News stories from Sunday July 14, 1974
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Seven hostages who had been held by two armed convicts for nearly three days in the basement cell block of the Federal District Courthouse in Washington escaped by using an elevator key smuggled to them in a box of sanitary napkins. After the escape, the convicts reportedly agreed to surrender if they were transferred from the District of Columbia jail to another one. But an impasse developed as they imposed additional demands that were rejected. [New York Times]
- Baltimore's Police Commissioner, Donald Pomerleau, announced last night that striking policemen would be dismissed unless they returned to work immediately. His "no general amnesty" statement came while city officials and union negotiators for the 8,000 striking municipal employees were reportedly "exploring new ideas" to settle the spreading walkout. [New York Times]
- Gen. Carl Spaatz, an aviation pioneer who became the first Chief of Staff of the Air Force, died at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington at the age of 83. General Spaatz was appointed the Air Force Chief of Staff by President Harry S. Truman in 1947. [New York Times]
- Treasury Secretary William Simon began three days of talks with Egyptian officials on the question of how to make Egypt safe and attractive for American and other foreign capital. He conferred for more than two hours with Deputy Premier Abdel Aziz Hegazi, who explained the structure of the Egyptian economy. Mr. Hegazi assured him that the foreign-investment liberalization measures recently adopted in Egypt are far-reaching, members of Mr. Simon's delegation said. [New York Times]
- Informed government sources said that both Congress and the Justice Department were reluctant to pursue allegations of corruption in the Immigration and Naturalization Service because of adverse information about Congressmen, legislative staff members, a federal judge and certain officials of the executive branch. Representative Chet Holifield, California Democrat and chairman of the House Government Operation Committee, has reportedly made it clear that the inquiry is not to proceed to the point of embarrassing members of Congress. [New York Times]
- The Internal Revenue Service is investigating an offer made in 1972 by Michele Sindona, the Italian financier who is the largest single shareholder in the troubled Franklin National Bank, to contribute $1 million to the Committee to Re-elect the President, according to information obtained from government sources. The. I.R.S. reportedly wants to know whether the contribution was ever made and where Mr. Sindona, who controls an empire of banks, holding companies and other interests, planned to obtain the funds. [New York Times]