s administrative and
planning session.
Looking
for woman
of year
The Griffin-Spalding County
Jaycettes are asking for nominations
for Young Woman of the Year.
The nominees must be between the
ages of 21 and 36. The winner will be
selected by a nonpartial panel of judges
on her contributions to the community,
merit, worthiness and accomplish
ments.
All civic and religious groups, as well
as private citizens, are encouraged to
submit nominations.
Nomination forms can be obtained
from all 3 Griffin banks and their
branches. They should be completed
and returned by April 29.
The winner will be honored at a
special dinner meeting at Rogers II
Restaurant on May 19. The public is
invited and reservations will be taken
at a later date.
Mrs. Diane Irvine is the Jaycettes
Young Woman of the Year chairman.
He and his lawyer made an argument
similar to Carter’s at a February
hearing.
They claimed the Hatch Act violates
the rights of federal employes by
denying them political rights
guaranteed other Americans.
The commission disallowed Watkins’
contention that the Hatch Act is un
constitutional and said, “The violation
warrants his removal from employ
ment.”
