News stories from Thursday April 19, 1973
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- President Nixon and his aide John Dean now appear to be at odds over the Watergate bugging case. Without White House approval, Dean issued a statement saying that he will not become a scapegoat in the case. Press secretary Ron Ziegler conceded that neither he nor the President knew about Dean's statement until after it was issued.
Numerous new indictments are expected in the Watergate affair. Attorney General Richard Kleindienst announced that he is withdrawing from the case because of personal and professional relations with some of those involved in the bugging. Indications are that he is referring to former Attorney General John Mitchell, who along with Dean is implicated in the bugging and its cover-up. Former deputy campaign director Jeb Magruder reportedly told of a meeting with Mitchell, Dean and G. Gordon Liddy in which plans for bugging the Watergate were approved. Magruder is also said to have talked about Mitchell's and Dean's bribery of the convicted Watergate defendants so that they would not name others involved in the case. Mitchell denied Magruder's charges.
Attorney Peter Wolf claims that he has a client who possessed documents taken from the White House desk of E. Howard Hunt -- documents which included plans to bug the Watergate. Wolf says that despite his advice to expose those documents, his client returned the documents to the Nixon campaign organization shortly before election day. Wolf claims that he told prosecuting attorney Earl Silbert of the documents, but Silbert disregarded them. Silbert denied Wolf's story.
E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy reappeared in Washington court today, Hunt to give testimony to the grand jury, Liddy to confer with attorneys. Former Nixon appointments secretary Dwight Chapin is also back in DC. Chapin refused comment on the case, including any comment on whether he hired Donald Segretti to spy on Democrats. Herbert Kalmbach, President Nixon's personal attorney who reportedly paid off the saboteurs on Chapin's instructions, was interviewed by Earl Silbert today.
Aides to Senator Lowell Weicker claim that Weicker's safe, which contains files on the Senator's own investigation of the Watergate case, was opened during the night. No documents are missing.
[CBS] - The United States is taking steps to try to end the fighting in Southeast Asia, announcing that Hanoi will get no postwar aid unless it stops violating the truce agreement. U.S. ships carrying out minesweeping operations have left North Vietnam and put in at Hong Kong. Minesweeping operations are stopped because of North Vietnamese intervention in Cambodia and the continued infiltration of North Vietnamese troops into South Vietnam. Secretary of State William Rogers warned North Vietnam that the U.S. will not give aid to Hanoi unless it upholds the terms of the truce.
Maurice Williams, the U.S. negotiator who was in Paris to discuss aid for North Vietnam, has been recalled to Washington. The U.S. might send Henry Kissinger back to Paris to try to salvage the agreement known as "peace with honor."
[CBS] - The Pentagon Papers trial concluded in Los Angeles. The case against Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo goes to the jury next week. [CBS]
- Four people were caught in a cross-fire between British soldiers and snipers in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A woman and a boy were shot; the boy died, but the woman is expected to live. [CBS]
- President Nixon sent his revenue-sharing proposal to Congress. His plan would replace such programs as Model Cities and urban renewal. [CBS]
- The House rejected by a substantial margin a plan that would allow cities to use highway funds for mass transit. [CBS]
- The Nixon administration is proposing changes in welfare rules that would reduce costs by eliminating fraud in welfare payments. [CBS]
- Former Illinois governor Otto Kerner was sentenced to three years in prison and a $50,000 fine for his part in a racetrack bribery scheme. Kerner claims that he never benefitted financially from holding public office. His conviction is one more embarrassment for Kerner's old friend, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.
It has been revealed that Mayor Daley gave much of the city's insurance business to a firm run by one of Daley's sons, but Chicago Daily News columnist Mike Royko doesn't think that affair will hurt Daley. County clerk Edward Barrett has been sentenced to three years for accepting bribes. A ex-alderman was convicted of bribery in a zoning case, and other aldermen are being investigated for bribery. Alderman Thomas Keane, the mayor's floor leader in city council, is accused of using his position to push through legislation which resulted in vast real estate profits for himself and his friends.
U.S. attorney James Thompson is the prime mover in the investigations. He says that corruption pervades the city of Chicago. Republican Bernard Carey won office as Cook County prosecutor last fall, and he promised to make a concerted attack on corruption along with Thompson. The last of Chicago's saloon-keeper aldermen, Paddy Bowler, once said "Chicago ain't ready for reform." Ready or not, Chicago may face cleanup.
[CBS] - The gross national product is up more than 14% this year, but a 6% inflation rate accompanies the increase. Chief administration economist Herbert Stein is concerned. [CBS]
- 1974 model year cars will be designed not to operate unless seat belts are buckled. [CBS]
- A mystery is emerging from the town of Williamsburg, Michigan. Earl Gay was the first to discover mysterious craters in his yard. Soon the small town of Williamsburg had to be evacuated, as over 100 craters are bubbling out what seems to be water and natural gas. The source of the gas has not yet been determined. [CBS]
- An extortion ring was discovered in the third grade of an elementary school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Children were threatened with beatings and death unless they paid off a group of classmates. [CBS]
- Democrats are leaving the Watergate complex in Washington and are moving their party headquarters to the Airline Pilots Association Building. [CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 963.20 (+4.89, +0.51%)
Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish. | |||||||||||||||
| Market Index Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | DJIA | S&P | Volume* |
| April 18, 1973 | 958.31 | 111.54 | 13.89 |
| April 17, 1973 | 953.42 | 110.94 | 12.83 |
| April 16, 1973 | 956.73 | 111.44 | 11.35 |
| April 13, 1973 | 959.36 | 112.08 | 14.39 |
| April 12, 1973 | 964.03 | 112.58 | 16.36 |
| April 11, 1973 | 967.41 | 112.68 | 14.89 |
| April 10, 1973 | 960.49 | 112.21 | 16.77 |
| April 9, 1973 | 947.55 | 110.86 | 13.74 |
| April 6, 1973 | 931.07 | 109.28 | 13.89 |
| April 5, 1973 | 923.46 | 108.52 | 12.75 |