4 4|
^In Five-Year Old Liquor Case
Cork Count Is Short
Bj JAYASHI.KY
MirrorStaffWriter
On “citizen’s inquiries" concerning
the confiscation of 41 cases of liquor in
tV newly installed city com-
^yuissioners took inventory Tuesday
morning and found nine full cases
missing.
The liquor, and a questionable amount
of beer, was confiscated in an arrest on
April 12, 1968 and stored in the evidence
room at the Kings Mountain Police
Department.
According to one of the arresting of
ficers, Lt. Bob Hayes, he and PtI. Bynum
Cook were on patrol the night of April 12
and around 3 a.m. and spotted a truck
parked near the Bonnie Mist Car Wash
iwar the intersection of Cansler and King
St. The driver of the vehicle was making
a telephone call and the officers stopped
to “check the vehicle out”. The truck was
a 1960 three-quarter ton pickup with the
name North Hickory Furniture Company
of Hickory painted on the side.
Hayes said the truck “appeared to be
very heavily loaded” and he asked the
driver, James Holmes, if he (Hayes)
could look inside. The driver consented
and Hayes discovered the vast amount of
liquor and beer. Holmes, who gave his
address as 1014 Washington St. in
Statesville said he had been told by his
boss to pick up the truck. Holmes could
not advise his boss’ name.
A check of the truck's serial number
revealed the owner as Lester Jessie
Huffman of Connelly Springs, in care of
Maple Lane Grocery.
Holmes was charged with transporting
liquor and was tried in the recorder’s
court in Kings Mountain.
Chief McDevitt of the KMPD told the
commissioners that the judge had in
structed him “not to dispose of the
liquor” for reasons he would not reveal.
The truck had been left at the police
station parking lot “for a long time”,
according to McDevitt, and was later
taken to Dixon’s Chevrolet for storage.
The truck was later sold to pay for
storage costs.
In making the inventory. Ward Six
commissioner M. C. Pruette said he and
the other commissioners had received
several inquiries as to the disposition of
the liquor and they had decided to check
into the matter. All commissioners were
present with the exception of Ward One’s
Ray Cline.
Pruette said, “this liquor has been
stored here for five years and that’s
much too long.” He continued saying he
had checked with the Sheriffs Depart
ment and found such confiscated liquor
(See CORKS p.7A)
ff
VSM
COI NTDOWX - Ward
Fuur Coni III is sinner.
Don .Mc.Abrr calls out
the cases of booze as
iiiveiUor.v of a 1968
liquor haul begins. .Vine
of the 41 rases of liquor
were missing.
I’liolo bs Jay .Ashley
“TKMMtcUit
VOL. 3 NO. 17
THURSDAY, JANUARY 3,1974
“TKiwim
%
'Sr
Royal Villa Robbed
^Don’t Get Excited,
Hand Me Money’
A total of $196 was taken in a
Wednesday morning hold-up
at the Royal Villa Motel on
York Rd. at I-8S.
Night clerk. Earnest W.
Anderson of 1215 Springs Dr.
actor hill hicks in shoot-out scene
Centennial
Commission
Meets Monday
An organizational
meeting of tKe Kings
Mountain Centennial
Commission will be held
Mon., Jan. 7 at 7 p.m. in
city hall.
Co-chairmen Charles
Mauney and Mrs. W. T.
Weir announced the pur
pose of the meeting is to
meet with ail the members
and map out plans for the
celebration of the city’s
lOOth birthday in 1974.
^Cleveland County-based movie
^Challenge^ - a film
without 44etter words
! I
There has been a series of violent
deaths lately in Cleveland County -
deaths that have not appeared on the
police blotter.
One man died choking on his own blood
from a crushed throat; one man died
when liis Corvette smashed into the blade
of a buKdozer and buist into flames;
another piloted his plane into the side of a
mountain; and yet another plunged
several stories after crashing through a
hotel window.
And just the other day a grim-featured
man weilding a shotgun chased a
terrified fat man through the woods - and
this was after the gunman had forced the
other’s car off the road near Boiling
Springs.
And the truth of the matter is the
gunman was directly responsible for the
deaths of all the others. Revenge was the
motive. Seems all those who died
|Violently had murdered this man’s wife
and child - burned them to death in their
home.
Sounds like pretty gruesome stuff
being overlooked by the county law
enforcement body, doesn't it?
But ne%’er fear, the local law en
forcement officers are fully aware of
what’s going on and furthermore, they
don’t plan to lift a service revolver to stop
it. If they did it would mean thousands of
dollars and hundreds of manhours down
the tubes.
What in the name of all that’s Holy is
this?
Movie.s, that’s what!
Granted, this leadin is a bit
dramatic. but
admit it was a
to get into the
you’ll have to
pretty cool way
subject. I didn’t
exaggerate, however, all of these scenes
will appear in the theatrical motion
picture being filmed right in Cleveland
County by EO Motion Picture Prods.,
Inc. EO stands for Earl Owensby and the
film is entitled “Challenge.”
Several stories have appeared in area
newspapers about this new tar heel
enterprise founded and, to date, funded
1^ Owensby. And this is only the
beginning, according to the 38-year old
tycoon from Cliffside. In a realtively
short period of time Owensby anounced
the beginning of one feature film, can
celled it because of “trouble” negotiating
locations and a name actor for the lead,
then announced a second feature.
“Challenge” is the second feature and
it’s almost completed. The first feature
was “Johnny Stonewall.”
“We started shooting the week before
Thanksgiving,” Owensby said, “and we
should wind it up in the next week or
two."
This time Owensby had no trouble
signing someone fw the lead role. He
signed himself. And he had never been
before a camera before in his life Never
had an acting lesson, never even ap
peared in a community theatre
production.
The lack of experience didn’t slow
Owensby down, however, he hired ex
perienced professionals to handle the
production aspects. Martin Beck is
directing. Bob Newcomb is assisting
Beck and Darrell Cathcart is director of
photography. The production crew is
(irofessional to a man.
Although no one said it of Owensby, it
appears his lack of knowlege of film
making and of acting caused him no
worry, just as the fact he began his
business career with little more than
driving ambition didn’t deter him from,
today, heading no less than seven cor
porations.
“Challenge” is primarily a revenge
story, which Owensby himself outlined.
“I just sat down and outlined scenes I
would like to see in a movie,” he said.
“I’m not a writer, either, he said, but I
can draw up suggestions a writer can
follow.”
Bill Hicks, who appears in the film as
the lead heavy, took Owensby’s outlines
and wrote the script Hicks is the fat man
Owensby chased through the woods
recently. The character Gutherie is the
syndicate head and the last man on
Challenge’s revenge list
The afternoon I spent kibitzing from
the sidelines I saw a piece of pretty good
acting by Hicks. Terrified of the man
with the shotgun Hicks, as Gutherie,
wrecked his Cadillac and tried to
getaway on foot. He tried first to scare
Challenge off, then tried to buy him off,
finally tried begging for his life.
It took the better part of four hours to
get it on film and it probably won’t last
over a couple of minutes on screen.
1 took the opportunity to renew my
acquaintance with both Beck and
Newcomb and to gather some comments
from Owensby and Hicks about the
project.
“Challenge” is Beck’s first theatrical
feature. His film experience does include
a three-hour training motion picture for
the Ford Co. and hundreds of award
winning TV commercials. Before turning
to directing Martin, at age 16. appeared
(See NO p.4B)
ji?.i
in Shelby, told Ptl. Jerry
White and Ptl, Billy Benton,
that around I;S5 a.m. Wed
nesday he was on the desk
when a man in his thirties
came into the lobby.
Anderson said the man was
wearing a black leather coat,
had dark hair and was about
five feet seven weighing
around 150 pounds.
The man came into the
lobby and struck up a con
versation with the night clerk
and told Anderson he was on
his way to a rodeo in Atlanta.
The man started to leave and
then turned around to reveal a
small caliber chrome pistol.
He told Anderson not to get
excited and asked for money.
Anderson told police he gave
the man about $172 from the
motel till and $24 of his own.
The robber then told An
derson to lie down on the floor
of a storage room and he tied
the clerk with tape and a
leather strap. He then pushed
a chair against the door and
proceeded to remove the
mouthpieces from all the.
telephones in the lobby.
An investigation is still
underway into the case.
' .a-
UtlUfj
If
Third In Series
All Property Is Listed
The 1973 N.C legislature
made some far-reaching
changes in the exemption of
property from the tax base.
For instance, up until now
property owned by churches
and state, federal, city and
county governments was
automatically exempt from
taxation, but under the new
law the property must be
listed and the exemption
applied for annually.
Also, some fraternal
organizations that were
previously exempt possibly
will not qualify under the new
law.
The following property may
be exempt if it meets the
proper requirements, in
cluding application and proof;
1) Real and personal
property owned by the United
States, and specifically
exempt by virtue of federal
BELL PAYS TAXES - Judy Harmon. Kings
.Mountain assistant lax collector, accepts a
check for $9,896.70 for 1973 taxes from R. W.
Fleming, local Southern Bell manager. This
pavinenl by the telephone company stays in
Kings Mountain and helps provide schools,
police protection, sanitation, fire protection
and other city servires.
law, cannot be taxed locally.
State, county and city units of
government must own and use
property “wholly and ex
clusively” for public purposes
in order to qualify for
exemption. The courts have
implied that “only property
held for public purposes
qualifies for exemption.”
2) Real property set aside
for burial purposes is exempt
unless it is held for purpose of
sale or rental of burial rights.
3) Real and personal
property used for educational
purposes is exempt, provided
it also is owned by an
“educational institution” or
one similar and provided the
institution is not organized for
profit. Such property usually
must start with the buildings,
and the land which the
buildings occupy, plus ad
ditional land necessary for the
convenient use of the buildings
(perhaps a parking lot).
4) Real and personal
property of religious
educational assemblies used
for religious and educational
purposes.
5) Real and personal
property used for charitable
purposes (YMCA, home for
aged, orphanage, refor
matory, convent, lifesaving,
rescue squad, etc.) shall be
exempt, provided such
property is used in it entirety
by the owner for charitable
purposes, and the owner is not
organized or operated for
profit. A charitable purpose
must be “humane and
philanthropic” and must be
available to a significant
rather than a limited segment
of the community.
6) Real and personal
property used for educational,
scientific, literary or
charitable purposes.
71 Real and personal
property used for hospital
purposes may be exempt if
owned by non-stock, non-profit
charitable institutions.
81 General exemption for
individually owned personal
property. This special
exemption on personal
property in the amount of $300
(See TAX p.7A)