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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 12, 1958)
6 MAIL TRIBUNE, MeoW. Oregon. Friday, December 12. 195S . " , - - Pattern of Twisted Motives Unfolds in Chatsworth, Calif. (CPU - A .pattern' of twisted motives .began to emerge today ex plaining why two former re ligious cult members carried out a murderous bombing iwhich claimed 10 lives, in cluding their own. "We will make him (Kri shna Venta, the cult's leader) deliver a public statement .that he isn't what he claims, that he is not the Lord, that he is immoral, hypocritical and untruthful." '. The words were spoken by the two former members, Ralph Muller, 33, and Peter Dumas Kamenoff, 42, into a tape recorder only a few hours before they had a show down meeting Tuesday with ! Venta which ended in the deaths of the two men, Venta and seven other persons, in 7&)q P0S " 7 m LOS ANGELES. CULT BOMBED An explosion and fire totally destroyed the headquarters qf the Fountain of the World religious colony near Los Angeles, killing 10 persons, several of them children. The blast occurred at about 2 a.m., while most of the victims were sleeping. Among the missing and believed dead was the leader of the cult, Krishna Venta, here shown in a file photo of 1952. l "IMS Give him what he really SsvJ - - complete with oteico Its Rotary Blade Shave Has Made It The Largest-Selling Shaver In The World! Instead of pinching off whiskers, Norelco strokes them off with famous self-sharpening rotary blades. Whisker-root close, Norelco is still the easiest on a man's face. New noiseless high-speed motor won't heat up, never needs oiling. Easiest shaver to clean flip-top head springs open at touch of a button. See the new Norelco Speedshaver demonstrated live on the Steve Allen and Jack Paar shows, NBC-TV i'LUCA 45 ,Sr UPHOLSTERED OCCASIONAL CHAIRS o 4 NEXT WEEK Watch our north window for an unusual rhrictmne n!n nu k C .Jr,7 7 Our Next Ad Page 8 Religious cluding two children, at the Fountain of The World colony in a small canyon near here. Slaves of Master "The people are slaves of the master, he holds them in bondage," the recordings left by the dead men said. "He doesn't practice what he preaches," the voices said. They also accused Venta, 49, self-appointed messiah, of be ing immoral with two wom en, including Kamenoff s wife, and of making trips to- Las Vegas and gambling with the cult's money. Members of the group turn over all their worldly goods to join and wear long robes, no shoes and allow hair and beards to grow. "We have dedicated our lives to this mission, and whatever may come. This may wants! A J rnier Hiah Art Clr .lass. ---J, is on m I & MTOI1I Bombing be our last night in this world We are leaving this recording because we want people to know our motives," the tapes said. The men used 20 sticks of high potency dynamite to flatten the main building in the cult's colony where about 70 members and their chil dren lived. Most of the mem bers were sleeping in another building when the bomb ex ploded, Sister Christi, a member of the cult for three years be fore leaving to get married last summer, offered a simpler reason of what motivated Muller and Kamenoff - jeal ousy. Trouble in Alaska In a copyrighted interview with the Los Angeles Exam iner, Sister Christi said "It was a case of jealousy, I think, a suspicion of infi delity. "I guess Kamenoff was angry at the master for order ing him to leave his wife. "Muller and Kamenoff were with us when we all went to Alaska to begin a colony. About 35 other members of the group live at the Alaskan colony. "About a year later, I think Kamenoff s wife came up to join us." She said that about a year ago Kamenoff slapped his wife and she went to Venta to complain. Kamenoff was ordered to leave the colony. "He complained, I guess, but he went. And with him went Muller. They went to Denver, I think. That's the last I saw of them. "But we heard from them often. We kept getting letters. They said they were thinking of starting a new fellowship and they urged us to join." Muller was described by friends as a moody man who believed his friend Kamenoff had been done an injustice by Venta. Venta's wife, Mother Ruth, who was at the Alaskan col ony at the time of the bomb ing, returned here Thursday and said she thought It pos sible Muller and Kamenoff might have been pushed to committing the bombing be cause of a guilt complex in volving $2,000 they allegedly kept in violation of the cult's rules. She said the men earned the money in Alaska as wages for helping fight a large for est fire there shortly before they left the group. They failed to turn the money over, she said. Mother Ruth said the group which dedicates itself to help ing during disasters such as floods and fires would meet to elect a new leader and Board members since four of the board members had been killed in the explosion. She said she did not mourn the physical loss of her hus band. He is still here In spirit. He died on the cross 1,900 years ago and was resurrect ed. He possibly will be resur rected again." Lana's Daughter To Slay With Grandma Santa Monica, Calif.-(UPD - Cheryl Crane, 15, daughter of actress Lana Turner, is mak ing good progress and will re main in the custody of her ma ternal grandmother for at least six more months. Superior Judge Allen T. Lynch said Thursday a re view of the teen-ager's case since she killed her mother's lover, Johnny Stompanato, with a butcher knife last April 4, showed she was doing well. She will remain a ward of the court while in her grand mother's custody, Lynch said. Neither Miss Turner nor Cheryl's father, restaurant owner Stephen Crane, object ed to Cheryl remaining with Mrs. Mildred Turner, the grandmother. 4Sr $(5)95 p ; I'P HEAVY SNOWFALL Oswego, N, Y., has been nearly paralyzed by a four-foot fall of snow, which piled up drifts as deep as 20 feet These two girls find themselves in a regular canyon of snow bounding this shoveled walk. Banker Tells How Embezzling Acts Began To Los Angeles (DPD "Thank God it's over!" the 39-year old bank cashier sobbed. "It was so easy," said Lynn Franklin Arnett. "At first I started taking just , small amounts but they kept piling up and skyrocketing. ! I al ways intended returning the Three Vehicles, Horse Involved In H99 Accident Three vehicles and a horse were involved in an accident on Highway 99 on Blackwell hill north of Central Point about 1:45 p.m. yesterday, ac cording to state ; police. Police said vehicles were operated by Joseph, Edward Cox, 24, of Grants Pass; Dean Clark Steinbach, 21, of We- natchee, Wash., and Gray Har rison, 30, of Portland. Both Steinbach and Harri son attempted to pass Cox's pickup truck at the same time, state police said. Steinbach's car struck the side of the Har rison car, pulled back into the outside lane, struck the rear end of the pickup truck, offi cers reported. A horse in the rear of the Cox pickup broke loose and jumped onto the hood of the Steinbach car. Officers Hunt Officers said the horse was not seriously hurt. Minor dam age resulted to the Harrison and Cox vehicles and the Steinbach car received hood damage. No citations were is sued. In a second accident yes terday, two cars were dam aged at the intersection of Beall lane and Highway 99, state police reported. The accident occurred about 9:46 p.m. when cars driven by Ola Gladys Bennett, 48, of j route 2, box 666, Central Point, pulled out of Beall lane in the fog ahead of a car driven by Violet Marie Leroy, 27, of 212 Glen Way, Central Point. The Leroy car struck the rear end of the Bennett car, police said. - No injuries were . reported and no citations issued state police said. More Space Money Believed Needed Washington -(UPD- The. Na tional : Space Administration indicated today it plans to ask the new Congress for at least another $45 million to help speed the nation's space programs during the current fiscal year. A space administration spokesman told United Press International that the agen cy's officials have had no ap parent change of heart about the 45 million that Congress shaved from their first budget to make it about S300 mil lion. However, he declined to give any hint of whether the space administration's budget request for fiscal 1960 would match the more than $500 million called for Thursday night by chief counsel George J. Feldman of the House Space Committee. Pile Up money but things just got out of hand." Arnett explained with emo tion how he stole an estimated $216,000 from the First Na tional Bank of Orange In nearby Santa Ana over the past several years. It was the third major shortage of bank funds dis closed in less than a month within the Los Angeles area. The Sun Valley National Bank is nearly $1 million short as the result of an in volved worthless check cash ing scheme in connection with which 13 persons have been arrested.. And two bank ers have been charged with embezzling $280,000 from the Bank of Belmont Shore. Arnett told authorities Thursday after his arraign ment on embezzlement charges that he had started a bowling alley shortly before going to work for the bank in 1950. The bowling alley lost mon ey and Arnett said he found he couldn't support his wife, Phyllis, and their three chil dren, twins Beth and Beverly, 15, and Robert, 13, on his $275 monthly salary from the bank. Pulled Ledger Sheets He had little trouble cov ering up the stolen funds, he said. "You could tell when the examiners were in the bank," he stated. "All I did was pull some ledger sheets to make things balance out." FBI agents said an investi gation of the bank's records began Wednesday when an employee happened to notice an irregularity in one of the accounts. The investigation was completed Thursday with Arnett's arrest. Actor's Death Held Accidental Los Angeles-flJPD-Tom Pitt man, 26, moody, speed-loving actor who was found in his wrecked sports car Nov. 19, died of accidental causes. A coroner's jury returned an accidental death ruling Thursday. The young promis ing actor whose career was just beginning to pick up dis appeared Nov. 1 and wasn't found until 18 days later. Police said Pittman appar ently failed to negotiate a curve in his speedy sports car and that it smashed through a fence and plunged down a deep canyon. Nationwide Action Against Smog Urged Los Angeles - (DPD - Mayors Norris Poulson of Los Angeles and Jack Williams of Phoe nix, Ariz., are pressing for na tionwide action against smog including a suggestion for a national boycott against auto manufacturers. Williams made the sugges tion Thursday in a letter to the Arizona League of Cities and Towns in which he said it appeared more evident each day that the automobile was to a large extent responsible for smog. Poulson today was on his way to Washington, D.C., to seek what he called a show down on the smog problem residents wko have suffered through seven smog alerts Explorers Attempt Atlantic Crossing By Using Balloon El Medano, Tenerife, Ca nary Islands-UPD-Four adven turous English explorers took off from here today on the first attempted crossing of the Atlantic ocean by balloon. Their balloon, the "Small World," rose into the air be fore daybreak and within an hour had disappeared over the horizon. It was flying the Union Jack. Over Southern Seas . Two hundred well-wishers braved the early morning cold to cheer when the bal loonists, three men and a girl, took off on their 3,000-mile journey along the same south ern sea path blazed by Chris topher Columbus." The leader of the group was Arnold "Bushy" Elioart, 51. He told newsmen before step ping into the car slung be neath the balloon he hoped to land "somewhere between the British Honduras and British Guiana sometime within the next one to three weeks." Elioart's companions are his son Timothy, 21, a radio and weather expert; Colin Mudie, 32, a naval architect .and de signer of the balloon's basket boat, and Mudie's wife, Rose mary, 30, a pretty artist, pho tographer, second pilot and cook. To Act at Boat The gondola of the balloon is designed to act as a boat in case the balloon falls at sea. A weather report indicated the adventurers would have northeasterly winds for 500 miles. The expedition had been delayed for several days by changeable winds. Only the northeast trade winds will do. That is the same wind that filled the sails of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria when Columbus sailed across the Atlantic in 1942. A recent market survey of paint dealers and consumers found that three out of every four homes in the South are painted white. T"" - pw1 ' J ;' j mil rJ !' ; -'-I' i :" '! j - ' ' " " 1 ' " "". Unchallenged in the If it could be said of any product of American craftsman ship that it is known and loved throughout the world then it could surely be said of the Cadillac car. . In fact, it is unlikely that, in all the recorded history of commerce, another manufactured product has ever etched itself so deeply in the public affection. , And we feel confident that the beautiful motor car that bears the Cadillac name for 1959 will deepen this senti ment to a still greater degree. For this newest Cadillac creation is far finer in all the things that have' made Cadillac so worthy of the world's respect and admiration. 1 Its distinctive beauty, .for example, is infinitely more graceful and enchanting-with a majesty of line and a fine 'Playhouse 90' Succumbs To Inevitable; Presents Program on News Event By WILLIAM EWALD , New York -(UPD-Ever since "Kraft Theatre" sank in the Titanic a couple of semesters back, there has been a small but steady TV traffic in the recreation of actual events. "C 1 i m ax" b u m p ed off Albert Anasta sia last season and "Play William Ewald house 90" knocked off Josef Stalin this season. I seem to remember, too, Lincoln getting shot again in a CBS TV spectacular and such tid bits as the burning of the Hindenburg, the journey of Hurricane Diane and even the dispatching of Rasputin, the mad monk. Succumbed lo Inevitable It was inevitable, I suppose, that TV would get around to a tasty event like the 1929 St. Valentine's Day massacre in Chicago in which seven associates of one "Bugs" Mo ran were sent to their heaven ly reward or reasonable fac simile thereof. Thursday night, CBS -TV's "Playhouse 90" succumbed to the in evitable. Whether the resulting ve hicle "Seven Against the Wall," . was a drama is per haps open to dispute. It seems to me it more closely resem bled a piece of reportage with dramatized parts, whatever that means. But its classifica tion is not too important. What is important is that much of the 90 minutes was pretty fascinating stuff, par ticularly the opening portion of the show which struck me as hard and crunchy. 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