European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 23, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 16 stars and stripes William april 1977 involved journalist offering no apology Edgar Smith confessed today in open court to the murder in 1957 of Victoria he then pleaded guilty to Kidnap ing with intent to rape Lefteria Ozbun in san Diego on october 1976 Edgar Smith was befriended by columnist Wil Liam Buckley who played a role in Smiths Long fight to gain Freedom from the death House he inhabited longer than any other person in March dear Buckley As you May i am the overzealous former assistant prosecutor you referred to in Newark on june if you will recall your comments during a taped interview on that Date with webs Irene you questioned my integrity and ethics because i labelled Edgar Smith a danger to this letter is not to offer an told you to suggest that you give serious consideration to offering an apology to the living victims of your Friend and cause you should not forget that it was your perverted sense of Justice which set in motion the events which eventually freed Smith to commit another violent As journalist of considerable note you possess substantial Power Over which there is Little such a position imposes a duty of total especially when you have made an under the circumstances the Public and the innocent victims of Smiths defamation deserve a Well published very truly Edward dear Fitzpatrick i questioned neither your ethics nor your but the excesses to which your Zeal took you when you proposed Reading Edgar Smiths love letters in open court to demonstrate something or it is hardly out of a perverted sense of Justice that one interests oneself in the question whether Justice was actually Smiths trial lawyer was convinced of his so was the private invest Tig Atorthy states Case was riddled with and in one respect the Coro ners report was inconsistent with Smiths my Power As a journalist can hardly be held responsible for a after an extensive by a District court judge that Smith had been unfairly which opinion was sustained by the supreme court of the United no lawyer i came across in the course of examining the circumstances believes that the Zielinski murder was properly murder in the first that it was second degree murder was also the Opin Ion of the judge who released four teen and on half years in jail Falls Well Over on the strict Side of a second degree if i had not entered the Case in the first and if he had been properly Smith would have been out ahead of when he actually got your suggestion that i knew All along that he was guilty contradicts your subsequent statement that i made an error if 1 had known he was and yet depicted him As id have been Ini not and by the As contemptible As the obvious pleasure you take from Smiths later Pursuit of his criminal four months before Smith confessed to the Zielinski i wrote in my column now everything i have to say on the to i believe now that Smith was guilty of the first there is no mechanism As yet perfected that will establish beyond question a per sons guilt or there will be guilty people freed this year and every but for those who believe that the Case of Edgar Smith warrants a vow to accept the ruling of a court As always definitive it is Only necessary to remind our selves this year and every an innocent Man will be Edgar Smith has done quite enough damage in his lifetime with underwriting the doctrine that the verdict of a court is yours Buckley George spin wheels on cars it is a tale of two says Tom provides what people but Washington is telling in youre not smart enough to know whats Best for the so weve got to decide for chairman of general is understandably unhappy that henceforth the kinds of cars marketed will be deter mined More by government than by con he is worried that Washington May impose stiff taxes on Large and he is alarmed by the Law which stipulates that by 1985 each manufacturers Fleet average must be Miles per the effect of that will be to establish a Small quota for the Large cars the Public emphatically a manufacturer might have to sell four subcompact in order to keep its Fleet average in bal Ance and earn the right to sell another Large the Only american built car that currently gets at least m p g is chevre lets it is a cute roller but not what you would choose to drive from Baltimore to and not what a family of five or More 123 per cent of families can drive if americans become unhappy about the size of new they May Start maintain ing their 100 million old cars rather than trading Cut new car sales by even 10 per cent and you will have an earthquake Colum co is li6htnin6 in the automotive and related industries such As Glass and last manufacturers made so million Square Yards of rugs for for the evolution of Automo Biles was at the expense of automatic transmissions decreased fuel efficiency 10 per cent air conditioning took another As did emission standards and every additional 500 each additional 100 horsepower took 7 per since Gas fuel efficiency has improved nearly 50 per and this year its big cars shrank a foot without sacrificing Interior but there Are limits to what engineering ingenuity can do in preserving dimensions while increasing and the government believes that much More fuel efficiency is it is needed because no politically Possi ble increase in the Price of gasoline will Cut demand even at 60 cents a the average Driver of a big car would save Only 100 a year in gasoline costs by switching to a compact so the key to substantial conservation is not trying to get people to drive it is getting them into More efficient but Murphys question echoes across the land what entitles government to censor consumer preferences it is a Seri Ous question from a serious and the answer in is this government exists not merely to serve individuals immediate but to achieve collective Pur poses for an ongoing unlike the free has a duty to look far Down the Road and consider the interests of citizens yet the Market has a remarkable ability to satisfy the desires of the but government has Graver Respo Sibili which include planning for the Energy military and of the Many citizens today think of themselves primarily As consume and think governments primary duty is to facilitate enjoyable so rallied by consumer advocate Ralph advocate a consumer Protection conservatives respond by championing consumer both sides seem to agree on one thing citizens should be As and policy should serve advertising is a barometer of this Cli and ads for Johnny Walker scotch biblically Honor thy the woman in the and for Loreal hair colouring defiantly i deserve it Mcdonalds humbly you deserve a break the recurring message is Ever belter consumption is no More than americans cod according to Jefferson endowed Mankind with an inalienable right to pursue but 201 years after Jef n explained gods win Many Ameri happiness is a Buick neither Detroit nor a Juz ably the City of g us City of government and for stipulating the National to
