Week of May 1, 1981
Harrison A. Williams Jr. (D-NJ) is found guilty on Abscam bribery-conspiracy
charges, becoming the first senator and seventh member of Congress to be
convicted in the scandal.
Investigators have found no hard evidence that John w. Hinckley, charged with
trying to assassinate President Reagan, was stalking the President or other
political figures, so say federal law enforcement sources.
Doctors report good news on James Brady - the wounded White House press
secretary has only one small air bubble in his brain and other leakage has been
stopped.
Jailed IRA guerrilla
Bobby Sands
has died some 66
days into his hunger strike that demanded political status
for IRA prisoners. He was 27.
Buckingham Palace was outraged over reports that
politically embarrassing phone calls placed by Prince
Charles from Australia were tapped and any plans to
publish transcripts should be ‘strangled at birth.” Said a
palace spokeswoman.
Passing - Teamsters union President Frank E.
Fitzsimmons… of cancer at age 73.
President Reagan names actor Charlton Heston to be co-chairman of a task
force on the arts and humanities.
Peter Sutclife, the “Yorkshire Ripper” who killed 13 women in the worst string of
attacks against women in British history, tells psychiatrists he had a “divine
mission” to kill prostitutes.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell threatens to launch a
nationwide boycott of products advertised on the
television networks if objectionable “bedroom scenes,
sex and violence” are not eliminated from TV programs
by early July. “I object to the networks’ using my
airwaves to make my living room a cesspool. If
someone wants to invite profanity and vulgarity into
their homes, there are cable channels available.”
