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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1962-01-11, Page 6When a Texas River Ran Red Kidnappings, hold-ups, gangs- ter shootings , . ,. sat a clay pass- ed without a crop of vicious crimes in Texas that year. Mur- ders were so frequent they scarcely rated more than a few paragaphs in the newspapers, Even a $100,000 hold-up on the railway, when the United States mail was stopped at Fort Worth, hardly caused much lifting of eyebrows. Then came the discovery of three naked bodies In fish bas- kets at the bottom of the Trinity River, This triple slaying really hit the headlines, It was a boy at play beside the river who brought thekillingsto light. He noticed that the water was running a strange colour. "Hey, Dad," he called, "come and see—the river's turning red!" His father, a waterman, looked but could see nothing unusual so he went back to his job, The boy went on playing. Presently he got out among the reeds. The water wasn't red there any more but clear, so that he could see right down to the bottom. And, peering at the fish, he saw the thing that looked like a huge lobster pot, down on the bottom of the river. "Hey, Dad," he cried, "look what's here!" His father took one look and then shouted to the other water - men who were working nearby. They decided to go fishing for what they had seen. It took them some time to bring the contrap- tion to the surface, it was so heavy. It was a cage formed out of steel wire and it had been weighted with bags of concrete. There was nothing of value in the cage — just shabby men's clothes. When they had been sorted out there were three sets of clothes. But there was no clue to the owners. Their suspicions now fully aroused, the watermen got out their equipment and began to drag the river. Soon there was a sudden pull on the rope. Something bigger had been caught. After much manoeuvr- ing, the drags slowly brought it ++ to the SWAM Wire& 9bow@d first; it int- s Mond and bigger cage. Then to the horror of the watchers, pink flesh came into view—human bodies without a stitch to cover them. Here were the owners of those sets of clothes. This cage was also weighted with bags of concrete. But for the boy's keen eyes the bodies would probably never have been found, They had been in the water for only twenty-four hours. Although there was nothing on the bodies to identify them, the dead men's photographs were taken in the mortuary and the police set to work to trace them. Soon it was revealed that two of them were brothers named Rutherford and the third a man called Strudevant, But there was no lead to the killers because the victims were not known to have belonged to any gang. Weeks dragged by. There were further killings, kidnappings, holdups for Texas was in the grip of an unparallel crime wave that winter of 1988. But despite all their efforts the police failed to gat a line on the mystery of She .bodies in the cage. Then one day came a whisper on the grapevine—the killinge were linked with the $100,000 snail train hold-up. However, there was still no clue to enable the mail -robbers to be traced. But while the police were ISSUE 49 — 1961 baulked post - office detectives were making progress, writes Cedric Garth in "Tit -Bits". They .had been keeping a man named Stevens under observa- tion. He was a suspect with a record; rum -running and drug - peddling were his known activ- ities and he had been in jail. Hishouse was surrounded. When detectives crashed in they nearly lost themselves in secret passages and underground tun- nels. But Stevens was grabbed be- fore he could use an escape exit and the police had time to ex- plore at leisure. Taps on the woodwork reveal- ed secret recesses with sliding panels—and behind them white packets, containing drugs. More interesting still, in the backyard were some lengths of wire. The manufacturers had provided it in rolls for fence con- struction but these rolls had never been used for so innocent. a purpose. The jagged ends matched up with the cuts on the wire from the cages fished from the Trinity River. Bags of concrete were also found in the yard. The link between the mail rob- bery and the river killings was established but much patient investigation had to follow be- fore the secret of the triple tragedy was exposed. When it came it was as sinister as any gangster records could show — even in Texas, Stevens was the master -mind behind the robbery. He and his lieutenant, gunman Bill May, planned the hold-up, employing others to carry it through. Some young recruits were taken on for the occasion — the Rutherford brothers and Strude- vent, "Chance for you boys to prove your worth," said Stevens. There was nothing wrong in the planning; the hold-up went. off without a hitch. The young men made their getaway with the mail and all of $100,000 made its way to Stevens' hide-out. The recruits waited for the call to receive their cut. But Stevens sat tight. They grew insistent; he named a date. All three were told to report one night at the lonely wharf which Stevens used for his rum -run - Each man was told to report at a different hour—and each man in turn was shot in the back. A truck engine was kept running with a defective exhaust to drown the sound of the shots. "Dead men tell no tales" was Stevens' motto — and it was cheaper that way. He and May shared the dollars between them with no cuts to pay to the men who did the dirty work. When the second cage had been sunk beneath the surface Ste- vens and May could fancy them- selves safe. And so they would have been but for the observant child, Even by gangster standards Stevens was a man of iron nerve. He had liquidated his assistants with the same nonchalance that he faced the jury. He showed no regret for the killings but complained that he had been put on trial in a Fed- eral court; in a State court he would have had less reason to fear the outcome. His money talked in Texas, and his political pull, he was convinced, would have gained him a pardon. But faced with the G-men and a Federal court he was powerless. He was sentenced to twenty- seven years' imprisonment; Bill May got twenty-five years. If fluoridated water is used to wash the city streets will it help to reduce the cavities In the road? TO GET DIVORCE — New York Governor Nelson A. Rocke- feller and his wife have decided to get a divorce. RECEIVES A GIFT —Smiling Queen Elizabeth stoops to receive a gift from a little girl during a visit to the Queen Elizabeth Day Nursery in Accra, Ghana. x: f y' TABLE TALKS .:!G Ja. Andrews. On the big day when the turkey is to be cooked, wash it and rub the inside with 1 table- spoon of salt. Stuff the neck and body cavity lightly with stuffing. Truss and place, breast side up, on a rack with a thermometer in place between thigh and body. Cover the turkey with an oil - drenched Cheesecloth or use aluminum foil over the top to prevent over -browning of the breast. Roast without cover or water in a 325' F. oven accord- ing to schedule on the .wrapper or to an internal temperature of 100' F. e . * Allow bird to stand in roasting pan 15-30 minutes after it is done so that juices may be absorbed. Remove all trussing equipment, such a skewers and cord. Place bird on a warm large platter. Use a simple garnish so as not to impede carving. Use a lace paper doily, folded once across; to wrap bone end of drumstick. You'll need a very sharp, thin -bladed knife and a fork with a guard for carving. Carve enough meat at one time to serve all guests, * * * "This will be my husband's first time for carving a turkey— can you give him some tips that will give him confidence in his job at the table with all of us looking on?" a young woman asked. When you place the turkey on the table, the tail should be at the carver's right. Cut the leg and thigh in one piece from the turkey. Have an extra dinner plate beside the bird, and place the leg and thigh on it. Cut drumstick from thigh, then slice pieces od dark meat, Cut into the white meat parallel to wing. Make a cut deep into breast to the body fraane parallel to and as close to wing as possible. Be- ginning at front, starting half- way up the breast, cut thin slices of white meat down to the cut made parallel to the wing. The slices will fall away from turkey as they are cut to this line. (Carve only one side o2 the turkey at a time.) . Here is a special stuffing that Balls for sausage, apples, and rice. The amounthere is for e 1245 pound turkey. SAUSAGE AND APPLE STUFFING x/2 pound bulk sausage .2 tablespoons butter x4 cup chopped onion 2% cups packaged precooked rice 2% cups water 2 cups diced celery cup chopped celery leaves 2 teaspoons sail x/4 teaspoon pepper x/4 teaspoon savory y/s teaspoon each, sage and thyme 4 pounds diced, peeled, fresh tart apples Fry sausage meat in large skillet until browned. Add but- ter and onions and saute about 3 minutes, or until onions are golden brown. Add remaining ingredients, except apples, Mix just to moisten ail rice, Bring quickly to boil over high heat, Cover, remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes.' Next, add dicedapples and mix lightly with a fork. Put stuffing into turkey. Do not pack tightly. Roast at once; This recipe makes about 11 cups of stuffing: Reduce quan- tities proportionately for a small- er amount. * 5 * Acorn squashes are available now and very delicious they are, too. But unless you steam them first, the baking takes so long that many housewives pass them up altogether. First, wash and cut them in halves or, quarters according to the size and remove seeds and stringy pulp. Put them in a steamer with the insides down ao as to get the steam. Remove when you can insert- a fork through the inside. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and stir lightly, Add butter and brown sugar and stir again being careful not to break the shells. Place in a pan with a little water and bake in the oven at 350' F. for 15 min- utes. Perfectly delicious! ♦ M * Acorn squashes lend them- selves to many variations. TO make them the main part of a luncheon, fill generously . with corned beef hash, or scrambled hamburg, or maybe mashed po- tato and deviled ham. a * a There's one very handsome and festive dessert called Heav- enly Pie, a named derived no doubt from ejaculations when it is first. tasted. It's lemon in flavor, and truly worth the time it takes. Sift together.1 cup sugar and x/4 teaspoon cream of tartar. Beat 4 egg whites until stiff but not dry. Add the sugar gradually and beat thoroughly. Grease a pie plate :thoroughly and spread the Teringue in it carefully, try- ing not to spread it too close to the rim. Hollow out the center to form a shell. Bake at 275° F. for one hour, and then cool thor- oughly. Beat the 4 egg yolks slightly and beat in 1 cup sugar, Add E tablespoons lemon juice, '1 tablespoon lemon rind, and x/e teaspoon salt. Cook this mixture in a double boiler until it is very thick. Stir it constantly and cook approximately 8 to 10 minutes. Let the custard cool, then stir in 2 pint heavy cream, whipped. Fill the meringue shell with this custard -cream mixture, then cov- er over with another Ye pint of cream, whipped. Chill 24 hours in the refrigerator. Sandpapering Eggs Requires Know -howl Suddenly .appears a letter from Roger Thompson of Marietta, Georgia, who wants to know why a man named McCausland was sandpapering eggs in a recent dispatch. Since I supposed every- body knows that eggs get sand- papered, it hadn't occurred to me to elucidate this portion of that treatise. Come to think of it, if you didn't know it got done, it would sound strange, wouldn't it? Frankly, I lost touch withthe, poultry business long ago. So much about: farming, today, is on the assembly -line scale, and they've made the hen as auto- mated as anything. People who don't know about sandpapering eggs probably don't know, either, that hens, today, have tabulated by electronic machines. Fact. Just this summer a national prize of $1,000 was, awarded to one of aur Maine poultry special- ists, and his over-all contributions to the general farm picture, the basis of the award, depended heavily on his bookkeeping pro- gram. He has the computations for Maine chickens done, as an after -hour manipulation, by the Bath iron Works, which builds. ships. They have these machines to figure out engineering prob- lems, and there's room left over to count eggs, This is the truth —I'm not making it up, So I imagine that if eggs are sandpapered today, they are thus processed by machines, and ev- erything has changed. But in my poultry -fancying days, we sand- papered them. A very fine sand- paper, and it was possible to buy around the fingers, like a part of a glove. We didn'rbother, we just used sandpaper from the woodworking shop, and tore it in strips as needed. It worked just as well. The sandpapering was to clean the eggs. Not every egg was dirty, but now and then an un- kempt old biddy who had been lolling in the wet spot by the sinkspout would suddenly set up a clamor and race for the nest. If seven or eight tidy and fasti- dious hens had preceded her, there would be seven or eight nice Olean eggs which she could walk around on and leave in a•• sullied condition. You can, of course, wash an egg. But the natural emulsion which coats the shell on the out- side is related to the length of time an egg stays decent. An egg that is washed, and then thrust into a crate, and kept around for a week, and then displayed for a few days in a store, and then sits around a kitchen waiting for an omelet, is likely to peer out at you from within and make you speak 111 of the farmer. That same egg, if any barn- yard dirt had been sandpapered off instead, would still be bright and alert and full of kindness. The term "fresh eggs" is a rela- tive thing—some eggs two weeks old can be better company than . a new one that hasn't been pro- perly brought up. Indeed, con- sumers might fret now and then if they knew the time element of certain perfectly good eggs, But washing an egg was bad practice. You could sandpaper them. A duck egg, of course, can be washed. In the spring, before the ducks settle onto a nest, they will often drop eggs around the farm in odd places, and many of them will be muddy. Nature defends her own, and the egg is made so a sapping wet old mother duck can clamber aboard her clutch and not damage them. A wet hen bestriding her eggs, if she over- does it, can adversely affect the hatch. As to Mr. McCausland, he was going about what we all did. We'd get a basket or two of eggs every night, and after so many nights it would be time to. pack a crate, Sometimes the man who bought eggs came once a week, and we spent the evening before getting the eggs ready. Each was inspected for cracks, and some- times we candled them for in- terior imperfections. We didn't. have egg -scales then, but we sorted the eggs by small, medium and large. Double-yolkers were kept far home use. So were pee- wees, which ane the small eggs laid by new pullets, or sometimes the last egg a hen lays in her. current clutch. I would explain to Mr. Thomp- son that this is not only a tedious job, but it is a ticklish one. An egg, as you grasp it in your left hand and leave the top exposed for sandpapering, has nothing that resembles a handle. it is not firmly secured. Then, as you reach over with a piece of sand- paper and scrub it, the coeffi- cient of friction poses a hazard. It is easier than you think to sandpaper an. egg right out of your left hand and slap: it against a cupboard. Experience helps prevent this, but even with an oldtimer it happens now and then. We had a cat who would come galloping up at the crunch of an egg and eat it, and this is a good arrangement because gathering up a fractured egg otherwise is messy. Some sandpapers were agile, and could reach out and catch a flying egg before it hit anything, although when they missed and simply hastened its course they became despondent. Eggs are not made for slapping at. But sandpapering eggs is per- fectly all right, and 1 am sorry I neglected to explain it the first time around,—By John Gould Ir. the Christian Science Monitor. Risk .Their Lives To Study Beads Experts in varied branches of archaeology, folk customs and race relations intend to consider all types of beads worn by men and women, civilized and sa- vage, from ancient times to the present day Many researchers are risking their•lives among strange tribes to study their -beads and other ornaments. During a recent bead safari in the Kigoma district of Central. Tanganyika, a researcher at- tended the crowning of a young chieftain. The ceremony, con- ducted in the open-air and watched keenly by the whole tribe, conformed to ancient rites. The new chief, wearing a leopardskin cloak, mounted a stool covered with sheepskin. Erect and proud, he held a cere- monial bow -end -arrows in One hand and, in the other, bran- dished a four -headed spear. As a climax to this strange ritual, the presiding witch -doc- tor killed a chicken, and from its gizzard extracted white beads, the symbols of purity and power. He threaded these on to a string, tied pieces of chicken- 'bone to it and triumphantly hung the necklace about the young man's neck, The new chief was now pro- perly invested. STAMP DEBUT—Baby Prince Andrew, held by his mother, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, makes his first appearance on a stomp -- a one pound St. Helena issue. St. Helena is famous as Napoleon's place of exile and place of his death. ARCHES TRIUMPHANT—The prize winning design for the Priory School chapel, a Roman Catholic college preparatory school, takes concrete form on the St. Louis campus.