ustxtxb_obs_1971_09_10_50_00008-00000_000.pdf

I Call PICK i SAN ANTONIO I Enjoy real money-saving I I value, and relax at the I 1 I 96 N.E. Loop Expressway 1 Adjacent to San Antonio International Airport 1 I ALL AT MODERATE RATES RESERVATIONS: 1 CALL TOLL FREE 1 American Express Space Bank 1 800AE 8-5000 NIM IR MI =I MI l= MN Before You Pack FOR ALB EILT MOTEL Color TV in every room Restaurant & Lounge Heated Pool Family Plan Free Parking I mentioned they would get a letter of, and I’m not too sure of the term, but a letter of commitment, perhaps, that would prevent them from or permit them to sell back the stock at the price they purchased it.” The stock was to come from the Jesuits. CAPT. CHARLES Conrad takes up the story from here. It is the sad story of how the commander of Apollo 12 became the unwitting owner of $128,250 worth of NBL stock despite his earnest attempts to get rid of it. 8 The Texas Observer Would you have the strength. . . . What if I were to give you a billfold with $20,000 in it, but told you that you can’t spend any of it before ten would you have the strength to carry it, but forget it for ten years? If you would, then you would be a successful investor in land , for all you need is patience to wait out the time until sale. Horizon Corporation Randy Reece, Sales Representative CONRAD: “Captain Lovell said that Mr. Sharp could arrange financing and he also stated that, I gather because it was supposed to he Father Kennelly’s stock, that Father Kennelly would be more than happy to write a letter guaranteeing to take us out of the stock at whatever we paid for it at anytime we wanted to sell.” Conrad and the other astronauts checked with a financial adviser who told them the stock was priced too high. They told Sharp thanks, but no thanks. But, wait, the story doesn’t end here. CONRAD: “Not long after that I came home on a Saturday from some trip and here was a letter from Ling & Co. with a stock confirmation. And I remember it was a Saturday because soon as I got it I thought it was just a flier and I almost threw it away. And then I opened it up and it said I was the proud owner of 4,500 shares of NBL at 28 1/2 and would I please remit $126,000 and something within ten days. And I thought somebody was being very funny . . . I called Dick and Al to ask them if they had gotten one, which they had, and they wanted to know what they had to do about it and I said, well, I didn’t know but I would check. So the first thing I did was call the stockbroker, Larry Kelly, and I asked him if somebody could go out and buy stocks in my name without my permission. And he not only said no but that it was illegal. And with that I called my lawyer . I ran the whole thing by him. And he said that it was highly illegal and that I was not obligated for the $126,000 and something and then, thirdly, I called up Captain Lovell and asked him what the heck was going on. Lovell said he didn’t know and that he would call Frank Sharp.. . .” Later . “Jim told me Mr. Sharp did not know what this was, but he would like to come down and talk with us about it and would we have lunch with him and I said that was fine, I would love to hear what he had to say. But I think along about that time I had pretty well made up my mind that I didn’t want the stock. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t obligated for that amount of money.” They met with Sharp at the Kings Inn. “He made a considerable pitch to convince us that he was just doing something for us for what we had done for the country and Mr. Sharp had been involved many years eight years or so when the original astronauts came down here in trying to get them some houses and it got some kind of to-do in the papers about that .. . “I suggested that Mr. Sharp get together all the paperwork, the notes and so forth, and send them to our lawyer. Frank Sharp apparently compiled the dossier about the loans and sent them directly by messenger to Mr. Ralph Harper down in the First City National Bank Building. I did not hear from the lawyer. Next I heard from Father Kennelly. I believe we received each the letter from Father Kennelly which stated that he would purchase the stock. And as I remember the letter, it even stated that he would take us out a couple of dollars a share or some figure higher than we paid for it if we wanted to sell it at any time.” Conrad’s lawyer still advised against the transaction. When the astronaut passed the news on to Sharp he said Sharp was “miffed, perturbed, and very not too happy… . “I assumed the matter was concluded and then I further assumed the matter was concluded when I got some kind of statement from Ling & Co. which showed I no longer owed them $128,000.00. I read all the zeros in the zero column, or whatever that column is there, and I assumed, however it was presented there, and I am not a businessman, so credits and debits and so forth don’t make too much sense to me, but it all came out to be zero, so I assumed that was their way of accounting for a transaction which they were writing off their books as not having taken place.” The document in question actually showed that the stock had been paid for at the cost of $128,250.00. SEC: “Now, did you at any time authorize anyone to make a payment in that amount from any source whatsoever?” CONRAD: “No sir. I think I probably, read that too and I just, as I said, I don’t know what the term ‘unsolicited order’ means and ‘payment received’ is an obvious one. But I had assumed just sort of reading the lines there that that was their bookkeeping way of putting $128,000 back in the pile again, which it appeared I owed them. But now, after having discussed this with you and several other people, I discovered that that means somebody put through $128,250, but it wasn’t me.” SEC: “Did you hear any more about this matter at all?” CONRAD: “No I did not. I didn’t hear anything more about this matter until January, 1971, driving to work one morning I heard about Mr. Sharp and the SEC on the radio and I left town for a week and when I came back I found out my name was in the paper and that I had been the proud owner of NBL for some period of three and a half months, which was completely the first time I had ever heard that.” K.N. Without politicians Without the appearance of politicians the sky comes clean in the late afternoon. The shadow of an unused chimney falls threequarters across an empty road. A girl in pink on a bike stops for a brick-brown dog. H. C. NASH Newbern, N.C.