THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Flames gut 'Yuk'
Arson may have been the cause of a fire which gutted Mr. Yuk, an entertainment establishment in Hillcrest Shopping Center, early this morning.
Owner Jess Roberts estimated the damage at $150,000.
Members of the band, the Sound Sircus from Ft. Worth, Tex., a regular attraction at the Yuk, who had been rehearsing downstairs after the establishment closed for the night, discovered the blaze about 12:45 a.m. when they heard noises coming from the upper level of the building and went to investigate.
"We heard noises upstairs like pool tables being turned over and glass breaking," one band member said. He said he thought the fire had been started. "The flames couldn't have spread like that, because there was just nothing to flame up."
After discovering the fire upstairs, two of the band members carried an uninsured 600-pound organ through the back door. "It seemed as light as a feather," they said.
However, the assistant Lawrence firechief said today, the official cause of the blaze will not be known for several days. "We could hunt around in that debris for two or three days before we either find something or give up," he said.
The band members are Candy Horn, David Dickie, Rex Caughron and Don Duca.
Miss Horn called the Lawrence Police Department from a pay telephone just outside the building, and five companies of the Lawrence Fire Department
arrived at the blaze at about 1 a.m.
Police notified owner Jess Roberts at about 1:15 a.m., and he rushed to the blaze. Roberts said he had left the building at 12:26 a.m., leaving the band to rehearse in the empty building as it regularly does. He said everything appeared normal when he left.
Band members said they had heard similar noises about the same time Monday night, also upstairs, but that a check of the premises revealed nothing unusual.
Roberts played down their
report, however, saying that there was no evidence of a prowler or a break-in.
Deputy State Fire Marshal Lloyd M. Davies arrived at the scene about 2 a.m. He said the fire had been virtually extinguished by 2:30 a.m., aside from the smoldering embers of the building. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and other investigative agencies will be working with the state fire marshal's agents on the case, Davies said.
An adjoining business, Duckwall's Department Store, received considerable smoke and
water damage. The plate glass windows of the store were broken out, and the ceiling at Duckwall's was in flames for a brief period.
Destroyed by the fire were the band's public address system, a piano, bass, amplifier, drums and the pool tables and all upstairs furnishings.
A crowd of about 200 curious onlookers gathered, but were held back from the blazing structure by members of the Lawrence Police Department.
Roberts said that, although he would know more this morning, "I probably will rebuild."
79th Year, No.116
Last of the Yuk
Photo by Rue Chagoll
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Wednesday, April 23, 1969
ASC raps dismissal of frosh coed
The life of the All-Student Council (ASC) came to an end last night, not with a whimper, but with a bang.
The ASC passed a resolution repudiating the "unilateral and possibly illegal" actions of Delbert Shankel, acting director of Corbin College, John Wolfe, assistant director, and other administration officials who were involved with the request for the withdrawal of Sharon Brettell, Overland Park freshman.
"The resolution will establish a procedure whereby the University and the students involved may be provided a forum to present their sides of the issue for an ultimate decision," Bill Hansen, Lawrence graduate student, said.
Lawrence Blades, dean of the school of law, was requested by
the ASC to appoint three law professors as appellate judges to hear the case, and to appoint two law students per litigant to help argue the case.
"One girl has been kicked out on some nebulous reason, and pressure is being brought on another. Students are responsible to the laws they are contracted to, not to vague ideas of administrators and the Dean of Women, no matter how well-intentioned they are," Hansen said.
He said, to his knowledge, there was no precedent for asking the withdrawal of a student during mid-semester.
Rick von Ende, Abilene, Tex., graduate student and ASC chairman, said students have a right to rely on the regulations, not the nebulous ideas of administrators. He said the court
could serve in the transition period between the ASC and the Senate Code as the mechanism for redress. He said the Senate Code provides for a disciplinary board consisting of the dean of men, dean of women, four faculty members and six members of the student body.
Bill Ebert, Topeka sophomore, pointed out that a disciplinary committee does exist now, but seldom meets.
The resolution, sponsored by
The ASC also condemned the U.S. Army for its actions in the Presidio 27 mutiny trials, following a sit-down strike by 27 prisoners of the Presidio Stockade in San Francisco.
Hansen, calls the shotgun killing of Bunch "first degree murder." A guard shot Bunch in the back as he attempted to walk away from a work detail. Hansen said.
Hansen will send the resolution to the Department of Defense.
The ASC also contributed $100 to the Student Off-Campus Housing Committee to make a documentary film on poor housing conditions in Lawrence. The resolution states that the film will be presented before the fall 1969 session of the state legislature, as well as to other interested groups.
A resolution was passed providing for possible tie votes
in the Student Body elections today and tomorrow. It was decided that if a tie results in any of the positions, the tie will be resolved by lot.
The lot method would be agreed upon by concerned candidates and the election committee, or by a special run-off election that would be established by a special ASC meeting Sunday.
If a tie in the Student Body president and vice-president election, a special run-off election would be scheduled by the ASC.
Any special run-off elections would probably be held next Wednesday and Thursday.
Student election today
KU students will vote today and tomorrow to elect a student body president and vice president, representatives to the Student Senate from the various schools and colleges within the University, and to express their opinions on referendum proposals. The polls will be open in the following places during the times indicated:
- Strong Hall rotunda and west lobby of Murphy Hall—8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Today
- Kansas Union main lobby—8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
GSP, Oliver and Ellsworth Halls—6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Mother laments death of son
Tomorrow
- Strong and Murphy Halls—8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Kansas Union - 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
(EDITOR'S NOTE. This is the first of a two-part exclusive University Daily Kansan-copyrighted interview with Mrs. Leon Bunch, mother of Richard Bunch, the prisoner who was shot at the San Francisco Presidio. See tomorrow's Kansan for the second installment.)
By RICHARD LOUV Kansan Staff Writer
Copyright 1969. The University Daily Kansun
Pvt. Richard Bunch was killed Oct. 11, 1968, while attempting to walk away from a work detail at the Presidio Stockade in San Francisco. A guard, who has since been reassigned to the prison of his choice, shot the 19-year-old Bunch in the back
with a shotgun. There were no warning shots.
Three days later, 27 prisoners of the Presidio Stockade staged a sitdown strike. They were charged with mutiny while singing "America the Beautiful" and "We Shall Overcome." Since that time, several have been sentenced to up to 16 years of hard labor at the Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks. Two of the prison terms have been shortened by the Army, without explanation, following pressure on the floors of Congress.
The following is probably the first published interview with Mrs. Leon Bunch, Dayton, Ohio, the mother of the dead prisoner. She was interviewed Saturday at
the Symposium on Military Justice in Leavenworth.
Mrs. Leon Buch sat in the empty auditorium and thought for a moment, then quietly repeated the suicide note left by her son in his cell, on the day he was killed:
"Very well . . . since they want me, I'll do it . . . if you're not going to give me love, at least do me the favor of complete elimination." She stopped to stare at the empty stage and held the handle of her purse with both hands, her knuckles white. "He said all it took was one click, and then it would be over . . ."
Five months before he was killed, Bunch had been AWOL, and had seen his mother and father.
(Continued to page 16)