
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 20, 1993                   TAG: 9310200136
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: CARLA HALL LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Medium

RESCUE MAKES STRANGERS FRIENDS

As symbols of last year's riots, they are indelible. As people, they're barely known. Even some of their neighbors don't know who they are and what they've done.

In the 1 1/2 years since four people, watching television in different locations, rushed to the intersection of Florence and Normandie avenues to rescue trucker Reginald Denny, who had been pulled from his rig and beaten by several men, their extraordinary courage has been overshadowed by the powerful images of mob violence.

But it was because of trucker Bobby Green, as well as Terri Barnett, Titus Murphy and Lei Yuille, that Denny is alive and Damian Williams and Henry Watson stood accused of attempted murder and not murder. That fact has not been lost on the people who have awarded the rescuers with plaques at City Hall, remembered them as heroes in newspaper retrospectives, invited them to dinners and courted them for the movie rights to their stories.

For the most part, the routine of their lives has changed very little.

Lei Yuille, 38, the first to arrive at the intersection, still works as a nutritionist. Titus Murphy is still unemployed as an aerospace engineer and expects he may never work again in that field in Southern California. Terri Barnett, who designs displays in stores, keeps her eye out for more work and raises a daughter.

Only Bobby Green's professional life has changed. It was Green, 30, who ran up to the cab of Denny's truck - momentarily frightening Denny's other rescuers - and announced he was a truck driver who could drive the injured man to the hospital. A couple of months later, Green got a new job trucking for Denny's company, Transit Mixed Concrete Co.

As Green drove Denny's truck out of the intersection that day, each of the other three did what they could to help. Yuille guided and comforted Denny as she sat next to him on the way to hospital. Murphy and Barnett, who have known each other since the 1980s when they worked for Northrop's Electronics Systems Division, were watching the assault on television together when they decided to take action. When they arrived, Barnett drove her car ahead of Denny's truck to clear a path through the traffic and confusion; Murphy hung on the running board of the truck.

Perhaps the biggest change in the lives of the four is the bond forged among them. Television and movie producers have found them moderately alluring so there have been a number of offers. Usually before the rescuers do anything, they consult with each other. "That's the best way," says Green. "All for one and one for all."

Titus Murphy says he acts as the coordinator. "I usually bring the idea to the group," Murphy says. "We have to think as a whole - just like we did that day."

They sold movie rights to their stories to Suzanne de Passe - the producer responsible for the television miniseries last year on Michael Jackson's family - and Dolores Robinson, a Hollywood manager and a producer.

All four declined to be extensively interviewed for this story.

"They're not making a ton of money," Robinson says. "These guys are not cashing in but if someone should cash in, they should. They put themselves on the line. These guys didn't go out to save someone's life to see if they could exploit it."

by CNB