The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 3

Pantagraph A-3 Bloomington-Normal, III. Dee. 23, 1976 Debate on liquor low takes to the pulpit other man's. Every vote is a moral judgment. A councilman is a representative of God.

And you have an obligation to God, if you believe in God." testimony to his own personal opposition to liquor. To those questions he answered, "Yes." Then why, they asked, would he not vote against the liquor proposals? Buchanan said his main concern as a representative of 42.000 Bloomington-ians not all of them evangelical Chris By Jim Flannery Debate over Bloomington's liquor laws has moved from the chambers ol the city council to the pulpit of a Baptist church in Normal. Squared off on opposing sides of the liquor issue Wednesday night at the Calvary Baptist Church, 1017 N. School, Normal, where the Rev. Arno Weniger and Richard Buchanan, a Bloomington councilman and mayoral candidate.

Mr. Weniger, the pastor, stepped before his congregation and delivered a sermon decrying both the evils of alcohol and a proposal before the city council to liberalize its liquor laws. Buchanan, trading in the stump for the pulpit, delivered his own small sermon defending his position favoring a change in the liquor ordinances. The changes which have caused the most concern and which the council will vote on Monday are those to allow Sunday liquor sales and an extra hour of sales on Saturday and Sunday mornings. The council will be asked to approve the changes for a trial period of six months.

It wasn't an easy night for Buchanan. A non-drinker himself and a Baptist to boot Buchanan had both his civic and religious beliefs called to account before the emotional and sometimes angry forum of 322 congregation members. Two issues There were two issues, really. One was political; the other religious. Mr.

Weniger clearly defined and combined his positions on both issues: "Buchanan believes in Jesus Christ. He doesn't drink alcohol. He will have the swing vote." The vote on the liquor issue will be Monday, Mr. Weniger noted. The vote is stacked up two apiece on either side of the liquor issue, with Buchanan holding the deciding vote.

Council members S.S. "Joe" Schneider and Karl Passmore have said they favor the changes. Mayor Walter Bittner and Councilman Jesse Parker say they are opposed. Buchanan has wavered. He is a member of the Baptist fold.

And he has said one reason he has not opposed Sunday sales is because most calls he has received have favored the sales. That was the political side of Wednesday night's Christmas service. "You said you wanted input from the people," Mr. Weniger told Buchanan' from the pulpit. "I told you I'd go to my church and ask them to call you and let you know they are opposed to liquor." Buchanan decided to show up at the service in person instead.

Judgment question The center of much of the discussion Wednesday night was on a statement made last week by Buchanan at a council meeting that he didn't believe in "imposing my moral judgment on others." "I disagree," Mr. Weniger said. "Ii Buchanan stepped up to the pulpit and said he was not a stranger to God. "I'm accustomed to being in the House of God on Wednesday night," Buchanan said. He's a member of the choir and congregation of the Grace Baptist Church, 1311 W.

Hovey, Normal, and according to Weniger has been a "Christian" in the evangelical sense for three years. "I am a Christian and I believe in Jesus Christ," Buchanan said. It was a testimony to the congregation that he was. in fact, one of them. "But anyone who thinks it's easy being on the city council is mistaken," he said.

"The only person who has a more consuming job is a pastor. "I'm 37 years old. I've never had a drop of alcohol in my life, and I don't think I've missed anything." Facts But he said the fact is that other people drink liquor. That a man living in McLean County can find liquor any day of the week. That he can find liquor just about any hour of the day.

He may not find it in Bloomington. Buchanan said, but he can find it in Normal, or in the the county or in Peoria. "I didn't create the environment that allows liquor." he said. "I can't accept responsibility for that. I inherited that responsibility." "My job," he said, "is to keep the negative impact of liquor within acceptable limits." But the congregation was of a mind that the only acceptable limit was no liquor at all.

And for good reason, as Mr. Weniger pointedly told his flock: The church covenant forbids alcohol consumption. Mr. Weniger recalled the memory of the Rev. William A.

"Billy" Sunday, who almost 70 years ago came to Bloomington and single-handedly closed down a number of taverns in one of the most rousing religious revivals in Twin City history. tiansis to insure that the liquor laws are consistently, fairly and stringently applied. It is not consistent, he said, to have one set of liquor laws in Bloomington and other laws in Normal and the county. It is not in the best interests of the city to keep the 102-license limit because of the practice of prospective tavern owners or restauranteurs paying liquor license holders $50,000 for a couple of bar stools and a liquor license. He said the proposed liquor laws are more stringent in the procedure Set down for granting liquor licenses.

Two public hearings would be required, he said. And he said he doubted the council would be interested in approving additional licenses for "saloons or taverns." The council's main interest in abolishing the limit on licenses would be to accommodate more restaurants, he said. Forbidden But the Bible forbids drink, one member of the congregation countered. Buchanan said he wasn't so sure. Theologians have disagreed on the issue.

Buchanan said, and the stronger argument has been that the Bible forbids "drinking in excess." But Buchanan was up against a brick wall. And Mr. Weniger had warned him beforehand, "Rich. I hope you wouldn't consider this a lion's den or, rather, the Red Lion (a local tavern)." So far, the main opposition to the change in the liquor laws has come from a group of tavern owners who say the Sunday sales and an increased number of licenses would make competition more cutthroat and cost of operation higher. At the end of Wednesday night's service.

Mr. Weniger read a resolution saying the church was opposed in principle to all "use and sale" of alcoholic beverages. It also appealed to the city council to vote down the proposed changes in the ordinances. Mr. Weniger asked all those favoring the resolution to stand.

En persons stood. A reporter and Buchanan neither of whom was eligible to vote stayed seated. Mr. Weniger asked for all those opposing the resolution to stand. No one stood.

Mr. Weniger still has Sunday to poll the rest of his congregation. It numbers about 1.300 in all. i The youth group of Park United Methodist Church, 704 S. Allin, braved the cold this week to present a live nativity scene at the church.

The youngsters will be in front of the church from 6:30 to 8 tonight in temperatures cold enough to chill even a tennis-shoed shepherd. (Pantagraph photo) Braving cold you don't impose your moral judgment, then the council is going to impose the Year later, death probe continues said. Conley devoted several weeks but found no new leads. The victim's father still calls every few weeks. He calls The Daily Pantagraph, too.

He has provided a better photograph than the first one released of his daughter. He wants the men found. He speaks in a sad. soft voice. He doesn't want the search to end.

"The case has never been closed, and it will remain open until it is solved." Sadler said. "There is probably not a week that goes by without us doing something on it. There were times when we thought we were close, but now it'll take luck or a big break that's the only wav it'll be solved." "There was liquor in this community when Billy Sunday came to this community," Mr. Weniger said. "But he preached fire and brimstone and closed some of those taverns down.

Give us more people like Billy Sunday." But Buchanan indicated he really was not in a position to be another Billy Sunday, or. as one woman suggested, "a prophet, who, though he speaks to deaf ears, still speaks." Testimony One after another, congregation members rose and asked Buchanan if he was Christian. They asked if he would give Rofstad Carol Ann figures in the shadows. He thought little about it at the time. It was a college neighborhood, and there were often groups of people wandering through the area.

He saw only one of the male figures well enough to provide a description. He gave his impressions to a police artist, and a likeness was drawn and circulated. The original drawing is in the file. It is of a young, bearded man, wearing a stocking cap. The file contains notes from telephone calls and letters telling of men who matched that drawing.

Suddenly the campus was full of bearded young men in stocking caps, and Sadler thought the elusive two strangers might be found. He hoped the man who had not wielded the stick might betray the man who had. A year later, both men are still strangers. "I think we were more frustrated in the first two months of the investigation than we are now," Sadler said Monday while musing over the year-long investigation. "After we talked to the witness and obtained the composite drawing, we thought we'd have it solved soon." But all of the file's contests the phone calls and sparked by the queries drawing led to nothing.

The file keeps growing with letters from women describing ex-husbands as "capable of killing a young college girl." There are memos from callers who think they might know. And notes from young women who have known men with "quirks" and "strange" sexual habits. Second 'witness' There are notes on a second "witness" who came forward several weeks after the first. He too saw three figures, he said. His story was much like that of the first witness.

He was given a three-hour examination by a polygraph operator. The operator doubted his story. The detectives doubt it now, too. Sadler said he may be tested again. The file has grown and encompassed more crimes.

Two victims of rape contacted police. They did not wish to face the nakedness of a trial, but they thought their information might help i i CT By D. Wesley Smith The note is handwritten in a flourishing script that contrasts with its urgent tone. "Important." "Please Read." Those words are scrawled in the margins in thick purple ink. The message begins: "I heard someone scratching on my window screen tonight and got It continues in the frightened tone of a frightened young woman.

It tells of her running from her bed and awakening her friends her "sisters." Together they summoned "our protectors" from a nearby fraternity house. The protectors went through the girls' home, looking in closets and searching storage rooms. They found windows propped open with soda bottles, screens unlatched and doors unlocked. But they found no intruder that night. There had been intruders before.

There would be tragedy in just a few weeks. The note is dated Nov. 2 and is signed by "A Sister." It was taken from a bulletin board in the Delta Zeta sorority house, 602 S. Fell, Normal. It had been taped up by a member of that sorority.

It was taken down by a Normal police detective nearly eight weeks after it was written. Attacked a year ago The detective was investigating the tragedy that occurred outside the Delta Zeta house a year ago. A "sister" was discovered in the yard, in the shadow of her college home. She had been beaten and left outside in below-freezing weather. The note is now kept in a thick, black binder stuffed with materials related to the life and death of Carol Ann Rofstad, the 21-year-old Illinois State University student who was found beaten and unconscious Dec.

23, 1975. On July 16, 1974, Carol Rofstad was sleeping in her sorority house room. At 3 a.m. she was awakened by an intruder who put his hands around her throat. When she screamed, the man lifted her from her bed and threw her against a chest of drawers.

He ran out of the house and was never apprehended. Miss Rofstad's nose was broken. And her friends said she was frightened to be alone. That information is in the black file on detective Sgt. Dan Sadler's desk 2j years after the first attack on Carol Rofstad and one year after her fatal beating.

She shouldn't have been near her sorority house the night of Dec. 22. 1975. It was Christmas break for ISU students, and she could have been home in Elk Grove Village with her family, preparing for the holidays. Christmas money But she had remained in Normal, to earn Christmas money working in a clothing store.

After work, she and a friend walked to the nearby Welcome Inn. She had once worked at that college bar. In fact, she had been there the night before the first attack upon her. The two young women went to the basement area of the bar and found no familiar faces so they left going separate ways. Two sets of strangers are in the file.

The first two people told Normal detectives they saw Carol Rofstad walking near the intersection of Fell Avenue and Irving Street about 8:45 p.m. Dec. 22, 1975. She was then less than a block from her home. The second set of strangers are in the file because someone saw them.

A witness came forth nearly a week after Miss Rofstad was found unconscious her moans having alerted a passerby. She had been struck three times with a heavy stick a piece of a railroad tie. She was struck twice on the front of the head. The final blow was delivered to the back of her head. It was the hardest blow.

And it was the blow that resulted in her death two days later in a Peoria hospital. The witness said he had been driving by the sorority house and observed three Whitecotton: $10,000 and the shakes Paragraph po'o Instant instant Lottery gives man $10,000 present find a killer. The file spills out photographs of young people. Innocent pictures of a partying crowd. Laughing eyes and faces out of focus among the file of stark information.

Those who touched the life of Carol Rofstad are subjects of scrutiny. Old boy friends have been questioned and taken polygraph tests. Classmates have been contacted, and class lists examined. Dropouts from school have been asked why. Professors and friends have been asked if they'd noticed anything strange.

Telephone bills, fellow employes and things from her room. A report from a woman who heard a girl scream, the names of those who were in the bar that night and the night before. A description of a man at her funeral who "looked out of place." Beer bust ISU fraternity fined $150 purchase of a new house in Mattoon, he said. Whitecotton said he's been buying an Instant Lottery ticket just about every week since they started coming out. "I've won a lot of $5 and $2 ones already." he said.

"And last week I won eight straight $2 tickets." After each win. he said, he'd go back and cash the ticket in for another one. But the $10,000 win" "You read about it all the time," Whitecotton said. "But when it happens to you. you just can't believe it." Whitecotton said he's looking forward now to the $1 million drawing from all the $10,000 winners during several months.

Whitecotton said the last time such a drawing was held, there were just four or five $10,000 winners in the pool. But that's all sometime down the road For right now, Whitecotton's happy with what he got. "It's sure a pretty Christmas present," he said. butterflies in your stomach. You just can't believe it at first." At 2 p.m.

three hours after he knew he'd won Whitecotton's wife. Nancy, and three children (Harold, 18; David, 16. and 10) still didn't know the Whitecotton family was a big winner. His wife was working. His children were out skating.

"It's going to be a big surprise." Whitecotton said. "My wife, she kept saying I'd never win. I didn't think I would either, but you can always dream." The dreams paid off. Wednesday afternoon there was a "For Sale" sign outside the Whitecotton home at 1206 W. Olive.

Did he already have his Caribbean isle picked out? Hardly. After 15 years as a trucker for Amoco Oil in Bloomington, he has been transferred to Mattoon to work. He already spends four days a week there and hopes to have his house sold so the family can move down with him. The $10,000 will likely go toward By Jim Flannery Turl Whitecotton was starting to get the shakes. He said his stomach was going "up and down, like I got a football in it." It wasn't a hangover nor another case of Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Whitecotton had just won $10,000 in Illinois's Instant Lottery. The 38-year-old truck driver for Amoco Oil Co. bought the $1 ticket Wednesday at Sears, Roebuck Co. at Eastland Shopping Center. He walked down to the Walgreen Drug Store for a cup of coffee.

"I started scratching on the thing, and there it was. I couldn't believe it," he said. Behind the little white box. which lottery players know they must scratch away, were the three numbers Whitecotton was looking for: $10,000 three times. "It takes a few minutes before anything starts happening," Whitecotton said.

"Before you start getting the Investigation Detectives have been to Peoria, Pekin, Brimfield and Kewanee. They've made countless calls and talked to 150 to 175 people. A few months ago. Sadler and detective David Norton took a few steps back from their work. They turned the file over to detective Ron Conley for a fresh point of view.

"We wanted someone to tackle it with a new outlook. We thought since we'd been working on it so long, Ron might find something we'd overlooked," Sadler Aducci, 20; Alan E. Barnett, 20; Mark R. McClure, 22, and Daniel N. Niemann, 20.

All listed their address as 302 W. Vernon. They were charged with selling beer without a license after 15 police officers broke up the party of 400 to 500 students Sept. 18. The fraternity was accused of charging $1.50 for a cup of popcorn.

Those buying popcorn got their hands stamped, emptied the popcorn in garbage cans and' filled the cups with beer, the charges state. The Sigma Nu fraternity of Illinois State University was fined $150 Wednesday in the associate division of McLean County Circuit Court for unlawful sale of alcohol. The single charge against the fraternity in effect replaced charges against six of its members. Dismissed in the plea bargain were charges of unlawful sale of alcohol, stemming from a "free beer bust," Sept. 18, at the fraternity, 302 W.

Vernon, Normal, against: Thomas W. Hayslett, 18; Joseph C. Snodgrass, 20; Alan D..