Doubt Seen on Use of FBI in Slayings

Doubt Seen On Use of FBI in Slayings

By Dennis Chase

(News Staff Reporter)

Despite mounting pressures
from public officials and pri-
vate citizens, there appears to
be doubt that the Federal
Bureau of Investigation will
step into the search for the kill-
er or killers of seven young
women in the area.

Paul H. Stoddard, special
agent in charge of FBI'S
Detroit office, has told inquir-
ers that local investigators
could use the bureau's crir"
laboratory and identificatio;

machinery but that, under fed-
eral law, the FBI cannot move
into a local crime situation
even if petitioned to do so by
local police. The fear is that
this kind of action would create
a national police department.

The federal bureau has tradi-
tionally restricted itself to
interstate and federal crimes,
(I violated this only if the

cal police agency was so
small that additional assistance
was needed.

Even so, Michigan's gover-
nor, attorney general .and local,
and federal officials w a i t-
ed for a decision today on
whether the bureau would move
into the investigations. Gov.
William Milliken and Attor-
ney Gen. Frank Kelley met
with FBI officials from Detroit
yesterday to explain the gover-
nor's request that the bureau
enter the case.

According to Leon Cohan,
deputy attorney general of
Michigan, discussion centered
on the legal problem of FBI

volvement.

All points of view were relat-
ed to U.S. Attorney Gen. John

'itchell, who promised an

.'arly response." The specula-
tion is that state officials asked
for FBI involvement on the
basis of suspected kidnappings.

The Federal Bureau of Inves-
tigation becomes involved in
kidnapping crimes with two
provisions: when there is evi-
dence that the crime involves
interstate trave! 'en the
abducted person sing for
seven days, a presumption is
made that the crime involved
interstate travel. This second
provision is called a "rebutable
presumption," and would
require FBI withdrawal from
the case if evidence is subse-
quently found that the crime
was intrastate.

This speculation was
increased today with word that
Monroe County authorities may

:.' to link the unsolved slaying
u£ a Toledo, Ohio, girl in Janu-
ary, 1968, with several of the
Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti murders.

he body of Eileen Adams was

ported missing in December,

rt7, and found two weeks later
ui Michigan, in a remote wood-
ed southwestern Monroe County
area, 25 miles south of Ypsilan-
ti.

Th" rf'' " 1 was murdered
bet • first and second of
eigln vvtiohtenaw County slay-
ings. She was beaten sadistical-
ly about the head and strangled
with an electrical cord—which
fits the pattern of several local
murders. However, the girl was
found fully clothed and local
authorities do not think there is
a connection. The case involves
kidnapping, and would leave no
question about the FBI'S invol-
vement.

Other public officials have
made similar requests. U. S.
r T n-'ald Ford R-Grand

sd a suspect in the
slaying ui Grand Rapids coed
Karen Sue Beineman last week
may have been seen in Ohio,
making it an interstate crime.

U. S» Rep. Marvin L. Esch,
R-Ann Arbor, sent a telegram
to Mitchell yesterday urging
FBI involvement.

Gov. Milliken decided to
make a major switch in inves-
tigation authority yesterday.
Under powers granted by a 1935

statute, lie ^'"bi^nn
State Police k
Davids to head a led.iu iiiade up
from five agencies. Ypsilanti
Mayor Timothy Dyer, who has
been in constant communica-
tion with Michigan Sen. Philip
Hart about the slayings, said he
was elated by the switch.

Dyer has more than the nor-
iii;.l 'crest. He has been work-

tiind the scenes since
Sunday to get the FBI involved
in the slayings.

'm Monday, he telephoned

l, an old friend that Dyer
has known since high school
days while on the senator's

campaign staff TJ" <* ailed the
senator in Wa i, D. C.,
and asked Hart iu use his influ-
ence to bring the FBI into
Washtenaw County. Dyer out-
lined his moves at a closed
meeting aft^-" TiT"rfii"'s regular
City Coun :, where
Ypsilanti Pyin;e Chici Ray Wal-
ton told the mayor that such a
move was not legally possible.

Dyer disagreed and apparent-
ly so did Hart. The senator
telephoned FBI Deputy Direc-
tor Clyde Tolson and briefly
explained, according to Hart's
associate, the "series of hor-
rors" that has resulted in the

brutal slayir"" •vf eight Wash-
tenaw Couii iles in just
over two yea^. .Hart, D-Mich.
and head of the Senate Judici-
ary Committee, asked that the
federal bureau assist in the
investigation. He was unaware
that Milliken was making simi-
lar inquiries.

Tolson told Hart that there
was a "jurisdictional problem"
involved but that he would look
into it.

Hart made the original
request for FBI involvement,
his associate explained,
because Mayor Dyer had said
that the investigation needed

.•A hsiuSf.. .'Wm-i^a®;,

"all the expertise" that could
be mustered. Hart also talked
to the U.S. Attorney General.

"Even here in Washington we
get the flavor of local con-
cern," the associate said. "We
received some letters from pri-
vate citizens expressing con-
cern also."

Dyer, who refused to discuss
the matter earlier, said his
action was not to be taken as
criticism of county officials and
local police, but that he simply
wanted the "most expert''
agency to be involved in the
"worst murders in American
history."