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Show 2A The Salt Lake Tribune, Friday, February 7, 1986 : Spotlight o 0 4 Die Stealing Ballot Boxes; Alert Extended - i , , r J p- 1 in 4&' JrVn? iu Continued From members of the i .wM - - 0 JT S . V " . C - t - ? w k,j . ' . . ,, - . v. T" . a rN. '. U. 2 WK.'H .rT,p.r " h Associated Press Laserphoto Marcos supporter fires an air rifle at a group of hecklers backing Corazon Aquino A By Mike Carter Tribune Staff Writer A handwriting ejcpert has reviewed a number of documents sold by accused bomber Mark W. Hofmann to the Mormon Church apd said Thursday that most of them are forgeries. i Kenneth Rendell, of Newton, Mass., who in the 1970s exposed the Hitler diaries as being forgeries, said prosecutors and investigators last week approached him and asked him to review a number of documents and give his about 10 or a dozen opinion as to their authenticity. Every one of them pertained to early Mormon history, "In all but one of them, there was clear-cu- t physical evidence they were frauds, Mr. Rendell said in a telephone interview. The one in which he had a question was the 1830 white salamander letter a document he had examined before bombing victim Steven F. Christensen donated it to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-da- y Saints in October 1984. Mr. Rendell said that it is still unclear whether that document is a forgery. It was only that letter, authored by early church historian Martin Harris, that did not show signs of forged handwriting or chemical treatment he said is often used by forgers to age ink and paper. But whereas before I couldnt say it was a forgery all I said was that now I it did not appear to be forged can not say it isnt, Mr. Rendell said. Theres nothing to show it was but that is not to say it is forged real. That document, along with 11 other early church historical documents sold the the church, its officials or private citizens, are called forgeries and frauds in complaints filed against Mr. Hofmann earlier this week. Mr. Hofmann also is charged with counts of first degree murder in connection with the bombing deaths of Steven F. Christensen and Kathleen Sheets murders investigators say are directly linked to his documents dealing. Mr. Rendell said that a prosecutor and an investigator from the Salt Lake County Attorneys Office met with him last Friday and showed him documents. "A couple bore the signature of Joseph Smith, there were three or four Brigham Youngs and one from Joseph Smiths mother Lucy Mack Smith," he said. All of those documents are described in a complaint charging Mr. Hofmann with 11 counts of theft by deception. Seven of those charges allege he stole from the LDS Church and or President Gordon B. Hinckley of the first presidency amounts exceeding $1,000. There were signs they had been forged," he said. "For instance, the J in Joseph showed a jiggle in the loop that shouldn't be It was an obvious attempt there to copy the handwriting," he said. Not only were there apparent attempts to forge the writing, a review of the documents under an ultraviolet light showed all but the Martin Harris letter had been chemically treatworld-reknowne- d tell-tal- e ... ed "If you looked at the corners of the documents, you could see where they had been hung up to dry there were no chemical traces in the upper corners," he explained. The problem with the Martin Harris letter, as he now sees it. is that even if it isnt forged, it will be overshadowed" by the other apparent forgeries. It was Mr. Rendell who sold Mr Hofmann on consignment two pieces of papyrus from the Egyptian Book of the Dead last September papyrus that Mr. Hofmann later allegedly portrayed as coming from the Mormon McLellin collection to a number of potential investoi s It was the dealings with the M Lei a collection police feel lin papers Mark Hofmann never possessed that, investigators believe led Mr Hofmann to murder Steven Chnslen-seijiorder to prevent being exposed as fraud - d t 4 t as Filipinos lined up at the polls to voice their opinion in the divisive political war. Bond Decision Due Today for Hofmann Hofmann Sold Forgeries, Expert Says ; i Continued From A-- l common driveway outside the Sheets home in the early morning hours beKathleen Sheets was fore killed when she picked up a bomb-ladde- n package addressed to her husband left outside the home. Mr. Hofmann was charged with e two counts of murder, three counts pertaining to setting or possession of the bombs, and 23 counts of theft by deception and communications fraud involving his documents deals. Court documents allege that more than a dozen documents Mr. Hofmann sold to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-da- y Saints some throwing doubt on the official versions of the founding of the LDS are forgeries. Church Mr. Yengich Thursday had an ope Detective portunity to Farnsworth, and questioned perceived discrepancies found in the statements probable-caus- e the documents used to support the criminal charges and the police reports from which those statements were drawn. Through his questioning, it was apparent that the defense was attempting to debunk the states case, question police tactics and present other reasonable hypotheses about the murders including that the killings were related to organized-crim- e figures who may have lost money in CFS Investment Corp., a financially troubled business owned by Mr. Sheets and of which Mr. Christensen was once vice president. Mr. Yengich questioned the detective about a portion of the probable-caus- e statement that says Mr. Hofmann was sitting inside his car when the bomb exploded, where an earlier interview of one of two witnesses who saw that explosion do not support that contention. At first, Mr. Yengich identified as noted, the woman Lorrie Loftin said she never saw him in the car. It wasn't until another interview almost two months later, noted Mr. Yengich, that the witness changed her story and said she saw Mr. Hofmann in the front seat of his car making frantic movements just before the blast. first-degre- cross-examin- I t Mr. Yengich also attacked the foundation of the polices homicide case against Mr. Hofmann the eyewitness accounts at the Judge Building in which Mr. Hofmann was posti-vel- y identified as being the man carrying a package bearing Mr. Christensens name about an hour and a half before the murder. Mr. Yengich pointed out that his client did not have a moustache at the time of the killings, although the police composite drawing of the suspect shows facial hair. Continued From A-- l booster. Neither were the NASA officials asked if the astronauts' remains have been located. which is customary for elections here. But Aquinos supporters said they feared soldiers would be used to influence the vote. Radio reports said a policeman was wounded in Bacolod, 300 miles south of Manila. In the capital, workers for Mrs. Aquinos UNIDO party charged that armed men from Marcos New Society Movement abducted and beat an Aquino supporter, whose whereabouts were unknown. Forty minutes after the polls opened, Mrs. Aquino voted at a schoolhouse at Hacienda Luisita, a sugar plantation owned by her family in Tarlac province, 70 miles north of Manila. Barricades were set up on roads leading to her hometown. "Today is my day, and Ive never been more confident of anything in my life as today, said Mrs. Aquino, 53, whose running mate is Sen. Salvador Laurel. Marcos, 68, flew by helicopter to his hometown of Batac, 250 miles north of the capital, to cast his ballot. He said a final survey showed he would win with 63 percent of the vote. Marcos running mate, Arturo is a member of Parliament, a former senator and foreign minister. Mrs. Aquino said she would need 65 percent to compensate for the fraud and cheating she expected from Marcos people. Joe Concepcion, chairman of NAM-FREa 500,000-membcitizens volunteer group, said in an interview there was not much rampant cheating, but said many voters were confused in some areas because they could not find their names on posted lists and some polling stations didnt open on time. Aquino headquarters charged some of her supporters were unfairly subjected to citizens arrests, and accused of voting in several precincts. In Danao City, reporters said NAMFREL volunteers abandoned their posts because they said they were being harassed. Sylvester Stallone welcoof the 1978 movie Coming Home, says a overdue. is veterans War long to Vietnam me-home salute war veteran in the Voieht, who portrayed an embittered paraplegic concert 24 featuring celebrities at the movie, said he supports a Feb. 18,000-seForum in Inglewood, Calif., because America owes a debt to Vietnam veterans. e "Welcome Home concert will feature KenThe four-hoHerbie Hancock, and ny Rogers, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Mike Farrell, Ed Asner and Fonda, McDonald. Peter Joe Country veterans. Voight will take part in ceremonies honoring veterans to support groups, be given Proceeds from the show will Welcome Home Inc. said Joie Talley, founder of the USO-styl- non-prof- it Sylvester Stallone and his wife, Brigitte Nielsen, got multiple nominations for bad acting from The Golden Raspberry Award Foundation. The sixth annual Razzie Award nominations were timed to coincide with this week's announcement of Oscar contenders. Stallone is up for worst actor in Rambo" and Rocky IV. Nielsen won nominations as worst actress in Red Sonja, worst IV" supporting actress in Rocky IV, and worst new actress in Rocky and Red Sonja. The other nominees for worst actress are Arian for Year of the for Night PaDragon, Jennifer Beals for The Bride, Linda Blair A trol, Savage Streets and Savage Island, and Tanya Roberts for View to a Kill. The Razzies will be given March 23 at a Los Angeles school auditorium, one day before the Academy Awards ceremonies. o, Willard Scott, along with hosts Jane Pauley and Bryant Gumbel, will be broadcasting live from Rio de Janeiro Monday through Wednesa day, but the Today show wants to ensure that topless women, fixture at Rio de Janeiros wild Carnival celebrations, dont end up on the air. In most cases our live cameras will be far enough away so we can exercise a bit of control, Michael Pressman, NBC special events We certainproducer, said when asked about spontaneous toplessness. ly wont go out and look for it toplessness but we may have to do some fast editing. Guests on the show will include soccer king Pele, celebrity plastic surgeon Ivo Pitanguy and bossa nova composer Tom Jobim, who will play live. Trlbune wlre Wvlces The hearing opened with a pledge of full cooperation from NASA acting administrator William Graham, who also said his agency looks forward to the resumption of shuttle flights. The space shuttle program has been grounded while the search continues for a cause of the Challenger accident. Then, Moore and a parade of NASA officials toox the panel through several hours of slide-shobriefings on the shuttle program a presentation that was so that commission chairman William Rogers urged witnesses to focus their testimony a little more directly on the flight. The session, at the National Academy of Sciences, took place as NASA crews picked up the tip of Challengers external fuel tank and examined sonar readings that indicated that parts of both boosters may now have been located on the Atlantic floor off Cape Canaveral. Rogers said at the end of the day that the panel would resume its meetings on Friday in private, but promised that all of the information coday-lon- Scien- d g llected would be made public eventually. From the outset, commission -- United Press International Photo Former astronaut Neil Armstrong, left, and William Rogers confer as hearing opens into shuttle Challengers disaster. members bore in with questions about the suspect right booster rocket and the unusually cold temperatures that preceded the launch. Moore, NASAs deputy administrator in charge of shuttle operations, said experts are enhancing all of our photography . . . and were concen ed by last weeks explosion of the shuttle Challenger and the resulting launch moratorium while the accident is investigated. r The design phase of the spectrograph program is to start in July, but researchers already are beginning preparatory work, Timothy said The device is to be inserted in the space telescope by shuttle astronauts sometime between 1992 and two-yea- 1995. Despite Faulty Gear - A United AirCHICAGO (AP) lines jet whose nose gear failed to descend landed safely at OHare International Airport on Thursday. None of the 56 aboard was injured, an airline spokesman said. The Boeing 727 jetliner circled the airport for 45 minutes to burn excess fuel to prevent a fire, said United spokesman Charles Novak. Flight 670 originated in Denver and had landed in Oklahoma City before flying to Chicago. There was only minor damage to the jetliner in the 5.30 p.m. landing. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -salvage vessel brought the pointed tip of Challengers huge fuel tank to port Thursday, and NASA believed it located the shuttles second rocket booster under the ocean 15 miles from the launch pad. A Public affairs officers for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said privately that sonar soundings indicated the left booster had been located. But, acting under instructions that any statement must be cleared with agency investigators, Attacks by Both Parties Bring Beagan To Defense of Proposed Budget Plan From l budget, an effort they contended might discredit it Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole, , said people would have to be allowed to "howl and scream" about the budget for several weeks before lawmakers could get down to serious work. And Reagan himself, during an Oval Office photo session, was asked about congressional criticism that the budget was "dead on arrival." "Well give it artificial respiration," Reagan joked The president disputed a characterization by House Speaker Thomas P O'Neill Jr that the budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct 1 was "a disgrace." "I don't see anything disgraceful about a budget that is pending al- Continued A-- n , . most a trillion dollars, and is at the same time starting to move under the laws that they've adopted to balance the budget, Reagan said. He also said that a proposal for development of a commercial space plane that could fly from Washington to Tokyo in two hours, as the president described it in his Sta'e of the Union address, "isn't a top priority. That's just another evidence that I've given that we are continuing with the progress that we've made in space, in moving forward in fields of that kind in technology." O'Neill, meanwhile, said the Democrats would ask Reagan to send representatives to next week's field hearings to defend the spending plan "There have been reports that Republican members of Congress have refused to appear on the saie plat trating a lot of that photography on solid rocket booster. the right-han- d Moore said NASA is forming a to think up devil's advocate team scenarios that may have occurred" during the mission. Moore displayed enlarged photographs of that would indicate a solid rocket plume on the right-hanbooster 58.9 seconds into the flight. In the next 12 seconds, he said, the plume moved quite a bit, growing and merging with the orbiters huge fuel tank just milliseconds before the tragedy. The explosion occurred just after the Jan. 28 flight was 73 seconds old, and NASAsArnold D. Aldrich agreed there is no practical abort mode to save the crew during the first two minutes of flight, before the booster rockets burn out and separate from the shuttle. Thus, commander Richard Scobee probably could not have steered Challenger to safety even if the plume was detected. Questioned closely by several members of the panel, Aldrich said he had no concern on launch day about the impact of the temperatures on the shuttle. Nor do I at this time, he said. Temperatures on the morning of the launch were well within the specification design" for the shuttle, its main fuel tank and the two smaller solid rocket boosters, said Aldrich. ... d Sonar Spots What May Be 2nd Booster, Says NASA Jetliner Lands Safely tists said Thursday they are starting work on a powerful device to be put in the Hubble Space Telescope in the 1990s that will record light images near the edge of time in the universe. The imaging spectrograph funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is expected to be up to 2,000 times more efficient than a similar device that will be part of the original space telescope system. Well be seeing objects as they were 14 billion years ago," said J. Gethyn Timothy, a Stanford University research professor in applied physics who is working with a team of scientists at the Ball Aerospace Systems Division in Boulder, Colo. "The universe is believed by many scientists to have started about 18 billion years ago, so we'll be getting a view close to the edge of time as we know it," he said. "Nearer objects, like the planets or closer stars, will be seen with tremendous clarity Objects 100 million times fainter than can be seen with the naked eye will be recorded by the spectrograph through the space telescope. We are entering the greatest era in astrophysics since Galileo invented the telescope," in 1609, Timothy said "The image quality of the space telescope eombiped with the power of this spectrograph will change many of our ideas about space and time and the origins of the universe " The space telescope was to have been launched in October on the space shuttle Atlantis, but it is uncertain how that schedule wMl be affect Willard Scott Jon Voight, star slow-pace- Powerful Device Will Record Light Near the Edge of Time Calif. (AP) l military were called the highest state of readiness, Source of Shuttles Flame Eludes NASA Billion Years Ago STANFORD, A-- form as the president's budget, ONeill told reporters. "Its his budget. We want him to justify it. As Reagan's top lieutenants made the rounds on Capitol Hill defending the administrations new budget, a three-judg- e federal panel announced it would rule Friday on a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Gramm-Rudmabudget-balancin- g law. Twelve members of Congress and a federal employee's union brought the suit. Despite the president's general support for the law, the Justice Department joined the court case to challenge its mechanism for automatic cuts when Congress fails to meet specified tardeficit-reductio- n gets. A court ruling invalidating the law could thrown major uncertainty into this year's budget debate. ) the spokesmen could not confirm that officially. NASA also would not say whether a helmet brought aboard a Coast Guard cutter, along with tiles and other debris from the shuttle, belonged to one of the seven Challenger astronauts. ABC News showed film of the helmet on World News Tonight on Thursday and said the pictures had been made by a member of the search team. The agencys recovery ships have been concentrating on an area 35 miles offshore where they believe the right booster lies under 1,100 feet of water. But, spokesmen cautioned, the soundings cant be validated until robot submarines photograph the wreckage. In any case, it will be days, if not weeks, after positive identification before either of the heavy rocket casings can be raised by Navy salvage crews. Some engineers said privately they fear the casings may be broken into pieces and scattered on the ocean floor. The finding of the fuel tank tip was a different matter. News photographs showed sailors on the USS Preserver, a World War II Navy salvage ship out of Little Creek, Va lifting the tip of the fuel tanks cone from one deck to another On liftoff, the tained more than 154-fo- a half-millio- n tank congal- lons of super-colliquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The crew of seven was killed. Although some human remains have been found since the Jan. 28 accident, NASA has refused to say whether the remains have been identified as those of any of the astronauts. d v |
