Transcripts

BILL LOUDON: Good evening, I’m Bill Loudon.

ED HUGHES: And I’m Ed Hughes. Welcome to the Channel 3 Nightly News.

BILL LOUDON: Our top story tonight. This morning, only 24 hours after Major James N. Rowe’s daring escape, three American prisoners of war were released by the Viet Cong. The three soldiers, all captured more than a year ago—Donald Smith, James Brigham, and Thomas Jones—were set free fifty miles from Saigon, near the Cambodian border. This was the second meeting between US representatives and the VC to negotiate the release of American POWs. The first, on Christmas Day, ended in a stalemate after hours of negotiation. Each of the men wore open-toed sandals and carried a rice bag, apparently containing personal effects. One of them was heard to say, “Glad to be back.”

ED HUGHES: Russia’s supersonic airliner, the Tu-144, made its first test flight yesterday. The delta-wing, needle-nosed aircraft reportedly flew at speeds approaching 1,550 miles per hour, very much like what is expected of the French-British SST, the Concorde. This month, the final design of the American supersonic airliner will be presented to the FAA. The Boeing 2707 will have a cruising speed of 1,800 miles per hour and will carry more than twice the passengers of its European counterparts. Tu-144 designer, Alexei A. Tupolev, joked, “We outstripped our British and French colleagues by a year” at least. Meaning that the plane was flown on the last day of 1968, knowing full well that the Concorde is expected to fly later this month. As usual, the news came by way of the Soviet News Agency, TASS. There was no advance notice of the flight. The location of the airport was not disclosed. And no foreign journalists were present.

BILL LOUDON: We’ll be right back, after this word.

[Break in programming]

BILL LOUDON: And now, this remote report from Keith Stacey.

KEITH STACEY: On Monday, a federal grand jury charged that Illinois Revenue Director Theodore A. Jones willfully neglected to report $16,787 in income tax between 1962 and 1965. US Attorney Thomas A. Foran said that most of the unreported income consisted of mortgage broker fees, directors’ fees, and interest. Mr. Jones, the highest-ranking black in the Illinois state office, says that he is innocent of the tax charges, and also expressed puzzlement at his indictment.

THEODORE JONES: In my view, it’s a minimal situation that doesn’t warrant this kind of drastic action. I dislike to think that there is any vindictiveness in this action. And I welcome the opportunity to clear my position in the courts.

KEITH STACEY: The indictment was returned before Judge Edwin A. Robson, who did not say what Jones’s total taxable income was, or what additionally he might owe.

BILL LOUDON: When Congress convenes on Friday, it is likely that Adam Clayton Powell will reclaim his seat. Powell’s floor manager, Charles C. Diggs Jr. of Michigan, said that he didn’t expect there to be any organized opposition to his seating, because President-elect Nixon, quote, “doesn’t want the first day of the Congress of his administration to begin with a hassle over Powell.” Powell was expelled from Congress after it was revealed that he misused funds of the House Labor Committee, of which he was chair, and because of other misdemeanors. But Powell was, of course, always popular with his constituency back in Harlem, which kept on re-electing him. He won the election last November but did not attempt to reclaim his seat until he was cleared of charges, and he was cleared by a federal grand jury last month.

ED HUGHES: That fire, which started at Sergeant Peper at 839 State, had a doubly tragic ending this morning as Chicago fireman James Fisher was found dead in the rubble. Fire crews had to wait until daybreak to retrieve the body because ice in the building’s collapsing foundation had made entry too dangerous. The cause of death is still unknown, and the cause of the fire is also unknown, although arson is suspected. In 1968, fires in the US caused approximately 12,100 deaths and a loss of $2.2 billion in property.

BILL LOUDON: Jackie Hale reports on the current blood crisis.

JACKIE HALE: The Red Cross Emergency Donor Center at 43 East Ohio will remain open until Saturday. The center was opened a week ago to combat the shortage of blood badly needed for transfusions. The blood drive has so far added about 300 units to the city’s cache, but many blood types are still in dangerously short supply. About 15 percent of those who turned up to give blood last week were turned down because they showed symptoms of cold or flu. The number of blood donors slumped drastically throughout the city because of the siege of the Hong Kong flu, while the demand for blood has jumped because of the numerous traffic accidents over the holiday season. The flu epidemic appears to be abating, but it is by no means over.

BILL LOUDON: Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the first successful heart transplant. It was a little under a year ago that Dr. Christiaan Barnard of Cape Town, South Africa, replaced the failing heart of Philip Blaiberg with that of a mulatto who collapsed on a beach. Bernard’s success so encouraged doctors that there had been more than 100 similar operations around the world in the year since. And now, Ervin F. Cramer is the happy recipient of Chicago’s first successfully transplanted heart in an operation supervised by Dr. Hassan Najafi.

HASSAN NAJAFI: It was a very good match. And certainly his course has indicated that probably we have an excellent match. I think Mr. Cramer’s going to live forever.

BILL LOUDON: Mr. Cramer’s wife, Amy, told a press conference that her husband’s transplant was less painful than his teenage tonsillectomy, and that he has even begun talking about going back to work as a boilermaker. She thanked all those who prayed for her husband over the past week, and especially thanked the heart donor, Raymundo Montes, who, quote, “permitted my husband to have a second chance at life,” unquote.

ED HUGHES: We’ll be right back with news on the cold snap and sports highlights.

[Break in programming]

BILL LOUDON: Good evening, and welcome to the Channel 3 Nightly News, the news that matters. I’m Bill Loudon.

DENNIS CAMERON: And I’m Dennis Cameron.

BILL LOUDON: First of all, I’d like to welcome Dennis to the WAMQ news team.

DENNIS CAMERON: Well, thank you, Bill. It’s the first day of a new year, and a new decade, and I know I’m not alone when I say that I’m glad to be out of the sixties.

BILL LOUDON: Well, we’re not quite out of the sixties yet. Here’s a story that just keeps on getting worse and worse. The army has announced that it will try Staff Sergeant David Mitchell on charges of assault with intent to murder thirty civilians at My Lai last year. The army is already proceeding with the trial of Mitchell’s former platoon leader, First Lieutenant William L. Calley, who has been charged with the premeditated murder of 109 civilians during the same search-and-destroy operation. The army would not divulge any details about Mitchell’s charges, saying that it would prejudice his right to a fair trial. But is it possible for Mitchell to get a fair trial given all the publicity surrounding the alleged massacre? And especially when even the president himself has spoken out against it. Sergeant Mitchell says that he saw nothing out of the ordinary at Son My and has denied the charges laid against him.

DENNIS CAMERON: Also, on a sad but hopeful note, Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot was forced to return stateside without delivering the food and Christmas gifts that he had hoped to fly to Hanoi for American POWs. On a television talk show this morning, he appealed to people to send telegrams and letters that might influence the Communist leaders to allow the packages to go through to our captive Americans in North Vietnam. He has since received hundreds of replies from people all across the US, and even from foreign countries. John Holman, vice president of the United We Stand campaign, underwritten by the Texas industrialist, said that calls and telegrams started arriving shortly after Mr. Perot’s TV appearance, and haven’t stopped since. He said, quote, “we are getting offers from attorneys, professional people, blue-collar workers, and even college students,” unquote.

BILL LOUDON: We’ll have more news after this word.

[Break in programming]

BILL LOUDON: Welcome back. Our own Jackie Hale filed this report on the Conspiracy Seven trial, which is now beginning to heat up.

JACKIE HALE: Youth International Party leader and codefendant Abbie Hoffman was reprimanded by US District Court Judge Julius J. Hoffman for his humorous responses to questions today. I quote: “Mr. Witness, there will be no more of these antics,” the judge said. “I don’t like being laughed at by a witness. I don’t laugh at you.” “You should,” defendant Hoffman replied. Abbie Hoffman is the first of the seven to take the stand in his own defense on charges that he and the other defendants conspired across state lines to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Because of the length of Hoffman’s testimony, the long-awaited appearance of Mayor Daley has been delayed again. But defendant Hoffman suggests that an agreement between him and Mayor Daley was more likely than an agreement between him and his six codefendants.

ABBIE HOFFMAN: I remember the mayor saying that he—he just—Yippies, zippies, flippies, he loved them all. He loved a good snake dance, even; he himself preferred an Irish jig.

JACKIE HALE: The defense argues that the refusal to grant permits and the overreaction of the police officers acting under Daley’s orders caused the riots.

BILL LOUDON: In his annual report, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover stated that the Communist party is on the upswing now that its internal factionalism has been overcome. The FBI has learned that the Communist Party USA, which turned fifty last year, has been planning to create a new youth wing in secret meetings in Chicago. The Marxist-Leninist group would replace the W. E. B. DuBois clubs on college campuses in order to attract dissident youth and expand its anti-war, pro-Vietnam activities. The report also announced that many student groups adopted a pro-violence attitude in 1969, much like several extremist, all-Negro SDS-type organizations like the Black Panthers, which preach riots and revolution. Hoover also reported 100 attacks on police by black extremists in 1969, causing seven deaths and 120 injuries. He remarked that, quote, “many attacks on the police by black extremists are unprovoked, and nothing more than planned ambushes.”

DENNIS CAMERON: Yesterday, Coroner Andrew J. Toman stepped aside, and appointed the well-known attorney Martin S. Gerber to head the coroner’s inquest into the deaths of Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. Toman said he would step aside because he was a doctor, not a lawyer. Gerber, a former federal prosecutor with 30 years of experience in the Chicago area, gained celebrity while working on the inquest that led to the retrial of Michael Moretti, a Chicago policeman subsequently convicted of murder for the slaying of two youths back in 1951. Mr. Gerber says that he will not allow radio and television coverage of the inquest.

MARTIN GERBER: Considering the type of an inquest, and the type of public interest involved here, and concern involved here, we felt that in this particular case, especially, the precedent should be maintained.

DENNIS CAMERON: Police say they were fired upon by a woman. Panthers say the police fired first, and that both victims were shot while still in bed. Attorneys for the four other BPP members wounded said they would only cooperate if there was no affiliation with the state’s attorney’s office.

BILL LOUDON: We’ll be back after this message.

[Break in programming]

BILL LOUDON: Six men were arrested while attempting to burglar the Skil Tool Corporation warehouse at 3952 Washington Boulevard last night. Sergeant Kenneth C. Curin reported that the safe doors, torches, and other burglary items found during the search of the home of one of the suspects, Thomas L. Moretti, suggest that the gang was a big operation.

DENNIS CAMERON: Thomas L. Moretti, was he related to Michael Moretti, the Chicago policeman that Attorney Gerber helped convict of murder a number of years ago?

BILL LOUDON: Yes, he is, Dennis. The other burglars also arrested while carrying tools into an alley were Gus Kanakes, Peter J. Costello, Theodore V. Ristich, William J. Monaco, and Francis A. Micelli. Lieutenant William Hanhardt and a 10-man team had tailed the gang for a number of blocks, then laid in wait while the thieves raided the warehouse. All were apprehended after breaking through an alley door carrying a number of drills of the type that are used to crack safes.

Weather and sports next.

FINTON O’NEIL: Good evening. This is the Channel 6 WBMB Evening News.

Yesterday, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution condemning Israel’s commando attack on Beirut International Airport last weekend and said that Lebanon was entitled to reparations for the damage. Thirteen aircraft were destroyed in the premeditated military action, which was a reprisal for the recent attack on an El Al transport plane at Athens Airport, and for the hijacking of an airliner last July, allegedly orchestrated by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Israeli officials allege that the Lebanese government allows the terrorist organization to operate freely in its country. Although it avoided the suggestion of immediate sanction, the UN’s solemnly worded resolution is the toughest so far leveled against Israel in the Mideast conflict.

Three American prisoners of war were released this morning by the National Liberation Front, or Viet Cong. Donald G. Smith, James W. Brigham, and Thomas Jones were all set free after a two-hour meeting held in a special corridor about fifty miles northwest of Saigon. The corridor became necessary when Allies refused to observe the traditional New Year's Eve ceasefire. After the American delegation had been flown by helicopter to the 24th Evacuation Hospital at Long Bình, the exhausted soldiers had little to say to the press, except for, “Glad to be back.” Their release comes only a day after the escape of the officer Major James N. Rowe [who] was found by US troops during a sweep of the U Minh Forest on the Gulf of Siam. Major Rowe had been held captive for more than five years.

The news continues after this.

[Break in programming]

FINTON O’NEIL: The Democrat from Harlem, Adam Clayton Powell, will probably be seated in the 91st Congress. The flamboyant clergyman was excluded in March of 1967 on charges that he misused congressional funds, was prone to overseas spending sprees, and because of his defiance of a defamation judgment laid against him by New York courts. On November 5, he was duly re-elected, but he hadn’t attempted to reclaim his seat until after challenging his expulsion in the courts. Before his re-election, Mr. Powell said that he would return as a freshman, relinquishing the 22 years of seniority that he had enjoyed in Congress.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation Annual Report says that there has been an expansion of foreign influence in black extremist groups, and that the Students for a Democratic Society has been infiltrated by the violence-prone, pro-Chinese Progressive Labor Party. The report states that, as a result, the SDS has moved from an anarchistic outlook to a Maoist ideology. There was a workshop on bombs and sabotage at the SDS meeting last June, and it was only a short time after the convention that the wave of bombing and arson occurred throughout the country. Black extremist groups such as the Black Panther Party were also identified as an organization which has grown tremendously during the past year.

Next, Barry Williams reports from Michigan on the SDS National Meeting.

BARRY WILLIAMS: In Ann Arbor yesterday, the National Council of the Students for a Democratic Society overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to stage demonstrations at President-elect Richard M. Nixon’s inauguration on the twentieth. Although an inside source said some members might demonstrate anyway. The black caucus of the militant SDS urged the six hundred delegates present to not stage the demonstrations. Leonard Williams, leader of the black caucus, argued that the march would not be in the interest of the black community. “Before we do anything like this, we’ve got to ask ourselves, who’s heads are going to be busted?” Mark Rudd, who led the Columbia University demonstrations last spring, countered that the proposed demonstrations would “clarify our position at a time when the ruling class seeks to inaugurate its newest spokesman.” Every proposition at the five-day meeting met with often-heated debate; even a resolution to fight racism only passed 83 to 81 after a disagreement about the role of black nationalism in the struggle to defeat the ruling classes. The five-page resolution called the Black Nationalist movement reactionary.

FINTON O’NEIL: Bombs exploded in two Canadian cities last night. In Montreal, 200 windowpanes on city hall were broken, and the federal building was slightly damaged in two separate blasts, and a third, unexploded bomb was found outside the office window of Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau. Also, in Ottawa, the capital city of Canada, a mailbox exploded outside an office building, which houses the secretary of state. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer Ross Pikely said that it would be speculative to link the latter explosion to those set by separatist terrorists in Montreal.

On the local scene, we have this report from Patrick Keenan on the blood crisis.

PATRICK KEENAN: Dr. Aaron Josephson, director of the Red Cross Mid-America Blood Program, says the blood shortage here is still critical. In spite of Red Cross blood drives, most hospitals find themselves in a state of peril because patients in need of operations have to wait until the blood supply increases. Dr. Josephson says the blood centers around the country are experiencing the same shortages, so that each community is on its own. The demand for blood is up because of the seasonal increases in holiday accidents, however, the number of blood donors is down because people who normally contribute blood cannot get out because of the bad weather, are away for the holidays, or have the Hong Kong flu. The blood banks around the country usually keep 1,500 units on hand. However, the shortage is so bad that hospital employees themselves are being asked to contribute blood.

FINTON O’NEIL: More news, weather, and sports, when we return.

[Break in programming]

FINTON O’NEIL: Good evening.

The army ordered Staff Sergeant David Mitchell court-martialed yesterday. This is the second charge so far arising from an inquiry into the alleged massacre at Son My last year. Lieutenant William M. Calley has already been charged with premeditated murder of 109 civilians, and now Sergeant Mitchell is being charged with assault with intent to murder 30 at My Lai. Twenty-four other persons are under investigation. On March 16, 1968, soldiers under Calley’s command allegedly murdered residents of the hamlet of My Lai Four, in an atrocity alternately known as the My Lai or Son My Massacre. The complex of hamlets at Son My are thought to be one of the places where civilian guerrillas conspire to set booby traps and mines, and relay information about American military troops. But American troops have little to gain if our tactics become identical to those of the enemy. So far, Mitchell has denied that the massacre took place. The trial is to be held at Fort Hood. No date has yet been set.

From the Federal Building, Keith Stacey has filed this report.

KEITH STACEY: Richard J. Daley’s appearance at the Chicago Seven trial has been delayed yet again. The mayor is now unable to appear until Tuesday at the earliest because of a city council meeting on Monday. Today’s delay was caused primarily by the long and often humorous dialogue between Abbie Hoffman and prosecution attorney Richard G. Schultz, which lasted more than seven hours. Schultz’s questions focused primarily on his oft-repeated assertion that the Yippies wanted the laws suspended only for themselves. Defendant Hoffman replied that, quote, “these laws are the same ones that are suspended for an American Legion convention.” Finally, when asked to explain what he meant by his statement that he wanted to “wreck society,” Hoffman gave a long answer, which uncharacteristically did not try for laughs. The defense contends that Daley is the villain behind the convention-week disturbances, because of the city’s refusal to allow permits, and because of its willingness to allow the police overreaction to the demonstration.

FINTON O’NEIL: New developments in the Panther inquest from Barry Williams at the Criminal Courts Building.

BARRY WILLIAMS: Yesterday, Coroner Andrew J. Toman stepped aside and appointed the well-known attorney Martin S. Gerber to head up the inquest into the shooting deaths of local Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. The two were shot to death during a raid by 14 police officers assigned to State’s Attorney Edward V. Hanrahan. Gerber’s appointment follows challenges by the Chicago Bar Association and the BPP for Toman to dissociate himself from the proceedings after Toman’s suggestion that he would have a member of Hanrahan’s legal staff assume the role of coroner’s advisor. Sheriff’s deputies, rather than Chicago policemen, will provide security at the inquest into the deaths of the two Black Panther leaders. Attorney Gerber felt it would be better to have the sheriff, because the sheriff’s men were not involved in the police raid. But he was unsuccessful in his attempt to change the site of the inquest, which is scheduled to begin at 10 am Tuesday in the Criminal Courts Building at 2600 South California. Hampton and Clark were both shot to death before dawn on December 4, in a raid conducted to uncover illegal weapons in a house at 2337 West Monroe. Survivors claim that the police fired first, that the occupants made no resistance, and that the raid amounted to murder.

FINTON O’NEIL: More news after this.

[Break in programming]

FINTON O’NEIL: An American Civil Liberties Union study has concluded that the police treatment of the Panthers amounts to provocative and even punitive harassment, defying their constitutional rights. They found no evidence of a national campaign against the Panthers, but charged that many high officials have contributed to a climate of oppression. Vice President Agnew has called the Panthers a completely irresponsible anarchistic group of criminals, and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover has called them the greatest danger to the internal security of the country. But this view is not held by all of their colleagues in Washington.

FEMALE SPEAKER: Someone said not very long ago that potential destruction of our nation will come from within this country, and not outside of this country. And there are many, many other forces that are really much more to be feared than the Panthers.

FINTON O’NEIL: But the official strategy, whatever it might be, may have backfired. Since the killing of local Panther leader Fred Hampton late last year, groups and individuals previously estranged from the Panthers are united in their horror at what they are calling a murder. Whether or not there is a campaign against the party, many blacks believe there is, giving the Panthers the sympathy they never had before.

In an effort to quiet criticisms that the police nationwide are out to get the Black Panthers, federal law enforcement officials yesterday published a list of raids that were made last year on what they call white right-wing organizations. The statement said that the extreme right-wing Minutemen organization had been targeted. In 1966, 19 Minutemen were arrested in New York, and their arsenal of hundreds of guns, mortars, bazookas, and explosives were seized. And last year, following up on the arrest of Minutemen leader Robert DePugh, the FBI uncovered a vast cache of weapons, booby traps, and ammunition in a New Mexico sandstone cave, the largest haul of its kind.

James Earl Ray contends that his confinement in a maximum-security cell measuring six feet by nine feet at the Tennessee prison in Nashville is cruel and inhuman, unconstitutional, and a danger to his health. This was his first time out since March, when he was sentenced to 99 years in prison for the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. Ray wants to be part of the prison population, but prison officials countered that he is in confinement for his safety—that some inmates might kill Ray just for the publicity. Ray, who appeared pale and had obviously lost weight, says he would rather face that threat than ninety-nine years in isolation.

JAMES DEVERELL: Good evening, I’m James Deverell.

DENNIS CAMERON: And I’m Dennis Cameron for the Nightly News on Channel 9, your good news station.

JAMES DEVERELL: Finally, the space agency has released film shot by Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Bill Lovell, and Jim Anders during their trip around the moon. The astronauts took this film as they were outward bound at 17,000 miles per hour. After their first orbit, this magnificent view of the Earth greeted our astronauts on this latest space mission. Notice the splash effect when meteors strike the moon. This one is perhaps 1 million years old, maybe 10 million. Many of these impact craters look like the Earth after a bombing raid. Frank Borman called the moon a stark, bleak, and lifeless planet. One of Apollo 8’s tasks was to shoot numerous surveying photographs of the moon’s surface. The big job now is to find out where each frame was exposed so lunar maps can be updated accurately, before the Apollo 11 crew puts down this July.

DENNIS CAMERON: Three American prisoners of war were released this morning by the communist Viet Cong. In a special corridor 50 miles northwest of Saigon, Donald G. Smith, James W. Brigham, and Thomas Jones were released by their VC captors. The meetings were held in the special zone near the Cambodian border because of reports the traditional New Year’s ceasefire was not being respected. A South Vietnamese government official said the ceasefire had been broken by the North at least 10 times. Two helicopters had been shot down, and two Americans wounded. Each of the freed men, who were imprisoned by the communists for more than a year, wore open-toed sandals and carried a rice bag, apparently containing personal effects. All looked forward to their return home.

JAMES DEVERELL: And we will return after this.

[Break in programming]

JAMES DEVERELL: We’re back with this remote report from James Mooney.

JAMES MOONEY: Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover said in his year-end report that the growing number of black extremist organizations throughout the United States represents a potential threat to the internal security of the nation, and their growth has definitely added to the FBI’s work in the racial intelligence field. The report says that there were over 120 police officers injured, and six killed, in the last six months. The radical Black Panther Party claims that 16 of their members were killed by police. Hoover also warns that the Red Chinese and American communists have had considerable success infiltrating the SDS with the intent to completely destroy our form of government, and that, quote, “the American way of life is threatened by unbridled vulgarity, obscenity, blasphemy, perversion, and public desecration of American ideals and symbols,” unquote. In 1968, the FBI set success records: 21,000 fugitives were located, 290 underworld figures were convicted, and recoveries of property totaled $335 million.

JAMES DEVERELL: It looks like we’re not alone in our fight against radical extremists. On New Year’s Eve, bombs rocked the Canadian cities of Montreal and Ottawa. In the French city of Montreal, dynamite bombs planted around city hall damaged structures and blew out 200 windowpanes. And an additional bomb was safely removed from the office of Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau. In Ottawa, the Canadian capital city, explosives placed in a mailbox went off outside government offices. Separatists—people who want Quebec to secede from Canada—are believed responsible.

We’ll be back in a moment.

[Break in programming]

JAMES DEVERELL: One year after the first successful heart transplant on a human, a New York doctor has agreed to perform a heart transplant on a dog. After directing a 60-man team transplanting the heart and kidneys of a 48-year-old psychoanalyst to three recipients last night, Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, surgeon-in-chief at New York Hospital, agreed to perform open-heart surgery on a four-month-old German Shepherd puppy named Kai. Dr. Lillehei agreed to perform this unusual operation out of gratitude on behalf of the many dogs who have served to benefit mankind in the development of these techniques. Dogs have been the backbone of open-heart surgery research, because a dog’s heart is almost identical to a man’s.

DENNIS CAMERON: The New Year’s cold snap caught many Chicagoans unawares because it was the first real cold of the season. Commuters got stuck in delays of up to 45 minutes on the freeways, and delays of 10 minutes or more on the CTA, caused by jamming doors. There was a record low of 10 degrees below zero in the city this morning, and 15 below in the suburbs, with winds of up to 40 miles an hour. There might be some relief tomorrow when temperatures could reach 20 degrees by the afternoon. But it’s not over. The mercury will likely dip below zero on the weekend as an arctic front moves eastward.

JAMES DEVERELL: Sports and some good news when we return.

[Break in programming]

JAMES DEVERELL: Good evening, I’m James Deverell.

JAMES MOONEY: And I’m James Mooney for the Nightly News on Channel 9, your good news station.

JAMES DEVERELL: Well, it’s a new year and a new decade, and I’m sure you won’t mind if I speak for us both in saying it sure feels good to be out of the sixties.

JAMES MOONEY: I don’t mind at all. The only good thing that happened last year was the moon landing.

JAMES DEVERELL: Right. Well, it was reported yesterday that Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa, who was serving an eight-year prison term for jury tampering, might, in the underworld parlance, “sing” if he was offered a presidential commutation of his sentence. There are reports of Teamster members making overtures to federal officials for Hoffa’s release. But, like most things concerning the controversial Chicago figure, these rumors were difficult to confirm. They come in the midst of a bitter power struggle over the Teamsters’ $400 million pension fund. And there are as many people who want to see Hoffa remain behind bars as there are those who would enjoy his quick release. One of Hoffa’s lawyers, Jacques M. Schiffer, vehemently denies the rumor, saying “Jimmy would rather rot in jail than be put in a position that would hurt the reputation of the union.” Just two months ago, a parole board unanimously denied Hoffa’s request for parole.

JAMES MOONEY: H. Ross Perot has arrived in New York, still unable to get his planeload of Christmas gifts and food to American POWs imprisoned by the communists.

ROSS PEROT: They see these men as—holding these men as hostages as creating some kind of an asset. In their culture, and from their own point of view—and when you look at their lack of concern about the prisoners in the South, their own men, you can sort of see why they think the way they think. They genuinely can’t believe that the people in this country care about these men.

JAMES MOONEY: During his television appearance today, the Texas millionaire urged people to send letters and telegrams that he will use to try and influence the communist leaders to allow the packages to go through. He has since received hundreds of replies from people all across the US, and even from foreign countries. John Holman, vice president of the United We Stand campaign, underwritten by the Texas industrialist, said that calls and letters started arriving shortly after Mr. Perot’s television appeal, and haven’t stopped.

JAMES DEVERELL: More news when we return.

[Break in programming]

JAMES DEVERELL: Our own Keith McAllister has been keeping close watch on new developments in the Conspiracy Seven trial.

KEITH MCALLISTER: During the Chicago Seven trial today, Abbie Hoffman was reprimanded shortly by Judge Julius Hoffman for his antics. Throughout cross-examination, during which the prosecutor, attorney Richard J. Schultz, was trying to determine what the Yippies are, and their effect on the Democratic convention, the Yippie leader would respond with jokes and sarcasm. After Hoffman made one of these humorous remarks, Judge Hoffman told him, “no more antics, this is not a joke, you've taken the stand in a US District Court in your own defense, and you are going to behave properly.” Prosecutor Schultz read long passages from Abbie Hoffman's speeches and from his book, Revolution for the Hell of It, suggesting that they anticipated the violence that occurred in Chicago last summer. The usually garrulous Hoffman only replied that he didn't remember. Hoffman and his six fellow defendants tried to picture Mayor Daley as the villain in the violence. But because of time wasted during Hoffman's testimony, the mayor's appearance has been delayed again.

JAMES DEVERELL: The Weathermen faction of the militant SDS ended its War Council meeting today amid bickering, only agreeing that its objective to create revolution in the US had failed in the last year. Despite urgings to stay, many Weathermen members left on Tuesday and Wednesday after the division became obvious. Those who waited, expecting the announcement of goals for 1970, were told to go home and build their own party cell, and plan their own violence. Four hundred members of the pro-Red China Weathermen faction broke off from the SDS last July in Chicago.

JAMES MOONEY: President Nixon telephoned J. Edgar Hoover to wish him a happy birthday today. In response to a reporter’s question, the president later said that he knew of no plans for the controversial 75-year-old FBI director to retire.

This week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s annual report announced that since it has overcome internal factionalism, the American Communist Party has been very successful recruiting students on college campuses. Hoover also reported one hundred attacks on police by black extremists in 1969, causing 10 deaths and 120 injuries. He remarked that, quote, “many attacks on the police by black extremists are unprovoked, and nothing more than planned ambushes.” Huge arsenals are stockpiled by the 30 Black Panther Party chapters across the country, with guns, which they say are for legal self-defense. But the Panther Party organization is now in disarray. Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton was shot and killed in a controversial gun battle with state’s police officers. And, now that California Governor Ronald Reagan has granted a request for his extradition, Bobby Seale, the Black Panther leader severed from the Conspiracy Seven trial two months ago, may now face murder charges.

JAMES DEVERELL: More news when we return.

[Break in programming]

JAMES DEVERELL: The Central Illinois Railway Commuter Station at 91st Street was destroyed by fire early yesterday. The fire also knocked out two of the IC’s four power lines, making trains share a single track. There were delays all along the south suburban line today. Transit during the morning rush hour was delayed by an average of 30 minutes, but regular northbound service was mostly restored by the afternoon. Even though construction crews will work through the night, we can still expect some delays tomorrow. The incident came only a day after the railroad announced that it would raise fares by 20 percent and was likely caused by vandals.

Sports and weather are next on nine, your good news station.

[Staticky intro music]

GARRICK UTLEY: . . . off . . . I’m Garrick Utley . . . The controversy continues . . . Nicaragua by the Soviet Union but . . . unlikely that they are Soviet . . . ambassador to the United Nations denied that . . . which made the original allegation . . . a White House official today was asked about . . . no comment . . . Robin Lloyd is following . . .

ROBIN LLOYD: Administration officials now say . . . they now claim that the Soviet ship . . . minesweepers and surf– . . . –ground aircraft . . . all . . . Nicaraguan port of Corinto . . . to try to determine the number . . . This was the second major Soviet arm . . . administration officials have confirmed . . . Soviet-bloc freighters headed for Nicarag– . . . All this came . . . were rapidly backing away . . . MiGs. State Department . . . charges that the administration had acted . . .

MALE VOICE: Uhh . . . and I do not think . . . be accused of . . . uh . . . or seeking to publicize . . .

ROBIN LLOYD: –though some diplomats say the administra– . . . try to place Nicaragua on the defense . . . there is increasing alarm at this . . . to Nicaragua. And in . . . that Nicaragua is upsetting . . . administration officials now believe that . . . Nicaragua. At least not in the short run. . . . Given the Soviets’ moderate tone . . . be less interested in fomenting a . . . Robin Lloyd, NBC News.

VARIOUS MALE NEWS ANCHORS: The Reagan administration is now play– . . . but isn’t. Tonight, the United Nations . . . to hear Nicaragua’s charges that it . . . and the target of an American invasion. . . . Nicaragua, the Sandinista leaders there . . .

The invasion . . . request for blood donors . . . to help at hospitals . . . karate class took their lessons . . . and 20,000 young volun– . . . civilians were told to trade– . . . without the harvesters, one of Nicara–

The Soviet freight– . . . recent call to arms at the . . . dockworkers said it did not . . . attack . . . the longshoremen . . . helicopters, patrol boats, and light . . . Corinto . . . they believe if not the be– . . . of another secret arms shipment . . . to launch an attack again– . . . –cials said MiGs in Nicaragua are . . .

HEAVILY ACCENTED VOICE: Only in the mi– . . .

MALE NEWS ANCHOR: . . . mind of the United States . . .

HEAVILY ACCENTED VOICE: Yah . . .

MALE NEWS ANCHOR: Spy planes flying overhead . . . port . . . again today . . . jet that broke the sound barrier ov– … northern and southern border . . . –quipped in Central America . . . might be sent to the region . . .

Military maneuver is seen here as . . . the denials of . . . –gua is hearing only sonic booms. NBC News, Managua.

. . . Union are feuding over Nicaragua but the . . . nuclear weapons . . . according . . . diplomats are showing interest in . . . President Reagan’s proposal to resume . . . –itations . . . In a moment . . . of simplifying your tax . . . going up despite what President . . . We will see the new edition to the Vietnam . . . monument to those who survived.

[Applause]

[Commercial: Music snippets throughout]

MALE VOICE: With noble spirit . . . Canon A-1 . . . –matic exposure modes plus . . . stop action . . . control depth of field . . . automatically . . . to . . . the Canon A-1 . . .

[Commercial ends]

FEMALE VOICE: Got his . . .

[Applause]

PRESIDENT REAGAN: The Sandinista dictatorship of Nicaragua, with full Cuban-Soviet bloc support, not only persecutes its people, the church, and denies a free press, but arms and provides bases for Communist terrorists attacking neighboring states. Support for freedom fighters is self-defense and totally consistent with the OAS and UN charters. It is essential that the Congress continue all facets of our assistance to Central America.

[Intermittent electronic tones]

GARRICK UTLEY: . . . off . . . off . . . I’m Garrick Utley . . . Nightly News. The . . .

In those crates the . . . but today it . . . –ly that they are Soviet . . . Soviet ambassador to the . . . and the Reagan admin– . . . allegation is now . . . House official today was asked . . . no comment.

. . . now say there are . . . now claim that the Soviet . . . combat helicopters . . . air missiles u–. . . . All day long . . . Nicaraguan port of Corinto . . . planes flew overhead . . . weapons onboard . . . major Soviet arms shipment . . . Administration officials have . . . six more Soviet. . . . It’s not known. . . . All this came at the end . . . –ficials were rapidly . . . claim about Soviet . . . officials today appeared . . . administration had acted too . . . wolf . . .

MALE VOICE: Uhh . . . and I . . .

GARRICK UTLEY: . . . wolf . . .

• MALE VOICE: . . . uh . . . can affect . . . um . . . seeking to publicize . . .

  GARRICK UTLEY: Still some diplomats . . . criticzed the MiG threat . . . –fensive . . . increasing alarm at this . . . military shipments to Nicaragua . . . amongst administration . . . setting the regional mili– . . . administration officials now believe . . . fighters into Nicaragua . . . these same officials believe . . . tone recently . . . less interested in fom– . . . America . . . Department . . . administration is now playing down . . . but isn’t. Tonight the . . . a special session to . . . the victim of American . . . American invasion . . . In Nicaragua, the Sandinista . . . the most of it.

  VARIOUS MALE NEWS ANCHORS: Hysteria in Managua . . . blood donors . . . and be ready to help at . . . –isters at a government-sponsored . . . seriously today . . . 20,000 young vol– . . . of other civilians . . . muskets for rifles . . . Nicaragua’s largest . . . the Soviet . . . Nicaragua’s most recent . . .

  Of a nearly bankrupt . . . did not carry . . . attack . . . delivered a cargo of helicopters . . . weapons . . . –lieve if not the recurring . . . excuse of another se– . . . ship due to arrive . . . against Nicaragua . . . MiGs in Nicaragua are . . .

  MALE VOICE: On– . . . states . . .

  MALE NEWS ANCHOR: In Corinto . . . spy planes flying overhead . . . just outside the port . . . tried to catch a glimpse . . . sound barrier over Corin– . . . northern and southern . . . largest and best . . . reacts to every rumor . . . sent to the region.

  American military maneuver– . . . an American invasion . . . from Washington are listening . . . is hearing only son– . . . Thatcher, NBC News.

  VARIOUS MALE NEWS ANCHORS: The United States . . . Nicaragua but there may be . . . –er nuclear weapons . . . –fficials, Soviet . . . And they are asking questions . . . Proposal to resume . . . preconditions . . . Some expert opinion on . . . tax returns and . . . despite what President . . . and we will see . . . War memorial in Washington . . . declines as . . .

  [Applause]

  [Commercial: Music snippets throughout]

  MALE VOICE: . . . some are born to . . . endless ability . . . A-1 . . . five automatic ex–. . .

  Or let it flow . . . –trol depth of . . . light automat– . . . light dramatic– . . . Canon A-1 . . . Don’t . . .

  [Commercial ends]

  MALE NEWS ANCHOR: The Marines came ashore at dawn. Eight hundred of them launched from mother ships and landing craft and helicopters to seize an airfield on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, part of an annual Caribbean exercise called Ocean Venture.

  RALPH HEDGES: It’s important that we demonstrate our capability to protect the sea lines of communications throughout the Caribbean not only for the benefit of the citizens of the United States of America but also for all of our friends throughout the Caribbean.

  MALE NEWS ANCHOR: And if American adversaries get the message as well, so much the better. This Russian intelligence trawler has been shadowing the fleet for the past several days. The Soviet helicopter carrier Leningrad has been conducting anti-submarine exercises with the Cuban Navy and Soviet long-range bombers are operating out of Cuba, keeping the American fleet under surveillance. The Reagan administration’s most immediate Caribbean concern is not the Soviet or Cuban Navy but the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. Although a previous Ocean Venture exercise was seen by many in the Caribbean as a preparation for the invasion of Grenada, senior military commanders insist that this Ocean Venture is not a preview of coming attractions in Nicaragua.

  WESLEY MCDONALD: There is no connection whatsoever with this war game and any future plans that the United States has.

  MALE NEWS ANCHOR: But this exercise is a preview of the growing US military presence throughout the Caribbean. Senior navy officers say the recommissioned battleship Iowa will spend much of the summer operating off the coast of Central America. Along with increased naval operations will almost certainly go an increased American presence on land, a presence beyond the facilities already being built for US exercises in Honduras.

  WESLEY MCDONALD: It would be helpful to have some ports of call and some bases where you could operate in and in small numbers and go in and go out and that type of thing.

  MALE NEWS ANCHOR: Until these bases are built, exercises like Ocean Venture will show the American flag in the Caribbean.

  DAVID MARTIN: The message sent by this exercise may be clear but what is not so clear is what the Reagan administration would really do if Cuba and Nicaragua failed to heed the message. David Martin, CBS News, Vieques Island, Puerto Rico.

  DAN RATHER: Nicaragua is often cited as the case in point of Cuba’s self-appointed mission to export revolution. It’s also alleged that Cuba is increasingly the middleman in exporting hard drugs for hard cash. Now, new allegations that the drug running and gun running fuel each other and both are getting outside help, help from a well-known American fugitive from justice. Rita Braver has been investigating this.

  RITA BRAVER: Federal investigators say that fugitive financier Robert Vesco and Cuban Premier Fidel Castro are partners, partners in an international drug-smuggling operation now being probed in a series of federal cases. A grand jury in Tallahassee, Florida, has been investigating the Castro-Vesco link, and other investigations are underway in Brownsville, Texas, and New Orleans. Government sources believe that Vesco is now under Castro's protection in Cuba and is the mastermind of a system in which Colombian drug dealers use Cuban ports as safe harbor and get protection from Cuba in international waters in exchange for a cut of cocaine profits. Vesco is also alleged to be helping the Cubans spend their drug profits on illegal shipments from the US, some of the money going for high technology equipment to improve both Cuba's industrial production and intelligence-gathering ability; other funds [are] reportedly spent on arms shipments for left-wing guerrillas in Latin America.

  The government has long been aware of a US-Cuban drug link. Cases in Florida and New York in the past few years have established the connection. Last year, customs agents in Texas and Chicago seized sugar-refining equipment Vesco was allegedly having smuggled out of the US into Cuba. Federal investigators are uncertain of the extent of the Vesco-Cuban-US connection but a key Justice Department source has told CBS News that the government is now investigating Vesco’s son, Daniel, who’s believed to be in the United States, for allegedly laundering drug money through Panama. Rita Braver, CBS News, Washington.

  [Commercial with upbeat music]

  SINGING MALE: Gaming around on my future, making new strides every day. Infantry in the Army Guard is showing me the way.

  [Unintelligible]

  SINGING MALE: That’s the home where I wanna be, guarding all that’s close to me.

  [Commercial ends]

  *Please note this transcript contains only the audio in the artwork.

Ahh

Fahr

Auf

L.A.

I see

• I see your hair is burning
• Hills are filled with fire
• If they say I never loved you

You know they are a liar

Fahr auf deinen autobahn

• Cops in cars
• Topless bars
• Never saw a woman so all alone
• So all alone

Alone, alone, alone, alone

• So alleine
• So alleine

Alone, alone, alone, alone, alone

Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah

• Alleine
• Took a look around

See which way the wind blows

• Alone, alone, alone

Alone

• Rock ‘n Roll lady in the City of Lights
• City of Night
• City of Night

City at night

• Stadt der Nacht
• Nacht
• Stadt der Nacht

Nah-nah-Nacht

Ooo

• Nah-nah-nah

Nah-nah-nah

Well

• A woman
• L.A. woman, Sunday afternoon
• L.A. woman, Sunday afternoon

L.A. woman

The work begins with stringed instruments playing major scales, while a single male voice intermittently follows the modulating tones. The instruments drop, and a voice hums alone. From there, female voices sing undulating notes. The voices do not form words, rather they create a series of sometimes staccato, sometimes exaggerated sounds. At times the voices are accompanied by stringed instruments, at times they perform alone. A piano plays in between sung sections. Toward the end of the piece, the voices recede leaving just the instruments.

• I cannot remember when I began
• except that I was here before Gilgamesh
• before Enkidu—that I was fully at work
• before they were foretold, fully ordained
• by Osanyin and Osoosi because the very turning
• of stones on a path change the song of bluebirds
• and the destinies of serpents. Chosen and made
• as most ferocious attendant to detail – prospected

apprentice to gods as aspect of god, even Enkidu

• -the black one, the friend of streams and animals
• the believer in bass, deep sound and the inventor

of freedom—was placed under my care. I, Humbaba

• —weaver of the meaning of unconditional—called
• Terrible to aid my job as protector, to preserve
• sovereignty, last King mas of the Universe,
• first iteration of Midnight Robber and Danse
• Macabre, hat cocked to the side, caped or shawl’d
• in the most navy of night, walk in syncopation
• among the cedars and pick my teeth with the baobab.
• Forget that to come here is folly, and that bothadem
• bout to get mash up fine fine, why, would you want
• to oppose the very idea of balance and bulwark,

upend the beauty and thickness of the deep?

• Is it not enough to say you were there?
• To celebrate without being celebrated?
• To be celebrated in song without the evidence
• of scar? Every future music is brewing in me,
• every tiny hammer excoriating joy from a copper
• reed, every drop step falling into a pothole
• of bass, every fire lit under steel to mimic cello
• and the peals of free peoples singing my name—
• Humbaba the pan shouts, Humbaba it rolls
• Humbaba basso profundo, andante e accelerando
• alla marcia, these boys bout to know the thousand
• ways to parse thunder borrowed from and improvised
• on by cousin Sango himself. Dead, ah tell yuh!
• Dead, Dead, Dead, Dead, Dead. My heart weeps

for the folly of the conquistador and his blind emissary.

• Think I didn’t spot the hustle,
• the early signifiying? Say they found
• me running around naked and covered
• in hair and drinking water from streams
• and running with antelopes—freeing

their animals from traps?

• That was the set-up. There’s always
• a set-up; a reason to call 12.
• _We see a spook
• liberating our profits
• we signed these contracts all legally
• for. He is too big and too fast
• and look... we've seen him naked!
• How do we get him sat down?
• How do we move him off the land?
• How do we send him west?
• How do we get this thing—to work
• for us? Did I mention I’ve seen him
• naked?_ I've been Black
• from jump. Black from the first
• time they planted them tablets. I’ve been
• Black in somebody else’s image

since before before.

• I’m hotep Black—a conspiracy image
• of my own imagining. A black man
• in a watch cap stealing some white woman’s
• kids, or a black boy whistling,
• or a black man stabbing a white wife
• and throwing her over the bridge.
• The APB put out for me made me flesh
• and still I made myself more real

than Gilgamesh’s fake pursuit of becoming.

• Black before Jesus or Moses
• or pimp-coat Joseph.
• Black like lay-in-the-cut
• black like oooo-we Shamat fine
• and got me fucked up.
• Black like got me a barber line-up
• my whole body, neck-line to ankle.
• Black like savage guide—like lead
• a nigga to a mountain but know better
• than to climb that shit myself.
• Black like climb it with that nigga
• because he not gon glow-up
• on his own and I can’t let him
• go out like that.
• Black like tryna be free but whose
• clothes are this anyway?
• Black like swinging dick at the well,
• the castle wall, the dance floor, black
• like bop-walk, feel the dip before I knew
• what music. Black like Bass

is what music.

• So Black I’m blue. So black I’m Vishnu,
• I’m Kali. I’m the road crossing itself in the night
• to get to the other side. You know how fly
• you have to be to make yourself
• in another mutherfucka’s image and still
• be more beautiful than that fool?
• I mock myself minstrel black
• and hide the blade beneath my tongue
• to call Sun, dun—I’m so black
• I gloom the light, I’m you and brighter
• than the blight you bloom with all your blood
• you sleight-of-hand our bodies to walk on.
• So Black I shone myself a doorway into other
• galaxies and still your fallacies called for me to be clothed
• who came before, who was covered in forgiveness
• who was dressed in something so pure I couldn’t
• imagine how thorough the co-opt—what
• canyon of harnessed sound could me and Shamat
• have love-made had I known more, had I trusted
• in the galaxies before this one whose burst stars
• brought me forth, because I was imagined by one
• who needed a foil and by so imagining,

was imagined in return, by me.

What a time?

   To return a man to the understood

   beyond, through a portal which made him—

   ashes to ashes and a a woman’s pleasure/power

   all contained in the pearlite moon

   of her engorged clitoris—

• Through a door to disrepute the man is led
• and to death does that door go—and with it
• all the small deaths too. In all worlds
• there is an Eve lurking to teach man
• he is not innocent—Imagine how old
• woman must be—how much like the vast
• unknowable beauty of the blue black night
• she must always be to help man solve this wicked
• riddle before he go unlocking doors to drive
• him mad. Imagine a man at the other side
• of a forest he didn’t have to cross; without
• the forest say-so. Imagine a man in conquest
• over life with no small deaths nicking him
• to demise in slow blood; with no mocking
• to make him humble in the face of the First

Unknowing.

•    So it have to be with Enkidu, so naive
• as to nearly be arrogant. Pussy hates the inexplicable
• paradox – and man, unable to explain its vastness
• builds narrative in allegorical prayer and calls it
• worship. Man flex a simple story, one easy
• to sleep with come night. It riddle
• like this: Man was one love with eternity.
• Man new nothing of the perils of night
• because he was beloved by the day. Man
• lies down and finds himself with woman

and next thing you know, pressure.

• Imagine Gilgamesh finally beginning to understand
• telling that easy story on a corner stool by the bar
• singing songs in memory of his friend, guide, slave,
• beloved; buying rounds for the whole snackette
• crying into the rum and dancing. Didn’t know
• that the chance for fullness don’t even reach him
• until Enkidu, blessed for the first time in a woman’s
• sweet come to show himself to himself. First time
• Gilgamesh understand that what was sweet, consecrated
• him—and still, he build a golden statue rather than save
• Beloved, still figure out a way to self-venerate
• rather than tell the correct story, rather than hallow
• the truth—that he used the best part of his nature
• as foil to destroy nature and massacre Ishtar’s bull
• at once—what a move; to exploit woman
• rampaging power to harness in Enkidu
• to defeat Humbaba, and then use Enkidu
• himself to destroy that rampage, to remain
• empiric and alone in power, with no other power
• to balance or contain the singular conqueror
• in his blood. Forgive Enkidu descendants
• if they don’t trust in his later search, his nirvana,
• his heaven, his songs and rafters, his holy spirits,
• his bibles, or the found tablets bearing his name,
• his monuments or histories, the crying of his mother,
• his own tears, that Jesus is white,
• the Santa Maria Pinta or the Nina,
• that men on horseback are four-legged gods,
• his fake hunger-strike (they know it is not in him)
• that Eve is why we had to leave the same paradise
• over which Gilgamesh ruled and from which he removed
• Humbaba, the fake piety of God-led monogamy.
• Forgive Enkidu’s descendants if they suffer from deep
• seated knowledges they can’t always place, that they once
• owned something that exalted them, that made them
• beautiful, and were robbed and told a sleight-of-hand
• story by the same man sitting at the end of the bar,
• in the snackette, four o’clock in the morning, sliding
• more money under the chicken wire to beg for a last
• petit-quart of rum, that they asked for succor and were built
• a monument of gold, which gold they couldn’t eat,

which couldn’t soothe the quarrels with their loves.

• Enkidu is dead and the forest don’t yield manicou
• or lappe with the same regularity, and there once
• was a time they were covered in a glory, their father
• lived for them. Forgive them if after Enkidu pyre
• come down to ash, they drink all Gilgamesh
• rum, leave him at the bar and go home

not knowing how to love their wives.