European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 16, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday. August 16. 1989 the stars and stripes Page 7 Truitt files $ 100,000 suit on life policy Jacksonville. Fla. A a Navy Petty officer has filed a Federal Law suit seeking payment of $100,000 on a life insurance policy held by a shipmate killed in the april 19 gun Turret explosion aboard the battleship Iowa. The lawsuit was filed monday by Ken Dall l. Truitt in . District court in Miami against Macx life Assurance co. Of san Rafael. Calif., according to Ellis Rubin a Miami attorney representing Truitt. Truitt now stationed at Mayport naval station near Jacksonville was the the sole beneficiary of a $50,000 double indemnity policy held by Clayton Hart wig one of 47 sailors killed in the Iowa explosion. Both Hartwig and Truitt were gunner s mates on the Iowa. Rubin said the life insurance company was refusing to pay the claim on Hart wig s death until the Navy completes its investigation into the Iowa explosion. They arc wait ing for the Navy s report and they said the Navy is in Truitt dictating they have circumstantial Evi Dence that it might have been a  Rubin said. Last month Abc to reported that Navy investigators believed that the explosion aboard the Iowa was the result of sabotage by Hartwig. The network said Navy criminal investigators found a compelling circumstantial Case that Hartwig. 25, was a troubled homosexual who took his own life in the blast. Navy spokesman it. Greg Smith said july 19 that the conclusion of suicide was not based on official reports of the  Hartwig had purchased the insurance policy through the Atlantic Fleet Federal credit Union in Norfolk. A. Naming Truitt As beneficiary said Rubin s son. Guy Rubin who is handling the lawsuit. Amex a division of american express said through an attorney it had no comment. We Haven t seen the pleading. Alexis still investigating this claim said at Torney Corrine Chandler. Rubin said Macx had two months to pay the Benefit from the filing of the loss which occurred june 12. I think they will Settle with us As soon As the Navy report does not reach the conclusion there was a suicide and it wont Rubin said. We arc very upset that the Navy re port is taking so Long to come out. Either the Navy is planning a Whitewash or a coverup. I Don t know which of the  s Why it is taking so Long Rubin said. Taking Community Back brotherhood crusade Volunteer Ron Fanti la Points to the spot where two people Here killed in 1983 in the Avalon Garden housing project in South Central los Angeles. The Community based social sen ice croup has u launched u program. Taking our Community Back to counter the effects of tangs on communities. Expert doubts tale of 18-foot Gator clew1ston, Fla. A boaters and fishermen claim an 18-foot-Pius Alligator is living in like Okic Choc a. But a state wildlife expert says he doubts it. It looks monstrous bigger than our boat and we have a 19-footer," Rebecca Dunn who has been fishing on the Lake with her husband since 1966, said. We Sec it All the time added Dunn who said she believes the Alligator is a female. Dunn has named the Alligator Llyn Drichta for Hen dry county one of five counties surrounding Lake  which is about 100 Miles Northwest of Miami and at 700 Square Miles is Florida s largest Lake. Fisherman Sonny Pease said he saw the giant creature sunning itself on Shore. He said that when he took his boat closer to the Gator he kept repeating of my god. That Alligator is Long. Nobody s going to believe  he said when he got within about 200 Yards of the big reptile it started swimming toward his 18-foot boat. It was All of my boat s size Pease recalled. However wildlife biologist Mike Jennings of the slate game and fresh water fish commission in Gainesville said an 18-foot Alligator would be highly improbable. The longest Gator on record was trapped last month in the Apalachicola River Southwest of Tallahassee. I measured just Over 14 feet and weighed 714 pounds and was estimated to be 100 years old. The heaviest Gator caught in april near Gainesville weighed 1,043 pounds and was 13 feet Long. It took a Tow truck to lift it and three Scales to weigh it. That was a very healthy Gator Jennings said. I would be questioned it if 1 had t seen it  the giant Gator s real length May be determined after sept. I when Florida s monthlong Alligator sea son starts. Every Hunter who has a permit will be going for  said Pease s 22-year-old son Keith. It. Judge rules indians retain fishing rights Montpelier. It. A ver Mont s Abenaki indians won a Victory monday in their centuries old fight for rights and land when a judge ruled the tribe retains its aboriginal fishing rights. This is a very major Victory for the Abe  said Gabor Rona the lawyer who represents the tribe which numbers about 2,000, primarily in Northwestern Vermont. The ruling by Vermont District judge Joseph Wolchik dismisses fish and game violations filed two years ago by the state against several tribe members. The state contended the tribe members had no right to fish without the state License required of All others. Wolchik found otherwise saying the tribe retained the fishing rights it has had for centuries. He said the stale failed to prove the tribe abandoned or ceded their missis quoi Homeland or that their aboriginal rights were extinguished by either an express act or an act clearly and unambiguously implying any Sovereign s intent to extinguish those  accordingly the missis quoi s Borgi Nal right to fish in their missis quoi Homeland continues to exist today the judge wrote. Homer St. Francis the tribal chief who has said we Are a nation and we own the state was ecstatic following the ruling. This Victory is for fishing rights he said. Now Well be fighting for our  Hammer pardoned for illegal Campaign funds Washington a president Bush has pardoned Oil Man Armand Hammer an industrialist with Strong soviet ties who was convicted of making illegal Campaign contributions in a sidelight to the watergate scandal the White House confirmed monday. The 91-year-old Hammer had announced the Par Don earlier in los Angeles. All i can do for you is confirm that it is True said White House spokesman Bob Hall who said Ham Mer s Pardon was one of 10 pardons signed by Bush monday. I deeply appreciate president Bush s action in Clearing my name Hammer said in a statement is sued through his Occidental Petroleum corp. Head quarters. Hammer had spent several years seeking a Pardon and there had been speculation that former president Reagan would Grant him one in the last Days of his term in office. Hammer originally pleaded guilty in Washington to three Misdemeanour charges of making $54,000 in Ille Gal contributions to then president Nixon s 1972 re election Campaign charges filed by the watergate special prosecutor. But the judge threw out the plea after Hammer wrote a 20-Page letter to his probation officer blaming former Montana gov. Tim Babcock an Occidental corp. Vice president for the contributions Babcock was convicted of concealing Hammer s identity As the True source of the Money. But in 1976, Hammer left a los Angeles Hospital bed to enter court in a wheelchair hooked to a cardiac monitoring device and enter another plea assuring the judge i m pleading because i m guilty Hammer was sentenced to a year s probation and ordered to pay a $3,000 Tine. The judge said he spared Hammer a prison sentence because of his precarious health. Hammer was a millionaire by the time he graduated from Columbia University medical school at age 23, having taken Over his father s pharmaceutical business four years earlier. After graduation. Hammer went to the soviet uni onto negotiate a business Deal and wound up with a con cession for an Asbestos mine and a Pencil factory