The Michigan DailyT Vol. LXXXVI , No. 64-S Ann Arbor, Michigan-Friday, August 12, 1977 Ten Cents Twelve Pages VA staffers offer new info; seek Congressional inquiry By KEITH B. RICHBURG T w o Veterans Adminis- tration (VA) H o s p i t a l nurses, part of an employe g r o u.p supporting Filipina Narciso and Leonora Perez, will travel to Lansing today to present information to a I a w y e r for the Michigan Nurses Association (MNA) that they hope will lead to a congressional probe of the VA poisoning case. The employe g r o u p has been soliciting signed affi- davits from any VA workers with "any factual informa- tion" that would "encour- age a congressional investi- gation." "THE TWO OF us who are go- ing have things to say that the lawyer will be interested in," said Mary James, head nurse on the VA's fifth floor wing. James claims VA Staff Chief Dr. Martin Lindenauer's narrow definition of "respiratory ar- rest" may have made the num- ber of arrests (56) in the sum- mer of 1975 seem more abnor- mal than it was. The other nurse going to Lansing today, Eleanor Feather, will tell of breathing failures still occurring at the VA, ac- cording to James. The employes, however, insist that none of the current breath- ing failures are at all suspici- ous. Asked if the hospital was having more breathing failures than normal, James replied "not when you consider the hot weather we've been having." There has been speculation that the 1975 breathing failures could have been caused by hot weather, speculation that led one of the defense attorneys at the trial to question a witness about the lack of air condition- ing at the VA. THE EMPLOYES, the first organized group of h o s p i t a l workers to voice support for Narciso and Perez, having been trying to find witnesses to an apparent breathing failure three weeks ago, when Staff Chief Lin- denauer allegedly asked the doc- tor on call to alter the death certificate. One hospital worker, who ask- ed not to be identified, told the Daily that the doctor "wrote 'respiratory arrest' on a death certificate and Lindenauer told him to change it. The source said Lindenauer instructed the doctor, a new, in- tern, to change the death cer- tificate to say 'cardiac arrest,' s a y i n g "respiratory arrests don't happen here anymore." THE DOCTOR in question did not deny that Lindenauer asked him about a death certificate, but the doctor said he dismissed the incident. "I was a new in- tern at the time and it was my first death certificate," the doc- tor said. "He (Lindenauer) just wanted me to be absolutely certain." The doctc- insisted that he was not "told" to change the death certificate, and that he was free to list "respiratory arrest" as the cause of death if he felt sure about it. Lindenauer is on leave from the hospital until August 15 and could not be reached for com- ment. Pat Thomas, a nursing assist- ant and member of the employe support group, said the doctor told her about the incident with Lindenaiter and "he seemed more uptight than upset." "HE (THE DOCTOR) told me in front of two medical students. We want to get an affidavit and have all of us who know sign it and send it (to the MNA attor- ney)," she said. The MNA was the first group supporting Narciso and Perez to call for a congressional in- See VA, Page 7 State may hike 'U' funding By DENISE FOX The House- College and Uni- versities Committee yesterday tecommended increased funds be provided to the state Depart- ment of Education and increas- ing the number of students in- cluded in guaranteed student loan programs for this coming academic year. The recommendations came at an emergency meeting called by the Chairman of the com- mitee, state representative, Jackie Vaughn (D-Detroit). The increased funding is con- tingent upon approval by House Speaker Bobby Crimm, and Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Dominic Jacobetti, Vaughn said. VAUGHN SAID the imme- diate gravity of the rising tui- tion cost compelled him to call the meeting although the legis- lators are in summer recess. "The whole idea is to see what we can do at an emer- gency situation," Vaughn said. We are trying to suspend the ruies and regulations; put it on top priority and get it through." University President, Robben Fleming said anything to im- prove the financial aid would be helpful, but expressed doubt that increased aid could be funded so close to the academ- ic year. "I WOULD think it's pretty late to have appropriations for it this fall," he said. Fleming said the committee meeting was an outgrowth of a, meeting in Lansing where people connected with a num- bet of different universities were asked to discuss the prob- iems of higher education, "Rapid rise in tuition is one of Lhe great problems," he said. VAUGHN SAID the universi- ties have raised tuition to re- flect increasing costs, saddling middle and lower income fami- lies with a load they cannot really carry. "College is being priced be- yona, their reach. Without some relief, education will become even more unavailable to the masses, Vaughn said. he added that many students are forced to go to school part- time or drop out because they cart meet the cost. HARVEY GROTRIAN, Asso- ciate Director of the office of Financial Aid, at the Univer- sity, said he believed the uni- versity was successful in meet- See STATE, Page 10 Police nab 'Son of Sam suspect, manhunt ends NEW YORK (R) - The greatest manhunt in New York City history ended yesterday with the accused .44-caliber slayer consigned to a mental ward. Outside the court, a sidewalk crowd de- manded his life be forfeited, chanting, "Kill! Kill!" The seizure of the so-called Son of Sam, said by police to be responsible for six murders, came as he reportedly planned a monumental blood- bath to climax his dark career. PAUNCHY, bland-looking David Berkowitz, 24, an Army veteran who worked as a $13,000-a-year postal clerk, was quoted as saying he planned a machine-gun raid on an unselected but presum- ably crowded discotheque in the Hamptons, the Long Island summer haunt of the wealthy and socially prominent. Police said Berkowitz, who was a New York City auxiliary policeman for three years in the early 1970s, told them he wanted to "go out in a blaze of glory." An unmailed letter to Suffolk County authori- ties and a map of Long Island beaches reported- ly were found in Berkowitz' car after his arrest Wednesday night outside his apartment house in Yonkers, a city of 550,000 adjoining New York City to the north. AT A NEWS conference, Police Commissioner Michael Codd said that a $35 parking ticket hung on Berkowitz's car near the scene of the last murder and a tip from a source in Yonkers were key factors leading to his arrest. Codd also revealed for the first time that Berkowitz had left a fingerprint on one of two earlier notes that fell into police hands. Berkowitz went before Judge Richard Brown in the Brooklyn Criminal Court shortly before noon. He was charged with the latest of the six slayings, that of Stacy Moskowitz, 20, last July 31 - two days pas the anniversary of the first .44-caliber murder. He was also charged with the attempted mur- der of her boyfriend, Robert Violante, also 20, who may have been blinded for life by the killer's gunfire. OTHER CHARGE : included assault and pos- session of a deadly weapon - the .44-caliber See POLICE, Page 6 David Berkowitz, 24, of Yonkers, N.Y., was booked yester- day on second degree murder charges for the killing of Stacy Moskowitz. Police believe Berkowitz to be "Son of Sam," who has killed six persons and wounded seven in the last year.