Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1977-10-21

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- Story in Weekend, Page IB fegy J
70th Year - No. 31 Good Morning! it's Friday, OcL 21 1 977 3 Sections - 48 Pages - 15 Cents &3l
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ATLANTA (UPI) - Bank robbery
suspect Thomas Michael Hannan, who
hijacked an airliner in an effort to fire
from Jail another suspect said to be his
homosexual lover, released his
hostages unharmed late Thursday
night but shot himself to death rather
than surrender.
Hannan, 29, ignored the pleas of his
attorney, who went aboard the Frontier
Airlines plane after the passengers left,
and shot himself once in the chest
"He was in the back of the plane
sitting down in one of the seats," said
James Dunn, agent in charge of the
Atlanta FBI office. "There was no
scuffle at all. He just sat down and
pulled the trigger."
Hannan had hijacked the Boeing 737
twin-engi- ne jet at Grand Island, Neb.,
his hometown, early Thursday morning
and demanded the release from an
Atlanta jail of George David Stewart,
29, along with $3 million and two
parachutes, apparently to be used in
some sort of dating in-flig- ht escape.
Stewart was being held on charges of
robbing a National Bank of Georgia
branch with Hannan, who had been
released earlier mis month on a $25,000
bond. Sgt James Gill of the Mobile,
Ala., police department said the two
men had traveled the country together
and "bom admitted to having a
homosexual relations."
The plane initially carried 30
passengers and a crew of four, but
Hannan released the women and
children, as well as two men, one a
heart patient when the craft stopped to
refuel in Kansas City.
He released stewardesses Diane Lord
and Bobbie Karr after the plane had
been parked on an Atlanta runway
about six hours. At that time "he in-ferred
he was ready to kill the
hostages," Dunn said.
But after a plea from Stewart, who
was flown by helicopter to the airport
and the personal effort of his attorney,
J. Roger Thompson, who went aboard
the plane, Hannan released the
remaining 11 passengers unharmed.
The pilot and copilot remained on
board while Thompson, who
represented Hannan and Stewart in the
bank robbery case, tried to talk Hannan
into surrendering.
"Mr. Thompson was talking with the
subject aboard the plane, trying to talk
him off the aircraft. He was un-successful.
The subject shot himself
one time in the chest and is dead,"
Dunn said.
An ambulance rushed Hannan to
Grady Hospital, where a doctor
pronounced him dead on arrival.
The tension at the Atlanta airport
extended to Kansas City, where
relatives of the remaining hostages
waited anxiously in a motel for news of
the hijack.
FBI agent Ken Teetzen took the word
they all were waiting for.
"The hostages have been released,"
he yelled, and a Frontier Airline official
ran down the motel hallway, pounding
on doors to announce the news.
The hijacking began around 8:30 a.m.
CDT Thursday at Grand Island, Neb.
Officials said Hannan pulled a sawed-o- ff
shotgun from a bag during a
security check and commandeered the
jet.
After releasing them, the hijacker,
who also asked for two machine guns,
two .45 pistols and two parachutes, still
had 11 passengers and a crew of four to
back up his demands. Most of the
hostages were from Nebraska.
The plane landed in Atlanta at 1:02
p.m. CDT, and taxied to within about a
quarter-mil-e of a cargo terminal where
police had their headquarters.
That began the negotiations which
ended almost 10 hours later with the
fatal shot.
Hannan had originally set a 6 p.m.
CDT deadline for the meeting of his
demands, but mat passed without in- -
( See BELL, Page 9A)
Big carriers
may cruise
out of Navy
Change reflects
new war strategy
ByDrcwMiddletan
N.Y. Times Service
The Navy commissioned the
supercarrier Dwight D. Eisenhower
Tuesday and promised mat another
ship of the same class, the Carl Vinson,
would join the fleet in 1980.
Thereafter, the Navy is expected to
turn to the construction of carriers
smaller than the 91,000 tons (81,900
tonnes) of the Eisenhower and her
predecessor, the Nimitz.
The turn reflects a change in naval
thinking as important to sea warfare as
the capitulation of the "battleships
admirals" in the 1940's to the destaads --
of the "carrier admirals." The shift
from supercarriers to medium-siz- e
platforms for aircraft is also likely to
herald a new era in American naval
tactics.
Until now, the supercarrier, with its
nuclear propulsion and its complement
of 90 to 100 combat aircraft, was con-sidered
the single most important
American surface ship in conventional
or nuclear warfare.
The supercarrier, its admirers said,
could project American air power
anywhere in the world to bomb an
enemy's targets, fight and destroy
enemy planes and support landings by
the Marine Corps or theArmy.
The supercarrier may be able to
fulfill these missions. But the Navy,
goaded by some of the younger ad-mirals,
is now considering acquisition
of a smaller class of carriers equipped
with VSTOL (vertical or short takeoff
and landing) aircraft
The sun has not yet set on -- the
supercarriers but some naval planners
believe the future belongs to the light
carriers, a conclusion forced by the
development during the last decade of a
Soviet fleet, one of whose prime
missions is the destruction of super-carrier-s.
The development of the modern
Soviet navy has affected not only the
value of the supercarriers but also
American naval strategy. Projection of
the Navy's bombers and fighters is one
element of that strategy. The second
and increasingly important element is
sea control, that is, command of vital
areas against attacks by submarines on
American convoys.
Diehards among the supporters of the
supercarriers contend that, with the
improvement of electronic warning
systems and naval fighter aircraft, the
four mammoth nuclear-powere-d
carriers the Enterprise, the Nimitz,
the Eisenhower and the Carl Vinson
can carry out the role of sending air-craft
where they are needed.
Their opponents argue that, even so,
the supercarrier is not an economical
system for carrying out thia role.
The carrier, they insist, does not have
(See BIG, Page 9A)
Crawling Mase
Fire destroyed a van and damaged a
house belonging to David Hatton, 2000
Rollins Road. Hatton said the blaze
began Thursday afternoon in the front
of the van. It later spread to the front of
the house after Hatton's unsuccessful
attempt to pull the van away from the
house. He said the fully-equipp- ed van
was worth $7,000. No damage estimate
was available on the house. Upper
right, Hatton, right, and a fireman
ponder the loss after the fire. Lower
right, the charred inside of the van.
MtefcWriMtocfc I
Touring rock group crashes in Mississippi
From onr wire services
GILLSBURG, Miss. At least six
persons were confirmed dead Thursday
night in the crash of a twin-engin- e,
propeller-drive- n airplane flying the
popular southern rock band Lynyrd
Skynyrd group to a concert in
Iiiiginna
A spokesman at Southwest Medical
Center in McComb, Miss., confirmed
she bodies had been brought to the
hospital from the crash in a hardwood
thicket in southwest Mississippi.
Identities of the victims were not
available.
Medical officials said 19 persons,
including several band members, were
hospitalized. Some were in critical
condition.
Those admitted were identified as
Gary Rossington, guitarist; Allen
Collins, guitarist; Billy Powell,
keyboards; Leon Wilkeson, bass;
Artemas Pyle, drummer, and Leslie
Hawkins, backup singer.
The plane had been leased for the
rock group's current tour from LJ
Leasing Co. of Dallas. The group was to
have performed a concert Friday night
at Louisiana State Universty in Baton
Rouge.
Authorities said it appeared that the
Convair 240 carrying 25 passengers,
may have been running low on fuel and
clipped the tops off tall pine trees for
about 100 yards (90 meters) before
plowing nose first in a hardwood thicket
only a short distance from an open field
the pilot was apparently.
United Way nears 33 of goal
By Karen Stance!
Mhssaorias staff writer
Two weeks into its 1977 campaign,
Columbia's United Way has collected
$132,801, about one-thir-d of its $400,000
goal
The campaign is $14,985 ahead of last
year at this stage of the campaign.
The highest return among employe
campaigns in major businesses came
from MFA Insurance Co., which
finished with $32,827.
The highest per capita contribution
$45.37 came from Boone County
National Bank, which finished with a
total of $1,429.
The biggest increase in corporate
gifts also came from Boone County
Bank, which experienced a 21 per cent
increase.
I Today
1 Its influence may be diminishing, I but the University still is the largest
employer in Columbia. Money talks,
H even if University officials are the
9 silent type, In today's articles on i Page SA, the Columbia Miasourian I examines the town-gow- n relation--
ship and reportson the University's I two key persons in Columbia, i President James Olson and Chan-- I cenorHerbsrtSchooUng.
Saturday
Will Columbia continue to seek
new industry? If so, what kind? Will
persons with power make the
decision or will the general
population? In the concluding parts
of the Missourian's six-da- y series on
power, you can take e look at at-titudes
toward growth and an
analysis of what it all means. You'll
also be able to read about some of
the persons that dida't make the list
of influential persons.
1 MiMF1' ft I
Im town today
All day Homecoming king and queen
elections on the University campus.
4 p.m. Homecoming house
decorations on display at fraternity and
sorority houses and on the University
campus.
7:90 p.m. "Ladyhouse Blues," a play
by by Kevin O'Morrison, Stephens
College Playhouse.
8:M p.m. 01' Mizzou Snake Dance
starts at Kappa Alpha fraternity bouse,
1301 University Ave., and continues
through the University campus.
See Sunday's Vibrations magarine
for exhibit scbedale.
Movbs listings on Pages MB
Reassessment may
bring greater equity
By Karen Stancel
Missocrian staff writer
Rep. Joe Holt, D-Fult- on, told the
Boone County Court Thursday
there's a "high likelihood" that the
state will finance a substantial
portion of a statewide tax
reassessment in the next few years.
The court held a forum on tax
assessment with members of the
state legislature, Columbia's school
board and other groups voicing their
ideas on how to make the county's
method of assessment more
equitable.
All agreed that the county's
present method of tax assessment is
inequitable. Most favored statewide
reassessment
County Assessor Tom Drane said
Boone County is presently the
second most evenly assessed county
in Missouri according to a ratio
study conducted by the League of
Women Voters.
However, Drane said some state
guidelines are still needed. "We
can't just deal with one county at a
time. We need something more far-reachin- g."
City Manager Terry Novak said
the city wants "to get out of the
business of property tax." He favors
replacing the property tax with a 1
per cent earnings tax.
Vince Crane, of the Missouri Farm
Bureau Federation, agreed with
Novak. "The philosophy of Boone
County farmers is to try to downplay
property tax tram mm on. We Would
like to replace assessment ratios
with a tax on personal incomes," he
said.
Rep. Larry Mead R-Colum-bia,
(SeeUJS. FUNDS, Page 1A)