The Commercial Appeal from Memphis, Tennessee • 1

THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL VOLUME 6-No 7 MEMPHIS TENN MONDAY MORNING MARCH 29 1971 VIETNAM EDITION Kidnaper Frees Son As Ransom Of Removing Nudes From Academy Exhibit Is Paid State Ratifies Voting Age Bill The 13-year-old son of a part-time Instructor at the Memphis Academy of Arts was kidnaped last week and released TAi hours later in connection with a week long controversy over an exhibition containing four nude photographs at the academy Ransom for Richard Edgar Batey son of Dr and Mrs Richard Batey of 4327 Rhodes was an appearance on the news over WHBQ radio and television by Dr Batey verifying the removal of the photographs from the academy aind a statement that there would be no future displays of nude photographs Young Batey was taken from his home at gunpoint at 8:30 pm March 25 by a longhaired bearded white kidnaper who entered the house through a door that had apparently been left ajar The man explained that he took young Batey to make sure his "chil-d or see the pictures of foe nudes NASHVILLE March 29 In its shortest session in history the Tennessee legislature Much 23 ratified the proposed 26th Amendment to the federal Constitution which extends the right to vote to 18-year-olds in all elections The Volunteer State missed out on the aim of some legislators to be the first to ratify foe amendment Minnesota and Delaware beat Tennessee to the punch approving the Amendment less than a half hour after final congressional approval It was the first time the annessee' General assembly had called itself into extraordinary session The House approved foe ratification resolution by a 74-9 vote and the Senate followed with a 23-2 margin Gov Winfield Dunn signed the resolution saying just great just Though Dunn favors giving 18-year-olds the vote he had refused to call the special i skm He did so he said because foe state constitution provides no General Assembly shall act on any amendment to' the United States Constitution unless foe assembly shall have been elected after the amendment is submitted The state attorney office said however the feder- al charter transcends any limitations imposed by the state constitution and foe decision on whether to accept ratification will be up to Congress the side of the' school which was usually forbidden territory Remember? Well times haven't changed Haley and Brent Balm much Tracy iwin were the lucky DUSTING UP A Hand would flutter life quell from fencerow when the teacher asked for volunteers to dust the erasers It was a chanoe to get outside and pound a white patch onto a tree or the sidewalk or better yet on second graders at Marion (Ark) Elementary School Photo fev David Damdl After The Ordeal Bateys Relax At Home Photo The controversial photographs were a part of the Photography Invitational 1971 an exhibition of 125 photographs by 25 photographers that had been on display at the academy since March 1 The kidnaper told Eddie to tie up his father and two sisters He then told Dr Batey he had a police monitor in his car and that if he heard anything about the incident he would kill the boy Eddie would also be killed if the demands were not met he said He then cut the telephone wires and drove off with the boy in Dr Volkswagen Dr Batey soon got loose and went to his neighbors Mr and Mrs Larry Wright of 4321 Rhodes and telephoned the police News of the kidnaping was not broadcast over police radios Eddie later told police that he and the man drove around for about an hour and a half A short time after foe boy was taken someone claiming to be the kidnaper called WHBQ and told employes to have Dr Batey appear on the 10 pm news to renounce all his previous statements on nudes and state there would be no future displays of nudes at foe academy Bank Robber Says Disguise Is College Fraternity Stunt The teller at the main branch of the First National Bank who handed over $1990 Thursday morning to a male robber wearing pantyhose a miniskirt a tan car coat with a fake fur collar and a yellow scarf said Friday she thought at first whole thing was part of a fraternity initiation" Miss Joel McDonald 22 identified the accused bank robber Charles Edward Branch 20 during a preliminary hearing before United States Magistrate Aaron Brown She said Branch a student Power Is Revealed As Hill Slips Out Of Sight from TTw CxnmrcM Appual Dyurebure Tun Bureau GATES Tenn March 29 When Paul Keltner discovered a five-acre wooded Mil on his farm near here had sunk from view he ran to his neighbors knew something was wrong when 1 saw that gap in the said foe Lauderdale County farmer a retired quality control Inspector for Ford Motor Co was afraid to get close to the edge for fear foe hill migkt still be Mr Keltner had not visited TrooperNamed InBankHoldup Darwin Clark Bailey 24 i Mississippi highway patrolman has been charged with a $7013 robbery of the Citizens Bulk of Byhalia Miss He was released March 17 on $10000 bond set by United States Magistrate William Lewis Jr after an appearance at Oxford Hie federal complaint on which Bailey was arrested and brought to the hearing said he confessed to FBI agents that he robbed the bank on March 8 Authorities had sought man who wore a wig and hood Patrolman attorney John Farese of Ashland Miss said no date had been set for a preliminary hearing scription of apparel worn by foe robber in a restroom at foe rear of the Martin Ellis Co which backs up into an alley between Union and Monroe Del Floyd Bonner noticed Branch waa wearing a Trio Is Charged With Shoplifting 38 Suits Found The arrest of Joyce Lee Martin 35 of Kansas City Mo at the Hunter store in Whitehaven on a shoplifting charge March 17 led to the discovery of 38 men's suits valued at $4000 and stolen the back portion of Ms 128-acre farm since-last fall and was checking timber when he discovered the hole on March 13 trees bad dropped 20 feet straight down and were still standing as straight as ever Others some 100-year-old beech trees had toppled like Mr Keltner said at American Baptist Theological School at Nashville walked into foe bank at Third and Madison strode across foe red rich carpeting to her window and said laugh dressed this way tor a fraternity Then he handed her a note which said: Is a stickup Give me your money Thank She see a gun Branch was arrested Thursday afternoon near Fourth and Union where foe robber had last been seen A bank employe had chased the robber down foe alley behind foe Moore Building at 183 Monroe which leads to Union and police had searched foe area around the Greyhound and Continental Trailways bus stations They found discarded clothing matching the de gray suit and stopped Mm He said he found the money and a 25-caliber pistol many police cars had around hoe I knew he had to Mde foe detective said I saw he (Branch) was light-skinned stopped him Then I pulled up his pants leg and saw he had hose on when I put the handcuffs on Branch charged with bank robbery and carrying a pistol was bound over to a feedral grand' jury which will hear the case April 12 Bond was set at $30000 Jarman Chips AtDunnBudget By WILLIAM BENNETT Aon ThcComnwrcM Aeeaal Nariivllta Tmn Bureau NASHVILLE March 29 Maxey Jarman the retired Nashville millionaire defeated by Gov Winfield Dunn in the GOP primary and then appointed to head the commission governmental economy continued to chip away at support for tax program Testifying before a ligisla-tive hearing on 145-bil lion-dollar budget Jarman stood pat on his contention that his commission can save the state as much as 100 million dollars through economy moves Dunn meanwhile announced plans to tour the state this week meeting the people at foe grassroots level tore-build strength behind his proposal which includes a 95-million-dollar tax increase Dunn was planning a 15-city campaign The Democrat-controlled state legislature meanwhile has moved halfway through its two-week recess called to study budget more carefully than it could during a regular legislative session A number of state officials have testified at the budget hearings detailing the various needs of state agencies His fears have diminished from eight Memphis stores County Welfare May Rise 30 In Coming Year Hie cost of welfare is going about 30 per cent in the coming fiscal year Shelby County has been told by the Tennessee Department of Public Welfare The share of the public assistance programs budgeted in Tennessee for the coming year is estimated at about 354 million dollars said County Court Chairman Charles Baker Of that amount' the federal government pays 75 per cent the state 2P per cent and foe county 5 per cent or $1769892 October figures released by foe Department of Public Welfare show that aid to families with dependent children (AFDC) is skyrocketing There were 52095 persons on AFDC rolls in the county an increase of 16214 over October 1969 Grants for old-age assistance went to 9103 persons up 346 Aid to the blind went to 306 persons up six from the previous year Rolls of aid to the disabled shewed 4065 names an increase of 664 AFDC payments went to 13618 families an increase of 5051 and of those receiving payments 40496 were children an increase of 12029 According to Mr Baker foe 65572 Shelhians on welfare rolls actually were more than the population of Madison County Tenn Including Jackson which was 63072 in the 1970 census Arrested later by West Memphis police were Robert Ston-fer 27 and his wife Mrs Sherry Stoner 24 also of the Kansas City area The suits were found in the Ramada Inn room in West Memphis Memphis police said foe trio had been sending packages by air express to Kansas City They said foe suspects may have stolen considerably more merchandise as well Lt Maxwell and Lt Hawkins said the Martin woman was caught with an electric razor electric hair dryer a bottle of perfume a girdle and package of underwear which she stuffed in an oversize girdle foe wore Dr Batey told reporters he would not be able to identify foe man if he saw him again and that he could not estimate his age because of his dfcgulm A wig was found in foe back seat of Dr Batey's abandoned car which was found near the home Dr Batey is an associate professor of Bible at Southwestern and a part-time Instructor erf humanities at the academy He had not been involved in the controversy over foe nude photographs Dr Batey said he could see no reason why his family was singled out by the gunman Hie kidnaping was felt by professors and officials at the academy to be foe same person who placed bombs on the cars of two professors and made numerous threatening telephone calls to the academy since attention was focused on foe use of nude models in a local magazine article in January 1969 On March 28 it was announced that models at the academy who in foe past have posed nude will be clothed as a precaution against further kid-napings and threats of violence During foe week before the incident the four nude photographs in the exhibit sparked public congroversy when Newton Estes of 3069 Boxdale complained tocitycoundlmen about their exposure to young people The council considered a resolution condemning the exhibition but deferred action until the following week The showing was to have ended by that time Mayor Henry Loeb disagreed strongly with the decision to honor the demands after the boy had been returned saying that a pledge made under duress should not be honored Hiis city cannot be run in fear" he said Mayor Loeb refused to directly intervene and order the board to take action but as an alternative hesuggeited hanging the entire exhibition in the hallway outside the office fat City Hall in order to let any would-be kidnapers know that actions could not be obtained by force since he learned the probable cause of the upheaval was the mild earthquake that rippled across the Lower Mississippi Valley last Nov 16 The quake was felt In Tennessee Missouri Arkansas and Mississippi However Mr Keltner's respect for the unpredictable earth movement! of the infamous New Madrid Fault have increased remember the night of foe Mr Keltner said thought my new' trailer home was going to blow away All of a sudden it commenced to bounce up and down Mid sideways At first I thought it was a tornado but there was no wind and I realized it was an Seismologlcal studies showed the epicenter between Gates and Ken-nett Mo Mr farm is in the Dry Hill community five miles west of Gates and 12 miles east of the Mississippi River St' Louis seis-mological reports showed foe quake registered 45 on foe Richter scale Major ground damage is said to start when a quake measures 55 Mr Keltner asked district conservationist Earl West of Ripley to inspect the fissure and measure it Mr West said foe main crevice ranges from 12 feet deep at one end to 48 feet deep at foe other and that it slipped about 50 feet to the south Sightseers have been flocking to the farm since word of foe hole has spread finally put up some signs so folks could find their way to the aaid Mr Keltner not going to charge Bailey was arrested In HoDy Springs about midnight March 16 by members of the Mississippi Highway Patrol the FBI and the Marshall County Department Marshall County Sheriff John Taylor said that a wig a pistol and some money were recovered a lot of the money was recovered I know just how much it was r' he said Also held was tan 1970 Mercury Montego Witnesses to the bank robbery described the getaway car as a tan late-model automobile Authorities would release no other details of the arrestor the investigation Giles Crider Mississippi safety commissioner said Bat ley had Joined the highway patrol April 28 1968 and was stationed at the four-man office at Holly Springs He has been suspended from the patrol because of the arrest For other persons who know Bailey his arrest caused shock and disbelief "He is the most wonderful person In the world" his wife said do Hiey have two children Adams town marshal of Ecru home town said he had recommended him for his job with the highway patrol 'In my opinion be is one of the finest around known Mm for years I used to be an supervisor for Central Electric Machinery Co of Tupelo He was my assistant knew Mm well When he got with the highway patrol he seemed happy with his job Just Sheriff Taylor said be had worked on cases with Bailey guess we are all shocked' he said knew Mm well He waa real likable My persona opinion la that I thought a lot of the Suspect Is Snared In Chair After Threats To Policemen Thomas Harold Stiger 20 sought in four robberies was attested quietly sitting In a chair Mardh 18 after reports that he had threatened to kill the first policeman who approached him Responding to an anonymous tip four patrolmen entered a barbershop at Fourth and Calhoun where they found Stiger getting a haircut The man in the chair identified himself as but foe patrolmen recognized Stiger from a photograph they had brought along walked with his head down as he was taken from foe docket room where prisoners are Walk For St- Jude Raises $10229 Twenty-six University of Tennessee at Martin fraternity men who walked 130 miles in seven days behind a wheelbarrow have turned over $1022995 in donations to financially troubled St Jude Children Research Hospital Hie members of Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity at UTM collected donations along their route and had about $3500 in the wheelbarrow when they ended the walk from (heir campus to St Jude March 23 The rest of foe money was brought to foe ceremony by people from towns through which the etu-dens passed "The blister count equals the money said David Hicks 19 of South Fulton Tenn as the group waited along North Parkway nearing foe end of the trek Hospital officials met the young men at foe hospital and joined them in prayer and i tour of the facilities booted to foe robbery section office on foe third floor of police headquarters He did not speak A narcotic user he complained of withdrawal pains after he was put in a jail cell A doctor checked him and said he was all right Jones a coowner of the Big Star store said a man who Identified himself as Stiger threatened to kill any policeman who approached him And a man who said he was Stiger called police headquarters twice threatening to kill policemen Patrolman Smith said Stiger was "calm and and did not resist He was unarmed though a gun was found later in his room Police held him under a warrant charging robbery of the Liberty Cash Grocery at 939 Prater on Feb 15 He also is suspected of robbing the same store March 10 a food stamp office at 878 Mississippi on March 5 and the Big Star Cash Food Store at 893 East Mc-Lemore March 17 Stiger wearing blue Jeans and a blue pullover shirt with a red design on foe front MISS DOWNTOWN Miw Carol Hudson has boon namsd the Downtown Association's Miss Downtown Memphis Miss Hudson 22 who came to Memphis lest June after graduating from Mississippi State College for Women is originally from Calhoun City Miss She is business development representative for Union Planters National Bank people to look at It Of course It la at their own risk I expect that if one of my neighbors nad want to an earthquake look.