f.
News record
81st Year No. 1 PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE COUNTY SEAT AT MARSHALL, N.C.
7/ IW2
I Kadlson
Coynty Llbitry 9/81
Uarah&ll, UC 28753
1 5c Per Copy
Game Room Owner's Home Leveled
By NICHOLAS HANCOCK
Editor
HOT SPRINGS - A fire of
undetermined origin destroyed the
home of Franklin S. (Hank)
Holmes here early Sunday morn
ing.
Hampered by gusty winds and a
faulty fire hydrant, volunteer
firemen were unable to extinquish
the blaze which leveled the single
story, six-room log and frame
structure located on Spring Creek
Road.
Holmes and his wife, Teresa,
were vacationing in Florida at the
time of the fire which began at ap
proximately 1 a.m. The house was
unoccupied.
Holmes and family members say
they suspect arson in the incident
and requested a State Bureau of In
vestigation arson investigator to be
on the scene Monday. The question
of arson arose from recent phone
threats received by other area
residents in December. (See
related story on this page. )
The house belonged to Holmes'
mother, Mrs. Alberta Stroud who
received a call in December stating
everything she owned would be
burned if she didn't stay out of Hot
Springs.
The fire was discovered shortly
before 1 a.m. by John H. Glenn, a
next door neighbor, when, accor
ding to Mrs. Glenn, "we heard
something popping, like gunshots,
outside." Glenn opened the door to
his house and saw smoke coming
from the Holmes residence and
turned in the fire alarm.
The Hot Springs Volunteer Fire
Department responded to the
alarm within minutes but a faulty
fire hydrant, located at the edge of
Holmes' front yard, prevented
firemen from containing the blaze,
according to Fire Chief Carroll
Anderson.
"The hydrant was not operating
properly," Anderson said. "We
could have contained it to two
rooms if the hydrant would have
worked. I've been a firemen for 22
years, and it's the first hydrant
that didn't work," he said.
Anderson said nearly 30 minutes
were needed to replenish the 500
gallon water supply in the town's
only fire truck while using the
hydrant.
Anderson said the fire apparent
( Continued on Page 3)
mgio or n. nvanui >
Only Chimneys and Foundation Remain At Home Of Hank Holmes
ROCK SLIDE ? Heavy rains which inun
dated much of Madison County Sunday night
produced swollen streams and numerous
mud and rock slides along the county's roads
and highways. This slide occurred on U.S.
25*70 on Hot Springs Mountain between Mar
shall and Hot Springs. State Department of
Transportation workers removed the debris,
which blocked the northbound lane, within a
few hours. Unofficially, nearly two inches of
rain fell on the county during the night.
0
Barbara Cook's Mother Says
Kids Were Not 'Abandoned'
Last Wednesday morning. Dec. 30.
the phone rang in the News Record of
fice. It was Barbara Cook's mother,
and she was distraught.
She had some things to say that casta
whole different light on a story that ran
in the previous Thursday's News
Record about M-year-oid Barbara's
self -proclaimed search for her sisters,
from whom She had been separated
k since early childhood
Barbara told a reporter from the
seen" her natural mother, although she
said, "I don't think of her as my
mother," and of now being interested
solely in being reunited with her sister*
her sisters
The News Record picked up the story
from its sister paper.
Haltingly and tearfully, and on the
promise that her name would not be us
ed, the mother's side of the story urv
were not
father died and their
a man who, she says.
mother, threatened and desperate,
returned home and signed properly ex
ecuted adoption papers. The children
were already gone.
give them better homes and better lives
than I ever could have given them,'' she
says, "but I did it right and I never
abandoned them. Never."
She has in fact stayed in more or leaa
constant contact over the years with
Barbara, the only one of the daughters
whose whereabouts she knew. She says
that Barbara did not live in "several"
Three Hot Springs Residents
Targets Of Phone Threats
By NICHOLAS HANCOCK
Editor
Three Hot Springs residents say they
have been threatened of being burned
out of their homes and property, while
others say they have received annoying
phone calls from anonymous callers in
recent weeks.
Still others have had their homes
falsely advertised for sale in area
newspapers and have received un
solicited calls from Asheville moving
companies supposedly answering " re
quests" for estimates in moving them
to other cities.
Several of the residents feel they are
being intimidated because of their sup
port of certain candidates in the Nov. 3
town election and a local gameroom
operator.
No one knows for sure who's
perpetrating the threats or hoaxes, but
"people here are mad" and are deter
mined to "put a stop to it one way or
another according to Richard Waltz,
a victim of some of the calls and one of
the hoaxes.
Residents say they have complained
to the telephone company with little
results and to the State Bureau of In
vestigation with similar results until
the early Sunday morning fire which
destroyed the house of Franklin S.
i Hank) Holmes, also a recipient of
some of the annoying calls. SBI Agent
Tom Shook told Holmes and some of the
residents that an investigation into the
threatening calls would be made.
In all, 15 households have reportedly
received anonymous calls beginning
Nov. 7, but forms of intimidation seem
to have been stepped up and centered
on six families during the week of Dec.
8 through Dec. IS.
Three individuals, Rurlin Ricker. Pat
Gentry and Mrs. Alberta Stroud, say
they received threatening calls on Dec
8.
Ricker, who owns Ricker's Grocery,
said last week that his wife received a
call from a man who said, "We're going
to burn your house if you don't keep
your mouth shut.'' A few days later, the
Rickers received a call from an
Asheville moving company to give
them an estimate on moving their
belongings to Tampa, Fla. Ricker also
said a representative of a realty com
pany called shortly thereafter to offer
to sell their house, grocery store and
service station.
Mrs. Stroud, owner of the Country
Store in Spring Creek and mother of
Hank Holmes, said an unidentified
male telephoned her and stated, "Keep
your a- out of Hot Springs if you don't
want everything you've got burned."
Mrs. Stroud owned the house and pro
perty where her son and daughter-in
law lived.
She said that representatives of a
moving company in Asheville came to
her store on Dec. 12 to estimate the cost
of moving her household effects to
Raleigh. She said she explained that
she hadn't called them about moving,
and the representatives said they had
received a call from a middle-aged
woman who said she was Mrs. Alberta
Stroud.
Gentry, co-owner of Gentry and Gen
try Hardware, told The News Record
that he also received a call from a man
on Dec. 8 who told him, "Keep your
mouth shut or I'll burn your house and
truck." The next day, Gentry also
received a call from a moving company
about moving him to Florida, he said.'
Waltz, a retired serviceVnan who ran
unsuccessfully for mayor of Hot Spr
ings in the November non-partisan elec
tion. said his house was falsely adver
tised for sale in the Nov. 13-15 editions
of The Asheville Citizen. The ad
described his house, stated the owner
was "moving due to health.*- and listed
Waltz's phone number
Waltz says he did not place the ad,
and that he has been unable to find out
from the newspaper who placed it.
Two other residents, who asked to not
be identified, had their homes similarly
advertised for sale, one in the Asheville
paper and one In the Waynesville Moun
taineer during mid-November.
Waltz said that many of the people
who feel they are being intimidated
have talked to him and have expressed
that "things need to be done" to end the
calls and harrassment
"I feel that if it can't be done through
the proper channels, people are going to
disregard the proper channels and go
out on their own. 1 don't want to see this
thing go this way," he said.
"But if something doesn't break, if
they (the authorities) don't come up
with something - if they ignore it ? it's
going to be taken care of , " Waltz added,
indicating the present mood in the com
munity.
DSS : Barbara Refused Mom's Offer
" ' K ? **?? s
In a recent interview with
the Newt Record, her Depart
ment of Social Services case