The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, May 6, 1981-Page 9
Atlanta
mother
will sue
FBI over
remark
From AP and UPI
ATLANTA - The mother of one of the
26 victims in the string of unsolved
slayinigs in Atlanta said yesterday she
plans to sue the FBI unless it apologizes
for an agent's statement that "some of
the kids were killed by their parents."
Venus Taylor, whose daughter Angel
Lanier is listed as one of the earliest
slaying victims, said other mothers
also are considering legal action
because of the comment last month by
Mike Twibell, the agent in charge of the
FBI's Macon, Ga., office. r
TWIBELL MADE THE remark to
reporters after addressing a civic club
in the central Georgia city.
The FBI refused comment at the time
on the statement, and spokesman Dick
Berry in Atlanta said the agency would
have no comment on the threatened
legal action.
Attorney Mark Lane said Monday he
-had been contacted by Mrs. Taylor and
as many as 10 mothers had "asked if
they could join the suit."
MRS. TAYLOR SAID SHE would
drop plans for the legal action if the
bureau made a public apology.
Meanwhile, a slighlty-built 22-year-
old deaf mute who fit the profile of four
recent victims in Atlanta's string of
slayings of young blacks was found safe
yesterday after a "beefed-up" search
was launched, police said.
Anthony Gates turned up yesterday
after he'd been missing about 24 hours,
but details on how he was found or
where he had been were not im-
mediately available, said police
spokesman Benjamin Sims.
GATES, WHO WAS LAST seen at his
southeast Atlanta home Monday
around 6 p.m., had been reported
missing by his brother.
A general alarm had been issued
because Gates fit the profile of four
recent victims in a string of slayings R
which have taken the lives of 26 young
blacks here, said police spokeswoman
Beverly Harvard.
Four recent victims have been slighly
built black males in their 20s. Gates is 5
feet 3 and weighs 140 pounds. lJ usI fraa4X%
Although the general alarm was .4 f Hrtt4mFe6W91 y
issued earlier yesterday in Gates' case,
it never was added officially to the f''" rv d
special police task force list - which
includes the 26 victims and 10-year-old - r
Darron Glass, who has been missing - * a itk
since September 1980.
AT LEAST 15 of the 26 young blacks
found dead since July 1979 died either of
undetermined causes or of asphyxia, a
broad term that includes suffocation
and strangulation.
Lack of an officials cause of death for
some 'of the 26 young AtlpAuta blacks
found slain may make it impossible to
prosecute their killers, a veteran in-
vestigator said.
"I think some of them will get
caught," said the investigator, who
asked to remain anonymous, but, "in
some of these cases, it will be hard to
prosecute unless they (police) catch 98,os schlitz eeog Company waokee.W
him and he says 'yes, I did do this.'
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