Paid informers help in KU drug probe
By Jerry Bean Kansan Staff Reporter
Two arrests for drug violations are expected within the next month, part of a continuing investigation by local and federal agents into a drug traffic grown so open at KU that in some places casual bystanders can watch the sale of marijuana and LSD.
A Lawrence detective said a federal agent in Kansas City told him the arrests were imminent.
Exactly how far drug investigations at KU have gone, other than these two cases, is hard to determine.
Whoever takes credit, the investigation is like an iceberg: most of it is submerged.
"About nine-tenths of all drug investigations go undetected," Wes Norwood, Lawrence attorney, said. Norwood was the attorney for John I. Tyler, a former KU student from Bartlesville, Okla., who was placed on three-year probation Feb. 26 in Douglas County District Court on charges of possession and sale of marijuana.
Some of the drug traffic is above ground. At at least two off-campus bars, users make purchases freely from salesmen who lounge there, and 't one bar users on LSD highs are often Saturday night attractions.
Users are aware of the investigation, perhaps more so now that the usually-persistent rumors of "busts" are becoming more common. There is an informal arrangement among users to telephone hang-outs and apartments when the Lawrence detectives are prowling.
One man who thinks he unwittingly sold $1,500 worth of LSD to a federal agent has left
Lawrence; a KU student the police think deals in marijuana left Lawrence for a while but returned last week.
The names of Lawrence police are common in users' conversations, and small dealers periodically "clean up," or get rid of their marijana and LSD; large scale dealers leave town, although "runners," men who move from town to town making quick sales and leaving, reportedly come through Lawrence regularly.
The Lawrence Police Department has trouble pinning charges, in spite of the relative frequency of the drug traffic. The telephone alarm system foils some investigations, and 40-year-old men dressed in jeans, faded shirts and caps have trouble passing for students.
To get some information, the police rely on student informers.
One detective said he has three informants in Naismith Hall who have told him as many as 60 students in the hall have used marijuana.
Another detective relies on a "bought-off" hippie he refused to identify, as well as other informants.
"I did the guy a favor," the detective said. Now he collects favors, although infrequently, from the hippie.
The informants also are supposed to buy marijuana and LSD, then turn the drugs over to the police for chemical analysis. The detectives "reimburse" informants for the purchases, although police say they suffer from not having funds set aside to repay the informers.
"We have to pay for everything out of our own pockets," Detective Lyle Sutton said.
Because the informers make poor witnesses—"they tend to chicken out," Sutton said—the informers often are asked to introduce Federal Narcotics or Federal Drug Abuse Control agents, called in by the Lawrence police, to the dealers.
"Few informers are willing to talk to anyone other than the detective they have a relationship with," Sutton said. "They don't want anyone to know they even know a detective."
The informants also tip police on the whereabouts of drugs; in a pending case it was an informer who told the police to look behind a loose brick in an apartment fireplace.
Federal agents also are known to work at KU regularly, a practice more common in recent years. How often and how thoroughly
See Narc-page 16.
Supply trail hit, Khe Sanh quiet
SAIGON —(UPI)— U.S. B52 Stratofortresses today for the first time bombed a secret Communist jungle highway supplying the North Vietnamese Army threatening South Vietnam's northern frontier, American spokesmen said.
They said the jets rained hundreds of tons of bombs on truck parks, storage areas, bunkers and weapons sites massed at the gateway of the tree-covered road discovered by the allies only last week.
The high-speed road runs from Ho Chi Minh supply in Laos across the northern tier of South Vietnam and is the life line of about 70,000 North Vietnamese troops threatening Khe Sanh and other allied bases, the spokesman said.
The highway raid formed one of 10 B52 missions flown the past 24 hours. Most of the strikes hit the 16,000 North Vietnamese troops estimated by U.S. intelligence to be ringing the 6,000 Leathernecks at Khe Sanh, western anchor of the allied anti-invasion line along the North-South Vietnam border.
At Khe Sanh a sudden "eerie silence" has fallen on the base.
The Marines had figured the North Vietnamese might use today's 14th anniversary of their Dien Bien Phu landmark defeat of the French as the moment to launch their threatened assault on Khe Sanh.
Relatively few artillery shells hit the base. South Vietnamese Rangers fought a brief ski mish with a North Vietnamese patrol.
Heavy fighting flared Tuesday east of Khe Sanh. Near the border Marine command base of Dong Ha and the supply hub at nearby Cua Viet—both 30 miles east of Khe Sanh—government and U.S. troops killed at least 229 Communists.
78th Year, No. 96
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Wednesday, March 13, 1968
McCarthy takes 42 per cent of Democrat primary vote
CONCORD, N.H. — (UPI) President Johnson edged peace candidate Eugene J. McCarthy by less than a 5-4 margin in New Hampshire's kickoff primary Tuesday night as the Minnesota
RFK speech rescheduled
senator ran up a stunning anti- Vietnam war vote.
Richard M. Nixon was a runaway victor over Nelson A. Rockefeller on the Republican ballot.
Classes which regularly meet at 1:30 p.m. on Monday will be cancelled.
Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, D.N.Y., will speak at KU at 1:30 p.m. Monday in Allen Field House.
With most of the returns in, McCarthy's amazing total climbed to 41 per cent of the Democratic vote.
Kennedy's address has been set and postponed three times previously. This is the first announcement of the Monday date.
Kennedy is expected to speak for about 20 minutes on a variety of topics and then answer written questions for a similar period. Questions should be submitted in writing to the Office of the Chancellor, 223 Strong Hall, by 11 a.m. on March 18, or may be handed to an usher at the east main entrance or north entrance to the field house before 1:30 p.m. that day.
Nixon, reestablishing his image as a winner after defeats in the 1960 presidential election and 1962 California gubernatorial campaign, polled about 80 per cent of the Republican vote.
Rockefeller, who had predicted an unauthorized write-in campaig would give him 15 per cent, was polling less than 10 per cent.
McCarthy appeared before a jubilant crowd of supporters in Bedford shortly after 9 p.m. and said he had apparently won control of the 24-member New
Hampshire delegation to the Democratic National Convention. He predicted victory in the Wisconsin primary.
The Minnesota senator not only rolled up a remarkable vote in the New Hampshire preferential poll, but the 44 pro-Johnson delegates competing for the 24 seats cut into each other's vote—aparently giving McCarthy's single slate of 24 delegates most of the seats.
See Primary—page 13.
--graduate student, and James Kottwinkel Jennings, Mo., graduate student as Malcolm and Donaldbain, Duncan's sons. "Macbeth" will be presented on March 14, 15, 16, 22 and 23. Tickets are available at the Murphy Hall Box office.
WEATHER
BEAUTIFUL!
--graduate student, and James Kottwinkel Jennings, Mo., graduate student as Malcolm and Donaldbain, Duncan's sons. "Macbeth" will be presented on March 14, 15, 16, 22 and 23. Tickets are available at the Murphy Hall Box office.
A LOYAL ASSASSIN
Feigning loyalty, the murderous Macbeth, played by Broadway veteran Clayton Corbin, kneels before King Duncan, played by Glen Rea, Lawrence Junior High School drama teacher, in this scene from the University Theatre's production of "Macbeth." Looking on are Richard Kelton, Lawrence
A member of "Kansans for McCarthy" thinks the strong showing of Eugene McCarthy, D-Minn., in New Hampshire is a sign that Americans are not only worried about the war in Vietnam but are dissatisfied with other areas of the Johnson administration as well.
KU McCarthy supporters happy with primary vote
"This only proves that there is a great deal of unrest among people not only about the war but in a desire for alternatives in other phases of government," Paul Steeves, St. Louis graduate student, said.
McCarthy's strongest stand has been on the war in Vietnam, which he considers unjust and immoral, but he has not confined his low key campaign speeches specifically to this issue.
These alternatives arise from people's dissatisfaction with the manner in which Johnson has been handling domestic issues, Steeves said.
"I think McCarthy's showing is very fine," Steeves said. He not only has a significant minority but has a majority of the delegates to the national convention," he said.
He is also seeking suitable alternatives to issues of civil rights, conservation, health and unemployment.
In Thursday's Kansan
A series on the 1968 presidential campaign will begin Thursday in the University Daily Kansan.
Written by the Kansan reporting staff, the series will include stories on the major presidential candidates, the vice-presidential possibilities, and the processes leading to the election of the chief executive in November.