ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 1, 1997 TAG: 9703030061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
Condemned man admits Va. slaying
FALLS CHURCH - An avowed racist murderer sentenced to death in Missouri is now a suspect in the 1979 slaying of a black man in Falls Church, police said Friday.
Joseph Paul Franklin confessed to the slaying of restaurant manager Raymond Taylor in a jailhouse interview to be broadcast Monday on the syndicated television program ``Inside Edition,'' the show's producers said.
Falls Church police spokeswoman Linda Weikle said officers have talked to ``Inside Edition'' reporter Janet Tamaro, ``and from what she's told the Police Department, it sounds like he will be a strong suspect.''
She said detectives hoped to interview Franklin about the Taylor murder. No one was ever arrested in the case, Weikle said.
Franklin was sentenced to death Thursday for fatally shooting a man outside a synagogue 20 years ago. He already was in prison for murdering an interracial couple and two black men.
Franklin also has admitted shooting Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt in 1978 but was never tried in that case. He was tried and acquitted in 1982 of wounding civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. He later confessed to the shooting.
In the ``Inside Edition'' interview, Franklin says he used a rifle to mortally wound a young black man in Falls Church in 1979.
- Associated Press
Transplant surgeon loses his license
CHARLOTTESVILLE - A former University of Virginia transplant surgeon was fined $1 on a forgery conviction of altering medical documents.
But Dr. William C. Stevenson also will lose his medical license because of the felony conviction in December. Albemarle Circuit Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. imposed the $1 fine Thursday.
Stevenson, 41, of Earlysville, said he changed the date on a cardiac stress test to get a patient back on a list for liver transplant surgery. He was fired by the university last summer after admitting to the forgery.
- Associated Press
3 arrested in sale of turtles, snakes
LOUISA - A man, a woman and a juvenile were arrested on charges of capturing and selling nearly 100 turtles and snakes, state game officials said.
The arrests this week resulted from an investigation by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries into illegal selling of wild animals, according to Col. Jeff Uerz, head of the department's law enforcement division.
While the department typically sees illegal activity involving deer each year, illegal sales of reptiles are unusual, Uerz said.
``It's a new direction for illegal trafficking,'' he said. ``But I think there's more of this going on than people realize.''
The three were charged on 26 counts of unlawfully selling wild animals, conspiring to sell wild animals and unlawfully possessing reptiles, Uerz said. The charges are a mixture of misdemeanors and felonies, he said.
- Associated Press
Man says girlfriend killed for nagging
HOPEWELL - A former Smithsonian Institution security guard was found guilty Wednesday of killing his longtime girlfriend after he complained that she was nagging him.
Theodore W. Hawkins Sr., 65, was convicted of first-degree murder for shooting his girlfriend, Florence J. Patrick, 46, five times after they argued most of the night of Oct. 3, 1996. The two shared a house in Hopewell.
``All I wanted her to do was shut up and quit nagging me,'' Hawkins said.
After the killing, Hawkins left a two-page note on the dining room table, stating that if he couldn't have Patrick then nobody would. It also apologized to Patrick's family.
Hawkins is scheduled to be sentenced May 14 and he could face life in prison.
- Associated Press
Vandals discourage work on memorial
STAFFORD - Construction of an Indian memorial in Stafford County has stalled after vandals damaged a replica Indian longhouse, defaced signs with racial epithets, set fires and overturned benches on the property.
Stephen A. Gambaro, a Stafford resident and one of the organizers of the memorial effort, estimated that more than 100 people have cleared brush, built trails and marked the secluded property for visitors.
Participants now are reluctant to invest time and resources in the project, Gambaro said. ``People are saying, `Why put the effort here if it's not going to last?'''
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB