Tales from the Morgue: The Pied Piper of Tucson, Part 13

It was almost an anticlimax yesterday morning in Superior Court when Charles H. Schmid Jr. formally was sentenced to die in Arizona's gas chamber for the Nov. 22 slaying of Gretchen and Wendy Fritz.

Judge Lee Garrett set June 17 as the date of the execution, but in all probability it will take two years or more for the stubby convicted killer to exhaust all his legal appeals.

The only drama of the slow-moving court procedure came moments before sentencing when Schmid told the court that he demanded and requested an injection of a drug commonly termed a truth serum "to prove I am innocent of these crimes."

Speaking in distinct and firm tones, Schmid called his trial a "mockery of justice." He claimed his pre-trial publicity "did nothing but condemn me, condemn me, condemn me."

The 23-year-old former gymnast charged that his conviction was the result of a "fraud by police and the county attorney's office."

Judge Garrett replied that the court had no jurisdiction or right to grant the defendant's request and that such a procedure could have been sought prior to the trial which ended March 1 when a jury brought in the death verdicts after a surprisingly short period of deliberation.

The "demand" rejected, Judge Garrett said, "This is a moment I would rather not face. This is only the second time in 20 years on the bench that I have been required by law to impose the death penalty."

The jurist then sentenced Schmid to death for the killing of 17-year-old Gretchen Fritz, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. James M. Frtiz.

At this point Schmid's teenage wife, Diane, and her mother left the courtroom.

Then Judge Garrett sentenced Schmid to pay with his life for the slaying of 13-year-old Wendy Fritz.

"May the Lord help you and bless your soul," the judge concluded.

As court adjourned, three sheriff's deputies handcuffed the defendant and justled him through a hallway where the young wife was standing. They brushed past the crying girl and ushered Schmid through a small crowd of spectators and down the stairway to a waiting squad car for trnasportation back to the county jail.

Editor the Star:

This letter is to let everyone know what some of the students who attend Salpointe High School think. The magazine article in the March 4 issue of Life Magazine about Tucson and the Schmid trial was totally opinionated, generalized, and completely uncalled for. This article portrayed a picture of filth and immorality. According to this article, Tucson is nothing but a bunch of "pick-up palaces," "juke joints," and "sprawling drive-in restaurants." It also stated that the police force of Tucson does nothing and just sits back and relaxes while crime and delinquency flourish. Also, Schmid was referred to as "someone to admire and emulate."

In reality, the police force does a tremendous job of controlling crime in Tucson. Not all teenagers in Tucson cruise down Speedway with a mind full of ways of getting into trouble.

ANA MARISCAL
Salpointe High School

An Erroneous View Of Tucson

The handling of the Schmid case by Life magazine presents an erroneous view of Tucson, however factual the statements may be about the case itself. The Star has received considerable mail from various parts of the country on this. It would be vain to try to answer to the whole nation. But Tucsonans should comfort themselves with some facts.

First, the youths involved in the Schmid case are not typical of the youths of Tucson. That is shown by the large number of good things young people do within the community, by the awards they win in school and in extracurricular activies, and by the ready admission of a high  percentage of Tucson area students to universities and colleges of standing in the United States.

Secondly, the Schmid case reflects on a few principals and not on either the school system, city policing in general, or the morals of the community.

Thirdly, Life has used loosely some terms which are not in themselves evil, but because of the way they are used have evil connotations. For example, what is wrong with "a hamburger joint?" There are many "hamburger joints," and other restaurants to which are applied joking names, that run respectably and well.

If East Speedway is a street noted for its hamburger houses, its jukeboxes and its teenage rallying places, this can be good or evil depending on whether the kids have an innocent good time, or raise cain. Speedway is unzoned, for all practical purposes; but bad zoning does not necessarily mean bad morals.

There are tens of thousands of teenagers in Tucson who date, go out periodically to get a hamburger (which is an inexpensive after-movie meal), go to places where jukeboxes play popular (and sometimes even classical) music, play billiards, and do other things which are not of themselves wrong. The vast majority of these young people need no defense of their morals and Tucson need not apologize for them. Many of them are top students and are headed for careers of great public service.

Life magazine is as wrong to categorize all of Tucson in the fashion it did as a publication would be wrong to charge that the entire ministry was corrupt because one preacher went astray.

Tucson is a good city, with more juvenile problems than 30 years ago because there are more juveniles. The Star has said before that people quick to condemn today's youth should think back on their own teen days. What person who went through prohibition can utter blanket charges against Tucson's youth today?

There is one aspect of the Schmid case which does deserve deep thought. In the fall of 1963 Tucson had some parties called boondocks. These have passed from the memories of many. The Star at the time maintained that such parties had been held by every generation and while it was desirable to control or halt them, to brand them as criminal things was going a bit far.

Had as much police work been put onto the Alleen Rowe case when Mrs. Rowe said her daughter was dead, and named the suspected killers (accurately, it later developed), would the Fritz girls now be dead? If there is any question that should stir Tucson, it is that one.