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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (March 7, 1960)
California Youth MAIL TRIBUNE, Medferd, Or. Monday, March 7, 1960 A 5 Held in 6 MI Slav ings During 19- m Miami - (DPI) Once started killing came easy to 17-year-old Dennii Whitney. He shot hi victims in the head be cause "it seemed like the logi - cal place." -The red-haired youth snuff - " "ves and critically wounded a seventh in a 19- - day spree that started in Cali fornia and ended on "a weedy - Florida sand dune fronting " the Atlantic. Whitney was captured Sat urday and readily admitted to three murders in the Miami ' area. Then he stunned author ities Sunday with the state ment: ' "I might as well clean 'em all up." Details Crime He ticked off the details of how he killed three other men in robberies as he traveled uoin Laiitnrnia t tti--;4- Whitney, who has been in minor troubles since he was 10, started his killing after he left home at North Holly wood, Calif., last month. He said he. killed a service station attendant in a robbery at Victorville, Calif., because . "I was broke and hungry." He said he killed another service station man at Tucson, Ariz., and a Negro man who befriended him in Phoenix, ; Ariz. He hitched a ride to Miami and killed two service station attendants in robberies because "I couldn't get a job." He wounded another man critically and then slew a woman whose car he stole to break out of a south Florida dragnet. Breaks Down One The youth's moods flitted back and forth as he detailed his crimes. He was truculent as he told detective Warren Holmes: "I planned to kill maybe a dozen or so." But when police took him to tne scene of one of the men he killed here they said, "he put his head in his arms and blubbered for two or three minutes. It was the first and only time he broke down." He was contrite when he told reporters Sunday night: "I don't think I intended to kill. I . don't feel too good about it." But his voice was cold when he told why he shot all his victims in the head: "It seem ed like the logical place." He dropped his head and teemed afraid when he talked about what might happen to him. "I figure I'll either get the chair or life in prison." he muttered. "I've thought a lot about what the electric chair would be like. I suppose I would go to hell." Prosecution To End Motherwell Case ti .:.it. r"-,i; men TVi XJW VViiiCVUiC, vaiu. iui in prosecution was expected to end its case today when the Larry Lord Motherwell trial opens after a three-day recess. " The remaining prosecution witnesses are expected to at tack Motherwell's statement that he never was in Marys ville, Calif., before Aug. 14, 1958. That was the day he regis tered at a motel there with Mrs. Pearl Putney, 72, weal thy Washington, D. C widow, A year and a day later bleach ed bones - identified as those of Mrs. Putney - were found in a mountain forest near here. 'Defense attorney Jack "Reges has indicated that he . will take three or four days " to present his case. Missile Project Slated in Idaho '":. Mountain Home, Idaho -(UPD V S . 1 I 1 lirouna was xo De orueu today for a mammoth con struction project in the desert near here that will put nine Titan missiles into the nation's operational arms system." . Gov. Robert Smylie was scheduled to turn the first spadeful of earth for the $28, 899,000 project at ceremonies near Orchard. The construc tinn of the complexes will - 41 tae 18 to 24 monms. . ' Each of three complexes' will house three Titans with! one spare. The complexes will be built in Elmore and Owy-i hee counties. ': The number of men needed to maintain a missile squadron on a round-the-clock alert has not been revealed, but esti-; mates place the number at about 700. Day Spree DENNIS WHITNEY Killing Came Easy SUGGESTS STIFF TALKS Berlin -(UPD- Erich Mende, head of the West German Free Democratic Party, S u n d sty suggested stiff talk to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev by the Western "Allies against any surrender of West Berlin. Such action, he said, "would at least give a chance of reaching a compromise be cause Khrushchev does not want a war either." San Francisco - Biggest fish in the world is the whale shark, about 50 feet long and weighing up to several tons. By contrast the whale, a mammal, reaches a weight up to 150 tons. Outlook Improved Vale, Ore.-(DPD-The outlook for irrigation water supplies in Malheur county has im proved considerably since Feb. 1, ' and now ranks be tween fair and average, it was reported today. W. T. Frost, snow survey expert with the Soil Conser vation service, said snowfall and - rain during February were above normal.He said water content of the moun tain snow pack in the eastern Oregon area averages 92 per cent of normal and 134 per cent of the total at this time last year. Frost added that the pres ence of low-elevation snow cover this year contrasts strongly with its absence last year. - Moisture in watershed soil has improved especially at lower elevations where rain fell or snow melted on unfroz en soil, he said. ' Flow of the Owyhee river is forecast at 53 per cent of normal for the March-July period. Flow of the Malheur river is forecast at 74 per cent of normal. Frost said the "normal" fig ures were for the 15-year per iod from 1943 through 1957. Tokyo-flJPD-A six-man Jan anese team returned today from a two-month Himalyan expedition in search of the "abominable snowman" in Nepal. Expedition leader Tei zo Ogawa reported the team brought back evidence that made members believe "the snowmen really exist." . liliL, 3&. -' !! II-" , . .... 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