Newspaper Page Text
Blacks allegedly
beaten by police,
10 suspended
Page 1
Volume 11 Number 37
Religious cult at war,
2 dead, one critical
A black militant religious sect
that preaches white hatred is
being investigated in the
beheading of a black man and the
ambush shooting of a black
couple, Miami police said Mon
day. Two males are dead and the
woman, who was critically
wounded, is not expected to live.
The three victims were former
members of the religious group
called the Black Hebrew
Israelites.
While there is no firm evidence
linking the Black Hebrew
Israelites to the beheading of
Ashton Green, 26, Miami Metro
police spokesman John Jones
said the sect is being investigated.
Police are trying unsuccessfully
to locate Moses Israel, a black
Miamian and the alleged leader
of th Hebrew Israelites. Israel is
the man police think might be the
missing link in their investigation
of a headless body discovered
early Friday morning.
An unidentified jogger
discovered the body of Green
stretched out on a boulder with
his bloody head lying nearby.
Green, a mechanic, was killed
by decapitation Friday, Assistant
Dade Medical Examiner Charles
Wetli said Green’s head was
placed on a rock “to extend his
neck.”
The slaying-apparently with a
machete-took place in a remote
Blacks allegedly beaten
by drunken policemen
HOUSTON—Ten policemen,
intoxicated and armed but out of
uniform, stormed a hotel in a
black neighborhood after last
week’s election, chanted
“niggers, niggers,” and roughed
up several tenants, witnesses
charged.
All 10 officers were suspended
without pay pending in
vestigation of the incident at 3
a.m. Wednesday at the Delta
Apartment Hotel in the
predominantly black area known
as fifth ward.
Tenants said a group of in
toxicated white men dressed in
jeans and T-shirts arrived at the
hotel in a pickup truck bearing a
confederate and a skull and
crossbones flags. Witnesses said
they recognized them as patrol
officers.
Adell Criswell, 49, a painter,
said off-duty officers beat up
eight people, splitting one man’s
head with a flashlight, knocking
out another man’s teeth,
throwing another man down the
stairs and putting a pistol to a
Reggie Jackson \ fantasies come true
Baseball superstar
Reggie Jackson didn’t sit
around long after the
World Series.
A few days later he was
co-hosting “Allen Funt’s
It’s Only Human,” a
television special that
Augusta News-IReuteui
Man’s head is chopped off
area of rock quarries, woods and
canals. Green had been dead for
a few hours before his body was
discovered.
Police are investigating to
determine if the subsequent
shooting of two former members
of the sect is related to the grim
discovery.
Green, a former member of the
sect, shared a home with two
others who also had renounced
the sect-Carlton Carey, 34, an
accountant, and his wife,
Mildred Banks, 30. The couple
spent Saturday afternoon
discussing Green’s death, and
several hours later they too were
targeted for murder.
After returning home, Ms.
Banks told police two hooded
men in dark clothes “just burst
out and started shooting” around
12:50 a.m. Sunday.
The two escaped to a neigh
bor’s home where Carey died
minutes later. Ms. Banks is still in
critical condition at a Miami
hospital.
Carey, Ms. Banks and Green
all are former members of the
Black Hebrew Israelites, known
as Yahwehs, but had recently
become disillusioned with its
practices.
Homicide Detective Steve
Roadruck said the three were
continued on page 3
woman’s head.
“I thought they were the Ku
Klux Klan,” said one tenant. “It
took me back to the slave days.”
Police chief B.K. Johnson
relieved all 10 officers of duty
Friday, but police otherwise were
close-mouthed about the in
cident. Spokesman Larry Troutt
said the internal affairs division
was investigating.
“There have been no formal
complaints received by internal
affairs about any specific officer
in connection with this incident,”
Troutt said. “Internal affairs,
division is investigating reports of
misconduct by off-duty of
ficers.”
A detective, who declined to be
identified, said the officers
allegedly began drinking about 1
a.m. Wednesday behind the nor
theast patrol substation. He said
they later in the night went to the
hotel to “beat up some dope
fiends.”
“I was asleep and they kicked
open my door,” said Jewel
Conley, 31. “One of them had
aired last week on NBC.
“People watching me
makes me uncomfortable,
contrary to public belief,”
said Jackson between
scenes. “I’m uncomfor
table with the public, but
I’ve learned to handle it. I
Ihuigood Marshall
ready to step down?
His wife says no
Page 1
Jr
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT—Elizabeth
Nelson recently joined the News-Review staff. In ad
dition, she has become adept at typesetting.
A 1976 graduate of Augusta College, she majored in
sociology.
WASHINGTON—A report that
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood
Marshall is considering retiring
is“absolutely not true,” according to
his wife.
don’t notice it when I’m
playing (on the field)
because then my concen
tration is elsewhere. When
it’s work it’s one thing,
but when I’m out in
private life, I want to be
private.”
Wife denies Marshall
ready to step down
cowboy boots and tried to kick
me but missed when I moved and
stuck a pistol in my face.”
Elroy Johnson, 28, a main
tenance worker, said one of the
men “put a gun in my gut and
cocked it. They told one guy to
run, nigger, run.” He said if he
stays, I’ll beat you, but you can
run and I’ll shoot you.”
“They beat him up anyway,”
Johnson said.
Tenants said no arrests were
made and the off-duty officers
eventually left in their truck,
saying they would be back.
Herman Watson, 40, a juvenile
counselor, said relations between
police and blacks in the area are
poor. He said officers often enter
residences without search
warrants and question people on
the street for no apparent reason.
The suspended officers were
identified as S.A. Bremer, 27;
T.E. Branch, 25; M.L. Buttitta,
23; W.R. Cumbess, 23; S.L.
Franklin, 36; N.R. Giles, 23;
R.H. McKenzie, 29; J.C.
Passmore, 26; J.A. Harris, 25;
and W.F. Louvin, 22.
One of the segments of
the show dealt with
people’s fantasies that
come true. Many of
Jackson’s have.
continued on page 3
Reggie Jackson’s
dreams based in
religious faith
Page 1
December 5,1981
Marc Gibson, Sheridan
Broadcasting Network’s
White House correspon
dent, Monday quoted in
formed sources as saying
that Marshall, 73, called
on President Reagan last
Thursday and “discussed
his intent to retire.”
Asked if Marshall--the
only black on the high
court is thinking of step
ping down, his wife,
Cecilia, said, “That is ab
solutely not true.”
Mrs. Marshall said her
husband’s secretary had
informed Sheridan Broad
casting there is “ab
solutely no truth” in the
report.
Asked where this and
other similiar reports
about the liberal justice
have been coming from,
she replied, “It’s just
wishful thinking on
somebody’s part.”
“He is not” planning to
retire “any time soon,”
she said-adding that she
ought to know but quip
ping, “I just live with the
man.”
Marshall is a former
Civil Rights leader and
also served as U.S.
solicitor general, the
government’s top lawyer.
He was named to the court
by President Lyndon
Johnson and took his seat
Oct. 2,1967.
Although Marshall has
had heart trouble and
wears a pacemaker, he is
known to have been
angered about reports
suggesting his health is
poor.
Deputy White House
press secretary Larry
Speakes told reporters
that White House counsel
Fred Fielding said he knew
of no such meeting and
expressed doubt that Mar
shall would want to step
aside to permit
Republican Reagan to
name a successor.
Accused of murdering husband,
black doctor to plead insanity
A promising young
Black South Georgia doc
tor indicted last spring in
the baseball bat murder of
her husband intends to
plead not guilty by reason
of insanity, although she
is still practicing medicine
with the blessing of the
Georgia state board that
licenses physicians.
Attorneys for Dr. Rose
Horne Leaphart, 31, who
practices in Quitman, Ga.,
filed a notice Friday that
they intend to use an in
sanity defense. Dr.
Leaphart’s trial is to begin
Monday, Nov. 30 in
Nashville, Tenn., where
prosecutors say the mur
der took place.
The suspect is a general
practitioner in a private
office in her hometown of
Quitman, and specializes
in internal medicine at
Brooks County Hospital.
She is praised in Quitman
on a personal and
professional level.
Class valedictorian at
Washington Street High
School in Quitman, on the
dean’s list at Valdosta
State College, magna cum
laude graduate in phar
macy from Florida A&M
University and honors
graduate in medicine from
Meharry Medical College
in Nashville, she had a
bright future. Then she
was accused of her
husband’s murder.
An affidavit by defense
attorney Mariah Wooten
states that Atlanta
psychiatrist Dr. Lloyd
Baccus, who examined
Dr. Leaphart twice in Oc
tober, believed that fur
ther examinations “would
support his impressions of
insanity sufficient to con
stitute a complete defense
to the alleged crime.”
Black judge defies FBI
Black U.S. District
judge Alcee Hastings of
Lauderhill, Fla., says a
federal bribery in
vestigation of him by the
FBI is led by “a handful
of fools” who now are
looking into his income
tax returns.
The judge said he had
been asked to sign Internal
Revenue Service forms
that would eive the Justice
Department access to his
tax records for 1979 and
1980. But as of right now,
he said, he isn’t going to
sign.
“I ain’t going to give
Black judge
defies FBI,
calls them fools
Page 1
In Nashville, Assistant
District Attorney Doug
Johnston said he was sur
prised that the woman he
intends to prosecute for
murder was issued a licen
se to practice medicine in
Georgia. The Georgia
Composite Board of
Medical Examiners knew
she had been indicted on
murder charges when it
issued the license June 17.
“I just felt like that was
one of the most irrespon
sible things I had ever
seen,” Johnston said.
Dr. Leaphart, who was
released on $50,000 bond,
appeared before the 13-
member medical board
June 17 and asked it to
leave the criminal matter
to the courts and judge her
strictly on her competency
to practice medicine, ac
cording to board president
Bernard Bridges. The
board agreed and gave her
a license to practice. Then
came the news Friday that
Dr. Leaphart was inten
ding to plead she was in
sane.
Medical board
spokesman James An->
thony said a person could
be “perfectly sound and
sane at the time you get
your license, and be
psychotic at a later date.”
Dr. Leaphart is accused
of hiring two men to beat
her husband, Bobby
Leaphart, to death with a
baseball bat, and of
helping them stuff his
body into the trunk of his
car and abandoning it in
Atlanta last January. She
was indicted May 22.
Quitman residents,
many of whom watched
Rose Horne grow up and
more recently have wat
ched her establish a
medical practice in her
them a damn thing,” he
said.
He called on the gover
nment to answer the “core
questions” of what
committed and when he
committed them. Then he
will consider cooperating,
he said.
“Am I going to be
charged for spitting on the
streets of Washington,
D.C. in 1963—which I
did?” he asked indignan
tly. He said he wants to
respond to the Justice
Department -request
“without feeling that 1 am
walking through a
minefield blindfolded.”
25C
hometown, were shocked
at news of the murder
allegations and have ex
pressed confidence in her
innocence.
Rose Horne received
her degree in internal
medicine from Meharry
Medical College in Nash
ville in 1976, interned at
Atlanta’s Georgia Baptist
Medical Center, married
Bobby Leaphart in 1978.
and set up a practice in
Nashville.
In August 1979, Dr
Leaphart swore out
warrants for her
husband’s arrest, alleging
that he beat her and was
on drugs. The warrants
later were dismissed.
Financial trouble,
evident from court
documents in Nashville
indicating Dr. Leaphart
owed creditors more than
SBO,OOO in loans and
leases, eventually led to
her declaring bankruptcy
three months ago.
Bobby Leaphart was in
his second year of den
tistry school when he
disappeared in January.
His wife told police he of
ten went away for long
periods, and she was not
worried.
Prosecutors believe that
Dr. Leaphart hired
Michale Miller and Gary
Jackson last December to
kill her husband, and then
aided them as they beat
him to death with a
baseball bat.
“She at one point
checked his pulse and said
he wasn’t dead yet, so they
beat him some more.”
Johnston said.
Miller has been arrested
and charged with murder.
Jackson has not been
found.
Hastings pointed out
the federal investigation
began more than four
months ago. He 'said he
was outraged that
prosecutors “cannot con
clude this matter in shor
ter shrift...lf they are
going to indict me, indict
me.”
Hastings made his
comments in a Miami
news conference Thur
sday. It was the first time
he called reporters to his
chambers to discuss the
widely publicized probe.
He has accused the gover
nment of fueling a “media