dailu nebraskan
thursday, October 19, 1978 lincoln, nebraska vol. 102 no. 31
Former cell mate testifies Ellis said he 'killed once'
By Val Swinton
A former inmate who served time in the
same jail cell with John Ellis testified yes
terday in Lancaster County Court that Ellis
told him he had once killed a person. That
testimony came during the second day of
Ellis' preliminary hearing.
Robert T. Burns, of Plattsmouth, said
he spent two to three weeks in the Cass
County jail with Ellis, a UNL graduate
who's accused of killing another UNL stu
dent, Debra Forycki. Her skeleton was
found last month in an old tank wagon
near Elmwood, nearly four years after she
disappeared while on her way to work in
downtown Lincoln.
Burns said he was serving 30 days in
the county jail for driving with a suspended
license. Ellis was serving 75 days on an
assault charge. Both were in jail in January
of 1977. Burns testified that one day,
Ellis began talking about the Elmwood
area, where the Forycki skeleton was
found. Ellis reportedly told Burns he knew
of a quiet spot where he liked to go and
meditate sometimes.
"Mr. Ellis said, if you ever happen to
kill somebody and you ever wanted to hide
their body, it was a good place, the police
would never find it.' " Burns testified.
"He asked me if I had ever killed
anybody, I said no, and he said, well 1
have." Burns said. He said he told Ellis
he shouldn't be talking about things like
committing a murder, and Ellis replied.
"Well I did;'
Macho talk
Under cross examination, Ellis'
attorney, John Stevens Berry, asked Burns
if Ellis had mentioned he was an ex-marine,
and suggested that type of "macho talk"
is common in jail cells. Burns had said
earlier he didn't take the remark seriously,
and Berry pressed the point, asking him
why he didn't take the remark seriously.
"He seemed very serious. . . " Burns
said.
At that point, Berry interupted him,
and then County Attorney Ron Lahners
interupted Berry.
"Let him answer your question,"
Berry replied.
Then, Judge Jeffre Cheuvront inter
vened. "He is too answering your question.
Let him continue."
"He was deadly serious," Burns con
tinued. "He looked me straight in the eye
and asked me that," Burns said, referring
to the question about whether Burns had
ever killed anyone.
Two area women also testified yester
day that Ellis had attacked them at knife
point, Lyn Miserez, of Lincoln, said
Ellis called her in June of 1976, and asked
her out to supper. Miserez said she had
first met Ellis two years earlier.
She said that when he picked her up,
he told her they were going to a barbecue
at a friend's house near Elmwdod. Instead,
she said he drove to a farm field near
Elmwood. "I was ready to turn to him and
tell him we should leave, when I felt a
knife at my throat," she said.
Calmed down
Miserez said, "I told him he didn't
need the knife, he could do anything he
wanted as long as he didn't hurt me." She
said he seemed to calm down, and dropped
the knife out the window of the car. The
weapon was never recovered.
"He said he was sorry," she testified :
"and wanted to know if 1 wanted to beat
him with a stick. He said he was sick
and forcing his will on someone turned him
on."
Miserez said she insisted that they leave,
and he got angry again, tying her hands
behind her. She testified that she began to
scream, and Ellis untied her hands. "He
talked for a while again about being sick
and wanted to see a psychologist," she
said.
Miserez said she escaped from Ellis
when they drove to Elmwood, and he left
the car for a minute.
Berry, who had continually objected
to Miserez's testimony, asked her if it was
not true she was employed part time by
the county attorney's office, and that she
had been hired about a month ago. She
said she was, and also said she had talked
with members of the county attorney's
office about the case.
"Berry then made another motion
that her testimony be stricken from the
record. "This witness is incompetent
to testify," he told Judge Cheuvront, who
denied the motion.
Both UNL students
Berry then asked the witness, "You had
an affair with John Ellis, hadn't you?"
At that point, Lahners objected, and after
a conference in front of the judges bench,
Berry was prohibited from continuing that
line of questioning.
Carol Nelson, a Lincoln telephone
company employee, said she met Ellis in
October of 1974, when they were both
UNL students. She said at the time, he
did not tell her his real name, but said his
name was John Tronzowski. Nelson said
he invited her to have breakfast with
him at a friend's house. She said he had
permission to use the house while his
friend was gone.
Nelson said while at the house, Ellis
twisted her arm behind her, and stuffed
a hankerchief in her mouth. She said she
pleaded with him, and he finally replied,
"I can't do it," and let her go.
She said she was not aware at the
time that Ellis was married or what his
real name was. She said police told her
later the house did not belong to a friend,
but was his own residence.
Today, Lahners said Ellis' ex-wife,
Martha Dickerson, who arrived in Lincoln
from Oklahoma yesterday, may be
called to the witness stand, as one of the
last witnesses in the hearing.
See related story on Page 2
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I think that I shall never see, a thing as lovely as a
Photo by Mark Billingsley
telephone pole.
Little-known Nebraska oil wells add to U.S. production
By Bob Lannin
Nebraska-home of the Cornhuskers,
Buffalo Bill Cody, Chimney Rock and
1,382 oil wells.
Yes, oil wells in Nebraska.
According to Ray Burchett, professor
in the UNL Conservation and Survey Di
vision, Nebraska had 1,382 active oil wells
as of 1977.
Total production from these wells,
according to Burchett, was 5.9 million
barrels of oil during 1977.
Before heading out to the Panhandle to
seek your fortune in oil, realize that this
production represents about one percent
of the total U.S. oil production, according
to Paul Roberts, director of the Nebraska
Oil and Gas Commission.
Stan Juelfs, president of Stanco
Petroleum in Kimball, said single wells
in Texas can produce the same amount
of oil as Nebraska does in one year.
Three Nebraska areas
Roberts said there are three major oil
producing areas in Nebraska. The first is
located under Richardson County, the.
second is the Cambridge Arch, where oil
is refined on either side of an arch running
from Chadron to Mctook.
The largest oil producing area is the
Denver-Julesberg Basin, which covers most
of western Nebraska and includes all the
Panhandle counties.
Most of the refining is done by inde
pendent companies, according to Roberts,
but most major oil companies are
represented either by holding leases on
some land or in production of some oil.
Burchett said some of the major oil
companies represented in Nebraska are
Skelly Oil, Marathon Oil, British -American
Oil, and California Oil.
Juelfs said it was uneconomical for
major companies to drill in Nebraska
because of the expense involved. In 1976
Nebraska had over 13,000 inactive wells
compared to an estimated 1 ,300 producing
wells.
ASUN refuses support to speaker group
By Pat Gentzler
Although a few clouds are in the fore
cast, the storm that began three weeks ago
when ASUN took its first step in revising
the student impact system at UNL seems
to have passed .
ASUN's Wednesday night meeting was
conspicuously minus any discussion or
action on the new system. The last of
ASUN's preliminary action was passed
earlier this week to be followed by action
when the Council on Student Life and the
Union Board expire Dec. 3 1 .
One related bill, which gives ASUN the
authority presently held by the Council on
Student Life after its termination at the
end of the year, was brought before the
Senate and sent to committee, to be acted
on at a later date.
Suspending ASUN rules in order to act
on a bill immediately, as the Senate has
done often the last few weeks, ASUN
support of the Committee for Facts on
Vietnam, a group that would like to cir
culate a petition in the Nebraska Union
calling for an anti-Vietnam war speaker
to balance the recent speech by General
William C. Westmoreland, was refused.
Glen Maloney, of the Campus Activi
ties and Programs (CAP) office, told the
Senate that the group could file a letter
of intent with the CAP office to have a
booth in the Union without ASUN's
approval. Although the group is not an
actual student organization, and has
faculty among its membership as well
as students, it could be recognized as a
student organization temporarily, he said.
Concern was expressed by Senate
members that passage of the bill could be
misinterpreted as ASUN's support of the
group and its cause, rather than just
allowing the group to petition.
But after the bill was amended to
change the word "support" to "allow,"
it was defeated.
ASUN Second Vice-President Scott
Ballentine told the Senate that the empha
sis last year on balanced speakers stemmed
from the fact that speakers were funded
through student fees, and reminded the Se
nate that they no longer are.
Senator Bruce Kendall said that he
supported the issue of balanced speakers,
but "mat's not what this bill is for."
The petition drive could be handled
through the traditional channels without
ASUN support and still provide balanced
speakers, Kendall said.
Senator Toni Ecklund pointed out that
if the Committee for Facts on Vietnam
could not file a letter of intent, any other
student organization could.
Burchett said it still was economical for
independents to drill however, because
"the price of oil has gone so high it doesn't
take a whole lot of oil to make it
economical."
The price of leases in Nebraska is far
less than that of other major oil producing
states, according to Burchett.
A lease in Texas costs more than $200
per acre, whereas most Nebraska leases
run about $2 per acre, Burchett said.
The largest oil company in Nebraska is
the Beren Corporation of Denver, which
has about 30 wells in western Nebraska,
according to Roy White, production
manager.
Its Nebraska operation represents about
one -third of its total operation, White said.
The company's drilling activity in
western Nebraska has increased greatly
during the last couple of years because of
new finds, White said.
Half successful
The company attempts about 1 5 to 20
drillings per year, White said, with about
a 50 percent success rate.
Roberts said the oil drilling brings about
$60 million in revenue, but also is subject
to a 35 percent real estate tax, along with
other state taxes.
inside thursday
You're in the Army now: Fraternity
and sorority pledge rules are
similar page 8
Willie on my mind: Singer Willie
Nelson attracts diverse crowd to
Pershing Auditorium page 1 2
California, here we come: Two UNL
Women's track team members
have the 1984 Summer Olympics
on their minds page 14