!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.! ! ! ! Catt's Claws ... A Feminist Newsletter #67 ... September 21 , 1995 ! ! ! !.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.! Kelley Herrigan sent us an update on the Tammy Haas murder case that has dragged on for THREE years because, some say, the father of the young man who committed the murder is politically influential. {See Catt's Claws 08-29-95 and 09-19-95 for full details>] "An article appearing in the Saturday, September 16, 1995, Omaha World Herald reads as follows: "S.D. MAN CHARGED IN 1992 SLAYING "Yankton, S.D. (AP) - A Yankton man has been charged with manslaughter in Nebraska for the death of a woman three years ago. "Eric Stukel, 20, made his initial court appearance Friday in Hartington, Neb., posted $5,000 cash bond and was released from jail, said Cedar County, Neb., Sheriff Elliot Arens. "Tammy Haas, 19, of Yankton, was last seen in Yankton walking from a friend's house about 12:30 a.m. Sept. 18, 1992. She was reported missing four days later, and her body was found near a golf course at Crofton, Neb., Sept. 23. "Arens referred all questions about the investigation and charges to the Nebraska Attorney General's Office. Assistant Attorney General Dave Arterburn is in charge of the case but was unavailable for comment." Kelley went on to say, "That was all it said. Interesting don't you think?" Catt's Claws thinks it is VERY interesting and many of its readers do too from the response we've been getting. OK - get out the pens and fire up your computer printers. Peg Fortier sent CC the address for Nebraska Attorney General Don Sternberg: 2115 State Capitol, PO Box 98920, Lincoln, BE 68509-8920. He has to be asked what is going on. Why only a $5,000 bond and why is he only being charged with manslaughter when he hid the body and left this poor women to the elements and wild animals; he hid out from the law and the consequences of taking a young woman's life for THREE YEARS ! Peg also noted that Nebraska Governor E. Benjamin Nelson's office in on the Net. **** Paula I am getting the address *** And Peg as well as PolWoman sent us the 68739 zip for Hartington NE where Tammy's body was found and the police sat on their butts for THREE YEARS ! We know it is complete coincidence. In August 1995 Catt's Claws started publicizing the Tammy Haas brutal murder after she lay in her grave for THREE YEARS without the police doing anything about her KNOWN slayer who is from a politically powerful family. Then, right after our first story when we called on our readers to write the Nebraska Governor, the Police Chief of Hartington, NE where Eric Stuble threw Tammy Haas' body as if she were garbage, as well as all the news media people they could think of, Stuble was suddenly *informed* he was to be arrested so he turned himself in. Well, keep up the pressure. Something is making them move on this case. By the way, we are not familiar with Nebraska law, but isn't a STATE attorney general prosecuting a criminal case slightly out of the norm? Can someone explain that seemingly incongruous position? An Attorney General isn't usually involved in criminal matters - at least not in the five states I've lived in. The odors from the case keep getting stronger and stronger. ....................... * ........................ Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon, 39, of Grants Pass pleaded guilty June 7 to arson and other charges related to fires at clinics in Ashland, Portland, and Eugene, Ore.; Reno, Nev.; and Sacramento, Calif., in 1992. She already is serving a 10-year sentence for wounding Dr. George Tiller at a Wichita, Kan., clinic in 1993. No one was injured in the fires or in the acid attacks in Reno and Chico, Calif., to which Shannon also pleaded guilty. Two clinics were destroyed by fire. The prominent California couple who allegedly financed Shannon when she made the attacks and provided Shannon the materials for the fire bombs and acid have not been charged. ....................... * ........................ In the fall of 1993, in spite of Republican opposition (although they lipsynced approval), President Bill Clinton's Violence Against Women Act was passed by Congress which authorized the government to spend $1.6 billion over six years for shelters and a variety of other services to aid battered, raped, and abused women as well as train judges and police to be more sensitive and knowledgeable about the growing violence against women. Well, the REPS are in power and are blissfully going back on their word. PENCIL, PAPER, EMAIL, TELEPHONES AT THE READY ??? No rest for the socially responsible. ( Oh, gawd, when will those Republicans stop their misogynist attack on women?) A Senate committee passed a proviso earlier this week which slashed the funding for the Violence Against Women Act by some 75 million dollars. This is the bill the mealy-mouths said they supported until they got control and "Now we'll put those bitches in their places." Most of the cuts will come out of education and methods to aid law enforcement and prosecution efforts. Senator Joe Biden will present an amendment to restoring the $75 million. Please - the life you save may be your own - contact your Congressional Delegation (Representative and two Senators) and say, "Don't try to balance the budget on the backs of women." By the way, that $75 million is just a drop in the bucket to the INCREASES the Reps are aiming for in the Defense (against whom???) Department's budget. ....................... * ........................ One reader said she heard on NPR radio last Friday that Pope John Paul II was going to allow some men in Africa to have more than one wife and stay in the church. Surely she heard wrong. Does anyone have any further information? ....................... * ........................ The bodies of seven women, at least four of whom looked similar (young, slim, with black hair and dark complexions) were strangled and raped and found "dumped" in the desert near the Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, airport. CC-->> Don't you just admire news media's use of the word "dump" to describe the impersonality of discarding mutilated women's bodies as if they were sacks of garbage? <--cc. Step through the looking glass: Police are saying the possibility of a serial killer is still speculation. They don't know if it was only one person doing the killing. Is there a quota on the number of participants in a murder to classify it as "serial?" Three of the women, when found, were little more than skeletal remains. Police are searching the area for more victims. ....................... * ........................ All together now - you know the tune from your Howdy Dowdy days: "IT'S RODDIE SERLING TIME, IT'S RODDIE SERLING TIME ..." Some Catholics on school boards in Alberta are objecting to government plans to vaccinate children against hepatitis B, the blood-transmitted disease that can cause severe liver damage. Seems that they feel the vaccinations condone a lifestyle that doesn't agree with Catholic views. Fortunately, parents who do not see a vaccination as anything except a way to protect their children's lives (not as new age sermons on the mount) will be able to get the free shots at the local health clinic. ....................... * ........................ Has anyone heard anything more about Heather Teague, 23, who was sunbathing in Newburgh Beach in Henderson County, Ky., along the Ohio River in Indiana, and was abducted at gunpoint? The abduction was seen by a man who had just rented a house in the area and was looking around through a telescope from across the river. He immediately called police. A surveillance tape of the area - installed by residents of the area who were trying to control the rowdy crowds at the beach - showed a red and white Ford Bronco in the vicinity and a neighbor of Marvin Ray Dill identified him as the owner of the vehicle. Authorities found the Bronco hidden in brush, but when the police and FBI went to his mobile home, he had shot himself. Dill had been driving around Evansville soliciting young girls for sex. He spent two months in a Kentucky jail for a felony conviction on marijuana and was out on probation. ....................... * ........................ One of the mottos of one of the once-great newspapers was "And the truth shall set them free." Note that the Police Chief of Los Angeles has a good chance to collect $10 million dollars in a lawsuit against the city because the Los Angeles _Times_ reported last week that Williams received about $1,500 worth of rooms, room service and phone calls during five trips to Las Vegas between 1992 and 1994. Williams initially denied the allegation, then later acknowledged he had accepted free accommodations. He said the perks were offered on the basis of the amount of money his family gambled at Caesars Palace and were available to any hotel guest who spent the same amount. Excuse me, but $1,500 in perks is pretty high rolling - especially for a cop - and we thought this business of shooting the messenger went out of style with the Roman Empire. Why should the City of Los Angeles pay for something being printed in a newspaper? Isn't that what investigative reporters are supposed to do (and which I PROUDLY did ... revealing for prosecution the illegal antics of men sworn to upohold the law.) ....................... * ........................ "Thanks, Irene, for a place we can vent (or tell the truth)"says Anita Clemens who wrote: "I heard that a group of religious fundamentalist Afgans (who were going to religious school in Pakistan) have taken over a small section in Afghanistan. "They have fired all the working women who are civil servants except the female doctors and nurses. (Too bad they didn't fire them as well! I'd have liked them need some for emergency medical care and have no one to help them - I'm just a bit naughty;-}) They have also closed all the girls' schools, declaring that women should be home behind closed doors, not out with men and working. These guys can't even speak the native language; they need an interpreter wherever they go. These guys have been gone from home for a very long time and apparently the Russian influence has changed the population. "They are now trying to force (women) back into the "dark ages/or as the Republicans like to say - to a time of family values." ....................... * ........................ Roman Catholic women in Australia are campaigning for major changes in the church including the ordination of women. According to an Australian news service, women from four states formed Women and the Australian Church (WATAC). Its main aim is to "End the oppression of women and their exclusion from the decision-making process within the Catholic Church," said spokesperson Sister Josephine Armour. She said the response from the male hierarchy of the church ranged from "sensitive to somewhat hostile." The group is campaigning for the ordination of women as priests and the introduction of inclusive language into the church liturgy. CC-->> One may well wonder how sensitive and truly godlike religious men can be when they hold themselves so apart from half the human race and consider them as non-people with no rights. <--cc ....................... * ........................ The URLs to the most current weeks' worth of Catt's Claws set up on the Web by Laurie D. T. Mann, the Feminist Webitor, are: http://worcester.lm.com/lmann/feminist/cattsclaws.html The FTPs for Catt's Claws being archived by William Affleck-Asch, are: ftp://ftp.eskimo.com/u/f/feminist/ (or NCFTP open ftp.eskimo.com cd /u/f/feminist/) The FTPs for Catt's Claws being archieved by Dorothy Dean are: ftp.execpc.com/~ddean/catts-claws ....................... * ........................ Women's rights are young and tender and we must protect them from the plagues of holy hypocrisy and newts. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >>> Send your ideas, comments, and news to irenestuber@delphi.com for inclusion in the Catt's Claws feminist newsletter which will be emailed three times a week: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. This is NOT an interactive discussion net but an exchange of information and is NOT sponsored by any organization. We are accepting *limited* donations (only what can be spared) to help offset the online costs of posting Catt's Claws. Irene Stuber. PO Box 6185, Hot Springs, AR 71902.<<<<