Fun_People Archive
27 Mar
WhiteBoardness - 3/26/97

Content-Type: text/plain
Mime-Version: 1.0 (NeXT Mail 3.3 v118.2)
From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 97 01:19:54 -0800
To: Fun_People
Subject: WhiteBoardness - 3/26/97

Excerpted-from: WhiteBoard News for Wednesday, March 26, 1997


Fort Myers, Florida:

A prisoner's girlfriend got him released by faxing a bogus letter saying he
had been pardoned, police said, but the man landed back in jail when he
tried a similar ruse to free his former cellmate.

Jails across the state have been alerted to the deception, Florida
Department of Law Enforcement agent Steve Emerson said Tuesday.

Gregory Williamson, 35, walked out of jail last week on the authority of a
fax that appeared to come from the Pennsylvania governor's office, Emerson
said. Officials realized their mistake when Pennsylvania authorities arrived
to transport back to that state to face probation violation charges.

Jail officials received another fax Friday -- purportedly from Governor
Lawton Chiles' office, telling them to free James Couts, 23, Williamson's
former cellmate. This time they checked with Chiles' office and were told
that pardons were handled more formally.

State agents allowed Couts to prepare to leave before he was stopped for
questioning on Williamson's whereabouts.

"We let him look out and see freedom and then we nabbed him," Emerson said.
"He told us Williamson and his girlfriend were part of a plan to get Couts
out for $2,000."

Williamson and his girlfriend, Kim Starke, 32, were arrested later Friday
on fraud and escape charges at her Fort Myers apartment.

Emerson said Starke was a former printing company production manager, and
investigators found computers and disks containing official seals for state
offices across the country in the apartment.
==========

Boston, Massachusetts:

A diet of cookies and cereal nearly turned a scallop boat crew into a pack
of mutinous dogs, frightening the captain into messaging other ships for
help.

A ship off Cape Cod received a fax about 3 a.m. Friday from the captain of
"Alice Amanda" who said he feared a mutiny by three of his six crew members.

The message was relayed to the Coast Guard, which spent a harried hour
trying to contact the vessel.

The situation had improved by the time they got through, but the captain
was jittery and wanted the hostile crew members off the boat.

A Coast Guard cutter found the Alice Amanda and escorted it ashore in
Provincetown, where the disgruntled crew complained of cereal and cookies
for grub and a captain who used racial slurs.

Mutiny is punishable by death in the military. Among civilian crews it is
a major violation.

"But I haven't heard of one since all boats were wooden and under sail,"
Coast Guard Senior Chief Leo Deon told The Cape Cod Times.
==========

Columbus, Ohio:

The Capitol Theater must have known something was up when the black cultural
dance performance they had booked was billed as "central Ohio's largest
female review."

The bump-and-grind music during rehearsals must have confirmed suspicions.

The show, which premieres Friday night, turns out to be a stripper
competition with a top prize of $1,000.

"I take the standpoint that these girls are artists," said promoter
Alexander Mitchell. "They won't be naked."

Contestants are coming from such fine venues as Club Venus and the Dollhouse
Show Bar.

While theater administrators claim they were misled, Mitchell denied the
show was ever billed as a cultural dance performance.

"From my standpoint, I believe I should be able to rent that (theater) and
put a female review on and not put on anything with social content," he said.

© 1997 Peter Langston