Gangster Movie

To the Editors:

The James Earl Ray prison escape [June 20] started out like a plot from an oldtime gangster movie, but that's where the script ends. No getaway vehicle or airplane to fly out of the country.

It was strictly a last-ditch effort by a desperate man.

William D. Nueske

Phoenix

Do you really think James Earl Ray's escape from prison deserved your cover more than the celebration of Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee?

Rodney H. Dusinberre, M.D.

Lockport, N.Y.

Triple Crown Winner Seattle Slew was the one who should have been on your cover, not Ray. We have heard enough about him.

Phyllis Davis

Phoenix

It is evident that Americans have now become programmed for conspiracy. Conspiracy today is as Communism was to Joe McCarthy, there is one under every bed. Has Watergate made us all paranoid?

Billy J. Tirnmons Jr.

Birmingham

Instead of continually minimizing the possibility of more than one person's being involved in an assassination, the press should expend more of its energy uncovering the facts. Are all assassinations planned and executed by disturbed men acting alone?

Wood E. Currens

Bala-Cynwyd, Pa.

Let's clear the air. The Ray case, like the Kennedy assassination case, stinks. Instead of having doubts about Ray's story, give him a trial. Ray can then call all the witnesses he likes. A jury will convict or free.

Bob Stewart

Skokie, Ill.

Is there any way to honor that amazing bloodhound?

If there is--a medal, a gold collar, whatever--I'll raise the money for it.

Glenn E. Jackson

Newtown Square, Pa.

Moluccan Terrorists

I hardly know what a Moluccan [June 20] is. I do not know why the Moluccans in Holland are unhappy. I suppose that the recent hijackings by the small band of thugs in Holland were intended in part to attract my attention, to make me curious enough to learn of their complaints and to elicit my support for their cause. However, the repulsiveness of their actions has merely served to reduce to insignificance their cause, no matter how noble it might otherwise be. It is probably unjust, but 1 am certain that a majority of us will never hear the word Moluccan without expecting it to be followed by the word terrorist.

Lowell A. Murphy

Dallas

Fight over Laetrile

As one witness to the agony of cancer, I am bewildered that Laetrile is banned [June 20]. Can it not be administered in conjunction with our presently prescribed treatments? What harm is one more pellet in our already shotgun approach to curing cancer?

Kurt D. Lafy

West Long Branch, N.J.

I am fascinated by the arguments that proponents of the drug Laetrile advance. They choose to ignore the word of the medical profession and the results of several independent studies, all of which indicate that the drug is at best useless. Instead they put their faith in the word of their aunt's best friend's neighbor, who is reported to have been "cured of terminal cancer" by the drug.

Confronted with the scientific evidence, they have now shifted to philosophical justifications for the drug with their "freedom of choice" argument. When I use medicine. I prefer a cure for my illness, and not an expression of my philosophical rights.

Davis McCown

Fort Worth

What consequences of Laetrile can be more disastrous than death? My father died recently after bladder surgery, chemotherapy and a belated effort with Laetrile. As he lay in the hospital wasting away and severely depressed, nothing was more heartening to him than the periodic reports from Mexico. If the effect of Laetrile is at least continued hope and a struggle against death, let those who need the hope make the decision to use Laetrile, particularly when orthodox treatments are useless.

Bobbi Penniman

Latham, N.Y.

Laetrile believers are unlikely to lose faith even if the drug flunks tests on humans conducted by Sloan-Kettering or the National Cancer Institute. They will claim that the tests were "fixed" because the experimenters were "biased."

Stephen Barrett, M.D., Chairman

Board of Directors, Lehigh Valley

Committee Against Health Fraud, Inc.

Allentown, Pa.

Every day I see firsthand cancer victims who have had the maximum of "accepted treatments" and are desperately seeking Laetrile. These poor souls not only have their cancer to contend with, they have the devastating side effects of the accepted treatments too. That is why there is a rebellion against the irrational stand of the medical bureaucracy.

Helen M. Calvin, M.D.

South Bend, Ind.

What's Good for the CIA

Although new "insight" into the operations of our CIA [June 20] may be a long-awaited victory for the press and interesting information for readers, who in his right mind can claim that this big publicity push is good for the CIA?

I wonder if Soviet readers enjoyed the pictures and insights of our most "secret" agency. Americans want an intelligent CIA--not another public gimmick!

Jeff Cline

Grayson, Ky.

Faux Pas at Dunkirk

In his review of A Bridge Too Far [June 13] Richard Schickel recalls the legendary English officer whose description of Dunkirk was: "My dear chap --the noise, the confusion!"

The quotation is incomplete and misses the thrust of the story. What the apocryphal Englishman said was: "My dear fellow--the noise, the confusion and the people!

Donald G. Sedgewick

Kwaluseni, Swaziland

Pink Triangles

The pink triangles that gays wore in Miami are more than "reminiscent of the yellow star that Jews were forced to wear in Hitler's Germany" [June 20]; they are analogous. Gay people in Hitler's concentration camps were forced to wear pink triangles to show their status, just as Jews were forced to wear the yellow star. Hitler exterminated an estimated 220,000 gays in the concentration camps. Gay people wear the pink triangle today as a reminder of the past and a pledge that history will not repeat itself.

Marvin H. Kabakoff

St. Louis

Maltese Omelette

I often wonder why Malta is never mentioned, or at least has not been mentioned for quite some time in your magazine. However, reading People [June 13], I was quite surprised to see that you referred to the plot of Cheap Detective as a Maltese omelette.

I have heard of Maltese terriers. Malta fever is now called brucellosis. I know how to make a Maltese cross and am well acquainted with Maltese pillows; but a Maltese omelette is a new one on me.

I wonder if you can elaborate. It would definitely help to prop up one of the mainstays of our economy--local dishes and tourism.

J. Spiteri Gonzi, M.D.

Fgura, Malta

A Maltese omelette might be made out of the gems from Dashiell Hammett's Maltese Falcon.

Eggless, Butterless (Contd.)

I really enjoyed Florence Cadigan's letter [June 20] regarding my eggless, butterless, milkless cake. I didn't know that my refusal to divulge my recipe would cause such a flap. I have received phone calls from all over the country and have freely given my recipe. Actually I have no objections whatever to giving it to anyone--I merely said that in a fit of pique.

This recipe is foolproof. You can use various types of shortening--chicken fat, bacon grease or anything handy. If you have some very valuable coffee left over, this can serve as part of the liquid. Or fruit juices. Or if you want to add a little rum, I have no objections.

(Mrs.) Marjorie Senterfitt

Austin, Texas

Vintage Label

In regard to my old friend Robert Motherwell's designing a label for Rothschild wines [May 30], I think you might have found it interesting to mention my name along with Picasso, Chagall, et al., as the first American to create a label for Baron Philippe de Rothschild in 1959, for one of the great vintages of this century. Motherwell himself will remember sharing my first signed bottle of 1959 Mouton when we dined with him and Helen Frankenthaler in 1962, right after I received my shipment of cases from France.

Richard Lippold

Locust Valley, N.Y.

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