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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 15, 1955)
rOtTRTETM MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE Monday, August 13, 1953 Sheep Herder, 84, Climbs Mt. Hood Forest Grove OJ.R) A hik ing companion revealed during the week end that an 84-year-old former Indian fighter from For est Grove climbed Mt. Hood last Thursday in fulfillment of a life long dream and then hurried back down in time to nera nis flock of sheep. Thomas Morgan, who had liv ed in sight of the mountain since boyhood, said he wanted to climb the mountain to view the land where he was raised "from a new position." Mrs. Harold Dyke of Maupin accompanied Morgan on his first climb along with guide Dale Thomas of Timmberline lodge. Two Oregon State college stu dents, Ron Reeves and Marian Swaggart, joined the party and paid tribute to Morgan's agility. A check of lodge records after the ascent showed that no one approaching Morgan's age had ever registered as making the tough climb, part of it over ice. In addition to raising sheep near Maupin, Morgan recently published a book locally called "My Story of the Last Indian War in the Northwest." O Subway construction was started in New York City as early as 1869. Justice Department Orders Grand Jury Probe in Strange Death of SV3aj. Molohan Editor's note: it2iian witnesses have , ment to direct air drops of U.S. ) Civil courts do not have juris- een flown to Uiis country to testify , . j:.;. v,,,c u ,,. thi week at a rranii jurv investiga tion of the World War II slaying of Mai. William V. Holohan. The follow ing dispatch tells why the covernment i is reopemnt rnis in-year-oia cast, unc of the most bizaare murder stories in the annals of American Justice. By LOUIS CASELS United Press Correspondent Washington (U.R) Few things trouble the Department of Justice so much as the thought that somebody is getting away with murder. That is why the department has ordered a grand jury investi gation, which will begin here next week, into the strange case of Maj. William V. Holohan. Thirteen witnesses have been flown from Italy to testify. Holohan was a small, wiry, courageous OSS officer who was slain under mysterious circum stances while carrying out a cloak-and-dagger mission behind the enemy lines in Northern Italy on Dec. 6, 1944. He was in com mand of a small 'detachment of OSS men who were dropped by parachute near Lake Orta, on the Italian-Swiss frontier, to establish contact with Italian partisans who were harassing the Germans. Holohan's unit carried about $12,000 in cash, and radio equip- arms to the bands of partisans. F was reported lost in a skirm ish and was considered a casualty of war until 1949, when his body was found in a weighted sleep ing bag at the bottom of Lake Orta, with two bullet holes through the head. Italian authorities began an investigation, which soon pro duced confessions from two Ital ian members of Holohan's OSS team that he had been murdered by his own men. Americans Named At a trial in November, 1953, an Italian court held that the murder was planned by two Americans former Lieut. Aldo Icardi of Pittsburgh and former Sgt. Carl Lodolce of Rochester, N.Y. Italy tried to extradite the two men but U.S. courts ruled they could not be forced to leave this country. The Italian court sentenced them, in absentia, to long prison terms. Because of a loophole in the law that existed during World War II, but has since been plug ged, it is apparently impossible to bring Icardi and Lodolce to trial on murder charges in any U.S. court, civil or military. diction because the crime was committed in Italy. Military courts are powerless because the two men were given honorable discharges at the end of the war. If a similar case came up now, the military would have author ity, under the recently enacted Uniform Code of Military Jus tice, to bring the accused to jus tice. Justice Department attorneys have been pouring over their lawbooks hunting a way around this impasse. Now they think they've found it. They won't discuss their strategy in advance of the grand jury hearings, but some legal experts believe that the government will seek treason indictments. In treason cases, unlike mur der cases, it is not necessary that the charges be filed in the fed eral court having jurisdiction over the area in which the al leged crime was committed. Treason is a crime against the whole United States and the charge may be filed in any fed eral court, at any time. There is no statute of limitations, and the maximum penalty for trea son in wartime is death. If the government seeks a A Good Turn For Motorists o Most people consider an automobile the second big gest purchase they'll ever make. Anything that extends the life of that investment, or makes it perform better, naturally contributes to your pock etbook as.well as your motoring pleasure. Since our new "Detergent-Action" Gasolines do both, they're O prime examples of Standard's planning for you. . These new gasolines are made in complicated plants called catalytic reformers. Using platinum and other catalysts, they rearrange gasoline molecules to make the cleaner-burning, more powerful motor fuels re quired for best performance of today's higher com pression engines. Standard built 4 of these reformers in the West. This program was 2 years in planning and building cost $50 million. This $50 million worth of plants is only part of the $350 million Standard Oil Company of California is investing this year to make petroleum more useful and plentiful. Some of it will go for research to im prove products and develop new ones. Part of it will pay for additional manufacturing facilities . . . while a good share will finance the search for new sources of oil to help supply the 733 gallons a year per per son that go into thousands of oil-born products essential to modern living. So the $350 million is an investment in your future as well as ours. It's one way Standard helps to guar antee that there'll be plenty of oil to do more jobs today and in the years to come. O STANDARD OIL COMPANY OF CALIFORNIA plans ahead to serve you better treason indictment, it could mean that Justice Department prosecutors believe that Com munist intrigue, rather than rob bery, was the motive for Holo han's murder. Some of the Ital ian witnesses told reporters, be fore their departure from Milan Tuesday, that U.S. agents who questioned them seemed to be "interested in the political back ground" of Holohan's violent death. They referred to charges that Holohan, a devout Roman Cath olic, had sharp differences with Icardi over the way in which air-dropped U.S. arms should be distributed among Communist and Non-Communist partisan bands fighting the Germans in Northern Italy. Slaying Role Denied Icardi, testifying before a House Armed Services Subcom mittee which investigated the Holohan case on March 26, 1953, flatly denied any part in the slaying. He also denied any ef fort to get disproportionate share of arms for Communist partisans. Icardi stuck by the story he has told from the start that Holohan was lost in a skirmish with enemy troops who suddenly attacked the OSS mission. Legal experts said that the government, if it fails to get a treason indictment, might seek to bring perjury charges against Icardi on the basis of his 1953 testimony before the House sub committee. Lodolce- declined to testify be fore the House subcommittee. Earlier, in 1951, he had signed, and then repudiated, a detailed confession. This confession gave a starkly dramatic account of how Holo han met his death. Bitter Feelings Lodolce said there had been bitter feelings between Icardi and Holohan for a long time, with Icardi constantly complain ing that Holohan was not con ducting the mission properly. Lodolce and two Italian mem bers of the OSS team, whom he called Manin and Pupo, grad ually came to share Icardi's hat red for the major, and the four of them began "in a joking way" to plot his murder. "Somehow, from being just a saying, the thing became ser ious," Lodolce said. "It may have been a means of getting off steam the fear caused by be ing In the general situation may have made us want to direct it against something tangible." At any rate, Lodolce said, on the night of Dec. 6, 1944, Manin and Pupo fed. Holohan a bowl of poisoned soup. The major be came ill and went to his room, but did not seem to be dying. Ledolce said Icardi grew panicky and insisted that he and Lodolce flip a coin to see who would shoot Holohan. Fired Two Shots "I called and lost," Lodolce said. "Manin gave me a gun. his Beretta. We walked in. The major sat up and said either 'What is it? 'Who is it? or 'What's the matter.' I walked to the side of his bed and fired two shots" ... "Manin, Pupo and Icardi picked up the major. He was heavy and Manin told me to help, but I couldn't bring myself to do anything. The maior was car ried to the boat which Manin had waiting on the lake . . . Manin and Pudo rowed him nut to deeper water and dropped his weighted body." TO FILM ROBINSON STORY Hollywood (U.R) Universal International Studio said today it will produce "The Bill Robin son Story" based on the career of the late dancing star. The studio acquired rights to film the biography of Robinson from his widow. Robinson died Nov. 25, 1949. . , Guild Recommends New TV Film Contract Hollywood (U.R) The. board of the Screen Actors Guild has unanimously recommended ac ceptance of a proposed new con tract to end a nationwide strike against producers of television The board called a special meeting of the en-tire SAG mem bership for Tuesday night and predicted the contract would be approved. The SAG's 10,000 members struck Aug. 4 In a dispute over Wyati Cifes GOP Opportunity in State Klamath Falls (U.R) Wen dell Wyatt, chairman of the Ore gon state Republican central Committee, told several hundred persons at a picnuc here yester day that Oregon Republicans have "unparalleled opportunity and challenge in the 1956 gen eral elections." payment to actors for the sec ond showing of TV films in which they appear. Terms of the proposed contract will not be disclosed until after the mem bership meeting. Wyatt, referring to9 Sen. Wayne Morse, said "we must meet the challenge of an op ponent who does not represent the people of Oregon and who has used the party as a step ping stone to power." He outlined some Republic! successes under the Eisenhower administration and said the country had achieved prosper ity without war despite what he called the "bitter and vindictive crystal-gazing" of Sen. Morse a year ago. SOUP FOR LUNCH Camden, N. J. (U.R) Police arrested three employees of a soup company and ( charged them with stealing cases of canned soup during their lunch hour. HIID BACK-TO-SCHOOL CASH? From kindergarten to college, kids cost money..- money invested in their future. May we help? 000 Add up ill the anticipated baek-to-school expenses and bring the figures to your nearby PF office for i friendly discussion. A PF back-to-school loan may be just the answer to your arithmetic problem. A BPPIMv PPJQHC I PACIFIC INDUSTRIAL Frank Wilkinson, Manager PHONE 3-3989 16 S. 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