In the past week, The Express received communications from two writers seeking information about events that happened in this area more than 50 years ago.
A reporter for Nebraska’s Flatwater Free Press called asking about the semiprofessional baseball team that played in Superior in the 1950s. The reporter would like to interview people who attended the games or who have information about the games and players.
If any of our readers are willing to help gather information for such a story, please submit your contact information to this office and we will relay to Kevin Warneke, the man who called. Readers of The Express may recall a story he did earlier that included references to a 1949 baseball game played in Superior.
The second inquire came from a West Coast reporter seeking a copy of a story supposedly published in The Express on July 22, 1967, about an incident at a Byron Laundromat.
The writer Jon Cooke, is the editor of Comic Book Creator magazine. He is preparing a history of a San Francisco publisher who was once connected with a young knucklehead who tried to dry freshly harvested marijuana in a coin-operated laundry’s clothes dryer.That 20 something entrepreneur, Thomas Patchett, went on the create the Dealer McDope board game which was quite successful with the hippie crowd. He teamed with a San Francisco publisher of the underground comix, Last Gasp, and they made good money for years with the game. We were told the game is decidedly politically incorrect but quite funny and wonderfully illustrated. Pachett died in 2013 with no mention of his counter-capitalism in his obituary.
Intrigued by what the Dealer McDope game might be like, we checked the internet and found a copy for sale with an asking price of $215.75. It had a 1971 publication date. The game was described as “The Narc Game, a game of real life. It deals with the complex social problems of drug use and abuse, in addition to being lots of fun and laughs of endless hours of conversational value. The game shows the youthful players a deterrent, the criminal justice system which by the way is filled with negative hassles too numerous to mention. The rookie players will soon learn a few facts of life in their own language, Best friends turn you in. The system has no mercy. You can lose your freedom and go to jail. Every player must make the decision to play or not to play.”
We haven’t located The Express story but with the help of an Angus resident, Deanna Nackey, we found a detailed story and photograph in The Belleville Telescope, edited portions of which follow.
A U-Haul truck loaded with marijuana was stopped in the early morning hours Saturday by Republic County Sheriff Robert Blecha and a special agent from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. Five youths were arrested and charged with possession of marijuana including a 1960 graduate of Munden High School.
The arrest followed a tip from Jim Johnson, Thayer County sheriff. Johnson called Sheriff Blecha who in turn notified the K.B.I.
Among those arrested was Elton Patchett of Port Clinton Ohio, the youth who went on to write The Narc Game. The others gave addresses as Boulder, Colorado, Rolla, Missouri, Fairhaven, Massachusttes, and University City, Missouri.
In the arrest which took place two miles east of Cuba on US Highway 36, Sheriff Blecha said they found six cardboard boxes heaped with freshly cut marijuana. The value of the marijuana was estimated at $67,200 by the KBI on the basis of the shipment which weighed 336 pounds.
The Telescope writer explained, “Marijuana, is a hemplike plant that looks much like a weed. Its leaves, when smoked in cigarettes, however, are exhilarating, but toxic and habit forming.
“The most common characteristic which identifies marijuana from other weeds is its pungent odor.”
All the youths said in county court they were students and pled guilty to unlawfully and willfully possessing a narcotic drug. They were each given a 10-day jail sentence and a fine of $125 and the costs of the prosecution in the amount of $16.15. The youth ranged in age from 26 to 21.
The feds got involved and the five wanna-be pot dealers faced numerous federal charges but all charges were dismissed without comment in U.S. District Court by 1968.
Not knowing what the youth have done with their lives since that stupid attempt to gain money, The Express has chosen not to republish their names at this time though their names are available on court records and in newspaper articles published at the time.
Republic County Attorney Frank Spurney Jr., when asked where the marijuana came from, replied, “From the Ben Belecha Farm.” He then went on to say, “It grows wild over the county.”
Marijuana, in addition to being called cannabis, is sometimes called Mexican hemp.
Judge Warren A. Scott said the drugs were being destroyed under court order.
The arrests were made two miles east of Cuba at 3:50 a.m. The youths were in a white and orange Ford truck.
The KBI complaint report stated the subjects admitted cutting, curing a part of the weed and indicated an intent to sell same.
Sheriff Blecha said he became alerted to the possibility when it was reported someone was seen drying marijuana in a Byron laundromat.
Sheriff Blecha and Special Agent Williams proceeded to Chester where Sheriff Johnson showed them four boxes (approximately one and a half bushels) of dried marijuana.
Johnson advised the owner of the Byron general store, Mrs. Cecil Marquardt, and the owners of a Byron tavern had reported seeing someone spending a lot of time in the laundromat drying something.
The owner of the laundromat, Mrs. Rheinhold Harms, checked and found marijuana in the lint traps of the dryers.
A total of 12 boxes were recovered.
At that time, the subjects were traveling in a faded red 1949-1951 Chevrolet pickup and a blue 1953 Chevrolet 1.5 ton truck with Republic County tags.
Blecha and Williams drove to Munden and from a distance observed with binoculars a truck parked in the driveway of a residence. The officers observed at least four persons loading the U-Haul truck.
At 3:30 in the morning, the truck left and went west on the Munden road, then south to US 36 and headed east on the highway.
The officers followed the truck and noted it slowed to almost 10 miles per hour.
The driver told the stopping officers, the load consisted of sweat shirts only. But the load smelled like hot vegetation. The officers opened the rear door of and were met by a worse smell and two more passengers.
The driver signed a search waiver and told the officers where the marijuana was located in the boxes near the front. He said they were enroute to Hyannis and Providence Town, Massachusetts, to sell the same.
The boxes were taken to the Republic County Courthouse where the contents were weighed on the health nurse’s scales.
A pipe found in one of the occupants coat pockets was examined. It appeared to have contained marijuana. The officers were told all of the suspects had smoked some marijuana in the pipe.
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