Page 10-Tuesday, July 18, 1978-The Michigan Daily
Old West myths shot down
STOCKTON, Calif. (AP)-Historians IIT/ ,
came with their six-guns drawn to the
and Lawmen Association, and when it
was over, some dearly held Old West
myths lay in the dust, shot full of holes. . .
Was Jesse James really the
chivalrous Robin Hood he was painted th to nudge a few myths off their
to be? Or was he actually a vicious ban- pedestals.
dit whose bite was fully as bad as his THEIR CONFABULATION at the
bark? University of the Pacific was rife with
WAS THERE REALLY a "Gunfight corridor chitchat, of range wars and
at the O.K. Corral" in Tombstone, miners' riots, vigilante hangings and
Ariz., or was it a brawl of couple of saloon shootings. Scholarly sources
blocks away? were musty diaries, brittle newspaper
How about Black Bart, the gentle, clips, court files and other nuggets
poetic highwayman of the Sierra members used to set the record
foothills? Was he the soul of generosity straight.
and kindliness, or a dandy who kept a Jim Earle, a Texan whose gun collec-
woman and spent his loot on expensive tion includes pieces whose triggers
canes and fancy shirts. have felt the fingers of the likes of
The association, comprising 150 Wyatt Earp and John Wesley Hardin,
professional historians and history buf- warned members not to buy as genuine
fs, thought the time was right this mon- antique guns whose butts were said to
COUPLE SUES FOR $1.5 MILLION:
yhappened
Corral.
have been noticed by gunslingers.
"I can't see any man on the run sit-
ting around a campfire carving his
initials in the butt of a gun," said Earle.
TUCSON, ARIZ., historian John
Gilchriese suggested the infamous O.K.
Corral shootout could better be titled a
brawl on Fremont Street, because the
event that made household names of
Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday did not
happen in or near a corral.
Jesse Woodson James was nothing
more than a vicious, bad-talking gun-
slinger, the group was told. It has been
Hollywood distortion and creative
writing that made him a "great"
criminal.
Doctor on
NEW YORK (AP)-Lawyers for the
doctor accused of destroying a
laboratory-fertilized human embryo
tried yesterday to discredit the
physicians who had arranged to im-
plant the embryo in a woman who is
now suing.
The woman her husband have
brought a $1.5 million damage suit
against Columbia Presbyterian
Medical Center, Columbia University
and Dr. Raymond Vande Wiele.
THE SUIT ALLEGES that the em-
bryo was "maliciously and arbitrarily"
destroyed on Sept. 13, 1973, three days
before it was to hve been implanted in
the womb of Doris Del Zio, now 34. She
had been unable to conceive normally
because of blocked Fallopian tubes.
The Del Zios, former New York City
residents, now live in Fort Lauderdale,
Fla.
Vande Wiele, chief of obstetrics and
gynecology at the medical center, has
said he destroyed the embryo in 1973
because the doctors involved did not
have the skill to make the implant suc-
cessful.
BOTH SIDES gave opening
statements yesterday after a jury of
four women and two men was selected
by Judge Charles Stewart in U.S.
District Court in Manhattan.
The experiment was being carried
out by two doctors. Dr. Landru, Shettles
Rermanufeef red Engines
for Velk sn
from
$349exch
Jack's Garage
1180 Barker Rd..
Whitmore Lake
449-8908
PORSCHE ENGINES
trialfor embryo death
of Columbia prepared the embryo from client a severe mental setback from
an egg from Doris Del Zio and the which she still has not recovered.
sperm of her husband, Joh, now 59, and "We will prove that the shock, the
kept it in an incubator at the univer- mental blow, the trauma, sent her into
sity's College of Physicans and psychiatric treatment, impaired her
Surgeons. marriage," Dennis said.
The implantation was to be perfor- VANDE WIELE'S lawyer, Stephen
med by Dr. William Sweeny at New O'Leary, claimed the experiment was
York Hospital. blocked because it had not been submit-
THE DEFENSE lawyers said Shet- ted tolthe hospital's human experiment
ties, who worked at Columbia for 27 committee for approval. He said the
years, showed early promise as a doc- Del Zios had more than one year's time
tor but was gradually demoted and to put the matter before the committee
stripped of his teaching responsibilities but chose not to do so. He said hospital
and supervision of resident doctors regulations required three committees
because of student complaints. approve such experiments "to protect
Doris Del Zio's lawyer, Michael Den- the public and the consumer from
nis, contended in his opening statement dangerous and untried medical
that Vande Wiele's action caused his procedures."
Watergate trial tapes
turned over to govt.
WASHINGTON, (AP) - Tapes and presidential evidence used in the cases
presidential papers used in' the turned over to the Archives during an
Watergate trials of former President unpublicized hearing last week.
Richard Nixon's top aides have been Sirica was acting on a petition filed
turned over to the National Archives, by James Rhoads, archivist of the
but officials say the public may not United States, who requested the
have access to them for some time. material after the Supreme Court ruled
Richard Jacobs, acting director of that the courts should not be charged
the Nixon materials project at the Ar- with responsibility for deciding what
chives, said yesterday the material materials should be released.
must be processed and a Nixon lawsuit JACOBS SAID that after Sirica
over the materials resolved before the issued his order, "We then went to the
- public can listen to the tapes and read vault and the clerk of the court turned
the documents. over to us all the presidential materials
BUT, JACOBS added, "We are that had been used in the trials."
working toward that goal. The Archives received 38 original
U.S. District Judge John Sirica, who reel tape recordings plus 176
presided at most of the trials, ordered duplicates, some transcripts, some
notes made by defendants.
Actually, James has been stripped of
much of his glamor in previously
published accounts.
WHAT OF Black Bart, alias Charles
Bolton or Boles, who robbed 29 Wells
Fargo stagecoaches of $18,000 in gold
and never fired a shot? James Shebl, a
director of the Holt-Atherton Pacific
Center for Western Studies, said Bolton
gave his loot to a Sacramento
prostitute.
Shebl questions whether Black Bart
wasn't more selfish tha kindly. But with
Black Bart the legend will take more
than a kick in the slats to unhorse.
News accounts from 1883 have
Bolton-Boles tracked down by a Wells
Fargo detective. Nabbed at last, one of
the lawmen sneered that the "outlaw"
was finally in hand. His moustaches
bristling, Black Bart drew his thin
frame ramrod straight and, twirling his
gold-headed cane, objected, "I sir, am
a gentleman."
Flouride
mouthwash
cuts decay,
study says
WASHINGTON (AP) - A
nationwide test with more than
70,000 children shows that weekly
use of a fluoride mouthwash can
cut tooth decay an average of 35
per cent, government scientists
said yesterday.
The National Institute of Den-
tal Research said all of the
children in the demonstration
programs were in communities
without fluorinated water.
MORE THAN half the nation's
population lives in communities
without fluorinated water and
those people could easily reap the
benefits of a school-based
mouthwash program at
relatively little cost, said Dr.
James Carlos, associate director
of the institute.
"We estimate there are at least
20 million children in nontfluoride
communities who could be
helped," Carlos told a news
briefing on the $2.5 million
demonstration program.
"Dental caries (decay) is the
leading chronic disease in
children, affecting more than 90
per cent of them," Carlos said.
Even though the nation spent
more than $10 billion in 1977 on
dental services, about half the
population got no professional
care at all, he added.
CARLOS SAID the three-year
project with elementary school
children in 17 communities con-
firmed earlier research trials,
which showed a 20 per cent to 50
per cent reduction in tooth decay
under controlled conditions.
Among children who drink
fluorinated water from birth,
tooth decay is reduced 55 per cent
to 60 per cent compared with
those who don't, hesaid.
Dr. Ann Miller, program coor-
dinatorfor the institute, said the
demonstration showed it costs
only about 50 cents per student to
supply mouthwash, cups and
F
Free introduction to
The Transcendental Medfiaion Program
Wednesday. July 19
12 noon 8 p.m.
Michigan Union Undergraduate Library
Room 4111 Multi-purpose Room