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By a Special Corns jwftdentSANTA MONICA, CALIF. -A 25-year-old California man, standing trial on charges hekidiiaped and killed a fourth generation member of a well-known Iowa family and then sold his $60,000 yacht, defended himself on the witness stand Monday.Russell Wayne Weisse told a packed courtroom here the ah leged murder victim sold him the boat legally and then sailed away with a young man with whom he apparently had a homosexual relationship.Weisse said Robert H. Fink-bine, jr., 46, sold him the blue-and-white-hulled sailboat to “get away from other people (and decide) whether he wanted to be a homosexual •. or a sailor . . . (and) escape ridicule. . .It was the twelfth day of trial proceedings in the superior courtroom of Judge Edward Rafeedie at this sea-side Los Angeles suburb.Forced at GunpointEarlier in the trial star prosecution witness Gary David Duncan, 22, told the rnry of nine women and three men that he and Wiesse kidnaped Fink-bine from a Los Angeles marina the night of Oct. 11, 1973, and forced hirrr\at gunpoint* to sail his 45-foot yacht, to sea under the cover of darkness.Duncan, who has been granted immunity from prosecution for his testimony, said the pair made Finkbine sign papers relinquishing ownership of the vessel as it cruised northward along the California coast over night.Duncan testified Weisse ordered Finkbine up on deck as the craft neared a marina about 75 miles northwest of Los Angeles and killed him with a single shotgun round through the back at point blank range.Finkbine’s body, which has never been recovered, allegedly was weighted with an anchor and sunk.Duncan said he and Weisse then sailed the craft into Ventura where Weisse later sold it for $40,000.Weisse, under close questioning by his attorney, Edward Gritz, told the panel Duncan was a long-time heroin user and had shot up” several times a few hours before the pair boarded the boat to conclude what Weisse said was a prearranged deal to purchase the vessel from Finkbine.F i n k b I n e was the great-grandson of Robert SpencerFinkbine, who chaired a commission that built the Iowa State Capitol in 1871, the grandson of the late E. C. Finkbine, who headed a lumber company and donated land to the University of Iowa that is now a golf course bearing his name, and the son of the late Robert H. Finkbine, who succeeded his father as head of the lumber company and expanded the business to include 30 lumberyards in Iowa.His father, who died in 1958, and his mother, who died - in 1850, maintained a residence in Des Moines — at 1400 Casady Drive — and one in Pasadena, Calif.Lost ConsciousnessThe defendant, neatly dressed in tie and jacket, said Duncan lost consciousness after they boarded the boat and slept in the cabin until the next morning.He said while Duncan slept, Finkbine told him he was to meet, in the defendant’s words, '‘a young blond. dude” in the shelter of an island off the California coast. When they got there, they tfaasferred most of Finkbirfe’s belongings to the boat which the young man skipweapons aboard the “Hedo* nist,” the name of Finkbine’s yacht, and said he did not use a walkie-talkie to signal Duncan that he successfully subdued Finkbine at gunpoint, as Duncan has insisted.He repeated several times that the sale was legal.He said he repeatedly at* tempted to help Dttflcan shake his heroin habit and once beca me very upset When he discovered Duncan using drugs in his Los Angeleshome. Weisse said he invited Duncan to share his house so Duncan would be away from his own Ventura home where he could easily obtain narcotics. ^ ...“I was hoping that a junkie would turn into a man,” hesaid'of his former friend.Katz bore In, grilling Weisse about his attitude toward hard narcotics such as heroin and cocaine because drugs allegedly were discovered in Weisse’s home when he was arrested six months after Finkbine's disappearance.Authorities app r e h e n d ed Weisse as a prime suspect in the alleged murder when Duncan recounted his gruesome story to police.Planted DrugsWeisse said he had no knowl-Doai wmcn me young niciii siujj- . , , v,.,*pored, the witness said. Weisse K, 'then paid Finkbine $6,000.Weisse said Finkbine had decided to sell the boat at the young man’s urging because it had been damaged a week earlier and the two men apparently wanted to live together on the young man’s boat.The young blond man never was identified in Monday’s testimony.Duncan had visited him two days before and must have planted them because he knew ■‘full well” of the pending arrests.Weisse told the courtroom, overflowing with spectators, he obtained the money to buy the boat from his mother-in-law who, he said, had valuable jewelry which she could use as collateral.Judge Rafeedie discontinued* UUUgt -------Weisse said he met with Fink- further testimony and ordered• e .... .1____• 1 _ n t .. * i • l i. J...the trial recessed until today, when cross-examination of Weisse is expected to continue.bine four days later at a I*os Angeles bank, where he paid the remainder of the $40,000 selling price in front of a bankofficial. [Copper WorkersUnder cross-examination by| Strike* in Ppmprosecuting attorney Burton ZtriRe m reruKatz, Weisse refused to vary LIMA PERU (AP) — his story recounting the sale of peruvian COpper workers begane vesse ' a 48-hour strike Monday againstRepeatedly Frustrated g big gtale mjning complex toKatz repeatedly was frustrat-: dcmand hi her and othered by the witness s replies as b y .msI .he attempted to catch him in' benefits. It appeared to signal acontradictions but without confrontation between organ-apparent success.ized labor and President JuanWeisse denied ever carrying'Velasco’s military regime.
Newspaper Details
Des Moines Register
Des Moines, Iowa, US
Tue, Aug 27, 1974
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 22 Dec 2018
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