™£ NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LXII No. 53 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, MAY 2, 1960_Per Copy 15<
Republicans, Democrats Crowd to Beat
Filing Deadline for August 9 Primary
(By The Associated Presst
A young Harvard University
law student from Juneau entered
the Republican race for U. S. Con
gressional nomination today as the
deadline neared for candidates to
enter Alaskas August primary
election.
The latest filing for the seat
now held by Democratic Rep.
Ralph Rivers was from Elton Eng
strom, son of a former Territorial
Senator of the same name.
Engstrom, a senior law student
scheduled to graduate this spring,
will oppose Anchorage accountant
Ron Rettig for he GOP Congres
sional nomination in the balloting
August 9. Rivers, seeking his sec
ond term in Congress, will face
David Boyer, a darkhorse candi
date from Kenai, for the Demo
cratic nomination.
The two-way race for the nom
ination on each ticket came as
late-hour filings bulged the lists
of candidates seeking places on
the primary ballot.
The deadline for entry in the
political race was 5 p.m. local
time today.
By that hour, the actual filings
— or telegraphic notice that a
■filing is in the mail — must be in
the hands of Superior Court clerks
for candidates seeking state legis
lative positions.
The same deadline applies at
the Secretary of State's office at
Juneau for candidates entering
the U. S. Senate and U. S. House
races. In addition to the House
race, the U. S. Senate tickets ap
peared firm with incumbent Bob
Bartlett slated to win the Demo
cratic nomination without oppo
sition, and Palmer dentist Lee Mc
Kinley assured of the GOP Sen
atorial nod — likewise without
opposition.
Fifty-two of the 60 seats in
Alaska’s Legislature — including
ail 40 House openings and 12 of
20 Senate posts — will be filled
at the general election Novem
ber 8.
Bristol Bay Filing Disallowed
One State Senate filing ap
peared scheduled for rejection.
Miles Brandon of Dillingham, a
member of the Capitol Police
Force at Washington, filed as a
candidate for the Senate from Dis
trict K, representing the Bristol
Bay-Bethel area. However, the
seat — now held by Republican
Jack Weise of Bethel — is not up
■for this year’s election.
Brandon, contaced by telephone
in Washington by Wade, said he
would attempt to amend his filing
to declare as a candidate for the
House — but the time differen
tial was against him. It was after
4 p.m. in Washington when he
received word his original filing
was in error.
. . . LATE FILINGS . . .
(Lawrence Brayton, a Fairbanks
local labor union official who was
unsuccessful in gaining a spot on
the state primary election ballot
as an Alaska party candidate,
filed today as a candidate for the
Republican nomination to the U.S.
Senate race.
Brayton will oppose Dr. Lee
McKinley, a Palmer dentist, for
the GOP nomination in the voting
Aug. 9 for the right to meet in
cumbent Sen. Bob Bartlett is the
November general election.
With the deadline for filing at
hand. Bartlett had received no
opposition to renomination on the
Democratic ticket—and was not
expected to receive any.
From Fairbanks, newspaper
man John J. Ryan telegraphed the
Secretary of State at Juneau his
declaration as a Republican can
didate for the nomination to the
seat now held by Ralph J. Rivers
in the U.S. House of Representa
tives. Ryan, a member of the staff
of the Fairbanks News-Miner, and
Elton Engstrom, will oppose An
chorage accountant Ron Rettig for
the nomination.
TRUMAN ... ON CHESSMAN
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., lift—
Former President Harry S. Tru
man said today Caryl Chessman
should have been executed long
ago.
Truman made the comment dur
ing one of his morning walks ac
companied toy newsmen, as the
hour approached for Chessman’s
scheduled execution in a Califor
nia gas chamber.
Truman said agitation over the
case “was a lotta hooey stirred
up to get your mind off what’s
happening.”
12-Year Fight for Prolonged Life Ends
For Caryl Chessman in Gas Chamber
SAN QUENTIN, Calif., <*l —
Caryl Chessman went to his death
in the San Quentin prison gas
chamber today with a smile on
his lips.
The condemned sex terrorist
! who had staved off execution for
12 years, died a few moments be
fore a federal judge was prepar
ing to give a 30-minute stay to
hear a final appeal from his at
torney, and just after the United
States and California Supreme
Courts had rejected appeals.
The potassium cyanide pellets
dropped into the acid in the apple
green death chamber at 10:03 a.m.
Pacific Daylight Time, and Chess
man was pronounced dead at
10:12.
Just as the fatal fumes rose, the
38-year-old Chessman managed a
laugh, almost a chuckle.
Warden Dickson told a news
conference immediately after
ward that just before Chessman
was led from the waiting room
next to the death chamber, “he
asked that I specifically state he
was not the red light bandit.”
Died With Dignity
Witnesses agreed that Chessman
had lived up to his declaration
that he intended to die with dig
nity.
As Chessman was strapped in
the chair, Mrs. Black, a reporter
for the Los Angeles examiner at
tracted 'his attention with hand
motions.
Chessman started talking to her.
Nothing could be heard but Mrs.
Black as she read his lips to say,
“Tell Rosalie I said goodby.”
Whatever else he said she did
not decipher, but she said, “He
seemed to be trying to buck me
up and tell me that everything
was all right.”
iMrs. Black had covered his case
and had interviewed him many
times.
Chessman’s 12-year court fight
to escape the gas chamber ended
with a series of three denials —
all within 45 minutes of the exe
cution hour — and an intended 30
minute stay of execution that
came too late.
The California State Supreme
Court denied a series of petitions
filed Saturday and Sunday after
unprecedented special session in
chambers in San Francisco this
morning. They met again to deny
a new petition for a stay filed 45
minutes before the death hour.
But U. S. District Judge Louis
Goodman said he tried to grant a
30-minute stay, but the deadly
pellets had already been dropped.
The petition was filed with Good
man at 9:55.
Thus ended the life of a small
time hodlum, car thief and robber
whose long struggle to escape the
supreme penalty made him pos
sibly the most famous prisoner
of his generation.
First arrested at the age of 16.
he died at 38, having spent more
than 20 years in prisons.
Chessman died under a double
conviction of kidnaping for rob
bery with bodily harm, the offi
cial legal description of perverted
sex attacks on two women in Los
Angeles lovers’ lanes in January,
1948. He denied the crimes.
Thwarted Death Eight Times
Nine times his death date was
set; eight times he thwarted it.
Seven times the courts granted
stays to permit new appeals. The
eighth time Governor Brown gave
a reprieve to avoid hostile demon
strations against President Eisen
hower in Latin America and to
push an abortive effort to abolish
capital punishment in California.
The persistence and brilliancy
of the campaign of appeals which
Chessman conducted from his
cell in death row made his name
a household word around the
world.
In the end, he had succeeded in
shifting public attention away
from his crimes to his own per
sonality and the larger issue of
capital punishment.
Thousands of persons at home
and abroad signed petitions or
joined demonstrations urging that
Chessman’s life be spared.
Senate Approves Bill
Providing for Stockpiling
Domestic Tin Supply
WASHINGTON, UP) — A bill
auhorizing government purchase
and stockiling of domestic tin was
approved today by the Senate
Minerals Subcommittee.
The measure, sponsored by
Alaska Senators, would direct the
Secretary of Interior to purchase
over a 10-year period up to 10,000
tons of tin at $1.40 a pound for
lode produced tin and $1.25 for
placer production.
Most of the domestic tin is pro
duced in Alaska at costs which
cannot compete with foreign tin
selling on the world market at
about $1 a pound.
NEHRU BLASTS SOUTH
AFRICAN RACIAL POLICIES
LONDON, UFi — Prime Ministet
Nehru of India today said South
Africa’s racial segregation policies
represent a threat to world peace.
Nehru, in London to attend a
conference o f Commonwealth
prime ministers, told newsmen he
felt the racial segregation program
of South Africa’s ruling National
ist Party is in conflict with the
United Nations charter as well as
“the normal civilized conception
of human conduct.”
Worldwide May
Day Celebrants
Blast U. S. Policies
(By The Associated Pressi
The United States was blasted
in both hemispheres as millions of
workers celebrated and Commu
nists paraded their armed might
on May Day.
Cuba’s Fidel Castro proclaimed
“our country or death” in an
angry 3Vfe-hour harangue to be
tween 250,000 and 500,000 shout
ing Cubans who turned a May
Day rally into an anti-United
States demonstration. The crowd
was far below the IVi million the
Castro regime had hoped to bring
out.
Tokyo demonstrators hanged
President Eisenhower and Prime
Minister Nobusuke Kishi in effi
gy and blanketed the capitol with
placards denouncing ratification
of the new U. S.-Japan security
treaty.
On both sides of the Iron Cur
tain, parades, rallies and speeches
marked the worker’s holiday es
tablished &1 years ago by the in
ternational Socialist Congress.
The United States celebraetes on
the first Monday in September.
Marching troops, guns and
rockets were the center attrac
tion in Moscow, where Prime Min
ister Khrushchev and other Soviet
leaders reviewed the mammoth
parade. Thousands of Muscovites
applauded the parade, but it con
tained none of the terrifying new
weapons Khrushchev talked about
in a speech to the Supreme Soviet
last January.
About three million Chinese
jammed Peiping for a giant May
Day carnival that Radio Peiping
hailed as the liveliest in the city’s
history.
Pope John XXIII broadcast
from the Vatican a sharp rebuke
-of atheistic Communism and
called on workers to emulate St.
Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth.
The Pontiff did not mention Com
munism by name, but he spoke
of “mistaken ideologies that on
one hand exalt uncurbed liber
ties and on the other suppression
of personality.”
U. S. Prepares Atlas for
Record-Breaking Flight
WASHINGTON, UP) — The
United States is ready for an at
tempt to send an Atlas missile on
a record-breaking 9,000-mile flight
from Florida past the tip of South
Africa into the southern reaches
of the Indian Ocean.
The shot may be fired this week.
Atlas shots in the past have
achieved distances of something
over 6.000 statute miles.
The Russians in January lobbed
one of their test missiles from a
launching pad deep within the
Soviet Union about 7,700 statute
miles into the south central
Pacific.
The planned impact area for the
new long-distance Atlas flight will
be in the area of the Prince Ed
ward Islands which lie about 1,250
miles southeast of the Cape of
Good Hope.
WOMEN LAWYERS LAUD
PERRY MASON TV SHOW
LOS ANGELES, UP) — The pro
ducer and the star of the Perry
Mason television series were hon
ored Sunday by the National As
sociation of Women Lawyers.
Trophies were given Gail Pat
rick, actress turned producer, a.id
actor Raymond Burr for their
work on the courtroom drama. |
Military Plans Big
Fete at Nome on
Armed Forces Day
Saturday, May 21, has been pro
claimed by Governor Egan as
Armed Forces Day, and all citi
zens are asked to display the flag
of the United States of America,
in recognition of the sacrifice and
devotion to duty of the members
of the Armed Forces, and to at
tend and participate in local ob
servance of that day.
Nome will have a very fine ob
servance of this occasion this year,
through the efforts of Major Larry
Flanagan and the co-operation of
both the U. S. Army and the U. S.
Air Force. A band, a drill team,
an air show, military displays and
even an entertainment group have
been promised on May 18, which
is scheduled to arrive here and to
help Nome commemorate the day
in a most appropriate manner,
although there are no military
forces based in this area.
Nome will be honored by hav
ing Brig. Gen. Gordon Auston,
USAF, as speaker of the day.
Hoffa Wins Indefinite
Stay Of Ouster Trial
WASHINGTON, UP! —Teamsters
Union president James Hoffa won
an indefinite stay today in his
ouster trial which was due to
start tomorrow morning.
The U.S. Court of Appeals, act
ing fast after hearing arguments
of little more than an hour, order
ed the trial delayed pending rul
ings on other phases of the
tangled Teamsters Union litiga
tion.
The trial is to be on charges
brought by court-appointed union
monitors that Hoffa misused some
$600,000 of union funds in private
business ventures.
Hoffa has denied any wrong
doing.
Lana Turner’s Daughter
Is Runaway from Calif.
State Girls’ Home
HOLLYWOOD, UP — Lana Tur
ner’s 1'6-year-old daughter, Cheryl,
who two years ago stabbed her
actress mother’s hoodlum lover,
escaped Friday nigh't from a
county-operated home for girls.
The statuesque, troubled teen
ager had been committel to-the
minimum security El Retiro Home
for Girls six weeks ago for what
her mother termed psychiatric
therapy.
Cheryl and two other girls
climbed over a chain-link fence
and faded into the residential
neighborhood near the home in
the San Fernando Valley.
Cheryl in 1958 fatally stabbed
Johnny Stompanato, ex-bodyguard
to ex-gambling kingpin Mickey
Cohen, during a fiery quarrel be
tween the handsome underworld
figure and her mother.
Police said they were not plan
ning any special serach, and were
treating the case as a routine
runaway juvenile.
NEW LEASE
KINGSTON, Ont., UP) — Walter
Petelka will be discharged from
Collins Bay Penitentiary Tuesday
after completing a voluntary four
week extension of his time. The
26-year-old Toronto salesman had
asked to be allowed to stay because
he wanted to finish a course in
human relations conducted for
the prisoners. Petela was sen
tenced to 15 months for illegal
possession of a weapon.