Wednesday, January 24, 1973
3
No Motive Found in Mass Killings
TOPEKA (AP) - Topeka police said Tuesday they could not pinpoint what prompted an unemployed 28-year-old Topeka man to go on a seemingly unprovoked shooting spree Monday night with six persons dead and a seventh wounded.
Officers said Ronald George Jordan, father of three young children, took a 16-age shgun from the room of the house where he lived and shot to death five persons before turning the weapon on himself. He also wounded another person.
Among the victims was a 31-year-old woman Pearl Larue Avery, who police said provided the most likely link to a motive. Police records show that on July 8, 1971, Jordan entered a private cla 'on to Topeka's east side and fired a pistol at Avery. The shot missed her, the record shows, and she declined to prosecute him.
Records also show that Jordan was questioned by officers in August 1972 in
connection with an alleged strongarm
robbery of Averv. No charges were brought.
Detectives said Avery had informed police she did not want to bring complaints against Jordan because she planned to marry him. However, there was no basis for saying they had a common law marriage, police said.
Detective G. Delmar Royer said there was no indication of any argument or new controversy which might have triggered Monday night's shootings by Jordan. An earlier report of a possible argument was unfounded.
Detective L. J. Milton Johnson said he believes Jon simply went berserk.
The victims included Avery and her mother, Jessie Mae Avery, 67; Lacille H. Cowan, 50; Oscar Maddox, 63; and Herbert Gatewoden, 50 of all Topeka.
Hospitalized in satisfactory condition with a shotgun wound in the head was admitted to the hospital.
daughter of Jessie Avery and a sister of Megan McCraig was visiting her mother.
A primary witness was Delphine Avery, a relative of the three women involved in the death.
Detectives said blood tests had been ordered on all six dead people to determine whether drinking or drugs possible were a factor in the shootings.
Don Demore, a police detective who questioned Delphine Avery, quoted her as saying that Jordan did not say anything before he shot himself.
Police said the episode began about 9:30 p.m. Monday when Jordan returned to the house at 813 N. Topena Ave, where Jessie Doyle was living, and also lived. McGuirk was also in the house.
She said that was the last thing she remembered until she regained consciousness and crawled to a house at 814 N. Topeka seeking help for her bored ward.
she looked up from the stove and saw Jordan standing, doorway with the hat. "What are you doing?"
Police said that McCraig told them Jordan asked to borrow $$. She said she gave him a $10 bill and asked him to return the change.
The bodies of Jesse and Pearl Avery and Madlock were found by police at 618 N. Street.
Police said three door next went to 612 N. Topeka two doors away and shot Cowens and Gatewood to death, Gatewood, who did not live at the address, was found in night clothing in a closet several hours after the other bodies were discovered.
Officers said Jordan then went to 818 N.
Topeka, where he shot himself to death.
Docking Tax Proposal Introduced in Senate
TOPEKA (AP)—Gov. Robert Docking's "circuit breaker" property tax bill was introduced in the Kansas Senate Tuesday, and the Senate responded by sending the first bill of this session to the governor for his signature.
"He just started shooting," said Royer. Johnson said that, other than the disturbance at the private club 18 months ago and the attempted robbery last summer, Jordan had not been involved in any trouble with police. He had no criminal record, because charges were not filed in those two incidents.
Detectives said Jordan apparently knew most or all of his victims, but no reason had been found.
The bill sent to the governor repeals legislation enacted last year authorizing a joint city-county law enforcement agency in Emporia and Lyon County. Voters in the county turned down the proposition last November.
The circuit breaker bill, introduced by Sen. Jack Steineger, Democratic floor leader in the Senate, is the first of Docking's bills on tax proposals, according to Steineger.
"The bill commits all of the state's federal revenue-sharing money to property tax."
"This bill will provide immediate, direct property tax relief for 88 per cent of the state's homeowners," Steiniger said after adjournment Tuesday.
As proposed, the circuit-breaker would give a minimum refund of $50 and a maximum of $150 on property taxes of homeowners earning less than $20,000 a year. It also provides for retroactive refunds for 1972 taxes.
The governor's tax proposals are comparable to a freight train, "Steinger麦斯伯"
Rusty Leffel, Prairie Village law student who resigned last week as chairman of Concerned Students for Higher Education in Kansas, said Tuesday that he resigned in order to give the group the opportunity to develop new leaders and new directions.
"The ciruit-breaker is the engine. The
Lobbyist Tells Of Resignation
Lefel said that his decision was a hard one to make but that he thought it was
Lefel said he did not think that the group would elect a replacement for a while.
She said Jordan then asked her to cook him some pork steaks and went upstairs to his room, where he apparently kept the shotgun.
"Since the group is informal, the members will probably not elect formal officers," said Laffell. "It will probably go more on individual initiative."
The Lawrence Planning Commission will discuss several possible text amendments at its regular twice monthly meeting tonight, including an amendment to change the permitted uses in C-2 (neighborhood shopping) districts.
City Planning
to include carnivals, dances and art shows. The meeting will be at 6:30 tonight in the City Commission meeting room of the Town Building *Building at 910 Massachusetts*.
Guest organist Marilyn Mason will perform at 8 p.m. tonight in Swarthout
Organ Recital
The amendment would allow C-2 districts to include carnivals, dances and art shows.
Jeffrey E. Aaron, an architect from New York, will speak on "Climate and Architecture" at 8 p.m. Thursday in the Forum Room of the Kansas Union. "Climate and Architecture" is also the title of a book by Aaron.
The motion picture Citizen Kane will be shown at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Thursday in Dycebury Auditorium as a fund raising project of the Tickets will be sold at the door for 75 cents.
N.Y. Architect
KU-Y Benefit
Monteague emphasized that Democrats place high priority on reapproval and strengthening of the tax code to assure that by tax increases by local governments."
governor's proposals on school finance and state legislation of welfare are the next step, and the state should be made to take action.
McCraig told police she was cooking the steaks when she heard gunshots. She said
The Senate gave tentative approval to four measures Tuesday, including two consumer protection bills that aroused opposition. The Senate recommended for final mass Wednesday.
The two controversial bills in-lease legal requirements for the use of mechanics nets on real property, including 20 days prior to the property owner that a lien will be filed.
Subcontractors on construction work also would be required to inform property owners of what work they are doing and of any problems. A prime contractor fails to fulfill a contract.
Several senators, including Sen. Frank Gaines, D-Augusta, protested that the bills would do "irreparable harm" to legitimate business and were proposed more for "political purposes" than for consumer protection.
Among bills introduced in the Senate Tuesday was one with a $1 million penalty for any person who "causes a reduction in the quality of the waters of the state below the standards set by the State Board of Health."
Senate President Pro Tern Robert Bennett, who is sponsoring the bills, said they are aimed at ending abuses of homeowners by offending people defrauded by "fbi-ly night operations."
The anti-pollution measure, introduced by Sen. Wes Sowers, R-Wichita, is primarily aimed at ending illegal discharge of sewage into the state's rivers and lakes, he said.
LBJ's Death Preceded The Peace He Had Sought
AUSTIN, Tex. (AP)—The body of Lyndon B. Johnson is state tied on the eve of his final journey to the nation's capital, in Washington. He was succeeded by his successor as the nation's president.
As thousands of mourners paced slowly by the flag-draped coffin here, President Nixon told the nation that the distant and divisive war that had haunted Johnson's dreams of a Great Society had come to an end.
Johnson, 64 and wracked by years of heart disease, died Monday of what doctors described as "severe coronary artery disease."
"IN HIS LIFE, President Johnson endured the vilification of those who portray him as a man of war," Nixon said in a televised address. "But there was nothing he cared about more deeply than achieving lasting peace in the world."
In announcing the conclusion of an agreement to end the conflict that reached its peak during the Johnson years, Nixon addressed a crisis that he welcomed this peace more than he "was."
As Nixon spoke, thousands braced against chilly winds to stand in line outside the Lydon B. Johnson Library, the storehouse of memoirs and mementos of Johnson's public life.
LIBRARY OFFICIALS said nearly 17,000 mourners had filed past the bier by midevening. The Greenwood Inn throughout the night, and the line outside was several blocks long.
Earlier in the day, Mrs. Johnson, accompanied by daughters Llyda and Luci and their husbands, stood together as they waited for a sight serviceman to the bier in the hall.
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Ms. Johnson wiped a tear from her eye as she embraced a friend, father who had passed away.
BOUTIQUE
THE FORMER PRESIDENT'S body lay in state at the LBJ ! brary until 8 a.m. today and was flown to Washington to receive the nation's final tribute.
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