European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 8, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse Log 18 the stars and stripes Friday september 8, 1978 Clear. Ont Lander new York Jack Tupper was Young and handsome and he worked in the insurance business and i wish he would have stayed there it was a calling that not Only fit his background but also carried with it none of the temptations that were to Burn the life out of him later on. Tupper came out of a neighbourhood called Richmond Hill which is a precinct of Ohio dropped inside the boundaries of new York City. The people who live in Richmond Hill say when they Are going by subway to Man Hattan. I m going to the City or i m going to new but at the foot of Richmond Hill Down where the rows of Small Frame houses end sits Kennedy Airport. The opportunities for trouble Here Are endless. Today the wide steaming Concrete City with its 30, 000 workers and its planes coming from everywhere is this country s major port for the International drug Trade. A Friend of Tapper s in Richmond Hill was importing marijuana by the barrel aboard planes coming in from Texas. There is always somebody at the Airport a fuel truck Driver a cargo handler a maintenance Man who will without debate step into a smuggling Situa Tion. Tupper smoking some of the product seeing the kind of Money it was bringing his Friend became restless. He was 20 earning $23,000 a year in the insurance business and he had a Lovely wife and a child and it was not enough he decided to go into the bar business with the Friend who imported marijuana. To Tup per it was a business of nights and whiskey and fun and stepping into a bar your own place and suddenly becoming the most important person in the place. And certainly amidst the Glamour were women new women every place was called the Sherwood inn and it was located Only a few blocks from where Tupper was born but it represented life on an other level. Tupper began to drink too much and when he was t shot with whiskey his mind was dazed from marijuana and it devel oped products More potent than that. He was going with an airline stewardess named Yolanda. One Day i got a Call from Tupper he said he had to see me right away. Could you do me a favor and help out Yolanda a Little he said. I d love to. What s the problem i said. They re bothering her Over something Tupper said. What they say she brought in some How much Tupper looked embarrassed. It was about a s out of my league i said. It s my girl Tupper said. And it s a Pound of cocaine i said. What s the difference the whole world uses it he partner became Moody and nervous Over the Airport smuggling and the mood of the bar became apprehension. One night i was having a drink in the place with Tupper the bartender stopped what he was doing and watched a car pull up outside. When the bar tender saw the two Guys getting out of the car he went to the men s room. Into the place came two gorillas. They sat at the end of theban until Tupper walked Over to them. Where s your partner one of them said to s not in now Tupper Saud. Tell him to be in Here tomorrow night 8 o clock. We want to Axt him about a certain thing. Tell him to be they left Tupper went to the phone Booth and called his partner. The partner left town that night and did t return for five months. During that time Tupper drinking too much spending too much time with women lost the business. He left Queens and went to new wound up in the area everybody reads about the upper East Side of Manhattan. Jack Tupper from Richmond Hill was living in an apartment House owned by Howard buddy Jacobson. Once buddy Jacobson was the leading horse Trainer in the nation. But he was a Man who could find trouble in a Telephone Booth. He organized a strike of horsemen that shut Down the new York tracks for a Day. Jacobson was carried with it. He the Brooklyn jewish kid now was going to de stroy the establishment of Wasp millionaires who control racing. He kept the strike going and wound up on strike alone with racing go ing on and his License suspended. He drifted into construction and he now owned this apartment House on East 84th Street and also a Model Agency. How Model an Agency is debatable. Police interested in the Call girl part. They Are persistent in trying to de Termine if the girls Ever were used As couriers in any cocaine Trade that Tupper and Jacob son were , Tupper was in it. With no visible Means of support he emerged As the owner of a bar on third Avenue. When i went in there to see him one Day his laugh was slow in com s the matter i said. Remember the night the Guys came into the place in Queens he said. now they come in Here. Only now they want to talk to what s your problem i asked Tupper. They think they own the world. You do a Little thing on your own and right away they want your and do they want the bar i asked. No it s something else he said. It was cocaine. Jack Tupper had become a Friendly casual connection for people on the East Side who use cocaine with a consistency that makes it appear possible for the drug to follow marijuana into the realm of general acceptance. I never saw Tupper again. I read about him in police reports however. The other sunday at 2 ., on a deserted Road in the Bronx a portable closet in a lot was in flames and somebody called firemen. The firemen doused the flames and opened the closet and found inside the shot tortured burned body of Jack Tupper. Two Miles away police stopped a Cadillac. Driving was buddy Jacobson. In the front seat with him was Salvatore Giamo who spoke no English and police found was 10 months overdue on a visa from Palermo. The yellow Cadillac belonged to one Salvatore Prainito. He has disappeared and immigration authorities say he too is in the country illegally from was arrested for murder. Blood was found in Tupper s apartment and in Jacobsen s apartment that Are supposed to match those found in Tupper s body. The first Story was that Jacobson had killed Tupper be cause Jacobson s Girlfriend had moved out of Jacobson s apartment and in with Tupper. Anybody who knows Jacobson regards this As nonsense. He once had a girl named Linda who was the bookkeeper for his racing stable. When he bought a discotheque Linda worked the Cash Register and helped behind the bar. She would be up at 6 To do the race track business and then go to the discotheque and be there most nights until closing at 4 The Long nights began to remain in Linda s face. Over a drink one night buddy Jacobson said to a couple of us i got to get rid of Linda. The Broad s losing her and now in Bronx criminal court they brought Jacobson in for a bail hearing. Tupper is dead and buddy Jacobson shuffles toward his own Fate. Everybody on the East Side thinks it s a great murder Case
