Other days

100 YEARS AGO

Oct. 28, 1918

PINE BLUFF — Deputy United States Marshal A. H. Reid yesterday morning searched Train No. 148 on the Missouri Pacific at McGehee, resulting in the capture of approximately 350 gallons of whiskey. Ed Grist, Andrew McTeer, Russie Lofton (woman), James Douglas, Brimer O’Neal, Rufus Williams and J. R. White were arrested and brought to Pine Bluff, where they pleaded guilty to transporting liquor anto a dry state. One of the alleged bootleggers drew a gun and made good his escape at McGehee.

50 YEARS AGO

Oct. 28, 1968

Jess P. Odom, who sold his interest in the National Investors Life Insurance Company for millions, has acquired control of Dogpatch, U.S.A. the new recreational theme park near Harrison. His initial investment was about $750,000. He says he proposed to spend up to $5 million in the next few years to improve the man-made model of Al Capp’s Li’l Abner comic strip site. This move will provide necessary financial backing and management to the 825 acres of Ozark mountain and valley land that was bought and dedicated last May by 12 Harrison businessmen and cartoonist Capp.

25 YEARS AGO

Oct. 28, 1993

WALNUT RIDGE — Whether Walnut Ridge and tiny College City merge next year will boil down to economics, Walnut Ridge Mayor Tommy Holland said. “We are in the planning stages. Right now we don’t know how much it’s going to cost us. We can’t afford to make a mistake,” Holland said Tuesday. The two Lawrence County towns, about six miles apart on U.S. 67 — actually, College City is a short hop down a side road — have bantered back and fourth for years about merging, but nothing has come of the talks, yet. Voters in each town would have to approve the merger in elections tentatively planned for March 1994, but officials in both communities are confident of approval. The resulting larger city would be called Walnut Ridge, relegating the name College City to the history books.

10 YEARS AGO

Oct. 28, 2008

An Arkansas man and a friend from neighboring Tennessee plotted to assassinate Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, shoot and kill 88 others, and decapitate 14 blacks in a rampage to include students at a predominantly black school, federal authorities said Monday. Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives officials said they disrupted the plans of Paul Schlesselman, 18, of Helena-West Helena, and Daniel Cowart, 20 of Bells, Tenn., both of whom appeared Monday in U.S. District Court in Jackson, Tenn. The defendants, who were arrested Wednesday, planned to start the killing rampage in Tennessee and finish it by assassinating Obama while wearing white tuxedos and white top hats, according to an affidavit unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.