Katherine Elizabeth Staack |
| Posted 2024-05-20 by Pat R |
| Wickenburg Sun (Wickenburg, Arizona) Friday, January 13, 1961, p. 1 & 8 SPEEDER KILLS ONE, ENDANGERS DOZENS AWOL SAILOR JAILED AFTER A WILD CHASE Because Melvin Elizer, 18, an AWOL sailor in a stolen car, would not heed the warnings of numerous highway patrolmen and other law enforcement officers, wantonly ran through two road blocks, endangered lives and property as he careened in and out of traffic through Wickenburg at speeds up to 120 miles per hour, a Youngtown woman is dead and her husband is in a hospital with injuries. It is a miracle that others are not dead as the sailor turned the stolen car into a deadly weapon on Highway 60-70 from a point about 20 miles west of Wickenburg until he crashed into a car and caused a fatality just west of Sun City. It was just after noon last Saturday, a bright and sunny day, that Highway Patrolman Hanger spotted the sailor driving a 1961 Ford ranch wagon at 70 miles per hour about 20 miles west of Wickenburg. Because the driver seemed so little and young to be driving a new car, and because he was speeding, Hanger, who was headed west on patrol, made a u-turn and gave chase to investigate. The boy gave the appearance of stopping. So Hanger stopped too. But as the patrolman got out of his car, the boy gunned his car and was off. Hanger immediately gave chase at speeds over 100 miles per hour. He radioed ahead and asked that a road block be set up at Wickenburg. This was done just inside the western town limits by Sgt. W. O. Dollar of the highway patrol, Sgt. Dave Carter of the sheriff's office and Police Chief Dick Savage. Carter's car was parked in the center of the highway. The cars of Dollar and Savage were on either side so that there was only a narrow lane on each side of the center car. Red lights were flashing and Dollar and Carter were out waving the speeder down. The speeder paid no attention. He made the narrow lane at about 110 miles per hour and stepped his speed up to 120 miles per hour as he entered the Miracle Mile section of Wickenburg. Patrolman Hanger pushed his patrol car but couldn't overtake the speeder. Dollar, Carter and Savage joined the chase as soon as they could get their cars moving. And Patrolman George Pemberton also joined the chase. The speeder raced through the underpass in excess of 100 miles per hour and encountered Wickenburg's normal Saturday noon traffic. That slowed him a little, says Sgt. Dollar, as speeder and chasers had to weave in and out of traffic until they got to the Hassayampa Bridge where they were slowed down some more. But as soon as the speeder crossed the bridge, he pushed his car again up to the 120 miles per hour mark and made Highway 60-70 a lethal route all the way through Morristown, Wittmann, Circle City and on to the Youngtown Road. Meanwhile, the pursuing officers radioed for a second road block to be set up at Ashby's Service Station east of Beardsley. Again the speeder slouched down in his seat and went right through. Officers who had manned that block joined in the chase. Savage, who was running low on gasoline, had dropped out near Morristown. Nevertheless there were nine patrol cars still in pursuit beyond the second road block. Realizing that more desperate measures must be taken, an order was issued for a third road block at the Peoria underpass. Only this time another order was issued: "Shoot his tires." But before the speeder reached that block, Mr. & Mrs. Carl Staack, who were headed for their home in Youngtown after being in Phoenix, made a left turn off the highway into the Youngtown road just as the speeder raced down the highway at that point. The speeding car crashed broadside into the Staack car. Mrs. Staack, 79, was rushed to a hospital at Glendale where she died two hours later. Mr. Staack, 70, was also taken to the same hospital with injuries. Both cars were demolished. Elizer, the speeding sailor, was not injured and he started running on foot across fields to the housing area where he darted in and around houses. The patrolmen gave chase on foot. They were joined by others. Some shots were fired in the air as warnings but they were not heeded. A truck driver, whose name was not available here and who had joined in the foot chase, overtook Elizer, tackled him from the rear and downed him. "After that," says Sgt. Carter, "the boy was in no shape to put up any further resistance." While the boy was down, Patrolman Hanger clamped on handcuffs. First the boy was taken to a hospital in Glendale to be checked for possible injuries. There were none. Patrolman Dick Shaffer filed six charges; manslaughter, being AWOL from the Navy, taking a stolen car across a state line, reckless driving, speeding and driving without a driver's license. Sgt. Dollar says efforts were made to file a charge of second degree murder against Elizer, but that a technicality prevented that and so the manslaughter charge was filed. Elizer was AWOL from the USS Princeton which is docked at Long Beach, Calif. He had stolen the new ranch wagon in Los Angeles. Commenting about the chase afterwards, Sgt. Carter says there were numerous times when Elizer ran onto the shoulder on the wrong side of the road in order to pass traffic on the highway. Officers were agreed that it was a miracle that pedestrians and motorists all along the route were able to avoid being the victims of the reckless disregard of Elizer for human life. After a preliminary hearing in Peoria Tuesday, Elizer was being held for trial in Superior Court. |
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