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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 1959)
Price 10 Cents Medford Tribune Pages 1-6 MEDFORD, OREGON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1959 2nd SECTION 54th Year (pip p ' DISPLAYS READIED Rarks of garden tools in the hardware department at Sears were all in order by the middle of last week. Here, Employee Clark Barker is shown putting shovels in their proper place. Trotsky Assassin Will Go Free Next Year; Identity Mystery Mexico City (UPD - On Aug 20, 1940. exiled Russian Revo lutionary leader Leon Trotsky was murdered in Mexico with a rod that smashed his skull. His assassin was apprehend ed immediately. He has been in jail ever since. He is due to be released next year. And yet, neither his true identity, his nationality nor his motive has ever been definitely de termined. All that is known is that the killer claims to be a Bel gian national named Jacques Mornard; that he had entered Mexico with a forged Canadi an passport that once belonged to a soldier killed during the Spanish Civil War while fight ing in an anti-Franco Interna tional Brigade. j We was introduced into 1 Trotsky's closely guarded household by Sylvia Ageion, a Russian-American Trotsky ite, to whom he was apparent ly introduced in Paris and whom he subsequently wooed. Killed in Rage Mornard claimed he killed Trotsky in a rage during an argument over doctrine. But the fact that he carried a .45 calibre pistol and a knife, in addition to the sawed-off alp enstock with which he mur dered the old man, indicated the crime was not as spontan eous as all that. And the concensus of police is that he had been sent by Joseph Stalin and his hench men to gain Trotsky's confi dence and then do him in. One widely accepted theory about Mornard's true identity is that he is a Spanish Com munist named Ramon Mercad- er del Rio, and that he was brought up on Communism by his Communist mother, Eusta- cis Maria Caridad del Rio. one leading Mexican criminolo gist. Dr. Alfonso Quirez, claims to have proven with Spanish police fingerprint cards that Mornard and Mer- cador are one and the same. Got 20 Years Mornard was sentenced to 20 years in prison on April 16, 1943, but the term was made retroactive to the day of the crime, the same day he was arrested. He will be released in August of 1960. There was once speculation that Mornard preferred the se curity of his cell to liberty, where he might face venge ance at the hands of loyal Trotskyites or permanent lip sealing by Kremlin agents. But this theory was appar ently squelched in 1954 when he launched a determined le gal battle for parole. He lost out in his bid for early free dom when a judge ruled Mor nard had failed to prove him self "no longer a menace to society." During the parole proced ure Mornard came as close as he ever did to expressing re morse for having killed Trot sky. "I am a reformed man," le said, "and I am entitled to eturn to normal life like any ecent human. If I ever was delinquent, I no longer am. When the parole was denied February, 1957, Mornard signed himself to serving t the rest of his sentence. He has never disclosed freedom plans. Deportation Due . The Mexican government also has apparently chosen to cross that bridge when it comes to it. Technically, Mor nard is subject to deportation, since he originally entered the country with a forged pass port. But that would pose the problem of where to send him. His true country of origin has never ben determined to the satisfaction of Mexican offi cials. The high point in Mornard's dreary prison existence came on March 19, 1958, when he was transferred from rat-infested Lecumberri Prison, Mexico's famous "Black Cas tle," to the modern, new Ixta- lapa Penitentiary. Prisoners soon named the airy, well lighted, white-walled institu tion the "Ixtalapa Hilton." ' At Ixtalapa, Mornard con tinued to be the model prison er he has been all these years; He took charge of the peni tentiary's power pi ant, the same job he had held at Lecumberri.- Warden Florentino Ibarra, who regards Mornard as an electrical genius, has given the 54-year-old prisoner a cell to himself, which he has made Negroes Held on Stabbing Charges Birmingham, Ala.-TOPD-Three Negro youth were held with out bond Tuesday for the Jef ferson County Grand Jury on charges they stabbed a white Minneapolis, ' Minn., truck driver to death here July 22. Ernest Jones, 20, John Per ry, 16, and Jewel Short, 17, pleaded innocent at a prelim inary hearing and were order ed held for action by the Grand Jury during its October term. They have been charged with the fatal stabbing of James P. Hannaher, 29, of Bloomington, Minn., and Min neapolis. Police said the three confessed to stabbing the truck driver of the Morgan ' Trans portation Co., of Elkhart, Ind., after he made a proposal which angered them. Police said Jones allegedly was the one who wielded the pocket knife used in the slaying. Hannaher, a former com positor for the Cedar Falls (Iowa) Record, was identified from fingerprints on his truck. his . comfortable with a rug, an easy chair, a television set, a radio and a hot plate. Makes Repairs Mornard generally works from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the power plant. Sometimes he leads his eight-man crew around the prison to make electrical repairs. Occasional ly he takes a mid-day siesta. In his free time he repairs radios in the prison shop, which he also runs. This con cession had been taken from him at Lecumberri, allegedly because of intra-prison "poli tics," but he got it back at the new penitentiary. He is allowed to keep the money he earns. As a "commissioned prisoner," equivalent to a trusty in the U.S., he enjoys the run of the prison. At the end of the day, the graying, bespectacled prison er, wno is no longer slim as he was in 1940, chats with fellow-inmates before retiring to his cell. He1iSs"little to do with outsiders, however, par ticularly newsmen. One free-lance woman cor respondent, Miss Marion Wil helm, apparently has gained Mornard's confidence, and visits him about once a month. She has not published any thing of her -talks with" the murderer, presumably due to some mutual agreement. The last time Mornard ac ceded to repeated United Press International requests for interviews was in 1954, when he disclosed he had se cretly married a Mexican girl in 1944. Visits Every Sunday The wife, Roqueila Mendo za Mornard, now a 48-year-old stenographer, visits her husband every Sunday. (Inci dentally, one of the most-ap preciated features of the new prison is the "hotel," a block specially designed for the vis its of wives.) She generally brings a picnic basket, guards say, and prepares Mornard a hot meal in his cell. Mornard has said he met her when he was still in Lecumberri and she visited a relative there. Only one man knows what the steely-eyed killer will do when the prison gates close behind him a year from now. And that man, who has kept his silence for 19 years, seems determined to make it 20. Jacques Mornard is not talking. WHY THEY CALL HELP Minneapolis (UPD Elec trical failure was the number one cause of automobile breakdowns in 1958 according to a study made by the Amer ican Automobile Association (AAA). Flat tires and ignition troubles came next as the major causes of auto trouble. All told, the AAA reported receiving nearly 60 million calls for service last year. But it said that there were fewer cases of motorists run ning out of gas or getting stuck in the mud or snow because "drivers have become more intelligent." Ice Cream In Half Gallons Snider's Quality DAIRY FOODS Union Leaders Seek Softening Of Labor Bill Unity House, Pa.-IUPD-AFL-CIO leaders prepared Tuesday to make a last-ditch effort to persuade Congress to soften so-called "union-busting" pro visions in pending labor re form legislation. The federation's executive council was scheduled to issue marching orders tol union lob byists in Washington who are ready to relay labor's com plaints to a Senate-House con ference committee. Objects to Curbs The AFL-CIO has objected most strenuously to new curbs on picketing, boycotts and "bill of rights" provisions which it says would harm all unions instead of driving out labor racketeers. The council also planned to discuss legislation and its de cision to aid striking steel- workers at a session today at this union-operated resort in the Pocono mountains. Plans now are to recommend that the council set aside a "Steel workers' day" at the AFL- CIO convention next month if the dispute is not settled by then. Has Adequate Funds Top AFL-CIO leaders were told that the union now sees no necessity for financial help because it has adequate funds to meet foreseeable emergen cy outlays. The executive committee heard a first-hand report on the legislative situation from AFL-CIO chief lobbyist An drew J. Biemiller, who ar rived late today from Washington. Meantime, AFL-CIO offi cials privately discussed Speaker Sam Rayburn's role in the battle against House adoption of the Landram-Grif- fin bill by a 229-201 vote last Thursday. They said that Rayburn had either lost some of his influ ence with southern Democrats or 'intentionally let labor down by. not going all-out on the key vote. BUSY BUSINESS New York-IUPD-The nation's food chain stores now do a whopping 23-billion-dollar a year business, according to Chain Store Age magazine. That's an increase of 6 billion dollars since 1954. Meat ac counts for 25 per cent of the total volume. If mm MilU wmm The NEW Medford Shopping Center SAFEWAY at 699 E. Jackson St. See tomorrow's paper for news of the -exciting program of opening festivities and values! NOW Is the Time! PRE-SEASON FECIAL Split Peeler Core Wood BIG DOUBLE LOADS! ALL DOUGLAS FIR :....$21.50 ALL WHITE FIR ... 13.50 MIXED 5050 FIR ..... .... 17.50 Prices are F.O.B. 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