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WAYCROSS JOURNAL-HERALD
Blood Drive Wednesday, Hoboken Baptist, 1-6 p.m.
South Georgia’s Greatest Newspaper
Waycross, Ga.
COST OF FREEDOM
SCHLATTERVILLE — There is a
basic tenet that maintains that
“freedom is not free,” a very real
truth that seems lost today on
many members of younger American generations. A new sign on
the Big Creek bridge here might
serve as a tool to educate such
folks. R.T. Lee, surrounded by kin
and friends of Charles Hickox,
who was killed nearly 64 years
ago in the Korean War, offers a
Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2014
wjhnews.com
75¢
Pistorius Starts Serving
Five-Year Prison Term
Photo By MYRA THRIFT
prayer of thanksgiving at a ceremony Monday re-naming the Big
Creek bridge on U.S. 82 the
Charles E. Hickox Memorial
Bridge. see page 2
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) —
Oscar Pistorius was taken away in a police
van today to start serving a five-year
prison sentence for killing girlfriend
Reeva Steenkamp.
A South African judge cited the “gross
negligence” the Olympic runner showed
when he shot Steenkamp multiple times
through a toilet cubicle door in his home
when she delivered the sentence. Pistorius’ prison term begins immediately.
Pistorius could be released after 10
months in jail to serve the remainder under
house arrest, according to legal experts.
Masipa also sentenced Pistorius to three
years in prison for unlawfully firing a gun
in a restaurant in a separate incident
weeks before Steenkamp’s 2013 shooting
death. She ordered that sentence to be
wholly suspended for five years on condition that Pistorius is not found guilty of
another firearm offense.
Masipa delivered her ruling after reviewing prosecution arguments for a tough
sentence as well as the defense case for a
more lenient punishment for Pistorius. She
said it was a balancing act after defense
lawyers had argued that Pistorius had already suffered emotionally and financially
after what he called an accidental killing.
Masipa last month convicted Pistorius
of culpable homicide, but acquitted him of
murder after he testified he mistook
Steenkamp for a nighttime intruder.
“The following is what I consider is a
sentence that is fair and just both to society and the accused,” Masipa said as she
announced her decision.
She asked Pistorius to stand as she delivered the sentence, and the world-famous disabled runner faced her with his
hands clasped in front of him. Pistorius
then left the Pretoria courtroom down a
flight of stairs that lead to holding cells.
His sentence starts immediately and he
was taken straight to the cells, a
spokesman for the National Prosecuting
Authority said.
Pistorius’ defense and the prosecution
can both appeal the decision.
Nathi Mncube, the prosecution
spokesman, said his office is disappointed in the culpable homicide conviction and has not yet decided whether to
appeal the sentence.
“We have not made up our minds
whether we’re going to appeal it or not,”
Suspect In Virginia Abduction
Police Say Indiana Suspect Hints
Also Charged In D.C. Area Rape At Killings Going Back 20 Years
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — The suspect in the disappearance of a University of Virginia student was
charged Monday with abducting and raping a
woman in suburban Washington, D.C., in 2005.
The indictment against Jesse L. Matthew Jr. was
handed up by a Circuit Court grand jury in Fairfax
County and includes a charge of attempted capital
murder.
Matthew, 32, is being held in Charlottesville,
Virginia, on a charge related to the Sept. 13 disappearance of Hannah Graham, an 18-year-old from
northern Virginia.
At a news conference Monday, Fairfax County
Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh declined
to discuss any details of the case, but did say the
victim is cooperating. Police had previously said
that on Sept. 24, 2005, a 26-year-old woman was
walking home from the grocery store about 10 p.m.
on a Saturday night, when her assailant grabbed her
from behind, dragged her into a wooded area behind some townhomes, and sexually assaulted her.
The man fled the area when he was startled by a
passerby, police said.
Morrogh said he will seek a bench warrant later
this week requesting that Matthew be brought to
Fairfax for an initial appearance, and he expected
that to be granted. But no court date has been set.
Morrogh said he was not sure whether Matthew
would be tried first in Charlottesville or in Fairfax.
“I’m willing to go first, last or whenever,” Morrogh said.
Law enforcement officials who have been searching for Graham found human remains over the
weekend and they were taken to the Virginia Medical Examiner’s office in Richmond. A spokesman
in the office could not say Monday when the results
of the forensic examination would be completed.
‘Band Of Brothers’
(see RAPE, page 11)
GARY, Ind. (AP) — Police investigating the
slayings of seven women whose bodies were found
in northwest Indiana over the weekend said Monday they believe it is the work of a serial killer, and
that the suspect has indicated there could be more
victims going back 20 years.
The Lake County prosecutor’s office on Monday
charged 43-year-old Darren Vann of Gary, Indiana,
in the strangulation death of 19-year-old Afrikka
Hardy. Her body was found Friday night at a Motel
6 in nearby Hammond.
Gary officials were expected to charge Vann later
this week in the deaths of six more women, whose
bodies were found Saturday and Sunday. Hammond
Police Chief John Doughty said at a news conference that Vann confessed to Hardy’s slaying and
gave police information that led to the other bodies
in Gary, including three on the same block.
Vann was a convicted sex offender in Texas,
(see PISTORIUS, page 2)
where he pleaded guilty in 2009 to raping a woman
and was released from prison in July 2013.
The Austin Police Department issued a statement
Monday saying it would review missing persons
and cold cases to determine if there could be a link
to Vann and asked anyone with information to
come forward.
Doughty said police have no specific indication
that any slayings have occurred in another state, and
the Gary slayings appeared to have happened recently. He said Vann is cooperating with investigators in the hope of making a deal with prosecutors.
“It could go back as far as 20 years based on
some statements we have, but that has yet to be
corroborated,” Doughty said.
The Texas Department of Public Safety listed his
risk level as “low” on its sex offender registry. He
did not register in Indiana.
(see KILLER, page 12)
Sensational WWII ‘Crossroads’ Battle Took Place Oct. 5, 1944, 70 Long Years Ago
way which runs alongside the
dike, the Battle at the Crossroads
brought Winters face-to-face
with a Waffen SS soldier who
smiled at him just before being
shot dead.
IN HIS MEMOIRS, Winters
By JACK WILLIAMS III
discounted the significance of his
Journal-Herald Editor
encounter with the SS soldier,
RANDWIJK, Holland —
who was portrayed as being a
Those who watched the HBO
smiling teenager wearing a
miniseries, Band of Brothers,
stahlhelm (steel helmet) and
will remember the “Crossroads”
Waffen SS uniform. He wrote of
episode, during which 1st Lt.
the encounter:
Dick Winters led a platoon of
“I remember when I was interparatroopers from Easy Co.
viewed
for the movie, I told one
against two companies of Waffen
of the writers that as I shot the
SS soldiers near the Randwijke
dike and the Lower-Rhine River. German, he looked up at me and
The episode was sensational. It smiled. Well, I kept going with
my story, but later, as it turns out,
demonstrated once again 1st Lt.
Winters’ tactical genius for sizing the writer wanted to play up the
thing about the smile.
up a threat and instantly making
the right choice to both take the
“He wanted to play that up as
fight to the enemy and protect the a flashback, the type of bad
soldiers under his command.
flashbacks you can have. I have
Located between the dike and flashbacks every day. But the
Renkumse Veerweg, a rural road(see CROSSROADS, page 12)
Journal-Herald Editor Jack
Williams III and family members
have returned from a “Band of
Brothers” tour of Europe. This is
the fourth in a series of stories he’s
writing to document the adventure.
Photo By JACK WILLIAMS III
Andrea Bago, of Procom Tours, stands atop the
Renkumse Veerweg road near Randwijk, Holland, as she
points to the field where two German Waffen SS companies were destroyed by a platoon of Easy Co. paratroopers on Oct. 5, 1944. Notice the industrial complex that now
exists in the background.
Mostly
Sunny
84/53Lo
Hi
Mild, Dry
—page 2—
144th Anniversary
Having been on mission for
the Lord, Jesus Christ, for
144 years, Antioch or First
African Baptist (today’s
masthead photo) continues
to serve the community from
its sanctuary at 615 Knight
Ave. It was founded by the
Rev. Frank Hazzard, a pastor and educator.
SPECIAL PHOTO
The editor of the Waycross Journal-Herald, Jack Williams
III (left), and his son, James Williams II, stand beside a
metal marker which marks the spot where the Battle at the
Crossroads occurred 70 years ago this month. The World
War II battle was chronicled in the HBO miniseries, Band
of Brothers.
W h a t’s I n s i d e
Vol. 96, No. 249
Mattox Broadcasting, Inc. Phone 866-784-3071
Billy Graham ____________ 4
Classified Ads __________ 11
Comics ________________ 10
Dear Abby ______________ 4
Editorials ______________ 5
Extended Forecast ______ 2
Family News ____________ 9
Obituaries ______________ 3
Sports ________________ 6-7