North Adams Transcript (Newspaper) - September 23, 1975, North Adams, Massachusetts NORTH ADAMS ADAMS WILLIAMSTOWN MASSACHUSETTS i YEAR No TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 23 1975 16 PAGES CENTS Undaunted Ford to continue campaigning WASHINGTON AP President that he will not cower before would-be assassins plans to continue his travels despite congressional fears and raised by a security breach one Republican called incredible second encounter in 17 days with a woman In California this one punctuated by the crack of a pistol shot that missed raised one central How could it This time the attempt on the President's life was made by a woman who managed to get within 40 feet of Ford carrying a despite the fact that the Secret Service had questioned her Sunday as a potential threat to his safety Ford was not wearing a protective vest at the time the shot was fired Released Sunday not only from custody but also apparently from any surveillance Sara Jane Moore 45 was waiting when Ford emerged from the St Francis Hotel late Monday San Francisco police who also questioned her Sunday had seized a pistol from her then but she had a new one Monday just purchased According to the FBI Mrs Moore later said she was surprised that she had so much time for the attempt Like Alice who had pointed a pistol at Ford from two feet away as he shook hands in Sacramento Sept 5 Mrs Moore was known to local authorities as a political extremist The FBI said she had once been a paid informant for the bureau Miss Mrs Moore fired The President had spent less than two minutes all day before open outdoor crowds He was about to enter his bulletproof limousine to head for the airport and Washington It became a high-speed ride the President on the floor shielded by his bodyguards But that precaution like the weapons searches at his indoor stops earlier in the day did not come at the moment of peril Tlie incident prompted congressional demands for an investigation and one for a shakeup of the Secret Service It also led members of Congress and rival presidential candidates to urge that the President curtail his public appearances and his handshaking forays into the crowds he attracts But Ford back al the While House just before midnight said that would be capitulating to violence and he vowed not to do it He said Americans have a right to sec President and shake his hand circumstances will I capitulate to those who want to undercut good in Ford said Furthermore Ford had only for the Secret Service Let me say most emphatically I thank the Secret Service for doing a super job he said They really were Second escape Less than three weeks after escaping an apparent assassination attempt in Sacramento Calif President Ford yesterday was missed by a bullet fired in a San Francisco street At left is Sara Moore a suspect in yesterday's incident Ford and escorting Secret Service men react to the sound of the shot in center photo At right a relieved First Lady hugs the President as he met with newsmen at the White House last night AP Wirephotos Shooting suspect traveled a bizarre underground road SAN FRANCISCO AP Sara Jane Moore a middleaged bookkeeper was a strange traveler in the shadowy radical underground welcomed by some groups as a comrade but suspected by others as an informer Her recent past suggests she was both a personality laced with bizarre contradictions Most bizarre of all she was a paid FBI informant who was arrested Monday for taking a shot at President Ford As the tangled trail of her involvements emerged it showed that Mrs Moore 45 who called herself a suburban matron with a country club membership the devoted mother of a son a dedicated conservative and a radical groupie who flirted with involvements in the Liberation Army the United Prisoners Union and Vietnam Veterans Against the War She was a strange says a man who worked with her on the Hearst Ludlow Kramer former kidnap food giveaway a very strange After she blew her cover last Juno A who woman Mrs Moore tried to gain acceptance in Washington slac secretary The FBI acknowledged that she was the radical community but was shunned admin Inc J IN program hired as a possible security informant by many She began giving interviews on Randolph Hearst from June 1974 to June 1975 She was fired as an informant Al least two radio stations were puzzled when Sally phoned to report the capture of Patty Hearst and two SLA comrades last Thursday before the FBI had announced it for telling an underground newspaper about her clandestine job Even before she spoke out about her informer status Mrs Moore was suspect in the underground Establishment typos who worked with her on the food giveaway weren't too sure of her either she eventually Critics question background WASHINGTON AP Thomas past silence on conservation and environmental issues may prove to be the main hurdle facing the North Dakota millionaire as he seeks confirmation as interior secretary Those opposed to nomination have asked whether his experience as a wax manufacturer a politician and as head of the Small Business Administration qualify him to take over the Interior Department The Senate begins confirmation hearings today on his nomination Repre senta lives of many environmental groups expressed acute disappointment when President Ford nominated the old Kleppe to head a department with heavy impact on the environment In a large sense Kleppe faces the opposite problem encountered by his immediate predecessor former Wyoming Gov Stanley K Hathaway In a grueling set of hearings Hathaway was forced to defend his extensive and controversial record on environmental and conservation issues Hathaway quit after less than six weeks on the job and friends blamed the strain of the hearings for mental pressures that led to his and resignation Kleppe unlike is widely regarded as having no public environmental or conservation views to defend We are very disappointed that the President hasn't nominated someone with a more distinguished record in the said Charles Clusen spokesman for the Sierra Club Then Sunday night San Francisco police were tipped anonymously that Mrs Moore had a handgun Two officers went to her house and asked if she had a gun She said yes and then took it out of her LI Frank Jordan said The gun was confiscated she was cited and released pending a court appearance Those who knew her on the left and right were shocked and unable to explain her motivation The U.S attorney asked that she immediately undergo mental examination This is gasped Jack Paladino who worked with her on the People In Need food giveaway She was kind of a power groupie She kept looking for a place where the power and the action was for said he finally fired Mrs Moore She said God had sent her lo work on the he recalled When ousted she flew into a rage he said We had to remove her and she sort of flipped out She yelled and screamed She was a difficult person lo work with Her FBI period apparently followed In interviews Mrs Moore gave colorful accounts of her adventures underground She said she came from a country club past in West Virginia was divorced and making a year as a bookkeeper when she joined met radicals and agreed to help the FBI tremendous in things that they did that were necessary and After hours of silence the Secret Service issued a statement confirming that its agents had indeed questioned Mrs Moore on Sunday That was first disclosed by San Francisco police who had questioned her too on the basis of an anonymous tip that she had a handgun She admitted to the police that she had a and she took it out of her purse They confiscated it cited her for the misdemeanor of having the weapon and released her pending a court appearance The Secret Service said the police had brought Mrs Moore mother of a son to the agency's attention Saturday two days before the Ford visit Agents questioned her Sunday As a result of that interview the Secret Service assessed that she was not of sufficient protective interest to warrant surveillance during the President's the agency said Following the interview a background investigation on Moore was initialed The Secret Service would say nothing more is understood that the agency sometimes has local officials keep watch on persons deemed to be threats to a president That apparently was not done in Ihc Moore case According lo FBI Mrs Moore admitted that she fired the shot Monday that she had purchased the seized revolver this date and she had observed coming out of the St Francis Hotel and was surprised that stic had so much time Such disclosures arc likely to be the ingredients of a congressional investigation that appears virtually to look into Secret Service and procedures Sen Ernest F Hollings said there should be an inquiry because of what he called evidence of a security breakdown in and Moore episodes and because of agency failure lo follow up on tips about Lee Harvey Oswald prior to the assassination of John F Kennedy in 1963 liep John B Anderson also called for an investigation Anderson said it was incredible hat Secret Service had questioned and released Mrs Moore only lo have her shoot at the President In his first outing after the Fromme episode Ford wore a protective vest during a tour of southern New Hampshire Nessen said Ford had not been wearing a bulletproof vest in San Francisco A major theme in Congress was the call to Ford to cut down on bis crowd appearances 1 just think it's too Rep Robert McClory Sens Henry M Jackson of Washington and Lloyd M Benlsen of Texas two of the Democratic presidential candidates also said President should cut down his crowd exposure But Ford quickly and firmly rejected the suggestion that he should forego the kind of appearances he has been making and is scheduled to make almost every weekend for the the year The most important thing is that I don't think any person as president or any person in any other major political office ought to cower in the face of a limited number of people who want to take the law into their own he said Catalysts get the credit for 76 cars economy Coastal residents flee rain rip Florida panhandle PANAMA CITY Fla AP Hurricane slammed into Florida's central panhandle wilh raging surf and lashing rains Ihen rushed inland tornadoes and carrying with it the threat of flooding With punishing winds up lo 130 miles per hour Eloise thundered ashore ween Fort Walton Beach and Panama City before sunrise wreaking havoc in Inside 6.7 U 15 13 10 8 3 16 15 13 5 6 both cities and in a stretch ween But as its vanguard crossed land winds began to wane With the hurricane over land its strength should weaken said Neil Frank director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami The major threat now is tornadoes heavy and the flooding they can cause At 10 EOT Eloise's winds had dropped to 100 The hurricane's center was located about 45 miles southwest of Dothan Ala near latitude 31.0 north and longitude 86.2 wesl Trees power lines and billboards toppled before the onslaught and the area was plunged inlo darkness in the gray dawn as power transformers ex- in brilliant showers of blue-green sparks Thousands of people along a stretch of shoreline had fled in a minute rush lo escape the oncoming fury of the storm in the darkness of early morning In Panama City a truss turing plant caught fire from what of- said was either a leaking gas line or a downed electrical circuit Firemen tried to fight the blaze in screaming winds and rain Three tornadoes were reported in the Fort Walton area One destroyed a house and ripped the roofs off half a dozen others but no injuries were reported Surf riding the abnormally high tides crashed across the unprotected sand dunes of the summer resort area ripping up roads and highways and undermining the foundations of homes condominiums and motels built dangerously close to the sea U.S 89 running along the coast for nearly 200 miles from Apalachicola Bay to Pensacola on the far western edge of he panhandle was reported breaking up under the waves in many places No injuries were reported immediately but com- were down In many areas and an accounting of the safety of would have to wait the hurricane's passage Given only a few brief hours of ning residents of low-lying areas med highways leading inland many of them fleeing in covered by raincoats DETROIT AP The Big Three automakers say smaller engines in- creased use of catalysts and better engineering account for improvements in gas mileage reported by the En- Protection Agency for 1976 cars The EPA said Monday its tests show General Motors new the Chevrolet gets best gasoline mileage of any new U.S model At 33 miles per gallon the Chevette is tied with two Japanese models the and Ihc Subaru for mosl efficient use of fuel GM cars averaged 16.6 miles per gallon up 8 per cent from 1975 models and 38 per cent from 1974 Ford Motor Co cars averaged 17.3 miles per gallon up 27.5 per cent from 1975 and 21.8 per cent from 1974 Chrysler Corp averaged miles per gallon up 5.5 per from 1975 and 19.7 per cent over 1974 American Motors was alone in showing a decline in gas mileage averaging miles per gallon down 3.5 per cent from 1975 but up 11.6 per cent over 1974 The new model cars foreign and domestic averaged a theoretical 17.6 miles per gallon compared to miles to the gallon last year and 13.9 miles in he EPA announced That means gas mileage improved 12.8 per cent from 1975 and 20.6 per cent from two years ago Mosl of the progress resulted from installation of catalytic converters on more models to reduce exhaust pollution according to EPA Administrator Kussell E Train Ford which showed the greatest im- in gas mileage is installing converters on all 1976 cars compared to having converters on only 65 per cent of The converters guarantee low emissions permitting the companies to retune car engines for greater fuel economy GM had catalysts on all 1975 models while Chrysler and AMC used the deviccson some cars A Ford spokesman said the use of catalysis improved gas mileage Smaller engines also were factors in belter fuel mileage for Ihc Ford Maverick and Ford Granada the company said Refinements in engineering new engines and introduction of smaller cars like Ihc accounted for GM's increase in gas mileage a spokesman said is convincing evidence that he free marketplace is working to meet both nation's goals and the public's sonal transportation more efficiently and more effectively than could ar- said E M Estes GM president The weather Rainy tonight low In 50s Chance of showers tomorrow high near 80 Details page 8
