22E NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LV No, 48 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, APRIL' 22, 1953 Per Copy—15^
U.N. May Ask Reds
To Return More
Disabled Prisoners
PANMUNJOM, UP — The U. N.
Command Wednesday night called
for a meeting with Communist
liaison officers Thursday, touch
ing off speculation that the Allies
might again ask the Reds to
return more disabled captives.
The U. N. prisoners already
freed have told of many sick and
injured Americans and other pri
soners still in Communist prison
stockades.
The official announcment said
v only that the meeting was called
“to' discuss matters in connection
with the current repatriation op
erations.”
The session is set Wednesday
an hour after the Reds start
turning over 14 more Americans
and 86 other U.N. and South Ko
rean prisoners.
American and U.N. captives in
Japan on their way home Wed
nesday added bitter new accounts
to the stories of death in Com
munist stockades and on brutal
marches. Associated Press corre
spondent Robert Eunson said the
figures add up to 1,500 dead.
The Reds, meanwhile, made
propaganda capital of the sick and
wounded exchange, describing
prisoners returning from Allied
camps as “mutilated, emaciate^
wrecks.”
$95 Million Planned For
Alaska Highway Work
JUNEAU, Iff) — The chief engi
neer of the Alaska Road Com
mission says expenditures of more
than 95 million dollars are plan
ned for this summer on paving
and other improvement of Alas
ka’s highways.
William J. Niemi listed these
major items: 33 million for the
Richardson Highway; 27% million
for the Seward - Anchorage - Tok
Cutoff; close to 16 million for the
Alaska Highway.
Some contracts have not been
awarded. Bids are due as soon as
Congress completes action on ap
propriations.
Northwest To Increase
Alaska Service 45 Percent
SEATTLE, UP)—Northwest Air
lines will give its new scheduled
service to and from Alaska a 45
per cent boost under a new sched
ule which will go into effect Sun
day, April 26, George Hatch, west
ern region sales manager, said to
day.
Tourist flights and all - cargo
schedules will show the heaviest
increases, Hatch said.
“Northwest at present operates
daily tourist flights to Anchor
age,” Hatch said.
“Beginning Sunday, we will fly
five more tourist round trips each
week, making a total of 12 tour
ist flights a week between Seat
tle-Tacoma Airport and Anchor
age.
“In addition to scheduled ser
vice,” Hatch said, “arrangements
have been made to operate as
many extra passenger and freight
sections as needed to accommo
date heavy seasonal travel north.”
+
8 Lost In Crash
Of Huge DC-6 In
San Francisco Bay
SAN FRANCISCO, UPC-A huge
airliner carrying 10 persons Mon
day night plunged into San Fran
cisco Bay with a roar and a flash
—minutes after unloading 44 pas
sengers at San Francisco Airport.
Two survived, four were killed
and four were missing.
The crew of five and five pas
sengers on the Western Air Lines
DC-6B were on a short, low-level
10-mile hop from San Francisco
to Oakland, last leg of a flight
from Los Angeles.
The giant plane — one of the
largest types of passenger craft—
crashed at 11:08 p.m. in 15 feet
Of water in the southern part of
the bay, about four miles from
San Francisco and six from Oak
land It was almost the same spot
where a United Airlines plane
crashed in 1937, killing 11, and
exactly a month after the crash
of a Transocean Air Lines trans
port that killed 35 in a landing
attempt near Oakland.
Apprentice Seaman Devon C.
Peterson, 23, Glenwood, Utah, of
the Alameda Naval Air" Station,
plunged into the debris-littered
oily water with a line from a
crash boat and rescued Steward
ess Beverlee Nelson and Passen
ger Jerry Adams, 21, of Fairbanks.
Peterson said he swam for 15
minutes in the oil-slicked water
among floating bits of plywood,
pillows, clothing and plane seats
—all that remained of the giant
plane on the surface.
The Western Air Lines station
manager at Oakland said that the
DC-6B was making a “routine
approach” and had given no in
dication of trouble. He said cause
of the crash was unknown.
Western said it was the line’s
first crash since December, 1946.
Living Costs Edge Up
Fractionally Last Month
WASHINGTON, UP) — The gov
ernment reported today that liv
ing costs edged up fractionally
between mid-February and mid
March. This reversed a three
month downward trend.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics
said the its consumers price in
dex rase two-tenths of one per
cent over the month. Ths brought
the index to 113.6.
The index uses average prices
of 1947-49 as a base of 100.
The living cost level is pres
ently only about one-half of one
per cent off the record established
last November when the index
was 114.3.
Actually living costs have re
mained stable and changed very
little since last fall.
Summing up the price situation
the Bureau said:
“There were sizable increases
(after controls were ended) in the
retail prices of cigarettes, coffee,
gasoline and fuel oil, but no other
important cost of living items
were affected at that time. The
groups which are predominantly
service groups have continued to
edge upwards, but food, apparel
and house furnishings are gen
erally. lower than a year ago.”
Ousted W.L. Head
Accused Violation
Of Game Laws
WASHINGTON, UP) — Senator
Bricker (R-Ohio) has asked for a
check on whether Albert M. Day,
ousted "\vildlife director, himself
violated a duck hunting regula
tion he was supposed to enforce.
Day has retorted he did not.
/
The row Over corn reportedly
scattered in a-' Maryland duck
blind four years ago broke yes
terday after Day contended his
firing was politically inspired —
though not by Bricker — apd
Bricker accused Day of playing “a
dirty political trick” on him.
Secretary of the Interior Mc
Kay ousted Day from the $13,200
a year directorship of the Fish
and Wildlife Service. Day said he
was the victim of pressures from
California duck hunters and Alas
ka salmon packers.
Bricker said in a statement that
during last fall’s election cam
paign Day had barred hunters
from a marsh where Brickef had
been invited for a duck hunt. Day
said he had received a protest
from Bricker after the election.
But he did not consider the sen
ator one of the political enemies
he said brought on his dismissal.
Leon Cool, a former agent of
the Wildlife Service, gave a re
porter this account of the incident:
He was flying patrol over Smith
Island, Md., looking for illegal
baiting when he spotted one blind
“loaded with corn.”
He landed and was told by care
takers they had put out 200
pounds of corn and that Glenn L.
Martin, Baltimore aircraft manu
facturer, was coming the next
(Continued on Page Two)
Constitutionality of Coast
Guard Waterfront
Screening Is Upheld
- SAN FRANCISCO, —A fed
eral judge Tuesday upheld the
constitutionality of the Coast
Guard waterfront security screen
ing program, but told the govern
ment to change the program to
better protect the rights of af
fected seamen and dockers.
District Judge Edward Murphy
turned down the request of six
West Coast seamen for an injunc
tion to stop the screening pro
gram. Under it, no man who has
not been cleared by a Coast Guard
board on security may work on
of-shore vessels or cargo consid
ered vital.
Holding that in the present state
of world affairs, the Coast Guard
has the right to check the loy
alty of maritime workers, Murphy
said that seamen under investiga
tion cannot always have the right
to know or cross-examine adverse
witnesses.
The FBI, he said, has objected
that to disclose the names of in
formers would make them value
less in further investigations.
But the judge said workers un
der suspicion should at least be
told the gist of testimony against
them and be given the chance to
refute it. By not doing so in the
past, he said the Coast Guard “un
reasonably impeded” the defense
of screened workers.
Death Marches, Sc
And Brutality
Second Lot
-<
Korean Casualties Reach 133.787
WASHINGTON, UP) — Announ
ced U.S. battle casualties in Korea
reached 133,787 today, an increase
of 324 since last week.
The Defense Department’s
weekly summary based on noti
fications to families through last
Friday showed:
New
Increase Total
Killed in action.61 21,264
Wounded .249 99,384
Missing .14 13,139
Total .324 133,787
John Christie Killed His
Wife Because He Wanted
“To Put Her To Sleep”
LONDON, (ff) — A government
prosecutor said today that John
Christie had confessed to strangl
ing his wife “to put her to sleep”
and to struggles with three other
women whose bodies were found
in Christie’s house of murder in
London’s drab Notting Hill dis
trict.
Christie, 55, a mild-mannered
clerk, blinked through his horn
rimmed spectacles as Prosecutor
John F. Claxton disclosed in a
courtroom for the first time Chris
tie’s own account of what took
place in tho apartment whose
walls and floors hid the bodies of
four women.
He was arrested March 31 in
the climax to a man hunt that
rivalled the search for the dread
Jack the Ripper.
Claxton gave a picture of a sex
crazed killer who gassed or half
strangled his victims before hid
ing their bodies.
Claxton said the prisoner con
fessed killing his wife, Ethel, on
Dec. 14, but declared the three
other women died in struggles
after they had picked quarrels
with him. Mrs. Christie’s body
was found under the floor.
The bodies of three other wom
en were walled up in an alcove..
All were in their mid-twenties
and well known in Notting Hill
night spots. All three bodies show
ed evidence of sexual intercourse.
Claxton gave this as Christie’s
statement:
“On Dec. 14 I was awakened at
about 8:15 a.m. I sat up and saw
that my wife appeared to be con
vulsed. I could not bear to see
her so. I got a- stocking and tied
it around her neck to put her to
sleep.”
TUESDAY BASEBALL SCORES
(By the Associated Press)
American League
Cleveland 4—St. Louis 3
New York ,1 — Boston 0
Washington 5 — Philadelphia 1
Chicago 7 — Detroit 5
National League
Philadelphia 7 — Brooklyn 1
Pittsburgh 5 — New York 5
Cincinnati 5 — St. Louis 4
Coast League
Seattle 4 — San Diego 3
Portland 5 — Sacramento 4
Los Angeles 6—San Francisco 5
Ookland 12 — Hollywood 5
mi-Starvation
Described By
Of Returned G.I.s
' TOKYO, — A slow-talking
sergeant from Oklahoma said to
night American soldiers were
punched with bayonets, clubbed
with rifle butts and left to die”
by their Communist captors on a
bitter 13-day March thru North
Korea in sub-zero cold.
“I saw men that looked like
they couldn’t go any farther,
shoved over embankments and
left to die,” said Sgt. Odie Law
ley of Medicine Park, Okla. “Lots
of men just dropped while they
were walking. The Communists
shoved them off the road and left
them to die.”
Lawley’s story and those of
other men under treatment in
Army hospitals here added new
horror to the accounts of brutal
Red death marches which cost the
lives of nearly 1,000 Allied sol
diers.
Beating and Bayoneliing
Another young American re
leased from Communist captivity
Monday at Panmunjom said Chi
nese Red guards hauled away to
a labor camp, beat up and once
bayonetted American prisoners
who defied Red rule.
But, said Cpl. Donald K. LeGay
of Leominister, Mass., prisoners
who went along with the Com
munist line “got a little better
treatment.”
“We called them the No. 1
boys,” he added wryly at a news
conference at Tokyo Army Hos
pital. He said about “25 or 30
men” in his company of 220 men
got special treatment.
Odie, who is suffering from
malnutrition and other ailments,
told newsmen “so many men died
of sickness at the camps I was in
that I don’t have any idea how
many died. There was so many
died I lost all track of them.
“We had five or six men tried
to escape but they caught ’em.
They never got very far. They
brought ’em back and kept ’em
in what we called Turnip Dugout
—raway from the rest of us. They
had to do extra duty—extra work.
They wouldn’t allow us to see
’em.”
LeGay said “One time we had
a little riot.” He did not recall
what started it, but said the pri
soners occasionally “decided to
(Continued cm Page Two)
Sabres Used as Fighter-Bombers
SEOUL, Iff) — U.S. Sabre jets
flew double duty as fighters and
bombers today, as the 155-mile
battle line remained relatively
quiet for the third straight day.
The U.S. Fifth Air Force said
one group of Sabres swept north
to the Yalu River hunting for
Communist MIG jets while modi
fied Sabres smashed a Red supply
center in fighter-bomber strikes.
The fighter Sabres fought three
high altitude duels with MIGs,
but made no claims of destruction
or damage, the Air Force said.
Twenty-four other Sabres fly
ing as fighter-bombers flattened
22 buildings of the Red supply
area.