Mention of Aherns
in Newspaper Stories
1980-1990

Famous Brink's Job Still a Story to Remember Brink's will always have a special place in the memory of reporters who covered that holdup 30 years ago tonight - Jan. 17, 1950. Thirty years, several books and a couple of movies later, the name Brink's is still synonomous with one of the most dramatic holdups in history. By now nearly everyone knows all about the men in Halloween masks who robbed the Brink's counting house in Boston's North End of $1.2 million. [...] Walter Armstrong, Al Hurst and Benny Goodman - veteran Boston Police detectives attached to the old Bureau of Criminial Investigation (BCI) at headquarters - were among the first at the scene. They stepped over money bags and grabbed phones to call their superiors: "Get down here to Brink's. They hit this place for a million bucks." Reporters arriving at the sprawling garage bounded by Prince, Commercial and Hull streets were soon scrambling for telephones to call their city desks. [...] Ed Soucy, the agent in charge of the Boston FBI office, was there, and soon reports were circulating that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was flying in from Washington to direct the Bureau's investigation personally. Capt. John D. Ahern, who headed the Special Service Squad that responded only to calls concerning serious crimes, came roaring up in his unmarked car. Ahern had some of the best street contacts of any officer in the police department. When he left the building three hours later, he told reporters, "We have a few ideas. We might have something for you later on." Before the night ended, his men had picked up a number of suspects, some of whom were in the lineup in the basement at police headquarters at 8 a.m. the next morning. — The Boston Globe 17 January 1980

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Stoneham Pair Nabbed; $60,000 in Drugs Seized A six ounce package of cocaine, airmailed from San Francisco to Boston, was intercepted by federal agents who substituted a harmless powder for the drug and then raided a Stoneham house last night and arrested two men. The cocaine was valued at $60,000, said Stoneham Police Inspector Gregory O Keefe. Also seized in the raid on Elizabeth road home at 7:30 last night was $12,000 in cash, a small quantity of marijuana, scales and cutting apparatus. Gerald Ahern, 35, of Stoneham, was charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, and William Prendable, 33, of Somerville, with conspiracy to violate narcotics laws. They are scheduled for arraignment today in Woburn District Court. Two agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration followed the package across the country and then contacted Stoneham Police and worked with O'Keefe and Inspector Robert Moreira. O'Keefe said when they entered the house one of the men, apparently unaware of the switch, was attempting to flush the contents of the package down the sink. — The Boston Globe 23 January 1980

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Plant Licenses In Washington, Mr John F. Ahearne, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said his agency was ready to resume issuing operating permits to nuclear power plants. He told a congressional hearing that the self-imposed "pause" on operating permits after the Three Mile Island accident could end as early as Thursday. — The Times 27 February 1980

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Aftermath of Carter Plan: Stocks Sink, Gold Tumbles Investors voted a stinging rebuke to the Carter anti-inflation policy yesterday. They sold stocks and spurned bonds in the face of record interest rates. They abandoned gold and other metals for high-priced paper, giving the dollar a boost overseas in the bargain. [...] The bond market, in contrast, was a place of "cautious confusion," according to one bond expert, as traders and investment managers evaluated the impact of the credit crunch that is developing in financial circles. "There is confusion over what Congress will do to the budget. Some of the program will make inflation worse over the short run," says Daniel S. Ahearn, senior vice president and director of economics at Wellington Management Co. "People will be dismayed." — The Boston Globe 18 March 1980

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How Strong Should Its Chief Be? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, hammered by criticism since the accident last year at Three Mile Island, is now fighting a White House reorganization plan that threatens its status as an independent regulatory body. [...] John Ahearn, interim chairman of the commission, supports the President's plan. In fact, he testified last week that he would have preferred to eliminate the commission, as the Kemeny Report recommended, replacing it with a single administrator in the executive branch. The four other commissioners say the plan will "worsen rather than improve," the commission's functioning and "will not lead to better nuclear regulation or safer nuclear plants," but rather to "friction and distrust." They say that adopting a strong chairman system would curtail "diversity of views" in the formulation of nuclear safety policy, but would leave a false impression that nuclear regulation is still monitored by an independent commission. — The Boston Globe 1 May 1980

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It is 1 a.m. Ronald and Nancy Reagan have been asleep for a few hours in their suite at the Waldorf Towers. In a nearby room, a tall, heavy-set man is going over the next day's schedule in a flat, unmistakably Boston voice. If he is lucky, Francis X. Ahearn's boy Rick may get three hours' sleep. Frederick (Rick) Ahearn, whose father was once president of the Boston City Council and acting secretary of state, is a political junkie at 29. He handed out circulars promoting Boston Democrats when he was 7. When he was 9, they trusted him to get coffee and doughnuts. As a teenager, he organized crowds to whoop it up at rallies. And now he is one of five full-time advance men upon whom Reagan depends to make each campaign day go smoothly. Rick Ahearn doesn't exactly tuck the Reagans into bed at night and he is not involved in any policy-making. But he is one of the first people they see in the morning and the last they see at night. The job, he says, requires managerial skills, a sense of humor and a talent to sweet-talk hotel reservation managers, bus company owners and a variety of other people into granting his requests. Twenty years ago, Francis Ahearn figured his son had a future in Boston Democratic politics. But that went out the window when Rick acquired his conservative Republican philosophy. His political addiction went like this: a job with former Democratic mayor John Collins; advance man in the 1968 Democratic presidential campaign of the late Hubert Humphrey; a spell with former Republican governor Francis W. Sargent in 1970; back to Humphrey in the 1972 Democratic primary, and a job heading up Democrats for Richard Nixon in California in the 1972 election. In 1976 he was northeast coordinator for former President Gerald Ford. In 1979 he signed on with George Bush, and he joined Reagan in January. "They all know what he is doing and take it in stride now," said the senior Ahearn of his Democratic family and friends. Now chief counsel to the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board, he said: "I've been a lifelong Democrat. I've disagreed with Rick but I respect the right to have him go his own route. This time, he may be right. President Carter seems inept. It may take two hands to pull the lever on the voting machine, but a lot of old-time Democrats I've talked to say they may vote for Reagan." Rick Ahearn has a reputation around campaigns for being a practical joker. He has restrained himself since working for Reagan, not really sure how the former California governor would respond. "I remember Rick in the 1972 Humphrey campaign," said Ray Cullin, a West Coast producer for NBC. "He was in the limousine with Humphrey on the Los Angeles freeway and the motorcade passed a couple making love in the back of a pickup truck. Rick immediately switched on his walkie talkie and informed the press bus. Humphrey wanted to know what was going on and when he was told, he said "go slower.' " Ahearn is adept at impersonating Humphrey. One night he awakened Humphrey's press aide and in his Humphrey-like voice asked for some papers. The aide knocked on Humphrey's door until it opened. "What do you want?" Humphrey shouted. Ahearn chuckled in the room next door. Ahearn refused to admit that he was behind the joke. But a few days later Humphey poked him in the ribs. "It was you, wasn't it? Good joke." "I started out hanging signs for candidates at 3 a.m. and eventually I stopped stuffing envelopes and got into the organization end of things," said Ahearn, who has a political consulting firm in Falmouth. Rain is his biggest problem. In Orange, N.J., in 1976, he recalled, an outdoor rally for Gerald Ford expected to draw 2000 persons had to be moved indoors, where three wedding receptions were being held. That was his biggest challenge, he said. "In an hour we moved all three weddings. I won't tell you how, but I didn't offer them a nickel." — The Boston Globe 28 June 1980

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Ziegler, Kite, Irwin Share Western Lead Larry Ziegler, a nonwinner on the pro tour since 1976, sank five straight birdies yesterday for a 3-under-par 69 and a share of the $300,000 Western Open's first-round lead in Oak Brook, Ill. Veterans Tom Kite and Hale Irwin, the 1969 US Open winner, were tied with Ziegler, one stroke ahead of Roger Calvin, Rex Caldwell, Rik Massengale, Scott Simpson and Curtis Strange [. . .] Penny Pulz fired a 4-under 68 to grab a 1-stroke, opening-round lead in a $150,000 LPGA tournament in Noblesville. Kathy Ahern, Amy Alcott, Bonnie Bryant and Kathy Young were tied for second. — The Boston Globe 4 July 1980

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Published Report in Iran Says US Hostage Admits He's a Spy The Iranian militants holding the US Embassy in Tehran have published a purported interview with one of their American captives, Thomas Ahern, 48, of Fond du Lac, Wis., in which he admitted being a CIA agent and named two high-level Iranians among his contacts. The account published in the Tehran newspaper Azadagan said Ahern, a State Department employee who has been accused previously of spying by the militants, told an interviewer he had four Iranian contacts who provided him with details of the Iranian revolution including "information about individuals [...] information about Kurdistan [...] and brief reports about the leadership and morale in the armed forces." According to the report, Ahern named two of his sources: Amir Entezam, a former ambassador to the Scandinavian countries who was jailed in Iran last October for allegedly cooperating with the CIA, and Khosrow Qashqai, who was elected to the new Majlis (Parliament) but has been barred from taking his seat because of accusations that he served the deposed shah's secret police. The press report said Ahern also implicated Rear Adm. Ahmad Madani, another elected member of the new Majlis who has also been blocked from taking his seat. Ahern was quoted as saying Qashqai discussed the possibility of publishing a newspaper with Madani, and the questions attributed to the interviewer implied that the paper was to have US support. — The Boston Globe 15 July 1980

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Funeral services were held yesterday for a Brockton man who was fatally wounded by a gunshot in the throat July 12 during what police said was "a fight over a girl." James Ahearn, 19, of 89 Perkins st. died Tuesday at Brockton Hospital of a wound from a .22-caliber semi-automatic rifle. John Garland, 18, of 1085 Warren av. and Michael Montiero, 19, of 414 Montello st., Brockton, were arraigned on murder charges Wednesday in Brockton District Court and were released on $10,000 bail. Garland had been arrested at the scene of the shooting and Montiero was apprehended later, police said. Brockton Police said Ahearn was hit when one of the suspects fired one shot from a rifle into a crowd of young people present during a fight "over a girl." The suspect then tossed the rifle to a second person who fired a second shot into the crowd, police said. Ahearn never regained consciousness after the shooting. — The Boston Globe 26 July 1980

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Rick Ahearn, son of State Appellate Tax Board Chief Counsel Francis X. Ahearn, handled the advance planning for Ronald Reagan's swing through this area last week for his address to the American Legion. — The Boston Globe 24 August 1980

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The [Governor Ed] King administration is attempting to force out Atty. Francis X. Ahearn, who serves as chief counsel to the State Appellate Tax Board. Ahearn, who receives $28,000 a year, has been promised a long overdue salary increase by Secretary of Administration and Finance Edward J. Hanley, provided he files retirement papers. — The Boston Globe 7 September 1980

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Latest Wills  . . . Other estates include (net, before tax paid ; tax not disclosed) : Ahern, Mr Daniel, of Cork Republic of Ireland, policeman £189,853. — The Times 11 November 1980

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It Was Only Temporary, Or So They Said by William R. Cash Fifty-Three years ago Jim Ahern of Winthrop took a "temporary" job with Winthrop Community Hospital and he's still at it. The 87-year-old licensed engineer has been with the hospital almost from its inception as a private facility in Metcalf Square. The hospital moved to new quarters on Lincoln street next door to Jim who was with the town cemetery department and heard that the new hospital's janitor was out ill and a "temporary replacement" was needed. Jim's temporary job became permament when the janitor died. Jim lives next door to the hospital, and although carried on the rolls as "officially retired," he makes daily rounds of the hospital much like a doctor. Some years ago, faced with forced retirement from the hospital that "is my life," Jim asked and received permission from hospital officials to continue working provided he perform only small tasks in the maintenance section. This has included working as hospital groundskeeper, mowing grass, raking leaves, trimming and gardening. And he has attained a reputation for the roses he grows in the hospital's border gardens. The Board of Directors also gave Jim permission to eat all his meals in the hospital cafeteria, an offer he gratefully accepted. Excluded are special holidays when he wishes to be with his children. Jim is not one content just to go home at the end of the day and watch television or read a book. Each night before retiring, he walks across his back yard and into the hospital to check on its operation. Medical people and townsfolk all agree he is "the most dedicated man we've met." Jim modestly admits, "I love this hospital. It is really my home. If I had another 53 years I would gladly give them to the hospital." The feeling is mutual at the hospital. Several weeks ago personnel gave Jim a party on his 87th birthday. Gerard H. Nocton, hospital administrator said, "Jim is a tremendous asset to the hospital. He knows the location of every pipe and valve." The maintenance department is now headed by Ernie Arsenault and Jim is like a consultant to him as he was to his predecessor, Henry French. Jim was born in County Waterford, Ireland. At 16 he set out for New Zealand, where he spent nearly five years"learning the wool business." On his return to Ireland, he bought a farm. Then he got married. He married Grace Butler of Chicago in Ireland in 1925, the day before both left for the United States and Winthrop, where a cousin of Jim's lived. Grace died 20 years ago. The Aherns had two children, Katherine, a publicist with the Hilton hotel chain in Hawaii and Thomas, with American Airlines at Logan Airport. Prior to 1946 when the hospital added an annex, Jim had a large vegetable garden and small orchard with apple and cherry trees on one acre of land. "I was up until 2 a.m. canning tomatoes and other vegetables. I canned more than 2000 quarts, all of which went to the hospital along with the apples and cherries I picked." Nocton, the hospital administrator, who also lives near the hospital, said Jim is an early riser. He goes to the hospital and makes the rounds delivering newspapers. When the papers are late he drives to the news dealer in Winthrop center and takes them to the hospital for delivery. Years ago Jim often substituted for the hospital cook, who might be late, and he would start the coffee and prepare the eggs for scambling for patients' breakfast. During a recent snowstorm, Jim was up and out at 5:30 a.m., shoveling, contrary to orders, around the Emergency Room entrance. "I know maintenance takes care of snow removal, but I just wanted to lend a hand."Jim said. He added " Once I'm up, I can't sit down, I've got to be doing something all the time." "Jim is just an amazing person," Nocton said. The present 65-bed hospital will expand to 110-beds with an addition scheduled to start next March at a cost of $10 million. A fund-raising campaign is now in progress Jim plans to take his annual trip to Ireland to visit sisters. But as for taking more time off, Jim said,"No. I don't want to leave this place." He plans on staying in Winthrop to, "oversee" the construction of the hospital's new wing. — The Boston Globe 28 December 1980

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The Hostages: Thomas Leo Ahern, Age 49; McLean, Va. Narcotics Control Officer Ahern gained notoriety during the siege when the militant students accused him of being a spy. Rummaging through embassy files, they supposedly found a Belgian passport under the name of "Paul Timmermans." But the photo in the document was that of Ahern, and on that basis the students accused Ahern of being a CIA agent. He was a high school basketball star in Fond Du Lac, Wis. He was graduated from Notre Dame and is a 23-year veteran of the State Department. He is married and has one daughter. — The Boston Globe 21 January 1981

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Candidates Respond: Library Trustee, 1 seat, 3 year term Dennis J. Ahern has been a resident of Acton for 3 years. He is a high school graduate and is employed as a printer. Other activities include member, Town Report Committee 3 years. Question 1: What do you see as the responsibilities of a Library Trustee? What qualifications do you have for fulfilling these [sic] responsibility? Answer: The responsibility of a library trustee is to oversee the direction of the library in its goal of providing information and recreation to the people of the community and to see that it is provided with adequate financial support. While I do not have any expertise in the field of library science, I am motivated by an awareness of the decline in literacy to use whatever skills I can muster to encourage and support use of the library, especially by young people. We of the generation who learned to appreciate books before the advent of television must maintain a continued awareness of the competition for our children's attention. Question 2: What do you see as the impact of [proposition] 2 1/2 on the functions and services of the library? Do you have any creative approaches that would alleviate this impact. Answer: The people who voted for 2 1/2, if we understand correctly, have said they would be willing to accept less service in exchange for lower taxes. Some have suggested a system of user fees to help support what they feel are non-essential services. The library already has a user fee of sorts in the form of fines on overdue books. This money, however, is not retained by the library. Instead, it goes to the general income of the Town and a portion of it is later appropriated towards library expenses. In 1979 the Town of Acton spent less money on books for the library than on garbage collection. Why not let overdue fines pay for new books? — Assabet Valley Beacon 26 March 1981

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The Luck of the Irish Was Ahearn's The gruesome video tapes of Monday's shootings in Washington showed one Massachusetts man unscathed. Frederick "Rick" Ahearn, son of lawyer Francis X. Ahearn, counsel to the State Appellate Tax Board in Boston, was the husky, bespectacled man who was repeatedly shown bending over and trying to aid injured White House Press Secretary Jim Brady. Ahearn, a Brighton native, has been an advance man for Reagan for 14 months. — The Boston Globe 5 April 1981

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It Seemed So Routine... The President was walking through a light rain when the shooting started. His limousine sped away as soon as he was in it. Agents pinned a suspect to a concrete wall. Three other men lay bleeding on the pavement. The downpour later washed their blood away, as if to cleanse the place of this dreadful deed believed intended as an act of love. As fast as the flash from a gun muzzle, an ordinary Monday in the affairs of state was transformed into a grotesque, replaying videotape that left behind some willies slow to part. A prolonged mental examination of the accused gunman has begun, while the four men he is alleged to have shot one week ago today recover from their wounds: the President, who at first did not know he had been hit; press secretary James Brady, the most seriously injured; Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy, who ended the day a hero; and Thomas Delahanty, a local policeman free for the detail because his K-9 partner was sick with heartworms. What happened to them was made all the more compelling by the unexceptional scheme of events that had preceded it. [...] Ronald Reagan woke up on the 70th day of his presidency to cloudy skies that warned of a thunderstorm. He downed a glass of orange juice in his bedroom and put on a brand-new blue suit, a white handkerchief in the breast pocket, before going to an 8:30 breakfast in the East Room. It was a briefing with sub-Cabinet and agency officials on his tax and budget program. [...] The President's 2 p.m. appointment at the Washington Hilton was to have been an uneventful appearance, designed to calm fears about and encourage support for his economic program. It happened to be before a convention of the building tradesmen of the AFL-CIO, the same group Gerald Ford had spoken to just before Sara Jane Moore shot errantly at him with a .38 as he emerged from a San Francisco hotel. That day 5 1/2 years ago, Sept. 22, 1975, had been the last time an attempt was made on a President's life. [...] At about 1:45 p.m., the nine-car presidential motorcade left for the Hilton from the diplomatic entrance in back of the White House. The President rode in an armored 1972 Lincoln limousine with two flags attached to the front bumpers. Included among those who accompanied him, in addition to Jim Brady, were assistant press secretary David Prosperi; deputy chief of staff Michael Deaver; special presidential assistant David Fischer; advance men Rick Ahearn and Rocky Quonen; Col. Jose Muratti, a military aide; White House photographer Michael Evans; and Dr. David Ruge, the White House physician. [After his speech, ...] Ronald Reagan emerged from the VIP door on the T street side of the Washington Hilton about 2:25 p.m. A crowd of public and press was standing to his left. He was waving with his left arm when Associated Press reporter Michael Putzel, wanting to ask a question, called out, "Mr. President." He turned, and an eyewitness, Michael Kadlecik of Davenport, Iowa, remembers seeing a man step forward and begin firing. There were two shots, a pause, and then four more in succession. At the sound of gunfire, the President seemed to momentarily freeze. The smile washed from his face. He appeared not to realize he had been hit - which he was, just below the left armpit by a bullet that is believed to have ricocheted off the rear door of the limousine. It penetrated his lung. Jerry Parr, the Secret Service agent-in-charge, shoved him into the back seat so fast and hard that Reagan at first thought he had broken his rib. Agent McCarthy stumbled backward several feet before falling to the pavement. Brady, who was an arms-length away from the President, was shot over the left eye. The bullet passed through his brain. He collapsed over a grate in the sidewalk. Advance man Ahearn held a handkerchief to Brady's forehead. Delahanty fell between Brady and McCarthy. An uninjured woman screamed and screamed. Secret Service agents jumped on Hinckley within seconds and pinned him against the hotel's concrete wall. The presidential limousine sped away, first toward the White House, then to George Washington University Hospital, with agent Drew Unrue at the wheel. At the scene of the shooting, agents yelled to bystanders, "Get back. Get back!" They ran in the direction of a large white metal planter. In it was a spindly cherry tree, waiting to bloom. Michael Deaver, who had been at the President's side when he emerged from the hotel, would say later, "God's hand was on my shoulder." Deaver had been about to enter the limousine when the reporter called out. In the films, Deaver could see himself quickly move aside to make room for Brady to go over and hear the question. It seemed to him later that they had switched places. [...] The President was said early on to be making a remarkable recovery. Jim Brady was doing better than anyone had thought possible. Timothy McCarthy was expected to be up and around before any of the others. And Thomas Delahanty was recovering from an operation performed several days after the shooting to remove the slug lodged in his neck. It had been learned that the bullets fired were designed to explode, and contained in their tips a toxic substance called lead azide. — The Boston Globe 6 April 1981

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Radcliffe Receives Book Fund Donation Radcliffe College has received a gift of $5000 from Mary V. Ahern, who received her bachelor's degree there in 1942, to establish an endowed book fund at the Schlesinger Library in memory of her mother, Nora M. Ahern. Nora Ahern was a 1910 graduate of the Boston Normal School, which later became Boston State College. She taught in the Boston schools and was one of the first women to win the right to continue teaching after marriage. The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America was established at Radcliffe College in 1943 in order to document women's roles and contributions to American life from 1800 to the present. — The Boston Globe 12 April 1981

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Policeman Hurt in Holdup A Boston police detective was shot at and injured last night after he and his partner interceded during a robbery at the Moon Villa Restaurant at 23 Edinboro st. in Chinatown. Detective Robert Ahern of Area A (downtown) was eating dinner at the restaurant with his partner, Detective Robert Tinlin, when the robbery attempt was made. It was unclear from initial reports whether Ahern was injured by a bullet or from glass shattering from the outer glass door through which the suspect fired the shot. He was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital for treatment of four lacerations to the chest area. Tinlin received an eye injury from the flying glass and was also treated at the same hospital. Enrico Cappucci, Boston Police Informational Services director, described the four wounds suffered by Ahern as "superficial." Cappucci gave this account of the incident: A man and a woman entered the restaurant around 11:15 p.m. The man pulled a gun on the cashier, Winston Yee, and demanded money. The plainclothes detectivespulled out their service revolvers and identified themselves as police officers. Tinlin then apparently grabbed the woman. The male then put his gun to the back of the cashier's head. Cappucci said the officers then put their guns away and the suspects began fleeing, taking Yee with them. They pushed Yee to the ground outside the restaurant foyer and began running. One shot was fired through the glass outer door, shattering the door, as the man and woman ran off. An undetermined amount of cash was taken in the robbery. — The Boston Globe 7 May 1981

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The following were elected in last Thursday's general election in the Irish Republic.  . . .  DUBLIN CENTRAL: Bertie Ahern (FF), George Colley (FF), Alice Glenn (FG), Michael Keating (FG), Michael O'Leary (Lab). — The Times 15 June 1981

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Diane Ober is bride of Michael Ahern Miss Diane Elizabeth Ober, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Richard P. Ober, 39 Forest Park Road, Woburn, was married at St. Anthony's Church, Woburn, to Michael John Ahern, son of Mrs. Helen [sic] Ahern, Tewksbury, and Michael Ahern, Malden. Rev. Leo X. Lynch officiated and a reception followed at the Irish-American Club in Malden. The bride was given in marriage by her father. She wore a chiffon gown enhanced with pearl-embroidered Alencon lace on the Queen Anne neckline, bodice, sheer sleeves and cathedral train. A cap of lace and pearls held her full length veil and she carried white roses and baby's breath. Denise Miller was maid of honor, gowned in teal blue and carrying a blue and white spring bouquet. The bridesmaids, wearing marine blue gowns with blue carnations in their hair, were Terry Ober, sister of the bride; Debbie Ober, her sister-in-law; Linda Woolard and Lisa Benjamin. Jacquie Woolard, the junior bridesmaid, and Candy Woolard, the flower girl, were dressed in pale apricot. Serving as best man was Weston LaRosa, and ushering were Dan Ober, brother of the bride; Matthew Ahern and Maurice Ahern, brothers of the groom; and Greg Leahy. For her daughter's wedding, Mrs. Ober chose a mint green gown with matching chiffon cape, and wore a wrist corsage of white gardenias. Mrs. Ahern, mother of the groom wore plum-colored Qiana and a corsage of white gardenias. The bride graduated from Woburn High School, and the groom is a graduate of Tewksbury High School. They are residing in Woburn, following a honeymoon to the Poconos Mountains, Pennsylvania. — Woburn Daily Times-Chronicle 24 July 1981

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Watertown Man Sentenced to 10-15 Years for Assault Dimitrios Poulios, 21, of Watertown was sentenced yesterday to 10-15 years in Walpole state prison for the stabbing of a Winthrop commercial artist. Poulios was found guilty by a Suffolk Superior Court jury of assault with intent to murder and assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon. The victim, Kevin Foley, 30, testified that he was attempting to help a woman who had slipped on ice on Stuart street in downtown Boston last Jan. 21 when Poulios suddenly appeared and screamed, "I'm going to kill you." Foley said he was stabbed in the back. When he fell on the sidewalk, Foley said, Poulios kicked him in the face and groin. Foley drove himself to the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he underwent surgery in which a rib and his right kidney were removed. Judge Domenic J.F. Russo called the incident an "unprovoked attack" and said he considered the severity of the crime, the victim's injuries and the necessity to protect society before determining the sentence. Poulios' defense, that he was home at the time of the attack, was rebutted by Boston Detective Robert Ahern, who testified that he saw Poulios in Park Square a few hours before the stabbing. — The Boston Globe 20 August 1981

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Where the Ex-Hostages are Today Following is a list of the 53 former hostages, their present locations and employment status. AHEARN, Thomas L.—State Department, Washington. European Affairs section. — The Boston Globe 1 November 1981

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Still no word on Dapper' O'Neil's supposed reward for running interference for the Gipper last year, but the Reagan Administration has finally begun passing out some minor local plums. Frederick Ahearn, son of former Boston city councilman Francis X. Ahearn, will chair the Federal Regional Council of New England. — The Boston Globe 8 November 1981

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South Boston Man Injured in Crash Kevin Flannery, 25, of 714 E. Fifth st., South Boston, is listed in stable condition at the New England Medical Center this morning, suffering from multiple injuries sustained when his car struck a bridge abutment on Summer street near the Boston Army Base in South Boston shortly before 3 a.m. today. The Boston Police in Area C did not know if Flannery had been wearing a seatbelt when the accident occurred, but said that he was found lying on the pavement when they responded. At about the same time and 100 yards from the abutment, a car driven by Kevin Ahern, 26, of 12 Alvin av., Quincy, overturned on Summer street. Ahern told the police that he swerved to avoid a car that had pulled out in front of him. Ahern was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident and was uninjured, according to the police. — The Boston Globe 13 November 1981

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Forthcoming Marriages Mr R. T. M. Ahern and Miss P. C. Rose The engagement is announced between Timothy, elder son of the late Major-General T. M. R. Ahern and Mrs Ahern, of Shrivenham, Oxfordshire, and Philippa, eldest daughter of Mr and Mrs Stephen Rose, of Writtle, Essex. — The Times 18 December 1981

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THE FORMER HOSTAGES: WHERE THEY ARE NOW AHERN, Thomas L., 49, is now with the European Affairs Section of State Department. He was charged by Iranian captors of working for CIA when he was narcotics control officer in Tehran, and refuses to talk about his captivity. — The Washington Post 20 January 1982

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NEMH Birth MR. AND MRS. MICHAEL AHERN (Diane Ober), 2 Westgate Dr., Woburn, a son, Kristopher Michael, on January 19. Grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Ober of Woburn, Helene Ahern of Tewksbury, and Michael Ahern of Malden. — Woburn Daily Times-Chronicle 3 February 1982

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Questions for Candidates: Dennis Ahern for Library Trustee Question: What do you consider the most important issue(s) for the library in the coming year? As a library trustee, how would you respond to these issues? Answer: Lethargy. In recent years the Trustees have come to Town Meeting seeking funds to correct a serious lighting problem in the new wing of Memorial Library. Last year the measure passed and money was appropriated to install a suspended ceiling with flourescent lighting and insulation. Not only would this improve the illumination but a fuel savings would also be realized. Delayed implementation of these improvements is costing us money both from inflation and from lost energy savings. There are other serious design flaws in the architecture of this addition which we cannot hope to correct, but why after a year is there no action on the lighting? A shortage of money is a perennial problem, though blaming proposition 2 1/2 for reductions in service hardly seems justified by the actual figures. I do think there are some minor but important items that could benefit from a more creative approach to financing. Statement of Dennis Ahern, Candidate for Library Trustee The Acton Memorial Library seems to be suffering from a siege mentality, in part induced by the architecture of the building with its vandal-inviting windows. Of the area towns our library is one of the only ones that require you to get a key from a librarian to use the rest room. This may explain why it also has a graffiti problem. We make a challenge of it and the gauntlet is taken up. Children and young people should be encouraged to care for and share in the resources of our library. Younger children can be induced to make use of the children's section so as not to distract people in the main library, but I have had the bewildering experience of a Children's Librarian telling me not to let my two year old take books off the shelf. Some of the design flaws in the architecture of the new wing can be corrected and we have taken a step in this direction by appropriating money to improve the lighting with a suspended ceiling. But that was a year ago at Town Meeting, and I ask why the present Trustees have not shown more progress in this matter. It has become an easy excuse to blame proposition 2 1/2 for cutbacks in various programs without seeking other sources of funding. The Museum of Science membership card had been dropped because of its cost. We can buy a lot of books with $550, but many people are disappointed and I think that in actual use we get more than our money's worth out of it. To reinstate this membership I would aggressively seek our [sic] sponsorship from industry or business in Acton who would benefit from the goodwill generated from such use. Another program which the library has dropped in recent years is the occasional showing of movies at Town Hall. A wide range of films are available through the library system at relatively low cost. Many of these films are classics which are no longer shown commercially and the only way to see them is by access through a library or archive system. The limiting factor is the cost of a qualified projectionist from the library. I would suggest the formation of a group of volunteers capable of becoming authorized projectionists and organize an occasional series of films. If elected to the post of library trustee these are some of the issues I would like to address and I would apply myself to the task of doing what I could to support the library in its goal of providing information and recreation to the people of Acton. — Assabet Valley Beacon 18 March 1982

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Mother, son paintings on display An exhibition of oil paintings by a local mother and son are being shown at the main office of the Woburn National Bank, Main St., Woburn. The work of Viola Ahern of Woburn, and her son, Jack Ahern, is featured on the walls of the main banking quarters of Woburn National Bank. Mrs. Ahern and her late husband John owned and operated the former Town Line Restaurant on the Woburn-Winchester line for many years. She has been painting for over 15 years, and this is her first public showing. A longtime student of Mary Jack King, she has also studied with Joe McLaughlin and Helen Van Wyke. Her paintings are mainly marines and portraits. Her son, Jack Ahern, has studied with Don Plumber, Helen Van Wyke and Jerry Pfohl and he concentrates mostly on nature subjects. Jack is also interested in photography and his painting grew out of this interest. He is a consultant to the Psychological Corp., and educational publishing company. Viola and Jack Ahern are a unique mother and son artistic combination, and their paintings will give youpleasure at Woburn National Bank during the month of May. — Woburn Daily Times-Chronicle 13 May 1982

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Ask The Globe Q. Was New York City Ballet star Jacques d'Amboise born in Massachusetts? - D.J., Boston. A. He was born in Dedham, the son of telegrapher Andrew Patrick Ahearn and Georgette d'Amboise. Early in his boyhood the family moved to the Washington Heights section of New York City on the border of Harlem. At the age of eight he began his studies at the School of American Ballet and in 1949 he joined the corps de ballet of the New York City Ballet. — The Boston Globe 24 June 1982

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Another Awful Urban Space Boston bureaucrats doubtless believe that people who walk through the city do so with their eyes closed. They are wrong. A recent column, discussing the city's least friendly, most messed-up urban spaces, provoked immediate reaction. People would like to see some changes made. Callers were in complete agreement that the front of City Hall needs some trees, even if only three or four clumps; some benches too. One described the plaza as "a barren wasteland," another as "inhospitable," and yet another as "a hot plate in summer; an icebox in winter." An English visitor asked why chairs couldn't be rented out in summer on a concession basis - 25 cents an hour - as in London's Hyde Park. A humorist asked: "What fountain?" A landscape architect, associated with the firm that designed City Hall, defended the overall plan but felt the subway entrance at Government Center station could be made more attractive. But the "flaw" that drew the greatest criticism was one that hadn't even been mentioned in the column, but should have been; a place that author John Updike once called "that cold slab in the heart of the Back Bay." Updike's reference was to Copley Square. Roger Mulford, who recalled the quote, also recalled that the Copley Square design was the result of a 1965-66 public contest. He suggested that the runner-up entries, all of which were exhibited at the time at the Museum of Fine Arts, should be re-examined. From the very outset, Back Bay residents have hated the "new" Copley Square, completed in 1970. The late Dan Ahern, who headed the Back Bay Assn., called it "a sunken plaza, paved in asphalt," adding that it looked more like a parking lot ("and is too often used as such") than a square. It certainly breaks almost every rule laid down by William H. Whyte, expert on small urban places, about what constitutes a friendly public space. The Square is sunken and surrounded on three sides by barriers, making easy access impossible. It hasn't enough trees. The wall, or berm, along Boylston street effectively hides the square. The asphalt is unattractive. The fountain is in the wrong place and for the most part doesn't operate As a friendly, welcoming, open space, Copley Square is a disaster. It can't even be policed easily. . . . — The Boston Globe 9 August 1982

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Latest Wills  . . . Other estates include (net, before tax paid): Ahern, Mrs Gladys Mary, of Camden, London . . . . . .£501,069 — The Times 13 August 1982

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Anita, Progressing Well, Gets Gift from White House A large get-well present - a 3-foot-tall Orphan Annie doll - was sent to Peruvian orphan Anita Astos yesterday by Nancy Reagan. "We have someone at National Airport right now putting the Annie doll on a flight to Boston," Sheila Tate, press secretary to the President's wife, said in a telephone interview yesterday morning. Meanwhile, doctors at Children's Hospital in Boston were optimistic Anita's recovery from surgery was progressing so well she might be able to leave the intensive care unit today. The big doll was delivered at the hospital late yesterday to Robert and Diane Ulchak, the Quincy couple who brought Anita from Peru for treatment. It had been placed aboard Eastern Airlines flight 68 in Washington and was met at Logan Airport in Boston by Rick Ahern, who was described by Tate as a friend of the White House. Anita, age 3, underwent major surgery Thursday at Children's Hospital. — The Boston Globe 11 September 1982

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Orchard Park Murder Charge Sought A hearing has been scheduled in Roxbury District Court Oct. 19 to determine whether a former Dorchester security guard will be charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a Roxbury youth at the Orchard Park Recreation Center last March. A summons has been issued for Michael Kee, 24, to appear at the hearing in connection with the shooting of Jeffrey Robinson of Woodrow Wilson court. Kee, a member of the security patrol at Orchard Park, a city-owned housing project, allegedly fired a shot during a scuffle with Robinson and other youths when they failed to comply with his orders that they leave the recreation center gymnasium, where a night basketball game had been in progress. The hearing was set after the court issued a complaint seeking to charge Kee with murder. The complaint was sought by Officer Robert Ahearn of the Boston police homicide division at the direction of the Suffolk County district attorney's office. — The Boston Globe 7 October 1982

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Three Arraigned in the Slaying of Cabbie in Boston Three men accused of murdering a cab driver last Wednesday in Dorchester during a $7 robbery were arraigned in Dorchester District Court yesterday and were held at the Charles Street Jail on bails totaling $600,000. Arrested on Sunday and charged with the murder of Monpoint J. Jacques, 53, of Somerville are: Royal Benjamin Jr., 22, of Blue Hill avenue, Roxbury; his brother, Robert Benjamin, 19, of Newtowne court, Cambridge; and Steven Henderson, 19, of Regent street, Roxbury. Each was ordered held in the same bail, $200,000, with surety or $10,000 cash. The court entered a plea of innocent on behalf of the three suspects. District Court Judge Paul King also set Nov. 23 as the date for the probable-cause hearing. Judge King acted after Boston homicide Detective Robert Ahearn testified that police believe they have recovered the murder weapon, a .22-caliber automatic pistol. Investigators said the three suspects were arrested Sunday after police received some information over the weekend. Police secured search-and-arr est warrants over the weekend at Dorchester District Court. Ahearn told the judge that the three suspects flagged Jacques down near Egleston Square, Roxbury, and asked to be driven to an address on Oldfields street, Dorchester, a dead-end street. One of the suspects allegedly shot Jacques once in the back. Jacques fell onto the street when the suspects allegedly robbed him of $7 and searched his taxi, Ahearn said. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Boston City Hospital. The suspected murder weapon is undergoing ballistics tests, according to Ahearn. Jacques, a native of the West Indies, was the father of five children. — The Boston Globe 9 November 1982

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Ahern is Yachtsman of the Year Readers of John Ahern's Yachting column two Sundays ago found his nominees for New England's yachtsman of the year: Jack Williams and Peter Dion, who won 11 of 14 races in Marblehead's hotlycompetitive US One Designs, or Tufts University's Betsy Gelenitis, who won the US Women's Singlehanded Championship. Ahern has been chronicling the New England yachting scene for The Globe forever, says he, and when he drops a note like that into his weekly column, the region's sailors accept it as gospel. But there is one thing John Ahern could not write in today's column: At its annual meeting this past week, the Yacht Racing Union of Massachusetts Bay named him as the yachtsman of the year. It was a warmly received announcement, and among those fellow yachtsmen for whom John Ahern has been both chronicler and confidant there was no question that he belongs there with previous winners: Ted Hood and Phil Weld, Ray Hunt and Chandler Hovey, Gregg Bemis and the late Gene Connolly, and Leonard M. Fowle, who preceded Ahern as The Globe's yachting editor. But more, perhaps, than any of them, John Ahern's career has mirrored the many facets of the New England yachting scene. Sailing Yankee dories, Mass Bay Indians, and Stars out of Squantum Yacht Club in the 1930s, Ahern was part of that long-vanished era of One Design racing that saw the great flotillas sailing up to Marblehead for the Saturday races and then back to Quincy Bay for the Sunday Interclubs: "An early sailing bum, I guess, but that's what I did." Ahern had often sailed aboard the 12-Meter Gleam on New York Yacht Club cruises and was in at the beginning when the America's Cup competition was revived in 12s in 1958. He has sailed on them all, with a soft spot for Easterner, which Ray Hunt designed for Chandler Hovey's Marblehead-based challenge: "She was the most beautiful of them all," Ahern recalls, "but she wouldn't move." In between sailing and writing about sailing, Ahern has been a valuable behind-the-scenes adviser for such organizations as the Blue Water Sailing Club and the Mass Bay YRU itself. His presence at a regatta, invariably identified by his straw hat with a madras band, means not only coverage in The Globe but volunteer help in running the race or with a tricky protest. A yachtsman's yachtsman, for 1982 or any other year. — The Boston Globe 28 November 1982

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6 on Trolleys Hurt in Park St. Crash Five passengers and an MBTA driver were injured, none seriously, when one MBTA Green Line car struck a second car at Park Street Station in downtown Boston yesterday morning. [...] Three of the injured persons, all residents of Boston, were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital where they were treated and released. MGH spokeswoman Doris Schreckengaust identified the injured as Virginia K. Barrile, 52, who said she had a head injury; Barbara Ljungberg, 23, who also had a head injury, and Joseph Ahern, 49, who reported a left knee injury. — The Boston Globe 30 November 1982

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Globe Admits Article on Pub Stakeout Wrong Both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Secret Service yesterday denied a Globe report that President Ronald Reagan's arrival at a Dorchester pub Wednesday afternoon broke up an FBI stakeout there. After investigating the FBI and Secret Service complaints, a Globe editor later issued a statement conceding that the story was wrong. Earlier in the day, FBI Director William Webster said in a prepared statement that "the facts as reported in today's Boston Globe story were inaccurate. There were absolutely no FBI agents in or near the Eire Pub when the President made a nonscheduled stop there on Wednesday. FBI agents had been in the vicinity on a nonrelated matter but had departed before the President's arrival." The Globe, in a story by reporter Frank Mahoney, had reported that six undercover FBI agents waited inside the pub for a suspect, watched in astonishment as a carload of Secret Service agents entered, and quickly departed. Though FBI agents had been performing surveillance in the area that morning, they apparently had not been inside the pub and had left the vicinity before Reagan's arrival. "Based on our reporting today, The Globe has concluded that its story this morning about a mixup between the FBI and the Secret Service was inaccurate," managing editor Matthew V. Storin said yesterday. "Although it is true that the FBI undertook a surveillance in the neighborhood of the Eire Pub, it appears that our source, though one that seemingly would have to know the facts, either misunderstood them or was misunderstood by our reporter." Webster said that the FBI and the Secret Service routinely coordinate presidential visits and that they had conferred on Reagan's trip to Boston. But the Secret Service in Boston was apparently unaware that White House advance men had visited the Eire Pub as early as Monday to prepare for a possible presidential visit there. J. Peter Rush, special agent in charge of the Boston field office, said that Reagan's appearance at the pub was "spontaneous" and that the Secret Service had only a few minutes' advance notice. But pub manager John Stenson said yesterday that a man who later identified himself as White House staff assistant Frederick Ahearn visited the pub Monday with two colleagues, ordered beer and food and asked for a receipt. On Tuesday afternoon, a pub bartender said, two men who later identified themselves as White House staff assistants ordered beer, then asked him whether the pub was busy on Wednesdays because they wanted to come back with friends that day. The same two men, the bartender said, returned with Reagan on Wednesday. — The Boston Globe 29 January 1983

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Recaptured Inmate Kills Self Frederick Ahearn, whose escape from a Vermont prison work detail last year captured headlines, has killed himself in the Lewisburg, Pa., federal penitentiary to which he was sent last week. He was found hanging in his cell around 2:30 a.m. Saturday about 2 1/2 hours after officers last saw him alive. Ahearn, 39, was sentenced to 16 to 35 years in 1977 for armed robbery. He escaped from a work program in South Hero, Vt., last May, stealing a truck, which was then involved in an accident. Ahearn forced the responding rescue worker to drive him through several police roadblocks. The chase ended on a highway near Burlington, Vt. — The Boston Globe 7 February 1983

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Winthrop Man Held in Slaying Boston Police arrested a 32-year-old Winthrop man at his home yesterday and charged him with murder in connection with a shooting Saturday in a bar. Robert Wyatt of 222 Shore drive, Winthrop, was held yesterday in Police District A in lieu of $250,000 bond pending arraignment today in East Boston District Court, according to Homicide Detective Robert Ahearn. Police said witnesses told them that a fight broke out Saturday in Pete's Place Bar on Bennington street, East Boston, between Wyatt and Harold Boudreau, 31, of Winthrop. Police said Boudreau was shot twice in the back. — The Boston Globe 7 February 1983

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South Boston Teen Held in Slaying Boston Police last night arrested a South Boston teenager in connection with the slaying of a 5-year-old girl Thursday in the Old Colony housing project where both lived. A source close to the investigation said the 16-year-old boy "discovered" the body of Kara Quigg Thursday night in the basement of her apartment building at 283 E. Eighth st. after family members had been searching for several hours. The suspect, about whom the source said there "definitely is a degree of retardation," was arrested at the housing project at 8:30 p.m. by police detectives Peter O'Malley and Robert Ahern, the source said. Accompanied by his mother, the teenager was being interrogated last night at the District C police station, the source said. The source said that a decision about whether he would be tried as an adult or as a child had not yet been made. — The Boston Globe 26 February 1983

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Dennis Ahern, a 6-6 forward from Holy Family High School in Huntington, N.Y., will enroll at Holy Cross next fall. The Kings Park, N.Y., native broke the Long Island Catholic League scoring record three times and averaged 31 points his senior year. — The Boston Globe 26 April 1983

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Editorial He was a Dorchester boy who recalled seeing Satchel Paige pitch old Negro League games at Town Field and was best known for writing about million-dollar campaigns for yachting's America's Cup off Newport. A true sportsman - in the sense of both participant and gentleman - John Ahern died yesterday, just five days short of his 65th birthday. Although it had been a bad winter, with several hospitalizations, he had been looking forward to covering yet one more America's Cup summer - and at getting a chance or two to show that his own skills as a helmsman still ranked with the best. Sailing was the sport with which he was most associated, but in the long off-seasons between October and May, Ahern had covered boxing and hockey, professional football and crew, dog shows and Olympic games. He was warm and gregarious, with a writing style that was fresh and breezy, his stories captured the human side of these sports. In the coming months, John Ahern will be missed at Newport where his jaunty presence, trademarked by the inevitable madras-banded straw hat, meant informed and lively coverage of a premier sporting event. For many seasons to come he will be missed at the local club regattas where young sailors could count on his advice about tactics and sailing techniques, given with enthusiasm and generosity. Mostly, it is at every manner of event where sportmanship is held in high regard that John Ahern will be missed. — The Boston Globe 27 April 1983

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Oh For the Fun of Ali's Prime by Steve Marantz John Ahern, who died last Monday, was a great repository of boxing lore. He told endless anecdotes about the fighters of his era, and his memory for detail was remarkable. One of Ahern's favorite stories involved his part in the federal prosecution of the International Boxing Club in the late 1950s. Ahern was called by the prosecution to testify about the IBC's monopolistic practices. "For two weeks I had two FBI bodyguards," said Ahern. "I couldn't go to the bathroom without these two guys. Finally, it was my turn to testify. Afterwards, I walked out of the courthouse, thinking, 'I'm glad that's over.' I turned to ask these guys, 'What now?' And they said, 'You're on your own now, buddy,' and off they went. Geez, if I didn't feel a little naked. I made it to a cab in about two seconds flat." — The Boston Globe 1 May 1983

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It Will Never Be the Same by Bud Collins They might as well call off the impending America's Cup races now that John Ahern won't be there. What's the point to the sailboat sideshow at Newport, R.I., if its foremost chronicler and presence has been called elsewhere to cover higher affairs? Not that most of us could discern a point to the activity anyway. But when Ahern, who died last week at the age of 64, was reporting for The Globe, you had a chance to understand what such Ahabs-in-topsiders as Ted Turner were trying to do. America's Cup without Ahern will be like the Court of St. James without the US ambassador, or the Pequod lacking Ishmael to tell us what was going on. There were many who believed that John Ahern had originated the competition, a notion he didn't discourage. Indeed, John, as kind and generous a rival and colleague as a journalist could encounter, was the press' ambassador to the court of Narragansett Bay. Perhaps John knew his subjects so thoroughly—boxing, hockey, football, golf, tennis, rowing, as well as yachting—and was so secure in his own abilities that he felt no rivalry with others in the business. Or maybe it was his seemingly spontaneous graciousness and gregariousness that made him a missionary ever willing to shepherd the uninformed and unwashed. Not that John was a St. Francis-style missionary. Among newspapermen, a group not noted for changing shirts as often as three times a week, Ahern was a dazzler who sometimes changed immaculately and thoughtfully tailored garb thrice daily. A Beau Brummel in any crowd, John was the only guy I know who didn't look like a fop or an usher in a green jacket. It's too bad his golf game wasn't good enough to win the Masters. He routinely knew the best places to eat and drink. "When you're with Ahern, the Irish Thrush, and he chirps to maitre d's, you get well taken care of," Jim Murray, Los Angeles Times columnist, once remarked. If John dropped a few names in his time, they didn't bounce badly at all. "Here's the guy who taught Teddy Kennedy how to sail," he was once hailed by another reporter. "But not how to drive," came the reply. Mike Lupica, a columnist for the New York Daily News, recalls—as will numerous journalists—"John may have seemed like a bigshot, but he was never too busy to help a young reporter or to introduce you around. Heaven won't be anything new, though, because he already knew everybody." With his graying wavy hair and commanding tone of voice, John sometimes resembled the distinguished character actor Charles Bickford. "Does that guy own your paper?" a reporter asked me after meeting Ahern. "No, but he hasn't told the owners yet. He sails with them, and maybe that's as good as proprietorship without the headaches." But as much as he enjoyed the good life and was cut out to be a briny boulevardier, John wouldnot like to be thought of as a "yachting writer." He was one of the better fight writers, coming up when Boston was one of the better fight towns, and justifiably prided himself in being able to glide smoothly between the Eastern Yacht Club and New Garden Gym. Sonny Liston, the fearsome ex-con, heavyweight champion between 1962 and 1964, was an ogre who intimidated reporters and almost everyone else but Muhammad Ali, and Ahern. John always called him Charles, his straight name, and got his attention. Few reporters were anxious to track down Liston that bizarre 1965 night in Lewiston, Maine, when Ali defended his title by knocking out Liston in a cloudy first round. Ahern found him in his hotel room, which was guarded by another burly, surly chap. "Get outta here," rasped the hallway sentinel. "Sonny ain't talking to nobody," Then . . . "Oh, Mr. Ahern, it's you. But Sonny won't even see you." "Please tell Charles that I need to talk to him," was the reply. "Yes sir, but he won't." Shortly the sentinel returned, "Come right in, Mr. Ahern." Inside, Liston mumbled, cursed, growled. A reporter, also allowed into the hotel room through Ahern's blessing, though appreciative, said: "Interesting, John, but the guy didn't say anything." Responded Ahern: "You'll be surprised how well Charles' noises translate through my typewriter." Still, it was as the self-assured and caring padre of the Newport docks that Ahern forever endeared himself to his journalistic brethren. He was a St. Bernard rescuing travelers in a perilous blizzard of ignorance. Barry Lorge, now sports editor of the San Diego Union, almost trembles telling of his being sent to the 1977 America's Cup by the Washington Post. What sportswriter knows anything about yachting? Nevertheless, covering America's Cup is a heavy responsibility because the handful who are actually interested includes publishers and owners of newspapers. The boss, if no one else, is watching and reading, and seasickness may not be as great a hazard as displeasure at the office. "During America's Cup," recalls Lorge, "Newport is flooded with the uninitiated, worried about handling the assignment. Ahern would take us by the hand, explain everything so we could write acceptable stories, introduce us to the right people. "I'll never forget his splendid performance in '77, the US against Australia. You can't see anything when you're out in the press boat, but John told us not to worry. The race starts. A minute or so later, John shakes his head, 'Did you see that blunder by the Aussies?' "What blunder . . . what's he talking about? We're all mystified." 'The Aussies blew the start. It's all over,' John said. What's over? What happened? "John went below to write his story, which covered everything solidly even though the race didn't finish for about three hours. When he was finished, he gave us the details so we could keep our editors happy. Then he'd make sure we got into the Canfield House to eat even though we weren't finished with our stories until the kitchen was closed. The news that Ahern-and-party had arrived immediately stirred the chef to action." The word went across the country for years: "If you have to cover Newport, see Ahern. He'll take care of you." One time, a female reporter arrived nervously and sought him. "Mr. Ahern, I understand you can tell me something about yachting . . ." "Madame," he greeted her comfortingly as though she were the prodigal daughter, "you have come to the right place. I happen to have invented yachting." — The Boston Globe 6 May 1983

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BIRTHS MILSOM On 14 May 1983 to Patricia (nee Ahern) and Richard a daughter Clare Elizabeth Joan, a sister to Richard & David. — The Times 18 May 1983

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Pages Say Educational Experience Invaluable This has been a bad news summer for congressional pages. They've been followed by reporters and camera crews demanding to know who is soliciting whom for what. They've heard House members call for the abolishment of the entire page system, and they've been stared at a little harder than usual by tourists. That's why four New England pages interviewed as Congress adjourned for the August recess were eager to talk about the good news. They described their time in Congress as one of the most valuable educational opportunities of their lives and were concerned that publicity surrounding the recent censuring of two congressmen for sexual misconduct was obscuring the positive side of their program - a program that has operated with more successes than scandals since the days of Daniel Webster. "I remember the first time I saw Congress vote," said Tara Durant of North Dartmouth, who will be 17 next month and a senior at Bishop Stang High School. "That was really exciting because I had no idea how it worked. I thought, This is it, this is democracy in action." Durant, who worked on Capitol Hill from June 22 to Aug. 5, was sponsored by her congressman, Rep. Gerry Studds (D-Mass.), one of the two representatives censured last month. Studds was censured for having sexual relations with a male page in 1973, and Rep. Daniel Crane (R-Ill.) was censured for being involved with a female page in 1980. Durant said that pages were often tracked by reporters after the House ethics report came out, but were rarely asked to talk about their jobs or how the program worked. Durant was a "runner" or messenger who moved the volumes of government paper around the Hill. One of 100 pages in the House and 30 in the Senate, she has become an expert in knowing her way around the labyrinth of underground tunnels and subbasements that connect all the Hill offices. To get the job, she applied at Studds' district office and was required to write an essay on why she wanted to be a page, as well as provide recommendations from her high school guidance counselor. Jay Ruderman of Lynnfield, sponsored by Rep. Nicholas Mavroules (D-Mass.), also worked as a runner and said that pages are treated with respect on the Hill. "You're treated as a valuable worker and are made to feel you're a part of the process," said Ruderman, 17, a senior at Lynnfield High School. He was a page for five weeks and is interested in a career in politics. "It was great being able to learn something about every bill and to follow legislation from subcommittee to the floor," he said. "Abolishing the page system would be absurd," said Amil Petrin of Ware, who was sponsored by Rep. Silvio Conte (R-Mass.). "That's like saying we need a whole new system of government because two congressmen got into trouble." Petrin, 16, worked from June through August as a "cloakroom page." His job was to answer phones in the Republican cloakroom, give messages to representatives and keep track of floor action. Petrin is coming back after Labor Day to work the rest of the year on the Democratic side for Rep. Joe Moakley (D-Mass.). He will take his junior-year high school courses at the Capitol Hill Page School, taught by faculty members from area universities, and will go to classes from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. on weekdays. He will live at the House Annex dormitory, paying $300 a month for room and board from his $765 monthly salary. Congress recently passed legislation requiring pages to live in the dormitory and limiting applicants to junior-year students. "As a page you learn a lot about the government and become independent," said Owen Ahearn, 16, from North Stonington, Conn. He has worked the past five months in the Senate, sponsored by Sen. Lowell Weicker (R-Conn.). Ahearn was "head page," responsible for keeping a record of the votes and for supervising floor pages. "You figure you're one of 30 in the whole country selected to work in the Senate," he said. "That really means something and makes you feel proud." — The Boston Globe 14 August 1983

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Public Gypped in Clarendon Building Deal by Robert Campbell I'm writing this column to some extent in memory of the late Dan Ahern and of his long battle with what he saw as the high-handedness of the John Hancock Insurance Company. Ahern, who died in 1977, was executive director of the Back Bay Association. Before that job, he headed the astonishingly successful Waterfront Urban Renewal Project for the city. Ahern was never one to conceal his opinions and one of the views he held most firmly was that Hancock was ignoring a public commitment. The company, in return for being allowed to build its 60-story glass tower in Copley Square, promised the city that it would develop the site across the street, the site of its Clarendon Building, for the benefit of the public. Today a construction crew is at work converting the Clarendon Building into first-class office space for the profit of the Hancock Company. Ahern's suspicions have, it appears, not proved unfounded. The Clarendon Building stands between Hancock's new tower and its older, 26-story, weather-beaconed Berkeley Building. Most people probably assume the Clarendon Building is a low wing of the Berkeley Building but it actually dates from 25 years earlier. It won the Parker Medal as Boston's best new building of 1924, before its four top stories were added. The facts in the case of the Clarendon Building are clear. Hancock got special permission to build its glass tower, which violates the zoning law, partly because it proposed to redevelop the Clarendon site for public use. The agreement, made in July 1968 between Hancock and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, was legally binding. Here is what it says about this site: "The major area shall be devoted to open space generally accessible to the public. A portion shall be developed contiguous to the building on Parcel I (that is, the Berkeley Building) for cultural and public service facilities such as theaters, art galleries, restaurants, and exhibition space. Office or commercial space accessory to the major use shall be permitted." In other words, the Clarendon Building was supposed to be torn down for a public park, on one part of which would be constructed, at Hancock expense, smaller buildings containing cultural activities. Not everyone liked the idea of a park here, nor wished to see the building demolished. Over the years, alternative cultural uses were explored that would save it. The Children's Museum, Horticultural Society, Center for Adult Education, Mass. College of Art and others all looked at the possibility of taking space in a recycled Clarendon Building. None of the plans materialized. Ahern became convinced Hancock was stonewalling. My notes of a phone conversation with him will perhaps remind some readers of Ahern's characteristically dead serious yet self-mocking, curmudgeonly manner. Hancock, he said, was chairing "fascist meetings" and "command performances" that were only driving away potential users of the building. Whether he was right or wrong about Hancock's motives, the fact remains that the company last year persuaded the city to cancel the agreement. Just like that: cancel it, without a quid pro quo of any kind. Now Hancock is redeveloping the old building for office use. Hancock plans to occupy half itself and rent out half. There will be showers and lockers in the basement for employees who jog. For the public, there will be no retail stores, cultural activities or anything else. As urban design, the plan is appalling. It contrasts strikingly with the proposal for expansion nearby of New England Life, which features a block-long frontage of retail stores and public plazas. The problem is that Hancock, together with New England Life and Liberty Mutual, has created in Boston's Back Bay an insurance-company zone that is characterized by the inevitable monotony of large-scale, single-use institutions. The ground floors of these insurance buildings contain nothing but lobby and office space that is dead after 5 p.m. and throughout the weekend, space that contributes nothing to the life, light, vitality, interest or safety of the streets. In response to such criticisms, Hancock points to such volunteer acts as helping to fund a new building at Boston University. And it emphasizes the taxes the city will gain from the new office space. But all corporations make charitable donations. And the tax argument, having been made to justify the 60-story tower in the first place, shouldn't be asked to do double duty for this unfortunate proposal. As far as I can make out, the case of the Hancock and the City of Boston is a simple one. The two got together and, acting against the public interest, canceled a legal obligation. A moral one may remain. As a minimum, the city should have required, perhaps still can require, Hancock to devote the ground floor of the Clarendon Building to some use, whether cultural or retail or both, that will directly benefit the public. That would be little enough. Dan Ahern, I'm sure, is fulminating in his grave. — The Boston Globe 4 October 1983

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Man is Killed on Rte. 128 A 26-year-old Walpole man was struck and killed by a car in the northbound breakdown lane of Rte. 128 in Randolph late Thursday night while fueling a pick-up truck that had run out of gasoline. Pronounced dead at the scene was Stephen Urquhart, 26, of Oak street, according to State Police Sgt. Michael Stefani of the Norwell barracks. Stefani said Urquhart was pouring gas into the pick-up truck from a can when he was struck by a car that "crowded into the breakdown lane" around 11:20 p.m. Stefani said the driver of the car, William P. Ahern, of Warren avenue, Milton, was issued citations for vehicular homicide, failure to stay in marked lanes and driving to endanger. He said Ahern will receive a summons to appear in Quincy District Court "at a later date." — The Boston Globe 3 December 1983

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Plumbing the Depths At this time of year, many people seek peace on earth. My yearnings are humbler, yet my search is no less challenging. I have always wanted to find a plumber who would make a house call on Christmas Day. Call me a dreamer. Tell me I'm a fool. I have always believed that my quest was no pipe dream, that someday I would find a plumber who would come when you called him. After all, they wouldn't call them journeymen if they didn't make house calls. Yesterday, on a cold Christmas morning, I idly opened the Yellow Pages to Plumbing Contractors and began telephoning. First, I called all 24 A's. I reached nine answering service operators. Only one said she could get a plumber right out. I reached two plumbers' wives. One said her husband would go out but not for "a little drippy faucet." The other said her husband wasn't answering calls. "What if I said there are freezing kids?" I asked. "You're asking a ridiculous question," she snarled, and hung up. Three phones were disconnected. Seven rang and nobody answered. Three plumbers answered their own phones. One said he'd go out on a job only if an established customer called. Roger Aiello of Aiello Plumbing & Heating in Braintree said he wouldn't want to install a garbage disposal on Christmas Day, but any emergency job was fine. His rate was $22 an hour, exactly what he charges other days of the year. Michael Ahern, whose father owns a plumbing company in Cambridge, said he'd answer emergency calls for regular customers. "What if you don't know the person?" I asked. "That's a problem," he said. "What if a person you don't know says his kids are freezing?" "When they mention kids, we go out. That gets to you." After finishing the A's, I tried the companies with big display ads. Here's what I found: In general, the companies big enough to afford those ads are too big to need your business on Christmas Day. The answering service operator for the company promising "24-hour quality service" said she hadn't been able to reach a plumber all day. The company that advertised, "We succeed where others fail," had a disconnected phone. The company that bragged about "25 years of dependable service" had nobody on call. Nobody answered the phone at the company vowing "24 hour emergency service." I had an interesting conversation with the answering service operator of the "prompt service" company: "We're not available at all," she said. "Even in a dire emergency?" "No, it's Christmas." My last call was to George Robbins & Co., whose display ad invites you to "call day or night." I left a message and received a return call from Jack Burnett, 33, who described himself as a "full-time emergency plumber." He said he had been out until 6 a.m. Christmas morning making house calls. I had found him, a plumber with a heart as big as a hot water heater. For the past six years, Burnett has worked 11 nights out of every 14. He says that one Christmas he made up his mind to ignore emergency calls and enjoy a real Christmas at home, but he couldn't maintain his resolve. "I said no to one caller and he said, Well, Jack, Merry Christmas anyway.' That dug deep. I had to call him back." A few years ago, he answered a call from the neighbor of a family that had gone off for the holidays. The neighbor had promised to look after the house but hadn't looked in for days. "It looked like a glacier," Jack recalled. A water pipe in the bathroom burst. Water poured out of the pipe and froze. Water pressure forced a new hole in the ice. More water poured out and froze. The process kept repeating itself, building layer upon layer of ice, popping the toilet out of the floor. "The ice was moving and growing," he said. "When I walked in the house I could see it coming around the corner." That wasn't such a bad Christmas, because the neighbor invited him to stop working and come over for dinner. He had Christmas dinner with a family, which is almost as nice as having it with his own. — The Boston Globe 26 December 1983

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In Sub-zero Night, a Crawl to Survival Sunlight set up a blinding glare as it reflected off ice-coated Hermit road yesterday, hiding from passing skiers the last jagged fragments of a tragedy. Shortly after midnight, on Christmas morning, 16-year-old Steven Patient came this way, driving a gleaming snowmobile into the bend the road makes as it runs along the shore of Massabesic Lake. Police believe it was the ice that caused Patient, a junior at Memorial High School, to lose control of the machine. The vehicle flew from the road, cleared a snowbank and crashed into a seven-foot chain link fence. Shards of windshield plastic marked the site yesterday, and the surrounding snow preserved evidence of the youth's struggle to save his own life. Patient lay in the intensive care unit of Elliot Hospital last night, suffering severe frostbite and a possible broken back. Those responsible for getting him to the hospital were surprised he was alive at all. Massabesic Lake is miles from downtown Manchester, where the transition from urban milltown to upcountry forest is nearly complete. There was no one around to hear the crash of the snowmobile or aid its victim. Steven Patient had to crawl. The Christmas snowstorm had just ended and the road was still slushy when he began his trek. Later, the deep freeze would set in, preserving his path like a huge fossil. He made it over the snowbank and down to the road, leaving what police sergeant Roger Corriveau described as a pattern of "snakelike motions . . . where the victim dragged himself on his stomach." About a hundred yards away, a vehicular barricade blocked his path. He inched his way around, through five inches of soft, fresh snow. The smooth pattern of his clothing dragging through the snow was punctuated every few feet by the imprint of a bootless, useless foot. Manchester police calculate that it was 1450 feet from the site of the crash to the door of the house were Patient found help. Investigating officers estimate he crawled that space in three to four hours, all of it at sub-zero temperatures. When Robert Ahern awoke at about 4 a.m., he thought he was hearing the wind banging the breezeway door of the house he shares with his parents on Island Pond road. When the noise persisted, he went to look, and there found Patient halfway inside the breezeway, his lower body and legs still out in the snow. "The thermometer here said 10 below and the wind was stiff. He was moaning and said he'd been in an accident," Ahern said yesterday as he sat at his dining room table. "He had no gloves, no hat and only one boot. His helmet, scarf and the other boot were back at the scene. "I asked him if he could help me get him into the house and he said: I can't. My back is broken and my legs are paralyzed.' His hands were all black with frostbite." Gerald Ahern, Robert's father, said Patient remained conscious as they waited for an ambulance. "He started to go (unconscious* once, but we talked to him and he came back," the senior Ahern said. Manchester Police Lt. Dale Robinson said yesterday that Patient's father, Marcel Patient, told investigating officers his son left the family home on South Mammoth road a little after midnight for what was to have been a short ride. The next word of his son's whereabouts came when the hospital called at around 5 a.m. In a brief interview at the hospital last night, Marcel Patient said, "It's too early to know" the extent of his son's injuries. "Maybe in a couple of days." Marcel Patient said his son is in great pain and, though they have talked, "he doesn't say too much. He says he's going to make it. He's going to make it." The father said he is a Sheetrock contractor and that his son, one of five children, survived the ordeal "because he is so strong" from working with his father. At the South Mammoth road residence yesterday afternoon, a single snowmobile track led from the yard. The walks had not been shoveled since Saturday's storm, and the snowmobile with wrecked windshield stood at the rear of the house. Back near the Ahearns' home, four boys who said they knew Patient from school gathered to look at the scene and talk about the victim. They had read of the accident victim's struggle in the local paper. The youths, who did not give their names, said Patient is big and strong - about six feet tall and 175 pounds - with long curly black hair, and likes to dirt-bike in the summer and snowmobile in the winter in the area were the crash occurred. "He's a good kid; he just always pushes it," said a youth in a brown leather jacket. "What's life without taking chances?" rejoined another, lighting a cigarette. "But look what can happen," said another, and they trudged off along the trail. Ahearn, thinking back on his Christmas morning, shook his head slowly and said: "Whew, what that kid went through - the pain, the frostbite. To inch your way a quarter-mile in that kind of weather would take some going for anyone, much less a 16-year-old kid." As Sgt. Corriveau concluded in his report: "It is apparent the instinct to survive came over the victim." — The Boston Globe 27 December 1983

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Ex-Pepsico Aide Pleads Guilty on Profit Filing A former vice president of Pepsico Inc., Richard I. Ahern, pleaded guilty yesterday to a criminal charge involving the filing of false financial reports with the Securities and Exchage Commission. Mr. Ahern, who was in charge of Pepsico's foreign bottling operations, agreed to cooperate with the Government in its investigation the authorities said. He admitted at a hearing in Federal District Court in Manhattan that he had told executives at Pepsico's subsidiary in Mexico to increase the statement figures in reporting profits. Pepsico, the nation's second-largest soft drink enterprise after the Coca Cola Company, disclosed in November 1982 that its earnings had been overstated by $92.1 million between January 1978 and September 1982. Pepsico said it had uncovered the discrepancy through an investigation of its own and disclosed the findings to the S.E.C., which then began an official inquiry. James Griffith, director of public affairs for Pepsico at its Purchase, N.Y., headquarters, said Mr. Ahern was the senior official among four executives the company dismissed because of the inflated earnings reports. The dismissals occurred in October 1982. The Justice Department's charge “parallels the findings of our own investigation,” Mr. Griffith said. Pepsico declares that no senior corporate executive was involved in falsifying the S.E.C. reports. Mr. Ahern, now 54 years old, joined the company in 1955 and became head of its overseas bottling operations in 1973. At the time of his dismissal, there was some specualtion by individuals outside the company that Pepsico's bonus system may have been a factor in the overstatement of earnings. Mr. Ahern's plea of guilty to the charges of causing false financial statements to be filed with the S.E.C. was entered before Judge Charles S. Haight in Federal District Court in Manhattan. Michael S. Feldburg, Assitant United States Attorney, said Mr. Ahern would face a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine upon sentencing. — New York Times 6 January 1984

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US Jumpers Victimized For the United States, which so far has been disappointed in hockey and Nordic skiing events, things went from bad to worse yesterday. First, just as America's Pat Ahern seemed to be closing in on a bronze medal in Nordic Combined, a jury decision took it away from him, and also dashed the medal hopes of another American, Kerry Lynch, who was favored to medal in the event. Ahern was in third place after the first round of jumping, and Lynch had made the top 10. The atheletes get three jumps and choose their two best for combined points. Ahern had jumped 86 meters. But two skiers made jumps that took them past the so-called critical line - a part of the hill that flattens out and is considered dangerous to land on. When skiers land beyond the critical point, the jury decides if the event should be restarted with an adjusted course. With just four skiers of 29 remaining left to jump, the jury restarted the event, which wiped out the excellent US jumps. "Pure politics," fumed US Nordic director Jim Page after his team's medal chances disappeared. "Pat Ahern was a cinch to medal and now he's 16th, and Lynch falls to 22d place." Wind direction is considered a very important element, and uphill gusts are considered good fortune because they prolong the flight time. Both Ahern and Lynch got "good air" on the first jumps, and then side gusts on the second, which slowed them down. Said Page: "We're considering making a formal challange to the jury decision." — The Boston Globe 12 February 1984

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SARAJEVO, Yugoslavia, Feb. 12—Pat Ahern had barely crossed the finish line when he began yanking at the Olympic numbers on his chest. With ski poles in one hand, he used the other to toss the numbered bib over his shoulder to the snow. "They took my chance away from me," said the 23-year-old from Breckenridge, Colo., who had a first-place performance in the ski jumping half of his Nordic combined event erased Saturday by a controversial ruling that dropped him to 16th place. Today, in the 15-kilometer cross-country ski race, a dispirited Ahern could only hold his ground to finish 17th in that race and 17th overall. "It's hard to ski your guts out when you feel like you've been kicked in the crotch," he said. "You've only got so much to give and when you've given it all, it's not fair for them to ask you to do it again." Ahern had two soaring ski jumps canceled Saturday when a jury of five officials decided jumpers were landing too close to the bottom of the hill. Results of two incomplete rounds were scrapped and the rounds begun again from a jumping station closer to the takeoff point. — Washington Post 13 February 1984

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McCall Wins Golden Gloves Title Mike McCall, a 17-year-old senior at Lowell High, scored his fourth straight knockout of the tournament to win the 147 pound Open title in the championship round of the Greater Lowell Golden Gloves Tournament last night at Lowell. McCall, who TKO'd Bruce Ahern of Lowell with a flurry of punches at 1:30 of the second round, is now 13-0 and has scored 11 career knockouts. The semifinals and finals of the N.E. Golden Gloves will be held next Tuesday and Wednesday at Lowell High with 12-men teams from Lowell, Fall River, Holyoke and Burlington, Vt. boxing vying for regional titles. — The Boston Globe 14 February 1984

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Detective Says Suspect Wouldn't Answer Question About Murder Last summer, 17 - year-old Val Mayfield of Dorchester, ran from detectives shouting that he wanted to "go home and think about it" when an investigator repeatedly asked Mayfield if he had killed 11-year-old Mary Ann Hanley, a detective testified yesterday. Boston Police Det. Robert F. Ahearn, of the Homicide Division, testified in a packed room at Suffolk Superior Court. He said that Mayfield bolted from a room at the District 11 police station when asked if he had killed Hanley, who was strangled to death Aug. 1 in the southeast corner of Ronan Park. "I heard Det. Peter O'Malley speaking to Val Mayfield," said Ahearn. "He (O'Malley) was saying things like, You did it, didn't you?' He asked several times if Mayfield killed her." "What did Val Mayfield say?" asked Ronald Moynihan, an assistant district attorney. "He (Mayfield) said he needed time to think about it. . .. He said he wanted to go home and think about it." Ahearn said Mayfield began screaming, fell against some police lockers, held his head and bolted out of the interrogation room when the detectives showed him pictures of the girl's body. Ahearn's testimony came during the fourth day of the trial of Mayfield, one of three persons arrested last Oct. 21 and charged in connection with Hanley's murder. Faustino (Tito) Gomez, 18, of Ridgewood street, Dorchester, and a 16 year-old girl are each charged with being accessories after the fact to murder. They will be tried later. Authorities claim Mayfield was the last person to see Hanley alive. Mayfield has told detectives that he walked the girl, who was his girlfriend's half-sister, part of the way home about 8:50 p.m. Aug. 1. The youth claims he later joined friends on the front porch of a house several blocks from where the girl lived on Mt. Ida road. The prosecution alleges that Mayfield smashed the girl's head against a tree limb, kicked her, raped her and strangled her with a ligature. Moynihan is expected to call to the witness stand sometime next week, a 14-year-old boy who claims he saw the attack. The boy told police that Mayfield forced him to watch and threatened to kill him and his family if he revealed what he had seen. The tree limb the boy alleges Mayfield used was tested by criminologist Stanley Bogdan, who testified yesterday that he found no blood stains on the log. The limb, which had reddish-brown spots on it, was found near the girl's body, according to testimony. Bogdan also said that most of the hairs he collected from the dead girl's clothes and body were her own. Two straight, human hairs dissimilar from the girl's were discovered on the body. Mayfield, who gave police hair and nail samples the day he ran from them, has coarse, curly brown hair. Later yesterday, Nellie Ortiz, the owner of a pizza shop on Geneva avenue told the court that she did not see Mayfield in her shop the night Hanley died. Mayfield has told police that after he walked Hanley home and joined friends who were sitting on a neighbor's porch, he then went to the pizza shop. The defendant alleges he went there looking for a friend, 17-year-old John Vasquez. Ortiz said yesterday that she had known the defendant for about three years and would have recognized him if he had come into the shop. — The Boston Globe 6 April 1984

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Hijacker Forces Miami-bound Plane to Land in Havana A thin man in a black beret who claimed to be "Lt. Spartacus" of the Black Liberation Army hijacked a Miami-bound airliner carrying 57 passengers and crew to Havana Tuesday afternoon. Immediately after Piedmont Airlines Flight 451 landed at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport at 4:24 p.m., Cuban security officers took the unidentified man into custody, U.S. officials said. The Boeing 737 finally landed at Miami International Airport at 6:59 p.m. It was the first hijacking of a domestic flight to Cuba this year and the 12th such incident since May 1. The flight, which originated in Newark, N.J., with stops in Charlotte, N.C., and Charleston, S.C., was commandeered at 3:43 p.m. as it made its final descent into Miami. Bill Perry, FBI assistant special agent in charge of the Miami office, drew an account of the hijacking after agents interviewed passengers and crew members. As the plane made its final approach into Miami International Airport at 3:17 p.m., the hijacker pushed his call button to request a flight attendant. When she arrived, the man handed her a note saying that there were explosives aboard the plane that could be detonated by two accomplices who were also aboard. The hijacker also demanded $5 million, but did not say from whom or where it should be delivered. The pilot, Capt. Carl Gamble, then spoke with the hijacker over the plane's intercom and told him he would take him to Cuba. The hijacker warned Gamble not to alarm passengers or mention their destination. He then locked himself in the bathroom and scrawled a message on the lavatory door. "This was necessary. I would not have hurt anybody at this point. But the time will come when we will meet as enemies. I'm sorry for this. I have responsibilities and duties. I am a soldier," said his message. After a futile search for hidden explosives in the plane at Miami International Airport, FBI agents removed the bathroom door and carried it through the terminal, drawing curious stares from bystanders. The hijacker, in fact, had no accomplices. When Cuban authorities cleared the plane, they arrested only one man. Investigators were still comparing the names on the passenger manifest in an effort to determine where the man boarded the plane and what name he used. One passenger, Brian Ahern of Summerland Key, Fla., watched the mysterious passenger, described as being in his late 20s and about 5-foot-9, enter the lavatory. Ahern said he overheard a conversation between the man and a flight attendant through the bathroom door. In what he described as broken English, Ahern said he heard the man demand "safe passage to Cuba" and say that he was with "BLA." Bill Abercrombie of Miami, toting two bottles of Cuban rum bought while in the Havana airport, said he watched what he described as a "Cuban SWAT team" board the aircraft and come out with one prisoner who was put into a car. Judy Strippelhoff of Lexington, Ky., said that although there was no official announcement of a hijacking, passengers had a "pretty good idea" where they were going. "The no-smoking and seat belt lights were on. Suddenly they were off. The stewardess said 'we are going to make an unscheduled landing.' She didn't say where. But, you know, this is Miami," she said. While the passengers and crew members of Flight 451 waited for clearance in Havana, a small cluster of friends and relatives awaited nervously it Miami International Airport. "Sure, I'm worried. Anything can happen in these things," said Babe Lavivona, who waited for his 32-year-old daughter, Karen, who, boarded at Charlotte. One woman, waiting for her husband, was less concerned. "Why should I worry?" asked the woman who would not give her name. "This has happened before. I hear they go shopping." Piedmont spokesman Donald McGuire, who flew to Miami from airline headquarters at WinstonSalem, N.C., during the incident, said he didn't know what the hijacking would cost the airline. "The Cubans didn't mention anything about fees. They just sold us 10,000 gallons of fuel and we left," he said. Tuesday's hijacking, McGuire said, was the first time a Piedmont flight was successfully commandeered. Officials at the Miami Airport stopped two men before boarding a Piedmont flight to Tampa on Sept. 14 and charged them in a suspected hijacking attempt. Two other attempted hijackings were thwarted in the air by passengers who overpowered air pirates. It was the first hijacking to Cub since Sept. 22, when a New York to Virgin Islands flight was diverted after a man with a black box claimed to have a bomb and demanded to go to Havana. Shortly after the rash of hijackings started last year, the FAA announced it was stepping up security measures by placing sky marshals aboard certain flights and making more thorough baggage checks. FAA spokesman Jack Barker said there was no sky marshal aboard Flight 451. Tuesday's hijacking was the second involving a U.S. airliner this year. The first occurred on Feb. 11 when a Haitian soldier armed with machine gun and hand grenades hijacked an American Airlines Boeing 727 en route from Haiti to New York, which was already the flight's destination. — The Miami Herald 28 March 1984

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Local officials red-faced; committee misses deadline ACTON—The 1982 town report recently won a third-place award for excellence from a state municipal organization. But the 1983 town report, which includes information from various town committees and departments along with births, dog licenses, election information, and maps of Acton, certainly will not capture any blue ribbons for meeting deadline. The new report, scheduled to be out in time for next week's town meeting, will not be available until April 12 at the earliest and probably later because the report arrived at the printer too late to be ready in time for town meeting. “I think we are probably going to take a lot of flack at town meeting because it's not ready.” said a grim Donald Gilberti at Teusday night's Board of Selectmen meeting. Instead of the usual supply of approximately 2,000 copies, only a handful will be available for Acton residents. The library will have at least one copy of the report by Monday. [Nancy] Banks suggested several alternatives to selectmen including printing the reports on newsprint or simply copying them, instead of taking them to a printer. However, Selectman Jack Ormsbee offered a proposal to delay release of the bulk of the reports until September. His fellow selectmen quickly approved the measure. The delay is likely to result in some angry town meeting voters, which left Gilberti less than enthused. “It's not fair, Dore. Stop smiling,” Gilberti said to a smiling F. Dore Hunter, one of two candidates in the upcoming elections for the two open seats on the board, who will soon join the Board of Selectmen after he completes his stint on the school committee. However, Hunter's term does not begin until after town meeting, which leaves selectmen to fend for themselves. “You got to explain that one (at town meeting),” Hunter told Gilberti. Several reasons exist for the delay, according to Dennis Ahern, who was on the town report committee, which puts out the product. “We really don't have the manpower,” said Ahern in an interview following the meeting. “This year, we really haven't had the tiome to devote to this.” Ahern said that he was facing a dealine on a book at his position as a technical writer for R.C.A. Another member of the committee faced a new project at his job. “When I first got on the town report committee (six years ago), we had about 14 people and didn't do anything.” Ahern said. “Since we started doing it on a word processor system, we saved a lot of money, but (the committee members) have frittered away.” (The cost of putting out the report is now between $5,000 and $6,000, according to Ahern). In addition to a lack of numbers, Ahern also said that the Jan. 30 deadline for the town committees and departments to submit reports came and went for several groups. And because of the verbosity of some reports, the committee had to edit them down in what was another time-consuming process. The whole process has left Ahern uncertain about his future role in putting out the town report. “If I don't get fired, I'm going to resign,” he told selectmen, perhaps half-joking, upon exiting the meeting. — Assabet Valley Beacon 29 March 1984

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Officials Take Sick Dog from Wayland Man Alfalfa dined on traditional dog food at Angell Memorial animal hospital yesterday after a court ordered him seized. The dog officer said the owner was a recluse who had tried to treat the animal's baseball-sized tumor with a natural-food diet. Officials with the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said the dog was taken into custody Monday after his owner, Steve Ahern, refused to take him to a veterinarian for treatment. "It was feared that the animal was suffering," said Charles Contos, the assistant director of the society's law enforcement division. Mary Lou Chamberlain, Wayland dog officer, said Alfalfa, a black Laborador-Rhodesian cross, was the constant companion of Ahern, an unemployed 37-year-old who disdains money and possessions. Ahern is a well-known figure in Wayland, wandering the Boston suburb each day looking for food, sometimes pushing the dog along in a shopping cart. Chamberlain said Ahern has no fixed address. He camps out on town conservation land. Ahern could not be located for comment. "We haven't seen him since Thursday morning," she said. "I don't know where he is and frankly, I'm worried." Chamberlain said she convinced Ahern last year to see a vet, who recommended surgery for Alfalfa. "Steve didn't want the tumor removed," she said. "He said he would shrink it down with diet." Chamberlain said Ahern, whom she described as as a quiet, well-read man "from the Ghandi era,"showed great affection for the dog. Contos said his office received an anonymous complaint about the dog's condition last week. A dog officer was sent to investigate and found "a very thin dog with a tumorous growth." "Routinely, we would tell the person to see that the dog gets treatment," Contos said. When Ahern failed to take the dog in, the society got a warrant from Framingham District Court. On Monday three Wayland policemen and two society officers grabbed the dog as Ahern walked through the center of Wayland. "He didn't want to release the dog," said Stanley Barney, an enforcement officer with the MSPCA. "He ran with it and at that point he was arrested by the local police department." Police said Ahern was charged with disorderly conduct. He was released and ordered to appear in court May 22. Barney said Ahern is forbidden from seeing Alfalfa because the dog may be used as evidence if he is charged with animal cruelty. If charged, Ahern could face a $500 fine and a jail term. — The Boston Globe 5 May 1984

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They Gathered in Gloucester to Swap Tales of Old Sea Voyages There was a meeting of a handful of legendary men of the sea here Saturday night - fishermen from the days of old dory schooners and beam trawlers. Fifty years ago, on April 28, Capt. Leo Hynes of Nashua, N.H., took over as skipper of the 126-foot Boston dory-fishing schooner Adventure. Before retiring his vessel in 1958, Capt. Hynes, now 84, would become a historic footnote in the New England fisheries; he'd push the Adventure and his 26 dorymen through all weather and would gross more than $3.5 million over the years, becoming the all-time money earner and fish catcher in a day when codfish brought them little more than 2 to 15 cents a pound. (Today the price is often more than $2 per pound.) Here, on Saturday, some of the captain's old shipmates gathered with him in the Blackburn Tavern to wring a few more salty memories out of those years. Capt. Mike Ahearn of Malden, now 91, the senior man present, and Capt. Hynes recalled with a good-natured laugh, the episode in 1942 when the Adventure rammed and sank the Adventure II - the former Mary P. Goulart - in a fogbank just outside Boston Harbor. Capt. Hynes then was part owner of both vessels. Capt. Ahearn was master of the Adventure II. "We wuz comin' home in the Adventure II. 'Twas tick o' fog." Capt. Ahearn said. "We had 130,000 pounds stock, (fish in the hold) an' we wuz layin' to off the (Boston) Lightship, blowin' and blowin' our whistle. We wus stopped. "Then she (the Adventure - outbound from the Boston fish pier and bound for the fishing Banks) looms outa th' fog; she comes straight at us. We blew, but he had a dummy who musta been deef and dumb at the wheel, an' she cut us in two. Didn't even stop his engine. Jus' kept comin'. "She hit us just aft of th' engine room, y' know. That's the weakest part of any vessel. Louie D'Entremont, the engineer, calls up to me, Capt. Mike,' he says, she's goin' down fast. Better get off of her.' And we did. Lucky t'ing,", Capt, Ahearn said, "to lose a vessel like that and no one hurt." "I didn't think she'd sink so quick, but she did. Capt Hynes, recalled the episode well. "Mike, he said with a twinkle in his eye. "Tis time we kissed and made up, isn't it, after all these years?" And the two old seafarers embraced and exchanged a round of drinks. Capt. Tom Fowler, 72, of Brockton, told of the day when he and a dorymate got separated from the Adventure's other dorymen on LeHavre Bank, some 600 miles from home. It was the dread of all dory skippers of the day: to lose a doryman. The Adventure's poop deck, today, is still deeply worn where Capt. Hynes' boots shifted and ground the planks over the years in worry as he paced and peered into fog and snow in search of a lost man. Again, Fowler recalled: "It was thick. We didn't know if we was goin' to make it. Couldn't see or hear anything." But Capt. Hynes, sensing with a fishermen's instinct, the drift the lost dorymen should make in their little craft, eventually brought the Adventure alongside the missing dory and two thankful fishermen climbed aboard with a bearhug for Hynes, their skipper and savior. Fowler had also recalled his beginnings as a hand on halibut trips with the Adventure's first skipper, Capt. Jeff Thomas of Gloucester. "That was in the 20s, when the Adventure was new" he said. Capt. Thomas, the Adventure's first skipper and owner and father of the late Gloucester author Gordon Thomas, died of a heart attack at the wheel on March 24, 1934 - almost a month before Capt. Hynes took her over - while driving her home laden with cod. He too had been a legendary figure in his time. Capt. Ralph St. Croix, 62, former skipper of the Boston-based vessels Bay State and Old Colony and Capt. Patrick Eustace, 74, of Melrose, also a former beam trawler skipper of the Boston fleet, rounded out the informal gathering of old salts. It had been organized by Capt. Jim Sharp of Camden, Maine, the present owner and master of the 58-year schooner (now a Maine windjammer), and a friend of the old seamen. It was Eustace's poem, "Cup and Dime" read by Gloucester author Joe Garland, that closed the evening in rhyme with toasts to the Gloucester's memories, the heroic fishermen, the famed races and, "Her famous shooners they were fast, As proven in all lands. They raced from Boston Light Ship To the Banks of Newfoundland . . ." — The Boston Globe 7 May 1984

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Body of Man, 90, Found; Sister Hurt The partially decomposed body of a 90-year-old man, believed to have been dead a week, was found in a Roslindale house Wednesday night, Boston Police said. The man's 75-year-old sister was found disabled on the kitchen floor, unable to summon help, they said. A neighbor and a relative found the body and the woman after unsuccessfully trying to telephone the house. No foul play is suspected in the death of the man, Joseph Ahern, police said. His sister, Margaret Ahern, was in fair condition at Faulkner Hospital yesterday with injuries received in a fall down a flight of stairs. — The Boston Globe 22 June 1984

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Acton voters will cast their ballots in a symbolic election this year, with one candidate to be reelected in every slot. To some incumbents, the lack of competition is an appalling situation, but to others it is a sign residents are confident the candidates are doing a good job. [...] Dennis Ahern, the incumbent Board of Library Trustees candidate, said he ran for office the first time, and lost, simply so there would be some competition. "I think it is disgusting" he said of the uncontested election. "It's disappointing that more people don't run for office." Ahern said he does not think the lack of candidates means greater confidence in public offices. "I would say it shows people are just not interested." he said. — Assabet Valley Beacon 28 February 1985

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GOLDEN WEDDING AHERN — PEARSON : March 2nd of 1935 at All Saints Church, Beckley, Sussex, Walter to Peggy, now at Dinton Hatherley Rd. Kew Gardens, Surrey. — The Times 2 March 1985

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Ahern Activates Library Trustees Dennis Ahern says he tends to "take an offbeat view of things," and has some projects in mind he would like to implement in his next term as a library trustee. "One of the things I would like to see is the Board of Trustees becoming more of an activist board. It seems to be just reacting the the ebbs and tides of town politics and the wishes of the library staff." A technical writer, Ahern has been working and living in Connecticut during the week because of a temporary assignment at Electric Boat. "I have been putting my ideas on paper and passing them on to the trustees," he said. One idea is a Phone Fiche system, where the phone books are bought on microfiche to save shelf space. The drawback to this system is the high cost, he said. Ahern said he is also interested in instituting a system of reserving museum passes. Right now the museum passes, which allow a whole family to visit a museum at a reduced price, are available on a first come-first served basis. Passes are available for many of the Boston museums, he said. The trustees are also concerned with job reclassifications for library employees, he said. In the past "the selectmen had a tendency to completely overlook employees of the library when it came to reclassifications," he said. The trustees don't reclassify positions or assign pay, he said. "We don't have the carrot, or the stick," he pointed out. The new system of personnel classification will probably be favorable to the library employees, he said. "I think because they have been overlooked so long, this can't help but improve their situation." The library is also in the market for a children's librarian he said, and hopes to start more programs for children in the near future. "When I was getting signatures for nomination, that was one area people said they were concerned about," he added. The trustees should also "be more activist about raising money," Ahern believes. A system should be created that would help people be able to donate small amounts of money easily, and the trustees should also become more active in their solicitation of bequests, he said. — Assabet Valley Beacon 28 March 1985

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BC High 21, Don Bosco 14: Jon Bartlett scored on runs of 5 and 55 yards, and a 12-yard reception from quarterback Peter Hughes. Don Bosco's Bill Ahern scored on a 3-yard pass from Mike Doyle in the fourth quarter, but Bosco would get no closer. BC High stands atop the conference at 5-0. — The Boston Globe 20 October 1985

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Forthcoming Marriages Major D. M. Ahern and Mrs J. L. Forde [sic] The engagement is announced between David Ahern, XV/XIX The King's Royal Hussars, son of Mrs J. A. Ahern and the late Major-General T. M. R. Ahern, of Shrivenham, Wiltshire [sic] and Jane, daughter of Mr and Mrs H. Cooke of Harare, Zimbabwe. — The Times 30 October 1985

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James F. Ahearn, an FBI agent who convinced Aladena James (Jimmy The Weasel) Fratianno to turn against his Mafia associates and become a government witness, has been named special agent in charge of the Boston FBI office. The 46-year-old Ahearn, who has headed the Omaha office for two years, will succeed James W. Greenleaf, who has been promoted to assistant director in charge of the FBI's Training Division at Quantico, Va. Ahearn said in an interview yesterday that he expects to begin his duties in Boston in November. He was assistant agent in charge of the San Francisco office in August 1977, when he recruited Fratianno from the ranks of La Cosa Nostra. Fratianno said he served as acting boss in Los Angeles during a 32-year Mafia membership in which he participated in the commission or planning of 11 murders. At the time of Fratianno's conversion, he was the highest- ranking Mafia figure to testify in court against his former associates. Since then, Fratianno has testified at numerous trials that have led to the conviction of a dozen major racketeers. Ahearn said he is in almost daily contact with Fratianno, who is still being used by the Justice Department as a witness. Fratianno was facing murder charges and was marked for execution by mobsters when Ahearn offered him a place in the Justice Department's Witness Security Program if he would help the FBI develop cases. Ahearn's role was described in a book about Fratianno, written by Ovid Demaris and entitled "The Last Mafioso." Born in New York City, Ahearn was 9 when his father died of cancer after 19 years as a police officer. Raised by his mother, Ahearn was graduated from St. John's University, which he attended while working nights as clerk in the New York FBI office. He became an agent in 1963 and later was assigned to offices in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Detroit and Washington. His expertise has been in the investigation of organized crime, hijacking, terrorism, narcotics and counter- intelligence, according to associates. Ahearn assisted agents and prosecutors from Boston in the investigation of the 1976 gangland slaying of Joseph (Barboza) Baron in San Francisco. The probe was conducted in connection with the recent trial of Gennaro J. Angiulo, the Boston Mafia boss, who was convicted of ordering the murder of Baron, a former Massachusetts mobster. Jeremiah T. O'Sullivan, head of the Justice Department's Organized Crime Strike Force in Boston, who worked with Ahearn on the Baron case, praised Ahearn's appointment. "I think that from the point of view of our organized crime program it is a spectacular appointment," he said. — The Boston Globe 6 September 1986

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FRAMINGHAM—The new head of the FBI in Boston says one of the reasons he was assigned to this area was to help the state's multibillion dollar high-tech industry tighten its defense against the growing threat of espionage. Special Agent James F. Ahearn, who formerly worked in the bureau's San Francisco office, another high-tech area, said, "There is foreign counter-intelligence going on in high-tech. This is one reason why I am here." In a meeting with Middlesex News editors Friday, Ahearn also said the Boston FBI office would concentrate on corruption in the public sector. He said a number of new corruption cases "not confined" to Boston "will be made public in the beginning of the year." Ahearn, 46, said high-tech companies working under defense contracts are "very vulnerable" to spies from the Soviet Union and other countries trying to steal secrets. He said the FBI doesn't police companies, "but what we do is try to keep them educated. We also try to provide them with enough details" on any reported instances of espionage. Massachusetts high-tech companies rank fourth in the nation with $7.7 billion in prime defense contracts. Companies in the Framingham area do nearly $1 billion of that work, according to 1985 reports. Ahearn also said he wants to continue the fight against organized crime, his area of expertise, in both Boston and the suburbs following the conviction of crime-boss Gennaro J. Angiulo. "We are going through a period of change where people are trying to move into Angiulo's position and be the leader," said Ahearn. "I won't say we've won the war, but we've won a few major battles." He said organized crime is also in the suburbs, dealing in drugs and loan sharking. "We're entering into an era where criminals are getting more sophisticated and we are getting more sophisticated," he said. "I never thought I'd be using a computer." Ahearn took over two weeks ago from special agent James W. Greenleaf, who was promoted to director of FBI training at Quantico, Va., The New England office of the FBI has about 200 agents covering Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. — The Boston Globe 14 December 1986

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ARBORETUM'S ADVOCATES When Dr. Richard Warren retired as professor of cardiovascular and intestinal surgery at Harvard Medical School nearly 15 years ago, he began a new career as an amateur taxonomist. Since retiring, Warren, whose ancestors include a doctor-patriot killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill, the founder of Harvard Medical School and the first doctor to perform surgery on a patient anesthetized with ether, has spent three or four days a week checking the identification of cone-bearing trees at Harvard's Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain.  . . .  Among other volunteers are Dr. Richard Dwight, a retired surgeon who works in the greenhouse and invites the staff to a May wine party each year in the flower garden of his Brookline home; Robert Siegel of Hingham, a retired businessman who has been a tour guide for years; Margaret Thompson, a retired accountant who volunteers accounting services; Frank Ahern, a lawyer who was chief counsel for the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board, and his wife Doris, who work in the greenhouse and as tour guides. "When the Aherns started, their first job was washing pots. They did that and did it well for several months waiting to be trained as tour guides," says Jeanne Christianson, director of volunteers. She says many volulnteers are rewarded by feeling their work is good and useful, but almost all are also motivated by the opportunity to learn. — The Boston Globe 15 March 1987

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ALLEGED BANK ROBBER CAUGHT IN TEA ROOM A man who police say robbed a downtown Boston bank didn't keep the loot very long yesterday, as he was arrested in a tea room four minutes after he allegedly held up a teller at gunpoint and escaped with nearly $5,000, a police spokesman said. William P. Ahern, 36, of Southborough was captured after a brief struggle with police in the fourth-floor Tremont Tea Room, according to police spokesman Chris Boyle. Ahern was held overnight at a police station for his arraignment today in Boston Municipal Court on a charge of armed robbery, Boyle said. Boyle said a man entered the Boston Five Cents Savings Bank on Tremont Street at 3:56 p.m., put a brown attache case on the counter in front of a teller, brandished a .22-caliber handgun and demanded money. The bandit then left with $4,933 in the case and went into the tea room. A man who told police he witnessed the robbery gave them a description of the robber and pointed out the building where the suspect had fled. — The Boston Globe 23 June 1987

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The FBI agent who persuaded Aladena (Jimmy the Weasel) Fratianno to become a government witness 10 years ago has expressed concern about a Justice Department decision to terminate monthly payments to the one-time Mafia leader. James F. Ahearn, special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office, said he was not consulted before Fratianno was dropped from the federal witness protection program on Friday. "The only promise I ever made to him was to keep him alive," Ahearn said. "I hope to God that promise will not be broken." Fratianno, who had been acting Mafia boss in Los Angeles during a 32-year career in the underworld organization, has testified at numerous racketeering trials while under guard. He became the highest-ranking Mafia figure to turn against his fellow mobsters, and he subsequently described how he participated in the commission or planning of 11 murders. Ahearn, who has been in charge of the Boston office for a year, said he negotiated Fratianno's entry into the government program, including a new identity, moving to an undisclosed community and financial support. Fratianno's attorney, Dennis D. McDonald of Hayward, Calif., said his client has received $600 per month from the government. The government estimated that it had spent $1 million on Fratianno. John Russell, a Justice Department spokesman in Washington, said his expenses covered housing, utilities, household insurance, auto insurance and real estate taxes. McDonald, predicting that Fratianno's life would be in jeopardy, described the government's estimate as "ridiculous." When Frattiano decided to cooperate with the government, Ahearn was assistant agent in charge of the San Francisco FBI office and Fratianno was facing murder charges and death threats by mobsters, some of whom had been his friends for 25 years. Since then, Ahearn and Fratianno have conversed an average of twice a week, although the FBI agent said he does not know Fratianno's whereabouts. Russell said Fratianno will be given protection by the US Marshals Service whenever he is taken into a "danger area" to testify. Russell said the government would provide security if there is a threat on Fratianno's life and will assist him in moving to a new location if necessary. Noting that Fratianno has provided "invaluable service" to the government, Russell said the program is designed to protect rather than reward witnesses. — The Boston Globe 23 August 1987

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CONNECTICUT INMATES' CRUCIFIX After thieves stole two wooden crosses from the Immaculate Conception Church in Hartford, inmates at Connecticut's maximum security prison last week offered to carve a crucifix to replace one of them. Rev. James Aherne, assistant pastor of the church, said replacing the crosses would cost $3,000, money he said would be better spent feeding and sheltering the homeless. Inmates volunteered to carve the crucifix for free. "I am very appreciative of their concern," Aherne said of the inmates at the Somers prison after accepting their offer. The theft of the two crosses, which hung in the rectory for many years, was not the first burglary at the church. According to the church's pastor, Rev. Joseph J. Baxer, a $5,000 sound system and 200 pounds of hamburger from the church's shelter for the homeless were recently stolen. — The Boston Globe 20 December 1987

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Thus It Is Written For those responsible for the smooth execution of the Reagan-Gorbachev summit, danger lurked in even the most innocuous places. What with the last-minute commas, the hot glare of the TV lights, the 16 signators on each side — "The last thing you want at a major treaty signing," says Rick Ahern, a White House advance man, "would be the ink drying up" in the pen. That's why Parker Pens sent two laser-engraved, gold-trimmed, sterling-silver Parker 75s — with interchangeable fountain-pen, felt-tip and ball-point nibs — especially for the signing. Just another indication that pens are the pocket BMWs of the day. You don't have to be an expert trend spotter to know the fountain pen is back. Look at the ads in Esquire, GQ, Working Woman and People. And look in the shirt pockets of a lot of Washingtonians. Honest-to-God big ol' fountain pens, retro relations of the ones from the glory days. "We're experiencing an incredible outreach in sales nationwide," says David Prown of Koh-I-Nor Rapidograph, makers of Montblanc pens, "and by far and away, Washington has led the way." Sure, things mundane in this town still get scribbled with plastic ball points and felt tips. But for the serious note-taking, the department head signature, the note of congratulations, it seems disposable Bics just won't do. Fountain pens are the way to go. And the pricier the better. Proof of this came when Parker recently re-created the 1927 Duofold, one of the most popular pens ever made. At $250, it's not for the faint-of- heart, but Fahrney's Pens, the top local nibbery, went ahead with an initial order of 120. "They darned near sold every unit in a week's time," says Parker spokesman Eugene Rohlman. According to figures from the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association, fountain-pen sales have almost doubled in the last eight years, and '87 sales are sure to eclipse the '86 mark of 11.5 million units. A lot better than the all-time low of 6.4 million in '78 but, of course, a far cry from the high of 41 million in 1951. So, with this renaissance of the fountain pen in full swing, what happened when it came time to choose a nib for the historic INF treaty? Both sides agreed on ... the felt-tip nibs? Didn't they trust the good old-fashioned ceremonial fountain pens? Says Ahern: "We just didn't want to take any chances." — Washington Post Magazine 17 January 1988

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ELIZABETH C. O'HERRON PLANS TO MARRY IN APRIL Mr. and Mrs. William J. O'Herron of Westfield, N.J., and Peru, Vt., have announced the engagement of their daughter, Elizabeth Coughlin O'Herron, to Robert Haldane Swindell 3d, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Swindell Jr. of Baltimore and Damariscotta, Me. An April wedding is planned. Miss O'Herron, an account executive at Grey Advertising in New York, graduated from Trinity College in Hartford and studied at the Institute of European Studies in Paris. Her father is a regional manager of Quotron Systems Inc., a division of Citicorp in New York. Her mother, Mary P. O'Herron, is a partner in William Austin & Company in Scotch Plains, N.J., an antiques and interior decorating concern. Mr. Swindell, an associate at Shearson Lehman Brothers in New York, expects to receive an M.B.A. degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in May. He graduated from the Gilman School and the University of Virginia. His father is a vice president of Barton Cotton, a printing concern in Baltimore, of which his grandfather the late H. K. Douglas Cotton was a founder. — New York Times 17 January 1988

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Pat Ahern, who won a spot on the four-member Nordic combined ski team for the 1988 Olympics during trials at Lake Placid, N.Y. last weekend, fell and apparently broke a hip in Breckenridge, Colo. A spokesman for the Peak Nine Medical Clinic at the Breckenridge Ski Area said Ahern was downhill skiing when he was hurt. — Washington Post 28 January 1988

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Joseph Ahern is aiming for an early May opening for his Echo Restaurant & Cafe, under construction on upper Newbury Street. Ahern is fresh from success as owner of the Harvard Street Grill in Brookline, a neighborhood storefront restaurant with an inventive contemporary menu. The general cooking style at Echo will be the same but Ahern said that because of better kitchen facilities he'll be adding more sauteed and roasted items to the grill menu he ran in Brookline. The decor will be accented by black lacquer, mahogany and red granite details. The upstairs dining room will seat 48, the downstairs cafe will seat 40 and the outside patio will accommodate 50 more. He said the menu will mix imaginative dishes with "classic things that have endured, like steak tartare and a real Caesar salad with whole Romaine leaves and shaved parmesan." The Harvard Street Grill has a promising future too. Ahern sold his Brookline restaurant to John Vyhnanek, the former executive chef of the Ritz-Carlton Dining Room. Vyhnanek and his wife, Bess, will run their own little place there under the same name beginning in about two weeks. "I took a long vacation after leaving the Ritz," he said, "and decided that my true love is in restaurants." He'll be serving "straightforward food with a little more emphasis on international styles of cooking from Europe and the Orient." — The Boston Globe 5 April 1988

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Four alleged housebreakers were captured by police after a high-speed chase that ended when the suspects' car smashed into a Southborough home early yesterday. Wellesley Police Lt. Donald Whelan said the episode began about 1:30 a.m. when occupants of a home on Emerson Street there heard noises on the first floor. When the occupants went downstairs, they saw some men run out of the house to a waiting car, Whelan said. An occupant of the home ran to the car and grabbed the door handle, only to be thrown to the ground when the car sped off, he said. Whelan said the homeowners called police, and a short time later, a car of the same description was seen on Route 9. An officer pulled the car over, but as he got out to investigate, the car sped off, he said. During the ensuing chase, the occupants of the fleeing car threw objects stolen from the home out of the car's windows, Whelan said. The car sped through Natick, Framingham and into Southborough, where it struck a home on Parkerville Road, trapping three of the car's occupants in the vehicle, Whelan said. A fourth suspect ran from the car but was captured a few minutes later. Southborough police said the home struck by the car received "severe structural damage." Two of the car's occupants were taken to the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester. One was taken to St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester and one to Framingham Union Hospital. Police identified three of the men as Francis Williams, 25, of Somerville, listed in good condition at Framingham Union Hospital; Gerald F. Ahern, 44, of Stoneham, listed in critical condition at the UMass hospital, and Pedro Rivera, 30, of Hunting Street, Cambridge, treated at Framingham Union Hospital for a broken collarbone. Whelan said police had tentatively identified the fourth man as James Mahoney but did not have an address for him. He was listed in critical condition at the UMass hospital. — The Boston Globe 11 August 1988

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SHORT CIRCUITS Ever wonder why James F. Ahearn, special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office, handles himself so well under the spolight? Turns out he's had lots of training. When he was 7, Ahearn appeared in the now-classic movie, "Miracle on 34th Street." He was Peter, the child begging Santa for a fire truck — and speaking so fast you could barely understand him. Ahearn recalled his childhood acting days this week on WROR's "Joe and Andy" show. — The Boston Globe 25 December 1988

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Why Were They Not Warned? My beautiful brother, John Michael Ahern, aged 26, was one of the innocent victims murdered on Pan Am Flight 103. His wonderful life was prematurely ended and his body ripped to shreds. My family's grief is overwhelming and our lives shattered forever. This bombing was the most massive terrorist attack in history aimed at American civilization. Two hundred Americans were aboard that Flight 103 death trip. My family has received no condolences from Pan Am officials or the U.S. government. Survivors' letters and phone calls are ignored. When high-level threats occur against airlines (24 threats in 1988 deemed serious enough for the FAA to warn airlines of), the passengers and crew at risk must be informed and given the opportunity to make a choice. I feel my life and the lives of the 270 innocent victims of Pan Am Flight 103 are just as valuable as those of embassy officials, who were warned. The first measure and purpose of security is to deter the attack - by announcing the fact that terrorists are planning an attack and lives are in danger. By publicizing threats, the government not only alerts the public but the terrorists as well. The terrorists, fearing capture, may chose to abandon their plan. Pan Am chose silence about the Flight 103 threat. I spoke to and read about people traveling Pan Am from mid to late December and they all agree there was no increased security. The security procedures in effect were inadequate at best, i.e. curbside check-in sent luggage directly to the belly of the plane without being opened, X-rayed or matched to passenger. Carry-on bags were X-rayed but not hand searched. As each new fact about Pan Am 103 is revealed, the deeper and more painful becomes the horror. One month before the Dec. 7 bomb threat to the airlines from the FAA, terrorists were caught with bombs concealed in radios. Common sense tells us the Dec. 7 bomb might also be concealed in a radio. Common sense also tells us that Lockerbie may be the threatened revenge for the downing of the Iranian airbus, four days before Iran's biggest holiday. In February, 1989, reports are made public in America that one month before the Dec. 7 threat, Heathrow security was in fact searching for a bomb concealed in a specific brand radio, the same brand-named radio containing the bomb that was aboard and blew up Flight 103. Now we learn that at least three warnings were made to airlines about the possibility of bombs concealed in radio cassette players ["3 Alerts, With Details," March 17]. If Heathrow Airport had been warned of the Dec. 7 threat, I feel that they would have diligently searched the airplane before the doomed passengers boarded and 270 lives would have been saved. The plastic explosives used to bomb Pan Am Flight 103 were detonated by batteries. Batteries can be detected by X-ray machines. Why did Pan Am feel there was no need to X-ray checked luggage after a specific bomb threat? None of these moves makes sense. What is the U.S. government's policy regarding bomb threats and protecting their citizens traveling abroad? In this tragic situation, everyone involved should consider the lifelong heartache and devastation of the families and friends of the innocent victims murdered on Pan Am Flight 103. Why were the passengers and crew not warned? — Bonnie Ahern O'Connor, Rockville Centre, NY — Newsday 21 March 1989

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WASHINGTON—The deputy director of the US Office of Government Ethics yesterday criticized the practice of FBI agents in the Boston office being allowed to accept free tickets to sporting events. Donald E. Campbell, whose office oversees the code of official conduct for federal employees, said that accepting free tickets might raise questions about the agents' integrity and infringe on their "standard of conduct" as federal employees. Campbell said that while he knows of no instance where a federal employee has asked whether accepting free tickets to sporting events might violate the standard, "a good rule of thumb is, if the ticket was given because of the employee's government position instead of his personal relation, then there would be a problem with it." Campbell was responding to a statement by James Ahearn, special agent in charge of the Boston office of the FBI, published Sunday in The Boston Globe Magazine. In "The Tarnished Badge," a report that discussed gratuities to law enforcement officials, Ahearn was quoted as saying he had "no problem" with FBI agents in his office accepting tickets to private boxes at sporting events. "As long as there's no quid pro quo, I have no problem with that," Ahearn said. Ahearn's comments came in response to criticism that federal investigators were operating on a double standard in prosecuting Boston police detectives for accepting relatively small illegal gratuities from bar and restaurant owners. Jack Cloherty, Ahearn's press spokesman, said yesterday that Ahearn did not know how many agents accepted free tickets, from whom or how frequently. "There's never been an allegation raised regarding it, so we've never had cause to investigate," Cloherty said. Campbell said the federal standard of conduct goes beyond prohibiting employees from accepting gifts of entertainment from any private party who may be regulated or come officially in contact with the employees' agency. If FBI agents accepted free tickets on more than an infrequent basis or from persons who had gotten to know them through their professional rather than personal lives, "then I'd have a problem with it," Campbell said. The Justice Department standard allows acceptance of gifts only from a "friend  . . .  or close relative" when it is clear the motivation for the gift is the personal relationship between the recipient and the donor. Mickey Drake, a spokesman for the FBI's Washington headquarters, said the bureau had "no blanket policy" to guide agents on accepting free tickets to sporting events. "If there was frequent use of the tickets or someone was trying to take advantage of the situation, then we'd have a problem with it," Drake said. — The Boston Globe 11 April 1989

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A Story of Survival, 47 Years Later; Veteran of Bataan Death March Honored at Dale City Ceremony Forty-seven years after he survived the Bataan Death March, retired U.S. Army Master Sgt. Jerry Ahern stood before his friends from the Dale City Veterans of Foreign Wars yesterday to receive the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Prisoner of War Medal. Ahern, 73, who now lives in Dale City, said he saw countless men die during more than three years as a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II. "I still wake up in the middle of the night sweating," he said. "I have talked very little of this. My sons didn't know about it for years. People I served with after the war never knew." In fact, Ahern would never have received the awards had it not been for his friends at the VFW, who wrote the Army to ask that their comrade receive his due. The awards cite Ahern's "meritorious achievement in ground combat." About 100 people — including veterans, family members and friends—gathered in the ballroom of the Dale City VFW Post 1503 to see Ahern honored. Army Brig. Gen. William J. Meehan, who presented the awards, said, "We probably should have put these in the mail a long time ago . . . . "Thank you very much for keeping our country free." VFW member Terry Rindal said, "The people in World War II who served in the Pacific Theater have been forgotten so long. This is to remember them." A New York native, Ahern volunteered for the Army on Nov. 19, 1939, a time of baggy suits and rounded cars. At the age of 24, he decided to try military service, because of patriotism and because he had tired of the various odd jobs he had held, he recalled. He was trained as a medical corpsman, and then, five months later, sent to the Philippines on a World War I-era transport ship. The voyage "was beautiful," recalled Ahern, as he leaned back with a beer in hand at the VFW post. "It was May, the sunsets over the Pacific were beautiful. When you are going to a foreign land it's exciting. It's an adventure." Seven months later, on Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and other Pacific posts, placing the Philippines in immediate danger and Ahern in a real war. In January, the Japanese came. "I didn't know what to expect," Ahern said. He was assigned to an artillery unit at Fort Mills on Corregidor, at the entrance to Manila Bay. "Our job was to hold them," he said. Badly outnumbered, U.S. troops, Filipino scouts and civilians were able to tie down Japanese forces for more than four months, delaying the planned conquest of the Pacific. But Japanese successes in sinking U.S. ships severed Gen. Douglas MacArthur's supply line. "We ran out of ammunition, food," said Ahern. "There was no food, unless you wanted to eat snakes, monkeys .... Snakes and monkeys weren't bad .... We ate dogs, rats, whatever we could. Would you believe a human being would eat grass?" Ahern said he witnessed the last charge by a U.S. cavalry unit, the 27th Cavalry. "After the battle we ate the horses," he said. By April 1942, President Roosevelt had ordered MacArthur to escape to Australia. The 35,000 men remaining of his command had retreated to Corregidor, "The Rock" off the end of the 25-mile-long Bataan Peninsula, where Lt. Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright surrendered unconditionally "to avoid mass slaughter," according to the Dictionary of World War II. The death march began shortly thereafter. Ahern's journey took him from Fort Mills to Camp O'Donnell, more than 100 miles, in four days. The half-starved and diseased prisoners were forced to walk in groups of four through searing heat with little food or water. "If you had a buddy who fell, that was it. He was shot or given a bayonet in the back," Ahern said. "If any Filipinos tried to give you food or water along the way, they were shot." An estimated 10,000 soldiers died, including 2,300 Americans. Those who survived malaria, beriberi and other diseases were placed in prison camps. For more than three years, Ahern remained in captivity. The first year or so was spent in the Philippines. The Japanese then decided to move some of the prisoners to Japan. American POWs were placed in unmarked ships, some of which were destroyed unknowingly by U.S. warships. "People died by the hundreds," Ahern said. "We had to bury our own. We buried hundreds in mass graves. One morning I woke up and the man to my left and the man to my right were dead. I remember thinking, 'I guess it wasn't my time.' "It all came down to the will to live, the will to survive. If you thought about anything but your own survival, you were finished. I just tried to help my fellow prisoners. Sometimes you would have to curse them and kick them in the butt so they wouldn't just lay there and die. When you live on the edge, life becomes precious." Ahern said he was so numbed by the ordeal that when liberation came in Tokyo in August 1945, after 40 months of captivity, "I was lost." His weight was down to 89 pounds, from 155 when he was captured. He remained in the Army and served during the Korean War before retiring in 1960, the year he married his wife, Nancy. They have three children, David, 27, and twins James amd John, 23. The medals, Ahern said, really are not his, but are "for the men buried over there," and for his children and grandchildren. "Now they will know, that maybe their dad and grandfather had something to do with" the war. — The Washington Post 20 May 1989

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Ireland's 'Touch' Politics; Door-to-Door Campaigning in Dublin With Bertie Ahern "Irish politics," a visitor to Kildare is told by the local school principal, "is 'touch' politics." Principal Moia Curry is the volunteer campaign manager for Alan Dukes, national leader of the main opposition party, Fine Gael, in his home constituency. And on one recent Sunday, shortly before today's election, she has him waiting to shake the hands of men and women and pat the heads of children leaving 12:15 Mass. No matter that he had seen most of them the night before when he was out canvassing and had chatted with them on the doorsteps of their homes. In the small towns and villages, no politician — not even a party leader — can afford to lose touch. It's different, most politicians tell you, in a city like Dublin, where a member of the Dail (the parliament) has 70,000 constituents and people are constantly moving in and out. Bertie Ahern doesn't believe it. The 37-year-old former lord mayor of Dublin, already minister of labor in the government of Prime Minister Charles Haughey and clearly destined for greater things, works his central Dublin district as if it were a Galway village. Even a reporter who began covering Irish politicians in Chicago about the time Ahern was born is awed by his technique. He clearly needed no tip from Tip O'Neill to understand that "all politics is local" and that "people like to be asked." On a drizzly Bank Holiday Monday, 10 days before the general election, Ahern has delayed the start of his door-knocking until 11 a.m. "No sense waking them up when they have a chance to get some sleep," he says. With three volunteers along carrying his literature, he heads for a depressing block of four-story public housing flats, mainly for the elderly and unemployed. "Tough territory," he says, when his Fianna Fail party controls the government and has been cutting social services in an effort to reduce deficit spending. Ahern is a stocky man of medium height but when one of his door-knockers finds someone home and ready to converse, he is there like a shot, leaning against the doorjamb, his weight on one foot, his face just inches from the voter's — inviting confidences. They tell him what is on their minds. The woman in Apartment 59 is worried about the lad in No. 47, just below her, who's had one ear infection after another this year and can't get an emergency appointment with a national health service doctor. "He'll be deaf before they see him," she says. Ahern skips down to No. 47, where the mother stands with a protective arm around little Michael, about 6, while she confirms the facts. She goes back into the apartment for the appointment slip she's received — Feb. 8, 1990, at 10 a.m. "Bloody precise, aren't they?" Ahern mutters to the local councilman accompanying him. "Which consultant is it?" he asks, and then, without waiting for a reply, says, "Probably Willie Gaunt on an E-N-T case. We'll have a go at it," he says, scribbling the facts in his notebook, "and see if we can get him in for a look." In the next hour, there are 20 more such meetings. A blind man wants to know about the current health and whereabouts of a dozen other County Cork men living in Dublin, all of whom Ahern seems to have run into recently. A woman in a faded robe says, "Our road signs are back up, but they took the Gaelic off, and I'm sad for that." Ahern comforts her with a few words in the old tongue. Several people say they're disturbed by reports a neighborhood hospital may be closed. "No, absolutely not," Ahern promises. "You'll hear the taoiseach (prime minister) say so tomorrow" — which Haughey does at his news conference, citing the rumored shutdown as an opposition dirty trick. It is vintage grass-roots campaigning, but it is only a sliver of the effort that keeps Ahern in office and his career on course. During the 21-day campaign, his volunteer organization is programmed to make four separate contacts with each of the roughly 35,000 households in the district — once to check the voter register to see who has moved in or moved out, twice to drop literature (the latest tabloid is headlined "Bertie the Local Man") and finally to see which of his supporters may need help getting to the polls. Year-round, he or an aide will be in one of nine "advice centers" each evening Monday through Friday, and in two others each Saturday morning, to help out on constituent problems. This kind of constituent-service work is the base on which Fianna Fail has maintained its status as Ireland's largest party, even when the opposing parties have ganged up in the Dail to deny it control of the government ministries. The permanent paid staff in party headquarters is barely a dozen people, so Fianna Fail depends on volunteers at least as much as its smaller rivals. However, campaign funds flow from business and other interest groups with no spending limits and no reporting requirements. And that, as they say here, is a story that doesn't bear telling. — The Washington Post 15 June 1989

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WINEMAKERS CIRCLE THEIR WAGONS For 43 years, Frank "Stubby" Ahern has been serving whiskey, vodka, gin and beer to the thirsty Irish of Noe Valley. For 43 years, he's been spotting fights before they happen, sending customers home in cabs, ringing up bills on a 1913 cash register and pointing people to the restrooms, which are just under the Montana sign at The Peak's on Castro Street. "Things have changed so much," Stubby said after showing one of his customers to the door. "Now, people are drinking mostly wine. Wine is a good seller." Even in this old neighborhood bar, where boxing is the usual topic of discussion and anyone under 50 is called a youngster, a quiet change in attitude toward alcohol is taking place. Customers are moving away from the "hard stuff" and drinking more wine - especially more premium wine, which costs $3 a bottle or more. Though the country's premium winemakers are rejoicing over the increased popularity of their product, they are also worried that the trend toward lighter drinking may lead to no drinking if anti-alcohol groups continue to win power in the halls of Congress and grab headlines in newspapers. ... — San Francisco Chronicle 25 June 1989

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Hundreds of agents are expected to leave the FBI within the next five years, as a generation of agents reaches retirement age and others resign in favor of higher salaries in the private sector. For the first time in the agency's history, large numbers of agents are leaving in midcareer, depriving the agency of experience and threatening its role as the country's leading law enforcement agency. And at a time when crime-fighting demands have become increasingly complex, the agency is finding it difficult to attract much-needed specialists, such as engineers and lawyers, as agents. "We're close to the crisis point," said James F. Ahearn, special agent in charge of the FBI in Boston. Officials at other law enforcement agencies, such as the Drug Enforcement Administration, voiced similar concerns in interviews last week. At a time when the demands on law enforcement have never been greater, they say, the ability to attract and keep agents has never been lower. The problem is particularly acute in Boston, where the high cost of living has significantly eroded the agency's ability to retain its employees. The projected attrition rate among law enforcement agents is in part the product of demography: Hundreds of agents recruited in the 1960s and '70s are nearing the mandatory retirement age of 55. At the FBI, 2,650 out of 9,500 agents nationwide will be eligible to retire next year. Almost half of the agents are due to retire during the next decade. In Boston, 38 percent of the approximately 200 agents will be eligible for retirement in the next five years. But among those scheduled to retire are the most senior officials, which will leave the agency without top managerial and investigative skills, officials said. Twenty out of the 59 special agents in charge of the nation's FBI offices are eligible to retire, Ahearn said. In Boston, the FBI's two most experienced agents on organized crime will be eligible for retirement in a year, he added. At the Drug Enforcement Administration, a similar block of experienced agents is soon expected to retire. "I would say in the vicinity of three to five years, we're facing some serious shortages in management talent," said John J. Coleman Jr., the special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Boston. The district director for the Internal Revenue Service in Boston, Gerard Esposito, agreed. "The people who are leaving are generally our most proficient people," said Esposito, referring to the agency's criminal investigation staff. "It takes a long time to develop these skills." The loss of a generation of highly experienced agents does come at a time when recruitment remains brisk. For example, the Drug Enforcement Administration has had between 1,200 and 1,500 applicants for 135 positions so far in fiscal 1989, according to an agency spokesman. But new agents, no matter how many are recruited, cannot replace the expertise of older agents who are leaving, officials say. In addition, the demands on law enforcement agencies have become more complex. The Drug Enforcement Administration is in the midst of an international drug war, calling for agents with sophisticated language abilities and other skills. And the FBI must gear up to fight increasingly sophisticated commodities fraud or undertake complex foreign counterintelligence. Consequently, lawyers, foreign language specialists, engineers and others are in high demand at federal law enforcement agencies. But salaries for such skilled personnel cannot compete with the private sector. "You can imagine us trying to convince an electrical engineer to come into the bureau for $29,000," said Ahearn, citing the agency's base salary. The highest salaries, paid to special agents in charge, are approximately $67,000 to $82,000. Not only can federal law enforcement agencies not recruit highly specialized talent, but it also is becoming more difficult to persuade qualified agents to stay in government service. For the first time, the number of FBI agents who are resigning is outpacing the number of those who retire, said Ahearn. "You never heard of an FBI agent resigning; it was always a career service," said Ahearn. "Everybody always did their full tenure. That's now no longer true." Patrick Hogan, 42, was one FBI agent whose finances forced him to leave. "It wasn't easy to walk away from 12 years of experience in the bureau; it becomes a way of life," said Hogan. "But my family comes first." Hogan, who had worked at the FBI in public corruption and counterintelligence, said the high cost of living prompted him to resign in 1988 for a job in security and investigations at Digital Equipment Corp. "In the old days, an Irish-Catholic guy with eight kids was the heart and soul of the FBI," Hogan said. "But now you have to take care of your family first." The resignations are shattering the familial esprit de corps that agents have shared since the FBI's founding in 1908. The turnover also jeopardizes the secrecy — and safety — of the agency. Some federal agents are leaving to join state and local law enforcement agencies, where salaries are higher, federal officials said. Opinions on future recruitment vary with each agency. A DEA spokesman, Frank Shults, says the agency's special mission makes the recruitment picture less bleak. "It's in our favor that this is exclusively a drug enforcement agency," Shults said. "There are enough people out there willing to make a sacrifice to make this a career." But the problem is serious enough to have drawn congressional attention. A law enforcement commission, composed of the heads of federal law enforcement agencies, was established in 1987 by Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) to study the salary problem. "We're going to have a critical problem on our hands within five years," said Tim Carlsgaard, an aide to DeConcini. "Everybody's talking about hiring more people. Nobody's taking notice of the attrition rate." The commission is expected to make a report to Congress in November. But Carlsgaard said that although the group is likely to ask for billions of dollars in additional salaries, "the money simply isn't there." One option could be special cost-of-living adjustments for agents in high-cost areas, as was recently done in New York City. But in the interim, law enforcement agencies are bracing for the worst. "Our crunch isn't here right now," said Ahearn, "but a couple of years down the road it will be." — The Boston Globe 30 July 1989

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Fires Threaten Idaho Towns, but weather helps Elsewhere Flames pushed within 300 yards of the Sourdough Lodge and threatened two Idaho towns on Wednesday. But cooler weather was turning the tide against some of the fires burning in five Western states. "It all depends on the wind," said Sourdough owner Bob Ahern, who refused to leave his inn outside Lowman, Idaho. "If we don't get any wind, we could walk away from this thing, heads high. If the wind changes, my friend, this is going to be one big black hole." Fires have consumed more than 215,000 acres - or 335 square miles - of timber, brush and grassland in the West since the middle of last week, according to the Boise Interagency Fire Center, the government's wildfire command post. Most were ignited by lightning. Big fires continued to burn Wednesday in Idaho and Oregon, and smaller blazes were burning in California, Montana and Washington. More than 15,000 firefighters were on the lines throughout the West, and reinforcements continued to arrive from outside the region and from the armed forces. — St. Louis Post-Dispatch 3 August 1989

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Golden Memories of Vaudeville Age Will Never Die Marc Smith never gives up on any form of theater. He has announced "Viva Vaudeville" as one of the gala productions of his new season at Foothills Theatre in Worcester. It will take a lot of viva to put any life into vaudeville. It has been extinct for 40 years. But there was a time. . . Will and Gladys Ahern had a rope act. Will, no youngster, came out twirling his ropes into loops which he jumped in and out of. He was followed by Gladys, doing essentially the same thing. For variety's sake, she jumped in and out of his loops. It was strenuous, and they worked up an honest sweat every time they performed. — Worcester Telegram & Gazette 5 August 1989

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CRASH CLOSES FREEWAY Driver arrested in Acton collision A motorist suspected of drunken driving darted in and out of traffic and caused an accident Monday afternoon that injured three people and tied up the Antelope Valley Freeway for almost an hour, authorities said. Michael Ahern, 35, of Los Angeles was driving northbound on the freeway in a 1982 Nissan Maxima when he tried to pass a GMC truck towing a 30-foot house trailer just north of the Red Rover Mine Road overpass, said California Highway Patrol Sgt. Chuck Marek. "He tried to pass on the dirt shoulder, lost control, cut in front of the truck and they collided," Marek said. "He spun out, the truck and trailer separated, and we ended up with a mess." Ahern was arrested on suspicion of felony driving under the influence, but had not been booked Monday pending treatment of his injuries, said CHP Officer Scott McKnight. The driver of the truck, Paul Ray, 45, of Albuquerque, N.M., and his brother, William Ray, 43, of Rayton, N.M., both suffered multiple injuries, officials said. Both men were airlifted with Ahern, who suffered cuts and bruises, to Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center by a Los Angeles County Fire Department helicopter, authorities said. All three men were tentatively reported to be in good condition Monday evening pending examination, said hospital spokeswoman Frankie Richards. Northbound traffic was diverted off the freeway onto Sierra Highway until the 3:15 p.m. accident scene was cleared about 45 minutes later, authorities said. Ahern was reported to have been driving at speeds from 80 mph to 100 mph and swerving in and out of traffic before the accident, McKnight said. "We have witnesses who said he was cutting in and out of traffic and challenging people to race," McKnight said. "He was an accident waiting to happen." Motorists who saw Ahern driving prior to the accident told officers that he may have been drinking while he was driving, Marek said. "We have witnesses who said they saw the driver of the Maxima throw a bottle out before the accident," Marek said. "And there was an odor of alcohol on the driver," Marek added. The freeway was reopened at 3:50 p.m., and traffic was flowing normally approximately one hour after the accident, McKnight said. — Daily News of Los Angeles 17 October 1989

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